The night in Vicente was silent.
Beneath the starlit sky, buildings and people burned. Amidst the heavy scent of charred flesh, the warriors of the plains held their swords high, laughing with manic glee. To them, this slaughter was merely a game.
The dream was over.
Reality was harsh.
But no matter how cruel it became, one had to endure. We had to live through reality. We had to survive. Only then could we hope to achieve anything at all.
“Trampling these fools wallowing in peace is quite fun—ack!”
With a sharp shlick , the head of a Steppe Warrior strolling through the darkness went flying. A spray of crimson erupted as his body collapsed. The moment he fell, warriors swarmed from all directions. Their reaction time was terrifying. Sparks flew in the darkness with a heavy clang .
“So, there was some prey left after all.”
I stared into eyes that were closer to a beast’s than a human’s.
I slid my blade against his and swung in a tight, concise arc. Immediately following the strike, another head tumbled to the ground. Yet, the enemies did not falter. Even though two of their comrades had just died in vain, not a trace of fear flickered in their eyes. It was as if the very capacity for terror had been excised from their souls.
“Two warriors of the plains have departed for the Infinite Steppe under the Sun That Never Sets!” someone bellowed, his voice a predator’s roar.
“Let us follow them, warriors!”
“To the Infinite Steppe!”
Thump-thump-thump—
Something approached at incredible speed. A horse. Atop the mount, charging like a launched arrow, was a warrior wielding a spear. Behind him, three others had their bows drawn, aimed directly at me. One spear, three arrows. Four forms of death converged on my position.
As efficiently as possible.
Wind gathered around my swinging sword.
「Gale」.
The moment the Mystery that disrupts flow manifested, the incoming arrows became entangled in the gale and veered off course. I tracked the warrior charging on horseback and kicked off the ground, leaping into the air. My wings unfurled with the jump, and in the next instant, a long, silver line was drawn through the air. The charging horse and its rider were sliced into pieces.
Yet, no matter how many I killed, their numbers did not dwindle. Neither their count nor their momentum showed any sign of waning.
“The Sun That Never Sets watches over us!” a thunderous voice rang out.
Simultaneously, with a sharp snap , my body was violently jerked. Looking at my wrist, I saw a rugged snare—the kind of tool used for hunting wild beasts. But such a primitive attack would not work on me.
『Do you know the genius who became a stuffed specimen?』
The Mystery of Ascension flared, and the blue sky unfolded.
The Azure Sky drove back the night, the snare shattered, and my body moved at a speed incomparable to before. Ten Steppe Warriors who had been closing in died in a heartbeat. As their heads rained down, a heavy clang echoed from my chest, followed by a stinging pain.
Damn.
Reacting a beat late, I swung my sword and cut down one more.
If not for the armor Zeppelin Gold had gifted me, I would have suffered a fatal wound just now. Biting my lip, I stomped the ground to break out of the encirclement. Arrows peppered the spot where I had been standing a split second before.
There are too many of them. Unnaturally so.
The conquest army of the Great Land was truly formidable. Their overall level was high, but the most terrifying part was that their fear had been removed. The Steppe Warriors hiding in the darkness did not fear death; rather, they seemed to regard it as a supreme honor. Much like the orcs.
No, even the orcs aren’t this extreme. This is…
This was truly demonic.
They are on a completely different level from the conquest army I saw in the War Duel.
The army of the Great Land I had faced in the Arena’s War Duel was a force that lacked the ‘Descendant of Khan.’ They knew fear and avoided the blade and blood when necessary. But this army? Far from avoiding death, they seemed eager to rush toward it. There were even 「Sword Runners」 mixed among their ranks here and there.
If an army like this reaches the Central and Western Continents…
I didn’t even want to imagine it. They weren’t an army; they were a living calamity. I finally understood why they were nicknamed the devils of the plains. They would kill and burn every living thing until nothing remained.
“Let us go, to the Infinite Steppe!”
Clang!
I barely managed to parry a blade, only for another to fly toward me immediately. A sword edge, moving in an erratic trajectory, slashed my wrist. The moment blood splattered, an arrow struck my breastplate. I gasped for breath, and a gap opened in my defense. Amidst the snorting of horses, warriors hungering for slaughter rushed in. I hurriedly regained my balance and swung my sword.
Second Steel, Refinement.
“O Sun!”
“Ah!”
With a heavy whoosh , the enemies’ bodies were cut in half. But other warriors simply trampled over the mangled corpses and charged. I wasn’t given a second to judge the situation. I surrendered my body to instinct, swinging my sword again and again. Stray arrows and blind blades targeted me from every angle. Now, even the air felt like a threat.
「That is war.」
Thud. I killed another, feeling the blade pierce through bone.
「Do not forget, young descendant.」
Clack. The sensation of armor clashing against armor.
Instead of swinging my sword, I twisted the enemy’s center of gravity and slammed him down. Once he was grounded, I drove my tilted blade into the gap between his helmet and gorget. Sword Wrestling. Petel’s techniques, engraved into my very marrow, unfolded in the melee.
「A phoenix blooms from the ashes.」
There wasn’t even enough time to pull out the embedded sword.
Leaving the blade buried in the man’s neck, I let go of the hilt, drew a dagger from my thigh, and plunged it into the helmet of the man rushing me. A Caravan’s line could pierce through a steel helmet in a single strike. Through the tip of the short dagger that had punctured both helmet and skull, I felt the cold sensation of death.
「A Caravan must know war.」
The pungent scent of earth. The stench of blood wafted through it.
Through the copper-scented air, another blade flew toward me. Instead of struggling to dodge, I raised both arms and deflected it with my bracers. A powerful impact erupted with a loud ting . But this level of force was manageable. The Heart of Steel could withstand this much.
「Only a Caravan who knows war can achieve True Steel.」
I pulled out the embedded blade and drew a circle around myself. The moment the arc was completed, the bodies of those rushing me were hacked to pieces. Spilled blood drenched my head and body. It was a sticky, unpleasant sensation; my eyes stung as blood seeped into them. The pitch-black night had turned a visceral red. I ran through that reddened world.
「Become harder, young descendant.」
With a single breath, my exhausted stamina surged back.
The Heart of Steel throbbed, and vitality exploded. Three or four warriors died to a single wide swing of my sword. Once again, I was covered in the gore of those falling helplessly. With my breath catching in my throat and the iron tang of blood filling my nose, a strange memory flickered to life like static.
「Only then will you be able to understand my Sword.」
A world where everything had died.
A world where broken swords were planted like tombstones in a graveyard, and a man resembling a lion looked up at the sky, drenched in blood. The memory of that man briefly overlapped with this moment. Along with it, my Sword drew a trajectory different from anything I had ever practiced. The enemies’ swords were sucked into the path I drew, like moths flying into a flame.
In the next instant, over a dozen enemies exploded outward. Amidst this sudden manifestation of mysterious death, the Steppe Warriors finally faltered.
“What in the world is that…”
Looking into their eyes, I regained my senses.
Maverick.
Just now, Liam’s sword had manifested from my hands.
How? I didn’t know. The moment I became immersed in this chaotic battlefield, my body had moved on its own. It was as if the blood flowing through my veins remembered these movements—faintly, yet clearly.
“Young Master!”
In that brief moment of daze, Tom shouted from behind. I turned to see him galloping toward me on a horse. It seemed he had managed to steal one of the conquest army’s mounts.
“Take my hand!”
I quickly snapped out of it, grabbed Tom’s hand, and pulled myself onto the horse. Tom kicked the horse’s sides, and it surged forward. But there was no way they would let us go easily. Thump-thump-thump— I could feel the enemies closing in.
“We’ll be caught at this rate!”
“No, it’s okay!”
“It’s not okay! There’s still a long way to the harbor! We should just finish them all off and—”
Whiz—
An arrow grazed my ear. Tom shouted over the wind.
“Lord Arhan’s friend! He’s going to draw their attention!”
As he spoke, a golden light exploded in the center of Vicente, piercing through the darkness of the night. It looked like a fire fueled by gold coins. If there were such a thing as a flame made of pure gold, it would look exactly like that. It wasn’t hard to guess who had ignited it.
“Trust your friend, Young Master!”
Zeppelin. Zeppelin Gold.
“Look—at—me—!”
My cowardly friend.
“Beasts of the Great Land! You who commit slaughter under the Descendant of Khan! You have crossed the sea, violating the order established by the Sky Empire! Not only that, you have committed terrible atrocities in the Southern Continent, which the Seven Chief Gods and Nine Goddesses declared as Sacred Land!”
Every Steppe Warrior turned to look at him.
“I, Zeppelin Gold, as a descendant of the Gold family, speak once more! I challenge the Descendant of Khan to a duel! If you do not accept my challenge immediately, the Black Archipelago will block your path! The oldest ally of the Sky Empire and the master of all seas—the Black Archipelago! We will stand in the way of the Great Land!”
“That damn bastard!”
“A mere money-grubber dares to mention the Sun That Never Sets!”
The Steppe Warriors chasing us were incensed. To them, Zeppelin Gold’s act of challenging the Descendant of Khan—who was currently fighting Hugo Rhapsody—was a grave insult. Not even an equal Swordmaster, but a dandy who looked like he’d never held a sword, dared to invoke their lord’s name and spout such nonsense?
“Catch him! Catch that dog!”
“Don’t kill him! Take him alive!”
“We must show that man hell today!”
Not only those chasing us, but all the surrounding conquest troops rushed toward Zeppelin Gold. Zeppelin shouted loudly as he watched the tide of warriors heading his way.
“I called for the Descendant of Khan, yet his underlings come instead! Is the Descendant of Khan a coward? I heard he turns tail and runs at the sight of the sea; is he afraid of the Black Archipelago, the master of the waves?!”
Having shouted that, Zeppelin Gold pulled a red orb from his robe and hurled it. The orb exploded, and Zeppelin’s body grew as large as a giant. Now a titan, he shouted with a massive voice befitting his size.
“Yes, come on! All of you, come to me!”
Waaaaah—
The sound of the conquest army grew distant. The dense encirclement broke, and we galloped toward the harbor. As the docks drew closer, Zeppelin Gold’s figure faded into the distance. Pierced by the spears of the swarming army, the giant Zeppelin fell clumsily. He struggled and thrashed about in the middle of the city.
“More! I said come more!”
His voice grew further and further away.
The item that turned Zeppelin into a giant must have been one of the many treasures he possessed. He likely had several others. Zeppelin would draw as much attention as he possibly could before meeting his death. And then, he would be resurrected in his hometown.
The resurrected Zeppelin would surely come find me again someday. He would be wearing that bright, annoying smile I remembered. So, there was no reason to look back.
Because we would meet again.
“Look—at—me—!”
Zeppelin Gold’s powerful voice gradually turned into screams. Fear seeped into the boisterous voice that had sounded like a legendary hero’s, and by the time his voice was barely audible, it had turned into pure, unintelligible shrieks.
I surrendered myself to the galloping horse without looking back.
To survive.
Forward, further forward.
