Ch.213Chapter 213. The Warrior of Trials

# Hero Taeyang Lim.

An undefeated hero who accumulated military achievements by winning victories against even the strongest enemies.

His accomplishments approached people as an even brighter hope because the world he fell into was harsh and cruel.

For someone like me who believed in him, learning that such a man had lost his life at some point was a great shock.

-WHOOSH!!!

The remnants of the one who gave me such a shock were the enemy before me.

The phantom that took form from the most intense lingering attachment that such a person displayed at the end of his life is the enemy I am facing now.

-BOOM!

The karmic fire carried by the swinging torch causes an explosion upon impact.

As I regain my senses after being pushed back by the blast pressure, what comes at me is a fierce kick that tears through the explosive smoke.

-THUD!

Having withstood the shock of that attack, I swung my readjusted weapon toward his head.

A counterattack launched while taking the fierce attack with my body. Given his extended posture, dodging would be impossible.

-CRACK!

But immediately after, the bones in his leg twisted, and his body, distorted into a deformed shape, easily avoided my attack.

A movement I couldn’t have anticipated at all.

This means it’s impossible to even respond to the following attack.

-BOOM!!

Once again, an explosion of blue flames erupts.

As my body, pushed back by that attack, rolled across the ground and regained balance, weapons deployed around me were grasped one by one in my hands and exerted their power.

The will transmitted through the handle creates a torrent on the blade.

Gaining momentum from that power, I charged in with a series of attacks using all my strength.

-SWISH! SLASH!

But they don’t connect.

Each attack I swing has enough speed to leave afterimages, but he avoids all of them with just one or two steps while staring only at me.

As if he knows where each attack will be swung without even looking at them.

As if he knows all the actions I will take afterward.

-THUD!!

A kick follows after movements that make even such an absurd thought cross my mind.

As the impact is painfully transmitted through my kicked abdomen, light begins to ripple above my head.

-WHOOSH!

No, not light but flames.

An attack meant to blow my hesitating head apart while I’m still alive…

“Urgh!”

Gritting my teeth and enduring the shock to respond to that attack, I hastily raised the weapon in my hand upward.

To block the incoming attack and then counterattack by stabbing his stomach.

-CRACK!

But his anomalous movement, enough to dislocate joints, twisted the trajectory of the attack that should have hit my guard.

A movement impossible to anticipate.

As I felt my mind going blank, the swung torch exploded right in front of my head.

“Kagh, ah…!!”

It’s not that strong of a level.

My past self might have considered it fatal, but my current body has received countless stronger attacks and learned how to respond to them.

If I could just counter, I could easily return such attacks and cut off his neck.

-WHOOSH, WHOOSH.

But he doesn’t give me the chance.

Even though he’s fallen to being a phantom, he doesn’t utter a single complaint and silently, stubbornly rushes at me, focusing only on landing effective hits.

The exchange of attacks from him was beyond forced; it was so one-sided that it even seemed selfish.

Realizing that such a person is still approaching me now, I felt fear rising within me.

“Urgh…”

Can I win?

Making all my attacks meaningless and making all his attacks effective… Is it really possible for me to defeat a monster that could be called a cheat in itself?

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!”

Screaming to shake off such anxious thoughts, I deployed weapons in all directions, throwing them, swinging them, trying to push him back.

Hit, please hit.

Even just once, please hit.

-BOOM!!

But what came at the end of my desperate onslaught was a blow from a torch filled with power.

As my body, pushed back by that explosion, collapsed face-first on the ground, I felt my hand that should be gripping the sword trembling with helplessness.

“Why on earth…”

I thought I had become stronger.

Even if I couldn’t respond to godlike beings, I believed I wouldn’t yield to those standing on equal ground with me…

I believed that if such a person blocked my way, I could break through somehow and protect the person I cherish.

“Why won’t my attacks connect?”

But why him of all people?

Why is the one blocking my precious person someone who shows no vulnerability to exploit, even more so than those who made me feel powerless?

-Will you give up?

At the moment when I even felt resentment, a small whisper followed.

As I reacted to it and raised my fallen body, the torch gripped in his hand began to blaze fiercely.

A fierce attack aimed at me will soon come.

As Annabelle, facing that attack, made the armor surrounding my body thicker, she quietly said:

-I recommend turning back even now.

She’s not scolding me.

Rather, words closer to concern. She too feels that if we fight any further, we will cross a river that truly cannot be returned from.

“…Not yet.”

-Be moderate with your stubbornness. When you haven’t landed a single attack…!

“How can I turn back when that child is right in front of me!!!”

Even though I’ve fallen several times, I still have the strength to stand up.

If I can’t overcome just this one wall, it would be impossible to live in a world full of even greater challenges.

“I can still move.”

So I must do what I can while I can.

Even if it ends in giving up, that time shouldn’t be right now.

-…That won’t last long either.

Annabelle speaks with a heavy voice to my words.

Then she moves the power that wraps me in armor, making me turn my attention to the surroundings.

-Can’t you feel it? The space is gradually developing cracks.

“Cracks? Could it be that Gorgon Zola…?”

“No, the cracks started appearing from the moment that one began fighting.”

-WHOOSH, WHOOSH!

The torch in his hand blazes even more fiercely.

As if testing me in this standoff. As if warning that if I don’t charge in now, he will unleash an attack fierce enough to sweep this entire place.

-Every time your attack is swung at that one, for some reason, the spirits existing in this space are agitated.

Annabelle, watching those attacks with me, warned:

-Perhaps it’s an effect of the ability awakened while crossing over to this world. That one’s absurd evasion ability is so powerful that it affects the entire world beyond the individual…

-So the witch inherited knowledge from the outer gods, and otherworlders crossed into this world through such witches and awakened their powers… Absurd. Not only breaking the laws, but even a phantom left by an individual exerts power enough to affect the world.

The changes in spirits that occur each time the ability activates.

Annabelle, feeling the unfathomable depth of his potential from that, spoke as if exasperated, but what I felt was something entirely different.

Not that it’s impossible to win because it’s unfathomable, but that the veil over his ability has been lifted one layer.

“…It’s not yet at the point where the cracks will lead to collapse, right?”

Whether this is hope or false hope, if this moment is not the end, it’s worth clashing.

As I readjusted my posture with that thought, he, having finished preparing his attack, swung his torch powerfully to attack me.

-KWAAAAA!

Flames surging fiercely from the torch.

The moment they became a wave crashing toward my face, I swung the deployed weapons powerfully to change the flow of power.

The flames flowing along that trajectory would soon be concentrated in one place, leading to a fierce counterattack.

-KWAAAAA!!

At the end, I spread and dispersed the returned attack in all directions, and he, facing that attack, stood still, intending to receive it.

Because he has a means to respond? Even an attack that would cover the entire surroundings without a gap, does he have confidence that he can avoid it?

-WHOOSH!!

No, rather, because the power was spread widely, some parts naturally have vulnerabilities.

As if he understood just by facing such vulnerabilities, he boldly pushed his mana-wrapped body forward, closing the distance between us.

And at that moment, a subtle distortion came over my heightened nerves…

-CRACKLE!

Yes, as Annabelle said.

The moment he broke through my attack just now, the spirits residing in this world became agitated, indicating that some change had occurred.

-CLANG, CLANG!!

Defending against the attacks that followed immediately after realizing this, defending repeatedly.

As I was about to prepare to thrust a sword into the gap revealed at the end, feeling the spirits tremble again, I stopped my attack and took a step back to observe his actions.

The phantom, who twisted his body greatly from his position as if avoiding the place where I was about to attack, even though I hadn’t properly launched an attack.

Along with that, the following counterattack was being swung at the position where it would hit immediately if my attack had missed.

As if reading the future a few seconds ahead and taking appropriate actions accordingly…

“…Precognition?”

Could it be that his ability is to read the future a few seconds ahead? Is that why he has shown the absurd ability to perfectly respond to all attacks so far and make all his counterattacks effective?

-WHOOSH! BOOM!

No, that alone doesn’t explain why the world is agitated.

Irie also said that knowing the future is possible by analyzing based on the past.

Just by reading past records and predicting the future, the entire world wouldn’t change.

-CRACKLE!

But in this moment of repeated exchanges, I was feeling the entire world tremble over and over.

And each time that sensation is felt, his actions change dramatically.

From the moment I recognized this, his attacks no longer reach me, and my counterattacks show signs of gradually reaching him.

It didn’t take long for this change to lead to realization.

An ability that seems to predict the future yet affects the entire world…

“…Time.”

And if a hero’s ability can twist even the laws of the world, the current conjecture cannot be dismissed as fanciful.

“He’s turning back time.”

That is Hero Taeyang Lim’s ability.

He turns back time by a few seconds from the point of his death, and through the future he has read, he devises countermeasures to evade and attack.

The appearance of avoiding all attacks was possible because he had experienced death many times in that short exchange.

The spirits’ agitation was due to detecting even the subtle changes occurring from such phenomena.

This means that each time they react, if we also vary our actions accordingly, there’s at least room to respond to his attacks.

-THUD!

Just as I realized this and prepared to counterattack, the torch that had been swung steadfastly fell to the ground.

The strong one I thought wouldn’t waver has wavered.

As if telling me that from this realization, a change has occurred in the future about to unfold before me.

“Urgh, aaaagh…!!”

I realized that this suspicion might be true when I saw him tearing at the bag he was wearing on his head.

“Ah, aaagh. Aaaaaaagh…!!!”

Groans bursting from his mouth that had been consistently taciturn.

Despite all our previous exchanges, at this moment, he was twisting his body as if struggling and expressing agony before me.

-What’s going on…

“Because I found the solution.”

To Annabelle, who still didn’t understand the phenomenon, I immediately conveyed the realization I had felt.

“It’s just a moment for me, but for him, it’s been repeated countless times.”

Even though finding the solution is just for a very brief moment.

But now I can feel when time is being turned back. I can sense that moment and respond immediately to the changed moment with a counterattack.

Just by capturing that one possibility, the undying hero who stubbornly charges in collapses.

For the one facing him, it’s just a moment, but he has experienced thousands, tens of thousands… perhaps even more deaths.

And finally, as his mental strength reaches its limit without finding a solution…

-CRACKLE, CRACKLE.

I feel him charging in even now, despite hitting such limits.

Over and over again.

-CRACKLECRACKLECRACKLECRACKLE!

The moment I felt such awareness continuing countless times, I noticed the struggling before me becoming more intense.

At the end of such struggling, he rushes at me and repeatedly loses his life—a future clearly drawn in my mind.

“…How many…”

And such a vision soon leads to realization.

How painful his journey has been.

And how painful and miserable the end that came to an ability that theoretically doesn’t allow death to occur…

“How many times have you…”

-BOOOOOM!!!!

A fierce explosion occurred before that lamentation could finish.

The moment I realized it had occurred in his head, I involuntarily held my breath and raised my sword sharply.

For some reason, his head exploded.

That means death, but time continues to flow, and I am aware of this moment.

I could feel the phantom standing before me, shattered by the explosion in his head, with only the remaining traces still standing in a burned state.

“Augh, ah… Aaaaaaaa…”

Moans escape from his opening mouth amidst the flames rising from him.

Though in agony, he endlessly opens his jaw that can no longer close…

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!”

Even as his entire body was engulfed in flames, he was trying not to fall and maintain his position.

A form that has far transcended biological death, an extension of life barely continuing because he became a phantom.

Just from seeing this form, one can feel how solid his will to live is.

How intense his lingering attachment was.

“How many times have you…”

The perseverance and fighting spirit with which he faced even the strongest enemies.

And how many times of self-harm he must have repeated, like now when he detonated the explosive placed in his mouth, to achieve the desired result.

“To save Garam… how many times did you turn back time!”

“UAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!”

But even such a phantom created by solid will has reached its mental limit and gone berserk.

Unable to bear watching him anymore, I gritted my teeth and aimed my spear at his continued charge.

To give peace to a phantom that can no longer make rational judgments.

Reminding myself that this is the only thing I can do for him who wants to protect Garam.

-STAB!!!

With the spear thrust I delivered at the end, his chest was pierced, and after convulsing, he soon went limp and rested his head on my shoulder.

Time does not turn back.

The flames burning his head gradually die down, and his hands are all spread out and drooping, indicating that his will is being lost…

“…Sor, ry.”

In the silence that followed, he whispered his unfulfilled lingering attachment from his life.

The will he was trying to uphold until the very end.

“I… in, the, end, couldn’t… pro, tect…”

A whisper feeling regret for not fulfilling his aspiration despite inheriting such will.

“…No. You protected admirably.”

But his end is by no means miserable.

Honoring the end of a friend who was more stubborn than anyone, I approached the crystal behind him while swallowing my tears.

“Because you protected, I was able to come this far.”

A reason to live in a world that has bestowed such a tragic fate.

And feeling through the life of a hero who has gone through the most trials that there is value in protecting someone.