Chapter 312

From start to finish, the fight with Minerva tilted in my favor.

She couldn't have known it, but I'd already fought her once before.

Of course, that earlier match had been against a version of her who'd been holding back without quite realizing it, but experience versus no experience still made a world of difference.

And above all, I had a Minerva inside my shadow who could see through everything the three-hundred-years ago version of her was about to do and feed it to me in advance.

That made all the difference.

[GRAAAAAAH!!!]

The massive dragon sailed through the air and crashed straight into the ground.

I might not have managed to leave any serious wounds on her, but it was more than enough to rattle her. The Minerva slammed into the dirt thrashed about, struggling to gather her wits.

[A—a mere human, how do you possess this kind of strength…!]

Minerva muttered it as if she couldn't believe it.

Honestly, I was just as dazed as she was.

[See? Was I not right after all?]

Minerva spoke up, sounding thoroughly pleased with herself.

The Minerva pinning her past self into the shadow had said it to me earlier, with absolute confidence.

• Seeing that she can't shake off my shadow, your raw strength appears to be far greater than we'd estimated. With that… you might actually be able to grab and throw me bodily.

In practice, the higher the shadow-bearer's stats, the more powerful Shadow Swamp became.

But even so—the idea of actually picking up and tossing Minerva still seemed absurd, and the only reason I'd thrown myself at her was that the Minerva in my shadow had been so utterly certain.

And the Minerva sprawled out in the dirt was proof enough.

I could clinch this with raw physical force alone, just barreling into her.

That alone was enough.

[Khh—!]

I lunged in before she could pick herself up, drove my fist into her face, and her head snapped against the ground and bounced back up.

Things scattered through the air and rained down: blood and the broken shards of her scales.

[Ahh, khh—! You—you arrogant—!]

Minerva, still face-down, could do nothing but take the beating.

Her venom had no effect on me to begin with, and any attempt to belch out breath or whip her tail around for a surprise attack was read in advance and shut down before it began.

What she had left was a head-on contest of physical strength, and even there I'd taken the initiative away from her.

On top of that, Minerva's own shadow was cunningly pinning her movements, and Sbeungali—riding inside the Thorn Bird—was wheeling through the sky, scattering a constant haze of something like mushroom spores.

The thought that I might actually win this started to lift its head, almost shyly.

And I wasn't the only one thinking it.

[This… we might really pull this off.]

[Mmm.]

Sbeungali, comparatively the layman when it came to combat, mumbled, and Minerva answered him calmly.

[At this rate, we'll truly win with no real trouble at all. …Honestly, even I feel embarrassed. Did this version of myself genuinely not entertain the possibility that she might lose…? She's grown so arrogant she made light of you, and now she's flailing like never before.]

She tacked on one more comment.

[…At this point, all my earlier fretting looks foolish in hindsight.]

Inside my body, made formidable by King of Thorns, Dragon Blood roiled without end.

In this state, I felt like I could fight for days on end, and even if anyone else stepped in, I felt like I couldn't lose.

[Cut the cocky little—gck!?]

Minerva tried to swing her tail in a surprise strike, and the shadow snared her movement mid-motion.

I brought both clenched fists down right after, denting part of her tail inward, and as she let out a scream of pain—

[…But something's odd.]

Minerva, inside the shadow, murmured quietly.

[Was I truly so helpless against you back then…? No matter how I think on it… surely there was a moment when you were in real danger….]

That was when it happened.

The first one to react was Sbeungali.

Wheeling through the sky and scattering the senses-dulling powder over Minerva, he suddenly shouted out a warning.

[Get out of there—now!]

The moment I heard him, I tried to kick off the ground, but I couldn't. A pain like my ankle being severed shot through me, and I sucked in a breath in spite of myself and looked down.

[What the—]

A crystalline body had pushed up through the dirt and clamped onto my ankle.

I knew what this was.

This had to be the very thing that had trapped Ji-na—!

[Hurry—you! Get out of there, now!]

Minerva yelled, alarmed, warning me of the danger.

A huge shadow fell across me from above, and a fury-filled roar came down with it.

It was Minerva.

A bare instant—but a bare instant was all she needed.

She was already on her feet, posture set, and she was staring me down with murder in her eyes.

[GRAAAAAAH!!!]

A fury-soaked roar.

The next instant, her tail crashed across my body without mercy.

It happened too fast for me to do anything about it.

[—————!!!]

[—————!!!]

I could hear someone calling for me, but I couldn't make out who or what.

For that matter, was that really a voice calling for me?

In the middle of an impact so violent it felt like my hold on consciousness was about to snap, one window cut through everything and burned itself into my mind with stark clarity.

[Quest 'The Sixth Evil' begins.]

[The Seven Calamity 'Juno' has awoken from the earth that buried it and now seeks to be repaid for the time it has lost.]

[Be careful not to be trapped within its body to live out eternity.]

The whole situation flipped in the space of a breath.

Seeing the man go flying from the blow of her tail, the dragon—her body marked with countless cuts and bruises both small and large—let out another fury-soaked roar.

Her body, her heart, her pride, every part of her that had lived its life convinced of its supremacy had taken wounds far too deep to ignore. And no one knew better than she did how those wounds were to be healed.

[I won't forgive this… I will not forgive it…!]

With those words, she lunged forward and brought a forepaw down on him the way one might swat a fly.

His body slammed into the earth, and something inside him gave with a sickening sound.

Even then, he was already struggling back to his feet, trying to set his stance, and oddly, Minerva felt a strange thrill rise in her instead.

Yes—of course you wouldn't die from just this much.

You, who pushed me, the great me, this far—you can't fall from something so small.

In all my life, you are the first to have humiliated me and wounded me this much.

You are the first human to have driven me into a corner like this.

My poison, the venom that had been my pride, did nothing to you, and you were the first to read everything I do and strike at every gap.

So—!

[I'll grind you into the dirt!]

With that, Minerva launched herself at him again.

The man, Yu Ji-hyeok, hurled himself aside at once, and her tail tore through the spot where he'd been.

She'd known it wouldn't land.

Minerva let out another roar and slammed her forepaw down.

By her own reckoning, he should have dodged this attack just as easily.

She was already lining up the dozens of exchanges yet to follow, plotting her next move, when she felt it—the feeling of something being crushed under her foot.

[…Hm?]

He was pinned under her forepaw.

Crushed beneath her, he was retching up dark, dead blood.

[Khh…]

And yet even then he was straining, his whole body trembling as he tried to drag himself free, and seeing it, Minerva felt an unbearable wave of loss roll through her, sharp and hollow.

Startled by the emotion that flashed through her, she snarled too loudly, as if denying it, and bared her jaws at him.

[Why aren't you putting up that cocky front from before, hm?]

[Khh… ugh….]

Yu Ji-hyeok shuddered.

His footing was poor, and the blow from a moment ago had made it clear that he couldn't fling her off the way he had earlier. He retched up another mouthful of dark blood.

To make it worse, the King of Thorns covering his body was steadily fading. He muttered through it, as if at his wit's end.

"Since when… were you two…. so… close…?"

[…What?]

"Didn't think… you'd butt in like this…."

[…You, what nonsense are you spouting right now?]

Yu Ji-hyeok didn't answer Minerva's question.

He only ground his teeth and kept muttering something to himself.

"…Don't. It's fine. Don't come out. You really can't come out right now. I'm fine, I swear—!"

In the next moment, he screamed in pain.

Minerva had pressed her forepaw down harder, grinding it against him.

[I told you to answer! What does that even mean—?!]

Minerva stopped mid-shout, as if she'd noticed something.

Her crimson eyes had landed on the shards of crystal scattered right beside Yu Ji-hyeok.

[This is….]

She muttered in confusion, then hastily lifted her forepaw.

The grisly mess of his crushed body lay surrounded by similar shards, scattered around him.

And when she saw the chunks of crystal still clinging in matted clumps to his ankle, she closed her mouth without meaning to.

Now that she thought about it, there had been more than a few things that hadn't added up.

She would have caught them immediately on any normal day.

Yu Ji-hyeok suddenly stopping his attacks.

Yu Ji-hyeok taking blows he could easily have dodged.

Now every question fell into place.

[Could it be….]

Minerva muttered, unable to believe it.

Her sense returning in an instant, she replayed the duel they had just fought, quietly, in her head.

If he hadn't been interfered with, who would be lying broken on the ground right now?

…No one knew the answer to that better than she did.

And that was why she couldn't keep her fury in check.

[Juno…!!! You—you would dare…!!!]

The act she despised above all others was the intrusion of any outsider into a sacred duel.

And because of it, the first human ever to push her this far had collapsed in front of her like this, helplessly.

While she—blind to all of it—had only kept hammering at him.

In the end she had even been the one whose life he'd saved.

All of those facts gathered together and dug into her pride sharper than any blade.

Heart ready to burst, she let out another fury-soaked roar.

Her crimson eyes were no longer aimed at Yu Ji-hyeok. They had turned toward someone else.

"Hhhph!"

Han Su-yeong threw her body to the side and flung out her hand, scattering arrows of magic.

The crystals she struck staggered for a moment, then resumed their dogged advance, fixated on her.

"Just—get off!"

She'd seen a rat brush against one of the crystals and end up sealed inside it on the spot, and ever since, she'd been treating any contact with them as something to avoid at all costs. The moment she'd laid eyes on them, she'd known: these had to be the crystals belonging to the Seven Calamity Juno that Yu Ji-hyeok had warned her about.

'Is Ji-hyeok all right…?'

A Seven Calamity, surfacing without warning.

And worse, an opponent who could go toe to toe with Minerva.

There was no telling what something like that would do, and she couldn't very well stand around waiting for him.

If she were being sensible, she'd be getting clear right now.

If she dawdled here and ran into Juno, there'd be nothing she could do. She'd just become another worry for Yu Ji-hyeok.

'But….'

What if—what if Juno joined forces with Minerva?

If that happened, then no matter how strong he was, there'd be no way through it.

And in that case, the only person who could help him would be her.

"…There's no choice."

Han Su-yeong muttered it, then reached out and touched the buckler and the crystalline body circling protectively around her.

"Help me. Right now I need to pinpoint where Ji-hyeok is and get out of here. So—!"

In that instant she finally understood what it meant for the blood in your veins to freeze.

She slowly turned her head to look behind her.

A massive golem of crystal, lava, and rock was staring down at her.

"Ah—!"

Han Su-yeong let out a yelp she couldn't help, but she still gritted her teeth and forced out more mana, fighting to break away. Even though most of her mana was pouring into maintaining the spells laid on Yu Ji-hyeok, she pulled together the casting structure without any trouble.

I have to run.

That was her single thought as she moved to flee. And then—

[GRAAAAAAAAH!!!]

A roar that felt like it was tearing the sky and the earth apart.

A breath attack of searing heat swallowed the crystal golem's body whole.

[Juno!!!]

A cry of pure rage, and another Seven Calamity descended from above.

In her forepaw, a man hung limp.