Chapter 32 - The Red Sword (2)

A spray of blood erupted.

"Kieeeee!"

The goblin let out a long scream. In my time, that scream never broke off.

"That's one down."

Blood splashed into the air. Red. The blood was the same color as the rain. While droplets of blood still swam through the air, before the raindrops could fall, the world between blood and rain was red.

I adjusted my grip on the sword.

"Take out the one on your left next."

Then I swung.

"Kreeeeee!"

The second.

Before the first goblin had even finished dying, the second was cut down. It took an instant. Blood erupted on my right and left. The monsters hadn't even seen my sword, and they screamed side by side on either side of me.

As one died, another.

As that one died, yet another.

"Eeeee!"

"E-eeeee!"

"Kieeeee!"

Just before one monster's scream broke off, another monster began to scream. And so the screams around me never ended.

A performance of the sword.

My sword was like a baton conducting a chorus of screams.

"One second has passed," the attendant spirit said.

"Don't break up your swings, Gongja. Don't separate one strike from the next. Connect them. Cut in one continuous flow."

I swung my sword.

"Cut from top to bottom. Just because your sword has gone from up high to down low doesn't mean your strike is over. It's no different from music. Think of it that way. When a note sinks low, it's only so it can rise again."

A scream rang out.

"Connect them! Once your sword goes down, carry the motion through and cut upward. That way, your sword keeps flowing."

Another second passed.

"Swordsmanship is a battle for time! An inexperienced fighter can command one second at best. One swing, and that's it. They're blind. They don't know how to carry their next strike through. But someone a little more skilled can command five seconds."

The enemy shed blood.

My body shed breath.

"Don't let time slip away!"

Before all the blood had flowed.

Before all the breath had flowed.

"Don't waste it! Cutting down one enemy isn't the end. Nothing has ended. Know ahead of time where you need to swing next! People ordinarily just let time flow past. But a swordsman mustn't do that! Don't throw away a second. Live that second in full."

Between the enemy's blood and my breath, the blade flowed.

"A swordsman is someone who lives by the sword."

I swung my sword.

"Did you think living a single second would be easy? Are you truly living?"

I swung my sword.

"People aren't alive when they're simply letting time pass. They're only truly alive when they devote their time to something. Gongja, you're a swordsman. So you must live by the sword."

I swung my sword again.

"Burn brighter!"

A goblin clawed my forearm, drawing blood. Ah, my head reeled. My heart pounded. Even through the terrible pain, I swung my sword and glared straight ahead.

"Kieeee!"

"Grrrr, grrr..."

"Krooooo!"

Countless monsters.

Monsters poured out from beyond the red cloud of dust. Countless hostile intentions. Countless malicious intentions. Monsters intent on devouring my body and drinking my blood. Drenched in the red rain, they charged at me.

"Ten seconds now."

This was ten seconds.

Everything up to this point had taken only ten seconds.

"Burn brighter, Gongja. Don't let your life trickle away. Burn it."

I gripped the hilt with all my strength.

"Show them who you are."

Then I roared.

"Raaaaaaaah!"

My roar rang out where the gate had collapsed into nothing but a gap, in the heart of the battlefield, on the very front line of this war. The soldiers shooting arrows from the walls flinched. The monsters charging out of the dust cloud hesitated.

"Yeah. Fuck, that's it."

The attendant spirit chuckled.

"You're finally losing that zombie face, you bastard!"

I sprinted straight ahead.

"Groh...?"

I first targeted a goblin whose feet had stopped for an instant.

SH slash!

Before it could react, I lopped off its damn head. The goblin's head flew into the air, its maw hanging open.

I swung my sword.

"Grrr, rr."

Next, I targeted the orc standing blankly beside it.

SLICE!

Before it could even raise its club, I drove my blade into its head. A fountain of blood erupted.

I swung my sword.

'A little more.'

At a skeleton.

'A little more.'

At another goblin.

'Just a little more.'

At countless orcs.

'More! Just a little more!'

Toward innumerable monsters.

'Look!'

I swung my sword.

'Look at me!'

I was alive.

When I swung my sword, I was alive.

"Krooooooo!"

An ogre.

An ogre emerged from the red dust cloud, brandishing an enormous club.

Once. Twice. Each time the monster moved its club, a gale blew. The thick dust cloud settled over the collapsed gate scattered in the wind.

Little goblins and the like were caught in the ogre's swings.

THWACK!

One goblin went flying straight into the wall. With the sound of shattering bones, it was reduced to pulp.

Yes. That thing had no sense of camaraderie. It probably felt no kinship even with its own kind. It had no sympathy, compassion, or mercy for anyone.

And so it was a beast.

An ugly beast.

"Roooooo!"

The beast howled savagely. It bared its teeth at me alone.

'Come.'

And here stood a lone hunter. A hunter with his sights on the beast.

'I'll show you.'

BOOM!

The ogre took a step. A corner of the wall that had only barely held against collapse crumbled helplessly.

BOOM!

The ugly beast had enormous feet. Every step shook the ground. The walls that protected the empire fell. Shaking the earth and bringing down the barriers, the ogre charged toward me.

"Plant your feet on the ground."

But...

"Look ahead with your eyes."

What I had to do hadn't changed at all.

"Cut down your enemy with your sword."

I charged at the monster.

BOOM!

The enormous beast planted its foot. I seized that moment. As the ogre raised its club to send my body flying, I twisted my blade right in front of it.

White light.

The holy sword's light pierced the ogre's eyes.

"Grooooo!"

The ogre had already committed to its swing. It would be hard for it to change the course of its attack.

'Why?'

Now, with time stretched endlessly into a single moment, I dodged the club and rushed at the orc, a thought running through my mind.

'Why did you give an EX-rank skill to a bastard like that?'

A thought about the Flame Emperor, Yoo Suha.

About this Tower... which had bestowed the regression skill upon him.

'He didn't have to be some great saint. Someone with a little more common sense. If you'd only given the skill to someone a little more decent, there wouldn't have been any problem. But why? Why that psychopath, of all people?'

WHOOSH!

The ogre's club swept past the tip of my nose. Its attack had missed because the holy sword's light had blinded it for the briefest instant. That gave me a momentary opening.

'Don't tell me... is that it?'

I leaped.

'Are you saying no one but Yoo Suha can conquer the Tower? That to reign at the summit, you have to be like him?'

The ogre's eyes widened as it saw me flying through the air. The monster tried to use its club again. But it was already too late.

'Don't make me laugh!'

I would show it.

'I'll clear the twentieth floor in the Flame Emperor's place.'

Not just the twentieth stage.

'The thirtieth, too.'

The fortieth stage, too.

'The fiftieth, too.'

The sixtieth. The seventieth. The eightieth. The ninetieth.

Even the ninety-ninth stage when the time came.

'All the way to the hundredth floor!'

Until I finally set foot on the summit.

'I'll show you!'

And so...

[Your existence becomes more distinct.]

I swung my sword.

[Hunter Kim Gongja's level increases.]

The blade cut precisely into the ogre's neck. A spray of blood shot upward.

The monster's hide was tough, but not sharper than my sword. Its hold on life was tenacious, but duller than my aura.

Even in its final dying moments, the ogre somehow swung its arm. Did it refuse to die quietly? There was no need to panic now. I simply struck once more.

[Your skill slots expand.]

[Your hunter rank is now D.]

The ogre's head fell.

BOOM!

A little later, the monster's body toppled.

[May good fortune be with you.]

Gradually, the red dust settled.

"Kirrr..."

"Kii, ki! Kiii."

I could see the monsters. The monsters that had been pouring through the fallen gate. The creatures that had seemed as though they would remain countless forever had, at some point, begun to hesitate. The sight of the enormous beast falling had frightened them.

Silence.

I could hear nothing but the falling rain. The empire's soldiers watched me from the walls, while the Demon King's monsters kept stumbling. Everything around me was quiet. There, where gazes drew near and footsteps retreated, I stood alone.

"Congratulations."

The attendant spirit grinned.

"Thirty seconds."

Then someone passed me. I knew who it was just from his back. A black suit. White hair. The Sword Star sprinted through the puddles. The strongest hunter in this Tower drew his sword and swept it in a wide horizontal arc.

SLASH!

In a single stroke, dozens of goblins lost their heads, and dozens of orcs were severed at the waist. Dozens of fountains of blood shot up at once.

One second. Two seconds. Three seconds.

It was only a brief moment, but in that moment I saw it. The streams of blood surging toward the sky were thicker than the streams of rain falling from it.

"..."

The Sword Star slowly turned to look at me, the spray of blood he had created behind him. The old man parted his lips.

"..."

I couldn't quite understand him. My time was still moving slowly.

"Hmm."

Had he noticed that my condition wasn't normal? The Sword Star smiled gently. This time, he infused his voice with aura.

"... Splendidly done."

The old man lifted his sword by the hilt.

Rain fell. Since the rain was red, the sword remained red even after the water ran off it.

"My name is Markus Kallenberg, young man."

I realized that this was his own way of showing respect.

"..."

I kept my mouth shut.

The second time.

This was the second time I had heard the number-one hunter tell me his name in person.

The first had been when I was still wandering the first floor. In a secluded alley, the Flame Emperor had gripped my head and whispered.

["My name is Yoo Suha."]

["Goodbye."]

That day, I was murdered.

Today, I heard a name for the second time. A different name, and a different person.

Suddenly, I felt that I, too, had changed.

And I knew that the person I was now could do something I had never been able to do, something I had never done during that first encounter.

"My name is Kim Gongja, sir."

Today.

I spoke my name.