Chapter 171
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 171
…ward.
Ignoring the falling rocks that obscured his vision, Kurak charged forward.
On and on, along the endlessly stretching path.
“……”
It was only when the cascade of stones finally settled, revealing Patrick half-reclined on the floor directly in front of him, that Kurak realized he had stopped moving.
No strength remained in his body.
“I see.”
At some point, Tanabella had been run through his abdomen.
He had lost too much blood.
“I’ve grown too tired.”
“I got lucky,” Patrick said, standing up and brushing the dust from his armor. Compared to before the fight, he had only lost a hand. His expression was as nonchalant as ever.
Lucky, is it?
“You’re quite the actor.”
The legion commander fell to his knees.
He had a sliver of energy left, but it was meaningless. He knew he couldn’t turn the tide with what little strength remained.
More importantly, the moment his knees hit the ground, he understood.
He was just a hair's breadth away from surpassing the Death Knight before him. And yet, it was a tiny gap he would never be able to close.
“This is my… Kurak’s… defeat.”
Swaying, Kurak collapsed onto the floor.
Patrick silently drew Tanabella from his abdomen. Blood gushed from the wound, gradually staining the stone crimson.
After retrieving his sword, Patrick went to pick up his severed hand. Kurak, barely managing to prop himself up against a wall, asked a question.
“From now on…”
A chill washed over his body.
“From now on, what do you plan to do?”
“Why don’t you ask the Boss instead of me?”
“...The Orcs.”
Kurak turned his head toward Swallow.
Countless Orcs were milling about the Teleportation Hub. They were stuck in a stalemate, unable to unite or disperse. Not a single one took the initiative to lead, yet they were too numerous to hide inside the surrounding buildings.
They were all simply paralyzed with fear, their eyes fixed on Swallow.
A defeated army that had lost its leader.
“What will you do with the remaining Orcs?”
“Who knows? The Boss probably doesn't care about them as much as you think.”
“……”
“I’m sorry to say this to your face, Mr. Kurak, but to the Boss, Orcs are nothing but insects. Aside from being a bit displeased that you joined hands with Ms. Hexabel, he won’t give them a second thought… Ah, come to think of it, that means I’m the one who has to clean up this mess. Wow, so that's how it is.”
Patrick grumbled to himself, muttering about how he thought he was finally getting some consideration, only to have another chore dumped on him.
“I’m going to take your head,” he continued.
“……”
“I’ll display it for all the Orcs near the Teleportation Hub to see. Just imagining it is delightful—watching them devolve into an even greater rabble than they already are.”
“...Is that so?”
Kurak let out a sigh.
It was a sigh of relief.
Shattering whatever shred of fighting spirit they had left, forcing them to flee back to the Annun Plains… Under the circumstances, that was the best possible outcome.
It was the greatest mercy Patrick could offer him.
“Well, even if I do that, the fate of the Orcs ultimately rests in the Boss’s hands. Seeing as he brought me along instead of the ‘Waiting Darkness’… it seems he’s willing to overlook our last bet in exchange for your head, Mr. Kurak. But who knows how he’ll act later.”
“How pathetic.”
Kurak lamented, the word directed squarely at himself.
Pathetic. No matter how strong Swallow was, they were both bosses of the Great Evil Caves. He had calculated that if the other Great Evil Caves joined forces, they could somehow stand against him.
To think he can decide the survival of an entire Great Evil Cave on a mere whim.
Perhaps…
Just as Hexabel had said.
“…”
Silence descended. Despite saying he would take his head, Patrick simply stood guard, waiting for Kurak’s breath to fade.
“Ha.”
The dead have no words—wasn’t that what Patrick had said before their battle?
He was right.
If he wanted to ask, now was his only chance.
Shifting his rapidly cooling body, Kurak spoke.
“It is late, but I have a question.”
“Didn’t you say you would ask after you subdued me?”
“...I had forgotten. Indeed, the defeated have no words. As a loser about to become a corpse, I would have nothing to say even if I had two mouths.”
“I’m just teasing, teasing. You were an excellent opponent, Mr. Kurak. Of course you can ask a question.”
An excellent opponent.
A meaningful smile touched Kurak’s lips.
“Actually, that's just an excuse,” Patrick added. “I’m quite curious to know what you want to ask.”
“It will be a sharp one.”
“Has a curiosity you never had before finally blossomed at the very end?”
“Hexabel risked her life for her curiosity. I simply didn’t want to go that far because I bore the great task of reviving my race. But now that I am losing my life anyway, is it not acceptable to indulge my curiosity, however late?”
“Oh, those words practically drip with two hundred years of wisdom,” Patrick replied playfully.
Kurak organized his thoughts for a moment before speaking.
“...These were the doubts Hexabel raised to me when she promised her aid.”
He had found it strange for a long time.
“Margar, the ‘Cradle’ of the dragons, is located in the White Mountains.”
“……”
“Because it is a natural fortress and the best hiding place, far from the eyes of humans.”
That was true for most monster territories. Unless they were nomadic plunderers, they established their domains in terrain that was advantageous to them.
“Bathory resides in her iron fortress. We, the Nilkumbal, have wandered without a home at times, but we always established our domain in favorable terrain.”
The same went for Erebos, who deployed his undead along the most efficient routes to replenish his forces—near human territories. And Hexabel had established her domain in the middle of a desert.
“But the Primordial Core…”
It was located right next to Hastin, a town on the western edge of the Empire, inside the Forest of Graphenia. An underground cavern.
It was close to human settlements. The surrounding forest was on a plain, making it highly accessible. And though it was called an underground cavern, it wasn't some bottomless abyss that took days to descend.
It had more geographical disadvantages than advantages.
If the goal was to find a place humans couldn't easily invade, there were far better locations. There were volcanic craters, extreme lands where no one could set foot, and even the ‘dead lands’ where lightning and storms raged thousands of times a day.
Despite the abundance of such ideal locations, why did he settle in a place like that?
“The Empire was founded barely a century and a half ago. The Primordial Core existed long before that. It's not that the Boss settled near human territory; it’s that humans expanded their territory as they pleased.”
“Even before the town of Hastin was established, humans lived and built their homes on the plains surrounding the Forest of Graphenia,” Kurak countered dryly.
Patrick tapped the ground. “To sum it up, are you curious about why the Primordial Core is in such a place?”
“No, that is merely the preface. I already heard the reason from Hexabel herself.”
He had no intention of arguing over every detail. Understanding Patrick’s unspoken point, Kurak answered candidly.
“I heard he is guarding something in the deepest depths of the Primordial Core.”
“Yes. That’s correct.”
Patrick nodded, not bothering to deny it. As the former Gatekeeper of the Primordial Core, Hexabel would have naturally known that fact.
“Yes, guarding something.”
That was what Kurak wanted to ask.
“If he must guard it…”
If he had to protect it from humans…
“Wouldn’t it be simpler to just wipe them out?”
Wouldn’t it be easier to just eradicate humanity?
“…”
“Throughout human history, Swallow has always been there. Over decades and centuries, through thousands of battles, sacrificing tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of lives, humans have tried to eliminate him.”
To an irrational degree—to the point where one could say they were throwing their greatest talents at him—humanity desperately wanted to destroy Swallow. That was what it meant to face an insurmountable disaster.
And yet.
“I, Kurak, know Swallow to be lazy. All the other bosses of the Great Evil Caves likely think so as well.”
“…”
“If he were truly lazy, it would have been far easier to simply eradicate the humans who endlessly bother him.”
“…”
“You could say this is the same doubt Erebos has harbored for a long time. However, Hexabel sought the answer from the humans. She believed that Swallow’s refusal to destroy humanity wasn’t due to laziness, but because he simply won’t touch them for some other reason.”
Kurak thought he saw Patrick’s eyes flash with a faint violet light.
“What are you hiding?”
“I cannot tell you that.”
“…”
“Your deduction was excellent. I won’t say you’re wrong. However, you’ll have to be satisfied with knowing there is a reason it’s kept hidden.”
The answer was firm.
Patrick's cold gaze drifted toward the sky. Azi Dahaka was nowhere to be seen. She must have slipped away while he and Kurak were fighting, having little interest in a clash of sword and axe.
“Seeing as you cannot tell me, Patrick, it means you know everything.”
“The fact that Ms. Hexabel harbored doubts is probably because the Boss never told her. I’m a bit different. It’s because I know that I stand by his side, doing what I do.”
“…”
“…”
A long silence ensued.
“Do you have any other questions?”
“That is all.”
“And yet, your expression says you have something left unsaid.”
“If there is one regret, then yes, there is one.”
Kurak placed a hand on the ground and pushed himself up.
Blood poured from his abdomen. Staggering, he picked up the red axe lying on the floor.
“You are kind enough to wait for my death, but I, Kurak, do not wish to become a cold, rotting corpse.”
He raised his axe, his stance unstable.
“Since you won’t answer my question, I shall set my curiosity aside. My only regret is that my strength failed before we could exchange a final blow.”
“It’s not as if strength you don’t have will suddenly well up now.”
“If I force it, there is nothing I cannot do.”
The magic tools across Kurak’s body began to glow once more. Though he swayed, he soon steadied his posture.
Patrick could see the mana within the magic tools—known as the will of the great ancestors—churning inside Kurak's body.
It was no longer absorbing mana; the mana was controlling him. It could no longer be called a blessing. It was a curse.
The obsession of those ancient Orcs was devouring Kurak’s body, converting his last reserves of life force into power.
“It will be for only a single strike.”
“Very well. Since I couldn’t answer your question, I suppose I can grant you this much.”
“If you respect me, Kurak, then show me your full power.”
Full power.
Pausing at those words, Patrick suddenly set Tanabella down. The massive greatsword clattered noisily against the stone.
In its place, he drew the sword at his waist.
A jet-black longsword.
It had a long, black hilt, but no pommel. It had no guard. There was only the hilt and a single, long, black blade. That was all there was to it.
It was reminiscent of a clock’s hand.
“…So you had another weapon besides Tanabella.”
“It’s not as if I fought barehanded before I obtained it.”
Anyone with a basic knowledge of swords would have recognized the weapon’s absurd shape. Yet, it looked anything but comical.
It felt ominous.
A sinister energy bloomed around them.
“It’s not a sword I particularly like. It’s different from a masterpiece. This is… more like a cheat. It requires neither superb swordsmanship nor rigorous training. To put it simply, it’s not my own strength.”
“It matters not.”
For there was no doubt it was his full power.
Kurak widened the distance between them. Then, squeezing out every last drop of strength in his body, he charged.
It was a straight, honest charge, devoid of feints or tricks. Even as he ran, his vision blurred and his hearing grew so dull he couldn’t hear his own battle cry, but still, he ran.
“Graaaaaaaah!”
The final blows clashed.
He felt the impact, but not the sensation of cutting.
“…”
As his senses ceased to function completely, Kurak found peace. At the edge of his blurry vision, he saw his axe.
Two axes…
It was sliced diagonally in half, its pieces embedded in the ground.
Ah.
The axe, which had endured hundreds of blows without a scratch, had been severed with a single strike.
So too was his own body, split in half.
“What was that sword meant to cut?”
“Who knows.”
His vision flickered out.