Editing Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut:Volume 5 Episode 4 (section)

===Part 24===

A moment later, even Lux and Yoruka who were standing at the opposite side could hear that abnormal sound of slicing wind.

Due to the Divine Raiment Astral Line that severed the very space itself, the capital’s clock tower along with the city below were severed and collapsed with thunderous sound.

The Gigas was quickening the gathering of faint light toward its central cannon muzzle and on its whole body. The aftermath of the vibration from it shook the ground.

While screams and shrieks could be heard from below, Lux who was on his knee lifted his face.

「──It looks like that side will also be concluded soon doesn’t it?」

Yoruka was approaching near with a composed look even now after witnessing the omen of destruction that Gigas was showing and Nidhogg’s attack.

Although Lux was saved from his predicament due to Lisha’s support, he was unable to find a conclusive means of survival.

Lux had no method to block Yoruka’s special move──the Instant Strike that took advantage of the gaps of consciousness.

There was less than three minutes left for the activation time limit of Bahamut.

He was completely──cornered.

「Are you……not scared? Even though that Gigas and Hayes might destroy this capital soon.」

「Yes, not at all. Because I don’t have any human emotion in me.」

Yoruka answered instantly while showing a carefree smile.

「But, this is curious. Aruji-sama too doesn’t look scared at all. Aruji-sama is seriously intending to do it, isn’t it──of saving this country.」

「……What happened with your little brother?」

「Yes?」

「Your little brother swore to succeed the throne of Koto and become a splendid lord. And then, you──swore to walk the path of a servant who would protect him, what happened to that?」

「In this kind of situation, Aruji-sama is asking an interesting thing isn’t it?」

「Because I think that I have to ask it, as the last prince of the Old Empire.」

「…………」

Yoruka hesitated just for an instant with the smile still fixed on her face.

「My little brother──was killed.」

She said it smoothly from start to finish without any change at all in her expression and tone.

「Eh……?」

「The castle was surrounded when I was going outside, so in order to save my little brother I surrendered. I obeyed the command to enter under the banner of the Old Empire with the condition that only my little brother’s life was saved──but」

Yoruka talked with a hint of nostalgia in her tone and she smiled.

「My little brother was already killed, by none other than his subordinates, the chief vassals. The chief vassals who gave up the war because of the difference in battle strength with the empire laid the responsibility on my little brother in order to protect themselves. They beheaded him and presented his head to the empire.」

「…………」

「It was, vexing.」

The girl who was said to be not human whispered with something that felt like emotion coloring her tone for the first time.

「My blood relative who was the only one who believed in a defective product like me died. And yet, even when I heard that news, I didn’t feel sad even a little. That’s, the most vexing thing above all else, was how I wasn’t a proper human until the very end.」

「Then, you following the contract with my father──with the Old Empire is……」

「Both of us really weren’t cut out for it. Something like becoming a splendid lord, and a servant who devoted her loyalty to such lord is just──」

Even so just like her little brother who kept his oath until he died, she herself also exchanged a contract with the Old Empire in order to save her little brother. She was attempting to be faithful until she died to the only oath she had ever sworn by protecting that contract.

「Now, the time to talk harmoniously is also over with this. Let’s conclude this, Aruji-sama.」

「……Got it.」

Lux gazed straight at Yoruka, then he took a stance by pulling his sword greatly to the back.

「As a prince of the Old Empire, I’ll defeat you here.」

In response, Yoruka took her stance and her purple eyes shined fierily.

The battle technique of perceiving Lux’s conscious wavelengths and taking the opening of the unconscious gap──Instant Strike.

Yoruka intended to settle the match using the greatest technique she had.

The surrounding atmosphere tensed tinglingly and the tension was drawn until the very limit.

A few instants later, it came.

*BAKIiiIN!*

「──!?」

An instant of crossing, when the blades of both sides ran through empty air, Yoruka’s Blades snapped and twirled in the air.

At the same time, the Chaos Brand that Lux wielded also cracked, but it wasn’t separated from his hand.

「──Reload on Fire.」

Lux’s attack that struck last pierced through the barrier of Yoruka’s Yato no Kami and her armor was destroyed.

The impact on the Force Core completely downed the Drag-Ride’s output.

「──How……can this be?」

Yoruka showed a color of agitation for the first time. She whispered with a dumbfounded voice.

「I don’t understand something like the moment when there is gap in a human’s consciousness.」

Lux answered with wheezing breath.

「But, I predicted it only hazily, your tendency, the omen when you are about to move after reading the gap of my consciousness. I was finally able to see it, thanks to you getting emotional for the first time.」

「…………」

Lux’s Quick Shot that originally should only be usable when he used Reload on Fire.

That technique which aimed to attack at the moment the opponent unleashed their attack by perfectly seeing through the attack preparation movement of the opponent, against Yoruka, it was unable to reach until her armor.

Therefore, in the first attack Lux concentrated on only brushing away her sword, and then he decided the match with the next attack.

「Certainly, my tendency will come into view if I exert my strength emotionally. What a failure. For I who am not a human──to still have something like that.」

The moment Yoruka chuckled, the Gigas shined once more and it shook fiercely along with the ground.

Right after that, from the shoulder of Gigas that was tilting diagonally──Yoruka and Yato no Kami slipped off.

「With this, the Arcadia Empire is finished too. Sayonara──Aruji-sama.」

That moment she began to freefall, Lux flew his Bahamut, weaving through the gaps of the broken armor that was thrown away along with the Gigas’s movement. And then──

「What are……you doing?」

With a look as though she was seeing something inexplicable, she stared at the hand of Bahamut that was saving her.

Lux reached out his hand in order to save Yoruka at a timing where it seemed like he wouldn’t make it in time at all.

Even while shaking with most of his strength used up, Lux slowly pulled up Yato no Kami.

「Aruji-sama doesn’t have any responsibility or free time to save me you know? My wish is already──」

「I once tried to change this country──and then I failed.」

Lux spoke cutting off Yoruka’s words and he turned his eyes that were tinged with sadness to her.

「No matter how I couldn’t believe in how the country was, so I resolved myself to change it. After that various things happened and the Arcadia Empire was destroyed. My older brother, he told me that it’s impossible to persuade them. Perhaps he was right. Something like my wish might be a mistake that won’t come true in the end. But……」

While whispering, Lux mustered his remaining strength and pulled Yoruka up.

「If it’s possible to save, then I want to save even just one more person. It doesn’t matter even if that’s a reckless wish. After all, I resolved myself to destroy the Arcadia Empire for that.」

「……I’m astonished. Something like that──to choose the path of destroying one’s own country by one’s own hand in order to save it. This is my terrible misunderstanding. Aruji-sama, from the start you are fighting all this time for the sake of the Arcadia Empire aren’t you? In order to make it come true, the ideal country that you dreamed of──」

Yoruka suddenly made a tranquil smile, as though she was released from something.

Like that Lux pulled up Yoruka to the edge of Gigas’s shoulder before he let go of her hand.

「My battle is still not over. It has continued all this time──since that day seven years ago. That’s why, I’m going.」

Lux only left those words behind and he was about to turn on his heel. It was then he heard a voice.

「……Does Aruji-sama know, about the entrance to the shortest route heading towards Gigas’s control room?」

Yoruka who dispelled her armor was looking up to Lux with her usual smile.

「I think it’s a necessary information for Aruji-sama. If it can save your country, and really grant your wish then──」