Blood obscured my sight.
My body, after running continuously, was thoroughly overheated.
Blizzard and chilling wind lashed at my skin like a whip, but my muscles continued to unleash fierce sword strikes without relaxing.
Flesh and bone fragnts scattered.
My sword pierced through the Flesh Globs blocking my path. To the ones clinging by my side, I fed them my hatchet.
And if there were still approaching opponents, I infused my sword with mana until it humd.
The aura blazed like wildfire.
A brilliant silver light extending a straight line across the world.
The Flesh Globs that touched that aura couldn't even resist.
Their severed body parts fell with a thud, writhing unpleasantly.
Phaak, I stepped forward, trampling on the remnants.
After running and running like that, before I knew it, I was out of breath.
The air I roughly sucked in was icy cold.
My vision blurred and my lungs scread. My whole body creaked, forcefully demanding rest.
My abdominal wound?
It had long since burst open,drenched in blood.
But then, I finally realised the situation changed.
The Flesh Globs were no longer charging at .
Instead, the ground was trembling violently with heavy thuds.
Panting, I knelt and looked up at the sky.
Beyond the casted shadow, sothing was flying toward .
At first, I thought it was a teor.
But it was a giant fist made of countless corpses.
Between the writhing arms, one corpse stuck out its head, weeping blood.
The tornted soul scread.
Kiiiiieeeeeeek!
I locked eyes with it and burst into a hollow laugh.
Judging by its sudden charge, it wasn't going to be a noble opponent.
And that was fine by .
As I didn’t know how to fight gracefully either.
Gritting my teeth, I mapped out the space with bloodshot eyes.
Bizarre trajectories etched into my vision. I endured the pain in my eyes as I gazed at the countless solid lines.
Bit by bit, it beca more visible.
The more laboured my breathing beca, the more my body scread, the more each nerve ending cried out in pain.
The boundary between reality and mory gradually blurred.
I needed to glimpse more, just a little more.
I tore at the solid lines of space with all my might.
With a snap, like broken strings, the lines haphazardly sprang up.
And in the next mont.
Boom—a shockwave swept through the area as if an earthquake had struck.
It seed I briefly heard the screams of won in the distance.
But I was still unhard.
The fist of the Corpse Giant missed , tracing an absurd trajectory.
It was a close call, but it didn’t matter.
As long as I was still breathing, that was enough.
I quickly leaped and clung to the wrist of the Corpse Giant. Then, clutching one of the hundreds of flailing arms, I exerted force and propelled myself upward.
Climbing onto the arm of the Corpse Giant, I continued to run.
Of course, the Corpse Giant didn't stand still either.
Its arm, made up of thousands of corpses, had countless hands reaching out and flailing to grab .
Each ti, I cut them down with either my sword or the hatchet.
Yet the corpses blocking my way seed endless.
The arms clustered together to form another monstrosity, a separate arm made entirely of other arms, branching out like tree limbs.
Three or four smaller arms crossed and blocked my way.
It was an intricate barrier, like a web. At this rate, breaking through was impossible.
So I dropped my sword strike to the lower left.
More mories ca pouring down.
Each one a painful recollection.
It was the life of soone who lived losing soone, being robbed, hating and suffering.
And it wasn't just the mories that ca rushing in.
The painful emotions of that day were conveyed just as vividly.
It was terrifying and dreadful.
With each glimpse into the man’s nightmares, my heart ached as if it was being torn apart. I felt like screaming and crying.
He must have wanted to run away.
But for him, there wasn't even a place to run to.
Therefore, I had no intention of running away either.
For no other reason than to deny his path.
It was then that my silver-tinged blade left slashes in the air.
A full five lines.
The corpse arms blocking my way were shredded completely, thus letting out unearthly screams.
Kiiiiieeeeeeeeeeek!
I climbed swiftly like a squirrel ascending a tree.
Before I knew it, I was scaling the forearm, heading toward the shoulder.
It was the mont I first locked eyes with the Corpse Giant.
Thousands of faces turned towards , then twisted into a grotesque grin.
Kekeek keek keek!
It was a blatant sneer.
A laugh as if to say, 'What can soone like you possibly do to ?'
I wasn't angry.
That was the objective gap between and this monster.
However, I steeled up my resolve.
Just as I had always done, I would turn that sneer into a scream.
Perhaps I could make one of those faces scream right away.
If only sothing hadn't firmly grabbed my ankle just then.
I could only look down at my ankle with a puzzled expression.
The hands that tried to grab my ankle were all severed by my sword and hatchet.
It was hard to believe there was still an arm left.
But the wrist gripping my ankle was adorned with an unmistakably luxurious gauntlet.
"...Fucking shit."
I quickly raised my sword, bracing for the impact that would follow.
Sure enough, a tsunami of corpses was surging in front of before I knew it.
The Corpse Giant was trying to sweep away with its remaining hand.
With a 'wham', an intense montum flung into the air.
For a mont, my mind went blank, and I lost consciousness.
When I ca to my senses again, I was bouncing and rolling on the ground several tis.
Kugh, a handful of blood spilled from my mouth.
I felt like I was going to die.
Even though I was prepared for the next blow, I couldn't muster any strength in my body.
My muscles spasd involuntarily.
My consciousness blurred, and a cold blizzard lashed at my skin.
Snow was already piling on my body, sapping away my body heat.
Normally, I shouldn't be able to move in this state.
Even moving a finger was hard. My body, which had already been on the brink of death several tis, longed for true rest.
But I rembered.
The mory of that burning day.
The girl died, and the boy died.
I didn’t want to lose anyone else.
That was my undisguised true intention.
Perhaps it was also the man's true feelings, hidden deep within.
I crawled unsteadily and barely managed to grasp my sword and stand up.
As a silver aura flickered from the sword, the Flesh Globs seed bewildered.
They had approached to deal with a corpse, but were puzzled to see it rise.
In that brief mont, I pulled a potion from my pocket and gulped it down.
Thump, my heart pounded fiercely, forcibly injecting vitality into my exhausted body.
The muscles that were frozen due to the bitter cold finally seed to loosen a bit.
Clutching my sword with both hands, I spoke.
"...We still have a long way to go, don't we?"
Yes, until I could understand that man.
The waltz of sword and blood had to continue for much longer.
Ptu, the blood I spat out created ripples.
**
"...We must go now!"
It was a plea close to a scream.
The Saintess cried out like that, violently brushing off Yuren's hand gripping her shoulder.
Her soft pink eyes were already brimming with tears.
"H-He’ll die like that... No, he will definitely die! W-We have to rescue him right now, imdiately!"
It was such a desperate plea that by the end, she even forgot to use the formal speech.
The remaining people, at a loss for words, were watching Ian's desperate struggle.
They could only watch in a daze.
How could he still be moving?
He should have collapsed and died long ago.
His body was completely in shambles.
Even when seen from afar, it was clear the man had been inflicted a terrifying blow.
It was a solo battle against the Underling of the Evil God.
It was, of course, anything but simple. Most people doubted Ian's sanity.
But for sothing done by a re madman, it was far too...
"...Relentless."
That was Reynold's comnt.
Not just the Rinella’s Mage Corps but even the refugees stopped marching to watch the man.
Hundreds of eyes were focused on his desperate struggle.
Yet no one dared to carelessly voice their thoughts.
The sight of him, totally battered, continuing the battle endlessly despite his body being one that should have collapsed long ago.
At first, they mocked, later, they were in awe, and now, they found it eerie.
Several of the mages shuddered, their hair standing on end.
The battle was that eerie.
Among the crowd fallen into silence, Celine was the second to co to her senses after the Saintess.
She imdiately gritted her teeth and dashed forward, kicking off the ground.
No one had ti to stop her.
Elsie, too, finally regained her senses.
Her body trembled.
To be honest, she was scared.
It was the first ti she had witnessed such a relentless fight.
Although they had fought fierce battles against the flesh nests before, even those weren't as hopeless as this one.
It must be incredibly painful and agonising.
Yet how could Master not yield against that monster?
Elsie found it hard to understand him.
For a mont, she even considered running away.
The enemy was invincible.
Moreover, Elsie wasn't as strong as Ian.
It seed as if he and she were destined for different fates from birth.
Born a weak human, all Elsie could do was wag her tail at strong individuals like Ian.
A life of acting cute and playful to receive affection from the master.
Isn't it a better life than that of a fighting dog? At the mont when she was thinking that to herself...
'...I will love you.'
A voice she had heard one day suddenly echoed in Elsie's ears.
If I run away?
With her senses finally returning, Elsie thought.
If I run away, what will happen to the master?
He might die.
And if he dies, I will never be able to see him again.
That fact struck Elsie with a fear more vivid than any other.
For the first ti in her life, Elsie understood what a fear greater than death was.
She had to save him.
He was an irreplaceable presence in Elsie's life.
He was soone worth saving, even if it ant sacrificing her own life.
With that resolve, the mont Elsie turned to leave.
"…Elsie."
As always, a stern voice stopped her.
"Where are you going?"
It was Reynold's.
Elsie bit her lip slightly.
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