The Devil’s Sacred Sword (10)
After thoroughly ransacking the gnoll settlement, Dalen and Lucia decided to take a well-deserved rest for the day.
Lucia’s condition was the main reason.
She had spent a grueling four hours clinging to the armored wolf, and then immediately swept through the gnoll settlement, leaving her utterly exhausted.
Even the last remnants of her divine power were completely drained when she purified the altar of the evil god within the settlement.
The cave where the demon was hiding lay a week’s journey south from their current location.
Rather than risk starting the journey and running out of energy halfway, it was wiser to rest now.
Besides, they had already drastically reduced travel time by using the armored wolf, so taking a day off wouldn’t disrupt their plans.
With a whoosh, Dalen lit a campfire using the firewood the gnolls had gathered.
Meanwhile, Lucia had scrubbed herself and her armor clean in the stream running through the settlement.
Dressed in light spare clothes, she hung her washed armor and clothes by the fire to dry, then slipped into the tent and quickly fell asleep.
The tent still carried a faint animal scent, but it was a perfect shelter for the night, befitting a highly intelligent species.
A soft fur bed and a thick tent to block the wind—these alone made it the most luxurious sleeping arrangement one could find in a labyrinth.
Dalen, having let the weary knight rest, took a walk around the settlement to ensure their safety.
He, too, had washed off the blood and guts in the stream, now wearing only a light layer of clothing.
His steps naturally led him to the tent of the gnoll warlord.
The bodies of hundreds of gnolls were cooling under the cold night air.
Among them, the largest corpse stood out.
Dalen slowly reached out his hand toward the decapitated body of the gnoll warlord.
Two ashen corpses, visible only to him, dissolved into light and were absorbed into his hand.
[You have recovered the body of a Labyrinth Novice. Abilities inherited.]
[Inheritance Reward: Dexterity +1]
[You have recovered the body of a Seasoned Warrior. Abilities inherited.]
[Inheritance Reward: Stamina +1, Dexterity +1, Rapantella’s Crushing Sword (C)]
One was a worthless character’s body, the other from a time when strategies were still being developed.
Fortunately, his strength didn’t increase.
Dalen opened his status window for the first time in a long while.
――――――――
Name: Dalen
Level: 10
[Strength: 30] [Dexterity: 18] [Stamina: 19]
[Senses: 17] [Intelligence: 19] [Magic: 14]
Skills: Dehaman’s Armored Combat (D), Night Vision (E), Dragonblood Regeneration Factor (C), Leap (E), Flame Arrow (D), Rapid Freeze (D), Rapantella’s Crushing Sword (C)
――――――――
Finally, he had reached a double-digit level.
Of course, it didn’t mean much. Reaching level 10 didn’t grant any special rewards in this cursed game.
Nevertheless, investing the additional ability points into stamina finally brought his stamina into the twenties.
‘That’s significant enough.’
Just a few stretches confirmed that he could now handle more power without internal injuries.
Dalen rotated his shoulders, getting accustomed to his changed body.
‘I should balance out the other stats too.’
He had experienced unexpected side effects when one stat was excessively high.
Perhaps there would be side effects if a particular stat was too low as well.
‘First, I need to put out the immediate fires, then focus on balance.’
Dalen stopped his warm-up and drew his sword.
Srrng—
The starlight, dimmer than during the day, shimmered and scattered off the well-polished blade.
The solid metal sword had sliced through hundreds of gnolls and remained unscathed.
Indeed, it was a masterpiece crafted with great care by Reberon.
The armor drying by the campfire had some broken chains but wasn’t significantly damaged.
Sss—
Dalen took a slow breath.
His intelligence stat dissected and analyzed the newly acquired knowledge.
His senses and dexterity applied the analyzed results to his muscles and organs, embodying them in his movements.
His fingertips tingled. His head felt hot.
His heart pounded, pumping hot blood throughout his body despite no injuries.
His muscles were eager to explode into action, ready to tear through the air.
The skill he gained from the seasoned warrior’s body, Rapantella’s Crushing Sword.
This martial skill, the first he acquired since Dehaman’s Armored Combat, was powerful enough to elevate even his superhuman physique.
Considering the Dragonblood Regeneration Factor, also a C-grade skill, the potential of the Crushing Sword was promising.
Moreover, unlike the Dragonblood Regeneration Factor, which he had never properly used, Dalen had wielded Rapantella’s Crushing Sword several times before.
Having experienced its power from behind a monitor, his anticipation was naturally high.
‘An extremely offense-focused two-handed sword technique. It considers defense as part of the attack, focusing solely on destructive power in every move.’
Hoo—
He exhaled slowly.
He raised the sword over his shoulder with both hands.
In front of him stood the gnoll warlord’s axe-spear, embedded upside down.
Made of an unknown material that could split rocks without a scratch.
Sss—
He inhaled briefly, redirecting his senses inward rather than outward.
His left foot slid forward on the ground.
From his shoulders, a strange flow of magic began to swirl.
Sss—
A peculiar mirage-like energy spread from his shoulders to his forearms.
The moment it reached his sword-wielding fingertips—
Whish—!
A seemingly ordinary sword strike slashed diagonally from over his shoulder.
“······.”
The change appeared a beat later.
Clang!
The axe-spear, which had shattered rocks, split in half.
Crack-crack-crack-crack—!
It shattered from the handle to the axe head, exploding into hundreds of metal fragments.
It was a sight where the starlight in the dark sky blossomed into hundreds of twinkles on the ground before vanishing.
The next day.
The two set off southward early in the morning.
Dalen planned their route to avoid combat as much as possible.
Until Lucia’s stamina fully recovered, even minor skirmishes were best avoided.
For three days, they traveled south without incident.
On the fourth night since entering the labyrinth—
Crackle.
Dalen sat by the campfire, waiting for dinner to be ready.
Across the fire, Lucia asked, “Why did you catch more than usual today?”
She was slowly turning a skewer over the fire.
Ten skinned and cleaned burrow rabbits were roasting on the skewer.
Burrow rabbits were much more dangerous and aggressive than surface rabbits, but in the labyrinth, they were among the lowest in the food chain.
Their meat tasted similar to rabbit, making them a favored food source for hunter-turned-explorers.
“Dalen?”
Sizzle.
The sound of sizzling fat made his mouth water. The savory, fragrant aroma had been teasing his nose for the past ten minutes.
Dalen swallowed his saliva before finally responding.
“I was hungry. And being near the forest, there were plenty of rabbit burrows around.”
“I see. I know you eat several times more than an average person, but please try not to exceed ten. Cooking them all at once isn’t easy.”
“I can help with that.”
“Please, don’t say such… horrifying things.”
Lucia glared at Dalen, her brows furrowed.
Her eyes perfectly conveyed the expression of cursing someone with a look.
Dalen scratched the back of his head. What, did I ever give anyone food poisoning?
“Dalen, your cooking… it’s strange to even call it cooking. It’s not fit for human consumption.”
“I thought it was edible.”
“Just eat it raw. Wouldn’t that be more nutritious and tastier?”
Dalen scratched his nose with a finger. Even back on Earth, cooking was never his forte.
In this world, the only cooking he’d done was making stew a few times early in his mercenary days.
Even then, his senior mercenaries had quickly taken over, leaving him to just enjoy the meals.
‘I didn’t think it was that bad.’
A few days ago, when he first cooked the game he hunted, he thought it was decent.
He felt the meat was chewy enough, and the skin was crispy.
Of course, after Lucia tasted it and unleashed a torrent of curses, he began to see things more objectively.
He had witnessed her nearly break a tooth on the first bite and only manage to chew the tough meat after reinforcing her jaw with divine tattoos.
“It’s ready.”
Just as he was about to spiral into self-loathing, Lucia handed him the finished roast.
The aroma of spices lightly sprinkled over the glossy, honey-glazed surface was irresistible.
As Dalen took a bite, the sweet and savory crust crumbled crisply in his mouth, while the tender meat inside released its juices, filling his senses.
This was cooking skill worthy of an A-grade chef, he mused.
“Who would’ve thought the Demon Slayer had a natural talent for cooking?”
Dalen pondered this as he devoured his second rabbit.
“Do you enjoy cooking often?” he asked.
“Whenever we camped during training, I usually took charge. The Paladin Order’s manual states that eating is part of battle, so we always had a good supply of spices.”
If they brought spices and honey even into the labyrinth, their supplies must be better than any army on the continent, Dalen thought, recalling the supply list he’d glimpsed from the Paladin Order.
Even as the world was ending, they included salt and pepper by the sackful.
“Somehow, it would’ve felt wrong if the Paladin Order wasn’t part of the last supper before the end,” he chuckled at the thought. Lucia, having just finished her rabbit leg, asked, “How much longer until we reach the demon’s lair?”
“At this pace, about four more days. Maybe a day less if we push it.”
Lucia nodded, saying nothing more. The crackling of the campfire and the sound of chewing filled the silence between them.
Dalen broke the quiet. “What kind of person was Barrett?”
Lucia’s brow furrowed. Dalen wiped his greasy hands on his clothes and continued, “I’m not trying to belittle him. Back then, I just wanted you to snap out of it. Anyone recognized by the Holy Sword must’ve been quite remarkable, right?”
“He was more than remarkable,” Lucia said, placing her meat down slowly. “He was the most loyal paladin. Many peers and juniors respected him, and even some senior knights saluted him first.”
Her expression was a storm of emotions—sorrow, disbelief, memories, and regret.
Dalen watched her complex emotions play out and simply said, “That’s unfortunate.”
“I can’t understand why he stole the Holy Sword or how he could lose it to a demon so easily. Not that I underestimate demons, but even with support from crusaders and explorers, it shouldn’t have been so easy…”
Lucia trailed off, biting her lip as she stared into the fire.
Dalen chewed another piece of meat, pondering the oddity. Being recognized by the Holy Sword meant Barrett wasn’t an ordinary paladin. And to hunt a demon, there would’ve been at least dozens of explorers.
‘Even novice knights and crusaders went along, so they should’ve been able to handle a low-level demon driven to the first floor of the labyrinth.’
What puzzled him more was the bald explorer’s testimony he’d overheard before entering the labyrinth.
‘He said the demon was stabbed by the Holy Sword.’
The Holy Sword’s divine power should easily overwhelm a low-level demon’s regeneration. With a hole in its belly and its innards spilling out, the demon’s regenerative abilities would be useless.
‘There are too many suspicious points.’
As Dalen’s suspicions deepened, Lucia shook her head, dispelling her thoughts. She spoke, “He’s a fallen comrade. Even if he made mistakes, he died fighting a demon, so it was an honorable death.”
“Having a comrade who thinks that way, it seems Paladin Barrett lived an honorable life.”
Lucia didn’t respond. She picked up her rabbit meat again and resumed eating.
Dalen pulled another piece of meat from the skewer. It was his fifth rabbit.
Lucia paused her eating to watch him with curiosity.
Her expression seemed to ask, “Where does all that meat go?”
Night deepened. Dalen took the first watch.
Lucia fell asleep within a minute of crawling into her blanket.
Crackle. Pop.
Dalen stared blankly at the campfire. Sparks flew up into the sky, resembling shooting stars.
They seemed to claim the night sky as their home, yearning to reach the stars with their erratic dance.
In the end, only darkness remained as the light faded.
As he watched the darkness, a conversation from a few days ago crossed his mind.
“Who… are you?”
It was Felber’s voice.
The elder mage, who had read Dalen’s life from the earth’s memory, couldn’t hide his astonishment.
“The earth says your life spans only two years and a month. This is… truly unexpected. I thought you were unusual.”
After retracting his domain and catching his breath, the old man had spoken to him with a slightly hardened expression.
“I’ll keep today’s events a secret. An old man like me shouldn’t be a hindrance to a hero like you.”
Dalen chuckled softly.
A secret, he said.
Initially wary, he found the old man increasingly trustworthy.
In the original story, too, Felber Valentino led the Elgaia Tower in fierce resistance whenever the demon army invaded the labyrinth city.
Though he was an unacquirable extra NPC, making him a companion in this round was entirely possible.
Crackle. Snap!
Dalen poked the campfire with a stick a few times, then stood up.
After confirming Lucia was asleep, he left the campfire and headed into the forest.
There were more trustworthy people in the world than he thought.
But at the same time, the opposite was true to an incomparable degree.
It was only natural. Human nature tends to be driven by self-interest rather than the greater good.
Dalen, being no different, didn’t think it was wrong.
‘But if someone threatens my life in pursuit of their greed…’
In such cases, he saw no reason to hold back.
Whoosh―!
An arrow flew through the darkness.
Painted entirely black from tip to feather, it was a weapon optimized for ambushes in the labyrinth’s dark environment.
Dalen reached out and caught the arrow.
The slight tingling on his skin suggested the device that fired it wasn’t an ordinary bow or crossbow.
After examining the arrow briefly, he flung it back toward the edge of the forest.
Whoosh―!
The arrow returned at nearly twice the speed it had flown in, disappearing into the bushes with a sound like a watermelon bursting.
Thud!
A body with half its head missing rolled out of the bushes.
The complex mechanical crossbow it had dropped was in the process of reloading another arrow.
At that moment, other bushes rustled. Dalen placed his hand on his sword hilt and turned his head.
Soon, heavily armed individuals began emerging from the underbrush one by one.
They were explorers.
They cursed as they looked at the man with the shattered head.
“Damn it, Rakus!”
“We’ll kill you, you barbarian bastard!”
The explorers drew their weapons. Among them, Dalen spotted the bald mercenary.
The bald man met his gaze, his shoulders flinching. Dalen grinned and said, “Long time no see. How’ve you been?”
“By sheer luck.”
Dalen nodded, slowly drawing his sword.
“Let me ask you something. How long have you been following us?”
The bald man didn’t answer this time. He clamped his mouth shut and began to retreat.
Watching him, one of the explorers shouted, “Attack! Kill him!”
The explorers charged. Spears and swords thrust forward, and arrows flew from crossbows.
Facing the dozen or so gleaming blades, Dalen gripped his sword with both hands and smiled fiercely.
It was time to extract the truth from the witness who claimed to have seen the paladin’s last stand.