As black blood rained down on me, I weaved through the Death Knights. I bisected an enemy in a single blow and leaped off the severed part. There was no need for air-stepping or teleportation. The ground was a bridge of stepping stones all around me. No, a bridge of Death Knights. Why would I need flight or movement skills?

All I had to do was consume the recovery potions laid out before me and reach the swamp monster.

As I smiled, a jet-black sword energy came flying at my head. The first attack aimed for my head, the next for my abdomen. Because of that, I had to nullify the bridge of bodies I had just crossed by flipping backward to retreat. I bent my knees as I watched the sword energies rush at me from all directions, as if hundreds of archers had targeted me and loosed their arrows.

For a moment, power flooded my thighs, and my body shot up like a spring. In a single breath, I leaped over one, two, three Death Knights, then immediately twisted my body and swung my sword.

Nine sword energies shot out, aiming for the three of them. The Death Knights each raised their swords to block the attack, but.

KAGAGAGAK!

My attack hit its mark.

Each one had to block a total of three sword energies.

Two of them were illusions. In other words, even if they skillfully deflected two sword energies at once, it was a wasted effort if they couldn’t identify the real one.

Seeing the notification window that the skill ‘Disturbance’ had been activated, I took out all the daggers I had and threw them. They, being knights in their own right, deflected the attack without much difficulty, but the dagger throw wasn’t a one-time attack.

The blades that had been repelled rushed back again like starving beasts. It was the effect of the Formless Dagger skill.

The Death Knights let out strained groans. As I freely controlled the six daggers to deal with the enemies behind me, I readjusted my grip on the Half-Baked Conviction and checked the number of monsters remaining in front.

Fifteen more to go.

My stamina had recovered to about seventy percent.

“Time for a feast.”

Satisfied that I could replenish my stamina to my heart’s content and then face the monster, the enemies took the smile on my lips as a sign of mockery and went berserk. A storm of blades raged before my eyes.

These potions are a bit unruly.

If they were born as potions, they should just let themselves be quietly consumed, but they were resisting pointlessly.

The Resistor.

The thought of that disposition suddenly came to mind, and a hum escaped my lips. If I kill all of you, will that disposition appear for me, too? Embracing a question no one could answer, I kicked off the neck of a headless Death Knight, launched myself up, and tilted my body.

I raised the hand holding the sword above my left shoulder and slashed diagonally. The blade cut a Death Knight in half, creating a new leg for my bridge.

I stepped on the torso and moved to the head. Bubble, bubble. I could feel the swamp boiling beneath me, swallowing the Death Knight’s corpse. I had to find a new foothold before it was too late, so I immediately followed up with the next attack.

There was no pause between swinging the sword and delivering the next blow. If my arm moved, my leg followed immediately after. Once the sword cut down an enemy, any foe trying to ambush me from behind was sent flying by a kick, rolling on the mud.

One was struck by my elbow; another had its neck pierced by a blow from a dagger I had summoned with the Formless Dagger skill, which I then kicked to add acceleration. Though I was outnumbered, it didn’t feel like I was at a disadvantage at all. Far from being overwhelmed, the way I held the flow of battle in my hand and controlled it at will was nothing short of tyrannical.

Even a summoned demon could not have fought like this. So much so that, as I was drenched in black blood, my eyelids fluttered once to reveal blue eyes beneath. The sight was both cruel and mesmerizingly brilliant.

The last three.

Having dealt with dozens in a short time and leaving three “potions” for later, I lightly wiped my face with my wrist. My hand was also covered in blood, so it wasn’t very effective.

The smell of blood vibrated at the tip of my nose. The scent hitting my lungs made my fingertips twitch and tremble.

The enemy was strong, which made fighting them all the more fun. Although many had fallen in a single blow, there was a different feel to cutting down a strong one versus a weak one. How ecstatic was the feeling of their muscles twitching as they tried to counterattack even in the moment of death.

Marveling at this, I looked at the remaining enemies. My gaze flowed past the Death Knights and towards the swamp monster. The monster, receiving my gaze which seemed to hold the chill of frost, let out a silent roar full of caution. The light in the Death Knights’ eyes brightened with a mad gleam, and with their power boosted, they attacked in unison.

The ones who had figured out the level of their opponent no longer tried to win through individual combat. I couldn’t help but laugh as they coordinated their attacks, employing tactics that thoroughly pressured a stronger foe.

My heart pounds the hardest in the moment I swing my sword. That was why, after years of living as a villain and trying all sorts of weapons, I still insisted on the sword. Because I could never forget the sensation of the blade cutting through flesh, transmitted directly through my palm. Because the moment I was drenched in the blood of living things was when I felt the strongest sense of life.

Although the enemies I was facing now were the dead, even the dead have their own souls and cores. The pulse of life they lacked was replaced by the vibrations transmitted from their cores. So how could I not laugh?

In my past life, I was surely born on a battlefield.

Thinking it was my calling, I blocked a sword that came stabbing fiercely at my neck. I parried, and sometimes deflected. Occasionally, I would clash head-on and engage in a contest of strength.

There was no sound, but the sparks that flew as the blades met were vivid enough to blind me. It was when my white teeth were revealed between my upturned lips.

CLANG!

Whether my hand had momentarily lost its strength, or perhaps my hand tremors had worsened from excessive excitement, the sword I had been gripping so well went flying backward. The moment it spun a few times in the air was beautiful. As my gaze followed the glint of the sword, I turned my head at the attack that pierced my shoulder with a deep thud.

“…”

The Death Knight that had finally succeeded in planting its sword in me was laughing.

I looked at the one who had held on until the very end, who was left alone and had succeeded in a counterattack, and glanced at my shoulder. For the first time, red blood was dripping amidst the black blood.

The Death Knight twisted its wrist, driving the sword deeper. Just as the one who had won the individual battle, even if the war was lost, wore a look of satisfaction, I raised my hand.

“Do you think you’ve won?”

The Death Knight tilted its head at my nonchalant question, as if a pierced shoulder was nothing.

“There’s an old saying.”

If you don’t have teeth, use your gums.

I added in a low voice, raised both hands to cup the Death Knight’s face, and with a strong twist, I snapped its neck. The Death Knight’s head lolled to the side, bent at an angle well over ninety degrees. Even without hearing it, the sensation of bone dislocating was transmitted through my palms.

Next, I pulled the sword embedded in my shoulder out without a single groan and returned it to the Death Knight. The enemy, its core pierced, collapsed in death. The sword that would have decorated its victory became its funereal possession.

My depleted stamina recovered to ninety percent.

The bleeding stopped. I stood on the Death Knight’s tomb, collected my breath, and deactivated the Formless Dagger skill. After putting all the daggers I had used back into my inventory, I turned to look at the swamp monster.

“Just the two of us left, huh?”

At my gentle words, the monster opened its mouth. At the same time, I stomped on the ground so hard the Death Knight’s armor shattered and rushed at it.

“That skill is the same as ever, even after all these years. No, has it gotten even more violent than before?”

Ho-cheol, who had been watching my battle as I dealt with dozens of Death Knights by myself and finally reached the swamp monster, muttered as he plunged his bloody fist into a specter’s face. From a distance, Mijeong heard him and let out a hollow laugh.

“Look who’s talking about being violent.”

The woman muttered as if chiding him, then felt something move above her and lifted her head. The young man with his eyes closed was struggling in the black hand.

“Be still.”

With a hissing warning, Mijeong folded her fan, and the black hand restrained Geon-joo more strongly than before.

“Your hyung left you in my care, what do you want me to do? I have to watch you carefully so you don’t cause any trouble.”

“…Tsk.”

Geon-joo’s brow narrowed. Mijeong, with her characteristically sharp senses, noticed the change in his reaction and smiled with amusement.

“Do you want to help?”

“I didn’t come here to be protected.”

“I’m sure you didn’t. But what can you do? Your level is only good enough to be protected.”

“…I haven’t even properly—”

KRA-KOOM!

A deafening roar cut off Geon-joo’s words. A powerful vibration was transmitted to the two like a shockwave. Mijeong, who protected herself from the wave by brandishing her fan, felt the rampaging aura of Sa-yoon in the distance and closed her eyes.

“If I give you a chance to fight properly, are you confident you can do as much as him?”

“…”

Though Mijeong’s question was clearly aimed at him, Han Geon-joo could not answer easily. Mijeong, who had been waiting for a reply for a moment, leaned against her black hand and opened her mouth.

“Baby.”

“…”

“The world is so malicious to that kid, isn’t it?”

It was a random comment. The subject had suddenly jumped, and Geon-joo raised his eyebrows, but Mijeong paid him no mind and continued.

“When I first met him, he wasn’t so broken, but as time went on, he just kept getting crazier. I was curious about what was going on, but he wouldn’t tell me, and then suddenly, he, of all people, starts making a name for himself as the head of a villain guild. I tried to dig into it and sent informants, but there was nothing I could find out. I swear. He was a master of causing heartache.”

At the woman who began her story playfully, Geon-joo, who had been struggling, became still. Mijeong’s smiling eyes deepened.

“He had his reasons but wouldn’t tell me, so what could I do? The whole world was blaming him, so I decided I would be the one to believe in him. I made a promise. That if he saved me, I would grant his wish just once. But he never made a wish, so I just used it as I pleased.”

Taking advantage of the fact that Sa-yoon couldn’t hear, Mijeong, who had been keeping the story to herself, refreshingly let it all out. She turned her body to look at Geon-joo. Even though the gaze hidden beneath his eyelids was not visible, the two looked at each other.

“Baby.”

Mijeong called out to him once more.

“If you want to be by his side, you can’t with those skills. You need to be his shield, but right now you’re just a weakness. What do you expect me to trust you with to let you go?”

“…”

“If he has decided to keep you by his side, then I want you to become strong enough to protect him.”

If it’s a fate that cannot be severed, then you should at least be able to protect each other strongly.

The woman added in a murmur and took an item from her inventory, tossing it to Geon-joo. The item hit him on the head with a thump. Frowning, he fumbled around on the black hand before gripping it.

“You take this from now on. That kid is working his body to the bone like that, so shouldn’t you at least follow him around with a lunchbox and try to stop him?”

Mijeong said playfully. Geon-joo, who couldn’t see and thus didn’t know the identity of the item he had received, wrinkled his nose. Then, his mouth opened.

“If you knew he was overworking himself, you should have tried to stop him. It looks like you’ve known him since he was young… If you had stopped him properly, he wouldn’t have developed such habits. Am I wrong?”

“…Hm?”

“The direction of responsibility is clear, so who is anyone to permit anything? If you feel a sense of debt, you should relieve it yourself. Don’t leave it to others. You’re an adult, you should know that.”

“…”

At the words that continued mercilessly in a soft yet strangely sullen voice, Mijeong blinked with a blank expression, as if she had been hit on the back of the head. Utter bewilderment was painted all over her face.

Lee Han, who had been watching the scene nearby under the pretext of guarding them, was aghast.

Instead of being grateful, he’s pointing out her faults?

Feeling the urge to cover the kid’s mouth, Lee Han glanced at Mijeong, then at Sa-yoon, who was driving the swamp monster back while letting out what sounded like peals of mad laughter as a BGM, and then he understood.

So that’s why Kwon Sa-yoon, of all people, is keeping someone by his side.

They were two of a kind.¹