First Love
Isabella von Dercian.
That cursed name that had spilled from Raiga's lips.
After meeting Randolph and learning the truth of the Divine Illness, Isabella found herself genuinely curious.
"Raiga. Did you know about the Dercian family's illegal human modification and cloning?"
The horrific human experiments the Dercian family had been conducting.
Isabella had been their ninth clone.
Sonora and countless others had become sacrificial victims of those experiments.
That was why she asked.
Raiga.
The Empire's strongest knight, the half of the Empire who led the Palga Knights—had he known of the Dercian family's crimes?
Had he turned a blind eye to those savage acts?
At that, a smile bloomed at the corner of Raiga's mouth.
Even during his apprenticeship he had been cold, but now she truly felt how much of that had been an act.
"Is that what you were curious about? Is that why you're with them? Wilhelm's leftovers?"
Wilhelm's leftovers?
Isabella tilted her head inwardly.
He seemed to have jumped to conclusions after seeing the Pure White Knight Serengeti and Saintess Seia.
Both had undertaken the Great Expedition alongside Wilhelm, after all.
Raiga stroked his chin and continued.
"When I asked which of us was stronger—Wilhelm or me—you answered without hesitation that Wilhelm was. I wondered where that upright faith and conviction came from. Looking at it now… there was a reason."
"…"
"Does that still hold? Do you still think Wilhelm is stronger?"
"Of course he—"
"Pure White Knight Serengeti. Do you share that opinion?"
Raiga turned his head and asked Serengeti.
Someone who had spent so long at Wilhelm's side would be able to make a far more certain comparison.
Nod!
Without a shred of hesitation, Serengeti agreed.
Even after clashing swords with him moments ago, her expression held not a single doubt.
But the question itself was pointless from the start.
Isabella and Serengeti both belonged to Wilhelm's side.
If he truly wanted confirmation, there was no choice but to face him directly.
"…I sincerely want to fight him. That Wilhelm."
Of course, it was a duel that could never take place.
Wilhelm had died on the Great Expedition.
If there was such a thing as an afterlife, perhaps it would be possible there.
In that case, it would not be long.
His remaining life was a year at best.
Even that had only been extended recently by breaking through a wall.
"Curious about the Dercian family, Isabella? Then defeat me. Do that, and I will tell you everything."
"—I intend to."
Slash!
She cracked her whip once more, and Raiga's entire body was forcibly bound.
An extremely brief window.
Whoosh!
Serengeti shot forward, aiming for that fleeting instant.
"Will the two of you be enough?"
Clang!
Yet Serengeti's blade never reached the bound Raiga's flesh.
Something invisible had deflected her sword.
A sword…?
For a split second Serengeti saw the shape of a blade.
But no sword existed anywhere.
If it had been formed of mana she would have felt it—yet it was not even that.
Dangerous…!
The threat of instant death washed over her again.
Serengeti retreated at once.
But this time it did not stop there.
Clang!
Boom!
Isabella's form, having struck aside the invisible sword once more, rebounded like a spring.
"Kh—!"
Serengeti slammed into the wall and collapsed to the floor.
"Cough!"
She spat clotted blood, braced a hand against the ground, and forced herself back up.
Watching Serengeti wipe her mouth and grip her sword again, Raiga marveled.
She must have felt the gulf in rank with absolute clarity, yet her spirit had not dimmed in the slightest.
"Impressive as expected. To sense it and block it."
"…Heart Sword?"
"I only recently grasped it."
The sword of the heart.
A blade that gives form to the mind.
That was the Heart Sword.
It was a level of power utterly different from simply floating a sword or coating one in Sword Gang.
Beyond cutting or thrusting, if one willed it, one could burst an opponent's heart or crush their organs—that was the realm of the Heart Sword.
Serengeti's brow furrowed lightly as she recognized it.
Half-god, half-human. A monster in every sense.
A Heart Sword user.
It meant he had reached the realm of a demigod while still wearing a human body.
Right now, Raiga was half-god, half-human.
Slash!
…Isabella did not give up.
Triple stack.
When Snake's Binding reached five stacks, Jormungandr would devour Raiga.
No matter what kind of monster Raiga was, he would not be free of Jormungandr's influence.
"That person… is s-scary…"
"Lucaria. Please calm down. Please."
The two children.
Isera was cradling the trembling Lucaria, who had curled into a ball.
Desperately so.
They clearly had no strength left to help.
Damn it.
And the same was true of Isaac.
Climbing the Tower of the War God had been fine.
But the truth he had witnessed while ascending the tower left him unable to hold his mind together.
Why that name, of all things…
Isaac recalled once more what he had seen.
Park Hyunmyung.
Those three syllables.
That name… was the name of the "sinner" who had controlled him.
The Star of the Beheaded.
When he consumed that star and transcended, Isaac had heard the name Park Hyunmyung.
Isabella had said she had seen Park Hyunmyung's face.
Park Hyunmyung was the one who had freely manipulated Isaac's body, destroyed the mining city, and forced him to live as a fugitive for the rest of his life.
An unforgivable sinner.
So why had that name appeared here?
I have to kill him.
Kill him. He would kill him.
From the moment he heard that name upon transcending, Isaac had sworn it.
He would find the man called Park Hyunmyung and kill him without fail.
Yet Isabella, whom he had recently reunited with, showed no "rage" toward the sinner.
She was the one who had left for the Dercian family in fury, determined to learn about the Divine Illness that had afflicted her—yet now?
Why?
What had she experienced there?
Above all, Isabella knew Park Hyunmyung's name as well.
Because Isaac himself had told her.
Isabella. Are you… all right?
He wanted to ask.
Isabella.
You saw the sinner's name—how can you be all right?
How can you act as if nothing is wrong!
He himself could not remain sane for even a moment.
"Ghk…!"
"Serengeti!"
Hudson threw himself forward and barely managed to catch Serengeti as she hung in midair.
Her body was a wreck.
There was no place without a wound.
But thanks to that, they had bought time.
Slash!
Five stacks.
"Jormungandr!"
KRAAAAAAK!
A colossal white serpent rose behind Isabella.
The serpent that swallowed the world—Jormungandr.
"…Oh?"
Raiga watched in admiration.
Yet Jormungandr's authority was absolute.
Crunch!
In the place Jormungandr had swallowed, Raiga vanished without a trace.
"Did we get him…?"
Isaac muttered under his breath.
That was when it happened.
Kyaaaaaa—!
A scream from somewhere.
Sizzle!
Accompanied by the sound of something burning, a crack opened in the air.
Thud!
"Kh—!"
A single sword flew in and pierced Isabella's abdomen.
Immediately after, a man stepped into the empty air and revealed himself.
"Interesting. Jormungandr's subspace."
…Raiga.
Drenched in green blood, his appearance was that of a pure fiend.
"Trying to eat me when you're still just a hatchling—what a greedy little thing. Don't you think so, Isabella?"
"…"
Isabella clenched her teeth.
Her trump card.
Even five stacks of Snake's Binding had failed against Raiga.
Now neither Serengeti nor Isabella was in any condition to fight further.
Thud.
When Raiga took another step forward, Hudson blocked his path.
"Stop."
"Hm? Ah, you were so weak I didn't even notice you were there."
He was thoroughly indifferent to the weak.
To Raiga, Hudson was weaker than a passing ant.
He might have acknowledged the spirit that made the man stand in his way—if only the man had not been so utterly weak.
Raiga flicked his hand.
Boom!
"Guh—!"
Hudson went flying and slammed into the far wall.
"Uuuugh…!"
The spearman Valte, trembling with fear.
Valte suddenly convulsed; his eyes rolled back and he switched into Berserker Mode.
"Indeed—the cursed Berserker Setra."
This time he showed a flicker of interest.
The Berserker set was cursed gear that killed its wearer.
Only those with talent worthy of a berserker could enter that state.
Once in it, they usually became several times stronger than when their mind was intact.
Whoosh!
A spear swung at the speed of light.
Raiga slipped past it by a paper's breadth and calmly observed Valte.
"Quite a tempting talent. However… it doesn't suit the Palga."
A state of lost reason, hungering only for blood.
Someone like that could never inherit the will of the Palga.
He would challenge the Abyss only to become the Abyss himself.
Even so, there was no denying he possessed a highly desirable talent.
If he polished it for another five years or so, he could easily make a name as the continent's greatest spearman.
This spearman was raw ore.
The ability to swing a spear without losing balance even in Berserker state.
A talent that elevated spear technique further was impossible without a solid foundation.
It meant the spearman was an extraordinary hard worker.
A man of unyielding tenacity who never gave up.
And with that prepared foundation, he would blossom even more in the future.
…If he did not die here at Raiga's hands.
"A pity."
Slash!
Clatter-clatter!
Raiga's sword moved at high speed and severed every one of Valte's tendons.
There was no other way to put a berserker down.
Otherwise the man would keep attacking until he died.
Serengeti, Hudson, Valte—all had fallen into a combat-incapable state.
Left were the two young Dragon Gods and Isaac.
Yet Raiga was unconcerned.
A Dragon God's power weakens in another god's domain.
This was the Tower of the War God.
Another world whose master was a different divinity.
If they carelessly unleashed a Dragon God's power, the two divinities would clash and they would likely self-destruct.
"Isabella. If you wish to keep these people alive, you will speak. Where did the Golden Goat go? What happened there?"
Still, he did not kill them yet.
There were things he needed to hear.
There.
He needed to hear everything that had occurred in the Abyss.
He needed to know.
About his erased memories, and why he had opened the Fifth Gate and placed himself in a state of absolute death.
Isabella would know.
"…"
Isabella did not answer.
She could not possibly answer.
Raiga shrugged.
"Then I suppose I'll start by killing Serengeti."
Kill them one by one and eventually the mouth would open.
Just as Raiga stood before Serengeti—
Boom!
A single sword buried itself between them.
"Hm?"
Raiga turned his head in puzzlement.
"Take one more step and the next thing I take will be your head."
"Who are you?"
"…Gracia. Strongest knight of the Empire."
There stood Gracia.
The moment Serengeti faced death, his feet had moved of their own accord.
Earlier, in the Abyss domain, Gracia had been defeated by Baal and lost consciousness.
Then he had met Serengeti and fallen in love at first sight.
Of course, that had been Hudson transformed into Serengeti via a transformation potion from the Empire, but Gracia had no way of knowing that.
…Still beautiful.
Thump! Thump!
His heart simply pounded.
Before Gracia stood an angel.
The pure white angel, Serengeti.
Seeing her in the Abyss, Gracia had thought for the first time in his life that something was "beautiful."
She had also been the first woman ever to slap his cheek and tell him to come to his senses.
And now she was dying.
He had thought he would never see her again in this life.
Even if they met again, he had believed it was merely a delusion—that his heart would never race again…
Is this… is this what they call love?