The Grudge That Returns (1)

Crescent, the Moon Dragon, was currently fluttering weakly at my side in the form of a tiny hatchling.

According to her, during the time she was reverse-summoned, Blaze and Brionic had scolded her half to death.

Well, that was a grave you dug yourself, wasn't it...

In the end, to escape it, she had come running to me begging to be saved.

Knowing full well what was going on, I had barely managed to talk Blaze and Brionic down and call them off, and after they huffed and grumbled their way back, this was the state we'd settled into ever since.

Still, I did wonder — how exactly had Ellie solved that problem?

No, wasn't her talent just absurdly unfair?

Her martial prowess was excellent, her mind was sharp, her abilities as a lord were outstanding, and on top of it all she was beautiful.

What exactly did she lack?

Keep thoughts like that inside your own head, Successor.

"Huh?"

Have you not noticed that Lady Alice's face has gone completely crimson at this very moment...?

I turned my head to find Ellie sitting at her desk with her teacup, her face flushed far deeper red than usual.

Well, fair enough...

But it's all true, though?

Curiosity getting the better of me, I asked Ellie my question.

"Ellie, by the way — how did you solve that problem?"

"Ah... that one?"

Indeed, I'm curious as well. If you had been qualified to command a Guardian Dragon, Successor, you too would have been granted the chance to face a trial.

And in all likelihood, you would not have been able to take me as your Guardian Dragon.

Thinking back on it now, the way she'd been beaten so mercilessly in the early part of the game was probably a trial that had been force-fed to her — designed specifically to grind down her overwhelming talent.

Dwelling on it now only left a bad taste in my mouth.

And in the course of it, I had already saved her anyway.

So let's just hear her solution out. If she'd arrived at the same answer as me, that would only make it stranger.

When I asked how she'd worked it out, Ellie began slowly walking me through the process.

"First of all, the problem gave the premise that the Blue Dragon 'speaks only the truth.'"

Speaking only truth, Ellie had realized, meant one and the same thing as being incapable of speaking a lie.

The correct answer — 'Will the Blue Dragon answer "X" to the question I am about to ask?' — constructs a situation where the Blue Dragon is automatically forced into falsehood.

First: if the Blue Dragon answers "Yes," a contradiction arises and he ends up speaking a lie. He has affirmed that he will answer "X," yet the actual answer to the question is "Yes" — a contradiction, leaving him unable to answer at all.

Second: if the Blue Dragon answers "X," a contradiction arises just the same. He has denied that he will say "X," yet the actual answer becomes "X" — which is, naturally, a lie.

Armed with those two reasons, she had produced the exact same answer I had.

The answer that had taken me a full twenty minutes.

You found yourself quite the match, Successor...

Crescent was staring at me with her mouth hanging wide open.

Yeah. I think so too.

Unlike the capital — where I had gained my third Guardian Dragon and struck down the demons who had dared invade the palace and carried out that massacre — the situation in Crystal Territory was worsening by the day.

Whether it was because we had culled the smallest number of demons during the Tide of Corruption, or because some other powerful existence had emerged, reports began pouring in that demon appearances had grown frequent and increasingly massive fiends were running rampant.

Seven supreme-class demons had invaded a single village, leaving it a shambles, and Gerald, lord of Crystal Territory, who had his people to think of, finally resolved to return to the territory himself.

But before committing to that course of action, one thing weighed on him: seven supreme-class demons invading simultaneously pointed strongly toward the existence of someone beyond the norm. Demons did not band together — the fact that they swarmed and attacked as one could only mean they were answering someone's command.

Sending Gerald alone to Crystal Territory was judged insufficient.

And so it was decided that one of the successors would go.

The successor chosen for Crystal Territory was Khan.

I had wanted to go myself — but among the successors, I was the strongest. Which meant that if any danger befell the imperial castle, I was, quite naturally, the most critical key. And so Khan had volunteered to accompany Gerald in my stead.

He had faced Furfur alone, after all. By Khan's own account, it was a victory of compatibility: without invoking his True Name, a small dimensional portal simply couldn't contain the whole of his domain.

Two days later, the Crystal family carriage departed, carrying Khan, Fairy, and Lord and Lady Gerald.

Back then, I had been certain that no matter what demon came, we would win.

That was what I had believed.

But the day I would need the power of my third Guardian Dragon, Crescent, arrived with terrifying speed.

Two weeks after Khan's departure, Crystal Territory's first wall fell.

And with it, a name that would have shaken the imperial capital to its core echoed through Crystal Territory: a Successor of the Four Perils had been discovered, and Khan had only barely managed to hold him at bay.

Whether the demons had sensed it or not, they came in overwhelming numbers, seeking to swallow Crystal Territory whole.

It was a small mercy that this all unfolded after Gerald had reached the front lines himself — but even so, the sheer scale of the horde left Khan exhausted and nearly encircled.

He only barely escaped thanks to Fairy's aid, and Khan was now injured, unable to face the high-tier demons and the Perils' successor.

Beneath the earth-shaking news of the Four Perils' successor's appearance, I joined the reinforcements bound for Crystal Territory.

To keep myself in top condition, I traveled on Jeongryeong's back rather than by carriage. Perhaps thanks to the Wind Authority and her evolution from Wind Wave Formation into Storm's Master, Jeongryeong hurtled toward Crystal Territory at blistering speed.

Five mid-tier demons gathered in our path, and I cut them down with a single stroke — but even that alone told me how dire the territory's state had become.

The road back to Crystal Territory was still long. And yet five mid-tier demons were loitering by the roadside?

Mid-tier demons were, in human terms, the equal of veteran soldiers. And a pack of them was gathered here — not even inside Crystal Territory?

The situation was extremely grave.

I told Ellie at once. She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, then gave her decision: depart for Crystal Territory immediately, ahead of her.

From where she stood, I was a man who could die at any moment and it would surprise no one — always fighting on the front lines, coming back with every wound imaginable every single battle.

And yet she had just decided.

Her signal that I was to help the territory hold out until she arrived. In her own way, she was showing me just how much she trusted me.

A silent promise that I would not die — and at the same time, that she would not let me.

That was why she was sending me ahead. I gave her a bright smile, pressed my lips to hers, and bolted for Crystal Territory at full sprint.

Of course, I didn't forget to cull demons along the way. Their numbers were considerable, and I had no intention of leaving Ellie to deal with a troublesome situation on her own road.

The territory I arrived at was scorched earth itself.

The first wall had crumbled, its gate torn open. They appeared to be waging their defensive battle from the second wall.

The clangor of countless weapons colliding echoed from up ahead.

I shot toward it.

Wind coiled around my entire body as I hurtled forward. The lower and mid-tier demons standing in the straight line ahead were annihilated in a single blow — the kind of force that killed outright.

SHRRRRK!!

Ten demons, cut down in one stroke.

The soldiers who had been fighting them stood frozen, staring at me in a daze.

I decided that staring at me was the last thing they should be doing right now, and snapped them awake.

It was obvious, really.

"Now is not the time to look at me — look at your enemies! They're here to tear the back of your neck open! Snap out of it!!!"

Even now they were gawking at me like their souls had left their bodies — until I roared, and only then did they come to their senses and see the demon crouched at their napes, jaws spreading wide.

A lower demon — the Flame Imp.

Lower in classification alone. A fiend that tormented its victims with flames wreathing its whole body and searing heat injected through its bite.

Swish!

I beheaded the Flame Imp in one clean stroke, handing the soldier his opening. The man, having bought that one precious instant, shook his head hard, gripped his spear, and swung it at the demons.

While Jeongryeong, guarding my flanks, took care of the lower and mid-tier demons pressing in, a new sound began to roll across the field — the thunder of enormous feet stamping the earth.

Not quite the monstrous giants I'd seen among the Clockers during the Tide of Corruption — but demons whose sheer size, utterly alien to anything human, crushed everything beneath an overwhelming difference in mass.

And with them came a Cyclops, a high-tier demon — a monster born of gorging itself on human agony and despairing groans.

The supreme-class demon: Titan.

It was advancing slowly toward the wall.

The problem was that there were two more of them behind it.

Before the Tide of Corruption, I would have taken down one and collapsed. Not anymore.

Blades of wind gathered slowly around me, blade by blade.

Any grunt who failed to dodge those swords of wind died on the spot. Nothing survived with its heart or skull skewered through — no creature ever had.

And that was one of the weaknesses shared by every living thing.

Even if that thing happened to be a colossal one.

Where the old Azure Wolf Slash had simply ramped up my speed, wrapped the wind gathered around me, and charged at blistering pace, this technique sheathed me in a whirlwind and hurled me forward.

The difference lay in raw power — a gulf between them — with speed feeling just a touch faster as well.

And worse still, the wounds it tore open would never be given time to heal, thanks to the active skill Wound Aggravation slumbering within Storm's Master.

The Titan I struck had its throat ripped apart, spilled a torrent of blood, and toppled backward.

Then I gathered the power of the wind and merged Azure Dragon Ascension with Storm's Master.

The single sword strike I brought down upon the bleeding, fallen Titan split into countless blades, carrying more than enough force to take its life.

The Titans, seeing me standing with both feet planted atop their kin, charged at me in fury, arms over a meter long reaching out to seize me in their grasp.

Not a chance.

Riding Jeongryeong, I leapt up onto a Titan's arm — and dropping straight back down, I carved a deep gash from its left shoulder all the way through its left breast before darting away.

Heavy creatures like these wielded grip and strength proportionate to their tremendous mass, but they were every bit as slow and lumbering for it. Before something vastly faster, they were simply toyed with —

— and then they died.

And I was that something.

I asked Jeongryeong to draw its attention for a moment. The Titan swung its gaze around to snatch her — but I was not there.

Realizing this, it desperately scanned for me.

Too late.

Riding the wind upward, I hooked its head back and cut through the nape of its neck. And then, with Wind and Cloud — the very technique that had certainly killed its kin — I delivered the confirming blow. Two Titans had now perished by my blade.

"Wow."

At my single word, the last Titan fidgeted in place.

It probably meant to grapple its way through on sheer mass difference.

But I already knew every one of your weaknesses.

"Come to me, or I come to you."

I shot forward and let it taste a single slash carrying the twin powers of Bolt from the Blue and Storm's Master at once. The devastating, terrain-shattering force of Bolt from the Blue, supported by Storm's Master bolstering that power and accelerating the strike, sparked a tremendous synergy —

— and before my eyes unfolded the astonishing spectacle of a Titan's head ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠sailing off its shoulders to nothing more than a plain, unbuffed strike.

In the span of an instant, the enemy's main squad — three Titans — had been carved apart.

But the demons were still countless.

Even if I recreated that slash over and over — it wouldn't be enough. There were simply too many. If they all rushed at once, the wall would ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠fall.

And yet they did not attack all together. The reason was exactly one.

Someone had ordered it that way — deliberately burning through demons as consumables to inflict pain.

Thanks to that, the battle had devolved into piecemeal annihilation and our defense grew easier — but the tension was incomparable to a pitched frontal battle.

A frontal clash ends in one great collision, and then it's over. But these guerrilla assaults, paired with their apparent intent to deliberately grind down our squads, left us with no choice but to stay wound tight.

No wonder Khan had lost despite having that much skill. You can't rest even when you want to rest. The moment you try, they surge forward on overwhelming numbers and nick our main fighting strength. And once they realized Khan was injured and out of the fight, they understood this method worked — and pressed the tactic harder still.

Judging by the way they wielded tactics, this was no greenhorn who had never known war. At the very least, my guess was a commander who understood tactics and possessed overwhelming power.

...Annoying.

Dispatching assassins or raiders against such an overwhelming horde would be no different from walking to my own funeral. What remained was a surprise assault, or pouring out every last ounce of firepower with help from someone who knew the territory's terrain —

— or failing that, turning the natural environment itself against them...

Useless.

Whoever this was knew how to hide a Titan. That alone meant attacks relying on terrain or the natural landscape were pointless. If Titans had been out in the open, I would have spotted those massive frames the instant I arrived. The fact that I hadn't meant they had been hidden well — which meant someone who knew this land intimately.

Just what kind of bastard was this...

And then, before me —

A familiar face, hair of black and white woven together in a single head, came walking out from the demon side. In both hands, instead of the daggers he had always used, he gripped a pair of throwing axes.

It was Florence — the man defeated in the Successor Contest, stripped of his title as the White Tiger's successor. The Fifth White Tiger. No — now, humanity's traitor.

"So it really... was you."

"'So it was you,' he says... That ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠unpleasant look in your eyes hasn't changed a bit, Successor of the Azure Dragon."

"You dare unleash demons upon the very land where you were born and raised — to make calamity real? And after that, you still call yourself human?"

"You can still see me as human? I gave up on that long ago. The moment I lost that fight to you — on ever living a human life."

"On ever gaining greater power!!!!!"

"This is my authority. The power to command darkness."

"..."

"Lady Taowu acknowledged me — the one who had held the White Tiger's succession — and bestowed her grace upon me."

"...You bastard."

"And it was heaven there. A place where I could do anything I wanted. As I desired. As I pleased. As I willed!!"

FWOOOOSH!!

"Human women? None of them were as pretty as your lover, but they were 'edible' enough."

KRAKK!!

"Edible? After all, I stand above the demons — I am their superior existence. They obey me so completely they would fetch anything I craved."

"Ugh — is it over yet...?"

"Shall I tell you more? Last night, the woman I held was...!"

CLANG!

A sword strike laden with wind and current shot forward — but he skillfully crossed his axes into an X and blocked it.

"..."

That bastard.

Switching from daggers to throwing axes like those must have taken him a considerable amount of time... A mere three months, or half a year, is nowhere near enough to change weapons so easily. Changing one's main weapon is a difficult thing, and most martial artists never do it. Even when flaws reveal themselves, you compensate and keep using what you know — you don't swap it out.

And yet... not only had he changed his main weapon within that short span, he had blocked my sword strike by crossing two axes — in only a few months?

"Let me introduce myself once more. I am Grizm Florence, successor of Taowu of the Four Perils."

Five years and six months had passed since I came into this body.

And now, at last, I had found the keystone of evil.

And this — this was the moment the grudge of the past returned to stand before me as my enemy.