Chapter 17: Crimson Fate

"Look, I know you were probably looking for me, but can we just pretend we never ran into each other and go our separate ways?" Nerez asked, scratching his head.

"If you already know I was looking for you, why even ask?" the newcomer shot back, pointing her lance at him.

"Because hope is the last thing you lose..."

Nerez let out a tired sigh, tightening his grip on the black book at his side.

"I already told you. You're the reason I still can't ascend. This conflict is inevitable."

"What do I have to do with you? And for that matter, with everyone else trying to come after me..."

"The others are just chasing glory. They think making a name for themselves might still give them a chance to ascend... tch, what a bunch of fools," the girl replied, looking toward where the battlefield had been. "Or rather, they were... You're powerful. I'll give you that."

I just throw skeletons at people...

"But my case is different. You and I are candidates for the same domain in this new world."

"I'd heard that already... Couldn't I just hand it over to you, by any chance? The library, death, whatever it is? I'd be perfectly happy as the god of sitting around and doing nothing."

"That's not how this works, and it's not what I want either!" the redhead shouted, shaking her lance. "I want a fair duel!"

"Ugh... Why are all you immortals so difficult?"

"I'm me, Cerys. Don't lump me in with the rest. I'll become a goddess and prove everyone in my village wrong."

The girl took her long lance in both hands and settled into a stance that made her look ready to spring at him at any moment.

"Your name was Nereziel, if I remember correctly. Prepare yourself."

"Nerez is enough... But there are villages of demigods? Seeing Aren and Vilkie, I thought they lived in their clans' domains alongside the gods..."

"I was a fire spirit before I became a demigoddess. My home lies deep inside the volca- Wait! That's none of your business!"

"Mm? Wasn't that Odrian guy the son of a god of fire...? Does that have anything to do with your duel with him?"

"I already said that's none of your business!"

"Boo! If the people in your village said you were aggressive, let me tell you, they had a point."

"Silence! Nerez, bring out your Eidolon already!"

Nerez let out a sigh and opened the heavy Book of Death in his left hand. Then he raised his right arm, palm up.

Soon the ground trembled, and countless skeletons armed and clad in rusted metal began to rise all around him.

"Honestly, I'm already getting tired of being dragged into this kind of situation," Nerez muttered, his eyes fixed on his opponent. "At this rate, I'm going to have to find whatever the Divine Order actually is and have a few words with it."

"I didn't come here to listen to your complaints," Cerys snapped, tightening her grip on the lance. "I came here to take your head!"

Cerys shot forward at tremendous speed, but her path was already filling with skeletons, while Nerez himself disappeared deeper into the skeletal horde (with visible distaste at having to do so).

She had barely taken a few steps before twenty skeletons were already closing in around her, but they were effortlessly decapitated by Cerys, who used the bladed head of her lance as though it were a sword.

The dead army reacted at once, and a rain of arrows came down on her.

Cerys did not flinch. Even as she spun, she whirled her lance at superhuman speed, knocking away every last arrow.

Without slowing down, the girl with blood-red twintails lunged at the next group of skeletons.

This time she did not even bother aiming for the gaps in their armor. As if she wanted to make it clear she had been able to do it all along, every swing of her lance split entire groups of them in two.

Those earlier precise cuts, aimed at the spine through the gap between helmet and chestplate, had been nothing but showing off.

To stop the demigoddess's advance, a regiment of skeletons locked their shields together, forming a wall. But Cerys used it as a platform, vaulting into the air to locate Nerez in the distance.

Dodging spears and arrows midair, she landed on a pair of skeletons, used them as footholds, and launched herself at him, crushing them in the process.

Using skeletal soldiers as stepping stones, Cerys hurled herself forward at such force that they shattered beneath each push, closing in on her target at great speed.

Nerez flicked a hand. At once, another wall of skeletons rose in front of her, piled atop one another with rusted spears leveled her way.

She did not hesitate for even an instant. Hurling her own lance like a javelin, she slammed it into the wall of skeletons, tearing through countless of them and sweeping several more away with the pressure of the wind alone.

Without missing a beat, Cerys reached the mound of shattered skeletons her attack had created and, after recovering her lance, leapt and drove it into the ground.

" Inferno. "

At her words, the eyes of the skull at the base of her lance's blade glowed red, and the ground began to split from the point where the weapon had been planted.

Another tremor shook the battlefield, but this time it came from Cerys. The earth cracked open, and fire and magma surged up from the depths.

The skeletons that did not fall into the abyss were consumed by what rose out of it, and the path to Nerez was left wide open.

"Is that really allowed?" Nerez muttered, unable to make sense of what he had just seen.

But Cerys gave him no time to react. Before the skeletons could close ranks again, she crossed the distance between them in the blink of an eye.

However, before she could reach him, two skeletons that had not yet been summoned rose from the burning ground and barred her path.

"Out of my way!" With a single sweep of her lance, she sent them flying.

But that brief delay was all he needed.

"Just how many battles do you think I've been through?"

Nerez appeared right in front of her.

Now she was the one with no time to react... Now? No, maybe driving her into this exact situation had been his plan from the very beginning.

"Unfortunately, mortals, no less than gods, are bound to war. I've learned that in every one of my lives."

Cerys heard his words as a thin line of blood slipped from the corner of her mouth.

A rusted sword, one of the skeletons' own weapons, had been driven into her abdomen, now wielded by Nerez himself.

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