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CHAPTER 195: AT THE END OF FATE

CHAPTER 195: AT THE END OF FATE

~Bride’s Point of View~

「G-Gulp…… Gah…… Ah……」

My body would slowly shrink down. And at the same time, blood would spill from my slashed open chest.

I was determined never to return to my original state from my Demonic State, but in just a few minutes I was forcibly returned back to my human body…,…

Even though I used the full power of my Cursed Weapon and even used my “Demonic Transformation” ability against my better judgment, I was unable to do any real damage to Aun in the end.

Also, I could barely even move my fingertips anymore.

「You took all of that head-on and you are still breathing? I was really going all-out with that last hit, you know?」

「Lay off, would you…… I know that this was not you going all-out. You still had…… some more energy left to put into that strike……」

「Well, maybe so. But that last blow was undoubtedly the best attack I could pull off the way I am right now.

「Fuuh…… Hmm, I see. Well, this marks my… forty ninth battle…… that I have lost, huh?」

「It has been fourteen years since that day, and you have still been holding on to those results? Talk about dedication……」

When I was still in a party together with Aun, we often had one-on-one fights, calling them “mock battles” or “duels”. But right now I do not even remember why we started doing those in the first place, or who was the one to come up with the idea in the first place. However, we both hated to lose more than anything else in this world, so we could not simply let our rivalry end up on a loss, so we would then fight each other with everything we had many times, over and over again.

In the beginning, I lost a few times in a row to Aun, but then I somehow managed to make a comeback and I was winning more than he would win. Before I even knew it, my win rate was approaching the fifty percent mark, and in the end, I only had one win left to achieve that milestone.

But then I lost to him in the finals of the Ranking Tournament, and my win rate was sitting at the exact fifty percent rate. And in this battle right now…… I guess it was only suiting that at the very end of my life my losing streak was pretty much solidified.

「…… Aun. I was really scared, you know? No matter how hard I would train and how strong I would get, you just kept on getting stronger at a speed that way surpassed mine……」

「……………」

「It is because of that fear that I ended up accepting the proposal from the demon Grampalas, so that I could become stronger than anyone else…… So that I could become stronger than you were.」

「I see……」

My HP right now is…… five points left, huh? And with the “Bleeding” Negative Status still being applied to me, I did not have all that much time left.

It was truly pitiful that I have ended up like this.

But even so, I would never even begin to think thoughts such as: “Where did I go wrong?” or “How did I end up like this?”. I threw away those kinds of thoughts the moment when I left Aun behind to die inside of the Alline Dungeon as a decoy.

Who knows? Maybe if I had chosen to walk through life together with Aun back then, maybe this would not have happened to me. But it was all a part of the path I chose for myself to follow. Regretting it right now at the very end would be nothing but pointless.

「Hey Bride? You know, I do not really hate you or resent you. Not anymore. The reason I really…… I really wished from the bottom of my heart to become stronger was only because of you. There are not that many people out there who can fight nearly as seriously as you can. So am I even grateful for that.」

「Don’t say such disgusting things to me right now…… You won…… You can just laugh at me right in my face until the moment I die.」

「Why do you always have to say such lonely stuff? But you know, oh well…… I guess this is just something that I wanted to say for the sake of my own self-satisfaction.」

「T-That… self-satisfaction is also… the privilege of the… winner.」

Only three Health Points left…… When you feel like you are close to death, you think about all sorts of different things.

I wish I could get revenge on the Demon who deceived and betrayed me like this…… but there’s no way I can do that now. I will just die here and return to nothingness from whence I came.

My ambition was utterly crushed, and I was unable to achieve my goal in the end.

I wonder what happened to the members of the Stormy Overhanging Clouds……? After all, we were in the kind of a relationship where we actively used each other for the sake of our own goals. If you ask me if we had a sense of camaraderie, I honestly wouldn’t know, even now.

But it was true that I did not particularly dislike those guys. Even if it was a mutual vested interest, we had the same goal, and we walked the same path that we had risked our lives on, so I guess I had some affection for them after all.

Considering the situation I have been in up until now, I could tell that they are not in a good situation, either. In the worst case scenario, I can consider the possibility that they are no longer with us.

Well, I don’t really care if I know that or not……

Only one more Health Point left……

I only have a few seconds left to live.

I can no longer even feel the sensation in my fingers, which I had been able to move until just a moment ago. Instead, I feel an unbearable chill overcoming my body.

When you die…… all of the Skills, knowledge, and even your body that you have cultivated up until now…… nothing will remain of it all. When you feel death so close to you like this, the emotion of “fear” starts to take over your brain.

However, I will not abandon my pride.

I would rather die than show my weak side to Aun, the only person I could recognize as a rival.

……But strangely enough, I want to entrust it all to him. The view from the top of the world that I dreamed of.

「Hey. Aun…?」

「What?」

「Don’t you… lose to anyone else…」

「Well, of course I won’t. I’m the man who will become the Strongest in the World.」

「Fuuh…… I will be watching you…… from the Underworld……」

「Yeah, just watch me closely. I won’t let you get bored.」

As soon as I heard those words.

My vision slowly went dark, and my consciousness melted into the deep darkness.――――

=Status=

「Name」 Bride Ishrow

「Race」 Demon

「Status」 Dead

「HP (Health Points)」 0/9900

「MP (Magic Power)」 0/1800