[Nightengale]

Vita/Wira NAO! Next should be Astra/Shamal + Isdera/Signum a little.

Spoiler for Part 12.5:

~Part XII Verse 11 ~ Blood x Iron~

~Wira~

[Tödliche Strafe!]

“Ugh-!!!”

I coughed out more blood… that brutal blow, a direct crushing hit to my abdomen… it hurts, it hurts a lot, my internal organs are being poked, my broken bones slowly puncturing them... but it’s still not enough.

My eyes were wavering…I could barely stand, my visions blurry, my body bloodied, battered, bones close to being crushed all over…how many times had my body been smashed by her hammer now?... I don’t know.

Raising my arm slowly… I pulled out another arrow from my fountain of blood, but weakened, without focus, my release was too direct…She merely shrugged over my desperate attack with sharp hammer strike, and once again my body was at the ground…

“Without the other knight’s manipulative wind and chains…your arrow are nothing special, it seems.”

I know…I know that much. I know my own weakness better than anyone else’s.

“Even after being beaten up so much…you’re still struggling. I’ll give you that much credit. However…”

[Load Cartridge!]

[Schwalbe Fliegen!]

“Don’t expect me to go easy just because you’re half-dead.”

Once again, I was sent backwards by a ridiculous blast of magical energy, this time 4 times in a row, as my entire body felt an explosive impact of 4 balls hitting my entire body... For a split second…my body looked like it was decomposing…degenerating into particles…

So…it’s almost that time now… I have been living on borrowed time anyway…

~Vita~

What…was that a second ago?

I rubbed my eyes quickly, as I looked at the battered body of that foolish kid enemy kid archer…Wila or whatever his name was…

Was it merely, my imaginations? For a second there…it almost seems like his body was almost transparent, like an illusion…

~Wira~

Pain… now it almost seems natural. My entire body, inside out is squishy, it’s like all of my body’s flesh and meat have been finely grinded into soft pieces by the Count’s hammer…

Everything is going accordingly…

I have lived a good life. I will now pay it all back with my life.

Yes… my last conversation with Astra-sensei…

~Past~

“The truth is…”

I spoke to Astra… I told him everything.

“That previous battle…where I exhausted myself against the Iron Count, she had already ‘killed’ me.

You know the condition of my body… I am a sinful existence, the link that shouldn’t exist between a guardian beast and a human. I am neither. But I exist, at a price.

Due to the sheer incapability of the cells of both humans and animals coexisting, my body composition and structure…are extremely weak and fragile. The Count merely hastened the decomposition process… I probably have less than a week left.”

“Why are you telling me this? The General-“

“I don’t intend to tell him, and I hope you wouldn’t to…please. I just needed someone to know.”

“Why? Why must you resort yourself to this?”

“I know myself well…even if you don’t. Saga… I don’t want to burden him any further. If he finds out…he’ll definitely blame himself…. Saga is very strong, but likewise…he’s also the weakest. He tries to carry everything on his shoulder even when he knows he can’t…That is why…I will live on as a Knight as Zerstroritter, and die as one.

Just remember this, Astra-sensei. My will will live on. You’ll understand soon.”

~Wira~

I placed Volkrux down on the ground…

“Volkrux…thank you for everything.”

[The hell!? What do you think you’re doing!?]

“Volkrux…remember, and don’t forget.”

Awaken…

Awaken…

The blood of my father, the blood that is everything that rejects my appearance. I desire the power to protect, to leave behind my will… I will protect what makes me myself.

I felt something change inside me… like something awakening…my damaged, battered body seems to be no longer there…my mind…rationale fading away, like a metamorphosis into something entirely different.

My voice turned into a howling growl…as I can see myself reflected through the Count’s eyes…

I am no longer Wira…I am just a lion monster.

Senselessly, my claws, my fangs, my entire being rushed out, a burst of instinct as the battle goes on…

I am…losing my…senses…

Shit…

…

……

……

Pain…

I can feel pain…again…

I can feel myself again…visions clearing…hearing…

[Raketen Hammer!]

A familiar sound, another familiar sound of a flaming bursting stream…and another familiar feeling as my entire being reacts to the pain of the hammer, being swung at such a high speed.

Soon… I see myself, with my consciousness back…though half my body’s gone… my limbs scattered around… and the Count…only mildly injured, with some gash injuries around her…

“What…what the hell are you!? To go to such ridiculous extents…What the hell is it that you want to accomplish with your streaking madness!?”

What am I? I wish I knew…but isn’t it natural, for a human heart, to struggle, to fight for those important to you?

“As if…you’d possibly understand…”

“Grrrr! No matter…I’ll end this right now!!!”

[Load Cartridge!]

Ah…mom once said…that my father was a great and honorable guardian beast, strong and proud, not afraid to sacrifice everything for the sake of what his master believes in…and my mother…I killed her, but for my sake, she endured pain and suffering for so long…

I am proud to be my parent’s son. I am proud to carry my name.

“Count…I’ll show you what it means to struggle to one’s end… Under the name of Res-Brusche…the last stand of my soul, my will and my blood!”

I placed both my hands together…as my body slowly dissipates, my scattered limbs decomposing…into a single substance…

[Roaring Storm Gigantcrusher!]

“Saga…I am proud to have been born your knight…and I’m sorry…I’ll entrust the future in your hands…the last thing I can do…is only this…”

As a giant shadow of a hammer covers my entire sight…

After that…all that followed was merely darkness…

~Vita~

What…a…resilient…bastard… To think I fought this long, exhausting all my cartridges…

As I reduced Graf Eisen to its original size…I saw…that.

A gigantic crimson red spear…stuck on the ground… A crystallized spear made purely out of blood.

So, this is what is left of him…Rather than dying, he chose to leave behind himself as a weapon… for his comrades.

I could simply destroy it now… then everything he did would be meaningless…

But… I turned my back, and merely walked away…

“You were a great opponent… Archer of the Blood… I will remember your struggle, your will…and your tenacity. At the end of your life…it truly shined.

Like a crimson red ruby…”

I shortened a lot of parts, trimmed it down, etc, but it gets the main point over. This is Saga's profile, after all...these are more or less extensions to the other knights, but hardly the most important ones.