kscans

Chapter 103 - The Final Shield

There were no more voices in the throne room.

Collapsed stones. Fallen comrades. A shattered staff. A torn mantle. And standing opposite each other were two figures, Hero Ares and Mamoru, who had become a Goblin Lord.

"...You held on well, Mamoru."

Ares slung his blood-soaked sword over his shoulder and offered a faint smile. His eyes even held a tiny flicker of what might have been respect.

"I'm gettin' tired too, so let's end this with the next one. We're both beat up, right?"

Mamoru heaved for breath, raising his shield. His entire body was covered in wounds. One of his legs no longer had any strength and was trembling. Still, he did not fall. He still stood, upon the lives of his comrades.

"I will be the final... shield."

"...Fine by me. I'll shatter that shield. This... is the real conclusion."

The two of them broke into a run.

The sound vanished. Time stopped.

Ares's sword flashed black. Mamoru's shield took on a glow.

In that instant.

Gakiiiiiiiin.

Sword and shield clashed, and a tremendous shockwave blew everything away. The floor cracked, the walls crumbled, and rocks fell from the ceiling.

And then.

"...Tsk."

Mamoru's shield finally shattered into pieces.

Ares's sword pierced Mamoru's shoulder, and he slowly collapsed to the ground.

"Ugh... dam... mit..."

Even as he lay on the ground, there were no tears in Mamoru's eyes. He had protected them. He had extended the time his comrades had left to live, if only by a little.

"You... fought well," Ares murmured as he pulled out his sword.

But at that moment.

"Guh...? Cough, cough."

Ares suddenly started coughing.

A large amount of blood gushed from his mouth.

"Wh, why...?"

He fell to his knees. His sword dropped. Eyes wide, he clutched at his trembling body and looked at his side.

It had been hidden by his cloak. An arrow of light was lodged deep in his flank.

"This is... Tiris's...?"

He happened to see Tiris's fallen form in the distance. She had used her last ounce of magic to transform an ice arrow into a single shaft of light, firing it into Ares's side. With the sole desire to protect her friends.

"Dammit... to the very end... that rare character sure is somethin' else... not that she'd ever be my woman."

Ares's lips curved into a faint smile.

And then, with a trembling hand, he picked up his own sword.

"But ya know... your sword ain't gonna kill me..."

He murmured softly, as if speaking to Mamoru's corpse.

"This ending... I'm the one who decides it."

And then, Ares, without hesitation, turned the blade to his own throat.

"Well then, I'll be goin' on ahead... you idiots who believed in friends..."

Shu.

The sword slit his throat.

Fresh blood splattered, and Ares quietly collapsed.

The last thing he saw were Mamoru's monster comrades, huddled together amidst the rubble as if in an embrace. Their faces held peaceful, and somehow warm, expressions.

"Mamoru... maybe I was really... just jealous..."

Hero Ares's eyes quietly closed.

And so, it reached its end. A battle of justice and madness. The sad final destination of one who believed, and one who could not.

Only silence remained in the throne room.

But in that silence, spacetime tore open, and that being began to move.