Rusty Golden Pegasus (4): Flower of the Shinigami Race. Death Verdict.
The flower of the Shinigami race. The Death Verdict. Alpha and omega of black magic. Scribe's authority of the great stone slate. All that pompous bullshit.
I'd just tested it out and realized the truth.
Instant-kill skills didn't deserve any of that flashy embellishment.
It was all too insignificant.
Because death and humanity were fused from the very start.
The boundary between them was just a flimsy sand wall.
Remove a single grain of sand, and it all came flooding out like a burst dam.
Krraaack!
The Siamese twin of birth manifested.
From the spot where the male swordsman's umbilical cord had been attached, clusters of white somethings erupted in a mass.
Bunches of bony hands.
The hands of death's midwives, reaching out to receive the corpse.
They engulfed the man's entire body.
Snap! Snap! Snap!
It happened in an instant.
As if those hands had been lurking there since the moment this male swordsman was born.
As if they'd been waiting for a chance just like this.
Once the momentum kicked in, there was nothing left for me to do.
Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap!
Ankle. Leg. Waist. Chest. Shoulder. Arm. Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap!
The bony grips seized everywhere except one spot.
His head.
With the only part still allowed to move—his face—he twisted it into a mask of utter despair.
"Y-you... were... n-number... one..."
Right then, the hundreds of hands clutching his torso yanked him down toward the ground.
Crunch, crrrack!
"Aaaaagggghhhh!!!"
The bony hands sank into the floor below, but the man's body couldn't follow.
Groooaaarrrk!
Unable to withstand the friction against the floor, everything snapped.
Muscles tore, vertebrae dislocated. And finally...
The man's torso was completely shredded away.
In the middle of the blood puddle lay his head alone, abandoned.
Blood clotted in his golden hair like rust on scrap metal.
The final cluster of bony hands enveloped the head, squeezing until its shape vanished entirely...
Pop!
They vanished in a flash.
Thud. Roll roll roll.
Only the skull dropped to the floor and tumbled.
As above, so below.
It was the very first part of a human to emerge from its mother's womb into the world.
And now that skull slowly sank through the marble floor like a swamp, descending below.
Thud.
I could've sworn I heard it hit.
I'd figured out the true nature of the bone-white plain in the Shinigami Realm.
"Ah."
I stared blankly at the whole scene, realization dawning.
Death's midwives. Those hands weren't just waiting for that man.
They were under my feet, too. Inside my shadow.
Those horrific talons were always watching for a chance to drag me down.
A single lapse in vigilance. A foolish moment of mercy. One split-second misjudgment.
Any mistake, and they'd seize my ankle, hurling me into the bone-white plain.
I hadn't even exchanged a single blow with the male swordsman.
I hadn't arrogantly tested his skill to gauge it.
My instinct told me that had been the deciding factor in victory or defeat.
The law of survival was simple.
Kill, or be killed.
Death Verdict - Gaze cooldown applied.
Remaining cooldown: 7 years 6 months
A cooldown of 7 years and 6 months.
Ridiculously long.
'It shortens with more MAG, right...'
As I caught my breath with that thought, a massive burst of light erupted from the man's corpse and poured into my body.
Massive EXP acquired!
An insane amount of EXP. It felt like the female mage's EXP from when I'd gutted her earlier was being tallied all at once.
Eleven levels in one go, straight to 71. That left me with 33 stat points piled up.
At the same time, my earring flashed bright blue. A particularly intense glow.
Two kills, and the charge had jumped by 6.
"Hoo..."
I lowered my tensed shoulders and scanned the surroundings.
But the situation wasn't over yet.
"One more left."
The woman who'd lost an arm and half her body to my scythe at the very start, who'd passed out. She lay collapsed in the blood puddle.
Combat incapacitated. If I just made sure to cut off her last breath, this nauseating first battle would be truly done.
I readjusted my grip on the scythe and approached her blood-soaked form.
But the moment I took two steps...
Flash!
The unconscious woman snapped her eyes open.
"...!"
I tensed and spread black mist in defense.
Hummm—
I used Black Shift to pull back and create distance.
But the woman barely moved. She just mumbled softly with her lips.
"P-please... s-spare me..."
She crawled across the floor with her remaining arm, trembling violently.
Begging for her life, it seemed. Though to my ears, it was just a grotesque metallic rasp.
"..."
I watched the pathetic sight in a daze. With a bitter expression, I gripped the scythe again.
I advanced slowly.
"Sorry."
I couldn't even bow my head.
Not out of shame.
I had to keep eyes on her next move.
As I closed in, she went into full panic, frantically trying something with her remaining hand.
Fwaaah!
Green light poured from her wounds.
Healing magic, probably.
Then a golden magical barrier enveloped her entire body. Inside it, she scrambled backward on all fours, flailing toward the stairs to escape.
I cut off her path and raised the scythe high.
Bam!!
It smashed the barrier, sparks flying, but it didn't even scratch.
'Insanely tough...'
She kept casting healing magic inside. If she stemmed the bleeding, she might actually survive.
Obviously, I couldn't let that happen.
Bam! Bam! Clang!
I hammered down repeatedly. But with my current STR stat, it wasn't enough to shatter it.
'What now?'
Death Verdict - Gaze was on cooldown. All that was left was Death Verdict - Slash.
But that seemed to require direct scythe contact with the target—not through a barrier like this.
Maybe not, but now that I knew the cooldown scale, I didn't want to test it.
'Gotta break this thing now...'
If she reached the entrance, I couldn't pursue.
Sending remnants back was the worst outcome.
Couldn't drag this out.
I wasn't even sure I could beat this mage in a straight 1v1 without an instant-kill.
Without that, I was just a mob with high MAG.
'Pump STR?'
It felt like just a bit more power would do it.
33 spare points left. Slash's cooldown scaled with STR, too.
It wouldn't make STR useless.
A few points wouldn't turn me into a jack-of-all-trades mess.
Above all, STR had never betrayed me.
'Alright.'
I opened the hologram status and dumped one of the 33 new points into STR.
STR stat increased by 1.
I swung the scythe immediately.
Bam!
The barrier rippled faintly. The woman's eyes shook as she felt the vibration.
I added another point.
STR stat increased by 1.
Thud!
Still holding strong. I kept at it.
STR stat increased by 1.
Bam!
STR stat increased by 1.
Kraaang!
Her face, desperately maintaining the barrier, grew more despairing with every strike. The scythe's blows grew monstrously stronger. Her sole lifeline cracked and splintered.
STR stat increased by 1.
STR stat increased by 1.
...
STR stat increased by 1.
The moment I invested exactly 11 points into STR, bringing it to 48...
Crack—craaackle!
The barrier hit its limit, showing signs of collapse.
'Stay sharp.'
I tightened my focus. The instant it broke would be when the mage went all-out in a desperate attack.
Shatter!
Right as the barrier crumbled...
Sure enough, she moved her hand for some trick.
I gave her no opening.
"Black Shift."
I teleported behind her in a swirl of black mist.
And sliced her neck in one motion.
Thud. Roll roll roll.
Her body slumped.
EXP acquired.
"Hoo..."
And then a new hologram message appeared, one I'd never seen before.
Intruders repelled successfully.
Demon King's Bounty awarded!
Bounty, huh...
Absurd.
Difficulty calculating...
Calculation complete.
204,500G awarded!
"Two... hundred thousand..."
Two hundred thousand gold in one go.
A fortune that even high-floor dwellers above 800F would need over 20 years to save.
Was the male swordsman worth that much? Or were bounties just that generous?
No way to know, but my worries about funding the next golden carriage were gone.
As I reeled in shock...
Demon King's Bounty Vacation granted!
Guardian duty suspended for 23:59:58!
Better than 200k gold.
The reward I'd wanted most had arrived.
"Bounty vacation..."
Only then did the tension drain away.
I wanted to collapse right there.
But not yet.
"Gotta document the scene."
I pulled up the hologram panel.
Activated the camera and started snapping pics of every corner of the carnage.
Once done, I hit the compose button.
I started writing the post.
Uploaded the photos first.
Then, as I typed the description...
I stopped.
"..."
Describing the scythe swings stirred emotions too profound for words.
No.
Actually, it was simple. The most clichéd feeling in this situation.
Guilt.
"..."
I looked down at my hands. Pale and slender. These hands had spilled guts, severed the neck of a woman begging to live.
I bit my lip hard.
My purpose sharpened.
"Gotta climb higher."
It used to be just for my own survival, but now one more reason.
I didn't want to go through killing someone again.
Being forced into a situation where murder was my best option was horrific.
"Just gotta reach 100F..."
With that resolve, I posted it.
A moment later, I hit refresh.
And then.