Ch.166Faith (4)

‘There’s no way out.’

Numbers, firepower, stamina.

It was a situation where she was thoroughly outmatched in every aspect.

Forget victory—the fight itself wasn’t even viable.

What’s more, the girl had someone to protect, making the battle even more one-sided.

Irene hid the unconscious Lezia behind her back.

Then she raised her sword tip in defiance.

The crimson flame was gradually losing its strength.

It was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain.

At this rate, she would certainly be exhausted within 5 minutes.

No… perhaps having her limbs torn off by those things would come first.

The girl exhaled the breath that had risen to her chin.

“Haa, haa…!”

No solution was in sight.

She cut down one, then two, but all that came back were dozens of grasping hands.

The fox could barely maintain her current state at best.

She scanned her surroundings as sweat dripped down.

‘This is too much.’

She had barely managed to deal with 100 of them.

Rotting chunks of flesh piled at her feet.

Beyond them lay thousands of specters, spreading only a dark sense of despair.

The fox erased unnecessary thoughts and regained her faltering stance.

Not missing that moment, a heavy strike aimed for the girl’s neck.

Irene barely blocked it by tilting the back of her blade.

CLANG-!!

“Ugh…!”

“Your. Story. Is. Meaningless.”

What charged at her was a ragman.

A shovel wrapped in Demonic Energy.

The thick force gradually pushed the girl backward.

The dirt ground left lines under her shoe soles, and the traces scorched by flames grew fainter.

Eventually, the fox couldn’t withstand the pressure and her sword wavered.

Her opponent showed no mercy for such an opening.

Clang! Thud-!

The man lightly withdrew his shovel, then delivered a middle kick to her abdomen.

Irene staggered with a painful breath.

“Kuhak…!”

SCREECH!

The corpses showed no mercy even in such moments.

Claws flew from the side, aiming for her eyes.

The girl barely turned her head, but a deep wound was carved into her cheek.

The area where Demonic Energy had seeped in burned with pain and began to corrode.

A distinct nausea struck the fox.

“Ugh, uu…”

Irene tried to catch her breath.

However, the staggering beast finally fell to her knees on the dirt.

The flame that had illuminated the dawn of the cemetery extinguished.

Her red hair returned to its original orange, and the burning blade cooled down coldly.

All her energy had been depleted.

“Haa, haa…”

“Is it over.”

Perhaps recognizing that she had no strength left to resist?

The ragman withdrew the shovel he had been pointing.

Then he spoke.

“Behind. Lezia. Pillots. Hand. Over.”

“……”

“No. Need. To. Take. Unnecessary. Lives.”

If she quietly handed over the pilot, he would spare her life.

Irene remained kneeling without any response.

Her faint breathing spread as mist.

Throb-.

It was painful.

Decay was progressing in her wounded areas, and the skin contaminated with Demonic Energy felt like it was peeling off.

Moreover, corpses all around were licking their lips as if wanting to fill their stomachs.

Thousands of corpses, at that.

It was a terrifying sight.

Nevertheless, the girl pronounced.

“…Eat shit.”

She had no intention of handing over Lezia.

The fox understood the situation.

If she allowed their wishes to be fulfilled, all of daily life would be shattered.

The peaceful days and times spent together would be scattered.

The days with that person she wanted to protect, or had to protect, would be ruined.

That’s why the girl couldn’t yield.

“Then. You. Must. Die.”

The ragman reached out his hand.

Irene gripped her sword with trembling hands.

A warning brushed past her ears once more.

-Never go against the flow.

-The natural order is an absolute law.

-If you try to defy the stars with the power of a mere creature, you will surely pay a price worse than death.

The sword saint had warned her.

If she forcibly opened the door, she would face the backlash.

He even added that she would live eternally trapped in the mental world.

His eyes were serious without a hint of playfulness.

As if telling her to abandon such a choice.

“Ha…”

Nevertheless, the girl had no other option.

The girl melts her concentration into the sword.

Beyond her gradually sinking consciousness.

She searches for her own light inherent within.

Soon, a faint resonance reaches her ears.

[Poor little fox.]

It was the voice of the star.

As she tried to forcibly open her inner door, it seemed like a will to dissuade her.

Irene ignores such noise and gathers her strength.

[Why do you invite your own end?]

[Even knowing what tragedy unprepared starlight will bring.]

[You are like a moth flying into flames.]

It was a path she had to walk.

To protect her own nest, sometimes one needed to be prepared to break through even flames.

The girl, no longer weak, knew this fact.

She knocks on her inner door with gritted teeth.

[Are you not afraid?]

I am afraid.

Yet I did not run away.

[Are you not sad?]

I was sad.

Yet I did not cry.

If she could slay the grim reaper before her, if she could protect this place in the end, that would be enough for her.

She knocks roughly on the inner door once more.

[You will be trapped for eternity.]

[In a place where 1 hour feels like 1 year, meeting no one, serving thousands of years of punishment.]

[Is your altruism and determination strong enough to bear such a sin?]

She didn’t care.

Instead of giving an answer, the fox merely clenched her fist forcibly.

A white light spread stealthily around her.

[Will you… not regret it?]

Regret.

At that resonance, her hand paused momentarily.

But as if it never happened, light flickered in her gathered palm.

Perhaps accepting Irene’s stubborn will?

The star finally stops trying to dissuade her.

[Very well.]

A somewhat sorrowful voice.

A faint night sky reflects beside her.

[If that is your nobility… even if foolish, I shall not stop you.]

[The stars will remember your dawn.]

[My fox.]

The star whispers.

[Open your eyes.]

The next moment.

A streak of brilliant light pierces through the dark clouds.

A flash striking the center of the cemetery.

It was starlight enveloping only the fox.

Beyond the suddenly raised eyelids, only white pupils were gleaming.

From the tightly gripped sword, pure white flames burn vividly.

Intense heat colors the area.

“……”

Irene standing up somehow.

She looks at the thousands of troops surrounding her, and the one necromancer.

The man who had been dead-eyed all along now had exclamation in his gaze.

The fox simply raised her sword without any particular words.

Whoosh-.

Wind wrapping around her fingertips so quietly.

A kind of omnipotence swallows her whole body.

It felt as if she could cut down not just the enemy before her… but even the world itself now.

The brilliant starlight colors her mind with numerous awakenings and exclamations.

Her pale gleaming pupils clearly resemble stars.

The field of corpses where a gloomy dawn had settled.

At its center stood only one holy light.

The girl grasps the light.

‘It’s quiet.’

A feeling that everything except herself had stopped in the dawn.

Scattered silence flies like flower petals.

It felt as if she could count each particle contained in the scenery.

In the momentarily ecstatic illusion, Irene slowly drew her strike.

A straight horizon remains on the ground whose end couldn’t be seen.

Immediately after.

—–!

That strike didn’t even produce any noise.

Just, for a moment, the world split.

The necromancer, corpses, and hounds who unilaterally faced the straight line.

They remain dazed, belatedly realizing they had been cut.

Thousands of necks begin to fall simultaneously.

Only then does a delayed cutting sound ring out grandly.

Rustle-!

“…Burn.”

Faintly moving lips.

As if answering the call, the pure white flames devour the enemies without leaving a trace.

The solid domain of the ragman shatters into pieces.

Just one strike.

Yet the girl glimpsed an entirely different world.

Intense elation heats up with quietness.

As light drove away the dawn like that.

[This is as far as you go.]

Suddenly fading consciousness.

The fox’s legs give out, and soon she collapses to the ground.

The surrounding scenery had returned to the original academy alleyway.

The voice of the star faintly lingers in her ears.

[How foolish.]

[Nothing can be undone now.]

[I only hope you lived your star fully.]

[My poor fox.]

Creeping-.

Even that voice gradually fades away.

Irene could only accept her fading consciousness without any particular resistance.

Even as she sank into the deep sea, there was someone she thought of.

That uniquely ominous impression kept flickering.

‘Judas.’

In the end, she had broken the taboo, but it wasn’t something done without thought.

Irene wasn’t the type with such a reckless personality.

A soft resonance circles her inner mind.

‘I’m not afraid.’

Consciousness flickering intermittently.

The white gleaming pupils lose their moment, and the covered eyelids meet gentle rest.

Even as all senses blurred like being underwater, the fox.

Gently-.

As if falling asleep.

Yet she wasn’t afraid of what would come next.

She was simply sinking into the flow.

‘If it’s you…’

You’ll surely find me.

No matter where I am, no matter how far I fall, if it’s you, you’ll find me.

The strike she delivered at the end was faith in you and our relationship.

Whether it takes days, months, years, or centuries, the belief that you will definitely find me.

With such faith alone, the fox was prepared to endure hundreds of days.

The girl conveys words that won’t be heard one last time.

“I’ll wait.”

So.

Please don’t take too long.

***

Several hours later.

The orange hair lies calmly on the hospital bed.

The fox was unconscious as if asleep.

“Miss Irene.”

Beside such a girl, a boy is sitting.

With his hand overlapping hers.

The golden snake looks down at the one and only existence to him.

With a gently extended hand, he caresses her white cheek.

He soon mutters with a complicated smile.

“When I receive such faith… I have no choice but to respond.”

The boy arranges her disheveled hair.

Then he leaves a quiet whisper.

“Wait.”

It was the fulfillment of a responsibility once promised.

A relationship that doesn’t end with just faith.

The truth that naturally follows when one tries to tame someone.

A voice acknowledging that they are each other’s only one.

The snake answers.

“I will find you.”

I won’t leave you alone.