The 「wings」 exclusive to 「sword runners」 are a kind of symbol. Unfurled in a halo of Mana, they show that a swordsman’s power can extend beyond the body to influence the outside world. In other words, possessing 「wings」 does not mean one can use them as organs of flight. Wings are merely a symbol.

But certain warriors living in the northern Iron Kingdom thought otherwise. They bestowed the title 「Valkyrie」 upon their greatest warrior women, and believed that a proper Valkyrie ought to stride through the air and mete out violence as an angel, just as the myths described.

Combat efficiency and technical difficulties did not matter. Barbarian warriors living far from civilization knew nothing of such complicated terms. It all began with the simpleminded notion that a Valkyrie should naturally be able to fly.

Anyone versed in the sword would have called it madness.

Considering the arcane power granted by 「wings」 and the efficiency of using Mana to influence nature, they would have laughed at it as utterly idiotic. But the barbarian warriors did not laugh when, after countless attempts, a Valkyrie succeeded in flying. When one of their Valkyries finally achieved flight, every barbarian warrior in the mountain range gathered to cheer and feast.

Hundreds of years had already passed since that first flight.

Throughout those hundreds of years, every Valkyrie had believed that unfurling her wings should naturally let her fly. After all, the Valkyries of myth soared through the sky as battle angels. Thus, the 「Valkyries」 developed their own unique method of combat. How should they fly? How could they annihilate their enemies effectively? How could they fight magnificently in the skies?

Even if it had begun as a foolish idea, the long years had perfected them. And when fully realized 「Valkyries」 revealed themselves to the world, no one could laugh at them. Instead, people stood in awe, just as the barbarian warriors had at that very first moment.

For to those who saw them, they were no different from the battle angels of myth.

* * *

A 「sword runner」 is granted two weapons.

Once a 「sword runner」 gains wings, they can “accelerate” what they possess. This is the decisive reason they are called runners. Their acceleration goes beyond the superhuman into the transcendent. It allows movement comparable to a mage’s teleportation, and sword strikes that can crush enemies in seconds.

In addition, 「sword runners」 possess an arcane power uniquely their own. Their values, convictions, and lives take shape as a single arcane manifestation. A mysterious power like the 「Gale」 I had consumed, which raised whirlwinds and disrupted flows. A power akin to magic dwells within their blades.

Maia the Valkyrie was also a 「sword runner」. She had invested both of the weapons granted to her entirely in becoming a battle angel like the Valkyries of myth. As a result, the violence she displayed on the battlefield was simplicity itself. No magical, arcane violence dwelled within her blades. Maia the Valkyrie merely soared through the sky, thrusting her sword and spear to kill one soldier with each attack.

But simple did not mean ineffective. Those “simple attacks” alone broke the enemy’s momentum in a single stroke. Truly, a single stroke.

“Arrows! Shoot your arrows!”

“She’s too fast to aim at!”

“Then bind that thing too!”

“We can’t bind her...”

A 「sword runner’s」 acceleration is transcendent. To the soldiers of the conquering army, Maia the Valkyrie now appeared to be several people at once. She existed in countless places simultaneously, taking soldiers’ lives at every moment. To soldiers without Mana, she must have seemed like a judge from legend, a being out of myth. Even to my eyes, Maia’s fighting was extravagantly spectacular.

“She’s far stronger than the knight I fought.”

「Isn’t that obvious? The epithet ‘ghosts of the battlefield’ given to sword runners originally belonged to the Valkyries. When the first Valkyries appeared during the Age of War, everyone was aghast. They said the wrathful gods had sent angels.」

The mounted cavalry were nothing more than easy prey for the flying Valkyrie. Their upward-pointed spears posed no threat. They could not react to a 「sword runner’s」 acceleration. After she slew soldiers in a flash with spear and sword, their spears belatedly turned toward her. But the spearheads pierced only empty air. Once she had killed enough enemies, the Valkyrie flew back to her original position and hovered there. From the cavalry’s perspective, the battle was outrageously unfair.

“The spell! When will the spell be ready?”

“Well... everyone chanting it has been killed.”

A 「sword runner」 can reach anywhere within sight in the blink of an eye. Maia the Valkyrie had targeted the rear ranks chanting spells first. Each beat of her wings left more than ten people dead without a chance to resist. As though a ghost had passed through them.

“How are we supposed to deal with that thing? That thing!”

“That isn’t what matters! With our valuable sorcerers dead, we’ve lost everyone who could raise a barrier. At this rate—”

Moreover, a Valkyrie is a warrior who knows how to win a war. Not some ignorant fool who blindly enjoys fighting, but a supreme warrior woman who sees straight to the heart of matters. Maia had not stepped forward merely to attract attention. She shouted with all her strength.

“Arrows! Fire the flaming arrows again!”

At her words, arrows began pouring down like rain from the walls behind us. Cheers rang out with the beat of drums. Screams erupted everywhere as arrows struck home. The Great Land’s conquering army was falling helplessly beneath the shower of arrows. The tide of battle was turning. It would be foolish to let this opening slip away.

I settled properly into the saddle of the horse Maia had left behind. Taking the reins, I shifted my center of gravity forward. I had never learned to ride. But I knew how. Though I had never been taught, one of the owners of the swords I had digested had been an accomplished horseman.

["A knight must be able to move as one with his horse."]

My old neighbor, Petel.

Having mastered every skill a knight should possess, Petel naturally knew how to ride. Recalling his memories, I entrusted myself to the horse with practiced ease. Amid the chaos wrought by the Valkyrie and the troops on the walls, I rampaged freely. Among soldiers who could not even wield Mana, it was no difficult task for a 「sword walker」 to carve through a melee.

“Don’t panic! First, that... Urk.”

Maia the Valkyrie was even concentrating on killing the officers giving orders. Smash the head, and even a vast force degenerates into a disorganized rabble. With no orders to follow, soldiers stood stupidly in place until stray arrows or blades killed them.

It seemed Han had seized the early advantage.

But...

“Press forward. Do not fear, even if your horses fall and your comrades die. We are warriors of the sun that never sets. The Khan protects us. Advance! Advance!”

The army recreated in this spirit world was no ordinary legion. It was the Great Land’s conquering army, famed as the strongest land force on the continent. This invincible legion, which had never failed a single conquest, would not end here. Never.

Though the most terrifying figure of all, the Khan’s descendant, had not been recreated, that did not mean the figures serving beneath him in the conquering army were absent as well.

“Champions of the grasslands! Did we not pledge to bring down those walls before sunset?!”

The 「Arena」 had set the following victory condition for Han:

Defend the walls for the allotted time.

That meant our side would win simply by holding out. Why would the Arena, which sought fierce duels, offer such a merciful condition? The answer was simple enough.

It was not a merciful condition.

“Take up your reins!”

Because merely holding out would be a “miracle.”

“The sun that never sets! Is with! Us!”

Hoofbeats thundered. Far in the distance, a presence unlike anything before radiated outward. I saw a warhorse clad in red armor. Its speed was bizarrely fast. I could have believed it was a monster rather than an ordinary horse. A warrior of enormous build rode upon it, carrying a gigantic polearm.

And then...

“Ha! At last, some proper warriors!”

A javelin shot like a shaft of light toward Maia as she flew freely through the air. She barely dodged it, but the spears that followed one after another forced her down from the sky to the ground. The warrior throwing them wore blue armor.

The champions of the Great Land.

“Glory to the invincible legion!”

I could feel it just from seeing them at a distance. Their presence was overwhelming. And they were not the last of the enemies we would have to face. Fierce bloodlust emerged from all directions. These were no ordinary soldiers. Their armor and helmets differed from those worn by the Great Land’s conquering army. I saw soldiers in all manner of attire. No, not soldiers. Fighters.

“This is going to be! Tremendous fun!”

Fighters from the eastern continent who must have originally chosen Han.

Masters of the sword, all at least 「sword walkers」, poured forward amid the conquering army. Among them was one fighter whose presence was exceptionally powerful. A fighter wearing a very familiar helmet. Black hair gleaming in the sunlight, and an impassive gaze visible through the gaps in the helmet.

'Seolyun.'

「The Black Bride」.

She had finally revealed herself too.

“Maia.”

“What is it?”

“You should be careful of that fighter in black.”

Maia the Valkyrie was strong. She was a 「sword runner」, had displayed considerable skill, and seemed experienced in battle. Yet for some reason, at this moment, Seolyun’s distant presence was terrifying beyond comparison with Maia’s. Why? I had yet to see Seolyun reveal her sword as a 「sword runner」. The swordsmanship I knew was from her time as a 「sword walker」. And I had certainly won some of our many sparring matches.

Yet...

The aura I felt from Seolyun was ominous to an excessive degree.

“I feel it! Too.”

“Then...”

“Perhaps that’s why! I want to fight her even more!”

Maia seemed to have sensed the same presence. She looked at me and grinned.

“Of course! I won’t have the chance just yet!”

“What do you mean, just yet?”

“We were given something too! To help us hold off that oncoming army! A gift from the Arena’s clowns!”

A gift from the clowns?

As I puzzled over that for a moment, the gates behind us opened. Other fighters rushed out alongside Han’s army. Their faces looked excited. Apparently, Maia’s performance and mine had impressed them. They had grumbled earlier, but they were fighters, after all. Naturally, the heat of battle would have stirred them.

But it was not the fighters’ enthusiasm that caught my attention. My eyes were on Han’s army. More precisely, on the general at its very front, and the objects he was carrying.

Only when I saw them did I recall the Arena’s announcement.

- Those who choose Han will be lent artifacts symbolizing the dragon.

Artifacts symbolizing the dragon.

Just as I remembered that, the general spoke.

“His Majesty has bestowed treasures upon us who bravely fight our enemies. Great objects with which to defend our land. Weapons our ancestors used to protect this small peninsula!”

The general looked first at Maia and me.

“I believe it is only right to give them to you, who were the first to prove your courage. So choose. Choose a weapon with which to stand against those wicked enemies.”

At the same time, a voice rang out in my head.

『Choose a dragon artifact!』