Chapter 18
Chapter 18
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 3
Chapter Title: Pretending to Be Relaxed and Bluffing (2)
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Silence again.
I was back in that pitch-black space from earlier.
Requiem began to tempt me. Hurry and break through this water, it whispered, and devour the life out there.
"Yeah, no."
I brazenly hung my head. And ignored Requiem's temptation.
[……?]
I could feel Requiem's confusion. It pressed me again, screaming at me to move.
"Don't feel like it?"
I crossed my arms and flopped down onto the floor.
"I'm going to do what I want. I'm not listening to you."
Requiem hesitated, then surged up like waves.
A void as black as pitch-black rose and lunged for my throat. As if asking whether I could still defy it like this.
"Where do you think you're going."
I seized the void firmly.
[-!]
Startled, Requiem twisted its body, but it couldn't escape my grasp. The Gauntlet I was wearing had it bound tight.
"Good."
I smiled faintly.
If I'd charged at Requiem barehanded, it would've been hard to respond like this. But the Guardian's power was protecting me, making it possible.
"Take a break."
I slammed Requiem into the ground so it couldn't rampage anymore.
[-?!]
The bewilderment from Requiem turned to shock. As if it couldn't accept this reality, it began thrashing wildly.
I pressed down on my quivering fingertips and smiled.
'It works.'
Once I separated myself from Requiem, I distanced myself from the hunger that had been gnawing at me. Then I could feel that my stomach wasn't actually empty.
'I stuffed myself with bowl after bowl for this very reason.'
The full stomach was definitely helping. Above all, succeeding even once in breaking free from Requiem was huge.
Requiem's void could no longer control me. It just sank deep into my gut, bubbling and boiling.
'I can endure this much.'
I twisted the corners of my mouth and tried to maintain my composure.
From now on, it was a battle for dominance with Requiem. I had to show it that I would never be swayed by it, that I wouldn't lose myself.
[……!]
Requiem didn't give up and kept flailing wildly. I kept stomping it down firmly and let out a sigh.
'It'll be a battle of endurance.'
This was the conceptual world Requiem had created. Time didn't flow here, and the space itself was eternal.
But now that I'd escaped its control, I could vividly feel my real body. The chilling cold tingling at my fingertips and toes, the air slowly depleting in my lungs.
'Right, I'm in the lake.'
Thanks to breath-holding practice in the bath, my lung capacity had increased. But I worried whether my body could hold out until I won the fight against Requiem.
'Slowly, thin and long.'
I chanted the mantra to myself as I focused on controlling my body.
I could feel Requiem sneering at me. It seemed to think it just had to wait until I couldn't breathe anymore, until I couldn't endure and surfaced.
"Don't get the wrong idea."
I shot back defiantly.
"I'm not going out until you quiet down."
Even if it meant sinking to the bottom of this lake and ending my life there.
As I fired that resolve at it, I felt Requiem waver. Soon, it changed tactics and began coaxing me.
It whispered about how sweet the blood of freshly spilled humans was, how vibrantly brilliant the beating of a newly extracted heart was.
Murmuring such things, it urged me to get out of here. Together with it.
"Yeah, I've done plenty of that."
I replied in a bored tone.
Everything Requiem was dangling in front of me was meaningless. Abel's body was already accustomed to killing.
To begin with, I didn't enjoy unnecessary killing.
"Why don't you behave for once?"
Pretending to be relaxed, I crossed one leg over the other as I sat.
"This lake's pretty deep, you know. What do you think would happen if I died right here while holding onto you?"
Requiem suddenly went as quiet as a mouse. I hummed as if singing a song.
"We'd probably sink all the way to the bottom of this lake. You think anyone would dive down here to catch you?"
I was actually enjoying it. The situation where I had the upper hand over Requiem and was pressuring it.
Even if my real body was slowly stiffening up.
"No, they wouldn't, right? So just submit to me already."
Requiem raged and let out a savage howl. But Requiem no longer scared me.
Requiem's voice was nothing more than a child throwing a tantrum.
"It's pointless, so shut up."
I kept bluffing. Acting utterly nonchalant, laid-back.
In truth, my breathing was growing ragged. My lungs were heaving violently, and my chest felt like it was being torn apart in pain.
I desperately hid it all, feigning composure.
'If I yield here, it's over.'
It was do or die, no room to retreat. If I didn't settle this now, Requiem wouldn't give up.
How much time had passed in this suffocating showdown?
Requiem, which had been rampaging, gradually quieted down. The constant whispers faded, and the void that had been growling as if to pounce on me slyly subsided.
The next moment,
Crackle, crackle.
With the sound of dry leaves crumbling, the space shattered. Black fragments scattered like falling leaves and vanished.
Blub, blub.
I saw air bubbles rising from my nostrils toward the surface. I was in the lake at Magna Morten.
'Success.'
A bright smile rose unbidden.
'Finally.'
I'd subdued Requiem. This sword, said to be the worst and strongest of all time.
'I did it.'
I'd escaped the predetermined death and destruction. I'd shattered the future where I'd lose my reason, become the sword's slave, and commit nothing but distasteful murders.
'Hahaha.'
My chest swelled with emotion, my heart pounding as if it would burst. An immense thrill unlike any I'd felt before coursed through my entire body.
I wanted to laugh out loud and savor this moment of victory a bit longer, but
'I'm hitting my limit.'
My body was numb from the cold after staying so long in the frigid lake water. My lungs, deprived of fresh air for so long, twitched in agony.
'Gotta get out.'
I forced strength into my limbs, which had gone cold and stiff.
'......Damn.'
It wasn't easy.
My body was in such bad shape that it wouldn't move as I willed. For all the effort I put into flailing my limbs, the actual movement was minimal.
My waterlogged clothes dragging me down didn't help either.
'Just a little more.'
I ground my teeth and swam toward the surface.
'I've got Requiem in hand now—I can't die like this.'
The moonlight in the sky drew closer. Painfully slowly, inch by inch.
My vision was starting to blur hazily.
'Air.'
There was no air left in my lungs. As breathing stopped, my heart slowed, and the blood meant to bring vitality to my body stagnated.
The breath I'd barely managed to take in was filled not with air, but cold water. Uncontrollably, water flooded into my stinging nostrils.
'Please, just a little more.'
I thrashed my arms with all my might. But at some point, only the sensation of them going limp and unresponsive reached me.
'No.'
After coming this far, to end so pointlessly. After all I've been through to get here.
'Damn it.'
I cursed Requiem in my mind.
If only you'd given up a little sooner. Then it wouldn't have ended like this......
'You bastard.'
The moment I felt my brain turning pitch-black.
Pop. My consciousness cut off.
❖ ❖ ❖
"Aigoo, what kinda rain is this?"
"No sign of it letting up."
The caretakers of Magna Morten sat in the outpost, peering outside. Raindrops pelted relentlessly against the pitch-black window.
"I hate it most when it's raining on my shift."
"Me too. And it's extra chilly today."
One caretaker shivered and rubbed his arms.
"Especially here...... Whew, it's a place where anything could come out."
He deliberately avoided specifying what exactly. It was a word he wanted to steer clear of, and out of respect for those buried here, he had to watch his tongue.
"Well, even if someone's missing, no one would notice in a place like this."
Another caretaker shoved more logs into the stove as he replied.
"There's only one person down there anyway, right?"
"Oh, yeah."
The two let out simultaneous sighs. Their gazes turned toward the Magna Morten tower looming dimly in the distance.
"No matter that he's the Young Master, isn't causing a ruckus all the way in Magna Morten going too far?"
"Let it be. That's how all those high-and-mighty folks are. No good'll come from sticking our necks in."
"I get that, but."
The caretaker irritably scratched at his cheek.
"What the heck is he even doing down there?"
"Who knows? This is already the second day. Can't even guess."
"You ever seen Young Master Abel come out of there?"
"Nope, not at all. Hasn't budged from inside the tower...... Whoa!"
The caretaker who'd been speaking jolted his shoulders.
"What's up?"
"No, over there right now!"
He pointed at the tower with a trembling finger.
"Someone just came up from the lake."
"Come on now. Talk some sense."
The other caretaker clicked his tongue and pressed close to the window. He strained his eyes and peered out carefully.
"You must've seen wrong. I've worked here for years—no human can escape from there on their own power."
"B-But......"
"And there's only Young Master Abel down there anyway, right?"
The shivering caretaker snapped to his senses.
"Right, yeah?"
"No way the Young Master jumped into the lake."
"Oh, true."
The caretaker sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck.
"Guess I saw wrong. Sorry for the fuss."
"Forget it. How do you even do this job with such a weak heart......"
"Gotta eat to live, don't ya?"
As the caretakers exchanged such words,
A person was truly standing before Magna Morten.
Drip, drip.
Water dripped from his thoroughly soaked body.
"......"
Abel stood stock-still, body leaning slightly.
His eyes repeatedly turned black as if ink were spreading, then returned to their original blue-purple hue.
Abel's lips were purple from the prolonged cold. His teeth naturally chattered, and his whole body shuddered.
From holding his breath so long, his complexion was dark and ashen. He ought to have collapsed to the ground, gasping for air.
But.
"......"
Abel merely stood there, chin quivering faintly.
Inside his body, a fierce struggle with Requiem was unfolding. It was because he'd clung to the edge of his consciousness and refused to let go.
His pupils rippled like spreading ink, then dispersed waveringly, over and over.
He stood rigid like that for a moment,
"-!"
Finally, focus returned to Abel's pupils.
"Gah!"
Abel dropped to his knees and collapsed to the ground.