Evolution
The monster's greatsword vibrated with a crimson glow as the space itself began to scream.
As I leaped desperately toward Iris, a thought struck me like a bolt of lightning.
That ominous sign.
I knew it all too well.
'Ah... fuck. It's all coming back to me now.'
The cold hospital room. The me who lay dying with an oxygen mask pressed to his face, reading the final serialized chapter of that novel.
Right before the last official upload, the author had dropped what they called an "extra" titled Bad Ending: The Fallen Empire.
The empire's secret experiment had failed. The abyss gate collapsed, and from within it walked the 'Executioner.'
One swing of its red sword aura sliced the empire's ramparts like tofu. Hundreds of knights dissolved into pools of blood, and even the SS-class Adelia lost an arm.
I had nearly hurled my smartphone across the hospital bed back then.
("What the hell is this garbage setting... It's completely breaking the balance...")
It was absurd. Sure, humanity technically won, but at the cost of the empire's destruction and the protagonist's party being left half-crippled. The ending was so unpleasant and contrived that I'd cursed under my breath and skimmed right past that "shitty plot device."
Now that same catastrophe had become the reality staring me in the face.
Uuuuung—!
The monster's glowing red eyes were locked onto a single target—the greatest source of energy threatening its existence.
Iris.
"Ugh... krrgh...!"
Iris had reached her limit. Forcing five different mana attributes to fuse was like having her soul ripped apart. Blood exploded from the fingers gripping her bowstring, staining the blue magic bow a deep crimson.
'Aah... it's too much... this is impossible...'
'I only inherited a fraction of the spirits' blood...'
Just as her will began to crumble, my shout slammed into her ears.
"Hey! Iris, don't you dare chicken out now!"
My voice forcibly anchored her fracturing mind.
"Stop doubting yourself! You're not some ordinary elf! You're a noble High Elf who inherited the blood of the spirits from the dawn of time!"
Iris's pupils dilated. The pride she had forgotten, the true worth she had turned away from beneath the crushing weight of her bloodline—it all surged back.
"What you're creating right now is the very technique that will one day pierce the Demon King's heart! You have every right to wield that power! Believe in me—and believe in yourself!"
This was the moment from the original story's latter half. When every comrade had fallen and despair reigned, Iris would awaken and fire the final strike at the Demon King. I was dragging that future possibility into the present.
"Ugh... haaaah—!"
Iris clenched her teeth. The magic arrow that had been vibrating on the verge of exploding suddenly stabilized, compressing into a terrifying density. The five attributes fused into a single white orb that blazed like the sun itself.
But the monster wasn't going to wait.
Kwaaaaaah—!
Its greatsword swept horizontally. A red line. A bug-like ability in this world that ignored physical defense and erased coordinates themselves. Absolute death hurtled toward Iris.
She couldn't move. Maintaining Spiral Arrow left her unable to twitch even a single finger. Staring at the oncoming crimson flash, she instinctively sensed her own death.
'Ah... no...'
The moment she tried to squeeze her eyes shut—
Tadat!
Someone stepped into her line of sight. A small back. No detectable mana. The ordinary back of an F-class hunter.
Me.
"Roy...?!"
"Get down!!!!"
With my desperate scream, the red line swallowed us both.
Kwaaaaang—!!
I gripped the Guardian's Dagger with both hands and met the red line head-on. The instant the blade made contact, a crushing pressure slammed into me as if every bone in my body would turn to powder. My flesh burned. My eardrums burst.
But I refused to yield. If I fell back now, Iris would die. If Iris died, this party was finished.
The user is staking their life to enact 'Guardianship.'
Hidden condition met: True Guardian qualification acquired.
The artifact's latent power is being unsealed!
◈ Absolute Guardianship: Once per day, completely nullifies an attack that would cause 'death.' Negates all physical, magical, and spatial attacks.
Kiiing—!
A transparent sanctuary unfolded. The red line that erased space itself was stopped cold by the thin barrier created by a mere C-rank dagger. It was a paradox—an impenetrable shield blocking a spear that pierced everything.
"Krrgh...!"
The barrier held, but the full impact transferred straight into my body. Blood vessels burst. A mouthful of blood sprayed from my lips. My legs trembled and my knees nearly gave out.
But I endured. With a single-minded resolve not to let even one drop of blood splash onto Iris behind me.
Time seemed to stop. Iris stared blankly at my back.
She was a lofty High Elf who had always looked down on others or kept them at a distance. But from the very beginning, this man had been different. The human man who winked at her, toyed with her heart, made her laugh and cry.
That same man was now taking the monster's ultimate attack with his own body, staking his life to protect her.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Iris's heart began to pound wildly. Not from fear. It was because that shabby back—bloody yet unyielding for her sake—looked larger than any hero she had ever seen.
'This... this idiot... why go this far...'
Tears fell from her eyes as something hot surged up from deep within her chest. It was more than gratitude. It was reverence. The first budding of love.
Iris's Faith Level Rising Rapidly!
Faith: +20%
Hidden condition achieved: Total party faith has surpassed 100%!
— Adelia (Obsession/Madness): 30%
— Saintess Yuriel (Obsession/Blessing): 40%
— Iris (Reverence/Love): 20%
— Priscilla (Submission): 10%
Total: 100%
Hidden reward activating...
Kwa-gwang!
Something exploded deep inside my heart. It wasn't simple mana recovery. Their hearts, their intense emotions of belief in me, poured into my soul and forcibly tore my vessel wider.
"Uwaaaaagh!"
Every blood vessel in my body felt like it was on fire. The clogged mana circuits burst open like a broken dam. My body, trapped at the C-rank limit, began to reconstruct itself.
Crack! Snap!
Broken bones knit back together. Torn muscles regenerated, harder than steel. The density of the mana flowing through me transformed on a whole new level.
"Ha... haaa..."
Just breathing in caused the surrounding mana to flood into my lungs. The world grew vivid. It felt like switching from a black-and-white TV to full color. The flow of air, the movement of dust, even the monster's killing intent—everything became readable.
And then, in my eyes that had been on the verge of exploding from overload, a new light took root.
Observer's Eye has evolved into Eye of Causality.
You can now see the 'lines' of the world.
The world looked completely different. The red spatial severance and the monster's massive body vanished. Instead, I saw countless white lines that composed every single thing in existence. Lines of causality. Or what could be called the world's threads.
All those countless lines converged on a single point inside Carnifex's body.
'I see it.'
Not the vague description I'd skimmed in the novel, but the creature's real weakness in this living moment. It wasn't the helmet, the legs, or the neck.
The core was hidden in an unexpected place.
Where all the lines gathered—inside the third rib on the monster's right chest.
Ssssh...
The red flash scattered. A heavy silence fell over the cave.
My life-or-death gamble had succeeded. I'd thrown myself forward ready to regress again if I died, but instead I'd grown even stronger.
"Hoo... isn't this just perfect?"
I let out a light breath, smirked, and raised my head. The body that had been covered in blood moments ago was completely healed. Blue energy swirled around me, fueled by B-rank mana.
"H-human... are you okay?"
Iris approached me with tears in her eyes. I firmly raised a hand to stop her, then looked up at the bewildered monster.
"......?"
It knew. It knew its ultimate attack had been blocked. There had never been a human who stopped its 'spatial severance' from the front. The creature that fed on fear was, for the first time, feeling panic and terror itself.
This was the only chance we'd get.
I twisted my blood-stained lips into a grin and spoke quietly to my comrades behind me.
"I finally found it."
"...What?!"
"That bastard's weakness. It's not the head."
With the tip of my dagger, I pointed precisely at the 'red dot' visible only to my eyes.
"Right side of the chest, just inside the lower ribs. That's where its heart is."
At my words, the eyes of my despairing comrades began to burn once more. Adelia staggered but gripped her holy sword again. Scarlet readjusted her staff.
And Iris.
The Spiral Arrow in her hands had completed into a blinding white sun.
She turned her head, shook away her tears, and nodded with the dignified gaze of a true High Elf once more.
In my eyes, the white lines of causality ran straight from the tip of Iris's arrow to the monster's heart.
I stared directly into its red eyes and gave the final order.
"Iris. Let's send that thing back to hell."
At that moment, Iris's finger brushed the taut bowstring and released it.
Paaaaang—!!!
Along with a tearing sound that twisted space itself, the spiral storm fused from five attributes was unleashed toward the exact spot my finger pointed to.