Chapter 33 - The Red Sword (3)

4

Rain fell.

Even a blaze that would sweep across a vast plain and burn it must begin with a handful of embers. Even a torrent that would overflow and flood the very foot of the sky must begin with a single drop.

I could not call myself a blaze, but I had become a handful of embers. Though I could not call myself a torrent, perhaps I had become a single drop.

“Hmm.”

Rain fell.

An old man stood in the middle of the flowing water. He gave me a slight nod.

“Let us fight together, young man.”

The number-one hunter.

The Sword Star.

Commander of the Aegim Empire's Knights.

The streams converged.

“... Ahahaha!”

Rain fell.

“Ah! My apologies for being late!”

Laughter approached with a splash through a rain puddle.

“I could have arrived a little sooner, but leading troops here proved rather less than easy!”

The source of the laughter, reflected on the water, had only one arm. The red beam had swept through this street and destroyed everything. In that place, where nothing but puddles remained, a one-armed priest stood tall.

“Thank you, Hunter Kim Gongja.”

The Inquisitor adjusted his hat with his one remaining hand.

Rain fell.

Behind the Inquisitor, blurred by the rain, something came running. Something surged through the rainwater.

“We will now carry on with the time you bought us.”

Thousands of soldiers.

The empire's soldiers charged, dodging collapsed buildings, leaping over deep craters, and splashing through puddles. No, there were even people who were not soldiers. Commoners without armor. Imperial citizens without helmets. They surged forward with their bodies all but bare.

“An order from your supreme commander, everyone.”

The Inquisitor smiled gently.

Thousands of soldiers and tens of thousands of commoners roared.

“Slaughter the sons of bitches who have bared their fangs at the empire.”

The fourth-ranked hunter.

Master of the Pantheon, the Inquisitor.

The empire's supreme commander.

Reinforcements joined the fray.

“Raaaaah!”

Rain fell.

Drops became a flowing torrent.

The monster army, which had surged toward us like a terrifying tidal wave, had come to a halt. Like waves stilled at high tide, the monsters hesitated before the gate. A reversal. The tide of battle turned, the incoming tide began to ebb, and where the gate had fallen, the water began to flow backward.

“God is with us!”

Rain fell.

“Long live the Aegim Empire!”

Rain fell.

'Ah.'

I could not tell when the rainwater had swept me away. Was it because time had slowed? Before I knew it, I was running as the first drop of an overflowing torrent.

A refugee from some small country on the frontier swung a spear to my left. A farmer who had worked the fields in an imperial village, now destroyed, struck with a pickaxe to my right. When I looked back, a hunter dressed much like me raised a blade.

They kept saying something.

“...”

“...!”

I could not understand them.

Was it the sound of the rain? The people's cheers? Ah, the monsters' howling screams? Was it because time had slowed after all? Was it because I had already become a single drop, merely being swept along with them?

Or was it because I was swinging my sword?

“...!”

Forward.

“...”

Farther forward.

Until the blaze burned every plain and the torrent flooded every corner.

Just a little farther forward.

“... Hey.”

Something tapped me. Touched my shoulder. Through tens of thousands of voices and hundreds of millions of raindrops, that something spoke to me. It had only one eye and wore an eyepatch.

“Good work. I should've come a little sooner. Tch! I was late because I had to bring our guild members along with the Imperial Guard. But don't worry. Now I'll show you exactly why we're called the Heavenly Martial School—”

It paused.

“...”

Suddenly, it stopped speaking. What was wrong? Instead of speaking, it quietly studied my face with its one remaining eye.

“You're not listening. Are you immersed? You're something special, kid. I like you.”

It chuckled softly.

“Hey, my name's Liao Fan. You probably can't hear me anyway, but it doesn't matter. ... You saved my life in the audience chamber earlier. What kind of master of the Heavenly Martial School would I be if I left a debt unpaid? Just look straight ahead and run. I'll take your left flank. This is one hell of a privilege, you know.”

It raised its sword.

“Not once has anyone standing to my right died.”

Rain fell.

“Go, rising star.”

I swung my sword.

“I'll protect you.”

The torrent grew ever stronger.

It flowed fiercely.

“Sorry I'm late! I was busy looking for the empire's emperor. I found him in the end, but he'd already killed himself with poison. I'm afraid we won't be able to use his authority to rally more troops. I have no excuse.”

“It's quite all right. We should have no need to gather more troops here. More importantly, young Paladin, join us in the fight.”

“Of course. Hmm? Why is Hunter Kim Gongja...”

“Don't disturb him right now.”

Rain fell.

“He's savoring a golden moment.”

Rain fell.

“Pitiful creatures.”

“Did you think that time granted to you would truly be yours?”

“Even the power of the goddess who watches over you has waned. The empire has no god now. What will you rely upon? Will you prove yourselves entirely on your own? Very well, then.”

Mocking laughter flowed along the rainwater.

“Show me.”

Red light.

But there were things standing in front of me.

So many of them.

“Hey, Witch! Get those mirrors up!”

“I know. I missed it once, but I won't let it happen twice.”

“Old geezer! When the Witch scatters the beam, you and I cut it apart!”

“I am quite sufficient on my own.”

“It's coming, everyone!”

Rain fell.

“... Scatter.”

Six shafts of light flashed. Light from mirrors. The red beam struck a mirror and slid aside.

CRASH!

The first mirror shattered, then the second, then the third. But the fourth remained intact and deflected the red beam in its entirety.

“Sword Star! Viper!”

Something shouted.

“Hup.”

There was the sound of a breath drawn in.

“Yaaaaah!”

There was the sound of a breath expelled.

The sky split.

Between those two breaths, in and out, the sky split. Even the red beam cleaved apart. It was as if a vast sea had opened to either side.

A waterway opened wide.

Five voices chattered, each in its own way.

“Look! Look! I'm nowhere near kicking the bucket yet!”

“Prancing about without a shred of dignity.”

“Now's our chance!”

One of the voices whispered.

“I'll teleport us straight to the Demon King. Everyone, stay in contact with me!”

“Hurry! If the Demon King summons more monsters, we'll be back where we started!”

The five voices overlapped, one after another.

They gathered in one place.

And then.

“Kim Gongja!”

Someone reached out a hand.

Rainwater ran down that person's face.

“Take my hand!”

“...”

“We don't have time! Hurry!”

In that instant, the time that had felt like eternity unraveled.

I saw the people around me.

I heard the sounds surrounding me.

That was not all. Memories flooded in all at once—where I was, how I had come this far.

I was in the middle of a battlefield.

The empire's army and commoners were now clearly driving the monsters back. Hunters poured endlessly through the ruined gate. The next wave. Hunters who had finally realized what was happening on the twelfth-floor stage had entered the battlefield.

“Hunter Kim Gongja!”

With countless people behind us, we stood on the front line.

The Demon King's red strike had torn through even the monsters as it rushed toward us, leaving a straight, empty path from here to the Demon King. Monsters would soon swarm in, but not yet.

“Hurry!”

The hunters had gathered together there.

In a way, it was a little ridiculous.

The Inquisitor rode on Viper's back. Viper scowled fiercely and gripped the Sword Star's forearm. Scowling even harder, the Sword Star rested a hand on the Paladin's shoulder. The Paladin held the Witch's left hand with an impassive expression.

'... If I took a picture of this and posted it online, it'd go viral.'

It was such a fearsome spectacle that the thought came unbidden.

While I was lost in that absurd fantasy, the Witch shouted.

“You! If you don't take my hand right now, I'm leaving you here alone!”

The Witch was holding her right hand out to me.

'Ah.'

And I realized.

This scene would soon vanish.

The bitter argument between the Sword Star and me.

How the Paladin's persuasion had finally made him withdraw his blade.

How he had bowed his head and apologized to me.

How the Inquisitor had brutally murdered three hunters.

Our fighting each other.

Our stopping that fight.

Our fighting together.

'It will all disappear.'

Everything.

Like rainwater flowing away and vanishing somewhere.

'They won't remember.'

But.

“What are you doing, partner?”

That was enough.

“Time to go kill the boss monster, you punk.”

Even if something was not remembered, that did not mean it disappeared.

I had a sword.

Here stood a human who had died on the first floor. Here was a ghost who had died on the ninety-ninth. No one knew of their deaths. Yet the two of us had come this far.

“... All right.”

When I went back, none of the problems would be solved.

The Sword Star would still suspect me, and when the time to choose rewards came again, the hunters would once more suspect or kill each other.

“Let's go.”

But I had grown a little stronger.

I would not let innocent people die. Nor would I stand by while the Union's leader, the Count, was killed and contact between the outside world and the Tower was severed. I now had some idea who the Traitor was. I was certain.

I would do a little better.

“Good!”

The Witch gripped my hand tightly.

“Teleport!”

The next instant, we dropped out of thin air. Five people landed at once. We had crossed the battlefield in a single leap, and before us stood the aloof Demon King, sword in hand.

“Interesting.”

The Demon King was black.

As if a shadow had taken human form.

“The goddess's Heroes?”

It had a face but no expression. Arms but no hands. Legs but no feet, so rather than standing firmly on the ground, the Demon King looked ready to sink beneath it at any moment.

No, it was sinking even now. Its body constantly trickled down. Its skin was like murky, filthy water, dripping downward in heavy drops. But as much as flowed away, fresh filth welled up from within its body.

The master of nightmares.

A moving shadow.

Darkness forever trickling down.

“Heroes. Do you know there is a Traitor among you? Surely you do. Yet even knowing, you desperately mend your trust, folding and stitching together scraps of torn rags. Do you think those rags will become a garment to cover you?”

Was there any need to listen further?

As far as I was concerned, no.

Gripping a single sword, I charged.

“Kim Gongja!”

The female knight's startled voice came from behind me.

“No! Wait! You can't charge ahead alone! We all have to work together and attack—”

I'm sorry.

See you in the next life.

Though you won't remember what happened today.

“Oh?”

Watching me charge alone, the Demon King laughed.

“How foolish.”

It was a strange laugh. Since the Demon King's face had neither eyes nor a mouth, the laughter seemed to seep from its skin. Each time that pitch-black, filthy-water shadow flowed down and surged up again, laughter burst forth.

“Have you come to kill me, Hero?”

The Demon King swung its sword.

It was a blow I could not possibly block as I was now.

Just before the blade reached me and severed my neck, I spoke.

“No.”

I did not raise the holy sword and pretend to block.

There was no need.

Instead, I simply raised my middle finger with utmost courtesy.

“I came to get killed by you, asshole.”

I'll deal with you in the next life, too.

Brief though it was, I distinctly saw the Demon King's laughter freeze.

“...!”

“...ja, ...!”

Soon I could hear nothing.

My consciousness faded.

Sight, hearing, pain—all my senses blacked out in an instant.

Only the rain falling on my face remained perceptible to the very end.

And then.

[You have died.]

A voice sounded.

[Your death fulfills the skill's conditions.]

[Randomly copying a skill from the monster Demon King of Autumn Rain.]

Now, then.

[Forming a skill card.]

Round two begins.