RUMBLE—!

Cale ran down the stairs past the first underground floor toward the second, measuring the tremors coming from outside as he moved.

It’s stronger than before.

The battle between General Mol, leader of the Third Army, and the top-tier holy knight had grown even fiercer.

...Mol’s worse than I thought.

By now, Cale had expected Mol to have dealt with a mere top-tier holy knight and already set foot inside this building.

That was why, after rescuing Choi Jung Soo, Cale had planned to use the chaos Mol caused inside the building to look for a clue to stop gray sickness.

Are top-tier holy knights really that strong?

Then again—

The one who had wounded Team Leader Sui Khan was a top-tier holy knight, and the one who had abducted Choi Jung Soo was presumed to be the highest-ranking holy knight.

They’re strong.

They were strong.

And they clearly had not even gone all out.

“Cale. Just as expected.”

At Sui Khan’s voice, Cale answered,

“Yes. They’re weak.”

Sssss—

Mist blanketed everything.

Poison mist swallowed the first underground floor and crept ahead down the stairs to the second.

Those toxins did nothing to Cale, but every holy knight guarding the first underground floor had either been paralyzed or knocked unconscious.

The ones guarding the first underground floor are even weaker than I expected.

Most likely, the stronger holy knights had all been pulled elsewhere—those who went out to search for the Five Colored Blood Wanderers, those sent out to fight the Demon King’s army and the territorial forces, and those assigned to protect the Pope.

That would explain why the weaker ones had been left to guard the underground levels, built more like a prison than anything else.

There’s no clue to gray sickness on the first underground floor.

That was the conclusion Cale had reached after moving quickly while checking and memorizing every single cell.

“Ugh—”

“Kgh, ghk!”

Holy knights groaned here and there, or trembled all over without even having the strength to groan.

Cale’s emotionless gaze swept past them.

“Improved.”

He said it absently, almost to himself.

Tap.

With a light footstep, Hong appeared out of the mist, flashed a grin, and vanished back into it.

The old poisons they had received from the Sichuan Tang Clan of the martial world—

It looked like Hong had finally absorbed them properly.

On’s control over mist had improved too, but Hong had clearly grown.

I should take a proper look later.

He would be seeing Ron soon anyway. When that happened, maybe it was time to sit down and talk with him in detail about On and Hong.

“Hm.”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

Cale shook his head at Sui Khan’s question.

Ron and Beacrox.

Someday, he would have to tell both of them about himself.

Cale cut that line of thought off before it could deepen any further.

—Human!

Because Sui Khan, who was in front, had suddenly raised a hand.

—There’s magic on the entrance to the second underground floor! And it’s top-tier! It’s a locking spell!

Raon’s signal reached him.

We found the right place.

The second underground floor.

—Human, I think I can undo this locking spell! It’d take someone like a dragon or Rosalyn to break through something like this! But does the Order of the God of Chaos even have a mage this good?

Choi Jung Soo was probably here.

No—there were probably a great many secrets down here.

The reason they had stationed weaker holy knights on the first underground floor was probably because they trusted this locking spell on the second.

RUMBLE—!

The tremors outside peaked hard enough to shake the underground ceiling.

And then they came closer.

General Mol was closing in on the building.

A strange light flickered through Cale’s eyes.

—Human, if I do this quietly, it’ll take about five minutes! 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

At Raon’s words, Cale thought for a moment.

“......”

All eyes turned to him when he fell silent.

Then he slowly opened his mouth.

“Do it fast.”

Five minutes.

Too long to wait.

And they could not afford to be discovered before Mol reached the building.

If Choi Jung Soo was injured, their first priority had to be getting him out alive.

“Got it, human! Everybody step back!”

Cale stared silently past Raon’s fluttering wings at the sealed door.

—Sniff! Sniff, sniff!

At that moment, the Sound of the Wind began sniffing violently.

Hm!

Cale flinched.

Because this was not the voice he had heard before.

The voice was husky and urgent.

It sounded excited, but pressed too, almost frantic.

—There’s a smell inside! A smell!

The smell of a divine relic.

—It’s disgusting!

—I don’t want this divine relic!

—I want to break it!

It was the first time.

The first time the Sound of the Wind had ever reacted like this.

—This has to be broken! It smells horrible!

—It’s revolting!

The instant those words were spoken, Cale opened his mouth.

“Raon.”

“Hm?”

“Just break it.”

Startled, Raon turned back to look at him—and flinched.

“O-okay, human!”

Cale looked like he might smash the door himself that very second if Raon didn’t move first.

And Raon caught the urgency hanging over him.

Bzzzzz—

Black mana rippled.

—Sniff, ugh, this smell is disgusting!

—This divine relic has to be broken!

As the Sound of the Wind’s voice poured out more intensely than ever before, the air around Cale turned cold.

—Ugh, I didn’t know that thing would smell like this!

The Sound of the Wind knew this divine relic already.

That was why it was talking like this.

And the only divine relics the Sound of the Wind had encountered recently were two.

General Mol.

And Head Steward Hitelis.

Mol was aboveground, so the smell had to belong to the head steward.

And Choi Jung Soo was presumed to be here.

This was the first divine relic the Sound of the Wind had ever called revolting—had ever insisted needed to be destroyed.

And Hitelis might be about to use it on Choi Jung Soo.

Every piece of it was inference.

But judging by the way events were flowing, Cale concluded it was an inference so close to certainty that it might as well be one.

I need to hurry.

Suppressing the urgency, Cale looked inward at his own body.

If things went bad—if this turned critical—

He would use everything.

Ancient Powers, whatever he had, all of it.

Lee Soo Hyuk.

And Choi Jung Soo too.

The Order of the God of Chaos.

He could not let these bastards be.

The air around Cale kept sinking into a deeper chill, but flames had risen in his eyes.

Sui Khan’s expression slowly hardened as he watched.

What happened?

Something had changed—something he himself had failed to catch.

Kim Rok Soo—no, Cale—this bastard’s gone cold.

Back when he’d still been a rookie, weak as hell, Kim Rok Soo had always thrown himself in headfirst whenever that look came into his eyes.

The moment Team Leader Sui Khan saw it, his hand moved to his sword hilt without thinking.

If things went bad, he would have to step in.

*****

“Are you really going to stay silent to the end?”

Hitelis waited for an answer from the Wanderer hanging against the wall, his entire body bound in chains.

“......”

But the Wanderer kept his eyes closed and said nothing.

Drip. Drip.

Drops of blood ran down his legs.

There were dozens of shallow cuts all over his body, everywhere except his face.

Even after all that pain, he still didn’t talk.

These were not ordinary cuts from a blade.

They were wounds carved by a knife coated in holy water infused with the power of chaos, and each one brought an atrocious amount of pain.

Step. Step.

Hitelis walked toward him.

A man bound to the wall so tightly he could not move at all.

There was still a gag in his mouth.

“Open your eyes.”

That was all it would take.

The answer that meant he would tell her everything.

“If you do, you won’t have to suffer that terrible pain any longer.”

She stopped a step away from him.

Then she extended a hand.

Clink.

There was a small jar resting on a pedestal beside them.

It had a wide mouth.

Inside was gray water, and submerged in that water was a small dagger.

“The greatest physical pain you have ever experienced in your life.”

She wrapped her fingers around the dagger.

“You don’t want to feel it again, do you?”

If possible, Hitelis wanted this Wanderer to break willingly.

If it came down to it, she would have to obey the Pope’s order and use the divine relic.

But that was a last resort.

There was nothing wrong with making one final offer before the very end.

Press.

She pressed the dagger gently against the skin visible through his torn clothes.

If she pushed a little deeper, it would cut him—

and he would feel the greatest physical pain of his life.

“You’re the first person I’ve seen endure this pain dozens of times. Are Wanderers truly that different?”

Truthfully, Hitelis respected him, a little.

“People usually say that great pain feels like dying. And you have already died once.”

A Wanderer could only become a Wanderer by dying.

Which meant that, for most of them, the worst physical pain they had ever known was tied to death.

That had to be true for the Wanderer in front of her as well.

“Then why are you smiling now?”

Even with the gag in place, he was smiling.

Because of the gag, drool was running down his chin as he smiled, making him look thoroughly unsightly.

But Hitelis knew what that smile meant.

He was laughing at her.

“You’re not the type to kill yourself.”

That was why she removed the gag as well.

This was the end, after all.

The man still kept his eyes shut.

Still gave no sign.

So Hitelis made her final offer.

“Tell me what you know. Then you can escape this terrible pain—the kind that feels as though you are dying without being allowed to die. You’ve endured it dozens of times already. Next it may be hundreds. Tens of thousands. That would be far too hard, wouldn’t it?”

Her calm voice filled the cell.

Then—

“Pff.”

The Wanderer laughed.

“Hah, hahaha—”

He could not help but laugh.

Hitelis took it for arrogant pride.

A simple attempt to hold out.

Because there was no pain greater than death.

“Does it truly not matter to you if you keep reliving the moment of your death?”

That was when a voice, not laughter, came from the man’s mouth.

His voice was cracked apart.

With that voice, the Wanderer—Choi Jung Soo—said,

“...Don’t know.”

“What do you mean?”

“You don’t know me.”

That was right.

Choi Jung Soo thought these people did not understand.

If the pain that came with each wound had not been the greatest physical pain of his life—

if it had been the greatest pain of the heart instead—

then he might have opened his mouth.

Back then, when he realized all of his relatives, all of his family, were dead—

The pain Choi Jung Soo had felt then was still too deep, too huge to measure even now.

But when he had truly died—

He saved me.

No—

It wasn’t exactly that he had saved him.

Still. Whatever.

Kim Rok Soo had saved him then, hadn’t he?

“...Idiots.”

You really don’t know anything.

That had been the first time Choi Jung Soo had ever changed fate.

So would he really kneel now because he had to feel that pain dozens of times over?

He couldn’t.

To do that would be to betray what he himself had done back then.

No matter what, he could never bow his head because of this pain.

“...You’re a stubborn one.”

“Yeah. You got that right.”

Hoo.

Hitelis let out a sigh.

There was no point talking to a Wanderer who was smiling like this anymore.

So she pulled the divine relic from her robe.

It was a small music box.

“You’ll regret this.”

“This isn’t the kind of thing people regret.”

His voice was locked up, torn to pieces, yet still strangely upright.

Hitelis gave him credit for that.

But it was not more important than her work.

“We’ll see whether you regret it or not.”

She said no more after that.

Press.

Instead, she drove the dagger in a little deeper.

Drip.

A single drop of blood fell.

“......”

Choi Jung Soo bit down hard.

He was enduring the pain, not overcoming it.

Tap.

Then the blood droplet touched the sculpture of a closed eye set atop the little music box.

Flash!

The shut eye snapped open.

And the music box began to turn on its own.

The eye sculpture slowly revolved in a circle.

♩♬♪

A bizarre melody flowed out.

“!”

Choi Jung Soo stiffened.

His eyes were still closed, so he could not know exactly what was happening, but the instant he heard the music, gooseflesh broke over his entire body.

This—

And this music—

This isn’t music.

Right.

He had recognized it as music, but it was not music.

Because he could not understand what kind of music it was.

All he could feel was something tightening around him more and more.

Ah.

It was a gaze.

What was constricting him was a gaze.

His eyes were shut, and yet all he knew was darkness.

Still, Choi Jung Soo could feel the stare following him.

Above?

Below?

Left? Right?

No.

Everywhere.

He was being watched from all sides.

It was not a single gaze.

As if there were nowhere to hide, the stares pressing in from every direction slowly grew stronger.

And closer.

♩♬♪

The music went on.

Yet little by little, he could hear nothing else.

He could smell nothing either.

It was as if his whole body were being swallowed by that overwhelming gaze alone.

!

Something terrible was happening to him.

“......”

Hitelis watched without emotion.

The music filled the cell.

She could hear it too, but it did not affect her.

She was the owner of the divine relic.

But anyone who was not its owner would feel extreme chaos the moment they heard the tune.

And the one who had offered blood would be consumed by that chaos little by little.

As if sinking into a swamp with nowhere to escape.

He’ll lose his reason.

By the time the music ended—

he would become nothing more than a puppet that moved for his owner.

♩♬♪

As the music continued, the Wanderer’s face turned paler and paler.

And his eyelids began to tremble in tiny spasms.

Almost finished.

Based on the reactions she had seen until now, Hitelis had already predicted the result.

Her lips parted.

“Open your eyes.”

Not yet.

Not fully consumed yet.

But judging by how badly his eyelids were shaking, this Wanderer would soon obey her will.

“Open your eyes.”

Hahk. Hah.

The Wanderer’s breathing grew harsher.

He was resisting with everything he had, trying not to open them.

♩♬♪

The music swelled louder.

The final stage.

From this point on, he would be her puppet.

Hitelis opened her mouth.

“Open your eyes.”

And then—

“!”

The Wanderer’s eyes flew open.

A smile crept up Hitelis’s mouth without ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ her realizing it.

There was a certain pleasure in breaking someone proud.

The more she acknowledged them, the sharper the thrill became.

She was about to look at the Wanderer who had lost his reason.

“!”

Then she froze.

The moment his eyes opened, a massive presence slammed into her senses.

BOOOOM—!

A huge crash thundered from the far end of the prison—

from the direction of the entrance door.

But even before the sound, there had been something else.

A presence flowing in from the end of the corridor.

Hitelis’s whole body trembled.

♩♬♪

The music was still playing.

And yet—

“K-khahah, kgh, hah, hahaha—!”

The Wanderer laughed.

He was so crushed by chaos he could barely laugh properly, but he laughed anyway.

Without realizing it, Hitelis turned toward him.

He should have been feeling those chaotic gazes swallowing him whole.

And yet, while he looked as if he were feeling enough terror to lose his mind, he was delighted.

His eyes were astonishingly clear.

His whole body trembled with fear of chaos.

The muscles in his face were twitching and seizing.

And yet those eyes—

Those clear eyes held absolute certainty.

“...Too—”

He could not even finish the word.

Choi Jung Soo could not speak properly now.

In truth, his eyes were open—

but he could see nothing.

No, he could not see reality.

All he could see were eyes looking at him.

Hundreds.

Thousands.

Tens of thousands of eyes staring at him from above, below, left, right—every direction.

And those gazes seemed to have the power to drive a person mad.

Choi Jung Soo could feel himself being smothered by chaos.

At this rate, something terrible was going to happen.

He felt as though he were heading toward an end worse than death.

And yet—

Too late, my ass, you bastard!

Gooseflesh ripped over him.

♩♬♪

Not the gooseflesh he had felt when the music began.

Not the kind the crushing pressure of those tens of thousands of eyes had given him.

A familiar presence.

More violent than usual.

At a glance it felt similar, but it was different from the terror of chaos.

This one was filled with the urge to dominate—his own, and no one else’s.

...This bastard!

Kim Rok Soo.

Cale.

His friend had come.