episode_0036

The Holy Kingdom’s strongest knight, Sir Roland, the Divine Spear.

His strength is not lacking even before the name of the Black Serpent; in fact, against some, it wouldn’t be strange to predict his victory.

He too is a monster with a level of strength and mastery that can be counted on one hand in this world.

—It would not be an exaggeration to say he is the strongest among those I have fought so far. There was no reason to let down my guard.

Magic blades revolved around me via , scattering their sharp edges as if ready to point and fire at any moment.

Not stopping there, I cast all sorts of auxiliary spells useful for one-on-one duels. Silently, without uttering a sound.

, , , .

Along with the most efficient utility spell, I layered on three types of protective magic that would prevent me from dying even if I wanted to.

In the game, the Warlock class could only use attack magic and buffs that directly enhanced attack magic.

However, the four spells I just used belonged to neither; they were purely defensive and utility-based.

Because this was no longer a game.

Lastly, I would use .

The last spell added was different.

It was the Warlock’s bread and butter, the class’s ultimate spell, and a job’s secret technique boasting the strongest buff performance throughout the entire series.

An enhancement spell that solved the Warlock class’s chronic problem—the lack of defensive and utility skills—and gave wings to its already unrivaled offensive power.

Although it was somewhat dulled in the current situation where I was already using spells a Warlock shouldn’t be able to, its value was nonetheless undiminished.

───

《Abyss Ascendant》

– Rank · Secret Technique – Spell Level · 10 – Required Schools · Black Magic, Transmutation, Arcane Inquiry, Forbidden Research – Description · Reconstructs the caster’s body with abyssal magic to obtain an immortal physique. The highest state a Warlock class can achieve.

– Effects · Immediately after casting, the unique resource ‘Abyssal Magic’ replaces all Health, Stamina, and MP: · Abyssal Magic gradually decreases when attacked, casting spells, taking actions, or over time. The ‘Abyss Ascendant’ state is dispelled as soon as the magic is depleted. · Spell attack power increased by 20%, ignores magic resistance. · Speed of stamina-consuming actions increased by 50%. · Physical damage immunity, greatly increased resistance to negative magic, immunity to poison, decay, and curse attributes.

– Special Notes · This spell has a cast count separate from its cooldown (max 4 times), and can be recharged by offering grimoires of Legendary rank or higher.

– Explanation · There are those who do not merely gaze into the abyss but willingly yearn to become one with it.

───

For reference, the description above was merely information from the game that I remembered in my head.

It wasn’t actually visible.

Unfortunately, there were no system messages in this world.

In the same vein, there were no visible health bars. The game-like scenario of stabbing absurdly high-health enemies, so-called ‘hp tanks,’ all day long wouldn’t happen here.

That’s why I had to be cautious.

Just as everyone is equal before a bamboo spear [a proverb meaning death makes everyone equal], Rain Grey would be no exception.

In that state, I silently gazed at Sir Roland. He, too, was enveloped in the radiance of gold, divinity, and starlight, having cast all sorts of buff-type arts like me.

Holding a spear imbued with the power of stars, just like his name.

“……”

Even as this happened, the ‘Abyssal Magic’ replacing my flesh and blood was slowly diminishing. There was no time to delay.

The blades were launched.

The magic blades of were reborn as jet-black blades, empowered by .

As the volley of blades was unleashed, Sir Roland, too, had already kicked off the ground. He didn’t avoid them. He didn’t retreat from the blades plummeting towards him like a bombardment but instead closed the distance.

Clang!

His holy spear deflected one blade. As soon as it was deflected, the blades in mid-air spontaneously changed their trajectory, tracking Roland like guided missiles, as if wielding sword-controlling magic.

However, Roland’s holy spear intercepted all the blades swirling around him like a vortex, and without missing a momentary gap, he charged towards me.

He was fast. So fast that it was difficult to even follow him with my eyes.

His movement and speed were truly nothing short of divine speed.

Ultimately, this was a realm that I, as a magic-user, could not hope to reach, no matter how many buffs I layered on.

Clang!

In that state, the tip of the holy spear charged right up to my nose. The blade, imbued with the radiance of starlight, clashed.

Simultaneously, a crystalline fractal barrier blocked us, plunging down along a recursive pattern.

.

The spearhead, imbued with the power of stars, shattered the alien barrier. Though it barely served as a shield, it was nothing more or less than barely functional.

“—”

However, when I realized it, Roland’s spear, which should have pierced the barrier and reached me, was not there.

Nor was Roland.

He was still standing in the same spot where he had planted his feet. I was too.

What had changed was not us, but the distance between us—about a single footprint.

That area of a few tens of centimeters had, in an instant, expanded to exceed tens of meters, widening the distance between us.

This was why was called the pinnacle of barrier magic.

Here, space could be manipulated freely; compression or expansion was also unhindered. Structures were no exception.

With only one restriction: space could not be manipulated to ‘directly’ inflict harm.

Anything was possible except for ‘ ‘ like cutting space to cleave an opponent in two.

I could expand the space between myself and an approaching opponent, making them eternally unable to reach me, like ‘Achilles and the Tortoise’ [a philosophical paradox about motion], or the reverse was also possible.

Something like this was also possible now.

I silently extended my hand, and the shimmering magic at its tip took the form of a fireball.

.

Along with that, the explosive suddenly vanished. After it disappeared, it reappeared right behind Roland.

It wasn’t directly inflicting harm by manipulating space. The harm would be the work of the flame explosive, not the space itself.

Boom!

The explosive force detonating right behind him was enough to turn even a knight clad in heavy armor into a chunk of meat.

Moreover, it wasn’t just one explosive that detonated. It was a barrage of explosions, generated one after another, delivered with spatial manipulation, and detonating in succession.

“ .”

And in front of the flames and smoke obscuring my view, I cast another auxiliary spell.

As the spell was cast, the landscape obscured by the swirling explosions appeared clearly, as if through X-ray vision.

He was there.

Unaffected by the swirling explosions, he walked out calmly, parting the flames.

With an incredibly calm stride, he re-gripped his spearhead and emerged through the curtain of fire.

Looking completely unharmed, without a single smudge.

“—Taisui Xingjun.”

The strongest knight boasted by the Star Kingdom uttered the name of a star.

Whoosh!

Along with that, an invisible vortex of power swirled, as if the unseen sky was trembling.

A storm so intense that merely holding my stance was a struggle.

Taisui. A hypothetical planet in ancient China existing in the inverse position of Jupiter. True to its nature as an ominous star known as a symbol of ill fortune, ‘Taisui Xingjun,’ the god said to govern this star, is also renowned as an evil deity and a god of disaster.

“O god who governs the star of misfortune, please show your power to my adversary.”

Holy Knight. True to its name, which uses the character ‘star’ (星), it was a job in the game that fought by receiving various powers from all the stars in the heavens.

As the ‘Captain’ standing at the apex of that very Holy Crusader Knights, Sir Roland re-gripped his spear.

The power of the inauspicious star, utterly foreboding, descended along with the holy spear.

“Cheonsalsung.”

Moreover, the star he uttered did not stop there.

“To my enemy, justly illuminate the end of their fate.”

Cheonsalsung. The star that governs human lifespan and death.

With that name, an indescribable ominousness suddenly descended.

“Grant him the unavoidable foresight of death.”

A sensation never felt in the game. A realism only truly felt because this was a world.

An ominous feeling akin to a star in the heavens ‘wishing’ for my death assailed me.

As the storm ceased, and stars emerged between the night clouds, filled with dark clouds.

───

「Cheonsalsung’s Gaze」

– Unique Curse · Damage taken increased by 44%, Defense and Evasion Correction decreased by 44%. · Negative Effects , applied.

───

As I reiterated, this was merely information I recalled in my mind.

I knew it in my head. Yet, it was slightly different.

This was not merely a debuff that could be understood by a few lines of text and numbers in a game. It was incomparable.

A premonition of death, as if a real ‘god’ was whispering, wishing for my demise.

An overwhelming sense of helplessness, that a person could never defy the fate ordained by the stars.

“……”

He was not an easy opponent. That had been my expectation from the start.

Therefore, I silently took out a cigarette from my pocket and put it in my mouth. Its tip spontaneously ignited.

Before the burning ember, I renewed my resolve.

—I won’t die here.

No, I couldn’t die.

Abruptly pulled into a game world whose package I hadn’t even opened, abruptly possessed as the boss of utterly heinous villains, I had floundered like someone lost in a maze and barely made it this far.

I came this far to survive.

The victims dying innocently in this place, those who died simply for encountering the Black Serpent, everything that had transpired on the path we walked—it was all for that.

Mountains of corpses, countless, accumulated throughout that journey.

All committed for my own survival.

And I am evil, regarding the lives of others as less than ants in the face of my own.

Therefore, I could not die.

—Even if it was fate ordained by the stars.

*

A lodging facility in the outskirts of the Grand Duchy of Germania.

“……I’ll unwrap them.”

As the chest bandages of Sword Princess Alina, who was sitting in the bathtub, were unwrapped, her blossoming chest and a corpse-like pale, luminous back were revealed.

“Thank you, Saintess-nim.”

Saintess Jeanne carefully unwrapped the bandages on her back and looked at the area around her shoulder blades, which was slowly decaying within her pale, whitened skin. Already, a few maggots were burrowing into her flesh and wriggling.

Jeanne dabbed a cloth in the mercury that had been pre-filled in the bathtub and wiped Alina’s back.

Unlike a corpse that is merely embalmed and confined to a tomb for life, the woman before her was not dead remains.

For she had become a death knight, an immortal Sword Princess, capable of moving with will.

Now, Alina was submerged in a mercury bath for the embalming of her dead body.

Her body, having lost life and turned chillingly cold, was as white and pure as jade with a grayish tint.

At the same time, in various places, the natural order of life—decay—was taking place.

“I’ll re-embalm you.”

“……Yes.”

Each time, it was the Saintess’s role, as she cared for Alina and traveled with her, to halt that natural order and maintain her immortal body.

She submerged Alina’s body in mercury and took out containers of medicinal liquids that slowed and suppressed decay and mutation. Fortunately, these were easily obtainable here, in Germania, the land of necromancy.

Seeing this, Alina asked again in a bitter-sounding voice.

“My appearance, it’s quite hideous, isn’t it?”

“……It’s not hideous.”

Saintess Jeanne gently smiled and shook her head. After shaking her head, she lightly wrapped her arm around Alina’s pale and seemingly slender neck.

“You are so beautiful.”

With the unforgettable memory of the same man deeply embedded like a thorn in both their hearts.