Longinus
Behemoth's body was already dead, yet its soul blazed on as if it still had unfinished business.
This soul wishes to fight.
This soul yearns for vengeance.
This soul is parched with thirst for true battle and freedom.
A dragon captured and enslaved by the Advent Church in its youth, used as their tool until the very end. It clung to me desperately, as if closing its eyes now would be an unforgivable injustice — begging to be saved. Begging to be allowed to take its revenge on them with its own hands.
This soul wishes to fight at your side.
Will you 'Save' this soul?
"Yes."
Not the Iron Blood Monarch this time. Clear the path I am going to walk.
"Let's go together."
Salvation
The soul surged violently, whirling as it slowly took shape.
The soul has revived as a spirit!
Please name the spirit.
The name required no deliberation.
"Moss."
"Kyaaaaaaaaah!"
Moss spread his wings and hurled himself at the Avatar. But it didn't stop — its jaws split wide, and it spat out a breath of its own.
Holy Breath
A resplendent breath of light. It came surging down, bent on erasing everything upon the earth.
"Danger—!"
"Don't move. If you step in for no reason and get caught up in it, it'll be worse."
"Huh...?"
I held Baek Seo-ha back as she moved to intervene, then signaled to Moss.
"A breath should be answered with a breath, don't you think?"
Suaaaaaaah!
Violet energy coiled around Moss's body, unleashing a terrifying vibration. Dragon mana gathered rapidly to a single point, compressing.
"Krrgh!"
At last, Moss's jaws gaped wide and he poured out that power.
Dragon Breath
The dragon's breath fired toward the object of its vengeance.
BOOOOOM!
The two breaths collided in midair, erupting in a colossal explosion. The shockwave threatened to fling me away if I didn't lock every muscle in place.
"Rir!"
At my call, Rir sprang out of my shadow.
"Take care of the others. Get them somewhere safe."
"Woof!"
Rir nodded and let Baek Seo-ha climb onto his back.
"Kyaaah?!"
Then he gathered up the collapsed Shin Min-woo and Ah Seo-ah, and even Ayase, before retreating out of the attack radius alongside Shin Yeon-hee. That took care of worrying about the other guild members getting caught in the crossfire.
"...Now let's really finish this."
The blast's aftermath faded slowly, and my vision sharpened. The Avatar loomed overhead, silhouetted against a clear sky and a blazing sun as it gazed down on this place.
"Grrrrr..."
And I gazed up at it.
"First, let's get our eyes on the same level."
I leapt from my perch and landed on Moss's back. In an instant, he shot into the sky.
WHOOOOSH!
Riding the crisp rush of wind, we reached the upper heavens in no time.
I was sick of being the one looking up.
Finally, my mood was a little less foul.
"Let's go, Moss."
"Kyaaak!"
The demon dragon's roar thundered ferociously across the sky.
"Ahh..."
Her flickering, blinking consciousness finally knit itself whole. Her vision, however, remained blurred.
What happened?
Her memory grew hazy after the last moment — after she'd seen Yamamoto hurl his spear at the dragon. Ayase somehow dragged her leaden body upright.
"...You shouldn't get up yet."
A foreign voice drifted over from nearby.
This is... Korean?
She knew a little Korean. Korea had the second-largest fanbase after Japan, and she'd studied a bit out of personal interest.
"You... who are you...?"
"A hunter from Korea. And a guildmate of Lee Tae-hyun."
"Lee Tae-hyun...?"
Why that name, of all things, out of nowhere? Ayase forced down her confusion and spoke.
"The dragon... what happened to it...?"
"Regrettably, it hasn't been subjugated yet."
"Ah...!"
Not subjugated. So the two of them — herself and Yamamoto — hadn't been enough after all. Helplessness settled onto her shoulders like a stone.
"By the way."
The Korean hunter, Baek Seo-ha, studied Ayase's condition.
"You can't see, can you?"
For a while now, her gaze had been drifting somewhere off-target. Ayase, catching the gist, nodded stiffly.
"Yes... it's been blurry for a while now..."
"......"
Without a word, Baek Seo-ha drew a potion from her coat. The emergency potion every hunter carried.
Truthfully, she owed Ayase no such kindness. But —
If something happens to this woman, Tae-hyun will grieve.
It was an act only possible because the darkness in Baek Seo-ha had lifted.
Pop!
She popped the cap and poured it into Ayase's eyes. For external wounds, dousing them directly worked faster and more reliably than drinking it.
"...Oh."
The mutated mana spreading through her eyes subsided slightly, and her vision returned, if only for a time. Only then, finally seeing her benefactor's face, Ayase bowed her head.
"Th... thank you..."
"...Don't mention it. I'm not the one who saved you."
Baek Seo-ha exhaled a faint sigh.
"If you want to thank someone, thank our guild leader."
"The guild leader...?"
Just then, her restored vision drank in the distant landscape.
BOOM! WHUMP!
Two dragons clashed and tangled in the open sky, locked in ferocious combat. And riding on the back of the smaller dragon, fighting alongside it—
"Mr. Yamamoto...?"
Yamamoto.
"Don't tell me... by guild leader, you meant Mr. Yamamoto?"
"Yamamoto?"
Baek Seo-ha frowned in disbelief and tilted her head.
"Who's that supposed to be?"
"That man..."
"That person is Tae-hyun."
Ayase's mind went blank.
Lee Tae-hyun?
Then there had never been a Yamamoto at all. It had been Lee Tae-hyun, from start to finish—
KRA-KOOM!
At that moment, the two dragons rammed horns, sending a massive tremor rolling through the air. Her drained legs could barely keep her standing.
"Hah...!"
Ayase barely steadied herself, eyes never leaving the sky. He had surely pushed himself harder than she had, and yet he fought on without rest — Yamamoto.
No. Lee Tae-hyun.
KRRRAAAARGH—!
The dragon he rode howled, tearing into its opponent. Tae-hyun followed up, wreathing flame and wind around himself to strike.
"Who... are you...?"
For what was he fighting this desperately? Honor, reward, standing — he'd cast them all aside. How could anyone burn so ferociously?
"......!"
Then, suddenly, a voice from a long-buried memory drifted through her mind.
'Isn't it beautiful? Becoming someone who protects the whole world!'
She hadn't understood those words back then. No — she hadn't tried to understand. She'd dismissed them as just another person's idle dream. The Ayase of those days had things that mattered far more to her.
'Wow...!'
Sparkling eyes. A gaze of admiration, as if beholding an unreachable star.
'What do you see, that you make such an expression? Is that place truly worth those eyes of yours?'
Only that had ever puzzled her.
And now, she understood.
"Ah...!"
So this was what it meant to see something shine.
Ayase's lips parted into a small round shape as she looked up at Tae-hyun. A man burning everything he had for no external reward whatsoever — purely to protect.
'I am Yamamoto.'
A man who veiled himself behind a curtain, facing them all alone. Her heart convulsed wildly. Goosebumps raced down her spine, and overwhelming emotions swelled her chest until it ached.
At last, all of her thoughts converged on a single point.
'I want to become someone like him.'
Ayase pressed her lips tight and drew in a breath.
"So this... was the scenery you were looking at."
I finally understand you.
Her body trembled.
And then—
Step.
She put one heavy foot forward.
Seeing this, Baek Seo-ha seized her by the shoulders and stopped her.
"Are you insane? If you go out there now, you'll die."
"...But."
"In that state you'd be nothing but a hindrance — you couldn't help him if you tried."
Ayase knew her own condition all too well. Forget fighting — even ordinary life would be a struggle from here. She would die soon. She was certain of it.
"No... I won't."
Ayase gently pulled her hand away.
"I still... have one means left to help..."
If she could aid the man who had shown her this sight, this feeling, at the very last — she would trade this guttering life for it a hundred times over.
"Please... carry me close to him... that's all I need..."
Baek Seo-ha closed her eyes in silence. After a brief deliberation—
"...All right."
She granted the request. If it helped Tae-hyun, it was good for her too.
"Watch the kids."
"Woof woof!"
Leaving the remaining guild members to Rir, Baek Seo-ha hoisted Ayase onto her back.
"I can't last long either, so we finish this fast."
"...Yes!"
Ta-dad!
Baek Seo-ha kicked off the ground. In the same breath, Ayase clasped her hands tightly together and set a prayer upon her lips.
"O spear that pierced God, executioner of the divine. O thou who wert as a milestone, piercing the holy and sundering life from death..."
Mana churned, beginning to shape something.
"Grant us, we pray, that power... kehk!"
Blood gushed from Ayase's mouth mid-prayer. But she did not stop.
"...Bestow your strength, that we may partake of a divinity to cast down the divine!"
The mutated mana flooding her whole body pulsed and throbbed. Dizziness crashed through her skull — pain so violent it felt she might black out at any moment.
Even so, she did not stop.
'Even if my breath stops right here!'
If only for a moment — if she could stand beside that radiant person, she would gladly lose everything she had.
"Longinus!"
A spear of deep gold came into being before her.
"Tae-hyun, sir!"
Ayase screamed with the last of her strength.
"A... Ayase?"
Hearing her voice, Tae-hyun looked down. There she was, carried on Baek Seo-ha's back, clutching the golden spear.
"Catch it!"
As she stretched out her hand, the golden spear shot through the heavens in a streak, hurtling toward him. Tae-hyun caught it on reflex.
"This spear...!"
He could feel it — the overwhelming divinity flowing from within it. This was the fruit of the divine-art summoning Ayase had staged at the end of her life.
GRIP!
Tae-hyun's fingers tightened around the haft as he drew a slow breath.
If this was her choice — then at the very least, I'll make sure she has no regrets.
"Moss!"
"Kyraaaaaah—!"
At his command, Moss flung himself at the Avatar, and the melee began. But before that—
Tae-hyun leapt higher still, preparing his final technique.
Dragon Breath
Meager and faint compared to every breath unleashed so far — but for the first time, true violet dragon mana seeped into him.
Into this dragon mana.
He wove the mana he had reserved, interlacing it thread by thread.
"Nameless Spear Art!"
Crrzzzzzt!
The image of a Yaksha rose behind him as crimson currents gathered at the spear's tip.
Dragon mana, and the Nameless Spear Art.
He set these forces spinning, forging a spear of spiraling death.
"Spear God's Wild Dance—"
The third dance of that art.
"Pinnacle Dance of Primordial Chaos!"
Two colossal forces revolved around the god-slaying spear, Longinus.
"Hold on tight, Moss!"
This was the final means of piercing Behemoth's shell. Tae-hyun squeezed out every ounce of his strength and drove the spiraling spear into the Avatar.
KU-KAKAKAKAKA!
The adamantine shell ground away in an instant. Without pausing, he thrust harder, fiercer, deeper.
"JUST DIE ALREEEADYYYY!!"
The spiral widened, scouring away the Avatar's entire body.
"Keaaargh! No! Kraaah! The Avatar! Behemoth! My soul! Kaga-gak!"
Elpiros's voice bled through the cracks in the creature's screams. Destroy this thing, and her soul would be damaged too.
So please — just end already.
"DIIIIIIIE!"
CRUNCH-KRRRK!
The spiraling spear carved through the torso, then the heart, one after the other. And then the halo shattered into fragments, and a horrific shriek split the sky.
KYAAAAAAAARGH!
The dying howl of the soul fragment Elpiros had implanted in the Avatar — a final, single discharge.
You have slain the Cardinal's Avatar!
You have gained 3,000 Exp.
Existing rewards will be enhanced.
You have achieved victory over a Monarch's Servant!
The grade of your soul rises.
Your probability of becoming a Transcender of Your Kind has increased.
Your existence has been etched more deeply into the higher dimensions.
Hidden achievement 'First Limit Reached' cleared!
Your growth accelerates.
The 'Limit Break Program' smiles slyly in secret.
Spent and lifeless, the Avatar crumpled toward the earth. Mercifully, there was no second resurrection.