Tide of Corruption (7)

Our surprise attack finally set the battle in motion.

The sudden volley of arrows inflicted devastating damage.

Lower demons who failed to react, along with a handful of mid-tier demons, were turned into pincushions without ever being given the chance to resist the storm of arrows raining down on them.

Even the high-tier demons were forced onto the back foot — ducking behind buildings, raising their weapons to deflect the shafts, scrambling for any way to survive the hail.

As more and more lower and mid-tier demons fell helplessly to the arrows, Deus drove the wedge home by issuing the order for a full assault.

"All units! Annihilate the high-tier demons and their retinues — every last one of them!"

Deus drew the sword at his hip and raised it high as he shouted the command.

The cavalry, infantry, and knights who had been waiting on his word — armed with swords, spears, and shields — swiftly charged into the demons' encampment.

That was our cue to move as well.

Executing our flanking maneuver, we circled back along the wall of the encampment while every eye was fixed on the soldiers.

The wall of blackened earth loomed up ahead of us, dark and unsettling.

Keeping the wall on our left as we pressed on, we soon spotted demons fleeing through the rear gate under the pressure of the relentless assault.

"Everyone, battle ready. We infiltrate the camp and engage immediately."

At Alice's command, every blade came out, and we moved toward the rear gate.

I had Baram send a blade of cutting wind at the fleeing demons to quietly finish them off, and then we successfully slipped through the enemy's rear entrance.

The moment we entered through the back, a horde of demons rose to meet us.

Most of them, however, were lower demons.

They seemed to have been assigned to guard the rear gate — but entrusting so critical a duty to lower demons was these creatures' fatal mistake.

Crow, who had infiltrated the rear gate ahead of us, dispatched an imp with a thrust of his dagger to the throat.

Another imp, realizing its kin had just died before its eyes, opened its mouth to shriek a warning to the rest of the demons —

— but it too collapsed where it stood, wearing the same expression as its fallen kin, struck down by my hand.

Hiding ourselves and surveying the layout of the camp, I found the rear wasn't guarded by lower demons alone.

One highest-tier demon and six high-tier demons.

Seven high-tier demons in total, it seemed, were in charge of this entrance.

The path to the Ranked Demon split into a Y up ahead — the creature itself would only be found by taking the right-hand entrance.

Which meant we had no choice but to cut down at least three high-tier demons and the single highest-tier one before pushing through.

And we had to do it fast, with the minimum of force.

So the two of us with the greatest firepower — myself and Alice — would handle them.

The operation began with Crow, the Ravens, and the strike team cutting down any lower and mid-tier demons that approached us, while we pressed forward.

Baram and Jeongryeong carried Alice and me on their backs, racing ahead along the right-hand path of the Y-junction and reaching our objective in record time.

We readied our attack on the highest-priority target: the highest-tier demon.

Scarlet flame bloomed from the Sword of the Azure Sky, announcing its presence to the world.

Alice's eyes went wide at the crimson fire leaping from my blade — she turned to stare at my sword in open astonishment — but a heartbeat later she spun her head back to face forward.

"I'll give the signal. Attack the moment you hear it."

As Crow and the strike team engaged the lower demons, the high-tier demons — enraged by the human incursion — heaved their massive bodies upright.

Three high-tier demons — Minotaurs, Creta's Nightmares — began lumbering toward the strike team.

"Three high-tier demons for you. One highest-tier for me. Don't get hurt."

With those words, Alice and I broke into a run at the same instant, each of us surging toward our assigned prey.

I leapt into the air, aiming for the high-tier demon's throat. It noticed me — as if to prove it hadn't earned its rank for nothing — but—

"A... human?!"

Too late.

The Guardian Dragon's crimson flame soared up from the center of the rear gate, scattering brilliant color in every direction.

With the stench of burning flesh, one of the two high-tier demons I'd marked met its end.

The other was still alive, technically — a thing merely drawing breath. It would be dead soon enough.

The moment its two companions fell, the remaining demon flew into a berserker rage and swung its axe at me —

— but thanks to everything I'd built myself into, and the Agility stat backing it all up, dodging that much was hardly a challenge.

"Thunder Strike!"

Current surged through my blade as I swept it forward.

The axe-wielding demon recovered its weapon at once and hurled it straight at me.

I shifted my grip on the sword from one hand to two, piling on even more force —

— and brought it down on the axe with everything I had.

Steel met steel with a ringing clash.

CRAAANG! KA-CHANG!

The material of the Sword of the Azure Sky was none other than the tooth of the Azure Dragon.

And not just any Azure Dragon — the Primordial Azure Dragon itself.

A blade forged from the body of a god. Naturally, no weapon on the surface of the earth could ever match the hardness of a sword made from divine flesh.

I say this because—

—the Minotaur's axe, unable to withstand the durability of my Sword of the Azure Sky, shattered completely.

CRASH!

The axe burst into fragments with a crystalline ring.

And in the same instant, the demon's head went flying from its neck by my blade.

"Human! Die!"

A Death Soldier — a mid-tier demon classified among the undead, capable of fragments of speech — rose up, drew its sword, and attacked.

I hooked the thing's leg as it charged me head-on, sent it sprawling, and granted it release with a lightning-wreathed slash.

But the undead were far from finished.

Roughly seven of them came at me in relentless succession.

The undead — beings who, driven by powerful resentment, raise bodies that should have stayed dead for one more march.

And the sorcerer who commands them is called a Necromancer.

But a Necromancer is a highest-tier demon.

And of the highest-tier demons here, only a single one existed.

Black Death. No one else.

So who was the culprit?

Could it be...?

The moment the thought struck, I dashed toward Alice, who was locked in combat with Black Death.

Reaching her side in a flash, I found her landing devastating blows with each massive swing of her sword —

— while slipping the demon's attacks with effortless grace, toying with Black Death as though she could see every move before it came.

At last, unable to endure Alice's slashes any longer, Black Death showered black blood into the air and collapsed with a heavy thud, never to rise again.

"Alice."

"Hmm? Hyun! You're supposed to call me Commander out here—!"

"Explanations later. Right now, we move — that comes first."

But perhaps it was already too late.

An overwhelming tide of undead began pouring in from the left side of the Y-junction.

Most of them were Death Soldiers — mid-tier demons.

Which meant one of the Ranked Demons here was a Necromancer.

Let's reason it out. There were two Ranked Demons.

Andras and Dantalion.

Of the two, Andras was the boss-type who attacked enemies head-on with a flaming sword.

Dantalion wielded a unique dark magic known as abyss magic.

The most reasonable deduction: Dantalion was not merely an abyss mage, but a sorcerer who had also mastered the art of raising corpses to serve as soldiers —

— a mage who had learned necromancy.

But in the game, Dantalion was never a necromancer...!

And yet, no matter the route, Dantalion had never once used necromancy in the game.

He had simply unleashed his dark magic in stoic silence, attack after attack.

Either way, the target we had to hunt down was Dantalion.

As long as the Necromancer drew breath, his soldiers would only keep multiplying.

The undead soldiers numbered close to three hundred.

And among them, one looked to be a high-tier demon — a Death Centurion.

"Alice. Can you finish them off quickly?"

Alice leveled her sword at the undead and answered.

"How quickly?"

"About five minutes."

"Plenty. If you help me, Hyun, we can end this even faster."

"Understood."

I nodded and charged at the undead.

Alice sprinted out beside me, racing toward the horde.

At the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠very least, we had to hold until the main force pushed through from the front gate.

The strike team alone couldn't stand against this many undead.

A soldier's spear came thrusting at my face; I swatted it skyward with the Sword of the Azure Sky and cleaved through it in the same motion.

Then I took the soldier's head to finish it.

I scooped up the bladed head of the spear I'd just cut away, gripping it in my left hand.

Spearhead in the left. Sword of the Azure Sky in the right.

I checked my armaments once more and charged.

Unless you severed their heads, the undead would simply rise again — so the neck was the only target.

On a whim, I glanced over at Alice — and found that she too was aiming for the heads above all else, as if she'd fought undead before.

Who was worrying about whom, exactly?

WHOOM!

I read a soldier's blade sweeping in from behind, evaded it, and shoved the soldier's body with my sword to break its stance.

Then I hurled the spearhead I'd cut from its former owner, pinning it through the throat. Finished.

At the same moment, an archer among the soldiers began nocking an arrow — aiming for me.

The archers hid behind the soldiers' backs, protecting their formations while they fired. I drove my sword into one's back, disabling it, and used the thing as a shield.

Shoving the impaled undead forward until my sword slid free of the corpse, I blotted out the archer's view — and beheaded it in the same motion, neutralizing the ranged threat in one clean sequence.

"Human!"

Beyond that, I caught a two-handed sword strike on my knee to knock the weapon loose, kicked the disarmed soldier back to topple the rank pressing in behind it —

— and left the finish to Alice.

Alice's blade flashed out over the undead I'd broken, cutting them down.

We repeated that rhythm — she disabled, I finished — and together with three Ravens who ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠arrived as reinforcements mid-battle, we succeeded in wiping out all three hundred undead.

Even with the undead platoon annihilated, no follow-up wave had emerged.

Which meant necromancy took a long time to cast and show results.

Then we had to reach them as fast as possible.

Glancing at the main battle, the demon and human forces looked to be nearly even in number — we'd be able to push through to that place before long.

"Alice. Let's go after the Ranked Demon. If this drags out, the advantage turns against us."

I hadn't shown her the face of someone commanding soldiers.

And depending on how she took it, the words might have sounded like an order — I honestly thought she might refuse.

"Okay. Got it. Let's go."

But Alice simply nodded and signaled that she would follow my lead.

"Ravens — I ask that you remain here and pour your strength into exterminating the demons alongside the strike team."

I had briefly delegated command to two of the Ravens back at the Battle of Clarker, and perhaps that had left its mark.

The Ravens nodded to me and sent back silent signals of acknowledgment.

Reading their response, Alice and I immediately bolted for the right-hand entrance.

Heat pressed in on us the further we carved our way forward.

"Heat...?"

It wasn't only me — Alice mentioned it too, as though she felt the same sweltering wave.

Even standing still, the heat grew fiercer by the second.

And then, before our eyes, a pillar of fire erupted from the ground.

It surged up from beneath the earth, blazing with such intensity it seemed determined to burn everything on the surface to ash.

The searing flames made any further advance impossible.

Realizing every trace of the undead's presence had vanished, I understood — Andras had made his move, sealing the entrance against us.

But I still held the means to counter fire. Andras's trick was never going to work on me.

The blue sword aura shifted into a glacial, sky-pale form, drinking deep of the frigid cold.

The icy blade of aura stretched out ahead, scattering a staggering chill across the entire space.

Cold collided with heat, the two struggling to devour one another — until, in the end, they annihilated each other completely.

The pillar of fire and the frozen slash had long since vanished from sight.

"Let's go."

"Yes."

At my word, we pushed out of that long, searing passage —

— and at last, we came face to face with the two demons.

"They broke through that...? How, in the world...?"

The being stared at us in open wonder — at how we had possibly breached its trap and entered regardless.

A ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠demon with the head of a bird and a burning sword in its grip: Andras.

"Did I not tell you?! Your pathetic fire traps alone would never be enough! This is your doing! Half-baked fool...!"

And beside him, the being who regarded Andras with unconcealed distrust, demanding he answer for the failure as it spread open a book of mingled black and violet.

A demon in the shape of an ordinary human, unfurling a grimoire of dark black-and-purple hues: Dantalion.

Those two demons revealed themselves.

Dantalion addressed us.

"So it was you. The culprits who shattered our plan and dragged it to this ruin."

I frowned at his words.

"Plan?"

"Indeed. It was to be our chance to exterminate you filthy humans — to erase you from existence entirely. And you destroyed it."

Exterminate? A chance?

I couldn't begin to comprehend what was coming out of that creature's mouth. No — I didn't want to comprehend it.

"You intend to exterminate us? And what right do you have?"

Dantalion answered my words with a hollow laugh.

"And what, pray tell, makes you humans superior to us demons? Why is it that you wield such cruel weapons against us, dealing out suffering?"

"Do you truly not know, that you have to ask?"

At my counter-question, Dantalion burst into wild, deranged laughter.

"HAHAHAHA!!! Hear me, Successor. You humans are no different from us. Could you honestly claim that your kind has committed fewer evil deeds than we demons have?"

"And if you humans have, in fact, committed greater evil than we — then by your own way of things, you would be the ones deserving punishment, would you not? After all, no one else will ever punish you."

"So it must be us who deliver it..! You will sink into the cold earth and vanish. That — that is the punishment I, that we demons, pass upon you humans!"

A hopelessly warped worldview.

And a lunatic logic — that because humans might have sinned worse than their own kind, they were therefore owed the death penalty these creatures had appointed themselves to deliver.

"What we humans have that you don't, then..."

"Yes. You have nothing that surpasses us. Which is precisely why you are beings who deserve to die by our hands."

I cut Dantalion off and spoke, low and quiet.

"Your kind is arrogant, every last one of you — aware of nothing beyond yourselves. But we are different. Unlike you, we live by holding each other up. By leaning on one another."

"That is why humanity has come this far."

"When we commit evil, we impose the punishment for it upon the offender with our own hands. Because of the conscience you lack, we know exactly what our sins are."

"Because of the remorse you lack, we know how heavy and how agonizing those sins truly are."

"Because of the reflection you are incapable of, we finally settle the debts of the past — paying in full for the evil we have done. Even if the price is our own lives."

What, exactly, was supposedly the same about us?

They murder us, violate and ravage our bodies and our emotions — and still they dare to breathe the word 'evil'?

"Right... there's no point in trading words with you. I've been chattering with lunatics like this, so of course nothing would get through."

"Ignorant, inferior wretches... and still you flail about, desperate to survive...! You deserve death!"

I still remember it, vividly, as though it happened this morning.

The sobbing of my comrades as they wept over the loss of Gii — a knight who had fought beside them.

The iron will of soldiers who launched their attacks for the sake of their allies even as they died.

And naturally, I have a duty to carry that weight and march forward.

Because I am a Successor — one who wields the authority of the Four Divine Beasts to stop demons from preying upon humanity and committing their evils.

Only now did I truly understand what it meant to be a Successor.

I had always thought of it as simply being someone who strove to protect people.

But no — a Successor carries the pain and grief of those who died, so that such things may never happen again.

The mandate was this: never again allow anyone to suffer because of another's evil.

An authority I had never once been able to feel before now surged through me, unmistakable at last.

And somehow, I knew — naturally, instinctively — exactly how to use it.

"Y-you...! What is that power...?! That overwhelming force—?!"

Andras and Dantalion trembled from head to toe, staring at me as the trait's evolution let its presence wash over them.

I raised my sword toward them, and gave them a single answer.

"You don't need to know. You'll ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠be dead soon enough."

The words had barely left my mouth when Alice and I broke into a run — and the final battle began.