Editing Dark Elf:Volume1 Chapter4 (section)

===Part 3===

Whatever he hoped to do, he had to survive long enough to do it, so running away was their standard play. Klaus and Slender shared the routes they thought were best, pulling on each other’s hand and just barely avoiding the hope elf’s magic and the magic sword searching for them from the sky. They did not hesitate to travel down animal paths and through bushes. Maybe the combination of the boy’s and Slender’s ideas made them harder to predict because he sensed Rosehera’s aim veer away from them on a few occasions. 

He knew all too well that they couldn’t keep this up forever.

The question was whether or not they could achieve their goal before death caught up to them and tapped on their shoulder.

“''Where to next!?''”

“''Over there!! Hurry!!''”

An explosion of light erupted so brightly it looked more like the sun than a lightning strike, but it was farther away than before. No matter how much powerful magic the hope elf had in her colored pencils, she was still very short even with her thick-soled shoes. Her steps were short and she was walking slower than them. To make up for it, the magic sword spread its glowing sails and moved out ahead of them to cut off their escape route more often. If they charged ahead without thinking, the blade would slice them in two, but if they came to a stop, the magic light would vaporize them. They had to keep multiple escape routes in mind at all times or the enemy would catch up to them.

“We aren’t approaching the village, are we?”

“''Why your human language all of a sudden? Are you saying something dirty again? Anyway, come this way. We should see the next attack soon!''”

Slender made a mistaken accusation and pulled on his hand to get him running in a different direction. The drop off nearby was growing taller. They may have been close to a waterfall. They couldn’t afford to slow down, but they also couldn’t afford to slip off in their haste.

He heard the rustling of someone stepping on the underbrush behind them. No one who knew the first thing about living in the forest would make so much noise.

“Hello again.”

It was the strongest elf, who only looked like a 12-year-old girl. The nearby drop off and the unsteady footing must have slowed them down enough for Rosehera to catch up.

She moved her small hand from a short distance away and a red colored pencil gave a roar. The magic circle she drew on a nearby rock resembled a complex spiral. No, it was a stereotypical piece of trick art, like a staircase with no top. Impossible shapes could be represented through art and passing power through them would endlessly amplify that power.

The power grew.

After crossing a certain threshold, it was released into the 3D world.

“Is this over already? I was hoping to enjoy myself some more.”

“''Slender!!''”

They couldn’t afford to be careful with their footing. After a flash of white light, the bedrock crumbled and a large chunk was torn out of the waterfall itself. Klaus held Slender’s shoulders in his hands and jumped from the solid slope. He used himself as a cushion to protect her. Or he tried to, but the white explosion sent them soaring much farther through the air than he had expected.

The sense of falling squeezed at his gut.

The most he could do was clench his teeth to make sure he didn’t bite his tongue.

He landed back-first on the ground with the dark elf girl in his arms. He had hit a patch of soft soil, but that barely mattered. He felt the impact in his organs and he had trouble breathing.

“Gahh!”

He heard a dull cracking sound and felt a pain unlike what he was used to from cuts and contusions. A brand new form of pain exploded inside him.

…''Did I break a bone? But which one?

He couldn’t even imagine. He couldn’t even scream as he simply coughed while sprawled out on the ground.

“Gah!! Gh, cough, agh!!?”

“''You idiot. What are you doing!?''”

Slender grabbed his trembling hands in her own. The disconcerting sound had come from his back, but he could still move his arms. So had it been a rib, not his spine or shoulder blades?

He couldn’t speak.

His mouth flapped wordlessly while he felt something flashing in the back of his mind. The fear of death and agonizing pain opened up what had been locked away in his brain.

The beginning of all this appeared the back of his mind.

His rotten teacher had suggested the dark elves were dangerous. She had said they were taking revenge on humanity by resurrecting Brashgain.

But he could not bring himself to give up on his life-long dream of meeting the dark elves.

He had picked up an earring and wondered if that would help him get to know its owner.

He had chased after her through the sticky plants and that had marked the beginning of it all.

He had not lost the memories after all. Now that they were back, he found they were nothing special.

There was nothing especially romantic there and no crucial information either. It was just an ordinary event.

His back hurt and his lungs weren’t working right, but he still reached over and stopped Slender who was muttering under her breath, pulling a few small bottles of medicine from her chest, and producing firefly-like pale blue particles of light from her palm. He did not know how dark elf magic worked, but the pale light suggested this was recovery magic. However, magically speeding up the healing of his broken rib before it was set would only make things worse. He would have to break it again just to fix it.

Yes.

He could not rest yet. He could not tap out of the fight.

In the end, he was an outsider in the forest and a source of disaster, yet this kind girl was pale in the face as she worried for him. He wanted to protect her.

There was nothing particularly romantic here and he was not fighting out of duty or obligation.

He couldn’t help himself. No matter how small it might seem, he had picked up an accessory and thought she might miss it if it was permanently lost out in the forest. He hadn’t known her name, she was another species entirely, and he didn’t know how much she even cared about the earring. For all he knew, she might have never even noticed it was missing.

But he still couldn’t help but return it.

And if that girl’s life was in danger now, he couldn’t just lie there and die!!

“Ahh, agh, ah!!”

He grimaced, got his body moving, and forced himself onto his feet. He had grown up in a safe city, so he had no idea how dangerous it was to move around with a broken rib. He briefly wondered if the broken bone would pierce one of his organs, but ''this was more important than that.

He bit a lip that tasted of blood.

He bore with the pain, trusting he had been right to try and protect Slender here.

He wasn’t even thinking about the destruction of the world anymore.

He didn’t care how powerful the legendary hope elf and magic sword were.

He would do whatever it took to ensure that dark elf girl returned alive. He didn’t need some romantic story. He wasn’t going to find one lost in the recesses of his mind, but what did that matter? He was the one who wanted to save her and he knew that was the right thing to do, so he would stand by that decision!!

“''Let’s go, Slender. We can still win this. There’s still a chance.''”

She only sobbed in response.

“''It’ll be okay.''”

He rubbed her head.

Now that he knew her language, he knew what to say to his future wife.

“''I will make you happy. No matter what it takes.''”

What did the pain matter? Why should he care about Brashgain or the T.E.O.D. that slayed him? Maybe Hope Elf Rosehera was acting on some centuries’ old grudge, but that meant nothing to a short-lived human like Klaus.

Was his love at first sight more powerful than anything else in the world?

If he couldn’t answer yes without a second thought, he wouldn’t have fallen in love in the first place.

He resumed walking with an unnatural gait. With Slender supporting him from the side. The only thing on his mind was drying her tears as soon as possible.

The hard grass blades and bush branches sliced at his skin like blades. He started to suspect the tree roots and partially buried rocks were conspiring to twist his ankle. He squeezed out every last ounce of stamina he had. The strange pain and heat in his back made sure to protest every move he made.

The seemingly endless forest would eventually end.

Slender would not want to leave the forest and they were both dead once they lost the cover of the trees.

“''How much longer?''”

“''Just one more. Cough, we still have a chance!!''”

…''Almost there. We’re so close.

Just then, he heard sharp whistling overhead. The T.E.O.D. was dropping from the sky with a blue light trailing behind it.

It was only a rib, but the broken bone had still slowed him down. And that delay had allowed the magic sword to target them. Slender suddenly pushed him away. He lost the support of her shoulder and collapsed face-first onto the grassy ground. Pain exploded inside him.

He kind of hoped she was making a run for it to save herself.

But instead, he heard a straining sound of her turning around, drawing her bow, and aiming toward the night sky through the gaps in the branches.

“''Wko gtijaq’v rayot uv i naiwkvapo wkuqj, dew uw fiq do kitqovvog wa jtoiw ohhofw. Koto u faqwtan iqg iup wkiw rayot. Wkuv uv wko powkag mqayq iv Itfkgtijaq Pijuf.''”

She spoke under her breath and Klaus could tell something was gathering in her arrowhead according to some kind of rules.

“''Leave my hand and fly forth, Jaws of Nidhogg!!''”

Her bow rebelled against the heavens above. The dragon-slaying sword and the dark elf arrow collided and exploded in the sky. The power built up inside T.E.O.D. was unleashed in every direction, rustling the leaves of the forest around them.

But.

A sharp sound pierced through that blast.

T.E.O.D. sliced through the dark elf’s Archdragon Magic to continue along its course. Even after losing its light, the sword that had delivered the finishing blow to Brashgain dropped like a lightning bolt.

It sliced apart the raised bow.

And it stabbed right through the girl’s body.

“………………………………………………………………………………………………………”

Klaus Knockburn could no longer breathe.

He refused to believe what he was seeing.

The sword had collided with the arrow on the way down. That must have scattered most of the power built up within it because it had lacked the explosive force needed to form a crater where it landed. But the sword stabbed in to the hilt was still a horrifying sight.

And of all things, Slender held the hilt and guard in her hands. But not to pull it out of herself. Quite the opposite, she was keeping it trapped in her body to protect the boy lying nearby. She couldn’t even remain standing, but she gathered the last of her strength in her bloody hands.

“''Stop!!''”

The pain in his ribs no longer mattered. He grabbed at the grass to stand up, shouted at the top of his lungs, and ran toward the small body lying on her side with the sword through her gut.

“''That’s enough! I didn’t want this!! Sob. How am I supposed to enjoy life – ahh – if I’m the only one that survives!?''”

When he clung to her, a small smile formed on her lips. She may not have been able to see anymore due to the blood loss.

She only spoke two words.

“''Thank…goodness.''”

And her head slumped down. Klaus had gone to the trouble of learning her language, but nothing left his mouth now.

''I will marry you.

He would take Slender as his wife, no matter what barriers stood in his way.

And as his wife, she could place all the burden on him. He would do the housework and he would earn a living so she could just live a peaceful life. And seeing her living her best life like that would be all the happiness he needed.

Except now…

“Don’t smile.”

He had no idea how many centuries or even millennia this young-looking dark elf had lived, but how had she not learned something so simple after so much time!?

He wasn’t even sure which language he was speaking anymore.

He clenched his teeth and couldn’t keep the tears from flowing as she shouted down at her.

“I want you to be more selfish. Sob, I don’t want you to sacrifice yourself. I want you to be happy, to smile, and to live a full life. What kind of guy could smile after seeing his wife slice her gut open!? Are you insane!? Dying a stupid death over a silly obsession is supposed to be my job!!”

He yelled so loud he thought he would tear open his own throat.

Because he feared it wouldn’t reach her otherwise.

“So don’t smile like this is a good thing!! I refuse to accept this! Please, say you don’t want to die! Ask me to stop the bleeding!! That’s what people are supposed to do! Let me be proud I could give you what you wanted and you can be happy I used all my strength for you! Not…not this!!!!!! Ahhhh!!”

“My, my.”

He heard the scraping of a scroll containing 72 colored pencils.

And a voice.

“Are you ready to give up now?”

He worked to catch his breath while checking behind him. They were near the edge of the forest, but the end of the trees didn’t lead to an open plain. It led to a precipice that seemed to continue on down into hell. There was no escape.

Rosehera sneered with the scroll floating behind her and the small crown swaying on her head.

He heard a wet splash.

He hadn’t noticed it with his vision flashing in and out, but the hope elf had casually stepped inside a forest stream. It was only ankle deep and something like a sharp white stone jutted out from the water and the nearby greenery. It was a dragon fang.

This was the place.

''Oh, so we made it all the way back to the stream where I first met her,'' Klaus realized.

In his bleary vision, he could tell Rosehera remained unscathed. Her skin maintained its childlike softness. A stark contrast to Klaus and his numerous scrapes and his broken rib, or Slender and her gut pierced by the dragon-slaying blade.

The redhead boy could not even hold his shoulders even and all emotion vanished from his mind.

''You’re ****.

A strange tingling filled him as he mouthed two words at Rosehera.

“I am impressed you managed to run nearly 10km. That’s almost all the way across the forest.”

“Thanks, I guess…”

“Now, who should I decapitate first? Or you can emotionally jump from the cliff in each other’s arms if you like.”

“Come to think of it, I forget to ask something.”

His face was soaked with sweat, but he managed to spit out the words. He felt no emotion, only a blank nothingness. He couldn’t take his time trying to negotiate. He had to treat his wife’s wounds as soon as possible.

So he chose to enrage that experienced monster with a single statement.

He wiped the tears form his eyes with a thumb and attacked her with his words.

“Why do you want to destroy us humans so badly? Do you spend every night reliving memories too painful and humiliating to share?”

“Are you offering to go first? I can cleanly vaporize everything below your head and let you watch me dismember that dark elf right up until your head remembers to die and ceases to breathe. In your final moments, you can enjoy seeing the agony and terror on her face as she cries out in vain for your help.”

“Yeah, you wish you could do that.”

His extreme exhaustion and the internal pain of the broken bone didn’t matter right now. Klaus Knockburn spread his arms while using his pale lips to speak.

“Of the three traits, I choose salt. Magic lifeform, reptile, squamata, varanidae, cold blooded. I have grasped thy nature like counting the corners of a polygon or star. The polygon emanates and the star gathers – together they symbolize the control of power. By knowing thee, I become one with thee.”

The hope elf’s blue eyes narrowed asymmetrically, her face twisting in confusion.

The look on her face said she was not interested in a battle to determine the strongest life form in the forest. She was a living legend, so sending a lion or tiger after her was meaningless. Plus, Klaus’s magic only camouflaged his appearance; it did not actually turn him into the life form. Mimicking a dragon’s appearance would not let him breathe fire and camouflaging himself as an angel would not let him fly. Unless it was something large enough to crush his opponent with its sheer size, his camouflage magic had no offensive use. His effort here was doomed to fail, so Rosehera could not figure out why he sounded so confident.

Lucky for him, it took her a moment to figure out what he was after. It even gave him a chance to crouch down and run his finger along the mossy ground with Slender still in his arms. Making all the necessary preparations in front of a powerful enemy was the most difficult part. He used the four elements to grasp the three traits and linked heaven to earth. And he smiled while battered and beaten.

Fangs were littered across this area, which meant another white monstrosity had to be pushing through the forest vegetation. He directed his gaze toward that colossal skull and he unleashed the final incantation.

Yes, he had his eyes on Brashgain’s body.

“Camouflize Decoration – now I am thee!!”