Book 18 Chapter 33

<The Battle of Orwardan>,

The Overture to That Farewell Story (4)

"The order of the universe forms a perfect golden ratio. A red star has risen, so your lives must fall."

When Ryuminique took a step forward, the shockwave of anger that instantly spread was enough to stir up a sandstorm.

'I thought I had prepared myself enough for this moment… but my heart is pounding as if it's about to burst.'

Anger wells up. Seeing that demon so lively.

He betrayed a mother's love…

No, he was a deceiver from the very beginning.

"Berom, you… you of all people!"

"What is it, Ryuminique?"

"Was everything you showed us back then a lie? All of it?"

"Fool! Does a human feel kinship with a beast just because they imitate one? It's the same!"

It was Rista who grabbed Ryuminique's shoulder and stopped him just as he was about to charge forward with a furious stomp.

"Calm down, Ryuminique! That guy is the Blood Marshal, isn't he? Just seeing him awaken his third eye shows he's not an enemy you can face alone!"

Berom, looking down at Ryuminique from atop the city-turned-thornbush, laughed.

"Your habit of hiding behind a stronger woman's skirt is still there, Ryuminique. It was then, and it is now. Yes, run away like that. As befits your station."

"You bastard…!"

"Ryuminique!"

Meanwhile, Lin, who observed only the flow of magic with no interest in whatever they were chattering about, whistled in amusement.

"Aha, I wondered why they weren't attacking… Blood is boiling from the city itself. This space itself must be his exclusive stage."

Nils, aboard the six-legged walking weapon, Kaphtilt-II, asked.

[So, he can freely use those thorns within the city's radius?]

"Probably?"

[I see. But that means he can't extend those thorns this far. That's why he's provoking that lecherous guy to lure him to a place where he can fight better.]

Berom snapped his fingers, and a unit of Blood Slaves, composed solely of men who had been handsome in life, came out to assist him. Freida spat out congested blood.

"That wicked bastard has gained the power of an ancient noble… We must somehow defeat him here!"

Lin, Kies, and Sval glared at Freida with narrowed eyes. Pipi blocked their gaze with wings of flame! Master!

"Arise, arise and serve your master! By the command of blood!"

At Berom's command, the corpses that had been offered as living sacrifices, impaled by thorns… What an outrage! They revived as Blood Slaves and began to move!

"This madman, how many has he turned into this! All for your absurd ambition!"

As Freida shrieked in horror, Berom crossed his arms and let out a booming laugh.

"Blood Marshal Berom, instead of fighting cowardly by sending only Blood Slaves, how about we fight fair and square, one-on-one? Pipi will beat you like she beats Sval."

"Kyuuiiit?!"

"Just so you know, [the strongest] should always be like that."

Lin wiggled his finger, and Kies nodded.

[(R.E.A.L)]

Berom suddenly stopped laughing and squinted with a disdainful look.

"Fair and square? A human brat, less than an animal, doesn't know his place. The Blood Clan is the pinnacle among the Five Great Demon Races! The pinnacle of demonkind means the pinnacle of the food chain. And I, Berom, have gone even further, reborn as a being who can foresee the future."

"!"

"Do humans exert their full strength when fighting ants? No, they don't. It's the same. What is the necessity or justification for me, Berom, to fight fair and square against dust like you?"

Lin even took two or three steps back, his face filled with considerable shock. The reason was this:

"This bastard, he's incredibly strong, and he's even created such a malicious and perfect backstory… Irrefutable! It's admirable!"

"What are you saying, you crazy bastard!"

Clang! Even as Freida immediately punished Lin, she too was facing an ominous truth.

This guy! This Blood Marshal Berom!

His level was completely different from the other Pale Barons they had faced so far!

"Once I've dealt with you lot, there will be nothing left to hinder me in the northern part of this continent. Come, Hero Party! I, the reborn Berom, will make you my first Blood Slave collection!"

At that moment, Ryuminique amplified his leg strength with magic, soaring fiercely. He kicked off five or six thorns and instantly surged towards Berom!

"Eat this, power of the sun! Yang-Rin-Seom-Jo!"

Yang-Rin-Seom-Jo (陽燐纖條)!

The power of the sun, sharpened and emitted from five claws!

It could be considered a Great Demon Race ultimate technique that pierces the opponent's body tissue and directly injects the sun's power into their body!

"S-success! The sunlight pierced his body! He did it!"

Freida cried out, half in doubt.

But why was Ryuminique's expression pale after a successful attack, while Berom, who was directly hit, was smiling?

"Ryuminique, you lowly wretch, where do you dare lay your hands?"

"The sunlight isn't working?"

"The sun? What about the sun! I, Lord Berom, have now broken free from the shackles of nature and become a being aligned with the order of the outer universe! Therefore, it doesn't matter whether I'm exposed to the sun or not!"

It was blood, blood!

A stream of blood, unperturbed by the sun's heat, surged from Berom's body and pierced Ryuminique's body in many places!

"Weak, huhuhuahaha! I didn't even need to observe the future. Execution! You don't even have value as a Blood Slave!"

The bloodstreams of Berom, which were about to instantly execute Ryuminique, oxidized in the next moment by light!

It was the light of the World Tree!

The arrows that severed the bloodstreams dynamically changed their trajectory to aim at Berom's heart, but they were blocked by a gush of fresh blood that erupted even faster!

[(?ㅅ?)]

Kies, who had just witnessed this moment's duel, raised one eyebrow. Lin said.

"Why? Is something strange?"

[(ㅇ.ㅇ)…!]

"That counter-attack just now wasn't merely anticipating his moves; it was as if he knew what attack was coming?"

Lin was the only scholar of Kies's linguistics, capable of perfectly interpreting every word of that language! A crazy master!

"There's nothing to hide, you weaklings! Know that all futures are seen through this third eye."

Berom was truly the epitome of the Blood Clan!

That immense arrogance!

He had no intention of even hiding the secret of his power! The characteristic of the Blood Clan race is to inherently love to flaunt overwhelming power!

"I already see what you lot will do. Since I know what will happen, it's not even the future. In other words, I knew and blocked it."

"…!"

"So, I can see how this foolish Ryuminique will block and dodge my counter-attack from now on! I will take his life now, even more easily than a child playfully crushes a single ant returning to its queen's nest with precious food!"

Just as Ryuminique faced this crisis, at that very moment!

Rista's body vanished in an instant shorter than an instant. In the next moment, Ryuminique vanished.

And both appeared at the same location, right… on a thorn facing Berom. Rista was holding Ryuminique in her arms.

"Blood Marshal Berom, I will neither understand nor condone why you have done such things. I swear by the hero's mission that called and awakened me, I will strike you down here and now."

Berom furrowed his brow.

"You thought I'd say, 'You slipped past my future prediction and caught me off guard'? My blood has already been injected into his carotid artery! Thorns will erupt from within his body and explode with you!"

However, that explosion did not occur. This caused Berom's first moment of bewilderment.

Behold!

Shyrphin! The power of the holy sword that annihilates all evil! It had already severed Berom's carotid artery!

"Uuugh!"

Through that severed section, the light of the holy sword was injected into the blood vessels, purifying the evil blood in Ryuminique's body!

"Freida."

And Rista, who had vanished again in an instant, had already landed in front of Freida.

"Take care of Ryuminique."

Freida's face turned pale as she examined Ryuminique's condition.

"Th-this, insane. He's hot. Is all the blood in his body heated? He's so hot that just touching him feels like I'll get burned. If I leave him like this, his organs and skin will all melt!"

And Rista vanished again, then reappeared on a thorn facing Berom!

It was truly an astonishing footwork, enough to make even masters of movement give a standing ovation with tears in their eyes!

Rista held Shyrphin horizontally in her famous reverse grip stance and aimed it at Ryuminique.

"I told you. From now on, your ambition will be annihilated by me, Rista Alter Shyrphin."

"Ambition? My ambition? You fool! This is His will!"

In the next moment, the light that covered the skies of ancient <Orwardan> was the light barrage that had dealt with three Pale Barons in an instant!

However!

Berom was not affected at all! He didn't even move from the palanquin where he stood arrogantly!

"Huhuhuahahahahahaha! With my future prediction through 'Roonan's Eye,' none of your attacks can even reach me!"

Berom moved!

Only his finger!

To point at the huge, ancient terror that opened from his brow to the tip of his forehead!

"Just like this, with lighter footwork than dancing with a beautiful partner at a ball, I can evade all your attacks! But what about you?"

At that moment, the blood curses that had covered the city like skewers flew towards the Hero Party!

"Wow, this guy…!"

Lin's barrier blocked them!

But the pressure was so strong that the genius magician had to grit his teeth!

"A suffocatingly powerful bloodstream… enough to make even the Pale Barons take a step back!"

However, as if he already knew about Lin's barrier!

There were thorns extending far into the sky and aiming for their rear!

Our Link protected them! Nils said.

[This guy is incredibly strong. Is his claim to foresee the future not an empty boast? He deflected all my magic bullets with minimal movement.]

Freida, sweating profusely and concentrating on healing Ryuminique, nodded.

"Yes, that bastard… he really seems to be reading all our movements. His power is at least 10 times stronger than the four Pale Barons we've dealt with combined!"

[If he can foresee the future, he's virtually invincible! No attack can hit him! Is there no way to defeat him?!]

At Nils's words, Berom burst into laughter.

"Attack? Defeat me? That's what they call trying to smash a rock with an egg. Just in case your dwarf-like shallow intelligence can't comprehend, I'm the rock, and you're the egg!"

Then, all the weapon ports of Kaphtilt-II opened simultaneously.

[This bastard is making racist remarks about demi-humans going bald quickly, I will not forgive him!]

Just as the Hero Party tried to restrain Nils, Berom wagged his index finger left and right and said.

"No, I've understood enough now. Your dignity… it's so grotesque it makes me want to die."

Berom snorted and waved his hand somewhere.

"It's at a level where I don't even need to step in! Come forth! Teach them what courtesy is, from your 'past'!"

Then, a considerable number of human figures surged forth from a distance.

To say "considerable" was a misstatement. Because the actual number was only seven.

But… their presence was overwhelmingly powerful. They possessed a presence that seemed to crush the world itself!

"W-what… what are those?!"

Lin's mouth hung open.

Freida's eyes blinked widely.

"That's… me? Pipi's there too!"

"Pipi, Pipi, Pipi!"

"Two Pipis! Isn't this heaven? Kya! I love it, they're so cute, what do I do!"

Rista, who had entered serious mode with the opening of the holy sword, also tilted her head in confusion the next moment.

"Kies and I are there too? Their eyes are clear, so they're not drunk!"

[(ㅇ.ㅇ)]

"Seriously! Crazy, that's hilarious! Your eyes aren't like rotten pollock anymore! Are you going to quit drinking in the future?"

Freida soon turned her attention elsewhere. Nils's future was not much different from now.

"There's some kid next to Nils! Hey, crazy! Is that Lin? Wow, your physique has gotten quite big? Your face has changed like some country bumpkin."

No, that can't be. Absolutely, unequivocally, that cannot be.

Lin denied it. That reality!

Me, becoming like a gorilla? I'd be mocked 100% at the magic tower, and more importantly, if my body grew that big, what would happen to the hanbok the dean gave me?

[No, that's not Lin.]

What a master!

When the genius Archmage denied reality, reality was indeed denied! A crazy, insane master!

[That's… Link's old appearance. If he had grown a bit more in his childhood, he would have looked like that.]

That's right.

It was Link before he was modified into a monster chimera!

If Link had grown properly, he would have looked like that!

There were two more problems…

One was an incredibly gigantic creature, a dragon!

As if a piece of winter had been torn off, its long, elegant neck made its transparent body appear even more beautiful.

"Then, is that, by any chance, Sval's future?"

However, perhaps appearing under the influence of the abyss, upon closer inspection, its body was not clear blue but dark blue and turbid.

"Sval, you've grown so big…"

Lin murmured blankly, seeing it.

What emotions were mixed in that murmur? Admiration, joy, or loneliness?

The answer is, 'You don't seriously think so, do you?'

Lin's emotion at that time!

It can all be explained by what Lin said next, so look below!

"How many years from now is that? He's already a glutton now, what about the food bill then?"

Freida smiled brightly, then in the next moment, she smashed Lin's crown with her pipe, seven times stronger than usual!

"Ow, you crazy bastard! Is this really the time to worry about that?!"