No one knew how he had gotten there, but the moment Chad arrived, he vanished into the mouth of the abyssal demon.
"Chad!!"
"Big Brother Chad!?"
His companions who recognized him were aghast.
Soon, strange sounds echoed from within the demon's torso.
*Thrash! Thud! Crunch!*
It was the sound of something being butchered from the inside.
The abyssal demon's massive body convulsed and writhed.
And then, with a shrieking howl, a blood-drenched hole tore open.
*Skreeeeech.*
*Rustle, rustle.*
From within, a silver helmet burst out first.
After it, Chad emerged, walking savagely, soaked in blood and entrails.
A piece of half-chewed meat still clung to the corner of his mouth, and clutched in his hand was a lump of torn-out entrails.
"Keh... tastes a bit fishy."
Covered in blood, Chad said that calmly as he walked out of the abyssal demon's stomach.
The surroundings froze in horror, but he didn't care in the slightest.
"Chad!"
"Oh, Liv! So you were here. We should've gone together. How could you leave me behind? Thanks to that, I had to swim—"
"Behind you!!"
The moment I shouted, a black flash lanced out behind Chad's back.
*BOOM!*
The sand bar exploded upward, overturning as dirt and seawater erupted into the air.
It was the trail of compressed mana that had pierced through the earth like a black spear.
Chad twisted his body and narrowly evaded it, but the black magic power grazing past his shoulder left a sharp wound.
"...The offerings have increased by one."
The Silver Mask's low voice echoed over the waves.
Black mana still swirled in his palm, and the surrounding air trembled as if being sucked in.
Chad turned his helmet straight with a scrape, squared his shoulder, and smirked.
"What, I thought you were a doll standing still. Guess not?"
Silver mask and silver helmet.
The two faced each other in the center of the beach.
Chad looked him up and down for a moment, then tilted his head.
"Hmm... feels like I've seen you somewhere before."
"..."
"Ah!"
Chad seemed to realize something, clapping his hand and exclaiming.
"You're one of them, right! Those Black Tower scum!"
"...!"
At the Silver Mask's subtle reaction, Chad laughed even louder.
"I've seen guys like you before. Creeping around corpses on finished battlefields looking for offerings, yeah?"
So it was the Black Tower after all.
Chad slowly turned around and unstrapped the massive greatsword crossed on his back.
*Skaang—* A heavy metallic sound rang across the beach.
"But do you know what happened to those guys?"
Draping the sword over his shoulder with his blood-soaked bare torso, he smirked.
"They came looking for corpses and became corpses themselves. Keh, ain't that funny?"
"How dare you..."
The Silver Mask's voice reverberated in a low tone.
The sea around them churned once more, and the entire beach began to be consumed by black energy.
Just as something was about to burst from the beach—
*Grrrrrr—*
A somewhat deflating sound broke the tension.
"Keh, this is bad. Hungry again already."
The source of the sound was Chad's stomach.
The soldiers looked at Chad with horrified expressions.
They wondered if he was joking in this situation, but his face wasn't smiling at all.
He was completely serious.
"This is why I shouldn't travel long distances... Well, can't be helped."
When Chad took a step, the sand collapsed and surged away like a wave.
The Silver Mask spread his black veil again and raised his hand.
In an instant, black monsters surged up from the sea, blocking Chad like a wall.
*Guaaaaaaargh—!*
Dozens of monstrous howls shook the beach.
But Chad spun his sword in a circle and leaped into the fray without hesitation.
*KWAANG!*
With the first swing, the several monsters blocking his way were cleaved clean in half.
Blood and entrails burst up like a fountain, and Chad's stomach churned even louder.
"Kh... M-more, I need more!"
*Squish.*
Laughing like a beast, he plunged his hand into a corpse and tore out flesh.
Stuffing the hunk of meat into his mouth with his blood-drenched hand, his pupils flashed and erupted with light.
In an instant, his muscles bulged, and the speed at which he swung his sword doubled.
"Monster..."
Someone muttered, but it was pure terror, nothing more.
Watching the scene from beyond the veil, the Silver Mask drew a short breath for the first time.
He instinctively sensed that Chad was definitely no ordinary human.
*Grrrrrr—*
But Chad's stomach still roared, as if it knew no satisfaction.
*Kwaaang.*
He once again dove into the horde of monsters.
And the beach devolved into a hellscape of sword strikes and the sound of tearing flesh.
*Sskak! Peogek!*
Chad's sword stormed through, splitting the monsters apart.
Heads and arms flew into the air, and a dark red blood mist spread across the beach.
Even in the midst of it all, he constantly gulped down blood or chewed and swallowed the flesh he tore off.
*Gulp— gulp—*
"Kh— good, now I can move a bit!"
The laughter bursting from within the silver helmet was closer to a monster's howl.
"...Relying on nothing but a toy and running rampant."
The Silver Mask muttered low and swept his hand down. The blood of the surrounding monsters was absorbed, sucked into his palm.
*Buuuuung—*
The black veil swelled like a wave.
Amorphous arms extended from within, trying to seize Chad.
*Kwajijik!*
But Chad brought his sword straight down, tearing all those black arms to shreds.
Black fragments scattered in all directions, but he paid them no heed.
"You've been going on about offerings, offerings—"
Chad licked the blood smeared at his mouth with his tongue and grinned.
"You think you're capable of that?"
At those words, another thunderous rumble burst from Chad's stomach.
Red light flashed inside the silver helmet, and he immediately charged at the Silver Mask.
*KWANG!*
The sand caved in as Chad's entire body flew like a cannonball.
The Silver Mask brought both hands together and put his black veil forward.
*TOO-KWAAANG—!*
Silver and black collided, shaking the entire beach.
Sand exploded and shot upward, and soldiers staggered and tumbled backward.
I swallowed my breath watching the spectacle.
Two monsters pushing against each other on the sand.
Every time Chad and the Silver Mask clashed, the air shrieked as if being torn apart, and even the waves rippled from the impact.
'...So this is how the strong fight.'
A scene I'd only ever seen in action comics was unfolding before my eyes.
Until now, the battles I'd witnessed had been nothing but realistic scuffles between mercenaries or chaotic brawls with bandits.
But in this very moment, I hesitated to even call it a human battle.
Overwhelming monstrous strength and mana.
I could do nothing but stare blankly at the collision before me.
*KWAAANG—!*
Every time Chad's sword and the Silver Mask's veil clashed, the beach shook as if explosions were going off.
Sand and waves sprayed in all directions, and soldiers screamed as they hid behind their shields.
"Hah!"
*Kang! Kagang! Kang!*
Chad let out short shouts and swung his sword, while the Silver Mask blocked every strike with his black veil.
Every time the sword and veil collided, the atmosphere shrieked and my ears rang.
But after several clashes, the two pushed off each other and retreated.
*Kung!*
Chad stepped onto the sand and caught his breath, while the Silver Mask stood in place, slightly lowering his veil.
"Hoo... you hold up pretty well."
Chad smirked and patted his stomach.
A low sound rumbled from within again, as if hungry.
The Silver Mask silently watched him from behind the mask.
An ominous silence stretched on, as if he had seen through something about Chad's relic.
A brief, suffocating silence.
"Hey... you're out of mana, aren't you?"
Chad was the one who broke the silence first.
"...Tch."
The Silver Mask merely clicked his tongue, offering no other response.
But that alone was as good as admitting it.
His veil was still holding firm, but the visible current had clearly diminished.
The problem was that Chad didn't look to be in perfect condition either.
*Gurrr— gurrrrr—*
His stomach growled incessantly, and his movements were gradually growing dull.
The speed with which he had been nimbly cleaving through enemies had noticeably slowed.
'...The relic's penalty...'
The more strength he used, the more that bizarre hunger swept over him.
Right now, Chad was clearly forcing himself to hold it together.
Both monsters—one drained of mana, the other wracked by hunger—stood glaring at each other atop a precarious balance.
But, unlike the other side.
"Big Brother Chad! Catch this!"
Sailreon hurled the provisions sack he was holding with all his might.
Chad caught it lightly with one hand while gripping his sword.
"Oh, Sailreon."
Without hesitation, he tore it open, and dried meat and pieces of bread spilled out.
He grabbed a handful and stuffed it into his mouth, the sound of chewing echoing even in the middle of battle.
*Munch, munch. Rustle—*
In an instant, the smell of bread crumbs and grease scattered.
And his movements began to accelerate once more.
The Silver Mask could only watch.
It seemed his mana really had run dry.
A chronic problem for mages.
'This is why you need a melee dealer.'
Chad smiled with breadcrumbs around his mouth, smirking as he raised his sword.
"This is what it means to have allies. Don't you have any friends?"
His footsteps thundered across the sand once more as he advanced.
His momentum, now that his hunger was sated, blazed back to life like wildfire.
At that moment, the Silver Mask briefly raised his hand, and suddenly black shockwaves spread in every direction.
The remaining monsters shrieked and rushed the beach all at once, but the man himself no longer took an offensive stance.
"...Hmph."
*Swoosh.*
With a low, short scoff, the Silver Mask's body slowly melted into the black veil.
Like a stone thrown onto the water's surface, his form sank into the waves and vanished without a trace.
"Is he running?!"
Baldik cried out in surprise.
Chad glared at the empty air, gripping his sword, then smirked from beneath his helmet.
"Tch, sizing up the enemy and fleeing is the same now as it ever was."
The monsters filling the surroundings also collapsed like puppets with cut strings and were swept away by the waves.
All that remained on the beach was blood, corpses, and Chad's ragged breathing.
***
Right after the post-battle cleanup was finished.
We all gathered at the inn's dining hall for the first time in a while.
Sitting around a large table, the warm scent of food spread and some of the tension eased.
"Where'd you sell off your equipment?"
"Equipment? Ahh, it was too heavy to wear all of that here. I just left it at the castle."
"...Is that okay?"
"Long as I've got my sword and helmet, I'm good."
"No, that's not what I meant... Ugh, never mind."
Chad sat at the table wearing nothing but his helmet and a ragged pair of bottoms.
With him sitting right in front of me looking exactly like a hardcore player's character from a game, I had no words.
"What happened to you?"
Sailreon finally couldn't contain his curiosity and asked Chad.
Honestly, everyone was curious.
Just what had he been doing to show up so late?
Chad stripped a piece of fish with his hand, tossed it into his mouth, and moved his jaw.
"Mm mm... Hm? That's what I should be asking you. How could you leave me behind?"
"Huh? We definitely asked someone to tell you what time to be out by."
"Never heard a thing."
"...Really?"
Sailreon opened his eyes wide in disbelief.
But with an expression that showed he couldn't care less, Chad deftly stripped the fish bones and tossed the meat into his mouth.
"Wow, this is delicious. They had this on the island?"
It was an attitude that made it impossible to tell what he was thinking.
However, he didn't look like he had any reason to lie.
If that was the case,
'Did the message we left with the servant fail to reach Chad?'
I couldn't help but reach the conclusion that someone hadn't simply failed to deliver it, but had intentionally blocked it.
"...So you didn't hear anything."
"Yeah, told you so."
A cold premonition flickered within me.
There was someone behind this.
Someone had deliberately cut off the information.
"But why did you swim here?"
"They were controlling the boats. At first they said it'd be cleared up by tomorrow, but they kept delaying. So I said I'd make my own way and jumped out."
As expected, he was out of his mind.
I hadn't measured the exact distance, but it definitely wasn't a distance you could swim.
The fact that he decided to swim just because there were no boats and actually pulled it off was nothing short of astonishing.
'Even with a relic...'
Seeing him again after so long, he was still insane.
"Those bastards... then they must've known something too?"
Baldik growled, bringing it up.
"Right. They must be controlling the boats because they know something's happening on the island. It's too suspicious."
Sailreon nodded in agreement.
"Damn it..."
Baldik's anger deepened, and the atmosphere at the table grew heavy once more.
Whatever the case, it was clear that suspicious things were happening around these parts.
And that was anything but positive news.
Then Chad, who had been wolfing down food, opened his mouth.
"Anyway, the stuff happening around here will be resolved soon."
"Huh?"
In an instant, everyone's gaze fixed on him.
What did he mean, resolved?
"When I was at that castle over there, something smelled fishy, so I took some measures in secret."
Measures?
What kind of measures?
"Measures?"
Sailreon repeated.
Chad answered calmly as he tore off a piece of fish flesh.
"Nothing much, just contacted an acquaintance on the Church side. The inquisitors have probably been dispatched by now."
"...Huh? What exactly did you tell them..."
"I just told them that the people there seemed to be in league with black mages."
"Eeeeh?!"
Everyone stared at him in shock.
"You knew there were black mages?"
"As expected of a knight, your instincts—"
"I didn't?"
"...Huh?"
In that instant, the air at the table froze.
Chad nodded nonchalantly.
"I said I didn't know. I just took a shot in the dark because it was suspicious. Well, if I was wrong, so be it. But there really were black mages, weren't there?"
"......."
We were left speechless, able only to remain silent.