Chapter 293 |
The Road to the Grave (4)
"You're awake?"
Merlin smiled. It was natural, exactly the kind of smile Merlin would wear. Blue eyes, flowing blue hair, the tilt of her head, the way she stepped, even her breathing, every tiny detail was the Merlin Najin knew.
It was Merlin, and yet...
Something kept Najin's mouth shut. His heart hammered. Something, a thread-thin something, was tickling the inside of his head. It was so faint he would miss it if he lost focus.
"Come on, let's move quickly."
Najin looked at Merlin.
Whenever he looked at her, he felt at ease. At any moment, in any situation, Merlin always made the right call. And unlike him, she was overwhelmingly strong, not someone who could be toyed with.
"We need to move while we're even a little free. You'll take my hand, right?"
Because he trusted her.
Najin made his choice.
"Here."
He reached out. But the hand he extended did not take the hand Merlin offered. Najin seized Merlin by the throat.
"Kh, y-you, what are you..."
Merlin looked at him with disbelief in her eyes. Resentment, confusion, tears welling at the corners, a hand that rose to resist and then curled back as if she feared hurting him. Stifled breath, wounded sorrow.
Najin did not loosen his grip.
He squeezed harder. Crack. His fingers dug into her skin. Merlin's face twisted in pain, and Najin curled one corner of his mouth up.
"You're a lousy third-rate actor."
"What... are you saying..."
Najin shoved his face closer to Merlin's. Holding her gaze, he bit the words out.
"Merlin would never do this. Even if I got hurt, wrong is wrong to her. She'd break my arm and throw me to the ground if she had to, then mutter, 'This is your fault,' with that rotten personality of hers."
"...Huh."
A hairline crack flashed across Merlin's face, followed by a baffled look, as if his reaction did not match the information she'd pulled from him.
Najin snorted.
Of course, it was a lie. Najin did not know how Merlin would really react. But one thing was certain. In a situation like this, Merlin's emotions should have surged back into him. Nothing came.
The Merlin in front of him was fake.
And Najin had proved it.
"I see."
Even with her throat crushed, Merlin's voice rang clear. The corners of her lips split wide. Her eyes curved into crescents. She began to laugh.
Cackle cackle cackle.
The laughter.
Cackle, cackle, cackle cackle cackle cackle!
The sound of laughter.
Laughter echoed through the whole world!
Laughter spread like an infection. It leaked from the mouths of your companions lying as if asleep. Their lips split wide. When you looked up, even the stars in the sky had mouths, sneering at you.
And then, boom!
Your Guide, the Guide who always gave you the right answer no matter the situation, exploded! Like a firework. Splat, paint sprayed across your face and body.
"..."
You brushed it off in silence. Your Guide exploded to death right in front of you, and you felt nothing?
How cold-blooded.
Bang, bang, bang!
All your companions swelled like balloons and burst! Was it blood, was it guts, or was it just paint? Even now, will you not open your eyes?
Ah, good.
Because you were close to the answer. You noticed that you were being played by the Carnival King's Authority. But even if you noticed, what changed?
Splat, splat, splat, splat.
Paint fell from the sky. Paint spread across the ground. The whole world blurred into colors. The world you had been looking at was false from the start. You were still standing in a hallucination.
Was it a hallucination? Had your senses changed? Had your information been intercepted? Or was this a dream?
You could not know.
There was no way you could know.
The rain kept falling. Green, red, yellow, blue, multicolored rain hammered your body. It pounded the ground beneath your feet. Splat, and you felt the ground had turned to mud.
"..."
You still would not speak. Ignoring the voice and focusing inward, a good choice.
But not the best.
Closing your eyes means giving up on new information. If your eyes are closed, you see nothing. And you cannot verify anything.
You are not standing in mud.
Whoosh, the ground suddenly dropped away. What you thought was ground was a massive pit. Maybe it was the sea.
Or maybe it was fire.
Cold. Your pierced body screamed. Burning heat. As you sank into the sea, pressure crushed your body.
Or perhaps you were falling from the sky.
Hurry, you have to open your eyes.
You have to open them and respond.
You have to move.
Act.
Choose.
Cackle, cackle cackle cackle cackle cackle cackle cackle cackle cackle!
Open your eyes.
With your eyes closed, you can go nowhere.
2.
His body sank. Or maybe it rose. Maybe it fell, maybe it burned away. As every kind of sensation rushed over him like a flood, Najin steadied his breathing.
Then he focused entirely on his inner self.
He repeated who he was and clenched his teeth, never letting go of trust in himself. When he focused inward, Merlin was there. She gave Najin a bitter smile and pushed back the surging paint.
She was with him.
He was not alone.
Merlin was holding out inside him, so Najin had to find a way through on the outside. He had no idea where to start or how to move.
He steadied his breath.
Najin grabbed at empty air. Even if all his senses were ruined, the sensation in the hand holding Excalibur stayed intact. Even the Carnival King could not tamper with Excalibur.
With his hand holding Excalibur lowered.
Najin began to light up the stars he possessed. The stars engraved into Excalibur trembled and scattered light. The splashing paint was pushed back, and though it was only a handspan, Najin secured a place to plant his feet.
He could not open his eyes. The moment he did, he would take in new information, that information would be distorted, and distorted thoughts would fill his head.
Najin cut off his own senses.
Leaving only the sensation of the hand gripping Excalibur, he centered himself so nothing could sweep him away.
'Ah.'
Then Najin remembered something.
From that day two years ago, when Najin drew Excalibur, Excalibur had become part of him. Najin's body itself became the sheath that held Excalibur, and Excalibur was stored in his soul as it traveled with him.
Why could he reach the realm of a Sword Master while holding Excalibur?
Partly because Excalibur amplified the user's starlight, and partly because of the mystery dwelling in Excalibur. But there was an even more fundamental reason.
Unity of Body and Sword.
Najin regarded Excalibur as himself. The stars engraved on the sword connected to his self-trust. Even if he forgot himself, the moment he held Excalibur, Najin could protect himself.
A realm only reached by those who trained with the sword for a lifetime, devoted their lives to it, and seized enlightenment through an impossibly narrow gap.
Najin stepped into that realm through a shortcut.
And those who reached that realm often said the sword in their hand felt alive.
「You may close your eyes.」
「You may block your ears.」
「Blacken the whole world, make it so nothing can be seen, heard, or felt, if you like.」
First Sword Saint Siegfried.
A swordsman who sometimes moved ahead of Arthur, sometimes followed behind him, and stood beside him at the final moment curled his lips and shouted:
「Witch of the Abyss.」
「As long as a sword is in my hand, you can take nothing from me.」
「Because the sword is myself.」
「I will cut you down.」
「I will cut down what Arthur could not, and prove I surpassed Arthur.」
The words of a swordsman who went beyond Unity of Body and Sword, and farther still. Recalling the story Merlin had told him, Najin focused his senses. He blocked his body's senses and received information through Excalibur.
It was not easy. He was trying to use an organ he had never used once in over twenty years of life. Like learning to blink for the first time, learning to breathe, learning to walk on two legs, Najin moved.
Rustle.
Then.
"Ah."
He began to see. He began to feel. Through Excalibur, Najin perceived the world. He cut down the paint rushing at him.
No matter if it was the Carnival King.
She could not cast darkness over Excalibur, which had no sensory organs to begin with. Even if she could, who in this world could taint Excalibur? The Star Sword, opposed to demons, delivered undistorted information to Najin.
He cut and cut again.
Until he saw an opening.
A moment would come when a small crack appeared in the Carnival King's stage. Waiting for that instant, Najin steadied his breath like a seasoned hunter.
Shwaaaaaa!
He split the current. He split the paint. He split the shaking ground and severed the magic, and cut the masks off the laughing clowns.
How much time had passed?
Tiny gaps slowly began to open in the Carnival King's perfect stage.
Because the Carnival King was not dealing with Najin alone. She focused most intensely on Najin, but she was using her Authority on at least ten Transcendents at the same time.
Still, every time Najin cut away paint.
Every time Najin took a step forward.
To fill the empty space left behind, the Carnival King moved paint from somewhere else. This repeated dozens, hundreds of times, and then, at one moment.
The rain that seemed endless, the ground that seemed it would never dry, the lake with no visible bottom.
Showed its bottom for the first time.
Barely one second.
Maybe not even one full second.
One Transcendent seized that time.
3.
While swinging his sword, Najin knew by instinct.
Something had changed.
Starlight exploded from somewhere and swept away the paint. That star was charging toward Najin. Cutting through the paint surging at him, sweeping it aside, it came closer.
Najin thought he knew who it was.
He kept swinging his sword and moving forward. He did what he could. By steadily carrying out his role, Najin gave that man room to run wild.
The time Merlin had endured.
The stage Najin had held and scarred.
Turning that scar into a crack, then that crack into a massive hole, that was another star's role.
Shwaaaaaa!
A wave of paint split, and someone slid in and landed beside Najin with a sharp tap. He stood directly behind him. The moment their backs touched, Najin laughed.
"What did I tell you."
Najin reopened the senses he had blocked.
"I said this was the time to show Londinel still stands strong."
When he opened his eyes and looked ahead, Azure Hydrangea flowers were blooming all across the stage. Just looking at those beautifully blossomed blue flowers let one break free from the Carnival King's Authority.
Because each flower was a star.
Flowers blooming all over the battlefield.
A star contained in every flower.
The stars that once floated in Londinel's sky had become flowers and filled the wasteland.
"I knew you would come."
Najin turned around.
"Kirchhoff."
Kirchhoff was there, back to back with him. Breathing hard, he adjusted his grip on his sword. Only then did they finally realize where they were standing.
The ground stained with paint was packed with gravestones.
Swords were stuck in them. Spears were stuck in them. Instruments were laid there, paintings were laid there, and elsewhere were bows, arrows, all kinds of weapons and objects that symbolized someone's life, filling the wasteland.
Every single one was a Star Relic.
And all of them were the graves of Constellations.
Sword Grave, Music Grave, Bow Grave, Flower Grave, Painting Grave...
A place lined with graves of every kind. Only now, looking back, did they understand why no one had been behind them. Everyone except Najin had been dragged into those graves. By now, they were surely wandering inside the Constellations' stages.
This was the trap the Carnival King had prepared.
"So it wasn't a road to the stage."
Merlin, who had appeared beside Najin, said,
"It was a road to the grave."
She was right.
The road they thought led to the Carnival King's domain, to her stage...
Was a road to the grave.
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