Kuro no Maou

A diagonal slash on her back, the moment fresh blood touched the edge of blade, this big hatchet shivered in delight.

The abominable scream which I had been suppressing with blackening, broke the suppression and echoed within my mind.

Mixed within that scream,

(The last blood is filled, I too and you too have hurt people important to us with our own hands)

I, indeed heard those words.

Before I could understand the meaning behind those words, fragmentary images rise in my mind.

The hills and plains illuminated by the moonlight.

Countless corpses of knights lying down.

Knight in red armor standing in front of eyes.

The beloved person lying by her own feet.

The blade of hatchet smeared with the blood of that guy.

They were the memories of girl who swung this hatchet, no, it might be the memories upholded by this hatchet itself after becoming a cursed object.

The information mixed with noise, the situation of that time couldn’t be understood precisely by me.

But, there was no doubt, that the hatchet in her hand gained more power upon cutting her beloved person.

「I see, so this was the condition for evolution」

Apparently, the expectations of Fiona were slightly different.

It wouldn’t have evolved upon cutting just any girl.

It got the sufficient power to evolve only because of Fiona, who had fought with me till now.

Gaining power by hurting the comrades sure is a cruel condition――but, the power gained from that was great.

「......With this, I can cut that guy into pieces」

The blade had gotten bigger if compared『Cursed Grudge Hatchet「HaraRetsu」』, the blade had already entered the realm of dual-handed sword.

It was black from tip of sword till pommel before, but currently it changed into a more ominous design with crimson lights in the shape of blood vessels which are pulsating.

Upon inserting the black magical power from the hilt, those red lines pulsate, a more greater dark-red aura rose, and it seemed like the hatchet was clad in fire.

This was the last evolved form, the true form of cursed hatchet which had the twisted love feelings of girl who had destroyed a whole village for a single man. The name of hatchet was『Absolute Grudge Hatchet「Kubidan」』

「Leave the end to me, and rest」

I sprinkled the『Fairies’ Miracle Drug』, which Lily made at the time of restarting the adventurer livelihood within Spada, on the back on lying-down Fiona.

I used up the small bag amount of it completely, and heal the gruesome injury which shouldn’t be on a beautiful girl.

「Yes......please......」

While lying down, in a more sleepy manner, with eyes looking intoxicated, Fiona muttered weakly.

I take off my unreliable apprentice mage robe, wrap Fiona into it, and let her lie down.

「Yeah, then I will be going」

I shoulder the big hatchet, which I couldn’t feel weight of and seemed like it had perfectly unified with my hand, then step forward.

That guy had already captured Lily and was trying to break the oracle field and Lily too with his both hands.

Reaching my ears were, the heartbreaking screams of Lily and howl of monster laughing evilly.

To the feeling of rage rising up in my heart,『Absolute Grudge Hatchet「Kubidan」』gleefully responds――Cut, cut into pieces fast, murder the enemy, kill all.

While maintaining my consciousness to the point I didn’t get possessed by curse, I brandished the blade and shouted.

「Let go of Lily!!!」

.

.

.

The blade finally was able to cut the fur of Wrath-Pun.

It struck the left arm, seeing Kurono attacking in rage, it quickly let go of Lily, and dodged, thanks to that it didn’t suffer a serious wound.

「Are you alright, Lily?」

Kurono kept on staring at Wrath-Pun, but stood in front of Lily as though he were protecting her, and took a stance with the evolved-big-hatchet.

「I’m fine......it hurts, but because you have come, it’s all fine now」

Because he was showing his back, Kurono didn’t realize the ecstatic and charming stare of Lily.

「I’m sorry, I used up all the miracle drug on fiona, so there is no more left」

Kurono clearly saw that Lily’s upper left wing was halfway torn.

「No, it’s fine, I will use my reserved one. But, I won’t be able to fly for a while, and――」

Kurono understood that she couldn’t maintain her true form now.

Kurono felt dazzling light flickering behind his back.

「No problem, I will take care of the rest, you rest with fiona over there, let me show my cool side now」

To the lines of Kurono which more than half changed into joke,

「Yeah, Kurono good luck!」

Encouragement in childish tone came back.

「Here I go――」

As though Kurono has his back pushed by those words, Kurono kicked off vigorously.

At the tip of his direction was the giant body of the red monster.

It glared at Kurono with even more rage-filled eyes, that might because of the injury on its left arm or maybe because his toy got away from him.

Either way, Wrath-Pun had no intention of letting the three returning back alive.

However, the same goes for Kurono.

Both of them shoot the deadly bloodlust at each other.

As though to oppose Kurono, who was approaching while brandishing the hatchet, Wrath-Pun launched its attacks first.

At that moment, Kurono swung down the hatchet.

Though the blade had gotten bigger, but there was still a distance of ten-odd metres, it couldn’t reach the Wrath-Pun, at least that how it should have been,

「――Akanagi (Red Calm (at sea))」

But the blade of『Absolute Grudge Hatchet「Kubidan」』reached.

The things which cut the body of Wrath-Pun was, the crimson blade formed from blood which were released from the pulsating black blade.

The new martial skill he learned by the evolution『Akanagi』, created new blade using the blood it had sucked till now, and extended the blade at the time of slashing. It was a long-distance martial skill.

The blade left a crimson track of the same hue as that big body in air, and a severed slashing attack visited upon the body of Wrath-Pun.

Blood gushed out from the tip of the shoulder of Wrath-Pun, however, it only faltered for an instant, so it didn’t suffer critical hit and continued its assault at Kurono in anger.

The distance between the two was covered in the time it takes for blinking the eyes once, all because of the speed of Wrath-Pun.

But, Kurono grasped those movements with his eyes, if he couldn’t then, he would have been smashed by the fist before even lasting one minute after the fighting started.

「Haaaa!!」

When the distance between the two reached zero, the point-blank range war time started.

Kurono unleashed the ominous slash of『Absolute Grudge Hatchet「Kubidan」』.

Wrath-Pun unleashed a ferocious blow covered in crimson flames.

The numerous slashes left several red tacks on the body of the opponent.

The blow held the power to smash the frail body of human in paste, but it wasn’t able to catch Kurono, who was quickly and cleverly moving around.

After evading the large-tree like arm which passed by his side, slight composure appeared on Kurono’s face.

That was maybe because he has finally found the blade to kill the opponent, no, in fact, the reason was even more simple.

「Bastard, you’re movements got dull」

Unintentionally, that murmur leaks out.

But, that was the answer.

The movements of Wrath-Pun were slightly slower if compared to when the fight started.

Apparently, the numerous attacks they had given it, affected the Wrath-Pun by reducing its stamina.

It wasn’t that Wrath-Pun took on the attacks of the three because of its high defensive power, but it just couldn’t help but take on the attacks because of the coordination attacks of the three.

Even so, it was standing on the dominating side due to the steel-like defense, to the extent that it might have won.

However, the problem of slight decline in stamina it had been ignoring till now, had become an issue now.

「Sorry to break it for you, but I have lot of confidence in my stamina」

Compared to Wrath-Pun, Kurono’s movements were not dull even a bit.

Kurono, who could work without eating or sleeping for a week, would not be less on stamina in fight for at least an hour unless he had used large quantity of magical power.

Kurono brandished the sword near the feet of Wrath-Pun, he showed the movements as though the fight had just started.

Looking from the side, it wouldn’t seem like they both had different speeds, but, Kurono was certainly slightly faster than Wrath-Pun.

And, the blade in Kurono’s hand which could cut the prideful defense of Wrath-Pun would become the main factor for the outcome of battle.

「Kuronagi――」

He used the martial skill he was familiar to, and with every slash he unleashed, the blood sprayed in air.

The monster who was accustomed to fight due to instincts, evaded the strikes which could prove fatal by a paper-thin margin.

However, with every cut, the damage was only accumulating.

Like that, the fight finally neared the end.

「Double Kuronagi――」

The moment he crossed the inseam of Wrath-Pun, Kurono unleashed two consecutive Kuronagi’s on the monster’s legs.

Unleashing two consecutive Kuronagi was simple thing, but it could be said that it revealed the power of the evolved form in a straightforward manner.

The two jet-black attacks, cut the flesh of monster the most deep than any attack since the start of battle, to the extent that it lost the standing stance due to having the legs cut.

Having the big red body lying in front, Kurono raised the hatchet overhead in an overbearing manner and was preparing for the next attack.

Kurono was sure that, it was the last attack which would end this battle.

In front of Kurono, the head of Wrath-Pun was falling, the hatchet was waiting like the blade of a guillotine waiting for the execution. [ET: Fyi, the body is currently in process of falling... :P]

「――Yaminagi (Darkness Calm)」

Compared to the time he used Kuronagi, an even more dark aura wrapped the blade.

Kurono felt that his black magical energy was being absorbed by the hatchet at a tremendous pace.

The red light across the blade pulsates even more fiercely while releasing more suspicious bright light, maybe it was happy because the magical power of Kurono was tasty and it was about to behead one strong existence any time later.

And『Yaminagi』was the most greatest and strongest martial skill of『Absolute Grudge Hatchet「Kubidan」』

It was enhanced for the amount of magical power it sucked, and a wonderful powerful slash was unleashed.

Just like its name said, to sever the head of the enemy.

[ET: Kubidan is made up of 首(kubi)=neck,head and 断(dan)=decision,resolution. While sever/cut/behead is 断つ(tatsu), see the first character of this word is same as decision. So use your mind what the name means. Furthermore, 断(dan) can only be read as dan and only mean what I mentioned above. So I had no choice but to write the names as Kubidan]

「Ku!」

It cut the most resistant, iron like red fur, rip the bulky muscles, sever the bones, however, it wasn’t able to sever the life too.

GuuGaaAAAAaaaaAAAaaaaAAAaa!!

It was the second howl loud howl of Wrath-Pun, but this time it wasn’t fiendish, rather it was the scream due to unbearable pain.

Wrath-Pun writhed violently, its right arm, the symbol of its strongest offensive ability was gone.

「I missed, eh......」

Kurono exhaled a breath while muttering that. Beside him, the red right arm was lying down like a fallen tree.

The perfect timing Kurono unleashed the『Yaminagi』for a one-shot kill, Wrath-Pun protected its head with the left hand, maybe because of survival instinct.

It was really fast that Kurono didn’t even see it, by the time he realized, the『Absolute Grudge Hatchet「Kubidan」』was already hitting the upper arm.

The left arm which was the most thick and hard, beautifully got cut by the hatchet, however, chopping off a single arm wouldn’t lead Wrath-Pun to its death fast, neither it would lead to instant-death.

Not to mention, if it was a monster with high life force.

Fast, I have to deal the last blow――

Kurono tried to attack again, but this time Wrath-Pun was faster.

「Whoa!?」

Wrath-Pun stood up quickly, struck its hand in the ground, shovel out the earth with its might and threw it at Kurono.

That attack was the most pitiable one, but it certainly stopped Kurono.

Having land and sand flying at him violently, Kurono formed the Shield and took evasive actions by jumping horizontally.

On the other hand, Wrath-Pun showed its back and ran at its full speed.

「Ah――」

By the time he thought that it was already too late, that large red body merged in the thick forest of Galahad Mountain Range, to be more precise it escaped in the forest the moment Kurono said「Ah」

「I-It ran away......wtf......」

The things left were, the three members of『Element Master』having wounds all over the body and the right arm[ of Wrath-Pun.

The silence returned within the surroundings, Kurono ,who was still standing still in the vacant land with fresh signs of fierce fights, couldn’t help but feel emptiness due to this silence.

At the same time, the『Torch』used by the two who ran away also lost its effect, now not only silence, but also the darkness of night returned.

In that darkness,

「Damnnnnnn itttttt!! Fucccccckkkkkk youuuuuuu!!」

Kurono couldn’t do anything other than shouting while crying.

[ET: Our author has now learnt how to not be an ass always, but he will be a sadist. Maybe later someone else dies ohohohoho. Anyway, great anti-climatic ending for a fight in this novel]