This was the Space of Ordeal.
Within the memories of Abelard Pavlenko.
The surging abyss rushed in with the darkness.
By now, it was a sight he had grown quite accustomed to.
A war in which the abyss and humanity clashed.
A scene where bright aura and pitch-black darkness collided.
Of course, what overwhelmed the other was the darkness.
“Gaaaaah!”
Darkness swallowed the light.
The abyss dragged humans in, and the knight covered by it was stained by the abyss in an instant.
“Ghhhrr……”
His death cry turned into a blackened wail, his body twisted, and with the whites of his eyes dyed wholly black, the direction he advanced in became the opposite.
“H-Hallian! Snap out of it! It’s me!”
The sword of the knight who had been facing the darkness now pointed at his comrade, toward his friend.
The knight not yet stained by the abyss let out screams over and over again before finally cutting down the thing that was twisting black.
With his eyes bloodshot red and blood dripping from his chewed lips, he cut down with his own hands the comrade, the friend, who had fought shoulder to shoulder with him until moments ago.
“Uaaaaaagh! You bastards, even chewing you up wouldn’t be enough!”
The feast of aura swung in a rage did not last long.
For inflamed emotions were nothing more than delectable prey for the abyss.
The moment the abyss touched the gap that opened in that way, he too became the abyss.
Darkness, the abyss, expanded its territory in that manner.
Of course, there was also light that stood against it.
「Skill - ‘Summon Reaper’ is active.」
「All skills are sealed.」
It was an exceedingly powerful light.
The light of hope that burned away the darkness.
“Flare.”
Kwaaaaang—!
A pillar of fire surged upward.
A beam of frost carved a deep wound into the encroaching darkness, and fierce explosions erupted in succession, creating openings in the darkness.
Those openings were quickly filled again by the abyss that followed, but this was hope.
“The great mage is with us!”
“Hold back the aberrations! Do not retreat, no matter what!”
It was hope that swept away the darkness in their hearts.
* * *
The beings that had once been living creatures but had now become the abyss still retained energy like the mana they had possessed in life.
Rather, stained by the abyss, that energy had become stronger.
The Reaper harvested such things and delivered them to Hio.
“Kkingkking.”
At Hio’s call, the Reaper behind him swung its scythe once more.
An immense energy caught on its edge.
That soon became mana and poured into Hio, and even though he was producing magic without pause, mana overflowed so much that a faint haze rose around his body.
—Your casting speed has increased tremendously.
Purnell’s voice rang low in Hio’s head as he was too preoccupied with creating magic to think of anything else.
—It may only be possible because mana is being supplied continuously without regulation, but it is a marvelous speed.
As he said, Hio’s magic had advanced by leaps and bounds compared to before he entered the Space of Ordeal.
What mage in the world had ever poured out magic for hours without rest?
The 4th Circle and 5th Circle spells he unleashed in a trance were reaching a realm beyond simple proficiency or mastery.
—You surpassed the level of an ordinary mage long ago, but…… I do not know what to call this.
A 5th Circle spell involved handling at least more than a hundred symbols.
It was a single work completed by distributing mana to each of them without the slightest error, drawing out the precise power, and blending all of it together.
Hio was stamping those out by the second.
—A monster is being made.
He continued without pause to unleash 5th Circle magic, said to be capable of overturning the course of a battlefield.
He had poured it out continuously for hours.
—I wonder if there will be no side effects……
His mana was infinite.
If he wished it, his stamina was infinite as well.
The top-tier skill, Summon Reaper, was a skill with such an enormous penalty that all other skills were sealed.
The more opponents there were, the more infinite energy he obtained—an absurdly overpowered ability.
But that was only an external factor.
No matter how infinite the power one obtained, the mind of the human using it was not infinite.
Even a strong knight trained for decades, even a mage who had studied for decades, had limits to their mental strength.
And yet, look at Hio Pavlenko.
Was he not firing infinite magic to match his infinite mana?
As though his mental strength, too, were infinite.
Even though there was no way that could be true.
—Come to think of it, that hidden trait is strange as well.
Patience was difficult to raise.
They had tried nearly every method, but even when deliberately grinding Patience, the efficiency was atrocious.
Yet had there not been times when such Patience rose by the hundreds in a single instant?
Looking back, those moments had something in common.
It had happened when the villagers of Delpir Village died, and when his first teacher, Berga Pavlenko, died.
It had happened when Princess’s Knight Theordo was cut to pieces after facing a legion alone, and when he had to break the mission of the knight who had protected the dragon for a thousand years.
A Patience stat that rose by only 1 or 2 at most even after enduring terrible pain for hours rose by the hundreds in those situations.
And so, after hesitating for a short while, Purnell asked.
—Are you…… truly all right?
Hio had never once shown his emotions greatly.
He had always confirmed them only through the Patience value, always simply passed them over with indifference, and had never once shed tears or vented his fury.
Even before Berga’s grave, which he had visited after so long, and even when he had to kill the dragon.
Even before the gruesome corpses of the academy students, and even before the death of the villain whom the whole world had pointed fingers at.
Had he not always endured, endured, and endured?
How worn down had his mind become now?
A trait that made him stronger only by enduring.
Just who, just what was such a trait for?
Was that mind that had endured so much truly…… all right?
He asked that, but.
“……”
No answer returned.
It was because Hio had fallen into a trance.
As though the only thing he had to do was pour out magic, he madly fired spell after spell at the abyss.
Thus, even this war advanced toward victory.
In the process, countless people died, and many were stained by the abyss, but in the end, it advanced toward victory.
This was the Space of Ordeal.
Within the memories of a great mage from long ago, already past.
Therefore, all the people here were beings of the past, not people alive in the present.
“W-we won……!”
“The darkness…… the aberrations are retreating!”
“Waaaaaaaah!”
And yet, despite that, a faint smile spread across Hio’s lips.
“We, we did it!”
“We held them off again!”
After several more hours of battle, the abyss retreated once again.
Even though he had not annihilated all of the abyss as he had before, it withdrew on its own.
Seeing that, the knights and soldiers embraced one another and rejoiced.
At the sight of them, Hio too smiled and rejoiced with them.
The darkness retreated, and blue sky once again adorned its place.
“You have worked hard, Lord Pavlenko.”
Though it was only a brief victory, a victory was still a victory.
King Leorant also approached Hio’s side with a faint smile.
For a single defeat would lead directly to destruction, and yet the fact that he was glad remained true.
“This victory, too, owes a great deal to you.”
He praised Hio with a smile.
But the smile had already vanished from Hio’s face.
「You have overcome the trial.」
「You have succeeded in clearing the Space of Ordeal.」
It was not because the message had appeared.
Nor was it because, in the end, he could not know what conclusion the unworthy king had met.
Rather, it was for the opposite reason.
“Lord Pavlenko. I will apologize for the unreasonable request I made the other day. You must not have felt at ease either, so I am sorry. The only thing an unworthy king could do was something like that……”
It was because he had begun to see what conclusion this unworthy king had met.
It was because the darkness was surging in once again.
Behind the unworthy king speaking to him, above the rejoicing knights and soldiers, and perhaps even behind Hio himself.
The abyss was approaching.
The abyss had not retreated.
It had waited.
So that it could rush in not from the front, but from every direction.
What was flying toward them from far away with beating wings was undoubtedly dragons.
Seven dragons stained by the abyss.
And what surged in from every direction with them at the forefront was unmistakably the aura of the abyss.
An enormous mass of abyss itself.
To make matters worse, directly overhead, a dense shadow had begun to fall over the sky.
It was a giant eye.
The eye of the Watcher he had once seen before.
The bizarre, gigantic eye that existed in the abyss.
“W-what is that……!”
Only then did King Leorant, the rejoicing knights, and everyone who had survived the battlefield look up at the sky.
「Trial - ‘The Unworthy King’s Conviction’ is ending.」
「The Space of Ordeal is collapsing.」
The world sank into darkness.
The ordeal of hardship had ended.
[Hidden Trait: Violence Is Bad! (Patience: 811 / 1000)]
* * *
The Infinite Space.
A place where monsters poured out endlessly, just as its name implied.
Therefore, with the exception of the places where the knights and possessed ones were holding out, everything was covered entirely in black Abyss Monsters.
Would it feel like this to fight an entire kingdom alone?
That was how numerous the enemies were, and how difficult they were to handle.
“Damn persistent bastards!”
On top of that, just how tenacious were they?
They threw their whole bodies forward as if they were some noble knights, to the point that it was absurd.
Naturally, the situation was close to the worst.
An uncountable number of enemies.
A battle whose end could not be known.
While their bodies, minds, and mana were being depleted in that way.
Kugugugung—
The left gate shook.
The gate that had stood firm even amid the frantic battle shook violently.
At that, the Infinite Space also trembled with it.
“That’s……!”
Naturally, everyone’s gaze turned there.
The enormous black gate shook and shook, until at last it broke apart and collapsed.
The Space of Ordeal was crumbling.
That meant only one thing.
“One of the Spaces of Ordeal has ended!”
It meant that one of the two spaces had been successfully cleared.
And the left Space of Ordeal was where Guardian Knight Hio Pavlenko had entered.
“Get a hold of yourselves! We still don’t know how things will turn out!”
However, they could not simply rejoice.
The right Space of Ordeal still remained.
Soon, the high-grade combat force known as the current emperor’s guardian knight would join them.
That would ease their situation somewhat, but his strength alone could not overturn the current state of battle in an instant.
They absolutely could not let their guard down.
Kugugung—
But when the Space of Ordeal collapsed completely, and one being floated alone in its place, even the knight shouting for them to focus could not help but have his gaze stolen.
“……”
Amid the scattering debris of the gate, darkness sank even deeper.
Though it was an Abyss Space, his vision grew even darker than before.
The collapsed gate.
What became visible there at some point was a pair of glowing red eyes.
A massive Reaper, faintly visible. The shape of death.
And.
Kwaaaaang—!
At the same time, seven pillars of fire surged upward.
Before even that had fully ended, ten more pillars of fire rose again.
Kwaaaaang—!
Explosions erupted everywhere, the ground shook, and blue beams shot forth.
“What in the world is this……?”
It had happened almost simultaneously with the collapse of the Space of Ordeal.
It was only natural that the Abyss Monsters densely packed in every direction were blown apart, torn to pieces, and killed.
Kwaang—!
Kwaaaaang—!
The enormous, indistinct Reaper swung its flashing scythe.
No one could possibly know what effect it had, but one thing was certain: it was no ordinary being.
The immense presence bestowed by an inhuman Reaper.
The tremendous flow of mana that surged every time the Reaper swung its scythe.
And there was only one human who controlled that tremendous flow.
There was no way Vitalianus would not know it.
“You have returned, mage.”
And so he smiled faintly and raised his sword with all his might.
His powerful voice rang out thunderously, covering the Infinite Floor.
This was a cry announcing hope.
The prelude to the counterattack they had endured for.
“The great Guardian Knight, Hio Pavlenko, has returned!”
The knights who had been unable to fight properly, merely holding out as they conserved their mana.
Anxiety must have been blooming in all their hearts, because none of them knew when this would end.
“Everyone! Advance!”
Yet the appearance of a single person was enough to change the entire operation.
“There’s no need to hold out! Pour out every bit of strength you have!”
“Waaaaah!”
The knights, who had only been pushed back endlessly, unleashed all the power they had saved until the very end at once.
Kwaaaang—!
Pillars of fire, and powerful explosions without even the slightest warning, erupted without pause.
It was because they knew that the earth shattering, bone spears firing, and even a giant worm scattering lava as it rampaged were all powers created by a single person.
“Advance! Advance! The guardian knight has returned!”
“The mage is with us!”
Kwaaaang—!
With a single explosion, dozens of Abyss monsters were swept away at the very least.
They were monsters from the middle stage in their own right. Each and every one was stronger than the undead from the Floor of Conquest last time, but before pillars of fire soaring up all at once, within wide explosions that came without warning, none of that meant anything.
In just a few seconds, several spells burst forth, and Abyss monsters were swept away by the hundreds.
“Wipe them all out!”
The space that had been endlessly pushed back and narrowed began to open up, and it went without saying that the knights’ morale rose even higher. On top of that, even better news arrived.
“The right…… the right gate!”
The Space of Ordeal that Antiphus had entered.
That gate, too, began to shake violently and collapse.
“Waaaaah!”
Hope swelled in an instant.
“Kill them all! These tenacious bastards!”
“You cursed pieces of trash!”
Their stamina and mana were clearly nearly exhausted, but the hope that surged rapidly within them miraculously breathed new strength into them once more.
It made their bodies move and gave them the power to sweep away the enemy.
The vast, boundless Infinite Space.
In other words, it did not take as much time as expected to sweep away the Abyss monsters that had packed that place.
It was possible because mighty magic fell in intervals of seconds, continuing without end.
“Antiphus!”
As the number of monsters dwindled and many empty spaces opened up, Antiphus, who had just emerged from the Space of Ordeal, was immediately visible.
He was kneeling on one knee, his entire body soaked in sweat, looking quite exhausted.
Most of the possessors were shocked to see him reduced by half, when he had seemed like a man who feared nothing in the world, but none of them were foolish enough to show it.
“It’s almost over! There isn’t much left! Everyone, muster your strength!”
All the Spaces of Ordeal had been cleared.
With that alone, no more monsters would appear in the Infinite Space.
Now, as long as they killed every last remaining Abyss monster, the conquest of the 53rd floor—short, yet endlessly long—would end in success.
Kwaaaang—!
And even in that moment, Hio’s magic was bursting forth in every direction.
Kwaaaang—!
The end was in sight.
The monsters appearing in the Infinite Space were no longer infinite.
Kwaaaaang—!
But wasn’t Hio Pavlenko’s power truly infinite?
How could a single individual slaughter thousands, tens of thousands of monsters all by himself?
“The great guardian knight is with us!”
“Waaaaaaaah! Sweep them all away!”
“For the glory of Verden!”
The Infinite Space was no longer infinite.
A mage who slaughtered thousands and tens of thousands alone, and Antiphus, called the strongest on the side of the possessors, had joined the battle.
Therefore, cleaning up the remaining Abyss monsters took only a dozen minutes or so from then on.
“……It’s over…….”
“I-it’s really over……?”
“We won! You disgusting monster bastards! They’re finally all dead!”
Not only the possessors, but even the refined knights sank to the floor with a thud.
That was how grueling the battle had been.
Their fatigue, both mental and physical, was beyond words.
“I heard that even Lord Vitalianus acknowledged the guardian knight’s might, but…….”
“This is seriously beyond imagination.”
Low murmurs of admiration could be heard, while knights openly shouted Hio’s name, cheering and chanting.
“You’ve worked hard, mage.”
Even Vitalianus patted Hio on the shoulder with a smile of joy.
“…….”
But Hio did not smile, nor did he rejoice.
From the moment he appeared until now, he had only been staring steadily at one place with the same expression.
“What is the matter with you?”
At that, Vitalianus also turned his gaze to where Hio was looking.
Then he saw one Abyss monster, though he did not know how long it had been there.
“Ah, there was one monster left.”
One Abyss monster, so shabby that no one had even paid attention to it.
Had it appeared at the end, or had it been there all along and simply survived to the end by luck?
He could not be sure, but its appearance was similar to the other Abyss monsters that had appeared on the Infinite Floor.
It looked like a horse and a twisted monster fused together.
Its entire body was dyed pitch-black, and on its back was planted something like a black flag.
There were differences as well.
“Tsk, it seems it was too weak to even register in our senses.”
Its build was so small as to be pitiful.
And the crown it wore on its head.
Something resembling a crown was set atop its twisted head.
“You must be tired, so stay still. Since it is the last one, I will finish it myself.”
A completely blackened, twisted form.
Unlike the other monsters, it was a weakling from which no particular aura could be felt.
How had a monster so shabby, so twisted in such an awkward way, survived until the very end?
“……No.”
Why had the other monsters thrown themselves so madly, leaving only that wretched thing behind?
As if they had wanted to protect it.
“I have to go.”
So he stepped past Vitalianus, who was about to move, and took one step forward.
That awkward, shabby, and pitiful figure was terribly familiar, so he gripped his staff tightly and slowly began to walk.
Mana surged and moved, and the Fifth Circle spell completed at once was Wind Blade.
Invisible blades floated up in the air, moving along with Hio.
—Kraaaaah!
The wretched monster charged with a fierce scream.
The flag stuck in its back, jutting out long, fluttered, and the crown on its head shook.
A flag that no one now recognized.
A crown that held no meaning.
A scream that somehow sounded like a sob.
“Leorant, the last king of Basterion.”
Hio walked toward the charging monster.
“A wretched king who did not fear ugliness.”
The outcome was, of course, obvious.
The blades of wind sliced through the neck of such a small monster all too easily.
“The knees that knelt so pitifully, the tears that flowed without end.”
The head fell in an instant.
It rolled across the ground, tumbling several times.
「You have succeeded in conquering the Abyss.」
A hollow end, much like its appearance.
In the end, the wish of the wretched king could not be fulfilled.
However.
“I will never forget.”
The knees that had knelt abjectly.
The head that had bowed without hesitation.
The tears that had fallen so clumsily, drop by drop.
There was only one thing that could be felt from all of it.
“The noble conviction of the most wretched king in the world.”
It was the firm conviction that he would save them no matter what.
The noble heart that, even if he were to remain the most wretched king, he would not let those he loved die.
That conviction alone had crossed a thousand years and reached Hio.
“I will carry it on.”
Standing there, he quietly looked down at the head rolling on the ground.
The shabby head rolled endlessly away, losing strength before slamming into the earth.
“So now, lay it down.”
Even though it had tumbled so pitifully.
「The 53rd floor sinks into an unfathomably deep abyss.」
「The floor is collapsing.」
The crown written upon its head never fell off until the end.
[Hidden Trait: No Violence! (Patience: 946 / 1000)]