Light Novel Volume 14

Rakudai Kishi no Eiyuutan Light Novel 14 is the fourteenth installment of the Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry light novel series, written by Riku Misora and illustrated by Won. It was released in April 2018.

Summary
"Desperados striking each other!"

''"Yaksha Princess", you are the same as me. A monster hiding under human skin!" ''

''As Ikki and Stella each advancing forward in their battle, the battle between two Desperados, "Yaksha Princess" Nene Saikyou and "Haboob" Naseem, is also getting more intense. It is a battle between both strong people that give everything they have in order to force the other admit defeat while acknowledging each other's abilities. While in the middle of it, Nene remembers her encounter once before with her most worthy rival "World Clock" Kurono Takizawa who she sharpened herself with during the KOK League. Meanwhile, the battle in which Stella and the others are within the "Puppet King's" range has also entered a new phase.''

''Each past and memory is becoming clear. The 14th volume where their decision and resolve as knights are tested, and are above the line between life and death!''

Chapters
Intermission: Sorrow Rain

The scene takes place during a rainy night years ago. Nene is waiting in the middle of a street without an umbrella, and then Kurono arrives while under an umbrella. Nene says that she heard from Nangou that Kurono is finally getting married and congratulates Kurono. Though Nene is genuinely congratulating Kurono, her eyes are filled with anger. She then says that she doesn’t understand why Kurono has to retire from the KOK A-League because of that. The next match will be between Nene and Kurono, and Nene is looking forward to settle the score they were unable to fulfill during the Seven Stars Sword Art Festival. Nene asks if Kurono has become afraid and Kurono says yes. Nene then angrily grabs the collar of Kurono’s suit and asks her why even though she’s Kurono Takizawa the “World Clock” and ranked 3rd in the world. Kurono drops her umbrella during that moment and explains while looking down. She says that she’s not afraid of Nene or herself. After the Seven Stars Sword Art Festival, they heard from Nangou and Ryouma that someday they will surpass the limit of their soul. While she was forging herself in order to settle her score with Nene, she saw an image of herself just one step away from passing through a door. She understood that passing through the door will enable her to overcome the fate given to her and it was necessary in order to fight Nene. It was also the same thing Nene saw when she was forging herself for her rematch with Kurono. However, while she was about to pass through that door Kurono heard the voice of her lover Takumi from behind. She realized that achieving “Brute Soul” won’t guarantee if she will remain human and if meeting Takumi was her fate as a person then she doesn’t want to throw it away, including her future as Takumi’s wife. Kurono explains while caressing her lower abdomen. She then says this is her limit and she can’t move forward anymore, and so she decided to retire from the KOK. Nene realizes even though Kurono feels guilty, she doesn’t regret her decision. Nene protests, saying that Kurono’s wish of becoming Takumi’s woman must be a mistake because they had so much fun when they fought in the Seven Stars Sword Art Festival. Kurono agrees that giving all of her life to defeat her opponent was fun and felt really ecstatic. However, Kurono can no longer fight like that because she has found something more important than her life and pride. As shown in a pic, Kurono apologizes while bowing her head which causes Nene to have a pain look on her face and tells Kurono to stop because she doesn’t want to look down on her like this. Knowing their paths will never cross again causes tears from Nene’s eyes to flow together with the rain. The next day, Kurono officially announces her retirement from the KOK.

Chapter 19: Showdown between Demonic Beings

In the present, the representative battle between the terrorists representing Cradleland and the team representing Vermillion is leaning towards in favor of Vermillion. 4 people on Vermillion’s side are still standing while only 2 people on Cradleland’s side are left. However, it is still far from over since Cradleland’s side still has their main forces which consists of Or-Gaule who is capable of putting an entire country under his control and Naseem Al-Salem who possesses power that has destroyed many countries. While Iris Ascarid is facing Or-Gaule, Nene is facing Naseem. Nene and Naseem remain at the same place where Naseem released his Noble Art that blew everyone else far away during the beginning of the battle. After they released “Jibakujin” and “Mictlan · Tormenta”, Nene then uses “Kokutou · Yatagarasu”. Her Device “Beniiro Ageha” is a pair of iron fans and a gravity blade is formed on the closed fans with the appearance of a black light that is over 3 meters long. Nene makes an elegant dance movement that is similar to a Noh dance while swinging her sword towards Naseem. Nene’s fighting style is combat dance, which is a combination of her mastery of dance movements and the swordsmanship she learned from Nangou. Her sword dance only uses her senses and doesn’t require thought intervention to deliver a series of fast attacks like Ouma’s “Amatsukaze”. But unlike “Amatsukaze”, Nene’s fast movements don’t require fixed patterns and so it should be impossible for her opponent to read them. If Edelweiss’ sword technique is said to be the pinnacle of techniques, then the combination of Nene’s rare battle sense and aesthetic sense can be considered the pinnacle of talents. There shouldn’t be a way to sever this sword dance. Nene launches slashes towards Naseem but they are all intercepted by jabs from Naseem’s left hand that is protected by his gauntlet-shaped Device “Toxcatl”. Even though Nene has a reputation of being superior at close combat even in the A-League, she maintains the length of her gravity blade to deliver slashes from a certain distance. It is because she’s being cautious of Naseem’s right fist that can deliver his finishing move “Dead End Blow”. Naseem’s right fist which has destroyed a number of countries and killed a lot of people is even capable of crushing Nene’s “Hadou Tensei” in just one hit, so it’s natural that Nene doesn’t want to get close to him.

As Nene tries to maintain distance, Naseem tries to get close to her. Naseem’s advancing speed is faster than Nene’s retreating speed so eventually he will caught up to her. Once Naseem is close to her, Nene adjusts the reach of her gravity blade and parries the barrage of Naseem’s jabs. The difference in their body height makes it easier for Nene to narrow down the trajectory of Naseem’s incoming jabs which are aiming at her head. Nene then uses her gravity magic to create a spatial distortion in order to twist the trajectory of Naseem’s jab and so he pulls back his left fist. But during that moment, Nene bends her body very low to attack Naseem’s ankle with her gravity blade. Naseem’s boxing style fighting has a weakness of leaving his lower body nearly unprotected. Nene’s attack should be unavoidable, but Naseem is able to stop the incoming blade by stomping on it. Naseem then uses his finishing move “Dead End Blow”, which his right fist is powered by his drying ability. He launches “Dead End Blow” in a form of uppercut that targets Nene’s chin, but Nene let goes of her stomped Device in order to dodge his attack. Nene then creates a distance from Naseem and gets her Device back in her hand using gravitational pull. They both end up back where they started, but Naseem is convinced that he’s the superior one in this battle.

Nene then recreates her 3 meter long gravity blades again in order to keep maintaining her distance. Naseem is moving in towards Nene and once again is getting closer while Nene is trying to maintain her distance by moving backwards and keeps swinging her blades towards Naseem who just sweeps away the incoming attacks by punching them. Suddenly, the crushed gravity blades crumble and the crumbled pieces become countless black butterflies. Nene is using her Noble Art “Kokushichou” to create 200 butterfly-shaped super gravity energy mines that are surrounding Naseem. But Naseem is not agitated and is just standing there with his eyes closed. Nene causes the butterflies to explode and Naseem shouldn’t be able to defend with just using his left hand. However, Naseem ends up being okay despite being hit by the blows of the gravity mines. Out of the 200 butterflies, only 12 of them were lethal to him while the rest were just decoys that would only give him pain. So all Naseem had to do was using his left hand to crush the lethal ones and let the rest of the butterflies hit him. Nene is surprised that Naseem was able to tell and Naseem says it’s because he can predict the future. Naseem was born from the belly of a woman that got hit by a bomb in a place where dictators and rebels had war for half a century, and so death was always around him. Because he was born in such condition, he has developed a sixth sense which he refers to as “super war sensitivity”. Naseem is able to sense his enemy’s killing intent even before it is inside the enemy’s head to send out commands to their body. Thus, he will always be ready to deal with his enemy’s next move and surprise attacks don’t work on him. Naseem says the only way for Nene to defeat him is to unleash a powerful attack with everything she’s got.

Naseem manages to get very close to Nene and fires a barrage of left punches again. Nene tries to twist the trajectory of the punches by creating spatial distortion with her gravity magic like before, but Naseem is able to fix the bent trajectory immediately. Nene is able to repel the barrage of punches with her dance movements and Device. Even though it looks like a fierce close range battle, Naseem feels like he’s only hitting cloth and all of his punches are being repelled. He thinks that Nene is using Nangou’s boasted technique called “Kenkyoku · Tsurugi no Mai (Sword Music · Dance of the Sword)”, which the user endures the enemy’s attacks until the threat passes by receiving the enemy’s attacks infinitely with soft defense and rotating their body as if dancing in order to repel the impact of the attacks. Nangou was left unscathed during the fierce battles in the southern front of World War 2 and was nicknamed “Flawless” at the time. However, Nene replies that the beautiful dance she’s using right now is actually something much better than the octopus-like dancing that Nangou uses. Nene is only focusing on defense, so Naseem can’t sense any killing intent from her. But he can tell that Nene is inviting him to attack her with his right hand. Naseem then launches his right fist towards Nene and she moves back to get out of the range of “Dead End Blow”. However, Naseem uses “Alquimia · Hierro” to create a thick iron wall behind Nene in order to prevent her escape. “Dead End Blow” then launches towards Nene’s head and at that moment Nene moves the Device in her hand. It shouldn’t be possible to deal with “Dead End Blow” while struggling to escape. However, “Dead End Blow” ends up passing above Nene’s head and crushes the iron wall behind her. Nene then is about to launch a counterattack at Naseem with her Device in both hands. Naseem realizes this is Nene’s aim and he is surprised because he didn’t sense her killing intent. Nene’s gravity blades prevent Naseem turning into sand, and so the ten slashes she delivers cut off parts of his body with blood coming out and organs exposed. Nene says Naseem’s ability to sense his enemy’s killing intent is incredible but that also means he’s reading his enemy’s heart. For Nene, killing Naseem is like killing an insect and so her heart won’t be moved from that.

The black aura that Nene and Naseem scattered in the beginning of their battle made it difficult for Boomer and the people watching live coverage of the war to see their battle. But the afterglow of magic power has cleared up and everyone watching can now see that the area where Nene and Naseem are fighting has turned into a waste land of 3 km in diameter. Everyone watching also sees that Nene is standing on the battlefield while Naseem is on the ground with his body shredded. Everyone in Vermillion is cheering at this development and praises Nene. Boomer comments that Naseem in his current state might not be saved even if he is put into a Capsule immediately and that anyone surviving this state can’t be human. However, Nene knows that it is still not over yet because Naseem is not stupid enough to get defeated like this and so she tells him to get back up. Suddenly, Naseem is laughing and raises his body. Boomer is shocked that Naseem is alive and treats it like it was nothing even though Naseem’s body is heavily damaged with so many blood and his guts coming out. Nene understands how this is possible while looking at her fingers that are bent in unlikely directions. Other than his “super war sensitivity” that enables him to sense his enemy’s killing intent even before it commands their body to attack, Naseem also possesses fast reaction speed which limits his opponent’s surprise attacks. During Nene’s counterattack, Naseem hit Nene’s fingers with his left hand which caused Nene’s advance and slashes to be shallow. A person can remain alive for tens of seconds even if their heart is pulled out and so it is necessary to split their brain into two to ensure instant death. But Nene’s slashing to Naseem’s head didn’t reach his brain and so he can recover after reconstructing his body. After Nene fixes her broken fingers by applying compression and gravity magic, Naseem has gotten up but for some reason he didn’t fix the lacerations on his face and left it bleeding.

Naseem says he was surprised that “Dead End Blow” was deflected but now understands that Nene had used Naseem’s own strength. Nene confirms it by explaining that the technique she used can circulate the force of the opponent’s attack and return it back while in a dance. Unlike Ikki’s “Madoka” that returns back the power of the absorbed attack immediately, the combination of Nene’s dance movements and gravity ability makes it possible to accumulate all of the power she continuously absorbed. Thus, Nene was stealing all of the power from Naseem’s jabs and uses it to deflect “Dead End Blow”. This is her Noble Art “Yaksha Kagura” that she developed based on Nangou’s technique. It is a remarkable technique but what made Naseem surprised the most was how his “super war sensitivity” didn’t sense Nene’s killing intent. Killing intent is a strong feeling that can overcome a person’s primal repulsion in killing another person. Even if killing intent can be hidden by training, Naseem’s “super war sensitivity” can still detect it as long as it’s not removed completely. He had never failed to notice any killing intent before, even when he faced Edelweiss in the Middle East as a government mercenary. Killing someone without having a killing intent can only be done by someone who doesn’t value life like Naseem. Therefore, Naseem believes Nene is like him, a person who doesn’t have such moral feelings and is a monster covered in human skin. It’s because she’s such a monster that she is capable of killing him, and so this makes him happy. Naseem became so strong that he got tired of living and so he accepted Or-Gaule’s invitation in the hope of being fulfilled from making half of the world his enemy. He believes Nene can satisfy his thirst for war and so declares to her that the real war starts now.

Naseem puts his fingers on the wound on his face and strongly tears the skin off as shown in a pic. He then releases a huge scream and an aura from his whole body which becomes a strong gust of wind. The black mana surrounding him is gradually turning into a golden glow that illuminates the night and his physical appearance is changing. When the dust is clear everyone can see that Naseem’s body has gotten bigger and the color of his muscles become black with obsidian-like gloss, tearing his skin and clothes. The flesh on his face peeled down to the ground and his eyes melted like a burned corpse. Water buffalo-like horns are protruding from his skeleton-like head, bat-like wings have risen from his back, and reptile-like tail has grown from his waist. Boomer comments that Naseem’s appearance is like that of a demon and wonders what kind of Noble Art this transformation is. But Nene understands it is not a Noble Art from the golden shine in Naseem’s empty eye sockets and drastic change in his amount of mana. This transformation is called “Excessive Awakening”. Achieving “Brute Soul” is when a Blazer overcomes fate and transforms their soul into a person not bound by fate, and so it is called that because it is like having the soul of a beast. There is a rumor that a Desperado using the power from undergoing “Brute Soul” too much will result in their body changing to match the shape of their changed soul and they will also gain enormous power in exchange of losing their humanity. Desperados are rare and so this rumor was never verified, but Nene mutters that it seems it’s not just a rumor. Naseem replies, in a voice with low growl that is like bellows, that this form represents his true self. What he wants is not a relaxing life, but devoting everything he has by being very close to death. He also believes that Nene desires the same thing even right now. Nene replies that she won’t turn into something hideous like him, but Naseem replies that she will because he will force her to.

Naseem rushes towards Nene though it is slower than before. Nene thinks his huge demonic body increases his attack power but decreases his speed. He is also using kicks with big motion instead of just jabs and so the number of strikes he’s delivering at Nene is less than half of it was before. Nene is receiving the strikes with “Yaksha Kagura” and it shouldn’t be possible for Naseem to break through her Noble Art with a rush that is even slower than before. However, Nene is actually having a hard time because each of Naseem’s strike is much more powerful than before. The amount of mana Naseem possesses now easily surpasses even Stella’s that is said to be the highest in League member countries and his mana control is also very high now. All of his enormous mana is put into his punches and kicks. There is a limit to how much of the absorbed power that Nene’s “Yaksha Kagura” can accumulate. If Nene continues to receive Naseem’s powerful attacks with her dance, her body will be twisted. Thus she slips into a gap in his rush and delivers ten fast consecutive slashes at him. However, there is not even a scratch on his black body. Nene realizes that the mana protecting his body is much stronger than the energy of Nene’s “Yatagarasu” gravity blades. Once again Nene is caught by Naseem’s rush and she endures his strikes with “Yaksha Kagura”. Nene suffers some mental damage after seeing Naseem defended against her Noble Art with just mana alone, but her defense hasn’t weakened. She slips into a gap in Naseem’s rush and delivers a slash powered with all the energy accumulated by “Yaksha Kagura” at him. However, Naseem uses his tail to turn his body around sideways in order to dodge the slash. He then counterattacks by launching an uppercut with his glowing left arm which Nene manages to evade with just a graze on her right arm. Suddenly, Nene cuts off her right arm from the shoulder with her Device in left hand. When her arm crumbles as soon as it drops to the ground, everyone watching understands that if she hadn’t cut it off then the rest of her body would have crumbled as well from Naseem’s drying ability. From Naseem’s very lethal power, Nene is convinced that he now possesses fighting power comparable to Arthur Bright, Abraham Carter and the “Tyrant”.

Nene then escapes to the night sky using her gravity ability. Naseem follows by kicking the ground strongly and soars to the sky with his wings flapping. Nene then uses “Hadou Tensei” at maximum firepower, which a shower of thirteen meteorites with diameter of 20 meters fall towards Naseem. Soon afterwards, Naseem’s whole body is shining brightly and he uses “Mictlan · Tormenta”. The golden light from his body and the black dust wind have merged together to form a giant tornado that is rising towards the sky. The tornado swallows all of the meteorites, turning them into dust, and it continues to rise towards Nene. She uses her gravity ability to place her two fan-shaped Devices in front of her and forms a butterfly-shaped magic shield. The tornado swallows Nene and she does her best to endure it. After it passes, her device is worn out with countless cracks and her skin is dry with loss of complexion. Naseem then suddenly gets above Nene and launches “Dead End Blow” towards her with his shining right arm. Nene tries to block with her Device but Naseem’s finishing move crushes the embodiment of her soul, causing her loss of consciousness at the same time. The right fist ends up hitting Nene’s chest and then her body is blown away from the sky towards the ground hard. Desperados have human bodies but their souls are not that of humans, making them existences that are on the boundary between humans and demons. Naseem has crossed over that boundary, which he stopped being human and became a demon. As a result, he is able to fully exercise the power of an inhuman soul which couldn’t be done if he still had a human body. Naseem descends down to the ground to check Nene’s status and he finds her still standing. However, Nene is making an eerie smile and then laughs in a sharp voice with her shoulder shaking. Naseem understands that the blow just now had crushed the ego belonging to Nene as a human and now something buried deep within the Desperado known as the “Yaksha Princess” has awakened. He then says that they are the same like he thought and tells her to not hold back anymore. At that moment, black mana with red light rises from Nene’s whole body and her body is changing. Her lost right arm is now replaced with a new one made from super gravity magic, her white eyes have become dark with the irises shining as if burning, and a pair of horns has grown on her forehead. As shown in a pic, her appearance has become like that of a demon. Immediately after, the killing between two monsters has begun.

(more to be added)

Chapter 20: Memory that Can't be Casted Away

Chapter 21: Unpermitted Wish

Characters

 * Stella Vermillion
 * Ikki Kurogane
 * Or-Gaule
 * Nene Saikyo
 * Naseem Al-Salem
 * Iris Ascarid
 * Kurono Shinguuji (Flashback)