Only the Dead May Leave

A knock sounded, light and precise. Rezel rapped on the door of the room where Derus was staying.

"Come in."

Derus's gentle voice drifted from within. Rezel eased the door open and stepped inside.

"What is it?"

Seated at a neatly arranged hardwood desk, Derus lifted his head. The voice that met Rezel now was nothing like the one that had answered the door. Every trace of warmth had been stripped away, leaving only a chill as hard as ice.

Rezel swallowed as he met those still, unreadable eyes. Has he already found his composure? There was no rage left in Derus's gaze. Even with the Ninth Breeding Ground destroyed and the young dogs who'd been on the verge of complete brainwashing set free, he had returned to this cold, collected state. But he will never forget. The one who had orchestrated this was not Borini Kitten. The Derus that Rezel knew would overturn the entire continent if he had to, find the culprit, and unmake everything they possessed.

Rezel bowed his head and approached the desk.

"A message from Matio. He reports that the plan is proceeding without issue, and that he will return from this expedition with good news."

"I see."

Derus nodded slowly and closed his eyes, the picture of a man who placed complete trust in Matio.

"Mm..."

Rezel clicked his tongue under his breath as he watched him.

"Is there a problem?"

"I heard from Cosini that a spirit-beast-class monster lurks beneath the dungeon. Matio's injuries still haven't healed. I worry whether he'll be all right."

Matio and he had been taken in by Derus at the same age and had survived together ever since. After all those years they were as close as brothers, and the worry came unbidden.

"There's no need to worry. Matio and Cosini are more than capable of handling something of that level."

Derus shook his head lightly.

"That overly responsible fool said he'd bring back good news. This time, we ought to trust him."

Matio had not forgotten his mistake in the Owen Kingdom. If he was speaking like that, he would bring back the relic inside even if it cost him his life.

"Even if he's been pushed aside for now, he was once the head of the Shadows."

Derus lowered his gaze, his expression calm.

"Trust him."

Matio swallowed as he watched the blade rushing toward him. I've been had! He'd been concentrating his senses behind him. He had never imagined something bursting in from the side. His body felt as if it had locked in place. I have to block it... He couldn't simply die here. He might not be able to stop the sword from piercing him, but he had to cut the damage down to the bone.

The trouble was the tip of the man's blade was wavering, so he couldn't tell for certain whether it was aiming for his neck or his heart. In that case... The heart. The part an assassin targeted most often was, as a rule, the heart. Unlike the neck, even a slight tear there meant you couldn't survive. Blocking his chest was the right call.

"Hup!"

Matio bit his lip and twisted his upper body as far as it would go.

The invader's sword shot toward his heart, exactly as he'd expected. Thanks to a waist bent almost to the breaking point, the blade missed the heart and instead slashed through the solar plexus at the center of his chest before sliding past.

Matio clutched his chest and rapidly retreated to stand beside Cosini. Ghhk... The ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠vicious pain left his head ringing. The solar plexus was the passage through which the entire body's mana circuits ran, and a fatal vital point. He'd avoided being stabbed in the heart, but the damage was catastrophic. He doubted he could even display half his usual ability. But I can endure this. If he were alone, maybe not. With the Shadows and Cosini here, an assassin like this could be dealt with easily enough.

"Seize that— huh?"

Matio pointed at the intruder and started to give the attack order, then stopped, his lips trembling. Th-this is impossible... Black hair, black eyes. Pale skin, a sharp gaze, a small scar beneath the right eye. The moment he properly saw that ordinary face, every hair on his body stood on end.

"Ah..."

That man was someone who should not be here. No—someone who should not exist in this world at all.

"Raon..."

His heart clenched so tight it felt like it would burst. The assassin Raon. The former head of the Shadows whom he had personally raised was standing right in front of him.

"Raon?"

Cosini's jaw trembled as she glared.

"Th-that's really Raon!"

Her voice cracked with shock as well.

"How are you here? No—how are you even alive?!"

Matio screamed in horror. This can't be. It doesn't make sense! The one who had killed Raon was Derus, and the one who had disposed of the corpse was himself. He had melted bone and flesh until not even a trace of the man's existence remained in the world. How could he be alive?

"I'm back."

Raon smiled faintly and drew his sword down. The heads of three Shadows standing dazed rolled from their shoulders at once. It was the Black Killing Sword he had taught them himself.

"To take you and your master—who ought to be in hell—down with me."

"Ah..."

Even the voice was the same as before. A chill ran down Matio's spine, and blood burst from the wound at his solar plexus that he'd already staunched.

"That's absurd! There's no such thing in this worl— hhk!"

Matio's pupils shook as he looked at Raon's sword.

"The Heavenly Sky Sword?"

Raon's blade was identical to the sword Raon Zieghart had used recently.

"So you recognize it."

He seemed to have no intention of hiding it, lifting the sword before his eyes. There was no doubt. That was the Heavenly Sky Sword Raon Zieghart had wielded.

"C-could it be..."

"That 'could it be' is exactly right."

Raon placed a hand over his face and ignited a flame. His features transformed amid a crimson haze. Black hair became blond; a red light bloomed in those black eyes. A rare appearance in the human world—but the all-too-famous hallmark of Zieghart, blond hair and crimson eyes, was laid bare.

"Raon Zieghart..."

"That's right."

Raon—no, Raon Zieghart—nodded.

The last words arrived as an aura message, but they had no mind left to register that. Their heads felt completely empty. He was right... Lord Derus was right! Derus's prediction that the assassin Raon and Raon Zieghart were the same person had not been wrong. I have to kill him. No—I have to report this first. Even in this condition, with Cosini at his side, they could handle the Raon they'd seen at the sparring ground. But a monster like this wouldn't have come here for no reason. What I need to do right now is...

Matio drew his sword and issued orders to the Shadows.

It was a statement that couldn't help but sound strange, but nearly twenty Shadows heard the order and immediately ran for the dungeon's exit, avoiding Raon.

"You know,"

Raon didn't chase after the Shadows. He stood right where he was, smiling.

"I haven't forgotten ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠what you taught me."

"What?"

"That an assassination only succeeds when you create the situation you want."

He flicked his fingers. The instant the snap rang out, the dungeon shuddered, and the ceiling above the Shadows who'd run toward the rear collapsed outright.

Not a single Shadow escaped. They were buried under rock and earth. Of more than twenty Shadows, not one remained alive.

A footstep. Raon smiled and took a step forward. That soft footfall, so out of place in this dungeon, made them swallow hard.

Raon looked at Matio and Cosini, their faces gone pale, and let a cold smile slip. It landed perfectly. He could have cut Matio's throat from the start, but he'd stabbed the solar plexus instead just to see that look of shock. Watching the man who'd always worn a mask of composure lose his wits like that, twenty years of pent-up bile seemed to ease, if only a little.

"Th-this..."

Matio's sword-hand trembled. He seemed equally stunned by the situation itself and by the fact that the Shadows had been wiped out on his own orders. The despair and horror on his face made Raon laugh without meaning to.

"Let's see this through, Matio."

Raon raised the Heavenly Sky Sword and aimed it at Matio's heart. A frost-sharp presence made cold sweat roll down Matio's forehead.

"H-how..."

"You useless bastard!"

Cosini slapped the cheek of the still-reeling Matio.

"Of course you're shocked! I thought my heart was going to drop out of my chest too. But are you going to die here? If we die here, where do you think that bastard's sword goes next?!"

"Ah..."

At those words, Matio's trembling subsided. His eyes began to find their composure.

"You're right."

Matio nodded and slapped his other cheek himself.

"For His sake, we have to kill this bastard no matter what it takes."

A killing intent thick enough to choke on rose in his eyes.

"Cosini. Fight with everything you've got."

"I know. I don't wanna die either."

The combined presence of the two, now of one mind, shook the entire dungeon.

The first to move was, of course, Matio. As if his injuries meant nothing, he surged forward in an instant and brought his sword down. Dense black ganggi fell toward Raon's neck.

Raon lightly lifted his body and opened the iron cage that had held a savage beast locked within his blade.

Willpower alone could not overcome a serious injury. Matio couldn't withstand the Mad Fang Sword's impact and was slammed into the wall.

As Raon moved to pursue him, a powerful wave of mana surged. Cosini Sion. Her specialty, mind-fragment magic, bored into his consciousness.

"A waste of effort."

Raon pushed off the ground with the ball of his foot and advanced. In a split second he was in front of Cosini, raising the wind of the Snow Wind Sword Art.

"Kh!"

Cosini hastily deployed multiple shields, but the Heavenly Sky Sword's blade, wreathed in blue wind, smashed through three layers of walls and drove toward her neck. Just as blood was about to burst from Cosini's throat, Matio intervened and knocked the Heavenly Sky Sword aside.

"You bastard!"

Matio's sword, black ganggi blazing, spun. A killing blade honed to the extreme stabbed toward Raon's left chest. Slow.

Raon turned his ankle and drew the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Heavenly Sky Sword, pouring wrath into it. The Mad Fang Sword at full power bared bloodstained fangs. After a tremendous impact, Matio was driven back along with his sword, coughing blood. The injury from the sparring ground stacked with the wound to his solar plexus seemed to have dealt a massive shock.

"Choke on it!"

Cosini stretched out her hand from behind Matio. A streak of bright yellow lightning shot toward Raon's face. Chain Lightning—the lightning-attribute magic she was most confident in after mind manipulation.

Raon stepped through the Grand Harmony Five Steps and drew the Requiem Sword with his left hand. A crimson blade, drawn as smoothly as raindrops sliding off a roof, shredded the lightning bolts without mercy. A vital point that erased magic. To a mage, it was a catastrophic trait.

"We're not done yet!"

Dozens of lightning bolts erupted from a circular sphere of electricity blooming in Cosini's grip. Plasma Bolt—the strongest offensive magic she could use.

"I told you. A waste of effort."

Raon thrust the Requiem Sword before the Plasma Bolt could fully form. Insidious demonic energy slipped between Cosini's mana and detonated the Plasma Bolt just before completion. The mana explosion went off right in front of her, and Cosini was slammed into the half-gouged earth.

"Hahk..."

As Cosini coughed blood and her eyes flew wide, Raon was already in front of her. He was about to bring the Heavenly Sky Sword down to prevent her from escaping with Blink, but Matio interposed himself and blocked the blade.

Raon twisted the blade and employed the secret technique of the Black Water Footwork. A tremendous shock radiating from inch-force sent Matio tumbling across the floor along with Cosini behind him.

"Kh..."

"Ugh..."

Overwhelmed by sheer force, both their faces went pale.

"Don't worry. I won't let you die cleanly."

Raon looked down at Matio and Cosini with dry eyes.

"You'll be spitting out everything you know—and everything you don't."

"Ugh!"

Cosini clutched her shoulder, her jaw trembling.

"M-mind manipulation doesn't work, lightning magic doesn't work. That bastard's become a monster..."

Matio clenched his fist until it bled and grabbed Cosini's shoulder. His aura message reached her.

Cosini's expression hardened at those words.

Matio nodded, his gaze no longer shaking.

"Mm..."

At Matio's firmly set voice, Cosini nodded.

Cosini sprang back and stretched out her hand. The mana circulating in her grip warped against the normal arrangement of energy and settled over Matio's entire body. Berserker magic. And not just any—Frenzy, with the highest-grade effect.

Matio's eyes flushed red, and the muscles of his entire body swelled brutishly, like an orc's. It wasn't merely his physique that changed. The energy he possessed erupted like a volcano, flooding the space.

"Hrm..."

Raon narrowed his eyes as he looked at Matio. A life-force explosion. Life force was the vitality a human possessed from birth—a power that, once used, could never be recovered. He seemed to have drawn that out. And on top of that... He'd used Cosini's Berserker magic to amplify that power. In terms of aura alone, it seemed to have increased by about threefold from his usual level.

"Die!"

Matio crushed the earth as he brought his sword down. The ganggi on the blade lengthened like a spear shaft and thickened like an axe. Unlike Marta's berserk state, he hadn't lost a shred of reason, and he stabbed in with the Black Killing Sword in cold precision.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"Struggle all you like."

Raon smiled coldly and stamped a true step.

"It was almost disappointing, how easy this was getting!"

An impact as if every bone in his body were shattering. The life-force explosion and Berserker in harmony seemed to be putting out more than three times the usual power.

Raon bared his teeth in a grin as he locked in a contest of strength with Matio. This is more like it. He had to pay back more than he'd suffered.

He knocked Matio's sword aside with the Snow Wind Sword Art. The moment the man's blade was driven toward the wall, Raon drew the Heavenly Sky Sword from below to above. Buds of scorching heat bloomed from the blade and spread without number. The petals of the Flower Spirit, grown further through the ancestor's sword traces, filled the space.

Even after raising the Flower Spirit, Raon didn't stop his sword.

"This much?!"

Matio screamed and thrust his sword. The black ganggi on the blade spread like a spiderweb, standing against the flames. The ultimate technique of the Black Killing Sword—Phantom Shade Spear.

The crimson ganggi Raon had raised and the black energy Matio had drawn interlocking, they produced an enormous explosion. The shockwave spread past the walls and into the floor, and the well-packed earth collapsed.

Raon spun his body in midair and landed on the uneven ground. Dust made it hard to see properly, but he could feel Matio and Cosini standing on the opposite side. This is no joke. His right arm, which had clashed swords, ached as if it were broken. Matio's sword strike, burning his life and receiving Cosini's magic on top of that, was far beyond the normal range. That's what makes it worth breaking. If one of the enemies he'd honed his hatred for over twenty years went down hollowly, that would be hollow too. This kind of desperate struggle was far better.

Raon swung the Heavenly Sky Sword and swept the dust away. Matio was glaring this way with eyes even redder than before. What? He got stronger? Matio's energy was burning more fiercely than before, just like those eyes. Life force that should diminish the more it was used was increasing instead. That made no sense.

"You said the only ones who could leave this place were the dead, didn't you?"

Matio smashed the ground as he charged. It was the Black Shadow Footwork and Black Killing Sword Raon knew, but the speed and movement were on a completely different level.

"You won't leave here alive either!"

"I'm the exception. I'm the host."

"Shut up!"

Raon drew a single line with the Heavenly Sky Sword he'd been holding back. A blue wave followed that trajectory. The two blades of Frost Lotus aimed for Matio's sword and his neck.

Matio whirled a sword-aura built from compacted killing intent and blocked Frost Lotus in a single motion. Perhaps because of that overwhelming energy, he wasn't even pushed back.

"It's useless!"

The man's energy grew even stronger. It seemed to be amplifying endlessly, like gunpowder before an explosion. Gunpowder? Don't tell me... It felt as if he'd been doused in ice water from head to toe. What the man was aiming for was, in all likelihood, self-destruction.

"Figured it out, have you? Right now, I am a bomb."

Matio curled the corners of his mouth in a long smile.

"Whether you attack me or not, your fate is death."

He charged again. Ganggi even denser and thicker than before pressed in from the left.

Even a flash composed of flame couldn't cut through Matio's aura, which carried the energy of life itself.

"Ghhh!"

Matio coughed blood even as he forced his way into the space with raw power. Raon frowned as he looked into Matio's eyes, filled with murderous intent. He's staked even his soul. Using Cosini's magic as a medium, Matio was offering up not just his life force but his very soul to draw out power.

Raon used Matio's force to retreat. If he explodes like this, I'll be buried alive. Even knowing the geography of this place, he couldn't withstand Matio's self-destruction. He had to cut the man down before he exploded. If I erase that power with White Shadow Flash first, then use Silver Sword Dream... hm?

As he looked around for space to draw Matio in, he saw a familiar trace on the wall. The ancestor's swordsmanship he'd seen above in the dungeon. The sword traces of Ten Thousand Flames Cultivation — Flame Sea Flawless. It's different. But the flow of the swordsmanship was different. Unlike the entrance, where it had only surged along the walls and floor, here the sword traces of Flame Sea Flawless continued throughout this entire vast space. A vastness that seemed about to break, yet never broke... A great sea. Unlike House Robert's swordsmanship, which connected like a river until it became an ocean, the true meaning of Flame Sea Flawless seemed to be becoming a great sea that embraced everything from the very beginning.

The moment he grasped that, a crimson line drove down into his mind.

"Whatever you do, it's already too late."

Matio charged with a face covered in bulging veins. His body, swollen like a balloon, flushed red like a bomb about to burst.

"You die here."

Ganggi surged endlessly above his sword. It looked as if a black mountain made of ganggi itself had risen. Before the mountain of ganggi that swallowed the space and came crashing down, Raon's sword kindled a small spark. The blade, rotating along the trajectory on the wall, drew a noble line and soared toward the sky like a firebird.