Chapter 401: Curses and Blessings

A black fog covered every corner of my vision. The magical devilish being in front of me disappeared, and all my eyes could see was black.

At that moment, the fast breath was exhaled from my mouth as if it had lost its course. All I could hear was the sound of my heartbeat.

In an empty space, only my thoughts moved.

What was this occurrence? It was Eldith’s Black Mist. But why? As I asked myself that question, I felt a great deal of heat inside my skull. It felt as if I was inebriated after drinking too much ale. My feet swayed slightly.

「Just exhale the hot breath, Lugis. This isn’t the end of your journey. I wonder what you came here for.」

It wasn’t the slightly sweet voice like usual. Eldith’s dignified voice touched the depths of my ears. It was the voice of the Elf Queen.

Although I couldn’t see her, it seemed like she was right next to me. That voice forcibly grabbed my soul and soothed my emotions.

My eyelids blinked a few times. My mind was finally starting to regain its composure. Why did I come here? It was decided that I had come to kill the magical devilish being.

Ah, that’s right. I didn’t come here to swing my sword freely.

I put my hand over my mouth. It was the height of shame. Blood rushed to my head at the sight of the injured old man. Driven by fury, I raised my voice and just forcibly handled my sword. It was terrible. What an abomination.

That’s not the way I learned from the old man. I was behaving like a fool in a war. It felt like the old days of my adventurer path.

Correcting my posture, I took a deep breath and prepared the sword with both hands. The tip of the treasure sword trembled in response.

I slightly shrugged my shoulders and responded to Eldith. Her voice regained its softness.

「I can’t believe you got carried away by such a wave of fury. Would you be that angry if I was killed?」

The tip of my treasure sword swayed in the black space. I could see that the blackness in front of my eyes was slowly fading, as if Eldith was at her limits.

I spoke while my cheeks distorted at Eldith’s light words.

「Don’t be stupid, I won’t let you die. 」

The black reversed and the whole space became bright. I closed my mouth again and narrowed my gaze. Then, I raised the tip of my sword while tightening my arm muscles.

There it was. The strange creature that refused to die no matter how many times I slashed its body. That creature stared at me, reassembling its flesh while dripping blood all over its surroundings. I tried to be calm while suppressing my rising emotions.

A mouth with sheared cheeks was showing. Drigman’s scary voice echoed.

「…I see. That ferocity and bravery. Are you a subordinate of that man, and not Altia’s? What an interesting reversal.」

It feels so nostalgic. Drigman opened his hands slightly and spoke as his flesh regenerated. No matter how many times I saw human flesh reassembling itself, it was the strangest thing ever.

Then, Drigman let out a big sigh. He showed a behavior that I wouldn’t expect to see on a battlefield where swords collided. Drigman’s body was still alert and full of strength, but for the first time, his face showed something that resembled emotion.

「Whether it’s him or Altia, both of them killed my underlings extremely well. And so did you. I don’t have any grudges. I guess it relies on my incompetence.」

Even though he said those words, I could feel that something was flowing through Drigman’s stomach.

He was always very particular about his underlings and his comrades. Was it because of his title as a Controller, or was it because of his true nature? His words had a weight like no other.

Drigman opened his mouth with a pressure that my cheeks almost went numb.

「…Therefore, I won’t make the same mistake again. Let me ask you your name. For the sake of the dignity of my underlings, you will die here. I will not let you escape again. 」

At that moment, I heard the sound of Drigman’s eyes staring fixedly at me. It was not like I was a descendant of Altia or Offal. I just had a hunch that he was looking at me with those thoughts.

My cheeks twitched as my eyes contorted. Still, I opened my mouth, pointing the tip of my sword at him.

「Lugis. It’s just Lugis. You don’t have to remember it because your heart will cease to beat. 」

As I spoke, I reflexively jumped my legs. Then, I moved my body forward towards him. A slight stream of air hit my whole body.

I didn’t want to expose myself to the same misfortune as before. I had to do what I had to do in order to kill Drigman.

I noticed that the floor made a strange creaking sound as I ran my legs. It was a death noise.

…Then a roaring sound that seemed to shatter the very air resonated. It rang, not once but many times over.

Naturally, the floorboards shattered, and clods of dirt and trees rose up into the throne room. Shaped like spears, those clods gouged out space and raised themselves up.

I already knew what this anomaly was.

Drigman’s Original Text. For someone who could even control distance, it was not difficult to make clods and trees push up from the ground. Those clods and trees pierced through the floor up to the ceiling. It was as if those very things had become distorted pillars.

The earth and trees made noises one after another, leading the throne to collapse. A dust cloud danced around me, blocking my vision.

The earth formed a lump to smash the surrounding area, and the trees formed spears that pierced everything at the tips. The unstoppable raging storm made me feel like I was facing a siege weapon.

If this were to be used against a human army, said army would most certainly be annihilated. How many soldiers could face this type of attack? It was horrifying.

I put my feet on the floor and jumped. I repeated it several times. If I stopped, my whole body would be crushed by the clods of dirt or skewered by the tree spears. I had that certainty.

To put it simply, it was a terrible situation. It was almost impossible to get in between them from this direction, even though Drigman hadn’t moved an inch since a while ago.

And it was not just clods of dirt and trees that were menacing. He himself was quite a threat.

Ahead of my vision, Drigman opened his palm. I looked at him and twisted my torso out of his sight, even with my flesh and bones creaking. A dull pain came from my feet.

In an instant, a roaring sound enveloped the surroundings once again. It was the sound that told me that Drigman grabbed the space itself and shattered it.

I see, this was his true nature. It was at its peak. Steering the earth, controlling distance, and crushing everything. Helot Stanley was undoubtedly a hero because he had won against such a monster. I couldn’t think of a way to defeat this foe head-on.

However, I couldn’t afford to be defeated. I took Helot Stanley’s life after all. If that’s the case, then I had to stand on par with him, even if it meant going through the motions of recklessness. For that reason, I had to definitely kill that monster.

When a baby bird was about to be born, it broke the eggshell and threw it away. It was their own fight. There were times when I had to break out of my shell.

It was that moment now.

I sewed the gap between the clod of dirt and the violence of the trees and jumped my body forward. It was not only jumping around to avoid certain death. It was a step to get closer to Drigman.

The trees’ pointy spears cut my cheeks, and clods of dirt scraped my body. But still no problem. There was only one threat.

Drigman raised his arm in front of me. I could see his palm open. Naturally, since I was jumping through the air, there was no way to avoid it, so all I had to do was get crushed by him.

But I believed in her. That’s why I took the leap of faith. I could see Eldith manipulating the black mist while making noises. The blackness stuck around Drigman with tenacity.

Eldith’s black curse. It was no longer a fog, but a denser flood that wrapped around Drigman. It scraped away space and devoured his limbs in order restrain his movements.

The very origin of magic emitted by the Elf Queen. A relic of the mythical age. Drigman narrowed his eyes at it…and crushed the curse itself with his palm.

The black color faded away as his body shook its remnants. The combined blessings poured by Drigman and Eldith’s magic made the space scream.

「…I’m from the fairy race after all. I’m familiar with curses, my kin. 」

Drigman spoke while turning his big eyes to Eldith.

Previous | Next

Happy New Year! 🎉

—————–

Support us on Patreon and get access to early chapters