110. The Strongest Hero of All Time
110. The Strongest Hero of All Time
A Hero.
It was ironic that the trump card humanity had prepared to oppose beings like herself was the very existence that even Enabel, who held humanity in contempt, felt wary of.
She could dismiss their arrogance, their nature—but their potential alone was a legitimate threat, even to one who was war incarnate.
"...So you came to stop me."
"Is there any other reason to be here?"
One such Hero stood in her way now, clutching a shovel handle after collapsing the ravine.
Was the anger in that voice born from humiliation at having her barrier shattered?
Or was it vengeance for the soldiers around her?
"For someone who came purely to stop me, your attitude is rather emotional."
"Can't help it. If I could feel nothing standing before the bastard who did all this, I wouldn't be a human being."
Her attitude was emotional, but her actions were utterly composed.
Meaning she at least possessed the coldness to restrain herself.
The bitterness she felt at that kind of patience was probably because she, too, vaguely remembered what it was like to be alive.
"...But war is like this."
Yet that was all in the past.
Whatever her previous life had been, the woman she was now prioritized the mission to follow her mother. Toward that end, any pity for humans was not merely worthless—it was meaningless.
"No matter who you follow or what you pursue... everyone who stands on the battlefield must accept that they will be equally exposed to death and despair. Since you've stepped onto this field, you've accepted that much, haven't you?"
"...To be honest, from the moment I heard you were targeting this place, I figured something like this was bound to happen."
Everyone who stands on the battlefield must keep in mind that their dignity will crumble, and even their remains may not rest wholly beneath a grave.
Having stated that firmly, the Red Knight had explained her actions as inevitable. Facing her, Nam Ja-seong twisted her grip tighter on the shovel handle and steadied her breathing.
"Then let me ask one thing. If what you're doing is war, do you have any intention of sparing someone if they surrender?"
"...What do you mean?"
"Not everyone here is a combatant. There are merchants, and plenty of non-combatants who dedicate themselves solely to serving meals or treating the wounded."
Back in her original world, there had even been international treaties swearing never to attack medical personnel in war.
Soldiers on the battlefield could steel themselves to kill each other—but dragging people outside that category into it was something her common sense vehemently rejected.
"And if I let you pass here, you'll turn not only the soldiers but the non-combatants into the same state as those around you. Am I right?"
"...Naturally."
To annihilate all of humanity.
That was the very reason the dead like herself had risen from death.
"Thanks for the clear answer, you invading piece of shit."
The moment she heard that definitive answer, Nam Ja-seong slammed her shovel handle into the ground.
As the force from that prepared to move the earth itself, Nam Ja-seong's eyes flashed beneath her helmet and she shouted at her.
"If you'd at least understood the concept of prisoners, I might've shown you some respect. But as I thought, I can't deal with you people. You ready to die one more time, you walking corpse?"
-Kwa-rrrumble!!
The earth surged upward with her shout.
The moment the shockwave spread all the way to where she stood, the Red Knight also poured her magic into her blade and prepared to respond.
-Kwaaaaaah!
The released force shoved the earth aside and advanced toward him.
The attack bearing down on her evaporated in the counterattack, but the undead outside its range were buried without so much as a proper response.
Being buried alive wouldn't kill the undead, but it was no easy task to escape a mass dozens of times one's own body weight.
'When she makes the ground surge, it's as light as scooping with a shovel. But when her ability deactivates on the risen earth, the mass returns and buries everything in the area alive...'
A power overwhelmingly advantageous in warfare that values terrain advantage in group battles.
But the true value of that ability lay in being able to temporarily manipulate the massive volume and weight of the earth at will.
-Kugugu, crrrrack.
The barrier erected by that had successfully protected her body perfectly from the previous strike.
Creating a sturdy barrier on the spot was tricky, but if she could land two more hits without giving her time to react, she could bring down the one protected within.
If she was alone here, that is.
"Now, squirt!!"
"I said my name is Ga-ram, not squirt! You old man!!"
Right. Being deep in enemy territory meant reinforcements could arrive at any moment.
As if in agreement, the hand of the girl who leaped from the cliff moved, and the boulders under her control began to hurl toward the corpses below.
Crack! Kwa-boom! Bodies pulverized miserably by the falling rocks.
The Red Knight had been deflecting those attacks one by one with her sword, but her gaze began to turn toward Ga-ram, soaring through the air.
'Flight ability...?'
No. She was merely applying her power to lift objects to the foothold she stepped on.
Contact with a living being made precise control difficult, so she could only use it for gliding rather than full levitation. In combat, however, the advantage always belonged to whoever occupied the high ground.
Simply by delaying her falling speed through gliding, the threat of the masses she controlled was nothing short of a carpet bombing.
"One more time!!!"
"Alright!!!"
And the one standing here could overturn the earth irrespective of mass.
Even the critical weakness of gliding—its time limit—could be refreshed simply by overturning the ground to raise new boulders.
-Kwa-rrrumble, boom!!!
A coordinated attack: quickly mounting a new foothold, then controlling the surging rocks to precisely strike the enemy's position.
Infantry who couldn't easily attack a flying enemy would have no choice but to suffer helplessly.
'Then I'll just crush her with firepower and blow her away!'
-Kwa-rrrumble!
Once more, the magic gathered in her blade was released toward Ga-ram, floating between the ravine walls.
Ga-ram's body seemed to freeze as the attack reached her, but she quickly regained her senses and swerved her controlled foothold toward the wall.
Straight to the wall where Nam Ja-seong, having noticed the attack, had just driven her shovel in.
-Kwa-rrrumble!
The surface of the wall where that force was applied collapsed in an instant, and the magic-infused, controlled earth hardened to temporarily form a barricade.
Having boldly succeeded in blocking the enemy's attack through that, Ga-ram suppressed the fear of her life being threatened and gathered strength into both hands.
"No time to waste! Going as discussed! Get ready!!!"
Nam Ja-seong charged in immediately at the signal.
Dodging scattered rocks and crushed corpses, she knocked away the remnants rushing at her with her shovel, then drove its tip into the ground.
A movement attempting something.
But the bombardment raining from above hindered any effort to stop it.
"Now, squirt!"
-Kugugung, boom!
Ga-ram controlled the overturned earth to precisely form the framework of a wall.
Then, as her ability deactivated, the settling earth was hardened firmly by the magic imbued in Ja-seong's shovel work, culminating in a wall enclosing the Red Knight's surroundings.
What was ultimately created were two walls sealing off both sides of the ravine.
Having succeeded in isolating the Red Knight alone inside, Ga-ram jumped off the floating boulder and landed beside Ja-seong.
"This should be enough, right?"
"Yeah. Let's leave the rest to the friend inside."
One of the rocks dropped during the wall-building process had, as previously discussed, discreetly included 'another collaborator'.
If they'd succeeded in creating a one-on-one setup as agreed, their job now was to prevent the undead under her command from interfering.
-Kurrrruk, kurrrk!
Right. Having their master isolated was more than enough cause for a sense of crisis.
Immediately after, the corpses that began charging at one another soon merged together, transforming into a giant's shape.
What was created at the end was a Corpse Golem woven from hundreds of bodies.
Normally, it was a monster that required deploying battalion-level forces to barely hold back, but the one controlling this Corpse Golem was none other than War's Red Knight.
-Koooooaaaaaaaaah!!
True to the name of war, the power of the undead she commanded overwhelmed ordinary undead.
A fierce roar, merging the voices of hundreds of mouths, echoed through the ravine, making the two confronting it feel the tension.
"Bit late to say this, but squirt—you holding up mentally?"
He himself had grown accustomed to danger and fear since coming to this world, but Ga-ram had been here less than half a year and was still just a teenage girl.
Moreover, with the soldiers she'd grown familiar with turning into enemies, the risk of her losing reason and will to fight was considerable.
"...I'm fine. I'm already used to dealing with people."
But Ga-ram, too, had accumulated various experiences in this world alongside her partner and developed her mindset from them.
It was heartbreaking to face dead comrades, but she could endure for now, having reminded herself repeatedly that they were only the same in outward appearance.
Above all, there was one more personal reason she must not avoid this situation.
"And personally, I've got quite a bit piled up against that lady."
Ga-ram remembered.
Back when her party was on the verge of annihilation against Gorgon Zola, that woman had barged in and disappeared with him.
But not out of pity for them—because she deemed them not even worth killing.
Thinking of her partner who had felt so powerless back then, what Ga-ram felt toward her was undoubtedly something you could define as a grudge.
-Koooooaaaah!
As if finding it unsatisfying to entrust such a personal grudge to someone else, the giant Corpse Golem roared and charged at the two.
The swung fist collided with Ja-seong's barrier, sending tremors through it. Behind that, Ga-ram steadied her breathing and gathered her strength, then asked Ja-seong.
"We'll manage somehow, but is it really going to be okay in there? I heard the opponent is a monster who could annihilate this place all by herself."
"Ah, well, it'll be fine."
If they failed to stop her, that monster would kill even them and head for the base—but that would never happen.
Recalling the time she had sparred with the one inside, Nam Ja-seong spoke in a voice full of certainty.
"I sparred with that friend for about a month. Never landed a single hit."
****
At the same time. Standing before the barrier that blocked her path, Enabel took a moment to examine its state.
The thickness and sturdiness were considerable. The feel was similar to the rampart she had shattered earlier, so she could deduce that those two were the ones who had helped erect it.
'Of course, it's not something I couldn't break if I poured firepower into it. If I had the time to break it....'
Withdrawing her attention from the barrier, Enabel then turned to look behind her.
There, among the boulders that had fallen before the barrier went up, a man had covertly hidden himself and landed in the same space as her.
He wore nothing but a tattered cloth wrapped around his lower body.
His lean, muscular build was starkly exposed, and the only peculiar thing about him was a single paper bag hiding his head.
"......."
And he was taciturn.
After entering the same space as her, he simply raised the club in his hand without a word and waited for her to act.
"...So you're my opponent."
He looked shabby and unremarkable on the outside, but this was the one who had chosen to be isolated in place of the two Heroes who had stopped her.
So Enabel did not let her guard down.
Just as a beast of prey uses its full strength even to catch a rabbit, even if you look down on a human, you must trample them thoroughly—only then could you teach them their place.
'Whoever the opponent is, kill them swiftly.'
Soon she compressed the output of her sword and manipulated her power in a way that maximized its sharpness.
An Aura Blade that could leave a wound even on mithril, the world's most durable alloy, if it merely touched.
The moment she gripped that sword and charged swiftly, her opponent also began rushing at her, clutching his wooden club.
He looked insignificant outwardly.
The mana sensed from the club in his hand was faint, and he showed no sign of operating any special power like other Heroes.
In that case, would something change right after they clashed?
-Slice!
Rendering even that concern meaningless, Enabel swung her sword the instant an opening appeared.
Unable to respond to that strike, his head soared upward, and his strengthless body began to topple.
'Did I kill him?'
The sensation in her hand was clear. Indeed, the strength was draining from the decapitated body, and reflexive convulsions from death were occurring.
Because in her vision, she could see the head flying far off, tracing an arc as it fell.
'...He's dead.'
Before that head touched the ground, Im Tae-yang thought as he felt his consciousness fading.
At this moment, death had come to him by having his neck severed by her blade.
So this must be a dream.
****
-Kwaang!
No sooner had he awakened from that dream than Im Tae-yang ducked his head and evaded the strike.
Immediately after, the Red Knight's body reeled from a counterattack that struck her head. Then a blow that came crashing from the opposite side slammed into her face and forced her body back.
'What the hell, just now.'
Anyone could see it was a bizarre movement.
The vagabond who had seemed to be charging in recklessly when she swung her sword had, in that split second, transformed as if becoming a different person and landed attacks on her.
"......You. What trick did you just use."
Unlike herself, who had permitted several attacks, her opponent had evaded her strike and only suffered minor damage—a slightly torn paper bag.
That was the entirety of the result she perceived.
The awareness that her sword had cut through his neck did not exist for her at all right now.
-Step, step.
That was only natural.
When he received a fatal blow, he was the wielder of the 'Stopwatch Hand'—an ability that allowed him to turn back time up to a maximum of 10 seconds, corresponding to the number of fingers he folded.
Simply by holding a club, he could infinitely return to 5 seconds before his death. Theoretically, he was an ability user who ranked among the 'immortal'.
-Step, step.
Yes, the one standing here was an avatar of madness who had even cast aside armor to preserve his body for the sake of that ability's condition.
The one who had never tasted defeat a single time before arriving here—the mightiest Hero in human history.