'Why am I still thinking like this? Am I doing this even in the afterlife?'
Slowly, very carefully, I reopened my closed eyes.
"Woah!"
The sight that met my eyes was still the boiling red lava pool.
"Is this hell? Is lava boiling like this because it's hell!? No, this is..."
My location hadn't changed at all. It was still the summit of the Devil's Fangs.
"Why on earth am I not dead yet?"
*Woo-woong woo-woong*
As if answering my question, a small, low sound tickled my ears. The source of the sound was from the handle I was firmly gripping.
Additionally, a faint, transparent film, starting from the handle and extending to my hands and then enveloping my entire body, was protecting my burning body from the lava.
"Ohhh! Is this... is this the power of this handle!? This handle is saving me right now! As expected! I knew it! That the temperature doesn't apply around this handle!"
(In truth, I hadn't known.)
An intense excitement enveloped my entire body at the unbelievable sight. With trembling hands, I barely managed to grip the handle even tighter. The fear that this protective shield might vanish in an instant if I let go of the handle overwhelmed me.
Without ever letting go of the handle, I exerted more pressure than necessary, carefully and slowly raising my body out of the boiling lava pool.
'This thing is incredibly heavy, isn't it? What on earth is it?'
As I completely exited the lava pool, the tension finally eased, and my body, battered and exhausted from being so brutally pushed, swayed uncontrollably. Even my consciousness seemed to be fading.
'Don't fall asleep, don't fall asleep.'
*Kwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang!*
In my final moments, just before losing consciousness, what entered my blurry vision was a scene covered in lightning, as if the entire sky was ablaze. The color of that lightning was somehow familiar, and a sudden nostalgic feeling welled up within me.
"Father...?"
'Father's nickname was Thunder Rider because he climbed mountains as fast as lightning... It's tacky, but I miss it...'
The mental fatigue had reached its limit, and I finally lost consciousness and collapsed right there.
How much time had passed? The intense fatigue that made me want to close my eyes again, and the terrible throbbing headache that felt like being hit hard with a sledgehammer, made me want to shut my eyes, but I forced my eyelids open.
"Did I see things? I'm sure I saw lightning covering the sky just before I fell asleep."
The thought was fleeting; I turned my head to look down at my hand.
My gaze fell upon the handle I was firmly gripping, and the massive blade heavily attached to it. The **blade was curved like a fang**, glowing with an intense blue light as if blue flames were burning.
I could tell without even touching it that its texture was very similar to lava.
If its color had been closer to yellow-orange instead of blue, it would have looked like a sword pulled directly from lava itself.
This **fang-shaped sword** was likely a mysterious magical sword that prevented the wielder's body temperature from fluctuating drastically.
As time passed and I continued to stare blankly at the heavy greatsword, many thoughts welled up.
'Jumping into the lava was truly insane. That thin vapor film, temporarily formed by the immense temperature difference between the lava and my body, would vanish in such a short moment. Even if I had miraculously managed to pull out the greatsword safely, there's no way I could have gotten out of that boiling lava pool in such a brief time.'
A sense of reality slowly began to return.
'Perhaps at that moment, I was so overwhelmed by despair, believing I couldn't return alive, that I made such a judgment. If I had been consumed by the desire to live and tried to descend the mountain with a body unable to even walk, instead of jumping into the lava, I would have frozen to death.'
Even if, by some slim chance, I hadn't frozen to death, the accumulated fatigue throughout my body and the uncontrollably worsening injuries would have made it impossible to break through the swarming encirclement of Mutans.
'But precisely because I completely abandoned the hope of returning alive, I was able to jump into this lava pool. Thinking about it this way, it feels like an insult to those who froze to death here.'
"Ugh... ugh."
I forced my creaking body to stand. But for some reason, perhaps because the amount of steam rising from the lava pool had decreased compared to before, the surroundings, which had been covered by ice fog, gradually began to reveal themselves.
The Devil's Fangs, covered in snow and ice, stood tall and straight like pointed teeth, proudly proclaiming its unique existence; there was no higher place anywhere around it.
From the wide-open vista, I could see the snow and ice dust scattering in the wind, all the way down to the base of the mountain, revealing every path I had traversed.
At this very moment, standing firmly with both feet on the edge of the Devil's Fangs and having all that magnificent scenery beneath my gaze, filled me with an uncontrollably overwhelming emotion and thrill. Yes. I had finally conquered even the Devil's Fangs.
This was it: the absolute peak of the Devil's Fangs, a place no one had ever dared to challenge. The vast sky and earth, unobstructed by anything, stretched endlessly before my eyes.
"It's magnificent."
As if planting a flag of victory, I gripped the greatsword in my hand and plunged it deep into the ground.
*Woo-woong*
Yes, this is the feeling. This feeling! The hot thrill surging from the depths of my chest! The exhilarating sense of elation, like every single cell in my body was violently vibrating.
How long had it been since I last felt this thrilling moment?
Hot, sticky tears flowed endlessly down my cheeks from my eyes, which were moist with overwhelming emotion.
'That's right. Even if I climb a mountain again, I will never, absolutely never again!! feel a greater moved than this moment!! This is the culmination of my climbing life!'
"Uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa~!!!!!"
Unable to control the echoing and amplifying emotions, I knelt and roared.
'Never again... Yes... it's time to let go.'
"From now on, I am no longer Pre the mountaineer!!"
As if answering my words, silver-glinting ice particles, catching the sunlight, scattered with the wind and spread across the vast sky.
*Shaaaaaaaa-*
The moment I uttered those last words, a person's face flashed through my mind like a passing breeze. My precious childhood friend, Lea, who had always greeted me with warmth.
A new goal was etched deep within my heart.
I would definitely see her again.
The mountain summit was just a single point. Reaching it didn't mean the story was over. There was a path to descend just as long as the one ascended, and I couldn't stay there forever, reveling in the joy of conquest. Unless my breath stopped right now, I was still alive and breathing.
Yes, now all I had to do was descend, and everything would be over. But the descent was rugged and harsh. My body was already covered in wounds and utterly exhausted.
Moreover, a greater number of Mutans than I had ever seen before would be waiting below. Since my scent continuously drifted down the mountain, even the hope of returning alive was faint now.
If it weren't for this in my hand.
I looked down at the sword clutched heavily in my hand. Its **blade, curved like a beast's sharp fang**, looked so murderous that merely seeing it seemed enough to tear an enemy to shreds. The **wide, thick blade** appeared sturdy, embodying both robustness and elasticity.
Irregular patterns were etched onto its **mysterious, deep blue surface**, making its color even more intricate. It looked like living, writhing blue lava.
Despite its grotesque appearance, this enormous sword surprisingly had the ability to prevent its wielder's body temperature from fluctuating. Thanks to this, I could slowly recover my exhausted body in a safe spot near the summit, without needing to rush my descent.
Aside from the bone-chilling cold and the treacherous terrain, this area was relatively safe from the threat of other creatures. It was clear I wouldn't get a single proper rest once I began my descent, due to the Mutans.
I cautiously stepped into the ice fog, which was mysteriously fainter than before. After descending a certain distance from the summit, I found frozen corpses of what must have been climbers or adventurers scattered here and there.
I carefully searched their belongings, being careful not to damage the bodies. My heart ached with dread that I might find a familiar face, so I tried my best to avoid looking at their features.
I didn't even want to imagine if my father, who had left the village so long ago, would be found here, meaning I could never see him again.
Perhaps because it was near the summit, the number of corpses wasn't large, and their belongings were extremely sparse. It would have been natural for them to minimize their burdens to make an all-out sprint, rather than lingering with heavy loads in this ice-fog-ridden place.
After a long search, I found a few pieces of salted jerky. I removed the leather shoes from a corpse, tore the jerky into small pieces with my teeth, and put it inside the shoe.
Then, I filled the shoe with ice shards and carefully heated the leather shoe using the lava pool at the summit. A short while later, I looked inside the shoe and was surprised to find hot jerky soup.
It was the most disgusting-looking food I had ever seen, yet at the same time, it was the most precious nourishment. I briefly paid my respects to the corpse whose leather shoes I had taken, and slowly drank the contents.
"I'm sorry. And thank you."
I had put in so much snow that it tasted mostly like plain water, but my face crinkled as a faint salty and sour aftertaste lingered in my mouth.
*Slurp... slurp...*
Just a while ago, I was the one who had conquered the notorious "Devil's Fangs," but now, my appearance was indescribably pathetic. A thought crossed my mind: perhaps even behind the great achievements of heroes, told in books and rumors, lay such insignificant moments.
"That doesn't mean I'm a hero, though. No one wanted this but me."
Anyway, rummaging through a corpse's belongings again—I couldn't hide the guilty and unpleasant feeling. Still, if it was not out of greed but simply a desperate struggle to survive, to increase my chances of survival even a little, wouldn't this also be a worthwhile endeavor? There would be people who would grieve if I died... Haa...
"And you, who knows that, still abandoned all your ties and went to the Devil's Fangs?"
Could there be anyone more selfish and contradictory than me? A surge of hot tears welled up. The sin committed knowingly is heavier than the sin committed in ignorance.
"But I'll never regret it."