Senia, and ■■■ (1)
My vision suddenly flashed crimson.
My eyes fluttered half-shut of their own accord, and only after I swiped a hand across my face did I register the stinging ache across my brow.
"...Is this blood?"
The hand that had brushed against my forehead was already stained a slick, dripping red. Just moments ago, it had been caked black from rolling frantically across the subterranean dirt, yet a single touch had painted it so thoroughly.
I really had shed a staggering amount.
─Screeeaaak!
Crash! Thud!
The beast threw itself about with deafening violence.
Starved and driven half-mad from ramming blindly into the stone walls with its prey dangling just out of reach, Shanberesh flew into an uncontrollable frenzy the second two of its targets vanished from sight.
Shrieking with bloodlust, its eyes blazed with predatory madness, utterly resolved not to let its lone remaining meal escape.
It grew increasingly reckless.
For an oversized rat that had been denied a single meal for so long by the Sirens, nothing remained within its primal brain except the ravenous urge to sate its starvation here and now. And because of that desperate frenzy, its movements grew rough and telegraphed.
─Keeek...!
Finding a blind spot born of its tunnel vision, I drove a strike into its flank. Channeling every scrap of mana remaining in the Belshuar Ark, my all-out blow smashed square into Shanberesh's ribs.
Yet, despite an impact saturated with such raw power, it was my own knuckles that flared with blinding numbness. Worse still, committing everything to a single strike left me wide open.
Shanberesh's long, whip-like tail whipped across my midsection. The frail body of a mere human was launched like a ragdoll, smashing brutally against the jagged cavern wall.
"Guh...!"
Even though I had thrown up an instinctive guard, the sheer kinetic force rendered my defense negligible. The same warm liquid that had been trickling down my split forehead now erupted violently from my mouth.
"Kgh...!"
Facing Shanberesh completely alone.
It was reckless beyond measure. I did not need to be a tactical genius to know that this was the very definition of throwing an egg against a boulder.
Yet, I had to stand my ground alone.
What if Cain arrived?
What if the Sirens came to help?
At first, it had seemed as though a coordinated raid between humans and Sirens might yield a glimmer of hope... but was that truly the case?
Looking at how multiple solid blows had failed to leave a single lasting mark, taking this creature down would require the entire Principality main army, not an isolated detachment. This monster occupied an entirely different echelon of strength compared to the Shanberesh I remembered from before my regression.
So what?
"I already knew this was something I had to settle on my own!"
I had steeled my resolve the moment I came here. No, from the very instant I laid eyes on Shanberesh again.
The humans were already succumbing to the Lemterte Plague.
The Sirens were on the brink of being trampled to extinction under Shanberesh's claws.
There was not a single soul down here who could lend me a hand. And I knew all too well that Senia, standing right beside me, would inevitably push herself past her breaking point.
I had anticipated every last piece of it, which was why I deliberately forced her out of this cave.
Because there was no way in hell I could let her die.
Senia was simply that kind of person.
To outsiders, she appeared sharp-tongued, overly calculating, and quick to snap with venomous sarcasm whenever someone failed to pull their weight—the quintessential cold-blooded meritocrat who only associated with the exceptionally competent. That was how most people saw her from the surface.
Yet...
'Who's there...? Wait, Senia?'
'Ah, damn it...'
That was not who she really was.
She was the girl who would sneak out in the dead of night just to silently slip you a bottle of your favorite drink, only to clumsily bungle the attempt and get caught red-handed. No matter how brilliant and composed she tried to appear, she was full of endearing, clumsy humanity in the smallest details. And that was hardly all.
'...You knew? That I've been training out here every night?'
'You leave faint threads of mana trailing into the dark every single night. How could I not know, you idiot?'
'Why bother looking after someone like me? You should spend that time on Charlotte or Cain...'
'Hey. I don't look at people through clouded, prejudiced lenses.'
A cold meritocrat who only valued the gifted? Utter nonsense.
Far from being callous or ruthless, she was someone who grumbled constantly while quietly going out of her way to care for others, fiercely respecting those who strove in earnest. That was the real Senia.
And...
When everyone else blamed my perceived uselessness, heaping curses and pointing fingers at me, she was one of the precious few friends who stood at the vanguard to speak up in my defense.
And what had that same Senia said to me earlier?
'...Leave me and run, Junon.'
She had told me that she would sacrifice herself so that I could escape.
What a ridiculous joke.
I never wanted her to sacrifice herself.
I had zero intention of letting her die.
In this life, I wanted to see her survive—whole, healthy, and breathing. Because the one thing I could never stomach was watching a precious friend from my past life die before my eyes all over again!
That was why I had committed to this suicidal madness. This absurd gamble of slamming an egg against stone.
Against a hide as hard as a mountain of bedrock, a mundane fist without an ounce of mana could not even leave a scratch. Yet, even if all I had were fists like soft cotton, if I struck the exact same spot relentlessly, the flesh would swell, bruise, and eventually tear open to spill black blood.
If all it took was sheer tenacity to target the deep laceration Senia's blade had already carved into its hide, I had more than enough grit to see it through.
─Kieeeek!
Yet it was still too weak.
A strike like that was nowhere near enough.
Just once.
I only needed to land one devastating blow—just enough to ensure that bastard could never chase after my friend.
"If I can just bring you down... if I can shatter your limbs and tear away whatever strength keeps you moving, by any means necessary...! I don't give a damn what kind of mana rebound tears through my body afterward!"
Every speck of mana slumbering in my body—even if it was raw, unrefined energy—I would force it all to the surface, even if it burned my mana circuits to ash in an instant.
Into this arm. Into this hand.
In these hands that had never held anything but a vanguard's shield, just this once...
I prayed desperately for a weapon of pure mana capable of piercing Shanberesh's throat.
Then, as if answering the sheer fury of my will, the mana within my depleted vessel began to violently surge.
A weapon.
What I needed was not a shield, but a weapon.
The raging torrent of mana slowly coalesced into form.
Bathing the dark cavern in radiant brilliance, it took shape.
"This is..."
It was a luminous spear woven of pure light. A flurry of thoughts crossed my mind in that split second, but I let them scatter into the wind.
"Yeah. This is plenty... A spear like this is more than enough to skewer your goddamn heart."
The spear of mana, manifested by squeezing out every drop of my soul, hurtled straight toward Shanberesh as the beast charged with a deafening screech.
The exact moment the lance left my fingertips, my body gave out, incapable of enduring the violent backdraft of mana, and crumpled lifelessly to the stone floor.
As my vision faded from total exhaustion, the last image that reflected in my closing eyes was Shanberesh's massive silhouette hurled skyward.
Before long, a foul, viscous rain splattered down upon my unmoving frame. I could not twitch so much as a single finger, yet the corners of my mouth curled into a faint, tranquil smile as the final ember of consciousness slipped away into dark relief.
"Hurry... Move faster! Use your tools, magic, whatever it takes—break through this wall right now!"
"Senia. We understand your desperation, but our strength alone cannot breach bedrock of this scale in such a short time..."
Senia was practically breathing fire at the helpless Sirens around her. They understood her agony a hundred times over, but the displaced demi-humans simply lacked the firepower to blast through the obstruction. The bedrock ceiling of the tunnel Shanberesh had carved had completely caved in; despite a dozen hands chipping away, they had barely made a dent in several minutes.
"Furthermore, you must think of your own condition! You have a compound fracture in your left leg. Walking around like this is sheer madness!"
"My leg isn't what matters right now!"
"I know! But after this much time has passed, child, you must prepare yourself for the worst!"
How could Junon have survived alone against a monstrosity like Shanberesh? The entire Siren clan had fought tooth and nail against the Devourers and Shanberesh, constantly retreating and shifting battlefronts until they were pushed back to this very spot.
"Sometimes one must know when to let go. The living must go on living!"
Heartbroken as he was, the Siren Elder could only urge her to accept reality, certain that Junon had already drawn his final breath.
"I don't care! Even if it's solid rock, if I keep cutting, a path will open!"
Just as she unsheathed her blade, fully intending to slash blindly at the collapsed boulder until her hands gave out—
─Chir!
Chir materialized out of nowhere, latching its small jaws onto the hem of Senia's coat.
"Chir...?"
"Why is that creature here...? Did Nella lose track of it again?"
Could Nella have truly lost it? Knowing how dearly she cherished Chir, the moment she saw the Devourers, she would have clutched the lizard to her chest and fled to safety. Given that Senia had already crossed paths with Nella's mother, it was far more likely that Chir had slipped away on its own.
Yet, it was not begging for mana as it usually did.
─Chir, chir-chir!
Its movements were distinctly frantic. Darting back and forth, it repeatedly gestured down a narrow subterranean crevice.
"Chir. You want me to follow you?"
─Chir.
"Alright. I'll follow... Agh!"
"Senior!"
Her shattered leg flared with agony, giving out beneath her. In this condition, she could not even limp forward. If so...
"Cain... follow Chir."
"Excuse me?"
"It's far smarter than it looks. It took an immediate liking to Junon, so it must be trying to lead us somewhere. As you can see, my leg is useless..."
Senia clenched her fists in bitter frustration as she leaned on Cain's shoulder, practically begging him.
"Then I will go ahead and scout."
"Please. That idiot..."
"You don't need to say another word. Hyeong-nim is just as important to me. Leave it to me."
Though her heart screamed at her to sprint ahead, her broken left leg remained stubbornly limp, filling her with helpless rage. She could only pray with every fiber of her being that he was still alive.
Meanwhile, as Cain followed the scampering lizard through the labyrinthine tunnels of the burrow, he soon came upon a chamber where his eyes nearly bulged from their sockets.
"What in the world... is this...?"
If Junon had merely managed to hold out and stay alive against Shanberesh, that alone would have been a miracle. In a corner of Cain's mind, knowing what Junon had accomplished in the past, he had held onto a thread of hope that such an outcome might be possible. He had desperately wished for reality to grant them that much.
But could this even be called reality?
Save for its severed head, Shanberesh's colossal body had been blown into unrecognizable shreds, flesh and chitin littering the cratered chamber in a gruesome sprawl.
"Wait, that's not what matters right now... Hyeong-nim is..."
─Chir!
Chir scurried past the cold, severed head of the fallen beast.
Just beyond it, slumped against the cavern wall amidst a pool of crimson vomit, lay Junon, completely unconscious and lost in deep slumber.
It was back during the days when skirmishes against demonic beasts had become a daily routine.
The Principality had been reduced to an ash-choked wasteland, leaving nowhere left to run. With most of the nation's key leaders either killed in action or trapped in mysterious comas, the one left holding the reins as Supreme Commander was Junon.
"Hey, Junon! Do you have any idea what we lost this time?!"
"Aris, we couldn't hold out in the capital anyway. There was nothing left to defend..."
"Shut your mouth! It was a mistake to put someone who can't do a damn thing into the commander's seat in the first place! How the hell are we supposed to trust you and follow your orders in a mess like this?!"
"..."
Erika stepped in as well, her voice dripping with sharp contempt.
"Not Scheat, not Algenib... but Shirakh? Thanks to that absurd plan of yours, do you even realize what we had to sacrifice?"
With circumstances deteriorating by the hour, Junon's insistence on relocating their primary bastion to Shirakh—the most isolated and logistically defenseless region—was impossible for them to comprehend.
Yet the true reason their fury boiled over lay elsewhere.
"Put everything else aside... shouldn't you at least say something?! Why aren't you saying a single word?!"
"..."
"Senia vanished because of you! How can you stand there looking so completely unbothered...? How can you be so cold?!"
"You piece of trash... To think we ever called someone like you our comrade..."
It was because Senia had gone missing during the reckless march.
It was not merely because she was an indispensable combatant, but because a cherished companion had vanished without a trace, and Junon's reaction remained chillingly serene.
He never proposed assembling a search party, insisting it was already too late.
He offered no hopeful platitudes that Senia would be fine, nor did he express any anxious curiosity about word from other fronts.
He did not shed a single tear at the grim thought that she might already be dead.
Only after Michel arrived to break up the shouting match did the two storm out. Stroking his burning cheek where Aris's open palm had struck him, Junon silently smoothed out the wrinkled map once more.
"Senia..."
During the frantic relocation march, Senia had been completely unharmed. In fact, Junon was the sole witness who had watched her abrupt departure with his own eyes.
"I don't know what made you break away from the unit... but you must have had your reasons."
Senia had told him that there was a truth she could never share with anyone else. And Junon, more than anyone, had resolved to honor her word and bear the burden of that secret alone.