It had been a long time before Franco, the Sacred Knight, arrived,but at last… he came.And worry had devoured his heart the entire way.
He stopped at the edge of the ruined hall,stepped slowly through the ash that blanketed everything,his ashen eyes searching for any trace that might answer his questions.
Every stone…every shard of iron…told the story of a battle unlike any battle humans had ever known.
Then… he saw her.
In the midst of the wreckage…Mary's corpse was still there.It had not decomposed…but it remained charred,motionless,surrounded by a stillness heavier than death itself.
Franco approached with heavy steps,and knelt before her,reached out his trembling hand and touched her cold hand,struggling not to collapse.
Franco (in a hoarse voice):
"…You always said you'd outlast us all… that you'd never let anything break you…"
A moment passed,then he clasped her hand tightly,tears gathering in his eyes.
Franco:
"…You know…? I'm a fool… I never believed you might fall one day…""…We were children… fighting over who would become a knight first… who could have imagined the end would be like this…?"
He bowed his head,feeling the weight of memories pressing on his chest until it almost crushed him.
Franco (whispering):
"…Forgive me… if I had arrived before this…""…If I'd been here… maybe… maybe…"
He didn't finish.His entire posture sagged,and finally, his tears poured out,washing away something of the darkness of that day.
Then he slowly lifted his head,and his gaze had changed…there was a sharp glint shining in his eyes.
Franco (in a low, determined voice):
"…But I swear… Mary… I swear on what remains of my honor…""…I will hunt down whoever did this to you… wherever they flee…""…I will make them regret… the day they thought they could crush you…"
He passed his hand gently over her forehead one last time,then stood upright,wearing his old resolve like his armor.
He knew…that the coming battle would not be for justice alone…but for their friendship, of which only memories remained.
He stepped back,and cast one last look at her body—a look of farewell,and of a promise…
Then he turned,and left the square…toward the beginning of a revenge from which there was no return.
In the raid reports Niel reviewed before he set out, there was a small warning in the margin, barely visible among the numbers and other alerts:
"The creature known as (The Poisoned Shadow), Threat Rank: A.Behavior: Extremely aggressive.Special Ability: Emits anaerobic toxins that dissolve tissue and penetrate magical defenses.It is advised not to engage alone."
But Niel was not the sort to heed anyone's advice.He had always told himself:"If you want to see the summit of hell… go in alone."
Hours before the battle, he stood at the edge of the dark valley, where the wind carried a choking metallic smell, closer to the rust of ancient blood.Despite the darkness, there was an aura pulsing in the depths…an inhuman awareness, heavy as if the soul of an ancient prison was watching him.
Inside, he felt a strange throb.Not exactly fear…but a longing for a trial unlike any he had faced.
He had slain monsters before.He had faced creatures screaming out of shadows, cursing life itself.But something about this being made him realize instantly:"This will not be a hunt… it will be a war."
In the moments of silence before he entered, he remembered the words of his old friend describing this creature:
"It doesn't just kill you with savagery… but slowly.It steals you drop by drop… tests your will and your nerves.Everyone who faced it came back whispering: (If I'd had one more second… maybe I would have survived.)"
Niel gripped the hilt of his sword.The air was stinging his skin even before he saw the creature.The echo of its breathing in that dark abyss sounded like a funeral dirge preceding its own birth.
He raised his head toward the shadowed void where red eyes were waiting.He smiled coldly:
"No problem… whether your rank is S or A or even a deeper hell… I still want to see you."
He took his first step into the abyss.For a moment, he felt the ground melting beneath his feet from the weight of that aura.
Thus began the encounter…an encounter where Niel didn't just want to survive.He wanted to return with a story worth dying for, if need be.
Niel's breaths were heavy, sweat mixing with blood on his cheek as he stared at the grotesque black mass before him.It wasn't just a giant beast… but a blend of decaying flesh and natural armor encasing its body like a hard shell, under which something poisonous pulsed.
He raised his sword with difficulty, trying to steady his thoughts as the creature crept slowly toward him, each step leaving a viscous mark on the rocks.
Why did I choose this raid?The question slipped into his mind, and for a moment he felt his body refusing to obey.This wasn't like any prior hunt… it was a mistake he might not survive.
But amid this fear… a spark of exhilaration flashed.He had lived to know this feeling exactly—to stand on the brink of the end and test his limits.
He crouched slightly, studying how the creature's limbs moved.The armor fully covered the belly… but the joints seemed slower when striking.And the black fluid… it was poison. If it touched him even once, it would all be over.
He was no longer thinking of escape.Instead, he began to slow his breathing, his eyes tracking the arm rising gradually, calculating the next blow's angle precisely.
If it hit me… I won't get up again.
The creature advanced another step.In that moment, a strange sensation freed itself in Niel's chest: a blend of dread and deadly calm.He felt as if his heart had become stone—without fear or hope, only absolute vigilance.
He slowly raised his left hand, as though preparing for some private rite, before he whispered in a nearly inaudible voice:
Drain… Stance.
When he spoke the word in his mind, he felt as if he had torn a veil between himself and something deeper than his own energy.This was not the power that usually ran in his bones… it wasn't like his familiar magic, nor the speed he took pride in.It was like a fast-moving disease… hungry.A sickness devouring him from within in exchange for granting him a speed that almost denied his existence.
His heartbeat?No longer pulses.They were more like painful explosions in his chest, each one stealing a gasp and leaving his lungs shriveled.
His bones?A heavy sensation like a fever… or as if some invisible thing were sinking cold teeth into his marrow.
"Haah…" he gasped, breaths ragged.Cold sweat drenched his temple, trickling onto his chin, mingling with the smell of blood and smoke.
Every second he spent in this stance… ripped away a piece of his future ability to stand.
And yet, amid the pain… amid the sense that his limbs would obey only under threat of his will… he felt something strange.Calm.A searing clarity.As though for the first time, he no longer heard his body's screaming… only his own inner voice:
If I don't finish this now… I will be the one who ends.
He opened his eyes…Everything around him appeared slow.Even the stench of decay and poison emanating from the creature hung fixed in the air like a painting.The lines of weakness on its deformed body stood clear before him as if instructions written in red ink.
He gripped his sword with all the life left in him.He felt the bones of his hand cracking beneath the glove… but he didn't care.This moment alone was all he possessed.
Suddenly, the distance between them shrank.He didn't know how many steps he took, or how many heartbeats this stance stole from his life.All he felt…was that the creature was close enough to end everything with a single blow.
And in the moment he moved…he no longer felt his feet on the ground.He no longer distinguished between old pain and new pain.It was all one pain…a pain fit for an ending.
Then…he attacked.His movement was silent.No footstep was heard, nor did his sword make the sound of slicing air.The only sound accompanying his rush…was the creature's gasp.A strange, slack gasp, as if a throat drenched in poison was discovering fear for the first time.
In the next moment, Niel felt his blade touch a revolting surface…the creature's skin felt like swollen flesh pulsing with toxic spurts, moving as if it breathed on its own.Despite his revulsion, he drove all his strength—all that remained in his body—into that weakness he'd spotted seconds before.
The tearing sound… was not normal.It was like the sound of something living vomiting out its own guts, mixed with jets of green vapor and the cracking of brittle bones.The poison erupted into the air.Some of it clung to Niel's exposed neck, and he felt his skin burn.But there was no time to pull back.
His eyes… did not blink.He watched the blade wedge itself between the vertebrae, felt the violent shudder in his spine as it pierced the bone.A choking sense crept into his chest…that if he stopped now, if he slowed for a moment, everything would become hell against him.
So he screamed.A scream from the depths of his lungs, pouring out all the awareness and strength left to him.As if the scream itself were a final driving force, he pressed harder on the hilt, until he heard the last crack:
The creature's spine broke.
In that moment, he felt something burst beneath his hands.It wasn't ordinary blood…but jets of black, corrosive liquid spraying around him, cloaking the space in suffocating smoke.
He staggered backward, the blaze of "Drain Stance" extinguished.His knees trembled under his weight.His vision blurred for an instant behind the smoke.Then…the beast fell.
The echo of its collapse reverberated in the emptiness like a mountain suddenly caving in.
Niel remained standing… barely.His breaths were cutting his chest like knives.The heat of the toxin on his skin was slowly roasting his nerves.
But he… smiled.
A small, pale smile… but an honest one.
"This… was worth it…"
He rested his sword in the ground so his body wouldn't collapse atop the creature's corpse.Niel could hardly believe he had killed a Rank A monster.But soon—
Niel thought everything was over.He thought the fall of that huge body was the end…but the void did not return to stillness.On the contrary…a faint resonance began to sound.A resonance like a laugh… muffled… soaked in filth.
Niel's face went pale immediately.He slowly opened his eyes.Through the haze and blood… he saw the shredded corpse trembling.
First…its limbs shook as though waking from a deep slumber.Then the head, bent at an impossible angle…rose upright, eyeless.New fissures opened on its sides, gleaming with burning yellow cores.
Niel whispered in a trembling voice, half stunned and half contemptuous:
"Impossible…"
But the creature was no longer itself.Its split skin became like a dead husk decaying away, and from within emerged black tissue writhing like a mass of leeches.Then… its chest slowly ruptured, exhaling colored vapor.
Niel tried to step back, but his leg betrayed him.His breaths came in ragged gasps, his chest scorched from the drain.
In the next moment…that toxic vapor lunged at him like a silent snake.He couldn't close his mouth in time…nor could he fully deflect it.
He inhaled the poison.
He felt it as if a transparent flame slipped down his throat, descended into his chest, then slowly spread through his veins.He tried to curse, but his voice came out strangled.He clutched his neck, feeling his heartbeats blazing like fire.
Meanwhile… the creature rose fully.Its body expanded, as if it had gained new mass.Its black fissures grew wider, the yellow light inside blazing until it lit the room.
It no longer resembled any earthly being…it was like a living nightmare, shapeless, belonging to no known species.
Niel twitched.He braced his hand against the ground, trying to lift himself, but his arm shook violently.He felt, literally, his blood thickening…gradually freezing…turning into a sluggish pus.
He closed his eyes for a second.Tried to anchor his awareness to a single thought:No time for regret.
And when he opened his eyes…the creature was already crawling toward him.
But he smiled a sick, pale smile, all defiance.
"So… a second round…"
Niel felt his chest tearing from within.Every breath he drew was pure poison…every heartbeat drove the toxin deeper into his arteries.
But he was not ready to die yet.
He clenched his fist in the blood-soaked dirt.Lifted his head, eyes glinting with blind hatred, and began mustering the last scraps of his exhausted will.He whispered slowly, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth:
"Remember… Exercise fifteen… Partial toxin dismantling…"
He recalled his old mentor describing a technique almost legendary:"If you understand the toxin's structure… you can isolate part of it temporarily. You won't remove it all… but you'll gain minutes to fight."
He reached his trembling hand to his chest.Closed his eyes.And released a faint pulse of magic energy—not offensive energy.Analytical energy.
In his veins, he felt cold threads separate from the warmth of his blood.The same threads causing this agony.
He found them.
He focused all his will on a single point in his chest, where the threads converged.His mind screamed from the pain, his body convulsed as though countless blades were shredding his heart.But his hand did not tremble.
He whispered:
"Drain… partial…"
Slowly, unbearably slowly, his energy began to draw those cold threads from his blood toward his palm.He felt as though he were tearing out the strings of his own life.
Seconds…Seconds longer than hours…until in his palm formed a small ball of toxic mist, swirling slowly as if it were a dark heart.
But it wasn't enough.
Much of the poison remained inside him.But he felt his chest a little less suffocated…his eyes regained some clarity…his heart, despite the pain, resumed its familiar rhythm.
He opened his eyes with difficulty, staring at the creature crawling toward him.
He smiled a broken smile, soaked in blood and madness:
"Not… enough… to kill me… yet."
Then he clutched the ball of toxin in his bare hand and buried it in the ground so he wouldn't inhale it again.He tried to stand.His legs were heavy as lead, his chest aflame, but his mind was clear for a brief moment.
Just one minute…One minute to recover his appetite for fighting.
He reached for his sword buried in blood, his fingers trembling as they touched its hilt.
"…One minute… is all I need…"