The Witch of Betrayal
"Ugh."
Sheryl let out a short groan. Her eyes were thick with regret — she had fully intended to leave him behind this time.
"That was a one-sided proposal of yours."
"You should have refused it from the start. You've already been through this once, haven't you?" Raon shrugged with easy composure.
"Ugh!"
Sheryl's face twisted. She seemed to be remembering how she'd failed to stop the arm-wrestling match with Econ and ended up doing the dishes.
"I can tolerate a certain amount of the unexpected. But you take it too far." She sighed and shook her head. "Still, a promise is a promise. I won't tell you to go back. In exchange, you follow my orders without question. There will be no compromise on that."
"Of course."
Raon smiled, the opposite of Sheryl's scowl.
"Where did you learn to compress the Heavy Sword?" Sheryl narrowed her eyes at the tip of the Heavenly Sky Sword.
"Compress the Heavy Sword?"
"The strike that shattered Hwangjangwi's axe a moment ago. You didn't imbue the entire blade — you concentrated the Heavy Sword's force into a single point." She pointed at the axe blade, now broken into fine fragments.
"I copied that guy." Raon pointed a finger at Hwangjangwi, who still lay sprawled on his back, as if it were nothing. "He gathered the Heavy Sword's energy into just one part of the axe, so I figured I could do the same and gave it a try."
"So you tried it, and it worked?"
"Yes."
"That's an insane talent..."
Sheryl's voice trembled faintly. She looked as though she had just witnessed something that should not exist.
"What's so remarkable about that? Were it This King, I would not merely copy a thing after seeing it once — I could display an achievement far greater still." Wrath's face scrunched up, as if the whole affair displeased him.
Is that so.
Raon smiled, pleased. The fact that Wrath would say such a thing at all meant it was quite impressive.
It's not as if this talent is even mine, anyway.
Analyzing an enemy's martial arts was a function of the Ring of Fire, and being able to execute Heavy Sword compression was because he had been continuously practicing the Heavy Sword of late. It was the combined result of luck and effort — not some insane talent.
"Don't go around telling people you learned a martial art that way."
"I only told you because you're the Heavenly Sword Squad Leader."
"Hmph. Flatterer."
Sheryl snorted and turned her back. Despite her words, a small smile seemed to touch her lips.
"Thank you for saving us!"
"We're truly grateful!"
As they prepared to leave again, the martial artists who had survived Hwangjangwi's axe approached and bowed their heads. Judging by the white and brown martial robes they wore, they were warriors of the Bachin and Trian families from Letran.
"Priestess Rozy has been worried about you. Please return to Letran."
"Ah — understood."
"Um..."
The warrior in white nodded, but the one in yellow bit his lip and took a step forward.
"Our family head went after the Saint and still hasn't returned. If you happen to find him..."
"O-our family head went with him as well!"
The two of them each spoke a different family head's name.
"Don't tell me the heads of both the Bachin and Trian families came out here?"
"Yes. They left the city in the hands of their deputies and came to aid the Saint. But we got separated along the way..."
The warriors explained that both family heads had moved to help Pedrick, but after they were scattered, no one had been able to find them.
So that's why the family heads were nowhere to be seen.
He had assumed they had died defending the town, since neither had been visible — but it seemed they had gone after the Saint instead.
That's remarkable.
The family heads had understood that if the Saint died and the Raysin fell into Eden's hands, the entire continent would suffer for it, and they had made the daring decision to pursue Eden. It was not a judgment anyone could make easily, and Raon found himself quietly impressed.
"We're pursuing the Saint as well. If we meet them, we'll tell them to go back." Raon nodded to the two men.
"Thank you!"
"We've delayed long enough. Let's move."
Sheryl didn't wait for a reply. She shot forward like an arrow loosed from a bowstring.
"I hope this ends well..."
Raon murmured the small wish under his breath and followed after her, matching her stride.
As they crossed the plains, corpses came into view here and there. The same uniforms they had seen just moments ago — martial artists of the Bachin and Trian families.
"Those were true martial artists." Sheryl, who had been leading, lowered her eyes as she looked at the bodies. "They knew it was a path to death, and they still went forward to help the Saint. Some would call them fools. I want to pay my respects to their conviction."
"I feel the same." Raon nodded.
Because I'm the same.
Back when he had lived as the assassin Raon, if someone had said they would risk their life for another person, he would have snorted. He would have sneered and called them stupid.
But living as Raon Zieghart, he had received help from so many people. He knew the value of emotion and of the bonds between people, and so he wanted to applaud their courage.
Raon closed his eyes briefly, as if offering a silent prayer for the fallen warriors, then opened them again.
Raon and Sheryl followed the corpses and the traces of battle in pursuit of Pedrick. Living Eden ghosts blocked their path, but they cut them down in a single stroke and pressed on.
"A battle between Masters took place here. They can't have gone far." Sheryl narrowed her eyes at the ground, which was scored as if by spiderwebs. "Judging by the traces, they should be in that forest."
She pointed to a distant wood to the north — a forest so densely packed with trees and undergrowth that even moonlight could barely penetrate it.
"Let's pick up the pace."
"Right."
They were pouring everything into their movement techniques when a sound of breathing came from beside a large boulder — a thin, fading sound, like someone on the verge of death.
Raon changed direction and ran toward the rock. Behind it, a middle-aged man in a white martial robe soaked through with blood lay collapsed. His right arm and left leg had been torn away, as if a beast had fed on them.
He can't be saved.
The ornate white martial robe and the fine sword suggested this was the head of the Bachin family the people they had just rescued had spoken of — but the bleeding was far too severe. There was no hope of survival.
"Are you Demt Bachin, head of the Bachin family?"
"Th-that's right." He nodded with great effort.
"It's no use. Even if we spent the time, we couldn't save him."
Sheryl turned her head, as if there was nothing to be done. She was right. Demt's life had almost run out.
"W-wait..." Demt sent them a pleading look, his jaw trembling. "Y-you don't need to save me. P-please, just listen to what I have to say."
He bit down on his lip. As he tried to move again, he strained to lift the one arm he had left.
"Th-there was a spy in Letran."
"A spy? Who?" Sheryl approached Demt, her brows drawn down.
"T-the head of Trian. Stain Trian. That bastard was Eden's s-spy..."
Demt spat Stain Trian's name as if chewing it to pieces. Even drained of strength, the resonance of his rage came through intact.
"The head of the Trian family is an Eden spy? Since when?"
"I d-don't really know myself. We tracked Eden together all the way here, and then he suddenly p-put on an ogre helmet and did this to me..."
The rest was obvious just from looking at his condition. After donning the ogre helmet and amplifying his abilities, he had reduced Demt to this.
"An ogre..." Raon clenched his teeth. After the Green War Ghost, it seemed Eden had found the successor to the Mad Blood Ghost as well.
"I s-said we should send the deputies on the chase and secure the city first, but Stain insisted that if we didn't save the Saint, even saving the city wouldn't keep the continent safe — that we had to pursue them no matter what, for the greater good. I was m-moved. I thought I was seeing his true heart for the first time. I never imagined it would come to this..."
The hand Demt had been clenching into a fist fell limp.
"Stain didn't just deceive me. He deceived his own family and the entire city. Th-that bastard is the one who opened Letran's gates and let Eden in. I'm c-certain of it. Thinking back now, the whole city catching fire at once and Eden appearing like that never made any sense."
Demt forced his parched lips apart and went on.
"Kh-heh. Th-that bastard killed me, and he's planning to swallow Letran whole. Th-that must never..."
He could not finish the last words. His breath stopped. He could not even close his bloodshot eyes, as if the injustice and fury would not let him rest.
"Let's go."
Sheryl looked toward the forest with a gaze as cold as ice. Her voice was the same as before, but her aura seethed with a rage that seemed ready to explode.
"Yes."
Raon closed Demt Bachin's eyes and rose to his feet.
A heavy boom cracked the earth. Without any signal at all, the two of them kicked off the ground at the same instant.
"I'll go into the forest and bring the Saint out. You hold the entrance so the Eden scum can't get in."
"Understood." Raon nodded. He wanted to go inside and fight, but he knew well enough that he would only be in the way. Blocking the path from the outside was the best he could do.
The closer they drew to the forest Pedrick had entered, the more the presence of humans and monsters swelled. It seemed Eden's forces had surrounded the entire wood.
This many...
Raon frowned. They were clearly determined to obtain the boy named Julius and the Raysin, no matter what it took.
The child is one thing — but the Raysin must not fall into their hands, no matter what.
Used as a poison, Raysin became a toxin extreme enough to kill a hundred thousand people. Even allowing for exaggeration, it could enable a massacre of tens of thousands at minimum. He had to stop them, whatever it took.
Hold the path...
Raon gripped the hilt of the Heavenly Sky Sword tight. Their numbers were great, but there was no Master's presence among them. He could hold out long enough for Sheryl to bring Pedrick back.
"Hrm."
As he ran toward the forest, reading the movements of the lower officers, the Red Ghosts, and the Green Ghosts, Wrath smacked his lips.
"It would seem you lot have made a mistake."
What?
Wrath did not answer. He merely muttered that things had just gotten interesting.
Looks like there's something else here.
This Demon King, who loved acting like he knew everything, would not say something like that for no reason. There was almost certainly something else in this place.
Whatever it is, it doesn't matter.
All he had to do was his own job.
Whatever happened, Sheryl would bring Pedrick out. All Raon had to do was become a wall and hold this ground.
Raon steeled himself once more and drove his feet into the earth. The forest was within sight now. A few more strides and he would reach the entrance.
"Stop."
Just as he was about to move faster, Sheryl halted and caught his shoulder.
"What? You're not going in?" Raon pointed at the forest. A tremendous battle was unfolding inside. They had to save the Saint while he was still alive.
"Change of plans."
"What do you mean?"
"Hah!"
Sheryl turned, her teeth clenched. She looked back along the path they had just come and let out a ragged breath.
A deep rumble rolled through the earth. The Red Ghosts, Green Ghosts, and monsters that had been spread through the surroundings surged toward them like a wave.
I could handle this much on my own... hm?
As he watched Eden's ghosts pour in, the empty air twisted like grapevines, and black foam welled up. The dark bubbles gathered into a round mass, then took the shape of a human face.
A low, resonant hum. A long-brimmed hat, a nose as long and pointed as a carrot, a forehead carved with wrinkles — a mask engraved with an old woman's face.
Raon swallowed dryly at the sight of that mask.
Merlin!
It was Merlin, the Witch of Betrayal, whom he had seen when he killed the doppelganger at Habun Castle. This time, however, it was not only her head that emerged. A body wrapped in a robe came with it.
"Merlin..."
Sheryl recognized her and furrowed her brow.
"Wow, it's Sheryl!" Merlin clapped her hands, her laugh bright with excitement.
"Why are you here?" Sheryl stepped in front of Raon, blocking Merlin's gaze.
"Because this is a plan I prepared." Merlin spoke without the slightest hesitation. "I made a bit of a mistake last time, so I needed a sure result this time around. I prepared very thoroughly."
That mistake was almost certainly her failure to take Yua from Habun Castle.
"So that's why you went after the child and the Saint at the same time?" Sheryl's mouth twisted; she seemed to have grasped it as well.
"I don't care if the Saint lives or dies. I just need to recover what he has."
"What are you planning to do with the Raysin?"
"Isn't it obvious? Did you really think I'd use it as medicine?" Merlin giggled. Just as expected — she clearly intended to use it as poison. "That said, I'm not planning a mass slaughter. I'm just going to compress it, and compress it again, until I have a poison that can kill even a Grandmaster in a single instant."
She lifted a long finger and gave it a languid twirl.
"You crazy..."
"But Sheryl. The child behind you — that's Raon, isn't it?"
Heat began to fill Merlin's voice as it came through the mask.
"It's been a while, Raon."
"Were you and I ever on speaking terms?" Raon stared at Merlin with cold eyes.
"Your eyes have gotten even better. I've been keeping up with every story about you. Have you finally decided to join me?"
"I'd rather die right here than go with you."
"That coldness is another thing I like about you."
The old woman's mask Merlin wore twisted into a grotesque smile.
"Meeting again like this must mean you and I are bound by fate."
"That's not what 'fate' means."
"Your answers are wonderful, your eyes are wonderful. Aah..."
The words were similar to Encia's, but the moment Merlin spoke them, a chill crawled down Raon's spine.
"I get to take you with me too. How perfect." The pupils behind the mask flashed a stark, blinding white. "I've even prepared a helmet for you. Not anyone else's in the world — a helmet that belongs to you alone."
It was a tender voice, like an older sister speaking to her younger brother. Whatever trick she had worked, a wave of nausea rolled through him.
"Come with me. I'll raise you past Master — all the way to Grandmaster."
"You crazy bitch."
Sheryl took a step forward. A tremendous aura flared, and the flow of mana Merlin had been raising began to warp and break apart.
"Raon. Change of plans." She went on without looking back. "I'll hold the path here. You go into the forest and check on the Saint and the child. If they're pinned down by three or more Masters, take only the child and get out."
"Squad Leader?"
"Do you know the worst outcome in a rescue operation?" Sheryl set a hand on the sword strapped across her back and turned her head. "When the people sent in to save someone die too. Their preparations this time were thorough. Under normal circumstances, the right call would be to withdraw immediately."
"Exactly. As sharp as ever." Merlin smiled sweetly and nodded. How a mask could express an expression that well, Raon had no idea. "But I don't intend to let anyone go. Even if I lose everyone else, Raon — I'm taking you with me no matter what."
She flicked her fingers, and from the darkness of the forest came the sound of heavy footsteps.
A deep, bone-shaking thud. The undergrowth at the entrance split apart like a curtain, and a giant of a man appeared, clad in crimson armor, wearing an ogre helmet fitted with a single horn.
"Mad Blood Ghost. Capture that child alive."
"I'm not allowed to kill him?"
He was different from the Mad Blood Ghost they had seen before. A lust for slaughter rolled thickly from the low voice he spat. This one was unmistakably Stain Trian, head of the Trian family.
"Shall I tear you apart, armor and all?"
Merlin's pupils twisted savagely. The air itself began to tremble — she meant it.
"Hmph."
The Mad Blood Ghost laughed coldly and stepped forward. The oppressive weight of his great height and massive battle qi pressed down on Raon's entire body.
"To receive that lady's affection — how fortunate you are."
"I don't need that."
"You refuse even when offered a chance to grow stronger. Is it because you trust in your talent?" The man's eyes gleamed with a raw, crimson madness. "Well, I suppose that's natural, given a talent that reached Expert Peak-Class at your age and brought down the 7th Apostle."
"Your words are dripping with inferiority. Was it that inferiority that made you betray your family and everyone who trusted you, and crawl up Eden's backside? Stain Trian."
"You..."
At Raon's ice-cold voice, Stain Trian — wearing the Mad Blood Ghost's hide — stopped dead.
"I left him to die slowly on purpose, but it seems he ran his mouth." The Mad Blood Ghost let out an open, blatant sneer, as if he had realized Demt Bachin had talked. "That's right. I did it. And joining Eden wasn't all. I opened the city gates in advance so Eden's ghosts could enter, and I even helped them prepare to set the fires."
"Why would you..."
"It's just as you said. Inferiority! I couldn't overcome that inferiority, so I accepted Eden's temptation. But now I regret it..."
"Regret?" Raon narrowed his eyes. The word fit the present situation far too poorly.
"Yes. I regret accepting it too late! I should have taken their hand much sooner!"
The Mad Blood Ghost slowly lowered his head. Then he burst into mad laughter, his gaze so chilling it raised goosebumps.
"This power! This might! Everything is satisfying! I can even wield Ganggi freely — something I could never have achieved before!"
Crimson battle qi blazed and seethed over the Mad Blood Ghost's fist.
"Someone like you, who reached Expert Peak-Class at that age, would never understand. The agony of training your entire life and still being unable to surpass your limits! The despair of watching people younger than you pull ahead!" He screamed as if tearing his throat out. "Someone overflowing with talent like you would never understand!"
"I understand."
Raon approached the Mad Blood Ghost, his gaze cold enough to freeze.
I understand all too well.
Living as an assassin, he had never once trained the way he wanted. Everything had been training to kill people — a life as a component in Derus's plans.
He had lived his entire life carrying a despair of a completely different dimension from Stain, who at least had been able to train in order to grow stronger.
"Don't talk nonsense! You..."
"So you're happy you got stronger? Enjoying the Ganggi you could never use before?"
"Of course! That Demt bastard they called my lifelong rival couldn't even take a single one of my techniques! This is power that won't lose to anyone!"
Red battle qi rose in streams from the Mad Blood Ghost's shoulders.
Strong?
Of course he was strong. The energy radiating from him was in no way inferior to the Mad Blood Ghost from Sebu Village.
But there was none of the despair from back then. Power that was merely strong, unaccompanied by effort and enlightenment, was nothing to fear.
"Do you know how many times people begged us to find you and bring you back? They were worried about you. They asked us to at least pass along news."
"So what?"
The Mad Blood Ghost rolled eyes already thick with killing intent, as if he had already discarded human emotion.
"I like that."
"What?"
"Means I won't feel a shred of guilt killing you."
"You arrogant little..."
"Come."
Raon drew the Heavenly Sky Sword. Atop a righteous, magnificent aura, flames bloomed that could burn even the moonlight.
"I'll show you just how worthless power gained through sorcery truly is."