Chapter 61: Uninhabited Island Survival Training (8)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 61: Uninhabited Island Survival Training (8)
The corpses of about ten Undertakers lay scattered across the gravel, slowly growing cold. Seeing their pale, bluish faces completely ruined my appetite.
"...Ha."
It was a strange, unfamiliar sensation, quite different from taking the life of a magical beast. Even so, I didn't feel a single shred of regret or hesitation.
They had ambushed me first, and I had merely acted in self-defense. Besides, they were human butchers—contract killers. There was no reason to show them any mercy.
That seems to be the end of them.
Just in case, I expanded the range of my senses, but the only living souls in the area were Ray Shan and myself.
When our eyes met, Ray Shan bit down hard on her lower lip. As if unable to move her body, she glared at me fiercely, only her hands trembling slightly as they gripped her bowie knives.
Though she looked poised to spring at any second, she remained rooted to the spot, as if bound by an invisible shackle.
This was likely due to the Mental Rank effect of the Blessing of the Sword God: 'Your words and actions carry an aura of intimidation.'
Come to think of it, I had only faced magical beasts, Majin, or monsters far stronger than humans until now, so this Mental Rank effect had never really come in handy.
It seemed the effect worked much better on humans than on demons, and was even more potent when there were fewer targets.
Ray Shan, standing right before me, was living proof. I flicked my wrist to shake the blood off my blade.
However, there was too much of it, and it didn't all come off, making me frown.
Since I had thrown three knives at the hidden snipers, I only had two sashimi knives left.
Having no choice, I wiped the blood off on my sleeve, sheathed the knives, and turned my attention back to Ray Shan.
"Ray Shan."
Her eyebrows furrowed into a tight line at the sound of her name. Finally freed from the crushing pressure, Ray Shan gasped heavily for air. Then, her expression hardening instantly, she stared straight into my eyes.
"Tell me who sent you."
"...Do you really think I'd tell you?"
Ray Shan's eyes burned with intense murderous intent. I shook my head and let out a heavy sigh.
Having a faint memory of Ray Shan's human days from the game's main story, I knew her personality to some extent.
To put it nicely, she had professional pride; to put it bluntly, she was a contract killer with a load of bullshit philosophy. Rather than trying to reason with her, it would be far more effective to crush her with overwhelming terror and force a confession.
This was my chance to find out who kept trying to kill me. If I sliced her throat right now and missed the chance to hear the truth, I would probably regret it for the rest of my life.
I pointed my thumb behind me at the corpses whose warmth of life had completely vanished, and added:
"Your subordinates ended up like that, so are you stupid or just brave? It'd be better for both of us if you just spilled it while I'm still being nice."
"...Crazy bastard."
Ray Shan muttered, swaying slightly as she regained her balance.
Her face had gone pale, yet her eyes blazed with a fierce will to fight—whether out of resentment for her fallen subordinates or sheer, stubborn pride. I clicked my tongue at the sight.
The thick stench of blood in the air was already making me uncomfortable, and Ray Shan's uncooperative attitude only made it worse.
Besides, being called a lunatic by a contract killer—one of the lowest professions out there—was utterly absurd.
Furthermore, the Undertakers were a vicious group, easily ranking among the top three most notorious in the underworld. They were disgusting scum who would kill anyone, friend or foe, as long as they were paid.
Even if they were acting on a contract, the fact that they threw knives at me, a mere cadet, without a single word showed just how nonexistent their moral compass was.
It was a good thing I had kept my senses sharp; otherwise, my head would have been rolling on the ground in an instant.
That was precisely why I had taken their lives without a moment's hesitation.
Even in this situation, Ray Shan began to condense a turbid current around the knives in her hands. The atmosphere shifted instantly as the dark, murky energy surged violently.
I suppose she had to be at least this capable to meet the bare minimum requirements to form a direct contract with a Corps Commander in the future.
I guess the boss is on a different level.
Meeting my cold, indifferent gaze, Ray Shan flinched for a moment, but then she suddenly let out a sneer that was entirely out of place.
"Ha... Now I see why that man commissioned us to get rid of you. I should have realized it when I saw that all your personal records, including your relatives and parents, were completely erased. That old geezer... how dare he commission us to subjugate a villain?"
Ray Shan rambled on. At that moment, I felt something welling up in my mindscape, which had remained perfectly still until now.
Countless thoughts swirled in my head. What does she mean, I have no relatives or parents? In this world, I definitely had parents who took care of me for about a year.
I raised my head slightly and looked at Ray Shan.
Her face was distorted as she muttered curses in a self-deprecating tone.
My sharp intuition told me she wasn't lying.
But what suffocated me the most was that, for some reason, I couldn't picture my parents' faces in this world.
...What did they look like?
As if artificially erased, the fragments of my memory were slowly fading away like a mirage.
My home address before entering the academy, the conversations I had with my parents—they all left behind nothing but faint afterimages, like a thick fog.
"Fuck, if I knew it would turn out like this, I should've taken that old elder's head first—"
"Hey."
I cut off Ray Shan's frantic rambling. She froze, turning her gaze toward me, but she couldn't bring herself to say another word.
The voice that slipped through my lips was so chillingly cold that it surprised even me. Instantly, a wave of terror began to wash over her face.
"What did you just say?"
"...What?"
Ray Shan stared at me blankly, looking utterly dazed. As a sinister, suffocating aura suddenly enveloped the area, her lips trembled violently, and cold sweat poured down her face.
"Did you say I have no relatives or parents?"
"……."
Ray Shan stood frozen like a stone statue, swallowing her groans in silence. The sneer on her lips vanished completely, and her face turned deathly pale.
"Originally, I was going to give you an easy death once you told me the name of the person who ordered my hit."
"……."
I pulled out the sashimi knife I had just tucked away. Ray Shan remained awkwardly silent, whether because she refused to speak or simply couldn't.
"But now, I have a few questions for you."
"……!"
"And just so you know, this isn't a negotiation. It's a threat."
As if anticipating what was about to happen to her, the last traces of color drained from her already pale face, leaving her looking like a corpse.
"Don't answer if you don't want to."
Shhhk—
As I drew the blade halfway out of its scabbard, a drop of blood fell from the edge, and a faint, dull hum of the blade seeped into the surroundings.
The echoing cries of the birds grew even louder, adding to the eerie atmosphere. It was the exact moment I took a step forward, fully baring the blade.
Ssssshh—
Suddenly, a wave of dizziness, as if I had been struck on the back of the head, surged through my bloodstream and rushed up my body.
As a terrifying, searing wind swept through my entire body, I instinctively realized what this was.
"Magic power...?"
A suffocating, swirling sea of magic power. It was enough to make me lose consciousness in an instant. The magic power pressed down brutally on my body, swallowing my movements.
"What the fuck is happening?!"
The space around Ray Shan and me began to shimmer with heat haze, as if we were being completely isolated from the rest of the world. But the sight that followed was even more bizarre.
Slither—
The pools of blood forming around the dead Undertakers began to crawl and gather toward Ray Shan.
Instantly, the blood thinned into thread-like strands, tangling together like snakes to form chains that lunged at her. They wrapped around her ankles and climbed up, tracing the contours of her body.
"W-what is this?!"
Caught completely off guard, she screamed, her face rapidly filling with shock and terror.
Ray Shan tried to slash the bloody chains with her bowie knives, but the speed at which they invaded her body was faster than her blades.
"I-I don't want to die!"
Ray Shan let out a tearful shriek.
But in an instant, as if the thread of reason she had been barely holding onto had snapped, a cloudy film covered her eyes. Her limbs went completely limp.
As the light of life faded from her pupils, her eyelids closed on their own. Ray Shan's entire body was now thickly coated in blood.
Soon, as Ray Shan's body floated up into the air, dark clouds gathered in the once-blue sky, and the birds that had been chirping and flying above plummeted to the ground all at once.
KRA-BOOM—!
The power of defying heaven blanketed the sky, and the death rattles of failing lives erupted from all directions.
A scene of utter devastation, as if a literal calamity had descended, was unfolding right before my eyes.
* * *
Early that morning, Sword Emperor Siegfried was leisurely enjoying some fishing.
It was a small hobby he had enjoyed ever since white frost had begun to settle on his hair.
Only upon reaching the twilight of a life spent running without rest until seventy did he realize that the subtleties of fishing and swordsmanship were remarkably similar.
Sharpening the senses at one's fingertips and quietly waiting for something to bite the bait. It was just like meditating cross-legged with a sword in hand.
The gentle sound of the babbling brook reached the Sword Emperor's sharp ears, and the flow of the wind brushed coldly against his wrinkled cheeks.
'Go make sure nothing happens to the cadets. If you get bored, you can go fishing or something.'
The face of Medea, who had spoken while rustling through a mountain of paperwork, came to mind.
Although he had been sent to the island as a security measure, learning from the lessons of the midterm exam, the Sword Emperor was simply enjoying the leisurely atmosphere.
Moreover, since the location was Avalon, a profound elegance hung in the air. Upon the rippling surface of the water, the reflection of Yggdrasil showed off its majestic grandeur.
"Not bad for a patrol trip."
The Sword Emperor hummed softly, staring quietly at the bobber.
His thoughts drifted. As the saying goes about fishing for time, fishing was a battle against oneself. If one got swept up by the slightest movement and yanked the rod too early, they would never catch a big fish.
When about five minutes had passed like that, the Sword Emperor furrowed his brow.
"...They aren't biting at all today."
Usually, he would get a bite within a minute or two, but there was absolutely no action. The Sword Emperor examined the bobber from different angles, then glared at the fishing rod with a look of disapproval.
"Not worth the expensive price tag."
At that moment, the eerie cries of birds echoed from the sky. An ominous, dark inkiness gradually began to shroud the once-blue landscape.
As the Sword Emperor instinctively looked up at them, he felt a bleak, chilling energy faintly rushing in from the left.
At the same time, goosebumps broke out all over his body, making his hair stand on end.
Ripples spread across the once-calm water like a failing heartbeat, and the surrounding mountain birds fluttered their wings, hastily fleeing the area.
The Sword Emperor focused his vision to trace the source of the ominous energy. It surged from the left, brushing past his side.
"Could this be...!"
This ominous current was something engraved into the Sword Emperor's aging yet robust body. A resonance of magic power.
What on earth was happening over there? Avalon was supposed to be a place where magical beasts and demons could not set foot, protected by the holy power of Yggdrasil.
Yet, what his instincts were continuously detecting was, without a doubt, magic power.
And it wasn't just ordinary magic power, but a violent, surging wave that far exceeded any normal limits.
The sinister sensation licking across his entire body pricked his skin like thorns.
Not only that, but even the beautiful scenery was losing its color, withered by the searing wind of magic power, while wild animals collapsed, foaming at the mouth as they let out shriek-like cries.
"A demon capable of unleashing magic power of this caliber is..."
The Sword Emperor touched his wrinkled lips, then stood up. A sense of anxiety, as if his heart might stop, washed over him.
But soon, he tossed aside the fishing rod he was holding, gripped the hilt of the sword at his waist, and dashed forward.