Gates of Penance-Chapter 23: Bodies hitting the floor

’He’s doing better than I thought.’

Nacht had emerged from an entrance that was at the opposite side of the arena from where he was originally.

The first thing he noticed was the state of the arena. Dead bodies littered the floor staining the arena red with the scent of death. The shard in the centre glimmered with an ominous blood red light that reflected the moon in the sky. The star that hung below the moon but towered over the arena like a miniature sun was blazing brighter than it ever had before. It truly looked like the setting to a horror story.

However, Nacht didn’t give the scenery much attention. After all, it paled in comparison to the battle that was currently taking place in front of him.

Alister seemed to finally be reaching his limit. His face was pale and he was missing an arm. Even so, he still kept that wicked grin on his face. Despite being injured, the battle was severely one sided.

Alister had just finished beheading a sinner, indirectly killing another in the process as four more sinners closed in on him. It didn’t take him long to critically injure another before they had to forcibly retreat.

Nacht wondered why Alister always had to draw so much attention to himself. Couldn’t he win easily by hiding what he could do until the very end? Instead he showed how capable he was, allowing the sinners to identify him as the biggest threat and team up against him.

After observing the battle for a few short moments, Nacht noticed something strange.

’They’re not using their runes.’

This was extremely odd since Nacht could see how desperate the sinners were getting. It could just be that none of them had a rune that was useful in combat, but he didn’t think that was the case. They had all teamed up against one man, no doubt because Alister had been such a force on the battlefield, leaving them with no other choice but to team up despite knowing that they would eventually have to kill each other.

It wasn’t until Alister spun around to block a crushing blow that he realized the truth.

’That guy... how did he get such a powerful rune!’

It wasn’t that the sinners weren’t using their runes abilities, it was that they couldn’t!

Alister had activated his rune which somehow prevented the other sinners from activating their own runes. It seems that his rune had more to it than just simply making underhanded deals. However, this greatly confused Nacht.

’Shouldn’t a sinner’s rune only have one ability?’

Nacht was pretty sure that enlightened sinners were only capable of having a single primary ability. The only thing he could think of was that the ability Alister had used on him was the same one he had used on the other sinners, but that didn’t seem right. Nevertheless, Nacht didn’t have time to ponder on Alister’s unique rune. He had to prepare himself for what was to come.

They were the only ones left in the arena. All of the other sinners were either dead or turned into hollow husks. The last pair standing would be the winners of the crucible, and in a few short moments, the victor would be decided.

Nacht would have preferred to see the ending from the sidelines but alas he didn’t have a choice.

He strained his body to move and tumbled down into the arena, narrowly avoiding the flames that burst forward from behind him. A ring of fire now surrounded the entire arena as the heat rose to unbearable levels.

The crucible was slowly becoming undone.

Nacht quickly got up from the ground only to stumble as the arena shook and trembled.

After regaining his balance, he scrambled to bring up his saber as he blocked a strike that nearly took his head off.

Although Nacht hadn’t known it at the time, when he entered the arena all the attention had been directed at him. The sinners must have been wondering why there were only an odd number of enlightened in the arena. In fact, they were desperately searching for him since that seemed to be the only way to take down the red haired freak.

Now that they had found him, one of the sinners had made their way over to kill him.

However, that was easier said than done.

After blocking the attack, Nacht lowered his centre of gravity and leaned forward while thrusting his saber, aiming to impale the sinner with his sword.

The sinner, having realized the danger, retreated and barely managed to avoid his saber from taking his life. Fresh blood touched the arena’s floor.

Nacht smiled faintly.

’This is much better. Without their runes they can’t easily kill me.’

The gap between him and the enlightened sinners was now almost negligible. An enlightened without the ability to utilize their rune was only mildly stronger than a sinner who had no rune. On top of that, they were severely worn out from their previous battles to make it to this point.

He probably would still lose in a fair one on one fight, but fights are never fair nor are they predictable.

Nevertheless, he wouldn’t go down without a fight.

As he and the other sinner crossed blades once more, he saw that Alister was slowly beginning to finish up his fight. However, the abnormally strong sinner seemed to barely be holding on. He was wielding his blade with one arm, since his other arm had been crippled. He had cuts strewn across his body, some even dangerously deep. Nacht had even managed to see one particularly grievous wound be delivered to him amidst the chaos of his battle. Particularly, when he had almost impaled the sinner he was currently fighting, which gave him the chance to glance in Alister’s direction as he retreated.

’He won’t last much longer.’

Having focused on Alister’s worn out state for slightly too long, he noticed the flash of metal that was barreling towards him a little too late.

Fresh blood stained the arena as Nacht ordered his body to move. His ribs screamed from both the wound that tore open his side and having to twist his body to avoid another blow.

’At this rate, I won’t last long either.’

If Alister didn’t hurry then he would have to do something fast.

The ringing of metal absorbed the arena for a few short moments. With each clamour and shockwave that was sent through his blade, he was getting more and more desperate.

As the battle raged on, Nacht was getting slower and making more mistakes. He was running out of breath and it was getting harder for him to move his body. Because of this he began racking up a large amount of wounds. The only thing that was keeping him going was the adrenaline that staved off the pain that littered his body.

’Screw this!’

Nacht momentarily slowed, allowing the sinner to move closer and prepare to attack. The man thrusted his tachi forward with a speed that narrowly caught Nacht off guard. Even so, he had been hoping for this.

He dodged the strike and used the sinner’s momentum against him to guide him right where he wanted him. The sinner—having realized this— began to bring up his guard to block whatever counterattack Nacht had in store. However, Nacht was nowhere to be found. He had already made his way towards Alister.

While Nacht was fighting he had caught glimpses of Alister’s fight and noticed that he was mainly focusing on one sinner in particular. Unlike the other two sinners Alister was fighting, this lone sinner was passively fighting Alister while gazeing at the other two sinners warily. It was obvious that he was tethered to the sinner that Nacht had just escaped from. It was also the sinner Alister seemed to desperately want to kill the most.

Nacht finally arrived which caused a sinner to turn his head. They immediately tried darting for him, not noticing Alister’s blade which was about to sever his spine.

It only took a second.

A scream rang through the air and with that, only four sinners were left in the crucible.

Alister collapsed to his knees while the other two sinners regrouped.

They were each breathing heavily while sizing each other up.

Then something happened. The red light that beamed from Alister’s back suddenly dimmed.

Nacht’s eyes widened.

’That can’t be good.’

The two sinners grinned.

In the next moment, one of the two sinners activated their rune and they both charged towards them. However, they weren’t the only ones with renewed vitality. Alister had already made it to his feet. No longer having to strain himself to sustain his rune, he gave the two sinners a sinister smile.

"I’ll enjoy killing you."

Clang!

Chaos ensued under the blinding light of the miniature star and the red glow of the blood moon.

Nacht was managing well enough against the onslaught of his opponent and Alister was already delivering devastating blows against the sinner whose rune allowed her momentary moments of flight. All Nacht had to do was stall and then the two sinners would fall to Alister’s blade.

’Just a little more.’

Nacht wielded his saber with both precision and efficiency. The numerous trials he went through in the crucible had allowed him to advance both his fighting and swordsmanship skills to a satisfactory level. This was surprising since his time in the crucible and wielding a sword was limited. To anyone, if he survived penance then he truly would grow to become a talented and promising enlightened, one that would be very useful to humanity. However, this only made what happened next even more surprising.

Nacht, having blocked another strike, suddenly lost balance and stumbled right into the middle of Alister’s fight with the other sinner. Alister’s eyes widened in both shock and confusion. Nevertheless, he didn’t have time to gawk at his blunder.

Nacht looked up and saw the sinner’s long sword heading straight for his neck. Nacht’s hand shook as he desperately brought up and thrusted his saber.

He closed his eyes.

Nacht couldn’t hear much besides his own heart that felt like it was beating in his head, but he could have sworn that time was moving in slow motion. Every second felt like an hour knowing that at any moment he could slump over dead.

He nervously opened his eyes.

The sinner’s body hit the floor and a shout echoed across the arena.

Another body hit the floor.

Then in the next moment, the last body hit the floor.