Chapter Text
Ash and fire, iron and blood. The mixed smells filled the atmosphere, entering his lungs whose body was frozen in agony. Why? How?! How could this be happening?!
The firmament was no longer blue like how it used to be. Instead, it was red with clouds of black and dark gray smoke from all the explosions and fire. Red, red, and red. The battlefield was full of red blood, along with the bodies of his allies. Swords and arrows were all scattered everywhere, never to be touched ever again. He stood in agonizing despair, mourning over the death of the blonde girl that was once in his lap. Speaking her last words and wishes before sinking into eternal slumber.
She was no longer here. His friends and allies were no longer here.
At some point as the dark thoughts swirled around his head, he heard some clashes, along with flashes of dark colors from the corner of his eyes. The impact of clashing sword and magic. He quickly recuperated and ran towards the source.
“GAKH—!!!”
His long steps came to a halt. Too late. It was all too late.
“TOYA!!!”
The blue-haired man’s body fell to the ground, blood covering half of his wounded face. He had heard him, and thus lifted his head one last time in desperation.
“Tsukasa… senpai… r-run….”
And his life was taken from his very eyes. The hand that was outstretched to him went limp, and fell to the pool of blood below it. With this, he has no one left. All of Tsukasa’s loved ones… were dead.
“No… no! No! No!! NO!!!”
Overtaken by grief, Tsukasa dashed forward. His sword was swung at his top vigor and speed, only to be parried by a transparent-red barrier. Hiding behind it was the slayer, the one who had killed every single one of his allies and beloved ones. The monster who turned the nation into living hell just in this one night.
“... if only you would’ve closed an eye since the beginning, you won’t be here to face this fate,” the warlock spoke, devoid of any emotions. This only enraged the knight even more.
He gritted his teeth. He infused more mana into his sword and pushed it further, trying to break the damn barrier and behead the sorcerer.
“Why?! Why?!!! What have we done to you?!! Why are you killing them even though they never lay a finger on you?!!” His twin sunset-colored eyes were no longer filled with anything but boiling rage. Twin blood-red irises stared at him back, deep into the knight’s very soul.
“‘Never lay a finger’, you say? And what does this battlefield mean to you?”
The knight immediately leaped back upon noticing the movement of the sorcerer’s hand. If he was a second late, his head would’ve been blown … or even worse. The barrier dissipated, allowing the sorcerer to take a step forward. He looked at his hand, still covered in remnants of his magic.
“The whole nation, all of you went out just to eliminate me. If I must say, it is the most foolish decision humanity has ever made.” Then his gaze laid upon the knight. “Ever since I was born, most—if not all—of you have been trying to eliminate me in a way or two. Just because I have this curse called ‘Blessing of the Goddess’. And then you heartless lambs decided to kill my friends? The one and only hope I have to keep living on? Hah, if you label me as the villain now, what about those who were the real culprit of this all? The ones who made this world corrupt with their vicious deeds?”
He took another step forward, and the earth shook under them. The sorcerer hid half of his face behind his palm, blocking the knight’s view to his expression.
“I am fine if I’m the one who must die. No, I should’ve never been born at all, I admit that. So why must you involve the innocent ones just because they had connections to me? Even though they never committed sins to the nation themselves?”
The knight infused his sword with pure light once more. His mana was running out, but he couldn’t care much. He could burn his entire life force if it’s to avenge his sister and friends. He glared back at the sorcerer, then started moving swiftly.
“I thought to kill myself, but I realized. Nothing will change once I die. More people could suffer the same fate as me, or as Nene and Mizuki. This cycle of grief and misery will continue to spin, so I changed my mind....”
Tsukasa leaped up high and set the angle of his sword, aiming for the sorcerer's head. With this speed and energy, he could—
The knight gasped. The sorcerer had gripped the blade with his bare hand, protected by dark red energy surrounding it. The knight didn’t give up as he quickly regained his balance and enhanced the infusion spell. His enraged sunset once again met with deranged blood red, which was also accompanied by a maniacal smirk.
“I decided to purge this corrupt world. Resetting everything so that the Goddess could make a new world, free of evil. You foolish lambs had killed the innocents, I’m simply returning the deed. You make ways to eliminate me, I make mine. Eye for an eye, soul for a soul. Do these answer your questions, o’ Sir Knight Tenma Tsukasa ?”
His tone was taunting. The knight gritted his teeth and tried to push the sword further. “You—! And you commit genocide to this nation just to avenge two souls?! A whole nation?!! Are you insane?!”
“Heh, I’ve been called that as far as I can remember. Plus, haven’t I stated my reasons and objectives? Do I need to recite them again?”
“I’m gonna kill you!”
“Then go on.” The sorcerer directed the tip of the sword to his chest, right in front of his heart. He leaned forward a bit and spoke in low tone, as if casting a spell upon the knight. “Try me.”
Thus, another danse macabre began. Magic was never his strong point. Yet Tsukasa used every spell he had, even his strongest ones, to no avail. Barely any of it landed on the sorcerer, not to mention his palm was perfectly fine like he never had any contact with the knight’s sword earlier. Not at all surprising, as whom he faced was the most powerful archmage in the nation, or maybe in the world. This—of course—did not make the knight recoil. Instead, it increased his ambition to kill the sorcerer.
“Is this what you really want?! Finding joy in killing the innocent?! Dancing while trampling the weak?!”
“You really think that lowly of me? I only eliminated the corrupt ones, those who had done what you’ve just said. The innocent ones happened to meet an unfortunate end by siding with them and crossed paths with me.”
“Don’t you dare justify your sins!”
“Oh? Now you talk about justice? Where was it when Nene was beheaded? Where was justice when Mizuki was burned alive?! Where were they when those with status kicked those without it and treated them like trash?!!”
As if to emphasize this, the sorcerer drew a surge of fire towards the knight. Tsukasa barely dodged. A small piece of his cape was burnt, thus he quickly tore the entire fabric off with his sword, letting the flame engulf it as a whole. He was almost burnt alive….
The mage covered half of his face again, seemingly starting to lose patience. “You… you took their future. You nobles are the true sinners, and you knights are hypocrites by making me the ultimate villain…. If none have the courage to chastise you all, I will .”
The sorcerer lowered his hand. Tsukasa gasped. A pair of red eyes glared at him with intense bloodlust, with a vertical black scar adorning the right side of his face from the eyebrow to his cheek. Right below his eye was a crescent moon circling a small four-pointed star with the same color.
That scar … the knight gulped upon realization. He blinked for a second, and by the next, the sorcerer’s already right in front of his face.
White continued to clash with red, sword met with manifestation of magical energy. The sorcerer’s attacks were more brutal that the knight barely kept up. He tried to think fast. Anything, just anything to cancel the sorcerer’s—!
Eventually, the knight was overwhelmed and knocked down. His sword shattered. Both hands were impaled to the ground by ice shards, which also froze his blood and hands. The knight wailed in pain.
“And here I thought you would last longer.” The sorcerer stood next to the knight, looking down at him with a bored gaze. “But, compared to other’s, you’re the only one who’s able to keep up this long. Maybe you could consider it as another achievement to your knighthood, perhaps? Though, it won’t be useful anymore, as no soul would live to tell the tale.”
“You… bastard!” Tsukasa barked, trying to break free from the freezing restraints. It was no use, he had no mana to melt it nor energy to break it through.
“I enjoyed our little spar. I would love to see more of your lightstick show, but now it’s time for you to reunite with your family on the other side,” said the sorcerer, hovering a hand on the knight’s tired body. His eyes flashed red, followed with a flow of red energy around his hand. “Any last words, Sir Tenma?”
The honorific sounded like a mockery, but he had no more will to argue. Tsukasa closed his eyes and sighed, thinking. So this is the end of the chronicle of the Knight Commander, Tenma Tsukasa, huh? Such a wretched ending for a meritorious knight like him.
… no, was he even worthy of earning that title? He failed to protect his kingdom. He failed to protect his family. He couldn’t protect anyone, he couldn’t save anyone. He didn’t even manage to finish the music piece for Saki’s birthday….
His memory went back to his school days. Back when he was getting formal education in magic and sword training. His shared experience with Saki and their friends, happy and sad memories, and… ah , he remembered now.
The sorcerer was one of the students there. He was an excellent student who had mastered every nook and cranny of magic. He lived by his own set of rules, in addition to his aptitude in mechanics and alchemy. A gifted prodigy, blessed by the Goddess Hatsune herself.
However, he underwent severe bullying over the years because of his personality and ‘gift’. Not only in school, the majority of society also judged him the wrong way, thus either they sent him away or ostracized him out of fear. His lifetime was a living hell, full of loneliness. No wonder he called it a ‘curse’....
The sorcerer had two childhood friends, the companions he had, yet society punished them as they saw them as his underlings. Even though they never did anything wrong. The sorcerer drowned in grief, which turned to pure hatred and vengeance over time. His passion for magic and alchemy were turned into weapons for revenge, to turn this corrupt kingdom upside down.
The sorcerer was never at fault. He was just another victim of the corrupt society. If they never treated him like how they used to be, he could’ve become the top archmage in this era. If none of these ever happened….
The knight opened his eyes, staring back at the blazing red eyes above him. Had his eyes always been red…? “If… if you never went through those hellish days… will there be a better future?”
The sorcerer seemed taken aback by the question. “... who knows, maybe yes, or maybe even worse.”
“... I see.” The knight closed his eyes again, ready to accept his fate. Would Saki forgive the failure of a brother he was?
“If only the past could be rewinded.”
Whose plea was that? The knight, or the sorcerer? Whoever it was, the goddess had heard.
Tsukasa felt the heat getting closer to his heart. And then, without warning, he felt himself getting pulled down, drowning in endless darkness at high speed. Flashes of memories played right before him. So, this was how death feels like? It wasn’t as painful as he thought….
“Now, you know what to do, right?”
He snapped out of his thoughts. Who, whose voice was that?!
“When the chance arrives, I will explain properly to you, but not now.”
A girl’s voice? From where? And why it sounded a bit—
“You’re the only one I can rely on, Tenma Tsukasa. Please—”
“Wait a second! First of all, what do you mean by ‘know what to do’?! What do I have to do?! And who are you?!”
“I’m sure you can figure it out yourself. So please—”
“—please save Kamishiro Rui.”
That was the last thing he heard, before a blinding white surrounded his vision, engulfing him in unfamiliar warmth.