Mitsuki extended his hand toward Marco. He wanted to help him stand up. Marco calmly accepted and got back to his feet. He staggered a little, but managed to steady himself successfully.

"Anyway, you don’t look so good. Are you seriously going to keep fighting specters in that condition?" Mitsuki asked.

"I have to. I’ve depended on Monar’s magic for too long, and it made me weak. If it weren’t for him, that specter would’ve killed me in the very first exchange."

"I get it. Cinderella hit me once with all her strength and part of my body practically exploded. Obviously, if it weren’t for Monar, I would’ve disappeared right there. But we’re fine now, aren’t we? We just have to work harder so we don’t repeat the same mistakes; level up, farm items... become stronger."

Marco looked at the piles of ash scattered across the ground.

"Yeah..."

He frowned thoughtfully. Serious as always, he looked Mitsuki in the eyes and asked:

"How were you able to stand back up back then? I mean when you were basically a walking corpse."

Mitsuki thought:

’Hm... Looks like he didn’t realize I’m the Herald at that moment. The same goes for Azel and Monar, so I can’t tell them I’m still alive because of that. Maybe...’

He sighed.

"I wonder the same thing. Even I don’t know what pushed me forward at that moment."

Marco took that answer as something deeper than it really was. He reflected on it, then sheathed his sword and said:

"I really judged you wrong. Truthfully, a huge part of our victory against the Princess of Axorhibis was thanks to you. Monar and you... I still have a lot to learn from both of you."

Mitsuki thought he had judged Marco wrong as well. Despite his senseless hatred toward nobles and anyone associated with them, he was nothing more than a normal person trying to live peacefully alongside his friends while traveling the world on adventures. That was, at its core, the truth of an adventurer.

Maybe it was simply the truth Marco lived by.

He did not truly know him, but he could tell he was a good person. Monar had already told him that, and he had really been right.

’I think I made the same mistake Marco made with me. We both judged each other wrong, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to forgive the humiliation from that day at the guild.’

Actions spoke louder than words. Marco had saved Mitsuki several times, and Mitsuki had saved all of them when he decided to stand back up one more time.

It was not about owing favors to each other, but about proving it was worth getting along and not holding grudges.

Still, none of that really mattered much to Mitsuki. Everything still looked "dim" through his eyes because everything felt boring and meaningless. Now he continued moving forward guided only by the memories he still had from when he was an emotional person and not an empty doll with a broken soul, because there was nothing else he could do.

"Well, time to keep going," Marco said, ready to throw himself into danger once again.

Mitsuki cleared his throat.

"You know? I could go with you, just in case. I mean, I’m not the one bleeding out."

Marco looked at his wounds; he was covered in blood. He showed an awkward smile because, despite claiming he needed to keep fighting, he was in terrible shape to even think about battle.

"Maybe you can," he said, clearly trying to dodge the topic.

Mitsuki nodded.

"Then let’s go. It’s better to farm experience together with the minions."

"Minions?" Marco wondered, since the term sounded insulting...

***

Marco wrapped his wounds with some bandages Mitsuki pulled from the Heavy Backpack. Then the two of them advanced through the ruined city streets while searching for more ash beasts.

At first they walked because everything around them was too quiet. It took Mitsuki a while to realize this was his fault.

"Why are there suddenly no monsters? The city was crawling with them a few days ago," Marco complained.

Mitsuki looked at the system screen.

[ The title "Master of Cinder" is active. ]

[ Ash beasts weaker than you will fear you or follow you. ]

’I remember that time I told the monsters to leave, and they obeyed me. Could it work the other way around? Because it feels like I’m some kind of king to those weaker than me.’

Whether it would work or not depended entirely on experimentation. So after thinking for a few seconds while Marco kept complaining, Mitsuki reached a final conclusion.

Whispering so Marco would not hear him, he said:

"All of you... come attack me."

A few seconds passed... nothing happened. Mitsuki looked around expectantly, but absolutely nothing occurred. In fact, the silence and emptiness were so complete that it would not have been surprising if a tumbleweed casually rolled by.

’Did I say it wrong?’ he wondered, but a strange creaking sound pulled him from his thoughts.

The atmosphere became gloomy and heavy, as if the thick ash fog were rising between the alleyways to herald the misfortune of the Mystery of Shadow, though it was less complex than that.

Marco stopped and drew his sword.

Hundreds of whispers echoed through the intersections of the ruined streets.

"An ambush?" Marco said.

Mitsuki showed a faint emotionless smile.

’It worked. So if that’s how it functions, maybe it’s possible for me to build an army of ash beasts.’

Imagining himself as a king leading an army of ash across the plains gave him many ideas on how to use the creatures, but he could not continue fantasizing because the ground began to tremble.

Suddenly, the walls of the nearby houses turned black. A cloud of ash formed over the ground, and the sky itself seemed to darken. Through the mist, someone raised an aberrant hand with uneven claws. A mournful groan from beyond the grave accompanied it, while hundreds of whispers rose in volume.

Then, in the darkest and most ominous alley to their left, two hollow eyes appeared.

"Those are..."

"Wendigos?" Marco muttered.

"They’re coming from every direction."

"They’re surrounding us. Get ready, Mitsuki! This isn’t something I can handle alone."

Mitsuki summoned the shotgun and aimed toward the dense fog filling the alleyways. From within it, the Wendigos emerged, blocking the streets from the darkness. Their skull-like faces appeared even more corrupted by ash than the Wendigo they encountered before reaching the dragon village.

"Didn’t Monar say these things can reach S-Rank?"

"Yeah. And if they are, they’ll kick our asses without hesitation."

Mitsuki moved closer to Marco and covered his back.

’That means more XP for me. Excellent.’

The beasts grew within the darkness, as tall as three people, twisted by blasphemy to the point that their very existence was horrifying. Their bones cracked as they dragged themselves toward the two defenseless humans, and their broken voices, similar to guttural roars, stirred the black mist.

Soon, a powerful current of wind began spiraling across the entire block. The ash and black fog rose, forming a massive dark tornado that blocked the view of the surroundings.

[ The title "King of the Void" has activated. ] the system displayed.

[ The ash creatures have answered the King’s Call. ]

Mitsuki tightened his grip on the shotgun.

’King’s Call... Sounds cool, and it’s more effective than I thought. Still, Wendigos are supposedly weaker than me, so they shouldn’t be above A-Rank like the other beasts.’

The threat should not have been a major problem, but dealing with more than one Wendigo could complicate things.

The two adventurers stood back to back, raising their guard without taking their eyes off the tornado. Then they heard the legs of one of the Wendigos scraping forcefully and rapidly across the ground. A moment later, the Wendigo—its hair long and its back hunched into a grotesque hump—burst forth with a charge led by its sharp moose antlers.

Marco stepped between the Wendigo and Mitsuki, blocking the charge with his sword. Both beast and man recoiled from the impact, but that opened the way for the next creature, which copied the attack from behind while the first Wendigo retreated back into the black mist.

This time Mitsuki stomped the ground and fired point-blank.

The Wendigo screamed beneath the brilliant light that suddenly burned across its entire body. Its skeletal face and grotesque form recoiled, writhing on the ground as massive burns erased large portions of its composition.

Desperate, the beast fled back into the mist.

Mitsuki and Marco regrouped at the center of the tornado without taking their eyes off it.

"Looks like there are six or seven. I can hear them," Marco said.

"Me too. They’re physically very strong, but they’re extremely weak against my Arcane Magic."

"Yeah, but we don’t know what rank the other five are."

"Judging from the two that attacked just now, they should be around the same rank as the one we fought before."

Marco strengthened his stance after hearing another roar.

The very next second, a Wendigo even larger than the previous two appeared. Its claws resembled cursed swords, its skull had a shape similar to a dragon’s head, and thick scales rested beneath its dark fur.

Marco tried to stop it, but he was miserably blown away to the other side of the tornado.

The moment Mitsuki looked at it, he noticed something.

[ Name: Elder Wendigo

Level: 40

Rank: S ]