The Name That Should Never Have Been Spoken
Kyle stopped swinging his sword and stared down at the thug with a cold gaze. The thug grinned brightly, as if mocking him for giving up already, and tried to provoke him. But Kyle paid it no mind.
Something’s off.
No matter how he thought about it, the pieces didn’t fit. Kyle tilted his head in confusion as he looked down at the thug.
“Hmmm……”
“What’s wrong? You giving up?”
“Shut up.”
Crack!
Kyle stomped on the thug’s head once more, crushing it. He still couldn’t believe that Myungwol had fallen to someone like this. The man was an Aura Master, after all. A being with resistance so strong that ordinary magic or Force abilities barely worked on him. If this woman had managed to pull something on an Aura Master, it meant she possessed considerable power…….
“I get it now.”
“What?”
“I’m not supposed to kill you. Right?”
“Ahaha? Nope~?”
The thug burst into laughter at Kyle’s words. But Kyle simply ignored her cackling, quietly sheathing his sword. There was no point wasting energy on someone who kept reviving no matter how many times she died.
There were piles of corpses near Myungwol. The ones he had cut down. And none of those bodies showed any signs of resistance.
Around the spot where Myungwol had just collapsed, mountains of corpses from the thugs he had already slain were stacked high. Even though their opponent was a Master, the bodies bore no traces of struggle. If there had been even the slightest sign that they had tried to run, it might have made sense. But these people had charged forward as if throwing their lives away.
To others, it might have looked like the actions of lunatics. But Kyle knew exactly what kind of beings sacrificed their lives so willingly to wield power.
I can’t remember the name, but…… there were those annoying bastards who kept using suicide tactics.
Fanatics who worshipped the Evil God. Unlike the Saintess who had engraved the Stigma on Kyle’s hand, these were the trash who treated their own lives as lightly as flies. Of course, their disregard for life wasn’t simply because they looked down on it. The followers of the Evil God could use divine authority in exchange for their lives.
If the ability was strong enough to control even an Aura Master, then it could only be divine power.
“What am I supposed to do with this guy?”
Stab.
Kyle drove his sword straight through the crown of the thug’s head, pinning her to the ground so she couldn’t resurrect. He let out a deep sigh as he watched her eyes roll around blankly.
He had no idea how long it would take for her to revive. And if he kept killing her, what if he ended up falling victim to some life-costing ability like Myungwol had? Unlike Myungwol, there was no one nearby who could save him. Since he didn’t know what kind of power this thug possessed, there was a chance he could get taken out in some ridiculous way!
The game was so much better.
In the game, he could see at a glance what abilities the enemy used, what their weaknesses were, and which attacks wouldn’t work. But now that it had become reality, none of that was visible. It seemed like Sera and Izna could see their UIs, though.
I can’t bring those two here either.
Kyle scratched his head, then slowly stood up and stared intently into a corner of the forest. A moment later, the space began to ripple, and a pitch-black dimensional rift opened. A scrawny man stepped out from beyond space, appearing before him. A man so frail he looked like he would snap if you poked him, with not a single trace of muscle on his body.
“Who the hell are you this time?”
“Arrogance.”
“What?”
Without another word, Kyle swung an Aura Blade. He also wanted to test whether this suddenly appearing opponent had the same ability as the thug. However, when he saw the Aura Blade that burst forth from the man’s hand, he let out a dumbfounded laugh.
What the man had drawn was an Aura Blade exactly like Kyle’s—actually, slightly larger and more magnificent.
“You can use this too?”
“I can do anything others can do.”
The man who called himself Arrogance gave an appropriately arrogant answer, then casually hurled the Aura Blade at Kyle. Kyle knew very well what an Aura Blade could do, so he didn’t meet it with his own sword and stepped back instead. But the thrown Aura Blade wasn’t aimed at Kyle at all. It flew past him and sliced through the sword pinning the thug to the ground.
“You son of a—.”
Before Kyle could do anything about it, the thug’s body snatched up her own severed head and bolted. Kyle tried to chase after her, but the man firing Aura Blades at him blocked his path, preventing him from advancing.
The Apostle of Arrogance had Kyle completely restrained. As the thug’s head fled, it smiled brightly and shouted.
“Oppa—! See you next time—! Oh, and my name is Agni!”
The moment the thug reached the man’s side, he used the same spatial movement ability he had arrived with and fled.
In the world of 0.1-second commas. Kyle spat out a curse as he watched the two disappear in the blink of an eye.
“That’s such bullshit.”
Kyle immediately realized what ability the fleeing man possessed. It was one he had seen in the game before. In the game, Arrogance’s ability was to copy all stats and skills from other characters. In other words, it was an ability that let him become unconditionally stronger than his opponent.
Damn it, in the game I somehow managed with item advantages.
He had thought there were ways to strategize against it in the game, but now that it was reality, there was no such thing as an ability this broken. Kyle returned to where Myungwol had been, pondering how to deal with opponents who had become even more difficult in this real world.
Myungwol, who had been knocked unconscious after taking a few hits from Kyle, had opened his eyes and was staring blankly into the air.
“Oh, you’re awake.”
“……What happened?”
“You don’t remember?”
“It’s embarrassing, but no.”
When he heard that Myungwol remembered nothing, Kyle grinned like he had hit the jackpot and explained what had happened. A female thug had appeared and nearly killed him, and Kyle had saved his life. After hearing the whole story, Myungwol looked at Kyle with an expression of utter disbelief.
“No, I remember fighting you…… but everything after that is a blank.”
“Ugh, come on. What the hell, you remembered everything.”
“You crazy bastard. You tried to trick me in that short amount of time— cough!”
Watching Myungwol cough up blood, Kyle let out a deep sigh and hoisted him over his shoulder. Myungwol groaned in pain from the internal injuries, but since he knew he had brought it on himself, Kyle didn’t show any particular reaction.
Kyle carried the injured Myungwol back to the medical ward. Seeing the ward overflowing with casualties, he realized this place had truly been a battlefield just moments ago.
“Ha……”
Unfortunately, there weren’t enough priests available to treat Myungwol’s injuries right away. In the end, Myungwol was left to suffer with his wounds until the priests recovered their strength. In a way, it was his own fault, so Kyle didn’t feel particularly sorry for him.
The Apostle of Arrogance, having returned with the Apostle of Wrath, Agni, immediately kicked her in the shin as she grinned from ear to ear.
“Ow—!”
Watching Agni clutch her shin in pain, Arrogance began scolding her with an expressionless face.
“Ah, why! Again!”
“Is something funny?”
“Well, yeah? Is laughing a crime now?”
“Because of you, dozens of believers have died. Nearly a hundred more died trying to save you.”
Agni flinched at Arrogance’s words and looked at him. The fight between Arrogance and Kyle had lasted only a very short time—barely more than ten seconds. He had simply copied the opponent’s ability in that brief moment, yet nearly a hundred believers had died?
“Is that really true…?”
“Yes. Thanks to you, the number of believers we need to replenish has piled up like a mountain.”
“I didn’t think that many would die……”
Arrogance’s ability to copy every single one of his opponent’s powers came at a steep price. It required lives equal to the scale of the power he used. The greater the power he wielded, the more life force was consumed. In that brief instant when Arrogance had swung the Aura Blade, the life force he had expended was equivalent to that of a hundred ordinary people.
“He doesn’t seem to be an ordinary Master. He’s far stronger than a typical one.”
And that was the result of Kyle’s unique trait of actively utilizing Aura, unlike other Masters who merely swung weapons…… but of course, the Apostles who knew little about Masters had no way of knowing such details. They could only assume it was because Kyle was exceptionally strong. Well, it wasn’t entirely wrong.
“More importantly—why did you tell him your name?”
“Huh? My name? Oh, did I do that?”
“Don’t reveal your real name. Wrath. If you get cursed……”
“Come on, he’s not some archmage. What could an Aura Master possibly do?”
Agni waved her hand dismissively. She clearly didn’t believe that an Aura Master like Kyle could do something like that. Arrogance had only said it to scold her; he didn’t actually think Kyle could cast curses either. After all, to be able to curse someone just by knowing their name, one would need to be a black mage specialized in curses—and not just any, but a Master who had reached at least 5-star level. Such a being no longer existed on the continent. There hadn’t been one for at least several hundred years. So there was no need to worry.
“I’m screwed. For real.”
Recalling how Agni had told him her name, Kyle pulled a small piece of paper from his pocket. It was a gift from the Great Witch he had saved in the Witch’s Forest. More precisely, it was a talisman that would allow him to summon her for help anytime.
Kyle infused the talisman with Aura. Before long, he felt the space distort. It felt similar to the spatial movement Arrogance had used, yet somehow different. A moment later, the warped space spat out a woman with flowing violet hair.
“It’s been a while, my dear.”
The Great Witch who had lived for over hundreds of years, Liselotte, had appeared.