102
102 ― Deep Underground
The child was a visitor to the garden.
I was glad. In this garden, only things that originated from me exist. The only things I had sown seeds for and cultivated by working the soil.
They were all beautiful and satisfying just to look at, but sometimes there were moments of emptiness.
The child's visit happened during one of those times. The first external being I had ever welcomed.
―Are you the king of this place?
King? I had never thought about such a thing. But if I have territory and those who follow me, I suppose I could be called a king. This garden is my territory, and the things I have cultivated follow me, so calling me king doesn't seem particularly wrong.
―I am Rondar, the plunderer of Sarbak. I challenge you to a combat.
It seemed the child had come to plunder my kingdom. For such a fearsome plunderer, his manner of speech was courteous, and his eyes held deep resonance without vulgarity.
His closely cropped silver hair was neat, and though he was small in stature, his body seemed to tell of countless years of training.
His skin was rough and hard like rock without a single soft spot anywhere. Above all, the sharpness of the sword in his hand was real. So I, too, faced him with sincerity.
To state the conclusion first, the child could not defeat me. He lost, and lost, and lost again.
He lost so many times that the sword he had brought eventually wore down and crumbled.
The child did not give up and would ask my permission before forging a new sword to challenge me.
Years passed, and that sword too wore down and crumbled, and in the furnace new iron and new fire boiled up.
The sword made that way also wore down and crumbled with the passage of time, then he would make another, and it would wear down again…….
Such days continued.
I couldn't even count how many years had passed. Having spent so much time together, the child and I had become quite close before we knew it.
―You don't even see me as a threat.
The child complained in a sulky voice, but he did not refuse the alcohol I offered. The mouth may pout, but the tongue is always honest.
―It's too excellent a fruit wine to refuse.
Those words made me prouder than when I had overwhelmed the child with my sword. Just to hear those words, I brewed alcohol even more diligently.
Again, countless years flowed by, and before we knew it, our duels were no longer fought with swords but with suitable tree branches we picked up nearby.
Far from having blades, we just roughly trimmed off the small branches and called them wooden swords.
Since the result would end in his defeat anyway and the victor would not kill the loser, there was no reason to insist on real swords.
―……I lost.
Once again, the child suffered a bitter defeat. Compared to me, who had become numb to victory, he, who still chewed over the bitterness of defeat, was admirable. Though it now took the form of sparring rather than a life-and-death duel, losing still seemed bitter to him.
―When will I be able to win?
He sighed and showed disappointment, but his skills had improved greatly, too. He was strong when we first met, but now he is even stronger.
He simply couldn't reach my level. I served him consoling wine along with delicious fruit and grain to comfort his disappointment.
―How can I defeat you?
Well. I haven't fought myself, so I don't know how one might defeat me.
Still, if he keeps getting stronger, perhaps someday he'll find a way to break me.
―Is that so…….
Even though it was nothing special as an answer, the child repeated it as if savoring it deeply.
―Before we knew it, we've come to fight only with these tree branches. How about we try wielding swords again?
Either way is fine with me. I'm confident I won't lose anyway.
The child put effort into heating the furnace again. Lighting fire in a furnace that had been frozen for so long was not an easy task.
I found a suitable fire to melt the frozen furnace. Above all, a strong fire was needed, and fortunately, the center of a star was hot enough to heat the furnace.
With my help, the child who lit the furnace made a vow while holding the crimson flames in his eyes.
―Someday I will defeat you.
Delicious alcohol and food. A life with someone to share conversation and cross swords with. This was from when my kingdom was still peaceful.
***
The sword bounces and soars into the sky. It was an impossible occurrence.
Among the clashing swords, the one that was flung away was not the smaller one but the larger one.
Order descended upon the utterly chaotic battlefield for a moment. Enemy and ally alike, even those who had lost the ability to distinguish between friend and foe, all fell silent.
For Kalesian and Rona, who had been watching that place, it was a shock that made their hearts nearly stop.
"That sword……!"
When Jin-woo matched his blade against the God of War's great sword, they wondered if he had lost his mind.
Even if they wanted to stop him immediately, they couldn't because the clash of swords was faster than any means they could take.
Watching Jin-woo throw himself into an unstoppable strike, they imagined terrible results, but. Such things did not happen, and rather it was the God of War's side whose sword bounced and lost momentum.
However.
'Still weak.'
Jin-woo still couldn't feel at ease. The creature's sword had only bounced up slightly and hadn't been dropped or anything.
Given how large the sword was, deflecting it even slightly was a remarkable feat, but that didn't mean the creature's combat power had decreased.
Even right now, the creature could bring the sword down again. What should he do about that second strike?
But contrary to Jin-woo's worries, the creature did not bring down its sword. It neither swung nor thrust. It just stopped there, for a moment.
'What?'
This was an unexpected reaction.
Feeling even more suspicious, Jin-woo did not let his guard down and remained wary of the creature.
Then the creature's next action was surprising. Its massive arm held the sword upside down, then simply let go of it.
The sword that fell tip-first penetrated straight into the ground. Not cutting through and penetrating the soil, but like a ghost, disappearing softly as if seeping into the planet.
After dropping the sword into the ground like that, the arm began to disappear into the rift. Not only that, but the rift itself slowly began to close.
The number of monsters pouring out of the rift naturally began to decrease as well.
Pop―!
As if this were their chance, light flashed from various places across the battlefield. The God of Light incited the allied monsters to push back the enemies strongly.
"Jin-woo!"
"What happened!?"
Kalesian and Rona looked at him with eyes that couldn't understand. Rona's eyes were fine, but Kalesian's were burdensome. His curiosity was observing Jin-woo intensely.
"Let's collect the divine artifacts first."
He didn't know how to explain, but everything was for later. Right now, they had to collect the divine artifacts the creature had left behind first.
[ ……. ]
The light that had been chattering by his side constantly was now saying nothing at all. Not only was it silent, but it wasn't even shining.
At this moment, the light's attention was focused solely on the path toward the divine artifacts.
'As expected, there's no way it wouldn't be greedy.'
Unlike the God of War, it might not have any particular goal or reason for wanting to descend.
But that didn't mean there was no reason not to covet the divine artifacts.
Objects that other divine spirits had imbued with part of their power and sent down to interfere with the lower realm. Who wouldn't covet such things?
Before long, the light began to directly interfere with them. It blocked their path and began using monsters to obstruct their route.
"Get out of the way, you bastards!"
Kalesian roared in great anger and fired his breath. The breath that hadn't worked at all on the red cliff was a different story for the monsters.
The beam he fired covered even the light that the God of Light had been shining, creating a long runway across the battlefield.
The swift-footed Rona and Jin-woo ran first and leaped into the collapsed red cliff.
Jin-woo first looked for the divine artifact from the Moonlit Forest. The other half of the glass orb is inside him.
'There it is!'
Even without looking around, he could feel the pulling force through the glass orb. When he headed in that direction, his body naturally moved toward it.
A small sapling that had taken root in the red cliff. After collecting that first, he swept up all the plausible objects nearby and put them in his inventory.
There were many miscellaneous and trivial items, but he didn't have the leisure to examine them one by one.
For now, he would sweep them all up and inspect them later.
[ Jin-woo, I helped a lot too, so just one……. ]
Then a cluster of light flickered in front of Jin-woo.
It seemed like it wanted to have at least one divine artifact. He remembered that when the God of Moonlit Forest opened the gate to the Spirit Realm, two divine artifacts were needed.
It seemed like there was a big difference between having one and having two.
"How about gold or money as thanks for your help?"
Of course, he would have no need for such things. It was just an expression of refusal.
Considering that he had betrayed them the moment the God of War retreated, there was no room for sympathy. It hadn't been a deeply trusted alliance to begin with.
[ ……. ]
The cluster of light fell silent. He expected some words to come out, like it wouldn't be fun that way or that he'd remember this for later, but there was nothing.
[ Sigh, I'll just withdraw for today. Let's have a proper talk later. I'm still in the 3rd floor. ]
Surprisingly, he withdrew cleanly. Though he promised to meet again later, this was quite a cool withdrawal.
It didn't feel like he had a good personality or anything. His voice carried deep wariness and curiosity.
It seemed like he didn't intend to be hostile to that extent yet. But it also didn't seem like he considered them allies either.
The heat of the battlefield had cooled considerably by now. The monsters the God of War had summoned were almost all subjugated, and only the God of Light's monsters remained.
Only they were trampling over corpses and roaring victory toward the sky.
"Jin-woo! Did you find them?"
"Probably. Let's go back for now."
Rona was greatly relieved to hear that Jin-woo had collected the divine artifacts.
The worst-case scenario would be for other gods, like the God of Light, who was right here, to take the divine artifacts.
If that happened, there was no telling when they might attempt descent like the God of War and close off the 3rd floor.
If Jin-woo had collected them all correctly, they would have at least avoided the worst case.
The two joined up with Kalesian, who arrived late and withdrew from the cliff for now.
***
They were no longer in a cooperative or alliance relationship with the God of Light. Since there would be nothing good about clashing with his monsters, the party avoided them and sought to join up with the Elves on the outskirts.
During this. Jin-woo was examining the divine artifacts in his inventory one by one.
'Some are flashy and some are modest…….'
Most of the items he had swept up were decorative objects with no utility. But a few were definitely divine artifacts.
The reason he could tell was simple. They were emanating dense erosive energy similar to the God of Sky's scabbard.
'What do I do with these?'
Jin-woo frowned. He had collected them for now, but he wasn't sure if they were safe to possess. Might there be adverse effects? Still, for now, it was fine.
Surprisingly, there was no particular effect. His arms or skin didn't turn black, and his mind wasn't corrupted either. The blue flames were still blue.
'Where is the God of War's?'
Among them, Jin-woo looked for the God of War's divine artifact. Having crossed swords with him once, detecting his energy wasn't difficult. But he couldn't sense his energy within the inventory.
'Don't tell me I left it at the cliff?'
That thought crossed his mind for a moment, but that wasn't it.
He hadn't left it behind; he simply hadn't found it yet.
Jin-woo briefly placed his hand on the ground.
He recalled how the creature had left its sword behind at the end. Deep underground.
In that unreachable place beyond, he could sense dark energy.