Ch.211A Story That Won’t Evaporate – The Hour of the Dog and Wolf (1)

You flipped the situation with a single shot. The gunsmith who spent the morning meticulously cleaning his weapon would be pleased. As for Dr. Albert… who knows. Dead men tell no tales.

Only the living speak. I tossed aside the rifle that had fulfilled its purpose with that one shot. The other bullets had become unusable when Sol Invictus unleashed his divine power.

With luck, one or two rounds might have still worked, but there was no time to search through the burning ammunition box. All I could rely on was my dagger and my body. Fortunately, Sol Invictus now possessed only a body stripped of divine power.

I could win this fight. All I needed to do was fight and kill him. I drew the dagger I had tucked at my waist after killing the miner. The club I had used in the trenches was already in the fire pit.

Sol Invictus seemed to be breaking free from the memories I had implanted. The god, who had been staggering as if about to lose consciousness, raised his head.

Marble fragments began falling from his body. The warm golden light, like sunshine that had been leaking through the cracks, had stopped, and as the marble skin crumbled away, it revealed human flesh beneath.

Sol Invictus roughly tore away the marble fragments covering his mouth area and muttered. He spoke with as much malice as I possessed.

“You’ve ruined everything, warrior. You… you, a mortal who doesn’t even understand my dream, have stopped everything!”

His words made me laugh. As Sol Invictus shook off the marble chunks encasing his limbs and raised his gladius, I gripped my dagger like an ice pick.

“Isn’t it childish to throw a tantrum because no one understands your dream?”

I wasn’t careless. Even with twice the vitality and twice the strength, Sol Invictus was a god who had been wielding a blade for thousands of years, and now both of us had nothing but blades and fists.

I charged forward as he freed his feet from the marble chunks stuck to the floor. Before the echo of the gunshot that killed the miner had faded, before the blood on my blade had dried, I found myself in a second battle.

Sol Invictus seemed to wear an oddly relieved expression. Perhaps it was because the unworshipped god, who until now had moved only to be venerated, could finally move with a clear mind.

“Can’t you understand a world where the struggle for life can continue endlessly?”

It was a posture that made it impossible to apply proper force. From a stance where an ordinary person would be lucky not to fall backward, Sol Invictus instead drove his feet deeper into the marble chunks and extended his hand.

In an instant, his center of gravity aligned perfectly, and like a mousetrap springing with its own force, the tip of the gladius shot upward, precisely aimed at my chest.

I would have the advantage in physical ability. I caught his wrist, stopping the blade just as it pierced my shirt, and brought down the dagger in my other hand to strike his forearm. Or rather, I tried to.

Sol Invictus simply released the handle of his gladius and pushed forward with the arm I was holding to grab my collar. He maintained his axis, preventing me from stabbing him.

Though we had twice the strength and twice the vitality, we weren’t twice as heavy as others. I didn’t know how Sol Invictus had figured this out, but he was using his weight class effectively.

His forearm was still in my grasp, so I gripped it with all my might and twisted his arm. Keeping my center of gravity back to prevent him from shaking me, I drove the reverse-gripped dagger toward the inside of his forearm.

Though one of his ankles was still trapped in the marble chunk, he acted as if it were no obstacle. When I shifted my center of gravity backward to prevent him from shaking me, he started pushing with his weight. I strained to maintain my posture as it threatened to topple backward. As I forcibly held my ground with double strength, Sol Invictus exclaimed:

“Truly giant-like strength! Yet you deny me, despite clinging to life with that very strength!”

I stabbed the blade in while he was talking, but unfortunately, it didn’t sever his tendons. His arm didn’t go limp as if its power had been cut off.

He seemed to feel no pain at all. Keeping the blade trapped in his torn arm muscles to prevent me from pulling it out, he threw a punch with ogre-like strength. He still had my collar in his grip.

Then there was only one option. I clenched my fist and met his incoming punch with my own, faster than he could swing. With a body that took only half damage and double vitality, I withstood the recoil.

It was Sol Invictus whose fingers were shattered. He released my collar and pulled the dagger from his forearm. The human-sized dagger looked like a paring knife in his hands.

I picked up his gladius from the floor. I might not know how to wield it properly, but I knew which way the blade faced and could roughly calculate its length.

I gripped the sword handle like a hammer. If I could just eviscerate him, Sol Invictus, now in a human body, would die. Seeing how I held the sword, Sol Invictus sneered again.

“You’re a natural. You immediately know how to kill people, and you’d be the last one standing if I gave everyone divine weapons and made them fight to the end, yet you deny me!”

Ridiculously, I charged at Sol Invictus, who held that dagger that looked like a paring knife. He stepped back with clumsy footwork, his feet still encumbered by marble chunks. He was drawing me in.

I stopped myself from taking another step forward. This time, he advanced one step, dragging his marble-encumbered foot toward his body, and skillfully kicked forward.

It would be disastrous if I were hit, but it was too slow to have been meant to connect. Sol Invictus made me create distance, then smashed the marble chunk on the floor to break it free.

This was the worst. Now I had to fight fair and square. It was simple when I could use every trick while my opponent couldn’t, but now we both had to fight for our lives.

“Regardless of ability, it’s only natural to ignore bullshit. Just…”

His technique was superior to mine, but my physical abilities were definitely better. Somehow, I needed to disarm Sol Invictus. I took a breath and slowly closed the distance again.

I kept the hand holding the sword close to my body, while extending my other hand slightly forward to deflect his thrusts. Since the dagger was sharp enough to cut through my flesh, I needed to strike his wrist.

I swallowed once. In the gap created by that unnecessary tension, Sol Invictus rushed at me with elf-like agility. My reaction was delayed by half a second of flinching.

Still, I managed to keep up. I caught his wrist with my left arm as he swung to slash my throat with his right hand, then struck upward with the gladius in my hand, just as Sol Invictus would have done.

“I just don’t want to. Do you know how shitty it is to make a living by killing people day after day?”

The angle was perfect to pierce straight through his side. The blade penetrated the empty space with nothing to stop it, but Sol Invictus responded with grotesque flexibility. He twisted his body to deflect the gladius blade.

Truly a body made only for fighting. As flexible and fast as an elf, yet as strong and heavy as an ogre. Without twice the strength and vitality, I wouldn’t have stood a chance.

Hypotheticals were meaningless. I had twice the strength and twice the vitality, and Sol Invictus had that body and his skill. I decided to be grateful just for having a fighting chance.

“Knowing that, you want to make others live that way too? If you’re going to lose your mind, couldn’t you just do it quietly?”

I pulled back the blade that Sol Invictus had avoided by twisting his waist. The blade cut a large chunk of flesh, and colorless divine blood dripped from the gladius, unlike human blood. His core was still divine.

Simultaneously, Sol Invictus struck my shoulder with his blade, putting his weight behind it. The blade lodged precisely above my collarbone, making my right arm contract as if cramping, but Sol Invictus’s wound was far worse.

Now it was a battle against time. Moreover, with the blade completely embedded in my shoulder, Sol Invictus had effectively lost his weapon. Should I pull it out? If my collarbone broke during the fight, it would be disastrous.

I wasn’t obsessed with war like Sol Invictus. I had never thought dying in battle was glorious. Kill and survive. As always, that was enough.

Gritting my teeth, I pulled the blade from my shoulder. Since I had never learned to use two blades, I threw my dagger into the flames that were beginning to engulf our surroundings. Now only I had a weapon.

The smoke was making it increasingly difficult to breathe. I could hold my breath for about five minutes. If I could just kill him within that time, I could escape.

I needed to make Sol Invictus move. I needed to make his heart pump with all its might, causing him to bleed out from the wound in his side. Enduring the pain in my shoulder, I charged.

Despite having a chunk of flesh cut from his side, Sol Invictus charged back at me, seemingly feeling no pain except for the blood loss. Though his body was slower and weaker than mine, his strike with his extended thumb and index finger to the nape of my neck seemed faster than I was. It was technique. Against the war god’s technique, I could only inhale a mouthful of smoke-filled air.

I struck Sol Invictus’s face with a fist, thumb extended. He couldn’t react properly. However, he caught my attempt to slash across his other side with the gladius.

His timing distribution was perfect. Despite his reactions being noticeably slower than mine, he knew exactly when to react, making it a real fight.

Sol Invictus struck hard across my hand holding the gladius. Since the shoulder where the blade had been embedded was my dominant side, I couldn’t apply proper force and lost my grip on the sword handle. The gladius flew away.

The sun god who had lost his light sneered. His face, still showing he was doing something thoroughly enjoyable and fulfilling, was hateful.

“Even in pankration, weapon possession is against the rules, mortal! You should play fair.”

Ideally, I would be the only one with a weapon, but the current situation wasn’t too bad either. I just needed to stall for time. And Sol Invictus knew exactly what I wanted.

He gathered the remnants of his divine power to collect the flames burning around us. Creating a handful of solar fire, he placed his hand on his side where flesh had been carved out. He cauterized it by burning.

“It won’t be time that kills me, warrior. It will be you, in the very way you denied! You will vanquish me. Then…”

I had no intention of listening to his entire speech, so I immediately stepped forward and struck with double strength. Even a war god who feels no pain couldn’t continue speaking with a fist lodged in his philtrum.

Feeling blood seeping from my shoulder, I pressed on with force, striking Sol Invictus. The burn throbbed. The surrounding flames were scorching my skin, and my shoulder already felt cold.

I didn’t even bother blocking. I threw punches until my knuckles split, struck his chin with my elbow, and drove my knee into his lower abdomen. I didn’t stop, determined to demolish that god’s body.

Sol Invictus didn’t seem particularly interested in blocking my attacks either. He grabbed the nape of my neck with his palm, still hot, leaving a large burn on my neck. It was bearable. I could endure it.

But then, while flailing his hands wildly, he struck the side of my head with his palm. I thought it was a wild swing, so I didn’t block it, but that seemed to be exactly what he was aiming for.

There was a disorienting ringing that prevented me from thinking clearly. It felt like my entire brain was shaking. With an unpleasant ringing in my ears, I stepped back, holding the side of my head where he had struck.

Even when I tried to speak, I could only hear from my left side. Yes, one ear was gone. Though I staggered, unable to maintain balance, Sol Invictus wasn’t in great shape either.

With the body of an Argonne Invincible, I had struck him so hard that the knuckles on the back of my hand were scraped raw and bleeding. His insides must look like scrambled eggs made by someone who had initially planned to make a fried egg but changed their mind too late.

He spat out a transparent mass of blood and tissue. Thanks to his divine body, it didn’t feel particularly gruesome. But as he prepared to fight again, he began to laugh maniacally.

His gaze wasn’t directed at me. It was fixed on empty space, as if seeing a vision. Had I hit his head too hard? Judging by the fact that it hadn’t shattered, that didn’t seem to be the case.

“You too will eventually acknowledge it! You too will eventually claim it! You too are ultimately a warrior! A warrior who will be intoxicated by the glory of Sol Invictus, by the sight of claiming the future!”

After shouting as if making a prophecy, he charged at me. He struck with his palm like when he had hit my head earlier, but this time with his middle finger extended. He was trying to pierce my brain.

I easily twisted my neck to let his finger graze the side of my head, then rushed into his guard.

Whether he had seen some future or not, his sudden maniacal laughter made his movements larger, and even his beautifully precise timing control had ceased. He was just throwing potentially lethal strikes into empty air.

I dodged and blocked the hand and foot movements he was unleashing with his last strength. The relief that I just needed to endure this was enough to draw out the remaining strength in my gut.

I pulled my guard up to prevent him from hitting my shoulder wound. Fighting the sensation of the world spinning and the nausea caused by my unbalanced equilibrium, I drove my knee into his abdomen again.

I couldn’t see the future. All I could anticipate and hope for was killing Sol Invictus and leaving this city. Just living one more day, and then another, that was all.

He gathered his last strength in his trembling hands, forming them into a single mass, and thrust forward with five fingers extended like a spear. I simply twisted my body slightly to the side to avoid it.

My body was approaching its limit, but my mind was clearer than ever. Sol Invictus again formed his other hand into a spear-like shape and began to extend it as if to pierce me.

Ah, it was time to rely on familiar techniques. I changed the direction of my high guard, bringing my wrist to the side of my head. I made his fingertips collide directly with my elbow.

I couldn’t even count on my fingers anymore. He could still strike with his hand even with broken fingers. He might not be able to make a fist, but he could still punch. However, he couldn’t strangle me. That was a job for fingers.

He wouldn’t be able to extend his middle finger to pierce my brain like before. Now I could comfortably approach within Sol Invictus’s range.

I couldn’t beat him to death with my fists. I walked toward the gladius that Sol Invictus had knocked away, limping backward without turning my body.

The smoke was acrid, making it hard to breathe. The job needed to be finished. Every joint in my fingers ached as I gripped the gladius. I had to complete the mission. Ash mixed with my breath. A detective had to fulfill his responsibilities.

No, there was something more important than all that. I kicked Sol Invictus’s knee to force him to kneel, then raised the sword. War must never happen again.

He raised the corner of his mouth. He seemed to want to leave some final words.

“Take… the sword. My f…”

No, you’re not lucky enough to leave last words. I adjusted my grip on the sword handle, holding it with both hands though it could be wielded with one. I struck off his head. Sol Invictus’s head rolled on the floor.

Instead of taking the sword, I drove it into the decapitated Sol Invictus’s chest. I hammered it in deeply with the side of my fist. Even as I felt like I was about to lose consciousness, I extended my middle finger. No sound came out.

I glanced at the child lying on the floor, unable to escape the smoke and flames, without the fortune of anyone’s protection or care.

Like turning off a radio, everything stretched out very slowly and at length, then my legs gave way. The darkness before my eyes seemed eternal. It wouldn’t be eternal. Probably.