Requiem Of A Failed Hero



The naked black blade bore a shimmering sound as it pierced into the sides of the Basilisk, raised it high up into the sky, and as it came down with more applied force. The body of the monster split into two. 

/huff /huff /huff 

While it was amazing to watch Raith from behind, Mok Jun-Seo was reaching his limit. There was an endless outpour to the numbers of the Basilisks and it was beginning to get tiring. 

The ice ground was covered with carcasses of them, if Mok Jun-Seo was to put a number to the monsters he had killed on his own alone, it'd be over a hundred. And Raith was much faster than he was.

The whole ground was messed up with dead monsters, it wasn't a spectacle to behold, it was a gruesome war ground. 

"I think I've reached my limit." 

Mok Jun-Seo was reluctant to speak at first, but he did anyways. There was no point in dragging the hunter down. 

"That is fine, you lasted this long even though you are old. I'm amazed at you enough already." 

Raith spared him a compliment.

But Mok Jun-Seo found the former part of the compliment unacceptable. 

"What do you mean old? I am young and kicking..." 

He protested as he slowly reverted to his original body. His lion face slowly returned to the usual Mok Jun-Seo's. However, with that came a sudden rush of cold. 

Mok Jun-Seo's clothes had been ripped when he transformed, his magic energy had dropped, and isn't able to maintain the cold resistance anymore. With that came back the frostbite. 

He began to shiver.

'Poor guy...' 

Raith removed his jacket and offered it to him. 

"T-t-thank you so m-m-much." 

It was hard to control his dancing lips as he tried to collect the jacket which eventually wasn't a fit because of his large body.

He had no choice, it was far better than nothing. Not that it reduced the frostbite anyways. 

Raith then belatedly remembered he had that. 

'...Nah, I don't want to give him my passive nullification skill. It is too precious to leave alone. Not like I have anything to gain for it in return.' 

He shook his head and turned a blind eye to Mok Jun-Seo's state. 

'Besides, he would still need his energy points to make it work.' 

Raith turned his gaze to the north, taking his mind off Mok Jun-Seo who was behind him. 

These were the last wave of Basilisk that poured in as they got closer to the north. Not only were there plenty but the cold wind was more intense. 

It was like a sharp gale and sometimes even cut Raith's hard skin. Something was definitely beyond them, a spectacular view sat far ahead of him, downhill of the ground he was standing. 

It made him realize that all the while, they had been walking on a mountain or the ground had broken so deeply that it made this scenery look like he was descending a mountain. 

'How were they coming at us despite the slope of this place? It must have been very hard to climb'

Raith walked closer to the edge and looked down, the farther parts of the slope were dark, too dark for him to see from this distance even with [Darkvision]. 

Mok Jun-Seo walked up to him, shivering.

"Are you going down there?"

Speaking and not smacking his lips against each other seemed more like a product of luck and he was sure he wasn't going to have that same luck twice. 

"Yes. But that is not what intrigues me..." 

Raith responded, lifting his head to the sky. 

Mok Jun-Seo followed Raith's gaze. It was so easy to miss that he had to keep his eyes on it for more minutes to get it. 

"I-i--ss-s t-t-hat not a tr-e-e-ssshh!"

He ended with a sharp sneeze. 

In the sky embedded in the clouds was the figure of a large branch, its color was white and was perfectly blended with the sky, not to say the shades of cloud were blocking the entirety of the figure on different parts. 

It was an incomplete picture but anyone could have made an easy guess that it was a tree. However, it made no sense for a tree to be that tall–that was what Raith first thought. 

'Perhaps it is on top of a higher hill.' 

It made no sense, for a tree to be as tall as the sky. 

Raith looked back at his soldiers who were busy harvesting the carcasses of the monsters for him. After hearing them from Mok Jun-Seo, he was more determined to put them to good use and the runestone was still coming in handy. 

He now has two hundred and thirteen skill fragments. Compared to the number of monsters he had killed it was unfair. But the runestone kept giving shitty skills and some didn't even drop any stones at all. 

"Kortopi" 

Right beside Raith, a black smoke began to material from his feet, thickening and manifesting a humanoid shadow. Slender and without much design on his body, save his red eyes and the streaks that ran from them down his cheeks, to his jaws, and down to his legs. 

The former golem boss, now Kortopi, bowed to his master. Joyful of being called first but did not show it. 

"Jarvis..." 

"Yes, my liege?" 

Raith's brow flinched. He doubted his ears as he watched Jarvis materialize next to Kortopi. 

'He's... different?' 

He had not gotten the time to catch up on his soldiers so there was no way he would have known. The entire thing happened when he was almost dying so that memory wasn't one that could've stuck with him. 

Jarvis was different from the rest of them. The most fascinating fact was that instead of red streaks as usual, white streaks ran over his armored body like cracks. White clothes, white smoke hovering on his helmet instead of the usual redness. 

'Why?' 

[Status]

Death Knight Jarvis

Level: 1/30

Rank: Major 

There was no extra information but he was sure that something was different about Jarvis. 

"A lot happened while I was away huh"

"Yes, my lord." 

So far, Jarvis's voice was the thickest of all of them. It was cool and made Raith enjoy being served. It also reminded him of someone...

'I wonder who it is... he definitely looks like someone I've fought before.' 

Raith wondered for the last time, it was difficult to remember and it was nonsensical to keep thinking about it.

"Crimson, Antares." 

"Yes, my King." 

"My lord" 

Their voice rang out of the dark smoke simultaneously as each of them took their place behind Kortopi and Jarvis, trying to be as close to Raith as possible. 

"Fenrir..." 

A second passed after calling him but there was no response. 

"Fenrir has been asleep." 

"Asleep?"

'Was that why I could barely feel him.'

Fenrir was Raith's first death soldier, it wouldn't be an understatement to say his favorite, hence it baffled him when Crimson said he is asleep. Why would Fenrir be asleep so much that he would hear his call? 

"Since reaching Therut, he has been inactive." 

Antares bowed his head as he made known to Raith. He made sure his gaze didn't meet Raith's and he was more silent than usual. 

"I see..." 

Raith brought his hand to his chin.

'I will check later...' 

"Five of us will go down this hill, and destroy everything within it."

"Master." 

"Noir?"

Raith responded to Noir's voice that sounded from within. 

"Don't worry, I will call you when I need you..." 

"Yes, Master. But Master, I must warn you." 

"You must warn me? Why?" 

"I feel a strong pressure emanating from the depth of that land." 

"Yes, I do too... similar to what I felt when I once met you." 

"Master..." 

A cold silence followed Noir's voice after he called unto Raith, he hesitated to say his next statement until Raith intervened. 

"Speak Noir." 

"This is much stronger than that. I cannot mistake this kind of energy at all. It belongs to their kind." 

"What kind... Noir?" 

Raith asked, with a little frown forming on his face. If Noir could be taking the words so heavily, he feared that he might be unto a much more terrifying horror than he had imagined. 

"Dragons."