Chapter 128. This Place Is the Underworld
Tspat—!
It was right then that Shine’s momentum changed completely.
Hyper-Focus.
A realm Shine had already entered once in Hamelin Great Forest.
A state where focus is driven to the extreme—erasing the world, and feeling only oneself.
But this time was different from the Death Knight days, when Hyper-Focus had been forced in artificially.
Originally, “Hyper-Focus” doesn’t stop at erasing the world.
The inflation of the self (自我).
You expand your own existence to the fullest, until it encompasses the world. And then what happens?
‘The world is me…….’
……And I am the world.
Shine’s sword—filling the entire world with its presence—split the space.
Kang! Kagakang!
Relentless blades of cold lashed in. Piercing ice spikes were severed away.
Up to this point, only a single slash had been needed.
Step.
With the sword lowered, Shine took one step forward.
This was a knight’s single step.
A step that contained everything seen, heard, and felt. And within this one step was……
Everything a knight can do.
Advance, retreat, cut, thrust, strike aside—every possibility was contained in that single step.
And that one step shattered Parun’s concentration.
“……!”
Pressure like a mountain.
Parun halted every spell that had been in the middle of unfolding.
‘I have to dodge…….’
That unique multitasking produced a survival route. Every nerve distributed across the eight Eight Hearts moved for survival.
But—
Within the blizzard, Shine’s fangs glinted sharply.
‘There will be nowhere to dodge.’
Power loaded into the planted foot. As the waist twisted, Aether gathered into the sword, already stowed within its sheath.
A state of perfect defenselessness. And yet, no magic could strike Shine.
Kwaduk, kwaduk!
Jjeo-eong—!
Lightning slammed down nearby, and brutal ice spikes swept past Shine, leaving only the thinnest inch of distance.
As if dodging what needed to be dodged.
It was a bizarre sight.
But would you believe it?
That Shine’s single step had pierced through every possible case. That it was a step which had calculated all those probabilities—one in tens of thousands.
This was not transcendence.
It was simply……
Shine von Lehmann.
King Slayer.
The manifestation of the realm that an unprecedented genius—one who had dominated an era—had rightfully possessed.
A genius who, without any transcendent implement like a Demonic Sword (魔劍), butchered the Master Knight who protected the Emperor…….
The absolute being who had stood at the pinnacle of all knights!
That absolute being had finally found Shine’s rightful place.
“Let’s end it.”
Just one sentence.
There was no contraction or expansion of muscle. Not even breathing. The forearm gripping the sword, the sole pressing into the ground, the thigh driving power out, the waist, shoulder, and arm delivering that power—every muscle was simply, peacefully still.
It had to be.
Because this was beyond the realm of the body……
‘To cut.’
A single strike that had stepped into the concept itself.
That was the end.
When Shine’s sword reached its proper destination—
Srrrk—
The world was cut.
And in the blizzard split open along the sword’s path—
Parun stared at Shine with eyes wide.
When their gazes meshed and crossed in midair, Parun, horrified, could only spit out one line.
“Enough…….”
“Yes. It can only be enough.”
After that, a fountain of blood burst up.
Chwaaaaaaak—!
Fresh blood exploded from Parun’s chest, cut diagonally.
And then……
Thud.
Parun collapsed unconscious.
Over the training yard that had been roaring with the thunder of battle, an icy silence pressed down.
Shine von Lehmann, a once-in-an-era knight with the talent of a devil.
Even if it was now a vampire’s body, that talent still shone plainly.
Shine closed Shine’s eyes softly, savoring the lingering heat of the fight.
“……Good.”
Only now did it feel like truly living. Yes—this, this was proof of being alive.
After obtaining a vampire’s body,
Shine spent nights awake with an unfilled emptiness. It was a kind of hollowness.
Why?
Back when Shine had been a Death Knight, it made sense.
To reject the natural order and remain in the world as one of the dead (亡者) was something that came with pain.
Shine could endure it.
Aster and Oberon, that loudmouthed Pathfinder and the rest……
It had been enjoyable enough.
Shine thought it was pain worth enduring.
Of course, there was rage at the black mage who had desecrated Shine’s corpse, but how could anyone live on rage alone?
Even while writhing in agony, the reason Shine didn’t let go of that thin thread of life wasn’t because of some ultimate fury.
The pleasure that arrived in the gaps between moments of pain—that was the driving force that made hardship bearable.
But what truly sustained Shine was nothing else.
The sword (劍).
No—the martial path (武) that encompassed everything.
The fact that Shine could savor that supreme joy—that was what made the pain bearable.
And yet…… why?
The pain didn’t disappear.
‘Why?’
A body was gained.
The pain of the soul was gone.
And even so, what was this pain that kept muddling the mind at all hours?
‘Is it the disconnect between body and soul?’
That could be it, Shine thought.
A vampire’s body. A vessel to contain the mind had been obtained, but the contents were still human—so a disconnect was inevitable.
Shine thought it was only that.
Thought it could be endured.
But……
“……So that wasn’t it.”
Hup—hoo.
Shine fully savored the icy air that bored deep into the lungs, then exhaled it.
In this moment, Shine realized.
That the presence or absence of a body could never be the measure of life (生).
What makes Shine breathe and live isn’t flesh, nor a pulsing heart—none of that.
What makes Shine breathe and live is only the martial path (武).
The path Shine had walked by devoting an entire lifetime to it, and the path Shine would walk by devoting the rest of life to it.
Now that Shine had realized that truth—late though it was……
How could it not be joyful?
“This body is Shine von Lehmann.”
Shine spread both arms wide, embracing the entire world.
Stars in the night sky seemed to pour down. They weren’t truly pouring down. It was only how it felt to Shine.
Unable to hide the excitement, Shine began to recite an enormous ambition.
No—Shine tried to recite it.
“This body is…… the one and only existence destined to stand at the summit of all knights…… kgh!”
A heavy, dull impact slammed straight into the back of Shine’s head.
Stars sparkled in front of Shine’s eyes.
Had the stars that decorated the sky come down? No. It just hurt like hell.
It didn’t take long to grasp the situation—and for rage to surge up.
But Shine couldn’t fully vent that rage.
“How dare someone strike this body……!”
“It’s me.”
“Do you want to die, you bastard? How dare you lay hands so carelessly, no matter what safety—”
“I don’t know what safety you’re talking about, but I do know exactly what you just did.”
“……?”
Shine tilted the head, genuinely puzzled.
What did this bastard eat wrong?
Why was Aster acting so confident?
The one who struck Shine on the back of the head had committed a crime worthy of death.
When Shine had been a Death Knight, Shine couldn’t press charges because of the master-servant bond, but now Shine could demand the proper price.
There was no way that bastard didn’t know that fact……
“You still haven’t grasped the situation?”
“……?”
Aster stared at Shine, who still couldn’t find the thread, then jerked the chin slightly.
“See it?”
“See what—hk!”
Shine sucked in a sharp breath.
Only then did Shine see it.
“L-Lord Parun……!”
Turning with Aster’s chin-gesture, Shine saw Parun lying neatly.
And the sight was truly chilling.
Blood soaking the floor.
A pale-faced man.
Lying straight with both arms neatly folded over the chest—how to put it…… yes. It looked exactly like a corpse.
“D-Don’t tell me?”
“‘Maybe’ is how you catch a vampire.”
Shine shook the head side to side at a reality that couldn’t be borne.
“N-No. That can’t be…… I definitely controlled the power. It wasn’t enough to kill. Y-You know that too.”
“I don’t know. You’re the one who swung the sword.”
“No, that can’t be…….”
No matter how drunk on the feeling, Shine wasn’t someone who would cross the line.
That final strike—so, that is. That is…… yes, it only had a little sincerity in it. It wasn’t a strike that should be called fatal.
Of course, did the final feel sink a little deeper than intended? That thought did exist, but……
“No, but this level of injury—doesn’t it happen all the time in sparring? Huh?”
Yes. Injuries like this happened all the time.
Shine didn’t know about other houses, but in House Lehmann, it did.
Training that bordered on real combat was exactly why House Lehmann had once reigned as a swordsmanship lineage.
But—
If asked whether the power control was really perfect……
The more Shine ran the thought process, the more it began to break down. And that was exactly when Aster drove the wedge in.
“You’ll probably be hunted for the rest of your life as the criminal who murdered a professor at Zenion Academy. Even Headmaster sunbae won’t be able to protect you. No—Headmaster sunbae might even be the first to catch you and hand you over.”
“D-Don’t talk bullshit!”
Shine screamed, feeling the heart collapse with a crashing sound.
Before even realizing it, Shine’s steps had already kicked off the ground and were heading toward Parun.
And when those steps reached Parun—
“……Huh? Huh?”
Shine tilted the head again.
Parun’s condition was strange.
Not strange in a bad way—strange in a good way.
Shine had seen the blood fountain with Shine’s own eyes, and yet Parun’s chest, visible through the loosened front, was only smooth.
Not even the faintest scar could be found.
While Shine had been lost in self-intoxication, Aster had quickly applied healing light!
And then, as Shine stood there blankly, Aster’s voice drove itself into Shine’s ear.
“Fooled again, parasite.”
“Y-You…… you—YOU, you piece of shit aaaargh!”
Parun’s mansion.
Shine’s hollow echo rang out.
After Shine and Parun’s spar ended, we brought the unconscious Parun back to the office.
I tossed Parun—who I’d been carrying—onto the sofa any which way, then quickly took my seat in the place of honor.
“You scheming bastard. Is that your seat?”
“Seats aren’t assigned. Seats make the person.”
Shine clearly didn’t like me sitting there and snapped at me, but I casually spewed bullshit back.
That aside—
‘Shine, that parasite…….’
When did Shine get that big?
Of course, the “size” would’ve happened over two hundred years before I was born.
No—would it have been only “big”? Shine would’ve died, rotted, turned to bare bones, become dust, and scattered on the wind.
Naturally, when I said “big,” I didn’t mean physical growth.
- Let’s end it.
That final strike.
‘……It’s not transcendence.’
But the moment I saw that strike, I was shocked to the point of thinking it might actually be transcendence.
Because what was contained within Shine’s single sword stroke wasn’t one or two realizations.
So…… yes.
‘A slash that contains everything.’
It was the same kind of thing as the final spell I’d shown in my fierce battle against Destrow.
A single move that contained every realization.
But the difference was……
I had borrowed the power of transcendence to contain everything, whereas Shine contained every realization not through transcendence, but through pure skill alone.
It sounded easy.
‘It sounds easy, but…… it’s absurd.’
Seeing it like this, the difference in “talent” felt painfully clear.
If I had to put it into words…… yes, something like relative deprivation? It was a feeling unfamiliar to me.
A feeling I’d never had even in my previous life.
‘Is this how an ordinary person feels when looking at a genius?’
Of course, by other people’s standards, I also possessed an astonishing talent.
The wall of transcendence.
In my previous life, I hadn’t broken through it, but countless mages ended their lives without ever even reaching that wall.
But after dying once and coming back, I broke through transcendence?
Even if you woke up after dying a hundred times, what you can’t break through, you can’t break through.
So now that I’d broken through transcendence, I could probably take pride in my talent too.
But—
‘There’s a difference.’
I watched Shine, who was anxiously checking on Parun.
‘It’s truly…… vast.’
If transcendence is a sword, then the process of reaching transcendence is closer to forging.
Endlessly, ceaselessly hammering and honing your realizations, raising an extreme edge.
And what is born through that becomes the treasured sword called transcendence.
But to me, that treasured sword was far too heavy.
And it wasn’t simply because of an unripe body.
They say you see as much as you know—now I knew for certain.
‘Even if my body ripens, it’ll take a long time before I can wield transcendence freely.’
A sword I couldn’t control.
But what about Shine?
Even if it’s transcendence—no, even if there’s a next stage beyond that—Shine would be able to handle even that.
Like a bird knowing how to fly from birth, like a fish knowing how to swim.
That was the difference in talent.
‘Genius.’
Their kind of life, I suppose.
It was a theme I’d never thought about deeply in my previous life.
And I guessed that if Shine hadn’t existed, I wouldn’t have thought deeply about it in this life either.
But now……
I thought.
‘Talent, huh…….’
I want to surpass it.
Not surpass in “realm.” Rather…… I want to smash through the limits of my own talent and prove it.
Even if I devote my entire life to it, I want to break past this limit that was decided innately.
Crunch.
My clenched fist screamed, but I curled it even tighter.
A spark of competitiveness—something I’d felt for the first time in my life. I didn’t want to put it out.
……And how much time passed like that?
“……Where is this?”
Parun, who had lost consciousness, regained awareness.
“H-You’re awake? Lord Parun. How is your body?”
As Shine—restless—latched on immediately and checked Parun’s complexion, I cleared my mind blank and opened my mouth.
“Ahh, did you ask where this is?”
Then I should answer.
“This place is the Underworld.”
It was, in my own opinion, a perfect line.
But why?
“…….”
“…….”
The two of them stared at me, their eyes going dead cold.
What. Why.
……They say you don’t take in a black-haired beast to raise it, and yet, you f—ers only ever give me shit.
Well, anyway, that’s not what matters.
“……Since you’re awake, hurry up and get it together, yeah? Let’s talk about what comes next.”
It’s not because I felt awkward and tried to change the subject.
Not at all.
Really…… it was because the Infinite Chain matter was a critical issue where every moment counted.
