"Then."
"I still need to know! Because I am the King of Humans! You all seem to want me to forget those things and never recall them, but that's no different from telling me to never think of a pink elephant!"
I can't stand the pink elephant. How can you tell me to forget when I'm repeating it in my head. If that's the case, you shouldn't know it either. No, is that impossible too.
To avoid something, you must grasp it in detail.
"A breakdown, then."
"Not particularly! Well, it was a good pastime. Unfortunately, we've confirmed that our opinions are on parallel lines, so shall we part ways here?"
"...We should."
Sighing, the Ure Hoeju moved her body, lightly shaking her wings of lightning.
She's coming.
Immediately after, lightning rushes before my eyes. The Ure Hoeju, who leapt out leaving a streak of wind and flash of light behind, grabbed my neck. Oh, before I could even think, my body smashed the desk and crashed into the wall. Bang, a fierce impact is felt. Blood swirls at the corners of my burst lips. The Ure Hoeju, gripping my neck, glared at me with eyes full of killing intent.
"Did you think I'd say that? You should have expected that I wouldn't let you go easily."
Ah, seriously. She's really fast. Even reading her thoughts, my reaction is late. Feeling a stinging pain, I answered.
"...Cough, I suppose. I expected interference, but. I didn't expect the Ure Hoeju to come directly."
I didn't know even with mind reading. You didn't even know you were a Holy Sword Unit member! How would I know! You should've agonized over who you are beforehand!
"You should have at least come with your comrades. Your foolishness has invited your death. Having lost your power, you won't be able to overcome any interference."
"T-hat's, right. I am, merely, a normal human... Cough!"
My breath gradually suffocates. I squeezed my last remaining strength and grabbed the Ure Hoeju's arm. The lightning-sparking arm feels just like grabbing steel with my bare hands. Even when I apply force, that solid arm doesn't budge. Born as the Ure Hoeju, raised as the Ure Hoeju, and possessing the caliber of the Ure Hoeju, she is literally a woman of steel.
'A pathetic sight... Is this the King of Humans. Let me end this for you. Making the cause of death electrocution would be easier to persuade his comrades.'
Lightning flows into that hand. A tingling sensation, like drinking carbonated water, runs down my neck. It feels like a swarm of ants crawling all over my body. Still, even a woman of steel... is human.
'Grabbing a hand wreathed in lightning... and there's no damage?'
It's too early to be surprised. I grabbed the Ure Hoeju's arm and moved slowly. Her mighty power, handling lightning like Qi, is absolutely impossible to shake off with normal strength.
Then, what about the same lightning. Born with lightning, raised with lightning. Even her flesh is familiar with lightning. To her, electrocution was no different from playing in the water, and as she felt the flow... at some point, she grasped the lightning in her hand. The innate Unique Demon Art of an innate talent. A mental image forging the turbulent power of thunder into Qi.
Unique Demon Art: Thunder Catcher.
Along with the Ure Hoeju's arm, I also grasped her lightning in my hand. By birth, lightning has no choice but to flow. Come to think of it, lightning is like a river flowing from the high heavens. It's a concept that must flow until it pools in the sea.
Because it's so short and flashing, it's considered merely power, but its essence is flow. The Ure Hoeju grasps it with her hands. If she can do it, I can do it too.
Because all humans, including myself, are ordinary.
Creak. I grasped and moved the Ure Hoeju with the Ure Hoeju's own power. Because it's her own power, just as she controls her body, I can control hers too. A strong arm that looks like it would be fine even if the lightning rod tower collapsed is slowly pushed back by my arm strength. Toward her, who opened her eyes wide in disbelief, my mouth, having regained its freedom, opened.
"Even against you, I only have about a fifty-fifty chance of winning."
The lightning subsides. The thunderous roar that seemed to fill the world has fallen to the level of a large drumbeat, and the Thunder God, which had fallen as if to split Claudia while riding the waterfall of clouds, was now screaming, leaving only residual lightning.
[-!]
The Thunder God's roar gradually diminishes. As if inversely proportional, the citizens of Claudia who came out to watch let out cheers.
Waaaaaah--!
The cries of countless humans are so fierce they seem to blow the Thunder God back up into the sky. In contrast, the Thunder God, who had so arrogantly looked down on humans, thrashed miserably buried in the clouds. It's hard to tell who is a god and who is a human. Shay brushed back her wet hair and muttered in dissatisfaction.
"It's strange. Clearly, what I'm killing is a false idol, but it looks like I'm tormenting the weak."
If the Thunder God is a god, then what is Shay, who treads on clouds and devours it.
Lightning is swallowed by Jizan. Thunder is cleaved by Cheonang. Nothing of the Thunder God can harm Shay, who wields earth and sky in both hands. Rather, its very existence is melting into her power. The Thunder God reached out as if resentful and roared.
[---!]
"It keeps shouting something, but I can't understand what it's saying. So just give up."
Shay held Jizan and Cheonang, making their handles face each other. Lightning is a single line traveling between heaven and earth. All lightning is contained beneath it. The Thunder God, which had reigned in the alien palace called the waterfall of clouds, became compliant to its essence.
Heaven and Earth Kenkon: Lightning Eater.
The Thunder God's entire body seeps into the short gap between Cheonang and Jizan. No matter how much it subsided, it's materialized lightning. Its power is immense... but the gap between the two Demon Gods has enough capacity to contain all of it and more. The small lightnings forming its divine body, the torrents of power extending to its fingers and toes. All of them become a massive flow and stream into Shay's two swords. Its existence melts away.
[….]
The Thunder God's cries, which seemed to tear the world apart, also gradually grew smaller. The Thunder God, which had been groaning in pain, was now small and weak, looking pitiful. Even in the midst of that, it desperately reached out its arm as if trying to find something. As if leaving something precious down below.
But it cannot reach. This cloud city surrounded by lightning rod towers only uses lightning and rejects the rest. A streak of lightning that fell from the Thunder God touched a lightning rod tower and vanished.
"Come in."
Shay twisted Cheonang. Even without deliberately raising her aura, lightning naturally strikes between Cheonang and Jizan. At the same time, the remnants of the Thunder God were all sucked into that gap. From now on, Cheonang and Jizan were bound by an invisible leash of lightning. Shay would be able to move the other with just one of them.
Shay let out a deep sigh. The satisfaction of finishing a task, the sense of achievement of taking a step forward, the pride of helping a village in trouble. On top of that, she even gained the full support of the Ure Hoeju, so the work that follows would be a smooth sailing.
Only the cheering sounds of the people below echoed. More elated than ever before, Shay came down brightly.
"Phew. It's over! There is no more Thunder God!"
Tirkhanzhaka was waiting at the lightning rod tower. Tirkhanzhaka, who had been watching with both fists clenched tight since the Thunder God was being annihilated, was cheering for Shay more than anyone else.
"How magnificent. To subjugate the Celestial God's servant with your power! This is an unprecedented feat, an act of throwing mud in the face of the Celestial God!"
"Uh, I didn't really intend that..."
Though the reason was a bit different. Finding it difficult to answer, Shay blatantly looked around.
"Anyway, where's the Ure Hoeju?"
"She said she suddenly had business and disappeared. I have no idea what business she could have other than the sight before our eyes."
"What's the matter? Did a thief break into her house?"
"Would it be merely for such a reason. A Thunder God entering the city is far more dangerous than a thief breaking into a house."
Shay agreed with that too. What thief would be more dangerous than a god wielding lightning. That was why. If the Ure Hoeju disappeared, there must be a reason, but Shay couldn't even guess it. Above all, this was the first time this had happened across all her regressions.
Shay muttered to herself without realizing it.
"Strange. This has never happened before."
"Never happened before?"
Shay, who used to travel alone without comrades, didn't care much about others hearing her story. Only after a long time since Tirkhanzhaka raised a question did she wave her hand and make an excuse.
"Ah, no. It's just so unexpected. If you're the ruler of a city, you should watch until the end when subjugating something like a Thunder God."
"...It is unexpected."
'Phew. That was dangerous. I need to be careful. I'm not exactly a saintess, but I shouldn't show any signs of having seen the future. Because I get treated like one.'
Tirkhanzhaka was sending a suspicious gaze, but Shay didn't care much about it. Although they had gotten quite close now, a few regressions ago, she was an irresistible disaster; in some regressions, an adversary; and in another regression, a comrade who shared exchanges at the end of the world. To Shay, humans are polyhedrons where past and present coexist. What is the way to treat a being who was an insurmountable wall, an enemy of humans, and also an unrivaled comrade?
The answer is not caring. Or rather, to be precise, I should say I can't care delicately. Other people's emotions are ever-changing, and I don't have mind reading either. With such a mindset, comrades wouldn't gather, but at least this time, the situation was good.
'At least when Hughes guy is around, dealing with people is easy and comfortable. The number of times I threaten people with a sword has decreased compared to the past. In the past, whenever I had to persuade someone, I had to swing Cheonang or Jizan and cut something down... I should treat him better in the next regression.'
While the regressor was reflecting on her own gratitude. At the top of the lightning rod tower, the pulley suspending the elevator spun round and round. At the same time, the elevator surged up at a tremendous speed. A familiar figure staggered out of the elevator, which arrived at the top of the lightning rod tower almost as if crashing into it. Shay recognized that face and felt puzzled.
"Huh? Hughes?"
Blood flows from a torn head. It drips from the blood trail extending to his jaw. Staggering as if injured, he glanced back as if something was chasing him and ran over urgently. Tirkhanzhaka stepped out to greet him and asked.
"Hue? What is the matter? Did someone attack you?"
"Yes... But more than that, wait a moment. I have something to tell Shay!"
"To Shay? Do you have nothing to tell me?"
Tirkhanzhaka asked, seeming a bit disappointed, but she was also surprised upon hearing the following words.
"About the Ure Hoeju's identity! She is not just a Hoeju!"
It was the first time she had heard such words across all regressions. Shay, quickly jumping down from the lightning rod tower, recalled a possibility and said.
"The Ure Hoeju jumped down to the ground earlier. Did you cause another accident?"
"Ugh, maybe. Or maybe not."
"It was you! I was wondering why the Ure Hoeju suddenly acted like that!"
Scolding him as he trailed off with a troubled expression, Shay approached him. There was no particular wariness. They saw each other's faces every day, so it would be stranger to be wary. Like Claudia and the Thunder God, familiarity makes wariness thin.
"Anyway, what is the Ure Hoeju's identity?"
"It's a bit hard to say to Tir..."
"Are you leaving me out?"
As if she couldn't let this slide, Tirkhanzhaka openly showed her displeasure. Taking her reaction into consideration, he sighed as if he had no choice.
"I can't hide such an important thing. I'll confess. The Ure Hoeju, she is actually a Holy Sword Unit member."
"Holy Sword... Unit?"
Both Shay and Tirkhanzhaka couldn't help but react to the sudden bombshell. Holy Sword Unit. The direct subordinate unit of the Holy Imperial Court. To Tirkhanzhaka, they would be bugs that endlessly appear no matter how many she kills, but to Shay, they were unrivaled comrades.
Shay once operated as a Holy Sword Unit member. It was a title nominally given by the Holy Imperial Court, but Shay learned many things there, such as the secrets of the world and the existence of the Demon Gods. Even if she didn't know all the Holy Sword Unit members spread across the world, she had quite a bit of interaction with the direct subordinate unit. Still, the information that the Ure Hoeju was actually a Holy Sword Unit member was unexpected.
Unaware of the displeasure blooming all over Tirkhanzhaka's expression, Shay showed a slightly delighted look and said.
"Holy Sword Unit? Is that real, and how did you know?"
"That's because I... Ugh."
While speaking, a drop of blood fell into his eye. With his vision obscured, he stumbled. His center collapsed, and his body tilted toward Shay.
He is taller. If he approaches and falls, it's normal logic for him to fall toward Shay. Besides, having been together for a long time, they were in a state of mutual intimacy. Shay caught his body without any doubt....
That moment. The Cheonbangyeong reacted. A silver light flashed. Shay bent her waist backward while simultaneously releasing her Qi, kicking off the ground and fiercely widening the distance. Two long scratches were carved onto the lightning rod tower.
The warm and peaceful Thunder God murder scene. Right after that ended, a taut tension lingered. Shay grabbed her clothes, torn by a blade, and glared at 'him'.
"...You."
"My~. I was only going to hurt you a little. Your reaction is too fast~."
'He' was not Hughes. With a single swipe of his forehead, the bloodstains disappear. The skeleton shrinks and reduces, and the hair loosens and scatters widely. Hilde, who had undone her transformation, giggled and scanned Shay with fox-like eyes.
"Is that combat precognition? Or, just precognition?"
"A technique I learned to deal with things like you."
"Surely not. The technique of those who seek to reach the heavens with Qi?"
I didn't expect that story to come up here. Shay's face crumpled.
Shay had many enemies, and many allies. However, there was no 'enemy' that had dug this deeply, and her allies weren't to this extent either. She should have been a bit more wary. The Glorious Track, Sieghrun of the Military Empire's Intelligence Department. She is now called Hilde and taking the position of a mischievous traveling companion, but she is one of the Six Generals and the existence one must be most careful of in the Military Empire.
Seeing her crumpled expression, Hilde spoke in wonder.
"I heard there was such a thing, but I didn't think it was true. Hmm, amazing~. Anyway!"
Clap, clap, she clapped her hands and turned her body toward Tirkhanzhaka.
"Tirkhanzhaka. There is one more thing you need to know!"
"I thought Hue was acting a bit strange, so it was you after all. The prank is too much."
"That's 'me', because I take after Father! But would the prankster over there stop at just this?"