EP.20.5 Returning Home -2
EP.20.5 Returning Home -2
After finishing breakfast and accepting Fenrir's proposal, I had come to the village that served as Yata Church's home ground, for the first time in a long while.
The reason was to use the various facilities located in the basement of Yata Church's main building.
Before I knew it, Yata Church had undergone tremendous development and transformed into a building on a completely different level from the one I'd seen before.
It was a facility that could easily be considered on par with a government institution building.
But while a government building would be a tall skyscraper reaching upward, Yata Church's main building extended far downward.
I briefly wondered whether that was realistically possible, but considering the future technology Yata often talked about, it did not seem impossible.
"Human, before we start the actual training, it's theory class. What do you think the reason is you're weaker than other Divine Beasts?"
"Isn't it because I'm human?"
"That's not wrong, but I'm not talking about species difference. I'm asking about things like stamina, intelligence, strength—those conceptual things."
"Hmm... then it must be a lack of abilities."
"They say even a rotten shad is still a shad, and that's not just an empty phrase."
I couldn't tell if he was praising me or mocking me.
I wish he'd pick one.
"Anyway, that's the right answer. What you lack compared to other Divine Beasts is a deficiency in abilities, though physical defects also play a part."
"But isn't that inevitable? Even though I gained power from the Divine Beast I made a Provisional Contract with, it's only a portion. And with that partial power, I'm once again borrowing a portion of my companions' strength. So naturally, my abilities have many limitations."
"Do you really think your abilities can't grow any further?"
"What? Yes..."
"Then let me tell you, that's a huge miscalculation. Even if it's only a portion, the power of a Divine Beast can always grow."
"I-It can grow?!"
"Yes. When I was in infancy, I could only use Status Maintenance for just three seconds. But now I can extend it as long as I want."
The duration of Status Maintenance was only three seconds...?
Even the Fenrir invasion 600 years ago must have maintained that devastation for at least one year.
The three seconds he mentioned was completely unbelievable to me.
"For your information, it was the same for Hati and Skoll. Hati could only make a tiny snowball, Skoll only a small ember. The twins were so damn cute back then... I miss it."
"Then, does that mean I can also strengthen my abilities? Even if it's borrowed power?"
"If we compare a Divine Beast's ability to an apple tree, you've borrowed one apple from that tree. And whether you just eat it and be done, or plant it in the ground and grow an apple tree, is up to you."
Grow an apple, huh... That meant even if it was borrowed, there was room for growth.
If that was the case...
"I want to know how to make my abilities stronger!"
When I faced Arachne, if there was one thing I felt most strongly, it was my own lack of ability.
Even while using Divine Beasts' abilities, I'd wallowed in helplessness, thinking I could never defeat a Divine Beast on my own.
Without even trying.
Days of always giving up, admitting to myself that there was a gap in level between humans and Divine Beasts.
If only I could grow stronger through training with Fenrir, then I too...
"I'll ask you once more: do you swear you won't back out of that, not even an inch?"
"Yes!"
"Good. Then from now on, die."
"What...?"
—Crack!
Fenrir slammed his massive wolf paw down toward me.
My body, unable to react to an attack faster than a bullet, was crushed by the sharp claws and weight of the wolf.
And at last, amid a vortex of tremendous pain... I met my first death.
***
"Kuhahaha!! Die! Die more!!"
"No, seriously, have you ever seen a crazy wolf like this?!"
The Yata Church training facility was completely wrecked.
Even so, the wolf before me attacked relentlessly, breaking the already shattered places even more.
"It's a mistake to think that claws and fangs are the only weapons, human."
"What the... urk?!"
Fenrir's tail, which had looked soft, sharpened itself like an awl and pierced straight through my abdomen. The blood in my veins reversed course, making me spit out a mouthful of blood onto the floor. The pain came afterward. Just like with Taotie, the agony of having my abdomen pierced madly stimulated my nerves and hurt, but as soon as the wolf's tail withdrew from my stomach, the pain subsided like magic.
Fenrir's Status Maintenance had activated.
From the moment I'd decided to undergo training, Fenrir had placed that ability on my body.
He said that whether my body was torn apart, crushed, or ground to dust, it would return to its original intact state...
"You failed to evade again, huh! Tch! What's with you, you can't even last one minute?"
"Cough...! cough...! Expecting me to last over a minute against a Great Divine Beast is nonsense!"
I'd rather run away from Miho in genuine jealousy mode for over a minute... but that was impossible too. Anyway, against the wolf in front of me, a Great Divine Beast, I couldn't last even ten seconds, let alone a minute. It wasn't that I couldn't predict his attacks. But even if I predicted them, the speed and sharpness of his attacks were hard to evade, and above all, the biggest problem was that he launched attacks I never saw in my future visions. Even if I saw the future with Yata's ability, that was only a first-person perspective. In other words, if an attack came from a place the future me didn't see, I had no way to avoid it.
"Didn't I tell you before? That the training would be harsh. Anyway, I'll keep killing you until you can hold out for one minute."
"Even Satan would slap his forehead and say he's learned a new trick."
"Since I'm personally training you to be strong, that Satan fellow will understand with a generous heart."
I'd never heard of Satan having such a generous heart, though...
"So brace yourself! You thief!"
"That's definitely personal, isn't it?!"
"I don't care! If you don't like it, then dodge!"
I twisted my body lightly and stepped back to avoid the paw slamming down from the upper right.
Next was the tail sweep aimed at sweeping my legs... though that was likely a feint for what followed.
I jumped lightly to dodge the tail, then released a burst of air toward the wolf's approaching jaws to successfully take a small step back.
But undeterred, the wolf charged to ram me with his massive body; I met his charging eyes and cast an illusion at the right moment—an illusion of myself dodging to the right. Against Fenrir, an illusion only worked for 0.1 seconds. But that 0.1 second caused Fenrir's charge to veer slightly to the right. Seeing that, I threw myself to the left and narrowly dodged his rush.
'No, I didn't dodge.'
Confirming that a chunk of flesh from my side had been torn off, I cauterized the wound with fire to staunch the bleeding before Status Maintenance activated.
The way Fenrir's Status Maintenance ability worked on me was that it triggered only when I sustained fatal damage.
As long as I didn't take deadly damage, it wouldn't activate.
In other words, even if I got wounded, as long as I wasn't dead, the training continued.
"Oh, you're holding up quite well this time?"
"Thanks to that, I'm keeping Future Sight constantly activated, so my skull feels like it's about to crack."
"That's how it gets strengthened, by using it continuously."
"But come to think of it, since I return to the previous state when I die, isn't this pointless?"
"That might be true for the physical part, but the senses are different. As you can see, you, who were helplessly defeated at first, are gradually responding to my attacks, aren't you?"
"That's true."
Excluding the surprise first attack, up until about fifty times, I couldn't dodge the wolf's attacks and died miserably.
In that sense, now having dodged three of the wolf's attacks was truly an achievement to be proud of.
"The same goes for Divine Beast abilities. No matter how powerful my Status Maintenance is, it can't interfere with the abilities of other Divine Beasts. So the world's time flows on unchanged."
"I see."
"Anyway, your abilities are developing normally, so don't worry, I'm telling you."
"Got it. By the way, is it okay to be chatting so leisurely? It's already been forty seconds since we started."
"Wahaha!! Doesn't matter! You won't even hold out a full minute anyway."
"Ah...?"
Fenrir's body vanished momentarily, then suddenly appeared right in front of me, jaws agape. I thought I could predict and dodge this too, but... this time, the Fenrirs rushing at me with open mouths weren't just one but four... coming at me from different directions.
'Fuck! How the hell do I dodge this?!'
***
"S-S-S-Seon-ju! Are you all right...?"
"P-Please, let me live..."
Having repeated death thousands of times and endured thousands of agonies, my mental strength was scraping rock bottom.
Fortunately, Kor had come at dinner time, forcibly ending the day's training.
Thank goodness Status Maintenance didn't stop time as well...
"Father? You didn't use your ability on Seon-ju to kill him recklessly, like when you trained Hati in the past...?"
"Uh... That's exactly the training method. Why?"
"I told you before! That's far too extreme a training method!!"
"B-But, this training was something that human also agreed to and accepted himself!"
"Even so...!!"
"Kor, I'm fine."
Kor's head began to flare up with fire.
I grabbed her by the wrist to convey that she shouldn't be so angry.
As Fenrir said, this training was wholly accepted by me.
If it had been training I couldn't endure, I'd have run away long ago.
But out of my selfish desire to lessen my companions' burden, I endured and accepted this absurd training.
So there was no reason or need for Kor to be angry at her father.
"Seon-ju..."
"See, that human is saying so, isn't he? So I plan to kill him a whole lot more going forward and build him up."
"Ugh...! Do you dislike Seon-ju that much, Father?"
"Yep!!"
Fenrir answered with the most refreshing voice ever.
Looking at him, I had only one thought.
'Fucking wolf bastard...'