Was He an Iron Man? (1)
I lowered the holy sword for a moment. It wasn't that I had dropped my guard, thinking we wouldn't fight. I simply felt the need to talk for a bit. For some reason, my heart was pounding. All from hearing a single sentence.
He knows about the curses. He saw through the curses clinging to my body. Finally, someone had recognized the curses that had dragged my social standing to rock bottom and gnawed at my mind. And it seemed to affect my emotions far more than I had expected.
I asked in a faintly trembling voice, "How…?"
How on earth had he noticed? It was a curse that even the continent's saintess, the empire's knights, elves who had lived for hundreds of years, and genius mages had failed to detect. Tens of thousands of people had already been affected by this curse, yet none of them had ever seen through these shackles. So how had this man realized it the moment he laid eyes on me?
When I asked, he let out a hearty laugh and replied, "I am a dark mage who has reached the pinnacle. And curses happen to be my specialty. Did you really think I wouldn't notice curses piled on so thickly?"
He clicked his tongue and continued, "That said… what a vicious curse. A curse tied to connections, of all things. Now I understand why your reputation has been driven into the ground."
His three eyes turned toward me. They were grotesque and crimson, yet strangely filled with a peculiar pity.
"It must have been difficult."
The moment I heard those words, something welled up inside me. It wasn't a reaction born of thought. My body and mind had responded the instant I heard them. It wasn't enough to bring tears, but I still needed a moment to steady my emotions. I never imagined I would receive comfort from a subordinate of one of the Four Heavenly Kings, someone I had just met for the first time.
Perhaps he was simply intrigued after seeing something unusual for the first time. His tone softened slightly as he asked, "How did you end up with such a curse? These are high-level curses even I cannot cast…"
"…It just happened."
I kept my answer brief.
"You are quite different from the previous hero. That one seemed as though he had melted the justice of the entire world onto his surface. With his brave and sacred appearance, excellent sociability, and brilliant talents, countless people adored him. In the end, he was nothing but an empty husk, though."
It seemed he had met the previous hero before. Then again, as the Puppet Master, he was among the more senior members of the Four Heavenly Kings.
While I was briefly lost in thought about him, he spoke again.
"It is a pleasure to see something interesting after so long… but unfortunately, we must pass through here. Would you mind stepping aside?"
"…I'm afraid I can't do that."
I raised the holy sword once more. The brief conversation was over. He was an enemy, after all. Now it was time to speak with my blade.
"How tragic. Our positions are so different that compromise is impossible. In that case, I shall simply break through by force."
With that, the monsters began charging forward. Goblin King Knights, shamans, mutant kobolds, lizard elite warriors, and werewolf chieftains—elite monsters among their kind rushed in as a group. I assumed the Bright Ryu stance. The levels of the visible monsters were nothing to scoff at. They were clearly lower than mine, yet the gap was not overwhelming. If several attacked at once, they would certainly be troublesome.
At least the space is narrow. That's a relief.
The cramped space limited how many could charge at once. He had apparently considered this and filled his forces with relatively smaller elite monsters, but that did not change the spatial advantage.
I swung my sword. I deflected every polearm flying at me from all directions and split each instant to counterattack. The shaman's magic flying from afar was blocked by a barrier. After cutting down several, more monsters filled the space. There were still plenty of named monsters left in the sewer.
Fighting them alone was certainly grueling… but still manageable.
This is doable.
Just as that thought crossed my mind, my body suddenly stopped obeying me. As if my muscles were rejecting my commands, my entire body felt as though it had slowed down by a step. The moment it happened, I immediately understood what it was.
A slowing curse.
"I told you. I am a curse mage."
When I looked into the distance, I saw him calmly drawing a magic circle. Right. Of course it wouldn't be that easy. He did not stop at the slowing curse. Attack power reduction, defense decrease, sensory disruption—countless curses bound me. For the first time in a long while, I felt that stifling sensation I had experienced when I first resolved myself with my Authority.
Thud!
To make matters worse, I took a direct hit to my side. Perhaps because my body had slowed considerably, one monster had slipped through to my flank. Blood gushed from the torn flesh, but I ignored it and cut the monster down with my sword.
"Oh? You are quite tough."
Good. This works out. I had never intended to face them all with swordsmanship alone anyway. This was a fine opportunity to try out a new skill.
Bloodflow Manipulation
Bloodflow Manipulation. A skill that literally moved and controlled blood. It was an item I had received from the Magic Tower Master through a trade a few days ago. It was actually one of the most basic spells in Blood Magic, but somehow I was only learning it now.
The blood flowing from my body rose into the air. Not only my own blood, but even the blood from the monsters I had cut down. When it came to anything related to blood, I held absolute dominance. Blood that had already lost its owner was something I could control as much as I pleased.
I scattered the floating blood widely over the monsters.
Splash!
The monsters that had suddenly been drenched in blood tilted their heads in confusion. They had no idea what was about to happen next.
Blood Power Substitution
Combined with Fireball!
All blood under your control now possesses the fire attribute!
Whoosh!
Flames erupted. The monsters' agonized screams echoed off the walls. In an instant, more than ten monsters perished, and Oleg let out an admiring gasp.
"Your abilities are quite unique as well."
Hiss…
The chunk torn from my side was already regenerating.
"And your countermeasures are flawless."
"I don't know why every opponent I fight talks so much."
"Haha, after living long enough, one naturally becomes this way."
Despite losing a considerable number of monsters at once, he remained calm. Was it because there were still many left? Or because he still had plenty of tricks up his sleeve?
The answer was the latter.
He raised his dark mana and cast a spell.
"Corpses have always been excellent offerings."
The spell targeted the corpses I had just defeated. It began rapidly devouring them, as though the mana itself were greedily consuming the bodies. After meticulously extracting mana from the corpses, Oleg soon hurled a spell at me.
Whoosh!
A pitch-black mass flew toward me. I raised the holy sword to deflect it, but I could not. It was another curse-type spell. This one, however, was far more vicious than before.
"Ghh…!!!"
Throb!
A massive headache surged through my mind. It felt as though someone were striking the inside of my skull with a hammer. At this level of pain, Pain Resistance should have activated, yet the skill showed no response.
"When all is said and done, the pinnacle of curses is still the mental type."
So that was it. He had used mental magic completely unrelated to the body. That bastard. As expected of a curse mage, even his methods were vicious.
This pain was clearly far removed from physical agony. When I strained my ears, I could hear countless voices murmuring inside my head. Hundreds, thousands—easily tens of thousands of voices. The chatter sounded like a bustling marketplace. There were so many voices speaking at once that I could not focus on any single one. The sheer volume of incoming information was giving me a headache on its own.
As I clutched my head, he spoke.
"Did you know? Our brains remember far more than we think. Most of it is unnecessary information, so we simply do not bring it into our consciousness. Countless pieces of information are stored in our subconscious."
"Ghh…! So what, you bastard…"
"It means that right now, words you have heard before are being replayed inside your head."
The moment I heard that, I understood what the marketplace-like voices meant. All kinds of insults and curses directed at me. Words I had once heard but deliberately let slide were now being replayed in my mind.
"Hah… hah…!!"
Realizing this, I made a quick judgment. I had to ignore them. Listening would only harm my mind. Rather than hearing such things, it would be better to swing my sword one more time.
So I swung my sword.
Slash! Slash!
To forget the words flooding into my head. To focus my mind elsewhere. I cut and cut again. Ignoring the headache that felt as though my skull would split, I erased the monsters rushing toward me.
"Oho, impressive. That pain should not be easy to endure."
With each swing, blood pooled around me.
"You are truly an extraordinary human. Strong, composed, and possessing remarkable mental fortitude. Now I understand how the Insect King fell."
The stench of corpses mixed with sewer water rose into the air.
"However, there is one thing I find rather curious."
Before I knew it, the area around me was filled with countless corpses.
Haa… haa…
My ragged breathing echoed through the underground. Perhaps because I had been fighting endlessly while under numerous debuffs, my condition was far from normal. My body kept taking wounds and regenerating, and the constant drain of mana left me feeling increasingly drained. Yet there were still many monsters left.
Even so, I could not retreat like this…
Just as I thought that and raised the holy sword again, he spoke.
"Why do you still side with humans even after being treated this way?"
I froze. My body, which had been about to swing the sword, stopped. Even though countless insults still echoed in my head, his words rang out with startling clarity.
I reflexively asked, "…What?"
"Is it not so? No matter how hard you try, all that returns is criticism. So why do you keep trying?"
…As expected, that bastard talked too much. I wanted to cut him down immediately, but there were far too many monsters around me. Even I could not break through all of them and reach him in one go.
As I frowned, he continued.
"I have taken a liking to you. That spirit, those abilities, that mental strength—everything exceeded my expectations!"
He spread both arms wide. His three eyes were filled with a strange mix of anticipation and excitement. Taking a deep breath, he spoke.
"How about it? Why not join the Demon King's army now? We would welcome you with open arms!"
"?"
I tilted my head in confusion.