What Does That Have to Do With Anything?
One week had passed since that day.
The lands of Machelpid, ravaged by the war, remained broken still. Part of the castle had been restored, and makeshift shelters were being arranged for the residents who had lost their homes in an instant — but the work crawled along at a pace that looked hopelessly inadequate for a long time to come.
The reason the Empire, whose magic and construction arts were quite advanced, was suffering such delays was simple.
The aftermath of the battle.
The forces unleashed when this land first collapsed — and the ones that had kept grinding it down ever since — had never truly left. Magukgong, Sepid, Nea, Hwangyeolgong, and even Lily. All of those powers lingered in the soil, suppressing the use and efficiency of magic itself.
And with Karia Machelpid, the land's own mistress, reduced to a mindless husk, the rebuilding would take far, far longer yet.
—Move this pile over here!
—Careful! One slip and you'll get swept away with it!
—That whole district's contaminated. We'll need to call for the Saintess...
"......Whew."
And through it all walked a single man who still could not let the place go, treading across the shattered earth.
Thud. Thud.
He closed his eyes quietly, as if recalling the battle of that day. And then he fought it once more.
Lose, and try again.
Lose again, and try again.
Only after fighting that battle hundreds of times did he open his eyes, at the very edge of Machelpid's domain.
"...Nothing I do makes a difference."
Geomsin. The Sword God.
User Rank 1, the strongest swordsman once hailed as the 'Heaven Beyond Heaven.'
And yet there existed a user he simply could not defeat.
"I managed to carve off both her arms... but if she can just regenerate them, it's meaningless."
Taking her head in a single stroke was impossible. Even after running the simulation hundreds of times, he had never once produced a finish that clean. She guarded her vitals too well; most of his simulations had been devoted entirely to reaching them, and not a single attempt had ever connected.
And every simulation had assumed she fought without her Ring.
If Lily had been wearing the Ring...
"...Hwangyeolgong."
Geomsin had crossed blades with Hwangyeolgong exactly once. An overwhelming gulf of skill — power of an entirely different order. Lily was extraordinary, but Hwangyeolgong in that moment had been nothing short of a 'god.' No scheme, no stratagem, could have beaten that man.
And Lily had overwhelmed him, if only for an instant.
After the battle ended, Geomsin had gone to find Hwangyeolgong and asked him why on earth he had accepted such an absurd proposal. Hwangyeolgong had answered with a smile.
'Because it profited me more this way.'
Hwangyeolgong had been stroking the head of Karia, who sat vacantly in her chair like a doll. The Grand Duke of Extreme Magic, Magukgong Karia — reduced to a complete simpleton. Who would ever believe that this was the cold-blooded, merciless Empress of the Empire?
'Lily Elbrit is a far crueler person than you give her credit for. And at the same time, one with an abundance of affection.'
'...?'
'She despises me — despises the Empire itself — and would love nothing more than to overturn it all tomorrow. And yet she hesitates.'
Because of the countless people who would be swallowed up by the war. Not that she bore guilt or responsibility for every last one of them — but at her core, she despised war itself, war in which someone, anyone, had to be sacrificed.
'As long as the Empire protects humanity, even at a loss, that spear will never turn toward us. Quite the opposite, in fact.'
It would turn, instead, toward whatever enemies from beyond dared to strike at the Empire — at humankind.
'You need only do your own part well.'
"...Like hell."
Shiiiing!
A violet blade slid free of its sheath. Berd of the Release Sword, reflecting his own face back at him. Ever since the Magukgong had undone its seal, it had remained unbound — but its power was draining away, little by little. Left alone, it would doubtless be sealed again before long.
Hunting alone will never be enough.
He had already learned that across the sea, in that dungeon, slaying thousands — tens of thousands. At that rate, he would never, ever catch up to Lily Elbrit.
...Come to think of it, it's about time the World Tree opened.
"I'll grind from level 100 up, then."
That would be his first goal. And after that, he would face Lily Elbrit once more.
...As long as she doesn't use the Ring, it's more than enough—
"AAAAAGH!!!"
KRAKOOM!
Inside a luxury apartment overlooking the Han River, a slender wrist came crashing down onto a keyboard, and shards of plastic burst skyward in every direction. The woman, trembling with barely contained fury, could not hold it in — and smashed the keyboard down a second time.
"Haa... haa... seriously."
Shaking out her long hair, she yanked the frayed cord of the ruined keyboard out with a twitch of irritation and shoved it into the trash. In her whole life she could count on one hand the number of keyboards she'd destroyed — yet in the past week alone, she had broken a full twelve. Living in a spacious Han River-view apartment as she did, even a single keyboard cost a small fortune, but she couldn't have cared less.
"Sword God, OP... why...! God, I swear..."
Rank 11, 'Sword Saint of Starlight' Aisha.
A former pro with a DCK championship trophy to her name, the special commentator for the Third Siege War — and above all, the president of Sword God's fan club, Sonjabi. She sank back into her chair with a creak and slumped down.
She was furious. She was seething.
Why did some random weirdo have to pop out of nowhere and wreck her oppa's career? And not just any career — the career of Sword God oppa, in his FIRST-EVER Siege War!!!
"Lily... she's definitely cheating... there's no way an ability like that is legit."
Sword God was strong — but his strength had a perfectly sound reason behind it. He was the strongest, yes, but only within the boundaries of being a 'user.'
Lily was not.
Her strength stood above everyone on the entire continent. That was an outright error — in other words, a failure of balance design.
So Aisha pronounced her verdict, and turned her gaze toward the community where the topic was burning hottest. As president of the Sword God fan club, she presided over a forum that posted nothing but shields and words of encouragement for her idol. The occasional troublemaker got deleted and banned on sight.
But one could not keep one's eyes and ears shut forever, so as a bit of outreach she had been steadily posting on the Devil of Angel Gallery as well. The problem was that, unlike usual, the gallery was suddenly flooded with posts dunking on Sword God.
"...Sword God is NOT weak, okay?! You wanna go?! S-Sword God oppa, washed up?! E-even if—!!"
In the end, Aisha smashed her freshly re-planted keyboard and barely managed to shut the screen off first. Any further down this road and the next casualty wouldn't be a keyboard — it would be the monitor. However deep her pockets, destroying a monitor worth millions of won was a bit much even for her.
Mostly because this particular monitor was a custom-order piece of unlicensed Sword God merchandise.
"Whew... fine. Nothing else for it."
She had to fix this situation somehow. She could not stand by and watch Sword God oppa get trampled like this.
No — she wouldn't.
Aisha flicked the monitor back on and began hammering away at her newly planted keyboard with frantic energy. Exactly thirty seconds after deciding to dig, Lily's current whereabouts surfaced.
"Lily... Lily... so she's headed to the World Tree."
Perfect.
"Then I'll dig into every last one of her secrets, one by one."