Chapter 276: Lainella's Fate is Decided by Lainella (69)
Chapter 276: Lainella's Fate is Decided by Lainella (69)
The battlefield was silent.
All color had bled away, sinking into a dark, muddy crimson. Occasionally, the earth shook as the Corpse Giant swung its fists or stomped its feet.
In truth, it couldn't have been quiet.
The flesh chunks still periodically wrenched their hideous maws open. The Corpse Giant was hardly the type to remain still.
Even the mournful sound of blades slicing through meat was absent.
It was simply that I had gone deaf.
A high-pitched ringing was the only thing piercing my brain. It had been quite some time since I’d last heard the sound of my own ragged gasping.
My vision was blurred.
Even after taking the potion Emma gave me, my body refused to move properly.
This was despite the fact that I had ignored her strict warnings and downed a second bottle.
The moment I spat out a mouthful of blood, another flesh chunk lunged at me.
Instinctively, I leaned back, narrowly avoiding an arm that lashed out like a whip.
Then, I grabbed another arm as it thrust toward me like a spear and pulled.
I transitioned naturally into a throw.
Thud. A shockwave rippled outward, accompanied by the sound of crushing bones.
When using a sword or an axe, I had to break them down piece by piece, but using the Martial Arts of the Holy Kingdom made things much simpler.
Under normal circumstances, however, lifting such a heavy monster would have been nearly impossible.
Every time I gasped for air, memories poured down like shards of glass.
A flood of emotions pierced my mind like needles, setting my thoughts ablaze.
I want to kill.
It was a sudden, surging impulse.
I hated everything. I loathed it all. I wanted to kill every single thing that showed me even a hint of hostility.
That boiling murderous intent bore witness to the life a certain man had lived.
He wanted to kill, but couldn't.
He should have killed, but didn't.
Cruel regret sliced through his heart, leaving it in tatters.
To him, discarding things was not a choice, but a necessity.
If he didn't, he would end up discarding something even more precious and living in regret.
My breathing, stained with killing intent, grew even more ragged.
It was then that a shadow loomed over the sky.
The Corpse Giant was trying to trample me.
Since this had happened several times already, I immediately threw myself out of the way.
I wanted to warp space, but I lacked the mana to make it happen.
My body, thrown against the ground, was tossed into the air once more by the massive shockwave.
I rolled across the earth, coughing up blood-streaked phlegm.
"…I'm going to die."
The thought occurred to me suddenly.
It wasn't a joke; I truly felt like I was about to die.
I had crossed the line between life and death many times, but I had never experienced a battle like this.
My techniques were becoming sharper, and my mana was flickering with a strange vitality, egging me on.
That was the only reason I was still maintaining my Aura even though the mana in my body was nearly bone-dry.
If I just closed my eyes now, everything would be so peaceful.
Whether the world ended or not, what did it matter once I was dead?
Despite those petty thoughts, I strangely found myself rolling over.
Groaning, I stabbed my sword into the ground.
The wind was cold.
The snow, soaked in blood, felt disgusting and squelched every time I stepped on it. Yet, I was grateful for the blizzard.
Without that sensation, I wouldn't have even felt like I was alive.
As my body temperature dropped, my senses faded one by one.
Even the stench of blood that I had tasted with every breath was now faint.
Before I knew it, the flesh chunks were swarming toward me again.
I fumbled at my waist and drew my hand axe.
I no longer had the stamina to deal with these small fry.
Snap. The hand axe, launched like a bolt of light, drew a bizarre trajectory.
The first victim was a flesh chunk charging straight at me.
The axe blade, which buried itself in the creature's philtrum, was dyed in a silver Aura.
After bisecting the first flesh chunk, the hand axe jerked left and then right, taking down a total of three monsters.
The Secret of Stillness in Motion.
I could now correct the trajectory twice.
Each time I did, a gloomy hue painted my heart.
Unbearable sorrow and pain shook my psyche.
Images of a weeping man played endlessly in my mind.
A man who, in the end, reached a point where he could no longer even shed tears.
I staggered forward.
Another flesh chunk lunged.
I grit my teeth and swung my sword down with everything I had.
Splat. Blood erupted as the flesh chunk collapsed.
There was still one left, so I took another staggering step.
A searing pain flared as I forced my stiffened muscles to move.
Nevertheless, I didn't stop, swinging my sword in a horizontal arc once more.
As the last flesh chunk fell, only the Corpse Giant remained.
The Corpse Giant looked down at me, bending its waist as if it found me quite interesting.
Its attitude was like that of a child observing an ant.
I hated the way it looked down on me, so I spat out blood and laughed.
"…Keep your head down like that."
It makes it easier to take your neck.
Putting on a bluff I couldn't back up, I kicked off the ground and shot forward.
The Corpse Giant let out a giggling laugh and tried to crush me with its palm.
But I threw myself forward, springing back up to evade the giant's hand.
Boom! Boom! Two consecutive shockwaves swept around me.
I didn't resist them.
Instead, I rode the force pushing my body and stood atop the Corpse Giant's foot.
The rock climbing began.
Thwack. I slammed my hand axe in and used my sword as a lever to climb up to the giant's knee.
Countless legs shrieked and kicked at me.
Every time they hit, blood flowed and my arms trembled violently.
But I didn't give up; I continued the climb.
That lasted until the Corpse Giant swatted me away like an annoying bug.
Once again, I was sent flying, rolling helplessly across the ground.
I didn't even lose consciousness for a moment.
The boundary between my consciousness and unconsciousness had been blurred from the start.
With hazy eyes, I repeated my shallow breaths.
My exhaled breath scattered into the air as white mist.
As I stared blankly at it, a fundamental question suddenly occurred to me.
Why am I going this far?
There were many reasons, of course, but with my fading mind, I couldn't remember a single one.
Just as I was about to close my eyes reflexively—
"…Ian Percus."
A voice like a thunderclap jolted me awake.
"Save the world."
Gasping, I snapped my head up.
A voice I didn't recognize rang in my ears, piercing through the tinnitus.
A curse-like promise that meant I could never stay down or run away, no matter how much I wanted to.
That's right, I thought, letting out a dry chuckle as I drove my sword into the earth.
I had made a promise too.
I had told my young friend that I would protect everyone—that I would protect the world they all had to live in.
That was why I couldn't collapse.
A brilliant blue madness flickered in my eyes.
The Corpse Giant watched me and let out a laugh before erupting into the loudest scream I had ever heard.
Woooooooooooooo—!
Then, the corpses began to rise.
The range wasn't particularly wide, but it was enough to raise all the refugees who had died and fallen in the vicinity.
There were even a few familiar faces.
They didn't remember me at all, their bloodshot eyes merely staring at me.
It was truly in poor taste.
I stared silently at the new enemies, supporting myself with my sword, when—
"…O Light, overflow!"
I thought I heard a girl's voice.
In an instant, the ground began to seethe with pure white light.
The corpses that had just stood up were forced to look down, bewildered.
And in the next moment—
Kieeeeeeeeeeeek!
The electrocuted corpses screamed in unison.
My mind was still hazy, so I couldn't grasp the details.
I only realized instinctively that this was my chance.
I ran like a madman and climbed up the Corpse Giant's leg.
The giant's body, which had just raised the corpses, was unusually still.
Perhaps it hadn't expected me to aim for such a gap, as it began to shake its body in panic.
But I was the one who had been on the receiving end until now.
I desperately crossed my sword and hand axe to climb the massive frame. Finally, I came face-to-face with the Corpse Giant's head.
The head, made of hundreds of faces, was beyond grotesque.
So, I started by crushing that hideous face with my hand axe.
Kiek, kiek, kieeeeeek!
As I began to crush the heads one by one, the Corpse Giant screamed for the first time.
Watching it stagger backward, I clung on even more tenaciously and swung my axe.
Blood, flesh, and shattered skulls rained down.
Die.
I swung the axe with spite, praying as if it were a ritual.
Please, just die already.
Haven't I done enough?
I felt like I would collapse and die at any moment. Yet, I forced myself to endure and climbed all the way here.
The cold had already seeped into every joint, turning into a sharp pain. It felt as if shards of ice were wedged between my bones.
My muscles were as stiff as lead and refused to move any further.
I was vomiting blood, and my lungs had been screaming for a long time.
My mental strength was at its limit due to the memories of the strange man.
Even so, I couldn't bring myself to give up, and I kept swinging the hand axe.
There was only one reason.
Because a great knight does not lie.
Kek, kek, kegek, kieeeeeeeeeek!
Under the merciless axe blows, the Corpse Giant's head was now significantly gouged out.
The struggling, staggering giant then used its own hands to scrape away its entire head.
With that monstrous grip, a third of its head was crushed, and corpses fell away.
It was a response I hadn't anticipated.
I had no choice but to be flung away along with the falling corpses.
Splat. My body collided with the corpses that had fallen first.
And then, the corpses that continued to pour down struck me.
Thud, thud, thud.
Blood flowed over me, stifling my breath. My vision was soon completely blocked.
If this continued, I would surely die.
I swung my sword upward with all my might.
Five silver lines shot up, and the mountain of corpses exploded.
Because I had overexerted myself, I could only look up at the Corpse Giant through my fading vision.
Even so, I saw it.
The Corpse Giant's face was already writhing and completing its restoration.
The monster seemed furious that it had allowed me even a single blow, as it stomped its feet rhythmically.
The mere aftershock of that was enough to make me stagger and fall again.
Wooooooooooo—!
Hearing that rage-filled roar, I couldn't help but let out a hollow laugh.
Was it still not enough?
I felt like if I could just see a little more, just a little more, I would find the answer.
But I couldn't cross that fine line at the very end.
It was as if someone had blocked those specific memories from being accessed.
I should have been dead.
I was only forcibly extending my life with Emma's potion. My body was now no different from a corpse.
The blizzard grew even more intense.
Now, even the sun was invisible.
My vision was dyed gray, making it impossible to distinguish objects.
Before I knew it, snow had piled up on my body as I used my sword to push myself up.
Drops of blood trickled down my cheeks and fell.
I tried to stand up somehow, but in the end, my knees buckled.
I simply couldn't find the strength.
Is this truly the end?
No matter how hard I tried, my body wouldn't budge. This was true even as a faint shadow approached me.
At a glance, it wasn't a flesh chunk.
Then who else—just as that question formed in my mind.
The fluttering snow stopped.
It wasn't a metaphor or an exaggeration.
The scenery looked as if time itself had literally frozen for an instant.
And yet, footsteps continued to crunch.
My eyes slowly turned toward the source of those footsteps.
Like a ghost, a man was walking through the frozen time.
He was a man who looked strangely familiar.
Black hair, golden eyes.
For a moment, I had the illusion that I was looking into a mirror.
The man, with eyes that looked extremely weary, knelt down and crouched beside me.
He spoke.
"…You've done something truly foolish."
He spat the words out in a rebuking tone.
It was our first conversation.