The Price of Salvation
Slaying the monsters, Yoon Siwoo thought to himself: the world was a truly cruel place.
Scarlet was a strong girl. Even though she knew she had very little time left, she could still smile and say she was trying her best to be happy, all to keep her promise to him.
She was so incredibly strong that she would rather die than harm another with her own hands.
Even as her breath faded, she had smiled radiantly, telling him he was indeed a dependable person. That smile haunted his mind constantly.
Just how much pain and anguish did she endure on a daily basis to be able to smile so brightly even in the throes of death? What kind of resolve did she live with to smile and thank him—the very person who had done that to her? He couldn't even begin to fathom it.
He could only be certain of one thing: her life had been anything but happy.
He had only wished that she, born with such a tragic fate, could spend what little time she had left in peace and happiness. Why did the world always inflict trials and tribulations upon the kind-hearted?
Griting his teeth, he impaled the monster before him. His hands trembled. The sensation of that day, when his own hands had pierced the girl's body, lingered like a phantom echo. To erase it, he swung his sword even more violently.
The red blood of the monsters sprayed everywhere. At the sight of the crimson fluid, his grip tightened involuntarily. He loathed it. He loathed that these wretched beasts shared the same color of blood as her.
He had been taught to control his emotions when wielding a sword, but today, he refused to. He hacked and slashed at the monsters, using them as a vent for his fury.
Eventually, he felt gazes from behind the defensive barriers. The Academy students, who were scheduled for a field trip today, were watching him from afar.
He caught a fleeting glimpse of Scarlet's eye-catching red hair. Not long ago, just knowing she was nearby would have made his heart flutter. Now, instead of a flutter, a heavy, sinking feeling weighed down his chest.
Even as he finished off the monsters and began reorganizing his gear, that bitter feeling did not fade. Yet, he couldn't stop his eyes from naturally drifting toward her. Not out of affection, but out of sheer worry and anxiety.
Wondering what kind of hardships she was hiding behind her expressionless face, he kept his eyes fixed on Scarlet. That was when an anomalous figure caught Yoon Siwoo's attention.
Right next to Scarlet, where no one had been standing just a moment ago. A hooded figure stood there, blending in far too naturally.
"My, how dashing. I almost felt a little flutter at that promise to protect her."
A thin, high-pitched female voice. Before he could even question her identity, his body was already moving, sprinting toward Scarlet.
"...Who are you? Unauthorized personnel are not permitted here."
"Ah, don't worry. I'm not a suspicious person."
Yoon Siwoo saw it. As the woman replied to Captain Martina's wary question, she looked directly at the rushing Siwoo and offered a sly smile.
A sickening shiver of dread ran down his spine, prompting him to throw himself forward even faster. But the distance between the battlefield and where the students stood was too great. An ominous light flared from a bead the woman drew from her robes.
"Because I'm not a person—I'm a Witch."
Along with the voice of the Holy Sword of Truth revealing the reality,
The monstrous screech of beasts echoed in all directions, and—
"No!!!!!"
Yoon Siwoo's hollow scream echoed within the barrier.
"What the hell! How did these monsters suddenly—!"
"That doesn't matter right now! We have to save the students first...!"
"Damn it, it's a barrier! To get to the students, we have to take down the monsters maintaining it! Intercept every single monster inside the barrier!"
The appearance of the woman who called herself a Witch. And the simultaneous deluge of monsters pouring from the empty air. The frantic, anxious shouts of the squad members, facing an unprecedented crisis, echoed within the barrier.
It wasn't that the squad members themselves were in danger. While such a massive onslaught of mid-grade monsters was extremely rare, they posed little threat to the knights. The members of Astrape were elites fully capable of handling mid-grade monsters with ease.
The real problem lay with the students, who were now isolated in the same space as the monsters and a Witch of unknown power, all due to the barrier.
Knowing that any delay could lead to disaster, the squad members desperately began striking down the monsters within the barrier to reach the students as quickly as possible.
Aside from their barrier ability, the monsters of greed had relatively weak combat capabilities compared to other beasts. Since the barrier trapped even the monsters themselves, restricting their flight—their primary advantage—the beasts within were shot down in the blink of an eye by the squad members.
As Yoon Siwoo leaped into the air with terrifying momentum, slicing through the beasts, a sense of dissonance struck him.
'Wait... why are there so few monsters?'
Compared to the sheer number that had initially emerged, the count of monsters flying inside the barrier was ridiculously low. Could the rest of that massive horde have gone to where the students were?
The image of the students being swarmed by countless monsters flashed through his mind. Yoon Siwoo swiftly dispatched the last remaining beast, and the moment he saw the barrier dissolve, he lunged forward.
But what greeted him was—
"...What?"
Another barrier, identical to the one they had just escaped. Inside, a similar number of monsters were flying about.
Something was terribly wrong. The moment Yoon Siwoo realized this, a barrage of magic unleashed by Martina wiped out the flying monsters in a single instant.
With the monsters maintaining the barrier dead, the wall crumbled once more—only for yet another identical barrier to reveal itself right behind it.
His dread solidified into certainty.
"These bastards are blatantly stalling for time...!"
Monsters of greed had inferior combat capabilities, but their barrier ability was incredibly troublesome. While it was possible to shatter the barrier without killing the monsters, doing so required an immense amount of power. If a certain number of them gathered to cast it together, forcing it open became practically impossible.
Normally, monsters of greed were selfish creatures, even fighting amongst themselves over prey once they trapped humans inside. But right now, they were acting in perfect, disciplined unison, as if obeying someone's orders.
Grouping up in just the right numbers to make the barrier impossible to break by force, they cast them one after another. They were deliberately forcing a delay.
Yoon Siwoo grimaced as he severed a monster's head.
Even as its head was lopped off, the monster let out a mocking shriek, as if it knew exactly how to make things most difficult for them.
While they wasted time breaking these barriers one by one, what on earth was happening outside? If something were to happen to Scarlet...
At the worst-case scenario flashing through his mind, Yoon Siwoo shuddered and glared at the barrier. He couldn't go on like this if he wanted to pierce through the layers of barriers ahead. If conventional methods wouldn't work, he had to use an unconventional one...
The moment Yoon Siwoo resolved to use the technique he had been practicing with Lucy, she read his mind and murmured:
"Desist. Not only are you far from ready to wield that power, but there are also too many watching eyes here."
At her words, Yoon Siwoo scanned his surroundings. Just as Lucy said, there were too many people. If he used that method, there was a high probability that something truly irreversible would happen.
Yet, if he did nothing, something irreversible might happen on the other side. Ignoring Lucy's warning, Yoon Siwoo reached for the Holy Sword of Humility. Just as his fingers were about to close around it, Martina called out to him from behind.
"Yoon Siwoo! If you use that glowing sword you showed before, you can clear out the monsters inside the barrier all at once, right?"
If she was referring to the unleashed Glory's Holy Sword, that should indeed be possible. As Yoon Siwoo nodded, Martina asked again.
"How many times can you use it?"
"I've never counted, but probably up to five times..."
Since it was an attack powerful enough to reach the clouds, it drained an immense amount of energy. Remembering Lucy's warning that exceeding five uses would tear his body apart, Yoon Siwoo answered.
Martina nodded at his response and muttered:
"Got it. Then pour it out to your absolute limit. You and I are the only ones here capable of large-scale area-of-effect attacks. We'll need preparation time, so we'll take turns. Understood?"
Yoon Siwoo understood her intention. Rather than having all the squad members hunt down the monsters one by one, it would be much faster to wipe them out entirely with wide-range attacks. It would place a heavy burden on just the two of them, but it was undeniably the quickest route.
Excluding the reckless shortcut he had contemplated earlier, this was the fastest way to break through. Yoon Siwoo nodded and drew Glory's Holy Sword.
Martina channeled her mana and shouted to the squad members who were busy intercepting the monsters.
"Division 4! Assemble behind me!"
At her command, the entire squad gathered behind her in perfect order. Hearing the plan, Vice-captain Kanna asked with a tense expression:
"...Captain, we don't even know how many layers of barriers there are. Is this really feasible?"
"Fuck 'feasible,' we have to make it feasible. This is our best shot if we want to get out of here fast. Even if I drain all my mana and collapse, I'll tear down every single one of these barriers, so just make sure you save those kids."
"...Understood."
Martina's orange mana rippled through the air. Yoon Siwoo also murmured softly:
"Holy Sword, release."
A brilliant golden light erupted from the sword in Yoon Siwoo's hand. Seeing him ready, Martina muttered toward the monsters flying inside the barrier:
"I hate water, so I'll burn you all to ashes with fire."
The moment she spoke, the sky inside the barrier burst into flames. As the flying monsters burned and plummeted, the barrier crumbled.
"Haaah!"
Immediately after, the slash of light Yoon Siwoo had prepared engulfed the monsters inside the next barrier that appeared.
Without a single moment to rest, Martina's magic unleashed again the instant Yoon Siwoo's attack concluded. Every time a wave of flames and a sword of light flashed within, a barrier vanished, only for another to take its place.
Repeating this cycle at a breakneck pace, they destroyed a total of ten barriers. Yet, the barriers remained.
"Huff... gasp... I'm sorry... I can't..."
Exhausted from the consecutive strikes, Yoon Siwoo collapsed to the ground, panting heavily. The brilliant gold light radiating from his hand gradually faded. Seeing this, Martina patted his shoulder.
"Yeah, you did great. Thanks to you, we saved a lot of time. Leave the rest to me."
"...Yes, ma'am."
Martina gathered her strength. Orange mana scattered as flames painted the sky one after another. The onslaught continued relentlessly, on and on, until—
"Ugh..."
With a low groan, Martina faltered. Her face turned pale—a clear sign of impending mana depletion.
No matter how great a mage she was, casting wide-scale area-of-effect spells of that magnitude without pause was too much. Yet, even as blood trickled from her lips, Martina squeezed out her mana once more.
To save the endangered students as quickly as possible, she wrung out every last drop of her mana to cast her spells. Even with an expression that screamed she had reached her absolute limit, her trembling hands continued to weave magic.
Watching her, Yoon Siwoo suddenly felt incredibly pathetic.
'What on earth am I doing right now?'
His hands shook from exhaustion, but his arms could still move. His legs trembled, but they could still support his weight. While his captain was pushing herself to the brink like that, and while his precious person was in grave danger outside, what was he doing sitting on the ground?
Why was he the only one acting pathetic, claiming he had reached his limit? If there was a limit, wasn't this the exact place to surpass it?
Yoon Siwoo bit his lip and muttered once more:
"...Holy Sword, release...!"
The light in his hand regained its brilliant luster. His body screamed from the sheer strain of the release, but he forced himself to stand.
"...Are you going to be okay?"
To Martina, who asked despite looking far worse off herself, Yoon Siwoo forced his lips into a smile—just like the girl he loved always did.
"I absolutely hate doing nothing and just relying on others..."
"...Ha, is that so?"
Martina let out a weak chuckle and muttered:
"Then don't go whining on me. Keep up."
Yoon Siwoo grinned and swung his sword. Light blanketed his vision. As if refusing to be outdone, flames roared to life, and once again, light cleaved the sky.
His joints creaked and his body screamed that it had reached its limit, but he swung his sword on sheer willpower alone. Finally, as if slicing through his own limits, the sky revealed itself beyond the pitch-black barrier.
Beneath the reclaimed sky, the sight of the students gathered together came into Yoon Siwoo's view. Relief washed over him seeing that most of them appeared unharmed. But immediately after, he realized something was wrong.
Yoon Siwoo scanned the crowd of students once more. But she wasn't there. Everyone else was present, but the one person who should have been there was missing.
Yoon Siwoo blankly observed the children's faces. Despite being safe and uninjured, their expressions were incredibly grim. Some were even weeping. Most of them were the students who had been close to Scarlet.
'No way.'
Please tell me it's not true. With that thought, Yoon Siwoo asked Sylvia, who was sobbing sorrowfully, in a trembling voice:
"Where is... where is Scarlet?"
At his question, Sylvia burst into tears. Yoon Siwoo felt the blood drain from his entire body. In that moment, he prayed desperately. No. Please, anything but that.
But Sylvia, choking back her sobs, forced him to face reality.
"...Ugh... in exchange... for letting us live..."
"...Ah—"
"...Instead, Lady Scarlet... went with the Witch..."
In that moment, Yoon Siwoo thought to himself: the world was a truly cruel place.
"Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!"