◈ Episode 460. Dawn, the Darkest Hour (4)
I, Lee Hoyeol, honestly had no confidence.
To turn around a situation that had gone far beyond adding insult to injury, I concluded that I absolutely needed Grandfell’s abilities from his prime.[I Alone Am Supreme in Heaven and Earth]
To raise its proficiency, I threw myself into the curse, [Understanding of Darkness].
But how was I supposed to know this would happen……!
Grandfell’s past, which should have unfolded before my eyes like a video, was cutting in and out.
As if being filled with noise wasn’t bad enough.
Just when I thought I might see something?
It repeatedly slowed down and sped up as though it were buffering.
After being frustrated for quite a while.‘……
Come to think of it.’I realized there was a reason for this.
That was right.
This was a period I hadn’t experienced through Chronicles of the Arcana Continent.
Nor was it a time for which I had written down any specific settings.‘Is it because there’s no information at all?’Because my family’s fortunes had suddenly declined.
Whether I liked it or not, I overcame my chuunibyou.
And I also quit Chronicles of the Arcana Continent along with it.
In other words…….
As for the period after Grandfell began his activities in earnest as a demon hunter of Akshan, even if I combed through every corner of my dark history, there was nothing I could infer from it.
However.‘I can make a guess.’The fragmented scenery of the curse.
How could I guess from that alone?
It wasn’t just because I was quick on the uptake.
That’s right, it was that damned Akshan again this time!!
Back then.
What else would a demon hunter’s daily routine consist of?‘Even now that Akshan has fallen, it’s still the same.’Day after day, physical training that drove one to their limits.
Simple labor quests.
And, only very occasionally, performing an exorcism quest.‘All the tension just drained out of me.’Before entering this [Understanding of Darkness], I had braced myself quite seriously in my own way. Yet to think I would witness such an anticlimactic part of Grandfell’s past.‘……
Wait, doesn’t this mean the plan is shot too?’I had entered Understanding of Darkness from the Social Hall of Space-Time.
Thanks to that, I didn’t need to worry too much about the time difference.
But the problem wasn’t the time difference.
The problem was that the chances of this becoming a wasted effort had risen.
Only by learning something from the past could I increase my understanding of Grandfell.
And raise the proficiency of I Alone Am Supreme in Heaven and Earth.‘Can I even gain anything like this?’Even if I had gained some leeway in time, the absolute amount of time I had was lacking. To put it bluntly, if I failed to obtain any results from this Understanding of Darkness…….‘I have to be prepared.’Deliberately trigger the status abnormality, [Blackening].
I might have to rely on Grandfell for everything to overcome the crisis.
It was the moment I seriously thought of Plan B.
Suddenly, in Grandfell’s vision, which had been nothing but hazy.
Something that made me flinch came into view.
The symbol of the Claudi family.
Silver hair.
Needless to say, it was not Grandfell’s hair.‘Then the answer is obvious.’At the point when Claudi had been annihilated.
There was only one person with silver hair besides Grandfell.
No, only one guy.
“Grandfell Claudi Arpheus Romeo, my younger brother.”
The traitor of Claudi, the Seven Deadly Sins’ Pride.
Was it because he was at least someone I knew by sight?
The noise slowly cleared.
The scenery that had been cutting in and out also continued smoothly at this part.
I looked around.
Antique decorations.
An interior bustling with servants.‘Is this the mansion of some high-ranking person?’In such a place, Grandfell was equipped with the flowing attire of a demon hunter.
And Akshan-made silver weapons.
What that meant was simple.‘He was in the middle of an exorcism quest.’Grandfell had encountered that guy during a mission.
To be precise, that guy had been waiting for Grandfell.
Then this place was inside his trap.
This mansion could not be an ordinary mansion either.‘Damn it.’Even Lee Hoyeol’s brain could figure that out.
There was no way Lord Grandfell, who possessed an intellect surpassing even a goddess, would fail to know it. But our Lord Grandfell was not the sort of person to worry about fire or water when faced with a demon.
All the more so when that demon was the enemy of his family……!
Shing.
Grandfell rushed toward Pride.
“You are hasty, Grandfell.”
As expected, my prediction was correct. Pride had come to Grandfell of his own accord, knowing that Grandfell held a grudge against him and that he had joined Akshan.
Goooooo.
Indeed, the entire mansion was a trap.
You never fail to live up to my expectations.
The magic circles engraved throughout the mansion immediately activated.
“Do not move recklessly. Are they not pitiful lives?”
Pitiful lives.
“U-uaaaaaaagh!”
He was referring to the mansion’s servants.
Soon, the pupils of the servants writhing in agony were dyed black.
At that point, I could guess.
-Save the servants from the demon of the cursed mansion.
If this had been a quest, the objective would have been updated like that.
Everything had been that guy’s plan from the very beginning.
However, a demon hunter’s attacks only inflicted damage on demons.
You should know too that Grandfell would have no reason to stop, right?
So you prepared a countermeasure for that as well?
“They say Akshan can distinguish the difference between humans and demons.”
Bang.
As Pride spoke, the mansion doors shattered and soldiers poured out. No, their attire was too unruly to call them the private soldiers of a noble family.
“Catch him and kill him!”
“Hehe. It’s a lump of gold!”
“Move, his head is mine!!”
Mercenaries.
Servants possessed by demons and mercenaries simply blinded by money mixed together and charged at me. Around then, I thought about it. If it were the Grandfell I knew, how would he swing his sword in this situation?‘Honestly, I don’t know.’Grandfell is merciful.
Grandfell is not merciful.
Contradictory thoughts clashed inside my head.
However, I did not hesitate.
You said it, didn’t you, Grandfell?
Whatever it was, there was no need to worry about it in a complicated way.‘Because whatever it is, I just have to make it happen.’I sharpened my senses.[Tenacity is converted into strength.][Tenacity is converted into agility.]
The skill, [Natural Enemy Relationship], was already active.
I distinguished the humans and demons charging in all mixed together by sense alone.
And swung my sword without hesitation.
Certainly, this would have been troublesome in the past.‘Because simple sword strikes would be inefficient.’It would also be difficult to control my strength.
However, I had high-level anti-personnel combat techniques I had acquired while exchanging blows with the apostle of the Shadow God. I evaded the attacks pouring in from my blind spots and returned them as they were.
“Kgh!”
“W-why is he so fast?”
“This is a demon hunter……? You deceived me!”
“M-my leg. My leg!”
“S-save me……!”
I ended the lives of the demons possessing the servants then and there, and for the mercenaries who had simply moved in pursuit of money, I stopped at cutting their muscles so they could no longer move.
It was then.
“Splendid, my younger brother.”
Pride looked at me and spoke.
Even I had no choice but to bristle.
Being called younger brother had been seriously getting on my nerves since earlier.
Wasn’t that only natural?
I, Lee Hoyeol.
As the youngest son of the Lee family, already with three older sisters.
I had not the slightest desire to serve a new elder brother.‘If I had my way.’I would have already said a few words by now…….
But my stance was that one did not converse with prey.
Now was not a situation where I could chatter away.
Besides.‘This might be an opportunity.’I knew from experience.
The intricately tangled timelines.
The fact that changing the past would change reality as well.
If I hunted down the Seven Deadly Sins’ Pride in the past?
It meant I could lighten one burden in reality.
So I accelerated even more.
Goooooo.
Magic circles engraved all over the mansion.
It seemed you put in some effort preparing this trap.
But magic like that cannot even brush against the hem of my flowing clothes.『Reversal Magic』.
Grandfell’s brilliant talent.
Simply by witnessing it, he perfectly understood the interference process of the magic circles. Then he manifested it in reverse order and inverted it. Going beyond suppressing its manifestation, he tracked the mana of the caster who had engraved such magic circles.
“……
U-uaaaaaaagh!”
To prevent them from trying any other tricks, he even manifested Mana Burn.
Their mana evaporated as it was.
To put it simply…….
Now, between me and Pride.
There were no obstacles left.
I raised my sword straight.
Step.
Because I did not want to deal with him half-heartedly.
Truthfully, I had no personal grudge against the demons or Demon Kings I had faced until now, but with you, the story is a little different.‘I will absolutely hunt you down with my own hands.’Did the Claudi settings I scribbled down come first? Or, by a trick of fate beyond mere coincidence, did the brutal history of the Claudi family come to me as chuunibyou?‘Who knows.’Did the Arcana Continent come first?
Or did Chronicles of the Arcana Continent come first?
Even the scholars of the entire world could not provide an answer to that debate.‘How would I know?’But one thing is certain.
Pride, I have a debt I must repay to you.‘Including Grandfell’s share.’So I did not hesitate.
Tap.
I kicked off the ground with all my strength. I was neither careless nor excited. With the same breathing as always, I released sword force (劍罡).
I intended to sever his neck as it was.
“As expected, you remember nothing, Grandfell.”
Yes.
“Have you truly forgotten 『Claudi’s Original Sin』?”
Until I heard those damned words.
Demons are crafty.
Moreover, how crafty must the words of a bastard who sold his own family to demons be? Needless to say, I let Pride’s words go in one ear and out the other.
And if it were the Grandfell I knew, he should not even have listened to such words. The babbling of a demon lower than an insect should not have reached his ears.
And yet…….
It seems I truly understood only forty percent of you, Grandfell. Claudi’s Original Sin. No sooner had those words left his mouth than Grandfell’s feet stopped.
Even though the sword was well within reach of that guy’s throat.
“To think you really forgot.”
My hand would not move.
I wondered if it was a status abnormality, but it was not.
Grandfell had stopped his movements of his own accord.
Pride sneered at such a Grandfell.
“What made you forget?”
An extremely obnoxious face.
“What made the Grandfell under heaven become like that?”
Soon, that gleaming gaze turned toward ‘me.’
“Was it that ‘single ray of light’ that shone upon you that day?”
If he meant that day…….
It was the day Claudi was destroyed. That day, through [Understanding of Darkness], I had saved Grandfell. Perhaps Pride had also noticed something that day.
In that instant, I felt a sense of crisis.‘This might be dangerous.’Because at that moment, it felt as though my senses were floating away.
My vision blurred, and the past and present.
The distinction between them began to grow unclear.
Damn it, at a time like this……?[Your understanding of the curse, ‘Understanding of Darkness,’ greatly increases.][The proficiency of the skill, ‘I Alone Am Supreme in Heaven and Earth,’ greatly increases.]
Grandfell’s past was pushing me out!
The noise grew intense again.
His movements began cutting in and out.‘Just what is Claudi’s Original Sin?’For now, I could not know why merely hearing those words had increased my understanding and proficiency by an unprecedented amount, but……. I gritted my teeth.‘Do not think everything will go according to your plan.’Because Grandfell is not alone.
In the past, there was the intact Akshan.
In the present, there is the Holy War Alliance.
And in the past, present, and future.
In every timeline, there is me.
I, Lee Hoyeol.
My eyes will be wide open and watching.
I forced my mouth open.
“Bite, Tempest.”
“Awooooooo─”
A howl came from outside the mansion.
The Akshan wolf answered with a howl.
“……
I see.”
At that, certainty settled in Pride’s eyes.
As he scattered like smoke, he said,
“Since I have learned what I needed, I shall withdraw for today.”
Is that so?
Then the feeling is mutual.
Because I also learned for certain.
Just what kind of existence you are.‘So the next time we meet, let’s see this to the end.’Within my brightening vision, I witnessed a message.[Side effect of the greatly increased proficiency.][The skill, ‘I Alone Am Supreme in Heaven and Earth,’ runs rampant.][The rampage of the skill, ‘I Alone Am Supreme in Heaven and Earth,’ is halted.]……
Wait.
Rampage?
I was in the middle of rampaging?...……
I returned to reality.
I held onto my brightening vision.
Yes.
Whatever else, fine, Grandfell.
But what exactly did you do while I was struggling inside Understanding of Darkness?
Why is the Demon King of the Ninth Throne.
Paimon, in front of my eyes?
And what on earth did you say?
For Paimon.
For that bastard to be making that kind of face?!