99
099 ― It Didn't Happen
Light swept across the path between the cliffs. The solid cliffs did not crumble, but Bertus was helplessly caught up in them.
Kalesian snorted at the sight, but shortly after, Bertus appeared in mid-air in perfect condition. It seemed he hadn't been able to block Kalesian's breath, but had at least avoided it.
"I often hear that I talk too much for an Orc."
Kalesian's face twisted at that leisurely appearance. At the same time, magic circles covered Bertus's surroundings. The magic circles that blocked all directions to prevent escape formed a sphere.
A fireball shot from there struck him directly.
"Keuk...!"
This time, he was really hit. His entire body was covered in terrible burns, and smoke flowed from his mouth. It was a wound that would have killed an ordinary person, or even an ordinary Orc, from the shock of the burns alone.
However, the next moment, dark energy rippled, and all wounds were healed. Seeing this, Kalesian clicked his tongue.
"Tsk, right, you were a healer."
Bertus was a very famous healer in the 3rd floor. He had built a separate treatment center and healed the injured free of charge, so many had received his healing.
Looking at the current healing speed, mere wounds wouldn't be enough to finish him. Unless he could be killed in one blow, he wouldn't be easy to catch.
At that moment.
Jin-woo felt a strange sense of unease from his flames.
'It changed.'
Bertus's black flames had changed form slightly. It wasn't a big change, but it couldn't be considered a natural flickering.
The next moment, the black flames moved again. Jin-woo shouted at the chilling feeling that suddenly rose.
"Kalesian! Dodge!"
"...!"
Kalesian flinched at the sudden shout. Still, his reaction wasn't slow as he quickly pulled back his body along with Mahiri.
Still, it was a bit too late.
"Kraaaaah!"
Half of Kalesian's body was covered in burns. Even though he wasn't engulfed in flames, his scales burned black, and his flesh cooked hard.
It wasn't a wound severe enough to kill him as a dragon, but considering his hatchling body, it was an injury that couldn't be taken lightly.
'That wound is...'
The burns Kalesian suffered were ones he had seen before. Not far away, but just a moment ago. They were exactly like the burns that had been inflicted on Bertus.
"Good instincts. How did you know?"
Bertus looked at Jin-woo with puzzled eyes.
His ability, that authority he received from his Lord, had no special precursors. No spells or actions were needed to heal someone or inflict wounds on them.
If anything, only his gaze or presence when confirming to set the range of his authority.
It wasn't even necessary to confirm with his eyes, so until now, no one had ever avoided or blocked this authority.
'But how...'
For the first time, one appeared. A man who knew his authority was moving and warned others.
"Kang Jin-woo. I have something I want to discuss with you, just the two of us."
"...I don't particularly have anything."
Jin-woo spoke while being wary of Bertus. More precisely, he was wary of his flames.
Bertus's flames had returned to their original state. The slight change when he healed the burns he had suffered returned when he inflicted burns on Kalesian.
It meant that black flames, souls, were deeply involved in his power.
"Don't be so cold..."
Bertus glanced around Jin-woo's surroundings. Kalesian was absorbed in healing his immediate burns. Mahiri was obviously a woman who couldn't do anything. She seemed like a familiar assisting Kalesian.
However, what Bertus was more wary of than them was the light near Jin-woo.
"Let's have a chat for a moment."
He snapped his fingers. The thick fingers of the Orc made a dull sound that echoed between the cliffs.
The unfolded barrier swallowed Bertus himself and Jin-woo. Originally, it was the barrier of the God of War that covered this path.
Jin-woo had distorted the entrance and reached this path, but he had literally only ruined the entrance, not shattered the barrier itself. To break the barrier, he would need to steal the God of War's divine artifact.
Caught up in the barrier like that, Jin-woo saw a much more distant scene than what he had seen before.
"This is..."
A barren wasteland. Green masses covered the entire field of view where the horizon should be.
Green-skinned races like Orcs, Ogres, and Goblins. Eyes glowing red and mouths growling like beasts. Above all, there were many of them.
Jin-woo had seen plenty of monster hordes until now, but he had never seen such a breathtakingly large horde. This must be how those who witnessed the million-strong armies written about in history books felt.
"Kang Jin-woo. What my God wants from you is one thing."
Unlike the green masses covering the wasteland, Bertus in the sky had no clear killing intent.
He wasn't particularly trying to kill Jin-woo. Because his God didn't want Jin-woo's head.
"You have a scabbard brought from the Temple of Sky, don't you? My God says it's a particularly desired item among the divine artifacts. If you hand that over, I'll let you go quietly."
Bertus raised his hand. Just sending a signal like this would cause the green wave to engulf Jin-woo.
He knew Jin-woo was strong, but that too had limits. This wave couldn't be stopped by the strength of a single individual.
Jin-woo answered.
"Get lost."
At the same time, the green tide rushed toward him.
***
Orcs and Ogres came rushing like a tide. Many died crushed by their own pressure, but still didn't stop.
The green horde that rushed forward, stepping on their fallen comrades' corpses, was filled with madness. Rather, they became even more excited by the smell of their comrades' blood and charged forward.
'Tsk.'
Jin-woo clicked his tongue and cut them down. One strike, one kill. Every time his sword flashed, an Orc's head flew off.
Individually, they weren't particularly difficult opponents. They were creatures he could kill with just a light flick of his wrist.
But there were too many of them. There were so many that it was difficult to handle them all with one sword, so Jin-woo had to continuously move his body while swinging his sword.
'What should I do? Is there any good method?'
[The God of Moonlit Forest shakes her head.]
The power of blessing flowed from the glass bead to assist Jin-woo, but there was no sharp solution.
If he could use power like Shartia, it would have been a great help, but what she could do was only maintain Jin-woo's vitality to some extent with blessings.
That was also a great help, but it wasn't a way to deal with the immediate wave before his eyes.
'The God of Light isn't even visible.'
Perhaps only he was drawn into the barrier, as even the light masses that had been following well were nowhere to be seen. He was truly alone.
'If I could just deal with Bertus, it would work out somehow.'
But how to go upstream against this torrent and kill him?
Once, Jin-woo stepped on an Ogre's knee and landed on its shoulder. From there, he tried to approach Bertus by jumping to the next Ogre's shoulder.
But Bertus didn't stay still either. Whenever he showed signs of approaching, his black flames would ripple without fail.
'It's coming...!'
When that happened, Jin-woo had no choice but to pull back his body again. As he retreated, the shoulder of the Ogre where he had just been split open greatly and blood shot up.
This happened several times. Jin-woo had grasped his ability to some extent.
'If it had been flying sword energy or something, I could have deflected it.'
Bertus's ability struck across space and appeared. It would be appropriate to say it appeared rather than flew.
And judging from Kalesian's case, the attack he launched was probably one of the wounds he had healed in the past.
'Can he manifest healed wounds directly onto enemies?'
It was quite an annoying ability. It wasn't cutting himself, but reproducing wounds that had been cut in the past.
Moreover, there were no precursors for Bertus when he exercised his authority. He didn't chant spells, nor were there any particular eye gestures, hand gestures, or foot movements.
If it weren't for Jin-woo's ability to see the black flames, he would have been hit without knowing what happened.
"Amazing! How exactly are you dodging? Is it something like wild instincts?"
That's why Bertus was even more amazed.
How exactly does he know and dodge? Does he read the timing when attacks will come and move his body?
If that were really true, it meant his opponent was completely seeing through his psychology. Such observational power in such a short time since they faced off.
'But there must be limits.'
The point was that he was continuously winning in psychological warfare. But he couldn't always win. If he kept attacking, there would come a moment when he misread once, and that one time would be enough to inflict a fatal wound.
'Anyway, there are plenty of wounds left.'
The wounds he had stored up through his long years of activity as a healer were overflowing. Enough to fight thousands more battles like this.
Confirming that Jin-woo dodged well, Bertus completely changed his strategy and began scattering wounds everywhere his will could reach.
The Orcs and Ogres were swept away without knowing why, spilling blood and falling. In the chaotic battlefield where blood sprays rose endlessly, Jin-woo had to keep moving without stopping for even a moment.
If he stopped even a little, Bertus's authority would immediately fly toward him.
'How do I do this...'
While dodging, Jin-woo fell into thought. To approach him, he had to break through the Orc horde and continuously avoid his authority.
Even while thinking, Jin-woo didn't stop his sword and feet. Bertus also scattered his authority to continuously track Jin-woo. In between, only the Orcs were dying.
'...To counterattack, I need to take a hit once.'
In the current situation where he was completely on the defensive, to launch one counterattack, he needed to withstand his attack.
If it had been ordinary sword strikes or magic, he could somehow deflect them while approaching, but his ability wasn't that kind.
'Then...'
Having finished his deliberation, Jin-woo drew the sword he had received from Bulkar. Since that sword was in the God of Sky's scabbard, Bertus's eyes instantly lit up.
His God, the scabbard his Lord desperately wanted.
Jin-woo drew his sword and brought down Kanok's sorcery. Kwagwagwagwang! Lightning struck, and blinding light spread for an instant.
Using that moment of light, Jin-woo ran, stepping on the corpses of the charred black Orcs.
When the brief light disappeared, in Bertus's eyes, Jin-woo had gotten close as if he had teleported. Still, he didn't panic. As if he had predicted it, he inflicted a fatal wound on Jin-woo's movement path.
Originally, it should have been the timing when Jin-woo, who read the activation of his authority, would have retreated backward or to the side. But Jin-woo pushed his body forward even more, and at the same time, Bertus's eyes flashed.
'Crazy bastard!'
Was he charging in thoughtlessly, knowing what wound he had inflicted?
He understood Jin-woo's thinking. The idea was that if he could just endure once somehow, he could land a counter.
But among the wounds he possessed were countless severe injuries that would make one unable to move the moment they were inflicted. And what manifested now was from the past, the wound of a soldier who had been stabbed in the heart with a spear on a battlefield.
A round hole opened in Jin-woo's chest, and blood leaked out, and Bertus's eyes formed an arc. His gaze focused on that wound. A spear wound that would tear through flesh and pierce the heart.
However, what he had been expecting did not happen.
His authority tore through Jin-woo's flesh, severed his muscles, and broke his bones, but it could not pierce his heart alone.
The authority that reached his heart could not penetrate the golden energy protecting it and ended up destroying only the surroundings.
With a hole pierced in his chest like that, Jin-woo succeeded in approaching Bertus while protecting only his heart with the energy of the golden apple.
"What the...!?"
He cut down the neck of Bertus, who was desperately trying to dodge, in one strike.