novelraw Chapter 117 : Lucky Charm
Chapter 117 : Lucky Charm
Chapter 117: Lucky Charm
“Robin! Dodge it yourself!”
Sigbard swung his rod in a furious voice.
Kwa-gwa-gwa-gwang!
The brute force loaded with fighting spirit drew a circle with a ten-meter radius and blew apart all the surrounding wraiths.
The moment Robin heard the warning, he leaped.
In an instant, Sigbard’s rod swept through the surroundings.
‘What happened to that guy?’
The fighting spirit was not within a range that would directly reach Evan.
However, when Sigbard’s rod was aimed toward Evan, he had intentionally extended the fighting spirit.
It was a fighting spirit technique only possible with precise control.
If it had landed properly, the body should have been crushed to pieces.
Swoong.
A dark sphere flew toward Sigbard.
With the area cleared and some leeway to spare, Sigbard thrust straight into the sphere.
Peoeong.
He nullified Evan’s attack, but Sigbard immediately swung his rod again.
Shu-shu-shu-shu-shung.
More dark spheres than before were fired.
To block the attacks concentrating on Sigbard, Robin sent out his fighting spirit.
Seogeok.
‘Did he use people as shields again.’
The human body blocking Evan was sliced diagonally and collapsed.
However, there was a difference from before.
All vitality had been absorbed, leaving it emaciated.
Dozens of them all looked the same.
‘To block Sigbard’s attacks?’
If that was true, it was not a bad situation.
It meant Sigbard’s attacks were threatening to Evan.
In that case, he would also be wary of Robin’s sword.
Peoeong. Peo-peo-peo-peong.
Sigbard shattered all the dark spheres—there had to be around ten of them.
Even so, Evan’s attacks grew ever fiercer.
In the meantime, Robin advanced toward Evan.
Evan’s head turned, and their eyes met.
“Stop doing pointless things.”
As Robin raised his sword and tried to slash.
Tat.
Evan retreated about three meters in a single move.
He was startled when someone who had seemed like a statue suddenly moved, but he stuck close regardless.
Despite looking sickly, he was quite fast.
‘Still, I’m faster.’
He kicked off the squelching ground and closed the distance.
When the distance between him and Evan shrank to five meters, the bastard unleashed a barrage of dark spheres.
Peo-beo-beo-beong.
“Hoo, how annoying.”
When Evan’s harassment was neutralized, the distance had somehow widened again.
While the gap opened, he drew Sigbard’s gaze, and wraiths surged in.
‘The remaining holy water is barely enough.’
As he took out the holy water and poured it over his sword.
The blood that had flowed onto the ground began to bubble and boil.
Saaak.
As he cut down a wraith, Robin’s eyes widened.
Giving off the stench of decay, blood and flesh began to clump together.
Kwareureureu.
A gigantic shape rose up from the pool of blood.
Corpse golems he had dealt with before facing Evan.
Not just one—more than ten formed their shapes.
“Robin! I’ll join you!”
Admitting that he had failed to block the entrance, Sigbard joined in.
The speed at which the wraiths charged increased.
Sigbard took out the remaining holy water.
Pop.
He opened the stopper of the glass bottle.
‘What the hell. Has he been beating them down with just fighting spirit all this time, without holy water?’
Considering how afraid he had been of ghosts and the like, it was laughable.
As the battles continued, Sigbard grew stronger.
Once he confirmed that rod techniques worked on wraiths, his fear disappeared.
Chwaak.
He sprinkled holy water on the area where they were most densely packed.
The wraiths melted the moment they came into direct contact with the holy water.
It did not stop there—Sigbard slammed his rod into the ground.
Kung.
Droplets of blood mixed with holy water scattered in specks.
Not stopping at the splashing blood in all directions, he swung the rod that had been planted in the ground.
Chwaaak!
Corpse golems that were about to charge hesitated and let out monstrous screams.
Geoeoeoeok!
“Chunks of flesh! Just crumple quietly!”
Peo-peo-peo-puk.
The corpse golems were crushed as if kneading dough.
The heads of the bastards caught on the tip of Sigbard’s rod burst apart.
The corner of Evan’s eyes, which had remained expressionless, twitched.
Uuuuuung.
Enormous demonic energy gathered above his horns.
Robin had seen that technique before.
The three years spent in the snowy mountains. The potato’s final blow that had marked the end of it.
‘But it’s nothing compared to that monster.’
He gripped his sword firmly with both hands.
Robin also drew in his fighting spirit.
The stalemated battle was decided in an instant.
Pyuwung.
Demonic energy steeped in the grudges of countless people drew lines through the air.
Robin’s thrust aimed precisely at a single point.
The collision of demonic energy and fighting spirit.
The demonic energy, as if it would devour everything it touched, split into five streams.
Geugeugeugeuk.
What remained to the very end was red fighting spirit.
Advancing without losing its target, the fighting spirit finally pierced straight through Evan’s heart.
“Kuhk!”
Evan, who had maintained silence all along, spat blood and dropped to his knees.
His chest was blown open to the size of a fist, allowing the opposite side to be seen through it.
The wraiths that had been running rampant and the corpse golems that had been writhing slowly faded away.
“Evan?”
From one side, Maria, who had been watching, hurried over.
Her flustered voice suggested that she had truly not considered Evan’s defeat.
“Evan! You can’t close your eyes! There are still humans scattered all over here!”
Evan’s purplish skin turned pale.
It cooled to a bluish white, as if water had been mixed into blue paint.
Maria took out a potion from her bosom and poured it on him.
Bubbles boiled up and flesh filled in, but it was impossible to regenerate the heart.
“You can’t die here. If you just absorb a little more, you can get outside.”
“That won’t happen.”
Robin stopped three steps ahead, his sword hanging down.
Had she sensed the end?
Tears flowed from Maria’s eyes.
Evan’s gaze turned toward Robin.
“I…….”
With a shocked expression, Maria brought her ear close to Evan’s mouth.
Robin was also curious what words would come out of that mouth.
“Humans disgust me.”
A half-human, half-demon born from human experimentation.
For the first time, a single emotion surfaced on Evan’s face, which had originally belonged to a human.
That emotion was hatred.
His facial muscles stiffened as he clenched his teeth and tightened his jaw.
It was the source of the resentment that filled the abandoned building.
“Curse humans.”
“Evan…….”
Evan, who had been moving his lips while looking at Robin, lowered his head deeply.
Maria called Evan several times, but the dead do not speak.
“Hic…….”
“Looks like you were close?”
“I was also an experimental subject here. I was deemed unfit and should have been disposed of… but Evan helped me escape.”
Maria closed Evan’s eyes and gently laid him down.
The tears flowing down her cheeks did not stop.
“So that was the story.”
“Are you going to kill me now?”
“Yes.”
It was a regrettable tale, but that did not justify Maria’s evil deeds.
Hadn’t over a hundred people died here?
“You’re… fine with it? Don’t you feel sorry for me at all?”
“I do feel sorry. That experiment couldn’t have been easy.”
“Then……!”
“Even so, the outcome doesn’t change.”
“…….”
“I’ll send you off without pain.”
It was the greatest mercy Robin could grant.
Just as he took a step forward to cut down Maria.
Maria’s eyes flashed as she threw a small blade at Robin.
Kang.
In Maria’s mind, it must have been a decisive strike, but it was blocked far too easily.
Yet Maria showed no sign of regret.
The blade split apart and pierced Robin’s upper body.
Insufficient power to kill a person.
“I coated it with poison. If you want the antidote, you’ll have to keep me alive.”
Robin lowered his head and pulled out the sharp object lodged in his chest.
A deep green liquid coated it.
‘I didn’t know this would help this much.’
Robin took a teddy bear out of his chest pocket.
A doll he had brought along to learn the characteristics of wraiths.
“Uh……? Why do you have that……?”
“You had bad luck.”
“Ha ha…….”
In Maria’s eyes as she laughed hollowly, all kinds of emotions swirled.
Fear of death, sorrow, resentment. And—
“I hate humans too.”
A girl who wasn’t even an adult screamed, consumed by malice.
Hatred overflowed from her expression and voice.
“There’s no trash other than humans who treat their own kind like livestock!”
“That’s not true.”
“Would you be any different? If you had gone through exactly what I did! If horns had been forcibly implanted into your head like Evan’s!”
Her trembling voice was spat out as if coughing up blood.
“You wouldn’t have been any different.”
“…Who created this place.”
“What are you going to do by knowing? Do you feel uneasy killing children who were used as test subjects?”
“If I know, punishment might befall that person.”
Maria sneered in disbelief.
“Just end it, you hypocrite.”
Robin raised his sword.
Maria closed her eyes and murmured softly.
“Wait for me, Evan. I’ll follow you.”
Seogeok.
Her head, cut off in a single stroke, rolled across the floor.
Her short hair was soaked in sticky blood.
It was the end of the girl who had claimed to be their guide.
“She was a human who deserved to die, Robin.”
“I know.”
“Don’t dwell on it too much.”
Sigbard patted Robin on the shoulder.
Robin shook the blood off his sword and sheathed it.
“I’ll check if there are any monsters left. You go out first.”
“Thank you.”
Leaving Sigbard behind, he exited the underground.
As the stench assaulting his nose faded, his mind cleared.
Looking back at the underground entrance, he spoke.
“I hope there’s no pain there.”
Duncan, who had been drawing the wraiths’ attention, fulfilled his role.
If it hadn’t been Duncan, entering the underground would not have been easy.
“So this is what happens if you die to a wraith.”
“There’s no vitality left.”
Duncan was dead.
There were no visible external injuries, but he wasn’t breathing.
Had the power of the holy water applied to the wardrobe run out?
Or had he encountered a wraith while trying to go outside once it quieted down?
When Robin found him, the wardrobe door was open.
There was no way to know how he died.
“Take a look. These are valuables I gathered from below.”
Sigbard had brought a wooden box filled with things that looked usable.
“There’s a whole 1 gold.”
“They made quite a haul by robbing people.”
He put the gold coin into his pocket.
There wasn’t only money.
Potions, books, and steel ingots usable at a smithy also turned up.
“Were the ingots meant to be used as building materials?”
“Probably. The underground was quite sturdy.”
When Sigbard set the box down, it made a thud.
He took out a potion and handed it to Robin.
“More importantly, treat yourself first.”
Robin took off his shirt and rolled up his pant legs.
Where the acidic blood of the corpse golem had touched, his skin was reddened.
He opened the potion bottle and slowly poured it over the area.
Chiiiik.
It stung and itched.
It was a low-grade potion, exactly what Robin needed.
The blistered skin recovered quickly.
“It’d be better to burn the clothes.”
He took out intact clothes from his backpack and changed.
After wiping the blood off with the clothes he had been wearing, he threw them into the campfire.
Acrid smoke and a foul stench rose up.
“What are you going to do with those bodies?”
“I’ll cremate them separately.”
“Cremate? You mean put makeup on the corpses?”
“Not that kind of cremation. I’ll burn them until only bones remain.”
Robin brought out the bodies of Evan and Maria.
The words Maria had spoken lingered in his mind.
‘She said I wouldn’t have been any different.’
What would it have been like if he had been trapped in a harsh environment like Maria and Evan?
He didn’t know.
No matter how much one imagined, no one could know until it actually happened.
Putting aside the meaningless assumptions, he carried the two bodies outside the building.
Hwarereureuk.
A fire blazed fiercely in a pit large enough to fit a whole person and more.
He pushed Maria and Evan into the flames.
Along with the smell of flesh cooking, the two burned away.
Robin took out the teddy bear.
“This saved my life.”
“A lucky charm, huh. Treasure it.”
“No. It seems it had another owner.”
There was a hole in the pocket on the teddy bear’s belly.
In that torn gap, crooked embroidery was stitched.
[Happy birthday. From Evan to Maria.]
After staring at the teddy bear for a moment, he threw it into the fire.
The teddy bear settled between the two and turned to ash in an instant.
Tadak, tadak.
As white bones were revealed, the sun rose.
“Robin, come when you’re ready.”
“No need to wait. Let’s go now.”
He turned his back to the sun and walked on.
Along the shortcut Maria had told him about.