Chapter 221 : Chapter 221
Chapter 221 : Outer one (8)
"Raven?"
As was usually the case, their first meeting was a mere coincidence.
"Ah, I remember hearing about that. The Imperial Magic Corps uses aliases, don't they?"
'Simone,' a covert social gathering in the Imperial Capital Aleos.
Under the vague banner of transcendence and ideals, it was a gathering where they discussed everything from politics, culture, and art to kingdom society as a whole, sharing secrets known only to themselves.
"That's right. Come to think of it, I don't even remember the last time I was called by my real name."
Within Simone, the boundaries of status were meaningless. Creative talent and intellectual curiosity, rather than titles or lineage, constituted their rank.
This aspect made it particularly beloved by certain nobles, while simultaneously providing the spark that gradually altered the gathering into a reclusive society.
The day Isaac ended up sitting side by side with Raven, whom he had met for the first time, was precisely one of those countless secretive nights.
"...You don't look like you share the same tastes as me."
Isaac sipped the glass placed before him. Though his tone was nonchalant, the gaze that momentarily swept over Raven was incredibly sticky.
Raven raised his eyebrows high and rolled his eyes to the side as if looking away. Then, he nodded as though he understood what that meant.
"Uh, well. That's true. Honestly, ever since hair started growing down there, I've never slept alone for a single day. Whether by choice or otherwise, I've always spent the night in a woman's embrace."
Isaac tightly pressed his lips together. A hint of disappointment revealed itself despite himself.
But it did not last long. Soon, he skillfully put on a nonchalant expression, made familiar through countless repetitions of practice.
"I heard that in the Empire, they call a guy like you a lecher."
Since his gaze was fixed straight ahead, Isaac could not see what kind of expression Raven was making.
"You know all sorts of things."
However, the returning voice was nonchalant and light.
***
CRUNCH—! CRUNCH—! CRUNCH—! CRUNCH—! CRUNCH—!
Ice blocks resembling transparent harpoons pierced through the mercenaries' bodies in a single breath and drove deep into the ground.
It happened so quickly.
Amidst a roaring sound that felt as if massive hailstones were pouring down, brief screams and the sound of tearing flesh tangled together before quickly growing quiet.
Soon, a deep, heavy silence descended, as if the commotion that had just erupted was all a lie.
Clatter—
The sound of an ice fragment rolling echoed hollowly within the silence.
That sound snapped him back to his senses.
"Ha, haaaah......!"
A faint breath leaked from Kendrick's mouth. His entire body trembled violently.
For a moment, he wondered if he had truly just had a nightmare. The sight visible beyond his white, blooming breath was terribly bizarre.
Before his eyes, his comrades were all frozen cold. The majority of them had their eyes wide open. Blood streamed down beneath the ice harpoons that skewered their bodies.
Drip— Drip—
Kendrick suddenly thought that they looked like bizarre sculptures inside a taxidermied landscape.
"Comrade Kendrick. Stand straight."
He barely managed to blink at the voice heard from his side. Only then did the reality that he was alive sink in.
"Hu, Comrade Hugin!"
Kendrick's trembling gaze rose above his own head. In that instant, his breath caught, and his body staggered heavily.
Hugin's sword was blocking above his head like a shield.
Only then did Kendrick realize why he was still alive.
"Comrades, you must never forget the promise."
Hugin spoke in a low voice. While retrieving the sword he held above Kendrick's head, he broke the ice harpoon embedded diagonally right in front of his nose with his other hand.
At that moment, the surrounding Black Rose Mercenaries barely managed to raise their heads and stand up. They, too, had escaped death thanks to Hugin.
"Oh."
Raven curled his lips into an 'O'. A whistle leaked out along with it.
"If my intuition's right, the masterminds of this war must be you two."
"Masterminds? Haha, how amusing."
Hugin paid no heed to the mockery. He laid down his comrades who had died on their feet one by one, then personally closed their eyelids.
Kendrick and the Black Rose Mercenaries, who had been watching tentatively, soon assisted him.
Crow and Raven quietly watched them with the bodies between them. There was not a shred of interest or anticipation on their faces. There was only a languid boredom.
The cleanup was finished. After briefly mourning his comrades, Hugin stood up. He brought his hand to his waist beneath his cloak. His fingers, which were brushing past the three swords hanging horizontally, stopped at the very top one.
"I will make you pay the proper price. It will be quite painful."
Hugin drew the sword along with its scabbard. Its appearance was unique. Far from having a crossguard, the joints were completely unnoticeable and fit together perfectly, making it look like nothing more than a straight pole extending outward.
Crow uncrossed his arms from his chest. His expression, which had been indifferent the entire time, suddenly hardened.
"Wait, could that be......"
"Do you smell death? Your intuition's better than it looks."
Hugin raised the horizontally held scabbard vertically. With his hands placed at the exact center and the upper section of the scabbard respectively, he slowly lifted his right arm from the upper section, and its inner flesh was finally revealed.
SCHWING—!
The blade, enveloped in white gas, was so transparent that it made one's eyes ache just to look at it. It was reminiscent of sunlight scattering over a snowfield. A humming resonance followed.
"The Demonic Blade (Yodo) Urvasi!"
Raven shouted. He was completely astonished. Crow was no different. For both of them, it was a truly dramatic shift in expression.
"How are you bastards......"
Hugin's face hardened as well. It made no sense that they recognized Urvasi.
Not only was it impossible to know of its very existence unless one was a descendant of Partizan, but every opponent who had ever faced this sword had already lost their life.
"Hey, Raven. My brain can't make heads or tails of this situation at all. Why don't you explain it so it's easy to understand?"
Crow stepped forward a couple of paces. His complexion remained hardened.
"Ah, so that's what it was."
Raven returned his crookedly tilted head to its original position and closed his agape mouth. The corners of his mouth slowly began to rise again.
"...That bastard's an Outer One too."
At those words, Crow narrowed his eyes. In fact, he had been making the exact same assumption. He simply had not shown it on purpose. Seeing that even Raven shared the same thought, he finally became certain.
Hugin growled lowly as he looked back and forth between the two of them.
"What are you chattering about?"
"......."
"I usually tend to ignore idle gossip, but it seems I'll have to listen to what you bastards have to say."
"It's not idle gossip. It's an important story related to your identity, you see."
"My identity?"
Raven nodded.
"Hugin, you're an incarnated split-body just like us. You branched out from the same root."
Not a single grain of emotion was smeared across his monotonous voice.
Hugin knitted his brows.
"What kind of bullshit are you talking about?"
"I'm telling you your origin. Originally, we didn't define ourselves. There was no need to do so in the first place. The single fact that we were different from humans was enough. However, as 'fragments' wandering around with lost memories like you increased, a problem arose."
A strange contempt dwelt in Raven's eyes.
"I'm talking about you crumbs who refuse awakening itself, let alone possessing awareness of your memories and mission. Well, if it had stopped there, it wouldn't have mattered. The problem is that because you presumptuously interfered with us and even obstructed us, all sorts of things have happened in the meantime."
Raven called them fragments or crumbs. Yet, he also knew. Their incompleteness was merely a lack of awareness regarding their own existence, and there was no actual difference in capability.
"You guys, whose numbers can't even be estimated, who can't be controlled, and who sometimes even hinder our mission, were truly the worst variable to us complete split-bodies."
There were originally thirteen split-bodies who considered themselves complete like Raven. Among them, eight were none other than the 'Eight Demons (Palma).'
"Therefore, we changed our policy. We decided to help your essential awakening through persuasion and conciliation rather than hostility. No matter what anyone says, in the end, we're—"
Raven spread his arms. He wore a deliberately bright smile.
"Because we're brothers."
"......."
"So we had no choice but to construct it. An existence known as 'us' apart from humans."
Because they could not downplay the threat that the potential capabilities of the incomplete split-bodies requiring control and conciliation would pose to their mission, the thirteen willingly chose the path of standing on equal footing with them.
"That is the 'Outer One' that encompasses you, me, and all of us."
The long story came to an end. Raven returned to his originally characteristic gentle face.
However, it did not last long.
Hugin snorted. If it were not for his dead comrades, he would have nearly yawned.
"Are you finished?"
"Hmm."
"It's childish and even verbose. Just listening to it was a chore."
Whoosh— Whoosh—
Hugin swung the Demonic Blade Urvasi a couple of times as if loosening his stiffened arms. A dreary resonance echoed from its trajectory.
"The only thing I'm curious about is how you bastards know about Urvasi, just that one thing. I've no interest in anything else."
His intuition was screaming.
That these guys were very closely linked to the destruction of Partizan.
Thump—
His heart pounded. It felt as though it would leap out of his throat. His boiling rage soon transformed into a glint in his eyes. The rims of his eyes gleamed like a hungry predator.
"You don't get it even after I went through the trouble of explaining. It looks like you're as stupid as I am."
Hugin's head snapped around.
Crow chuckled, revealing his yellow teeth.
"Leaving aside your memories, the very reason you can stand your ground like that when it wouldn't be surprising if your body turned to dust and vanished is all because you're an Outer One. And crucially, Urvasi is the cherished weapon of our origin. Do you need any more explanation?"
SCHWING—!
Crow drew his sword.
"Get your head straight and cooperate quietly, or be annihilated. You choose."
Hugin raised his head, closing his eyes tightly. He did not have many thoughts to sort through.
If he were to name the reason for his existence, the cause for his breathing until now, and his single goal throughout his entire life—
'Only to reclaim my lost homeland.'
Partizan.
A void in his memory, hollowed out as if someone had intentionally gouged it out.
Groping for it was akin to stirring muddy water around with one's hand. When he scooped up something caught on his fingertips, what came up was some unidentifiable residue—that is, a fragment of memory whose origin was unknown. No matter how much he scraped it together, it was a mere speck from which he could not even deduce the overall outline.
'Even so, I didn't give up.'
The picture restored by the surviving descendants, piecing together the specks each of them possessed, was precisely the Partizan of today.
They had fought desperately long against a curse, not even knowing who had cast it or why.
Therefore, a slight smile emerged. It was close to a bitter laugh.
Hugin calmly suppressed his boiling emotions. For he had finally grabbed the tail of the truth he had been searching for all his life.
Oh, farewell, dear one— farewell, goodbye!
Oh, farewell, dear one— farewell, goodbye!
For our vanished homeland
We shall lift our swords once more
The lyrics of his comrades' song lingered in his ears.
It was merely that.
"I am Hugin from Partizan."
When his figure, which had vanished for an instant, reappeared, it was right in front of Crow's nose.
CLANG—!
A white flash erupted along with a roaring sound, and with the two people clashing swords at the center, an energy wave spread rapidly in concentric circles. A fierce wind raged.
"My mission is solely to reclaim Partizan."
Between the crossed blades, two existences standing on the boundary beyond humanity faced each other.
"Nice to meet you, brother. My name is Raman. I am Raman, the Sword Demon."
The black cloaks they each wore fluttered simultaneously.
It was the moment two ravens spread their wings.