The Sword That Never Returns (2)

It had already been thirty minutes since I'd started walking rightward with no destination in mind. I'd expected as much, but there wasn't even the faintest sign ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of a hidden mission to be found.

As time passed, the desert's chill closed in around me. Even with my cold resistance, it was enough to raise goosebumps on my skin. Still, I deliberately didn't circulate my mana to warm myself — once enough time passed, my cold resistance would level up on its own.

I may have cold resistance, but Comet is holding up remarkably well too?

No — holding up wasn't the right word. She seemed completely indifferent to the cold.

Hmm... I couldn't sense any movement of mana from Comet. Was she using some other method?

The walk was dull and lonely, so I struck up a conversation with her right away. "Comet, aren't you cold?"

"Pardon? Ah... I'm using the Goddess's power. The desert nights are cold, after all. I hadn't thought of you, Kwon Suhyeok. Allow me to bestow a blessing upon you as well."

"No, that's quite all right."

I waved my hands hastily. I was deliberately avoiding the use of mana in order to raise my cold resistance.

That said... the Goddess's power, of all things.

"But didn't you say that after the Goddess vanished, her power stopped manifesting as well?"

"That is correct. However, ever since I received a revelation from the Goddess two months ago, I have been able to use her power, however faintly."

"So that's why you called yourself the Goddess's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠final apostle. In this world right now, you're the only one who can wield her power."

"Yes, that is so. It is more than someone like me deserves..."

The more we talked, the more Comet seemed like a far more important figure than I'd assumed.

The linked floors stretching from the 23rd to the 26th. Back in the teens, my personal floors had been deeply intertwined with the main floors. Judging by that pattern, Comet might well be the linchpin running through the entire twenties.

Which meant that finding the Goddess's relic on Floor 23 was apparently a matter of real importance...

Eight hours until dawn.

That was the time I'd been given, assuming no enemy raids came with the morning.

I had to find the hidden mission in this desert within eight hours. Without the portal, four of those hours would have gone to the return trip, but thankfully the portal meant I could spend all eight of them to good use.

Time to get back to diligently hunting for the Goddess's relic.

Whew. My instincts aren't reacting at all.

Was I really just supposed to keep heading right? The direction was fixed, but the situation felt hopelessly vague, and a flicker of regret came to me belatedly.

Should I have brought Dobby along? With my divinely-touched goblin at my side, I'd have felt at least a little reassured...

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Come to think of it, there was no reason the beacon had to go to Dobby. I could have handed it to someone else.

No — the only person I could truly trust with it was Dobby.

Low-rank mercenaries and former slaves. If one of them panicked over nothing and pressed the beacon, there'd be no bigger disaster. It was a two-way portal, so we could always come back, but the portal consumed a hefty amount of mana. If something truly dire came up later, I might find myself unable to use it.

I was just getting antsy and thinking pointless thoughts. Whew — nearly eight hours still remained. Let's search calmly.

Another two hours of walking yielded nothing.

A blue-tinged sea of sand, its surface glinting with the starlight hanging in the night sky. Only the dunes shifted their shapes as we kept moving, one step after another.

We'd talked quite a bit with Comet along the way, but after two hours even our conversation had run dry, and we'd settled into silence.

Well, I could keep talking if I really wanted to...

But after chattering nonstop for two hours, I didn't much feel like it. I didn't let it show, but Comet looked a little worn out too.

Understandable — she'd been walking the desert since morning without a single break. Scorching heat and bitter cold alike; even with the Goddess's power, anyone would tire.

About six hours remained. That was when the air around us changed.

What the—

A staggering wave of cold washed over me. It had been chilly before, but never like this. And in the distance, atop a dune, a green aurora bloomed into existence.

I'd never seen anything like it in my life. I'd always thought auroras only appeared in places like the Arctic...

So they form over deserts too.

The unfamiliar aurora was beautiful. Beneath the ink-black night sky, waves of translucent green light rippled like silk.

"Wow..."

An unconscious gasp of admiration slipped from my lips. And in that very instant, Comet let out a cry, as if something had just clicked into place.

"...Ah!"

"What is it?"

"The Sword That Never Returns!"

"The Sword That Never Returns?"

Even as I echoed her, the lyrics of the mercenary song Comet had murmured earlier came flooding back to me.

Beneath the Milky Way, nothing but green chill. Ahh — the sword that never returns.

Green chill. It seemed to be describing that very aurora.

Comet opened her mouth to explain, but there was no need to hear any more. I cut her off.

"One verse of the mercenary song—"

"'Beneath the Milky Way of the night desert, nothing but green chill.' I remembered it too. Let's move."

"Right."

Comet hurriedly quickened her pace, and I sped up to keep pace with her. In her excitement, she called out with a voice bright with fervor.

"Ha! You truly are the Guide! I never doubted it!"

"Hardly. Dobby's the one who showed me the way."

Even as I answered, a question nagged at me. Why had the blue dawn wind called me the Guide?

I'd heard nothing of the sort from the Goddess.

Hmm. Had it been arranged with Fenrike somehow? I couldn't say. Everything about this was shrouded in questions — starting with why a Goddess who had hidden herself away for fifty years would suddenly deliver a revelation to Comet out of nowhere.

"All of that is thanks to you, Kwon Suhyeok, for being our Guide."

Yet even in the face of my protests, Comet foolishly kept heaping praise on me. It wasn't untrue, exactly, but a compliment to my face was awkward no matter when I heard it.

I brushed past her words and picked up speed. "Let's move a little faster. There's no telling how long that green aurora will last."

"Understood."

Roughly four hundred meters. Not a long walk at all.

But as we trod forward using the green waves painted across the sky as our landmark, the aurora abruptly vanished. And at the same moment, a faint tremor in the earth rippled through the silent desert.

It didn't look ordinary. When I focused a little, I recognized it — the same ground-shudder that heralded the attackers each time they appeared.

In all likelihood, the green aurora had vanished because of the heathens closing in on us.

And here I thought they couldn't move in this cold...

Worse, they hadn't gone after the survivors — they'd come after Comet and me.

Just then, a remark of Comet's flashed through my mind.

"Ah... I am using the Goddess's power."

And the claim that among the heathens, too, there were those who received revelations, just as she did. Judging from every piece of evidence, the attackers were unmistakably tracking us by following the Goddess's power.

No wonder they'd managed to tail us in real time even after Comet had burrowed into the upper stratum.

The faint tremor in the ground told me the enemy was still quite far — two or three kilometers out. But compared to the previous raids, their numbers were roughly five times larger.

First, I need to get us out of here.

I could crush them all if I wanted, but I had no intention of fighting with the Goddess's relic left unguarded behind me. With enemies in such numbers, they could simply circle around us and leave us behind. They had followed Comet here — which meant I could use Comet as bait to lure them away.

"It — it vanished out of nowhere. What's happening?"

Comet, who hadn't yet felt the tremor in the ground, turned to me with a bewildered face. I quickly hoisted her onto my back.

"Kwon Suhyeok?"

"The heathens are coming. They've likely tracked the Goddess's power you've been using."

"Ahh... damn it all! I'll dispel it at once!"

"No! Don't!"

I frantically stopped her before she could release the Goddess's power. Comet made a face of pure incomprehension.

"They're still a good distance away. We need to lure them far from the Goddess's relic first."

"Then...?"

"We'll dispel it once we're some way off."

Comet nodded, still clinging to my shoulders. And in that same instant, I broke into a run toward the west. The tremor in the earth chased after us.

No matter how the heathens crawled beneath the sand, there was no way they could outpace me. I covered roughly four kilometers west, then sprinted another two kilometers south. To throw them off, I'd deliberately zigzagged my direction along the way, so it would take them considerable time to find us.

And when we finally returned to the original spot, the green aurora was waiting there to greet us.

We'd shaken off our pursuers, but with the aurora already having vanished once before, we ran toward it as if entranced.

And there beneath the aurora, set into a sunken hollow of sand, stood a blue gate.

It didn't mean a building was there. A lone door, simply glowing in the middle of the desert and nothing else.

"Is that the one?"

"It is. At last... the Goddess's final trace..."

Perhaps overcome with emotion, Comet drew in a deep, shuddering breath. The trembling in her breathing seemed to hit her harder than she let on, and her next words came out thick with tears.

"Thank you, Kwon Suhyeok. Truly, thank you."

"You didn't find it because of me. You found it because you worked for it yourself."

As I consoled her, I approached the blue gate. Up close, a faint, mysterious ripple of mana pulsed from it — nothing ordinary about it at all.

Fifty years. Long enough that anyone crossing this desert might have stumbled upon it. Yet it had only now chosen to reveal itself, which suggested it had appeared in response to Comet.

Drawing near the gate, Comet's face clouded over with trouble.

"Um... Kwon Suhyeok..."

"Yes?"

"It seems... this gate can only be entered by me."

"I'm sorry?"

No. Seriously?

When I asked with my expression alone, Comet nodded firmly.

I'd come all this way to find a hidden mission, only to be barred from entering it myself... Which meant there'd be no direct reward for me.

So escorting Comet to this place truly was the hidden mission. Well, they'd compensate me with achievement points commensurate with it, so there was nothing to gripe about.

As I was sorting out my thoughts, Comet spoke. "It appears to be a gate only the Goddess's apostle may enter. But if you believe in the Goddess, Kwon Suhyeok, perhaps we could enter together..."

"It's all right. Go on ahead."

"...Thank you. Then I shall return swiftly."

Comet met my eyes with a solemn expression, then opened the blue gate.

At the same instant, a brilliant radiance blazed across the desert night — bright enough to be seen by the naked eye even from far away. It was as ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠if a small sun had risen.

And the moment Comet stepped inside and the door closed behind her, the blue gate vanished.

Immediately afterward, a colossal wave of mana burst outward from where the gate had stood.

Well, the heathens will come running at that scent for sure.

The gate had disappeared from sight, but my senses still told me it existed, right where it had been. To make sure Comet didn't die the moment she stepped back out, I had to slaughter every enemy here.

At that very moment, I felt the tremor in the earth approaching from far away.

I adjusted my grip on the axe.

I wasn't worried. The only thing weighing on my mind was how exactly I would deal with them this time.

A desert at night. The Shadow Monarch seemed like it would do nicely...

The approaching tremor was growing heavier, duller. Every shadow across the desert began to writhe.