118. The Hero Has Returned
-Tinkle.
And that was the moment the crystal ball that had revealed all of this beforehand fell to the floor.
Even so, Airi couldn't bring herself to pick it up. She could only cover her mouth and stand there, trembling uncontrollably.
"This... is absurd."
What awaited in the not-so-distant future was war, and more war......
A world of infinite hell, where an army of the undead would occupy the entire continent and the only spectacle unfolding would be people killing and dying at each other's hands.
The being capable of making that possibility a reality was standing right in front of them at this very moment.
A being that would soon grow into a calamity beyond comparison to a dragon or even the Demon King had anomalously emerged at the end of the fate she was trying to walk toward.
"How on earth could a future like this...?"
Tachia Piloi was the Red Knight of War.
At least, when she had peered into Tasian's past, there hadn't been any trace of that.
Her body had been drained of its soul to be used for forging weapons, and in the end, it was placed in a coffin and sent adrift down the river.
'And that coffin, of all places, drifted into the domain of the Corpse Lord...?'
No, that alone wasn't enough.
At the very least, there had to be some kind of medium that would make her aware of her own identity before meeting her.
A future that could only unfold if there was a connection between the Corpse Lord and her, and most importantly, if she was exactly at the one place where Tasian could reveal her power.
Because her body could gauge such possibilities, the prophet could only see this moment as all the more despairing.
'A... a chance, even now, a chance to stop it...'
Airi, trying to maintain her composure even in that despair, reached for the crystal ball with trembling hands.
But her quivering touch pushed it away instead, sending it tumbling over the cliff.
The treasured heirloom of the Haven clan, which allowed her to fully exercise her power—the moment it slipped from her grasp.
Even so, the fleeting sense of relief she felt was probably because her unconscious mind wanted to turn away from the future that lay before her.
'A chance, she says. As if such a thing could ever exist.'
Tasian alone, if not necessarily capable of humanity's extinction, could certainly collapse the civilization they had built and inflict damage so severe that recovery would be agonizing.
She had abandoned so much to stop that woman who could single-handedly cause such a disaster. She had even turned a blind eye to the helplessness of her own companion—the one she wanted to grow into a savior starting with Tasian—and had even risked the danger of castrating his very ego.
'But even if this is what it is, even if Hyosung comes back...'
Could her companion, even if he returned, find a way to resolve this situation?
A being like that Apostle of Destruction, who would grow into a calamity incomparable to the weakened Tasian?
"...No."
It was impossible.
An enemy that no existing Hero could possibly overcome. There was no way he, who had only just grasped the possibility of becoming a Hero, could defeat such a foe.
"No. I can't... drag Hyosung into a dog's death like this..."
Yes, from what she could see, there wasn't even the slimmest thread of a possibility.
So it would be better to escape from this place right now and plan for the next generation....
The priority should be to secure a grace period, to buy time until the companion she had chosen could someday grow strong enough to deal with a disaster like her.
-Kyaaaaaahhk!!!!!
The scream that erupted the moment she tried to cling to that hope stopped her breath.
Seeing the horde swelling with even greater momentum than before, Airi was at last struck dumb with shock and slumped to her knees.
'In the first place... does any of it even have meaning?'
Hadn't her ancestor already prophesied it? That the end would soon come for this world.
She didn't know what form it would take, but if her ancestor's prophecy had the distant future in mind, then what stood before her eyes might not even amount to the beginning of it.
A calamity even greater than the one she already deemed impossible to oppose right now was waiting ahead.
She was being tested every moment to accept an even greater calamity, and she would keep forcing that trial onto the person she had given her heart to.
For a task where the possibility of success was a mere speck... or perhaps didn't exist at all, she would have to drive the person she loved into the jaws of death.
"I can't do it. Something like that... I can't..."
The fortitude she had precariously maintained crumbled.
At last, a sob leaked from her lips.
"This... is too much."
Only after she spoke those words did she realize.
No matter how much of her clan's power she had been granted, giving her the stature of a demigod—
at her foundation, she was just like the soldiers down below who felt no hope. Nothing more than an existence destined to be swept away by the harshness of this world.
"...Please."
Yet because she could not bear to simply stand by and watch this reality unfold—
for the first time in her life, she turned away from reality and futilely recited a prayer toward the heavens.
"Please. Someone, tell me the answer. I..."
She was afraid of seeing the prophecies she had believed in shatter any further.
She felt her helplessness because of that, and she feared the reality that she would have to push an even greater despair onto her companion.
She just wanted to stop thinking and run away.
The moment she felt even her mission as a savior crumbling under that impulse—
"...Please don't cry."
A gentle voice came from behind her, and Airi turned her blurred gaze toward her rear.
There stood the figure of a man looking down at the scene from right behind her.
"...Hyo."
A familiar face.
And a smile she had wanted to see again.
"Hyosung...?"
After showing that smile, he leapt down.
At such speed that the gentle smile he had shown her left an afterimage before transforming into a streak of light.
****
-Boom!!
At the end of his descent, the light struck violently at the center of the multiplying army.
Even the chunks of flesh and streams of blood that burst outward were scattered in all directions by the powerful shockwave emitted by the one who had collided with them.
-Crash, Bang!!!!
And he channeled that force into charging forward.
The soldiers who noticed his presence all focused their attention and tried to swing their weapons, but by then, the weapons materialized right in front of their faces were already aimed at their bodies.
-Riiip, Slaash!!
Swords, spears, axes, and other arms materialized in the empty air and pierced their bodies, carving through flesh and repeatedly triggering magical explosions from within.
Once, twice, three times....
Repeating the process more times than that, he succeeded in opening a path. What then appeared in his hand was a single spear forged from pure mana.
-Bang!!!
The moment the thrown spear hit its mark and caused a violent explosion, the Red Knight felt a shudder run through the hand gripping her sword.
She, who had become even stronger by drinking the dragon's blood—
she could feel, from this opponent, a power that had managed to inflict a slight amount of damage on her.
"...What are you."
Yes, this was not someone to be taken lightly.
But that assessment was not based solely on the spear's power.
The swords, axes, and other arms lying materialized along the path he had passed through—there were as many of them as the corpses scattered on the ground, each one having neutralized their bodies.
Temporary material creation using only pure mana.
A technique that only those who handle spirits and have reached a certain realm could wield.
"Just what are you? How can you... use my technique..."
But that was impossible for someone born human.
How much a spirit could be drawn upon depended on the natural dignity of the living being. To rise to the level of creation itself, one had to possess the dignity of a lord of all creation, or something close to it.
At the very least, one had to be a dragon or be acknowledged by such a dragon to use it.
"...I wonder. Right now, even I'm not quite sure who I am."
Amidst that rising question, he adjusted his grip on the spear in his hand and calmly faced off against her.
Even though the soldiers he had crushed moments ago were rematerializing as if nothing had happened, gradually forming an encirclement under her command.
"I don't even know if a mere nobody of a pack mule like me is qualified to stand here."
Even so, his unwavering gaze remained fixed on the enemy before him.
The madness born from humanity's original sin.
A fragment of it had been torn away to create this spectacle, yet within it, he maintained his composure and was preparing to charge at her.
"Even so... she was crying."
He recalled the tears of the person who had guided him to this point—the person who had loved him.
Deeming that alone as reason enough to move, he resolved to stand against the Apostle of Destruction before him.
"So for now, at least in this place, I'll say this."
He declared it.
Feeling that everything he had traversed until now had been solely for this moment—boldly and proudly.
"...I am a Hero."
Hero Woo Hyosung.
He joins the war that will decide the fate of humanity.