Ch.221Chapter 221. Keeping a Promise

“…Cough.”

Blood spilled onto the ground, and his exhausted body finally slumped down.

Before collapsing completely, Hellcry barely managed to regain his balance and began looking around with clouded eyes.

Everywhere he looked was a scene of tragedy.

The process leading to this tragedy had been more intense than ever before, and it meant that the moment he had been pursuing had finally arrived.

He had always believed that fierce battles were the means to grasp what he sought.

For that, he had denied his origins, abandoned his kind, and joined the Demon Lord’s army to pursue power and status.

“Cough, hack…!!”

Yet what was this knot in his chest?

Despite achieving what should have been impossible for someone born an orc, why was he not satisfied with the current situation?

‘Is this really…’

He knew the reason.

In this battle that had just unfolded, he didn’t feel like he had obtained what he had so desperately wanted.

No matter how many greedy, mocking creatures he slaughtered, there was no way he could gain something like honor from it.

‘Is this really what I wanted?’

If they had survived, they would have mocked him and forgotten him; if he succeeded in killing them all, he had merely cleared away trash.

If there was no one present to give value to his actions, no matter how arduous and difficult the process, it would leave no meaning behind.

‘Was what I did truly meaningful?’

Of course, if he took pride in himself, that too might be considered honor.

Even if not, he could leave this place and hope that the moment he was searching for would come someday in the future.

But though he was strong, he was not invincible.

That he would never recover after this battle was something he knew best, as pain invaded his entire body.

-Drip, splash!

Blood continued to soak the ground.

Even his innate regenerative abilities, enhanced by accepting demon blood, had now reached their limit.

His gradually darkening vision and the fading sensation in his weapon-holding hand told him his end was near.

The orc who had defied his origins and the natural order of his collective was about to meet death without leaving anything behind in this world.

‘Really, nothing at all…’

As this realization filled him with emptiness, the demon blood flowing through his body began to boil, as if to dominate him.

To make his dying body struggle.

To numb his rational thoughts that invited resignation, forcing his tattered body to struggle disgracefully.

‘Despite living so fiercely, will nothing remain of me?’

Emptiness gradually turned to anger.

As it transformed into strength, his collapsed body began to rise, and his dulled senses violently reactivated.

He strained to listen with his torn ears and tried to detect faint echoes buried in the blood-soaked scene with his nose.

-Crash!

With a violent sweep of his hand, the upper part of the ruins scattered away, revealing everything that had been hidden beneath.

A human woman who had hidden herself where the Demon Lord’s army couldn’t see, holding her breath and waiting for the fierce battle to end.

“Kyaaaah!”

The moment the woman saw him and screamed, curling up her body, Hellcry felt the desire that devoured his reason swirl even more violently.

It was due to the innate instinct of his species.

Having chosen increasing numbers as a means of species preservation, it was a desire he couldn’t help but crave in the face of death.

‘Female.’

He was no exception to this compulsion.

No matter how different it was from what he had pursued, the demon blood was encouraging his species’ instinct, drawing out an uncontrollable impulse.

‘Female wench…’

The moment his hand, corrupted by such desire, made contact, the woman’s fragile body would become a tool for releasing his lust.

No matter how broken her body became, how terribly her dignity was crushed.

Focusing solely on spreading his seed, disregarding everything else.

-Boom!!!

But the hand that should have pursued this was finally slammed to the ground, restraining the body that wanted to advance.

As the woman’s body, frozen in fear, stiffened once more.

Hellcry faced her directly and said:

“…Get out.”

As an orc, as a demon.

And suppressing the instinct of a creature facing death with nothing but conviction.

“If you’re not going to fight me, get out of the battlefield!!!”

His belief that what he sought was always a battle with the strong, and that he should never point his blade at non-warriors.

At that passionate cry, the woman began to flee, wailing.

“Uwaaa, aaaaaaah!”

As her crying gradually faded and her figure completely disappeared from sight, the surging impulse subsided.

With the resulting weakness, he lowered his head and looked at his empty hands, lost in thought.

‘In the end… nothing remains.’

Despite fighting so fiercely, he had gained nothing.

Perhaps he had even thrown away what could have been his last opportunity with his own hands.

What meaning was he pursuing to have acted this way?

‘…Meaning, huh.’

As his thoughts reached this point, one realization dawned on him.

‘Why was I so obsessed with meaning in the first place?’

It was almost like denying everything he had achieved until now.

The fear of death he had awakened amid countless dangers since being left alone…

Even the passion with which he had sought to leave a clear mark on this world, beyond mere species preservation, resisting his inevitable fate—all of it was meaningless.

‘To live is to die.’

The corpses strewn around him proved this.

No matter how long one has lived, how fierce that life was, or how much one has achieved, it can all crumble meaninglessly.

Even the strong who brought them down are not free from this fate—his final battle had made him realize this.

‘What the living leave behind will soon disappear. In the end, nothing remains…’

By accepting this, perhaps the emptiness he felt at the end would subside somewhat.

By accepting that everyone eventually disappears into nothingness, he could find solace in his final moments.

‘Is life really this fleeting?’

That thought should have been the end of the life he needed to let go.

Until he heard footsteps approaching.

-Step, step.

Another presence appeared where the fleeing woman had disappeared.

Before Hellcry could raise his head, sensing an unusual aura from this person, the newcomer began to speak.

“…So it was you who did this to this place.”

A familiar voice…

No, it was more than that—it was a voice he couldn’t ignore.

The power this voice’s owner possessed was to engrave his existence on others, which built anticipation for the day they would meet again.

“You are…”

Yes, in the past, he had made a promise with the owner of this voice.

Although weak at that time, he believed that if he continued to grow with the fighting spirit he had shown then.

Surely he could become someone he himself could be satisfied with.

“I’ve heard the general situation. That you betrayed the Demon Lord’s army and protected people…”

As he faintly sensed the aura of a strong one, strength returned to his limp hand.

That hand gradually pointed toward the weapon lying on the ground.

“I wanted to thank you for—”

Before the words could finish, bang! The swung club pushed back the body.

But it didn’t crush him.

In that split second, he had mitigated the impact and landed firmly where he was pushed, now glaring at him.

“…Hellcry.”

“Why did you block my attack?”

Just meeting those eyes made his heart pound.

The life that should soon be extinguished felt like it was burning more fiercely just from feeling the impact of the force that had collided with him.

“Answer me. Why did you block my attack?”

He could fulfill the desire he had been pursuing.

The moment he realized this one fact, his body, which should have collapsed, rose up before he was even aware of it, preparing for what was to come.

“…Because I’d die if I didn’t.”

“Is that why you blocked my attack?”

To stabilize the balance of a body that might collapse at any moment.

“Because I want to live…”

Pointing the burning determination toward the one who appeared before him.

“Even if what you face at the end of that life is not what you want… you blocked my attack because you want to extend your life?”

With the club strike that followed, the ground shook with a boom!

As buildings, crushed after the fierce battle, collapsed one by one from the shock, the man facing the impact directly deployed his weapon in his hand and quietly answered.

“Yes.”

To survive in this harsh world.

As if to show his determination to break through whatever dangers lay ahead and extend his life.

“Then you should also know what needs to be done here?”

Yes, this one would never give up.

If he could extend his life, he would do so until the end, exerting his will to leave his mark on this world.

And a fight with someone with such determination would be more intense than anything, and at the end of such a fierce battle, what he had been seeking would surely exist.

“…”

Before the orc who was certain of this, the human man quietly aimed his spear tip and began to compose himself.

Because he too remembered the promise.

Because he realized that now was the time to settle the unfinished business.

“Human warrior Hyoseong Woo! I shall engrave your name, who has come to fulfill our past promise, in my soul, so you too must remember my name clearly!”

In response, the warrior who should have collapsed straightened his body, displaying more vigorous fighting spirit than ever before, and shouted at him.

“My name is Hellcry! One who has stepped into the fiercest battlefield in search of honor!!!!”

“Human warrior!! Are you ready to engage in an honorable battle with me here!?”

Whether one or both would leave their bones in this place.

Through that result, the value of the path he had pursued would be proven.

*****

-He’ll die on his own even if we leave him be.

My body trembled at the shout echoing through the ruined city.

Hearing Annabelle’s muttering, I quietly listened and tightened my grip on the spear shaft.

-Objectively speaking, anyone would think preserving one’s strength is the right answer.

“Objectively speaking, that’s true.”

-Yeah, and you’ve always been the one who never listens to me.

Annabelle clicked her tongue and poked my temple with her finger.

She seemed to be expressing her displeasure, but since she wasn’t actively stopping me, it appeared she too had accepted the current situation.

“We didn’t have much time to prepare together because we were in a hurry. We might have to face stronger opponents… one warm-up opponent might be necessary.”

-Warm-up? Is that what you call this?

Rumble rumble rumble!

The ground trembled just from standing on it.

From the shockwaves that made one’s skin tremble just by facing them, a spirit that couldn’t be thought of as coming from a dying man after a fierce battle was felt.

No, perhaps because it was his last moment… because the moment he had been waiting for had arrived, he might be stronger than ever before.

-…If you’re going to fight, don’t hold back. Nothing is more pathetic than getting hurt because you fought half-heartedly.

“Don’t worry. I’ve seen too many people die from being careless.”

Nevertheless, I didn’t lower the spear pointed at him and prepared to face the approaching force.

If I were afraid to face even this level of danger, I wouldn’t be able to endure what awaited ahead.

Moreover, the fact that I could come this far was possible because he had shown me mercy.

“Come at me.”

What I, who remembered that debt of gratitude, had to do was only one thing.

“I’ll show you right here how strong the youngster you saved has become.”