Light Novel Volume 15

Rakudai Kishi no Eiyuutan Light Novel 15 is the fifteenth installment of the Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry light novel series, written by Riku Misora and illustrated by Won. It was released in October 2018.

Summary
Final decisive battle!

"I love you, Stella", the boy told his most beloved girl with a smile when everything is about to be lost--.

''After fierce fights like Nene's and Tatara's, the trend of the "representative war" has largely shifted towards Vermillion's side. The battle that leaves only the ringleader Or-Gaule remaining has once again fallen into turmoil due to "Black Knight" Iris' unexpected betrayal. The "Puppet King" Or-Gaule that plans to escape, and the "Crimson Princess" Stella who pursues. The "Black Knight" Iris who is helping her younger brother, and "Worst One" Ikki Kurogane" who is standing in the way. When the fierce battle reaches the final stage, the howl of the red-haired girl reverberates throughout the battlefield!''

''The Vermillion War is finally settled! The 15th volume of farewells and bonds!!''

Chapters
Intermission: Final Words

The volume starts with a scene where strong shock and heat cut open someone's chest. Huge amount of blood is scattered in his field of view and his organs blew out of his torn chest. His whole body immediately becomes weak and his Device slides away from his grip. He then collapses on the ground in a sea of blood. As he is about to lose his life, he says "I love you, Stella" to his most beloved girl with a smile. He doesn't regret everything that happened since he first met her. Ikki Kurogane then loses consciousness and will never awaken again.

Chapter 22: Sword God

The scene is now at the start of the final stage of the representative war between Vermillion and Cradleand that takes place in Cradleland’s capital Lucier. Boomer, who has been providing commentary on the war in a helicopter, is now focusing on the battle between Ikki Kurogane and Iris-Gaule Ascarid, who are clashing against each other with their skills. Iris waves around her large battle axe that is filled with huge mana which causes the surrounding asphalt, concrete and steel to be crushed. Ikki intercepts the incoming storm of destruction with fast slashes and keeps pushing her back. Ikki is using “Dokuga no Tachi” to push back Iris who is wearing her armor-shaped Device “Orichalcos”. But Iris receives no damage due to “Orichalcos” possessing defense and healing power that is unparalleled in the League of Mage-Knight Nations. She then launches an upper swing with her battle axe that breaks the ground and shoots pebbles of asphalts towards Ikki. The gravels could damage the F-ranked Ikki that has defense power no different from that of ordinary people, but Ikki receives no damage due to using “Ten’i Muhou”. Ikki then immediately charges towards Iris and she intercepts his attack. Even though the A-ranked Iris should have far more attack, defense and magic powers than the F-ranked Ikki, she is unable to overwhelm him. After exchanging some attacks, Iris’ body is suddenly pushed back greatly once her blade meets with Ikki’s blade. Ikki’s sudden huge increase in attack power is due to him using “Madoka”. Ikki had analyzed Iris using “Perfect Vision” during the first 3 minutes of their battle. As a result, he is now able to use “Madoka” perfectly on Iris and the battle is starting to be in his favor.

The blow powered by “Madoka” has caused Iris’ posture to crumble and Ikki immediately gets very close to Iris. At very close distance, Ikki launches “Rekkou” towards her. Iris releases a cry of pain and blood is coming out from the gaps of her armor. Boomer thinks that the “Rekkou” that Ikki had just launched was probably powered with “Dokuga no Tachi”. Before Iris could rebuild her position and counterattack, Ikki immediately delivers a barrage of slashes on Iris with “Raikou”. However, while Iris can’t move due to continuously receiving the slashes, the speed of the slashes keeps increasing. The barrage of slashes is actually a technique called “Amatsu Raikou (heavenly lightning)”, an evolved technique of “Kyokujitsu Isshin-ryuu · Retsu no Kiwami – Amatsukaze” that is delivered with “Raikou’s” speed. The 90th to 108th slashes are delivered in roughly one beat, like a lightning strike that roars the sky of Lucier. The concentrated attack causes Iris’ body to be blown towards behind. She is then down on the ground on her back which rarely happens to her even in the A-League. There is a pool of blood that spreads around her body on the ground. Everyone in Vermillion who is watching are cheering for Ikki who has overwhelmed the “Black Knight” who is ranked 4th in the world. Even Stella’s mother Astrea is excited to see this and asks her husband Sirius if Ikki has won. But Sirius doesn’t share the same feelings as everyone and has a grim expression. Sirius says that he is indeed impressed by Ikki’s skills and that Ikki might have already obtained victory if this was the A-League. However, this is a serious battle that bets each other’s ego and so the “indomitable” knight won’t be defeated by something of this level. After Sirius said so, Iris immediately gets back up and her bleeding has stopped. Astrea can’t believe that Ikki’s “Amatsu Raikou” did no damage to Iris, but it’s not surprising to Sirius. This is natural since the battle is between an A-ranked and an F-ranked, and Ikki understands this better than anyone. Sirius is also angry at Ikki for not fighting together with Stella.

Ikki already had delivered attacks which included “Rekkou”, “Madoka”, “Dokuga no Tachi” and “Raikou”, but the result is Iris has fully recovered. Ikki on the other hand is quite exhausted after delivering his attack just now. Even if Ikki wins in terms of techniques and his attacks hit Iris many times, he is the one actually losing in the battle due to Iris’ overwhelming defense power. Iris is not just strong in strength but also has strong determination in protecting her younger brother Or-Gaule. Her armor-shaped Device currently represents her “indomitable” determination and Ikki understands that he needs to break her armor in order to defeat her. The only possible way he can do this is if he uses his final secret sword “Oikage” which puts everything Ikki has into one strike. However, Iris has seen Ikki used “Oikage” during his match with Stella in the Seven Stars Sword Art Festival and so she would be alerted once he puts his Device “Intestu” in a sword-drawing stance. In addition, there is also the side effect of his body’s self-destruction from using “Ittou Rasetsu”. Immediately after, Iris releases a scream for being fired up and charges fast towards Ikki. She makes a full horizontal swing with her battle axe on Ikki which he easily dodges by crouching, but the house behind him is blown away from the wind pressure. Iris then immediately swings her axe down towards Ikki’s head but he dodges by leaping towards the side. Her attack just now crushes the asphalt road and blows away the house connected to the road. Seeing this makes Ikki remember the time when Iris displayed physical strength that was able to knock BB off his feet. The healing power of Iris’ “Orichalcos” is not used for defense only. Any Blazer could strengthen their attack and speed with their mana only in the range where their body wouldn’t break, but in Iris’ case she can disregard the physical damage to her body due to her healing ability. Thus, she can release strength and speed that normally should have been impossible. Ikki then uses “Amatsu Raikou” again on Iris, but this time Iris uses her mana to increase her speed in order to try repelling Ikki’s slashes. At first, she is falling behind in speed. Even her tendons and bones are continuously being damaged and then healed while her body is trying to barely keep up with the speed of Ikki’s slashes. However, the speed of Iris’ axe swings is then gradually increasing and she is about to overtake Ikki in speed.

Ikki and Boomer can tell immediately that Iris has activated her trump card, “Regeneration Overdose (enhanced regeneration)”. It is a Noble Art that keeps regenerating Iris’ damaged body into a stronger body. As a result, Iris’ speed and attack power will keep increasing after every blow in this exchange of blades. “Amatsu Raikou” is then completely overtaken and Iris is delivering a rush of attacks on Ikki. He is trying to escape from this rush of attacks, but Iris won’t let him. Ikki though is still able to keep avoid getting hit by her axe swings even if just barely. In her heart, Iris praises Ikki for being able to reach this far despite having a body that is much fragile compared to his opponents’. Iris thinks Ikki will someday become a swordsman that surpasses even Edelweiss, but even so Iris believes she won’t lose. She knows that Ikki’s slashing can’t cause her damage even if it hits tens of thousands of time and that “Oikage” is probably the only technique he has that can damage her. But Iris is not worried about “Oikage” because she has seen before how “Oikage’s” initial movement is executed and so she won’t get hit. Iris’ axe swings are continuously getting stronger due to “Regeneration Overdose” and eventually Ikki’s posture is broken when her battle axe crushes the ground he’s standing on. During that opening, Iris is thrusting the butt end of her battle axe towards Ikki’s chest. However, the moment the axe’s butt end barely touches Ikki’s chest, he uses “Madoka” to rotate his body and hits Iris’ flank with his blade. Ikki’s counterattack causes Iris’ body repelled back, creating a distance between the two of them. Even though she didn’t receive any physical damage, her mind has received a large shock. Iris sees that there is no feeling of unrest or irritation in Ikki’s eyes and this makes her convinced that she was lured in. Ikki’s posture crumbling was actually a performance he made in order to ruin Iris’ momentum. Iris is amazed of Ikki’s mental power and even Boomer praises Ikki for still being calm in this unfavorable situation. Boomer is praising Ikki in a weird way which causes Ikki to have a slightly bitter laugh. Iris is surprised to see Ikki able to laugh in this situation which makes her wonder if he has a way to win this battle. However, even if Ikki’s spirit hasn’t wavered, it’s still a fact that none of his attacks will work on Iris and all her attacks are fatal to him. Thus, there’s no reason for Iris to be agitated. She believes that as long as she continues her rush of attacks, she will obtain victory. Iris then moves to attack Ikki in order to finish this battle and help her younger brother as soon as possible.

While Ikki is fighting Iris, Or-Gaule continues trying to escape by leaping on the threads that are spread all over the city but Stella with her wings of fire will caught up with him soon. Or-Gaule needs to slow Stella down and so he uses “Deus Ex Machina” to create a 300 meters tall giant made from nearby rubbles, buildings, vehicles and such. The giant delivers a fist at Stella but she swings her sword which destroys its arm. Stella then flies straight to the giant’s chest and the impact creates a hole that is 20 meters in diameter which causes the giant’s body to collapse entirely. Or-Gaule though had attached his threads into the giant and so Stella becomes entangled. However, Stella uses “Katharterio Salamandra” to burn the threads, and the office district of Lucier below gets erased completely. Or-Gaule and Stella are no longer in the sky and are grounded. Or-Gaule then remembers Iris’ action earlier and thinks it was stupid. Stella then asks if Or-Gaule doesn’t feel anything about Iris protecting him but he replies that he doesn’t. He understands that it is considered abnormal for a person to enjoy making others suffer and so he had worked hard to hide his true self when he was a child. It was really uncomfortable and not fun for Or-Gaule to pretend to be happy about something that he’s really not happy about. Or-Gaule then says Stella is the only one fighting him currently so he doesn’t need to escape anymore. He also says Stella is looking down on Iris since she left Ikki fighting Iris on his own. Ikki is strong to the point that Or-Gaule might not be able to win against him, but there’s no way he can win against Iris who can’t be cut down just by sword slashes. Or-Gaule then uses the threads coming out of his fingers like whips to attack Stella, but she catches the threads with her arm. Stella says Ikki will win because he promised he will survive and so she will do her part which is to take down Or-Gaule.

Ikki and Iris were evenly matched in the beginning but now Iris is using “Regeneration Overdose” to overwhelm Ikki. The swings of Iris’ battle axe are getting stronger and faster, and the resulting wind pressure alone is scraping Ikki’s flesh. His clothes are torn, blood is coming out from various parts of his body, and his breathing is now heavy. Everyone who is watching thinks that Ikki has fought enough and should stop. But Ikki doesn’t stop and keeps defending himself from Iris’ rush of attacks. The people in Vermillion don’t understand why Ikki is still not giving up, but Iris has realized the reason. Iris estimates that Ikki won’t be able to handle “Regeneration Overdose” anymore and will get caught by her attacks in 10 minutes. But there is no guarantee that Or-Gaule will survive against Stella for another 10 minutes. Iris’ goal is to help her younger brother and so even if she defeats Ikki, it is meaningless if Or-Gaule is killed. Ikki’s aim all along was to keep delaying this battle and eventually forcing a situation where he is able to use the only technique he has that can beat Iris. In terms of real strength, Iris is superior and so Ikki shouldn’t be able to win against Iris in a straight battle. But Ikki has been dragging Iris along with him by trying to force her to abandon long-term battle and make this into a short decisive match instead, which is why he hasn’t really been attacking ever since Iris invoked “Regeneration Overdose”. After making her decision on what to do, Iris stops her rush of attacks and creates a distance from Ikki. Iris has decided to accept Ikki’s invitation to a short decisive match even though she knows it’s a trap. She wants to save her younger brother and be by his side like they used to, even if the world doesn’t allow it. Iris then puts her battle axe over her head and releases her mana from all over her body, indicating that she’s about to show Ikki her strongest. Ikki thinks Iris’ strong feelings and all the power she’s about to release make her very strong right now. He responds by putting his sword into a sword-drawing stance and invokes “Ittou Rasetsu”. Unlike before, the blue light that would keep surging out from Ikki’s body can now be retained into his body thanks to his mana control training in Edelberg. In the next moment, the final clash between Ikki and Iris begins.

(more to be added)

Chapter 23: Vermillion of Anger

Chapter 24: Tears of a Corpse

'''Chapter 25: Conclusion. And Then...'''

Epilogue: Swooping Down Justice