Chapter 25
Chapter 25
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 25
Chapter Title: Ancient Desert (5)
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A village located somewhere in the desert.
A child holding a spear was sweeping through the sand.
The weather was quite chilly.
The sun had set, and the temperature had plummeted.
Whiiing!
In the midst of the howling wind, the humans trembled in fear.
“…….”
The child, who had been walking step by step, suddenly stopped.
Because he sensed someone’s presence.
“Uh, Mommy?”
The target was a young human girl.
The girl was looking at the child with a terrified expression.
‘Can’t be helped.’
Over 80% of the people here.
Had been sliced by the child’s spear.
“Mommy, Mommy!”
Faced with terror, the girl could do nothing but call for her protector.
The child felt bitter.
It was an experience he’d gone through in his own childhood.
When humans forcibly gouged out his eyes.
The name he’d endlessly called out.
‘Mommy.’
Shring!
The child quietly raised his spear.
The blade was caked with crimson blood.
“Eek, eeeek! Mommy, Mommy!”
“…….”
The child hesitated at the girl’s cries.
Normally, he would have beheaded her right then.
Or pierced her heart and buried her in the sand.
But now, he was clearly wavering.
“…….”
He was conflicted.
Who was his clear ‘enemy’?
Adults who had awakened to a certain degree?
Or the entire human race, including girls like her?
To heal his own wounds.
Was it right to inflict the same wounds on others?
The young Sun Spear agonized.
Meanwhile.
“B-Baby!”
Someone who appeared to be the mother came running and embraced the girl.
The very scene the child had so desperately longed for at birth.
“…….”
In the end, the child turned his back.
Humans were toys he could kill anytime, anyway.
He didn’t want to kill that mother and daughter pair and let his wounds fester even more.
Yes.
Forgiving someone.
Wasn’t that also a victim’s prerogative?
The child nodded and walked on.
But for some reason.
Puk!
A chilling sensation struck his back.
A stinging, painful agony set his nerves on edge.
“……?”
He felt it.
Who had thrust the knife at him.
“D-Die! You monster!”
It was the girl he’d pitied.
“Die, I said! Vanish! You demon! You beast!”
The action chosen by the human he’d tried to show mercy to.
Ah.
In the end, humans were irredeemable creatures, weren’t they?
The Sun Spear felt sorrow.
And so he screamed.
A bloody wind blew across the desert.
* * *
I walked toward the Sun Spear.
“…….”
Without my weathered staff.
Without the bones that always guarded my side.
All I had was my transparent body.
Step, step.
And so I finally arrived.
At the spot where the Sun Spear’s energy clashed with the old man’s.
‘If it were the real me, I’d have been torn to shreds. Or maybe I wouldn’t have even gotten close?’
The reason I could endure now.
Was because I clearly recognized this as an illusion in my mind.
“Tch, what a weirdo.”
The old man grumbled as he stepped back.
“Well, he’s been a weirdo since our first meeting. That’s why I liked him.”
Setting aside master and disciple, treating me as a person and respecting my intentions.
I was grateful for that. And it felt reassuring.
‘Thank you, old timer.’
I bowed inwardly.
Even if he grumbled every time.
Even if I sometimes thought of him as a senile geezer.
I knew every action he took was for my sake.
Whatever his purpose.
As a human, wasn’t it natural to be thankful?
“Filthy humans! Deceitful and vile humans!”
And now.
“You think you, a mere human, can understand me?!”
The Sun Spear’s resentment and obsession poured entirely onto me.
“Don’t make me laugh! I hate humans! I curse humans! Do you know what I realized after studying humans and observing their ways for hundreds of years?”
“…….”
“Humans are unnecessary in this world! Worse than waste, worse than germs!”
His cries were desperate.
His raspy voice tore through the air.
At the same time.
Kwarung!
The Sun Spear’s thrust poured into the center of my body.
The spear pierced my heart and shattered my bones.
It tore my muscles and gouged my eyes.
“Keuk.”
My insides churned, spilling blood.
Crimson liquid flowed from every orifice in my body.
[Skill, ‘Pain Resistance’ (B-Grade) is in use.]
Ah.
It hurt.
It was agonizing.
If the old man hadn’t trained my resistance, I’d have lost consciousness already, wouldn’t I?
‘But I’m fine.’
The pain was definitely there.
But I existed.
I didn’t die.
Because.
This place was a world of my imagination.
An illusion, not reality.
My torn and split body knitted back together.
Here, I was no different from an undead.
“Yeah.”
I glared with wide eyes.
And stared straight at the raging Sun Spear.
“Go ahead, unleash your resentment.”
I raised my spear.
Shing!
Because it was an illusion, a splendid spear materialized in the air and gripped my hand.
“Pour it all out.”
Honestly, some might call it whining.
Sophistry.
They might say you hurt others just as much.
That you used excessive violence beyond what you suffered.
But I didn’t mock him.
I tried to understand fully.
Because I’d seen it.
Felt it through the skill.
“My resentment?”
The Sun Spear sneered.
Killing intent filled the weapon he held.
The vicious aura that had pierced thousands.
“Do you think you can withstand my resentment? Ridiculous. Even understanding me fully wouldn’t make it possible. How dare a fool who’s never tasted the ‘suffering’ of misfortune speak such arrogant words!”
The spear flew at me again.
No, it wasn’t the spear.
It was emotion.
The emotions of a child threatened with death in his youth.
The fear of losing sight.
The fear of losing parents.
The terror of being left alone in the world battered my heart.
Mental pain, not physical.
“There wasn’t a single soul on my side in this world. Half-human, half-beast. A mongrel between an eagle monster and a human. Who would like a creature like that?!”
The Sun Spear’s weapon wailed sadly.
“I was a being that shouldn’t have been born. From the moment I was, people thrust blades at me. They tried to take my eyes, my hands, my ankles. Do you know that horrific pain?!”
“……I see.”
I nodded, taking his attacks.
“That must have been tough.”
“Hmph, sure. There were definitely people who pitied me like that.”
“…….”
“But in the end, they were all the same. They feared me. They stabbed me in the back. Until my emotions withered away. To humans, ‘lies’ and ‘betrayal’ were one and the same.”
“Yeah.”
I just listened to him.
I wanted to.
To acknowledge my pain.
To know how hard it was.
It felt like watching a screaming child.
“And it wasn’t just me! Thousands, tens of thousands suffered the same!”
“There must have been many half-breeds like you.”
“Yeah, humans massacred countless races for their own safety or prosperity. There was no responsibility or respect in the process.”
The spears of emotion he sent were sharp.
They kept stabbing my body, inflicting pain.
“Humans resented me. Feared the me who tore and sliced them. They said it: Half-breeds should have been crushed from birth. Killed off. Ha, isn’t it laughable? They call us monsters and don’t even realize they made us into ones.”
But I endured.
Because I’d already read these emotions through the skill.
The old man watched with hands behind his back.
Puk! Puk!
Bones—no, the Sun Spear.
Seemingly tireless, he kept unleashing attacks.
Pouring out emotions.
‘……Is this the process of venting his grudges?’
I could definitely feel it.
With each attack.
His power weakening.
His emotions loosening.
About an hour passed like that?
His attacks had clearly slowed.
Now.
I could see a slight opening to slip through.
“Sun Spear.”
I called to him.
“How long are you going to wallow in sorrow like that? In agony?”
“…….”
“Fate is like two sides of a coin. If there’s pain, doesn’t that mean there’s equal joy?”
He flinched!
At my curt words, he glared wide-eyed.
Startled by the sudden counterattack, it seemed.
“Think about it. Who loses if you keep drowning in that emotion of pain? Those humans who are long dead and gone? Or you?”
Whoosh!
As I spoke, I thrust my spear too.
The ‘Thrust’ (C-Grade) I’d learned from the old man.
Infused with emotion.
“Heh heh.”
The old man with hands behind his back admired the sight.
“This guy. I thought he was a blockhead, but he’s got some skill. Already infusing emotion into thrusts!”
The old man had fully retreated, watching the scene with interest.
Whoosh!
I kept swinging my spear.
“Honestly, you know why you’re suffering.”
I knew his heart better than anyone.
Because I’d seen it directly through the skill.
‘He loves humans as much as he hates them.’
Honestly.
If he had no feelings for humans, there’d be no reason to suffer.
No reason to feel upset.
He could just see them as targets to kill.
No expectations, no problem.
But this guy was different.
He wanted to try it.
To feel it.
A warm human embrace.
The sight of peers laughing and chatting, haha ho ho.
A mother’s love, laying down her life to protect her child.
Human blood undoubtedly flowed in his veins.
“Don’t you dare!”
Clang!
The Sun Spear deflected my thrust.
“Don’t judge me as you please!”
That power was immense.
It took dozens of steps to regain my footing.
“Hoo!”
I exhaled deeply amid the pain.
“You claim to know why I suffer? Fine. I’ll accept that.”
His eyes gleamed.
“But it’s all in the past! I was abandoned, my emotions dried up. They’ve festered for centuries, scarred forever. What are you going to fix now?!”
The sunlight aura on his spear burned fiercely.
“Does a killer’s apology heal the victim’s family? Does a thug’s apology erase the pain? Absurd! What’s done is done! You can’t gather spilled water!”
He pushed hard.
But I didn’t back down.
Backing off here meant defeat.
I had to.
Persuade him, no matter what.
Heal him.
And from experience, with types like this.
Being firm works better than coddling.
“You’re right. The past can’t be undone.”
I coolly admitted it.
“I’m not asking for forgiveness.”
And continued.
“I’m telling you to be reborn. For your sake alone.”
“……What?”
The Sun Spear furrowed his brow.
“You’re a ghost.”
My spear movements grew fluid.
“Your life ended there anyway. The humans in your world—you killed them all. No more places to vent your anger, so how long are you going to mope like a loser? Time to live a new life. Isn’t it a waste? Don’t you feel sorry for yourself?”
“……My life is over?”
His pupils dilated.
As if only now realizing he was dead.
A shocked expression.
“Yeah, come to think of it…… This is the pyramid. The tomb where I buried myself after slaughtering all humans.”
The place where he’d buried his intense grudge, one he couldn’t let go of even in death.
I nodded.
“Yeah, you’ve been suffering even in death. The ones who tormented you are gone. You killed them all.”
“…….”
He was silent for a long while.
The battle had quieted, and I waited patiently.
Finally.
His mouth opened.
“……Live a new life?”
His murmur was far softer than before.