Campione! - Volume 21 - Chapter 5.3

Part 3
「Soar o Vimana! We are commencing the war to overthrow Ravana!」

「Ka ka ka ka ka ka ka ka! Blood and soul ought to be burned to exhaustion in the battlefield. As usual, King Rama is a man with pointlessly good manners!」

In order to oppose the enemy’s huge size, Rama called the soaring war chariot.

The rakshasa raja Ravana was laughing ‘ka ka’ loudly. It was really boisterous because his ten demonic faces and mouths were all laughing.

Rama was finally aiming his iron arrow toward that bitter enemy.

The divine arrow became a mass of flame and flew. Ravana deflected it with a large shield that corresponded to his giant body. The arrow immediately exploded fiercely, but the shield and the ten-headed and twenty-armed great evil god weren’t even shaken──.

It was truly a grand battle of demon king versus hero.

In contrast, the “duel” of Godou and Verethragna was silent.

「It’s strange to say something like this but」

Godou spoke.

「You look healthy huh.」

「Fufufufu. It’s all thanks to you.」

The invincible war god Verethragna smiled with the nostalgic young boy face.

Godou was lured by that and he also smiled.

「How can it is thanks to me?」

「It’s a simple reasoning. Without your battle with the Bearer of Fate, I also wouldn’t be called here. In that case, my second advent is thanks to you.」

「So it’s like that.」

This time Godou smiled wryly. Verethragna kept smiling.

Come to think of it──Godou recalled the encounter and travel of one year ago.

He saw it several times during that travel. How this young boy showed an archaic smile that was like smoke with his slender almond eyes narrowed even further.

Though Godou mostly never saw it again after he sunk into the madness of heretic god.

……Godou glanced at his side.

The chief of Amazons and his protector knight, war god Lancelot.

Her whole body was still turned into stone from Athena’s evil eye. Different from Godou and Rama, the subordinate god Lancelot didn’t seem like she would recover.

It couldn’t be helped. Godou gave up the female knight.

He made Lancelot’s stone statue to vanish. The protector knight returned into a spiritual body.

「So it’s one on one, boy.」

「The last time was also like that.」

Verethragna smiled. Kusanagi Godou stared at him.

God and godslayer. The killed and the killer. A miraculous reunion──.

「As the one who holds all victory in my hand, I am the strongest.」

The one who chanted was Verethragna.

「Man and devil, all enemies, all who harbor enmity will be vanquished. I shall smash through all enemies in my way. By the divine protection of Mithra and the skills with which I wield spell words, may justice of the world manifest.」

The words of power that Godou too had chanted many times until now.

The spell words of victory that he usurped from war god Verethragna. However right now, the one who chanted this spell once more was its original owner.

The youthful god who controlled ten incarnations grinned fearlessly.

「Word is power. Spell word is light. Therefore, o light, o spell words, become mine sword……」

A long golden sword manifested in Verethragna’s right hand.

The blade was thick, heavy, and straight. The boorish make was accompanied by golden light. The tip of this blade──Verethragna pointed it at Godou.

「O my foe, my enemy of opposite fate. Now we shall fight.」

「It’s me who killed you huh……」

Godou sighed.

The spell words of Sword, several thousand light spheres were still waiting behind him.

However, everything was blade for the sake of cutting apart the god of fate. It wouldn’t be effective against war god Veerthragna. Godou faced the darkness sphere that was still manifested overhead and his partner and he sent his thought. ‘Come back’.

「……You came.」

Ama no Murakumo no Tsurugi appeared in Godou’s right hand. The darkness star vanished from the territory of god of fate.

However, the jet black giant sphere that controlled the super gravity still hadn’t vanished. The secret law of the Black Blade, all of its strength was now residing inside Ama no Murakumo no Tsurugi.

Golden sword and black blade. The two swordsmen confronted each other──.

「Here I come, Kusanagi Godou!」

「Yeah. I accept your challenge!」

Verethragna swung down the golden sword from the front.

Godou also struck Ama no Murakumo no Tsurugi toward that sword.

*GA──KIiiiiiiiiNN!* Fellow mystique metals collided with each other and a high pitched sound was produced, the two swordsmen began a sword locking contest right away.

*GI-. GI-. GI-. GI-. GI-. GI-. GI-.*

The golden sword and the divine sword creaked.

The war god Verethragna exerted a herculean strength that was unimaginable coming from that slender body. Godou too used the second incarnation Bull to oppose it.

Both sides were wielding great strength that could shake the mountain and continued the sword locking contest──but.

「Fufuh」

Verethragna suddenly smiled.

With that archaic smile that was like smoke.

「Boy. You only swing your sword with mere brute strength without any tricks. Aren’t you too complacent even though you are facing the god of victory?」

「You said that but you yourself are just using brute strength.」

Godou glared at the youthful god with the two swords between them.

「You’re okay not using your prided incarnations here?」

「Fufufufu」

Verethragna continued to smile even now, after that, his expression suddenly turned serious and he casted his gaze down. Furthermore even his golden sword──was lowered.

Godou also lowered Ama no Murakumo no Tsurugi and stabbed it into the vast fabric that was like ground.

「It’s lackadaisical of you to lower your sword by yourself, boy.」

「You are talking as you please without looking at the mirror huh.」

「Hmph. It’s fine for me. After all as a proud god of war, I behave──in order to not cross a line that I absolutely won’t concede.」

Verethragna asserted with a face that vaguely looked like a mischievous rascal.

……It was similar with the face that he saw a year ago, at the seashore of Sardinia Island. Godou and the youngsters of the island who met him by chance began to play beach soccer together.

And then, the small god of war sent a sharp gaze toward beyond the empty space.

「Let me be frank, o Bearer of Fate. 『I don’t wish for this kind of rematch』. Something like crossing swords with my destined foe in the like of an arena that you prepared──」

Verethragna’s voice resounded through the territory of fate bellowingly.

「Preposterous.」

Gallant words of power filled the space.

The war god of the east spoke further while Godou was watching him attentively.

「I won’t recognize the intervention of anyone toward my rematch with him. Know that even without the manipulation of the like of fate, Verethragna will challenge Kusanagi Godou once more! Without fail!」

Verethragna wielded his golden sword once more.

He cut apart the space before his eyes crosswise. Godou immediately understood. Verethragna didn’t cut empty air. The valorous war god of the east──severed a string.

The string of the god of fate, that led him here.

Yes. The sword that Verethragna created just now was the same like Godou’s Sword.

A weapon for the sake of cutting the god of fate and their divine power──.

「Farewell, Kusanagi Godou. I shall meet you again one day.」

A breeze blew together with those words. The figure of the youth vanished.

In exchange, a golden sword was stabbing before his eyes. Similar like Godou, the sword was piercing above the ground that was the fabric of fate.

「So the real revenge will be at that time huh……」

Was this also thanks to the favorable fate that existed between him and Verethragna? Or perhaps, was this a parting exactly because the opposite fate was taken to the extreme?

The likes of Godou couldn’t understand it, and it didn’t matter which it was anyway.

There was only one thing that he ought to accomplish here.

「……Got to use anything that can be used.」

Godou murmured and grasped the hilt of the golden sword.

The sword that war god Verethragna left behind. Was it a parting gift? Or else, was it a provocation『Can you use this well?』. Anyway was fine. He was thankful no matter which it was.

Godou turned his gaze toward the far beyond.

The White Star showered countless lightning toward the gigantic Rakshasa Raja Ravana.

Furthermore, Rama was also firing arrows continuously from the flying war chariot.

Godou Swung the golden sword toward there. He had the confidence that he could cut even from this distance. The thing that called the ancient India’s Rakshasa Raja──the string.

The giant god Ravana disappeared with a terrifying suddenness.

「You go too, Ama no Murakumo.」

A golden sword in the right hand. His left hand pulled out Ama no Murakumo no Tsurugi.

The light spheres that had been waiting all this time behind him, the spell words of Sword that Godou created were called into the black divine sword of Japan, and they were unified──.

The blade of Ama no Murakumo no Tsurugi that was shining jet black was transformed into golden with this.

「You saved me there Kusanagi Godou! My gratitude for your assistance!」

「You came Rama. Let’s settle this soon.」

Godou called out at the hero who was driving Vimana.

Rama quickly jumped down to Godou’s side, 「Yosh!」 then he swung down the Divine Sword of Salvation. Toward the fabric of fate that was spreading endlessly.

Matching that action, the White Star was also falling down from the sky.

In order to pierce, and crash all the lightning energy toward the Fabric of Fate──the vast land of this territory.

*GOGOGOGOGOGO!*

The sky trembled, the fabric where Godou and Rama were standing on was also rumbling fiercely.

「This thing too together!」

Godou stabbed the fabric with the golden sword of Verethragna and the golden Ama no Murakumo no Tsurugi together. With this all the spell words for the sake of cutting apart fate, and the power of gravity storm were unleashed altogether.

The rumbling of the sky and the ground was becoming increasingly fiercer. In that moment.

「ｕ――ｌｉｌｌｌｌｌｙｉｉｉｉｉｉｉｉｉｉｉｉｉｉｉｉｉ！」

A naked girl came flying while yelling the song of battle.

The lovely and troublesome great enemy, the Bearer of Fate. The girl was holding a large scythe with long handle in her hands. She wasn’t planning to sever the string of fate, but Godou and Rama.

In order to meet this attack, Rama prepared his iron bow and arrow of light.

He intended to shoot his former guardian. However, Godou immediately spoke.

「Don’t get involved anymore! I’ll face her!」

It wasn’t because of belligerence or ambition.

Godou yelled for the sake of his new 『friend』. Rama was taken aback and lowered his bow. It was fine like that. There was something──that had to be obtained no matter what!

「For victory, hasten forth before me. O stallion that moveth godlike with wondrous grace, bringest forth the halo of thy master!」

Godou chanted the words of power of light and righteousness.

──Fate sometimes was merciless and also unjust. The requirement to use the White Horse, that the target had to be a great sinner who troubled the mass was fulfilled without any problem at all──.

The territory of the god of fate, the sun suddenly rose from the end of the horizon.

It was the arrival of the brilliant sunrise.

Flare with scorching heat was fired from the sun that was called by Verethragna’s authority.

It wasn’t just a mere flame. It was a flame explosion in the scale of the universe.

The endless territory of god of fate was thoroughly filled with the world-destroying conflagration of judgment. The fabric that was the manifestation of the concept of fate was annihilated in vain inside the flame.

–

The destruction of a world was starting.

It was the proof that Kusanagi Godou and the hero Ramachandra obtained victory.