Chapter 148: Last Duel of Selfishness
The family of Carrera is not that big, mostly because his wife is frail and sickly, thus she cannot help Carrera find buck for their two kids, a boy, and a girl, even right now, if not for the fact that she is determined to escape not only for herself but for her children, she would have already given out and became a deadweight to her husband.
"Hu... husband... how far... huff... huff... do we still hafe to... run..."
Asked Athena, her breath already on the verge of being cut short due to nervousness and dread as she saw a sun being hurled down by Urduja, of course, she knew how powerful Urduja is with books and such, however, witnessing it firsthand and learning it through a description are two different things.
It was like a slap in her face. Oh, how lucky Gjallarhorn is to have her as its protector, and how unlucky their nation is that the person who vowed to shield it from harm is pointing her blade at the kingdom she once loved.
Yet, despite all of that, she tried her best to keep up with Carrera who was carrying their two children, the children clang on him, their faces full of confusion and worry.
"Just a little bit more darling, we took a long time because we couldn't take the main road as it was clogged by soldiers that are fighting, so we had to circle around the bay."
Unlike his wife, Carrera's breathing is as stable as a rock, though a hint of worry can be heard in his usually steadfast tone, this made his boy child, Crispin, ask in apparent concern.
"Pa... papa, why are we running from home? And... and... why did it become morning for a moment and became night again?"
The child held the cheek of his father as if to make his attention fully into his question, this gave Carrera a newfound energy as he and his wife ran faster.
"Do you remember your history lessons?"
Crispin silently nodded, still looking at the opposite direction, in hopes of seeing the whole world turn bright as day once more, maybe such boldness is inherent to males, or perhaps, he aspired to be as powerful as the one who made such a thing possible, it was hard to tell.
"Do you remember the part wherein it is said: 'The sun descended as she raised her hand and exploded as it reach our lands'? That is what exactly happened just now... and we are running away from home exactly because the one who did that, Lady Urduja has officially set her sights to Gjallarhorn."
While Carrera is answering, he has a pained expression, of course, he will be pained, after all, even though Heimdall, and ultimately Gjallarhorn holds a lot of not-so-pleasant memories, it was still his homeland, and it makes him feel weak that he cannot even hope to shield it from its invader. Such an attitude is the reason why he is chosen as the last of the bloodline of Gjallarhorn, according to the law of the first king, the only ones worthy of preserving the bloodlines of the royal family in time of imminent annihilation are those who hold the country dearly and did not escape it until they were ordered by their king.
And alas, of the numerous illegitimate children of the previous king, he is the only one who choose to stay, thus he is the only one not officially vanquished by the royal family.
As they continued to near their destination, it was time for his daughter, Ibarra, to ask a question.
"Is it really her? Why is she doing that? The teacher said that Lady Urduja loves Gjallarhorn and swears to protect it for all eternity... are they... are they lying?"
As he heard this, Carrera stopped running, in front of him were the knights promised by the king's spy, they were piled in a mountain of corpses, blood dripping from different parts of their bodies, some even had missing limbs, or worse, missing heads that are scattered everywhere.
On top of the corpses is a teenage-looking girl who has a lot of eyes and a man with chains sprouting out of his limbs, at the foot of the "mountain" there is also a woman, she is normal looking, except the unusual light of determination present in her eyes.
"Rather than them lying... they just don't understand the position of Lady Urduja... Don't look forward."
Carrera whispered to his children, making them curious, but their upbringing made them obedient, they closed their eyes tightly.
Unfortunately, his wife, Athena is an adult, so she has reached a proper decision capacity, thus she was not able to hear the order of his husband, her eyes directly fell into the sight of the corpse, causing all of the matter she ate in the past few days to rush up her throat and eventually, out of her mouth.
She vomited relentlessly.
"You four are not going anywhere."
Said the woman at the foot of the mountain of corpses, and as she said that, the two figures at the top, Momoiro and Warden descended down the corpse mountain the three of them just created, Carrera glared at them, but he did not draw his sword, for he felt several wisps of wind appear in front of him, the trio in front of them did not even flinch as they saw two assassins grab his children by his hands and run off immediately and another one for his wife, that also disappeared into the horizon.
Carrera is in relief because they have the crest of Gjallarhorn, he knew that they were in good hands. Surely, he did not notice something strange, Carrera looked at Myra, he didn't know much about this woman, he just knew her name, someone normal who was fancied by Urduja, yet that someone normal was in a fencer's suit, her sword pointed at Carrera as she positioned herself sideways to reduce her hitbox.
Carrera, still not noticing anything strange about himself or the assassins, unsheathed his sword strapped at his back and held it with both hands.
"I'm sorry... please give me the honor to have my last duel with you."
The voice of Myra was as if it was trailing off, yet her face was still asquint, full of determination, Carrera clenched his sword tighter, after all, he knew the reputation of Urduja, and in no way a family of the Hero of the Sun weak, and alas, he was right to be wary.
"Ready when you are."
Carrera said, and Myra nodded as she raised her foot, Carrera squinted his eyes in intense focus, yet he was still shocked, for the moment Myra's foot landed on the ground, the lady disappeared from his sight.
"Wha-"
Such were the words Carrera managed to stammer as he saw a rapier inches away in the middle of his forehead, he immediately swung his blade sidewards, successfully deflecting the rapier, but only after the rapier cleaved a huge patch of hair in his left forelocks.
_What was that!? Isn't that Hebi Tsukaiza's [Pierce Heaven 'till it Breaks]!?_
Carrera is a well-educated man who is, at one point trained to become a general, thus he is educated with military history and some secret files, one of such files is the hero's catalog of the military, it contains what little the normal militants knew about the heroes, and in one such entry is the technique of Hebi Tsukaiza, [Pierce Heaven 'till it Breaks], it is a technique that uses all the muscles in the body and infuses them with mana and a lot of precision to stab an opponent as fast as possible.
_But that technique is doable only for Hebi Tsukaiza for no other of her race or the Vampires are recorded to use it... could it be that Lady Urduja created a watered-down version?_
And alas, that is what happened, Urduja eliminated the muscle aspect of the swordsmanship technique and focused on mana, a small amount of it, and pinpoint precision, thus the secret of one of the world's strongest races was replicated by humans. Such thoughts happened in a split second, the moment the two metal clanged the first time, second, the third, the fourth and many many more metallic sounds resounded, announcing the start of a duel not as flashy as the battle of calamities, but sure as hell more beautiful them.
The two sword masters stabbed, pierced, and swiped their swords against each other, it was as if they were doing an intricate dance rather than a duel with the winner being the living one, the fighting spirit of Carrera, who is supposed to be already extinguished due to the death of his mother had reignited as he and his opponent shuttled through the forest.
As a genius, he has the advantage of having two separate offensive and defensive sword techniques, but the fact that the woman in front of him was able to contend with him with only one style is a statement of how hardworking she is, she might have practiced the way of the rapier day in and day out, soon, cuts and bruises from close calls started to appear from both parties' body, yet they did not slow down the two sped up even more.
Carrera, who is gritting his teeth cannot help but smile a little, he never felt such an exhilarating battle before.
_Ah... at this rate, I'll be too late to save my family... if only they take me away...!?_
As Carrera was relishing the moment of rare pleasure in fighting, he suddenly realized an abnormality in the actions of the assassins.
WHY DID THEY NOT DRAG HIM OUT IF HE WAS THE PATRIARCH OF THE NEW ROYAL BLOODLINE!?
_Shit, they might have been controlled by Momoiro!_
Carrera stopped enjoying the battle, and with one strong slash to the side, he caused Myra to be flung away into a nearby tree, he then dashed to the direction where his children were dragged, the assassins dispersed at that moment, thus he hurried, and pray that his wife and children are not yet dead, however, he has underestimated his opponent even though Myra has already shown him a masterclass of speed and precision, for he felt a sharp pain in his shoulder stemming from his back, his focus was momentarily disrupted, however, for he knew that the only reason his heart was missed is that Myra never chased an enemy down.
And alas, clearly, he still heard.
"You are not going anywhere, Sir Carrera."
_________
In the depths of the forest route undertaken by the Carrera family, four people are circling three bodies, they have a small stab in their neck, that cost Athena, Crispin, and Ibarra their lives, besides them are corpses of people in black, however, the corpses of Carrera's family are the only ones treated with basic human respect.
Yes, Carrera who has been subtly controlled by Momoiro to enjoy the fight more than he cared about his family for a little while is already too late even if he ran at full speed now, Warden, Momoiro, and their two siblings, trained to be the commander of the black ops of the Queendom of Urduja, of course, can go back in the fighting sight of Carrera and Myra, yet they did not.
They looked at the corpses of the three people in front of them, however, their minds were in the same, different place.
_Let Myra die the way she wants._
Such were the orders of the second queen of Urduja, Aoi Dodomeki and one of their numerous mothers, they normally wouldn't question it, even Momoiro who doesn't want to see Myra dead doesn't have a choice but to help her commit suicide, yet still, she alongside her brothers are defiant, the 4 of them are very close to Myra, and thus they are skeptical on letting her kill herself.
"Can't we really interfere in their fight? By now I'm sure that Carrera already realized that Older Sister Momoiro has controlled the assassins of Gjallarhorn to drag his family away and kill them, while he was controlled to forget for a moment that Older Sister can control a limited number of people."
The two elder siblings of the teenager-turn-assassins looked at the two of them, and they also had the same thought, unfortunately, in the normal chain of command, refusing to abide by the order will cause severe punishment, and their second mom Aoi's punishment is usually acting like a chicken in the middle of the street or confessing their love to a cow, they do not want to experience them again.
"No. You two are more trained than us to abide by the orders with a blindfold without hesitation, you should already know the consequences of disobedience."
The two assassins grimaced, whilst their elder siblings sighed, besides the cruel punishment of Aoi, they were also helpless in the way Myra wanted to end her life.
To be able of some help to Urduja, one last time.