John Doe the Murderer of the City of Fog was a black mage. He was a wicked necromancer who made use of corpses.
The reason he was called the Killer of Knights was because he murdered knights and controlled their bodies just for the sake of getting stronger slaves.
The way to defeat summoners like a golem mage, a necromancer and a spiritualist was simple. All that had to be done was defeat the mage who was the fundamental core of the spell. By either killing or making them faint, you could stop their consciousness from giving commands to their subordinates.
However, the problem was that this method was close to impossible against John Doe.
"Stick together. We need to put our backs together and watch out for all the angles."
"Who do you…"
Mr. Hanson, who was about to say, 'Who do you think you are?' immediately shut his mouth after seeing the heads of undead knights that were skewered on my spear.
"What if they fire a spell at us after we stick together? It'll be a wipe out then."
On the other hand, Mr. Charlie, the leader of the party, raised a rational question.
"No. The enemy can only control the corpses of knights. He's not that difficult to fight against as long we get into formation and retaliate together."
"Do you know something about the enemy?"
"He's a hot topic these days, isn't he? The Murderer of the City of Fog."
"…!"
"You mean that Grade 1 wanted criminal!?"
John Doe's specialty, 'Thin Mist' allowed him to hide himself behind a fog.
Rather than simply concealing himself behind it, he would practically become one with the fog. By melting his body into the boundaries of dimensions, he could hide himself perfectly.
That was why it was difficult to defeat him. If need be, he could move the fog and escape with ease.
How would anyone even dream of chasing after gas?
The downside was that he couldn't use any other spell apart from controlling corpses while keeping this fog up.
There was no way corpses would be able to use spells in his stead when they required such a high level calculation every time. Thus, even though there were undead mages within the fog, they couldn't use any spells and were there for misdirection. One more thing to note was that they contained the spell 'Crimson Haze' in their bodies that would detonate upon death.
– Click! Clank!
By the time everyone came to themselves, armored knights and demonic beasts were surrounding us as Mr. Charlie soon raised his staff.
"Here it goes!"
With a shout, he faced the group of undeads and rapidly casted a fireball with the assistance of Memorize.
– Kwaang!
Several undead knights were flown away without even bothering to dodge the fireball but there were more corpses running in from behind.
"Come at me, you dogs!"
Armors and weapons collided as flesh were cut off. Because the undeads couldn't use either aura or mana, we had a better combat potential than the enemy despite being outnumbered.
"Alicia. Can you use your 'eyes'?"
"…S, sorry."
Her crookedly lifted lips were already back down again, and she had returned to the usual sullen Alicia.
"Let's protect everyone from those guys. There's no need to hesitate. They're not human."
"Y, yes…!"
As long as Alicia could properly use her 'Eyes of the Boundary', someone like John Doe would not even last a second, but that would be difficult for the time being.
Activating Eyes of the Boundary would mean she was looking at the Domain and that was where her trauma laid. It was thus impossible to use without progressing her character scenario and reducing her traumatic burden.
Well, even without that, Alicia was already strong enough.
"Guwooooo…!"
An armored knight ran in with a spooky scream but his swordsmanship was too sloppy for a swordsman.
– Chaak!
A mere undead was no match for Alicia. Even without her Eyes of the Boundary, she already had a good pair of eyes.
❰Arden First Sword Style, Advancing Fang❱
The undead crumbled before it could even finish swinging its weapon. The weakest part of its neck had been precisely cut off.
"Guwooo!"
Another undead knight dashed towards Alicia but he had way too many flaws in his stance due to the inability to think. Alicia pulled her sword back after finishing her slash and supported the back of the blade with her left hand in a stabbing position.
❰Arden First Sword Style, Crushing Steel❱
– Paang!
The fierce stab of the sword made the knight's flesh explode like shells of a grenade.
"Wow…"
Mr. Charlie and his party were in awe after seeing her attack. Although she had been hidden in the shadows of Lunia Arden, Alicia was also a genius herself. Mere undeads with no brain and swordsmanship stood no chance against her physique and swordsmanship. More than anything else—
"Haak… haak…!"
Her lips contorted with every pant. In the end, killing was also something that relied on talent. The veils masking her innate nature were starting to be unraveled, thus revealing her true nature.
"…"
"…"
Even our allies became speechless after sensing the change on her face.
"Let's focus on dealing with them one by one without breaking our ranks. The guy will run away if it becomes slightly disadvantageous for him."
Our group dealt with the undeads one by one. As expected, it was a slow process.
Now, how long would it take for the enemy to respond and come all the way here?
The heads of the undead warriors were skewered on the Silver Spear like a delicious shish kebab. It was partially to show off, but was mainly to stop the guy from retrieving these corpses.
A surprising fact was that it was hard for undeads to move without their heads.
｢Hooh. So you are the ones that were messing around with my laboratory｣
A gloomy voice of an old man echoed from the mist. He was here.
"What? Where was that from?"
"Find him! The mage is somewhere nearby!"
That would be in vain, because the voice was echoing all across the mist rather than coming from one direction.
｢That is useless, you ignorant peasants. I am the seeker of the truth. Your—｣
"Skip skip."
The rune letter engraved on the Silver Spear – Sowilo – was activated. In an instant, the spear emanated a violent surge of heat. I widely swung the spear as a similar gush of heat and light occurred from all around.
"What!?"
"What is happening? Is John Doe using some kind of magic?"
The reaction of our party members was natural because John Doe was the only mage in this fog but even John Doe himself was probably also confused.
That just then was the resonant activation through the 'Rune Stone'. The spear was crafted using the old crafting methods that took rune activation into account and was one of the skills that was used by a boss character in the game.
By writing several rune letters everywhere with the spear, I could resonate them into one 'frequency' and activate them all at once. It took a lot of time to set up and used a lot of mana but only took 1 second to activate, which was even faster than accelerated spells that were cast through Memorize.
As long as there were enough preparations set up with enough time, it was even possible to create something that was as strong as a Grand Spell.
｢[Bastaardd…｣
A voice filled with fury was heard from the fog, but this time, his voice was hazier than before.
"Sunlight is one of the critical weaknesses of the undead, right? That's why you were using fog to stop the light."
Like this, if we created a field of heat that had the attributes of the sun, it was possible to drastically lower the combat power of undeads. All the undeads would have been killed already if not for the few undead knights face-tanking the light.
｢What a petty trick, you little kid. Do you think your terrible mana pool is enough to swallow my fog?｣
Of course not. Chasing out some of the fog and making the undeads slower was what I had been planning for. As planned, 'that device' appeared from the thinner layer of mist.
"Mr. Korin! Look over there!"
Alicia pointed at the human figure in the distance that had the generic look of a mage.
"So that's John Doe!"
"Charlie! Blow him away!"
Mr. Charlie shot a fireball in an instant but one of the knights stood in the way. Because of that straight-forward physical defense of the armored knight, the fireball ended up burning the knight without even touching the mage.
"I can…!"
"It's okay."
I cut Alicia off.
That human figure was a fake. A 'Crimson Haze' would come out as soon as we defeated that.
But even so, we had to defeat that thing at the very least to end this event and escape from this place.
｢Six Ways of the Spear｣ ｢Fifth Style, Crumbling Mountain｣
– Kwang!
The Silver Spear flew forward like a comet. The undead knights moved their slow bodies in an attempt to block the spear but they couldn't stop the Silver Spear which contained the scorching heat of the sun.
– Kajik!
The spear stabbed through the body of the mage in the blink of an eye all the way through into the ground. I could see the mage's body burning up even from a distance.
"Did we do it?!"
Mr. Charlie said the sentence that could resurrect all evil.
｢Not bad. You broke my puppet.｣
"…!?"
It obviously couldn't be that easy to defeat him considering how he was the boss of the early portion of the 2nd Arc.
The puppet that I broke just then with Crumbling Mountain was a device he created that could give off a fog – it was an undead created with the body of a mage.
The reason John Doe was difficult to catch was because he used puppets like that to run away from chasers. On top of those scapegoats, his real body was synchronized into the fog so it was natural for the guardians to have trouble catching him.
｢I shall stop here for today. Look forward to the day we meet again.｣
It was here. It was that same sentence he said whenever he was running away, which meant it was about time to face his escape mechanic.
– Chiiiiikk!
As soon as he finished his words, the corpse of the mage that the spear was piercing through started giving off a red fog.
❰Crimson Haze❱
It was a lethal fog that came out automatically whenever the triggers of the fog – the undead mages – hit 0 HP.
They snatched the control over the opponent's blood with contact – in other words, they rapidly sucked out your HP. In the previous iteration, several soldiers died in less than 10 seconds, and it was a commendable feat for knights to even last a few minutes after coming into contact with that fog.
"Let's run! That fog looks insanely dangerous no matter how you see it, right?"
"Uhh, y, yeah… Looks that way!"
"Run!"
Everyone immediately ran after processing my words. Alicia hesitated for a second but soon followed from behind.
"M,Mr. K, Korin. Shouldn't we… retrieve your spear?"
It looked expensive…
She asked while whispering the last few words.
"It's fine."
I activated the Rune of Return that was on the spear. Then, the spear that was stabbing through the undead mage heeded to my call and immediately flew through the air all the way to my hand.
"W, wow… That's amazing."
Alicia said in admiration but it wasn't over yet. The Crimson Haze was speeding from behind while trying to swallow us all.
It was then.
"Kuhakk!"
Perhaps because of lack of exercise, Mr. Charlie the mage ended up tripping on a root of a tree of the unpaved pathways of the forest.
"Mr. Charlie!"
Both Alicia and I stopped ourselves straight away and started running to him, but Alicia was the first one to reach him because of our difference in physical capabilities.
"Hold onto my hand!"
"Y, yeah! Than… dodge!"
"Sorry…? Kyaak!"
A red hand suddenly emerged out of the crimson fog. That horrible-looking hand gripped onto Alicia who had come back to save Charlie.
❰Mist Restriction❱
"Uht?"
She was pulled back into the red fog just like that.
"Mr. Charlie! Get up and run!"
"U, uhh! What about you?"
"Don't worry about us and run outside until you're out of the forest! And give me your robe!"
"Huh?!"
After helping him stand back up, I quickly cut off the buttons at the front of his robe and snatched it away. Then, I quickly jumped into the Crimson Haze.
"W, wait!"
Without worrying about him, I jumped into the fog but as soon as I landed inside, I could feel my entire body being shredded apart with blood being sucked out in bulks.
"I really didn't want to do this a second time but…!"
I was also locked in this fog once in the previous iteration because of a misstep. Even though it was for less than a minute, I was still almost dead but I had the regeneration ability this time around so I would be able to last a lot longer. The problem was Alicia.
Unlike me who was about at the level of a Grade 2 regenerator, Alicia had nothing and it was questionable if she could even last more than 2 minutes with her bare body.
I turned my eyes looking for her and discovered that she was a lot deeper inside than I thought.
"Alicia!"
"Uhkk, g, go away! Go away!"
Alicia couldn't get rid of the red hand that was holding onto her and was locked in place. She was in a panic because of the tough restriction on her body and the constant depletion of her vitality.
Blood was already being sucked out from all over her body. She would probably be unable to last very long.
– Guwoooo
– Kuwaaaa
To make everything worse, there were even undead knights approaching from a distance. Someone had to stop them.
"M,Mr. K, Korin… T, this is not coming off. Please… please save me. I, I might die at this rate."
Alicia said with a teary voice as teardrops fell from her eyes. A potential death was always hard to get used to, and it was normal for girls of her age to show such a reaction at the face of it.
I covered her body with the robe I took from Mr. Charlie. It would lower her exposure to the fog and would thus buy her a bit more time.
"Mr. K, Korin…?"
"Calm down, Alicia Arden. Nothing will happen if you continue doing that mindlessly. You need to focus and commit your strongest move. It's easy. As long as you calm down, it'll be a piece of cake."
"B, but…"
"I will now protect you from those undeads. You know what you have to do, right?"
"I, I can't move my hands and, th, the fog is making me dizzy. It hurts."
"Alicia. Alicia…!"
"Hikk…!"
Lowering my head, I looked into her eyes under the robe. After wiping the falling tears off of her shivering black eyes, I opened my mouth.
"You can do it. You can do a lot better than what you're doing right now."
"Mr. Korin? What do you…"
"Just continue cutting and keep it up. Just focus yourself on getting rid of this spell that's holding you back. Don't worry about anything else. I will protect you, so you focus on one thing."
"B, but… m, my hands are burning! I can't clench my hands either…"
"You are the greatest genius I've ever seen out of all the swordsmen I've met. You can do anything as long as you want to. It's just one step. Alicia Arden. One step is enough."
After that, I held onto my spear.
I trusted her.
I trusted her ability to cut something that trivial.
****
｢Alicia POV｣
It was painful and it was scorching hot. Plus, the feeling of blood being sucked out from every hole around my body gave me goosebumps.
I could smell a heavy scent of rusted iron, like the one back when I first cut a person.
The blood-colored hand inside the red fog was clinging onto me like a magnet without ever letting go of me. A thin arm like this was supposed to be easy to cut.
Swinging my sword once was supposed to be enough.
– Tang!
Uhh…
Unlike what was in my mind, the sword was flung off.
The demon-slaying sword that was said to cut anything in existence couldn't even cut a simple spell like this and was bounced off.
W, was that not strong enough? One more time!
– Taang!
N, no. It's aura. I need more aura…
– Taang!
Is it my posture? So that's the problem! Let me straighten my body and…
I knew something was wrong, but I just didn't know how it was supposed to be fixed, nor what the exact issue was.
Why wasn't it being cut?
Why was the sword getting parried off?
This is not right. This is weird!
Meanwhile, the spell was continuing to squeeze my body. The veins around my eyeballs popped and blood fell like tears, as despair soared from the bottom of my heart.
Ahh… I shouldn't have tried to save him. I shouldn't have come back to help.
I was regretting when I suddenly thought of my benefactor.
I remembered the person who saved me, created an antidote for someone like me who was whining from a simple paralysis and blew on the medicine before bringing it to my mouth.
Wasn't he so injured that he had to sear his wound with fire…?
Didn't he willingly give me his hand when I was crying from the bandaging process?
After meeting him, I didn't want to be a disgraceful person. I wanted to become someone who could willingly sacrifice myself for the sake of others.
But look at me now.
A quick regret and bursting into tears…
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry. Someone like me… shouldn't have been saved by a person like you…
"Alicia!"
That was when the boy came to save me. He jumped into the fog of death without any hesitation just to save me.
No. Don't do that. Run.
I can't even last here for that long. Why did you come in when your Aura Rank is a lot lower than mine? How are you even going to survive?
"Mr. K, Korin… T, this is not coming off. Please… please save me. I, I might die at this rate."
Unlike the thoughts that were going through my mind, my mouth blabbered about something completely different.
However, I knew this was my honest self.
You idiot.
Selfish Alicia.
A stupid coward.
Why didn't you tell him to run away? You should've told him to leave you behind. Why are you asking him to cut the spell for you when you couldn't even do it yourself?
– Rustle!
It was then. I was crying in an unsightly manner when Mr. Korin threw a robe over my body.
"Mr. K, Korin…?"
"Calm down, Alicia Arden. Nothing will happen if you continue doing that mindlessly. You need to focus and commit your strongest move. It's easy. As long as you calm down, it'll be a piece of cake."
"B, but…"
His voice was very low and was reminiscent of a similar voice that I heard before. Why was I suddenly thinking about that now?
"I will now protect you from those undeads. You know what you have to do, right?"
Only then did I see the undeads that were slowly walking through the fog. I was crying so much that I hadn't been able to see them through my foggy eyes.
Was he going to protect me here? By himself? Even though he was stronger than me… was he going to protect me inside this red fog? Why?
"I, I can't move my hands and, th, the fog is making me dizzy. It hurts."
He was risking his life for me, and yet the only thing I could say in return was something like this.
Whinging and complaining that it was painful and scary. Someone like me was incomparably worse than the benefactor let alone the boy in front.
It's because I was a fool like this that I could not say anything in front of Sister Lunia…
"Alicia. Alicia…!"
"Hikk…!"
In this pressing situation, the boy grabbed on my shoulders and wiped the tears from my eyes before opening his mouth.
"You can do it. You can do a lot better than what you're doing right now."
"Mr. Korin? What do you…"
"Just continue slashing and keep it up. Just focus yourself on getting rid of this spell that's holding you back. Don't worry about anything else. I will protect you, so you focus on one thing."
"B, but… m, my hands are burning! I can't clench my hands either…"
"You are the greatest genius I've ever seen out of all the swordsmen I've met. You can do anything as long as you want to. It's just one step. Alicia Arden. One step is enough."
Leaving those words behind, the boy lifted up his dazzling silver spear. Showing me his back, he faced the undeads.
He was not throwing me away.
"…"
If you stand up like that, I really have to force myself to do it then, don't I…? But I don't feel confident. I'm sure I'll fail.
The fallen ego and the endless sense of self-doubt was burying me alive.
｢Lack of practice from over-reliance on talent.｣
Yes. I was lazy until now. I never even tried working hard.
Ever since that day when I first cut someone… my sword had been stagnant.
I'm just a fool, so why…
｢But talent-wise, you're better｣
Why did he have so much trust in my talent even when he was comparing me to unni?
｢You can do it.｣
"Kuhup…!"
Swallowing the scorching beads of tears, I held onto my sword.
The words, 'give up' were gone from my head. I didn't even have the time to think about anything negative.
There was someone believing in me.
There was someone who saved someone like me, as well as someone who was trying to save me.
My Benefactor and Mr Korin had planted it in my heart – trust for myself.
Grabbing the scabbard with one hand, I sheathed the cold blade back in.
Grandpa's killing move – the strongest sword strike in the world. This move was something that could slash through anything in existence. And thus… I knew there was something I had to use beforehand when using this.
Eyes of the Boundary.
A cursed talent that forced me to look into the Domain.
Inside the darkness of the Domain, I was all alone.
It made me feel like I was left alone by myself in the world.
An endless sea of darkness that made it look as if I would drown with a single misstep. The darkness that I would see through these eyes was so scary, and because I knew no-one could help me from falling into that dark ocean with no bottom in sight…
I had been frightened of opening these eyes until now.
—–————–
The world stopped.
In a world of utmost concentration… even the sound of blood drops was no longer reaching my ears.
I was all alone in this shivering world. The coldness brought by the ebb threatening to swallow my ankles made me tremble.
Am I alone?
Am I… by myself in this place again?
As soon as I was about to be swept away by the wave, my eyes met with someone's.
Korin Lork.
He was looking at me from the front with his spear in hand.
Ah… I wasn't alone.
You were with me in the same world as me.
A coward.
You stupid retard.
You idiot who needs someone to be by your side just to take a single step forward.
I finally opened my eyes in full.
For the first time, I gazed into it.
Looking at the foreign substances of this world, I accepted the darkness and stared into the boundary.
The falling tears, the dripping drops of blood and the torrent of emotions… they all became fuel for that one step forward within the suspended world.
– Guhahaha.
I saw a hazy figure through the fog. An old evil that looked horrendous was showing a nasty smile while looking at his two sacrifices.
｢It's just one step. Alicia Arden. One step is enough.｣
Finally, I took a step forward in the black ocean for the first time – it was a full and complete step forward.
❰Arden First Sword Style: Domain Severance❱
The sword that was swung inside the Domain while ignoring the limitations of physics —
—- It slashed through the restriction,
Through the crimson fog,
And cleaved every evil hidden inside the mist.