I've Come to Repay a Kindness
Raon leveled his sword at the Mad Blood Ghost and drew up the Cultivation of Ten Thousand Flames.
I have to finish this without taking any more damage than I have to.
If Rozy was right, there were four Masters in total. The Mad Blood Ghost stood in front of him, which meant three more waited in the forest. If he was going to pull the Saint out of there, he needed to conserve every scrap of strength he could here.
You actually think that's possible?
Wrath snorted as if the whole idea were a joke.
Hand your body over to This King. That wench lusting after This King's flesh, and those maggots throwing a tantrum in the forest — This King shall freeze them all.
A round little hand stretched toward him.
That is the only way to save your benefactor.
You said yourself that if you enter my body, you'll go berserk.
Th-that may be so, but This King will come back to his senses quickly! Once This King recovers his wits…
Stop talking nonsense and stay back.
When they had met Sloth, Wrath had admitted that after being separated from his flesh and soul for so long, the moment he entered a body he would fly into a berserk rage. Hand him the body now and Sheryl might survive — but Pedrick and the child in that forest would die.
"Haaah…"
A pale breath spilled from the Mad Blood Ghost's mouth like cigarette smoke.
"Your confidence is excessive. Born into a fine house, overflowing with talent — that must be it."
His pupils gleamed red with jealousy and killing intent.
"You reached Master and that inferiority complex still hasn't gone away. Pathetic."
Raon tilted his chin up and let a sneer curl across his mouth.
"Shut up!"
The Mad Blood Ghost howled and drove his fist forward. Ganggi forged of Battle Qi flared, and the air itself burst apart without mercy.
A heavy, crushing roar tore through the space between them.
Raon watched the fist that seemed to swallow his entire field of vision, then at the last instant drew his left foot back. It hadn't even grazed him, and still the wind of the punch felt as if it would peel the skin from his body.
The raw power is no weaker than the last Mad Blood Ghost I fought. The martial path is similar, too.
The punch was not so different from the previous Mad Blood Ghost he had faced in Sebu Village.
Then the next one as well?
Raon eased back and lowered the Heavenly Sky Sword. The Mad Blood Ghost clung to him like a leech and swept his entire forearm around in a crushing arc. Battle Qi burned along the whole length of the arm, leaving almost no room to dodge.
Just as I expected.
The second attack was the same method he had seen from the previous Mad Blood Ghost. Raon arched his waist back and slipped the linear strike with perfect precision.
A sharp, ringing clash split the air.
Raon straightened and poured the principles of the Swift Sword into the Heavenly Sky Sword he had dropped low. The blade, flushed a burning red, became a streak of light and carved across the Mad Blood Ghost's forearm.
A thick, wet sound. Blood welled from the split in the armor and dripped to the ground. The Mad Blood Ghost lowered his head and stared blankly at his own blood.
"Huu…"
Raon steadied his breath and rolled his wrist.
Eden doesn't know I've already fought a Mad Blood Ghost.
If he used that gap in information, he could steer this fight in his favor.
"Haa. Dodging that and countering…"
Merlin let out a low, rich sound of admiration.
"I knew I wasn't wrong about you. Raon. You have to come with me."
The voice was almost genteel, but an ungovernable hunger overflowed beneath it.
"Must be nice, being blessed with talent."
The Mad Blood Ghost slowly lifted his head. Those red eyes were twisted with madness and rage.
"Flashing that talent around, making a name for yourself, even catching her eye — must feel wonderful!"
His presence swelled. The Battle Qi blazing on his fists spread through his entire body.
"Your sword will never touch me again!"
The Mad Blood Ghost unleashed an ogre's roar and charged. It was not a man coming at him. It was a mountain.
This one's the same, too.
He had blocked this charge wrong once and shattered his left arm. It was an attack he could not forget even if he wanted to.
He stepped the Grand Harmony Three Steps. Footwork steeped in softness shed the Mad Blood Ghost's charge the way raindrops sink between stones.
"You bastard!"
The Mad Blood Ghost snapped his direction around in an instant and clung to him again, both arms reaching out as if to seize and crush.
A high, keening hiss of displaced air.
Raon chained the Garam Footwork, slipped the grasping hands, and raised the Cultivation of Ten Thousand Flames to its limit.
Flower Spirit
Petals of flame blossomed from the silver earth and crashed over the Mad Blood Ghost — but they could not pierce his Battle Qi, and faded like mist.
"I told you!"
The Mad Blood Ghost laughed, the sound packed with madness, and lunged again.
"Your sword doesn't work on me!"
Rock-like fists hammered out in a relentless chain. Under the colossal shockwaves, empty air and earth burst apart without end.
"Hhk!"
Raon barely shed or blocked the Mad Blood Ghost's punches, giving ground again and again. It looked like a desperate, life-or-death scramble — but his eyes did not so much as flicker.
It's going according to plan.
He had fully internalized the previous Mad Blood Ghost's martial path, so he could have evaded perfectly. Instead he was performing near-misses by a hair's breadth. There was only one reason. He meant to cut the Mad Blood Ghost down in a single stroke.
He's still green.
If Demt's testimony was right, Stain had not held the Mad Blood Ghost's power for very long. The fist-Ganggi he forged from Battle Qi was overwhelming — stronger even than the 7th Apostle — but its completeness was glaringly lacking. That was a gap wide enough to drive a blade through.
"Khrrk!"
Raon chained the sword arts of the Cultivation of Ten Thousand Flames, making certain the Mad Blood Ghost understood that none of the attacks were landing.
"I'm not the 7th Apostle you fought! Your flames don't work on me!"
Those words, too, were identical to the previous Mad Blood Ghost's. They truly had no idea he had already fought one of their kind.
"I'll end it with this!"
The Mad Blood Ghost drove out the right fist he had drawn back. Battle Qi coiled around the knuckles surged up like a waterspout, raising a massive wave of force.
"Finally."
Raon smiled as he watched the Battle Qi spreading so fiercely it was hard to keep his eyes open.
There it is!
The wave of Battle Qi the Mad Blood Ghost had raised was the very same punch Rimer had once split with a blade of wind. He had watched it shatter right in front of him. Finding the gap was instantaneous.
A thin, singing hiss.
He extended the Heavenly Sky Sword toward that tiny opening — a single stroke of a brush dipped in blue. Azure light riding the blade raced through empty air.
A wet, tearing burst.
The Mad Blood Ghost's armor ripped open, and a jet of blood erupted from his chest.
"You basteeerd!"
The Mad Blood Ghost's eyes bulged as if they would pop from his skull. Even in his panic he threw up his right arm. Instinct had felt the second slash of the Frost Lotus coming.
I expected that, too.
He stomped a True Step with everything he had. The Heavenly Sky Sword that had reached his right side reversed in his grip, and he carved it back down to the left.
A roaring crash of ice and steel.
The ice-vein of the Frost Lotus, drawn along the first trajectory, locked together with the silver blade rising from the opposite side, crossing like interlocking fangs.
A grinding, splintering crunch.
The two sword-strikes, loosed as one, punched through the Mad Blood Ghost's Battle Qi and split his heart.
"Kh… you… you…"
The Mad Blood Ghost clutched his chest as blood fountained from it, and dropped to his knees.
"Huu. I told you."
Raon looked down at him, catching a ragged breath.
"Power you got from some cheap sorcery isn't worth a damn."
"I… I… my talent…"
The Mad Blood Ghost reached out to the last, but the hand never found Raon. It fell to the earth.
A heavy thud.
Strangely, the man who had thrown away family, comrades, and a lifelong rival to become a Master was brought down by a swordsman who had not yet reached that realm.
"The Mad Blood Ghost…?"
Even Merlin had not predicted this. For the first time, the bizarre expression on her mask went stiff.
"Raon! You little—!"
Sheryl was just as stunned. Her narrow eyes flew so wide they looked round.
"Heavenly Sword Squad Leader. Shall I proceed with the mission you mentioned earlier?"
Raon wrapped his grip around the Heavenly Sky Sword and looked at Sheryl's back.
"Yes! Go!"
She nodded as if to say right now.
"Go? Go where! You're not going anywhere!"
Merlin snapped back to herself and brought her hands together. Behind her, enormous magic circles bloomed like a sun and a moon, and from those circles magics beyond counting surged into the sky.
"Catch him!"
"Don't let him into the forest!"
"KRAAAAAH!"
And that was not all. The Green Ghosts, Red Ghosts, and monsters that had hung back until now came on in a tidal wave.
"Raon. I told you to go. Why are you still standing there?"
Sheryl turned her head.
"But…"
"Do you still not know who I am?"
She smiled faintly and drew the sword from her back.
Two blades rose from a single scabbard. A white sword and a black sword. Weapons of utterly opposite color warped the darkness around them.
"The Black and White Twin Swords! Why do you have those?!"
A scream tore from Merlin's mouth.
Nothing passes behind me.
The white sword pointed at the earth. The black sword pointed at the sky.
A cataclysmic roar.
The instant a gray radiance blooming from both blades unfurled across heaven and earth, Merlin's pouring magic melted like dust, and Eden's charging ghosts were scoured away like sand before a wave.
"I'll give the order again."
Sheryl, having erased every scrap of magic and every monster that had filled her vision, pointed behind her.
"Raon Zieghart. Bring the Saint back."
A colossal shockwave shook the forest.
"Kh…"
Pedrick, the Saint of Rags, staggered back like a drunk. The tattered rags he always wore had crumbled like dry leaves, their shape already lost.
Damn it…
Pedrick looked down at his trembling hands. Both arms ached as if they had been shattered, and the strength was draining from the legs that held him up. If he let his guard slip, he would collapse where he stood.
"Tough old bastard. You're lasting filthy well for a body that old."
The Black Wing Ghost — Eden's specter who had inherited the Gargoyle Lord's power — floated in the air and grinned.
"Don't get careless. The Saint is still restoring his body even now."
The Red Wolf Ghost, clad in lycanthrope armor, spoke in a cold voice and bared his claws. Scarlet Battle Qi rippled over nails of black.
"Hhhp!"
Pedrick forced aura into his shaking grip and unleashed a palm art. A yellow palm-Ganggi, carrying the rotation of Silk-Reeling Force, shot toward the openings in both ghosts' guards.
A roaring blast.
The Battle Qi on the Red Wolf Ghost's claws raised a massive wind pressure and burst the palm-Ganggi apart. Linear Battle Qi, deployed at the perfect instant. This was not some dirty trick. This was a man who had properly learned martial study.
"That's all you've got?"
The Black Wing Ghost swept the atmosphere down with the wings on his armor and shed the palm-Ganggi. The majesty of the Gargoyle Lord who ruled the skies was laid bare in that motion.
"Huu…"
Pedrick steadied his breath, his face drawn tight. He was circulating Siltia's Energy to heal his internal and external wounds, but these were injuries from Ganggi colliding with Ganggi, and the recovery was slow. The longer he fought, the worse the deficit became.
"Grrrr!"
The Red Wolf Ghost dropped his waist like a wolf and charged. A monstrous speed. He came on as if he had erupted from the earth itself and spat Battle Qi.
"Heeheehee!"
The Black Wing Ghost circled through the air opposite the Red Wolf Ghost's movement, hunting Pedrick's back.
A thunderous crash.
Pedrick spread both hands and raised the Heaven-Wall Palm. The condensed energy in his grip collided with Battle Qi and detonated in a terrifying explosion.
"Kh!"
Pedrick shielded Julius from the blast's aftermath and gave ground. One-on-one, he could have broken either of them. Facing both at once was too much. The Black Wing Ghost in particular, leaving the front to the Red Wolf Ghost while picking at openings from the air, was infuriatingly in the way.
And besides…
There was one more he had to account for. The Evil Goat Ghost, leaning against a tree. For now he was watching as if it were someone else's problem — but the moment those two were in danger, he would step in at once. This was a three-on-one. He could not afford to forget that.
"What are you looking at!"
The Black Wing Ghost dropped vertically, driving a dagger down. His wrist twisted like rubber, the bizarre martial path hunting Pedrick's throat.
"Grrrk!"
The Red Wolf Ghost did not sit idle either. He crashed in from the left, and the Battle Qi riding his claws was powerful enough to be nearly impossible to stop.
A deep, resonant hum.
Pedrick drew up Siltia's Energy and brought his hands together as if in prayer. A wave of aura spreading from those joined palms pushed back the Battle Qi of the Black Wing Ghost and the Red Wolf Ghost alike.
Thousand Water Barrier
"Khrrk!"
"Nnh…"
The Black Wing Ghost and the Red Wolf Ghost could not withstand the sudden rebound and bounced away like rubber balls.
Pedrick's veteran eyes flashed for a single instant. He did not miss the opening the Black Wing Ghost had shown. He kicked off the ground and drove a palm out.
A booming impact.
The Black Wing Ghost, his waist grazed by the palm-Ganggi, slammed into the earth without getting his wings open.
I have to finish it now!
The chance had finally come. Even if he had to overreach, he needed to cut their numbers here. He was about to bring a palm packed with Ganggi crashing down when a terrifying Battle Qi rose at his back. The Red Wolf Ghost's presence — already stuck to him before he knew it.
Damn it!
If he pressed forward he could kill the Black Wing Ghost — but he himself would die, or take a wound just as bad. For a heartbeat he hesitated over whether to fall back or keep going. That was the worst mistake he could have made.
To masters, that fleeting instant was an eternity.
The Red Wolf Ghost read Pedrick's sluggish reaction and tore into the gap.
A ripping slash.
Before Pedrick could even turn and set a guard, the Red Wolf Ghost's claws carved across the right side of his chest.
"Kh!"
Pedrick did not even have time to feel the pain. The Black Wing Ghost came screaming in, pouring out ferocious Battle Qi.
A heavy, bone-jarring thud.
A palm art flung out in desperation saved his neck from being taken off, but the balance of his body was already collapsing past any hope of recovery. Battle Qi came on in a chain before he could even stem the bleeding.
Crash. A roaring detonation.
Every time he contested Battle Qi, it felt as if his chest were melting. Vicious internal wounds. Pedrick swallowed back the blood climbing his throat.
"Khrrk…"
He knew he must not rush — but the situation would not let him stay calm. The regret was crushing, and he had already crossed a river he could not recross.
Even so!
For Julius, who had not screamed once behind him, who was still covering his own mouth — he could not give up.
Heavy, grinding impacts shook the ground.
But the Red Wolf Ghost and the Black Wing Ghost kept forcing collisions, worsening the internal damage, tightening the noose. They knew exactly how to squeeze a rat into a corner.
At this rate I really am going to die.
Internal and external wounds had flared past anything he could recover from in the middle of a fight. He had to settle this before he went down.
Pedrick unfolded his footwork, avoiding collisions as much as he could — but the Red Wolf Ghost and the Black Wing Ghost hunted his injuries with obsessive precision.
Fine. Come.
This was what he wanted. He was building a trap — the final secret art of the Great Cloud Palm, to sweep them both away the moment they closed in, careless.
A tearing rip.
The Black Wing Ghost's charge, hidden behind the Red Wolf Ghost, tore open his waist.
"Urgh!"
Pedrick let out a groan and stopped his faltering feet. The Red Wolf Ghost kicked off the ground and drove Battle Qi forward. The Black Wing Ghost charged with a dagger burning red, teeth bared in a grin.
Right now!
He opened his dantian and detonated, in a single instant, every scrap of energy he had condensed through his mana circuits. The secret art of the Great Cloud Palm that scoured away everything around it — the Annihilation Flame Palm.
Annihilation Flame Palm
A cataclysmic explosion erupted, and the entire forest shuddered.
A grinding, rolling thunder.
Everything in sight was reduced to scorched ruin — but Pedrick's face was not bright.
"Kh…"
He clenched his teeth and looked up into empty air. The Black Wing Ghost was holding the Red Wolf Ghost, wearing a grotesque smile. Aside from a few new wounds, they were far too intact.
"Old man. You telegraphed it way too hard."
"Even a Saint can't help himself in a situation like this, I suppose."
The Black Wing Ghost sneered. The Red Wolf Ghost's eyes were cold, almost disappointed.
"Damn it…"
Pedrick bit his lip until it bled. Masters of their caliber were never going to miss how desperate he was. The one who had walked into the trap was not those ghosts. It was him.
Empty.
There was nothing left in his dantian or his mana circuits.
"Ha."
A hollow laugh escaped him at the shadow of death that had come all the way to his throat.
So this is the end.
He could feel Julius's gaze at his back.
He's still biting his lip, holding back the tears even now, isn't he.
The boy who had swallowed every sob and every scream to the last so he would not get in the way of the fight — Pedrick was so proud of him it hurt.
I'm sorry.
The promise to go see Raon. The promise to escape this place together. He would not be able to keep either of them. He had wanted to fight to the very end, but there was nothing left. All he had for Julius was apology.
"Let's finish it. You lasted better than I thought."
"We'll send you off without pain. That's what the name of Saint is worth."
"Ah, no way! I'm eating him alive!"
"Did putting on a monster's hide turn your brain into a beast's as well?"
The Black Wing Ghost and the Red Wolf Ghost came on slowly. Both of them had spent a great deal of power and were exhausted — but there was no comparing that to a man who had poured out everything he had.
A deep, rising howl of energy.
Even now they did not grow careless. They poured out Battle Qi at full strength. The space before his eyes filled with blazing red Ganggi.
God. I do not care if I die.
He bit his tongue and, inwardly, screamed something that was not a prayer.
Save the child behind me! He is far too pure to be left with those demons! Take this old body and do whatever you wish with it! Please — just the boy!
He had lived being called a Saint, but he had never believed in a god. He had treated divinity as nothing more than a tool for healing. This was the first time he had ever prayed.
Nothing changed. It was too late, it seemed.
A roaring surge of Battle Qi.
Pedrick looked at the Battle Qi filling his vision, and turned around.
"Julius. I won't be able to keep my promise."
"S-Saint…"
"Live stubbornly."
He gave the trembling boy a gentle smile. Then he turned back to wait for his own end.
But even if the gods had abandoned them, the thread of fate had not yet been cut.
A roar like the earth itself breaking open rolled through the forest, and a clear wind blew in.
Flashes of crimson and azure crossed on a diagonal and tore the Battle Qi of the Red Wolf Ghost and the Black Wing Ghost to shreds.
A man stood in the flickering firelight. Tall. Gold hair streaming in the wind — hair that made Pedrick think of an old friend.
"Y-you are…"
The man looked back. Upright crimson eyes. A gaze Pedrick felt he had seen before, filled now with a deep, quiet gladness.
"It's been a while."
At that low voice, Pedrick's heart gave a great, living beat.