Chapter 70

Like others of his age, Add’s first memory was of a road, and the corpses of monsters scattered along it. He didn’t know where things went wrong, but he was an orphan with the stance of a swordsman etched into his very being, though who taught him remained a mystery.

His first monster subjugation, as he recalled, occurred when he was barely six.

The following year he killed a Lesser Variant, and the year he turned nine, he even subjugated a demon, albeit of the lowest rank.

He wandered aimlessly, hunting Variants and monsters. After subjugating the creatures, those he aided would reward him with salvaged goods or food.

‘Thanks to you, we were able to save our lives.’

‘Our son returned alive. It’s all thanks to you, Add!’

Even as his life stabilized over time, Add did not abandon this path. It was the only thing he could do, but… more than that, he liked the gratitude he received when the work was done.

‘He is the hero of our village!’

And among all the praise, the word ‘hero’ undeniably felt the best.

‘Sir Ad appeared from the sky like a hero…’

‘You are my hero.’

‘I want to be a hero like Sir Ad when I grow up.’

A vagrant known only by a name.

It was a moment of significance bestowed upon a wanderer with no hometown, no parents.

“I want to become a hero!”

Add, addicted to the word ‘hero’, from some point on, began to declare his ambition to become one himself.

No one chided him for so casually tossing around the word hero. He had talent, and he was foolish enough to risk his life for strangers.

It didn’t take long for rumors of the Sword Saint and his party to reach the ears of such a fool. Bearing the title of General, commanding countless soldiers, and constantly achieving merits… they became a grand goal for Add.

Accepting Lex’s proposal to enlist in the military wasn’t for any particular reason.

It was because, by following Lex into the army, even if he was just a stripling, he could be assigned to the duty of escorting a ‘General.’

If he could witness the battles of heroes with his own eyes, he could move one step closer to them.

If he advanced step by step like that… he had no doubt that he would one day become a true hero.

In fact, today, seeing the white-haired boy soaring across the battlefield atop a spirit, he even felt a slight elation at the fact that he had reached the place he had dreamed of.

Finally, he had reached a position where he could watch the battles of true heroes.

He believed that the day would come when he too would become a ‘true hero.’

That is, until this very moment.

“Bill, goddamn it, turn to the right!”

“Don’t try to take them all on! Leave the other three to the Lieutenant! We focus on breaking through the south path! Attack only the entities directly in front of you!”

His feet sank deeper and deeper into the viscous mud.

A massive hand, stained with blood, moved in search of its second victim. The roar of the enormous mutant seemed to shake him to his core. The masked view felt oppressively close; he couldn’t suppress the urge to rip it off any longer. Finally, Ade tore off the mask.

Poisoned air seeped into his lungs. He felt the venom, now coursing through his veins, rotting the flesh across his entire body.

*Thump!*

A vibration resonated through the mud, rattling Ade’s trapped feet.

Again, in the blink of an eye, someone was dead.

There was no room for hesitation. No time to think. Ade pulled the massive greatsword, nearly as large as himself, from his back and pushed off against the mud that clung stubbornly to his boots, running.

*Thump!*

An earth-shattering tremor echoed from behind.

Menesses was holding back three massive mutants alone, while the soldiers concentrated on the entities appearing from the south. Watching him narrowly evade each attack, continuously peppering them with arrows, made Ade’s eyes dart back and forth, torn by the desire to rush to his aid.

‘Focus. If we kill the ones in the south, the Lieutenant will have a way to escape. Trust him, all we can do now is trust the Lieutenant.’

Ade clenched his teeth and slammed his foot down hard. Chunks of mud erupted in all directions. No hesitation marred his stance.

*Crack!*

Ade’s greatsword flew forward, striking the arm supporting the mutant’s body. It felt like hammering steel. The massive blade barely pierced the skin, tearing away flesh, but failing to reach its solid bone.

Ade hurriedly wrenched the greatsword free.

The blinded mutant flailed its arm wildly.

Once, twice, and three times.

The uncontrolled swinging generated a powerful gale, scattering the mud that had been holding Ade’s feet, sending it dancing through the air.

Ade ducked quickly.

Thankfully, the giant arm failed to graze Add’s body. A stroke of luck.

“Uwaaa!”

A roar, almost a scream, erupted from behind him. A soldier wielding two longswords kicked off the mud and leapt high, charging towards the behemoth’s brow, right between the eyes.

Silhouetted against the storm clouds, his form as he soared upward was nothing short of a hero’s farewell.

*Thwack!*

And that hero, the next instant, was rendered utterly formless.

The mutant’s immense hand, with a roar, seized the charging soldier like a tiny water balloon and burst him.

“……”

Add felt two emotions simultaneously.

The first was terror, and the second, a bewilderment.

The mutant had precisely snatched the soldier from the air with a single hand and crushed him. As if it could see. Yet, the lieutenant’s arrows had completely ruined the mutant’s eyes.

Did it possess hidden eyes?

No, that seemed unlikely.

The mutant had clearly flailed wildly, like a blind man, when attacking Add.

The mutant’s eyes were most certainly gone. How, then, had it known the soldier’s exact location and seized him to crush him?

Just as the question filled his mind, yet another person roared and charged towards the thing.

“Son of a b*tch!”

It was a soldier with a thin, sharp sword.

He clambered onto the gigantic fist oozing blood and, clawing at its skin with his blade, raced toward its brow.

*Thump!*

The Variant raised its right arm, the one holding its weight, then slammed it down on its left. Like swatting a mosquito swollen with blood.

*Crack!*

Even Ad’s blade couldn’t touch it, but the Variant’s hard, massive bone splintered, jutting out from under its arm. It had struck itself so fiercely, it had shattered its own limb.

From the gargantuan arm, venomous blood erupted.

None of that toxic ichor splashed on Ad. Again, luck was with him.

Then, like a whale beached, the heavy body began to fall.

This foolish Variant had lifted both arms from the ground, desperate to seize the soldier clinging to its limb.

Of course, the colossal body, robbed of its supports, would plummet to the earth.

*Thump!*

Tons of flesh and bone slammed into the mud, gouging deep. The Variant thrashed, its arms coated in vibrant, scarlet blood, struggling to free itself.

“…”

Soldier’s blood sprayed, speckling Ad’s eyes.

“…”

Ad’s heart hammered in his chest.

He felt a strange bewilderment creeping up.

How could it swing so accurately, despite its ruined eyes?

Unlike the soldiers who died meaninglessly, how had he survived?

“Damn it!”

Before that question could fully form, a blade flew toward the Variant’s brow, now pressed against the ground. Another soldier, sword raised high, charged in, taking the place of Ad, who remained frozen, searching for answers in his mind.

The thin blade tore through the Variant’s brow, ripping skin and flesh. The hilt slammed home, but it fell woefully short of the skull.

The soldier, as if it were the most natural thing, plunged the thin blade and then shoved his arm through the rent in the hide.

Still, the blade found no purchase on the skull.

Again and again, the soldier rammed his arm through the mutated creature’s torn flesh. When the skull remained stubbornly out of reach, he wedged in his shoulder, soon committing his entire body to the interior.

Green blood coated the soldier, and a wave of agonizing dissolution engulfed him.

*Tssshhh…!*

The soldier who’d rammed the blade into the creature’s brow was steeped in poison. His leather armor melted and fused with his own skin.

“Son of a b*tch, son of a biiiitch!”

A scream tore through the air. The soldier’s words, soaked in venomous blood, grew increasingly slurred. Even in that brutal torment, he did not loosen his grip on the blade.

Instead, he drove the thin, sharp edge even deeper…

And then.

From within the monster’s split hide, no screams remained.

“…”

Despair.

There was no time to indulge in such sentiments.

‘…Screams, roars.’

What was it that allowed the blinded monster to pinpoint the soldiers’ locations with such accuracy?

A thread of understanding flickered in his mind.

“…”

Ed rose from the mud floor, hefting his greatsword.

Adrenaline flooded his thoughts. His hands and feet trembled.

Ed held his breath, bracing his arms, and moved forward, slow and deliberate.

*Whoosh!*

A carelessly swung limb of the mutant brushed past his hair. A flick of ill fate, and his skull would have been cleaved.

Before Ed’s eyes, the wound left by the valiant soldier revealed itself.

The mutant still floundered, its arms flailing against the ground, struggling to pull its body from the deep mire.

Silently, Ed raised his greatsword and approached the floundering mutant’s torso.

The distinct gash etched into its massive brow came into view. Around the blade mark, the crimson blood of the valiant soldier remained.

‘…If I thrust the blade through this gap, will this monster truly die? I’ve heard some mutants lack any vital point.’

His mind raced.

‘What’s the probability of a brain existing between these brows? Or does it even have a brain in the first place?’

Meaningless questions plagued his thoughts.

Yet, for Ed, there existed no other option than to plunge his blade into the massive fissure left by the preceding warrior.

“…”

Holding his breath, Ed drove the blade forward.

Did it feel no pain? The mutant showed no reaction. Only green blood seeped out.

Ed slowly canted the blade sideways. The slender crack widened to the breadth of the greatsword.

…Not far beneath, the dissolving corpse of a soldier and a thin blade were visible.

Ed slashed the blade sideways.

Flesh tore, and blood erupted.

The colossal mutant continued only to flail, striving to lift its body from the mud.

‘This variant doesn’t feel pain. The fact it kept its eyes open even after taking an arrow proves it.’

A vast cavern opened before Ad’s eyes. From the ceiling, poison-laced blood dripped, and at his feet, pools of green stagnated.

‘Even after losing its eyes, it could pinpoint our location because of its roar. If we don’t make a sound, this monster won’t know where we are.’

Ad slipped quickly into the cavern, then carved away more flesh.

‘Silence, just silence. We might be able to handle this surprisingly easily.’

The poison falling from the ceiling melted the flesh of his shoulder and arm, but he stifled a groan.

Soon, his skull was exposed, and without hesitation, Ad plunged his blade into it.

Where the skull shattered, the brain was revealed. As befitting its massive size, the brain was as large as a house.

No time to deliberate over where, exactly, to carve to kill this thing.

*Crack!*

Ad immediately began churning the massive brain with his greatsword. Like a jellyfish pierced by a blade, a fluid flowed from the brain, and it soon slumped like a deflated balloon.

*Thud!*

The sound of a giant arm falling limply to the ground.

“……”

Ad held his breath as he walked back out. To inhale carelessly within the mutant’s body would rot his lungs.

“Everyone, these things don’t feel pain! Their vision is gone, and sound…”

Ad gasped for air as soon as he emerged, ready to speak. He had to tell the surviving soldiers the weaknesses he’d discovered.

“…Just be careful of sound…”

But there was no one left to hear him. Only corpses and organs, fragments of arms and legs, lay buried in the mud.

“…Good work, Private. Keen insight.”

Through the dissipating smoke, a voice, cold and barren, cut through the air. The mage, clad in a wine-colored robe, bore only traces of mud upon his person.

“We move. More variants will soon swarm. Perhaps even a demon. We must return to the unit with utmost haste.”

Bell, without so much as a glance at those remaining on the battlefield, immediately set off southward.

“…The others.”

Bell ignored Aed, continuing his advance. He needed to flee the scene of the chaos as quickly as possible.

Aed stared blankly at the battlefield. The pain of his melting skin was overwhelmed by the silence of the warzone.

There was nothing.

Where the colossal, whale-like variant had passed, only dust and earth remained. The remnants of buildings, branches, shards of broken steel—all were buried deep within the soil.

It took Aed more than a full minute to comprehend that nothing remained.

It didn’t make sense. His mind simply couldn’t grasp the situation surrounding him.

“…”

When his senses returned, Aed found only emptiness within his heart. He slowly turned his gaze, searching for the elven lieutenant who had single-handedly faced three enormous variants.

His lower body was severed from his torso, his entire being tainted green by poison.

The corpses of the monsters flanking him were riddled with hundreds, thousands of arrows, a virulent toxin flowing like blood from the wounds.

…While he and the other soldiers barely managed to dispatch a single variant at the cost of their lives, the elven lieutenant had apparently dealt with all three on his own.

“We should, at least, recover the bodies…”

Those who perished here were all valiant warriors who had not lost their fighting spirit even in the face of death.

Noble souls who could sacrifice their lives for the greater good, heroes who had always lived to save others.

They were not meant to be left as nameless chunks of meat on this filthy, desolate battlefield.

“Can you even tell who is who? In cases like these, not recovering the bodies is a greater kindness to the bereaved.”

Already far ahead, Bell spoke coldly to Add, who was senselessly churning up the ground.

A ringing, it tore at Add’s ears.

“……”

Add watched Bell’s back as she walked on, impassive, without a word.

How could she be so indifferent? Watching her subordinates die before her eyes, doing nothing? Is she even human?

Countless questions swirled within his head. Pain blossomed. His hands, his limbs, even his head began to throb.

The hand holding the greatsword trembled, and Add dropped the thick, heavy mass of iron.

The colossal greatsword, as large as a human torso, was abandoned there on the battlefield.