Chapter 8: The Armor
A graze.
The enemy's sharp blade finds the gap in the shield.
‘Impossible.’
Jane couldn't believe it.
To her, Roan's defense was an absolute wall.
Because she had experienced it firsthand, she had been even more certain it wouldn't be broken through.
And yet now, that very defense was wavering dangerously.
"What are you doing! Idiot!"
She gripped the rune stone tight.
To intervene in the situation.
But—
"No! You don't need to help!"
Roan stopped Jane from doing so.
‘…What? Why? Wasn't finding companions the point, so we could do things like this together?’
Yet the moment real danger arrived, he was pushing her to step back.
"Since when do I listen to you? Even if you say no, I'll do it! An armor like that—burn the inside and it'll go down on its own—"
"No! I really am fine! It's just that! I was slow to pull myself together!"
Pull himself together from what?
As if answering the question she asked inwardly, Roan readjusted his grip on the shield.
―Clang! Clang clang clang…! Clang!
Sword strikes pouring down like a beast's mauling sent sparks flying.
A relentless barrage without a moment's pause.
One breath out of place and the speed would take his head.
But Roan's shield, his mind now collected, held firm.
"Phew."
Calm breathing.
―Boom!
Having deflected the final blow off his shield, Roan twisted his wrist.
The sword's pommel came down hard on Lowell's wrist.
"Ngh…!"
A short grunt.
A faltering in his movement.
Seizing that gap, Roan swung the broad-faced shield and battered his opponent.
Crack!
Crunch!!
Innate strength.
With the sound of iron armor groaning, Lowell's body was driven straight back.
―KABOOM!!
An impact powerful enough to shatter a great tree.
His armor shuddered and began to radiate energy.
But beyond that point, there was no further counterattack.
"Ugh…"
Because Roan's foot was pressing down on his chest.
"What…"
Jane was watching them both without even breathing.
Dozens of exchanges carried out in under a few minutes.
‘Is this insane…? How is he tracking all of that?’
A fight only those who carry a sword can have…
‘No, that's something only Del Roan could do. Lowell over there was just taking it all with his body.’
A completely different dimension.
As Jane had that thought—
The temporary stillness was broken by Lowell.
"Hah… hah… just as I thought."
A low, ragged breath from within the iron armor.
The gleam in his eyes still hadn't faded.
"You're the same as the rest."
A voice that sounded like metal being scraped. As though he hadn't eaten in a long time.
"You covet this armor. But it's mine. The one that gave strength to me when I had nowhere to go… it is mine…!"
His grip tightened.
The black armor, as if responding to that, extended its energy.
"I will never let it be taken. Even if you cut off my limbs…!"
"I'm not cutting them off."
"What…?"
In that instant, Lowell's twisted obsession found nowhere to go.
"And I'm not taking your armor either."
Words spoken with quiet calm.
The moisture laced through his voice seemed to deepen the appeal.
As if he finally couldn't hold back any longer, Roan cried out toward him.
"Cedric Lowell! You haven't changed a bit!"
And he sobbed.
Just as he had when he saw Jane.
Lowell's distrust and solitude—no different from the image in his memory.
It seemed to have kept striking at Roan's heart the whole time.
"What is this all of a sudden…! Sobbing while standing on someone's chest!"
Swish! Swish!
Lowell's blade flashed toward his ankle.
But all of it cut through empty air—
Roan deflected every attack even while weeping.
The scene of a solitary wolf being subdued.
Having confirmed the situation was over, Jane walked up beside him.
"Ah, perfect timing. Jane. Could you take a look at this armor for a moment?"
"At what?"
"Whether you sense any malicious energy from it."
Roan's reasoning was sound.
An ego armor that could become a seed of annihilation.
Jane, with her deep knowledge of magic, would be capable enough to sense that.
Jane looked at it for a moment, then shrugged.
"Nothing in particular."
"Is that so? Good."
"Wh… what are you trying to do."
Lowell's voice trembled under the gaze of the 2 looking down at him.
Roan smiled at him.
"Manners installation."
***
—W-wait! Don't take it off!
***
—You insane bastard…! You were after my armor all along!!
***
—W-wait! Stop….
—Jane, press down on that side.
—Ugh, damn… try having his build. He's been starving and he's still skinny, but the strength is insane.
After a brief struggle, Roan stripped off the armor.
What had been hiding inside that black, intense armor was a far more frail body than expected.
"Mmmgh…"
"Now that it's off, he's gone quiet again."
Jane gave his body a light poke.
Like a sensitive plant, the spot she touched curled slowly inward.
The moment the armor was removed, Lowell had shrunk into himself completely.
"Jane, can you watch over him on your own?"
"What do you take me for. I'll tie him with the same mana chains I used on you, so don't worry."
"Good. Then I'll leave Lowell with you for a bit."
"…Where are you going?"
"Nowhere? I'll be doing it here—it's just that I might not be able to keep an eye on you two."
"You said manners installation—what is—"
Mid-conversation, Jane, who had been fastening the mana chains, startled and stopped.
The demon's armor that until just now had been forcing this scrawny body to move.
He had wrapped it around his own body without a moment's hesitation.
"What! You came here to find equipment for yourself!? The companion talk was all a lie!"
"That's… how the world works… you got fooled."
Lowell's bitter murmur.
But Jane, for all her verbal jabs, wasn't actually thinking that.
Because the tears from just now were proof enough.
Roan, now wearing the armor, began a rough explanation.
"Simply put, continuing to use this equipment will be dangerous. It absorbs strength and brings death to its user."
That was terrifying.
It was the opposite of what he had personally felt from it, but he didn't bother saying that.
‘I hate to admit it… but he's not wrong.’
"That said, I also don't want to take away this armor that gives Lowell strength. You were at your absolute best when you were flying around with this armor on."
"What are you talking about…! I'm meeting you for the first time today. Why are you speaking as though you're some old friend?"
"Because you're a companion."
"Ha! A companion? All my companions have already melted away in the bellies of monsters. Are you trying to insult me?"
Putting up far sharper thorns than Jane.
That very liveliness struck Roan as so painfully familiar that he ended up weeping again.
And at that moment—
"Oh?"
Crack crack, Roan's hand began rising on its own.
"Ngh… are you trying to change owners…!"
Lowell ground his teeth and glared at the black armor.
And Jane immediately shook her head.
"No, it's resisting."
"…It's resisting?"
"Yes. The armor is resisting. An enormous amount of energy is erupting inside."
A mage's eyes were precise.
Because a desperate battle was being waged inside the armor.
The ego armor trying to move the body, and Roan resisting it.
A fight with not an inch of give on either side continued—
"Hup!"
Clang!!
Roan slammed down hard on the armor's raised wrist section.
A pause.
For a moment the armor seemed to give up resisting—but rather than being subdued, it seemed to be provoked, and it began to push back even more violently.
"Ngh!"
The first time anyone had heard his voice in pain.
Then blood began seeping through the gaps of the armor.
Spikes had shot out from inside and plunged into Roan's body.
‘Good grief.’
Jane was startled.
More startled than worried.
‘So that guy has red blood running through him too.’
She had only ever seen him in transcendent moments, so she had half-expected blue blood or transparent blood.
Apparently not.
"You… mage."
Watching the scene unfold, Lowell called out to Jane.
"What?"
"Aren't you… worried? Your companion is getting hurt like that."
"Not particularly."
Jane shook her head.
"That guy is a monster."
And she stated it plainly.
Lowell's gaze naturally drifted back to Roan.
Stab. Stab.
Being pierced multiple times, and yet his expression didn't change even once.
"See. He's fine."
"Ugh, damn. That hurts like hell. Seriously."
He said that, but he didn't really seem to be in serious pain.
Though his facial muscles did twitch slightly.
"Tch, the next companion—I'll need to find that friend."
Roan muttered as if recalling something.
But even so, he didn't remove the armor.
And then, at the end of that futile struggle, it seemed the armor was the first to tire.
"Ah, it's a bit better now."
Roan, dripping blood.
However much he said he was fine, the stinging was clearly unavoidable—he was frowning ever so slightly.
"Better, he says… there's something far more intense than that physical resistance."
At Lowell's murmur, Jane tightened the mana chains further.
"Ngh…!"
"What do you mean. There's still more?"
"It's not that there's still more—it's that that is the real resistance. The spikes never came out for me. If the armor tries something… next it will definitely target the mind. I was tormented by it for that very reason."
Lowell added the explanation.
That it shows the most terrible memories again.
That it manifests like hallucinations and aggravates trauma.
That in his case, fallen knights of the order had appeared and repeatedly cursed, condemned, and blamed him.
"…In that case."
Jane looked at Roan.
The companions and the past he had spoken of one after another.
She couldn't understand it herself, but it was clear he carried a past filled with considerable regret.
If that armor were to touch the most vulnerable part of Roan's mind—
"Then I'll just burn the armor along with whatever it shows. It's still too useful to lose."
With Jane's words as the last thing, the armor began to act.
Afterimages surfaced hazily before him, one by one.
Powerful wings and solid scales.
Something digging the earth with arms larger than mountains.
Those who sang of death beneath a red moon.
Something whose very identity could not be guessed.
The armor, which had been giving its absolute best to construct a scene of annihilation—
"…Hm?"
—fell silent.
Before a human who had returned from annihilation itself, its presence was infinitely small.