***
For the past few days, my mind had been endlessly troubled. Nothing felt right; everything was like a tangled skein of yarn. The words I had spat out when parting with Pre were lodged deep in my chest and wouldn't come out.
My cold words must have pierced him like sharp daggers, causing immense pain. Was he alone somewhere now, suffering through that pain? No, perhaps he was already a cold corpse on the Devil's Fangs, unable to even think.
A considerable amount of time had passed since I parted with him, but there was no news of him from anywhere.
Just then, as I gazed at the Devil's Fangs, always a familiar sight beyond my house window, an unprecedented scene caught my eye for the first time.
*Pzzzzzzzt!*
A fierce spectacle of lightning, as if covering the entire sky, unfolded. It undoubtedly originated from the Devil's Fangs, that mountain.
'That lightning isn't something Pre could do. And no one else would have set foot on the Devil's Fangs since then...'
A moment later, a massive explosion, clearly visible even from here, erupted near the halfway point of the mountain, and blue flames shot up.
"Pre..."
From the unprecedented series of strange phenomena, I vaguely guessed that Pre was still alive. Considering when Pre had started his climb and his hiking speed, enough time had passed for him to have reached the summit long ago.
I recalled past moments I had spent with him. His physical abilities were like those of any other ordinary person, nothing special. Once, when I had unthinkingly gripped his arm tightly, his skin had been so delicate that it yielded easily to just my grip.
Most people were frightened or recoiled from my strength. Even when I was young and couldn't control my strength, injuring myself all over, Pre was the only one who, while enduring his own pain, silently stayed by my side as an equal.
Father looked at me like that and said I was a chosen one. He said that dangerous places like the Devil's Fangs could only be conquered, overcoming all adversity and leaving behind great achievements, by someone with special talents like me.
With such a frail body, how much must you have pushed yourself to the limit and trained to surpass so many strong individuals and finally become superior to them? Imagining his unimaginable efforts, tears welled up in my eyes without me realizing it.
Early on, I had secretly attempted to climb the Devil's Fangs, intending to completely crush his goal. I tore apart Mutans with my bare hands, and as I finally passed the halfway point, violent negative emotions swirled around me like a storm.
Then suddenly, along with an immense cold.
'What on earth am I putting myself through right now?'
Overwhelmed by that thought, I had come straight down the mountain.
Then I went to his room and, one by one, deliberately and slowly broke Pre's slender fingers as he slept, making sure he felt the pain. I had even intended to crush his ankles so he could never climb that dangerous mountain again.
Despite that, Pre, without a care for his own broken fingers, approached me with genuine concern for my distorted state. Only then was I able to return to my senses.
Clearly, a curse that amplified and monstrously twisted people's minds towards evil resided on that mountain.
"Pre is much greater than me."
*Grin-*
*Knock! Knock! Knock!*
At the sudden sound, I turned my head. A cautious knocking sound came from the closed door behind me.
"Lea, Dad made some porridge. Could you open the door, perhaps? You haven't eaten anything at all."
"Yes."
"No, if you don't want to... Alright, I understand. I'll leave it in front of the door, so I hope you'll eat at least a little."
"I said I'll open the door."
I hurriedly ran and opened the door wide before Dad could turn away.
***
As I swung the sword wide horizontally, blue flames erupted in a crescent shape where the flash had passed, flying towards the Mutans blocking my path.
*Whoosh!*
The sharp flames struck true, burrowing into the Mutans' bodies. The flesh and hide they touched instantly burned, crumbled, and melted away.
*Fwoooooosh!*
This time, I dug the sword deep into the ground, then forcefully flicked it upwards. From beneath the earth, a blue aura erupted in an elliptical glow, violently surging forward at a furious speed. The moment it reached the Mutans' feet, a massive explosion occurred, instantly turning the area into a sea of fire.
*Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Ba-thoom! Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, sizzle…*
Earlier, a question had suddenly occurred to me regarding the fact that this magic sword prevented the wielder's temperature from changing.
'Surely, the function of this magic sword isn't just limited to simple temperature regulation. A magic sword is ultimately a sword; its essential purpose is to cut and wound enemies. If so, this temperature protection function might be a byproduct of its offensive capabilities, or perhaps a safety mechanism for the user.'
Thinking this, I examined the sword more closely, carefully fiddling with the handle. Then, when I inadvertently gripped the handle with both hands and applied pressure as if compressing it – my upper hand pushing down and my lower hand pushing up – a surprising change occurred.
*Click!*
With a faint sound, the sword, which had been emitting a soft blue light, began to blaze with intense blue flames.
I instinctively knew that these flames would be enough to break through the horde of Mutans. After that, I descended the mountain path, continuously breaking through the encirclement of relentlessly attacking Mutans with the blue flames.
Raising the sword high above my head, I brought it down vertically without hesitation. In that instant, the world unfolding before my eyes was cleanly bisected by blue flames.
Could it be that I had already fought dozens of battles? As I swung the sword ceaselessly, I felt the deep blue color of the greatsword gradually fading towards red.
With the sword's energy potentially running out soon, I couldn't keep fighting the Mutans indefinitely.
Moreover, every time I swung the greatsword, the extreme strain on my already battered body made my muscles scream, and due to the tension I hadn't released since the moment I first climbed the mountain, my head was overloaded, and a piercing pain like needles stabbed me with every violent beat of my heart.
Now, I really had to make a final gamble.
'Should I try to cause a landslide or something?'
With the power of this sword, I briefly thought it might not be impossible.
'No, I can't. It could endanger the village.'
This was the final hurdle, and if I just overcame this, it would be over. Yet, at this last moment, a foreboding feeling crept in, as if everything was somehow going awry.
*Chiiiiiiiiik... sizzle sizzle sizzle...*
Just then, the flames still smoldering on the ground beneath my feet caught my eye. My eyes widened as if I had made a tremendous discovery, and a faint smile played on my lips.
"I don't know if the sword will last until I get down the mountain, but I have to try!"
I raised the sword high above my head, just as before. Then, as if striking the ground with a pickaxe, I brought it down with all my might.
Fierce flames instantly shot out far ahead, but not even the shadow of a Mutans was visible at their end. Without hesitation, I leaped into the hot flames I had created.
In that instant, an intense fear washed over my entire body. The crackling sound of the flames tickled my ears, and my vision was filled entirely with red flames, making me feel as if I had been thrown into the middle of hell.
But surprisingly, the flames didn't harm me in the slightest. A transparent film, glowing faintly, seemed to cover my skin.
"You really have to use your head."
Mutans, after all, were living creatures; they would have an instinctive fear of fire. Unless their own young were burning, they wouldn't willingly jump into hot flames just to eat. Continuously striking down with the sword, I advanced fearlessly, with those raging flames leading the way.
*KABOOM!! KABOOM!! KABOOM!! FWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!*
***
A heavy silence, instead of its usual vibrancy, hung over the small tavern in the village of
"In the end, another one is gone..."
It was because a pure and kind person, who always smiled brightly even in difficult times, someone whose happiness everyone had earnestly wished for, had finally departed on a path from which he could not return.
Breaking the silence that filled the tavern, a customer roughly slammed an empty bottle down on the table with a *thud*. He shot up from his seat and violently grabbed another customer sitting at the next table by the collar.
"You said you saw him! You saw Pre climbing the Devil's Fangs! Then you should have followed him and stopped him! It's safe up to the foot of the mountain!"
The person who had been suddenly grabbed by the collar looked dumbfounded.
"How could I catch up to him when he was seriously climbing! If I had that kind of skill, I would have gone to the Devil's Fangs myself!"
The person who had grabbed his collar opened his mouth wide and nodded, as if agreeing with his words.
In that moment, the air inside the tavern began to tremble subtly.
"What's this? The glass is shaking?"
A person who had been blankly staring at the liquor in his glass in a quiet corner muttered.
"Look at this, the glass is shaking!"
Inside the clear glass, small concentric ripples were forming, as if a water droplet had fallen. Soon, a faint vibration and a strange sound came from the direction of the Devil's Fangs, and people, one by one, got up from their seats and rushed out of the tavern.
*KABOOM!*
When the villagers reached the foot of the Devil's Fangs, a single man stood firmly there. He had a gruesome, enormous black sword plunged deep into the ground. The earth around the sword was cracked like a spiderweb, and red flames intermittently flickered from the crevices.
*Fwoosh!*
The man stood there, motionless, with his eyes closed. His appearance resembled the shadow of a hero who had vanquished a heinous demon from hell and was now resting majestically in the solitude left behind.
But at the same time, his face held a deep satisfaction, like a farmer on an autumn day who had harvested all his crops, though he was exhausted. Perhaps because of this, his appearance didn't seem evil or threatening at all.
"Huh? Isn't that Pre!?"
A surprised villager exclaimed in a trembling voice.
"That's Pre? You're right! There's no mistake!!"
"Seeing him back alive, did he turn back without even crossing the halfway point?"
"Is that the look of someone who couldn't even pass the halfway point? He's completely wrecked. What a disappointment."
It stemmed from the villagers' fixed notion that it was impossible to cross the mountainside and return alive.
"Anyway, he looks badly hurt, let's move him quickly!"
As the villagers cautiously approached, Pre rested a hand weakly on the sword, barely managing to gasp for breath. His lips were parched, and his entire body was stained with blood.
"That greatsword... could it be... treasure?"