Those tentacles were clearly different from the tentacles of the other monsters.
I had heard what Soph said, but I hadn’t expected my shield to break so emptily.
Spurt!
Red blood surged up before my eyes.
It was all blood gushing from my own body.
The moment the cluster of tentacles came flying, I moved with everything I had, but I couldn’t dodge them all.
At the very last moment, I twisted my body and managed to reduce a few of the wounds to mere scratches, but one tentacle tore away nearly half of my side.
It was the first real injury I had suffered since coming to this planet.
[Hyeon! Get out of there this instant!]
Soph’s shout rang through my head.
Considering the injury, it was the worst possible situation.
Just as Soph said, I should have gotten myself away immediately, but I didn’t feel that way in the slightest.
Rather, even amid the ever-worsening pain, my mind became endlessly clear.
Was it the exhilaration of the battlefield?
No, that wasn’t it.
Then was it because I had survived again this time?
That wasn’t it either.
In the past, I wouldn’t have been able to dodge even a single tentacle and would have lost my life, but that wasn’t the reason I felt this way now.
The reason I felt this way now was because the moment I saw red blood, I remembered something I had forgotten.
I was not a magician.
After I began using magic, I had acted as if I had become one, but I was different from them.
And yet, all this time, I had been fighting like a magician.
To others, it might have seemed like I was using magic dangerously, but that was only because I couldn’t use long-range magic.
I hadn’t realized it myself, but all this time, I had been fighting as safely as I possibly could.
Seeing the red blood now made me understand.
If I hadn’t been holding myself back, there was no way I would only be getting injured like this now.
In the past, whenever I went out on operations, there had never been a time when I didn’t come back wounded, whether badly or lightly.
Because my injuries healed faster than other people’s, I kept being sent into operations, but if it had been anyone else, they would undoubtedly have been discharged because of their wounds.
But after I learned magic, I had barely been injured at all.
If I hadn’t been protecting my body, that would have been impossible.
“I’ve been doing something foolish all this time.”
[What are you talking about? You aren’t babbling from the pain, are you?]
Even now, I was bleeding as I desperately dodged the tentacles.
Soph seemed worried that I had lost my mind and was only moving my body on instinct.
But my mind was clearer and sharper than ever.
And with that clear mind, I found a way to fight.
The situation was bad, but it wasn’t the worst.
My wound was far more severe than before, but I was different from back then too.
“Soph, please heal me.”
I could use recovery magic too, but right now, I didn’t have the mental space to devote to healing.
[Healing is possible, but the pain will be severe. Receiving treatment while fighting is dangerous!]
I knew that too.
And I knew that magic wasn’t almighty.
I said I wasn’t a magician, but since I could use half-baked magic, I understood its effects well enough.
Recovery magic only made the body’s cells regenerate at an absurdly accelerated rate.
Along with dark energy, it consumed an enormous amount of calories, and the pain was bound to increase severalfold.
To receive recovery magic, I should have been lying on a bed enduring the pain, just as Soph said.
“It’s all right. Do it now.”
But it didn’t matter.
As I had said before, I was used to enduring pain.
[……Very well.]
Soph cast the spell, and the blood that had been flowing out stopped immediately.
The tightness in my side gradually eased.
Instead, pain came flooding in.
Sparks burst inside my head.
“Ghk.”
The pain was enough to make a groan slip out on its own.
Soph had not been wrong. If I hadn’t experienced this before, I would have immediately rolled on the ground screaming.
But even amid that pain, I could move.
This might have been another form of PTSD I had gained during the war, but I could fight.
With my entire body smeared in blood, I advanced.
The farther I advanced, the fiercer the tentacles’ attacks became.
It seemed the monster intended to attack using only its tentacles.
Abandon attacks that didn’t work and use only the ones that did.
It wasn’t a bad method, but this time, it helped me.
If that huge body moved, there would be no way for me to approach the giant.
I had been hit at first because it was a surprise attack, but now, I could dodge the tentacles to some extent.
The closer I got to the giant, the fewer places there were to dodge, but I had much more leeway than before.
Slash!
Blood sprayed, and a tentacle tore through my flesh as it passed.
I gave up my flesh and took another step forward.
If it was hard to dodge, then I just had to create a place to dodge.
In exchange, I had to be wounded, but as long as my muscles and bones were intact, I could move well enough.
[Are you mad?! To take wounds on purpose! At this rate, the recovery magic won’t be able to keep up!]
Soph kept shouting, uncharacteristically for him, but even so, he continued casting recovery magic.
Taking wounds and recovering, I kept advancing.
Thung!
While approaching and spraying blood, I swung my spear at a tentacle, but as expected, the spear didn’t work on these tentacles.
In the end, I had to keep dodging and moving forward.
The time spent dodging the pouring tentacles and continuing forward while scattering blood.
My mind was clear, but as the pain continued, I felt somewhat dazed.
I was getting hungry too. I must have lost a great deal of weight.
It felt as if time had slowed.
‘Since I’ve lost weight, maybe my body’s gotten lighter?’
That absurd thought even crossed my mind.
After a time that felt like it would continue forever, or perhaps only an instant, my vision brightened.
I had passed through the wall of tentacles.
The giant’s black arm was behind me.
In front of me, I could see the giant’s metal leg kneeling on one knee.
Now, while it was kneeling, was my chance.
I stepped onto the metal leg and leaped upward.
Climbing onto the giant’s thigh, I checked its torso.
Perhaps because it had been destroyed and remade, the giant’s body was no longer as smooth as before.
Below its black chest was the giant’s abdomen, transformed into a grotesque mass of soil and stone, metal and piles of corpses all mixed together.
Regardless of what it looked like on the outside, it would be just as sturdy as before.
So hard that even thrusting my spear into it would only leave a scratch.
I knew that, but I paid it no mind and drew back the spear in my hand.
As if realizing that the tentacles weren’t working, the giant was trying to move again.
Once the giant began to move, it would be difficult to approach again.
In the end, this was my one and only chance.
Of course, I knew my existing spear attacks wouldn’t work.
Nor did I intend to use that attack again.
That was also why I had left the recovery magic to Soph.
Dodging the tentacles was important, but more than that, it was so I could use another spell.
As I thought of the magic I would use, countless formulas and a new magic circle formed in my head.
Before, it had been a spell of such a high level that I couldn’t even understand it, but perhaps because I had seen it several times, I could finally imitate it.
When the magic circle was complete, energy flowed out of the black stone at the spearhead and filled the spear.
It was my first time using magic that utilized a black stone, but it wasn’t difficult.
Once the magic circle was complete, I began to chant.
“Gather. O clouds.”
With the first incantation, mist rose around me.
Originally, it was a spell that should have formed clouds in the sky, but for a half-baked copycat like me, this was the best I could do.
“Charges, run wild.”
The following incantation had changed from the original, but I couldn’t speak words I didn’t understand.
Still, the effect was similar.
Lightning began to flow through the mist spread across the ground.
Flash! Rumble!
The lightning raging in every direction gradually gathered into the spear.
Seeing the spell complete, Soph spoke in a hollow voice.
[So you managed this magic in the end as well.]
It wasn’t long-range, and I didn’t understand the structure of the spell, merely imitating its outward appearance, but as Soph said, I had finally managed to create the magic itself.
Lightning magic, Soph’s specialty.
I had finally succeeded in casting it.
After that moment of admiration, Soph spoke again in a grave voice.
[But casting that spell right in front of you is dangerous! You will suffer tremendous damage as well!]
I knew that too.
Even when Soph had used it earlier, I had been electrocuted because I was too close.
But it didn’t matter.
“Block as much as you can. Please.”
I would take damage, but if it was Soph, he should be able to block enough that I wouldn’t die.
That was enough.
All this time, I had been fighting too safely.
If I wanted to kill an enemy, it was only natural that I would be injured to the verge of death.
I thrust the spear with all my strength toward the giant’s abdomen.
Even the giant’s sturdy body could not withstand high-level magic.
The spear, brimming with lightning, pierced into the grotesque belly.
After driving the spear deep into the giant’s abdomen, I recited the final incantation.
[Burst. Thunderbolt.]
Energy exploded out of the black stone attached to the spear.
It was all the energy that remained.
All of that energy transformed into negative charge and drew in the surrounding lightning.
From the mist—no, from the clouds spread across the ground—countless bolts of lightning poured into the spear.
The pouring lightning turned everything before my eyes white, and the impact turned my mind white as well.
I had braced myself, but this was not on the level of pain.
[Hold…… hold on…… why would you do something so…… reckless……]
Through the violent shock, Soph’s voice came to me as if it were about to cut off.
Krr……aaaang……aaaaaa……
And I thought I heard the giant’s monstrous cry as well.
Time passed within the white light.
I couldn’t tell how much time had gone by.
Judging by the way my memory had cut off in the middle, it seemed I had fainted for a moment.
When my senses returned, I could see.
Fortunately, it seemed I hadn’t gone blind.
[Is going blind the issue here?! You very nearly died. The only reason you can see now is because I restored your eyes!]
No, it seemed I had gone blind after all.
The moment I realized that, violent pain swept through my body.
It was pain I hadn’t felt because of the shock.
Grit.
But I bit my lip and endured the pain.
Right now, I had to confirm the result.
The giant was lying on the ground again.
Its body, which had barely managed to recover, had been shattered once more.
But even this time, its body was gathering together again.
[Certainly…… it was more effective than dropping it from the sky. Even the original body, which had been unharmed, was destroyed to a significant degree. But the magic that restores its body seems to remain intact.]
Perhaps because I had used up all of the black stone, Soph’s words sounded distant.
Just as Soph said, the black arm and upper body, which had remained intact until now, were broken.
The black egg-shaped head was still the same, but now it seemed every other part would have to be replaced with materials from the city.
It was regrettable that the creature could still restore its body, but even so, I had achieved my goal.
“It turned out as expected.”
Below the broken monster’s neck, I could see a large black stone with a crack running through it.
The hidden black stone had finally revealed itself.
This was why I had taken the risk of detonating the magic inside the giant’s body.
All I had to do was pull out that black stone.
I moved my body to grab it.
Thud.
But before I could take even a single step, my body collapsed forward.
Huh?
I propped myself up on the ground with both hands and tilted my head.
Seeing that, Soph clicked his tongue.
[After doing something like that, there is no way your body would be fine. Even with healing magic, ruined stamina does not return.]
At those words, I checked my body and saw that my entire body was dried out.
My wounds had not all healed either, and blood was leaking out in streams while smoke rose from them.
My clothes had become rags, and the backpack on my back was torn so badly that the box was almost exposed.
Seeing my body and my clothes, I understood what I had done.
It truly had been madness.
But after doing something so mad, I couldn’t stop here.
“Soph, it would be difficult for you to use magic, wouldn’t it?”
[You are the one who drained the energy in the black stone down to the very bottom.]
My own energy was nearly at its bottom as well.
The shield had disappeared long ago, and the recovery magic was only at the level of keeping my wounds from opening further.
If magic was impossible, I had to move my body.
I began crawling toward the black stone.
Left arm, right arm, and then my unresponsive legs—I moved them and dragged myself forward.
Passing through scattered fragments of the black body, pushing through the gathering metal and stones, I finally managed to seize the cracked black stone in my hand.
The black stone was already outside the body, but the magic was still being maintained.
Just as this giant could repair its body, it could continue connecting even the black stone outside its body to itself through magic.
[At this rate, even if you carried it off to the other side of the continent, it would be useless. Would the connection be severed only if you spatially moved to another planet?]
Seeing that, Soph clicked his tongue, but this time, there was no sign of worry in his voice.
I was the same.
There was no way to sever the connection between the black stone and the giant through ordinary means, but both Soph and I knew one method.
I took the box out of my ruined backpack and held it in my other hand.
A black hole floated up above the box.
I pushed the black stone into the hole.
Thump.
Every object that had been gathering came to a stop.
The giant’s recovering body collapsed.
At long last, the magic had stopped.
Opening (1)