Chapter 28: Chapter 28

Chapter 28: Flower (2)

I sharpened the senses of my entire body.

‘Did she feel my Blessing?’

Blessings weren’t something even the strong could easily detect—people like Reinhardt couldn’t always tell. How on earth had she found out?

I glared at the woman with wary eyes.

“Hoho, Blessing-bearers always react the same as you. Are you so afraid of having your Blessing stolen?” she said.

I had never heard of such a thing. To steal a Blessing… A Blessing was a power granted by the one god of this world, Solar. No one but a god could do that. For more chapters visıt novel•fire.net

If the woman spoke the truth, I had to be careful. My Blessing was my lifeline.

Even when it had been peeled away a little by a monster, I had crossed the boundary between life and death.

I could no longer rely on the special favor of holy water. I had to be cautious—again and again.

“Kazan, the current incompetent captain of the Black Dragon. I heard you took on that burden after Garan retired. Looking at you now, it seems the heavy load will crush you to death.”

Her voice, which described things plainly, was calm. She did not look like someone who had crawled out from a torn belly.

Kazan groaned. His face showed dismay. I could see he had no idea why this woman stood here.

A ripple passed through me. Gehenna? Wasn’t she said to be one of the leaders of the Flower?

I recalled the past—our bad blood with the Flower reaching back to when I was managing the capital’s underworld.

‘Could that woman really be Gehenna?’

In truth, I had come to the County of Enox partly to avoid Gehenna and not the Flower itself. The blue-haired man—was his name Rhuin?—was someone Gehenna favored.

That was why the emperor had told us to lie low for a while to avoid the Black Dragon’s damage…

‘Did she really pursue us all the way from the capital without clashing with the Emperor?’

If my suspicions were right, Gehenna was crazier than I had imagined. No one in the world fussed over stepping in someone’s dung; even if it annoyed them, smashing that dung brought no gain.

“Black Dragon soldiers who are new will be seeing me for the first time. My name is Gehenna. I am Jeozudin’s faithful servant and an apostle of the Flower.”

As I had expected, the woman was Gehenna.

‘Wait—did she just call herself Jeozudin’s servant?’

I frowned. Jeozudin was the name of an evil god. Serving someone who had once brought about the world’s end? She didn’t seem sane.

“Gehenna, have you come for revenge?” Kazan asked.

“How did you get all the way here? The Emperor must have had his eyes on you. There would be no way you’d have the strength to chase us down.”

“You’re right, Kazan. We drew the Emperor’s wrath. He had made up his mind to kill me. But I didn’t just sit there and take it. I set the capital ablaze. It’ll take half a year of hard work to restore it to how it was before.”

“Your aim was to disperse the Emperor’s forces.”

“Fire is good. The soldiers couldn’t find me because of how fiercely it burned. Should they kill me or put out the fires? The Emperor chose to defend the capital.”

“Your target is Leon?”

“Yes. Hand that brat over and I’ll spare your lives. Make a wise choice.”

Her words were the same as Beryl’s had been. But the weight behind them differed. Gehenna belonged to the Flower’s leadership. Her force would be incomparably superior to Beryl’s.

Kazan was exhausted from successive fights. Even a person of firm will would likely hand me over.

Unease crawled up inside me. My fists clenched by themselves. Just as I prepared to run—

A ferocious aura flared up from Kazan’s entire body. It was stronger than when he had faced Beryl.

Kazan stepped forward. Each heavy footfall seemed to press the ground so that a strange vibration spread.

Kazan could not beat Gehenna in his present state. Even if Retina had joined him, it would have been impossible. The opponent was a member of the Flower’s leadership.

In martial terms, she was like an elder of the Nine Schools. Even at full strength she would be hard to face; Kazan, worn out and beaten down, stood no chance.

Still, he did not stop. In that moment he was a killing machine. The aura of someone who had lived and died countless times trembled across his body.

Before I knew it, Kazan stood in front of Gehenna and said,

“If you want to kill Leon, kill me first. The Black Dragon does not abandon its comrades.”

“…You clumsily mimic Garan. How foolish. Do you truly think you can take Garan’s place? Do you think your strength alone can protect that one?”

“Even if I can’t protect him, it doesn’t matter. I refuse to abandon a comrade; I will die with my comrade.”

“Is that so. Then I will punish you. For clumsily trying to imitate Garan. That sin will hurt terribly.”

Gehenna slowly raised her hand. Her long fingernails shone with a sharp light.

At that moment, my body flew backward. Gehenna’s kick had sent me skidding away. No one had reacted in time.

Retina immediately began to chant a spell. But Gehenna’s hand was faster.

Gehenna’s talons flashed. It was as if she intended to tear Retina and Ryan apart the way Beryl had ripped flesh.

Gehenna’s claws struck something and were stopped. Retina’s belatedly cast magic had freed her from Gehenna’s beastly hold.

Retina slipped away from Gehenna as smoothly as flowing water. Standing beside Kazan, she rubbed the gooseflesh on her forearm.

The cold sweat pearling on her forehead showed she had been tense.

“It’s only a matter of time.”

Retina said, her face emotionless.

“Kazan, you are the only one here who can stop her. Mages are weak against martial arts. If no one protects us, we can’t use our full power. That brat Ryan is insufficient to stop me. You are the only hope.”

A cruel smile curved Gehenna’s lips.

“Can you do it? With that depleted body of yours? Watch your comrades die there. Feel your helplessness. You can never take Garan’s place. From the moment one person dies, your uselessness—”

At that moment, a dead man’s voice crawled into everyone’s ears.

Gehenna’s eyes widened. She wore an expression of disbelief. She slowly turned and could not hide her shock.

“I didn’t even notice being hit. Too weak, really.”

At the end of her gaze was me. Blood dripped from my head; I looked, plainly, a wreck.

I looked like I could collapse at any second. And I probably would have.

But I twisted my neck from side to side as if nothing were wrong and said,

“My shoulder had been a bit stiff lately, so that helped loosen it. Thanks.”

“…How are you even alive? That was not an attack you could have stopped.”

“Didn’t I tell you? Too weak.”

At that moment, the clear ring of my sword’s name resonated. It was not a grotesque, eerie sound; rather, my sword gave off a solemnness.

“Try me. I only said the truth. You are weak.”

Gehenna’s face had hardened. It was a fearsome look—truly worthy of being called a grim, malevolent expression.

Gehenna began walking toward me again.

“There’s no other way, Captain.”

At Kazan’s shout, I answered. I knew the world very well. It was a place where anyone could die suddenly, anywhere. That was only natural.

The weak were weeded out; only the strong survived. Whether in the martial world or this world, the rule held.

Still, I did not give up—on life, tomorrow, or my dream.

‘I was going to survive.’

No matter what anyone said, that resolve did not change. My dream was to be Elphrel’s greatest warrior. I could not die before reaching that goal.

No matter what hardships came, I would endure.

Luckily, my body was as sturdy as Garan had acknowledged.

Gehenna had expected to end my life with a single strike. But what actually happened?

I was alive, and I had cracked Gehenna’s pride.

I found myself snorting a laugh. Gehenna’s face was contorted like a grim omen—proof she was furious.

Her pride seemed more fractured than I had thought.

In that moment I realized how satisfying it was to wound the pride of a strong person.

“What are you laughing at?”

Gehenna had reached me and asked. Only when I heard her voice did I notice she was right in front of me. As expected, she was the speed of the powerful.

She raised her hand. The pulse of mana from her felt ominous. This time she truly intended to kill me with all her strength.

A materialized wave of mana shimmered in Gehenna’s hand. It was a technique called Sugang (手罡) in the martial world.

I circulated the qi in every vein and seam of my body with all my strength. Gehenna was strong—perhaps equal to Garan.

To avoid dying, I would have to push myself beyond my limits.

Gehenna’s hand slowly flew toward me—slower than a crawling worm, slow enough to make one yawn.

It was a speed I could have dodged. It was an illusion.

Suddenly the Sugang I had lost sight of struck my face. My foot dug into the ground. The blade-hand’s force was so great it had embedded me into the earth.

Gehenna was certain this time I would die. It was the same move that had once severed a knight’s arm. A green, inexperienced brat could not possibly withstand it.

I smiled with a chill in my eyes.

“Didn’t I say you were weak?”

Gehenna flinched and took a step back. She looked at her hand. It was swollen as if a bone were cracked. A terrible thing—it had been a blow that could have mashed her brain to pulp. The impact should have been enormous. Yet only her hand was hurt.

I said, my fierce gaze fixed on her. It was a stare that made the marrow tremble—like the eyes of a tiger one met in the dark.

Gehenna swallowed. An unfamiliar emotion stirred in her. No—she knew exactly what the feeling was.

The feeling she experienced was none other than fear.

The Flower was a crime syndicate even the Emperor watched warily. She, a leader in that organization, felt fear before such a brat?

Gehenna could not admit it. Even faced with unmistakable fear, she refused to acknowledge it.

I took a step forward. Feeling like the Grim Reaper approaching, Gehenna involuntarily drew back. A movement she did not even recognize in herself.

At that moment I spat blood from my mouth. It was a coughing up of blood showing flesh—a sign some internal organs were damaged.

‘There was some shock after all!’

Thinking it over, oddities piled up. My body was strong enough to withstand her attack. So why had I not counterattacked until now?

Gehenna quickly reached a conclusion.

“Just a sturdy body, nothing more.”

“I wondered what Blessing you had… a Blessing tied to endurance? You got a useful Blessing. You won’t be able to use it again, though.”

Gehenna regained her confidence. It was a bad sign. At this rate, total annihilation was only a matter of time.

“Why on earth does this have to happen in my territory?”

A man walked out from the bushes with an air of casualness. His light steps, as if out for a stroll, carried a strange unpleasantness.

“Kazan said he called me, so I came to see. So the Flower’s trash was ruining my territory.”

“Shut up, Gehenna. You make me feel very bad.”

The man—Enox—glared with green eyes.

“You brought filth into my lands. A sin worthy of dying ten thousand deaths.”