Ch.9797. Where You Are (6)

I couldn’t hear the Holy Sword’s voice. I looked down at the veil that appeared in my left hand, then looked ahead again. The fog seemed to be trying to create another illusion. Marianne looked at me with worried eyes, but I smiled casually.

“It’s okay. Now.”

Marianne hesitantly reached out to me, and I let her fingers intertwine with mine. Her small, soft hand wrapped around the back of my hand. She had used more than half of her magical power to absorb my magic that had spread through the fog. Marianne looked somewhat tired.

“I’ll take it from here.”

The Holy Sword awakens. I drew up my aura while manipulating the mana that had been moderately filled. A silver light rose above the blade of the veil. The fog now frantically created shapes as if making one last desperate attempt. This was the limit of magical power it could suck from people. The process of converting life force into magical power is not something that even a world-ending calamity can do recklessly.

“You’ll need to mobilize all the magic of your true form.”

I said this while fiercely circulating my magical power. Nightmare-like monsters crawled out before my eyes. As I exhaled, mana burned and escaped from my mouth as smoke.

“With mere illusions like that.”

I frowned and moved forward. Out of habit, I tried to send Marianne to the back, but after seeing her expression, I gave her a place beside me. Marianne looked at me. The new emotion in her eyes was surprise and joy. I smiled wryly.

“Shall we go?”

Marianne nodded eagerly, and she glided beside me, matching my steps.

“Clear out the smaller ones quickly.”

“Of course.”

The opened magic spear moved forward, sweeping away the illusions. I watched Marianne stirring up the battlefield with destructive power no less than my own, then set my target.

“I should fight fair and square.”

I extended the veil forward first. My aura advanced. The illusions collapsed like scarecrows. The fog spewed out new illusions to fill the ones that were disappearing. I swung my sword toward the illusions pouring like a tidal wave. They vanished as soon as my aura touched them.

There were hardly any catalysts left that could evoke bad memories in me. The cutting wind dug into my skin. Before me, the scene of Evernode unfolded again.

“You’ll protect everyone? Do you still think that after seeing these people?!”

It was a voice like wind leaking through a window crack. It seemed to be the voice of the fog itself. The fog showed the soldiers and knights of Evernode dying and fading away. I closed my eyes as I passed by those familiar faces.

“So many you failed to protect. Many who believed your boasts and moved forward, only to become meat shields.”

“Thank you.”

“What?”

I approached a soldier who had fallen with his throat in a white wolf’s jaws. That face remained vaguely in my memory. One of the 730 casualties from the giant assault operation. I looked at another soldier lying next to him. His face, too, remained in my memory.

“For giving me a chance to see these people’s faces again.”

I closed their eyes. They will forever remain in my heart as my benefactors, but they will never be a burden. Even as they fell, they wouldn’t have wanted to be a burden.

“How dare you say such shameless words, hero-!”

False accusations and resentment. I rose from my kneeling position and stared ahead. The soldiers of Evernode had become specters trying to grab my ankles.

“Why couldn’t you protect us…”

“Why did we have to die there…”

I let them quietly grab my ankles. If I could hear what they had to say, I wanted to listen. If they had words of resentment for me, I wanted to hear them. But,

“Actually, looking at this carefully, it’s quite offensive.”

I said, lowering my voice. The soldiers’ appearances were miserable. I looked at the corpses of the fallen, torn by monsters and frozen by the wind. I gritted my teeth and stared into the distant void.

“You dare use these people?”

I took a step forward. Fog, you’ve made a terrible mistake. Marianne beside me also gripped her magic spear with a hardened expression. I raised the Holy Sword upward, drawing out my power to the maximum. Halfhearted guesses only provoked unnecessary anger.

I drew out more mana. Enough for the wind raised by my magic to cover that blizzard, enough to tear this space apart.

“Sorry, but I don’t even find this funny anymore. If I want to mourn them and express my regrets, I won’t collapse here—I’ll run to the memorial in the north and shed my tears there.”

I recalled the hundreds of names engraved there. Evernode, and the sacrifices of those who died there, would never become the fog’s plaything.

“Why… why! Why do you regret the battle with the Kraken so much…”

The fog spoke through someone’s mouth. I let out a small laugh. It would never understand. And if it never understood that difference, the fog would never be able to drag me into the quagmire again.

“Well, do your worst. I won’t fall for it.”

A tree crashed down. The soldiers’ corpses turned into swirling snow and disappeared with the vortex. I raised my head, feeling the terrifying presence again. The fourth calamity, the giant, stood there firmly after a long time.

“So you’ll keep this up till the end.”

I muttered, kicking off the ground and charging forward. Marianne flew past me, perfectly matching my rhythm. The magic spear was tearing through space with a fierce momentum.

“Legs.”

When I spoke concisely, Marianne nodded in understanding. I soared into the sky like before to face the giant. It was a formidable enemy. Perhaps the strongest I had ever fought.

Even so, it was just one of the many monsters I had defeated.

The giant tried to punch me but staggered in place as if disturbed by something. I twisted my body in mid-air, cut off the giant’s left arm, and landed on the cross-section. The giant’s head creaked as it turned toward me. I grinned and began my slaughter.

Without a single waste, emotions must not be involved in the continuous sword strikes. I danced with my sword with the sole intention of cutting the giant’s body. I chopped the arm into pieces and cut from the shoulder to the waist. Marianne must have done her job well below, as the giant suddenly staggered and began to lose balance, about to fall forward.

“…The reproduction is lacking.”

I uttered such an impression as I swung my sword up toward the giant’s neck. As soon as the Holy Sword’s blade dug into the giant’s neck, the illusion began to completely collapse. Nothing remained except the whitish fog that obscured even a step ahead.

“How persistent.”

Marianne expressed her disgust. I nodded in agreement with her sentiment. Perhaps because it was a calamity that exploited human memories and hearts, it had many similarities to human nature.

“Maybe if we keep cutting through it, we’ll find a solution?”

I said, spinning the veil. If I exhausted all my magic, I could shake this space itself. The fog began to shake as if an earthquake had occurred. I drew out more power, intending to gradually eat away at the fog from within.

“If it’s not enough, I can help more.”

Marianne raised her magic spear. Well, I thought a solution would probably emerge before I needed to ask for her help.

Thud.

Marianne thrust her magic spear into the ground. Ah, her offer to help didn’t mean providing me with more magic. I let out a hollow laugh as I watched the cracks rising from her feet. As Marianne’s holy weapon joined my magic, the space shook as if it would collapse at any moment.

“…Impressive.”

At my unconscious praise, Marianne blinked and then nodded. Was she trying to respond positively? I thought I should compliment her more often as I watched the fog beginning to collapse. Like a building crumbling, the fog broke into pieces and fell to the ground.

“Its shape is starting to change.”

Marianne murmured in a tense voice. The fog swirled, gathering and dispersing repeatedly. It looked like it was making one last desperate attempt. The fog gathered like a dust cloud and was trying to create some form. It was exactly like a human shape.

“I see… so that’s what happened to you.”

The fog, forming into a human shape, said. It seemed to be trying to draw out even my true form’s magic. They say even a worm will squirm when stepped on. I sharpened my senses even more to avoid being careless. The moment before death is often the most dangerous.

“Yes. I thought something was strange.”

With a giggling laugh, the fog was trying to take on someone’s appearance. I looked at the changing fog with a blank expression. Should I wait for the transformation? I’m not some villain in a magical girl show. I brought the veil to cut down the fog before it completely transformed.

“Oh my.”

The fog blocked my attack by raising its arm, speaking in a tone that had regained composure. I frowned as I looked at the fog. Not because the fog had blocked my attack, but because the fog’s voice was extremely familiar.

“I haven’t completely transformed yet.”

The fog mocked me with a voice full of laughter. I hardened my face as I looked at the completed form of the fog. The fog had changed into the form of Ilroy. Marianne looked at the fog with an expression that seemed unable to comprehend.

“Isn’t this face familiar?”

The fog’s face began to change slightly. From Ilroy to someone else again. I froze as I watched the changing appearance of the fog.

“Don’t you think? ■■■.”

I couldn’t read the fog’s lips. And I couldn’t hear the fog’s words. But at the end, there was a man who resembled Ilroy but was slightly different. Age around mid to late twenties. A typical Korean face. I recognized that appearance and exhaled like a scream.

It’s ‘me.’

I froze as I met the eyes as if facing a mirror.

“It was quite difficult to discover that secret. I had to break through quite a bit. I had to use most of my magic to break through that security. It’s ridiculous that I had to struggle against a mere human…”

‘I’ approached me with a laugh. All I could desperately hope for was that Marianne wouldn’t see that form, but her gaze was already directed at me. The fog must have noticed her gaze too, as it opened its mouth with a chilling smile.

“Now, look carefully, human from that place. This is…”

Stab.

That’s when it happened. Someone stabbed the neck of the fog that had transformed into ‘me.’ I looked up in surprise to face the person who had stabbed the fog. The fog’s smile, which had been about to look in the same direction as me, quickly changed to shock.

“Y-you.”

“I think that’s enough nonsense, remnant of the evil god.”

Silver-like shining hair. Blood-red eyes. And a flower crown on the head. The Holy Sword from my mind appeared suddenly and turned to face me.

“I was going to watch until the end, but I couldn’t just keep watching.”

For some reason, that expression was immersed in deep sorrow. The Holy Sword apologized to me in that beautiful voice and began to speak.

“I’m sorry, Ilroy. Don’t forgive me.”

“What… do you mean?”

As I stammered, the Holy Sword shook its head with a bitter smile. My head felt like it was about to split. I staggered in place as I looked into those red eyes.

“Do you remember what I told you before you entered the fog?”

“…That no matter what happens, I am me?”

“Yes. Remember that above all else.”

At the Holy Sword’s words, my dizzy mind was instantly cleared. Seeing my expression become calm, the Holy Sword glared at the fog that had transformed into ‘me’ with eyes as sharp as a well-forged blade.

“…Just who are you, no. How much is that human…”

“Silence, vermin. Even if I hadn’t stabbed you, you would have reached the end of your lifespan soon anyway.”

The fog stared at the Holy Sword with terrified eyes. The Holy Sword didn’t give the fog any more time to speak and slashed it. I watched the fog, which was losing power and beginning to disappear, and the figure of the Holy Sword fading away beyond it.

“[Well done, Ilroy. Your companion is sleeping over there, so make sure to take care of her.]”

Those last words, as always, echoed in my mind. I came to my senses and approached Marianne who was lying behind me.

“Marianne.”

As I supported her and called out, Marianne slowly raised her head and looked around. We were somehow sitting side by side behind the papal office.

“Did we… succeed?”

I nodded. The fog had completely cleared. It seemed to have been completely annihilated.

Marianne and I sat there for a while, watching the falling snow. Marianne firmly held my hand, and I held hers back, feeling her warmth. At that gesture, as if not wanting to let go, I turned my head and smiled.

“Don’t go.”

I nodded. Whatever I had just seen, my heart, which Marianne had helped steady, would not change now.

“Okay.”

“Stay with me.”

I nodded.

It was dawn. Fine snow was slowly falling from the sky.