Ch.140Chapter 140. My Name is Abyss

Lin looked down at Naidrian with a shocked expression.

The archer, who had fallen after taking the demon god’s skill in her place in that split second, was barely able to turn her head and gaze at Lin endlessly.

“Did I… help… you…?”

“Don’t talk, the bleeding…!”

Instead of coughing, blood spurted from the severed parts of both arms.

A terrible, fishy scent of blood lingered in the air.

“I’ll heal you. Just wait a moment!”

“No! No… it’s already too late…”

Arsil rushed over to use her holy power, but Naidrian stopped the saint.

“I’m already… too late.”

Airan and the hero’s party gathered around Naidrian.

Even Tigria covered her mouth at the archer’s horrific condition.

“Why did you do it?”

Lin’s voice trembled as she asked the archer.

“Why did you have to sacrifice yourself?”

“Because it’s my fault that you ended up like this…”

Tears welled up in Naidrian’s eyes.

“This is the only… way… For you to be happy… Not carrying the burden of a sinner like me… For your sake…”

The elf’s face was already turning pale.

Her lips had turned purple, but Naidrian still struggled to keep speaking.

The last party member to approach with a clanking sound was Lucy.

The hero holding the Abyss whispered quietly.

“Tell me if you’re in pain.”

“No… I deserve this… I don’t deserve to die comfortably…”

Naidrian looked at each member of the hero’s party and squeezed out her last strength.

“Please believe me… this is the only… the only… Please believe me one last time, even though I’m so pathetic… please…”

But the archer couldn’t finish her words.

She had discovered an anomalous presence among those looking down at her.

It was a familiar face—the World Postman of the Golden Carriage.

Naidrian instinctively knew that the end had truly come, as per their contract.

“I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…”

She desperately moved her lips, turning her head toward Lucy.

An apology made at the risk of death.

Unlike Tigria and Arsil’s past apologies, this one felt so desperate that Lucy couldn’t just sneer and dismiss it as before.

Very slightly,

Lucy nodded toward Naidrian.

Seeing this, Naidrian called out to Lin.

“I’m sorry… my benefactor… you were the only one who believed in me… but I… I’m sorry…”

The focus was fading from her eyes.

Lin’s mind was in complete chaos.

Many thoughts crossed her mind in that brief moment.

Especially about forgiveness, even more so.

Why did you take my place?

You’ve been ignoring and hating me all this time.

You broke all the seals in my heart before, so why now?

You say this is the path to my happiness?

I hate you too.

I had no reservations about hating you.

But… what is this uncomfortable, sad feeling?

Is it right to just let you go like this, apologizing even as you die?

I wanted you to suffer until you were at death’s door.

I didn’t want you to die.

Because I thought that would be a kind of escape.

But seeing you begging for forgiveness rather than your life as you die… my heart is unbearably painful.

Lin silently stretched out her arm.

Her extended hand caressed Naidrian’s cheek.

And very slowly, Lin nodded.

The archer could understand what that meant.

“Ah…”

At the end of her foolish life full of blemishes, a ray of light seeped in.

And that light was so very,

“Warm…”

Naidrian took a breath and then stopped, never to exhale again.

With a complicated expression, Airan closed her eyes, and Arsil called out to the archer who had become a corpse.

“Naidrian!”

The World Postman bent down and grabbed Naidrian’s neck.

As he pulled, her soul slipped out of the corpse.

The World Postman wore a troubled expression as he faced the soul, whose eyes were still closed.

“This is different from what I expected. To be saved right before death.”

Soon after, the postman whispered to the soul.

“This is the price of the contract. From now on, you will do the dirtiest and hardest work among all my servants.”

With those words, the postman and Naidrian’s soul vanished.

This pitiful scene was invisible to everyone.

Even to the demon god.

“To think a hero party’s archer would fall in battle…”

Everyone was simply following Airan in somber mourning.

But sadly, this was the middle of a battlefield.

“I think I’ve given you enough time to mourn.”

Rainford, who had been quietly watching, clapped his hands to get their attention.

Despite the hostile glares directed at him for that action, he wore an extremely relaxed smile.

“You’re all going to follow her one by one anyway, so if we grieve like this each time, we won’t be able to finish even after a whole day passes.”

“Rainford!”

Lin stood up abruptly and glared at the shield knight.

Her vision turned red with anger, though she wasn’t in a berserk state.

But her desire for revenge against the one who killed Naidrian surged.

“What’s wrong? Wasn’t she someone who tormented you? Not even a word of thanks for eliminating her on your behalf—clearly the limitations of your lowborn origins are evident.”

“You bastard!”

Lin immediately kicked off the ground and charged.

In the blink of an eye, she leaped up and delivered a kick.

Kwang-!

As expected, the kick was blocked by the shield.

But Lin quickly made another low jump, spinning to strike the top of the shield with her other heel.

“Kuk!”

The impact drove the bottom of the shield into the ground, throwing Rainford’s center of gravity forward.

Lin dove into that opening and thrust with her palm.

Her intention was to tear Rainford’s throat with this strike.

But the palm strike was futilely caught.

Grab!

“Ah~ my Lin. Have you forgotten that I currently occupy half of this fellow?”

One side of Rainford’s face moved independently as it spoke with the demon god’s voice.

At the same time, he activated the shield’s chaos power, causing spikes to protrude along its edges.

Kwachang!

“No matter how angry you are, it’s troublesome if you don’t recognize your master. Is it because I tried to kill you earlier? I had a plan for that, you know~”

“Let go!”

But the demon god controlled Rainford’s body to impale Lin’s palm on the spikes.

“AAAAARGH!”

“Shh~. My Lin. I’m very generous, so I’ll let this go with just a little discipline.”

Kiiiiing-!

Chaos began to suck in Lin’s demonic energy.

Along with a feeling of dizziness, the burning pain from her palm spread throughout her body.

“AAAAAAAAAAH-!!!”

She screamed and struggled to pull free, but she couldn’t escape from the overwhelming force pinning her down.

“Let Lin go!”

Arsil, enhanced with holy power, rushed forward, but Rainford quickly thrust Lin toward her.

Startled, Arsil released her holy power and withdrew her fist, only to be tackled and kicked in the abdomen, knocking her down.

She was useless in many ways.

“Lucy, go now!”

As Tigria shouted while unfolding her scroll of knowledge, Lucy followed while growling.

“If you can’t control your magic properly, Lin might get hit too!”

“Do I look that stupid to you?!”

Tigria snapped back harshly as she infused magic into the scroll, creating several magic circles around Rainford.

The various colored magic circles each showed different attributes and effects.

“Debuff!”

Speed reduction, defense reduction, attack power reduction, subtle balance disruption—all sorts of debuff magic ensnared Rainford like a net.

However, Rainford smiled leisurely and willingly accepted those debuff spells.

“Arrogant bastard!”

Lucy, who had closed the distance in an instant, swung the Abyss upward.

Her target was the shield knight’s arm that was holding Lin.

“Too slow.”

“…?!”

Surprisingly, Rainford suddenly let go of his shield.

Lucy’s sword cut harmlessly through the space between Rainford and the shield, and in that gap, the shield knight threw a punch at Lucy’s face.

Bwak!

She hurriedly turned her neck but still took the hit on her cheekbone.

Far from being knocked away, Lucy tensed her thighs and stood her ground, and in a rush, she also let go of the Abyss and drove her gauntlet into Rainford’s face.

“Don’t get cocky!”

After Lin, Rainford was struck in the face by Lucy as well and flew backward.

“Ultimate Skill: Thousand Transformations!”

As he was sent flying into the plaza’s inner wall by the hero’s power, Tigria soared into the air and poured all her magic into a magical bombardment.

The endless barrage seen at the demon army frontline rained down, pressuring him.

Meanwhile, Lin was barely able to free her hand from the shield’s spikes.

“Lin, are you okay?”

“We need to keep attacking, that guy absorbed my demonic energy!”

“Don’t worry. I’ll end this with this!”

Lucy, picking up the Abyss, unleashed all her magic.

Red-golden magic energy erupted, shooting up to the sky.

Even with just this release of magic, heaven and earth were shaking.

Kwaaaaa-!

“I-!”

Lucy’s ultimate skill, shouted for the first time since taking up the temporary holy sword.

Though it had great recoil, its destructive power against people surpassed Tigria’s magical bombardment—the greatest skill.

“Yearn for it!”

Only by envisioning the peace she desires,

Only by sincerely picturing the tranquil daily life she wants can the hero’s ultimate skill exert its power.

Therefore, Lucy yearns and wishes.

For the moment when Lin forgives her.

For the moment when she’s together with Lin.

For the moment when Ravin acknowledges her and the three of them become happy together.

“Peaceful days with you!”

Just swinging it required tremendous strength.

An ultimate skill that couldn’t even be initiated without the hero’s physical abilities that could devastate the surroundings with a single leap.

Its true form was a massive sword energy imbued with magic.

Kwaaaaaaaa-!

[True Name Release: Hrungnir]

The sword energy absorbed even Tigria’s bombardment as it engulfed where Rainford had been and continued to an unknown distance.

It probably pierced through everything, breaking through to beyond the archipelago.

“Haa… haa…”

Due to the recoil from using her final skill, Lucy barely managed to stand, using the Abyss as a support.

Already, every muscle in her body felt like it was about to tear.

But that wasn’t the only reason for Lucy’s troubled expression.

For all the effort put into landing that hit, it didn’t feel satisfying at all—it felt unsettling.

The hero’s animal instinct was sounding a warning.

Unaware of this, Arsil, mesmerized by the power she hadn’t seen in a long time, murmured.

“Did we get him…?”

“Hey! Don’t say that now…!”

Arsil, who had just uttered that ominous cliché, was suddenly kicked in the abdomen and sent rolling.

Tigria, trying to assess the situation, was hit in the head by the leaping Rainford and slammed into the ground.

“Kuk… ah…!”

She tried to get up quickly, but the concussed magician collapsed again, writhing.

At least Ravin was able to prevent further damage by retreating with Arsil and Tigria to near Airan.

As the thick dust cleared, Lin and Lucy discovered Rainford standing proudly.

“This Lin… just how strong are you?”

The shield knight was trembling with excitement.

“Even with absorbing less than half, what an ecstatic feeling this power gives! To think you’ve been monopolizing such power all by yourself!”

Rainford bent down to pick up his exclusive item.

He wore an ugly face, intoxicated with power, having thrown away all pretense of being the Guardian of Balance.

Seeing him without even a scratch, Lucy confronted the Abyss.

‘You said you’d lend me power, Abyss!’

[Ah! Did I? How strange, I’m pretty sure I said I would lend you power as Hrungnir?]

The temporary holy sword mocked Lucy instead, scolding her.

[But what can I do? I’m not Hrungnir yet, you know?]

It was still far from that.

The ideal that the hero envisioned was woefully insufficient to transform the Abyss into Hrungnir.

No matter how much the hero wanted it, no matter how much Lucy wished to achieve it, that alone could never complete the transformation into a holy sword.

[My name is Abyss. You can only make me Hrungnir if you truly desire it. But will that moment ever come?]

Lucy tasted betrayal and helplessness.