119. You Are Someone Who Should Not Exist
119. You Are Someone Who Should Not Exist
Hero.
A word that intrinsically carries the promise of hope. A title bestowed only upon the most special and powerful beings in this world.
"...A hero?"
I didn't know how to react to the person who had appeared before me, using that very term.
Before I could even grasp the situation, mockery began to drip from her lips.
"You? A hero?"
Someone claiming to be a hero had stepped forward to block the path of one who understood the meaning and weight of that word better than anyone.
Wasn't it only natural to find that laughable?
"...And what of it?"
After that, a subdued voice escaped her lips as her heated emotions cooled.
The politeness she now projected lacked the previous madness.
As one of the dead, she might not possess life, but she could feel her reason steadily solidifying.
"I've dealt with countless people claiming to be heroes. Except for the last one I faced, none of them managed to take my head."
What surfaced at the edge of her words were the traces of a performance she'd once put on to shed her rough mercenary days.
At the same time, it was the arrogance and composure that came from her position as an absolute being.
"But surely you don't believe you can face me just because of what I displayed earlier? You, who possesses the combat power of a single hero at best?"
Yes, the Red Knight was certain.
A firm conviction that this opponent could not hinder her—a feeling born from the strange sense of déjà vu she sensed from him.
"...That being said, you are a bit concerning. Unlike any ordinary hero, you are perfectly mimicking a technique that I once performed."
The temporary materialization she'd used earlier was a state reached by using mana—which generates physical force in response to will—to create matter.
Because it is, strictly speaking, a technique for handling energy that responds to will, achieving it is impossible without the cooperation of a being capable of controlling mana on a microscopic level—like a spirit.
And the only method for a human to command a spirit to that extent is to inherit dignity from an existence such as a dragon.
"Ah, I see.... Does that mean you're just like me?"
And there is only one dragon in this world.
A living corpse whose reverse scale has been stabbed repeatedly yet refuses to die; one who has lost consciousness but still clings to the will to live.
So, such a being had chosen to pass on its dignity to this mere human, following its own precedent.
"...Only that much."
Along with that realization, the sword swung by her own hand plunged—thwock—and began stabbing at her own reverse scale.
"You think you can oppose me just because you were chosen by this one? Even after seeing the army surrounding you?"
Now that the madness had subsided and she could rationally consider her calling,
there was nothing left to draw from her mother, but she felt her power grow more dexterous the more her feelings toward her intensified.
-Crackle, craaack.
The troops beginning to rise from the earth in response to that power were proof that she had far surpassed the strength she held in her previous life.
There was no way a lone hero could defeat her—a being who could manifest the very Age of Madness, an era that made mere weapon creation, even armies, look trivial.
"...You're awfully quiet."
The man before her remained silent, staring wordlessly, even with that certainty right in front of him.
Seeing this, the Red Knight smirked and readied a mocking remark.
"Don't tell me you've finally grasped reality and frozen up? Well, if you've walked right into the heart of enemy territory......"
"You're a lot different from when I saw you before."
Only then did his mouth belatedly open.
The Red Knight paused mid-sentence and glared at him as he stared back at her, uncomprehending.
"...When you saw me before?"
"You remember me too, don't you? We met once, four months ago."
Remember? What was he talking about?
Puzzled, the Red Knight gradually felt the man's face grow familiar.
Yes, he was that unremarkable adventurer she'd encountered when she went to stop the Black Knight from taking independent action.
The reason she hadn't killed him then, though she could have crushed him at any moment, was because she'd deemed him not worth killing.
After all, all living things would eventually join their legion, and to retrieve the Black Knight who had taken an interest in him, placing him outside her concern had been the correct course of action.
"I'm sorry, but I don't remember well. Even if we have met, the memory from that time must be too trivial."
But now, such things no longer mattered at all.
She no longer even considered the Corpse Lord her mother; it would be absurd to pay attention to some lowly being she'd once spared, just because he'd grown stronger and come back.
"...No, even if we have met, it's irrelevant. No matter how many of you come, you cannot stop me."
Following that will, she aimed her reforged sword forward, and its magical power slowly began bleeding into the soldiers, their numbers swelling around her.
The moment thousands—tens of thousands—of troops, soaked in madness and appetite, fixed their attention on him...
"Everyone, destroy him. With his defeat, we shall declare a war of blood upon this world!"
It was practically a death sentence.
Facing an army alone was something even her past self could accomplish to some extent, but what he had to face now was an endlessly surging legion.
It was an army of blood that would be infinitely generated as long as she didn't fall, destined to swallow this entire world before long.
"Woo, woo......."
The soldiers soon received her order and focused their eyes on him.
But the moment they perceived his existence, their jaws went slack and they let the weapons in their hands droop toward the ground.
"Woo-hyo?"
The Red Knight, who had expected them to charge immediately, heard a sound she had never anticipated.
"Woo, woo-hyooo......."
"Woo-hyo, woo-hyo."
She watched briefly, thinking she might be hearing things, but no matter how many times she heard it, it was the same.
Everyone before him stood there blankly, letting out bizarre exclamations in unison.
"Woo-hyoooo~"
"Woo-hyoooooooo~!!"
Finally, even the battle cries that should have erupted were swallowed up by those strange noises, and the Red Knight's face hardened as she sensed something had gone terribly wrong.
"What in the...."
"Aaaargh! For the love of god, STOP WITH THAT 'WOO-HYO' NOISE!!!!"
The man screamed at the soldiers standing there so stupidly, swinging his spear in fury.
His attack ripped their bodies to shreds, yet the sounds they let out upon perceiving him didn't stop.
Even as their bodies were cut down, the way they just stood there dumbly making those noises made it seem like the target had bound them with some bizarre trick.
"You goddamn sons of bitches!! How many times do I have to say my name isn't Woo-hyo, it's Woo Hyosung!?"
But if that were the case, why was the man who was the target exploding with rage like that, mercilessly slicing them apart?
The Red Knight, who had lost her wits at this incomprehensible situation, stared blankly at him until he stopped even cutting down the soldiers and began screaming at the top of his lungs.
"My damn ability is supposed to make you remember the three syllables of my name, so why do you keep butchering it?! The syllable you're supposed to drop is the first one—FIRST—you leave the surname out! Not the last!!!"
"You think I went through all that hell just to get treated like this in a situation like this?! For once, just act seriously during a serious scene, will you?!"
"Woo-hyo?"
"Aaaaaaaaaaaarrgh!!"
The man finally lost all reason and began sweeping through the nearby soldiers indiscriminately.
As she watched the number of troops gathered around him gradually thin, the Red Knight took a moment to contemplate the name he had brought up.
'Woo Hyo, seong....'
It was a familiar name.
She had once faced him directly, and more importantly, the undead under the Corpse Lord shared their memories with each other to some extent.
Of course, due to the nature of the dead, they mostly ignored memories unless they were their own lingering regrets or commands from higher entities. But there was one name that stuck out despite that natural flow.
'An ability that forcibly imprints one's existence... isn't that quite intriguing?'
The words the White Knight, who had tagged along before she came here, had mentioned about him slowly began to surface.
She now realized that the idle chatter she had dismissed as nonsense back then was the answer that explained the current situation.
'Is it really that serious?'
'It's more intriguing than serious. To shove a memory more vivid than our lingering regrets into the minds of us dead, who care for nothing but those regrets.... If used well, it could even bring about a revolution among us.'
A trivial power that simply imprints a name.
But like what other heroes wielded, it was a concept that deviated from this world's laws and common sense.
Because the absolute unwritten rule of the dead—living solely for their lingering regrets—had been fractured just by encountering his existence.
'My calling....'
And it went beyond the dead. It was reaching a level that could halt the actions of soldiers created from nothingness, right in this very moment.
Soldiers with no ego, meant only to extract the era's madness and hatred toward humanity, faithful only to their instincts, eternally repeating war.
Just by facing him, they were stopping their actions and beginning to fixate solely on that one person.
'My war... is being tainted by this man...?'
The moment that realization struck, the Red Knight moved.
Not merely emotional—it was passionately violent.
-Kwaang!!
The bodies of soldiers caught in her rough movement burst gruesomely, tracing a trajectory of crimson blood.
At its end, he perceived the blood-drenched sword swinging for him and hurriedly raised his spear to counter the attack.
-Bang!!!!
The moment he registered it, the spear of magical power formed in his hand clashed with the sword.
The Red Knight didn't flinch even at the resulting explosion of magical power. Swords materialized around her, and responding to her will, they swung at him ferociously, again and again.
-Kwa-gang, bang! Kwa-ru-reung!!!
A continuous sequence of weapon creation and magical detonations.
For a moment, it seemed she was driving him back through sheer force. But even that didn't last long.
"Woo Hyo, seong......"
In the end, a power struggle formed as their weapons locked.
In that tense deadlock that yielded not an inch, the two began to glare into each other's eyes through the gap between their weapons.
"Woo Hyosung, Woo Hyosung~!!"
The Red Knight erupted in madness once more, driven by rage and fear toward her opponent.
"Finally, I've met an opponent who says my name properly."
And the hero, who even felt a thrill from the current situation.
I felt the composure radiating from his face harshly scraping at my heart, which had firmly believed I held the upper hand.
It was detestable that a power whose only function was to remember a name had emerged as the greatest threat to me.
-Kwa-reung!!!
Amid that sense of crisis, the sword strikes once again began to increase in output.
As he was pushed back and faltered, the troops who had been standing still began to swarm around him.
"Woo Hyosung, you are a being that should not exist in this world."
If left relying only on instinct, they would simply stand there.
But there was no reason they couldn't be forced to charge if I poured magical power into them and directly issued a command.
"Your mere existence is an obstruction to me. My realization, the very reason I exist...!!"
Using such a command on the entire army consumed a considerable amount of magical power, but he was a foe worth the price.
My opponent was a being who had reached a realm equal to my own, who had once single-handedly dealt with armies.
A half-hearted attempt to fight him would only give him an opening for a counterattack.
"...Is that why you did that to your mother?"
"Because I hate her."
Realizing that his gaze was directed at my fallen mother, the Red Knight cried out, mixing ecstasy with her fury.
"Because I hated her as much as I loved her. Because even so, I wanted to be with her forever!!!"
-Kyaaaaaaak!!!
The undead horde began to rampage, reacting to the runaway emotions.
I struck down their simultaneous rush with my weapon and tried to stop them with generated armaments, but it wasn't enough.
For every one I dispatched, twice as many enemies came; when I dispatched those, enemies multiplied tenfold were charging at me with killing intent.
"Therefore, I will fulfill her dying wish. By annihilating humanity and trapping them in an eternal crucible of war!"
Yes, my opponent was a perfected calamity, having even accepted the blood of a dragon.
His overflowing magical power, given enough time, enabled the infinite production of troops originating from her.
Killing the caster might end it, but the reason I couldn't charge in was clear.
Even during this standoff, I was realizing instinctively that her personal combat power was overwhelming my own.
-...Ding~ ♬
But despite that, I did not retreat.
Even knowing a situation like this would unfold, I had steeled myself for it and leaped into this place. It wasn't overconfidence in my own strength. It was because I believed in the allies who would be with me, even at this very moment.
-Ding-a-ling, ding~ ♬
With such faith, I governed my will. And the Red Knight, staring me down, realized that the faint sound of music gradually reaching her ears was growing clearer.
At the same time, a presence was felt from the flank.
"Stone wa~ll!!!"
What appeared where her gaze turned was the army of humanity charging in, led by an old general.
Those she had thought would now simply await death were rushing toward certain death, their fear completely forgotten.
****
And, in the place left behind after his departure.
"Why are you standing there so blankly?"
Marilyn approached Airi, who was vacantly looking down at the scene, and plucked the strings of the lute in her hand as she glanced her way.
"Didn't you want to save even a world like this? You dragged even the Four Heavenly Kings of the Demon Lord Army into this. You can't give up in a place like this."
"...Marilyn."
Save it? How on earth?
A catastrophe she hadn't predicted had awakened, and while she'd repeatedly experienced her prophetic visions of the future shattering,
how could she even consider resisting a calamity that had even surpassed Tasian, whom they couldn't handle?
"Are you okay with this? Hyosung...."
"If running anywhere leads to the same end, then the place he goes to shouldn't be one I block, don't you think?"
Even as she assumed Marilyn felt the same way, the resonance of the strings in her hand continued to ring out, unstopping.
"More than anything, if the world is destroyed, there'll be no one left to listen to my performance, and I'd find that quite regrettable."
"...Performance?"
"Yes, a performance~"
-Ding-a-ling~ ♬
A performance that produced an even clearer melody, accompanied by a distinct smile drawn at the corners of her lips.
As Airi stared blankly, feeling a shift in her emotions from it, Marilyn's mouth began to open slowly.
"Airi, you see......"
Though she had been in a position to stop him, she was now going to tell her the reason she had let him go.
She was going to convey the realization that what she felt for him could never be complete if only the two of them existed.
"I hope that more and more people will come to understand the love I feel for him."
Her current performance stemmed from that desire.
It was to express the selfishness of wanting others to understand her intense love, thereby proving that her love was righteous.
"And over there, I see an audience capable of understanding it."
Yes, that was enough.
The reason she needed to perform here and now.
"If the stage and the actors are sufficiently set, then all that's left for the audience is a performance to stir the excitement...."
"Now then, shall we begin the concert together?"
The Bard of Love, Marilyn Sutherland.
Her beautiful performance begins to resonate across this brutal battlefield.