Death Flag

Isabelle’s question was perfectly reasonable.

My actions leaned, quite obviously, toward saving Isabelle.

She wasn’t some oblivious heroine, after all.

Therefore, she had come to realize, through all the circumstances,

that the person standing before her was not Hannon, but someone else she knew.

*Squeeze-*

When I didn’t answer, Isabelle gripped my collar.

“I don’t know how you see me.

I was already broken once, and wanted to follow Lukas in death.

After that, I overlapped you with Lukas. No, perhaps that influence still lingers even now.”

Isabelle’s closed eyelids trembled.

The anxiety she harbored was now visible, a little clearer.

Isabelle had lost first her brother, and then Lukas, in the past.

She relied on me to rise again.

If *I* were to falter, Isabelle would fall into agony once more.

Before I knew it, I had become a pillar of support for Isabelle.

Even if I couldn’t be the sun, I would be the moon.

I had finally achieved my aim.

But the price was, once again, tightening its grip on Isabelle.

Right now, we are facing a crisis where we could lose our lives.

That’s why Isabelle’s anxiety had reached its peak.

She feared my demise more than her own.

Her sincerity, that she absolutely did not want to lose me.

That sincerity was clearly felt.

“So tell me,”

Isabelle opened her lips with aching tenderness.

“Who are you?”

“I am…”

But my lips remained sealed, unable to move.

Was it truly alright to reveal my true self to Isabel now?

Bikeman was a character who had already exited the stage.

And a character who had committed vile acts against Lucas before his exit.

Bikeman and Lucas had a promise between them.

But no one could know how that would feel to Isabel.

With Seron, a person outside of the scenario, revealing my identity had no impact, so I readily did so.

However, Isabel was a central figure in the scenario.

Depending on her mental state, it would have an effect.

Was revealing the truth right?

Was hiding it right?

The hesitation didn’t last long.

I raised my head and looked at Isabel.

Isabel’s vermillion eyes met mine and shone brightly.

I trusted the Isabel I had seen.

And I trusted the path I had walked until now.

If it was Isabel, she would understand who I was.

That wasn’t because she was the main heroine of Flame Butterfly’s arc.

It was because of the Isabel I had personally seen with my own two eyes until now.

“Isabel.”

The moment I called her name and opened my lips.

I pulled Isabel towards me and immediately leapt forward.

“Eek!”

KWAhhh!

As we rolled across the floor, the wall behind us shattered into pieces.

Dozens of arms, much longer than a person’s height, shot out from the gap.

Amidst the thick smoke.

A face in the center of the arms blinked its eyes.

The timing was absolutely filthy.

A Named Apostle, Dark Hand.

As expected of the 8th floor, Named Apostles were sprouting up like mushrooms everywhere.

Isabel and I sprang to our feet at the same instant.

“Isabel, I’ll promise you one thing.”

I exhaled, right hand extended forward.

“If we get out of here alive, I’ll answer that question for you.”

Isabel’s eyes widened.

Her face, so dark just moments before, instantly regained its strength.

Her gaze transformed in a heartbeat, Isabel leveled her sword.

“You better keep that promise, you hear?”

A goal had been set: to return alive.

That alone could make a person strong.

In that instant, the Hand of Shadow moved once more.

Dodging the hand that pursued us, we immediately bolted, pounding down the stone floor.

“Can you shake it off?”

“Impossible. The Hand of Shadow has a unique characteristic – it’s a stalker. Once it locks onto a target, it’ll follow it until it dies!”

“Sounds like the worst possible scenario.”

Just our luck.

Unlike the apostles confined to specific sectors, the Hand of Shadow was the only one that roamed freely, without restriction.

Encountering it was purely a matter of chance.

And we had just won that lottery.

It figured we were attacked outside of an apostle’s sector.

“What do we do? Take it down?”

“No, we’re already low on stamina. If we drag out the fight here, we won’t make it back.”

We rounded a corner, and the Hand of Shadow scuttled after us, unnervingly fast, clinging to the floor.

The sight of it using its countless hands as legs was utterly grotesque.

“So?”

“Originally, the plan was to slip out as quietly as possible, but…”

The situation had changed.

The Hand of Shadow wouldn’t stop until either it was dead or we were.

There was only one way to lose it.

“Isabel, follow me! I have an idea!”

He knew the 8th floor like the back of his hand, every twist and turn.

I could navigate it without hesitation, taking the shortest route.

*KWAANG! KWANG!*

The shadowy hand chasing us ravaged everything around.

The walls it touched corroded, melting away.

These damned Apostles, they were all about raw killing power, nothing but dangerous b*stards.

“You!”

*THWACK!*

Isabelle tugged at my arm in that instant.

The moment she grabbed me, my steps reflexively halted.

*KWaaaNG!*

The wall crumbled where we’d been about to step, and the shadowy hand’s arm burst through.

If I’d taken even a single step forward, I’d have been caught and shattered to pieces.

Isabelle saved me.

But there was no time for thanks.

The shadowy hand was bearing down from behind as well.

Blocked in front, blocked behind.

I took a long stride forward.

Isabelle understood my intention, instantly wrapping her arms around my waist.

The light of the magic sigils etched into my soles reached its peak.

*KWaaaNG!*

With the explosion of the magic sigils, Isabelle and I leaped skyward at incredible speed.

We sailed over the shadowy hand’s arm blocking our path, a fierce wind battering us.

We landed on the ground below.

*KoooNG!*

As our feet hit, we were both thrown forward.

And then, as if Isabelle and I were one being, we simultaneously extended a foot and pushed off the ground, sprinting.

For the two months we spent escaping the Demon Palace, our synchronization had reached its peak.

We could tell what the other would do with just a glance.

Forced to match each other while risking our lives to escape the Demon Palace, there was no other choice.

We ran, endlessly synchronizing our breaths.

The hand of darkness unleashed its furious assault, yet it could not halt our path.

But even with perfectly matched breaths, limits existed.

Isabelle and I, long ago, had reached the end of our stamina.

Our steps felt weighty.

The muscles in my legs screamed for rest, as if on the verge of collapse.

The hand of darkness, conversely, burned with greater intensity, relentlessly pursuing us.

Always just out of grasp, it seemed to grow more spiteful.

Shaking off the shrinking distance proved difficult.

The hand of darkness began to saturate every corner of our path.

Such a commotion.

Surely the other Apostles would soon notice the disturbance.

That would escalate the danger.

We needed to make a move, before that.

“Just… a little further ahead!”

But so little remained.

‘Just around that corner.’

We could lose the hand of darkness.

It was in that instant of judgment.

Above Isabelle’s head.

A red dot became visible.

“Damn it.”

The curse slipped from my lips as I swung my already lifeless left arm.

My left arm, devoid of strength, brushed against the red dot.

Abruptly, the red dot blossomed with light, like a flower opening its petals.

KWAhhh!

With a deafening explosion, my left arm shattered into pieces as Isabelle and I tumbled across the ground.

A violent shock rippled through my entire body.

Even with a body of steel, such an impact could not be ignored.

Rolling on the ground, I must have bitten my tongue, for blood now trickled from my mouth.

But before anything else, I checked on Isabel, still cradled in my arms.

Her eyes, just now regaining focus, betrayed a fleeting loss of consciousness from the shock.

“Y-you!”

Belatedly, Isabel realized I had shielded her.

The attack just now came from the infamous Dark Wasp Marksman, a named Apostle specializing in long-range assassination.

The b*stard reveals not even a whisper of his presence, indiscriminately firing upon anyone who enters his range.

It seems detouring around the grasping shadow-hands, that so persistently blocked our path, led us straight into his territory.

A ringing screams in my ears.

My left arm… I can’t be sure.

There’s the awareness that it was pulverized, but separately, there’s no pain.

It must be the weakened state from the elixir, the nerves are likely damaged as well.

For now, this might even be for the best.

No pain to hold me back.

With my right hand, a ruin of what it once was, I pushed myself up.

“R-run!”

Taking advantage of our fall, the shadow-hands were nearly upon us.

To be caught here is to meet an end worse than death.

*Kwang, Kwang!*

At that moment, the shadow-hands blocked our escape by erecting a wall with their limbs.

I originally intended to use it later, but now’s no time to measure.

The ring on my right index finger began to glow.

Simultaneously, piercing through even the interference of the Demonic Palace, storm clouds gathered above.

“Isabel, protect yourself!”

Come, Lightning Caller.

Divine lightning descends from the heavens.

――――――!

The barrier erected by the shadow-hands collapses, shattered by the Goddess’s lightning.

At the same moment, another magical inscription etched into my skin activates.

The remnants of an ancient dragon, nestled within my body, awaken.

And, with that, the bright yellow eyes of a dragon were etched into my pupils.

(Cheonryonghwa – Heavenly Dragon Bloom)

He forced the current coursing around him deep within.

This way, the lightning wouldn’t touch Isabel.

Instead, the agony intensified, the lightning scars deepening, but he endured through sheer will.

Before the thunderbolt’s influence faded, he reached out and wrapped his right arm around Isabel.

Simultaneously, his body lunged forward, exploding into motion.

The surrounding scenery blurred in an instant.

The Dark Insect Shooter fired a few more rounds, but it couldn’t keep up with his speed.

But there was one.

A single shot he couldn’t avoid.

A guaranteed hit.

A projectile that, no matter the circumstance, would connect and bring him to a halt.

A red line traced its path.

He deliberately extended a leg forward, intercepting the fatal shot.

The bullet slammed into his leg, tearing through the muscle, shattering it into pieces.

Its bizarre piercing power even breached his steel-hardened body.

Truly, a projectile of unparalleled physical penetration.

This… couldn’t be stopped without high-grade magic.

He channeled lightning into the torn flesh.

Forcibly filling the muscle fibers with lightning, fusing the bone back together.

Barely managing to keep his leg from being completely severed, he kicked off the ground.

Once the Heavenly Dragon Bloom ended, his leg would likely tear off, but that didn’t matter.

“Hold on tight!”

He yelled, his body trembling violently, as he rounded the corner.

There, before them, was a colossal chasm of impossible depth.

A gaping hole where the floor had simply ceased to exist.

And he was rocketing towards it.

“…!”

He heard Isabel swallow a silent scream.

*Kuwuung!*

At the very same instant, hands of darkness leaped after us, above the pit.

That stalker b*stard wouldn’t give up, reaching for us until the bitter end.

But he was about to realize what a grave mistake he’d made.

“Farewell.”

The moment the lightning residue within me flared.

Holding Isabel tight, my body lurched forward.

Heaven’s Thunder.

In an instant, my whole being became lightning, piercing the sky.

Traversing the void at a speed my body could barely endure, I managed to reach the opposite ground.

Meanwhile, the hand of darkness flailed uselessly in the air, then plunged into the hole.

A pit created in the past, when Apostle Yunhwi lingered on the 8th floor.

It would be obediently delivered to the 9th floor, to be devoured by Yunhwi.

Touching down, I felt sweat pouring from every inch of my body.

Having desperately used even Heavenly Dragon Bloom, I had almost no energy left.

But we’re nearly there.

Once we pass Yunhwi’s pit, there’s not much road left.

Worth the reckless exertion.

Except, my legs won’t move.

The price I paid for taking that guaranteed hit a moment ago.

As Heavenly Dragon Bloom faded, the bones held together by lightning crumbled, and my muscles began to tear again.

My vision was already blurring.

This is bad.

My body tips forward.

Thud!

A soft sensation bloomed.

I lifted my head, and there was Isabel.

Snow-white goddess wings enveloped me.

I could feel my wounds healing, at least a little.

Just a little further.

So Isabel clearly intends to go all out to escape, then immediately engage the gatekeeper, hence she took out her goddess wings.

She watched me, eyes wide and unblinking from within her wings.

A tempest of emotions raged within them.

“Go, Isa, belle.”

But she forced them down, burying them as she clutched me tight.

“You… you have to keep your promise.”

Isabelle’s arms trembled as she held me.

“So, please, don’t you dare die.”

My consciousness wanes.

In the end, I couldn’t answer. I simply lost consciousness.