360. Moonlight Flight (月光飛)
360. Moonlight Flight (月光飛)
***
SWISH!!
Yujeong had been drawing trails of fresh blood with both hands crossed as she swung against the blood-red energy that kept closing in around her, but at some point, she felt like she was suffocating.
She kept trying to put distance between herself and Zervallua, but every time, countless streams of blood-red energy surged up along her escape routes, completely blocking them.
In the end, maintaining the current situation was her limit.
The distance from Zervallua seemed like it might widen, yet it never did. When she glanced aside, there was no support to hope for—Belua was still busy erasing a volume of blood-red energy far greater than what Yujeong was facing.
Yujeong thought blankly as she kept moving.
'Was this pattern always this vicious?'
I definitely had experience taking down Zervallua.
I could say I had cleared the Zervallua Raid in everything from small-scale 8-person raids to massive 18-person raids.
So even though this was by no means my first time experiencing this raid, the techniques Zervallua displayed were all incomprehensibly absurd.
From the first massive shockwave pattern to its current wide-area blood-red attack against nearby opponents, everything felt at least twice as strong as what I had experienced before, making it hard to even recognize them as the same patterns.
Even the attack from just moments ago, which should have allowed for a perfect coordinated assault, had been received "lightly" by Zervallua in its entirety.
Swish...
Following the wide horizontal sweep of my right hand, five trails of fresh blood rose, bursting through the dark-red energy that had surrounded me before I knew it.
Then, at some point.
The moment I felt the offensive ease even briefly, I put distance between us while my gaze momentarily dropped to the ground.
Rin had endured the aftermath of that absurd shockwave alone and advanced forward, drawing Zervallua’s attention. Even watching from afar, I could not help but gasp in admiration.
'What is Rin doing right now?'
When I turned my gaze that way, why was it?
Rin was getting closer to me.
For a moment I thought I was seeing things, but looking again, Rin was indeed moving toward me, kicking off through the air repeatedly. She was leaving the central front line she had mentioned at the start.
The path she was moving along was unmistakably toward where I stood. The distance was still far, but I could not understand why.
Even without understanding why she was coming toward me, that alone made me watch as if entranced. The sight of her swinging the Crescent-Moon Weight in the distance was so clean in movement and appearance that I found myself thinking it was beautiful.
'...Why?'
Why was she swinging the Crescent-Moon Weight toward me, so far away? Then, as I watched the massive moonlight that rose along the weapon slowly lifting the darkness settled over the space—
My head lifted for no reason at all.
Did I lift my head?
Or was my head lifted?
In that moment, I could not tell.
But when my head lifted like that, I came face to face with a definite “something.”
There, something utterly beyond words was rippling.
A strange sight, as if darkness itself was continuously undulating, having swallowed the space itself.
It was so transparent that it did not properly register in my vision, but I could clearly tell that something was there.
And that it was rapidly approaching me.
Even as I stared blankly at that rippling, I instinctively thought I had to attack it, had to block it—but my body would not move.
"...!?"
Suddenly, the world seemed to stop, and my body did not so much as twitch, as if afflicted with petrification. At this phenomenon I had never experienced before, I felt my breath stop.
Only when that rippling swelled as if to swallow me completely did I finally understand... why Rin had come toward me, and why she had swung the Crescent-Moon Weight.
...
SPLAAASH!
From the empty air where there should have been nothing, a massive spray of fresh blood surged up, and a trajectory of moonlight like a handful of brilliance miraculously reached Yujeong.
—!
Blood burst out in a great spray, drenching Yujeong's entire body. Then, in the sensation of her whole body being released, Yujeong frantically righted herself—
"...Rin?"
Yujeong's eyes flew wide open.
"Grand Duke!"
The moment Yujeong's blank murmur overlapped with Belua's shout, silver hair that shone even in the darkness billowed out, revealing her presence.
And her appearance, soaked in bright red blood.
Drip.
Blood, far too red, ran down her pure white arm and dripped from her hand.
***
SWISH! WHOOSH-WHOOSH-WHOOSH!
Following the silver-haired woman who kept kicking off the ruined building in irregular movements, the bright red blood-red energy bent at insane angles as it pursued her.
Yet her gaze was not on the ferocious energy chasing her.
Abruptly. Her lips pressed tight, her eyes were filled with immense regret.
"..."
Where did it go wrong?
Why did I only think of "that" now?
'Please, let me not be too late...'
The moment I realized Zervallua possessed intelligence, I should have thought of it immediately.
If I had seen with my own eyes how Zervallua responded to everything as if it possessed intelligence... then of course I should have properly considered "that" as well.
And yet... I failed to.
Rustle!
With the sound of clothes whipping through the air, I realized in an instant who the creature was targeting now.
Amid the eerie sight of thousands of strands of blood-red energy surging up as if seizing control of the entire area, I could see one place where the space was dyed especially dark red.
It was none other than the space where Yujeong stood, separated from Belua.
Judging by the Crescent-Moon Weight's range, it was far too distant—a distance that could never be reached.
But even so, I absolutely had to reach her. I had not the slightest—no, not even a shred of desire to see that again.
Without hesitation, I swung the Crescent-Moon Weight and deployed a technique that required bearing the danger.
—Moonlight Flight (月光飛).
As I launched the Crescent-Moon Weight like light, the cord connected to it stretched out wide and was pulled taut. And the moment the cord reached its limit, it suddenly turned transparent and vanished without a trace.
——!
Then, as the pure white Crescent-Moon Weight imbued with moonlight accelerated boundlessly as if all restraints had been released, my vision twisted in an instant.
A technique of swift movement that travels along the blade of the Crescent-Moon Weight cast out like light.
The moment my form moved along the moonlight and reached complete swiftness, I saw Yujeong's head suddenly jerk upward.
Then, as something rippling seemed about to swallow Yujeong whole, my mind went utterly calm.
After that, a scene suddenly flashed before my eyes over Yujeong's figure.
A moment no one could have predicted. Someone suddenly vanished.
Only after someone else was devoured did we realize what kind of thing the "Devouring" we hadn't even perceived was.
Zervallua, which had suddenly become unbelievably stronger—we tried to stop it somehow, but we were helpless.
In that wretched powerlessness, I had blamed myself for not properly examining the demonic beast's traits.
At the end of that hellscape. I, who had miraculously survived.
The scenes that kept flashing by like overlapping images shattered into pieces, and in that moment, I could reach her.
Just before the dense rippling with its invisible presence swallowed Yujeong whole.
SLASH!
Feeling the chilling sensation against my skin directly, I swung the arm gripping the Crescent-Moon Weight's blade without a shred of hesitation.
SPLAAASH!
Simultaneously, faint sensations rose across my entire body.
And in the unmistakable sensation of having cleanly cut through something directly in front of me, the invisible something with red fur vanished.
This time, I was able to block it.
That fact wrapped around me.
"...Rin?"
"Grand Duke!"
As my right arm holding the Crescent-Moon Weight lowered and a massive wave of exhaustion wrapped around my whole body, I heard Yujeong's startled voice and Belua's horrified tone.
"I'm glad... I wasn't too late."
Even as I spoke, a laugh slipped out. Yujeong was clearly looking at me with worry, and I knew my current state had become a pitiful sight. But my heart was strangely light.
Tap!
"Grand Duke...! Your wounds, quickly!"
As Belua frantically pulled out a potion and rushed toward me, I realized the surrounding scene had changed. The blood-red energy that had dominated the space vanished in an instant as if it had been a lie, and no further offensive followed.
In that moment, I felt a vivid sensation as if the past had overlapped with the present.
A chilling, grotesque sensation I could never forget, as if it were wrapping around my entire body...
It felt as if hundreds, thousands of people were staring at me, and I could feel all kinds of emotions. Hatred, rage, resentment... indescribable negative emotions kept binding me.
As I slowly turned my body within that massive current of emotion, my lips twisted before I even realized it.
"Heh..."
Zervallua's thousands of eyes. Every single one of them was fixed solely on me, as if I were the only one in the world, emitting a chilling blood-red light.
The hostility that had been invisible even while allowing the party's attacks. Watching the demonic beast's emotions, as if its "Devouring" had been completely thwarted, only laughter escaped me.
—!
Belua stood in front of me as if bracing for any possible situation, frantically pouring potion over my wounds, but I raised my blood-soaked hand.
"Belua... it's fine."
I slowly swept back the hair covering my vision and spoke.
Zervallua's pattern that should never have appeared in the early phase had come out all at once, and the Devouring that had brought hell after the mid-phase—I had been able to block it.
I had warned them while explaining earlier, but "Devouring" was nearly impossible to prepare for without experiencing it.
That sinister energy that bound its target—if it hit directly, even I would have struggled to resist.
Rather, I thought myself incredibly fortunate to have blocked the Devouring now.
There would be at least ten minutes until the next Devouring, no matter how conservative the estimate. For the time being, the worst-case scenario wouldn't occur.
"Was that the Devouring just now?"
I nodded at Yujeong's trembling voice while continuing to face Zervallua, which kept staring at me.
From the opposite side, brilliant bursts of light exploded as attacks were launched, but I knew they meant nothing.
How a demonic beast that failed its Devouring would change... in the past, I could only face that at the very end.
But now, I had succeeded in blocking it from the source, from the very beginning.