Ch.110Chapter 110. The Strongest Hero in History

Hero.

Ironically, the ultimate weapon prepared by humanity to counter beings like herself was someone who even Annabelle Britannia, who considered humans insignificant, regarded with caution.

While she might not understand their arrogance or nature, their potential alone was enough to threaten even herself, who embodied war.

“…Have you come to stop me?”

“Is there any other reason to be here?”

One such Hero stood before her, having collapsed the ravine, gripping a spade handle to block her path.

Was the anger in his voice due to the humiliation of the barrier’s collapse? Or was it vengeance for the soldiers around her?

“For someone who’s purely here to stop me, your attitude seems quite emotional.”

“How could it not be? Standing before someone who committed such atrocities, I’d hardly be human if I felt nothing.”

Though his attitude was emotional, his actions remained perfectly calm.

At least he possessed enough composure to control his actions.

Her bitterness at such patience likely stemmed from the faint memories she still retained from when she was alive.

“…But this is what war is.”

Yet that was a story of the past.

Whatever her previous life had been, her current self prioritized the mission to follow her mother, and any sympathy toward humans was considered not just worthless but meaningless.

“Regardless of whom you follow or what you seek… everyone who stands on the battlefield must be prepared to face death and despair equally. Since you’ve taken your position here, I assume you’re prepared for that much?”

“…Certainly, from the moment we heard you were targeting this place, it wouldn’t have been strange for something like this to happen anytime.”

Everyone who stands on the battlefield must accept that their dignity will crumble, and even their remains may not be properly buried.

As she firmly stated this, explaining her actions as reasonable, Jaseong Nam tightened his grip on the spade handle and steadied his breathing.

“Then let me ask you one thing. If what you’re doing is war, would you be willing to spare the lives of any of us who surrender?”

“…What do you mean?”

“Not everyone here is a combatant. There are merchants, and plenty of non-combatants who only focus on serving meals or treating wounds.”

Even in his original world, there were international agreements never to attack medics during war.

While soldiers on the battlefield might be prepared to kill each other, including others beyond that scope was something his common sense firmly rejected.

“And if I let you pass here, you’ll turn not just the soldiers but also the non-combatants into the same state as those beside you. Am I right?”

“…Of course.”

Exterminating all of humanity.

That was the very reason why the dead like herself had been resurrected.

“Good to know, you invading bastard.”

After hearing that resolute answer, Jaseong Nam struck the spade handle against the ground.

As the force prepared to move the earth, Jaseong Nam’s eyes flashed beneath his helmet as he shouted at her.

“If you’d at least understood the concept of prisoners, I might have shown some respect, but I really can’t deal with your kind. Are you ready to die again, you corpse?”

-RUMBLE!!

The earth rose with his shout.

As she felt the impact gradually spreading to where she stood, the Red Knight also prepared to respond by channeling her power into her sword.

-KWAAAA!

The released force pushed the soil forward toward him.

The attack that had been rushing toward him disappeared as if evaporating against his counterattack, but the undead outside its range were buried in soil without being able to respond.

While the undead wouldn’t die from mere burial, escaping from masses dozens of times their own weight wasn’t easy.

‘When he makes the ground rise, it’s as light as scooping with a shovel, but when his ability deactivates on the risen soil, the mass returns and buries everything in the area alive…’

An overwhelmingly advantageous ability in warfare where terrain advantage is crucial for group battles.

But the true value of this ability was that he could temporarily control soil of enormous mass and volume according to his will.

-Rumble, crack.

The barrier he erected had successfully protected his body from the previous strike.

Creating a sturdy barrier on the spot was difficult, but if he struck two more times without giving her a chance to respond, he could defeat her despite her protection behind the barrier.

If she were alone here.

“Now, kid!!”

“I’m not a kid, I’m Garam! You old man!!”

Right, being in enemy territory meant enemy reinforcements could arrive at any time.

As if in response, a girl jumped from the cliff and moved her hand, causing the boulders she controlled to be thrown at the corpses below.

Crunch, boom! The corpses were crushed miserably as they were hit by falling rocks.

The Red Knight, who had been deflecting these attacks one by one with her sword, began to turn her gaze toward Garam, who was soaring through the air.

‘Flying ability…?’

No, she had merely used her power to lift the platform she was standing on.

While precise control was difficult with objects she touched, making it more suitable for gliding than floating, the advantage in battle always belonged to those who secured the high ground.

Just by delaying the falling speed through gliding, the threat of the masses she controlled was comparable to carpet bombing.

“Going once more!!!”

“Alright!!!”

And present here was someone with the power to flip the earth regardless of mass.

Even the critical weakness of gliding—its time limit—could be refreshed by flipping the earth to create new rocks to float on.

-RUMBLE, CRASH!!!

After quickly mounting the new platform, she controlled the rising rocks to precisely strike where the enemies were—a coordinated attack.

Infantry who couldn’t effectively attack flying enemies had no choice but to be helplessly defeated.

‘Then I’ll just blast her out of the sky with firepower!’

-RUMBLE!

Once again, magic power gathered in her sword was released toward Garam floating between the ravine.

Garam’s body seemed to freeze when exposed to the attack, but she quickly regained her composure and turned her controlled platform toward the wall.

Toward the wall where Jaseong had struck his spade.

-RUMBLE!

The wall’s surface crumbled instantly under that force, and the soil controlled by magic power hardened to temporarily form a barrier.

Successfully shielded from the enemy attack, Garam suppressed her fear of the life-threatening situation and gathered strength in both hands.

“No time to waste, I’ll go as we planned! Get ready!!!”

Jaseong Nam rushed forward at the signal.

Passing through scattered rocks and crushed corpses, he struck down the remaining troops with his spade before plunging its end into the ground.

A movement attempting something.

But the bombardment coming from above prevented any interference with it.

“Now, kid!”

-Rumble, thud!

Garam precisely created the frame of a wall by controlling the flipped earth.

Then as her ability deactivated, the settling soil hardened with the magic power from Jaseong’s shoveling, forming a wall surrounding the Red Knight.

The result was two walls blocking both sides of the ravine.

Having successfully isolated the Red Knight alone inside, Garam jumped from the floating rock and landed beside Jaseong.

“Will this be enough?”

“Yeah, let’s leave the rest to our friend inside.”

Among the rocks dropped during the wall-building process, they had included “another collaborator” as previously agreed.

Having succeeded in creating a 1:1 situation as planned, their job now was to prevent the undead she controlled from interfering.

-Creak, creak!

Yes, the isolation of their master was enough to make them feel crisis.

Immediately after, the corpses began rushing toward each other, merging into the shape of a giant.

The result was a corpse golem made of hundreds of intertwined bodies.

Normally, it would take battalion-level forces to barely stop such a monster, but the one controlling this corpse golem was none other than the Red Knight of War.

-GROOOOAAAAARRRR!!

True to the name of war, the power of the undead she controlled overwhelmed normal undead.

The fierce roar created by hundreds of mouths echoed through the ravine, making the two people facing it feel tense.

“I hate to say this now, but kid, are you mentally okay?”

While he had become accustomed to danger and fear since coming to this world, Garam was just a teenage girl who hadn’t been in this world for even half a year.

Moreover, since soldiers she had been familiar with had suddenly turned into enemies, there was a significant risk she might lose her reason and fighting spirit.

“…I’m fine. I’m already used to facing people like this.”

But Garam too had gained experience with her companion in this world and developed her mental fortitude.

Though facing dead comrades was painful, she had repeatedly told herself they were only the same on the outside, so she could endure for now.

Above all, she had one more personal reason not to avoid this situation.

“And personally, I have quite a few scores to settle with that woman.”

Garam remembered.

When their party was in danger of annihilation by Gorgon Zola, that person had intruded and disappeared with him.

But it wasn’t out of sympathy for them—it was because she considered them not even worth killing.

What Garam felt toward her, remembering her companion’s helplessness at that time, could clearly be defined as a grudge.

-GROOOAAAR!

While feeling uneasy about having to entrust her personal grudge to someone else, the massive corpse golem charged toward the two of them with a roar.

As its swung fist collided with Jaseong’s barrier causing tremors, Garam regulated her breathing and gathered strength behind him before asking:

“Even if we’re okay, will it really be alright in there? I heard the opponent is a monster who could annihilate this place alone.”

“Ah well, it’ll be fine.”

If they failed to stop it, that monster would kill them too and head for the base, but such a thing would never happen.

Recalling the time he had trained with the person inside, Jaseong Nam said with confidence:

“I sparred with that friend several times over a month, and I never managed to land a single hit.”

****

At the same time, Annabelle stood before the barrier blocking her, taking time to examine its condition.

Both its thickness and sturdiness were considerable. Judging by how similar it felt to the castle wall she had destroyed earlier, she could deduce that those two had contributed to erecting this barrier.

‘Of course, it’s not something I couldn’t break if I concentrated my firepower. If I had time to break it…’

Dismissing her interest in the barrier, Annabelle turned to look behind her.

There stood a man who had secretly hidden among the fallen rocks and dropped into the same space as her before the barrier was erected.

All he wore was a sackcloth wrapped around his lower body.

His lean, muscular body was clearly visible, with the only peculiar thing being a paper bag hiding his head.

“……”

And he was taciturn.

After taking his position in the same space as her, he simply raised the club in his hand without a word, waiting for her to act.

“…So you’re my opponent.”

Though he appeared shabby and unremarkable on the outside, he was the one who chose to be isolated in place of the two Heroes who had stopped her.

So Annabelle didn’t let her guard down.

Just as a predator gives its all even when hunting a rabbit, she needed to thoroughly crush this human to teach him his place, regardless of how insignificant he seemed.

‘I’ll kill him quickly, whoever he is.’

Soon she compressed the output of her sword and maximized its sharpness.

An aura blade that could leave marks even on mythril, the most durable alloy in this world, if it just touched it.

The moment she rushed forward with that blade, her opponent also began charging toward her with his wooden club.

On the surface, he seemed insignificant.

The mana felt from the club in his hand was minimal, and he showed no signs of using special powers like other Heroes.

Then would something change after they collided?

-SLASH!

Making such considerations meaningless, Annabelle swung her sword as soon as the opportunity arose.

His head, unable to respond to that strike, flew upward, and his powerless body began to tilt.

‘Did I finish him?’

The sensation in her hand was clear, and the body with its severed neck was losing strength, showing reflexive convulsions due to death.

In her sight, she could see the head flying far away, drawing an arc as it fell.

‘…He’s dead.’

Before that head touched the ground, Taeyang Lim, feeling his consciousness fading, thought:

At this moment, he had met his death by having his neck cut by her blade.

So this must be a dream.

****

-BANG!

Waking from such a dream, Taeyang Lim lowered his head to avoid the strike.

After his counterattack hit the Red Knight’s head making her stagger, another blow from the opposite direction struck her face, pushing her body back.

‘What was that just now?’

It was an abnormal movement by anyone’s standards.

The beggar who seemed to be charging recklessly when the sword was swung had suddenly transformed as if becoming a different person in that instant, allowing himself to attack her.

“…You. What trick did you just use?”

Unlike herself who had allowed several attacks, her opponent had avoided her strike and suffered only minor damage with the bag slightly torn.

That was all the result she perceived.

She had no awareness that her sword had cut through his neck.

-Step, step.

This was the natural result.

He was the wielder of the “Stopwatch Hand” ability, which allowed him to rewind time by as many seconds as the number of fingers he folded, up to a maximum of 10 seconds, at the moment he received a fatal blow.

As someone who could infinitely return to 5 seconds before death just by holding a club, he was theoretically an “immortal” level ability user.

-Step, step.

Yes, standing here was a madman who had abandoned even his armor to meet the conditions of such an ability.

He was humanity’s strongest Hero in history, who had never once been defeated on his way here.