161 – The Story of Becoming a Nightmare for Someone -7-
*
A lightning bolt struck amidst the pouring rain.
-Kurrrang!
The striking lightning created a flash, and a dark smile on the man’s face twinkled before Mikhail’s eyes.
Mikhail gazed at the man before him.
At the scars in his eyes.
His black, jet hair.
That unforgettable smile, Mikhail glared at it with bloodshot eyes.
“…”
Mikhail, with his cold, stiff body, drew his sword towards the man.
It was the first time.
Exhaling the will to live towards someone.
The desire to kill someone.
The impulse to tear apart.
It was all a first for Mikhail.
Bound by the belief in justice, Mikhail, revealing thick muscles, held the sword towards the man.
Mikhail softly shouted at the man.
“I will kill you.”
Mikhail’s voice, filled with intense anger, was locked in seething vitality. In Mikhail’s eyes, fixated on the man before him with a viscous glare, only the emotion of anger remained.
“If only… if it weren’t you… if it wasn’t you!!!”
In his boiling anger, Mikhail spat out his words, and the man responded with a hollow laugh.
“Oh… it’s a masterpiece.”
The man admired the trembling tip of Mikhail’s sword. His creation was so intriguing.
Most of the archbishops of the heretics were broken in some way.
Some with excessive inferiority.
Others with twisted art.
And the man before him, fixated on the emotion of revenge, was the archbishop of the heretics.
Standing in the falling rain, the man smiled.
“How about it? Seeing me, does your heart boil with rage?”
“…”
“Right?”
“…”
The man reminisced with a nostalgic gaze, as if recalling beautiful old memories.
“Remember when you ‘stabbed’ that little boy’s belly back then?”
“Shut up.”
“Back then, your expression was priceless, breathing heavily, hands trembling ‘trembling…'”
“…Shut up.”
The man, shaking his own hand, mimicked Mikhail’s actions. In an adult’s imitation of a child’s crying face while stabbing, Mikhail impulsively swung his sword.
“I said shut up!”
The man lightly dodged Mikhail’s sword and took a step back.
“Ouch. Dangerous. It’s sharp now.”
Looking at the rising Mikhail’s anger, the man smirked slightly and taunted, “I knew you had talent. Back then when I ‘plunged’ the knife… Ah, this guy is something. I thought.”
“Shut up… Shut up!”
Mikhail swung his sword in all directions in an explosion of emotions.
The man, with sharp eyes, pulled out the dagger tucked in his bosom and approached Mikhail’s abdomen.
At the moment the man’s dagger was about to pierce Mikhail’s abdomen.
“Wake up. Senior!”
With a fierce shout, Hanna’s sword swiftly moved towards the man’s neck.
The man chuckled, looking at Hanna.
“What’s this now? Two users of Aura? Well… the world is going crazy.”
Muttering, “There are many talents in the academy,” the man, wearing a troubled expression, sighed deeply and raised both hands.
“I can’t do this.”
The man tried to retreat.
Hanna, without releasing the sword, only gazed at the man.
Because the man was smiling.
Seeing the man’s eyes constantly moving, trying to find an opening, Hanna swallowed nervously and gripped the sword, saying to Mikhail.
“Wake up. Senior.”
“It’s my job…”
“Wake up.”
Hanna said to Mikhail in a soft voice.
“It seems you’re the target, senior. Focus on defense.”
“I’ll kill…”
“Wake up!”
Mikhail hesitated.
Not wanting to lose sight of the man in front of him.
In the tense situation where goosebumps seemed to cover his whole body, the man smiled and said, “What are you doing? Run away.”
“Why aren’t you running?”
“You’re good at this, aren’t you?”
“Why?”
“Why aren’t you running!”
With a loud shout, the man rushed towards the ground.
Reacting belatedly to the sudden attack, Mikhail stumbled and swung his sword, but the man did not miss Mikhail’s opening.
With a thud, the man grabbed Mikhail’s neck and threw him against a giant tree.
“hahahahaha! I told you to run, you should have. Did you leave a teddy bear like last time!”
Grimacing, Mikhail wiped the red blood flowing from his mouth with his sleeve and lifted the sword.
Without waiting for Mikhail, the man charged again, hitting the ground once more.
Han-na was running at a fast pace when a group of heretics blocked her path, and a man stood in front of Mikhail holding a sword.
***
“Finally, only two of us left?”
The man gripped the dagger in his hands from his bosom and slowly walked towards Mikhail.
“Feeling upset?”
The fatigue emanating from Mikhail’s body was gradually fading away.
It was due to the sudden consumption of mana caused by his inability to control his emotions.
The man smiled as he watched Mikhail’s fading fatigue and with a loud ‘clang!’, he threw himself towards Mikhail.
An endless battle had begun.
-Clang!
The clash of swords between the man trying to cut off Mikhail’s breath and Mikhail trying to cut off the man’s breath echoed heavily through the forest.
As the man’s sword met Mikhail’s sword, the trees in the forest shook, and the man’s smile grew even deeper.
“Good!”
“…”
“I want you to fight with a look that says you want to kill me even more!”
Mikhail gritted his teeth and wielded his sword as if he wanted to grant the man’s wish to die.
“Ugh!”
The man smiled as he parried Mikhail’s attack.
“hahahahaha! It’s fun. It’s so much fun!”
“Shut that mouth of yours!”
“Sigh… It’s so exhilarating. I made the right choice to spare you back then.”
The man, who swiftly caught up with Mikhail’s sword, dripping with cold sweat, spoke towards Mikhail.
“Do you know that?”
In a low, soft voice.
Whispering towards Mikhail.
The man said,
“You ran away, and that brat stayed behind.”
“…”
As soon as the word ‘brat’ came out of the man’s mouth, a small crack started to appear on Mikhail’s face.
Brat.
He wondered what happened to the boy who stayed behind after he ran away.
The man noticed the slight change in Mikhail and, swinging his sword vigorously, whispered once again into Mikhail’s ear.
“Was he alive?”
“What…?”
“He held onto my leg so desperately. I stepped on his face several times, but he didn’t even flinch.”
“No.”
With a ‘hehehe’, the man’s laughter caused a massive crack to start forming on Mikhail’s face.
At the trembling end of Mikhail’s sword, the corners of the man’s mouth were quivering.
“Originally, you wanted to kill me too.”
“You wanted to kill him and me. That was the plan, wasn’t it?”
“But.”
The man once again spoke towards Mihail.
“He wouldn’t let go!”
Mihail yelled in response to the man’s words.
“Shut up…!”
Mihail’s attack with the sword, accompanied by a scream filled with rage, was swaying with emotions.
His words could be lies.
He knew it could be a tactic to distract his focus, but the fluctuating emotions were not something Mihail could resolve.
If it was that boy.
If so, he thought he would have done enough.
If it was the boy who did good without any reward…
“aaargh!!! I’ll kill you!”
He thought it could happen.
Mihail shouted, spewing out boiling anger. Like someone possessed, he vigorously swung the sword, unleashing the flower of death in front of him to kill the man.
Mihail, growing.
Yet the man, at this moment, without hiding the twitching corners of his mouth as if finding the situation amusing, spat out a smirk.
“Yeah! So how would I know what I did?!”
“…”
“How would I know what I did to that little brat who seemed almost about to die any second?!”
“aaargh!”
The man, spitting laughter as if watching an amusing play, casually continued.
“Sold him to the heretics?”
“…”
“You know too, right? What those people do to civilians. You’ve heard the rumors and know.”
“…”
Seeing Mihail’s trembling pupils, the man mocked him with a big laugh.
From Noble mtl dot com
“You didn’t know about the famous rumor?”
“What can I do for that poor kid?”
The man took a deep breath and swung the sword vigorously.
“Not even knowing if he was burned alive in the mountains.”
The man’s dagger, cutting through Mihail along with the tree, split the air with a loud, piercing sound.
With a ‘thud,’ Mihail’s body staggered. The man kicked Mihail’s body and spoke.
“They said they’d spare him if he just breathed.”
“…”
“So he was sold.”
-Clang!!!!
“While you’re enjoying warmth! Perhaps he can’t even drink water underground.”
-Crash!
“Waiting for the rescue team!”
-Silence.
The man smiled as he looked at Mikhail’s sword that had come to a stop.
“Burning to death. You didn’t know, did you?”
The bright aura flowing from Mikhail’s body had come to an end. There was no more magic left, no more strength to endure.
Mikhail gazed at the man with a disappointed expression.
The man, feeling exhilarated by Mikhail’s trembling lips as he bit them, smiled and said, “How does it feel?”
“Stop it…”
“Isn’t it fun?”
The man brought a dagger towards Mikhail’s neck and said. Mikhail, pouring out all his strength, held the sword with trembling hands but, sadly, he didn’t move.
“Send my regards to that little brat.”
And the man thought to himself, ‘He might be dead.’
As the man’s blade swiftly brushed against Mikhail’s neck, Mikhail closed his eyes and tears streamed down his face.
“Goodbye.”
Just as the man’s dagger was about to touch Mikhail’s neck,
“Stop.”
The cold voice of the man made him freeze in place.
– Hesitation.
The man turned his head stiffly and looked behind him. Feeling a chilling presence as if his whole body would stiffen.
With an eerie aura that could be mistaken for a killer, the man turned his head and saw a young man wearing a mask standing before him.
The young man in the black mask smiled at the man.
Wearing a black robe, the young man who simply gazed at him made the man feel like his body was turning cold.
The terror hanging over his neck.
Feeling as if his head would fall off with the slightest movement, the man swallowed hard and gazed at the young man.
And Mikhail slowly opened his closed eyes.
– Kid.
It was a shadow that obscured the darkness.
The fear of death.
A massive back covering the gloomy mood.
Mikhail, in a momentary illusion of seeing the boy’s back, squeezed the handle of the sword, tears streaming down his face.
‘Again… with this brat.’
Mikhail, who received help from the man he detested the most, bowed his head in mounting shame and let go of the sword.
– Clank.
After a long silence, the young man slowly spoke up.
“How about we call it quits and go back?”
The man, with trembling eyes, said to the young man, “And if I refuse?”
“Then you die.”
You madman.
The man spat out a bitter laugh and said to the young man.
“Just one question. What is your identity?”
“I am human.”
“No…”
The man said with disgust.
“What kind of human are you?”
The young man replied with a sly smile.
“I am their protector.”