Chapter 74 – Decisive Moment

However, even though Roxy called my name, I didn’t respond.

No, I’d be better off not saying anything…..

Now, since I’m under the starving effect of gluttony skill, when I looked at her with my current red eyes, Roxy ended up unable to move due to her lower stats being lower than mine. That kind of power alone was a proof of my abnormality.

She tried to say something through her gaze, but time would not wait. Tenryu could throw another roar at any time, I couldn’t spare my thought trying to understand what Roxy was trying to say.

I’d deceived her up until now…..I swear I would tell her everything later. But I had to convey the one thing I need her to do first.

[Please leave with the army immediately. Tenryu will start moving again anytime soon. I will buy you some time.]

And brief, final words,

[….I’ve always lied to you….I’m sorry, Roxy-sama. Thank you, for everything up until now.]

In the end I merely said what I want to say. It made me feel so cowardly it hurt my chest.

Then, when I was about redirect my attention back to the Tenryu, I saw Roxy’s big eyes shed tears. I didn’t know the meaning behind those tears, not that I had time to think about it at the moment.

Roxy couldn’t say anything back due to the restraining property of my red eyes. But I almost could hear her calling out my name in a low voice as she took her leave.

As I ran myself on a stretch, I saw Tenryu recovering from the scratch it suffered, and Norden standing over its head. Looking down on earth from the sky like a heavenly being.

Anyways, Tenryu had so much lifeforce. To think it could recover from such wound in just a moment…

I have to attack it before it completely recovered. So I changed the black sword into black bow, while also thinking how to get rid of that troublesome Norden.

I continuously sprayed magic arrows at Norden from all sides. He intercepted some with the black projectiles, but had to slash the rest with the bayonet.

What’s with that……I wondered? Why did he do that when he could’ve use the black projectile to intercept all the arrows I shot?

Greed told me through 《mind reading》 in response to my uncomfortable feeling.

『It seems there is a limit on how many times he can shoot in a row. Thinking back, he did attack in intervals.』

[It seems so. But, Greed! Why don’t you even know about it? Aren’t you also a Mortal Sin weapon?]

『Envy is a second generation weapon. There are many things I don’t know about it. It’s not like I’d seen its design draft.』

[What’s with that? Greed….how unreliable you are]

『Shut up! Besidely that guy is a secretive bitch with a twisted personality. This me is so much better.』

……so it’s pretty much the same as Greed, a real handful to take care of….. Although I couldn’t say that right now. We are still in the midst of battle. I’ll be in trouble if the bastard sulk.

Then, let’s just do this.

[I’m glad that what I got was Greed!]

『Right!?　Of course!　Hahahahahaha』

Easy peasy. As I grasped the easy to please weapon of mine, I confirmed the King’s army condition. It appeared that they’ve started to retreat. So they believed in me.

That’s good…… then, I can go toe to toe here.

『Fate, try using ‘that’! The current you should be able to use it. Leave the control to me.』

[Yeah, let’s go!]

I was right under the Tenryu now. This was the ideal range.

I quickly switched back to black sword. Then, I activated the mutated Holy Sword Mastery technique―――《Grand Cross Returnable》.

Gooooo. I brandished the black sword that was brimming with magical power. The heretic sword actually started to emit sacred light, signaling that the skill was a success.

I turned my wrist, as if opening a key.

Four gigantic cross of lights appeared above Tenryu’s head. It descended in a moment and surrounded it. Then they began to shine as they circulated around Tenryu.

Tenryu screamed harder, it tried to claw its way to escape but couldn’t. The reason being, it was the effect of the mutated technique Grand Cross Returnable――an infinite prison.

I couldn’t use it except at a very close range, and the success rate was low. However, once invoked properly, it won’t miss its target. The success rate was greatly increased since I’m still in my starving state.

Whilst inflicting continuous damage to Tenryu, I aimed to slowly weaken it.

…..but, wasn’t this too easy?

Bullets came down from above. Since I was expecting it, I managed to cut all of them with my sword.

Following that, the black bayonet swung down to break my brain.

Blocking it, we glared to each other.

[You actually did it. You used the secret of Greed’s third form, causing my cute slimes to no longer multiply and are dying. And you even used a technique I’ve never seen before. The defender of the kingdom Tenryu looks pitiful, isn’t it? How will you solve this?]

[You….doing all those things to the King’s army….. And what do you mean by Tenryu looks pitiful?]

[Even that thing is replaceable. That Holy Knight is also the same. No, I think she still has some uses? Well, what will be achieved if I don’t kill her, I have no idea. If it doesn’t work then I could just move on to the next one]

Norden exerted more power. Kuh…..the sword felt heavy.

Apparently the loss of stats from having used the secret of Greed’s third form was the biggest factor. I should’ve had higher strength than Norden, but now he’s pushing me back. The cause wasn’t only that.

Norden let out a faint laugh, cause he could see it too.

[Firstly, you can’t maintain your Area E for too long. Aren’t you approaching your limit right now? Secondly, you used too much of your energy to maintain that technique. Thirdly, I haven’t gone serious yet.]

The power struggle quickly collapsed. Such an amazing strength. Unable to resist it, I was forced to the ground by Norden’s bayonet.

From the broken earth, countless rock shards flew up due to the impact. Taking that chance, I slashed at Norden’s neck.

[Whoops, that’s dangerous.]

Norden did a backstep. Meanwhile Greed called to my attention.

『Close the distance. Don’t let him off』

[I know already]

It goes without saying. Lowering my posture to the ground, aiming for the nape of his neck, I dashed in with the black sword.

Even so, Norden managed to dodge by tilting his head.

[How strange. Your fighting style changed. Why is that?]

He moved along the black sword without hurting himself, approaching me then said..

[Oh I see. That’s why.]

Norden glanced at Tenryu, then smiled like a kid.

[I wonder. The answer, is it because you can’t maintain the technique if you go to a certain distant from the target?]

Right, that’s correct. I must keep my distance close. In addition to that, I must stay on sword form in order to maintain the technique. If he managed to get away, I won’t be able to do anything, since I can’t switch to black bow.

Norden who could tell from my expression had a triumphant look on his face.

[I guess we already know what I’ll have to do..]

[…..not yet]

I frantically tried to close in the distance with Norden, slashing in.

However, Norden seemed to have been waiting for this impatience of mine.

The sweeping slash of his bayonet cut my left arm off. It didn’t hurt at first, but it gradually grew into a mind numbing pain. I knelt down due to the excessive pain.

As I looked up from my kneeling position, Norden was looking up to the sky as though the victorious and defeated had been decided.

[What a shame. Eris had some expectation about you, and you did managed to obstruct me this much. I’ll give you that.]

As he said so, he pierced the black bayonet to my chest while I was trying to get up.

It seemed painful. Much more so than my left arm.

But the one who cried in pain, was Norden.

He was stabbed with a black sword from behind his back..

[What…. Is this….]

The black sword ran through his body and emerged from his chest. From behind, but he didn’t really know who did it.

Norden tried to turn his head while pressing the bleeding wound, but the black sword dug even further into his body.

[You were careless at the end]

That said, I turned my eyes to the illusion that Norden had stabbed in the heart with the black bayonet..

That’s enough. The image scattered as I canceled the illusion magic. The illusion magic normally wouldn’t work on Norden.

But when he’s already convinced that it’s his win, I saw a chance. It was a gambling on my part, since I only had this one card left.

I had to sacrifice my left hand in order to make the gamble went through.

[You deliberately let your arm get slashed….]

[Yeah, that’s right. I won’t be able to defeat you if I didn’t do that much. I gave you my left arm. Now take it and go away.]

I moved the black sword sideways, cutting through Norden’s body.

=====