Chapter 197. We, Brave
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Paaang!
A crisp impact sound rang out.
After smashing the second barrier stone, I slid to a stop and immediately pivoted.
A field of view that held the entire space.
Kwaaang!
With a thunderous boom, the wall I’d escaped through burst as if exploding, and amid the scattering stone dust, scorching flames surged. And right after that—
Huuuk! Kwang!
An Infernal, charging in without slowing down, slammed its fist into the floor.
I kicked off the ground and leapt up, and at the same time, I didn’t take my eyes off the Infernal.
It, too, seemed unwilling to take its eyes off me—its head twisting kigi-gik as it turned, and over its shoulder, another Infernal lifted its head.
In the short time between leaping into the air and landing again,
I organized my thoughts.
‘For now… that makes two barrier stones.’
The situation itself was going smoothly.
Breaking the barrier stones wasn’t that hard.
The only hard part was maintaining the modified Collision Style—and now I’d gotten somewhat used to even that.
It wasn’t as natural as breathing, but still, inertia had taken hold.
So it wasn’t bad. No—if anything, it was good.
…It should definitely have been.
So why was it? This feeling I couldn’t possibly call “good.”
Tap!
As soon as I landed, I immediately turned and sprinted toward where the third barrier stone was.
Ggeugeuk—!
A familiar tearing sound rang by my ears. As the flames of Scarlet Flame burned away stone dust turned to ash, my eyes flicked back for a glance.
A process that couldn’t be smoother if you only considered the objective of “breaking the barrier stones.”
And yet, I couldn’t call it “good.” The reason was obvious.
‘Now… there are two Infernals.’
Not one.
Two.
When I glanced back and took in the scene, two lumps of fire—so disgusting it made me want to vomit—were jostling and surging as they chased me like mad, and that sight was, truly…
‘This is seriously making me sick.’
When I smash through a wall and run, the Infernals don’t take long before they break the wall I pierced and follow.
If my speed drops even for a moment—
Kwang!
A fist flies in without mercy.
And now it wasn’t just one.
Chased by two masses like this, I could feel it: the barrier stones weren’t the real problem anymore.
‘Right. The barrier stones aren’t the problem.’
Maybe smashing the third and fourth barrier stones wouldn’t be that hard either. So it was fair to say the act of freeing the spirits was already half finished.
But the problem was what came after.
…What was I supposed to do about those lumps?
Honestly, I’d even hoped for this.
‘Maybe… if the Infernals run into each other, they’ll fight?’
You know that saying.
There’s only one ogre per mountain.
Meaning, if ogres’ territories overlap, they fight until one dies—and I’d been hoping for something like that.
But.
‘…Doesn’t seem like it.’
Seeing them charge together in perfect unity, my foolish hope was embarrassing.
Then it meant, just as I first predicted, in the end I’d be chased by a total of four Infernals…
“Friend, is there really no way?”
[Do, don’t know. Infernal, not die.]
I asked just in case, but the spirit—half panicked—was still no help.
Of course, “not die” was very likely not a fact.
‘…They said it was an anti-spirit war weapon.’
That meant that in that era, even if Infernals weren’t common, they weren’t some utterly transcendent existence either.
No—burning spirits itself is fairly transcendent, but it would be more accurate to say its power didn’t reach the insane level of “immortal” and the like.
If so, then there had to be a countermeasure.
‘So what is that countermeasure?’
I didn’t know.
It had no core that a golem ought to have, and even smashing it didn’t stop it from functioning.
Look at yesterday.
I’d completely shattered it to pieces, and it still moved fine.
‘…And it’s not like there’s a caster restoring it, either.’
Infernal was, in many ways, an incomprehensible existence, and my questions deepened.
‘The spirits said they saw an image of me saving them….’
Then how did that future me deal with the Infernals?
Even the spirits didn’t know that part. The future they saw was only the single moment they were freed.
Ah—just for reference, I didn’t think the future the spirits saw was absolute.
I’m just… thinking about a countermeasure for Infernal under the assumption that the proposition “I saved the spirits” is true.
Anyway…
Kwaaang—!
I smashed through a wall with all my strength and burst into a new space. I didn’t slow down. My fist drove straight out.
Jjeoeong…!
Just like what I’d heard earlier, a crisp impact sound rang out. Fragments of the barrier stone scattered through the air.
‘With this… three.’
Ggeugeung—
As the third Infernal—awakening a beat late—turned its body toward me, I didn’t hesitate and sprinted again.
One barrier stone remained.
…And three Infernals were following.
This was not good.
Because I couldn’t exactly rejoin Demian while dragging four Infernals behind me.
‘Damn it.’
Somehow, I had to find a way.
Uuuung—!
The barrier encircling Baharmut’s outer edge became one layer thinner.
On the altar of the great hall, the spirits within the crystal spheres shuddered, trembling at the restraint that had grown thinner.
[Now one….]
Even up to two, the barrier had firmly blocked inside and outside, but now it had lost its power.
Was it thanks to that? The energy of nature, forgotten for thousands of years, slowly seeped into Baharmut’s interior.
Of course, that power was faint.
If the outside’s energy was like a boundless ocean, what seeped in now was only a tiny fraction.
It was so little that Maisellne’s spirits—who lived always within abundant natural energy—wouldn’t even notice the difference.
Maybe to Maisellne’s spirits, inside the ruins or outside would feel no different at all, but to these spirits, it was an enormous change.
And so, as Baharmut’s spirits trembled at the taste of natural energy for the first time in thousands of years—
someone raised their voice.
[Need, find method.]
No one asked what method.
Because at this point, there was only one method that needed to be found.
Infernal—these vicious beings threatening the savior and the savior’s companions. They had to be neutralized.
Right after that, the spirits spoke up one after another.
[Method… none.]
[Kept thinking. But none.]
[Infernal, not die.]
[No. Die. But, now method none.]
Why would they not have tried to think of something?
From the moment Aster smashed the first barrier stone, the spirits—afraid—had been racking their minds for a way to dispose of Infernal.
But there was no method.
No—more precisely, it was right to say there was no “method we can use right now.”
Infernal was a horrific being made by melting down thousands of spirits.
Unlike other spirit golems, it had no core, and it revived endlessly to annihilate its enemies. A weapon made solely for destruction and slaughter.
Spirits who joined relatively late—like the spirit that followed Aster—didn’t know this, but the old spirits knew how humans had countered Infernal.
But.
[Now, cannot.]
[Method, none.]
[Item, none.]
To break Infernal, a special item was needed—but in Baharmut right now, that item did not exist.
In a way, it was no different from immortality.
[Then, what do?]
[Just watch? Die?]
[That sad. Very sad.]
The spirits’ hearts tightened at the bitter reality.
More than the joy of freedom within reach, the fact that the ones who helped them might be in danger weighed heavier.
But then.
[Future, see.]
A spirit’s voice.
[…]
[…]
The spirits fell silent.
[We must. Future.]
The spirit who first opened the topic insisted again.
To save them, they had to see the future.
But it wasn’t easy.
The spirit power consumed in seeing the future was considerable. So even spirits would only see it once in a great while—if at all.
Once they did, in Baharmut—where natural energy was cut off—recovering that power wasn’t easy.
Of course, with the third barrier stone broken, they’d replenished somewhat, but…
The problem was this.
[…Scared.]
[Don’t want see sad future.]
[If no method… then?]
The spirits were frightened.
If they saw the future and still couldn’t find a way to save them? If they ended up in a position where they could only watch an ordained death?
How could they endure that dreadful reality?
But.
The spirit who raised the subject spoke again.
[Still. Must see.]
It was a voice carrying short but intense will.
And that will conveyed more meaning than words could—and the emotion within it was… rebuke.
They are risking their lives for us, and we won’t even try, just because we’re scared?
Persuaded by that emotion, perhaps—
[…Scared. But….]
[Me, brave.]
[Me too, brave.]
Spirits expressing will one by one.
Will that began as a small spark soon rose like wildfire and spread through the spirits.
From spirits who hadn’t been afraid, to spirits who’d been the most afraid, they were moved by that will and steeled themselves one by one.
And so…
[We, brave.]
[Agree.]
When the will of all spirits became one—
[We, see.]
The spirits who had been scattered united their bodies once again with one heart.
And…
Uuuuuung—!
With a resonant hum like thousands of bees beating their wings, a bright mass of light burst out into the wide great hall.
…Of course, it might not go well.
What they could see was only the future with the highest probability.
If, in that future, Aster and Demian’s group found nothing and died, the spirits could do nothing.
Then they would have no choice but to watch an unchanging future.
But.
[Only one. Very small thing. Even clue.]
If they could glimpse even one trivial thing, they could create a possibility.
That was their belief.
…And the future that spread before the spirits’ eyes.
The spirits fell silent.
[…]
The background of the future was the wide great hall—the space where the spirits’ altar stood.
They were freed, and in front of them stood the savior—“saviors”—and the total number was… three.
The boy standing at the very front looked at the spirits surging as they found freedom. His expression was cold somehow, and the old spiritist placed a hand on his shoulder.
- Demian, do not hate the spirits.
- …I’m just angry. I know, too. That these spirits aren’t at fault. It’s just….
Just… bitter.
- They’re beings that don’t die anyway.
To save them.
- We went this far, my friend went that far….
The boy closed his eyes softly.
And in front of the three, one boy lay neatly— and the spirits knew the moment they saw him.
[The savior… died.]
The future the spirits glimpsed.
Aster had breathed his last.
[…Ah.]
The spirits let out a sigh.
Why did this result come out? Was the future they saw at first the wrong future? Why did the savior die, and those three…?
As the spirits’ minds tangled—
[Must, focus.]
Steady the heart.
[Must, see we.]
…And so, the spirits turned time a little further forward. What process had led things to flow to this point?
The images rewound backward. Those who were in the great hall stepped back and retreated, and every situation and event reversed from end to beginning.
As they did, the spirits prayed desperately.
Please, let there be a way.
