The spearhead closed in, aimed straight for the dedicated machine’s chest.
I moved to seize the blade, but my fingers were severed with terrifying ease. The spear didn’t lose a shred of momentum as it drove home. The thrust caught the machine’s torso, followed by a sharp, secondary twist. The resulting destructive force rippled outward, ravaging the golem’s internal structure. A chain of malfunctions triggered an explosion, sending mechanical components scattering into the air.
"Haa!"
The Valkyrie stepped in, her spear wreathed in magic power as she thrust it upward. The magic formula sustaining the dedicated machine collapsed entirely. Flames erupted from its frame, and it sputtered to a halt, belching thick black smoke.
I watched the scene unfold from behind her.
Raising my bone arm, I wove a spell starting from my fingertips. I converted magic power compressed to its absolute limit into ice and fired it at supersonic speeds.
The ice detonated against the Valkyrie’s back. It tore through her without a hint of resistance, the aftershock gouging a massive chunk out of her shoulder.
"Wh—!?"
The Valkyrie spun around in shock. She wrenched her spear from the wreckage of the dedicated machine and rushed toward me. Even with her arm hanging by a few threads of muscle, she continued her assault.
I blinked backward with a teleportation spell and invoked a forbidden art. Vines erupted from the earth, entangling the Valkyrie. Flames burst from the foliage, but she slashed the vines away with a single stroke. I fired another volley of ice, which she shattered with her spear.
It shouldn't have been possible to react to such speeds at this range. It must have been pure intuition. Her adaptability was staggering.
"Gh, ugh..."
The Valkyrie glanced down at her own torso. Holes gaped in her abdomen and chest—the lingering marks of my beams and ice. Her bleeding had slowed to a sluggish crawl, likely because she didn't have enough blood left in her body to flow. Her complexion was the pallid white of a corpse.
She stared at the fallen dedicated machine and whispered, "How... why..."
"It is quite simple. I severed my connection with the golem just before your thrust landed."
Then, I had teleported to this location in my true body. While she had certainly caught me off guard, that did not guarantee her victory. I used the dedicated machine precisely for moments like this—as a disposable body double.
I felt a twinge of guilt toward the Director for using her creation this way, but it was an effective sacrifice. It allowed me to launch a counter-ambush. Still, the fact remained that her previous attack would have killed me. Despite my constant vigilance against carelessness, I had acted thoughtlessly. I would have to be more cautious moving forward.
"Kh...!"
The Valkyrie let out a frustrated groan but immediately resumed her movement. I met her powerful spear strike with a magic sword, parrying it aside. With a fluid counter, I slashed across her wrist. She dropped her spear but caught it instantly with her other hand. I brought my blade down again. She managed to block, but the impact sent her staggering back. With one leg crippled, she could no longer find her footing.
"Give up. That technique will no longer work on me."
I advanced slowly, my magic sword ready. The Valkyrie resisted with everything she had, but I dominated the high-speed exchange. She was forced into a retreat, her body accumulating more and more gashes. Occasionally, my blade pierced her through. Though the strikes were shallow, I had already punctured her forehead and her heart.
Yet, she did not stop. Even cornered, she refused to yield, her sightless gaze fixed on a path to victory.
Finally, I felt a genuine sense of doubt and questioned her. "Why do you not die? Those should have been fatal wounds."
"..."
The Valkyrie did not answer. She continued to move her spear in silence. I parried her blows with my magic sword and, seeing an opening, swept my blade across her torso. The diagonal cut only seeped a trace of blood. A pained expression flickered across her face, but she showed no sign of dying.
As I thought, something is wrong. She is hiding something.
I scrutinized her from a magical perspective, refusing to overlook even the slightest anomaly. My focus was rewarded with a significant discovery. I spoke to her while cornering her with a flurry of slashes.
"You have extracted your soul, haven't you? Where are you keeping it?"
The Valkyrie’s eyes widened, and she ground her teeth in distress. I had hit the mark. Every human possesses a soul, but there was no soul within her. There was only a mass of magic power disguised as one. She must have used a forbidden art to extract her soul and store it in a separate location. By doing so, she prevented the destruction of her essence, granting her a form of pseudo-immortality. That was why she could move through injuries that would cause instant death.
"Very well. If you possess no regenerative abilities, then I shall simply destroy your physical form entirely."
I pressed the attack. Now that I grasped the nature of her abilities, there was no longer a need for excessive caution. She was clearly exerting her final reserves. All that remained was to methodically dismantle her defenses.
"Ha!"
"Naive."
I evaded her spear thrust and severed her knee in response. She stumbled, bracing herself with one hand on the ground. From that awkward position, she swung her spear with desperate strength. I leaped back to avoid it and let my magic sword flash. The blade followed a trajectory toward her neck, but she managed to parry it at the last second.
"I will... I must...! I will free the souls trapped in that valley...!"
The Valkyrie cried out, tears streaming down her face. She stood on battered, broken legs, and her spear seemed to accelerate even further. Step by step, she hammered out strike after strike, pouring her soul into every blow.
However, reality is a heartless thing. None of her full-power attacks could reach me. Even as my magic swords shattered under the force of her strikes, I simply manifested more and defended against them all.
I began my final counterattack. First, I sliced off her right arm. Next, I severed her left leg mid-thigh. I pierced every joint in her left arm and pinned her remaining right leg to the earth with a blade.
The Valkyrie could not pull the magic sword from her leg and was forced to remain kneeling in a broken posture. She glared up at me, her face stained with blood and tears. Her expression was a chaotic swirl of anger, grief, and regret.
I spoke to her. "Do you have any last words? I will listen."
"I... I never wanted... to be an immortal..."
Her voice was thin and brittle. Hearing her answer, I froze for a fleeting second. Then, I returned to my senses and nodded.
"I understand. I will grant that wish."
A blue flame erupted from my outstretched hand. The fire enveloped the Valkyrie, incinerating her down to the marrow. She vanished, leaving not even ashes behind. With her physical vessel gone, the soul stored elsewhere would soon collapse as well. In her case, her ego resided with the flesh; a hollow soul is a fragile, fleeting thing. There was no need to hunt for its location.
"Hmm..."
I looked down at my own hand. From the elbow down, it was melting, crumbling away.
The flame I used to burn her was the purification flame. I was once called a Sage and had fought many monsters, including powerful immortals. Naturally, I had mastered holy magic to oppose them. But for an undead to invoke such power meant self-destruction. I rarely used it for that reason.
Using the purification flame to end her was my own small gesture of respect. I felt it was an end befitting her.
Soul extraction is an act of unimaginable agony. One mistake leads to a horrific death. It is an act shunned by any standard of ethics. To the world, such a being is little more than a monster—it is a truly wicked art. Yet, she had undergone it anyway. She had sacrificed her humanity solely to destroy me. There must have been a terrible conflict within her, but her resolve was undeniable. It was not something I could treat with contempt.
I severed my arm as the purification spread and stared at the scorched earth. Not a trace of her remained. The hero known as the Valkyrie had been completely erased from existence.
Meanwhile, my own bone arm rolled on the ground, melting with a sickening hiss. It was a hideously ugly sight.
—I never wanted to be an immortal either.
In an instant, my skin crawled at my own inner thoughts. A wave of intense nausea washed over me, though there was nothing in my stomach to purge. I forced the thought away. It was a fruitless, hollow reflection. Better to forget it quickly.
I recovered the remains of the dedicated machine and immediately returned to the Royal Capital.