Chapter 533: A Requiem For You, Part 2
Author's Preface
Elites going all-in with their gauges, Dom Pérignon & French Fries
vs
A silent majority monster, a singing, dancing Honnoji Incident
It's got that Godzilla vs Destoroyah kind of excitement.
"The will to fight was lost along with his blood. It was not just his flesh that was whittled away, but his fighting spirit... Even the flame burning in his heart was about to go out."
I don't know how Dordona lived, how he fought, or how he kicked the bucket. But I do know what that man, whose face I don't even know, accomplished at the very end... I know that much. And the only ones who know it are me and that Goldunine.
"But, my friends, a warrior has always been accompanied by his weapon. This means that the weapon has always stood by the warrior's side... Look at your other halves!! The weapons you believe in, the weapons you entrust your lives to! As long as their bodies do not shatter, they will continue to fight! Isn't that right, my friends!!"
Both Pencilgon and Deep Slaughter share a bizarre similarity in the fact that they "push toward the climax with a momentum that doesn't allow for rebuttals". If so, then let's follow that theory too.
"It has no words, but its brilliance spoke to Dordona more eloquently than a thousand words ever could!!"
The Giants turn their gazes toward their own weapons. Leaving a gap of one breath... I immediately strike. Low, quiet, but clear enough so that there's absolutely no mistaking it.
"───Are you giving up?"
Clack. The sheathed Areadbhair strikes the floor with an unusually resonant sound. As if thinking Areadbhair had spoken rather than me, everyone's gaze focuses on it.
"Are you giving up, Dordona, the one who wields me? If you yield, then I too shall sheathe my blade; such is the nature of a weapon... However."
Thud! I strike the floor harder than before.
"Areadbhair is not broken. I can still fight! Even if my flames do not work! I can still fight. Answer me, Dordona, can you fight no longer? Answer me, Dordona! Grasp me, and rise!!"
With a clean sound, the drawn pitch-black blade reveals its flames. Since I threw in all sorts of stuff when I reforged it, it's probably completely different from the Areadbhair of that time, but it bears the name of Areadbhair, and that fact alone grants absolute credibility to my words.
"Dordona stood up, a hand swatting away the beckoning temptation of death... Grasping Areadbhair! Oh, remember him, my friends! A hero who shook off death, and charged toward death!!"
"Ooh........."
"Four serpents assail Dordona! The blood dripping from his rusted flesh, his final fever, his red life! Burns away the rust!!"
Sit down, sit down, you're bothering the other customers.
"Knowing full well that his blade could no longer reach Goldunine's main body, Dordona knew! Victory and glory are not always the same. Defeat... yet, there is a shining salvation! To accomplish a great deed even in death... that is what people call pride!!"
Why am I even doing this passionate bardic roleplay in the first place? Whatever, it's pretty fun, and I can't stop now!!
"Running legs, increasing in power with every step upon the earth. Clenched hands, strong enough to overpower the slickness of blood and sweat! Glaring eyes, like spears!!"
"Ooh, Dordona!"
"Hero of the Giants!!"
"Wielder of spears and swords!"
"Burn, soul! Using flesh and blood as fuel, for just one single strike!!"
Humans! When they get hyped up, they lose all sense of restraint!!
I thrust the drawn Areadbhair into the floor with all my might!!
"And so, Dordona's final strike plunged deeply, deeply into the back of one of the Dragon Serpents... Though it could not burn it away, the scorching blade bit into the serpent's flesh... So deeply that no matter how many times it shed its skin, it would never come loose."
"Farewell, Areadbhair; farewell, Dordona. Without a word, the sword pierced; without a word, the hero fell..."
"Phew..." I let out a long breath. As if blowing out a candle, conveying the intention that this story has come to an end.
"───And time flowed to the present. Presumptuous as it may be, a single little human challenged Goldunine, and though many years had passed and it had rusted away, he drew the sword that continued to fulfill its duty... its promise as a hero's weapon......... Thank you for your kind attention. Also, sorry for putting a hole in the floor."
In the painfully quiet "Embassy," I pull Areadbhair—which, reading the room, was melting the floor rather than burning it—and sheathe it.
Click. As if the sound of Areadbhair's blade being completely sheathed was a switch...
"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
It's no exaggeration to say that the massive cheers from the Giants, who have a lung capacity several times larger than an average woman, shook the building violently.
"...Kyuu."
"E-Emul!!"
The Giants are hyped up at such a high volume that all the strength leaves Emul's body, even though she's a Vorpal Bunny. Some roar with their weapons raised, while others cry waterfalls... Because of the sheer scale of it, my level of being creeped out is multiplied by several times as well.
"Ugu, fugu, vuuuuvuuuuvuuuu........."
"No, no, no... don't cry like that..."
"Vuuuuvuuuuaaaaaah........."
Fione-san, , who is essentially a little girl at heart, has her whole face scrunched up, and it's not just her; grown-ass Giant men have their beards coated in snot, so to put it mildly, it's a picture of hell.
"Ah... should we try another day?"
"No... No, it is fine. Sunraku of the Areadbhair... Thank you for conveying Dordona's final moments."
Well, it's 90% dramatized, and my personal opinion is that the theory where he got blown away by one of the Dragon Serpents and accidentally stabbed a random one that got caught in the crossfire is the most plausible... But no, I dare not say it.
Are there even things like "glorious defeats"? The anti-romance faction inside me should just go to sleep in my heart. You play games because you want to see things you can't see in real life; what's the point of playing the realist?
Dirnadia, who perhaps looked like she had wipe marks around her eyes, closed them for a moment before turning her gaze to me.
"You believed that pretty easily, huh?"
"That is because our Odin Clan has deep ties to Dordona, and there was a reason related to that."
"Huh?"
Staring intently at me... no, wait, she's looking at me, but she isn't. She's looking at the scarf wrapped around my neck, which is to say, the fainted Emul?
"The tale of Dordona. A journey with comrades whose flesh and blood differ, but whose souls are bound by ties... The comrades Dordona hunted dragons with..."
───The brave Giant Dordona
───The bold Dwarf Chidan
───The wise Beastman Lerilo
"And... the traveling Vorpal Bunny."
"!!"
───Vysache
"The 'Promise with the Traveling Rabbit' passed down among the Giants... Sunraku of the Areadbhair, who leads a rabbit connected to the White Ash bloodline... Now it is your turn to listen to the three promises Dordona heard and the Odin Clan has spun..."
Seriously, an event related to the Vorpal Epic right here? No, but this is a stroke of luck... The Vorpal Epic has way too few hints; even up to now, it practically felt like it was just linking up with the progress of other Unique Scenarios.
"...Alright, let's hear what you have to say. But..."
"Umu......... It seems it is a little too damp in here to talk, isn't it?"
Wait, actually...
What did I even come here for in the first place?
Author's Afterword
In truth, he wanted to meet him himself, but his awakening is still far off.........
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