The blades aimed for the neck, heart, face, and solar plexus.
Every single spot on the body that could be called a vital point.
Confronted by the immense, singular resolve intent solely on killing him, Silgrim smiled broadly.
—Yes! This was the exact expression I wanted to see!
The sight of the man who had always looked down upon him now mentally shaken.
This brought Silgrim an unspeakable pleasure.
—However, it is still too early to despair.
As Silgrim made a slight hand gesture, Magiro’s corpse stepped in front of him as if to block and defend him.
Next, his ten fingers, which had been dangling limply, spread wide open.
Wuuuung!
Dozens of lines were drawn across the dawn night sky.
Lines that were all identical in length, thickness, and even the intervals between them.
One after another, they struck the sides of the flying blades.
Kagagak!
The trajectories of the blades twisted.
Colliding with each other, the blades plunged into the innocent ground, tearing long furrows into the surrounding earth.
“.......”
Oscar bit his lip so hard it bled.
That thin wind lacked the power to meet his blades head-on.
Therefore, it had twisted the balance of the blades, inducing them to clash against one another.
A magical control so precise it could only be described as dreadful.
The magic that had once protected him, that had felt so utterly dependable, was now blocking his path.
[Ayy, Tower Master. Even so, when it comes to magic control alone, I’m superior. Eh? What’s with that look?]
Magiro’s voice shimmered in his ears.
Immediately after, Kwaduk!
He saw Radan’s massive frame kick off the ground.
His head understood.
That he had to avoid this spot or counterattack right this instant.
“.......”
They were no longer the people he remembered.
Merely dolls stitched together from the flesh and souls Silgrim had gathered.
He knew.
He knew, but.......
‘Damn it.’
His body felt several times heavier than usual.
Hwaaak!
In the end, scarcely had a palm the size of an iron pot lid blotted out his vision—
Kwang!
Radan slammed the back of his head into the black earth.
“.......”
It hurt.
It hurt so much that tears threatened to burst forth at any second.
—All of this is your fault.
Silgrim spoke.
—Their only sin was following you. They believed they could survive, and that even if they died, there would be meaning to that death, but.......
“.......”
—That belief was wrong.
Kkuguguk!
Radan’s fingers gripped Oscar’s face even tighter.
That agony felt like a punishment Radan was inflicting upon him.
“......Stop.”
He did not know himself to whom he was speaking.
Whether it was to Silgrim, or to Radan.
Or if not even them, to the memories that kept surfacing.
Jureureuk.
A hot droplet of water flowed between Radan’s thick fingers.
“.......”
Kwaduk!
Oscar seized Radan’s thick wrist.
If he only severed this, he could escape the spot.
Just a single wrist would be enough.
Considering the necks he had cut so far, this was truly nothing.
“.......”
Yet the thick stitches circling the wrist entered his sight.
The marks where flesh had been forced together and bound tight.
Beneath that, a patch of flesh entirely different in color from the skin he once knew was joined.
It was already ruined this much.
Ruin it further here?
And with his own hands?
—Why do you stop?
Silgrim asked.
—Cut it. Then you will be able to escape, will you not.
Kkadeuk!
Oscar ground his teeth as if to crush them.
Simultaneously, Radan’s empty hand moved.
[Oscar, get up.]
Radan’s hand, which had always pulled him to his feet whenever sparring ended.
That hand was now rocketing forward to blow his head apart.
“Kugh!”
Narrowly dodging by turning his head, Oscar pulled the thread of space.
Watching him slip away from the spot through Blink, Silgrim laughed.
—What, can you not bring yourself to attack with your own hands?
“......Shut up.”
—Then there is nothing more to see.
Silgrim waved his hand lightly, like the conductor of an orchestra.
—Kill him. Tear into him. Your former master.
The instant the command fell, 153 corpses lunged toward him.
“.......”
With sorrowful eyes, Oscar scanned his surroundings.
No matter where he looked in all directions, only yearning, familiar movements filled his vision.
“That......!”
Watching the battlefield from atop the ramparts, Maxim furrowed his brows.
Despite the long distance, he could recognize them at a glance.
Radan and Magiro.
Because those two were figures whom anyone of an age comparable to a White Tower Elder could not fail to know.
“Those dog-like bastards!”
The moment Maxim spat out a curse and moved to leap from the wall, the Mad Fiend grabbed his shoulder.
“Grrrrrr!”
“Let go! Can’t you see that!?”
Maxim shook off that grip and bellowed.
“No, he stopped you well. What would change if you recklessly plunged in alone? Besides, look.”
Snatching a torch hanging from the wall, Gerud dropped it below the ramparts.
Thereupon, thousands of corpses submerged in the darkness briefly came into view.
“Are you saying you will pierce through this army alone to reach that place?”
“Then, are you telling me to just stand by and watch Oscar die?”
“That is not what I mean. Do you realize that, realistically, it is an impossible operation?”
Maxim answered shortly.
“Rest assured. My objective is not the subjugation of that monster, but the rescue of Oscar.”
“Words come easily. Will that side let you go submissively?”
“Grrrrrr!”
At that moment, the Mad Fiend thumped his chest with a thud, thud, as if telling them not to forget him as well.
Staring intently at him, Maxim nodded.
“With two Level 7s, we’ll manage somehow.”
Currently surrounded by the corpses, Oscar was hard-pressed just defending.
With his hands clasped behind his back, Silgrim’s entire face was filled with a smile as he watched him.
“......Fortunately, that bastard is enjoying this situation right now. Seeing as he has no interest in us, that is.”
“You intend to aim for that opening?”
“I will use the sky.”
Maxim pointed to the sky with his fingertip.
“It is still before dawn, so the sky is dark. If we fly through Flight and then suddenly plummet from the sky, even an 8th-level will be a bit slow to react.”
“......Tsk.”
Scratching his head roughly, Gerud opened his mouth.
“I am the person responsible for the safety of Pervache. I cannot open the castle gates, but I can descend to the plains with the knights and stall for time, if only for a brief while.”
“......Thank you.”
“Ten minutes. The time I can buy is ten minutes at best. Naturally, if we crumble before that, we will pull back immediately.”
“That is plenty. I will not forget this grace.”
As Gerud left to make preparations, Maxim instructed the Mad Fiend on the detailed plan.
“Hey, are you listening?”
“Grrr?”
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
“......Can you not speak at all?”
“Awoo!”
He had thought the man was simply taciturn, but communication was not working in the slightest.
Scratching his temples vigorously, Maxim explained concisely.
“I will drop first to draw that bastard’s attention, so you remember just one thing.”
“.......”
“The moment you secure Oscar, return immediately. Understood?”
Soon, the Mad Fiend pointed his finger at Oscar.
Then, with an empty hand, he mimed clenching something tightly and pulling it toward himself.
“Right! Bringing him back. Safely.”
Maxim nodded.
“Never try to fight, and do not look back. Even if I fall into danger. Understood?”
“Grrr.”
Whether he understood or not.
He was not certain, but for now, he had no choice but to trust him.
“First Knight Order, follow me!”
Having finished his preparations, Gerud leaped right over the ramparts.
Kwoong! Clang!
Along with the clashing sound of armor, he raised his sword high and shouted.
“From this moment on, sever every corpse in sight! Execute!”
“Execute!”
The well-trained knights of Pervache cleaved through the corpses the moment they came into sight.
Next, Maxim, making eye contact with Gerud, gave a nod.
“Excuse me for a moment.”
Kwaduk!
Wrapping his arm around the Mad Fiend’s flank, Maxim kicked off the ramparts and soared into the air.
Even as their altitude climbed, his mask remained pointed continuously in the same direction.
Directly toward where Oscar was.
More precisely, toward the two corpses pressing him hard.
“.......”
The Mad Fiend carefully clutched his own chest.
It was strange.
His chest had felt stifled for a while now.
To be precise, it had been like this ever since those two corpses appeared.
The feeling that he ought to rush over there this instant, yet at the same time hated the thought of actually facing them.
“Grrrr.......”
He could not tell why that was.
Just that every time they moved.
A sound kept scratching at something inside his head.
“Entering.”
Hwoooong!
Arriving above the operational area in an instant, Maxim looked down and picked the opportune moment.
Just then, Kwaaaaaang!
A massive explosion rang out from the direction of the ramparts, and the moment Silgrim’s head turned—
‘Now!’
Maxim spun his body midair.
Then, stepping with all his might upon a foothold crafted of wind, he shot toward the ground.
Thump!
Landing on the ground in an instant, Maxim released the Mad Fiend and scattered his mana at the same time.
—Hm?
“World Liberation.”
With Maxim at the center, a wind carrying sweltering heat descended upon the black earth.
“Last Standing.”
Hwareureuk!
The dawn moisture remaining on the ground evaporated in an instant, and slender fissures spread across the black earth.
There were no sparks, no flames.
Yet with every breath inhaled, a scorching breath that felt like it would melt the lungs seeped in.
—......A world of hot wind, is it.
Silgrim looked down at the back of his hand.
In that brief span of time, his skin was flushing red.
—You have a nasty hobby.
Naturally, Maxim’s condition was not intact either.
Because his skin had already turned red as well.
Sweat beaded across his entire body, and before that sweat could even evaporate, fresh sweat welled up anew.
“Are demons rather good at enduring the heat?”
—......Relying on a petty trick, you have dared to intervene.
“Judging by the way you talk, it seems you can still bear it.”
Maxim bared his teeth and smiled.
“What a relief. As it happens, it’s about time for things to get a little hotter.”
Kwaaaaaa!
The hot wind circling in a vortex grew even fiercer.
With heat that had failed to escape piling up in layers, the scenery between the two men distorted like a heat haze.
When Silgrim extended his hand, black demonic energy pushed back the rushing wind.
“If it were a world that could be defended against with something like that, I wouldn’t have created it in the first place.”
—Insolent.
Silgrim’s four eyes narrowed.
Because the moment he raised his demonic energy, the perceived heat instantly surged several times over.
Hwareuk!
Simultaneously, the corpses began to be rapidly consumed.
‘Could it be...... my body cannot withstand this heat and is dying?’
He was dying once per second, sometimes even twice.
In contrast, Maxim loosened his body with a relaxed expression.
“What matters is patience, and perseverance.”
—Indeed.
Silgrim nodded.
It was because, brief though the time had been, he had grasped the structure of this world.
‘If one raises mana or demonic energy, the heat rises as well.’
Perhaps that criterion applied differently to each individual.
As proof, his opponent, who had not raised his mana, was wearing the exact same expression as at the beginning.
—In that case.
Hwaaaaak!
Explosive demonic energy poured forth from Silgrim’s entire body.
Simultaneously, the number of deaths per second increased to twenty.
—The compatibility with me is the worst. Do you perhaps not know the effect of All Things Return to the Master?
“I know.”
Maxim glanced backward.
He already knew that the headcount of those corpses was the opponent’s lives.
‘But in any case.......’
Just as he had said before beginning, his objective was not to kill the monster before his eyes.
If it was confirmed that Oscar had safely escaped, he intended to flee without even looking back.
In any case, the authority to unilaterally cancel the World Liberation also lay with him.
‘By now, he should be far away...... hm?’
A masked man entered Maxim’s sight.
The Level 7 man Oscar had brought along, calling him an acquaintance.
Even now, he was standing blankly at the landing point.
‘Is that crazy bastard?’
The composure vanished from Maxim’s face.
He had liberated his world believing that the man would swiftly take Oscar away.
However, if time was dragged out like this, Oscar, who was using mana for defense, would also have to endure the heat.
“Hey! What are you doing! Hurry up, take Oscar, and return to the fortress!”
Even at the sharp voice, the Mad Fiend did not so much as turn his head.
His gaze was nailed to the corpse of massive build that was pressing Oscar hard.
“.......”
The Mad Fiend did not know that man’s name.
Yet he knew who he was.
Was that why?
Looking at him continuously made his head throb.
Kkagak! Kkagagak!
“Grrrrrrk!”
Inside his head, a noise rang out as if a sharp blade were scraping against his skull.
Even so, he could not tear his eyes away.
No, only the conviction that he must never take his eyes off tormented the Mad Fiend.
“Khuk!”
Using Wind Shield, Oscar deftly deflected Radan’s fierce assault.
Yet scarcely had he done so before Magiro’s attacks poured in from all sides without granting even a moment of respite.
“Cough!”
In the end, allowing a wound to his flank, Oscar rolled across the black earth.
Having used mana, his throat burned dry under the influence of Maxim’s World Liberation.
“.......”
The Mad Fiend watched that entire spectacle.
Kwang!
Kicking off the ground, Radan’s massive frame shot forward.
He did not plant his foot yet from there.
Leaning his body forward a bit more.
The moment the wind gently pushed his back.......
Hwoong!
Riding a whirlwind, Radan’s leaning bulk spun around, then sprang forward with vastly accelerated speed.
That posture was identical to what had just come to mind.
How did he know this?
Kkagagagak!
As he tried to recall the memory, the noise inside his head grew progressively worse.
In agony, his hand clutching the mask tightened with full force.
Even amidst that, his two eyes tenaciously pursued Radan.
The position where he planted his foot, the angle at which he tilted his shoulder, even that movement riding the wind.
He had seen that movement once before.
From very close by, again and again, time and time again.
[Haha! Have you fallen again?]
Along with a hearty laugh, the sensation of a hand as large as an iron pot lid stroking his head came to mind.
Simultaneously, the Mad Fiend’s two eyes widened.
[Watch this movement carefully, Gilli.]
Kkagak! Kkagagak!
At that moment, the sound that had been frantically scraping inside his head ceased like a lie.
[Then one day, you will be able to become faster than lightning.]

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