Magic Knight of the Old Ways: Volume 1, page 8
“No, let’s just call it a day and head home,” Alvin answered. “It’s good that we now know our power can be adequately effective against enemies in the second layer. Besides, Sir Sid is probably awake now and worried about us.”
“Yeah, I don’t really care about him,” Tenko said, and Alvin gave her a wry smile.
He then gave orders to his class. “Okay, everyone. Let’s take a short break and then move out.”
“Understood.”
“Gotcha.” Everyone casually answered Alvin...and that’s when it happened.
“Ahhh!” From deep in the forest, there came the sound of not just one, but several people screaming.
“Alvin?”
“I don’t know. But someone’s probably hurt from fighting a monster. Let’s go check it out.” After quickly answering Tenko, Alvin took the group and headed in the direction of the screams.
“Wh-What is this?” The class couldn’t believe what they were seeing at the water’s edge after passing through the sea of trees. Sitting there was a very strange-looking demon whose huge body was like a boulder and probably several meters long. It had seven heads, each like a lizard, and each with seven horns and seven eyes. Its body resembled a bird and had feathers like an eagle growing from its waist. It had a thick tail, and its mouth was lined with wolflike fangs. Just by being there, its very presence seemed sufficient to crush every fragile creature in the area. It had the kind of brutal dignity that only an apex predator could possess in nature, and it felt like the silent forest had become as cold as ice. Its forty-nine eyes were the color of an unfathomable abyss, and they were staring at Alvin and the others. It was their first time seeing it, but there was no mistaking its distinctive look.
“A Kirimu...it’s a Kirimu!” a pale-faced Tenko said shakily as she stood next to Alvin. “No way. Why?! Why is it here in the second layer?! They’re supposed to be much deeper into the fairy world.” Kirimus were ruthless killers from the depths of the fairy world and the kind of powerful monster that would normally take a party of experienced fairy knights to vanquish.
“H-Hey, look there!” Christopher said as he pointed at the bodies of several boys and girls at the Kirimu’s feet.
“It’s...the Durande class?!”
“Even Gato’s there!” Gato and the rest of the Durande class lay pitifully on the ground and were all covered in blood. Their fairy swords had been cruelly broken and shattered. Kirimus had a habit of swallowing their prey alive, so it seemed like, for the time being, they hadn’t been killed. However, they were already at Death’s door, so it was only a matter of time.
“Ahhh!”
“Eek!”
The students of the Blitze class yelled and shrieked at the sight of this unexpected enemy.
“Everyone, calm down.” Alvin rebuked his classmates as he stifled his own fear. “Everyone, work together to distract it and escape when we see an opportunity,” Alvin ordered, but then something happened. Without warning, the Kirimu had disappeared from Alvin’s sight even though he had been keeping a close eye on its movements.
Huh? What’s going on? Alvin thought.
“Ahhh!”
Almost as if to answer his question, his classmates screamed behind him.
“What?!” Alvin said and quickly turned around to see the Kirimu. In an instant, it had made its way behind them. Despite its huge body, it was unbelievably fast. It had taken Christopher and Theodore into two of its mouths and lifted them up like they were nothing. It swung them furiously in the air and threw them at a large tree nearby. The trunk shattered when they hit it and they fell to the ground, their fairy swords falling away.
“E-Everyone, move! Spread out!” Alvin said, rebuking Tenko and the others who had frozen up. Pushed by Alvin’s words, everyone spread out into the surroundings.
“S-Stop! Legtop!” Lynette thrust her spear into the ground and activated the green fairy magic, “Ivy Entanglement.” Ivy grew from the ground at an incredible rate and entangled the legs of the Kirimu. However, it was torn away when the Kirimu took two or three steps without a care. One of its heads gave a low growl. Then a fierce high-pitched squeal began to echo throughout the area. It was the Kirimu’s signature move, sound-wave magic known as a “Shriek” that paralyzes its prey with a high-pitched sound.
“I-I won’t let you! Saifreeze!” Elaine tried to stop it with her blue fairy magic, “Winter’s Breath,” but it was the wave of freezing air that Elaine released that ended up being canceled. The power of the Kirimu’s magic was too strong to be counteracted. “N-No way!” Elaine said in disbelief. Then the Kirimu’s piercing, high-pitched screech echoed throughout the surroundings, directly tearing into their brains.
“Ahh!”
“N-No!” Taking the brunt of the attack, Elaine and Lynette involuntarily dropped their swords and crouched down as they held their heads in their hands. They immediately started bleeding from their eyes and ears. Unimaginably painful headaches and nausea washed over everyone in the area, and they could do nothing but shed tears of blood and writhe in agony as they lost sensation in their skin. Even Flora, who was normally so laid back, couldn’t help crouching down in pain.
“Y-You! E-Enough!” Tenko said. She clenched her teeth and brought her weapon to bare as she endured the sound waves with her spirit and willpower. “Enough!” she yelled, brandished her sword, and closed in on the Kirimu. The fact that she was even able to slash at the Kirimu in this situation was truly the fruits of her daily training. Being able to make such a focused strike without compromising the accuracy of her sword technique was worthy of praise. “Banig!” Tenko yelled as she activated her red fairy magic, “Homura Tachi.” Tenko’s flaming sword ripped through space, aiming to cut off one of the Kirimu’s seven heads. However, with a snap, the tip of Tenko’s katana broke in half and was sent flying into the air.
“Huh?” Tenko stood there dumbfounded, still in her stance from after she followed through on her sword swing. Meanwhile, there wasn’t even a scratch as big as a fingernail on the Kirimu’s neck. Tenko’s sword, which had sliced through monsters on the first and second layer like butter, hadn’t worked at all here. “No...”
The Kirimu’s answer to her attack was a powerful blow from a sideways swipe of its tail. Tenko’s body was slapped away in a straight line and slammed violently into the trunk of a large tree.
“Gah!” Tenko exclaimed as the air was pushed out of her lungs all at once. She felt a pain so intense it was like her body had shattered into pieces, and she had likely broken several bones. Tenko’s body succumbed to gravity and slid down the trunk, and she ended up in a seated position. With her back slumped against the tree, she was unable to even move a finger. This cruel assassin, the Kirimu, then proceeded to attack Tenko without making a sound. In the blink of an eye, like a vanishing mist, it closed in on her with incredible speed.
Tenko let out a scream. The seven heads opened their jaws, and with countless teeth, prepared to bite into her entire body. However, a swirling wind suddenly appeared.
“Tenko! Weald!” Alvin quickly intervened, using his green fairy magic, “Wind Shield,” to stop the seven jaws. However, Alvin’s magic was easily crushed and dispersed by the Kirimu’s teeth. The Kirimu seemed to be slightly wary of Alvin, as he was the only one who hadn’t lost his will to fight among everyone else who cowered in fear. It lightly jumped back and observed him with its forty-nine eyes. Meanwhile, a feeling like he was sinking to the bottom of the ocean assaulted Alvin.
He breathed heavily as he readied his sword against the wild, intimidating, and bloodthirsty aura the Kirimu was giving off.
“Wh-What are you doing, Alvin?!” Tenko yelled in her dazed state of consciousness. “Run! Leave me! Hurry up and go!”
“No! I can’t just leave you and run away!”
“Alvin!” Tenko painfully screamed, but it was too late. It seemed that the Kirimu’s natural wild instincts had told it that Alvin was too weak to be a threat, so it cruelly hunted its prey with a killing intent. Fear stabbed through Alvin’s whole body.
“N-No. Alvin. Because of me!” Tenko screamed, and at that moment, the Kirimu kicked the ground and charged. Just like before, its incredible movement was well beyond the limits of a normal human’s vision. It was a miracle that Alvin barely managed to try and block the first blow with his “Wind Shield.” Alvin understood. In a few seconds, he would be torn to pieces by the Kirimu’s claws and fangs.
Even so, I have to... Alvin thought. In the midst of despair, Alvin gritted his teeth and faced the oncoming Kirimu. Its jaws were open wide and lined with knifelike fangs, and they were closing in on him. In the final moment, Alvin closed his eyes and froze. However, his time didn’t come, and he heard the resounding sound of something slashing.
The other thing Alvin heard was the Kirimu roaring in gruesome anguish.
“What?” Alvin said and fearfully opened his eyes. He saw the Kirimu with the side of one of its heads deeply slashed open, spewing blood and writing in pain.
“Are you all right, prince?” It was Sid, and he had his back to Alvin as he stood in front of the Kirimu. His right hand was half open and extended out. Despite Sid not having a fairy sword, the Kirimu was deeply wounded. “Seriously, running off on your own like that—aren’t you guys being a little too mischievous?” Sid turned around and smirked at Alvin. “Well, I’m just glad I made it.”
“Sir Sid...what did you just do?!”
“No way. How in the world did you cut through the scales of a Kirimu when even an attack from a fairy sword couldn’t do it?!” Tenko cried. She and Alvin weren’t the only ones who were astonished. Elaine, Lynette, Christopher, and even the normally carefree Flora were shocked. They all had their eyes wide open and were completely dumbfounded.
At that moment, the Kirimu, who had been writhing around, turned one of its heads to face Sid. It opened its jaw and was about to use its sound-wave magic and let out its strange howl. However, Sid was faster and stepped in sharply, leaped, and swung his right hand in a horizontal flash. An instant later, the head that tried to release the sound waves had been sliced off. Sid then quickly stepped toward the Kirimu’s bosom, raised his left fist, and caught it in the torso, smashing its ribs that were harder than steel.
The Kirimu once again roared as it threw its heads back violently and toppled over. The earth rumbled as it writhed in agony. No matter how you looked at it, Sid’s strength was inhuman.
“Why?! Why are you able to do that even though you don’t have a fairy sword?!” Tenko yelled in disbelief.
“All right. I figured I’d start tomorrow, but since I’ve lucked out and found such a good partner to lecture with, I’ll just teach you guys how a knight from the legendary era fights,” Sid said as he kept his eyes on the rampaging Kirimu and shifted to an oblique fighting stance.
“First, all of you take a good look at my body. What do you see?” Sid said as he stepped about lightly and looked back at his students. He was still positioned in front of an opponent that normally took a squad of experienced knights to defeat. His students didn’t understand what he meant and looked curiously at one another. “Look closer. You all were chosen by fairy swords, so it should be visible to you. Look, don’t just see. Open your spiritual eyes and understand it, and don’t just know it.” Urged on by Sid, Alvin and the others looked more carefully. They then faintly saw glittering golden particles rising up from Sid’s body. If you weren’t conscious of it, you couldn’t see it. However, if you actually tried to look, it was certainly there.
“I-I see it!”
“I see it too!”
“Wh-What is that light?!”
As the students buzzed about what they saw, the Kirimu made its move and attacked Sid with its frightening agility. However, Sid didn’t even look at it as he dodged as quickly as the wind. Then, as the Kirimu was passing by him, he mercilessly cleaved its body with his partially open right hand. Its scales were harder than steel, but Sid’s hand sliced deeply through them with ease, and the Kirimu roared in anguish.
“So, you all saw it? That light is called mana,” Sid said as the Kirimu made a good amount of distance between them.
“Mana?!”
“Isn’t that the power of the fairies?”
“How can a person use mana?”
One by one, the students voiced their confusion.
“Oh, come on. Mana is the power that resides in every living thing and shapes all matter and life in this world, right? So why wouldn’t people be included in that?” Sid said and shrugged his shoulders in disbelief as the Kirimu rampaged around in pain in front of him. “You know the phrase ‘Fairies dwell in all things,’ don’t you? Fairies are beings that come from when mana, which exists in nature, possesses form and willpower. Then fairy swords, which are the incarnation of fairies, are a mass of mana. Are you following me so far?”
Thrashing in agony, the Kirimu wildly swung its tail at Sid. Cracking like a whip, its tail gouged out the earth and sent a few trees flying, roots and all. However, it couldn’t even touch Sid, who was leaving hazy afterimages of himself as he moved back and forth and side to side.
“In other words, fairy magic is basically the art of one-sidedly borrowing mana from a fairy sword, which is a mass of mana, and unleashing it,” Sid said as he continued to dodge all of the Kirimu’s attacks with a light step. “But, even fairies come in all different kinds. While some are great fairies that have lived for thousands of years and have acquired great power, others have just been born and have little power.” When Sid pointed this out, his students gasped and looked at their fairy swords. “Do you get it now? Fairy swords with low sword ranks are actually young fairies that have just been born. Though weak, these Good Fellows wished to be of service to people and became swords. That is what your fairy swords are.”
Sid casually dodged a fierce tail attack right in front of his nose and countered with a flashing strike from his partly opened left hand. It sliced off the Kirimu’s tail, sending it flying through the air. Then, with a leap and a flash of his right hand, he sent another of the Kirimu’s heads flying. The Kirimu’s roar of anguish grew even louder.
“In other words, while you thought you were getting stronger, you were being carried by these kindhearted fairy children. It’s just shameful.” As Sid lectured, his students were completely stunned. Then Sid smoothly jumped toward the Kirimu’s bosom. “Why did you only rely on your fairy swords and not train yourselves?” Sid asked as he fiercely connected a diagonal slash with a reverse diagonal slash. “I told you, didn’t I? Mana is the very life force that’s found in all things. Every living being has it. And, of course, people have it too. Mana isn’t some special power that just belongs to fairies.” Sid then formed a blade with his right hand and filled it with mana. “If you can refine and manipulate your own mana, then you can do a lot of things. It’s not all-powerful by any means, but it will certainly make you stronger than you were before.” A moment later, he kicked the ground and moved so fast he was a blur. “If you focus your mana into your hand, it can act as a blade sharp enough to rival any famous sword.”
An X-shaped slash was instantly carved into the chest of the Kirimu, creating a flashy display with a fountain of blood. After being hurt so much, the enraged Kirimu raised the claws at the end of its log-like arms and slashed.
“If you spread mana all over your body, it becomes sturdier than the strongest armor.” With a powerful gust of wind, the Kirimu’s claws mercilessly slashed and landed onto Sid, but it didn’t make a single scratch on his sturdy body.
Instead, it was the Kirimu’s claws that broke and shattered. It roared in agony, then as a reward, Sid’s right hand took another of its heads.
“In the age of legends, this system of mana control was known as ‘Will.’ So, what do you think? I get along pretty well without a fairy sword, don’t I?” Sid said as he looked back at his students with a grin. After having witnessed the incredible spectacle that Sid was putting on, the students were awestruck. As they watched, the Kirimu’s remaining jaws rushed toward Sid. “Well, basically what I’m trying to say is—” Sid, who had already dropped back, went around the side of the Kirimu like a flash. “You guys thought you were getting stronger by devising ways to wield your fairy swords better. I’ll acknowledge your hard work, but you have an overwhelming lack of self-training.” Sid then leaped high into the air, kicked off of a nearby tree branch, and did a flip. “It’s ridiculous. No wonder you’re all so weak.” Using the momentum of his fall, he stabbed his right hand deeply into the Kirimu’s back. The Kirimu growled in confusion as it flailed around trying to shake Sid off. However, Sid skillfully balanced himself and continued to stab it with his arm.
“H-He’s so strong!” The students were in such awe that they were only able to utter simple, cliched observations. As for Alvin, in the face of such an absurd scene, he found himself absentmindedly thinking about what Sid had said earlier.
“After all, I am the sword.”
“Is this...is this what he meant?” Alvin knew nothing of the technique that would allow him to manipulate his mana. It was considered common knowledge that you borrow mana from your fairy sword. Sid fought the dark knight with a dagger when they first met. However, it wasn’t because he was forced to use it. It was because he was holding back. It was likely that because of being summoned back to life, Sid’s physical and mana senses were out of balance. In that condition, fighting with his bare hands would have been too dangerous for his opponent.
I see. Over the course of time, we knights have forgotten that strength comes from training ourselves. We’ve been so dependent on the convenience of fairy swords, and somewhere along the way we’ve forgotten the basics of being a warrior, Alvin thought as he watched the back of Sid, who continued to fight. The way he stood up to his powerful opponent with his well-trained body alone was absolutely bewitching. It’s true that modern knights have probably become weaker.
But true strength could be revived in the modern age. Alvin stared at Sid with a hopeful look. While he did so, Sid flew through the sky and unleashed countless strikes. His dance of slashing attacks left the Kirimu’s entire body in a carved-up mess. One by one, its heads were blown away, and it was powerless to do anything about it. In the blink of an eye, there was only one head left.
