Dantzig’s Will
I didn’t think long. In my hurry, I opened the door. I knew this was a place where time stood still, but I couldn’t calm my mind.
“Ghk!”
The moment I opened it, a foul stench stabbed into my nose. I knew at once where it came from. Under the dim lights, the room was packed with corpses.
“W-what in the world…”
The sight, as if a storm of slaughter had just passed through, left me speechless. I hadn’t been through many reincarnation rooms, but this was the first time I’d seen anything like it.
“You’re not too late.”
Hyun-jun turned toward the voice. A knight with a pale face sat atop the mountain of corpses. Dark circles were smeared beneath his eyes. His eyes were red, as if he had only just stopped crying, and his eyelashes were still damp.
“My name is Dantzig.”
The name sounded familiar. He had once received Dantzig’s blessing while conquering a dungeon alongside the ace of the regular raid team.
“I failed to protect them, and I lost everything.”
Those hollow eyes turned to Hyun-jun.
“You must not do the same.”
Dantzig rose to his feet. He climbed down from the heap of bodies and placed a hand on Hyun-jun’s shoulder.
“My reincarnation, if you have the resolve to bear my pain, I will grant you the power to protect those precious to you.”
“I’ll bear it.”
The answer had already been decided from the start. At Hyun-jun’s reply, Dantzig nodded with a satisfied expression.
“Then endure it. The hell I went through.”
Dantzig stirred his mana. The moment a massive surge of power flowed through Hyun-jun’s arm, he opened his eyes in an entirely different place.
Flowers surrounded him. It seemed to be the heart of some garden.
Wh-where is this…
No voice came out. He tried to move his head, but even that was denied him.
“You’re inside my memories. You have no control here. Just stand still and feel my emotions and pain.”
He could sense Dantzig’s presence beside him.
“Daddy!”
She looked about eight years old. A tiny little lady ran up and hugged him. He had never seen her before, and yet the instant their eyes met, he couldn’t hide the swell in his chest.
“You don’t need to be confused. You’re completely synchronized with my emotions right now.”
Dantzig explained. Meanwhile, Hyun-jun was already messing up the little girl’s hair.
“Waaah! Daddy!”
“Hahaha!”
Watching the complaining little lady, Hyun-jun burst out laughing with pure delight.
“Honey. Erina doesn’t like that.”
A beautiful woman appeared in the garden and spoke. From the tone, she seemed to be Dantzig’s wife.
“Anna. Aren’t you taking Erina’s side a little too much?”
“Hmph. Mom’s on her daughter’s side.”
At Anna’s words, there was nothing he could do but shake his head. And then his perspective changed.
Has it already been a year…?
He lived through a year inside Dantzig’s memories, feeling his emotions as they passed.
So this is what it feels like to become Dantzig.
Not only Anna and Erina, but even the people around Dantzig had begun to feel close to him.
“Commander! Something terrible has happened!”
“What is it, Craig?”
He asked the question with a grave expression. Craig took one rough breath after another, then spoke with a hardened face.
“The Invasion Command has been established. It looks like our kingdom is their target.”
It was the beginning of despair.
“Now the hell begins,”
Dantzig whispered beside him. Then the perspective shifted again. He came to himself amid the ruins. Corpses lay everywhere. They were all people from his memories. The sorrow he felt for the fallen was beyond words.
And before him, Erina and Anna lay covered in blood, collapsed on the ground. They had not survived the torture that had been carried out for twenty-four hours. Hyun-jun’s entire body was bound. Even though the people precious to him were dying before his eyes, there was nothing he could do, and it was a filthy feeling.
“By order of the Invasion Commander, this place is now ours.”
Someone’s voice rang out. He couldn’t lift his head. He couldn’t even control his body, and the Dantzig in his memories was already exhausted, so he couldn’t have moved even if he’d wanted to.
“Why are you doing this…”
Hyun-jun, within Dantzig’s memories, asked. It was exactly the question he had wanted to ask himself. He wanted to cry, but even tears would not come. Dantzig’s emotions were like a silent storm, tearing him apart from the inside without making a sound.
“It is the Invasion Commander’s will. Do not seek to understand it too deeply.”
“You... I’ll kill you myself.”
Dantzig’s memory shouted, but it was also what Hyun-jun wanted to say. Erina and Anna had already been absorbed into his own memories as well.
“I’ll be looking forward to it.”
With that, a spear drove through his heart, and his consciousness returned to the Reincarnation Room.
“Now do you understand?”
Dantzig asked. Hyun-jun nodded without a word.
“My power has been passed on. The hatred you’re feeling right now will become the trigger that makes you stronger.”
When he nodded again without speaking, Dantzig pointed toward the door with a faint smile.
“You said time doesn’t pass here, but you want to go right away, don’t you?”
“You know me well.”
He answered in a calm voice.
“Go. Go and show them the power of us.”
Instead of replying, Hyun-jun turned and ran for the door. The instant his hand touched the knob, he yanked it open with force. And light came pouring in.
*
Protect them, no matter what.
A flash of light struck down from the sky.
“What the hell!”
“A-a high-level spell?”
The hunters who had rushed in to kill Hyun-jun felt the threat and hastily fell back.
Power is flooding through me.
This was on a completely different level from the first blessing Dantzig had given him when he’d conquered the dungeon with the ace only a short while ago.
The will of the One Who Failed to Protect, Dantzig, has taken root. So long as there is someone you must protect, you will not fall.
That same stiff voice sounded again. Hyun-jun poured more mana into the sword he had raised.
Dantzig’s Tenacity: Strength and resilience surge when defending allies.
Sidenmiller’s Brave Sword stands with you. So long as righteous courage does not break, the blade will not shatter.
The Aura Blade that had vanished for a moment as he fell showed itself once more.
“H-how is he still moving after getting torn to pieces like that…”
“That insane monster bastard!”
Looking at the hunters cursing him as a monster, Hyun-jun curled one corner of his mouth upward. A monster? If they wanted one, he’d gladly be one.
“I told you clearly…”
He drew up his mana.
Ripper’s Cruel Killing Intent awakens. A portion of the fatal killing aura is released.
Thud!
“Ghk!”
“A-again!”
The hunters exposed to the killing intent groaned.
Ripper’s blessing was never something that could be used lightly, but perhaps because Dantzig’s blessing was layered with it, the manifestation wasn’t difficult.
“If you cross that line, you all die.”
“Ghaah!”
The sword, moving in a flash, struck the neck of the hunter closest to him. It didn’t quite sever his head on the spot, but the wound was clearly fatal, and he staggered away clutching a throat that spurted blood.
“Throw away any thought of survival. I’m not sparing anyone.”
He had no intention of leaving loose ends behind.
“That half-dead corpse’s mouth sure works fine! Kill that bastard!”
At the team leader’s order, the hunters drew themselves up again and charged at Hyun-jun. Lightning crashed down from above. It was so fast he couldn’t evade it. He was hit dead on. But Hyun-jun did not go down.
He stood like an ancient tree and held his ground.
Thud!
The pain remained, but Dantzig’s voice kept his mind awake.
“He took an upper-tier spell head-on?”
“I’m going in with body reinforcement! Blea—k!”
The support hunter about to cast a Bless buff let out a single scream and crumpled. A dagger Hyun-jun had thrown was buried in his forehead.
“Don’t use buffs.”
Leaving those cold words behind, Hyun-jun swung his sword and severed another hunter’s arm. In the fountain of blood that sprayed outward, he calmly took each life one by one, like a grim reaper.
“A-monster…”
Three were left now. One combat-type hunter who seemed to be the team leader, and two magic-type hunters. No other enemies were visible. Since there had been no warning from Hashashin, this seemed to be everyone.
“Fire Cannon!”
“Lightning Bolt!”
Before Hyun-jun could even speak, the attack spells were already complete, and the team leader closed the distance quickly, swinging his sharp blade.
“Die!”
With killing intent spilling from him, the team leader slashed. There was no Aura Blade, but it was still a dangerous cut. Hyun-jun withdrew his sword to block the attack.
Hyun-jun’s blade bore an Aura Blade, but the team leader’s sword was also coursing with mana, so the steel did not split. Still, there was no question it was bad to have a sword with Aura Blade locked against one without it. The team leader hastily retreated and reset his stance. The moment he opened distance, fireballs and a lance of lightning targeted Hyun-jun.
“Ghk!”
He blocked the fireball with his sword, but he couldn’t avoid the lightning. His muscles went numb for an instant as the current ripped through him. And the team leader did not miss that moment.
“H-Hyun-jun!”
Thud!
Dantzig’s shout and So-jin’s voice from behind woke his fading mind again.
“Y-you bastard!”
The sword he raised smoothly redirected the team leader’s attack. Having learned from Sidenmiller, Hyun-jun was overpowering the team leader with swordsmanship alone.
“Damn it!”
It was too late to pull back the blade that had overextended. Cursing, the team leader drew a dagger and tried to block Hyun-jun’s follow-up strikes.
He stopped the first and second attacks, but the third was the problem. It wasn’t a sword attack at all. The moment Hyun-jun recovered the blade, it was a leg sweep aimed at the opening in the lower body.
“Ghk!”
He didn’t fall. But his stance broke as his lower body lurched, and that led to a fatal result.
“Goodbye.”
“M-magic types! What are you doing!”
He desperately called for support, but unfortunately the two magic hunters behind him were still casting. They were almost finished, but they couldn’t help him right away, and Hyun-jun’s blade pierced straight through the team leader’s chest.
“Y-you bastard! Do you know who’s backing Echo Guild and still pull this shit?”
He had meant to stab straight through the heart, but it seemed the man’s last desperate struggle had thrown him off. Even in the face of the blatant threat, Hyun-jun remained steady, pulled the blade free, and cut the team leader’s throat.
“You’re the ones who picked the wrong fight.”
At last, his gaze turned to the magic hunters.
“I-I surrender.”
“Please spare us…”
They abandoned any thought of resistance. Hyun-jun approached them wearing a smile that might have looked gentle to someone who didn’t know him. The male and female magic hunters raised both hands to show they meant no attack. But Hyun-jun saw it: a small dagger sliding out from the man’s sleeve.
“Ghk!”
“Aaaaaagh!”
There was no mercy. Under his merciless strike, the man collapsed in a blood-soaked heap, and the woman screamed.
“P-please spare me! I’m a woman!”
“So what? That changes the fact that you tried to kill me?”
“Th-that’s… Aagh!”
He didn’t need her answer. He swung his sword and took her life.
“It’s over…”
As Dantzig’s blessing ended, strength drained out of his body. Hyun-jun collapsed helplessly, and So-jin screamed as she rushed forward, reaching out for him.
“H-heal!”
But no healing light formed. Her mana was completely spent.
“N-no… please… Hyun-jun…”
Tears burst from her eyes. Hyun-jun’s condition was dire. The thought that she might lose him turned the world black. The only thing she could do right now was rip off her top and try to stanch the blood gushing from his wound.
That was when she felt someone’s presence.
“N-no way…”
So-jin’s heart sank, thinking another enemy had arrived. But only for an instant. She raised her dagger.
“Unni will protect you.”
With both hands trembling, she gripped the dagger tightly. Soon, about ten men in black suits appeared before her. One of them removed his sunglasses and spoke.
“I’m Kim Tae-min, the executive chief of Wraith Guild. Please rest assured. We are not enemies of Kang Hyun-jun.”
Only then did So-jin let the dagger fall from her hand.
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