A child who ate one-pot meals for two years in the depths of the Red and Black Mountains.
'The girl you helped today is his sister. Her name is Ahul.'
Vikir thought for a moment and remembered a girl named Ahul.
The young girl who had once lined up outside the barracks at dawn to be Vikir's wife.
They had grown very close after Vikir rescued her from being mocked and sexually harassed by Bourgeois merchants.
'Ahul was always weak. I was worried that she was getting weaker and weaker due to an unexplained illness, but now that I think about it, it might have been the glass beads that those merchants brought with them.'
Vikir found the earrings that were causing Ahul's health to deteriorate and removed all the drugs that were in them, and she was able to regain her health.
But Vikir hadn't seen the girl since leaving jungle.
"...You've grown up a lot."
Vikir said with a somewhat dazed expression.
On the surface, the girl in front of him looked to be in her early to mid-30s.
However, what he heard was that she was actually closer to sixty.
Ahul gave him a watery gaze and said.
"It's been a while, big brother."
* * *
"What happened?"
At Vikir's question, Ahul told him everything.
After Vikir's departure, trade opened up and Balak began peace negotiations with the Empire in earnest.
At first, everything seemed to be going well.
It would have been like that if it weren't for the 'unusual' that suddenly appeared one day.
Amdusias. Without Winston's body, the demon appeared under its own power and attacked Balak's warriors.
'I've come to capture the Madame of the Depths, but I can't find it, so I need to catch you guys instead.'
He seemed to be gathering terrain for the Hell Tree, just simple entertainment.
But the demon's entertainment demanded the blood of too many.
Balak's warriors had the battle of their lives against the unicorn, who had begun to lay waste to the village.
In the process, the chieftainess Aquila was killed.
She died with a fatal wound on the horns of Amdusias.
She had never fully recovered from the wounds she had sustained in her battle with Adonai, and this proved to be the final straw.
"The other warriors were also scattered. The attacking unicorn was too strong...."
"Why did you end up here?"
"I was hiding in the ruins at the time, protecting the newborns. Then I woke up and realized I was here...."
Listening to Ahul's story, Vikir nodded.
It made sense now.
It's been a while since we've heard reports of the disappearance of Balak's warriors.
It makes sense that Ahul, who was in her early teens when she was swallowed up by the Hell Tree, would have aged so much since arriving on this plane.
It also explained why the middle-aged warriors who followed Ahul hadn't recognized Vikir, as they would have been infants at the time.
"I see. That's why your tattoos are so faded. They were done as infants, and the color faded as your skin stretched."
Vikir turned his head and made eye contact with the female warriors he had captured earlier.
He remembered that when he had once taught the warriors of Balak the Baskervilles' fighting styles, the adult warriors had shown no interest in learning such things, but some of the very younger ones had followed him around, eager to learn them.
"You must be Ajin, and you must be Ami."
"Huh!?"
"Hah!?"
The two middle-aged warriors who had been addressed by the names Vikir had scrounged from his memory each gulped down their huffs.
Meanwhile. Tudor, Sancho, Piggy, and Bianca were questioning Vikir's acquaintance with the so-called barbarians of Balak.
Vikir kept his explanation short.
Tudor, Sancho, Piggy, and Bianca were stunned to hear that Vikir and the Balak warriors were like family.
"You're from the West, Vikir! Night Hound, Balak's hunting grounds, a student at the Coliseo Academy, and... how many identities do you have?"
"Amazing, a Balak and an Imperial can live together."
"Well, yes. I heard the Balak warriors are very closed-minded."
"That's why you're such a good archer, somehow...."
Vikir looked away again.
Ahul was looking apologetically at Tudor, Sancho, Piggy, and Bianca.
In fact, the mission that the shipowners, that is, Balak's warriors, received was the same.
※ Don't let your guard down! Latecomers become increasingly stronger as time goes by! If you don't want to be caught up, even if you're a ship owner, you have to work hard, right?
※Recognized only when everyone has cleared the mission!
Ahul and the other warriors must also kill Tudor, Sancho, Piggy, and Bianca.
But the good-hearted Ahul doesn't want to kill them, so instead, she had no choice but to engage in a regular fight because they only took food.
"Didn't you ever think about joining forces and doing something about it?"
"It's not that we didn't, but if we blatantly create a peaceful atmosphere, the fairies show up and ruin everything, like giving us missions where we have to kill each other outright...."
Tudor, Sancho, Piggy, and Bianca nodded at Ahul's words.
They, too, had been parted from Sinclair in the pursuit of peace.
Ahul sighed deeply.
"I'm worried about what happened to the others, especially my brother and the chief...."
Ahul was worried about her brother, Ahun.
And the other one, the 'she' who remained the most intense in Vikir's memory.
'...Aiyen.'
Vikir stroked his chin for a moment.
They hadn't been brought into this tower.
So what had happened to them?
"We're lucky to be here, to be alive now, but what if... if those who didn't make it here had suffered a more miserable fate...."
"...."
Vikir put a hand on Ahul's shoulder.
"Don't think bad thoughts. You'll just have to go out and see for yourself."
"...Can I get out of here?"
"Of course."
Vikir told Ahul everything he knew about the tower.
The Hell Tree. The Worldview Absorber. Amdusias's strange hobby.
Ahul's mouth hung half open as she listened, almost as if it were a runescape.
"So... this place was created by a demon by piecing together parts of entire worlds, and if you clear a level, the world and its inhabitants are freed?"
"Half right, half wrong. There is no liberation. Until you clear the tower."
Vikir remembered the Insectking he had encountered in the Black Sea not long ago.
The Insectking race who tried to leave the tower were struck by lightning and reduced to ashes.
Perhaps they had failed to make the escape they had hoped for.
'This tower is especially unforgiving of quitters.'
Vikir had urged Ahul and the other Balak warriors not to abandon the mission halfway through.
Whether it's porridge or rice, you have to go to the end.
"My brother is still trustworthy."
Ahul had been sending envious glances toward Vikir.
Then. Tudor stepped forward.
"...Uh, excuse me. Sorry to interrupt, but what about the mission?"
It was a reasonable question.
※ Each ship owner has powerful powers! Living is inherently difficult~
※ Recognized only when everyone has cleared the mission!
※ Don't let your guard down! Latecomers become increasingly stronger as time goes by! If you don't want to be caught up, even if you're a ship owner, you have to work hard, right?
※ Recognized only when everyone has cleared the mission!
Both sides are given the same mission, which means killing the other group.
If you don't, you can't complete the mission. You'll be stuck on this floor forever.
"...In the end, you have to choose."
Piggy spoke up, his voice trembling with anxiety.
The Colosseo Academy or the Balak.
Only one of the two groups could leave this floor alive.
So which one should die now?
That matter was entirely in Vikir's hands.
"...."
"...."
Tudor, Sancho, Piggy, and Bianca. Even Ahul and the rest of Balak's warriors stared at the tip of Vikir's sword.
Then.
Vikir's mouth, closed until now, opens.
"Do you trust me?"
Vikir looked at the Balak warriors.
Needless to say, they all nodded, including Ahul.
They had all been children when Vikir was at the height of his heroism.
A generation that naturally heard all of Vikir's deeds as legends and myths.
Everyone, including Ahul, bowed before Vikir.
"We will obey the words of hunting leader's words."
With that, Vikir nodded.
Then he turned and looked at Tudor, Sancho, Piggy, and Bianca.
"And you guys?"
Tudor, Sancho, Piggy, and Bianca each spoke up.
"Of course we trust you, you're our friend."
"I've always felt that way, you've always been like a big brother to me, even though we're the same age."
"I believe anything Vikir says!"
"Hmm. This mission has been stalling since you arrived, and I can't believe I don't trust you. I won't bet against you, so do whatever you want."
Everyone agreed with Vikir.
Nodding.
Then Vikir bowed his head with a stern expression.
And then.
…Dengeng!
He swung his sword, beheading Ahul in front of him.
" ...uh!?"
Tudor, Sancho, Piggy, Bianca, and Balak's warriors gasped.
Puff-puff-puck!
A barrage of sharp slashes traveled in an infinite orbit, decapitating them all in one fell swoop.
Tudor, Sancho, Piggy, and Bianca's heads rolled across the blood-soaked, reddened grass.
A flowing fountain of blood. Faces frozen in shock.
"...."
Vikir stood still in the center of where the bodies of all his friends lay, looking up at the sky.
※ Each ship owner has powerful powers! Living is inherently difficult~
※ Recognized only when everyone has cleared the mission!
The mission was still not cleared.
Vikir had killed all those who trusted him and survived alone.
Soon, his dry lips also became heavy.
"...I also believe in you."