Tower of Karma

At the outer walls, a pool of blood was made at the front of the ladders. It was the acc.u.mulated blood of both the armies of Arcadia and Ostoberg. With more life being lost, the profundity of that pool increased. The battlefield was a place that consumed the life of people. No matter how much people deluded themselves with the romance of the war, this reality wouldn´t change. There were many reasons and questions of righteousness connected to it. War was a complicated thing. However, in fact…

“Fuhjurururuuuuuhuh”(ふじゅるるっるうゥううッ)

It was simpler than anything. No matter the intentions of people, there was only one thing that controlled the battlefield.

“Hah, hah, baaah?”(ハァ、ハァ、バァぁァあア)

It was only power. A beast had lost his way into the battlefield. It was a beast that was like the embodiment of power.

The crimson gem splattered in blood that hanged by its chest shone as if it represented the beast´s destiny of being covered in blood.

His body was slim and flexible. He had supple muscles, and its nimble moves hid danger.

“How horrendous. And also…”

The man that was looking at that beast could see a crowd of spirits coiling around it. At most, they were only illusions, but even so, they also represented the beast´s nature. That was something that could be said to be his aura. It couldn´t represent the situation of his twisted mind any better. It was its own insane world that was disgusting just to look at.

“….strong!”

“Jaahahahahah!”(じゃああアああぁァっ！)

The white beast jumped in front of the man. It had its hands at the ground and moved like a four legged beast. It had thrown away all its reason. It would simply do things because it wanted to. And that was a nuisance.

“Surround him.”

With the words of the man, the beast was separated from the soldiers that were as much insane as the beast. The beast wasn´t bothered about that.

The beast and the man were surrounded and the tall shields stood around them as the walls of the circle. The subordinates of the man acted in order to exterminate the mad people outside the encirclement. With that, it was perfect.

“With that, I guess I will be able to examine you to my heart´s content.”

The man blocked the fang of the beast. It wouldn´t be weird that he would have already died if he was at the level of a centurion. For how he was able to parry the attack of the beast only proved how much power he had.

“Grrrr”(ぐるっるうう)

As soon as the beast noticed it wouldn´t be able to win by fighting directly, it took impulse by kicking one of the shields that were surrounding him and took a [higher] position.

“Nu, coming from the skies!?”

People were weak against attacks that came from above. The more one would fight in a certain way, the more one would get used to fighting in that way. For people that were used to fighting at the ground, this was overwhelming and outside expectations. Therefore, it became a weakness. It was the weak spot of warriors.

“Slow.”

The man easily handled the attack. By that, it could be seen that he didn´t have an average  historic of wars. He recognized his weak point and took measures against it. It was possible to react to attacks that had no thoughts put behind them. Because of that, there were no gaps in his defenses.

“Fushyaaa”(ふしゃぁァぁア)

However, the beast wasn´t any weak. No, it was because it had thrown away its weakness that it was a beast. It was because it could throw away its humanity and because it could follow its instincts that it was a beast. Humans had humanity. The instincts knew the weakness of men.

And so, it aimed for the legs. From a stance so low that it would be impossible to stay in that while standing on two feet, it attacked the man at his ankles. Of course, for humans, who stood in two feet, this could only be a weakness.

“You are still slow.”

Sticking his sword onto the ground, the man defended the attack. Seeing that his sword was blocked, the beast threw it away without hesitations. Since it was a beast, it still had its claws that could cut through flesh and fangs that could break bones. Closing upon the man, the beast jumped at him and aimed for his neck, but…

“I already said you are slow!”

The man snached the neck of the beast and hit it at its stomach with all his strength using his free hand.

“Ghaaaahgogeeeaahhh”(ごがぁぁああああぼげぇぇぇえあああ)

The beast staggered as it threw up. Falling down, the white beast writhed in pain on the ground.

“That´s what happens when people fall to the level of beast. You big fool.”

The interest in the eyes of the man was fading away. He was already about to be finished in examining the beast.

“You can find people like that as many as you want on circuses or coliseums. All of them are considerably strong, but in the end, they are nothing but beasts. They will definitely not become true warriors.”

Seeing that the beast didn´t show any signs of listening to his words and kept repeating “It hurts, it hurts”, the man sighed. The one in front of his eyes wasn´t the egg of a warrior. It was simply a beast.

“His Highness will probably become disappointed. Even though I thought I was going to be able to bring some meaning to this farce even if it is only a little.”

All meaning had already been lost. All that remained was the routine of tidying up. He was about to turn his head to his soldiers to order them to start the tidying up, but…

“It´s alright, Al. Nee-san is together with you. Pain, pain, go away. See, it doesn´t hurt anymore, right?”

Hearing that weird tone of voice, the man quickly turned his head to the beast.

“Uuu, it hurtss. I´m scareed.”

“That´s right. That big, strong and [black] sheep… It is very scary, right?”

The man frowned.

“Uuu, it´s scaaryyy.”

The white haired man stood up. The aura from before had completely changed, and while his appearance didn´t change, he had completely regressed to becoming a child. And then, the man saw something he couldn´t believe.

““What, is that? I´ve never seen [something] like that.””

The spectacle that was happening in front of his eyes. The aura that was supposed to represent the white haired young man. In there, the crowd of corpses filled with insanity were squirming around and being formed into a single body in the shape of a skeleton. This was the usual illusion of death that could be seen in that aura, but in the middle of all those corpses, there was a single person. As if she was protecting the young man, and as if she cared for him, the black haired girl gently held him in her arms.

It was something that existed outside of all reason. The man had never felt something like that from someone else before. In the long war experience of the man, and during his whole life, he had never seen such an unreasonable sight.

“It´s alright. Nee-san is together with you. I will protect you.”(TL note: The kanji being used is憑く, which actually means to haunt and possess instead of the one that would be used for saying “together”.)

“Uuu, thank you, Arlette-neesan.”

And then, the young man that was talking to himself once again became a lump of mystery. By himself, the man would use two different tone of voices and would do this little play, making it look like he was talking to someone. No, perhaps the person himself was really thinking he was talking to another person.

“…….”

And then, the body of the young man was engulfed by the crowd of dead bodies. If this was the [usual case], the person would have its ego engulfed and would become completely insane. The man had seen people that ended up becoming like that many times. At the battlefield, at the colosseum, at circuses, at very dangerous places…

“Huhu, isn´t he cute? This child is still not strong. He is still a crybaby; a cowardly and sensitive boy. He won´t sleep if I don´t sing him a lullaby; my cute little treasure.”

The amount of dead bodies increased. The one controlling them was the black haired girl. She embraced the man and protected him like she was his guardian angel that would stay beside him. That girl gently opened her mouth.

“Steal from the thief. Rob from the robber. Kill the murderer. Forgiveness won´t grant you anything; even if you look up at the sky, G.o.d won´t give you anything. That´s why let´s steal. Let´s rob. Let´s kill. My little treasure, kill this mad world that has stolen me away from you♪”

The content of the lyrics was filled with so much despair, hatred and sorrow that one wouldn´t have imagined that by how gentle the lullaby was being sung.

Blood was gushing out from the dead bodies. Tears of blood flowed from the eyes of the girl. The young man also cried.

The ruby beautifully shined in anger in place of the sorrow, despair and hatred. Even in this inexplicable situation, that everlasting shine from the crimson that represented all the young man was would continue to express those feelings.

“Ufufu, such a beautiful red. It is just like this child…. It makes me envious.”

The mood of the black girl changed. The man was paying attention to that scene, and so, he wasn´t able to expect their next move.

He had lowered his guard after being carried by his surprise, and so, while he was distracted, the white haired man jumped at the walls built of shields that surrounded them with all his strength. Without anyone having been able to stop him, he put his hand into the wall of shields and stole a sword out of it. n.o.body at the place was able to hide their surprise at such feat.

“I am still an amateur…. so please take easy on me.”

As if he was dancing, the white haired man cut off heads of two of the people close to him. At that instant, the dead bodies raised a voice of cheer all at the same time. As if they were giving reception to a new comrade, the dead bodies were getting happy at the unhappiness of the death of others. This was the representation of their twisted hearts.

“Because we are two, we are twice as strong. Don´t you think?”

The man narrowed his eyes in discomfort. An aura gushed from the man´s body.

Looking at that, the white man that was being manipulated by the black girl also narrowed his eyes.

“…Hmm, a really big sheep. You are strong, right?”

At the man´s surroundings, there was something that wasn´t mist flooding his surroundings. It was a black sheep that had two horns.

“I am black sheep Kimon. Kimon Von Guntar. Name yourself, monster!”

“Willian Rivius…. This is [our] name. We will engulf everything in the world. We will make it submit to us and take control of the world! We are so thirsty, so hungry that we cannot help!”

[Willain] moved. Swinging the sword he stole, he rushed at the man that named himself Kimon. Inside his body, a red haired youth was singing with a voice full of resentment. It was a chorus of corpses.

In a flash, the sword was about to reach Kimon´s throat…

“Did you think your sword would reach me, woman? My name is Kimon. I am the strongest man of the kingdom of Ostoberg and the right-hand of the supreme general Strakules. Your desire… It is so bland that it won´t even make for a joke!”

The man´s sword; Kimon´s attack had hit [Willian]´s whole body; his body and spirit. [Willian]´s sword broke into two pieces and the aura of dead bodies vanished like mist. All that remained was…

“Ara, as expected, we couldn´t win against him.”

…the black haired girl and the manipulated young man. [Willian] immediately dropped the broken sword and evaded Kimon´s sword. However, they received the force of that diagonal slash and fell down to the ground without having lost their life.

“Then, let´s go with the plan B.”

The place he fell to was where he had dropped his sword before.

“Are you going to face me with that?”

Giving one glance at Willian, Kimon pointed his sword at him. Willian showed a smile, and then…

“If we can´t win, there is no way we would be fighting you, right? We are running away.”

Willian jumped back. Nimbly doing a backflip and making use of its momentum, Willian cut the head of a soldier that was serving as part of the wall. It was a move n.o.body at this place was expecting. Even Kimon didn´t expect that.

“Such bland taste. It won´t do anything even if we eat it, but well… Thank´s for the treat.”

Spinning around like he was dancing, Willian was cutting heads off. He was cutting life as if he was picking up flowers. His gentle smile and the ruby that was vividly shining made a contrast to the tragedy.

“Tch, scatter! Open up a path!”

Even so, Kimon´s orders weren´t able to accomplish anything in this abnormal situation.

“Fufu, here, come here.”

The place was tightly crowded with people. It would have been impossible to do such inhuman movements. However, Willian was moving around as he liked. A proof for that was the bodies that had their life stolen away acc.u.mulating.

“You might be stronger, but because you(plural) are being tied by limits, we will surpa.s.s you. Limits like comrades that won´t catch up with you ever again once you surpa.s.s them… Limits like regulations, laws, ethics…. It´s really stupid.”

Willian was standing at the edge of the wall. The red of blood and of his ruby colored his gentle smile in a bewitching manner.

“That is your dead end. I will now be cutting you down!”

Pushing away his subordinates, Kimon went towards Willian with a face full of anger.

“This kind of common sense is not good. If you keep up with that, this child will soon reach to your level. This child is cowardly and sensitive… But he is diligent, hard-working, and more than anything, he is starving.”

The instant Willian said that, he inclined his back towards the edge of the wall.

“Wha!?”

Willian was in the middle of the air. Under the wall, there was only the ground, and if he hit it, only death would be awaiting him.

“Let´s meet again. And at that time, this child will definitely eat you, and you will become part of us.”

The illusion of dead bodies all became excited. Kimon could also see the dead bodies of his subordinates in that clump of bodies.

“Wait!”

As Kimon stood still in vain, Willian was pulled by gravity and fell from the wall.

“Tch.”

Kimon went to the edge of the wall and looked at the ground. Under the wall, all he could see was the Arcadia army moving around, and he couldn´t see the surface of the ground. It was unknown if Willian was dead or alive.

If he had gone against Kimon, he would have definitely died. But if he was to fall down from there, it was still possible that he wouldn´t die.

“…I guess I don´t know if he is still alive.”

It was a gamble that would put your life on the line. It wasn´t a gamble of fair chances. However, even then, this was the choice with the most chance of survival at that situation. It was the culmination of logic. Without discarding all your emotions, it would be impossible to take on a gamble that risked your life.

“To all troops. This battle is our defeat.”

It was an order he had given with regret. Kimon´s actual job was to have the troops properly evacuated from this battle once they were to lose. The battle was nothing but a farce. Just like Baldias had guessed, this siege at Raconia was nothing more than a farce.

Hearing the order of retreat, the soldiers immediately started to move in order to carry it out.

“…”

While looking at the field down the walls by himself, Kimon was thinking about the opponent he had fought moments ago. This opponent was very different from all people he had faced until now, and so, Kimon was unable to examine him. He had no idea what that man had gone through.

“Sir Kimon. We should soon leave here.”

Kimon´s subordinate called for him. Kimon nodded without saying anything and turned his eyes away from outside of the walls.

“…”

He turned away from the edge and went to leave the place. One step, two steps…

[Let´s meet again.]

A feeling of cold a.s.saulted Kimon. He felt that whispering voice next to his ears from [behind him]. Kimon immediately turned his head back, but there wasn´t anyone there.

“…That´s bad. Perhaps, I might have let an outrageous monster escape.”

Kimon was certain that [Willian] was alive. He wondered in anxiety whether this would influence him, Strakules and Ostoberg in some way.