Ch.56Raid, Irefi! (3)

The dark storm clouds gathered, resembling rain-laden thunderheads. The difference was that the clouds she commanded were crimson-black, and what appeared to be mist was actually a blade that could grind matter to dust.

Whoooosh!

Wild grass, leaves, and microscopic life were shredded by the mist of slashes, turning into green powder.

“Stay close!”

Boom!

Bartlant raised his Conqueror’s Sword in front, using it as a shield as he advanced. Like a carp swimming upstream, he cut through the storm of blades.

Clang-! Crack, crack-crack!

Swish! Slash!

Blood with nowhere to go scattered through the air. The scent of blood surged throughout his body. Fine red lines appeared on skin that barely touched the blades, then healed, only to be cut again.

“Can you hold on, Marquess?”

“Don’t worry about me and keep moving forward!”

We were pressed tightly behind Bartlant, pushing through the storm of blades. In front, Bartlant’s Conqueror’s Sword defended us, while I, immune to injuries, stayed at the very back to endure the remaining attacks.

This way, Zikharun in the middle could reach Irefi without any visible wounds.

One step, then another. As we steadily approached the center of the mist, we could hear Irefi’s sad words. The center of the blade realm we had struggled to reach was as calm as the eye of a storm.

There was only her, holding a crimson-black longsword in a ready stance.

Irefi-style Slaughter – Instantaneous Whirlwind Dance.

A vicious pattern that created a storm of blades around her, grinding everything caught in it. However, once the mist of blades was manifested, she couldn’t leave the storm herself, as it didn’t distinguish between friend and foe.

‘In other words, now’s our chance while Irefi’s space is limited!’

Opportunity comes at the end of crisis. If we can just overcome this danger!

That’s how well-designed games work. There’s no such thing as an unbeatable pattern. And reality, with its incomparably greater freedom, is even more flexible.

I deliberately shouted confidently as I leaped in front of Irefi.

“This might hurt a bit, Irefi!”

I put all my strength into a punch aimed at Irefi’s armor from point-blank range. Unfortunately for me, my opponent was Irefi.

Slash!

With a clunking sound came a sense of release.

From a physically impossible angle and distance, she had mercilessly sliced both my shoulder blades.

“After all the time we’ve spent together, did you really think… that would work!”

Splurt!

Blood that wasn’t normal, but stained black, soaked the undergrowth from both sides. The pitch-black blood gathered itself into a puddle and began to bubble.

Netionpis’s Dark Art – Fifth Trumpet.

Countless pitch-black insects of ten thousand forms were born from the blood puddle, targeting Irefi. The swarm of countless individual insects resembled a dark fog.

“Ugh, I’d heard about this, but it’s quite disgusting.”

“I’ve already seen it once, but I still can’t get used to it.”

“Both of you be quiet. I can’t concentrate!”

Indeed, this was an ability I’d already demonstrated in the fight with Zikharun, but it hadn’t matched up well then. However, it would be different against Irefi.

‘As long as Bartlant is nearby, Holy Memory is just a sturdy glass window. There’s only one option!’

Irefi’s next move didn’t deviate from my prediction. She pointed her sword at the black insects, concentrating on a single point until the critical moment.

“Rakshasa Pierce.”

“Protect Zikharun, Young Duke!!!”

Boom!

Irefi’s thrust seemed to purify the hideous black fog. Space distorted, and the impact caused the insects to fall to the ground one by one. Most of them, carried by momentum, successfully landed at Irefi’s feet.

“Explode, Blood Insects.”

The moment I clapped my hands and shouted, a roar erupted from the center of the blade storm. Violent shockwaves and pitch-black flames exploded in succession, reaching toward the sky.

Each seemingly insignificant insect contained massive energy. Irefi’s figure disappeared in the seething fireworks.

‘Zikharun was lucky.’

The blood insects created by dark arts only respond to physical force. When I fought Zikharun, he countered with spirit magic, so I couldn’t use this power.

This dark art worked against Irefi because she was in a confined space with no other options.

“Now, Bartlant! Don’t think it’s over with just fireworks!”

“Nothing ends until the moment they kneel!”

A thunderous joint attack from two directions. One aimed for precision strikes connecting point to point, while the other focused on wide-area impact. And behind her, the storm of slashes she created blocked her retreat.

A desperate situation. Even for us who knew Irefi well, it was a winning moment that couldn’t help but lower our guard.

At least until we heard that desperate voice.

“Yes, that’s right… mere fireworks… couldn’t kill even a single mouse.”

Shwack!

Suddenly, an ominous metallic sound cut through the explosions. My gaze instinctively dropped downward. Specifically, to my waistline. A red line was being drawn across my pelvic region.

The next change was clear. The world flipped diagonally, and I lost consciousness with the impact of a concussion.

In the instant before I regenerated, I saw my upper body on the ground, entrails spilled out. At the same time, I desperately called out two names.

“Young Duke! Zikharun!”

“Don’t look for others so desperately, Nepy.”

Whoosh!

The silhouette that emerged from the explosion smoke was Irefi’s. Blood—someone’s blood—was splattered and dripping from her cracked black armor.

When I turned to look, shockingly, she was holding a crimson-black longsword in each hand.

“I might get jealous. You need to focus. Only on killing me. Don’t take your eyes off me. Isn’t that right? No? Answer me, Nepy!!!”

“Irefi…”

The storm of blades gradually lost its vitality and subsided. As the blade dance that had obscured our vision cleared, it revealed the devastated landscape.

That’s when it happened.

Crack, crack!

Frost formed beneath Irefi’s feet. It spread from her soles to her ankles and up her calves, emitting a chilling cold. Irefi muttered with a puzzled look, identifying the phenomenon.

“Binding frost?”

Most likely Zikharun’s spirit magic. Irefi turned her head and narrowed her brows. It was because Zikharun and Bartlant were still holding their weapons, maintaining their stance.

“Good improvisation.”

“That’s reality for you—things like this are possible.”

Their wounds were perfectly stanched. More precisely, they had frozen their wounds with frost to stop the bleeding and numb the pain.

However, since the wounds weren’t healed, they didn’t look well. Zikharun put on an obvious bluff as he provoked Irefi.

“Don’t pick on our Marquess and focus on us here. In our homeland, there’s a tradition where adult men get drilled to death for two years anyway.”

“…I wasn’t drilled because I wasn’t eligible for service.”

That’s a lie. In fact, I was drilled just like everyone else.

“…Roar of the Mad Spirit.”

Kwaaaaa!

A pillar of golden heat rays engulfed Irefi, breaking the chilly atmosphere. I used the opportunity to distance myself from her.

At the same time, Zikharun and Bartlant rushed in. She didn’t move at all until the golden pillar dissipated, perhaps because her feet were bound by frost.

“Holy Memory.”

The invocation of a protective ability. The blue cube trapped not herself, but two figures—Zikharun and Bartlant. As they were caught off guard in the cube, Irefi’s lips pronounced their doom.

“Close.”

The volume of the cube began to shrink. The two men’s expressions twisted in pain from the rapidly changing internal air pressure. Above all, if left alone, they would be crushed to death by the shrinking cube.

Bartlant surrounded himself with battle aura and swung his Conqueror’s Sword, but it didn’t even crack the cube. Their dismay grew like a stream in a downpour.

‘Did she concentrate all her strength on Holy Memory?!’

In this case, I would have to break it from the outside. I allocated all my Malice to physical abilities. Just as I was about to leap and throw a punch, Irefi’s black hair fluttered at the edge of my vision.

Slash!

Invisible slashes poured in. I thought I had dodged them skillfully, but I was mistaken. For a very brief moment, the slashes were merely actions to buy time for Irefi to catch up to me perfectly.

‘Is she confident she can handle me with just basic skills?’

She placed most of her strength and focus on Holy Memory while blocking me with basic skills. It was truly a rational and good decision.

Even if someone else were in my place, she could handle them with basic skills. Then why didn’t she put all three of us in the Holy Memory cube at once?

‘Because two people is the limit for concentrating asymmetric forces.’

An extremely reasonable conclusion. In other words, the current Irefi is in a restricted state where she can only use basic skills!

Crisis was opportunity.

I prayed as I watched the two desperately trying to prevent the cube’s volume from shrinking.

‘Hold on a little longer, Bartlant, Zikharun!’

He had said it. That Irefi was a monster who embodied the irrationality of the world. That even matching up with the first Bartlant wouldn’t guarantee victory.

Then what about Irefi with this kind of handicap? Would he still give the same answer? I’m about to find out.

“Old man, now!!!”

“Nepy?”

She called my name reflexively at the unexpected response. But I couldn’t respond to her call.

Shaaaaa…

Malice ran wild. It was a feeling of being pricked as it circulated through my body regardless of my will. A coexistence of refreshing and nauseating sensations, as if stretching my body.

Finally, a wicked consciousness spoke in my mind.

[Hmm, quite a good timing. You’ve cornered the white girl well. I’m impressed.]

“Then I’ll leave it to you for 3 minutes, old man!”

With those final words, my consciousness was flung into Netionpis’s mental world. Into his small space that perfectly captured the founding landscape of the Eld Empire…

‘Is this the last time I’ll come here?’

Bartlant Chester—a carbon copy of the second Bartlant fighting outside.

Next to him were Aselln Meoric and Rusheon Estern, whose descendants I hadn’t met yet.

…And Lorian Feita. The first head of the only Great Ducal family that fell due to treason. A beautiful woman with black hair and eyes, rare in the Empire. Above all, the only woman Netionpis ever loved… the old man’s beloved…

‘But… doesn’t Lorian resemble someone?’

The sense of incongruity rises, but I can’t recall who it might be.

‘That’s not important right now.’

I shake off the idle thoughts and focus my consciousness on the outside scene. Netionpis’s claim about ongoing erosion seemed true, as the scene visible from here was incredibly blurry.

I narrowed my eyes as I silently watched the battle between the Founding Noble and the Destroyer.

◇

“Netionpis…”

[Oh? You recognize me right away? You have such a chilling intuition, enough to remind me of Lorian.]

“You… should not exist.”

[I agree. Time is short, so let’s go straight to full power.]

Netionpis placed his hand on the ground. He channeled Malice through his fingertips like a deep-sea volcanic eruption, turning the soil black.

The blackened earth endlessly expanded its territory. Irefi wasn’t one to let this happen comfortably. She charged like a flash of light, wielding her two longswords.

Her only miscalculation was that Netionpis’s dark arts were incomparable to mine.

[Dark Art, Ever-Changing Forms.]

The dark art completed faster than imagined. Then came a rumbling comparable to an earthquake.

Boom, boom!

Dirt, sand, and rocks rose into the air. The ground shifted, continuously reassembling into some form.

Irefi lost her footing and had to make an enormously high jump. That was her second misjudgment.

CRASH!!!

“Ugh!?”

Irefi, who had jumped into the air, was struck by a giant fist and flew far away to a hill. Moreover, half of her black armor shattered and vaporized.

The earth golem created by dark arts exuded a giant’s presence. Though it was merely dark arts manipulating matter, the scale was different.

Tang!

Irefi’s black and white movements stretched like a panorama. An agility so swift it was hard to perceive.

The dark art giant also showed agility that didn’t match its size, but it was no match for her.

The moment the giant extended its fist, she hid in the dust and elegantly landed on top of the fist.

Shrrrrk, crack, clang! Crunch!

With each accelerating step, the giant’s body collapsed behind her. After destroying both of the giant’s shoulders with her two longswords, she reached the top of its head.

Kwak!

Irefi struck down at the head. The giant’s body trembled, then crumbled like sugar powder, returning to a handful of dirt.

Vibration.

Striking down with her sword created vibrations. She spread the damage throughout the giant’s body by channeling the vibrations.

[What’s the point? It’s not even imbued with life.]

He sneered lightly.

This time, a tsunami of blackened soil engulfed her. Irefi once again charged straight ahead. From the beginning, the area was too vast for any detour option.

In response, Irefi also left deep scars on the ground. It was an act of countering by using basic skills to pull at the earth with her sword. The tsunamis of soil devoured each other at almost equal scale.

Crunch, crunch, crunch-crunch-crunch!

Even if the scale was similar, she couldn’t defeat a tsunami of soil imbued with will through dark arts. Judging this, Irefi slashed through the dirt wall.

The whole world turned brown, blocking the light. With visibility difficult, Irefi’s pattern was simple and clear: spread her sword sense to find Netionpis’s position and gallantly tear him limb from limb.

“Huff, huff… Got you…”

[Did you think you ‘got me’?]

“Ugh?!”

The vitality in Netionpis’s focus evaporated instantly. Soon he became a complete corpse, even reaching rigor mortis.

Irefi threw herself forward with an ominous premonition. At the place she instinctively charged to, Netionpis was already there with all limbs intact.

Right near the Holy Memory cube!

[Hmph!]

Netionpis threw a punch with all his might. Once, twice, three times. He pounded the cube until the very moment Irefi arrived.

Crack, crack! Crash!

The blue, translucent protective ability shattered with a crisp sound.

“Cough! Hack!”

At that moment, Irefi stumbled and coughed up blood. It was the most serious pallor I had ever seen on her. Even knowing this wasn’t the time, compassion rose unbidden.

“Kuh… heh.”

The second most desperate situation in all her lives. The sense of crisis and exhilaration that she might really die. Complex emotions gathered in Irefi’s navy blue eyes.

She was clearly smiling. Just a little, really just a little, but her lips were curled upward.

Why? Why are you smiling? Is it because you see death, because you welcome the end of your cursed life?

I don’t like it. I can’t agree. I glossed over it with Zikharun, but I hate that kind of smile. I wish she would only smile when she’s truly happy to be alive. It’s purely my selfish desire. A bad selfishness for my sake.

Crack, crack!

Irefi’s feet froze from below. Zikharun’s binding frost. Now that the cube was broken, he had enough leeway to maintain his spirit magic while kneeling.

[I’ll borrow this, youngster.]

He snatched Zikharun’s sword. Leaping into the air, he deployed the Chester sword style. His target was Irefi, whose movement was sealed. At this rate, she might really lose her life.

That’s when it happened.

“A Single Sword Strike Shakes the Stars.”

She murmured softly.

A slash at its extreme becomes a concept of phenomenon itself. An offensive beyond biological cognition. It is the final wall, like the symbol of the Destroyer.

Irefi-style horizontal slash—

The two longswords unite as one. She dyed the crimson blade by compressing her remaining life force to the extreme. She concentrated all the Malice and blade energy from her entire body until her hair turned white again.

The crimson longsword in her crossed right hand. The moment she swings it is instantaneous!

“Splitting Heaven—”

And facing an unexpected accident was also instantaneous.

[Damn it all, time’s up!]

“W-What!?”

My consciousness was suddenly ejected from the mental world and faced reality.

Irefi about to unleash Splitting Heaven and Earth, and me in mid-air about to perform some unknown sword technique.

Even I would die from Splitting Heaven and Earth. The spatial rift torn by the slash would surely turn flesh into minced meat, becoming an execution block with no possibility of revival.

If that happened, the Destruction ending would be confirmed. The world would perish. All efforts would be in vain. Charle, Miren, and the future I had worked so hard to change… all gone!

‘What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What can I possibly do in this situation!’

My thoughts accelerated as I was driven into an unprecedented corner. The world turned white and time slowed down. Even as I witnessed the vision of the world being wrapped in fire and ashes, I didn’t stop thinking.

‘A way to stop Irefi. A means to at least drastically reduce the power. Irefi’s weakness. Something Irefi would hesitate at. What is Irefi weak against? What is the weakness of the strongest being in this world? What have I seen of Irefi until now? Find it, find it, the answer must be in our daily life so far!’

Time flowed backward. Like a movie film rewinding, the time spent with Irefi was visualized and played in reverse.

The dungeon in the basement. And the central plaza.

The night I held Irefi as we slept. The day we interlocked fingers as we slept.

The afternoon I was amazed by Irefi’s wedding dress. The reunion of the white sisters.

The banquet where we danced at Duke Feita’s manor. The day we first started living together.

…And all the way back to our starting point, when I first encountered her in the Great Cavern and we stopped for a meal at Citris Village.

…

……

……….?

I.

Might.

Be insane.

But I know that this madness is the only hope I have left to try.

Irefi’s only weakness that I’ve barely found. It’s truly a psychopathic idea, but I have no choice but to try it.

Time accelerates back to normal. The white-washed world once again illuminates her under the moonlight. It illuminated the incredibly beautiful Irefi.

The same goes for me. To truly reach her,

I decided to go mad just this once.

“Earth—”

“IREFIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!”

Think of the most appropriate words. My ultimate verbal attack that will reach her and strike her heartstrings!

My answer, calculated in an instant by surveying my past and present lives.

I pray it reaches her.

And so I chose.

“IS THE PARASITE THIRSTYYYYY???!!!”

“Heaven and—?”

“What the hell is that crazy Marquess saying!?”

“Marquess Alteon?!”

“THE ANSWER ISSSSS!!! HOST TREEEEEEEEEE!!!”

…

……

……….

………………….

—Pff…huff…!