Chapter 193: The Crimson Spirit (2)
Fragments of the sacred sword scattered before his eyes.
It was like a scene from a movie in slow motion.
Even as it shattered, the pieces of the sword deflected and dispersed the oncoming wave of crimson lightning, as if it had a will of its own, struggling to protect its master until the very end.
Clang—!
The moment the sword’s dying scream reached his ears, time, which had felt stretched and slow, snapped back to its normal pace.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The wave of red lightning crushed the surrounding space, and the parts that weren’t deflected tore through skin and muscle.
The shattered fragments of the sacred sword flew in all directions, disappearing forever.
At that moment, the blazing sphere surrounding the two also lost its power and vanished.
Whoosh…
The snowy mountain landscape reappeared.
The forest and even the rocky valley couldn’t withstand the heat of the sphere, melting like chocolate to form a massive crater.
“Tsk.”
In the center of that crater, Dalen clicked his tongue, steam rising from his body.
The half-broken blade pointed at the heart of the mage.
If the sacred sword hadn’t shattered, it might have been the mage’s heart that was torn apart. It would be a lie to say he wasn’t disappointed.
“I don’t understand…”
The mage muttered, looking down at the broken blade.
“What don’t you understand?”
“Why do you fight so desperately? Is it because of some inflated sense of self-worth as the hero of prophecy?”
The mage’s face was slightly pale, blood seeping from beneath his torn robes.
The sphere that melted the surroundings was the result of the combined power of two beings who had reached the sixth rank.
Even a sixth-rank mage couldn’t emerge unscathed from such a clash.
“That self-worth won’t save you. If you don’t survive, there’s no next time.”
The mage spoke while tearing his robe to bind his wounds. Dalen half-listened to the lecture, rolling his shoulders.
In the few words exchanged, his body had almost fully healed. His sole A-rank skill, Dragon’s Blood, was indeed formidable.
Of course, no matter how powerful Dragon’s Blood was, it couldn’t heal a completely shattered body.
The reason he was still alive was that the sacred sword had absorbed most of the impact.
“Don’t get so caught up in playing the hero that you forget your duty. If you truly are the hero of prophecy, you should have the responsibility to survive, even if it means sacrificing everyone else!”
“And what did surviving to the end get you?”
The mage’s shoulders flinched. Dalen chuckled and looked up.
His high intelligence allowed him to recall memories vividly, including the life of the lightning mage he had once controlled from behind a monitor.
A character crafted through hours of planning and design.
A playthrough focused on acquiring as many hidden pieces across the continent as efficiently as possible.
It was a challenge to see how far a traditional mage could go, focusing all efforts on gaining power rather than confronting the evil god.
“You had power but didn’t protect anyone. Getting other opportunities was more important to you.”
”…”
“When the armies of Suum destroyed the Tsar’s kingdom, you were busy currying favor with the imperial court mages. While Enaxagus and Temomron devoured the empire, you were across the sea learning spirit magic in the land of the fairies.”
“Shut up!”
Grit.
The mage ground his teeth. The sea of lightning in the sky bared its fangs in response to its master’s emotions.
Dalen looked up at it and sighed softly. He raised his healed left hand to cover the right hand gripping the sword hilt.
“You finally destroyed Suum with your long-prepared spell, but that was it. Killing one evil god didn’t stop the world from its path to ruin, and you lost your life to a great demon after expending all your power on Suum.”
“Don’t talk like you know everything. Do you even understand the helplessness of watching the world burn?”
“Yes.”
The answer came as he pointed the broken sword at the mage.
“I know it as well as you do.”
“Don’t talk nonsense!”
At that moment, a bolt of crimson lightning split the world.
━━━┳┻┳┻┳┻┳┻
The sky fractured into hundreds of pieces as red lightning fell. Dalen raised the broken sword and charged into it.
“An Upturned Waterfall”
“Reversal”
The molten ground cracked and surged skyward, blocking the rain of lightning.
Rocks and earth formed a massive dome, shielding the area. The red lightning struck the hundreds of tons of mass blocking its path.
“I refused the call of the Sky Fortress because I knew I would leave someday! I turned away from the woman I shared my heart with, fearing I would only hurt her!”
Crackle—
As the mage shouted, red sparks began to seep through the cracks in the rocks.
The time bought by the upturned earth was but a fleeting moment.
Yet, in this world crafted by his will alone, that moment was enough to draw upon the power of his domain.
“Domain Resonance”
“The Closed Sky of the Snowy Mountain”
“The Ashen Sky at the End”
“Dual Heavens”
Amidst the scenery turning ashen beneath his feet, dark crimson clouds rose like underground water, rumbling.
“Thunderous Harmony”
“Divine Tree of Zero Thunder”
“Azure Thunder Branch”
A tree of lightning surged from below, sending out a cascade of blue lightning.
The branches collided head-on with the green lightning piercing through the rock above.
Boom—!
As the branches of lightning snapped and exploded, Dalen charged at the mage with the sacred sword.
“Knowing the impending doom, my duty and responsibility were to gain the power to fight it!”
The mage retreated quickly, hurling yellow lightning. Dalen called upon the true dragon within.
‘Final Spear.’
[This will be the last.]
The crimson heat beam shot toward the yellow lightning, and as soon as he sensed it, he tore through the space with ashen energy.
Crack—
The mage had retreated far, unwilling to fall for the same trick again.
Tearing through space with ashen shadows, he caught up with the mage and stomped the ground.
Thud—
“Great Flame Pillar”
“Heat Pool of Construction”
A pillar of fire descended from the dark clouds above, forming a massive cage around them.
The vast pool of lava beneath emitted a heat that evaporated even sweat.
Blocking the retreat and creating a battlefield in his favor, he set the stage once more.
Though the heat of the Heat Pool couldn’t penetrate the mage’s electric barrier, it was enough to disperse some of its power.
The mage had already drawn another spear of yellow lightning. He spoke.
“I turned away from everything and gathered power. I claimed to have gathered all the lightning in the world. Do you know what I had left then?”
Dalen didn’t answer. He simply walked toward the mage, sword in hand.
”…A burned homeland and the corpses of friends from my youth. The chief mage of Varshavak, who might have been my lover, was torn apart by Suum’s demon, leaving no trace.”
”…”
“Even after gathering all that power, killing the evil god was nothing more than self-consolation. And you, with less ability than I…”
“I’m sorry.”
The mage’s shoulders trembled once more. It was an unexpected response.
Through his long, singed, and shortened hair, the warrior’s dark eyes met the mage’s.
“Back then, I was just a fool who only knew how to run away.”
Ten years. A time said to change even the landscape.
The twenty-year-old who entered college with dreams aplenty began to change over a decade.
As dreams were crushed and life took its toll, avoiding the problems before him became routine.
’…Are you coming home for the holidays?’
He lost his family, with whom he had grown distant.
‘I’m sorry. I just can’t see a future with you.’
He lost his lover, the price of abandoning his dreams.
Yet he thought it was okay. That a life of avoidance wasn’t so bad.
Even though I was earning enough to live on my own, and games had become my companions in my spare time.
But still.
“I didn’t realize until I lost everything and ended up in this cursed medieval land. The things I ignored were actually the most precious in life.”
“What on earth are you talking about…?”
“I agonized over it for a long time, but I made a decision recently. I decided not to turn away from the tragedies I might have created for you.”
It was a question I’d had since I retrieved the first body.
Was their life something I controlled? Or was it merely projected onto my monitor?
Given that I ended up inside a game, it wasn’t impossible for a pre-existing life to be reflected on a screen.
Or at least, that’s what I wanted to believe.
My only fault was unconsciously tapping away at the keyboard and mouse, thinking the screen was just the result of that.
“I still don’t know the answer. But it’s a fact that I might have caused those outcomes.”
As long as there’s a possibility, I can’t completely deny it. I now understand that deceiving myself and turning away only leads to a deeper abyss.
“If that’s the case, there’s only one thing I can do. Protect what you couldn’t.”
I don’t wish to survive alone in a world that’s become hell.
Living a life where I lost everything precious and pretended it didn’t matter was enough once.
That’s why I didn’t let go of the broken sword, and I raised the cracked blade towards the wizard.
In that moment.
Crackle!
Electricity began to surge from the broken blade.
“What the…?”
The electricity that started from the severed edge quickly enveloped the entire sword.
The tiny arcs of electricity not only covered the half-blade but also extended to Dalen’s waist, forming the shape of an axe.
The noise gradually subsided, revealing a fully formed white blade and axe.
The hand axe, slightly larger than a typical throwing axe, was just the right size considering Dalen’s build, and the sword’s tip aimed at the wizard was now longer and sharper.
”…”
Dalen was just as bewildered. He had only pointed the sword; he hadn’t done anything else.
Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a man. A towering warrior holding a large axe in one hand and a longsword in the other.
It was the very figure he had seen before the tomb of the High Orc Ancestor.
‘Who…’
He wanted to ask, but the words wouldn’t come out. The man simply smirked and nodded.
In that instant, a surge of vitality filled his body.
It was like receiving a battle prayer buff from a paladin, rejuvenating his weary muscles and clearing his mind as if doused with cold water.
’…Why?’
The man seemed to hear him, yet he didn’t answer. He merely extended the hand holding the axe and pointed a finger at the wizard.
The meaning was unclear, but one thing was certain.
Defeat that wizard and keep moving forward. Continue this life to overcome the end.
‘I’m quite the expert at smashing spellcasters’ heads.’
Though he didn’t appreciate the silent gestures, he could always repay it with a punch or something later.
What mattered now was the fight right in front of him. And the energy filling his body was a powerful move that would help him win.
“You, how…!”
He lightly pushed off the ground towards the pale wizard. The force alone shattered the space, turning the ground to dust.
In an instant, he was right in front of the wizard, reaching out with his sword to meet the descending lightning.
“Thunder Strike”
Boom—
The sword strike, accompanied by a thunderous roar, shattered the lightning.
Normally, the recoil alone would tear muscles and crush organs from the sheer force of the clash.
Exhale.
But with the inexplicable power overflowing within him, he neutralized all the recoil and took another step forward.
Crackle!
The wizard used the brief moment to ride the electricity and widen the distance. A technique that allowed him to traverse space with a single bolt of lightning.
It didn’t matter. Whether it was a lowly sewer spellcaster or the greatest lightning sorcerer, a blow to the head with an axe would kill them all the same.
Dalen released the sword, clenching his fists and drawing them back over his shoulder.
Thud.
Left foot forward.
Crackle—
Right foot back.
Just assuming the stance twisted the space, distorting the surroundings, and a faint, shimmering energy began to rise from the ground.
The imagery born from the martial art that once defeated the Grand Swordmaster was a double-edged sword, carrying the risk of shattering his own body.
Moreover, it was an attack that could be unleashed in this world where imagination and will became reality, as it was the source of all domains.
Exhale.
He poured the energy filling his body into the strike. The mysterious power moved naturally, as if it had always been his.
Sensing the threat in that energy, the wizard quickly formed hand seals.
Red lightning began to twist space and reveal itself between the wizard’s hands.
‘That’s the lightning that killed Soom.’
The red lightning that tore through the sky throughout the battle.
He couldn’t understand its principles or abilities in detail, but he remembered that the effect when Soom was defeated was similar.
And judging by the complex hand seals, it was clear that its power was on a different level.
But.
‘All I have to do is not give him time to complete the spell.’
Before the hand seals could be finished, the fist shot out like a released bowstring, crossing dozens of meters to strike the wizard.
“Closed Snow Mountain Sky”
“Fist”
━━━━━!
The punch, enhanced by the mysterious power, shattered the incomplete spell, spilling magic everywhere.
Crackle──!!
The remnants of the red lightning scattered in all directions, indiscriminately destroying the surroundings.
Dalen didn’t pause his breathing.
Exhale.
The sliver of an opening created by the broken spell.
He took the white axe in his left hand and hurled it towards that gap.
Whirr—
Dalen knew the weaknesses of the character Daltalion better than anyone.
Though a transcendent of the sixth rank, his only real weakness was that his stats were all invested in magic, intelligence, and perception, not physical strength.
Normally, he protected himself with a field of electricity, but when his magic was depleted or a spell was disrupted, his frail body was vulnerable even to ordinary weapons.
──Thud!
The white axe easily pierced through his skin and bone.
His body twisted as if pulled from behind.
Thud!
As the wizard’s back hit the ground, Dalen’s vision spun.
”…Dalen!”
When he opened his eyes again, he was on a battlefield where the frozen sky clashed with dark, stormy clouds.