Seizing the Opening
Paulo had seized the opening and struck at Yujun.
Ukria shook her head, slow and firm.
"It's been fun, Paulo."
"No—not yet! He's still in pain. This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance, I'm telling you. Don't just stand there watching. Do something!"
"And if all of that is an act?"
"...Pardon?"
"Well, honestly, it doesn't look like acting. Even so, I have no interest in a gamble with almost no chance of success."
"Please, help me. Think of it as saving my life."
"If this really is your chance, handle it yourself."
Paulo bit his lip.
A single clash had been enough to teach him he could not kill Yujun here and now. More precisely, he had felt in his bones just how high the man's defense ran. Even if he aimed for a vital point, finding a gap in armor that looked that solid would be no easy thing, and there was no guarantee the human would simply stand there and take the blow.
In the meantime, Yujun's seizure-like thrashing came to a stop. Bloodshot eyes turned on Paulo.
"..."
Paulo swallowed hard.
He was not exaggerating. Not once since the day he was born had he been this tense, this shaken. He had stooped to a coward's ambush, striking an untouchable powerhouse in a moment of weakness, and the attempt had failed. What followed a failure like that was all too obvious.
"You didn't run."
"You... you made sure I couldn't, sir."
The barrier. The reason Paulo had never even considered leaving was the powerful barrier Yujun had set in place. Had Ukria helped, it might have been different, but she showed not the slightest intention of cooperating. And her judgment, as it turned out, had been the right one—because Yujun was whole again in no time at all.
"Thanks, Ukria. It worked."
"You succeeded?"
"Yeah."
"...The odds were terribly low. Just as you said, you're lucky. Don't tell me you raised your Luck. A Ring of Luck?"
"You know about the Ring of Luck too?"
"I got one and ate it myself."
"If you ate it, then you're not bluffing."
"The two of you seem to be getting along just fine, so I'll just... excuse myself."
Paulo edged backward, trying to slip away.
"Hey."
Yujun called, quiet.
Paulo froze on the spot.
"Come here."
"W-why... sir?"
"You owe me a price."
"..."
Paulo turned a pleading look on Ukria. She avoided his eyes without a flicker of concern and busied herself with nothing at all.
"Fwee... fweet."
She even whistled.
"Wow. Seriously. Fuck. That's disgusting."
Paulo spat the curse, then gave up and walked slowly toward Yujun. His steps were unusually heavy.
He had already looked into Shin Yujun, to a point. Cross the man, and he killed you by a crueler method still—that was what Paulo knew. The information had come from people who had suffered at Yujun's hands and barely survived, so it was as good as certain.
Yujun raised his sword.
To Paulo, the motion seemed to unfold in slow motion. Not because he himself had grown any faster. His life flashed before his eyes, and every wretched memory rose at once.
Why don't I have a single good memory?
With death this close, regret found him. Why hadn't he enjoyed life a little more? Why had he driven himself so hard, living so tightly wound?
Then Yujun's sword moved.
Without thinking, Paulo thrust his own blade out.
Shhk!
Yujun did not swing just once. He swung well over ten times.
Paulo squeezed his eyes shut, bracing to meet the death rushing toward him.
"..."
"..."
Nothing happened to him.
"W-what?"
He cracked his eyes open and found Yujun watching him with a blank face. There was no pain, either.
Don't tell me I've left my body. Is there really an afterlife? Can a mind persist after death?
It felt as if a question he had always wondered about had finally been answered. Ukria frowned at him.
"Paulo. Cover yourself a little."
"...What? Cover what?"
"Paulo. Take a good look at yourself. Right now, you're nature itself."
Understanding hit him, and his eyes went wide.
Every piece of his equipment had shattered into fragments across the ground, and the sword he had thrust out on instinct was no exception. In short, everything he had been wearing was destroyed. His body, however, did not bear a single wound. Yujun had cut away only Paulo's gear, with absolute precision, and in an extremely short span of time. It was a feat ordinary swordsmanship could hardly even imitate.
"Why... why?"
He seemed to be asking why Yujun had left him alive instead of killing him. The answer was simple.
"I spared you."
"...You spared me? What reason could you possibly have? I tried to kill you."
"Because you were never a threat. More than that, I'm in far too good a mood right now. I can afford this much mercy."
He had succeeded with the Dragon Heart fragment, and the rush it gave him was enormous. He had strengthened the odds, yes, but there had been no true guarantee of complete success, and even he had been nervous. The greater the anxiety, the greater the joy.
Only when it became clear that Yujun truly had no intention of killing him did Paulo let out a sigh of relief.
"You got lucky."
Ukria said it to Paulo with a bright smile. Paulo glared at her.
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"I've just been reminded of how vicious you really are."
"Paulo. I'm vicious because I didn't sacrifice myself? Or were you the reckless one, nearly dragging me into it with you?"
"..."
She was right, and he had nothing to say.
Meanwhile Yujun drew out the next item: a parchment imbued with the essence of an ancient weapon master. Fortunately, its chance of success was far higher than the Dragon Heart fragment's. With a Probability Enhancement Stone applied on top of that, and his Luck influencing the result as well, failure was as good as impossible.
On paper, the failure rate is twenty percent...
That was true only if one looked at the numbers alone.
Luck. I'm counting on you.
A long while still remained before Manuela's blessing ran out, but he had no intention of dragging things out. He unrolled the parchment at once and checked the result.
A blinding flare washed over the whole area. The effect was even flashier than when he had consumed the Dragon Heart fragment.
For raw impact, the Dragon Heart was greater, but this is nothing to scoff at either...
The pain from that time had been so horrific he never wanted to feel it again. Being burned at the stake would have been preferable.
The Ancient Weapon Master's Essence has successfully taken root in Player Shin Yujun's mind.
All weapon-skill effects increased by 80%!
He had never once thought he would fail. He trusted the power of luck.
No matter how rotten my luck got, I wasn't failing an eighty-percent chance. Not after eating a Ring of Luck. Not with Goddess's Grace on me.
Swordsmanship, already outright broken once it reached GX, had just received another boon.
Should I pick up other weapon skills too?
It was not something he could simply decide on a whim, but a Weapon Skill Imprint was already in effect on him.
The effects of all skills and traits that use a weapon are increased by 70%.
Considering that effect, it did feel wasteful to use only a sword. Think it through, though, and taking up another weapon at this point did not strike him as efficient. Wielding a sword alongside magic was plainly different from wielding a sword alongside some other weapon.
I'll be satisfied with the sword alone.
Learning a different weapon art would be worse, both in efficiency and in sheer destruction, than simply taking up a pair of blades. For now, of course, handling a single sword remained the most efficient choice of all.
"Judging by your face, the result suits you."
Ukria said it, and Yujun nodded.
"Then I can go now, right?"
"There's something to settle first."
"Again? I already gave you what you asked for. I even handed over my holy spear, and that's still not enough?"
"That's not the issue. What I want is for you to drop out of this war completely. Otherwise we'll run into each other again, and next time I'll have no choice but to kill you."
"...You don't need to worry about that. The moment I failed to kill you, I lost any place I might have kept among the moderates—even if Heaven itself is already out of the question."
"Planning to join the hardliners?"
"No. That would be the most shameless thing I could do. I'm just going to hide, so thoroughly that no one can find me."
"Come looking for revenge, and I won't spare you."
"I know. Do you think I'm insane enough to come at you again? By then you'll be even more of a monster. Unless I completely lose my mind, it won't happen."
"One last thing. Exchange messengers with me."
"Why?"
"So I'll at least know whether you're alive or dead."
"...Fine."
Once the exchange was finished, Paulo approached Ukria with an uneasy face.
"Wait—Lady Ukria? Hiding? Then what am I supposed to do?"
"Go back and report that I'm dead."
"...You want me to lie?"
"You can't? Are you going to tell them, straight out, that I went into hiding? Do that, and I won't leave you alone."
"Ah, seriously, I'm going to lose my mind."
"The two of you can sort that out yourselves. I'm leaving."
He did not bother binding her with a soul contract. Ukria was too clever for that. He had shown her his strength plainly this time, and just as she herself had said, she would not think of coming at him again.
Leaving Ukria and Paulo behind, Yujun spent the time that followed rescuing Hardline players who had fallen into danger. The moment Ukria dropped out of the fighting—no, from the moment Yujun simply remained alive—the tide of the war had already swung toward the Hardline Faction.
Still, it would have been better if Ukria had been an ally instead of an enemy.
It was a shame, which was exactly why he had forced the messenger exchange. A day might come when he needed her.
Sparing her life isn't enough to make her a comrade just yet...
He decided to think of it as groundwork: the first stone of a relationship in which the two of them might one day join forces.
Anyway, my body's itching to move.
Swordsmanship at GX, and on top of that the Weapon Master's essence. Every motion taking shape in his head—scenes at once brilliant and restrained—rose the moment he closed his eyes. He wanted to move for real, right now, but there was no proper enemy left. The Hardline Faction had pushed through, and the war, long if one called it long and short if one called it short, had come to an end.
"Kind of unsatisfying. Feels like it just ended without me really doing anything."
Kim Yohan said it with a hollow laugh. The sight must have rubbed Dokgo Minsu the wrong way; the corner of his mouth twisted.
"No. You did plenty. Being terrified. Running away. Turning green in the face. Calling for help. Screaming. Biting, pinching, gnawing, and so on. There is more, but listing all of it would take far too long, so I shall omit the rest."
"Why is this old man picking a fight again?"
"Did you not do the same last time?"
Dokgo Minsu was not the sort to take a slight and let it lie. He had packed Kim Yohan's earlier words away and waited only for the moment an opening arrived.
That was when Sertiphs came looking for Yujun's group first. He was not a man who came to them first, as a rule, and Yujun tilted his head.
The moment Sertiphs arrived, he bowed his head.
"Thank you."
"Yes?"
"Thanks to you, the Hardline Faction was able to claim victory. On behalf of the rest of the angelic race, I offer my gratitude."
"I didn't expect you to come in person."
"Because I am sincerely grateful to you."
"Then give it to me as a gift. I don't need the thanks."
"...You go too far. What I just offered is worth far more than some mere item, or any material thing."
"I'm not one of the angelic race. I'd rather have the material things."
"In truth, I am dying to give you a fine item, yet I have nothing suitable on hand."
"So you mean you'll shut your mouth and give me nothing?"
"No. In its place, I shall give you a treasure map."
"A treasure map?"