NOVEL NEXT Vol.12, Ch.368 – Life Is Short, Dash On Girl
The scenery whizzed by as Ludmila fought to keep up with the lady in front of her. The majestic landscape that surrounded them was hardly something that she could be bothered to enjoy as her focus darted from foothold to foothold, making sure that she didn’t slip.
Single chucks of rock and debris floated in front of her, the only solid ground in an otherwise vast and empty expanse. They hung in the air like gravity’s force meant nothing to them. Yet, pebbles that were tossed aside in the wake of her landing rolled off and fell downward.
One misstep, and she would be flung into the vibrant surroundings… a contrast to the swirling abyss below. Neither could she afford to sit still. Looking back, the world behind her seemed to be swallowed by a mysterious cloud that chased after them.
Ludmila had found herself in this peculiar place after being split up from the others. With only a warning from the Goddess of Speed, Milensea, the two began a footrace that would only end when one of them made a mistake, falling to their doom below or being consumed by the cloud.
For Ludmila, whose clumsiness was at the forefront of her mind, she was at a disadvantage. It was taking her full focus to remain balanced upon the mysteriously floating platforms of rubble and earth that hung in the air. Every steps was upon shaky ground.
Milensea had created this scenario, delegating them both to this aerial pathway as her challenge. Even now, Ludmila fought to catch up, cursing that anyone could ever be faster than her.
Ludmila’s small feet nearly slipped on the surface of a spinning piece of rubble, causing her body to sway to keep balanced. Precious moments ticked by as the gap between them widened.
She thought briefly to stop time, but that would only make her weak right after. With how the horizon stretched endlessly, there was no telling how far they would have to continue hopping from place to place. And Ludmila could not simply jump over to Milensea to knock her off; their paths were separated by too far of a distance.
There were too few options besides continuing to run and leap. Until her opponent fell, she had to endure. She had to push herself more and more.
“Unable to keep up now? Why, of course. You are on my turf, little me!”
Milensea’s blond hair swished around as she turned to check on Ludmila. That face of hers looked like what Ludmila would be as an adult. Her larger body bounded over the obstacles like they were meant for her size, while Ludmila’s shorter frame made her stretch farther.
Milensea seemed rather amused at the obstacle race as her crafted confrontation, but that was all Ludmila could tell from the back of her head and her jolly steps. She had a significant lead, hundreds of meters in distance but only seconds at their pace.
Ludmila dashed on and on, the cloud behind her starting to catch up. Occasional moments of uncertain ground had shaved off the safety margin with each platform. Pretty soon, she would be swallowed up.
“Master… what would you do in a situation like this?” she pondered.
She was not smart like the others. Speed was what her specialty was, but in the face of the Goddess of Speed, she wondered what else she could draw upon.
But she would not give up. Her tenacity as a hunter refused to give in. Her pride didn’t allow a prey to get the best of her. She merely needed to think like her opponent, and to the reasons behind this ridiculous setup.
‘I can’t let everyone down. Not now, when I’ve finally learned to decide my own path…’
Ludmila’s eyes widened. She looked down at the stepping stones that she was ‘given’. And all of a sudden, her foot slipped off one, sending her tumbling below.
Milansea noticed that fall and turned around, scoffing at her easy win. When everything trailed after her own speed, she never felt any danger then. She promised to make herself be faster than anything in this world, so that she would never again be caught off guard. If no one could catch her, then… she would never have to face loss. She would always be the first to go…
“Farewell, clone of mine. I won’t let the past catch up to me any longer….”
But as she continued to run, Milansea suddenly heard footsteps trailing behind her approach. She whipped around to see Ludmila walking on air behind her, climbing steadily up to her path. Her face dropped in shock, but then, she noticed little flashes of light at Ludmila’s feet with each step.
Even if the paths were physically the same, each person’s route differed depending on their circumstances. Ludmila knew well that she would not become like Milansea, nor would she ever want to be. There was no need to accept a given path.
Instead, Ludmila had become her own person, with abilities forged under her own two feet. Flashes of mana emitted with each step, propelling her body upwards. She had done such a thing before in the past, forming blocks of mana to aid in her movements.
However, those blocks of mana had been static, using up quite a bit of her reserves to maintain them. She had only been able to form a handful in the shape of a dome in which she accelerated within. A large amount of them couldn’t be created continuously to form an alternate pathway.
But if she only needed for them to exist for a split second, long enough to continue moving forward, that was a different story. She formed the slightest foothold on the bottom of her feet, leaving them to disappear right after they were used.
“How?” Milansea gawked as Ludmila now had the eyes of a predator.
“I don’t need to match your speed with mine. I will go about my life at my own pace. This is what I have decided!”
This was the ‘path’ that she decided to take. Rather than submitting to one of Milansea’s making, she would forge her own.
Ludmila suddenly disappeared, ending up an instant later right in front of Milansea, a single chime echoing in the background. Her fist came forward at a blinding speed, aided by ‘Instant Acceleration’ and the chime of a single Clock-endspiel. The blow slammed into Milansea’s torso, folding her in half before sending her spiraling off the path. She flailed wildly as her body became a ragdoll in the air.
Ludmila could have left her to fall into the abyss at that point, but she was not done yet. After all, Milansea was the god responsible for creating the tragic family that she was born into. She was responsible for the existence of Urkan.
Ludmila disappeared again, and with the sound of another chime, she reappeared again with another savage punch that sent Milansea buckling and spinning back up towards the sky again.
Three, four, five, and six. The chimes rang one at a time, interrupted by Ludmila disappearing and reappearing again to deliver another attack. Walking on air in a split second of time made her virtually teleport as she delivered another several attacks that had Milansea’s name on it.
And finally, on the twelfth chime, she caught the injured Milansea in her arms, making her way briskly back up to the path before leisurely trotting along. The weight of another person didn’t feel as heavy as she expected. But perhaps, she had grown past where such a thing would encumber her.
Milansea woke up to see Ludmila princess carrying her, much to her embarrassment. With a squeak, Milansea asked.
“Why? Why did you save me? You could have just left me to die, after all I did to make your life hell.”
Ludmila looked down at her with a chuckle.
“You did. But you also sent me to Master. I am running my own path because of it. So for that, I am grateful enough to catch you in the end.”
“Look at you… so cute in your frills, but a lion underneath them all. How did one of my selves ever get so wild?”
“Are you bitter that I’ve won our game of cat and mouse?”
Milansea’s mouth opened and closed, her eyes pondering for a moment before she let out a deep sigh.
“Surprisingly… no. It feels strange to be swept up in another’s pace after so long... but it’s not bad at all…”
Milansea had willingly played this game of the gods, led by the Architect. He had convinced her that she merely needed to run away from her troubles if they ever arose. Her powers had literally taken that to heart. But she could tell. She had just been running away from reality and herself each time, choosing some scenario for her incarnations and then running away without a care. That had finally caught up to her, but it didn’t feel as bad as she thought it would.
Milansea leapt out of Ludmila’s arms and landed on her feet. Checking that she could still move normally, she stuck a hand towards Ludmila.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to run with anyone. Maybe, that’s what I’ve been missing all this time. I’ve always wanted to run with ‘you know who’, but he always seems to be anchored to his beliefs.”
“The same with me. He will never change on that point, no matter how many versions of him he becomes.”
Milansea smiled as they trotted along the pathway together at a leisurely pace, no longer bothered by the unsteady footholds. Milansea could pull Ludmila along if she felt unsteady, and Ludmila could offer an extra foothold if Milansea made a mistake. Together, the looming cloud behind them was a distant memory, until it faded from their surroundings.
“Let’s keep an eye out ahead.”
“Because a certain someone always needs watching out for.”
Soon, their pace became as one, skipping along this strange world of their creation. They could feel no gravity here. They were dashing down a path of their own choosing, not needing to look anywhere but ahead.
Into the horizon, into the light, as everything turned white, they continued moving forward.