77
077 — Reclaimed
It's him. I could realize it immediately.
It wasn't just the expression about my scabbard. Grisella's black flames were covered by another flame. Just like Johan's soul that controlled Cheon Ju-hyeok.
And setting all that aside, the voice was different.
"What... Did that young lady's voice always sound like that?"
Shin Do-ung took a stance, sensing the ominous atmosphere.
A thick man's voice was coming from Grisella's throat. A thick, cracked voice that was hard to tell whether it belonged to a middle-aged man or an old man.
"She appears to be under control."
"It does seem that way. But what's this about a scabbard?"
"......"
The explanation wasn't difficult, but it was too long to give here and now. It wasn't really a question that expected an answer, so Shin Do-ung didn't ask further either.
Rather, he was tensing his entire body. Much more so than when he dove into hordes of hundreds or thousands of monsters while staring at this one Elf now.
"I've never seen a monster like that before. I've encountered moving Erosion once, but never to this extent."
"Does it look that dangerous?"
"It's giving me the chills."
Indeed, Shin Do-ung was concentrating to the fullest. If his concentration were to scatter even a little, it felt like he would lose his mind at that very moment.
"I was at the gate, so I heard about Ireland later, but was Ireland like this too?"
"Much more docile."
"...Damn it. You're saying it's an even worse monster."
From Jin-woo's perspective, it couldn't have been that docile. It recognized his past life and asked to be killed.
However, even setting that aside, Ireland was indeed much more docile. That child was just an ordinary minion with an unusually large build, but the Grisella before his eyes now was different.
The God of Sky had directly descended into that body.
[Only an extremely small part has descended. But even that would be a great risk.]
'Risk?'
Listening to it, even this kind of indirect form of descent couldn't be done easily. It meant he had come down paying a considerable price.
That's how much he wanted to reclaim the scabbard. Moreover, the word ‘risk’ that the God of Moonlit Forest mentioned had another meaning as well.
[The risk of having a part of himself permanently stolen in this lower world. It's an opportunity.]
Normally, it would be an unthinkable risk.
Perhaps the dragons of the 5th floor could manage, but there was no way such humans could steal a part of the existence of divine spirits like them.
But Jin-woo was different. He had the ability to completely devour the souls he cut down without leaving anything behind.
That applied even to the divine spirits of the 6th floor.
[Be careful......]
However, whether it wasn't an easy task, the God of Moonlit Forest offered words of concern.
Jin-woo was feeling it with his skin, too. How arduous a task it would be to deal with that Elf floating ahead and destroy the pillar behind.
Not knowing where or how he would attack, both Jin-woo and Shin Do-ung were highly tense. Suddenly, an arrow appeared between them.
They couldn't even properly see when it had flown over. It truly appeared suddenly between them. The small arrow even contained energy comparable to an S-rank grand magic and was about to explode at any moment.
"Get down!"
Without anyone going first, both people jumped to either side. Kwaaaaaaaaaaang! The arrow between them exploded, creating a huge crater. The large and small monsters that had been coming to attack the two were caught in the explosion and turned to powder without leaving a single corpse behind.
However, there was no time to catch their breath. Arrows fell and exploded even where they had dodged.
They fell continuously, without stopping. It was like a meteor shower falling from the sky.
Not just Jin-woo, but Shin Do-ung was in the same state. He tried to approach Grisella several times, taking a step forward, but each time he had to jump back without fail due to arrows falling toward his feet.
Rather than narrowing the distance, he was being guided to move further away. The further he went, the further he moved away from this gap as well. Unfortunately, both used close-range weapons like swords and spears, so this flow was fatal.
Then, it was Jin-woo who first charged forward.
"Hey, brother!"
Shin Do-ung was greatly flustered seeing Jin-woo suddenly leap out. He, too, had tried to go forward but was pushed back, so he knew that getting close to that thing wasn't an easy task.
Although the arrows seemed to appear suddenly, that wasn't the case. It wasn't spatial movement or anything like that, but something that the creature had definitely shot. In other words, the closer you got, the faster the arrows would reach.
Though it was a very short time of less than 0.1 seconds, that small amount of time made a big difference in reaction.
Shin Do-ung also followed belatedly to cover Jin-woo's back. Whether to help deflect arrows or to provide healing after taking an explosion, he was there to support him.
Sure enough, an arrow appeared on Jin-woo's side. An arrow aimed precisely at his brow. Even if he dodged immediately, it was at a distance where he couldn't avoid the explosion.
'Oh no!'
An ominous future rushed over, and Shin Do-ung's face hardened. The explosion that was about to happen, and the terrible sight of the poor young man caught up in it.
Was there no way to somehow block it for him? Lightning sparked from the spear in his hand, and his body accelerated. But then.
Seoreok—
Jin-woo's sword bisected the arrow. Judging by the speed, he had already been swinging his sword before the arrow even appeared.
The next arrow that appeared was aimed at Jin-woo's collarbone. But that arrow too was cut down helplessly by Jin-woo's sword as soon as it revealed itself.
'What the......?'
Cutting down all the meteor-like arrows pouring down, Jin-woo ran toward Grisella.
***
After seeing it several times, it became familiar. No, the expression ‘became familiar’ probably wouldn't fit. The arrows that the creature shot weren't visible until just before they exploded.
What became familiar was the ability to detect that creature's energy.
The arrow explosions were based on erosive energy. To Jin-woo's senses, they looked like ominous bombs emanating black energy.
At first, he was startled by bombs that suddenly appeared and exploded, but after seeing them several times, they became familiar.
There was no way Jin-woo, who could even see through the complex barriers in the Sky Temple, wouldn't be able to see such a simple bomb.
To Shin Do-ung's eyes, it looked like nothing short of a feat.
He didn't have the ability to separately detect erosive energy. He had to rely solely on what he could see with his eyes, hear with his ears, and feel with his skin.
With only his five senses, he had extremely insufficient information to grasp Grisella's arrows. Therefore, the arrows appeared to suddenly manifest in mid-air just before exploding.
'That... He's swinging before it's even visible?'
Jin-woo was already moving his sword before the arrow was even visible. As if he knew where the arrow would appear.
Brow, collarbone, groin, shin, and so on. Deflecting all the arrows shot at him, he closed the distance.
'......I can't just stay like this either.'
Seeing a junior who was younger than him and had a much shorter career as a Hunter doing that, Shin Do-ung's eyes also caught fire.
He too leaped forward following Jin-woo. Naturally, arrows were shot, but this time it was quite manageable to block them.
'The offensive is weak.'
The number of arrows shot at him was clearly fewer compared to earlier.
The reason was obvious. As many arrows as he had become comfortable with were pouring down on Jin-woo.
The enemy had identified Jin-woo as the more dangerous foe and was pouring most of its capabilities into stopping Jin-woo, so the attention paid to Shin Do-ung became relatively less.
'It hurts my pride a bit... But thanks to that, I survived.'
It was quite pride-damaging for him, but he had no complaints. That's because.
'If you told me to preserve my pride and dive into that arrow rain, ugh, I absolutely couldn't do it.'
The enemy's attack pouring down on Jin-woo now was at no ordinary level. The enemy was trying to kill Jin-woo with the vigor of someone facing their parents' killer.
Despite so many arrows being shot, not a single one hit Jin-woo. At best, arrows stuck in the ground would explode and inflict scratches on Jin-woo, but the impact was too weak.
—Give back, my scabbard!
Now he had gotten close enough, well within range. It was a distance where sword energy or Kanok's sorcery could easily reach.
But it still wasn't enough. That degree wouldn't be enough to defeat that creature.
—Give it back!!
Kwaaaaaaaaaaang!
The arrows falling from the sky had become almost at the level of bombardment. Jin-woo spread the energy he had gained from the golden apple to block the explosions.
Since he had chosen to protect his heart rather than his body at that time, his defensive ability had somewhat declined, but there was no problem in blocking the aftermath of explosions rather than being directly pierced by arrows.
"Why is that yours anyway?"
—What did you......?
"I stole it, so isn't it mine now?"
Jin-woo stepped on a rock that had risen up and raised his sword. Now it would reach. If he just struck down, Grisella would die horribly, split from the crown of her head.
—You bastaaaaaard!
The creature moved its body in anger. But the creaking made it look far from free.
It could shoot arrows just fine, so why couldn't it move freely? Had it descended into Grisella's body, but couldn't completely control it? Perhaps shooting arrows was possible because it was a motion trained during life that the body was accustomed to.
Either way, it was an opportunity. The sword Jin-woo had raised fell toward Grisella.
***
[Fragments of a past life surface.]
A sensation similar to the time with Ireland arose.
Was it because Grisella, into whom the Lord had descended, wasn't an ordinary minion?
His past life self was sitting on a rock.
The surrounding scenery wasn't clearly visible. But he could feel as if he could see what his expression was like.
A very tired expression. Both bitter and regrettable.
Next to the rock was a sword standing without a scabbard. Taking it, he rose from the rock.
He tried to insert the sword at his waist, but it felt strangely empty.
Come to think of it, he had lost the scabbard, hadn't he?
Realizing this fact, he gave a bitter smile and casually stuck the sword in his belt.
The sword with its blade sticking out nakedly without a scabbard looked both crude and unsightly. It was made worse by the fact that it was a sword without any decorations to begin with.
'I need to find it.'
That's what he thought. He couldn't keep letting the mischief of wicked children continue.
And finally.
'......I've reclaimed it.'
The erosive energy flowing from the scabbard flowed into the sword in his right hand. Lightning fell on that sword along with crackling light. The fallen lightning mixed with the erosive energy and spread in all directions.
That sword cut down Grisella. Not split from the crown of her head as first intended. Diagonally from the shoulder to the side.
Her upper body was cut, and the subsequent lightning burned away all the black energy the creature had been emitting.
—You, bastard......
The crushed mouth could no longer properly utter words.
—Just who are you......
The blurred words didn't continue to the end and collapsed. Within that collapse, the real Grisella's eyes returned.
A flame that bloomed for just a very brief moment.
That mouth moved soundlessly toward Jin-woo, then smiled and closed her eyes.
Grisella's flame, freed from the God of Sky's cage, seeped into Jin-woo.