The approaching spearhead was aimed straight at the custom machine's chest.
I instinctively grasped the spear, but my fingers were severed with terrifying ease.
The spear, momentum unbroken, thrust deeper.
The strike pierced the custom machine's torso, followed by a twist.
Destructive force spread, ravaging the interior.
A malfunction triggered an explosion, scattering embedded components.
"Ha!"
The war maiden stepped forward, driving her mana-infused spear upward.
The custom machine's spell formation completely collapsed.
Fires broke out in multiple places, and it ceased functioning, venting thick black smoke.
—And I watched all this from behind the war maiden.
I raised my bone arm, constructing a spell from my fingertips.
Compressing mana to its limit, I converted it into ice and fired it at supersonic speed.
The ice shattered against the war maiden's back.
It pierced through without a shred of resistance, the backlash tearing a deep gash into her shoulder.
"W-What...!?"
The war maiden spun around in shock.
She wrenched the spear free from the custom machine and charged straight at me.
Even with her arm nearly torn off, she launched an attack.
I teleported backward and activated a forbidden incantation.
Ivy surged from the ground and coiled around the Valkyrie.
Flames poured from the vines, yet the Valkyrie severed them.
I drove ice into the gap once more.
The Valkyrie shattered it with her spear.
At this distance, she shouldn't have been able to track that speed—was it pure instinct?
Her responsiveness was extraordinary.
"Ngh..."
The Valkyrie glanced down at her own torso.
There were holes punched through her abdomen and chest.
The marks left by the beam and the ice.
The bleeding had slowed considerably.
There probably wasn't enough blood remaining to flow outside her body.
Her complexion was pale as a corpse's.
She murmured as she gazed at her fallen personal unit.
"How... why..."
"It's nothing complicated. I severed my connection with the golem before the strike landed."
Then I transferred to this location in my true body.
I had indeed been caught off guard, but that didn't necessarily mean I would be defeated.
That was precisely why I used the personal unit—for moments such as these.
Put simply, it served as a decoy.
I feel bad for the lab director who developed that specialized unit, but I've put it to good use.
Thanks to it, I managed to launch a surprise attack on the war maiden.
Still, it's true I was certain that attack would kill her.
Even though I was constantly reminding myself not to let my guard down, I made a careless mistake.
I have to be more careful from now on.
"Kuh...!"
The war maiden groaned in frustration but immediately sprang into action.
Against the powerful thrust of her spear, I parried it with my mana-infused sword.
I then spun the blade, deflecting it further as I slashed down, cutting through her wrist.
The war maiden dropped the spear but instantly snatched it up again with her other hand.
I brought my sword crashing down upon that.
She managed to block, but the impact sent her staggering backward.
Her injured leg seemed unable to brace for the force.
"Surrender. That technique won't work on me anymore."
I advanced slowly, swinging my mana-infused sword.
The war maiden fought back desperately.
However, in the high-speed exchange of blows, I held the advantage.
The war maiden gradually retreated, more and more cuts appearing across her entire body.
At times, the blade pierced through her flesh.
Though somewhat shallow, it even pierced her forehead and heart.
Yet the warrior maiden would not stop.
Even at a disadvantage she never wavered, eyes fixed on victory like a stalking tiger.
I finally grew suspicious and demanded,
"Why won't you die? That should have been a fatal wound."
"..."
The warrior maiden gave no answer.
She continued moving her spear in silence.
I parried each thrust with my magic-infused blade.
Midway, I found an opening and swung at her exposed torso.
Her diagonally sliced body merely seeped a trickle of blood.
The warrior maiden showed a flicker of pain.
But showed no signs of dying.
(Something is definitely wrong here. She's hiding something.)
I examined the warrior maiden through a magical lens,
Straining to miss even the slightest anomaly.
The scrutiny yielded a major revelation.
As my slashes pressed her back, I spoke:
"Are you extracting your soul? Where are you keeping it?"
"...!"
Her eyes flew wide open. She bit down hard, teeth grinding in agony.
It seems I had hit the mark.
A soul—all humans were supposed to possess one.
But the war maiden did not have one.
Instead, it contained only magic power disguised as a soul.
She had likely used a forbidden art to extract her soul and place it elsewhere.
That would prevent her soul's destruction and grant her a pseudo-immortality.
It explained why she could keep moving even with wounds that should be instantly fatal.
"Well, fine. If you lack regeneration, then I simply need to utterly destroy your body."
I pressed my fierce assault against the war maiden.
Through our battle up to this point, I had grasped her abilities.
There was no longer any need for excessive caution.
She was clearly giving her all.
Now, it was just a matter of applying the appropriate counters for each ability.
"Ha!"
"Too slow."
I dodged her spear thrust and countered, severing her knee with a clean strike.
She stumbled and put a hand down to the ground.
From that position, she forcefully swung her spear at me.
I leaped lightly to avoid it, then flashed my magic sword.
The trajectory was meant to decapitate, but her retracted spear deflected the blow.
"I shall... free the souls trapped in that valley!"
The warrior maiden screamed, tears streaming down her face.
Her battered body rose to its feet, and her spear accelerated anew.
She advanced step by step, unleashing killing blows upon me.
But reality is unforgiving.
Every desperate strike failed to reach me.
Though her magic swords were shattered time and again, I defended against them all.
In the midst of this, I counterattacked the warrior maiden.
First, I severed her right arm. Then, I cut through her left leg halfway.
Next, I pierced every joint in her left arm and pinned her remaining right leg to the ground with my blade.
Unable to withdraw her magic sword, she could only kneel in a half-broken posture.
Her face, streaked with blood and tears, glared at me.
It was an expression mixing rage, sorrow, and regret.
I addressed her.
"Do you have anything to say? I will hear your final words."
"I... do not wish to become... the undead," the warrior maiden whispered in a thin voice.
Hearing her answer, I paused for only the briefest moment.
But I quickly recovered myself and nodded.
"Understood. I accept that wish."
From my raised hand erupted a blue flame.
The flame enveloped the Valkyrie, consuming her down to the marrow of her bones.
She vanished without leaving so much as ash behind.
With her physical form utterly destroyed, the soul that must have been stored somewhere would surely collapse before long.
In the case of a Valkyrie, her sense of self existed alongside the body.
A hollow shell of a soul was all the more fragile and fleeting.
There had been no need to go out of my way to expose its location.
"Hm..."
I looked down at my own hand.
From the elbow down, it had begun to melt and crumble.
What burned the Valkyrie was the flame of purification.
I too had once been called a sage, and had fought against all manner of monsters.
Among them were powerful undead.
To stand against them, I had naturally mastered holy magic as well.
Of course, when wielded by an undead being, it resulted in self-destruction like this.
That was why I essentially never used it.
Burning the Valkyrie with the flame of purification was my way of showing respect.
I believed it was a death befitting of her.
Soul extraction was an act accompanied by suffering beyond imagination.
There was even the risk of failure, which could have resulted in death.
Such methods are shunned due to ethical objections.
In common understanding, they bordered on the realm of the undead.
In other words, they belonged to the category of wicked arts.
Despite this, the Valkyrie had extracted her soul.
She had offered herself up solely to destroy me.
There must have been an immense inner conflict.
Her resolve could indeed be called genuine.
It was absolutely not something I could afford to dismiss.
Severing the arm where purification was progressing, I gazed down at the scorched earth.
Not a single trace of her remained.
The hero known as the Valkyrie had been completely erased from the world.
Meanwhile, the bony arm rolling on the ground was dissolving with a sizzling sound.
The sight was unspeakably grotesque.
(—Even I never wanted to become an undead)
In that instant, a wave of self-revulsion washed over me.
Even though I had nothing to offer, a violent nausea gripped me.
I forced myself to think no further.
It was a useless line of thought.
Better to forget it quickly.
I recovered my personal gear and immediately returned to the Royal Capital.