-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 18
Chapter Title: Friction
-----------------------------------------------------------------
For an Awakened One, their class and traits were everything.
In particular, the caliber of one's talent was determined by the rank of the class they obtained.
A 1-star class like [Blade]☆ was little different from an ordinary person.
Only with a 2-star class like [Swordsman]☆☆ could one be considered a true Awakened One.
There was a significant gap between those who could manifest even minor supernatural abilities—like physical enhancement, psychokinesis, or mystic eyes—and mere geniuses who were simply exceptional in their fields.
This was all the more true because higher-ranked Awakened Ones typically possessed far greater innate talent.
But that was a story for the lower ranks. From 3-star classes like [Aura Knight]☆☆☆ onward, it was a completely different world.
Aura, Aether, Internal Energy.
They were beings who had moved beyond simply using their given abilities, acquiring the talent to handle the very source of that power and train themselves.
That was a 3-star Awakened One.
A true superhuman, in name and in reality.
This was why those from 3-star and above were called high-rank Awakened, and why even nobles who failed to obtain a 3-star class were exiled from their families or disposed of.
The difference in level between a 1 or 2-star low-rank Awakened and a 3-star high-rank Awakened was just that vast.
And at this very moment…
The soldiers of Soma Castle…
No, to be precise, the soldiers of the Purgatorium were experiencing that immense gap with their own bodies.
*CRRRRASH!*
"Huk?!"
"Everyone, get back!"
"Stop them! If you let them pass… Guh!"
A violent gale swept through the surroundings, accompanied by a deafening roar.
Countless soldiers charged with spears and swords, their screams echoing in succession.
The scene was pure pandemonium, a gruesome sight that was hard to believe had been the bleak but quiet Purgatorium just moments before.
And at the center of this tragedy…
At the eye of the storm where soldiers were being swept away like dust, she stood.
Dressed in a neat maid uniform.
Trampling corpses with steel boots.
Clutching blood-soaked steel gauntlets.
—A dark elf maid, crushing soldiers like insects as she advanced.
"Raise your shields, form a wall!"
"Don't let her get close! Keep your distance and fire arrows… Aaargh!"
"An Awakened One! We need an Awakened One to fight her! Someone get the other Awakened… Gak!"
Forming a shield wall, firing arrows, thrusting with spears—the soldiers used every method they could to block her path, but it was useless.
Shields were shattered by her steel boots.
Arrows were deflected like lightning.
Those who charged were decapitated.
Among those who stood against her, there were even a few Awakened Ones with classes like [Soldier] or [Spearman], but the result was the same.
The only difference was that they managed to block or dodge one attack that would have instantly killed an ordinary soldier before dying themselves.
1-star, with no supernatural abilities.
2-star, with limited supernatural abilities.
3-star, who could freely wield supernatural powers.
The gulf between them was just that immense.
It was common sense in Odobaekryeong that a high-rank Awakened could only be faced by another high-rank Awakened.
Nevertheless, the men in this Purgatorium—criminals reborn as soldiers through black magic—did not retreat.
The concept of flight did not exist for them, and by throwing their lives away, they could at least momentarily bind Parsha's feet.
Of course, it was truly just for a moment, a fleeting time barely long enough to sip a few mouthfuls of tea…
But it was enough.
—Enough for those who had madly pursued Parsha to finally catch her.
"A i jEN, At!"
*Clang-clang-clang!*
The moment the eerie incantation echoed, chains of darkness shot out from all directions.
Just as Parsha swung her fist to repel the dark chains that absorbed life force on contact…
A flash of light pierced through her blind spot.
*CLAAANG!*
It happened in an instant.
Parsha spun, her steel-booted sole catching the sword.
A blue aura shimmered on her boot.
A murky black magic flowed along the sword.
The two fierce energies collided with a roar, creating a massive shockwave. Parsha slid back, digging one leg into the ground to anchor herself.
She narrowed her eyes at the black knight who had been pushed back in the opposite direction.
'A [Demon Knight]☆☆☆. A fitting class for a vassal of a demon-kin.'
Perhaps displeased at achieving only a stalemate despite his surprise attack, the black knight glared at her with cold eyes as his escort knights closed in from the left and right.
Taking advantage of the opening, the spirited soldiers re-formed the encirclement that had collapsed, while the [Black Mage] Silan stood behind them, his eyes burning.
Caught on all sides, Parsha clenched her steel gauntlets.
Two 3-star opponents.
Five 2-star quasi-knights.
A quick glance revealed over a dozen 1-stars.
And hundreds of regular soldiers.
With the only escape route, the drawbridge, already raised, even a high-rank Awakened would find it difficult not only to win but to even escape.
All the more so since Parsha was not alone.
"Hmm, they finally caught up."
"Are you alright, Young Master?"
"I'm fine. Worry about yourself first. Arsha is the one in the most danger right now."
Arsha's face was tense, an arrow nocked on her bowstring.
Dion stood nearby, his sword dripping with blood as he surveyed their surroundings.
With the two people she had to protect behind her, Parsha's gaze turned cold.
It was a difficult situation even if she were fighting alone. Could she really fight while protecting two others against such a large force, including high-rank Awakened?
Frankly, it was a feat she couldn't claim was possible, not even as a boast.
'—Impossibility exists to be challenged.'
*Creek.*
Steeling her resolve, Parsha hardened the aura shimmering on her gauntlets.
Just as she was about to attempt this impossible feat…
A voice stopped her.
"Parsha, that's not the way."
"…What are you suddenly talking about?"
"Risking your life doesn't make the impossible possible."
"Are you suggesting we surrender?"
"No, we can't do that."
If grit and willpower alone could solve everything, Odobaekryeong wouldn't be such a mess.
The boy spoke calmly, shaking his head at Parsha's sharp retort.
Then, with a flick…
He swung his sword to shake off the blood.
Lowering the blade at an angle, he said nonchalantly.
"So, cover our rear."
"…"
"—I'll open a path from here."
Even if she couldn't see a way out, he could.
Just follow me.
After offering a slight smile…
Dion shot forward like a bolt of lightning.
He headed in the opposite direction of the black knight and Silan, a completely unexpected path away from the one Parsha had been breaking through.
"Young Master? What reckless…!"
The moment she saw Dion charging headfirst toward the soldiers…
Arsha's ears perked up.
She knew from his fight with Jod that Dion was a competent Awakened One, but that had been a duel between low-rank Awakened.
Fighting a large number of trained and armed soldiers was another matter entirely.
Numbers were a form of violence, and facing a crowd was difficult no matter how talented one was.
That was why Awakened Ones of 3-star and above, who could overcome the limitations of numbers, were considered superhuman.
'I have to stop him…!?'
In that sense, Dion's act of charging a military formation alone was like an egg trying to break a rock.
Arsha hastily reached out to grab him.
Or rather, she tried to.
But in the next instant…
She had no choice but to stop her outstretched hand.
*Swish!*
"Huh?"
"Guh?!"
He dodges a spear.
He rolls on the ground.
He slashes an ankle.
He cuts the throat of a fallen soldier.
He uses a corpse as a shield to block a sword.
He pierces a heart through a gap in the armor under the arm.
The entire process wasn't so fast that it happened in the blink of an eye.
Instead, it was just so fluid, so relentlessly natural.
"What is this?!"
"Get a grip! It's just one person… Gak!"
Was it because they had only been wary of Parsha?
Or was it because the deaths happened so easily, as if in a choreographed play?
The soldiers, finally sensing the danger after several of their comrades had fallen, frantically attacked Dion, but…
*Swish!*
Nothing changed.
He created an opening by splashing blood in their eyes.
He thrust his sword under an arm.
They couldn't block his sword, which was so eerily exquisite and masterful.
If Parsha was a storm, Dion was a killing breeze.
He wasn't fast or destructive, but he was death itself, seeping through even the smallest crack in a door.
With various combat-oriented classes from [Murderer] to [Thug] and [Strongman], and a host of unique traits like [Combat Logic] and [Superhuman Strength]…
Above all, with the transcendent enhancement of [Star of Carnage] and the combat experience of the Calamity War, Dion had already become a being far beyond what mere soldiers could handle.
"You incompetent fools…! AKa La LRaoLA!"
Enraged by the sight of his soldiers failing to capture even the shame of the Unlight family, Silan began chanting to cast a spell on Dion.
…He would have succeeded, had a spear not flown at him first.
*Fwoosh!*
"Kuh?!"
"How dare a lowly elf-kin!"
"That reckless, no, completely insane fool happens to be my young master."
The black knight intervened like lightning, slashing the spear out of the air.
But the interruption broke his concentration, causing the spell he had just completed to crumble. As Silan gritted his teeth…
The dark elf maid who had thrown the spear spoke with a deadpan expression.
"As a maid and as a daughter, I cannot stand by and watch a scoundrel aim for someone's back so cowardly."
"Is that so…! If you're that eager to die, I'll kill you first!"
Silan gladly accepted Parsha's taunt, who declared that as long as she was there, he wouldn't be able to touch Arsha, or Dion for that matter.
From then on, the commotion in the Purgatorium, far from subsiding, only grew more chaotic.
Dion cut his way through the soldiers.
Parsha held off Silan and the black knight.
And Arsha provided cover for them both.
They were only three.
Their struggle, a series of tightrope walks that anyone could see was precarious, was almost like watching a circus performance.
It was when this fierce chase reached its limit…
That Dion arrived at a certain location.
"Arsha, an arrow!"
"Young Master, this place is…?"
"An arrow!"
"…Yes!"
It was on the opposite side of Soma Castle.
A hatch on the outermost edge of the Purgatorium.
Standing there, a dozen meters above the ground, Dion firmly tied a rope to the arrow Arsha gave him.
Then, without warning, he pulled Arsha into an embrace and threw himself out of the hatch.
"Young Master?!?!"
"Shoot. Up."
"…!!!"
*Thwang!*
A shocked Arsha reflexively fired the rope-tied arrow. As the arrowhead embedded itself in the Purgatorium wall, the rope went taut.
Holding Arsha, Dion slid down the rope.
Down.
Down.
Down.
…And so, when they finally reached the end of the rope…
"Young Master! Parsha, my daughter is still…!"
"Yeah, she's coming now."
"?"
*BOOM!*
"What are you dawdling for? Hurry up and run."
"…"
Was this what it was like for the meteorite that was said to have crashed from the heavens to the earth in the ancient kingdom era and remained intact?
For a moment, Arsha could only blink at the sight of her daughter, who had jumped down without even a rope and created a large crater, yet was completely unscathed.
The boy grabbed her hand, jolting her back to her senses. Arsha followed, and Parsha trailed behind them, deflecting arrows raining down from above.
Silan, now completely enraged, along with the black knight and the soldiers, hastily began to pursue them using ropes and ladders.
Outside the domain.
A place beyond the territory of civilized races.
One of the small passages that snaked like an ant tunnel between the massive walls surrounding not only the Purgatorium but Soma Castle itself.
A demonic den that had covered the world since the fall of the ancient kingdom, a cursed and demonic realm overflowing with corrupted magic.
—Towards the Labyrinth.