Chapter 37
#37. Where Do You Think You're Running Off To?
KRAAAAAANG!
A thunderous explosion rang out between Winterwald's massive ramparts.
It was the sound of Kylan's Frost Fang and Tarkan's bone axe colliding head-on.
"K-kraaagh!"
"Fall back! You're getting in our lord's way!"
The knights and adventurers watching the clash between the two monsters atop the ramparts staggered backward, pushed away by the fierce storm.
Whenever blue aura and pitch-black demonic energy spread in every direction, the rampart gate split apart and the ground froze over.
Clang! Kaaang! Ching!
Their attacks narrowly grazed each other's vital points as they passed.
When Kylan's blue sword aura grazed Tarkan's forearm, the tough hide tore and dark red blood sprayed through the air.
But Tarkan's counterattacks were equally fierce.
It was then that a black mist briefly obscured Kylan's vision.
Whoosh!
The bone axe, flying in at a terrifying speed, shattered the bracer on his left wrist.
"Heh heh. You've got good instincts. I was planning to cut off your entire wrist."
Tarkan taunted him with a smile even as blood dripped from his body.
Kylan did not even answer.
His blue eyes merely followed Tarkan's next trajectory with dry, detached focus.
Slash! Boom!
As time passed, large and small cuts appeared across Tarkan's body, while Kylan remained completely unharmed.
Only his armor, which had never once been stained with so much as a drop of blood, was dented for the first time.
"Heh heh heh! Hahahaha!"
The more blood Tarkan lost, the louder he laughed.
The black demonic energy pouring from his enormous body grew increasingly dense and fierce.
Under Tarkan's relentless pressure, Kylan even seemed to be pushed backward little by little, ever so slightly.
The faces of the adventurers and knights watching the duel atop the ramparts gradually turned pale.
"W-what in the world is that……?"
A novice adventurer who had just come up from the South could only gape blankly, unable to finish his sentence.
The enormous figure moved.
That was all he could barely make out.
The novice's eyes could not possibly follow where the axe was swung from or where it was headed.
There was only one thing he knew for certain.
That was power on a level no human could withstand.
"M-Mr. Gale! That orc called Tarkan is far more monstrous than we expected! Shouldn't we help His Highness?!"
The novice adventurer gulped and looked at his senior, who had recently advanced to the gold rank.
"Pfft, what are you talking about, kid?"
Gale snorted softly.
"His Highness losing? How long did you say you'd been in the North?"
"……Uh, a month or two……."
He shook his head repeatedly as though the notion were absurd.
"Then keep quiet and watch. That will never happen."
"……Yes, sir."
Tarkan was unquestionably strong.
Stronger than any orc who had ever appeared before Winterwald.
If anyone other than Kylan had faced him, they would have struggled to endure even a single exchange.
However.
Neither the adventurers nor any of the knights atop the ramparts doubted the outcome of this battle.
Because their lord was Kylan Winterwald.
***
Gale was right.
At a glance, Kylan seemed to be struggling to deflect Tarkan's axe.
But in truth, he was not fighting seriously at all.
'Tarkan…… This fellow is unusually heavily contaminated by demonic energy.'
Kylan observed him inwardly while deflecting Tarkan's attacks with the bare minimum of movement.
The black mist Tarkan emitted was not aura. It was demonic energy.
The remnants left behind in the world by the sealed Demon King. Tarkan had merely picked them up and swallowed them.
Tarkan's homeland was a land heavily contaminated by demonic energy, and the weapon in his hand had also been deeply influenced by the Demon King.
Monsters contaminated by demonic energy were strong.
The more deeply they were contaminated, the more their bodies transcended their limits and transformed into something monstrous.
But every power in the world came with a price.
'The more one is eroded by demonic energy, the weaker one becomes in the presence of solar mana.'
Kylan was at ease.
He had never intended to use his full strength in the first place.
Do you know what happens when a lion uses all its strength to catch a rabbit?
It dies.
Because it expends more energy than the nutrients it gains.
Kylan had no intention of fighting like a foolish beast.
Why waste his stamina on a sword fight when there was a way to conserve his strength?
Kylan casually lifted his gaze toward the sky.
The artificial sun Eleanor had launched into the sky was slowly growing larger.
"Hahahaha! Die, human! I'll tear apart that feeble body of yours in a single blow!!"
Tarkan, mistakenly believing he had seized the advantage, swung his axe.
***
Clang!
After dozens of exchanges.
Tarkan was completely absorbed in the duel.
How long had it been since he had felt such exhilaration?
Ever since the day he trampled the last chieftain and achieved the complete unification of the orcs.
A sense of emptiness had always occupied a corner of his heart.
It was the self-indulgent feeling of having no one left who could withstand his axe.
Clang! Ching!
But now that emptiness was being filled.
By a single person.
By his battle with a small human.
Blood flowed from his wounds, and frost began forming all over Tarkan's body.
But the more blood he lost and frost gathered, the more fiercely Tarkan released his demonic energy, laughing all the while.
It felt as though this joy would continue forever.
Then, at a certain moment.
'……?'
Tarkan's brow furrowed slightly.
Something was bothering him.
At first, he thought it was merely his imagination.
But as the exchanges continued, the sense of incongruity grew increasingly clear.
'……It's dazzling.'
It was the sun.
The sunlight happened to be pouring directly onto Tarkan's face.
From behind Kylan, as if it had joined his side.
The problem was……
'……Something feels strange.'
The sun seemed to be growing larger and larger.
When he had first entered the ramparts, it had clearly been no more than an ordinary size.
But now it looked twice as large as usual.
No, not twice as large.
Three times. Four times.
Every time he swung his axe, it seemed as though the sun swelled another handspan.
It was also growing hotter and hotter.
His skin prickled.
Thick beads of sweat trickled down his forehead.
Orcs living in the North were not naturally a species resistant to heat, but this was something else entirely.
It felt as though his flesh were burning.
Boom!
Another exchange.
Sweat ran into his eyes.
The strength drained from the hand gripping his axe.
Tarkan's field of vision was gradually narrowing.
Kaaang!
"……What?!"
The axe he brought down was knocked away far too easily.
Even though it had been a desperate, all-out strike.
Tarkan's face twisted in bewilderment.
"Y-you're pretty good……! I'll start fighting properly from now on……!!"
Tarkan gritted his teeth and tried to draw up his demonic energy.
But it was useless.
The demonic energy was now evaporating at tremendous speed the moment it emerged from his body.
‘What… is this.'
Only then did Tarkan raise his head and look clearly at the sky.
Separate from the real sun hanging at the western horizon.
In the sky above Kylan's head.
Another enormous sun was shining directly down on him.
"……W-was it sorcery?!"
Tarkan's gaze returned to Kylan.
"Y-you used sorcery? That's cowardly……!! How dare you in a sacred battle between chieftains!!"
Kylan merely shrugged at Tarkan's glare.
"Winterwald is a city where the sun rises even at night. Didn't you know that before you attacked?"
Kylan slowly began walking forward and casually swung his sword several times.
Unlike Kylan's relaxed expression, Tarkan had to exert all his strength to block each of the sword's attacks with his axe.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
"Huff…! Huff…! Haaah…!"
"You look exhausted."
"Shut up!"
Though the two men stood beneath the same sun, their physical conditions had diverged completely.
Tarkan, who had relied on demonic energy, was struggling even to breathe and could barely remain conscious.
Kylan, on the other hand, was perfectly fine.
"Huff…! Huff…! You cowardly bastard……!!"
Solar mana was like a warm radiance, and it possessed the property of slowly transferring to anyone it touched.
When Eleanor buried her cheek against Kylan's chest in her sleep.
When Kylan ran his hand through Eleanor's hair.
When they held hands and spent peaceful nights together.
Solar mana had already melted deep into Kylan's body.
There was no man in the entire Empire more resistant to solar mana than Kylan.
Kylan instead felt his body grow even lighter and pressed his attack harder.
'D-damn it!'
Amid the pain of feeling as though his skin were being roasted, Tarkan finally realized it.
From the very beginning, this human had never regarded him as an equal warrior.
He merely saw him as prey to be cut down efficiently.
"Would you mind moving farther back? I've dug a hole back there."
Kylan did not even properly meet his gaze.
His eyes were those of someone indifferently looking down at prey growing tired.
Every time Tarkan blocked Kylan's sword, he was driven far backward.
There was truly nowhere left for him to retreat.
"You insolent human……! How dare you, how dare you……!!"
His pride had been trampled.
As an orc lord, and as a warrior.
He could endure no more.
KUUUUUNG!!
The Black Dragon's bone axe in Tarkan's hand began spewing pitch-black mist.
This time, the amount was so immense that even the artificial sun could not purify it.
A black storm raged around Tarkan's body.
"W-what an incredible aura……!"
"I-I can't breathe……!"
The knights atop the ramparts staggered and collapsed to their knees.
An evil wind swept through the entire canyon.
"K-krrrrrk……!!"
Tarkan slowly emerged from within the black storm.
He no longer had the appearance of an ordinary orc.
Two crimson horns tore through the skin and rose from either side of his forehead, while his eyes became stained blood-red.
Before long, even a massive, scaled tail sprouted and whipped around him.
"……."
Kylan, who had remained expressionless throughout, furrowed his brow for the first time.
"You. You have completely become one of the Demon King's minions."
"Heh heh. I merely picked up power that had fallen to the ground."
Tarkan, transformed into a demon, sent hundreds of black tendrils extending from his body.
The tendrils bound the orcs sleeping in the pits like snakes.
"Krrk……?"
"G-Great Chieftain……! Why……!"
Demonic energy began draining from the orcs' bodies and being sucked into Tarkan's.
Fwoooooosh—.
The enormous orcs' bodies dried out in an instant.
Their muscles shriveled, and their skin grew rough like earth cracked by drought.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The orcs collapsed one after another.
"……What the hell are you doing to my workers… no, your own subordinates!!"
Kylan's expression grew fierce.
But Tarkan did not care.
Tarkan simply felt good.
He had grown up in contaminated land, eating contaminated meat.
In the end, he had even reached for a contaminated weapon and sold his soul to the Demon King.
He had boasted that he would seize warm territory for his orc brethren, but it had all been nothing more than a paltry excuse.
Tarkan had merely wanted to wield the power he had obtained to his heart's content.
"Don't stand in my way, human!"
Tarkan swung his bone axe in a wide arc.
Not at Kylan, but at the artificial sun floating in the sky.
The artificial sun shook violently after being struck by the black slash.
However……
Darkness might fear the sun.
But the reverse was never true.
The artificial sun, which had seemed to waver for a moment, spewed out pure white chains that tightly bound Tarkan's body.
Sizzle—.
Tarkan's skin began to burn where it touched the chains.
***
Kylan gathered aura into his sword.
"Graaagh!? Do you still think this kind of trickery will work!?"
As expected of a Great Chieftain.
When Tarkan struggled with tremendous strength, cracks began forming in Eleanor's binding spell.
It would not hold for long.
At most, only a few more seconds.
But that was enough for Kylan.
A Sword Master needed, by nature,
only an instant to land a single blow.
"Eleanor."
Kylan murmured in a low voice.
Then the artificial sun slowly descended from the sky and swallowed Kylan's body.
More precisely, it began being drawn into his sword.
For the first time, Frost Fang wrapped itself in heat rather than cold.
Blue aura and the radiant mana of the sun.
Ice and flame.
On the sword, they did not reject one another, but blended together and danced as one.
It was the moment when the couple's mana finally became one upon a single blade.
Thud.
Kylan took one step forward.
"HUMAAAAAN!!"
Tarkan struggled desperately to break the chains, but……
It was already too late.
Slash—
A slash of light was carved into Tarkan's chest.
The entire rampart was engulfed in a blinding flash.
"……."
Before long, the light subsided.
It was a strange sight.
From the skin of the enormous figure kneeling and spraying blood,
pitch-black demonic energy was slowly escaping like black smoke.
Ssssss—.
Tarkan's enormous skin, which had been consumed by black demonic energy, began returning to its original color.
Not the hideous dark green of the orcs.
A clear, fresh pale green.
The color the orc race was said to have borne long ago, before being contaminated by demonic energy.
The crimson horns that had sprouted from either side of his head slowly crumbled away.
The bat wings that had begun to emerge from his back.
The black tail as well.
They all turned to ash and scattered on the wind.
The red glow slowly drained from his eyes, which had burned crimson with mad fury.
His original, clear amber eyes returned.
At last, he had returned to the form of an orc warrior.
Tarkan slowly raised his head.
"……Karak. Gur."
His voice, purged of demonic energy, was astonishingly calm.
"G-Great Chieftain……!"
The old shaman Gur came running over, crying out in a shrill voice.
Karak merely stood frozen in place, staring blankly at his Great Chieftain.
Tarkan's gaze slowly turned toward Karak.
"I, Great Chieftain Tarkan……"
His enormous chest rose and fell once, deeply.
"……have been fairly defeated."
Karak's eyes widened.
"G-Great Chieftain……!"
"According to the code."
Tarkan's voice echoed softly throughout the canyon.
"Follow the new chieftain."
"……!!"
"The fate of our Northern Frost Orc tribe……"
Tarkan's amber eyes slowly turned toward Kylan.
Toward the new chieftain gazing at him while cloaked in blue frost.
"……I leave it to you."
"……Great Chieftain!!"
Gur's scream echoed through the canyon.
Thud.
The enormous figure slowly toppled sideways.
***
The adventurers and knights atop the ramparts stood gaping blankly.
"……Is it over?"
"It's over……."
"His Highness…… He really did it……!"
"Long live Winterwald!!"
The pitch-black pressure that had weighed down the entire canyon until moments ago vanished as though it had never existed.
Only a gentle golden afterglow slowly drifted over the fallen giant.
"……."
Kylan impassively sheathed Frost Fang.
The golden mana had all dissipated, leaving the sword with only its original blue chill once again.
The orcs dropped to their knees one after another and paid their respects to their new chieftain.
Just then.
Kylan looked at the fallen Tarkan and spoke in his usual expressionless voice.
"Cedric. Keep this fellow alive by whatever means necessary."
'……After breaking everything all by yourself, where do you think you're running off to?'