The Tide of Corruption (End)

A sense of omnipotence hums through every inch of my body.

But I have no intention of swinging this power around carelessly. There is no room for complacency. The most terrifying thing in battle has never been an enemy's superior strength — it's that single instant of carelessness, the one you feel right when you believe you've already won.

I charged forward and carved through Dantalion's dark magic with my lightning-wreathed blade. He seemed genuinely startled by the move, but I paid it no mind, closing the distance with him in an instant.

Just as I swept my sword up to finish him off, however, Andras blocked my blade.

"You seem to wield considerable power. Unfortunately for you, this one here is quite useful to me. I'd rather not have him die first."

The way he spoke of his own comrade — as if he weren't an ally at all, but a mere tool to serve his ambitions — turned my stomach.

The flaming sword blazed even hotter, and soon its fire began to coil around the Sword of the Azure Sky.

"And you think overwhelming power alone means you can just charge in blindly, do you?"

"First — the only reason I rushed at you so recklessly is that I happen to have the ability to resist fire."

"What?"

The pristine white authority of ice began devouring the heat climbing up my blade.

"And second — I didn't charge in blindly. I gave you an opening. Why else would both of your eyes be locked on me?"

At my words, they seemed to realize something and whipped around — but it was already too late.

Shiak!

"Guhk—!"

Unable to react to Alice's attack closing in from behind, Andras took a deep wound across his abdomen.

"Shadows of Bind!"

Dantalion's dark magic erupted — chains of shadow burst from the ground to snare my legs.

"Wind!"

Baram had been waiting close by, and sheathing my body in wind, I slipped easily out of the attack.

"Dead Ear Raise!"

A double incantation. So while preparing his binding spell, he'd also been readying himself to raise ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠his undead all over again.

"Alice. Let's take them out one by one — same way we did when we first came in."

"Got it."

The blue dragon flickered toward emerald green as explosive current gathered along my blade, coiling power into it.

I swung hard toward the front, and the thunder dragon manifested, sweeping across the ground as if it had been lying in wait, chewing through the ranks of undead.

Even as the thunder dragon tore away into the distance, my strength was steadily draining. I needed to settle this before Dantalion and Andras noticed.

The numerous undead swallowed by the thunder dragon couldn't even resist — they simply charred black and collapsed, never to rise again. Alice finished the rest, cutting down the survivors' throats one by one.

From among the undead, Andras swung his burning sword at Alice in a sudden assault. Even mid-slash through the undead, she parried the blade with a light turn of her own.

But all of it was a trap — a snare Andras and Dantalion had laid to take down that dangerous woman first. Caught in it, Alice sensed the danger and tried to retreat, pulling her body backward —

"Shadows of Bind! Where do you think you're running!"

"Caught you, girl."

No.

The judgment and instinct that I had to reach her — now — prickled up my spine like needles.

"Alice! I'm coming!"

I lunged forward, swinging to split through their front line —

"Mind Control!"

A black aura began orbiting around Alice.

She gathered blue energy into her blade, infusing it with sword aura, and swung with everything she had to cut the spell down.

There was only one place I wanted it.

Beside Alice.

And to do that, I had to massacre every undead standing in my path in a single stroke.

"Fall!"

I fixed the target point ahead of me and called the lightning down.

Krrrroooom...! KWAAAANG!

The sheer devastation of the bolt collapsed the wall of undead blocking my way, scattering it beyond any hope of holding its shape.

However —

KAANG!

"Ugh!"

What I had just deflected was neither a weapon swung by the countless undead Dantalion had summoned, nor Andras's burning sword with its terrifying power.

It was Alice's blade.

Mind Control — a spell that leaves the target's consciousness intact while stripping away control of their own body, forcing them to destroy one another.

The truly horrifying part is what happens when the state persists. Eventually, the victim's inner self simply dies, leaving nothing behind but an empty shell. That shell is first used to sate their masters' desires, then carved up for processing, experiments, and the like — until it meets its end.

A dangerous, utterly depraved black magic.

And it had taken hold of her. I forced myself to stay calm and think.

Alice's swordsmanship was devastatingly effective. At the same time, her pupils and the whites of her eyes had vanished — her distinctive blue irises swallowed by violet, the whites flooded with black, until her eyes were something no human could claim.

Even so, I started racking my brain to save her — searching for any way to briefly pin down the movements of Alice and the demons alike.

"Ugh! You're too fast!"

Her swordwork was genuinely menacing. Back when we used to spar, she must have been holding back enormously... I'd have to tell her never to go easy on me again.

Terrifying as it was, I was managing to block every one of her strikes properly. Somehow, whenever I felt I shouldn't move, an attack of overwhelming force would come flying in — and I'd hold. Because of that, I couldn't observe the trait's effect directly, but I could infer it. It probably had something to do with intuition.

"Alice... hold on... I'll save you...! So please, just bear with it a little longer..!"

I wanted to use the Azure Dragon's authority of purification, but having never invoked it before, it would take time.

"From the look ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of it... that fool isn't swinging his sword at the girl with any intent to kill...? No — is it that he can't?"

At Andras's words, Dantalion answered with a smile that crawled over the skin.

"Then... I know of ways to make that fool suffer as well. Undead — bind that woman alive."

Ignoring the demons' jeers, I looked at Alice's face — and a wave of guilt surged up through me. I caught sight of a single tear sliding down from her left eye, and deflected her sword carefully, making certain she wouldn't be hurt.

If the spell's effect still held her, there could only be one reason she was crying. She didn't want to attack me. She was trying to stop herself from striking me down — and failing — and the sorrow of it was spilling out.

I forced a smile for her sake and spoke.

"You don't want to attack me either, do you, Alice? Good. That's all I needed to know. It's okay. I'll fix this."

Her resistance had loosened the mind control's grip — temporarily, at least. Of course, it was a spell that couldn't be undone by willpower alone, however hard one struggled against it.

Current flooded into my blade. I had no intention whatsoever of threatening Alice's life. If anything, it was the ones who'd forced this situation — who'd tried to make me kill her with my own hands, or her to kill me — that made my blood boil.

I shouldn't have sent Alice ahead of me.

Why was it that my head only failed me at moments like this? But this was no time for regret. If anything, I needed to think harder, faster, to end this.

Before Alice's willpower burned out entirely — before mind control turned her into their puppet for good.

KAANG!

Made up in my mind, I smashed my blade against the flat of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hers, discharging the current I'd summoned with Lightning Strike directly into her body.

My rage at the demons surfaced once more, folding itself around the two of them to hold her in check.

"All that is corrupt — bow your heads!"

At that single utterance, every undead froze in place mid-motion. And at the same moment, the two demons who had been scheming to slaughter me and toy with Alice — both of them were trembling violently, barely managing to stay on their feet.

I had no idea what I'd just done. But there was no time to think about it now.

First, the demons' movements had stopped. Next — Alice.

Since I'd slammed my current-laden blade straight against hers, the paralysis would be keeping her from moving well. That was precisely why I'd struck the flat of her sword with Lightning Strike — to induce paralysis and pin her in place.

Then, pouring every ounce of my will into the wish to return this person cleanly to her true self, I took her hand and breathed something into her.

Slithering through her inner world was a sticky, repulsive taint. But before long, the clean, crisp energy I was sending in began driving it out.

Little by little, that invading force devoured everything festering inside Alice — and then expelled itself, weeping out in the form of black tears.

The black energy streamed endlessly down from her eyes, staining part of her uniform dark before the tears finally stopped.

The spell's grip on her was gone, but perhaps from violently wrenching the hypnosis out of her, she'd lost consciousness entirely, unable to do anything at all.

"You... you bastard!!!"

"Wait for me just a little while, Alice."

I gathered the unconscious Alice into my arms, held her once, tightly — and then walked, step by measured step, toward them.

Current flowed all around me.

The dreary black-and-grey of the cavern gave way as golden and white radiance claimed the space in their stead.

I could feel it instinctively. The current and the lightning bolts were venting their fury upon them, again and again.

They felt like beings apart from Baram or Jeongryeong — which is to say, they were not spirits at all. And yet they carried a will of their own, crackling with menace, as if to declare they would never forgive those who had dared insult their master.

Despite the threatening clamor, they never moved against the demons — perhaps because I had given them no command.

"Undead. Set them all free."

As if they'd been waiting for my word, a crisp crackle of searing sounded out, and the hundreds of undead moved no more.

Pajijik!

Pajijik!

Then, as though the bonds restraining them had vanished, the two demons hurled themselves at me in a torrent of unbridled rage.

"Chains of Darkness!"

A black magic circle bloomed into being, and barbed iron chains came screaming in from the front. I batted them away with a hard horizontal slash — and Andras hammered his sword down into the ground.

Crimson lava and flame geysered up from the earth, surging as if to swallow my golden domain whole. Without a flinch, he plunged his own hand into the molten rock, shaped the flowing lava into the form of a blade, and closed on me at speed.

Dual wielding. He was using the burning sword to bait my guard — and I had no intention whatsoever of playing along. I twisted my body sideways, slipping the feint.

The second blade came ripping in horizontally. I raised the Sword of the Azure Sky vertically in my right hand to catch it — and in the same motion, hurled it away with a violent deflection.

I'd wondered whether Lightning Strike's effect might extend to my own body, and it proved remarkably easy to test. Current surged down into my legs, I set my stance — and drove in a side kick.

"Gwaaahk!"

With a strangled ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠scream, Andras clutched his belly and staggered backward in agony.

As he retreated, the current intercepted a plume of strange black smoke arcing in from the edge of my vision.

"Block it."

Still unable to stop the pain, one eye screwed shut, he gritted through it — and I closed on him fast, forcing him onto the defensive.

Against my overhead strike he caught the descending blade with both hands. He hadn't anticipated my speed at all. His stance was a mess — this was desperate, improvised parrying at best.

Bad choice.

The power of his flames existed inside my authority, and so it couldn't manifest properly. Which meant the fire that had always clung to his sword, that had seemed like it would never go out — was all but extinguished.

I slammed my blade down from above, gouging a deep notch into his. The impact rang deafeningly through the cavern. It didn't matter.

Then, invoking Lightning Strike on its own, a staggering volume of current gathered along my blade — a charge of power rivaling the thunder dragon's descent itself.

The current flowed.

I brought it straight down — and his sword split in half and shattered.

The crimson blade that had been all but Andras's emblem was gone.

"See, that's why you should have dodged instead of blocking."

And with the words, I drove my fist square into his face.

"Gwahk—!"

"You crippled bastard...! Because of you I can't even use my magic! Get up!!!"

Dantalion prepared another incantation, reaching for necromancy once more — but far fewer undead than before clawed their way up from the ground.

"Wh... why...?"

I rammed my sword deep into Andras's belly — and charged straight at the undead, dragging him along on my blade.

With Andras serving as a slab of meat-shield, the undead couldn't attack freely at all.

"GRAAAAAHGH!!!!"

The blade sank deeper into his gut, wringing a howl out of him that sounded more like a soul departing than a scream — but I paid it no mind.

If you lay hands on something more precious to me than my own life, then you should have staked at least your own life in return.

I shoved him forward, the Sword of the Azure Sky still buried in him, straight into the undead horde. Unable to push past his body, they simply piled up beneath Andras, crushed under him.

The handful not pinned beneath him flailed their swords and spears wildly at a weaponless me.

Not a chance.

I dodged with ease, then summoned back the sword still skewering Andras's body.

Perhaps some would call me cruel. But these were the ones responsible for slaughtering thousands — the ones who had shattered the Cumul domain and prepared themselves to march on and annihilate the Holy Empire itself.

There was nothing to spare.

I finished the undead lunging at me with a horizontal slash. What remained of them was gone entirely — the ones crushed beneath Andras had already been burned away to nothing by the current.

"Kh... kghk...! You... you bastard...!"

Andras glared up at me, grinding his teeth — but the bleeding from his belly wouldn't stop, black blood welling back up through his lips.

"At... at least...! Our demons will never forgive you...!"

A hollow laugh escaped me.

"Your kind doesn't have comrades. You can't even help the one lying right in front of you — so who exactly is going to avenge you?"

"And you — you're laboring under some delusion. You think the Sins or the Successors of the Four Perils are going to raise a fuss just because you died?"

"You... bastard...! Do not... dare speak the names of the Exalted Ones...!!"

I ignored him and pressed on.

"If anything, they'll be delighted. Your entire fighting force reverts to them the moment you're gone."

"Kghk...! You bastard! I'll kill—!"

His words never made it any further. His wounds had bled him out too badly — he died sprawled across the floor, soaked in the blood he'd spilled.

One remained.

Rank 71 — Dantalion.

The moment I turned my gaze on him, he shrank back, trembling with fear.

"What's the matter? Scared?"

"You... a lowly human like you... how... how could...!"

"Insult me, and you only insult yourself. Why didn't you know that?"

"I am no lowly human like you! Unlike you wretches, I wield magic as I please — I am a mage who commands even necromancy itself!"

"Don't strut around just because you can cast spells. Demons who outclass you at magic exist by the thousands."

"Th... that power...! I've heard of it...! The tale of an o...outsider from another world... who became a Successor...! Could it be... you...!"

What kind of rumor was that... spread among demons...? I, an outsider, as the demons called it?

"What are you even talking about? An outsider? And what rumor?"

"Haha...! Of course you grasp nothing, charging about with nothing but raw strength to your name."

He's calling me an idiot...

This little...?

'Can't you make sense of the situation you're in?'

With his magic broken apart again and again, he'd finally lost whatever mind he had left. Well, then. I'd send him off in agony.

"You're right. I am an idiot. That's why I couldn't block your magic when your friend rushed me earlier. But killing you? That, I have more than enough strength for."

"....!!"

"Burn to death. Inside the prison of current."

The instant the words left my mouth, lightning crashed down upon him and began inflicting torments beyond description.

At the very least, these two had to die in agony. The lives this filth had already claimed numbered three thousand at minimum. And it was only because the war had kept grinding on — had it not, the toll would have swelled beyond imagining.

With the message from my status window, the golden expanse that had lit my eyes vanished, and the dreary black-and-grey space returned.

"Haaah... haaah...!"

As the Domain Proclamation lifted and the current faded, part of the hold pinning Dantalion released with it, and he gulped down ragged breaths.

I raised my sword toward him.

"Wait for me in hell. Your friends will be joining you soon."

"Khk khk...! I will wait... Successor of the Azure Dragon. Until the day you... come crawling down to hell yourself—!!"

Swish!

With one clean, ringing slice, his head left his shoulders, and his last words went nowhere.

With the two of them dead, this brutal war had finally drawn its curtain.

With the ranked demons slain, the demons under their command would lose their control and run wild — which meant mindless demons with no tactics whatsoever would struggle to slaughter humans effectively.

Come to think of it, there was exactly one thing I owed Dantalion and Andras thanks for.

They had blasted a hole through the ceiling of this vast cavern.

Thank goodness the ceiling was open. If it had been sealed, the lightning would have been blocked overhead, and my technique would never have displayed its true power.

The ones so obligingly responsible for that hole were even now dissolving into dust, their corpses fading away —

— and as payment for my gratitude, I ground their heads under my heel and went to Alice.

One momentary misjudgment, and I'd thrown her into mortal danger. When the mind control first connected, I'd been so horrified I could barely breathe...

When I carried her, still unconscious, out of the cavern, Baram and Jeongryeong — whom I'd sent ahead to search — were already returning with Deus and Benedict in tow. Seeing Alice in my arms, they went white as ash and pressed their paws to her neck — then, feeling her heartbeat beating steady and true, they let out a long sigh of relief.

Unlike them, I held her close and carried her out of the cavern with an apology burning in my chest — a gnawing sense that I had failed to protect her.

Once we were back at camp, I intended to pour the authority of purification over her so she could wake.

In the worst case, even after receiving the authority, Alice might not rise — the spell's influence could hold her under. But the odds of that were slim.

Judging from how that rankling taint had poured out of her along with the black tears, controlling and drawing out the authority like this meant she would most likely wake before long.

And still, the apology and the shame of having failed to shield her kept pressing down on my heart.

But in contrast to the darkness inside me, the moment we emerged from the cavern, the bright sun — hidden from us all this time by the tunnel — met my eyes once more.

As if congratulating us on our victory, the sunlight blazed down warmly upon our comrades, now occupying the demons' camp.