149 – Abyss – 4

“He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.”

These were the words left by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche in his book, ‘Beyond Good and Evil.’

Gi-jun had jokingly quoted Nietzsche’s famous words regarding Krat van Helsing’s ability and admired his mental strength—but to think that the exact same thing was happening between the opposing factions of light and darkness on the Leta continent.

It was simply mind-boggling to recall that, while knowing nothing until just a moment ago, he had uttered the phrase ‘Abyss Immunity’ himself.

What must Biche have thought when she learned about Gi-jun’s unique skill?

Even if she was smiling on the outside, there was no way she felt only pure joy.

“…….”

Meanwhile, Patum, who had learned the truth, said nothing for a short while.

Gi-jun fully understood his heart.

Although the period they had known each other was short, he knew very well how much pride he took in his position as a hero.

Yet, the result of him bravely defeating them while fighting against the faction of darkness all this time was that he would ultimately fall into darkness himself.

It was as if――.

“Do those who govern Leta―― does the system, want the confrontation between the factions of light and darkness to never end?”

“……Probably, yes.”

Biche quietly nodded her head at the words Gi-jun mumbled.

“I have a rough idea of the reason as well…… but I think it would be better not to talk about it right now.”

“Ha.”

Tilla, who had approached near Gi-jun before he knew it, let out a hollow sigh.

“I’ve grown used to being swayed by the will of the gods ever since crossing over to the Leta continent—but I’m really sick of it now.”

“Tilla……”

When Gi-jun heard her voice and raised his head, he saw that the other party members besides her had also gathered here.

They had probably chased after him in a hurry upon seeing the evil dragon emit an unusual energy as it fell and Gi-jun charging toward it.

They must not have imagined that they would suddenly hear the secrets of the continent in this manner, even if they had prepared themselves for a final battle at the risk of their lives, and the fact that everyone was wearing extremely awkward expressions was actually a little funny despite the situation.

“I…… I did not even expect to destroy all darkness with my own hands.”

Patum muttered in a trembling voice.

The gray energy that still faintly remained and hovered around him was burned away by the golden aura he desperately summoned.

“I thought it would be enough if my efforts could only bring a meaningful change to this continent. If the will of the hero could be passed down from me to the next generation, and then to the generation after that, so that they could destroy the darkness one day―― that is what I had thought.”

To think that it was no different from a squirrel running on a wheel.

To think that he, who had resolved to protect the light, was actually nothing more than a turning cog in the system designed to maintain the confrontation between the two forces.

“Kukuku……”

Although he had appeared while striking terror into everyone, he was now crawling on the floor in a dying state.

Nevertheless, the evil dragon sneered at him with a voice still filled with thick poison and curses.

“Destroy the darkness? Darkness does not disappear. They! They do not want it! The gods you serve! Those who are desperate to maintain the system, never!”

At that moment, Gi-jun made a decision.

He poured all of his mana and spiritual power, which had recovered to some extent after a brief rest, into his shield, then raised it high and aimed at the evil dragon’s half-severed neck.

“Let’s kill this guy first and talk about the rest.”

“Wait! If you kill him――.”

“You saw earlier, I am fine.”

Patum instinctively tried to stop him, but Gi-jun did not stop.

Although he did not like showing off his ability in front of him, he was sure that Patum was also just temporarily deranged right now and must have already realized it after seeing Gi-jun’s ability once.

This was because he was certain that dragging this out any longer would only have a bad influence on Patum.

“You too! You too will eventually come to this side! It does not end! Back to the beginning, and then you too――!”

―Crunch!

The Silver Moon of Contradiction, which was infused with the silver moon and became a blood-red shining fang—literally the Moonlight Blood Fangs—embedded itself deeply into the guy’s body, exploding with flames and light.

A formidable enemy that had sacrificed the soul and body of the Lord of Thorns along with the Holy Relic, appearing with an Epic-grade power that they could have originally never aspired to face.

However, due to the intrusion of Biche, who had received approval from the system, its status was instantly cut down to less than half.

It was the moment when the beast finally met its death due to the joint attack of Patum and Tilla, two existences who had reached the legendary realm, and Gi-jun, who possessed abilities more than fitting to be its adversary.

―You too―― to this side――!

“Wait――.”

No, that was not the case.

The Silver Moon of Contradiction held by Gi-jun, the light mana and the power of the spirits dwelling within it, and his countless abilities as an adversary of darkness certainly possessed enough purifying power to grant the evil dragon its end, but.

The creature, born harboring high-ranking vengeful spirits, blood, and a thick curse, did not die peacefully even at the very end.

―You will―― come―― to this side――!

Above the head of the evil dragon, the Lord of Thorns, composed of pure blood essence, rose up, swaying like a balloon doll.

Before Gi-jun could even react to that ominous sight, the guy spread his arms wide and activated his final blood magic, sacrificing even the last remaining body of the evil dragon.

―Everyone will become like me! No one! No one will be able to deny destiny!

The evil dragon’s body instantly transformed into a massive wave of blood and soared into the sky, reaching a height of several hundred meters.

At the cursing voice of the Lord of Thorns ringing out as he stood atop the wave, Gi-jun frowned and muttered.

“As expected of an Epic-grade, his lifeline is ridiculously stubborn……!”

Had the guy died and his experience points been calculated to level him up, it might be different, but with his mana and spiritual power completely depleted, could he block that without anyone else getting hurt?

‘No—now is not the time to be talking weak. I will block it.’

At least until he could buy time for Patum, Lectus, and his party members to escape.

Gi-jun cast Salutaris to gather even a little bit of mana as he thrust his shield forward.

With that shield as the center, light spread in all directions, creating a barrier to shield the party from the wave.

“This is not normal.”

Beside him, Biche muttered, her face hardening as if she had realized something.

“He should have died just like that. To use a magic of that scale when he has already consumed even his soul? A god has definitely intervened……!”

For her, she felt like questioning the system right this moment, but she did not have the luxury to do so now.

No matter how great Gi-jun’s defensive capability was, it would be impossible to block a super-sized tsunami carrying a terrible curse and deadly poison by himself.

It was the moment when Biche, having hardened her resolve, was about to manifest her power further even while risking a terrible penalty.

―Stab

A sword soared into the air and flew like lightning, stabbing straight into the chest of the Lord of Thorns, who was swaying atop the wave and spewing curses.

Surprisingly, the movement of the wave, which looked like it would sweep away the group at any moment, stopped as if it had frozen in that instant.

Having thrown away both his body and soul and moving purely with the remaining magic power of blood, the Lord of Thorns at this moment might have had powerful magic abilities, but his resistance was pathetic.

“Ah?”

“The evil spirit is―.”

“Chance!”

Ji-hye shouted shrilly as she manifested her magic.

The red magic circles floating in the air split into countless numbers—and flew to attach themselves all over the wave like talismans.

As each magic circle attached to the wave spun fiercely, the size of the wave could be seen gradually shrinking.

“I am going too!”

Lora, aiming for the Lord of Thorns himself just as the evil spirit had done, threw herself from the spot, transformed into a blood mist, and soared into the air at an amazing speed—

The moment the Lord of Thorns came into view, she materialized and plunged her hand into his torso without a second thought.

―Guh――ga-ga-gak――!

No matter how much the evil spirit had devoured vampires to grow its power, it would have been somewhat unreasonable to absorb the main body of the Lord of Thorns with a single sword.

But once Lora, who had absorbed the noble of true blood and was reborn as a complete vampire, intervened, the story changed.

The Lord of Thorns twisted his body wildly as he let out a sound of unclear meaning.

His body made of blood was shrinking like a punctured tire.

“You were too hasty. For a vampire to expose the quintessence of his true blood so defenselessly……!”

―Gahaaak――!

Although there was no way for Gi-jun to know, what the Lord of Thorns did just now was an absurdly foolish mistake for vampires.

It was a situation where even Lora, who was clearly lower in status compared to the Lord of Thorns, could steal the true blood containing his mana and authority.

It was proof that not even a handful of reason remained in the Lord of Thorns.

Not that such a thing would be necessary for him who was now facing death, of course.

“……It worked out somehow.”

Biche, who had raised a hand to manifest her power at any moment, exhaled a sigh of relief and lowered her hand.

Gi-jun, who had been holding his shield in case Ji-hye’s magic failed to block the wave completely, also exhaled a long breath and relaxed his posture as the wave’s height gradually lowered and shrank to a non-threatening level.

“Ji-hye, isn’t that blood magic?”

To Gi-jun, who turned around and asked, Ji-hye nodded calmly and replied.

“Yes. I learned it from Lora earlier, thinking that I might need to use blood magic if things turned dangerous.”

“Is that something you can do just by learning?”

“It doesn’t work normally, and I did need a bit of Lora’s blood―.”

There was no way Gi-jun would understand the principle of her, a pure human, wielding blood magic even if he heard it.

He nodded vaguely and walked forward.

The wave had already vanished completely.

Due to the incomplete cancellation of the magic, the body of the evil dragon with missing parts here and there reappeared in that spot—and on top of such a creature’s corpse,

there were the completely shriveled, dying Lord of Thorns and Lora.

Perhaps because Gi-jun had already absorbed all the curses, Lora, who practically ended up delivering the final blow, calmly stood her ground there and welcomed him.

“Jun-nim.”

A change that was by no means small, even compared to when she had absorbed Carmilla, could be felt from her.

Gi-jun intuitively realized that she had grown to the Unique-grade one step ahead of him.

Since she had absorbed the true blood of the Lord of Thorns who ruled over Kudlak’s forces, she might have actually become much stronger than that.

“Are you okay, Lora?”

“Yes, since all that was left was blood.”

Her words were accurate.

Because he had already spewed out everything, whether it was his soul, his body, or the curse and poison contained within them.

All that was left to the Lord of Thorns would have indeed been blood power.

And conveniently, there were two experts on this side who could deal with that.

The guy must have known that fact as well, but he probably could not have stopped regardless.

Did Biche say that ‘a god intervened’?

It meant that the final magic was not manifested by the guy’s pure will.

“You worked hard, Lora.”

“As for working hard…… Jun-nim did much more.”

Lora smiled faintly and stepped aside.

It was the spot where the Lord of Thorns’ body had risen, and a very small hole and fine cracks running around it could be seen on the part corresponding to the crown of the evil dragon’s head.

“Let’s finish everything now and go rest. ……And it would be nice if you could tell us about that person over there too.”

“Yeah, let’s do that.”

Gi-jun picked up the estoc lying nearby and put it in his inventory.

The evil spirit that must have been dwelling in it was strangely quiet, but it was not because something bad had happened to the spirit, rather it appeared to be undergoing a major change due to having absorbed such an immense amount of energy.

He raised the Silver Moon of Contradiction high and struck it down precisely on the crown of the guy’s head.

He had resolved to keep striking until it died if it did not die this time either, but fortunately, this was truly the end.

―By hunting the evil dragon resurrected using the Lord of Valahia as a sacrifice, you have obtained 1,000,000 points.

―You have achieved the final goal of the Grand Quest. No one can deny your contribution to this quest. The moment you find the King of Gratia, the curtain will fall on this long quest!

―Legendary achievement unlocked! Although there was external help, the feat of slaying an existence that had reached the epic realm and saving the hero will be widely spread, remembered, and sung of not only in Gratia but across all of Leta. Charm (L) has increased by 10. As a reward for this achievement, you have obtained 1,000,000 points. A highly positive modifier will be applied to all titles and skills in your possession.

―You have obtained the Legendary-grade title [Dragon Slayer]. Due to the title’s effect, all stats increase by 10, and all abilities are enhanced by 30% against all races that carry the blood of dragons!

―The Unique-grade title [Vampire Hunter] has transcended its limit and grown to the Legendary-grade! When facing vampires, all abilities increase by 30%, and when facing other undead, all abilities will also increase by 20%!

―By hunting the evil dragon resurrected using the Lord of Valahia as a sacrifice, you have obtained 1,000,000 points.

―You have achieved the final goal of the Grand Quest. No one can deny your contribution to this quest. The moment you find the King of Gratia, the curtain will fall on this long quest!

―Legendary achievement unlocked! Although there was external help, the feat of slaying an existence that had reached the epic realm and saving the hero will be widely spread, remembered, and sung of not only in Gratia but across all of Leta. Charm (L) has increased by 10. As a reward for this achievement, you have obtained 1,000,000 points. A highly positive modifier will be applied to all titles and skills in your possession.

―You have obtained the Legendary-grade title [Dragon Slayer]. Due to the title’s effect, all stats increase by 10, and all abilities are enhanced by 30% against all races that carry the blood of dragons!

―The Unique-grade title [Vampire Hunter] has transcended its limit and grown to the Legendary-grade! When facing vampires, all abilities increase by 30%, and when facing other undead, all abilities will also increase by 20%!

At that very moment, as Gi-jun watched the messages cascade before his eyes, he was having the absentminded thought that it was a relief he wasn’t receiving the quest rewards right now.

―You have reached level 99. Due to achieving a great feat, you transcend the limits of your species.

―You have reached level 99. Due to achieving a great feat, you transcend the limits of your species.

A dazzling light wrapped around his entire body, and began to lead his soul and body to the next stage.