Ch.176176. My Sword, My Hero (4)

My strength drained from my entire body. But I didn’t collapse. I needed time to catch my breath amid the flood of information rushing into my head. But the voice didn’t even give me that much time.

[Isha wanted you to live as a human.]

The sympathy in the voice. Was it directed at me, or at Isha?

“…Even though you were once her.”

[That’s exactly why I’m saying this. Ilroy, you have an obligation to live happily. That was Isha’s last will, the wish she desired even as she imprisoned herself here forever.]

“Is pushing me like this without giving me a moment to think part of your plan to make me give up?”

[I won’t lie. Yes, it is.]

“I….”

I turned my gaze. There, the light that had seemed to grow slightly was now receding again. I struggled to move my feet, trying not to lose sight of the light.

[Struggling like that is useless. As you slowly begin to give up, the light moves further away.]

“Who taught me not to give up in the first place, and now you’re saying this.”

I ignored the voice’s words. But the receding light wasn’t something I could grasp simply by ignoring the voice. The light faded faster than my footsteps could follow, and I began to run after it, forcing my unresponsive legs to move.

[Run if you must. There is no end to this path. There is only the light, and you who must chase it forever. You can no longer reach it.]

Was the voice trying to make me despair? I didn’t want to ask. It would be much easier to think that the voice was truly malicious, an entity trying to make me despair and give up. The moment I stopped to question its true intentions, I began to fear that I might actually stop my running legs.

[Ilroy. Why won’t you listen to me?]

“Don’t… call me as if you know me.”

I retorted and increased my speed. Then, the voice that had been patient until now gradually began to fill with anger.

[The one who wanted so desperately to save you… How can you not understand that heart!]

Crack-!

The path I was running on began to change. I leaped over a fissure that appeared before me. Then, stone pillars shot up from the ground, trying to impale me. I stepped on the pillars and jumped over them as I ran forward. Behind me, I could hear the pillars collapsing and feel massive boulders falling toward me.

[Do you still want to run like this even knowing the truth! None of it was your own will. You were simply designed to stand against The Seven Calamity to protect this world, and you’ve only been moving as that design dictated! Having realized that, you have no reason to continue acting accordingly.]

“Why, why do you say I have no reason?”

Grind.

That was clearly the sound of teeth grinding. Simultaneously, cracks formed in the empty void.

[Because the world wouldn’t have perished even if you had done nothing after that!! Isha would have protected you, protected humans forever from beyond this place. Didn’t Isha warn you many times not to push yourself? Do you think Isha would have wanted you to reach here while destroying your physical body?]

BOOM-!!

With the voice’s thunderous roar, the space exploded. I groaned briefly as I was thrown backward and tumbled along the path. This time, cracks began to form in the floor again. I immediately got up and continued running along the unstable path. Just after I took a step, the floor where I had been standing completely collapsed.

[She wanted you to live. She wanted you to live like any other ordinary human.]

The voice’s words had now become something like a lament. It wasn’t something I could ignore. I had been calling it a voice, but it was essentially the remnant of Isha who had failed in the first world. Yes, that voice was Isha’s lament. I shouldn’t ignore it, but it wasn’t the real Isha either.

[She wanted you to eat, drink, and sleep like other people. Make friends, travel, study. Have a job, get scolded at work, earn money….]

The words became more blurred as they continued. With a voice full of moisture, it continued speaking.

[She wanted you to experience and feel everything in the world that she never got to enjoy.]

BOOM-!!

The path exploded once more. This time, stone spears split into dozens of fragments. I drew my Neoul. I leaped while eyeing the flying stone spears. I cut the first spear that flew at me. I let the one falling from above pass by with a moment’s gap. Then I cut the third. The fourth.

Clang-! Clang-! Spears fell, and stone fragments scattered.

[She wanted you to love someone.]

The tenth, the twentieth. The path split again, and stone pillars and spears rose up. I used a stone pillar as a foothold and leaped again. I deflected the spears that poured down and flew at me. The hundredth. Now countless spear blades began to pour down, to the point where counting became meaningless.

[She wanted you to contemplate the meaning of life. To feel love and be loved. To get married, to blush at the sight of your bride’s face, to raise children, to think that living was enjoyable. And, and.]

Bang-!

Every movement I thought of in my head began to manifest with the blade. I grabbed a flying stone spear and stuck it into a pillar. Using the spear as a handle, I continued forward. When I jumped over all the stone pillars and landed back on the path, the attacks stopped. The dim light… seemed to have moved a bit further away. Isha’s lament was gripping and shaking me.

[And above all….]

Rumble.

An ominous sound was heard. The entire path was vibrating. The voice was now clearly sobbing.

[I wish… you could be happy.]

CRASH-!!

The stone pillars and spears that had risen were merging into one. Feeling that undeniably powerful presence behind me, I turned around.

“…You say you want me to be happy.”

[So, before it’s too late, I’ll send you back to your original world.]

A massive spear, compressed into one, was aiming at me. I held up my Neoul and exhaled roughly. Without warning, that massive spear fell. I raised my sword straight up and then brought it down.

Clang-!!

It didn’t cut through immediately. I gritted my teeth and tried to maintain the trajectory of my sword.

[Did you think an attack created by me would be weaker than even a single star?]

Screech-!!

The spear began to be cut. At the same time, I began to be pushed back.

[Give up.]

With the voice’s incantation, the spear exploded and shattered. A pile of rocks the size of a house fell over my head. I stared at the falling pile of stones in shock, then raised my Neoul again.

[This time, please give up.]

I didn’t answer. Because that lament seemed to desperately want me to give up, as if doing so would be helping Isha. Not wanting to think that way, I closed my ears. In this space where power wasn’t properly supporting me, my breath was gradually filling up.

[I said stop-!]

CRASH-!!

.

.

.

I opened my eyes among the pile of stones. The house-sized boulders scattered around created an extremely surreal landscape.

My body’s balance was off. I tried to lift my arm, but it wouldn’t move. Everything below my right shoulder was gone. My right arm, trapped between the pile of stones, was still tightly gripping the Neoul. My legs, seemingly injured in the attack, wouldn’t move either.

[Stop, please. Your body is all damaged. I can still heal that much, so please give up.]

It was a voice that sounded hoarse from crying. I staggered and fell back. My body was slowly beginning to scatter from the edges. Is this the end?

“I… couldn’t save you… Isha.”

[You being saved is the way for Isha to be saved. It’s the way to alleviate that guilt that’s tearing at her heart. Don’t you understand her yet? You, you….]

The voice broke off.

[Isha thinks your very existence is her karma. If she created you, she shouldn’t have created you for such a purpose. She shouldn’t have burdened you with the karma of saving the world.]

“I.”

I cut off the voice’s words.

“I never regretted being alive for a single moment. Not even saving people.”

[That was achieved by whittling yourself away. The result is a dying body, isn’t it?]

“Even so, I won’t regret it.”

Countless people flashed through my mind. Daphne’s smile, Marianne’s expressionless face, George’s shout, Isis, Aryen’s appearance. The queen’s benevolent smile, Bishop Andre’s eerie smile, Nella’s angry expression, the students of the magic tower and academy,

“…Because Isha wouldn’t have regretted it either if she were in my position.”

[Then return to those you’ve saved. Don’t leave them behind like this.]

“I can’t leave behind someone who hasn’t been saved…!”

I forcibly flipped my body over. If I can’t walk, I’ll crawl. If I don’t have a hand to hold the sword, I’ll bite it with my mouth. I pulled out my right arm that was buried among the pile of stones and gripped the Neoul with my left hand.

[Ilroy, please.]

“Killing me would be much faster.”

No matter how I was created, the Holy Sword is the Holy Sword. The past doesn’t matter. What matters is the me up until now, and saving her who was with me.

[Do you think you can defeat all the evil gods by going there? Adding just you won’t change the situation much!]

“That’s still unknown. With the giant, the fog, the comet, and when I saved people in that village, I didn’t move thinking I could do it.”

Using uncertainty as the driving force to move forward. I sluggishly moved my right leg. The light is still visible. Even if they say I can never reach it, I will move forward.

[Isha won’t know that you’re coming.]

“That’s good, then I can tell her when I arrive.”

One step, then another.

I moved forward feeling as if someone was pushing my back.

[I’ll stop you, Ilroy. If that’s what you say.]

The ground began to shake again. I gritted my teeth, prepared for the pain to come, and the path cracked again, shaking greatly.

“…I wasn’t planning to show my appearance until the end.”

Whoosh.

My body was lifted. I turned my gaze with wide eyes. I was being carried in someone’s strong arms, leaping over stone pillars and flying through the void. Obscured by darkness, I couldn’t see at all who had lifted my body.

“I thought it might surprise Isha too much.”

At the startlingly familiar voice, I pondered where I had heard it before. Meanwhile, the voice seemed to immediately recognize who had appeared, as it spoke with shock and disbelief.

[…You, why are you here?]

“That’s disappointing. Why, did you think you were the only one who left traces and disappeared in the first world, Isha?”

Thud.

The one carrying me landed on the ground, and only then could I realize who had lifted me.

“…You are, no, you’re.”

Through the dimly shining light, I saw a face exactly like mine.

“Yes. The second Ilroy, we finally meet.”

The Ilroy from the first world put me down with a grin.

“Nice to meet you.”