Chapter 402

Thrust!

What is this?

It was hot, yet cool.

Sensing those two contradictory sensations, the Black Knight looked down at the transparent spearhead protruding through his chest.

He slowly raised his head. His gaze settled on the young human before him, whose expression he could not read.

“Enough…rest now.”

There was neither mockery for the defeated nor a victor’s joy in his voice. It sounded bitter and, in a way, wistful.

Those words filled the Black Knight’s mind.

Rest.

Then, in the next moment—

Crack!

The Black Knight heard everything binding him shatter.

The jet-black armor that had barely retained its shape broke into hundreds, then thousands of fragments, and the mighty mana within him faltered.

But the greatest change was taking place inside his mind.

That’s…

In a world that had slowed to a crawl, he saw a small, worn child’s shoe through the scattering fragments of armor.

At the same time, countless memories flashed through his mind.

“I want to become a Hunter.”

A young boy speaking of his dream.

“I’m proud of you. Thank you for growing up so well.”

“Thank you, Uncle. No…Father.”

A young man who had become both a proud nephew and a son.

“Is anyone there?”

“Welcome!”

…Ah.

On a day when everything had been perfect—the scent, the temperature, the weather—a man met a woman and fell in love.

“Will you marry me?”

The young boy who had wanted to become a Hunter became someone’s husband.

“Waaah! Waaah!”

“T-This child…”

“Congratulations on becoming a father, honey.”

At last, he became the father of a child.

“Dada! Momma!”

“Hahaha! That’s right! We’re your daddy and mommy!”

How could he ever forget those moments, when he had been happier than anyone else in the world?

A single tear rolled down his bloodless, pale cheek.

It swept away the dark clouds filling his mind. It was the tear of a dead man who had finally remembered who he was.

Ah…ahhh…

Only now did he know. Only now did he understand.

He reached out and grabbed the small shoe.

The nameless child crying in its parents’ arms overlapped with the image of his daughter smiling brightly as she saw him off on the morning he died.

“Daddy! Come back soon!”

“Have a safe trip. Be careful.”

He seemed to remember kissing his wife on the forehead and rubbing his face against his daughter’s cheek. He had hugged her as she laughed and complained that his beard was scratchy, then walked out the front door.

Leaving behind the same words he always did.

“I’ll be back.”

But he never kept that promise.

A few hours later, a disaster unlike any seen since the Great Cataclysm began. He fought with every ounce of strength he possessed until, at last, he came face-to-face with a certain being.

“How noble. Human, what is your name?”

“I am…”

The red glow burning in his eyes vanished as if it had been washed away.

The man with cloudy, gray-white eyes was no longer the Black Knight or the Death Knight Lord.

“Lei Fei. That is my name.”

Freed from his long darkness, he raised his head.

The setting sun shining through the clouds cast a reddish hue over his pale skin.

The System notification rang out just as I reached forward to deliver the final blow.

Ding.

System

• Information about the target has changed.
• The changed information is displayed through Qi Sense.

Lv. 120 Lei Fei

“…!”

The unexpected development stopped me cold.

The gray-white eyes of the Death Knight Lord—or rather, Lei Fei—slowly shifted from the sky toward me. The voice that slipped between his lips was hollow and lonely.

“It feels like I’ve just had a terrible nightmare. No, I almost wish it had been a nightmare.”

I had never heard of or seen anything like this before. After staring at him in silence, I spoke.

“Have you come back to your senses?”

“Yes. Only now, at last.”

Lei Fei looked down at his hands. They were pale and rotting, with parts of the flesh and bone missing after our fierce battle.

They were also soaked in red blood.

Human blood.

“What have I done?”

The man who had sacrificed his life for humanity had become the commander of a monster army and slaughtered humans.

I could not even begin to imagine how he felt after realizing that terrible truth.

“Lei Fei.”

I wanted to tell him. It wasn’t your will. The Arch Lich’s magic had seized control of your mind.

But Lei Fei shook his head.

“You don’t have to say it. I already know what you’re trying to tell me. But…”

Lei Fei gestured toward his body and continued.

“I don’t think I have much time left.”

Everything he said was true. The tough undead body that neither steel nor bullets had been able to pierce was slowly—very slowly—falling apart.

And, paradoxically, what was sustaining Lei Fei now was the mana that still remained within his body.

“It’s ridiculous. I became one of the undead and killed humans, yet I’m holding on with that very power.”

After muttering hollowly, he spoke to me.

“May I ask one favor?”

“…Please, go ahead.”

I thought Lei Fei wanted Erasure. I assumed he wished to find rest and escape from all his pain.

But the words that slipped from his lips were nothing like what I expected.

“Help me fulfill my mission.”

“…!”

“I swore an oath on the day I became a Hunter. I swore that I would fight monsters until the moment my life ended. That oath still stands.”

Lei Fei had already fulfilled his mission. He had charged forward bravely and shattered magnificently.

When he fought humanity as the Death Knight Lord, he had been acting on the Arch Lich’s will, not his own.

And yet he wanted to fight again. Though his life had already ended, he stood tall once more and reaffirmed his mission.

That was why I had to ask.

“Why? Why go this far?”

Lei Fei smiled faintly.

“What a foolish question.”

“What?”

“Why did you come running here alone, knowing that countless monsters and dangers awaited you? Why am I trying to fight until the very end? What’s the difference?”

“…!”

“You already know the answer. That is all.”

I already knew the answer.

The moment I heard those words, a shiver ran down my spine.

Lei Fei looked at me as I stood speechless, then raised a hand and gestured around us.

The countless monsters still remaining on the battlefield were reflected in his eyes, which had already lost the light of life.

“This…will be my final battle.”

Schlk!

Lei Fei pulled White Flame from his chest and handed it to me, then raised his sword.

Instead of the dazzling aura blade that symbolized an S-rank Hunter, ominous dark mana coiled around the blade and surged upward.

But the one wielding that power was not the Death Knight Lord.

It was a Hunter burning through his final mission.

“I’d like to fight alongside them. But will they allow me?”

Anyone who heard those words without knowing the circumstances would have dismissed them as random nonsense.

But I understood what Lei Fei meant. Lowering White Flame’s spearhead at an angle, I answered.

“They’ll be glad. If they’re the people I know.”

“……You think the same way I do.”

A red light flickered in Lei Fei’s gray-white eyes.

The mana he had dragged forth with all his strength seeped across the battlefield. Then a thunderous cry burst from his lips.

“Public Security Armed Forces Department—!”

And in the next moment—

Rustle. Rattle, rattle.

At the call of the Death Knight Lord—or rather, the head of the Public Security Armed Forces Department—the hundreds of Hunters who had fallen across the battlefield rose to their feet. Returned from death, they gripped their weapons and assembled in one place.

Lei Fei and I stood at their head.

“You take the lead. The living must finish this fight.”

As though bewitched, I stepped forward.

The monster army, thrown into confusion by the unexpected turn of events, finally gathered with savage roars.

They came for the commander who had become their enemy.

And for me, standing at the front.

Step. Step.

I walked forward, slowly but firmly.

Tap. Tap-tap.

Then I gradually picked up speed.

Lei Fei and the hundreds of Public Security Armed Forces Department Hunters resurrected as undead followed behind me.

It did not take long for the ripples to become a wave and crash over the enemy.

And at the entrance to what would be our final battle, Lei Fei shouted at the top of his lungs.

“Wipe them all out!”

It was the same cry that had echoed through the footage.

The Five-Starred Red Flag—their symbol and their pride—shone in the setting sun upon their battered, filthy armor.

With my chest throbbing, I became a streak of light and shot toward the monsters.

Whoooooosh! KRA-DOOM!

Crunch!

How many had I brought down by now?

Hundreds? A thousand?

Slash! Boom!

I had no idea. Like a man possessed, I kept moving forward. I smashed, cut, stabbed, and blew apart everything that stood in my way.

Whoooooosh!

—Kuaaaargh!

—Kraaah!

Blue hellfire surged upward in pillars, and monsters engulfed in flames that would not go out screamed.

Then, when I could no longer hear anything, I suddenly stopped.

“Hah, huff.”

I was out of breath. My mouth felt rough and dry, as if I had chewed and swallowed a handful of sand.

The fatigue I had briefly forgotten came crashing back over me as I looked around.

Across the vast expanse of land, not a single monster remained standing.

Neither the ogres and Trolls that had bellowed their savage cries nor the Wyverns and Gargoyles that had circled overhead.

And…

Thud. Thump!

The Public Security Armed Forces Department Hunters resurrected as undead began to fall as well.

Having fulfilled their final mission, they collapsed one after another like puppets whose strings had been cut.

As I watched them with an emotion I could not put into words, I realized what their collapse meant.

“…Lei Fei!”

He sat in the middle of the silent battlefield. One arm had been severed and his side torn open, yet he waited for me with a peaceful expression.

“You came at just the right time.”

I did not know why, but those simple words made something surge up inside my chest.

We had not even known each other for ten years, yet a curse slipped from my lips before I could stop it.

“Damn it…”

“Don’t swear so much. I saw you on television, and it seems to be a habit. Women won’t like that, and it’s not good for children’s education.”

Lei Fei let out a quiet laugh. He already knew who I was.

“Is that really the problem right now? There has to be some way…”

—There is no such way, you treacherous human.

The Skeleton Warlord’s voice was deeper and more subdued than usual.

Lei Fei stared at him, eyes widening.

“A monster?”

—I am the commander. You are a foolish but somewhat remarkable human.

“A monster, then. I have no idea what’s going on, but…yes, if you’re Jin Taekyung, I’m sure you’ll handle it somehow.”

Lei Fei nodded and raised his head toward the sky. His slowly blinking gray-white eyes reflected the sky, now stained entirely red.

“Could you pass along one message?”

I did not ask the foolish question, To whom?

I already knew.

“Tell them I love them. And tell them I’m sorry I couldn’t come home.”

It was the final message a dead man left for his family.

My chest churning, I answered.

“…I will.”

“Thank you. You’re a good person.”

Lei Fei smiled faintly and tapped my shoulder with his one remaining hand.

With a dry, crumbling sound, his fingers broke apart into dust. Soon, his arm, his leg, his chest……

At the very end, one last sentence slipped between his lips.

“Go west. End this war.”

Whoooooosh.

The wind blew. The hero, reduced to a handful of dust, scattered into the air.

As I stared blankly at the sight, dozens of planes appeared in my field of vision, flying toward us in formation.