1028. A person who tells jokes more terribly unfunny than a fairy.
How should I attack?
Outwardly, it looked like it would fight like a bear. Swinging its front paws and pouncing.
Instead of rashly swinging its sword, Encred waited, aiming the tip of the blade diagonally upward.
If you push too hard just because you’re in a hurry.
There is a high probability of making the wrong choice. If you view the enemy as big, it grows, and if you view it as small, it shrinks.
Look straight, straight.
The stubborn boatman, Sion Bant, was right. Seeing accurately and responding properly. All that is needed for that is everything he has built up until now. It is the confidence derived from the sum of every day lived without wasting a moment.
Controlling himself so that it does not overflow to the point of omnipotence is Enkrid’s specialty.
The fireball beast rose as if to charge forward, relying on its massive size, but instead of rushing in, it approached just enough for his arm to touch and swung
its forepaw. Enkrid raised his sword at an angle to block the forepaw. It felt weightless. It was beyond light; it felt like slicing through thin air. It was the moment when his thoughts accelerated and his keen senses perceived everything. He could see an inch ahead, and because he could see, he responded.
The creature’s forepaw did not strike the sword but suddenly stretched out into a spike of flame aiming at Enkrid’s head, yet it only pierced through thin air. Instead, the silver blade took another step forward and split the fireball beast in two.
Whoosh.
The split mass scattered and vanished into the air just as it was. Nothing remained—not internal organs, not blood, not muscle, not skin. It was a monster made entirely of a ball of fire to begin with.
On the surface, it looked as if the fire-ball beast had swung its forelegs the moment they met, and Encred had dodged them and split the creature vertically.
The fight with the remaining two was similar. He sensed them, responded, and slashed. He split one vertically, and the other diagonally, keeping it parallel to the sloping incline.
In the midst of this, he used his Will as if exploding, then seamlessly continued to use it.
Swordsmanship, the technique of handling Will—everything had become familiar, so every movement was natural.
“So this is the result of your careful consideration.”
“It’s just a matter of following the instructions carefully.”
It was the cheer and admiration of the two boatmen.
Encred raised his head and looked up. There was still a long way to go. He pushed off the ground again and climbed. On the way to the mountaintop where the phoenix was perched, thunder struck three more times, and the ground split open to unleash a gale that pushed him back.
He dodged the lightning, and when the wind blew, he thrust his sword into the ground to pause briefly.
As he climbed the mountain, his breath quickening and barely surviving dangerous moments, several thoughts lingered in his mind.
The culmination of technology.
The more skilled I become at handling Will, the more I feel that simplicity is better.
Into this mix Jitte’s words, my realizations, my thoughts, everything I have accomplished so far, and all the days that have passed to reach today.
There is no need to dwell on the concepts of restoration or iterum.
Wrapping Will around the skin increases its strength. It is iron armor. Gathering Will in the leg muscles creates steel armor. These names were given because it is easier to master standardized techniques.
The same applies to Will. Restoration and regeneration are forms designed to be easy to learn within the Empire.
“Is it really necessary to divide the concepts like that? In my opinion, everything is unnecessary except for Uske and Indules. The rest was just modified to make it easier to learn.”
What Jitte told me earlier finally resonated with me perfectly.
Between Usuke and Indules, Usuke refers to a state, leaving Indules as the only technique for handling Will.
Usuke is an inexhaustible well or a stream of water that flows ceaselessly. That is why it signifies a state.
Indules is change. Therefore, it manifests differently depending on a person’s disposition, habits, and mannerisms.
Then what about the purity?
That should be viewed as a concept similar to Usuke. After all, Indules is the only technique for handling Will.
While climbing the mountain, Encred created two new concepts.
First, he defined the change in purity as retaining the purity of Will possessed prior to Indules, viewing it as something that must be acquired separately from Indules.
Second, he regarded Indules itself as the only art for handling Will that is influenced by the personality and disposition of the user.
If I go back and tell Luagarine, Frock’s cheeks will swell up as if they are about to burst.
At this point, his thoughts regarding Usuke also changed.
It is not about scooping out and refilling.
The true Usuke never runs dry.
As if seeing the human trudging up, the phoenix scattered its feathers. Each and every one of those feathers was a bolt of fire.
Like dozens of bolts of fire raging, they struck the ground Enkrid stepped on, the place he took refuge, and the spot where he had been.
Dddd
When a sound becomes too loud, it actually exceeds the range of auditory perception. Encred felt only a resonant thud. Had he not protected Will’s ears earlier, wouldn’t his head have exploded
and he would have died? Even so, he kept Will exploding again and again to keep moving. He ran, rolled, and jumped across pitch-black trees that hadn’t melted even in lava, using a few rocks of similar color as stepping stones. By dodging all the lightning like that, he climbed higher again.
As he climbed the mountain ridge, he saw the feet of a firebird. The opponent had extended a foot to greet him.
It would have been nice if it had at least offered a handshake.
This thought was accompanied by distracting thoughts. As his thoughts accelerated, everything around him seemed to come to a standstill. The gate of his sixth sense opened, sensing an invisible threat. His sensory skills sounded an alarm throughout his entire body.
In the midst of this, he saw the bird’s feet. They appeared bright yellow, draped with a thin white cloth. It was merely that cloth in the form of blazing fire.
The creature’s body was not red. Up close, it was nearly white. Its pointed, inwardly curved claws would be perfect for snatching something.
If it were to strike rather than grip, the claws were curved in a shape well-suited to concentrating power at the tips.
If I get caught, I won’t die peacefully.
It was with that thought. Encred swung Today vertically. It was to slice through the threat he perceived through accelerated thought the moment he foresaw the ominousness. He had clearly swung his sword first, yet suddenly a white mass flew right in front of him.
Bang!
The air burst, creating a shock wave. It was a fire that rose in concentric circles from the point of impact. It started pure white, turned blue in the middle, and later spread as red flames.
It’s not like I flicked my fingernails.
The intimidation has taken on a real physical form. This is truly a monster.
I don’t think even the Lord of the Demon Realm could fight like this.
Didn’t you kill that scoundrel called the Parasite of Heat?
Its intimidation included will instead of words. Encred merely blocked the blow, but he heard the will it conveyed.
go away.
Well, it didn’t mean much. I climbed all the way up the mountain, but I couldn’t even make eye contact. Instead, I learned that he didn’t even flinch and unleashed a sword-shaped flame burning white, and that he knew how to amplify the fireball so large it was impossible to dodge before dropping it.
My eyebrows burned, and my hair was completely burned. It was because I couldn’t avoid it all. And in the end, I burned to death.
“Phew.”
Encreed opened his eyes on the boatman’s deck and caught his breath for a moment to forget the burning pain engulfing his entire body.
Like any other death, dying by burning was a truly horrific agony. It felt as if tens of thousands of ants were biting at his whole body, or as if he were being pricked and torn apart by needles with bent tips. It was
a pain beyond description. That is why it was such a terrible pain.
Yet, he would rise again, climb the mountain, and continue to fight.
The Firebird, which rains fire, was a formidable opponent, but he had absolutely no intention of stopping here. If he had stopped in his tracks because of the pain and agony, he would have stopped in an ordinary day long ago.
That must hurt.
Zion speaks.
Finding a way out is also wisdom.
Jitte offers advice.
And a third boatman appeared in the labyrinth alone. It is the emergence of a new voice.
“Is burning to death your hobby? How can you even think of facing something like that head-on? You were planning to hit it with waves, weren’t you? No way. Hey, you’d be better off feeling the thrill of burning to death. That would be better.”
He had a straight forehead, a slender waist, well-developed buttocks and thighs, and his entire body was packed with fine, defined muscles.
He wore a loose shirt and shorts, bandages wrapped up to his shins, and boots that came up more than half a handspan above his ankles—though lower than the bandages.
How should I put it? His attire was very old-fashioned.
“Back in my day, this was the latest. Huh? You arrogant friend.”
She held her curly hair in both hands and tied it back. She wore neither a robe nor a lamp, with nothing but a long stick strapped to her waist.
Yet, to Encred, there was no weakness.
Of all the boatmen who had appeared so far, he had considered Sion to be the most skilled, but this one was no pushover either.
She wagged her tail. Yes, she is a beastman.
Even beastmen look slightly different depending on which animal form they adopt; if Dunbakel were a lion, the boatman before him was larger in build and looked like a bear, but the overall impression was…
Is it a weasel?
The smiling boatman opens his mouth again.
“Hey, doesn’t it feel thrilling to burn to death? Do you get that feeling of suddenly going down? Otherwise, there’s no reason to stay here today, huh? Don’t you agree?”
Also, listening to him speak, I can tell what kind of boatman he is.
The boatman who was mocking and giggling.
The attitude remains the same even now.
So you’re out too.
Zion muttered.
“Why? Do you think a mortal will fall for me the moment they see me and stay in this day? Hey, no. Staying in this day doesn’t mean you’ll end up with me.”
It is mockery again.
“Kids these days have no wit. Laugh, kid. I said it to make you laugh.”
Encreed thought that everything the boatman had said so far was mockery. Hadn’t she often shown herself giggling to herself after speaking?
Even now, she insisted that what she had said with a laugh just moments ago was a joke. No, was this the truth?
Hearing it face-to-face, that is the impression she gave.
‘joke?’
Encred wanted to see Sinar. He wanted to let him know that he had seen someone here who tells jokes even more terribly unfunny than the fairies.
“……You mean I’m inferior to that fairy?”
He reads inner thoughts time and again. To be precise, he is letting his inner thoughts slip out so that Enkrid can read them. Since the meaning is conveyed without words when Sagong tries to peer in and Enkrid lets them slip.
Besides, Sagong isn’t speaking with his voice right now, but rather conveying his will.
Enkrid is currently existing in a half-spiritual state, so his heart has opened up more easily.
That is why it feels like there is no falsehood in what Sagong says.
Sagong, the beastman who wagged his tail gently, smiled sweetly.
“You can’t beat that, you know? This is a really good opportunity for you. Step back. You might get a little lost, but there is no need to fight that thing. It’s not the kind of monster you think it is.”
Even Enkrid knew that much. The Phoenix is a phenomenon. Just as the sun rises and sets, it took on the form of a phoenix, yet it was akin to a law of existence itself. It is
just that knowing it doesn’t change anything.
Even when the whole world told him to give up and his own body told him this wasn’t right, the years he endured gave him an unyielding heart.
That well of will, embodied in the Will named Usuke, was so deep that it did not easily reveal its bottom.
“How many times have you hit rock bottom?”
Suin Sagong mocked him again. He was referring to how Will had struggled after the connection was cut off a few times.
It wasn’t that I hit rock bottom; it was that I thought I was at rock bottom.
Encred’s answer was ordinary. He had already forgotten the horror he felt while burning. If forgetting the unforgettable is a talent, then Encred certainly possesses a remarkable talent.
“That’s why I like this guy. Hey, smile. What’s the point of surviving without smiling? I’ll help you too.”
As he spoke, Suin reached out his hand. I could have dodged it if I wanted to, but I felt it was neither malice nor mockery. Sion grumbled from behind.
“He just needs to look carefully, so why did he even show up?”
“Looking at things from multiple angles opens up more opportunities, so it’s a good thing. You pessimist.”
“You optimist bastard, showing up late and acting too pushy.”
Shion grumbled again, no matter what Jitte said.
There is a saying that the longer you live, the younger you become. Then, do most of the boatmen have childlike aspects?
Indeed. They were full of mischief. It was a side of them that had not been known when they were hidden behind the shadows created by the robes and the light of the lamps. The beastman’s name was Primahild.
Primahild, Mother’s first blade, that is me.
She took the lead in any fight.
“Hey, don’t stare at me too intently and fall for me. I’m not alive right now, so I can’t make a baby with you. That’s why.”
While I was peeking into memories, a beastman boatman who appeared as a hallucination started chattering.
“How did you manage to hold back all this time?”
“Me? I usually said everything I needed to say. Anyway, it was really tough back then. Everyone suffered a lot. It was a period known as the Dark Ages. It was right when some crazy demon bastard crossed over from another dimension… ha, we really went through a lot.”
Suin Sagong was more talkative than expected. Nevertheless, Encreed listened attentively to everything she said.
He then glimpsed into her life. At times, he felt her emotions as if they were one, and at other times, he watched her fight from above.
Her nickname was the Knight of Creation, a name signifying that she had split the darkness of the world. And the fact that she bore such a name meant that she had lived through a grim era.
She was a Suin who lived with her weapon in hand during the darkest times of the world. That was the kind of person the Knight of Creation was.
