37
037 ― Where Are You Trying to Land the Last Hit
The Black Knight positioned himself at the village entrance. The village had been in a state of complete panic from the moment the Erosion spread, but he watched leisurely as if enjoying the spectacle.
Then he raised his sword.
Kwaaaaaaaaaang—!
He brought it down. A sword overflowing with Erosion energy, streaming out in torrents, split the village in half.
The Elves of the village, who had been evacuating, lost their minds even more when the village was shattered by the lightning-like slash.
"St-stay calm! Evacuate calmly! Protect the children and elderly as you retreat!"
There was one grandmother who managed to keep her composure. An elder who had served as the village chief for nearly 900 years.
Already preparing for death and counting the days until she would return to the embrace of Mother World Tree, she stepped forward with a sense of responsibility to protect the village.
Even knowing that if she died to Erosion, she could not return to the Mother World Tree.
"Uaaaaaaah!"
"Quickly! Quickly to the mountains!"
"We absolutely cannot be caught by Erosion! Yes! Ra-rather die now! Kill yourselves rather than die to Erosion!"
"Are you insane? Is that something to say in front of children?"
"Then what should we do! If we're consumed by Erosion, we'll be trapped in Erosion forever, unable to even die!"
"Even so...!"
However, even the chief's brave actions changed nothing. Before absolute power and terror, small courage could change nothing. A shadow fell across the chief's eyes. She could not tell whether it was a shadow of despair or if her time to die had come.
"Kyaak!"
"Mari! No!"
At that moment, one of the fleeing children fell nearby. It was Mari who had received all the village's affection.
Mari's mother hurriedly helped the fallen Mari to her feet, but unfortunately, the mother and daughter had drawn the Erosion's attention. The Black Knight approached.
'No! At least save the child!'
The chief mustered her remaining strength and moved her aged body. If she could save the child, it wouldn't matter if she burned through all her remaining life force. Rather, if she could save the child and die of natural causes, wouldn't that be good since she'd escape the Erosion?
With that thought, the chief ran, but sadly, the Erosion's sword was faster than an elderly woman's desperate sprint. The Black Knight's sword fell toward the mother and daughter.
Kang—!
And there was someone who blocked the sword. Blocked an Erosion attack? Was there such a skilled person in this village? The chief looked at that being in surprise, and was shocked once more to realize he was human, not an Elf.
"Jin-woo! Hueoeoeoeng!"
"Eh? Jin-woo? The one Mari picked up...?"
Mari's mother was equally surprised, unable to hide her trembling voice. Only two beings in this place remained unsurprised and resolute. Mari, who blindly cried and clung to Jin-woo upon seeing him and.
"Mari. Run to the mountains with your mother and the villagers."
"Jin-woo! Jin-woo!"
"Stop. Stop crying. Mari, needs to protect the villagers."
"Hueuk... Yes, yes."
Jin-woo caught the Black Knight's sword with one hand, comforted Mari with the other, then sent her to her mother's side.
Both the mother and chief were unable to maintain their composure due to bewilderment. Mari, still crying loudly but trying to be brave, took both their hands and ran toward the mountains behind the village.
Keeeeek—
The Black Knight's armor moved with an unpleasant metallic sound.
Kang—!
Having deflected Jin-woo's sword with force, the creature fired another Erosion sword energy toward the fleeing villagers. This time it swept horizontally, so no one would be able to avoid it, and they would all be massacred. If only Jin-woo hadn't cut through the sword energy.
"...Certainly a bit tough."
The sword energy fired by the Black Knight appeared to Jin-woo's eyes as black flames blazing fiercely. It contained the pure power of Erosion itself. Therefore, it possessed absolute destructive power, but Jin-woo could cut through it. Not only that, he could absorb it with his own power.
"...?"
The Black Knight tilted its head. Cutting through Erosion sword energy was already impossible, but to even absorb it made Jin-woo appear quite fascinating.
"You, are you a monster? Can you speak?"
"......"
Jin-woo asked, but there was no answer from the Black Knight. It seemed unable to speak. Instead, it answered with its sword. Energy large enough to easily contain a house rose from the sword, and that massive sword energy fell toward Jin-woo.
***
All the villagers scattered in different directions. Crossing one mountain wasn't enough to ease their anxiety, so they crossed mountain after mountain. Such was the terror that Erosion instilled in Elves.
Elves don't particularly fear death. Of course, death is unpleasant and painful, but they tend to accept it reverently as life's conclusion. Even if they die, they believe their souls will become nourishment for Mother World Tree and be reborn as new life in the future.
But Erosion is different. If consumed by Erosion, they cannot send their souls to Mother World Tree. They cannot be reborn as a new life. To them, the World Tree was the only god sustaining the Elven race, and Erosion was like a demon or absolute evil.
Therefore, even after fleeing for a long time, they continued to flee but. Only one person remained in the nearby forest. It was the chief who had sent the villagers away and remained here herself.
"How could such..."
The chief had evacuated but was still near the village. She climbed a tall tree there and watched the battle taking place in the empty village. The sight of Erosion and a human crossing swords.
***
Kwaaaaaang!
Kwaaaaaaaaaang!
Every swing of the sword destroyed the village. It was already half-destroyed and collapsed, but even those fragments were ground up as fierce shockwaves swept through.
The Black Knight's sword wasn't a sword but resembled some large-scale magic.
'Crazy.'
Jin-woo had been cutting through sword energy as much as possible and absorbing that power, but the sword energy the knight poured out was too large and numerous.
Moreover, the black flames it used were slightly different from previous flames.
'Tough. Persistent and stubborn.'
All the Erosion cores he had cut so far had been cleanly severed in a single stroke. Except when facing the Dragon's soul, he had never struggled. But the flames this one used were different. They wouldn't be cut in a single stroke and were persistent. Therefore, unnecessary force went into his wrist, and Jin-woo was forced into more inefficient movements. It was a vicious cycle.
In the midst of this, with house-sized sword energy pouring down like rain, unless Jin-woo had ten hands, he couldn't block them all.
Kwaaaaaaaaang!
The village was already completely destroyed. Even if the villagers returned later, it would be overwhelming to figure out how to rebuild. In that destroyed village site, the Black Knight didn't stop firing sword energy to completely crush Jin-woo.
"Damn it."
His hands were so busy that curses rose to his throat. He somehow found gaps and approached the creature to swing his sword, but.
Kang!
It easily deflected that and leaped back again to create distance. The Black Knight jumped high onto a house where only one pillar remained, and from there, scattered more sword energy.
'Damn. Won't it even let its guard down?'
If it were truly a knight, it might want to cross swords up close. But it never let its guard down and wouldn't give up its advantage. The advantage of being overwhelmingly superior in ranged attack ability compared to Jin-woo.
Kwaaaaaang!
When he deflected sword energy coming from the side, the deflected energy flew backward, overturning the ground and creating terrible traces.
Almost simultaneously, there was sword energy flying straight at him, so Jin-woo had to cut through that as well. Not only that, but countless sword energies flew from above and other directions.
'...Stay calm. Remember the sword theory Rona taught you.'
It was an extremely chaotic situation, but Jin-woo's breathing didn't falter. He had abilities that stabilized breathing, and Jin-woo himself hadn't lost his composure yet. He recalled the sword he had crossed with Rona in the waterfall cave long ago. The sword theory they had learned and shared then as well.
'There is a theory in swordsmanship, too. Theory means laws, and laws mean the cosmic principles that accompanied the birth of stars.'
So if one understands the sword, there would be nothing about the universe one couldn't understand. That was the sword theory Rona spoke of, and simultaneously, the path to reaching divinity.
'I don't know about such grand things.'
He didn't know about the universe or divinity. All Jin-woo wanted to know was how to deflect this sword energy right now. He cut and cut again. He tried to understand the laws of this place. This place, too, was part of the universe, so how could he understand the chaos of this small universe?
Then he saw something.
'This is... Erosion?'
He realized. That creature wasn't particularly neatly pouring out energy either. To continuously pour out fast and strong energy that would make Jin-woo dizzy, it too had to use its own schemes and tricks.
The flying sword energies weren't independent but were all connected, and this was similar to the structure that formed Erosion's boundaries.
'I can see Erosion's structure?'
Was such a thing possible? Just the ability to find cores was said to be unique in the world, yet he could see the entire structural network through which that energy extended and eroded the world?
As if entranced, Jin-woo's sword struck the flow connecting the flying sword energies, their vital points. At that moment, the sword energies couldn't withstand their own power and all exploded right there.
"...!"
The Black Knight was flustered. Not missing that opportunity, Jin-woo cut the pillar the creature was standing on. Having lost its footing, the Black Knight that jumped down had to receive Jin-woo's sword fully on its body.
"You shot too much, so I got the hang of it."
Jin-woo gave the Black Knight some feedback. Rather than squandering sword energy, if it had trusted its own swordsmanship and fought face-to-face, it might have been more troublesome.
But there was no longer anyone to listen. Jin-woo's sword cut the Black Knight diagonally.
***
The Black Knight's body was cut diagonally and he could no longer fight. But the black flames weren't the same. This small but persistent flame was only about half cut by Jin-woo's sword and was hanging precariously.
"Persistent."
Still, one more cut would do it. Just as Jin-woo swung his sword.
Kurururung—!
'Huh?'
The ground beneath his feet suddenly shook. Then, without time to steady himself, what appeared were massive roots. One, two, three... Easily more than ten thick roots burst out like tentacles and overturned the village.
Then. They snatched the Black Knight's flame that was about to be finished off.
'What!?'
Strong thoughts were transmitted from the roots. No, rather than thoughts, should they be called emotions? This is mine. I cannot give it up. Such will was transmitted along with strong possessiveness that rejected Jin-woo.
Jin-woo came to know the identity of those roots by instinct, or perhaps by subconscious memories from his past life.
'Isn't that the World Tree?'
The roots of the World Tree that had appeared like a mirage in the distance. They were trying to intercept the black flame that Jin-woo had chopped up!
If Elves saw this, they would fall into great chaos. Their only god, the World Tree, was coveting the power of evil Erosion.
But Jin-woo wasn't an Elf and had no such religious circumstances regarding World Tree faith. In Jin-woo's eyes, it was simple.
"Where are you trying to land the last hit?"
It only looked like banditry, trying to steal loot from the side. Jin-woo cut through the roots and managed to sever the Erosion flame that the World Tree was trying to steal. Since it was cut by Jin-woo's sword, that flame was absorbed into Jin-woo's sword.
[ Memories of a past life emerge. Let that sword strike through the void and cut down. ]
His abilities were properly awakened, too. It seemed to be the ability to fire sword energy or cut enemies from afar, like the Black Knight had done.
Whew. Just as Jin-woo was relieved that power had safely entered him. More than ten writhing roots all turned to look at Jin-woo at once.
'What kind of horror movie is this?'
Jin-woo gulped at the ominous atmosphere. This is the World Tree? Now Jin-woo could see it. With his eyes that had become able to see through Erosion's structure and flow.
The World Tree was already submerged in Erosion. However, it wasn't the appearance of being helplessly overwhelmed by Erosion like other contaminated worlds. The World Tree was manipulating and utilizing Erosion by its own will.
'...This is quite different from what I was thinking.'
The World Tree he had imagined was a fresh tree of mercy that embraced everything. But what was in this place was something like a terrible demon tree growing in hell.