Chapter 706

A thought occurred to me.

Can’t I sit this one out now?

The greater good. A spirit of self-sacrifice. Laying down your life for others. All that stuff.

All good things. Heartwarming, if a little embarrassing to say out loud. But…

Haven’t I done enough of that already?

I had come all the way to this cursed continent-sized greenbelt for the greater good, and I had fought while wearing my spirit of self-sacrifice over my entire body—so thoroughly that it might as well have been tattooed onto me.

Actually, considering how many battles I’d fought in Nanman, just saying I’d fought didn’t do it justice.

I’d fought a fucking lot.

In forests. In fields. In swamps and jungles.

I’d driven my spear into spiders the size of houses. I’d answered the Nanman warriors who kept coming for glory with fire and fists.

If only it had ended there.

At the Poisonblood Grounds, I’d faced two Supreme Peak masters at once. Before I’d even recovered from that, I’d had to fight the monster known as the Southern Heaven Demon Empress.

And then there was One Annihilation.

One Annihilation. Killing everything in a single strike—that was what the name meant. Lately, though, I’d begun to wonder if everything included me.

What the fuck was I pouring into that one blow? My internal energy or my lifespan?

Still, things had not turned out too badly. Just when I had been wondering whether that was the day I would see the ending of my life, the Beast Miao King and the Baekcheon Unit had appeared. With the Beast Miao King’s help, I had partially recovered from my Internal Injury, and I had also learned that allies were already swarming outside the Inner Palace.

With the battle finally turning in our favor, I could breathe a little easier.

Until one insane tiger suddenly hit the gas.

Whoosh!

No, fuck. Did this bastard live on Frosted Flakes?¹

I’d noticed it when we first met on Ailao Mountain: the guardian spirit was faster than the three hundred warriors of the Baekcheon Unit. Faster even than the Beast Miao King.

Across the vast Inner Palace, now reduced to ruins, a thousand mutants stood in our way like an iron wall.

The guardian spirit’s silver body shot toward the Southern Heaven Demon Empress beyond them. Its thought rang through my head.

—Hold on tight, human!

Is he trying to kill me…?

At that instant, a massive, murky light erupted above the mutants’ heads.

Kraaaaaaash!

—Duck.

Along with the brief thought, the guardian spirit tilted its body. Its powerful forepaw struck the ground, and its enormous body changed direction at an angle.

Whoosh!

Those instincts, those movements—spiritual creature hardly covered it. Divine beast seemed closer.

The Southern Heaven Demon Empress’s palm strike, packed with tremendous internal energy, missed its target and slammed into the ground.

Boom! Rumble, rumble!

Dust billowed up. Countless fragments came hurtling through it toward us, and I brought White Flame’s spearhead down.

Whoosh!

The spearhead whistled through the air. Debris flung up by the impact crumbled to powder and scattered.

Then—

Thud-thud-thud-thud!

Hundreds of figures riding enormous beasts burst through the darkness and pale dust.

They charged in a triangular wedge, carrying tremendous weight and momentum. At its tip, a half-gray-haired middle-aged man drove out a fist.

The Beast Miao King.

Fwoom! Boom!

No furious shout. No command.

In place of his voice, green Fist Force erupted, crushing dozens of mutants in an instant and opening a gap. Three hundred charging spears drove into it like sharp awls.

Kra-crack!

Blood burst forth. Severed limbs flew high into the air.

One thousand against three hundred. Humans and beasts against monsters.

Slice! Slice!

Whoosh! Stab-stab-stab!

“Guh!”

—Kraaaaaaang!

Screams and the sounds of blades cutting flesh rang out on every side.

The Baekcheon Unit’s charge crushed hundreds of mutants, but a fierce close-quarters battle awaited them. The Beast Miao King shot past it toward the true enemy waiting for him.

“Southern Heaven Demon Empress!”

His body surged forward like a streak of light alongside his roar. A moment later, the aftermath of their collision, carrying a distant flash of light, shook the foundations of the earth.

Boom! Rumble!

Figures and sharpened weapons clashed in a blur. Above them, the darkness slowly gave way before the green Force.

The Southern Heaven Demon Empress is already exhausted. The Beast Miao King has the advantage.

But the close-quarters battle wasn’t going nearly as well.

The beasts, made bigger and stronger by mutation, were a match for First Rate masters. The warriors had retained all the martial arts they’d known as humans, and now they moved faster than ever as they went after the Baekcheon Unit.

Like this one.

Whoosh! Slice!

A mutant’s head flew up with a sharp cutting sound.

The Baekcheon warrior who had failed to notice it behind him stared at me, eyes wide.

“No matter how busy you are, you’ve got to watch your back.”

“Thank you. But who are you…?”

The Beast Miao King or the Baekcheon Unit. After a moment’s hesitation between the two, I answered.

“An ally. I’ll take the lead. Follow me.”

I didn’t have much choice.

The Baekcheon Unit could stand against such overwhelming numbers because every single one of its members had reached at least the realm of a Supreme First Rate master. The mutants, whose bodies had been completely consumed by demonic qi, were powerful.

With the Beast Miao King gone from their midst, the guardian spirit and I had to lead the charge.

“…Shit. Now that I think about it, why am I—”

—Is it my imagination, or are you fighting just fine while you complain?

“Be honest. You’ve got a grudge against me, don’t you?”

Crack!

Maybe demonic qi drove the mutant’s ferocity. Maybe it was loyalty to the commander it wanted to protect. Either way, it charged out of the dust and filled my vision—until the guardian spirit crushed it in a single blow.

—A grudge?

“Don’t play dumb, you bastard. You accelerated like your life depended on it because I set fire to Ailao Mountain.”

Kra-crack!

A single sweep of its forepaw tore the heads off four or five mutants. The guardian spirit clicked its tongue—despite being a tiger.

—Ridiculous.

“Are you sure?”

—No.

“Then is this revenge for the Thousand-Year Spider that lived upstairs?”

—What nonsense is that?

“I’ve thought it over, and it’s suspicious as hell. You know what they say. Our friendly neighborhood Thousand-Year Spider… up!”

Stab!

With that shout, I thrust White Flame straight through the head of a tiger that had leaped at us, casting a shadow over the guardian spirit.

Grrrk…

Its cry died away. With the dead tiger still impaled on my spear, I swung it hard.

Fwoom! Crack!

The carcass, weighing well over several hundred geun,² flew into other mutants and crushed them.

“If you weren’t holding a grudge, you wouldn’t throw a patient who needs bed rest into a mess like this. That’s my conclusion.”

Whoosh! Slice!

I swept my spear sideways in one fluid motion. Five heads flew along its path.

The headless corpses collapsed at the same speed they had charged. The guardian spirit stared blankly at the sight and muttered,

—I think your idea of a patient differs from mine.

“Are you insane? Can’t you see what shape I’m in?”

—I can. That is why I said it.

“You just don’t understand. My bones ache when I breathe.”

Stab!

—You seem perfectly capable of stabbing everything around you. That hardly makes a convincing argument.

“Damn it. I’m only doing this to stay alive…”

—Do you know something?

“What?”

—For a human, you are remarkably bad at lying.

“What’s that supposed to—”

I didn’t have time to finish.

Crack! Whoosh!

A silver mane wet with blood scattered through the air. The guardian spirit leaped upward after bursting a mutant’s head, then swung its forepaw as it descended.

Its hooklike claws carried blade-sharp wind and an energy that could only be called Force.

Boom! Rumble!

One strike.

Amid the thunderous sound and the vibrations, dozens of mutants were sent flying as bloody pulp, and even more mutants rushed forward to fill the empty space.

Whoosh!

—Kweeeek!

Their movements were swift and fierce, at odds with their grotesque cries. Streams of Sword Energy poured from some of their weapons—proof they had once been renowned warriors even in Nanman.

But—

—Kraaaaaaang!

The guardian spirit existed solely to protect the sacred stone. At the roar of that enormous White Tiger, unlike any anyone had ever seen, the mutants froze.

As though we’d planned it, I brought White Flame down at an angle.

Cut them. All at once.

The three jiazi³ of Scorching Yang Qi were gone. So were the blue-white flames that had once burned around the transparent spearhead.

All I had left now was a body as heavy as waterlogged cotton, along with a small amount of internal energy—so little that I wondered whether it could fill even one handful—and the only divine weapon I could still trust: White Flame.

That was all. Yet I couldn’t explain—

Slice!

Why I kept cutting without pause.

Stab!

And stabbing.

Crack!

And swinging my spear at the mutants.

Why I forced my aching legs to hold on so I wouldn’t fall from the guardian spirit’s back.

No. Perhaps I dimly understood.

Even the meaning behind what the guardian spirit had said to me moments earlier.

“…Damn it.”

The curse escaped me before I could stop it. The guardian spirit laughed softly.

—I told you. You are bad at lying.

“…”

—If staying alive were all you wanted, you would never have come here. Yet exhausted as you are, you will not stop fighting.

“Enough. Shut up.”

—Why? Do you pity those who were human like you before they became monsters? Or do you want to kill the vile human who turned them into monsters?

“…”

Its thought whispered inside my head. My breath caught, and something hot rose in my chest.

But the hand I thrust forward was still driving my spear toward another mutant’s throat.

Thrust!

The transparent spearhead cut through flesh and bone. Darkness slowly receded from eyes that had been black from edge to edge.

Death took its place.

Thud.

The body collapsed. I stared at the nameless warrior’s grotesquely twisted face and murmured, “Did he feel pain?”

—Yes. Probably.

Crack!

The guardian spirit swung its massive forepaw, killing the mutant leopard that had charged at me and sending it flying like a cannonball, then continued, calm as ever.

—But after that brief pain, a great, warm rest would have been waiting for him. Simply being alive must be agony for them now.

“…”

—They do not resent you. So stop blaming yourself, human.

Damn it.

I knew. I’d done my best. I’d risked my life again and again to stop this disaster and come all the way here.

But doing my best didn’t always bring the best result.

I should have stopped it.

In the end, I had failed to stop it. I had saved many people, but I had also failed to save many others.

Ultimately, the only thing I could do was end their lives with everything I had.

Just like now.

Fwoooooosh!

I swung with all my strength. The spearhead tore through the wind and split the air, and my whole body screamed from the toll One Annihilation had taken.

Pain so fierce my vision went white.

But I gritted my teeth and endured it. I sent a single spear packed with terrifying strength and speed toward the people who had once been human like me.

Kra-crack!

The spearhead carved an enormous arc. In its wake, a raging gale filled with dark red blood.

Severed heads and limbs rose into the air. Countless deaths followed. Countless moments of rest.

Ding. Ding. Ding.

The first time I had wanted to cover my ears at the clear ringing of the chimes announcing EXP gained. The first time the sight of my enemies collapsing while spraying blood had felt so unbearably sorrowful.

But I didn’t stop.

Slice. Slice. Slice!

I cut. Cut again. And kept cutting.

Until nothing stood in my way. Until my spearhead passed through empty air.

Fwoom!

The world tilted.

No—the body that could not withstand the force carried by the spearhead tilted.

As I began to roll off the guardian spirit’s back, a rough hand caught me.

“It’s over. Please stop.”

Wang Ho, Commander of the Baekcheon Unit.

Shock rang in his voice. Breathing hard, I looked around.

The Baekcheon Unit had lost more than half its number. Countless bodies lay in pools of blood all around us.

But…

No.

He was wrong.

This fight—today’s disaster—wasn’t over.

Not until one particular person was dead for good.

“Let’s go.”

—…Human.

“We have to finish it.”

At my voice, which slipped through cracked lips, the guardian spirit seemed about to answer. Instead, it pushed its heavy body forward.

Whoosh!

Wind swept over me.

At the end of the road we were traveling, one person was struggling to live despite vomiting blood.

No.

There was a monster.