novelraw Chapter 151 : Chapter 151
Chapter 151 : Chapter 151
151
They say that someone who has spent their entire life seeing only rivers is stunned when they first behold the sea, gazing upon the vast horizon stretching endlessly before them.
The few scattered islands visible in the distance appear unbearably lonely precisely because of the immeasurable expanse of ocean spreading out behind them.
Ocean Hall devoured that vastness of the sea.
The hole that had opened in the middle of the ocean was so enormous that it occupied more than half of one’s field of vision, and from within it, monsters were being spewed out without end.
Seawater that had begun rotating from the ocean floor under an overwhelming force was polluted into a dirty reddish-brown color, and within it, grotesque monsters—reduced to nothing but raw instinct—swam toward land.
Around the bodies of those monsters, bizarre purple energy surged and rippled, pushing aside the flow of seawater itself.
‘That control over the current must be Ocean Hall’s ability.’
An ability that could accelerate a flow or block it entirely.
A terrifying power.
‘Aura is a technique created by circulating external mana through the body.’
But what if the mana within a certain area were forced to rotate at a fixed speed—or had its movement completely stopped?
It would be a technique capable of forcibly preventing the swordsmen within that field from using Aura at all.
‘The more Aura-using swordsmen there are, the more frightening this Fantasy becomes.’
Compared to the future in which Rozalin’s group had lived, the demons’ rate of invasion was faster in the present.
Perhaps that, too, was the influence of Aura.
Because humans—because of someone like me—were rapidly taking weapons into their hands, the demons had no choice but to accelerate their invasion.
‘They said there was a human.’
Who, and why.
Those questions naturally followed, but I forcibly suppressed the thoughts.
What mattered now was dealing with Ocean Hall as quickly as possible.
‘That thing probably has no reason left.’
From a rational standpoint, if it could manipulate the flow of mana, it should have been able to easily block even the spells of mages.
Yet before the regression, Ocean Hall had been dealt with through magical bombardment by 6th-circle mages.
That could only mean that the massive Hall existed without reason—merely as a presence.
As decisively as possible, in a single strike.
‘My Aura is not as strong as three grand spells from 6th-circle mages.’
Simply increasing power would not work.
It was a direction I could not follow.
Even so, the reason I had volunteered for this battle—
‘Cut the path.’
—was because I wanted to confirm a more abstract form of swordsmanship.
After sparring with me, Rozalin would sometimes say things that were difficult to understand at first glance.
‘You even cut away the will to fight, Instructor!’
Fighting spirit was a concept that could neither be seen nor grasped by hand.
And yet, she claimed it had been cut.
It felt too strange to dismiss as mere metaphor.
But I could not simply ignore it, either.
Pan had cut time itself and sent people back into the past of that era.
If that was the case, then perhaps the path toward becoming a Sword Master lay right here.
That was why I wanted to test it.
‘It is a bit frightening that this test requires risking my life.’
I had a hunch.
Not that this was merely a battle, but that only by fighting a colossal enemy could I break through the wall ahead.
Whether that intuition was real or not, I could not know.
Perhaps it was nothing more than a delusion that ensnared me and countless other swordsmen alike.
Even so, only by overcoming this could I reach a higher realm.
Only then could I elevate my mastery of Aura and teach my students amid the chaos that was yet to come.
“Hup.”
Using my one free hand, I drew my sword.
My body atop the griffon swayed even more unsteadily.
“You are my lifeline. After I swing my sword, you have to retrieve the Fantasy from there and come back.”
I did not know whether the griffon understood my words, but I conveyed the instructions regardless.
I urged the griffon forward, flying toward the center of Ocean Hall.
Perhaps intimidated by the demon below, the griffon flapped its wings several times, then suddenly refused to advance any further.
Just in case, I tossed the empty bottle of the Elixir I had drunk earlier into the air.
As if seized by a powerful force, it spun several times midair before plummeting straight down toward the surface.
‘This is it.’
If it was this intelligent and perceptive, it might truly be able to carry out my request.
Holding onto that expectation, I recalled the sensation from just before I had leapt into the midst of monsters.
I raised my Sword Intent within my heart and drew in external mana.
In an instant, mana filled my body, and it began to tremble violently.
‘Not yet.’
The battles with monsters before coming here had been helpful.
It felt as though I had gained a sense of how to wield mana once it was gathered.
Simply drawing in mana was not enough.
I needed to harden my will even further.
Make the objective absolutely clear.
‘Strengthen the very concept of cutting.’
I recalled Berlis’s explanation.
She had said that magic becoming stronger meant understanding that magic more deeply.
I swung my sword, surpassing the limits of Aura.
What I intended to cut—
‘Cut the will.’
No.
‘Cut everything.’
The sharpest magic forged through the sword surged toward the center of Ocean Hall.
The moment it entered Ocean Hall’s domain, the magic wavered and shimmered like heat haze over a desert.
But that hesitation lasted only an instant.
Aura, as though it possessed a will of its own, blazed fiercely as it scattered every restriction around it, charging forward like a rampaging beast.
The light that advanced in a straight line rushed directly toward Ocean Hall’s core.
Like a meteor tearing through the night sky, the light plunged into the darkness—
――――!
An explosion erupted.
It felt as though a massive sound had resounded, but perhaps due to Ocean Hall’s flow, the noise failed to escape beyond the Hall.
Ocean Hall seemed to have perished while devouring even its own death in its final moment.
The one reason I could infer its demise was simple.
The griffon, which had been refusing to fly just moments ago, suddenly moved its body swiftly.
‘I cut it.’
It seemed my gamble had succeeded.
Thank goodness.
The sensation in my body began to fade away.
It felt as though I was about to lose consciousness again.
“Please……”
I left those words behind like a last testament and lost consciousness.
***
Seris’s griffon flew through the air.
The ominous energy that had been coiling around the sky moments earlier was gone.
The sea was hell.
Until Ocean Hall vanished, monsters had churned through the ocean without fear, but now they floundered as they were dragged into the depths, dying one after another.
They say that before a tsunami arrives, the waves along the shore retreat in terror.
Ocean Hall had been pushing away an immense volume of seawater befitting its massive size, and when it disappeared, the returning waters dragged even monsters that had nearly reached the shore down into the deep sea.
The monsters that had densely filled the ocean became entangled, obstructing one another.
At the center of that chaotic flow, a black jewel gleamed.
Ocean Hall’s Fantasy.
Snatch.
The griffon seized the Fantasy in its beak and shot upward into the sky.
Like Cassian’s wind, Seris’s griffon possessed considerable intelligence.
Griffons originally had intelligence comparable to that of a young child, and that intelligence had grown tremendously with the aid of Holy Power.
The griffon not only grasped the Fantasy but also firmly clutched Cassian’s sword—nearly lost to the sea—with both forelimbs before turning back toward the place it had come from.
Where its master was.
And where countless monsters had been headed.
The griffon gained speed as it soared upward.
The human placed upon its back was breathing faintly, repeating shallow breaths, yet looked as though he might die at any moment.
Its master had always healed injured and suffering humans well, so it needed to reunite the two of them as quickly as possible.
And after flying for a long while, the place it arrived at was—
“……I cannot tell whether you are late or early.”
Seris lay slumped in a corner against a wall, his entire body drenched in blood.
—Kii……
The griffon landed and slowly approached Seris.
Its master’s condition was grave.
His right arm was nearly crushed beyond recognition, and one ankle was twisted completely out of place.
If he tried to walk in the direction his foot was pointing, he would not move straight at all, but stagger along in a zigzagging path.
There was a small hole in his side, from which blood continued to gush out in heavy spurts.
—Kii.
With a sorrowful expression, the griffon pressed its head against Seris’s body.
Instinctively, it knew.
Its master was dying.
“Still, this is a relief. I agonized over it quite a bit.”
Seris’s hand wrapped around the griffon.
In that instant, his Holy Power enveloped both the griffon and Cassian, who lay collapsed behind it.
“If you had arrived just a little later, I might have ended up using my Holy Power on myself. That would have been an act of betraying humanity.”
—Kii.
“I cannot forsake humanity just to prolong the life of a single man. That would be no different from the acts of demon worshipers or heretics.”
—Kii……
As Seris held the griffon, his body gradually shrank.
His vitality drained away, and he aged in an instant.
His skin quickly became covered in wrinkles and turned dry, his face sagging little by little.
A white cataract settled over his eyes, and dark age spots bloomed across his skin.
His fading voice delivered his last words to the griffon that had shared half his life.
“From now on, please protect the one behind you. He will live a life far more valuable than the one he had with me.”
“There is just one thing. That man trusts people far too easily.”
“The world is full of filth. You must tell him to trust only what can be trusted. Please guide him well at his side.”
Seris had not been killed by monsters.
It had been madmen, facing monsters, who had killed him.
Heretics were not born in peaceful lives.
Faith, to begin with, was something those with nothing left and those who feared death clung to as a final refuge.
In despair like this, people who had lost all choices began to treat even what could never be a choice as one.
If demons were trying to kill them, then they would stand on the demons’ side.
Surely, the demons would not kill their own allies.
Such twisted beliefs corrupted people.
This time was no different.
While Seris fought monsters, those who had come to resent God stabbed him in the back.
—Kiiiii.
The griffon cried mournfully and slowly stepped back.
Seris’s body crumbled into dust and vanished.
It was the result of burning away even his final remaining spark of life and using it all as Holy Power.
Now, both his flesh and soul would draw close to God.
The griffon beat its wings and slowly lifted its body into the air.
In the distance, monsters that had yet to be dealt with were still rampaging, shrieking as they tore through their surroundings.
Before Ocean Hall was destroyed, the monsters had clearly shared hostile intent and moved as one toward humanity.
Now, however, they were preoccupied with tearing each other apart.
Even that shared will, which had driven them to assault humanity, had been Ocean Hall’s power.
—Kii.
Leaving that chaos behind, the griffon moved on.
The flight had been long, but perhaps thanks to the immense Holy Power it had just received, its body felt light and refreshed.
Far from here.
Its homeland.
It had more than enough strength left to reach the capital of the Holy Kingdom.