elapt1c/ElapticAI-512 · Datasets at Hugging Face

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In the next instant, Dorothea reappeared behind him. Without turning around, he used his nails to block her sword strike.
I heard about you from Socrat, he said. He told me there was a human far stronger than any human should ever be. I assume that d be you, Dorothea Nur?
Well deduced. Indeed, I am the one and only Dorothea. But a foul demon like you has no right to utter my name. Dorothea s arms became a blur.
Hm?! Sensing danger, Aristo leaped away, but he lost balance midway and tumbled.
With this, you can no longer flee, she declared.
Aristo s wings had been sliced off at their base.
Leave this area to me and the rearguard. Go, Rae Taylor, Claire Fran ois.
Dorothea Claire said with worry.
Let s go, Miss Claire. I took Claire s hand and bolted. As I left, I heard Dorothea s wrathful voice.
I was sure I had no motherly emotions in me, and yet now, I feel fury. Don t imagine your death will be a painless one, demon.

(2) chapter number given is likely out of range: 0
Chapter: 7

Intermission: Fierce to the End (Dorothea Nur)
Intermission:Fierce to the End(Dorothea Nur)

I WAS YOUNG when I realized I was different from those around me. Not different in that I was part of the imperial family but different in that I was far superior in ability to everyone. Whether it was in matters academic or the physical, I was able to learn in moments what took others years. As such, I expected to one day succeed the throne, and I came to believe I would as well.
I doubted many understood the boredom that came with being all-capable. I derived no pleasure from anything; every single thing I tried felt like a waste of time. Not even the total confidence I had in the fact that I would one day sit atop the throne stirred my heart. By the time I was old enough to comprehend my surroundings, I was already long weary of life. To others, such a problem might seem trivial, a shallow concern of the gifted but that did not change the fact that for me, this world was full of nothing but boredom.
That is, until I happened upon the Demon Queen.
I watched as my retainers died one after another. They, people I had always seen as far weaker than me, gave their lives to protect my own. I was helpless before her strength.
I won t kill you. Killing you would too greatly alter the course of history.
Without waiting for a response, the Demon Queen left. In her wake were countless corpses and one fool. That day, I learned fear, and I have spent the remainder of my life trying to stamp it out.
W-wait! What do you want?! The throne will be yours if you just wai
I killed my father, the previous emperor. I was seven at the time. It seemed he intended to cede the throne to me once I was of age, but that would have been too late for my liking.
Faster. I need to be faster.
To defeat the Demon Queen, I need to mold the empire into a superpower. No, that won t be enough. What if I unified all of humanity? Would we stand a chance then?
From then on, I worked toward expanding my empire. I invaded other countries left and right, forcibly unifying the world. Perhaps my methods were wrong. It didn t matter what greater cause my aggression served, nothing could justify it. I knew I wasn t in the right.
But I did what I had to.
Your Imperial Majesty, I implore you: Please try to understand the suffering of others. As things stand, no one will be able to comprehend your actions.
My manservant would often lecture me with these words, but I had no need to understand such things. The only thing I needed was power. Without power, one could do nothing. So I made power my everything.
Before I knew it, I was alone.

Aren t you starting to get tired? I doubt even you can best fatigue.
The demon named Aristo mocked me in a singsong voice. I wanted to shut his foolish mouth for good.
Still, I must say, he continued, you may be an enemy, but I m impressed. To think you d still be standing after fighting this many.
I looked around myself and saw the countless bodies of monsters and demons strewn about. I couldn t remember how many I had cut down, and I couldn t count how many still stood.
Why not give up? No matter how strong you might be, you cannot fight these numbers alone.
Perhaps, I replied.
I was the only human left standing. The soldiers of the rearguard had gone to the next world ahead of me. I didn t think I could cut down all the remaining enemies myself. But I still had some fight left in me.
Goodness You leave me no choice. I ll be your opponent myself. Consider it an honor.
Ha. You drain me with your minions and still have the nerve to speak of honor? Laughable.
I readied my swords. Nicks lined their edges here and there, but they d made it this far without breaking. And they only needed to make it a little farther yet.
Hah! I took a sharp exhale and closed the distance between me and the demon. I was agonizingly slow. To think this was the movement of the one who proclaimed herself to be the Sword God. Pathetic. I hadn t been this tired even after fighting a whole brigade of Sousse.
I prayed we had at least bought enough time for the evacuation.
So you choose to attack me head-on. You must be more exhausted than I thought. This is the end, Sword God.
On its current trajectory, my blade would meet the demon s nails. He would parry me and then lop off my head before I could get in another blow. However
What?! the demon exclaimed. To his eyes, it must have seemed as though I d disappeared. At a speed that should have been impossible with my remaining stamina, I had swept in behind him. This was thanks to the last ace up my sleeve my Living Armor.
The pitch-black armor I wore was a type of living magical tool. It was also the only magical tool I could make use of, a treasure excavated from an ancient ruin that had been passed down in the imperial family for generations. True to its name, it had a will of its own and acted autonomously to protect its wearer.
Your arrogance was your downfall, demon. With every last ounce of my strength, I swung my blade down.
Arrogance? No. This is the composure of a victor, human.
My final strike dug not into the demon but something else entirely.
How underhan No, I suppose not, I said.
Indeed. All is fair on the battlefield.
A lone ogre had thrown itself before the demon. My blade had sunk halfway into the ogre s horn before snapping.
You were strong, human. Farewell.
The demon thrust his nails through the right side of my chest. Without even needing to consciously register it, my body understood: This was a lethal blow. Nh
What s that? If you have any last words, I ll hear them out. I ll even deliver them directly to that daughter of yours, the demon taunted.
I m
Hm? I can t hear you, speak up.
The demon brought his head close to listen. With the last of my fading strength, I latched on to him.
I m taking you with me, demon.
What?!
Black flames engulfed my armor, setting the demon and myself ablaze.
Aughhh!
These are the flames of an ancient civilization. Make sure you relish them. They ll be the last thing you ever feel.
These black flames were set to manifest upon the armor-wearer s death and were said to be hot enough to melt even the adamantite forged by the Spirit God s own hands. They licked the demon s body as though alive, consuming him.
Huuuumaaaan! he seethed.
Ha ha Ha ha ha ha ha!
I might not have been able to keep my promise to Philine, but this didn t feel all too bad. As strange as it was, I was at peace.
Forgive me, Philine. Show me that you can overcome my death.
Ha. To think the last thought I m to have after this life of solitude is of the daughter I failed to love.
I continued to laugh as the last of my consciousness slipped away.
I m coming to join you, Dietfried.

***

Please move in an orderly fashion without hurrying or running! Philine called.
We returned to the capital and found everyone in the last stages of evacuation. Perhaps thanks to Philine s speech, the citizens were relatively calm, and things were proceeding smoothly.
Philine, Claire said.
Oh, Claire, Rae. Welcome back. Where s Mother?
Still handling the rearguard, Claire said. By the looks of things, she ll be a while. But I m sure she ll be okay. This is Dorothea we re talking about, after all.
Yeah. She ll be okay. She promised. Philine smiled like she hadn t a worry in the world. Perhaps some of that smile came from her trust in Dorothea, but most of it was probably a front so as not to worry the evacuating citizens around us.
To think the empress would come help personally. How wonderful, a citizen said.
Truly, another replied. If Empress Dowager Dorothea was the brains of the empire, then Her Imperial Majesty Philine is its heart.
That was a good way to put it. The empire under Dorothea s reign had been a top-down system with her controlling practically everything from her seat at its apex. Now, however, the empire was unified, with Philine at its center. Calling her the heart was pretty apt.
Claire, Rae, can you go ahead and give the front of the line some extra security? she asked. We re short on people over there.
Will the rear be okay? Claire asked.
I believe so. According to the reports, the pursuing forces have really started to let up. I m not sure why
We didn t know it yet, but at that moment, Dorothea and the rearguard soldiers she led were giving their lives to slay thousands, perhaps even tens of thousands of enemies. Among those enemies was one of the Three Great Archdemons, Aristo.
Dorothea Nur, sixteenth ruler of the Nur Empire, would be remembered forever as a hero in the annals of not just imperial history but that of the entire world.
Understood, Claire replied. We ll be off, then. Stay safe, Philine.
I will!
We parted with Philine, racing our horses forward to the head of the evacuation line.
Welcome back, Rae, Claire.
Welcome
Supervising the head of the line was Hilda and Adelina. As a reminder, Adelina was both Otto s older sister and the soldier who had almost gone and attempted a coup d tat. She still hadn t risen to the top ranks of the army like we discussed, but her competency had been noticed, so she d been assigned to the head of the line to lead protection efforts. She still seemed somewhat ambivalent toward us, as evinced by her stiff greeting.
The line was heading westward for now. The plan was to ultimately stop by the different surrounding cities, but first, we wanted to meet up with the reinforcements coming from Bauer.
It seems the evacuation is going well, Hilda, Claire said.
Thanks to the efforts of you and many others. But there s still a ways to go until we reach the provisional capital, our first destination. We can t let our guard down yet.

In the next instant, Dorothea reappeared behind him. Without turning around, he used his nails to block her sword strike.

I heard about you from Socrat, he said. He told me there was a human far stronger than any human should ever be. I assume that d be you, Dorothea Nur?

Well deduced. Indeed, I am the one and only Dorothea. But a foul demon like you has no right to utter my name. Dorothea s arms became a blur.

Hm?! Sensing danger, Aristo leaped away, but he lost balance midway and tumbled.

With this, you can no longer flee, she declared.

Aristo s wings had been sliced off at their base.

Leave this area to me and the rearguard. Go, Rae Taylor, Claire Fran ois.

Dorothea Claire said with worry.

Let s go, Miss Claire. I took Claire s hand and bolted. As I left, I heard Dorothea s wrathful voice.

I was sure I had no motherly emotions in me, and yet now, I feel fury. Don t imagine your death will be a painless one, demon.

(2) chapter number given is likely out of range: 0

Chapter: 7

Intermission: Fierce to the End (Dorothea Nur)

Intermission:Fierce to the End(Dorothea Nur)

I WAS YOUNG when I realized I was different from those around me. Not different in that I was part of the imperial family but different in that I was far superior in ability to everyone. Whether it was in matters academic or the physical, I was able to learn in moments what took others years. As such, I expected to one day succeed the throne, and I came to believe I would as well.

I doubted many understood the boredom that came with being all-capable. I derived no pleasure from anything; every single thing I tried felt like a waste of time. Not even the total confidence I had in the fact that I would one day sit atop the throne stirred my heart. By the time I was old enough to comprehend my surroundings, I was already long weary of life. To others, such a problem might seem trivial, a shallow concern of the gifted but that did not change the fact that for me, this world was full of nothing but boredom.

That is, until I happened upon the Demon Queen.

I watched as my retainers died one after another. They, people I had always seen as far weaker than me, gave their lives to protect my own. I was helpless before her strength.

I won t kill you. Killing you would too greatly alter the course of history.

Without waiting for a response, the Demon Queen left. In her wake were countless corpses and one fool. That day, I learned fear, and I have spent the remainder of my life trying to stamp it out.

W-wait! What do you want?! The throne will be yours if you just wai

I killed my father, the previous emperor. I was seven at the time. It seemed he intended to cede the throne to me once I was of age, but that would have been too late for my liking.

Faster. I need to be faster.

To defeat the Demon Queen, I need to mold the empire into a superpower. No, that won t be enough. What if I unified all of humanity? Would we stand a chance then?

From then on, I worked toward expanding my empire. I invaded other countries left and right, forcibly unifying the world. Perhaps my methods were wrong. It didn t matter what greater cause my aggression served, nothing could justify it. I knew I wasn t in the right.

But I did what I had to.

Your Imperial Majesty, I implore you: Please try to understand the suffering of others. As things stand, no one will be able to comprehend your actions.

My manservant would often lecture me with these words, but I had no need to understand such things. The only thing I needed was power. Without power, one could do nothing. So I made power my everything.

Before I knew it, I was alone.

Aren t you starting to get tired? I doubt even you can best fatigue.

The demon named Aristo mocked me in a singsong voice. I wanted to shut his foolish mouth for good.

Still, I must say, he continued, you may be an enemy, but I m impressed. To think you d still be standing after fighting this many.

I looked around myself and saw the countless bodies of monsters and demons strewn about. I couldn t remember how many I had cut down, and I couldn t count how many still stood.

Why not give up? No matter how strong you might be, you cannot fight these numbers alone.

Perhaps, I replied.

I was the only human left standing. The soldiers of the rearguard had gone to the next world ahead of me. I didn t think I could cut down all the remaining enemies myself. But I still had some fight left in me.

Goodness You leave me no choice. I ll be your opponent myself. Consider it an honor.

Ha. You drain me with your minions and still have the nerve to speak of honor? Laughable.

I readied my swords. Nicks lined their edges here and there, but they d made it this far without breaking. And they only needed to make it a little farther yet.

Hah! I took a sharp exhale and closed the distance between me and the demon. I was agonizingly slow. To think this was the movement of the one who proclaimed herself to be the Sword God. Pathetic. I hadn t been this tired even after fighting a whole brigade of Sousse.

I prayed we had at least bought enough time for the evacuation.

So you choose to attack me head-on. You must be more exhausted than I thought. This is the end, Sword God.

On its current trajectory, my blade would meet the demon s nails. He would parry me and then lop off my head before I could get in another blow. However

What?! the demon exclaimed. To his eyes, it must have seemed as though I d disappeared. At a speed that should have been impossible with my remaining stamina, I had swept in behind him. This was thanks to the last ace up my sleeve my Living Armor.

The pitch-black armor I wore was a type of living magical tool. It was also the only magical tool I could make use of, a treasure excavated from an ancient ruin that had been passed down in the imperial family for generations. True to its name, it had a will of its own and acted autonomously to protect its wearer.

Your arrogance was your downfall, demon. With every last ounce of my strength, I swung my blade down.

Arrogance? No. This is the composure of a victor, human.

My final strike dug not into the demon but something else entirely.

How underhan No, I suppose not, I said.

Indeed. All is fair on the battlefield.

A lone ogre had thrown itself before the demon. My blade had sunk halfway into the ogre s horn before snapping.

You were strong, human. Farewell.

The demon thrust his nails through the right side of my chest. Without even needing to consciously register it, my body understood: This was a lethal blow. Nh

What s that? If you have any last words, I ll hear them out. I ll even deliver them directly to that daughter of yours, the demon taunted.

I m

Hm? I can t hear you, speak up.

The demon brought his head close to listen. With the last of my fading strength, I latched on to him.

I m taking you with me, demon.

What?!

Black flames engulfed my armor, setting the demon and myself ablaze.

Aughhh!

These are the flames of an ancient civilization. Make sure you relish them. They ll be the last thing you ever feel.

These black flames were set to manifest upon the armor-wearer s death and were said to be hot enough to melt even the adamantite forged by the Spirit God s own hands. They licked the demon s body as though alive, consuming him.

Huuuumaaaan! he seethed.

Ha ha Ha ha ha ha ha!

I might not have been able to keep my promise to Philine, but this didn t feel all too bad. As strange as it was, I was at peace.

Forgive me, Philine. Show me that you can overcome my death.

Ha. To think the last thought I m to have after this life of solitude is of the daughter I failed to love.

I continued to laugh as the last of my consciousness slipped away.

I m coming to join you, Dietfried.

***

Please move in an orderly fashion without hurrying or running! Philine called.

We returned to the capital and found everyone in the last stages of evacuation. Perhaps thanks to Philine s speech, the citizens were relatively calm, and things were proceeding smoothly.

Philine, Claire said.

Oh, Claire, Rae. Welcome back. Where s Mother?

Still handling the rearguard, Claire said. By the looks of things, she ll be a while. But I m sure she ll be okay. This is Dorothea we re talking about, after all.

Yeah. She ll be okay. She promised. Philine smiled like she hadn t a worry in the world. Perhaps some of that smile came from her trust in Dorothea, but most of it was probably a front so as not to worry the evacuating citizens around us.

To think the empress would come help personally. How wonderful, a citizen said.

Truly, another replied. If Empress Dowager Dorothea was the brains of the empire, then Her Imperial Majesty Philine is its heart.

That was a good way to put it. The empire under Dorothea s reign had been a top-down system with her controlling practically everything from her seat at its apex. Now, however, the empire was unified, with Philine at its center. Calling her the heart was pretty apt.

Claire, Rae, can you go ahead and give the front of the line some extra security? she asked. We re short on people over there.

Will the rear be okay? Claire asked.

I believe so. According to the reports, the pursuing forces have really started to let up. I m not sure why

We didn t know it yet, but at that moment, Dorothea and the rearguard soldiers she led were giving their lives to slay thousands, perhaps even tens of thousands of enemies. Among those enemies was one of the Three Great Archdemons, Aristo.

Dorothea Nur, sixteenth ruler of the Nur Empire, would be remembered forever as a hero in the annals of not just imperial history but that of the entire world.

Understood, Claire replied. We ll be off, then. Stay safe, Philine.

I will!

We parted with Philine, racing our horses forward to the head of the evacuation line.

Welcome back, Rae, Claire.

Welcome

Supervising the head of the line was Hilda and Adelina. As a reminder, Adelina was both Otto s older sister and the soldier who had almost gone and attempted a coup d tat. She still hadn t risen to the top ranks of the army like we discussed, but her competency had been noticed, so she d been assigned to the head of the line to lead protection efforts. She still seemed somewhat ambivalent toward us, as evinced by her stiff greeting.

The line was heading westward for now. The plan was to ultimately stop by the different surrounding cities, but first, we wanted to meet up with the reinforcements coming from Bauer.

It seems the evacuation is going well, Hilda, Claire said.

Thanks to the efforts of you and many others. But there s still a ways to go until we reach the provisional capital, our first destination. We can t let our guard down yet.