The Hero, Part 4
A bone-chilling wind howled. He had endured countless winters. The winter of Evernode—the winter of the North—was long, freezing, and incomparably harsher than anywhere else on the continent.
Kuenor Strofe possessed a deep pride in having lived his life in a world of winter. He took pride in having fought against it. In the North, winter was the entire world; thus, his pride was in having fought against the world itself.
The Boundary Line swallowed Kuenor and his knights without a sound. Beyond the veil lay a stark white darkness. The entire world was bleached of color, leaving nothing but blinding white.
Kuenor looked back. The knights who had served him and Evernode for half their lives stood waiting, swords drawn.
"I will lead the charge. Save your strength, gentlemen."
Though he could see nothing but faint, shifting shadows, Kuenor could clearly sense the hundreds, thousands of monsters waiting ahead. He did not rein in his horse; instead, he spurred it faster.
The wind within the Boundary Line scraped against Kuenor's cheeks like a razor blade. He inhaled deeply and exhaled. His breath, warmed by his circulating mana, dispersed into the air as a plume of white steam.
"We break through in one go. Do not lose sight of the vanguard under any circumstances."
"Yes, sir!" The knights' unified shout pierced through the howling gale.
The Grand Duke unleashed his aura from the very beginning. The mana of a man who stood on the precipice of becoming a Grand Swordmaster was an inexhaustible spring. The monsters, empowered by the Boundary Line and the Fourth Calamity, charged blindly, relying on their newfound strength, only to be obliterated without leaving even a trace of their existence.
"...This is no joke." Kuenor gritted his teeth as the snowfall grew heavier and thicker. Even when he extended his sensory perception, he could barely detect the presence of his knights. It was as if the space within the Boundary Line was saturated with a strange, disruptive magic, gradually dulling and scattering his senses.
"But we are close. I can clearly feel the Giant's presence." Kuenor constantly urged them forward. The knights saved even the breath it would take to reply, silently preparing themselves for the battle ahead.
Kuenor reviewed the plan in his mind once more. He would halt the Giant's advance here, while Elroy, the Hero, defended the fortress walls. Since Kuenor had likely wiped out half the monsters slated to assault the walls today, Elroy would have a lighter burden.
The snow accumulating beneath them now reached the horses' fetlocks. Kuenor looked at the monsters blocking their path. There were about thirty of them, and every single one possessed intelligence.
"You shall not pass. How dare mere insects attempt to reach His feet." A yeti stepped forward, its eyes glaring with fury. Beside it, abnormally massive trolls, ravens, and grey bears bared their fangs, radiating thick malice toward Kuenor.
"Draw your swords." Steel shrieked as blades scraped against their scabbards. The raging blizzard was a hostile environment for humans. Kuenor drew upon his mana. Simply channeling it was not enough. He had to suppress the enemy with sheer momentum and rouse his knights' morale. Stronger, even stronger—strong enough to blow away the blizzard within the Boundary Line entirely.
Whoosh! Aura erupted. A vortex of magical power, like a rising dragon, pushed back the blizzard and cleared their vision. The Calamity's magic did not tolerate humans who dared rebel against it. The monsters' eyes turned blood-red as they charged. Kuenor and his knights raised their swords.
"For Evernode." Whispering like a prayer, Kuenor swung his sword. For the land, for the fortress, for the knights, the soldiers, and the commoners. The empowered monsters fell upon them. Kuenor squeezed out every ounce of his skill, unleashing his aura to slaughter the beasts. The knights synchronized with Kuenor's magic, raising their own auras. The energies resonated, swelling in size.
"Die!" The monsters were frenzied, but Kuenor remained relatively calm. He harbored no grand resolutions. He was simply moving to execute the plan he had laid out. Halt the approaching Giant. And slaughter as many monsters as possible. Kuenor swung his sword. Along the path they had traversed, a trail of crimson blood stained the white snow.
Two commanders shouted something and rushed at Kuenor. Kuenor's movements were restricted. They harassed him with the coordination of seasoned comrades, claws flying as they struck and retreated, preventing him from advancing any further.
Kuenor did not yield. A monster's fangs sank into his horse's neck, and the beast collapsed dead to the ground. Dismounted, Kuenor sank ankle-deep into the snow. Seizing the opening, the commanders lunged at him fiercely.
"Hand over your head now!"
Kuenor's aura did not flicker. Sweeping up the snow beneath him, he unleashed a whirlwind of aura that shredded everything in the vicinity. The approaching monsters, whether commanders or grunts, were sliced to ribbons, their blood turning the white snow into a crimson blizzard.
"..." Kuenor exhaled a slightly ragged breath and looked back. Of the fourteen knights who had followed him, only about ten remained in sight. Perhaps the monsters had targeted the mounts, as not a single knight was still on horseback. Those who had fallen bled from their chests and necks, slowly being buried by the cascading snow.
Kuenor closed his eyes and offered a silent nod of respect to their bodies, then turned and pressed onward. There was no time to recover the dead.
They walked. They walked for a very long time. It felt as though the space within the Boundary Line had been stretched. The ruins, littered with snow and fallen trees, seemed to stretch on endlessly. The cold had already surpassed the limits of human endurance. Fallen tree trunks rattled and shook in the wind. Snow began to cling to the knights' hair and eyebrows.
Yet, the knights of the North were built for the cold. Even as the sensation in their limbs faded and the biting wind pierced their lungs, threatening to freeze the very blood in their veins, they marched on without letting go of their swords. Their hearts beat furiously, pumping blood and mana through their bodies.
How much further had they walked? It was when even the shattered trees were completely buried by the raging blizzard, and Kuenor's aura began to flicker slightly in the storm. Kuenor, who had been clearing the path at the vanguard, stopped for the first time and raised his head.
"...So this is it," Hemel muttered from behind Kuenor.
"I think I finally understand what Elroy and Georg meant," Kuenor murmured.
It was far too massive. When it had been a faint, blurry shape in the distance, it was merely a silhouette. But as they drew closer, even the blizzard-obscured vision could not hide its sheer scale. The Giant stood tall, towering over them without making a single movement.
"...Were we really trying to fight something like that?" Hemel groaned, his voice trembling.
"We are trying to bring it down. To kill it."
"We might as well be trying to crumble mountains and dry up the oceans."
Kuenor grinned, a fierce yet bitter smile spreading across his face. He finally realized what Elroy was trying to accomplish. He understood why the person who had to defeat that thing had to be Elroy. It had nothing to do with the power of the Holy Sword or swordsmanship.
"But we still have to do it."
The Giant did not budge. It was doubtful whether it was even a living creature in the first place. The coniferous trees of the northern forest jutted out like tiny weeds beside the Giant's feet. Around it, ironically, there was a nobility, silence, and holiness akin to a sacred temple. The Giant was taller than mountains, deeper than canyons.
As Kuenor sighed, his breath, laced with the blue light of mana, drifted into the air.
"Have you come to offer your own head, black-haired knight?" Monsters were marching out from beneath the Giant's feet. From behind, from the front—monsters were flooding in from all directions.
"Ruin cannot be stopped."
"No, the Giant's steps stop here."
*Rumble.* A faint vibration rose from the ground. The Giant was preparing to move. Kuenor felt the premonition of death from that slight shift. He realized that to halt that thing, everyone here would have to sacrifice their lives.
Kuenor looked back. Though exhausted, his knights' eyes burned with an unyielding fighting spirit. Then, Kuenor looked back at the path they had traveled, toward Evernode. The blizzard blocked his view like a heavy curtain, hiding even the faintest outline of the landscape.
Elroy. Is it truly alright to trust you? Kuenor asked inwardly. Is it alright to believe in that light and bet my everything here?
Faces flashed through his mind. His everything. Hela, Luke, Karin, the vassals and knights of Evernode. The faces of the citizens. The summer and winter of Evernode. Kuenor gripped his sword tightly. A new night was about to fall.
He slashed. His body felt heavy. It was the first time in his life he had ever felt such weight. Kuenor broke through the monsters' encirclement and swung his sword at the Giant with all his might. The Giant, which had been slightly lifting its leg, halted its foot at Kuenor's strike.
The Giant did not speak. It paid no heed to the insects spilling blood at its feet. Walking forward seemed to be its sole purpose, its only mission as a living being.
Kuenor felt a bone-deep chill seeping into his body. The price of encroaching upon the Giant was terrible. Kuenor's mana was in complete disarray. Feeling a pain as if an icicle were piercing his heart, Kuenor coughed up blood. But he could stop it. Kuenor swung his sword, keeping only that single truth in mind. Occasionally, monsters that slipped past the knights behind him and rushed forward were torn to shreds by the mere shockwaves of his strikes.
The short night passed, and the sun rose again. The sun rushed toward the zenith, then began to sink toward the west as if sucked away. Come to think of it, he had failed to keep his promise to return by morning. Kuenor suddenly let his sword hang and looked back. How many knights were left? In the blizzard that had grown even fiercer, not many were visible.
Had he delayed it by about a day? Kuenor exhaled. He had to return, but a wall of monsters blocked the path back. The Giant looked ready to resume its march the moment Kuenor slowed his attacks. Was there no way back? Kuenor looked down at his hands, then gripped his sword tightly as if he had made up his mind. Even if he had to burn his life away.
"Hemel." Kuenor, who was about to tell Hemel to break through the wall of monsters and return first because he would follow soon, stopped when he saw Hemel's expression. Hemel was staring blankly beyond the blizzard.
"Did you feel it too, Grand Duke?"
Hm? Kuenor's face hardened. Feel it? Don't tell me there was something else besides the Giant and these monsters? Seeing Kuenor's face stiffen, Hemel shook his head.
"...Are you saying there is something else?"
"No, it's not that... The feeling is a bit different. Although it feels incredibly strong," Hemel muttered. "It feels like... the Hero's presence."
Kuenor's eyes widened. Something shining was rushing toward them through the blizzard with terrifying momentum. Sweeping past the blinking Kuenor, an immense wave of sword energy erupted.
Boom! The monsters literally evaporated. The blizzard's momentum weakened, pushed back by an overwhelming force. Kuenor opened his eyes as wide as saucers, staring at the Hero's face as he looked down at them from horseback. Like a savior, the Hero had a shining halo of thorns floating above his head.
"I told you not to overdo it and to return immediately." Elroy let out a dry laugh as he dismounted.
Kuenor burst into laughter despite himself. "And you, I told you to protect the walls, so what are you doing here?"
"We broke our mutual agreement. But you must remember that you broke it first, Grand Duke." Elroy stepped forward. Whatever had happened, an aura on a completely different level than before emanated from him. Even the light flowing from the Holy Sword shone with a far more refined, controlled brilliance.
"You intend to bring down the Giant." The Hero nodded.
"The injured will be taken back by the other knights who came with me. If anyone insists on staying, knock them out and send them back."
Kuenor stared at Elroy as he turned toward the knights. In those eyes, there was no trace of anxiety or fear. Tenacity. That was the sole emotion Kuenor could read in his gaze.
"I will leave the other monsters to you," Elroy said, his voice unwavering, standing firm despite the raging blizzard. "Because I am going to end the Fourth Calamity here, right now."