Chapter 81 : Chapter 81
Chapter 81. Are you Modric?
I was able to get close to the Lycanthrope using 'Footsteps of the Abyss'.
After that, I was able to kill it easily using the Volones Swordsmanship.
I looked down at the corpse for a moment and then approached Van.
With every step, the red earth sank.
“You okay?”
“……Hoo. I'm fine.”
Van panted, seemingly exhausted.
He was a mess.
Having been unilaterally beaten and rolled around, there wasn't a single part of his heavily dented armor that was intact.
Although I had timed my intervention, it was a relief that he didn't seem to be seriously injured.
I lightly tapped Van's shoulder.
“Rest. I'll finish up the rest.”
Van bit his lip.
His expression, with his head bowed, was not good.
There were still enemies on the battlefield.
I forced myself to ignore him and moved again.
Lucas was fighting the werewolves.
No, it was more of a massacre than a fight.
He didn't have a single scratch on him.
⌜Ring of Blood⌟
Every time Lucas scattered his magic, the werewolves were thrown into a panic.
Grrr—
The werewolves, who had clearly witnessed how their kin who had recklessly charged through the magic had died, did not move carelessly.
A brief standoff between Lucas and the werewolves.
In the meantime, I approached Lucas's side.
Woong—
As I infused my body with mana and erased the effect of 'Footsteps of the Abyss', my presence was revealed.
The werewolves flinched back at the sudden appearance of a human.
Lucas turned to look at me.
“The Lycanthrope?”
“Taken care of. Look at their tails.”
As I said, the werewolves were hiding their tails between their legs.
This was not because of my appearance, but because they had sensed the death of the Lycanthrope.
Despite the distance, they could feel each other's death.
With the death of their leader, the Lycanthrope, the remaining werewolves seemed to have no chance of winning.
Lucas saw this and nodded.
“I wanted to kill him with my own hands, a shame.”
I shrugged and stepped forward.
Fear began to creep into the werewolves' bright yellow pupils.
There was no opponent easier than an enemy who had completely lost their morale.
Swish—!
One life was extinguished with one sword.
Following that, Lucas's magic exploded.
⌜Thorn of Pain⌟
The werewolves, who couldn't even handle Lucas alone, had no means to deal with me as well.
With the two of us combined, the remaining werewolves were taken care of in an instant.
It was a complete victory.
* * *
Hoo—
I let out a light breath and flicked the blood off Cheonbyeondo.
Although I had cut down many enemies, including the Lycanthrope, my swordsmanship proficiency hadn't risen much.
⌜Volones Swordsmanship (4-Star)—11%⌟
“…It’s barely going up.”
It had only risen by 2%.
Without 'Swordsmanship Genius', it might not have risen at all.
‘I don’t think I can raise proficiency with just any opponent anymore.’
I didn't expect the proficiency to rise so slowly from the 4-Star swordsmanship.
It was partly because the opponents were weak, but also because I had become that much stronger.
“What’s not going up?”
Lucas, who had approached me at some point, spoke.
“It's nothing.”
“More importantly, what are we going to do now?”
Lucas looked at the dead werewolves.
It was a question about Modric, the enemy who was clearly targeting them.
From the look in Lucas’s eyes, it seemed he wanted to say something.
He probably thought this attack was his fault.
I waved my hand as if it were no big deal.
I had prepared for Modric in advance.
The problem was that the preparation hadn't been done properly.
‘…That Jude bastard. What's his intention?’
His words that I didn't have to worry about the likes of Modric were probably not a bluff.
If he had simply informed Modric that he had become my guardian, this kind of attack wouldn't have happened.
It seemed he was up to something.
Since it had come to this, I couldn't just trust Jude blindly.
‘Considering Baron Modric’s forces, this is about the level of a scout. There must be a main force…’
Lucas, who seemed to have had a similar thought, spoke first.
“We need to get out of here. Quickly.”
“Yeah. We need to move. But where's Van?”
I nodded and was about to move immediately when I belatedly remembered Van.
Looking around the battlefield, I found Van still in the same spot as before.
“Van—! Let’s go.”
Van, with a gloomy expression, nodded and approached.
The party each mounted their Ghost Horses and began to move.
I steered my horse and approached Van’s side.
“Why the long face?”
“…It's nothing.”
Van fiddled with the dented shield on his back.
His expression suggested he was deep in thought after the battle with the Lycanthrope.
A sense of powerlessness that comes from an overwhelming gap.
I could guess how he felt, but I didn't offer any words of comfort.
‘It’s a problem that will be solved once he gets his tattoos.’
When that time comes, he had the potential to become as strong as me or Lucas.
The process of carving the High Orc tattoos was complicated, but once it was done, it could display outstanding performance.
I took my eyes off Van and looked ahead.
The red sun of the Demon World was rising.
Looking at the land stained red by the dawn, I grumbled.
“…In the end, I didn’t get a wink of sleep.”
“We’ve been lucky so far.”
Van answered.
“Still, I made a monster repellent this time. I thought I'd get some decent sleep today.”
“It seems our luck ran out after meeting the Fluffy that became the ingredient.”
“I guess so.”
Although there was some lingering fatigue from the battle, my body was now strong enough to go a day without sleep.
The place we had chosen as a campsite and the Kerno Gorge were not far from each other.
Not long after we started moving, Lucas tilted his head.
“Something… smells strange.”
“Where?”
“Over there.”
At Lucas’s words, I looked ahead carefully and began to see the entrance to a gorge, with two high cliffs blocking both sides.
“What does it smell like?”
“Is it the smell of blood? There's a fishy scent.”
I tried to smell it too, but all I could feel was the dry air of the Demon World.
The smell of blood?
If I had to guess, it was the fact that the cliffs were a mix of rock and metal.
Could it be… he smelled the iron from the metal?
I thought that maybe he was the dog, not the Lycanthrope.
As expected of a vampire with superior senses, his sense of smell was remarkable.
As the entrance to the Kerno Gorge came into view, the party sped up and arrived quickly.
The entrance to the gorge was filled with an eerie atmosphere.
The Ghost Horse, which was said to know no fear, took a step back and snorted.
Neigh—!
“Whoa. Stay still.”
Even when I gripped the Ghost Horse’s reins tightly and stroked its neck, it didn’t stop snorting.
I had no choice but to drag it along by force.
In the end, I gave up on calming the Ghost Horse and looked ahead.
The inside and outside were clearly divided.
The red earth and the dark ground inside the gorge were divided as if measured with a ruler.
It was a darkness that seemed to suck in even shadows, as if the sun of the Demon World couldn't penetrate the gorge.
The wind occasionally made a sound as it crossed the inside of the gorge.
Kiiii—
“…The atmosphere is killer.”
Even the Kerno Gorge itself was dangerous, but there were other threats remaining.
Lucas approached my side.
“Are you really going to pass through here? If we’re attacked here, it won’t be easy.”
“Hmm…”
I knew that well.
The high, oddly shaped cliffs on both sides and the straight path.
If Modric were to attack again, he would definitely not miss this opportunity.
I was lost in thought for a moment.
There was another way to our destination, the Montis Rocky Mountains.
‘…Did I misjudge the timing?’
The ‘Random Weather’ wasn't always arranged randomly.
A special event.
The weather related to it always appeared at a specific time.
By now, ‘that weather’ should have appeared….
As I was pondering, Lucas urged me on.
“We need to decide now. Whether to enter the gorge or take a detour.”
“Wait.”
A whitish-green halo of light appeared behind Lucas.
I looked up at the sky.
A green veil wrapped around the red sky like a curtain.
Seeing the ‘Celestial Curtain’ spread across the sky, I let out a smirk.
“It’s finally here. The ‘Aurora’. We can enter the gorge now.”
“…Aurora? That’s an ominous sign in the Demon World.”
“No. It will be our luck. Trust me.”
Lucas nodded.
“I respect your choice.”
Van was still dazed, so he would probably do as he was told.
‘The timing is perfect.’
Now that the ‘Aurora’ had appeared, there was no need to hesitate entering the gorge anymore.
The item needed to deal with the Harpy Queen could only be obtained here, in the Kerno Gorge.
It wasn't a choice, but a necessity.
If I couldn't catch the Harpy Queen, I wouldn't be able to solve Jude's calamity event in time, and then all that was left was the end.
Not the end of Hyunwoo's party, but the end of the Demon World.
Ruin.
I thought of Jude’s scenario quest.
⌜Scenario Quest!
You have obtained a clue about the curse engraved on ‘Jude Basterion’.
Retrieve ‘Atemoa’ from the Kormur Dungeon before he goes berserk.
Deadline: One year.⌟
The remaining deadline was one year.
I hadn't done anything special, but more than a month had already passed.
There was no time to spare.
I ground my teeth as I thought of Jude.
‘If Jude had just dealt with Modric properly, I wouldn't even have to worry about this… What in the world is he doing?’
I gave up on trying to figure out Jude's unknown whereabouts and entered the gorge.
Kiiii—
The sound of the wind, echoing like a scream, seemed to welcome the entry of new victims.
A green halo of light enveloped Hyunwoo's party as they entered the gorge.
* * *
Modric, sitting in his barracks and listening to the report, was faced with an unpleasant feeling rising from within.
He asked the messenger once more.
“So. They’re all dead?”
“…I apologize. We confirmed that they headed to the gorge afterwards.”
“The gorge? You mean the Kerno Gorge?”
“Yes.”
“Foolish. Are they getting cocky just because they beat a mere scout? To enter the Kerno Gorge.”
The unpleasant feeling quickly subsided at the thought of their foolish actions.
Modric stood up from his seat and came out of the barracks.
Flutter—
Looking around, his subordinates were eating the prey they had caught, covered in blood.
A faint green light hovered over the red blood.
Ominous weather.
It seemed to foreshadow their deaths.
The soldiers who spotted Modric bowed their heads.
200 elite soldiers who would throw themselves into the fire without hesitation at a single command.
It was an excessive force to have gathered to kill just three.
From here, it would take half a day to reach the Kerno Gorge.
“It’s hunting time. Move out.”
As if they had been waiting for Modric’s command, the blood-stained troops revealed a chilling presence.
* * *
Modric's army was soon able to find the traces of the battle between Hyunwoo's party and the scouts.
“Found them!”
Modric’s eyebrows twitched as he examined the traces.
His gaze fell on his kinsman, Glitter, and from the looks of it, he had died without even being able to put up a proper fight.
He was killed in a single blow.
“…Half-wit. Tsk.”
Even if he was a kinsman, he had no interest in a failure.
He clicked his tongue once and moved the troops again.
A short while later, the entrance to the Kerno Gorge came into view.
Modric looked at the entrance of the gorge.
“What will you do?”
“I will go in myself.”
“…Yourself?”
“What, are you afraid? They are the ones who killed my kinsman. I can’t let them die peacefully.”
“I-I will prepare!”
They had to catch up with them as quickly as possible.
‘They won’t be able to go deep inside anyway.’
The true face of the Kerno Gorge, called a forbidden land in the Demon World, was the deep part of the gorge where the ‘Nameless Tree’ existed.
His plan was to catch their tails before they reached it and bring back their heads.
For some reason, it felt like they were getting more troublesome to deal with as time went on.
He should have gone himself from the beginning.
It was time to cut the ties with those rat-like bastards.
“All out…”
He was about to give the order to advance when his lips quivered.
A strange sensation.
Something was felt by his sensitive senses.
‘…What is this?’
A feeling of unease about the unknown, a chill down his spine.
It didn't take long to realize that the unfamiliar sensation, which remained only in his old memories, was ‘fear’.
It felt like.
It was a similar feeling to when he faced his father, the ‘king’ of his kin.
“Ha. What…”
Modric let out a hollow laugh.
A being like the ‘king’ of his clan was not someone he could encounter on a roadside like this.
He shook his head.
It was probably because he had been worrying about a lot of things lately.
Ignoring the warning his senses were sending him, a small boy suddenly appeared in front of him.
“Are you Modric?”
“……!”
The boy swaggered and took out a lollipop.