The First Salvation

It began with a bang.

Karma Flame surged upward, and in moments three spears had taken shape. My first targets were the ones hanging back in the rear.

Aim for the ones holding the staff and the bow.

And with that, I launched them.

Whuuuung! KWA-BOOM!

Where the spears tore through, the ground erupted, cleanly flattening the masked figures there.

"Wh-who the hell are you?!"

"What's this bastard doing?!"

The attention that had been fixed entirely on the Fenrir swung toward me in an instant.

"Hello there, everyone."

Waving a casual hand at them, I pulled a spear from my subspace.

The luminous, ivory-colored shaft settled perfectly into my grip.

"Who are you? How did you even find this place?!"

"Don't tell me... were you sent from 'the other side'?"

The masked figures panicked and readied for battle.

"Just take him down!"

Sword-wielders charged at me from all directions at once. At the same moment, arrows came flying through the gaps between them.

So they've had professional training.

They clearly weren't some ragtag pack of common crooks. Well, they were poachers after a divine beast.

Tseuzeujeuk...!

My spearwork unfolded in a blur.

Nameless Spear Technique — Roaring Flame.

I cut down everything in a full sweep, reaping lives in a single stroke while batting every arrow out of the air.

Judging by the arrows' trajectories...

I turned my gaze toward the direction of the hidden archer.

"So it's over there."

KWA-GWANG!

I fired a Flame Soul Spear straight into him and burned the archer where he stood.

"You insane—!"

"You're going to set the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠whole forest on fire?!"

"Ah, that doesn't really matter."

I reached my hand out toward the burning ground. Flame Domination. The instant I closed my fist, the inferno that had seemed ready to swallow the world was snuffed out all at once. Flame Domination, remarkably, could extinguish flames just as freely as it commanded them.

"Wh-what the hell ARE you?!"

"I never dreamed a monster like this would be hiding out here...!"

The ones who had watched several comrades die in a matter of seconds shook where they stood.

"Damn it all!"

A few of them turned tail and bolted.

"Grrrrr!"

At that moment, the Fenrir released its mana and sent blades of wind scything outward.

Shwwk!

"GAAAHK!"

They collapsed where they ran, the tendons of their ankles severed clean through.

"Appreciate it."

The objective was to take down every last one of them. Let even a single one slip away, and I might lose out on my reward.

"Let's see... one talking mouth should be plenty, right?"

I subdued everyone except the ones whose tendons I'd already cut.

"Kgh!"

After dropping the very last of them, I walked over to the one crawling away on his elbows.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"H-hiiik!"

The look on his face was like a man staring down the Grim Reaper himself. Honestly, every single one of those masked fools was still breathing — I'd only knocked them out. Killing them would've just made more of a hassle for nothing.

"Who are you people?"

"N-nothing! We're nobody! We just figured catching a wolf and selling it would make us money, that's all!"

"Ah, so you captured a divine beast for money. Is that it?"

"That's right!"

"I see."

CRACK!

"GYAAAAAAAH!"

When I snapped the bone in his arm, his face twisted and he howled.

"Seems I looked a little too easy to you. Lying straight to my face."

"Ghhhh...!"

"Next it's the left arm. Talk while you still can."

People like this rarely tell the truth from the start. And besides, the lie had been so transparent it had actually stung my pride a little.

"You claim you were going to sell it — and then you babble about how you don't care if you die?"

"...!"

"I'll say it once more. What are you?"

The breathing behind the mask turned ragged. And still, his mouth stayed shut.

"Can't be helped, then."

The moment I steeled myself to sever his left arm—

"The prince!"

"The prince?"

"One of the 'Great Two Princes' ordered it! We don't even know which of the two! They're keeping it completely hidden on their end, I swear! It's the truth!"

The Great Two Princes.

Words that sounded like they carried real weight.

"Why would a prince need a divine beast?"

"P-probably... because they want to get stronger. If you eat a divine beast's inner core, you grow stronger, right?!"

...That checked out.

The body of a creature blessed with spiritual power was, in itself, a precious elixir. The Heavenly Dragon Pill I'd consumed was made from a dragon's horn, after all.

An inner core is the very root of a creature's essence.

A divine beast's core would surely hold an immense amount of condensed power.

"But that Fenrir is still a cub. The core of an unripened divine beast shouldn't help much."

"Th-there's a coronation coming soon. They must be rushing to build up their strength before then...?"

Two princes, a coronation, and a need to amass power quickly.

So the two princes are competing for the throne.

For now, it felt like I'd gotten hold of the main thread.

"I swear that's really everything I know!"

"Okay, okay, I got it."

"Then ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠you'll let me g— kak!"

I cracked him across the head and knocked him out.

"I'll leave these bastards here and have the academy guards deal with them later."

I turned my head toward the Fenrir lying collapsed on the ground.

"Hehh... hek..."

Its breathing was terribly labored. Blood was already pouring freely from its nose and eyes.

"Not a good end for a divine beast."

Divine beasts lived for thousands of years, accumulating their inner power across the ages. But this one looked to be no more than a few years old at most.

Of all eras, it had to be born into a filthy one like this.

It would never live out its natural span. It would return to the earth far too soon.

I gently stroked the bridge of its nose.

"Hah... hah..."

It seemed to like the touch; its head twitched weakly toward my hand. Then, before long, the strength drained from its body entirely, and it went still.

"...Rest well, wherever you go."

A bitter taste lingered in my mouth. I was just thinking that I should at least bury the body somewhere warm and sunny—

FAHT!

Azure light began to bloom over the Fenrir's corpse.

"What is this...?!"

There was no mistaking it. My class skill, Salvation. The skill was resonating with this divine beast's soul.

"...You really want to follow me?"

[The soul affirms.]

"You could just rest easy, right here. If you follow me, it's going to be brutally hard."

[The soul does not bend its will.]

"You might end up fighting enemies stronger than anything you can imagine. Even so?"

[The soul insists it wishes to remain by your side, to the very end.]

I hesitated.

Was I disturbing this child's rest? Robbing it of a hard-won peace?

But...

[The soul brims over with anticipation.]

This child wanted it, with everything it had.

"Then... all right."

"Let's go together."

A name, huh.

I didn't agonize over it for long.

"Rir."

[The Spirit Body 'Rir' manifests!]

FWAAAAAH!

The light gathered toward a single point, slowly taking shape. And at last, what emerged was a wolf identical to the one it had been in life — only its entire body was a translucent, spectral form.

"Woof!"

Revived as a spirit, Rir licked my face with an enormous tongue. Soft, a little rough to the touch. Thankfully, no drool.

Rir had two skills in total.

"Rir, can you try using both of them?"

"Woof woof!"

Rir planted itself in front of me with a flourish.

A gust gathered before Rir.

Shwoong! Skaaak!

The keen wind sheared clean through a thick branch of a nearby tree — the same technique that had severed the poachers' ankles.

"Now try Soul Sprint."

"Woof!"

This time Rir stood before a boulder of a decent size, kicked at the ground with its forepaws, and settled into a stance.

It passed straight through the boulder and came out the other side.

"Oh. That's impressive."

"Woof woof!"

Rir came bounding over, tail whipping back and forth. As I ruffled its head, I turned the two skills over in my mind.

Blades of Wind is a bit awkward for me to use.

Decent power, and a ranged attack besides — but I had far better options. Still, one thing was a genuine relief: Rir had a level too.

When the level rises, new skills might appear, or the existing ones could grow stronger.

Rir's soul belonged to a divine beast — a Fenrir. It might not match the one that had appeared in that S-rank gate, but it held more than enough terrifying potential.

And that's not all.

Rir's second skill, Soul Sprint, looked genuinely useful.

"Shall I give it a try?"

"Woof?"

I stood in front of the very boulder Rir had just passed through. I rapped it with my knuckles — quite thick, and quite hard.

"Whew."

I drew in a deep breath, and then—

I activated Resonance.

Suuuuuuh!

In an instant my body turned translucent, and I slipped straight through the boulder, crossing to the other side in a single motion.

"...So that actually works."

"Woof?!"

This skill... might be even more broken than I imagined.

Rir could hide itself by slipping into my shadow. It seemed that any spirit bodies I created through Salvation in the future would be able to reside there as well.

"Yoo Ji-an is going to lose her mind when she finds out about this."

In many ways, a Seeker's spirit bodies outclassed a Summoner's summons. They shared no damage with their master, they could grow, and I could ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠even borrow their skills and use them myself.

The only area where I fall short...

...was taming.

Unlike a summoner, who could call and tame a beast at will, a spirit body could only be born from a soul that genuinely and willingly chose to follow me.

Who knows how many souls like Rir's will ever come to stand beside me of their own accord.

However broken the power might be, I would never come to depend on it absolutely.

"One-two! One-two! One-two..."

That was exactly why I was doing sit-ups right now.

"Hey, what the hell have you actually been out doing?"

"What do you mean."

"Don't play innocent. Because of you, all of Etrun is in an uproar right now!"

I hadn't really done anything. I'd soundly beaten one Royal Class cadet, then caught a gang of suspicious masked thugs loitering near the academy and dumped them on the guards. Truly, a perfectly ordinary student life that strayed not one inch from the norm.

"How does a kid change this much overnight? Maybe I should fall out of a tree myself..."

"If you're going to spout nonsense, at least hold your leg straight."

"That's not the point! You — do you know what's coming to Etrun soon?"

Not interested, was what rose to my throat, but I forced it down.

"The Knights of the White Sun and the Knights of the Black Moon! The knightly orders of the 'Great Two Princes' themselves are coming!"

"......"

"...You have no idea what those two orders are, do you."

"Nope."

"Haah... I truly cannot go on living..."

He rubbed his face dry and began his explanation.

"First off, the Great Two Princes... you probably don't know them, so I'll start there."

Summarizing the lecture that followed: the throne of the current kingdom sat empty, and two princes were locked in a war of nerves over the crown.

The first prince, Theo. The second prince, Leo.

Apparently, each name came from the old tongue, meaning 'first' and 'second' respectively.

"You're telling me they named the princes that carelessly?"

"Well, those aren't their real names."

A king's true name, it was said, was bestowed directly from ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the heavens upon the day of coronation. It was called the Heaven-Bestowed Name, and the moment one destined for the throne received it, power flowed to them through the royal lineage itself.

...Hold on a moment.

A name, passed down to someone else.

Where have I heard that before?

I am Grempel.

I simply... lived and died as Grempel. That name was all I was.

In an instant, a chill crawled up my spine.

How had I forgotten?

Where I had obtained this 'fragment of a world' in the first place.