Chapter 77
Chapter 77
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 77
Chapter Title: Guild Master Isn't Enough with Just the Game
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Helcannon started running the moment he met the person in an appropriate spot down the alleyway, leaving the Fullminak guild members behind.
A killing intent that stabbed through his entire body.
He realized too late that he had wandered into the wrong place, but it was regret that came far too late.
Ding! Ding!
[The constellation 'The One Who Guides to Ruin' watches you with interest.]
[The constellation 'The Darkness That Contemplates the End' says it's not too late yet—make an incarnation contract with that guy right now.]
Helcannon, who had been gritting his teeth and running, finally came to a stop and turned around.
Whoosh.
As soon as the black figure revealed himself, Helcannon opened his mouth as if he had been waiting.
“I have a question.”
“You're not worried about the safety of that guy you let go, are you?”
“......”
Helcannon shut his mouth.
It was an affirmative silence.
[The constellation 'The Darkness That Contemplates the End' clicks its tongue, telling you to worry about your own life.]
Before the black man could move first, Helcannon swiftly swung his sword.
[Midgard's Guardian lv99]
The man's eyes widened.
“!”
Boom—!
An explosive aura burst from Helcannon, and the sword he swung completely shattered one of the walls.
Helcannon, who had been about to step forward, hesitated and looked up.
The man standing in midair stroked his own cheek with his hand.
Blood was trickling.
Even if he had let his guard down, it was clear this guy possessed enough power to slice through his aura.
“......Is this the power of that guy called Dart.”
Just as constellations lend their power to their incarnations with whom they've made contracts, beings from the lower world could also borrow a certain degree of power by contracting with users.
Something users probably didn't know.
The man lightly licked the blood he hadn't seen in a long time and gazed down at Helcannon intently.
A chilling energy swept over his entire body, causing Helcannon's shoulders to twitch.
Ding!
[The constellation 'The Darkness That Contemplates the End' tells you to run if you want to live.]
Rumble—
The ground shook faintly.
Amid the exploding killing intent, Helcannon immediately turned and began sprinting away.
The man slowly raised his hand.
KABOOM!!
The alleyway ground erupted in an instant like it had stepped on a landmine, and a flesh-ripping killing intent exploded, tightening the throats of every living being in the area.
A sharp wind clawed at Helcannon's body, leaving gashes everywhere.
“Urk!”
Helcannon, flung almost to the end of the alley by the explosion's aftermath, half-collapsed but tried to get up again.
Thud!
His head was grabbed and slammed into the ground.
The man, gripping Helcannon's red hair, smashed his head lightly once more before roughly yanking it up.
“Ugh!”
Blood flowed from Helcannon's head. Forced to look up, Helcannon twisted his body, but the man didn't budge.
Red eyes glared fiercely at the man.
The man stared down at Helcannon as if appraising an intriguing toy.
“An otherworlder......”
Though he didn't show it, the man was inwardly surprised that his cheek had been sliced.
He had thought of heroes as mere pawns to use and discard, but this red-haired swordsman seemed to have a bit more value.
But he wouldn't listen.
“Shall I try forced subjugation.”
Incarnate constellations had the authority to unilaterally contract without the incarnation's consent.
However, it often broke the incarnation with high probability, and any truly exceptional awakened could refuse it anyway, so it wasn't something done lightly.
Forced. Subjugation.
Just the sound of those words sent chills racing across Helcannon's skin.
Flash!
Defensive ultimate skill.
[Knight's Oath lv99]
A powerful red light erupted from Helcannon's body, shoving the man back with a thud!
“......?”
The man, pushed back exactly as a skill should do, looked down at his own body in slight bewilderment.
In that gap, Helcannon got up, turned, and immediately activated more skills.
[Crimson Flame's Blessing lv99]
[Guardian's Tenacity lv99]
BOOM!!
Helcannon swept his sword horizontally, shattering the narrow alleyway, then immediately turned and ran.
He fled desperately.
Roarrr.
The walls and floor touched by the energy from Helcannon's sword burst into flames as if doused in oil, despite being concrete.
A glint appeared in the man's eyes.
“Ha!”
Madness too.
The scent of blood from this otherworld being tantalizingly stirred his nostrils.
No matter the subordination lord, it was impossible to believe such power came from some lower-world outsider.
Truly intriguing.
Flash.
Black energy exploded from the man's body, and he vanished at the speed of light, reappearing behind Helcannon.
Helcannon flinched at the presence, and as the man reached out to grab him—
“?!”
The man urgently summoned his sword.
KABOOM!
Black and white energies clashed, causing a massive explosion.
The black man was pushed back far.
The one who had suddenly intervened to block the pursuit was a blond young man.
As soon as the black-haired man emerged from the alley, the young man attacked as if waiting, then said calmly while looking at him.
“You've trespassed into my territory.”
“Oh dear.”
The black-haired man feigned gentlemanly courtesy by curling his lips and racked his brain.
This one guy at least.
At that thought, a girl's gentle voice rang out.
“That look says 'this one at least.' Better not try any tricks since I came along too.”
This time, a blond girl appeared.
“......”
Damn it.
A pair of incarnate constellations in charge of the Korean branch from the other side had shown up.
A quick resolution was impossible.
“Indeed, no tricks now.”
The black-haired man seemed to sheathe his sword obediently, then suddenly swung it at the man and woman.
The blond girl raised a barrier as if she had expected it.
KABOOM!!
The man growled.
“It's been a while since all three of us met like this. How about we blow off some stress fighting?”
Having found an entertaining toy after so long, he was too excited to just leave now.
The blond young man nodded.
“Opening parallel dimension, Beta Field.”
As soon as the young man finished speaking, the three vanished from the spot.
* * *
Even though he felt no presence chasing him from behind, Helcannon desperately ran toward the plaza.
“Urk!”
Helcannon grimaced and clutched his shoulder.
The moment he escaped mortal danger, his body began screaming with the pain it had held back.
Not just his shoulder—wounds covered him everywhere, and extreme tension had stiffened his whole body, making it hard to breathe deeply.
Helcannon turned around for the first time and, confirming safety, stopped briefly.
“Hah. Hah.”
Sweat poured like rain, and his body trembled finely.
Helcannon wiped away the blood trickling down with the sweat and gripped his sword tighter despite the shoulder pain that felt like it might dislocate.
He looked toward the plaza.
Kaisha, who had suddenly appeared in the plaza, looked exactly as she had inside the gate. Her customization hadn't changed.
That man had probably disguised himself as Kaisha to fool Space King's heroes.
“......”
Now, what Helcannon had to do was go to Kaisha. Ask her to find a way home......
And in exchange, he wouldn't mind becoming Kaisha's subordinated hero.
But would Dart let him go?
“There you are, you rat bastard.”
Startled by the ghostly voice, Helcannon immediately raised his sword toward the source.
Dart glared ferociously at Helcannon.
“You kept vanishing and reappearing. I don't know how, but looks like you've reached the end of evading my tracking.”
Helcannon understood Dart's words immediately.
Dart had been searching for him nonstop, but tracking hadn't worked properly while he was with the black-haired man.
As a subordinated hero, Helcannon knew many aspects were bound to the subordination lord.
Location tracking was one of them.
Apparently, it hadn't worked while he was with the black man who threatened him.
Helcannon said,
“......I don't want to fight you.”
Dart scoffed.
“Now? Don't make me laugh. The moment you pointed your sword at me inside the gate, your fate was sealed.”
“That was!”
Helcannon couldn't retort and clamped his mouth shut.
He had been flustered by the sudden situation and tried to stay neutral, but it was true he had been swept up in the atmosphere crowning him leader of the rebellion.
He had hesitated a little.
If he killed them all right there, couldn't Abrylia and the eastern front be freed from those demons?
“......I won't deny it.”
Helcannon's frank and honest admission poured oil on the flames of Dart's rage, who had lost guild members and was burning with fury.
Dart spat out his anger.
“I never should have let you live.”
“!”
At those words, Helcannon glared at Dart with a surge of emotion.
He wanted to protest.
You threw my siblings into that prison with me, forcing me to live when I had forsaken food and water, just waiting to die.
As Dart swung his sword in an instant, Helcannon quickly raised his own.
Clang—!
Beyond the clashing swords, two pairs of eyes glared fiercely at each other.
The blades tilted quickly.
“Gr, urk!”
Helcannon gritted his teeth, enduring the pain that felt like his shoulder was crumbling.
Clang—
He barely parried, but the sword that allowed no opening swung again immediately.
Blue energy rippled.
Having already used his defensive ultimate against the black man earlier, Helcannon was helplessly exposed to Dart's attack skill.
Boom!
“?!”
The explosion that struck his whole body sent Helcannon crashing into a building like he was flying.
His body slammed hard into the building wall and fell.
He dropped the sword he had clung to like a lifeline.
“Cough—!”
Helcannon vomited blood. His head had split open again from the impact, black blood trickling down.
For an ordinary person, it would have shattered every bone in their body.
“Hah, hah.”
Helcannon, with his blood-soaked face, glared at the sword he had dropped.
For a swordsman to lose his sword—it was deeply shameful. But his shoulder was completely dislocated and wouldn't move.
Helcannon leaned against the bloodstained building wall and gazed helplessly at Dart.
Step by step.
“......”
Death approached.
This time, determined to finish him without mercy, Dart had densely wrapped his sword in skills.
Helcannon let out a ragged breath.
For the first time, he felt profoundly wronged and hollow.
He missed Kaisha.
Only now did he realize how brightly that feeling shone in the darkness of his heart.
Facing death head-on made him reflect on how he had lived, what his life had been for.
I'd lived my whole life as a pawn.
If Space King hadn't forcibly occupied Abrylia, Helcannon would have been sent to the neighboring country of Tereb as planned.
There, he would have married the princess who was his fiancée, received a ducal title in Tereb, and fought monsters on Lowguard's eastern front until death.
If lucky enough to survive, he might have spent his remaining years with his children, but even that wasn't guaranteed—a futile life.
Step by step.
I didn't want to go.
Step by step.
I wanted to protect my sister who would become queen and my father the king.
‘Helcannon, you are royalty of Abrylia, and that power of yours was given to protect this country, this world of Midgard.’
You are Midgard's guardian.
That is the divine will.
Fulfill your mission as one born into Abrylia's royalty.
But that mission, dearer than life itself, went unfulfilled, and the gods arranged demons for Abrylia.
Because of them, those who tried to betray Wilentia were executed, Lowguard's monsters were nearly eradicated, so perhaps following them was the divine will too.
Helcannon had thought that way.
In the end, a pawn while sister and father lived, and a pawn even after death.
If there was one shred of his own will in that life, it was the desire to see that god—Kaisha—once more, ever since seeing her in Kalba.
He realized he had misunderstood something about this god called Kaisha. He missed that voice.
Only belatedly did he realize it was a longing he hadn't felt in ages.
Step by step.
Unlike the initial furious steps, the now leisurely footfalls soon stopped.
No need to rush.
“Eyes of someone already dead.”
Dart muttered as he raised his sword.
“Dart—!!”