Tide of Corruption (4)

The first day of the Tide of Corruption came to an end.

One hundred and forty dead. Two hundred and ten wounded.

Compared to the crippling damage we had inflicted on nearly two thousand demons, those numbers were astonishingly small — but who in their right mind could say that out loud, in a moment like this?

"Gii! Why... why you...?"

"Hey, get up... I know you love your pranks, but even you wouldn't joke about this!"

One of the knights who had ridden out to investigate Asmodeus in the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Ellaon Forest came back cold and lifeless. When his comrades — the knights who had trained beside him — finally accepted the silence of his still form, they broke down weeping over his body.

But for them, and for me, no time to mourn him was ever granted.

"Successor! The Supreme Commander requests your presence!"

At the soldier's report, I sprinted into the command tent. Inside, the council members sat around the table with grave expressions, deep in discussion.

"Successor."

There was something strange in the way Alice looked at me. I steadied my breathing and turned my eyes to the table.

The map before us was densely covered with o marks, x marks, and square marks — allied positions, the fallen, and the demons, in that order. And an overwhelming cluster of those squares sat before us. Alice pressed her finger against that cluster, then spoke.

"A 'Clocker' has appeared."

At her single sentence, I felt my head begin to spin.

A high-ranked demon — the Clocker.

It was sometimes called the Clockworker, though in truth it was nothing more than a mountain of scrap iron. A mountain of scrap iron over five meters tall, that is — a monstrous thing. True to its name, a clock was embedded in its face, and it swept entire battlefields clean.

Of course, it couldn't rewind time or regenerate wounds. It was simply a being that overwhelmed everything through raw, physical force.

"The messengers and a squad of knights went out to scout it — and it spotted them."

"!"

If it had spotted them, then they were already its next targets. Once these machines of scrap iron and grinding metal locked onto an enemy, they pursued that target relentlessly until the moment of their own destruction.

It was one of the walls of despair that had made rookies weep in the game, too. Because it was scrap iron, most elemental attacks were swatted aside or blocked by those massive arms. Fire was the only thing that hurt it, and unless the flames were enormous, even that barely scratched the surface. And of course, with a body of solid steel, physical attacks were useless — unless a master on the level of a Sword Saint took the field. Exploiting its sheer size, it could simply put its colossal body forward and charge, and nothing on earth could stop it.

But it had one weakness.

Strike the neck, and it would instantly lose all combat function — unable to move, it died.

"Where are the soldiers it spotted now?"

When Benedict asked, Alice answered.

"All of them are dead."

"..."

Benedict could not find the words to continue before such a brutal result.

"There are two Clockers in total. One of them is closing in on our section of the front as we speak."

At her words, I raised my hand.

"I will go."

"Successor..."

Worry was plain on her face. But this was the optimal choice, and the best one. Right now, in this place, I was the only person who could land an effective blow. Everyone else's blades couldn't so much as scratch it.

Alice knew that too. But duty before personal feeling — this was wartime, with countless lives hanging in the balance.

"Very well. I place my faith in you, Successor."

And at last, Alice granted permission to deploy.

"I will accompany the Successor as well."

Crow, who had ridden out with me the day before, raised his hand.

"With Knight Crow at your side, I am all the more at ease. Approved. The strike squad is authorized to deploy."

"Yes, Commander."

We bowed to Alice and launched the Clocker extermination operation.

The strike squad consisted of me and Crow as co-commanders, the Crows, and a hundred of the fastest knights in the army — every one of them a monster with an Agility stat above thirty.

"We move out. Our target is the high-ranked demon Clocker, one kilometer ahead."

Crow assembled the squad and was relaying the target and the distance to the knights under his command. A Clocker was the kind of monster that existed purely to kill anyone below the rank of true master, and it must have dealt catastrophic damage every time it had appeared before. And yet there was no fear on a single face in the strike squad.

About an hour later.

- Kiiiiing...!

- Kiiiiing...!

Deafening roars rolled across the land one after another, shaking the very ground.

- KUWUNG!

- KUWUNG!

"Front, twelve o'clock. Clocker sighted."

At Crow's word, everyone drew their blades and readied for battle.

"My knights and I will hold the Clocker's attention. The Successor and the Crows will find ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠its weakness and strike."

I nodded at his plan, and every member of the squad bowed their heads in agreement.

"May everyone come back alive."

Crow and the knights mounted up and set off to draw the Clocker's gaze. Before long, a hundred mounted riders circled around the demon, dragging its attention in every direction. The moment the Clocker spotted the mounted force, its massive body accelerated with horrifying speed.

"Squad, scatter! Do not cluster together!"

If the knights gathered in one place, the demon would surely target the point where they pooled. Dispersion meant survival — Crow's judgment was right.

Apparently irritated by the force that kept weaving back and forth, the Clocker heaved one colossal leg into the air — and brought it straight down.

'You've got to be kidding — it's going to slam straight down!'

If that leg came down as it was, the shockwave alone would rob the strike squad of its greatest strength: mobility. Who could keep their footing while the earth itself convulsed?

Electric current coiled around my sword, blazing with color — a yellow-gold stream of lightning.

- CRACKLE!

There was no time to wait. The Thunder Dragon's sword energy tore through the air toward the Clocker's raised leg, and the golden bolt slammed home.

- KRA-KA-BOOOM!

Thunder, the most devastating of all my elemental skills. 'Thunder Dragon Descends' dealt exactly the meaningful damage I had hoped for — the Clocker, its leg still raised, lost its balance entirely and toppled backward.

"All knights! Brace for the impact!"

The demon's enormous frame crashed onto its backside in a spray of earth.

- KUNG! KWAAAAAAANG!

That mountain of scrap iron striking the ground produced a sound proportionate to its bulk — a detonation that left all our ears ringing hollow. A shrill whine pierced my skull, but I had to move. With the Clocker down, this was the single best moment to strike.

"Crows — I've located the weakness. The neck."

Despite having no proof of my claim, the Crows answered with silent, unwavering nods. Climbing onto the back of one of the wind spirits born of the Storm Vortex Formation's special effect, I gave the order to move out.

"Follow me!"

At my command, the Crows hurled themselves off the cliff edge at breakneck speed, straight toward the Clocker.

- THUD!

- TANG!

- TANG!

All three of us — myself included — landed safely enough on the Clocker's body, all things considered. And at last, the demon registered our presence on its frame.

- KUOOOOOOO...!

It was a demon without speech, but its roar told us everything about what it felt.

Yeah. It's absolutely furious right now.

"Crows, concentrate your attacks on the right leg I struck earlier. We have to keep it from moving. If it gets up, everything we've done here becomes meaningless."

Without a word, they moved toward the leg I had attacked. Leaving them to it, I spurred my wolf spirit onward and charged across the Clocker's body.

'What the— the sky just went dark...?'

The light vanished in an instant. Of course it had — the Clocker's right hand was blotting out the sky above me.

If I stop now, I'm a smear. I just have to keep going!

With that thought, I begged the wind wolf for even more speed. The emerald wolf tore across the demon's body at a blistering pace, while its companion hurled a blade of gale-force wind at the descending palm — useless. Wind cannot shred steel.

And the palm kept falling, faster and faster, toward the demon's own belly — and me with it.

'Damn it all — it's going to be down to the wire!'

There was hardly any distance left, but the moment the hand passed, I would need to brace for the shockwave. And just as I crossed beyond the flat of that striking palm—

I drove my blade into the Clocker's body.

- KAANG! KRRRKK!

Metal met metal with a tortured shriek of crushing steel — and the Sword of the Azure Sky bit deep and held.

'Here it comes!'

The two wind wolves threw themselves in front of me, absorbing the first wave of the impact.

- WHAAAAM!

The shockwave of the demon's palm slamming into its own own body came roaring toward me. Thanks to the wolves' improvised wall, its force was blunted — if they hadn't formed that line of defense, I'd have been hurled off and plummeted to my death, and that would have been the merciful outcome.

The artificial gale died down. The instant it did, I had no time to check on the wolves.

No one knew when that left hand might come slamming down.

I ran on, charging straight for its neck.

'Why is it so far?!'

Even with the wind wolf multiplying my speed, the road to that neck stretched endlessly. When I reached roughly its chest, a tremendous roar erupted — Crow and the knights had succeeded. The Clocker's scream rang out.

- KUO. OOO. OOO!

A cry of pure agony. With its leg severed, it would never stand again.

The Clocker's weakness was flame. Fire.

But I possessed no fire attack of my own. That was only natural — I had never once heard a legend of the Azure Dragon wielding flame.

Still, with the method I had chosen, I could kill this thing. I was sure of it.

= Blaze!

At my call, Blaze was summoned in the form of a small flickering flame.

- My Successor.

- Can your flame reach that thing's neck?

Blaze turned toward the Clocker, weighed it for a moment, then slowly shook his head.

- Not in this form. If I at least had the flames of my hatchling years, I would burn it — but as a newborn whelp, I haven't a chance.

- You can't grow any bigger?

- As you grow, Successor, so do I.

In other words: a counterattack in this state was impossible.

'Damn it — I've climbed all the way up here!'

Then there was only one path. I offered Blaze a new direction.

- Blaze — can I borrow your flame?

- Yes. I shall entrust you my dragon orb. So long as you possess it, you will be able to wield the power of my fire.

The dragon orb — the very essence of everything a dragon was, shaped into the form of a jewel. If it shattered, the dragon could no longer reign as a dragon at all. Its very status as a Guardian Dragon would be stripped away.

And even bearing that risk, he chose to entrust it to me.

- Thank you, Blaze.

- Save the thanks. Strike now.

- Right!

- FWOOOORRR!

A staggering heat flooded into my sword and roared out of it. I gathered all my strength forward and released it.

- FWOOOORRR!!! KWAAAANG!

When the black smoke cleared, what remained was the neck — battered by the blow, but still stubbornly intact.

The demon seemed to have realized a genuine threat now stood upon its body, for it began folding its left palm over its right.

Crisis. If those hands came down together, death was the least I could expect. And worse, I had almost no strength left to fuel another combination skill.

'The strain from combining skills is crushing me...! I can manage one more, at most...!'

Naturally — I had chained two skill combinations together in mere moments. If I burned another to sever its arm, my odds of survival would rise — but the Clocker would survive as well. But if I used it to take its neck, my odds would fall — and this demon would die here, beyond any doubt.

The ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠muscle ache that had wracked my whole body vanished, if only for a breath — a temporary reprieve granted by Morning Star Cleaver itself.

This was the final blow.

Wreathed head to toe in a dragon of living flame, I charged.

- KUOOOOOO!!!

The Clocker could not stop me. All it could do was watch the burning figure bear down on its own neck.

As my blade drew a single line across its throat, a colossal eruption of fire filled my eyes to the brim.

- FWOOMPH!!

- KUNG!

- KUNG!

Listening to the sound of two enormous things striking the ground, I held my position on the Clocker's body, my sword still buried in its flesh.

"Successor!"

"Successor!"

Crow found me near the neck — and froze, unable to tear his eyes from the sight before him. Even I, the one who had unleashed the technique, could scarcely believe it.

The great Clocker's neck had been severed.

Not carved, not hewn — severed, clean as a whetted edge through silk. That one ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠sight alone was enough to measure the true power of Morning Star Cleaver.

Little by little, the muscle pain came creeping back — worse than before. That was only natural, after my body had been momentarily mended just so I could spit out something even bigger.

"Haah... haah...! Ugh!!"

Especially my legs — agony lanced through them, and I swayed. The wind wolves immediately steadied me on either side.

"Successor."

I turned toward Crow as he approached, apparently to confirm whether I still lived. Demonic mutants sometimes survived even decapitation, it seemed, and he had come to check.

But there was relief, even joy, in Crow's expression. So it hadn't been a mutant after all.

And then, leaving Crow and his relieved smile behind me, exhaustion crashed over me like a wave, and my eyes began to close.

'No... I can't... Alice will... worry...'

I couldn't fight it. Sheltered by the wind wolves and the sound of Crow shouting for aid, I let my eyes fall shut.

Praying, with everything I had left, that Alice would only scold me.