Achievement (3)
The aura I felt was nothing like when Thirst had activated.
Before, it had been insanely aggressive, trying to seize my body for itself.
Now it was incredibly docile—almost as if it were trying to protect me instead...
I could sense a subtle, tangled mix of emotions.
On top of that, my mind, which should have grown hazy, was instead crystal clear, and my head, which should have been flooding with urges for self-harm and destruction, had cooled and settled into icy calm.
And.
The strangest thing of all...
"...Why the hell did you turn into a bitch...?"
A tail had grown.
The same kind of tail Carpeng had once swung like a flail.
A tail that was wagging furiously, as if it were in an excellent mood.
"You were muttering something about a collar earlier... so you decided to become Rubia's personal bitch?"
Ah, a bitch?! W-what nonsense is that...!
I shook my head hard, driving out the sly laughter echoing through my mind.
Anyway, for the moment it didn't seem like it would harm my body.
Of course, that didn't mean I trusted Carpeng.
When it had been nothing more than a fragment—without an ego, and somewhat under my control—I hadn't thought much of it.
But now that it had an ego of its own... it felt even more unsettling.
Swish— swish—
"Hey, why's the tail curling up all of a sudden?"
...For now.
This wasn't the time to be picky about cold rice or hot.
I set my thoughts aside and focused every nerve on the opponent in front of me.
He seemed to have finished some measure of recovery as well; the amount of dripping blood had lessened.
Arrows that leapt across space, and a greatsword swung out of rhythm.
Arrows already loosed and a greatsword already in motion could not be dodged. I had to answer the instant they showed the first sign of attack.
So.
Just... let the situation sort itself out and act on its own.
Swish— swish—
...As if agreeing with my plan, the writhing blood aura grew denser still and began to pulse.
The other variable was if the opponent entered a second phase.
I had never seen these guys in the game, so there was no way to predict what would happen.
It would almost certainly be tied to their Unique Abilities.
Time and space...
If it looked like they were about to enter phase two, I had to kill at least one of them somehow.
And force a one-on-one.
"Haa— huu—"
My breathing was clear, my body light.
The waist that supported me was firm; the leg that stepped forward was straight and true.
The arm that gripped the greatsword was flexible, the hand unyielding.
I can do this.
I can win.
I.
Will absolutely win.
I narrowed the Qi Sensing that had been painting my surroundings and focused it entirely on them.
The skin.
The muscle beneath the skin.
The strands of fiber woven through it.
The pounding heart.
The blood that surged from that heart and raced through the vessels.
The mana gathered in the heart, and the rank that belonged to them.
Everything was drawn with perfect, merciless clarity.
The bowstring drew taut. Mana writhed; the man's rank surged and soaked into the arrow.
Mana filled the greatsword raised beside his head, and a dense veil of rank settled over his body.
I answered in kind, raising my own rank and driving a true step into the earth.
Kwaddeuk—!
The ground beneath my foot cratered. My rank loaded into the greatsword trailing behind me. Between its edges, Carpeng's blood aura nested.
From foot to knee, knee to pelvis, pelvis to waist.
Along the waist to the shoulder. Down from the shoulder to the elbow.
I gathered every scrap of rank that had wrapped my body into the greatsword.
Imbuing it with the image of cutting.
And swung.
Seogeok—!
At the same instant the blade moved, I heard something being severed. Immediately I kicked off and charged.
One step—an arrow nocked on the bowstring.
Two steps—the man with the greatsword rushed me.
Three steps—the bowstring drawn to its limit snapped, and dozens of arrows poured forth.
Four steps—the greatsword swung from afar was already above my crown.
Five steps.
I laid the greatsword sideways and swatted the dozens of arrows charging at me in a single sweep. The two aimed at my thighs lost all force, blocked by the blood-aura tail.
At the same moment Carpeng's blood aura forcibly lifted my arm and made me parry the greatsword that had been swung two beats faster.
"What!"
Because it had not been my own strength that turned the blade aside, power remained in my body. I immediately raised my leg and kicked the man square in the abdomen.
Ppuddeuk— Mana condensed to its absolute limit blocked my foot. In that instant Carpeng's blood aura surged upward, piercing through his abdomen and boring deep.
"Keueup—!"
I planted the greatsword in the ground and leapt, kicking away with my free foot the man's wrist as it reached for my ankle.
Then I tore the greatsword free, spun my body once in midair—spin—and swung it into the gap the blood aura had torn through his mana.
Puhwaak—!
The blood aura, denser and harder than before, answered the greatsword's motion and ripped open the man's abdomen in exactly the same way.
And again, after kicking his body away to shake him off—
I charged the one still loosing arrows.
I swatted the arrows falling from the sky. Those rising from the ground were stopped by the blood aura. I slipped past the arrow that appeared instantly before my brow, snatched the one shot from behind with my bare hand, and ran on.
Swaeaek—!
Arrows linked by threads of mana shot skyward. The staggering shafts then all dropped toward me at once. Their paths twisted and scattered, tracking every one of my movements.
Four steps remaining.
At the same time the man's hand rose.
Looks like he meant to fire a rope again and open distance.
With leg strength boosted by blood aura I leapt from the spot and hurled the arrow in my hand.
Kwajijik—!
The tree the rope had wrapped exploded, and the man's body plummeted to the earth. Clicking his tongue, he severed the mana threads on the remaining arrows and poured everything into a single shaft.
Kwagwagwang—!
A blind arrow slammed into the ground, carving a massive crater that blocked my path.
At the same moment an arrow still linked by a mana thread twisted its course backward and flew. The man's body rode that shaft and opened the distance once more.
"Fighting like a complete fucking asshole, that son of a bitch."
I vaulted the crater, dodging the falling arrows, and charged him again.
In that instant—
Tuk— tuk— A greatsword swung on a broken trajectory came for my nape. The blood aura reacted at once, wrapping my entire body and forcibly twisting me around.
The blade that had been aimed at my nape now charged straight for my face.
Reflexively I twisted my greatsword upward. The flowing-water technique, attempted from an unstable stance, completed perfectly.
Kkaang—!
A bright, ringing note sounded as the man's greatsword soared into the sky. The bursting wave shot upward and split the clouds. From his hand, his arm, his shoulder, his waist—blood gushed and sprayed in every direction.
The blood aura shuddered and greedily devoured every droplet that burst free, swelling its mass.
At the same time it healed the wounds on my body.
The unstable posture settled.
Strength returned to the body where power had been scattered.
In that state—
Exactly as the movement I had drawn in my mind—
With the blood aura's help, I slammed the greatsword down.
Kwagagak—!
It sheared through the rank wrapping the man's body and drove deep between muscles condensed to their absolute limit.
The blood aura surging along the greatsword plunged into him and tore.
From the wound, as if raked by a beast's claws, thick blood welled up. The instant it rose it was swallowed whole by the writhing aura.
Even larger now, the blood aura condensed and gathered upon the greatsword.
And again—
An arrow loosed at some unknown moment charged for my heart. I gritted my teeth—ppudeuk—and laid the greatsword sideways, barely managing to block it.
The recoil flung my body backward; I tumbled across the ground.
I was on my feet at once and charging again.
Kwang— kwaang—! Kaang—
Every time our greatswords met, a sonic boom that shook the earth erupted.
The following wind pressure shattered trees and tore rocks apart.
When the blades rose to the sky, clouds split; when they fell to the earth, the ground itself cracked open.
Then dozens of arrows came for me.
Even loosed together, the moments they reached me were all different.
I bounced them, twisted them, snatched them, cut them, dodged them.
At the same time I turned the sword aside, deflected, parried, and slammed down.
The ground collapsed. The once-sloped floor gradually flattened. The mountain, long hidden behind countless trees, bared its face, and not a single cloud remained in the sky.
As hundreds of exchanges continued like that—
Peobeobeong—!
The exploding arrow that had flown at the very beginning burst in midair.
The blast shoved my body backward, opening distance between me and the man.
At the same moment—
The staggering man drove his greatsword into the earth.
"I, Galrua Orphe,"
And—
In a voice cracked and split like an ancient tree, he prayed.
"Uphold the nobility of the Goddess, and am the one who eradicates the defiled laws."
The planted greatsword extended toward the man's—Galrua's—heart and pierced it through.
"My remaining life"
The sky split.
It twisted as it split, and shattered.
The sun revealed itself.
An eyeball in the shape of the sun.
The eyeball of a being that looked down upon the world with contempt.
"Is all for Erden."
It bent, and dyed itself black.
The Black Sun revealed itself.
An endless presence pressed down upon my body.
A sneering laugh mixed with mockery rang across the heavens.
Galrua's rank overlaid the world.
His image dyed everything.
The scenery distorted.
Thoughts slowed.
Time stretched.
My body grew heavy.
"I'll hold on as much as I can so you don't collapse. Finish it in a blitz."
Hearing Cartia's subdued voice—
I undid the Bracelet of Verdure.
From my wrist as the origin, rank that seemed ready to burst my body at any moment exploded outward.
Galrua's rank, which had felt indescribably heavy, was suddenly placed beneath my two feet.
The sky that had seemed forever unreachable felt close enough to touch.
The stretched thoughts, the body, the time—all of it returned.
Fierce anger nested inside that sneering laugh.
The image contained within Frey overlaid the world.
Behind the stretched world, a wilderness of mountains of corpses and seas of blood wavered into being.
The remnants of Hypocrisy rang out as the wails of ghosts.
Indescribably dark, dense emotions
Rummaged through my mind and kneaded it without mercy.
"Haa..."
I steadied my breath and gripped Frey.
The blood aura answered and braced my body.
I felt a fist-sized hole punched through space.
Through that gap the charging arrows were drawn with perfect clarity.
I felt Galrua's body—every wound erased as time rewound.
The greatsword swung while twisting the axis of time itself was drawn just as clearly.
"Thirty seconds."
I snatched the charging arrow and hurled it back into the hole.
Swinging Frey against the greatsword that came at a speed that defied all reason, I answered Cartia's words.
"...Fifteen seconds. No... twenty... twenty-five seconds."
Galrua's both arms were severed.