Nothing was saved.
With each breath, blood seeped out, torn muscles screamed, and broken bones stabbed at the organs. Physical pain surged, but that didn’t matter at all. That much he could endure.
What tormented Lac the most was humiliation. Emptiness. The despair of not being able to protect anything.
Looking around, the corpses of warriors littered the ground. Lac had wanted revenge for them, whose honor had been trampled and pride laughed at. He thought that was all he could do. But what was the outcome?
Defeat.
He had to taste a defeat that was utterly devastating.
Blood tears flowed from his burst veins. His clenched jaw trembled violently. Broken fingers crunched, crunching as they gripped the snow piled on the ground. The boy tasted humiliation for the first time. He experienced an unimaginable helplessness.
Crack.
Grinding his teeth, Lac lifted his head.
Now it didn’t seem far away, but he glared at the direction the beast had gone. Naturally, he couldn’t possibly chase it. Even if he did, he knew he wouldn’t win.
Crack.
Lac felt contempt for himself, for the thoughts that crossed his mind, for accepting his defeat.
… An opponent he couldn’t beat.
A formidable foe not suited to his level.
It wasn’t the first time he faced such an existence. He encountered the Sword Demon Draka, and he came face to face with Ganikalt, the Death’s Blade. Lac had faced countless formidable foes. But in every one of those situations, she had been by his side.
Raniel van Trias.
On the battlefield where she stood beside him, Lac had never had to taste the humiliation of defeat nor experience losing something. It was always only Raniel that suffered the losses. The battlefield she designed was a ‘suitable’ stage for Lac.
A fight on a designed stage.
With her intervention, whether early or late, he had never lost anything on the battlefield.
Lac now realized the fact that he had only crossed through such stages. He thought he was strong enough to protect the people beside him, even if he couldn’t stand by Raniel. He became complacent.
‘That wasn’t the case.’
It was far from enough.
The years of peace had been maintained by just one person, and in the absence of that person, he was utterly powerless.
Powerlessness, humiliation, loss.
With fingers broken and mangled, Lac scratched at the snow. Blood flowed through the gaps of his fingernails, soaking the snow. In the meantime.
Lac’s shoulder shivered.
…He smelled it.
Lac caught the stench of beasts that pricked at his nose. It was the foul odor emitted by the beasts. That stench forced Lac to rise to his feet. Looking around, countless beasts were spilling in.
They were beasts that had followed the King of Beasts.
They knew not to touch Lac, who was marked as prey by their king. Therefore, the beasts moved towards the scraps left from the king’s meal strewn about. Or perhaps, they were seeking the humans in the north beyond Lac.
Crunch.
They began to gnaw at the corpses of warriors laid out on the snow. Biting and tearing at flesh. Lac stared blankly at the scene. He felt his sanity slipping away.
He was insulted.
His brothers, whose honor had been trampled.
Those who couldn’t even close their eyes in death.
Now merely beasts were horrifying them.
It was unbearable. It was a sight he simply couldn’t watch. Lac forced his motionless body to move. He reached for the sword he had let go of.
“————!”
Grabbing his great sword with his broken hand, Lac charged at the beasts with a shriek. Instead of wielding the great sword, he swung it wildly as if he were being swung by it. He cut down the beasts that touched the corpses of his brothers.
No matter how much he cut, there seemed to be no end.
Finally, several corpses were swallowed and disappeared into the mouths of the beasts. The few corpses Lac could save were few, and as that number dwindled, Lac’s resistance intensified. Even Lac could not understand the value of protecting corpses that were already dead.
It was just hard to endure.
It was simply intolerable, so he swung his sword.
The beasts, unable to handle Lac’s heightened resistance, passed over him heading into the north. For a moment, relieved that he had saved Oyakal’s corpse, Lac looked towards the direction the beasts were heading and gave a hollow laugh.
The north.
They were heading to the north.
The moment he saw countless beasts moving toward the north, something within Lac crumbled. A vision of the future flashed through his mind.
“Oh, ah.”
A dry, cracked laugh escaped him.
Unable to drop his sword or run towards where the beasts were headed, Lac stood there dazed.
2.
After a while, Lac was finally able to move. He dragged the great sword along as he walked. He couldn’t run properly on his broken leg, so he moved by dragging one leg along with the sword.
Scrape.
After walking for quite some time, Lac arrived in front of the castle wall, which would normally be reached in an instant.
“…Ah.”
The main gate of the castle wall, which was supposed to protect the north, had been broken through.
Was it the massive number of beasts that had pushed through? Lac stared hollowly into the castle gate. Thick smoke was rising.
…Please. Please, let it not be so.
With a heart that felt like it might collapse, Lac continued walking. The King of Beasts had caused the deaths of the majority of the northern forces, the thirteen warriors. To fend off this scale of beasts, a strong force was necessary… but that strength did not exist in the north at that moment.
There were still warriors left.
But could they hold off all these beasts?
Lac knew that was nearly impossible. Even if they did hold them off, they would have to endure considerable damage. Lac walked along the road, which was littered with claw marks from the beasts. Neither beasts nor corpses could be seen.
‘…Please.’
Let them have held them off. Let it be a miracle.
Praying for such, Lac continued walking. How long had it been? After walking for a long time, Lac arrived at a place reeking of beast slaughter.
Bloodstains were everywhere.
But it wasn’t human blood.
It was the dark blue blood shed by the beasts.
Numerous beast corpses lay scattered about, but among them, there were no human corpses. Lac slowly, very slowly raised his head.
“…”
A mountain of beast corpses.
Seated atop it was a woman. Covered in blood. Her tattered clothes. Even as she vomited mouthfuls of blood, she had a cigarette in her mouth.
Saint Natida.
She exhaled a long breath.
“Whew…”
Smoke began to rise.
She, who had been smoking with her legs crossed, inadvertently glanced downward. Her gaze met Lac’s as he looked up at her.
“…Young Master?”
She stepped down from among the beast corpses. Landing as if jumping to the ground, she groaned, patting her waist.
“Ugh, that hurts.”
Natida tossed the cigarette among the beast corpses and looked at Lac.
“Are you safe? No, judging by your appearance, you seem not to be…”
Trying to make a light remark, Natida swallowed her words when she saw Lac’s expression and state. She slightly lowered her head.
“That was a careless remark.”
Lac looked at Natida with hollow eyes.
“…The villagers?”
In a voice that broke occasionally, Lac asked. Natida replied as carefully as possible.
“As soon as they saw the signal flare, they started evacuating. I held off the castle wall for a bit… When I felt they evacuated completely, I opened it and did a bit of street fighting with the warriors inside.”
That’s my specialty.
Buying time, incapacitating the beasts.
Muttering such, she tugged her tattered clothing to cover her white neck. Smoke was seeping from the stigmata engraved on her neck.
“It’s a scent that kills beasts.”
A living beast approaching Natida suddenly fell over with a thud. The beast, which had crumpled and started spewing blood, soon became still.
“It probably won’t work on stronger beasts, but the ones that came here are mostly just miscellaneous beasts, so… it seems it worked?”
“Then…”
“I managed to hold them back for the most part. Right now, the warriors are dealing with the hidden beasts… Hmm, there are some injuries, but so far there are no fatalities.”
Natida smiled bitterly.
“There were many beasts, but there didn’t seem to be any entity to control them.”
For a massive number of beasts to be moving, it’s not a natural occurrence. It’s an artificial phenomenon, and there should be a commander causing such a phenomenon.
But that commander did not appear on the battlefield.
“I suspect that someone excluded the being capable of controlling the beasts from the battlefield. Thanks to that, we could relatively easily deal with the beasts here.”
Natida looked at Lac.
Her emerald-green eyes focused on Lac.
The moment their gazes met, Natida instinctively sensed that the being who controlled the beasts was none other than Lac himself. And that the fight had been quite tough as well.
That’s why.
“Thanks to you, you see.”
Natida spoke directly, keeping her gaze on Lac.
Thanks to you, we were able to stave them off.
At her words, Lac’s pupils shook.
Swallowing hard, Lac finally dropped his sword, which fell with a clang. As the tension eased, Lac exhaled a long, deep breath.
“Really…”
So relieved. Thankful. He owed a debt.
Countless words came to mind, but none could be uttered. The tension left Lac’s body, and fatigue hit him as if he could have collapsed at any moment.
Lac stumbled forward.
Natida caught Lac as he fell.
As Lac leaned his head on her shoulder, Natida slowly infused him with divine power. To Lac, whose breathing gradually stabilized, Natida whispered in a small voice.
“Thank you for your hard work.”
Rest a bit.
3.
Rania’s expression hardened as she received the report.
“……”
The King of Beasts has appeared in the north.
Damage accordingly occurred.
After confirming the damage extent and the casualties, Rania slowly put down the report. She pressed her brow and ground her teeth.
…It must have headed into the Phantom Territory.
Why did the King of Beasts, which was clearly heading deep into the Phantom Territory, appear in the north? There hadn’t been any signs at any front! Countless questions raced through her mind, but that was not what mattered right now.
It was an enemy she needed to capture.
Yet, Rania had let the King of Beasts escape.
The King of Beasts, having learned and evolved, made his way to the north and inflicted severe damage there. No one blamed Rania, but she felt the weight of responsibility.
“Whew…”
Rania brushed her face with the palm of her hand.
The image of Lac surfaced in her mind.
Yes, Lac, who had not experienced such a loss. Rania understood well what the thirteen warriors meant to Lac.
‘…I need to go.’
Rania, unable to move freely due to being in the battlefield, felt the need to act this time. There was a necessity to confront Lac directly.
“Tephran.”
“Yes, Hero.”
“Put a call through to Resti in the Ashen Tower, 4th division, western front.”
“Right now?”
“Yeah. Directly to the Master of the Tower.”
Tephran moved quickly.
After a short while, Tephran handed Rania a magic device connected to the communication network. Rania placed it to her ear and spoke.
“Resti.”
「Yes, Senior.」
“I have a request.”
After a brief silence, Rania could hear Resti tidying something up through the device. Eventually, Resti’s voice came through as if she had just opened a door.
「What is it?」
“Can you take over the western front for me?”
「For how long?」
“I think I need to take a trip to the north. If it’s long, it could be around ten days.”
「Ten days, ten days…」
Resti paused, tapping her arm.
「What’s the operational rate of the circuit inscribed in the front?」
“Not long after it was fully charged, it’s around 90%.”
「Hmm, a large quantity of mana stones will be needed…」
Resti continued.
「Ten days should be doable. The problem is the appearance of the Skull Goblin. How do we handle that?」
“Kaltt will back you up. That should be enough, right?”
「That should be sufficient.」
“Okay, then I’ll leave it to you.”
After a brief scheduling, Rania ended the call. Resti was the only one who could manage the battlefield for a short while in her absence. She could use the circuits left by Rania.
‘The problem is resolved.’
Rania slowly stood up.
Maintaining a stony expression, she draped a robe over her shoulder. Since the day she planted the pieces of the star, Rania had hoped for Lac to have some breakthrough.
‘But…’
She hadn’t wished for a breakthrough like this.
Rania sincerely hoped Lac had not chosen the wrong path. She knew all too well where those who walked a wrong path ended up.
