The One Rid of Hesitation

A blinding white current of lightning-like energy spread outwards.

Beneath it, I tumbled across the floor in a wretched state.

It was an attack that had exceeded the limits of what my body could endure.

Naturally, the strain was fully borne by me.

But I couldn’t afford to be careless.

This scenario deviated significantly from the original narrative.

Where I could have once been certain of Vulcan’s defeat, this time… who knows?

“Keuh-eck!”

I spat out the rising bile and forced myself upright.

My whole body trembled, a searing ache in my bones.

The price of wielding such excessive power.

I struggled to my feet, straining my eyes to focus on what lay ahead.

As the electrical current dissipated, the silhouette of the man came into view.

There, stood Vulcan, a battered and broken figure.

No matter how powerful Vulcan was, he couldn’t emerge unscathed after being pummeled by draconic magic, divine magic, and even the Goddess’ declaration of victory.

Drip-drip-

Black blood trickled from Vulcan’s mouth.

Proof that the impact had permeated even his inner self.

Yet, Vulcan didn’t fall.

Instead, a dark energy surged and spilled forth from him.

The power he had gained from his contract with the Outer God.

Crack!

But that didn’t last.

The energy that had been flowing from his body scattered and vanished.

The corner of Vulcan’s eye twitched.

Centrio and Akrede had pushed back the Outer God, and finally, Grantoni and Vinesha had reverse-summoned it to the Hidden World.

Vulcan was out of options.

He coughed up blood as he forced himself upright.

“Me, defeated in a place like *this*?”

“What do you mean, ‘just that’?”

I spat out a mouthful of blood-laced saliva.

My body trembled relentlessly, but I fought it down with sheer will, clenching both fists tight.

“I’m giving it everything to bring you down. And to you, *that* is nothing?”

I rouse the dragon’s magic once more.

Even the remnants of the ancient dragon thrashed as if it were too much, but I suppressed it, forcefully drawing out its power.

“If that’s the case, it’s only natural that you fall here.”

A fool who sees the distant future, yet can’t see straight in the present.

With such clouded vision, it’s inevitable you’d lose to me, scrambling and clawing my way forward in the here and now.

I made sure that truth landed with force.

Then Vulkan let out a weak laugh, devoid of joy.

For him, there could be nothing more absurd.

To be on the verge of being finished off not by fellow heroes, but by a nobody he’d never even heard of.

Nothing could be more demoralizing.

But reality cannot be ignored.

“What was your name, again?”

“Hanon.”

“No, forget that name.”

Vulkan seemed to have realized my true appearance.

Well, he’s a wielder of mysteries, so it was no surprise he noticed the gauze of concealment.

In fact, Lucas judged he would be exposed by Vulkan during the infiltration and pulled back.

My eyes flicked to what lay behind me.

Zenia hadn’t grasped the situation here yet, still obscured by lingering smoke.

So I looked Vulkan squarely in the eye, raising my hand.

“Bikerman.”

Having been exiled from the Niflheim family, I saw no need to attach the surname.

Hearing the name, Vulkan hung his head.

“I see. You were not ‘just that.'”

Corrupted flames bloomed once more from his body.

Unlike before, I didn’t sense any powerful heat.

“So, you’re Jerion’s heir.”

Jerion’s heir?

I wouldn’t know about that.

There’s talk that the Niflheim Counts are of Jerion’s bloodline.

After all, Zenia exists, wielding Saint-level magic.

‘And I’m even using the magic of an Ancient Dragon.’

No wonder Vulkan would sense it that way.

“Jerion, it seems your magic was right after all.”

Vulkan muttered to himself, extending both hands.

The corrupted flames, scraped together with such effort, flared violently.

“But I have no intention of collapsing here either. Vikamon, was it?”

The corner of Vulkan’s mouth lifted in a smirk.

Seeing this, my eyes slowly widened.

This b*stard, don’t tell me…

“Until next time.”

With those words, Vulkan clapped his hands together.

In that instant, his entire body burst into flames of corrupted fire.

Vulkan’s new phase three.

Escape.

“Mushika!”

Corrupted flames hold the technique to incinerate the soul.

He intended to burn his own soul, passing the ashes of his spirit into another body to transplant himself.

‘He’s contacted the Reverse World through the Grotesque Being before, so it was possible.’

He fought Lucas to the bitter end, but why is he running away when facing me?

I called for Mushika, but there was no response.

She was undoubtedly preoccupied with shaking off the Grotesque Being in the Reverse World.

I watched the burning Vulkan and bit down hard on my teeth.

That damn b*stard.

Am I going to let the scenario twist here, after coming this far?

I pushed off the ground, running towards Vulkan.

“You?!”

Isabelle’s voice, belatedly grasping the situation, ripped through the air.

In that instant, Sharine and Seron’s promise flashed in my mind.

But I was already reaching for Vulcan.

It’s alright.

I have no intention of dying.

My only purpose now is to stop Vulcan.

As I embraced the raging Vulcan, my body was instantly swallowed by the corrupted flames.

* * *

My receding consciousness slowly returned.

Soon, I opened my eyes to a field.

A field bathed in sunlight.

I stared blankly at the field for a moment before shaking my head to clear my thoughts.

I was just fighting Vulcan.

So why am I here now?

I pressed my forehead briefly, then remembered rushing towards Vulcan.

I had lunged, intending to seize his soul before he could escape.

‘Even I think I was reckless.’

I knew I didn’t care for my own well-being, but I never imagined it was this extreme.

I’m even surprised at myself.

Looking around, I soon realized this place was someone’s grave.

Two tombstones stood in the field.

The tombstones were placed in a sunny spot, appearing peaceful.

As I gazed at them, I heard footsteps in the distance.

I turned my head and saw a man walking towards me.

A man with deep crimson, a hint of rose in his eyes.

In his arms, he carried a bouquet of flowers.

That man… I’ve seen him before.

The intro that appears briefly when Act 5 of the Flame Butterfly begins.

One of the heroes who appears there.

The Fallen Flame, Rozly.

It was the first time seeing him in person, and there he was.

A wind struck.

It scattered our hair in its wake.

Instinctively, I brought my hand up in a knife-hand strike.

Ordinarily, I might have been flustered, but I was here to finish Vulcan.

Rozly stared at me, then finally spoke.

“I didn’t expect you to follow me all this way.”

“I can be rather tenacious. Is this… something like your soul world?”

“No, it’s not *just* my soul world.”

Rozly turned to face me.

“You could say it’s *our* soul world.”

*Our* soul world.

The moment I heard those words, my eyes widened slowly.

Because the hand I’d raised in front of me felt incredibly familiar.

*‘This form…’*

The me who had introduced himself as Ryu.

My appearance in the real world, not the game.

“You introduced yourself as Vikraman, but you look completely different. And your face… it’s unreadable.”

My face is unreadable?

I raised my hand and felt my face.

My nose and eyes were there, as they should be, but it was as though my face was invisible to him.

Rozly trailed off mid-sentence.

“No. Perhaps that’s not entirely true.”

What was that supposed to mean?

I couldn’t decipher it, but Rozly walked towards me.

I didn’t feel hostility.

I stepped back as Rozly continued walking, placing flowers before the family grave.

“There was a time when *I* wanted to save the world too.”

I know.

And so he strove, until at last he was hailed as a hero.

“But the world…it shattered my world.”

Rozly’s family.

Their deaths were owed to the Zebra Kingdom, the very kingdom Rozly had thrown himself into saving.

The Zebra Kingdom had sought to manipulate Rozly to their whim.

Thus, they took his family hostage, sending him out to the battlefields as a mercenary.

Rozly’s former moniker: Mercenary King.

He was the man who, during the Great World War, made his name as Zebra’s Mercenary King.

But by the time Rozly ceased the fighting and returned…

The Zebra Royal Family had already been exposed for the long-ago deaths of his family.

The Royal Family formally apologized, hoping to receive his forgiveness.

The citizens held a procession of mourning for his family, lamenting Rozly’s fate.

But Rozly found that fact all the more loathsome.

He, himself, had not forgiven, yet the world forced forgiveness upon him.

In the end, Rozly let go of the last thread of reason.

He rampaged, seeking to burn the world away, a plan that was foiled by heroes who subdued him.

The world couldn’t bear to announce that a hero had fallen from grace.

Therefore, Rozly’s corruption was swept into the back alleys of history.

That was the process through which Rozly came to resent the world.

“I cannot cease this resentment toward this world.”

Rozly was broken.

All that remained for him was hatred toward the world.

And so, he grafted this hatred onto Vulcan.

The figure before my eyes was Rozly, and Vulcan.

“Why do you struggle so much for this world?”

Why do I struggle for this world?

“Because I already gave up once.”

The day I laid everything down due to my injuries.

At that time, the emptiness I felt…it felt like the world had collapsed.

It’s not as if I particularly desire to be understood by anyone.

It was just that… I felt those emotions.

Therefore, I didn’t want to experience that again.

The Magong Academy Slayer: Flame Butterfly arc was, for me, a second all-encompassing world.

“Aye, it seems you and I can’t bridge this difference, after all.”

Corrupted flames bloomed anew from Vulcan’s form.

“The moment you rushed towards me as I was turning to ash, you and I were forced into sharing a soul realm.”

Before I knew it, the field was dyed pitch black, and light vanished.

Along with it, the sky transformed into a night sky, and an ominous aura pressed down.

“That means when one of us becomes master of this world, they will gain control of the physical body.”

From Vulcan’s forehead, a third eye opened, and that eye shed thick, black tears.

“My reincarnated body has already turned to ash, so all that’s left is your body. I’ll gladly take it.”

“You won’t be so glad once you have it, though?”

I raised the corner of my lips, a hand-blade poised.

“It’s not like this body has anything good besides stamina, anyway.”

Using it yourself will only lead to despair.

Though, of course, I won’t let you use it.

“We shall see.”

Rosleigh, no, Vulcan, grinned, his lips twisting into a ghastly smile.

The final showdown within the soul realm.