Chapter 55: Got her!
Just as expected, he felt no fear at all. As Eiros rose back to life, he looked down at his own hands. He wasn’t trembling, his expression was completely calm, as if he’d just gone through the most ordinary thing in the world.
The pain was there, but it felt dull, nowhere near enough to make him scream in terror.
That was, admittedly, dangerous. But if it stopped at just this much, at least Eiros understood he was still within a manageable threshold.
I mean, he was fairly confident he could still keep himself in check, at least for now.
He let out a long sigh—it would’ve been better if there weren’t any eyes on him right now. Because in that moment, he honestly would’ve killed himself over and over, just to get used to dying entirely.
For now, sticking to what he’d told Estiel, he only had one chance to die and come back in front of an audience.
"Uhm... you okay?"
Eiros heard a soft, familiar voice across from him. He blinked and turned, finding Erness crouched down not far away. Her fingers scratched across the dirt, drawing something that looked like... a stick figure?
Ignoring that, Eiros just let out a small laugh and looked at Erness.
"I think so...?"
"Then let’s keep going."
Erness smiled cheerfully, as if nothing had ever happened. She stood up, stepping back a bit, and Eiros forced an awkward smile onto his face, reluctantly getting to his feet and manifesting his stigmata.
"This time I’ll actually fight back and slow down how fast I need to teleport. That way, you should be able to catch me, right? I mean, hug me, hehe."
"How would I know."
If Erness was really about to show off her actual combat ability, that was worth paying close attention to, enough that Eiros started feeling genuinely fired up again.
He steadied his body for a moment. After death, a few of his wounds had healed up on their own, but his Soul Essence remained exactly the same, completely unchanged.
He drew his sword and looked at Erness. Right then, Eiros’s body trembled slightly, his smile going stiff.
That was because he watched Erness’s body gradually shift into something he recognized. Parts of her skin were covered in white serpent scales, while her fingers grew a pair of long, razor-sharp claws.
Even though Eiros was currently having a hard time feeling fear, to the point where he’d even found the nerve to just let himself die, the fact remained that certain trauma wasn’t so easy to shake off.
He stared at Erness’s claws.
’...That’s exactly what she used to stab my throat.’
He swallowed hard and looked back into Erness’s eyes.
"So, are you ready, darling?"
Eiros was about to answer, but Erness had already vanished from her spot. She reappeared right beside him, her face carrying a smile that looked utterly deranged, brimming with a certain kind of madness.
Eiros flinched slightly, his body tensing, but he quickly moved, reacting by taking a few steps back.
Erness’s fighting style was incredibly aggressive. Right then, Erness vanished again. Sure, her teleportation speed seemed to have dropped, but the difficulty was still terrifying.
Claw—!
Eiros ducked his head, feeling a gust of wind sweep past his hair. He lifted his head, and Erness had vanished again, only to reappear behind him moments later.
"....!"
Eiros clicked his tongue, using his sword to block the attack. The scraping sound of Erness’s claws rang out for a moment, then stopped. Eiros couldn’t react in time as Erness spun her body, raising her leg to kick straight at him.
’Whoa, damn it.’
Bam—!
He managed to block the kick with his arm, but the impact was nothing to laugh at. He got knocked back several steps, his expression twisting as he looked at Erness.
The smile on her face made it painfully clear just how much she was enjoying this.
"Sooorryyy~ did that hurt? My deepest apologies, daaarling."
She laughed, though the apology itself sounded absurd the moment she vanished again and came right back at Eiros, full of enthusiasm.
Stuck in that disadvantageous position, all Eiros could do was defend himself and strike back whenever a small opening appeared, though it barely made any difference at all.
The ground beneath them kept stirring up dust from their rapid movements. For the first time, Eiros felt like he was truly in the middle of an overwhelming, dizzying fight.
Unlike facing Crimson, someone he’d genuinely had no chance of beating, or Rein, who’d already run dry on Essence.
He was now up against Erness, and this fight was clearly not going to wrap up anywhere near that quickly.
Those sharp claws he kept seeing, Erness’s utterly unpredictable movements, and Eiros himself had to admit—she might well be one of the strongest people in the entire Academy, wielding power like this.
To fight her, he needed to think incredibly hard, and that was exactly what made this battle feel different from anything before.
The air across from him turned cold. That was the telltale sign of Erness’s arrival. Eiros’s pupils darted toward the spot, but he immediately drew his sword and spun his body, slashing backward.
Erness appeared right there.
"Waah....!"
Caught off guard by Eiros’s sudden strike. With her teleportation limited, she genuinely couldn’t dodge this time.
’Got her!’
Eiros felt his heart pound with a rush of excitement, convinced he’d finally succeeded. But suddenly, Erness gave a small smile, and—
"Huh...?!"
Eiros’s pupils widened. His sword, the one in his hand, vanished as if swallowed whole by something, and he froze, unable to react. Then, the very next instant, a small explosion went off somewhere across from him.
He glanced over briefly and found his sword had been flung far away, sticking straight into a rock formation.
’What just... hap—’
He was about to wonder, but—
"Darling, you really shouldn’t let your guard down, you know?"
His body froze solid. Erness was standing right in front of him, her claws already shooting toward that all-too-familiar spot—his neck. That made Eiros act rashly, taking a few steps back.
The roar of the waterfall spilling nearby felt incredibly close. Because, essentially, he was standing right at the edge of the river.
’Ah, damn it.’
That was exactly what left Eiros cornered when Erness closed the distance again, appearing right in front of him. The smile on his face froze; he wanted to re-manifest his sword, but there wouldn’t be enough time.
Watching those claws about to pierce straight through him, Eiros’s mind went blank for a moment. For a few seconds, time seemed to slow down between him and those claws.
Eiros’s eyes barely blinked as a sudden thought crossed his mind.
’Right, all I need is to land just one touch to be satisfied, not to actually beat her.’
Along with that thought, he felt the claws tear through his body, piercing straight into his heart, blood spilling out. Eiros choked, feeling blood rush up his throat, and coughed it out.
Fresh blood immediately seeped out between Erness’s fingers and along her arm. The unimaginable pain was, at least, held back somewhat by his ability, but the cold that always came the moment someone drew near death couldn’t be erased at all.
Eiros glanced up at Erness’s face.
A cheerful smile, wide and utterly ecstatic, she acted as though this were something not even worth a second thought.
At the same time, Eiros thought—
’What the hell... aren’t I supposed to be her boyfriend? This is downright cruel.’
His lips twitched, feeling death draw closer. But he forced himself to hold on, holding his breath for as long as he could, clinging to his fading consciousness.
He raised both hands, and without hesitation, wrapped his arms around Erness’s body, pulling her into an embrace.
"Ah?"
Erness let out a strange sound, clearly caught off guard. But Eiros didn’t care—he took a few steps back and let himself fall.
The river, rushing violently below, stretched out right behind them.
***