Something Is Strange About the Gift (1)
Something Is Strange About the Gift (1)
To think I'd be experiencing visions and hearing things right when monsters were swarming.
On top of that, the sheer pretentiousness of the voice left me utterly speechless.
'Do you desire power?' Indeed.
At this rate, I could barely fight, let alone answer.
Even after cutting off my mana, the vision didn't fade, and sheathing the dagger at my waist didn't change a thing.
I couldn't tell whether this was a curse or some kind of trauma from dying over and over again.
But why did it have to happen now, of all times?
As I stood there, utterly lost, the Firebird Hunter's shout snapped me out of it.
"I'll handle the red ones, so I'm leaving the rest to you! Just buy me some time! I'll finish them off quickly and come help!"
Her instructions made perfect sense.
Three gray ones were rushing toward us.
If this had been our first encounter, even running away would have been a struggle. Even now, after repeating this loop multiple times, I could only just barely buy time by fleeing.
Still, her request was well within my capabilities.
That is, if I were in my right mind...
But with visions blocking my sight and voices ringing in my ears, even running away seemed like a tall order.
Still, I couldn't just stand there and let myself get slaughtered.
Curse or trauma, it didn't matter anymore.
I screamed at the top of my lungs.
Whatever this hallucination was, I just needed to get it out of my sight!
"Fine!"
My clear, youthful voice rang sharply through the stone chamber passage.
The rushing monsters flinched in surprise, and even the Firebird Hunter looked startled.
"Oh, I love the enthusiasm! I'm counting on you, then!"
The problem was, she'd completely misunderstood.
I wasn't talking to you, lady...
Having thoroughly misunderstood, the Firebird Hunter charged toward the red monsters.
At that exact moment, the gray monsters pounced on me.
Even as they swung their claws at me, I couldn't move to dodge.
Because at that very second, the illusion of a burning bird engulfed my entire body.
My whole body caught fire, my flesh searing. My bones baked, and my blood boiled.
An agonizing pain, as if I were dying right then and there, consumed me.
Yet even amid the agony, I could still perceive my surroundings.
'Is this some kind of phantom pain? And why have the monsters stopped mid-pounce?'
The pain was immense, but it wasn't enough to kill me.
Having already experienced death multiple times, I could tolerate this level of pain.
Was it adaptation, or had I simply given up...?
The thought crossed my mind briefly, but regardless, my past experiences were proving useful now.
Though my body felt like it was burning, the skin beneath the illusory flames remained perfectly intact.
As expected, this was just phantom pain following the visual and auditory hallucinations.
Once I recognized it as phantom pain, the sensation became much easier to tolerate.
It wasn't that my body and the surrounding world had actually frozen, either.
The monsters' claws were inching toward me at a snail's pace.
It was like watching a video played in extreme slow motion.
And it wasn't just the monsters.
The mercenary charging at her targets, the wind, the strands of hair fluttering through the air—everything was moving incredibly slowly.
No, the world hadn't slowed down. My mind was simply processing everything dozens, even hundreds, of times faster.
As I endured the pain and observed this bizarre phenomenon, I felt a change beginning to take place.
It wasn't happening externally, but deep within my own body.
Wriggle.
The flames enveloping me seeped inward, igniting the mana circulating inside my body.
My once-tranquil mana boiled violently, undergoing a transformation.
My translucent, colorless mana began to glow a brilliant red. From just beneath my skin to the deepest recesses of my core, from my limbs to my chest and head, every drop of my mana boiled and transformed.
The moment the transformation was complete—
Thump!
The mana inside my body surged violently toward the dagger.
The blazing mana rushed through my arm and hand, pouring into the dagger. The weapon devoured the energy like a starving beast, trembling in ecstasy.
Hum.
As more mana flooded in, the blade began to extend.
No, the physical dagger itself wasn't growing. Rather, the mana I channeled projected outward from its tip, taking the shape of a longer blade.
It resembled a lightsaber from a famous sci-fi movie. But this extended blade of mana wasn't visible to the naked eye. I only knew it was there because it was made of my own mana.
To anyone else, it would look like nothing more than a slight distortion in the air.
The visions vanished. The voices fell silent.
The searing heat dissipated, and the pain washed away.
Only the newly transformed mana continued to flow steadily through my body and the dagger.
And in that instant, time snapped back to normal.
Screee!
The monster's claws, which had been frozen like a slug before my eyes, resumed their lethal trajectory.
The wind whipped against my skin, and the monster's hot breath blasted my face.
At the same time, I swung my blade.
A short dagger normally wouldn't have been enough to parry those massive claws, but I felt absolutely no fear.
Slash, slash, slash.
It went exactly as I'd envisioned.
The next instant, the monster's claws, along with its severed forelegs, went flying backward.
I didn't feel any resistance as I sliced through them, and not a single drop of blood stained my dagger.
It made sense. The monster's limbs hadn't been severed by the physical blade, but by the invisible sword of mana extending from it.
A blade of pure mana, roughly three times the length of the dagger, had sliced through the monster's tough hide and bone in a fraction of a second.
I had no idea how this was possible, but I knew exactly what I had to do next.
Now that I possessed this kind of power, there was no longer any need to run away just to buy time.
I could worry about the 'how' and 'why' after dealing with the immediate threat.
Using the invisible edge, I decapitated the legless monster in one clean sweep.
Then I swung my blade toward the next gray monster rushing at me.
Slash, slash.
An invisible blade was a far more terrifying weapon than I could ever have imagined.
Believing I was merely swinging a short dagger through empty air, the monster didn't bother to dodge. It was instantly cleaved apart by the blade of mana.
In the blink of an eye, two monsters lay dead.
The final monster, sensing that something was terribly wrong, halted in its tracks and warily assessed the situation.
But if it wasn't going to come to me, I'd just go to it.
It was indeed a clever beast.
Having realized that my weapon was unlike any ordinary blade, it desperately tried to dodge, unlike its fallen brethren. But completely evading an invisible sword was impossible.
Within moments, the beast was drenched in its own blood, reduced to the same pitiful state as the ones the Firebird Hunter had fought earlier.
'Damn, I'm already running low on mana...'
Perhaps because my mana had undergone such a drastic change, even a brief skirmish was enough to drain my reserves.
There had to be a catch, of course.
I closed the distance at once, swinging my blade through the shower of blood to finish it off.
Slash!
Fortunately, I managed to fell the beast just before my mana completely bottomed out.
The crimson mana was still coursing wildly through my veins.
I stared down at the pristine, bloodless dagger. Though invisible to the naked eye, a turbulent aura of mana still rippled over the blade.
Don't tell me... has all my mana permanently changed into this?
Obtaining a powerful weapon was great, but it would be a massive problem if my original mana had been permanently altered.
If even my inherited ability ended up changing, I'd be in serious trouble.
I quickly sheathed the dagger at my waist.
Hum.
Ah, thank goodness. My mana was beginning to shift back.
The crimson mana receded, and my original, translucent mana gradually returned.
It rapidly reverted to its original state, and my mana pool began to replenish.
I gripped the dagger's hilt once more.
Instantly, my mana turned crimson again, and the replenishment process ground to a halt.
I let go of the dagger and gripped it again, repeating the process several times.
Every time, the mana inside my body transformed in response.
"It's not just my mana. My physical state seems to be shifting too..."
I couldn't put it into exact words, but it felt as though my muscles and nerves were adapting to accommodate this new flow of mana perfectly.
"Does my ability change whenever I hold this dagger?"
Or maybe it was like a class-change item from a video game in my past life.
I recalled the vision I'd seen moments ago—the burning bird and the question it had roared.
-Do you desire power!
It was an incredibly cheesy line, but the events that followed made it impossible to dismiss the vision as a mere hallucination.
My questions were piling up, but fortunately, someone nearby could provide the answers.
Sheathing the dagger at my waist, I turned my gaze toward the Firebird Hunter, who was still locked in combat.
Contrary to her confident shout, she was locked in a grueling, neck-and-neck struggle.
I'd seen it before, but those red monsters were on an entirely different level from the gray ones.
It was like comparing a wildcat to a leopard.
They had tougher hides, speed that defied their massive bulk, and even the intelligence to actively dodge her Invisible Sword Aura.
They were completely different from any monsters I'd encountered during my travels.
They even brought to mind the words of an old knight I'd met on the road.
'The monsters in places like this are just the stragglers left behind from the Great War and their offspring. The real deal either retreated to the Demon Realm or gathered at the Seal Grounds. There's no way they'd still be lingering around here.'
Had these beasts, which normally wouldn't have stayed, ended up trapped here simply because they couldn't find a way out of this cave?
Had they spent generations in this dark cavern, raising offspring far weaker than their ancestors?
Was that why they were so furious?
Roar!
Now that all the gray monsters around me had been slain, the red monsters were rampaging with even greater fury.
They might have had a tragic backstory of their own, but now that we were enemies, I couldn't care less.
More importantly, I needed to help the Firebird Hunter.
Even in their rage, the beasts were fighting her with calculated precision.
Despite being drenched in blood, they seemed to have figured out the reach of her Invisible Sword Aura.
One engaged her from the front, while the other circled around, waiting for an opening from the flank.
They'd already switched positions several times like this. Unable to land a decisive blow, she was beginning to pant heavily.
Her mana was clearly running low.
"Damn it! Damn it! Look at me, acting all high and mighty, only to end up like this!"
She swung her sword, muttering self-deprecating curses loud enough for me to hear.
Since the sounds of battle behind her had stopped, she likely assumed I'd either fled or been killed.
Was she blaming herself for taking too long?
I walked toward her, drawing the dagger once more.
Whoosh!
Instantly, my mana shifted. The crimson-dyed energy began to boil furiously.
Standing right behind her as she fought desperately, I spoke up.
"Need some help?"
Startled by the sudden voice, she quickly leaped back and whipped her head around to look at me.
"Huh? You're alive?!"
To think she'd look away in the middle of a fight—my voice must have caught her completely off guard.
Her eyes widened in sheer disbelief as she looked at the fallen monsters, then at me, completely unharmed.
"How in the world..."
She was utterly dumbfounded.
Perhaps because of her shock, she failed to notice the monster silently lunging at her.
"Watch out!"
Snapping out of her daze at my shout, she barely managed to swing her sword and block the claws of the monster attacking from the front.
But she completely lost track of the other monster that had been waiting for its chance.
Its claws swept in with blinding speed.
She gritted her teeth, bracing for the impact.
At that exact moment, she caught sight of a strange distortion in the air slicing past the incoming claws.
Clang!
The claws were violently deflected, and she barely escaped the deadly strike.
"Phew, made it in time. What are you doing, spacing out in the middle of a fight? Get a grip!"
Despite my scolding, she only stared at me blankly.
No, she was staring at the dagger in my hand—and the familiar crimson mana rippling over it, identical to her own.