Chapter 43

Chapter 43

Something surged into my heart.

The moment I came to hold an immense energy that I could not even dare to fathom, the Great Mountain Centipede released me and collapsed to the ground.

“Keheok……!”

Even though I was sprawled on the ground, I could not come to my senses.

I clutched my chest and trembled.

It was hot.

It felt as though lava were surging up inside my chest.

An indescribable energy roiled along with my heart and began to rampage through my entire body as though hacking me apart.

“Keheok! Kkeuuu…… kh…… aaaaaaaah…………!!”

It was so agonizing that I could not even scream properly.

Blood burst from my eyes, nose, mouth, and every part of my body. No, it felt as though my body would explode at any moment.

My vision was red.

The entire world before my eyes warped and turned red.

I sank to my knees under the surging agony.

It hurt.

It hurthurthurthurthurt!

My flesh, unable to endure the energy that was far too vast, was screaming.

“Krrk…… krrrk……!”

Blood foamed in my mouth.

This was dangerous.

I could tell instinctively.

Unless I did something about this energy quickly, my entire body would truly burst apart and I would die.

“Damn it—! Why did you give that to him!!!”

The Mage bastard began to rage.

Seeing his face turn crimson as he flew into towering fury, I finally realized what I had eaten.

‘Black Jade……!’

A centipede that had failed to ascend despite living for hundreds of years.

The Great Mountain Centipede had forcibly shoved the Core it carried into me.

Even if it died and its clan fell, it refused to hand this over.

‘But I am going to die like this!’

Was this really Black Jade?

Even the Heavenly Thunder Pill, which was of a similar grade, should not contain this much energy.

This was far too vast an energy for a mere human to accept.

I was somehow enduring it because my body was practically a blessing, but if it had been anyone else, their entire body would have burst apart the instant they accepted it.

‘I need to…… gather this energy.’

The Mage bastard was unable to touch me carelessly.

Had his brain momentarily frozen because of the unexpected situation? In any case, it was good fortune for me.

“Haaah……! Haaahk……! Kerrrk…… haahk…….”

I moved the rampaging energy and sought to stabilize it.

I could do this. I was someone who had used mana even without a Core. I could do it well enough.

The circulating mana began to spread through every corner of my body along my meridians.

Strangely, the Great Mountain Centipede’s power moved very gently according to my guidance.

‘It is too strange to be Black Jade.’

They said Black Jade was created from deeply seeped resentment, but this was an exceedingly pure and clean power.

It did not resist my guidance in the slightest, and it was even trying to regulate itself somehow so that my body would not be harmed.

With the Nucleus that had settled in my heart at the center, I somehow created a pathway.

Along the circulating energy, power burst forth like an active volcano.

Now I had to release it.

I had to pour out as much power as I could endure if I wanted to live.

“Graaaaaaaaaah───!!!”

The mana that erupted from me shook the surrounding air with a thunderous vibration.

As though South Spirit Mountain was responding to its master’s energy, it rumbled and trembled.

With bloodshot eyes, I glared at the Mage.

“What……? Y-You! How are you alive after eating that……!”

Shut up. Hurry up and become my punching bag.

Unleashing mana with everything I had, I charged toward Admon.

“Kh……! Since it has come to this, I will kill you and take your corpse instead!”

He once again cast magic mixed with Aura.

The Talismans on the Staff burned rapidly, and the same homing spells came rushing at me.

KAGAGAGANG!!

How many were there? Ten? Twenty?

I deflected the barrage of magic in a trance.

Several crashed into the ground and walls before exploding, but most bent their trajectories again and returned to me.

The moment I saw the returning trajectories.

Within my suddenly white-hot mind, I felt something flash.

As if my brain’s performance had been amplified, my expanded thought (思考) seized upon an enlightenment.

‘Do I…… need to predict these one by one?’

Ishara’s swordsmanship was a power that restricted and guided an opponent’s actions.

Then did it truly need to be limited only to ‘people’?

Should the ‘techniques’ he fired also not be considered part of him?

‘Action…… guidance…… trajectory…… line…….’

Lightning struck inside my head.

Enlightenment awakened my soul, and my eyes flashed open as though lightning were coursing through them.

I had understood this swordsmanship completely wrong.

This swordsmanship, Ishara’s swordsmanship, was not merely a technique for binding a person’s actions!

Had I not already felt it once while fighting Vormir?

The world of Lines and Trajectories was a world where intent clashed with intent, where Thought-Force collided with Thought-Force.

If the one who bore Thought-Force was a person, then the attacks released by that person must also contain their Thought-Force.

This was the very situation before me.

It was a power that made every ‘phenomenon’ reaching me kneel and adjust itself to me.

“……!”

I swung my high-speed sword at a speed invisible to the eye.

Along a trajectory that seemed to have been swung at random, all the incoming spells were deflected and driven into the ground.

“What……!”

I heard the Mage cry out in shock.

Be shocked. You have every reason to be.

Because I myself was immensely shocked and awestruck.

‘So this was what it was!’

The collision of intent and intent.

That meant reading Thought-Force. Thought-Force was intent. If one knew what would be done, there was no reason one could not respond; rather, it was even possible to guide it and manipulate it according to one’s own will.

The most basic weakness of Parrying was that I had to grasp every one of the opponent’s patterns and match them.

Because of that, it could not be used if the timing was off or if the attack fell outside my perception.

However!

‘It does not matter if I make everything adjust to me!’

If I guided the situation itself and made it adjust to me.

Then the entire process of grasping the attack and measuring the timing became unnecessary.

There was no need to calculate.

There was no need to perceive.

Since I already knew and had guided everything, I only needed to place my sword there at the moment I wanted.

Not only the attacks the enemy swung, but even the attacks they had already fired!

“So this was it, Ishara.”

This was a swordsmanship that perfectly compensated for Parrying’s flaws.

It was the supreme realm completed by Ishara’s heaven-reaching talent and countless hours of patience, carved and refined to perfection.

“This was it……!”

I felt as though I now knew the name of this swordsmanship.

As if the hidden True Meaning were revealing itself, it resonated grandly from deep within my soul.

A swordsmanship found nowhere else in the world, meant only for the two of us.

[Secret Art: Ethrana]

[Chapter One – Fate ]

Within a world woven from trajectories, I wove a single line.

I overlaid the opponent’s Thought-Force with my own Thought-Force, moving all phenomena according to my will.

I seized ‘Fate’!

KAGAGANG! KAGANG! KWAGWAGWAGWANG!

“Kraaaak! You vermin……!!”

He was being pushed back.

He had begun to be overwhelmed by me.

I realized that I had entered a kind of awakened state.

As the Core settled into place, the mana it madly released was awakening my mind and inducing the growth of my flesh.

The aftereffects of that were breaking through every section that had been blocked until now.

‘This…… cannot be helped.’

I realized it instinctively.

I was going to die here.

The enormous energy did not merely erupt; it was amplifying my body and mind beyond their limits.

No matter how much I tried to control it and pour it out, my body was collapsing faster.

This was never a power that a human body could endure in the first place.

‘In that case……!’

I would not stop.

Even if this became the end. No, if this truly was the end.

I wanted to set the handful of flames I had barely grasped ablaze in a dazzling blaze.

I wanted to reach the world Ishara had shown me!

“What……! How……!”

All magic was rendered meaningless.

No matter how much he fired with Aura imbued in it, I predicted even the ‘next’ trajectory after I deflected it and drove everything into the walls and ground.

I can see your intentions clearly.

Since I know what you will do, there is no reason I cannot respond.

Admon Colishi. You lackey of the Downfall Order.

I have prepared the stage, so……

“Let us dance.”

Every movement he made, every bit of mana, I bound it all together and derived what came next.

Admon’s next action began to appear as a ‘Trajectory’.

That was his Thought-Force.

As if I were seeing the future, his actions were laid bare before me.

SHKAAAK!

Through the gap, my own ‘Trajectory’ flew in.

The path of my sword cut down his trajectory and began to bind it at the same time.

It was a net called Trajectory.

As a Trajectory, it bound him, tying his arms and legs and reducing him to a puppet.

Beyond simple restriction, I placed even his thoughts and judgments in the palm of my hand, grasping and shaking everything.

KAGAGANG! KAGANG! KAGAGANG! KWAAAANG!

No magic reached me.

Because I had guided him so that it could not.

This place was now my stage. My domain. Now that he had stepped onto the board, there was nothing Admon could do.

“Ah.”

A line connected.

I realized that this was the path my sword had to thrust along.

“I reached it.”

At last, I had reached it. That world.

At that moment, my sword cut Admon down.

***

Admon’s corpse, split in two, fell to the ground.

His eyes, wide open in disbelief, were filled with doubt and horror at Isran’s growth.

THUD—Admon had been cut down.

At the same time, Isran’s heart slowly stopped moving, and they drove their sword into the ground before collapsing into a seated position as if falling.

“I reached it…….”

Even while feeling their heart come to a halt, Isran smiled.

It was only one step.

Even if it was a very faint level, they had reached the realm Ishara had shown them.

“I am sorry…… I could not go with you to the end…….”

Their regret that they had failed to answer Ishara’s faith mixed with the ecstasy of having reached her world.

Amid that strange chemical reaction of emotions, they simply smiled.

Their heart stopped. Their vision went dark.

Leaning against their sword like that, their breath ceased completely.

Silence settled over the summit of South Spirit Mountain.

Ssssss……

How much time had passed like that?

From the Dragon Jade embedded in their chest, a certain black energy seeped out.

Twisting and writhing as it forced itself outside, it released a thick breath as though exhaling after a long time.

[Haa…….]

The black energy, filled with ominousness, soon took on the shape of a human being.

A smile split wide across its lips.

It circled Isran a couple of times, then reached out with both hands and stroked Isran’s head as if combing it down.

[You are beyond my expectations.]

It was filled with rapture.

Isran’s growth had truly been dazzling.

The power of Dragon Jade was something an ordinary human could not even endure.

And yet they had forcibly anchored and used that power, even if only for a short while.

They had delayed the collapse of their body by pouring out the exploding mana with everything they had, and had even used that momentary awakening to attempt to raise their realm.

If given more time, just how far could they grow?

Just what sky could they reach?

Merely imagining it sent chills down her entire body, making goosebumps rise.

[I waited for so long…… truly, so very long.]

For the moment you came here.

For the moment you swallowed that centipede’s Nucleus and accepted it into your heart.

She had waited for a full one hundred years.

That thing of black energy.

Enlil’s Thought smiled.

As expected, they had not created a Core.

Because they too would be a Platinum Token holder like herself. At the Temple they had first arrived at, they must have jumped to conclusions and skipped the proper order.

Even if they had created one, it would not have mattered, but it was better if things proceeded according to plan.

In that sense, she was quite pleased.

[It is time to wake up again.]

They were not dead yet.

Their heart and breathing had stopped, but the energy dwelling in Dragon Jade was forcibly delaying their death.

Strictly speaking, they had fallen into a kind of suspended animation state.

If the ‘Construction Ritual’ that would completely turn the Dragon Jade into a Core were performed like this, Isran would come back to life.

[Give me your heart.]

They needed help.

The dungeon was dangerous, and the path ahead would be harsh.

So she would dwell in their heart, make it hers, and head for the end of this maddened world.

The smile of the Thought deepened.

[Now…….]

Come with me to the end of the abyss.

Its hand reached toward Isran’s heart.

The ominously writhing energy was about to become one with Dragon Jade and take root in them.

Paaat─!

Light burst from the sword Isran was holding.

[……?]

The jewel embedded in the sword.

It was emitting radiance, brightly illuminating the surroundings.

DRRRRRRR……

The earth and sky trembled.

Enormous mana pressed down upon heaven and earth, beginning to forcibly tear the black energy away from Isran.

[What……?]

At that moment, Isran, who should certainly have lost consciousness, moved.

Their hand gripped the sword tightly.

The existence that had descended upon Isran rose to its feet.

‘She’ lifted her head, revealing vividly shining violet eyes.

“Do not touch Isran.”