Chapter 349: When a Wish Entrusted to Others Crumbles, Who Shall Take It Up?
Chapter 349: When a Wish Entrusted to Others Crumbles, Who Shall Take It Up?
“Lee… Ha-ram!”
Screams erupted from all directions, directed at me as I darted around, deflecting spells.
It wasn't just one voice. Though the intensity of the emotions varied, a torrent of sentiment poured toward me.
Ignoring it all, I parried another attack and spoke.
“You pathetic bastards. Is now really the time to be running your mouths at me?”
Whoosh.
I swung my hammer as I spoke. The resulting shockwave rippled outward.
The blast became a wind that chilled the air, which had grown sweltering under the barrage of magic.
“Cool your heads. Whether you want to cook me and eat me, or exile me and erase me from your memories—let’s worry about that later.”
With that declaration ringing through the air, I steadied The Hammer as it drifted through the void, riding its own momentum, and thrust my arm out.
A straight line was drawn between me and The Enemy.
“The Enemy of humanity is right there. Our duty is clear.”
Spitting out those words, I sprinted across the earth where the magic had been cleared.
I felt countless gazes upon me.
The most overwhelming force came from the tentacle staring intently at me.
The rest were a multitude of smaller gazes piercing me from all sides.
Among them, very few were friendly. Three or four, at most.
One was likely Macbeth; I didn't know who the others were.
Perhaps they were members of The Council I’d managed to stay on decent terms with.
But I had no desire to find out.
Without looking back, I simply charged forward, hammer in hand.
Here was the Public Enemy, the antagonist of my story: the tentacle.
And here were the mages—Heroes who, by the nature of their chanting and deployment, required a melee-type Hero to protect them.
I was the Awakened whose role was to always stand at the vanguard, the first to rush forward.
I do not doubt those standing behind me.
I do not resent those slower than me.
I do not shift the blame for my pain onto others.
This is entirely my task.
Since I possess this power, it is what I must do.
Even if they hate me.
Even if I hate them.
As long as we stand under the name of Hero.
I believe that they, too, stand under the banner of Heroes.
Even if their spirits are twisted and our relationships are a tangled mess.
And so.
Without looking back.
I took another step forward.
Hammer raised, ready to crush the tentacle.
With every step forward, power gathered behind my back.
I didn't know where that power would eventually be directed.
But without looking back, my gaze fixed ahead, I took another step.
Without even considering the possibility of an attack from behind, I twisted my body, preparing to swing The Hammer.
I wondered how it would react.
How would it block both magic and physical force?
I didn't expect this attack to succeed.
In fact, I fully expected this strike to be blocked.
It was a sacrificial move, meant to analyze The Enemy’s abilities.
Of course, that didn't mean I would hold back.
I put my best into every single swing.
So that a single blow might vaporize The Enemy.
I poured all my strength into this one strike.
Emptying my mind of all thoughts, I uncoiled my twisted body and swung The Hammer.
Straight toward the violet tentacle that was staring intently at me.
Toward my enemy, who showed no sign of moving its tentacles to defend, as if the appendages on its body were mere decorations.
Then, as The Hammer swung down.
Countless things streaked past my side.
A slight sting ran through my body.
Flames licked my skin.
Thorn spears left tiny red scratches.
A chill stiffened my muscles.
They flew past me.
But they weren't aimed at me.
There was likely malice behind them.
That was why the spells left small wounds as they passed.
However, they prioritized The Enemy before them, following the convictions we all believed in.
My hammer and a barrage of magic slammed into the tentacle.
An onslaught delivered by the strongest individuals currently at the Geneva Branch.
Now, how will you block this?
Just as that idle thought crossed my mind and the attack was about to land—
【Kill! Lee Ha-ram!】
That voice rang in my ears.
In an instant, everything changed.
The spells that had streaked past me toward the tentacle suddenly veered off course and lunged at me.
Having purged the concept of defense from my mind to pour everything into the attack, I took the full force of it with my body.
The sensation of cold metal piercing me and the searing heat of flames scorching my flesh were the most prominent.
Then came the numbing cold and the erratic pain of rampaging electricity.
Amidst that exhibition of agony.
“Hahahaha! Right! So you’re not omnipotent after all!”
I vibrated my throat, which was cracking from dehydration.
Macbeth was right.
The Enemy was not an all-powerful being.
It had realized the wish for me to die.
But that wish failed to kill me.
Though a phenomenon occurred that would have killed anyone else, I did not die.
And.
“Do you think I’ll stop for this kind of pain?!”
The Enemy couldn't even stop my hammer.
Though my body wouldn't move properly due to the myriad of spells, The Hammer, already accelerated, continued toward its original target.
Squelch.
A revolting sound echoed through the area.
A dull sensation traveled up my numbed hands.
The feeling of mashing flesh.
The sensation of resistance vanishing as whatever The Hammer touched exploded.
It meant the attack had landed cleanly.
Squinting through blurred vision, I looked at The Enemy and saw the tentacle being crushed.
A massive cluster of tentacles had half its body blown away by a single hammer strike.
The cluster sprayed transparent, iridescent fluids with a hissing sound from the ruptured area.
The remaining half of its body rapidly turned gray, scattering brittle dust into the surroundings.
To any observer, it looked like The End.
The Otherworldly Power within The Enemy’s body was also rapidly dissipating.
However, no one let their guard down.
I raised my hammer toward the remains of The Enemy.
Behind me, the mages began to gather their strength once more.
Their magic had just struck my body, but I didn't care.
It was merely a small accident in the heat of battle.
In fact, if they had hesitated to deploy their magic out of concern for me, I would have screamed at them to get their act together.
Thus, without a hint of complacency, everyone prepared to finish The Enemy.
Each unleashed their respective attacks upon the Public Enemy once more.
Though slightly slowed by the magic I’d taken, my hammer swung with more than enough power to blow The Enemy away.
Perhaps realizing their projectiles had been turned against them, the mages switched tactics.
Beams of light traveling at the speed of light and Coordinate Designation Magic that struck directly at the target location.
These unavoidable attacks slammed into the tentacle's body.
The already dying mass was being shredded by magic, and just as my hammer was about to land the final blow—
【My body feels a bit stiff. Is it because of the Public Enemy? Haa, I wish I felt better.】
A voice, far too casual and leisurely for this battlefield, echoed across the clearing.
“…Crazy.”
I spat out the word reflexively as I brought The Hammer down.
The attack didn't fail.
The sensation was clear in my hands.
The feeling of crushing flesh, of the body exploding.
However, the speed at which The Enemy’s body regenerated was faster than the speed at which my attack tore it apart.
“Tsk.”
Clicking my tongue, I immediately leaped backward.
Not because an attack was coming for me.
But because The Enemy’s body was beginning to manifest even where I stood.
My leap back took only a moment.
But in that moment, the landscape had changed so drastically it felt as if I had blacked out and woken up.
“That restoration speed is insane.”
Even that Nautilus bastard didn't play the game like this.
That guy took at least a few seconds to regenerate, but this thing was fully recovered the moment I blinked.
And that wish I just heard was so incredibly mundane.
It devours such ordinary wishes and uses them for full self-recovery?
Conventional attacks aren't going to cut it.
I halted my continuous assault.
Instead, I took a stance that would allow me to resume attacking instantly and shouted.
“Are you done analyzing its ability yet?!”
My roar was directed at the mages behind me.
“As if we’d tell a muscle-brain like you, Lee Ha-ram!”
The insult flew back the moment I finished speaking.
“This is a monologue! I’m not trying to tell you anything!”
Then, a series of idiotic sentences followed.
“Analysis is still ongoing, but cross-referencing with the wish-analysis magic confirms that a mage recently made that statement. This suggests The Enemy can use wishes it has absorbed in the past as well….”
【Burn the Magical Girl!】
A high-pitched voice full of rage interrupted the mage’s monologue.
Simultaneously, my body caught fire.
A flame that was entirely unnatural.
A fire that burned my flesh and blood, evaporating my fluids.
I didn't panic.
I didn't break my stance.
I grit my teeth and endured the pain.
I understood instinctively, not through analysis.
The moment I took my eyes off it, the tentacle would shift its gaze from me to the mages.
Right, so it can pull out wishes it ate in the past depending on the situation.
It didn't seem like it treated just any random words as a wish.
So far, the wishes the tentacle had uttered were all phrases where the desire for something to happen was evident in the sentence itself.
If that was the case, the logic was simple.
Wishes for someone else to die or get hurt aren't that common.
Humans, being social creatures, are reluctant to speak such things aloud, and the frequency of holding such thoughts in their hearts isn't that high either.
Of course, they exist. But proportionally, they are certainly few.
However, in this specific case, the story was different.
An incident that had occurred at the Geneva Branch very recently.
An organized condemnation where mages had gathered en masse in fury.
In that moment, hadn't they dredged up uncontrolled emotions and violent wishes from their hearts toward someone?
The target of those wishes—me—was standing right in front of the tentacle.
And the tentacle's actions just now made it certain.
The Enemy couldn't even move a single one of its own tentacles properly.
It was an irrational creature that had to act based on wishes for every movement.
In that case, its magazine for killing The Enemy would be smaller than expected.
Except for one person.
The one who had drawn the greatest amount of negative wishes in the shortest time.
“Bring it on, you bastard.”
Finally, the fire consuming my body died out, and I provoked The Enemy with a raspy voice.
【Hang Lee Ha-ram!】
Whose wish was that?
They probably didn't mean it sincerely.
Perhaps they thought I wouldn't die from something like that.
Or maybe they just got caught up in the atmosphere of the moment.
True, heartfelt murderous intent is expressed through action, not wishes.
But for The Enemy, that was enough of a bullet.
Because The Enemy used the meaning within the sentence itself, not the heart behind the wish.
“Guh.”
I felt the sensation of being strangled.
My neck bones hadn't actually snapped, but the sensation below my neck was paralyzed as if they had.
My lungs demanded to find new breath and expel the old.
Even though it wasn't physically necessary. Just to mimic being alive.
I ignored it.
Controlling my biologically paralyzed body with mana, I reached out and spoke to The Enemy.
“How many do you have left?”
I am used to suffering.
Because that is my job.
To take down The Enemy.
For humanity.