Chapter 63
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 63
Chapter Title: Bern (2)
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Whoooosh―
Boom!!
Just as the battle hammer was about to split Aiden's head open, a golden shield materialized between them.
It was Eleanor’s divine magic, [Life Shield of Light], activating.
The holy spell, which could only be cast once a day, had been expended so pointlessly.
But thanks to it, Aiden escaped with his life and hurriedly pulled back.
Soon, cracks formed in the shield forged from holy power, and the battle hammer crashed down beneath it.
Thud—the ground groaned in agony.
“How...?”
Having retreated, Aiden could finally take a close look at Bern's stance.
Maya's attack had been blocked by Bern's shield.
The shield glowed red hot from the fire-enchanted weapon, but it held firm.
‘Wasn't he trying to check Maya with the battle hammer?’
He definitely had been, up to the middle.
But snapping back to reality, Aiden saw that Bern's hand had swung over his opposite shoulder, gripping the end of the battle hammer's handle.
Momentum had whipped the hammer behind his back.
It was a position that shouldn't have allowed any power behind the swing.
Yet a level 7 paladin's honed skill made the impossible possible.
‘I let my guard down.’
A battle hammer that size would be fatal even if it just grazed him.
Realizing this anew, Aiden broke out in cold sweat belatedly.
‘Still.’
That brush with death had given him a read on his opponent.
The enemy's weapon.
The weapon's reach.
Even the level 7 warrior's physique.
All that information flooded his mind at once, sketching out a new plan.
“Hoo...”
And his instincts told him.
‘My swordsmanship can't do it right now.’
He absolutely couldn't deal damage to that paladin.
That was his judgment.
The paladin felt like an enormous castle wall.
No openings.
Even if Aiden had a single lethal strike, it was useless if he couldn't land it.
‘My senior said my sword is honest.’
He was right.
What was the root of Aiden's swordsmanship?
The Imperial Knights.
The training grounds of the Imperial Knights he'd secretly spied on.
The knights' swords there were honest, steadfast, and resilient.
Thus, Aiden's sword could only emulate them.
“An honest sword isn't bad. That's why there's a word like the righteous path. Even if it takes longer, it's the right way—that's what makes it the righteous path.”
His senior, the mage Jun, was an unusual guy.
Just looking at his build, you'd think he'd never held a sword.
In fact, he knew nothing about swordsmanship.
But he had eyes that pierced through the world.
“All things in the world return to the same end. Even if the paths differ, if the goal is the same, I have plenty of advice to give.”
A month ago.
Jun had stared into Aiden's eyes and said,
“If you can't do it alone, trust your comrades. That's why we travel together. Keep walking the righteous path. It's your comrades' role to pave that path for you.”
Following those words, Aiden drew up his mana.
Just once.
For a single attack that would reach the enemy.
He looked at Maya.
Maya shook her head at the cacophony of voices buzzing in her mind.
‘Shut up.’
To her, her ancestors' spirits were nothing but a nuisance.
But there was one thing she agreed with them on.
Revenge.
Avenging the tribal chief who had raised her, taken by their enemies.
That was why Maya followed their advice. They—the ones she called leaders—told her to follow the mage.
They said she'd surely face her revenge target if she did.
‘Annoying.’
But was this current battle even connected to that revenge?
She couldn't tell.
Her ancestors' spirits didn't provide the answer. Then again, they never gave clear answers.
They just showed countless options, and Maya picked one to follow.
But the moment Aiden escaped danger.
Maya felt a strange tickle in her chest.
It was relief.
At that instant, she tilted her head inwardly.
She'd been with this mercenary group, but she'd never felt one with them.
She was just using their strength, while they used hers for their own ends, or so she thought.
‘Why?’
Had she just thought of them as comrades?
That question dredged up a buried memory from her past.
“Reach out your hand first.”
Words she'd thought forgotten resurfaced.
Words the tribal chief had said to her, always shunned in the tribe.
Maya had never once followed that advice.
Was that memory the trigger?
Maya recalled fragments of the past month spent with them.
It was a day like any other, training as usual.
Sparring with Aiden, as always.
Pure hand-to-hand, Aiden still couldn't keep up with Maya.
Aiden, collapsed on the ground, breathed raggedly.
“How do I win?”
Aiden muttered to himself.
Jun, who happened to be watching the spar, chuckled.
“It's training.”
“Even so, the battlefield isn't training, right? If I fight like this, I'll definitely die.”
Maya nodded inwardly at Aiden's quite serious words.
The weak die.
That was the life Maya had learned.
Her revenge target came to mind—someone she hated, but who was equally strong. To kill him, Maya had to grow stronger.
But the leader's response was simple and clear.
“You gonna fight alone like that on the battlefield too?”
“Ah...”
“Don't lose the point of this training. You're not sparring to beat each other.”
Jun had them spar to get to know one another.
“On the battlefield, you two have to rely on each other. Read your comrade's movements and act accordingly. That's teamwork.”
When you face unbeatable foes. In Blackout, such crises came endlessly.
That's why people banded together.
The leader had said that.
Back then, Maya had let it go in one ear and out the other.
Revenge had to be by her own hand.
Getting stronger alone was the only way that mattered.
But.
‘Is that really true?’
Doubt crept in.
She still believed revenge was hers alone.
But did the journey there have to be solitary too?
No.
Maya already knew that.
If not, there'd be no reason to travel with them now.
So.
‘Until the day I take my revenge.’
She'd walk the same path as them.
Her dulled senses sharpened.
The ancestors' rampant killing intent locked onto a clear target.
Maya's eyes turned to Aiden.
Resolution shone in her emerald gaze.
Maya understood what that meant.
It was the look she got during spars, right before unleashing a killing blow that chilled even her.
‘Once more.’
Buy time. Draw attention.
Make the enemy focus on her.
She'd done it just now, but failed, hadn't she?
Yes. But that was then; this was now.
She'd make it different.
Maya resolved herself.
And that forced her to choose.
‘Open.’
Muttering inwardly, her ancestors' spirits cheered.
They presented their options.
So many choices.
And Maya selected one.
An unpleasant sensation dominated her body.
A power used only once before, the day her tribe fell—never again after that.
[Soul Spirit Rush]
Run the path forged by spirits. A secret technique from one of her ancestors.
Maya had never learned it directly, but the ancestor spirit possessing her body in that instant made it possible.
She hated the feeling intensely, but now was the time to endure.
Her body slicing through the wind turned translucent.
Now, she could fool even that paladin's eyes.
But Maya didn't.
Instead, she exuded killing intent.
To make the enemy turn toward her.
To dare him not to turn his back.
Her translucent form lunged forward.
The middle-aged paladin, Bern, looked at Maya.
A beat later, Aiden charged too.
And from behind, Jun's mana rippled.
‘The training paid off.’
The game <Blackout> was, above all, a team game.
Gather companion NPCs.
The stronger the bonds, the greater the synergies.
Jun, having invested so much time, knew this all too well.
Some players griped about it on community forums.
“What’s with all these companion synergies? So annoying having to manage each one. Can't I just go solo berserk?”
Such players got bombarded by veteran recommendations and dropped off.
Obviously.
Veterans were hooked on that very appeal.
If they wanted solo rampages, they'd play other games.
Jun had hit recommend too.
Unlike reality, bonds in the game showed as gauges.
You could feel, at least in the game, that you weren't alone.
That was why Jun hoped Aiden and Maya would bond.
Perfect teamwork.
Blackout wasn't a place to survive alone.
“...”
Aiden's aura changed.
Blood-red mana surged past flames into a blaze inferno.
Like grasping a rope of enlightenment from above.
That's how Jun sensed it.
‘That guy...’
His [Demon God Body] growled like a wary lion.
The imperial bloodline etched with a history of blood.
Its mana carried the presence of a towering mountain.
Never moving from its place, nothing could block it.
Thus, even more so.
The [Demon God Body] reacted this way.
That mana wasn't something easily grasped.
‘As expected, not a hero for nothing.’
Lately, with Jun's own steep growth, he'd momentarily forgotten, but Aiden was talent incarnate.
Unlike the game, meeting Jun in reality had rounded his edges a bit.
But in the game, Aiden walked the hero's path through countless trials, becoming a legend.
‘And Maya too.’
Matching Aiden, he felt a flow from Maya.
Killing intent exploded outward.
Not her usual unconscious leak. Intentional, targeted killing intent.
‘You're starting to get it too.’
Maya was one of the few NPCs whose detailed story Jun knew.
He knew she had zero interest in others.
But that wouldn't let her survive Blackout. To achieve her goal, she needed bonds.
Jun had subtly imprinted that on her endlessly.
And now it was bearing fruit.
‘[Soul Spirit Rush]. Using an ancestral technique.’
Using that meant Maya was getting serious.
In a situation unrelated to her.
That thrilled Jun to no end.
‘Then, I should prepare to match them.’
He had no intention of lagging behind comrades this earnest.
He drew up his mana.
Today, his [Demon God Body] seemed even more resistant to his master's command.
‘Calm down.’
But it was a stubbornly assertive skill.
Mana roiled wildly, flashing colors defiantly, demanding form.
“Sigh.”
In response, Jun began tracing his magic pattern.