Ch.120Chapter 120. What Does Death Leave Behind.

-Ding-a-ling~

Music begins to play.

A melody with an unexpectedly beautiful tune, one I never thought would flow in a situation like this.

-Kyaaaaaah, aaaaaah!!

But even that is barely audible.

At the foot of the mountain where the army stands, enemy forces still swarm, gradually increasing their numbers and cutting off escape routes one by one.

If they forced their way through and shook off pursuit, some might be able to report the situation to humanity, but what meaning would that have now?

It’s obvious that even if they endured this, an even greater despair would follow.

When even one born with the destiny of a Hero has denied humanity and turned against us, how could anyone believe hope exists in this world and press forward?

‘…Then why.’

Perhaps the right choice would be to not drag things out and throw themselves into battle here, like that first soldier did.

Despite this realization, they couldn’t follow the soldier who had gone ahead because even now, someone was rushing into the scene to fight her.

‘Then why is that man still fighting?’

He was someone memorable.

The one his old comrade had taken as a disciple. The figure they had wanted to raise as the successor to the hero they admired.

The power and techniques he wields now are hers, and the reason he appears here alone to face her must be because he has also inherited her heroic qualities.

‘Jean Cleo, you…’

Yet despite reaching the end of such efforts, he would meet the same fate.

So why doesn’t he give up like them? Why is he confronting the resentment of a Hero who has lost faith in the world?

He must know her as well as they do, and understand her pain even better than they do.

‘Are you still holding onto hope? Do you believe there’s hope even in a world like this, and that’s why you raised that man to be a hero?’

As these questions arose in his mind, Marcus chose to bow his head and erase the thoughts.

‘…I don’t know.’

There was no way he could know just by thinking alone.

Throughout his life, there had never been clear answers, and betrayal always followed expectations of effort.

‘I just want to rest now…’

Tired of living in such a world, Marcus stopped questioning himself and placed his hand on the sword at his waist.

Yes, he only wanted to be true to his feelings now.

-Ding-a-ling, ding~♬

Listening to the gradually intensifying music, he just wanted to be true to what he felt.

“General, what are you…”

“Those who wish to fight, follow me.”

What came out in the end wasn’t even an order, just a lament born from resignation.

Nevertheless, he wanted to maintain the appearance of a commander for his final moments.

“…What?”

“Those who will fight with me, advance downward and draw the enemy’s attention. If we can reduce their numbers even slightly, a small group might be able to escape from here.”

There was no honor or greater cause in it.

He simply wanted to be true to his feelings now, acting in the way most familiar to him.

“Whether you fight or leave… I won’t hold either choice against you. What you do afterward is up to each of you.”

“General, wait…!”

By the time the soldier’s protest came, it was already too late.

Having already descended the hill, he was drawing his sword and charging alone toward the enemies.

The aura on his sword was the result of training he had never neglected a single day since the death of the one he admired.

Although his opportunities to wield a sword had decreased since becoming a commander, he had never neglected his training, wanting to maintain those skills even with his aging body.

-Slash!!

It took only an instant for that sword, containing his entire lifetime, to cut down the enemies before him.

But no matter how sharp the blade, there’s a limit to how many enemies one person can face.

-Stab! Rip!

The soldiers swarming from all directions also possessed similar strength and displayed even stronger will as they tried to tear his body apart.

Their ferocity was extraordinary because they weren’t ordinary dead, but manifestations of the most frenzied era.

Unable to counter all their fierce attacks, his aging body was rapidly crumbling with each step.

‘The sword I’ve devoted my life to is breaking uselessly.’

His armor tears under countless attacks.

The slightest disruption in posture affects his power control, and even successful defenses cause fractures in bones that withstand powerful forces.

‘The body that has carried me all this way is breaking miserably.’

His breath becomes labored, and he can clearly feel his consciousness fading as even breathing becomes difficult.

Despite the helplessness and resentment he felt from these limitations, he stubbornly tried to move forward.

‘Was my life truly so meaningless?’

Now even the fingers holding his sword trembled, but still he refused to fall and tried to point his sword at the surrounding enemies.

‘Is it because we turned a blind eye to the truth of this world that we’ve been struggling so desperately?’

When even his sword was overwhelmed by the enemy’s onslaught—its edge chipped, its tip broken, and its aura wavering—

-Crunch, tear.

The specters of the old era seized the opportunity, tearing through the cracks in his armor, ripping his flesh and spilling his blood repeatedly.

The blood that burst forth became a fine drink to quench the thirst of the war-crazed specters.

As the blood drained and cold overtook him, even the pain subsided, and he could clearly feel his heart slowing to a stop.

‘But if…’

So, this is death.

The old warrior, feeling these final sensations, moved his hand still gripping the sword and tried to move his lips.

‘If the world continues after I’m gone…’

What leaked from those parted lips was regret he himself didn’t recognize.

But he would never hear it himself.

Death means feeling nothing more.

It means letting go of everything he had built throughout his life, along with his corpse…

****

“Gen…eral.”

Yet he did not fall, still standing rooted in place with his sword in hand.

The enemy’s assault around him had subsided long ago.

Though reinforcements would soon gather again, he still stood there, raising his broken sword.

-Crack, creak.

Even with his skin and organs all destroyed.

He tried to hold his position as nothing more than blood-soaked bones.

“The General is alive! We must rescue him…!!”

“Are you insane!? The enemies will gather again!!”

“But the General…!!”

“Look properly! It’s already too late!!”

The skin on his face had been completely stripped away revealing bone, and whatever was inside had long since spilled out through his mouth and other openings.

All that remained was his skull, worn and cracked, no longer even resembling his form.

-Clatter, rattle.

Yet it still moved because an impure power dwelling in his body was trying to animate him based on the records left in his flesh.

The general they had followed had already become an undead.

This was the miserable end met by one who had spent his entire life strengthening the army that protected humanity.

“Ah, aah. General…”

Why did he fight at the end?

If it was mere resignation, he could have simply thrown his body away without trying to extend his life.

Why did he fight until his body was so terribly damaged?

-Ziiing!!

A red current began to sweep over the soldiers who were mourning him.

The red light emanating from the corpse twisted the body unnaturally, turning it to face them.

This was the power of the Red Knight.

The power to resurrect all the dead in his domain and add them to his army.

Any corpse entranced by this power becomes a minion of the powerful, turning against humanity regardless of their life.

-Boom!!

This proclamation of despair was interrupted by a collision between the Red Knight and the Hero they were facing.

The head that was about to turn toward them suddenly stopped, and the sword’s point was withdrawn from them.

The moment the control of the superior entity was cut off.

The undead, regaining its autonomy, is drawn by the residual power in its body, trying to be true to its instincts.

“Ch…”

If only the desire to live remains, it would pursue the living, seeking to take their warmth and life.

But if something even stronger than that.

If a clear regret from life remains distinct even after death.

“Ch-charge…”

Yes, he had regrets.

Beyond mere attachment to the living, he was trying to move his tattered body through the awakened regret, through the faint sense of self that had developed in him.

“Charge, the Hero…”

And so he moved not toward the soldiers he once led, but toward the direction of the approaching enemies.

And while gazing at the Hero who was still battling the Red Knight.

“Pro…tect, the Hero.”

The voice that leaked out at the end began to faintly echo among the soldiers behind him.

“General, what…”

“Protect the Hero. Protect…”

It began with admiration for the Hero.

And at the end, facing the death of the one he admired gave him an awakening and a calling.

She died not because she was weak, but because she shouldered too much alone.

“Army, charge…”

That’s why he always thought.

If Heroes appeared before him once more.

If beings truly worthy of being called humanity’s hope appeared again, he would build an army to fight alongside them, not just watch from behind.

“Protect, the Herooo…”

That regret was moving his corpse now.

Even in the face of the desperate end that comes equally to all, he wanted to convey that there is meaning in the life that leads to that end.

“So that humanity’s hope does not crumble…”

If the world truly continues after his death.

With the belief that what he leaves behind might bring about some change in this world.

“Protect humanity’s hope with our hands!!!”

The body where that belief remained continued to advance toward the battlefield.

To protect the Hero.

To protect the one who could overcome this desperate situation, though he himself wasn’t aware of it.

“…General.”

They know.

Those who have fought the undead know best that they are merely copies of the living’s most intense moments.

-Ding-a-ling~♬

But in that lamentation, they felt hope.

They understood that his will to protect the Hero even in death was directed toward that man.

-Ding-a-ling, ding~♪

And what resonated among them at this moment was a performance that stirred emotions.

Emotions drawn from the depths of their unconscious, which they themselves weren’t aware of, welled up due to this performance.

“…Charge.”

A soldier intoxicated by these emotions drew his sword.

Just on a momentary whim.

Drunk on a feeling that couldn’t even be called courage, but rather recklessness.

“Charge!”

Yet in this moment, being true to their feelings, they use even this as an anesthetic against the cruel future that awaits.

It’s just a difference of sooner or later.

Though a desperate end awaits everyone, they realized that how they proceed until then is their choice.

“Chaaaarge!! Soldiers!”

“Follow the Generaaaal!!”

Emotions that had remained unconscious now became reality.

The screams that erupted turned into battle cries as they threw themselves into the calamity born from humanity’s original sin.

No matter how brilliant and desperate their lives were, even if their end would equally reduce them to mere flesh.

“Charge…!”

“Protect our hope!”

Yet like those who went before them, they firmly believed they could rise up, and were willing to burn their bodies for it.

“Don’t let the General’s sacrifice… the sacrifice of those who went before us be in vain!!”

“May the world remember my end!!”

On the battlefield where the living gradually disappeared and the dead overflowed.

Yet the direction they advanced remained constant.

The battlefield created by those who advanced and those who followed was itself a symbol of humanity’s madness.

“Protect humanity’s hope with our hands!!!”

The madness of seeking hope in a hopeless world.

The madness that can exist because they believe what they find at the end will be hope.

*****

-Clash!!

At the end of the war where such madness swirled, the moment finally came when the tide turned.

Not only the living, but even the dead who had escaped his control joined the battlefield…

An unprecedented, absurd event was unfolding.

“Why on earth…”

Of course, he could bring them under control by exerting more power, but the person before him was constantly interfering.

This so-called Hero who he could crush anytime in a proper fight.

Just a youngster who was merely imitating his techniques, barely matching the power of his prime.

“Why am I being pushed back…?”

Yet somehow, in this one-on-one battle, he was being slightly overwhelmed by the other’s power?

Even if he lacked the leisure to exercise forced commands due to the rushing troops and the other’s interference, his power alone should overwhelm him.

“My power should have surpassed even dragons, so why am I being pushed back by the likes of you…!!”

-Boom!!

An explosion of magical power erupted from the balance disrupted by such impatience.

As the Red Knight, feeling his body tilt for the first time after being hit by the spear, widened his eyes, the one holding the spear shaft began to smile faintly while catching his breath.

“Seems like you’re getting desperate. Suddenly dropping the formal speech.”

“What…”

“Well, it makes sense. Right now, you’re more influenced by the memories of when you were a mercenary, not a Hero. So this is only natural.”

Yes, the reason the opponent became a calamity surpassing dragons was due to the production of infinite troops.

Since the awakening of this power is still in its early stages, the troops can barely be handled by the humans here, and excluding those troops, what remains is only her own strength.

And the period when her regrets were strongest was during her time as a ‘mercenary’ who experienced the era of war.

Though she might have been the strongest among humans even then, it couldn’t be considered the peak of individual power compared to when she faced dragons.

“You might surpass even dragons by pushing with numbers, but…”

On the other hand, this side has absorbed all the life experiences of Tachia Pailoi.

One who has lived through the era of war, faced dragons, and even absorbed the will left behind after death.

“If it’s just you alone, even the current me isn’t someone you can’t defeat.”

The moment he realized this difference, hope was born in his heart.

Hope that he could win this seemingly hopeless battle.