76
076 — How Pathetic
The blood of magical beasts scatters.
A bear-like magical beast charged at them. It was even more massive than the bear he had encountered at the first Gate. Such a creature was cut down in a single stroke, blood gushing out.
The bear's heavy body collapsed, crushing the relatively smaller creatures nearby. Those creatures died without even being able to properly attack, cut down as they were.
There were also cunning monsters that took advantage of the gap to strike at Jin-woo's blind spot. However, it was an ambush that wouldn't work on Jin-woo, who could sense all movements of the blue flames. He cut down all the creatures that came at what they thought were blind spots.
'The smell of blood.'
A thick scent of blood lingered. Mixed with the fishy smell of beasts, it created a nauseating odor that was dizzying.
[ Who exactly are you? ]
It was at such a time that the God of Sky spoke to him. Jin-woo, already filled with displeasure, felt no need to respond.
Ignoring the creature's words, Jin-woo cut down a monster. The blue flame he cut out was not recovered by the Erosion but was absorbed by Jin-woo.
[ ...... ]
And he could feel the God of Sky's displeasure at this.
The monsters here were monsters that had fallen to that creature's Erosion. Both their flesh and souls belonged to the God of Sky.
When the monsters died to Shin Do-ung, everything was recovered by the Erosion. Though they might not be able to move immediately, after some time, they would regain their original bodies and be able to move again.
But monsters killed by Jin-woo had their blue flames stolen and could never move again. They had escaped the God of Sky's dominion and merged with Jin-woo's soul.
[ Which lord's subordinate are you? ]
Once more, the creature probed Jin-woo. He had no intention of telling it. Let it think whatever it wanted.
Then he recalled what had happened in the 3rd floor. As the God of Sky's temple collapsed, the island began to fall, and the massive tree that had grown in the Moonlit Forest caught it.
Thinking about that, wouldn't it think he was a subordinate of the World Tree?
[ No...... That creature couldn't see. ]
The God of Moonlit Forest said that wasn't the case. From the moment it lost the divine artifact, the God of Sky had lost all authority to interfere in the 3rd floor. It had lost the ability to observe the 3rd floor, as well as connections with Lin Shenlin and others.
'Then it really knows nothing at all.'
Just then, a massive shadow rapidly approached. Drake. A dragon-type monster that looked like a wingless dragon. A creature with a size similar to a real dragon charged forward to trample Jin-woo and Shin Do-ung to death.
Magi gathered in Jin-woo's sword, emitting a subtle light. The light that leaked out was small, but the power contained within it was not to be ignored. When he swung the sword that had gathered such Magi.
—Kruuung......!
The Drake's upper body was cut clean through by the sword energy that flew out. It had noticed it midway and tried to dodge urgently, but couldn't avoid it due to the speed it had been charging at and its own weight.
"Wow."
Shin Do-ung let out a word of admiration. A swordsman who could cut down such a massive creature in a single stroke.
'So the Hong Kong guys are analyzing Jin-woo's swordplay so enthusiastically.'
The short video of Jin-woo was released on the internet. Shin Do-ung was well aware that sword-using Hunters were going wild over it.
Hong Kong was number 1 when it came to sword-using Hunters. There were people like David among the S-ranks, but he was also known to have defected to Hong Kong now.
Not only that, there was Lin Shenlin too, and more than 70% of Hong Kong's Hunters were sword users. Therefore, Jin-woo's video was being analyzed more passionately in Hong Kong than even in Seoul.
Since he used a spear, he wasn't quite that enthusiastic, but he still thought Jin-woo's prowess in the video was remarkable. But seeing it in person, it was beyond that.
'The sword enthusiasts must be losing their minds.'
If there were a spearman of similar skill to Jin-woo, he might have felt the same way. With such thoughts, he chuckled and stabbed the monster in front of him to death.
"Are you alright over there?"
"No problem."
Responding to Jin-woo's words, he stepped on the monster right in front of him and leaped to thrust his spear into the eye of an Ogre behind it. He stirred up the brain matter and recovered his spear as he leaped down.
With a thud, the Ogre collapsed, crushing several creatures beneath it, and Shin Do-ung's subsequent spear strikes pierced holes in the hearts of five or six monsters.
There were monsters whose heart locations were hard to determine just by looking, but Shin Do-ung's spear found their hearts with ghostly precision.
"Do you have some kind of technique?"
"It's nothing special, I just stab where I hear it. Heart sounds feel distinctly different from other sounds."
That itself was an amazing technique. The opponent wasn't staying still, and the surroundings weren't quiet, yet he could instantly catch the sound of his enemy's heartbeat and stab accordingly.
This ability shone brightest when facing strange monsters that looked like snakes or earthworms. He immediately found and pierced through which segments of their long bodies had beating hearts.
'His movements are concise and excellent, too. I did well to bring him along.'
Even with countless monsters endlessly swarming from all directions, he felt reassured. Perhaps because he was an S-rank Hunter, their coordination was perfect even without separate training. They had reached a level where they could understand what the other wanted and adapt to each other.
'This reminds me of when I explored the Primeval Forest with Rona long ago.'
In the past, when living in the waterfall cave with Rona and Bulkar.
Bulkar never came out of the cave as he was busy hammering iron, so Jin-woo explored the Primeval Forest with Rona. She was also a swordsman at S-rank Hunter level and an excellent companion.
However, at that time, Jin-woo's skills didn't match hers.
'It was purely like being carried along.'
It wasn't that Jin-woo didn't fight, but rather than fighting together with Rona, it felt more like Rona was just watching his back.
It felt like the practical application of his usual sword training, you could say. It was a process of learning swordsmanship and sword theory from Rona and testing what he learned during exploration. Thoroughly from a learning position.
But somehow, he had grown to this extent. Many things had happened since then, and many past lives had surfaced. Most importantly was.
'The time of Ireland.'
The past life memories that surfaced during the process of stopping Ireland that appeared in New York. That seemed to be the biggest turning point.
As he recalled those memories again, it felt like more vitality coursed through his body. Magi, and the blue flames blazed even more fiercely, telling him this was nothing.
Just by immersing himself in those memories, Jin-woo fell into a state close to no-mind. His swinging sword became more stable, and the sword energy he shot out carried a sharpness that seemed to make the air tremble.
Right then, a black flame caught his senses. A flame different from the core that was their destination was approaching. It was targeting Shin Do-ung.
Looking back, Shin Do-ung was similarly absorbed in combat. Every monster that entered his range died with its head or heart pierced.
Despite there being enough monsters to crush someone, within his range, there were only monster corpses.
A Lizardman with a spear approached such a person. It wore shabby armor just like the other nearby Lizardmen, and the spear it carried was worn out.
The creature positioned itself farther away so as not to enter Shin Do-ung's range.
"Be careful!"
"......!"
At Jin-woo's shout, Shin Do-ung reflexively ducked. The throwing spear the Lizardman threw cut through the wind, passing over where he had ducked.
Though he had clearly dodged, the wind pressure alone tore up the surroundings. The aura Shin Do-ung had spread across his entire body to protect himself became like a tattered rag from that wind pressure.
Not missing that opening, the Lizardman shot forward like a bullet to attack Shin Do-ung. It thrust forward with another monster's sword it had picked up along the way, trying to stab his face.
Shin Do-ung hurriedly raised his hand to block the tip of the creature's sword with his spear shaft.
However, its strength was tremendous. Despite Shin Do-ung also possessing extraordinary strength, he was pushed back and ended up with his back on the ground. Being in a ducked position to avoid the throwing spear was one of the contributing factors.
'Damn!'
When facing so many monsters pouring in from all directions, you must never stop moving. You must always move and find a favorable footing to step on in order to strike at the swarm's weakness and break through.
But not only had he stopped, he had completely fallen to the ground. Normally, it wouldn't be strange if he were crushed to death immediately.
Swoosh—
Then the Lizardman's head flew through the air. At the same time, the pressure on his spear shaft disappeared in an instant.
Blood gushed from the headless Lizardman's neck, some of it splattering on Shin Do-ung's face as he lay beneath.
"Are you okay?"
"Thank you, brother. You took ten years off my life."
Shin Do-ung got up quickly while feeling relieved, stabbing the monsters pressing in. There was no leisure to rest just because he had survived.
***
The creatures were cunning enough to hide among other ordinary monsters as they approached. Since they looked no different on the surface, it was impossible for Shin Do-ung to notice.
But Jin-woo had the ability to see flames. Black flames hiding and approaching among blue flames were far too conspicuous.
With Jin-woo's warnings, Shin Do-ung didn't fall for it as easily as before. Earlier had been a case of truly being caught off guard by a surprise attack, but when prepared in advance, he too could sufficiently overwhelm those creatures.
Jin-woo's situation was even better. Before his sword, there was little difference between blue flames and black flames.
The only difference was that black flames had the ability to dodge or block sword energy to some degree. Even so, since he could just cut them directly, there were no instances where his hands got tangled or his movements thrown off because of them.
As a result, deploying the black flames only ended up easily feeding those flames to Jin-woo.
[ Vermin-like bastards......! Don't get cocky just because you caught a few minions! ]
At the God of Sky's furious voice, Jin-woo grimaced as if his eardrums would burst. Looking at Shin Do-ung, it seemed he couldn't hear it.
It meant the creature was targeting only Jin-woo in this place.
[ How pathetic. ]
On the other hand, the God of Moonlit Forest was just grinning and enjoying herself. She seemed very pleased to see the God of Sky being treated like this. She didn't seem to have the slightest thought that Jin-woo would be the one suffering.
Just as she had said to devour everything, Jin-woo cut and cut and cut again. He absorbed not only blue flames but black flames as well, preventing the Erosion from recovering them.
Though the battle was quite prolonged, as much as it lengthened, the creature was consuming while Jin-woo was accumulating.
Thus, the two were able to get closer to the core. The pillar is visible ahead.
It was an ominous pillar that was much larger and more blackly stained than the numerous pillars around here that poured out monsters.
"Is that it? It's as big as a building."
When told that was the core, Shin Do-ung grumbled. It seemed like destroying the core wouldn't be an easy task either.
Especially since they would have to work while fighting off the pressing monsters, it would be an even more arduous task.
Conversely, Jin-woo wasn't too worried.
'Was Ireland's heart smaller than that?'
The God of Sky's pillar seemed larger than Ireland's heart. Still, it wasn't an overwhelmingly different size. Since he had cut Ireland's heart in a single stroke, he should probably be able to cut that too.
Then an arrow flew over. A single black arrow that flew soundlessly. However, its aftermath was tremendous.
Kwaaaaaa-gwang!
The arrow that shot forward, crushing even the surrounding monsters, flew aiming for Jin-woo's brow. As Jin-woo opened his eyes wide and struck down the arrow, his wrist ached as if sprained.
This was the first time he had felt such recoil while swinging his sword until now. Even when receiving Rona's sword, it hadn't been this much.
—Give it back.
In the empty air ahead, an Elf whose skin was cracked all over his body was floating. Black energy flowing from those cracked skin formed thread-like connections to the pillar that was the core of the Erosion.
Like a puppet bound and controlled by strings. He was aiming his bow at them from the sky like that.
—Give back, my scabbard.
From that mouth came a voice that wasn't the Elf's.