Chapter 462
Chapter 462
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 462
Chapter Title: Another Solo Play (21)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
****
Running through the darkness wasn't exactly a pleasant experience.
"By now, a full-scale battle must be raging on the surface."
The noises of the battlefield grew increasingly faint, like echoes from a distant past.
It wasn't that I was getting farther from the battlefield. The darkness enveloping me was simply thickening.
"The all-out battle is bait to draw out the Emperor's forces inside. The faster the infiltration team moves, the more time the operation takes, and the more leeway that creates."
An impatient mind hurried my footsteps, groping forward by ear and nose.
In truth, at some point, I wasn't even sure if I was heading forward anymore.
....Kuuuung.
Thud....
..
.
The faint traces of combat buried away.
Tap, tap, tap, tap—
...Crackle. Tap—
... ....
..
.
Even my hurried footsteps.
Huff, huff, huff, huff,
....Hoo, haa,
...
Even the sound of the footsteps' owner catching his breath—all of it vanished.
What remained was the throbbing pulse at my ear, as if trying to burrow out, and the awkward sensation of flailing my limbs through empty space.
Moving my body. Breathing. Running forward. In the void left in my head, other thoughts began to seep in and grow, like filling an empty space.
Probably unwelcome thoughts, deliberately dredged up by something.
Thoughts, by their nature, grow stronger the more you become aware of them.
[If you're the one deciding something monumental, I wanted to tell you that you must accept all the consequences it brings.]
The first to surface was what the King of the Mutts had deliberately come to say before the war.
[Even a good king can't stop a war. If you want to change the world, accept it.]
"Am I... strong enough to handle all of this?"
My plan had started with the single-minded determination to reunite with that Professor guy after parting ways, but before I knew it, over 200 years had passed.
The World Tree had forced itself to appear for that purpose and, as a result, was the first to be exposed to and erased by the System.
Notum. Even after achieving so much, she never rested until her lifespan ended, unable to even enjoy the fragments of the glory she had built.
The dragon Aldarshaqs had fought on the side of the Western Empire against the Magic Empire and ended up in tatters.
The dragon Senikamar had struggled to fill the voids left by those who vanished as an administrator and was murdered.
Ottman and Aldar had spent long years in the deep ocean just to meet me, guiding me to the end before disappearing.
Lucilla had sacrificed her final life to give me even a little more time, not knowing when I would return.
"Can I do it? Do I have the power not to let it all go to waste?"
The more memories returned, the more people I'd met and passed by came to mind, the heavier the burden on my shoulders became, until I couldn't take another step.
....Plop.
My feet came to a complete stop. The darkness that had blinded my senses was seeping into my mind, slowly sinking me.
It was cozy. Like returning home through a long cold spell and lying down under a thick blanket.
The deeper I sank with the darkness, the more the impulse to stop here and enjoy this comfort forever overwhelmed me.
....Squelch.
See? They all stopped here.
The sensation of rotten flesh squishing against my outstretched fingertips, like a toddler taking its first steps.
This is it. The people who rushed to the end of this ravine—all found rest here. Loyalty, honor, justice, responsibility—all the things that had crushed them were covered by the soft darkness, and they simply entered a deep, dreamless slumber.
Thud.
I dropped to my knees like I'd collapsed. Fluids from the mountain of corpses splashed onto my face, but with all sensation numbed, I felt no disgust.
"A blessing, really."
Maybe this was for the best. I'm just someone who couldn't even gauge his odds against a single Mutelord serving Nigmi, let alone a Warlord. The Warlord had combat prowess close to omnipotence, enough to face the continent alone, and the System wielded power equal to manipulating the world itself, just like the name she used. Perhaps ending my delusional plan like this, before it caused others pain, was the right thing.
A sensation of endlessly sinking into the darkness.
Familiar and intimate, as if I'd been waiting for it for ages.
"Familiar...?"
Suddenly, it hit me that this crushing weight of responsibility felt like something I'd known for a very long time.
Before living as a Pathfinder. As an Imperial Knight, as an island's magitech engineer, not as some Hyde somewhere,
But simply as "Hyde," a memory I'd glimpsed without permission.
[Mom. I'll keep living anyway. Just like this.]
It was Professor Park's memory, the one who'd shouldered more lives than I had.
[...It wasn't so bad. My feet felt heavy, but you know how the wasteland has such fierce winds.]
Rumble—
Like a protruding rock between cliffs, I caught on the memory of that guy that popped out from the endless darkness as I was sinking.
"You... how did you manage that?"
Instead of turning away from it, he'd chosen to shoulder every single one without fail.
I couldn't believe I was a cloned consciousness from the Professor.
How? How did he bear that immense responsibility, that guilt, all of it.
[...Thanks to the heavy feet, I don't get blown away as easily as others.]
That weight crushed him. Tormented him, and became the sturdy anchor that kept him from being battered by the storms.
He never stopped, and his heavy footsteps left indelible deep tracks, showing the way for so many.
Even for me now, lost and stopped, trying to match my steps to those tracks.
[There's no such thing as a half-finished ego in the world, just like there's no half-assed Aura Knight. It's either possible or impossible. Only one or the other exists.]
[...It's denial. Rejecting the already completed form of yourself.]
.
.
.
.
.
.
"Ah."
.
.
.
.
.
"Enviable."
....
Rumble!
I rose.
The consciousness that had been sinking into the most comfortable rest with the darkness was helplessly pulled upward, like a deep-sea fish lured by distant surface light.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Bang—
"Puhaak! Cough, cough, urk!"
With returning sensation came the feeling of my body half-buried in the pile of corpses and the rotten chunks flooding my mouth.
"Cough, ugh! Damn it! These curses are all so disgustingly—...!"
The lingering remnants of darkness in my head felt more nauseating than the foul taste of the decayed flesh in my mouth.
Above all, the fact that I'd nearly died without swinging my sword once rang alarm bells in my mind.
"Damn lion-head. Spouting useless crap..."
Curses fundamentally burrow into the target's mind, they say. Like evil spirits infiltrating a black mage's shattered soul to complete the black mage.
The things that had welled up in the darkness just now were probably the gaps left in my heart. Cracks in my inner self, easy for the curse to slip into and exploit.
"A curse that burrows into mental cracks and drags you down... It was showing its type right from the start."
That form was very similar to the entity of darkness rooted in the rift at the capital's heart.
Hmm... Darkness. Darkness that seeps into cracks.
Click.
"Hup!"
.
.
.
.
I drew my sword on a hunch and poured all my focus into it, but
Flutter, flutter—
.
.
.
.
"Argh."
Like in a bard's tale, enlightenment didn't make my aura surge up with a flash!
Hyde was still the "half-assed Aura Knight" Hyde.
"...That damn Professor. Makes me jealous as hell."
If there was a change, it was that being forcibly shoved to the bottom of my consciousness had let me understand myself—the parts I hadn't known—better.
The distrust born from facing massive powers that could shatter mountains and carve cities had vanished. Distrust in my own meager strength.
[Realistically impossible situation.]
[What would Professor Park think in a time like this?]
[How would he handle it?]
That had always been my first thought when facing difficulties.
What would the Professor do?
What would that guy do?
How would the great savior saint, the legendary hero, the genius strategist, the wasteland's champion handle this?
"...Useless from one to ten, that guy."
Even though I'd been the one leading the world here while slow-ass Professor Park showed up after 200 years and immediately became the enemy's boss, ready to wreck everything.
Me.
Not the great saint, legendary hero, strategic genius, wasteland hero Professor Park.
Even when wandering by train in the Tel Drat region. When I met Ottman and the others underwater, when I arrived in Western Imperial territory and reached the capital—I'd been no different from now.
"The one who reached this far with that pathetic ability—that's me."
Flutter, rummage.
With sensation in my limbs fading again in that short time, I hurriedly shoved my hand into my cloak pocket.
My numbed hand could barely open the holy water vial it managed to pull out.
"It wasn't our way to charge in with every means and method from the start."
"Nor was bulldozing problems head-on my style."
Crunch,
Clink!
So I shoved the whole vial into my mouth and chewed.
Whether from the Mercy Church's holy power, the pain of glass shards lacerating my mouth, or the fishy taste of blood, my mind snapped awake.
With a clear head, I pondered.
"What would you do?"
What would Professor Park do?
That guy wouldn't scruple over means or methods to remove the curse.
If his own power fell short, he'd surely coax others into coming along. Cauldrons or whatever, Quadruples, or even Nigmi guys friendly to me—he'd mesmerize them with slick talk and somehow bolster the lacking forces.
He breaks through the problems he faces. Paving the way for those who follow.
"Then. What would I do?"
Crunch, crunch,
Ptoo!
I spat out a glass shard stuck between my gums and thought.
Come to think of it, my way seemed similar to his yet different.
"I wasn't as greedy as that guy."
Professor Park's goal was everyone his hand could reach.
He embraced everyone he met to the fullest and charged headlong at every problem.
He calls himself coldly calculating and sharp, but hell, aside from being smart, isn't he more barbarian than anything?
In comparison, the path I'd run for 200 years had just one clear goal.
Detour around rough paths,
Avoid big problems.
Strong enemies—
....Click!
"Pass them off to someone else and bolt!"
Fwoooosh!
The metal chunk thrown overhead unfolded, spewing intense light through the gaps.
It would've been great if it were a Mercy Church holy flash grenade, but sadly, what I had was just a cheap consumable mana light orb.
But that was enough.
『Guuuuuu—!!!』
In this place, clearly its nest, enough light to illuminate something close enough to touch my fingertips—that was plenty.
'Light a fire in the darkness, and it comes to devour the light source. And the person revealed by it along with.'
'Don't light a fire, and it won't eat you. Meaning, no light, and it can't see you either.'
In other words, in this darkness, light was a double-edged sword. Revealing the curse's true form while handing me right to it.
While the darkness lunged to devour the mana light, I ran toward the ravine wall.
I'd memorized the structure in the brief illumination.
Kaaang!
"If it's ground split by a massive impact, there'd naturally be weak points."
I gouged the shakiest spot with my sword tip and jammed a magitech bomb inside.
Fizzle—
The mana light that should've lit the area like broad daylight for at least a minute crumbled away with a pathetic sound.
I wanted to escape in this gap, but I had no intention of passing this thing off to the Mutts' elites following behind. I'd been sent here precisely to clear the infiltration path for them.
What I'd meant to pass it off to wasn't them.
Kwaaaaang—!
Impact like a hammer to the chest. The explosion crumbled a bit of the cliff along the ravine's weak point.
Sssss—
Before the darkness could seep into the newly widened space, the purple mist that had blanketed it poured in rapidly, clinging to the curse's revealed form in the darkness.
"It's not just me and the Mutts who hate the darkness in this place, right?"
The Emperor's curse spread across the entire capital.
Even if just a sliver of the capital's land between narrow ravine walls, it's the Emperor's domain, so the purple mist was exercising its long-deferred natural right, flooding into the ravine.
『Guuuuuuu——』
The purple mist clung tenaciously to the amorphous something trying to hide in the darkness.
"As expected, light it up and the hidden thing freaks out and charges."
An ancient curse or whatever couldn't compare to the Empire's centuries of R&D into curse blossoms. That's why it blanketed this narrow ravine in darkness to block the purple mist and hide its true form.
Soon the ravine would fill with suffocating cursed mist instead of darkness, but since I planned to head to the surface on my own two feet, it meant nothing to us.
Through the tangle of purple mist and darkness, entity and non-entity, the end of the ravine faintly appeared.
A path. The fastest way to the heart of the underground city.
"...This is my way, Professor."
If you solve everything you face somehow and head to the end with everyone following.
I just carve a path to the set destination somehow.
'We're different. You and I.'
Maybe that's the truth I'd been ignoring.
More precisely, the ending implied by that truth—the one making me want to ignore my destination.
I bit my lip at the sudden hypothesis, but my running feet sped up.
'...Maybe I can't go back anymore.'
My destination. Our ending.
200 years of life had completed me as an independent being. Enough to reach half an Aura Knight.
Perhaps there was no longer a place for me in Professor Park's consciousness.
Just like in the distant past. The place I'd yearned for over these 200 years
Might no longer be a destination permitted to me.
****