Hero's Coffin Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Harenir looked down at him with an even more enigmatic expression. As if he hadn't expected such a response, he pressed his lips tightly together, and just then, Noi came running towards him, crying.

"Waaah, Haren!"

His face was a mess, as if all the tension had suddenly drained away upon seeing Harenir. He ran staggering, almost falling, and cried loudly, and Harenir gently patted his head, seeming to guess Noi's efforts from the scattered tree debris in the clearing.

"The way back was blocked, so I was late. But you held out well, Noi."

The three knights had dispersed and moved simultaneously, and although Harenir had gone to the farthest place, the sound of him destroying the core had rung out almost at the same time as Mela. In other words, Harenir had been that fast, yet for some reason, he had been late in returning.

Perhaps the Dium had judged Harenir's presence to be the most troublesome and had interfered with his return. Maybe by deliberately piling up rocks or felling trees in his path.

Pat, pat, as Harenir praised him for doing well, Noi's trembling gradually subsided. To calm down with just a few touches, was this the presence of a hero? As he curiously watched their amazing bond, which was always surprising to see, he heard the Dium getting up from afar.

Rustle— The momentum of the creature rising while breaking the tree was ominous. It glared straight at Harenir, seemingly enraged at being caught off guard.

[You...]

But Harenir's expression, meeting that murderous gaze, remained calm. It was his first encounter with a Dium in this forest, and even though the creature had two horns protruding, there was no particular agitation on his face.

"...In the end, it comes to this."

He might have predicted this from the moment he saw the blocked path, but from the beginning, he had suspected the Dium's survival and wanted to search the Encroachment Zone. Even though the other knights and even Noi, his aide, had been skeptical about it.

Looking back, it seemed that Harenir had not just guessed, but 'known' for certain. Otherwise, he wouldn't have come here, even faking his death. Though he couldn't know why Harenir had been so certain, his calm demeanor even in front of the Dium brought a sense of relief.

Rather, strangely enough, he looked like someone who had been waiting for this moment.

Boom!

Thud! Thud!

The battle began as the Dium charged at Harenir. It swung its massive arm down fiercely, but Harenir avoided the attack with a movement as light as a feather. The Dium repeatedly scattered only his afterimages, breaking innocent trees and rocks.

[You little rat!]

"Having hidden here all this time, wouldn't you be closer to a rat?"

The Dium became even more enraged at the voice that hadn't lost a single breath. Bang, bang, bang! It charged, wildly swinging its arms, creating craters in the ground. The dust raised by the impact spread like fog, obstructing vision, and just as he hoped it would settle quickly... black mist began to spread slowly over it.

From the beginning, mist had been lying all over the Encroachment Zone. It was the reason why no one had dared to touch it, leaving it abandoned for so long after the Great Catastrophe. Now, that mist spread even thicker, following the Dium's movements, obscuring vision.

Harenir swung his sword horizontally in a wide arc. The mist cleared slightly, and he immediately turned to look at Noi and him, saying,

"For now, you two take shelter behind the rock..."

Whoosh! At that moment, an attack came flying. Something sharp extended from within the mist, shooting towards Harenir. The pitch-black thing was the Dium's finger; it seemed the Dium could freely transform its body.

Instinctively, Harenir stepped back half a step to avoid the attack. But it might have grazed his cheek, as a thin line appeared on his face and blood trickled down.

"The wound..."

His exclamation, tinged with bewilderment at the seemingly deep wound, turned into puzzled surprise towards the end.

"...is gone?"

The wound on Harenir's cheek disappeared in less than a few seconds. When he wiped the blood from his cheek with the back of his hand, there wasn't even a trace left. He wondered if there was some healing magic in the back of his hand, but then.

'Haren doesn't die. Because he's the son loved by God.'

Suddenly, he recalled what Noi had said. He had said that a hero who heals instantly from wounds couldn't possibly die just from a search, and that wasn't just simple praise, but a statement based on clear fact.

Whoosh, whoosh! Several more surprise attacks shot out from the mist. Occasionally, faint wounds appeared on Harenir, but they disappeared in the blink of an eye. He didn't seem to pay any particular attention to them. As if it were natural, without needing to focus on it, the hero existed flawlessly, as if that was how it should be.

Is this what they call 'God's love'?

While marveling at this, he tried to escape with Noi. But attacks were flying from everywhere, and they couldn't find a moment to move, so in the end, Harenir stood in front of them, guarding their position and blocking the attacks. The Dium seemed to want to take the two weaklings hostage, consistently targeting them.

Usually in such situations, the hero's hands would be tied protecting the weak, and one would read frustration even in the hero that he couldn't do anything, while those being protected would feel both gratitude and guilt. But he kept falling into a strange sense of dissonance. Rather, he seemed almost as if he had been waiting for this moment...

Crash!

At that moment, the sound of something breaking came from afar. Though they had heard all sorts of loud noises in the forest until now, that one reached their ears particularly clearly. It was the same sound they had heard four times before.

"I've destroyed it!"

Kalterik's booming shout rang out welcomingly. He had finally broken through the interference of the single-horned Diums and destroyed the core.

With this, all the cores in the Encroachment Zone had been eliminated.

As the last core disappeared, not only did the heavy tension pressing down on the forest decrease incomparably to before, but it also became much easier to breathe. Just then, he thought he saw the corners of Harenir's mouth, standing in front of him, lift slightly.

Whoosh!

The moment he drew his sword horizontally, a burst of pure white light erupted, and the mist in the area cleared in an instant. Though the motion was similar to before, the result was completely different. A fierce wind blew, shaking even the Dium's helmet far away.

[Y-you...]

"I was bored."

Harenir smiled, looking at the flustered Dium. Now he clearly understood the source of the dissonance he had felt earlier. Ah, he had deliberately stalled for time to prevent the two-horned Dium from approaching the other knights. He had purposely fought as if it were an even match, pretending to struggle in the mist.

Whoosh! With a single leap, Harenir flew right up to the Dium's face. He lightly shot forward and swung his sword gracefully, and bang! A terrible roar erupted as the ground shattered.

"I'm curious about something. How did you come back to life?"

[Ugh, guh...!]

"Or rather, did you not die in the first place?"

Harenir approached, calmly asking questions. Though his movements seemed light and fluttering, the earth overturned wherever his steps passed. It was as if the forest was collapsing. The ground flipped, trees fell, and rocks shattered. Nothing stood in the way of Harenir's steps.

The Dium was frantically trying to escape. It ran, dodging Harenir's sword, staggering on the violently shaking ground, leaning against trees only for them to break, causing it to roll on the ground. The situation was vastly different from before.

"You don't intend to answer, I see..."

Harenir spoke as if disappointed, though he hadn't given any chance to answer in the first place. It was unclear whether he was sincere or mocking, but the Dium, now in tatters, seemed to take it as the latter and trembled.

[Graaaaargh!]

Finally, the Dium spread its arms wide and let out a terrible roar. A pitch-black miasma burst out from its entire body with a terrifying force, then exploded outwards in all directions. The aura was so vicious that it was impossible to even stand properly.

Kalterik and Mela, who had been trying to join them, stopped with groans. What the Dium had released wasn't just simple miasma. It felt as if the whole body would rot and crumble just from touching it.

The contamination of the Encroachment Zone accelerated.

"Huff..."

In the end, he fell to his knees, trembling with both hands on the ground. It felt like his life force was draining away. He couldn't tell if his fingertips were white from gripping the ground or if it was the process of being contaminated in the Encroachment Zone.

Terrible pain arrived, as if the earlier ease in breathing had been an illusion. It felt like his lungs were solidifying.

[Did you get cocky just because you destroyed the cores! Did you think you could eliminate our land with such tricks! Kekeke, how laughable, that arrogant delusion!]

The Dium burst into mockery. Its laughter echoed through the forest and swirled dizzily in his head. In fact, that part had been something he had found questionable from the beginning.

Would the Encroachment Zone disappear just by destroying all the cores? If so, why had no one tried it until now? Although he had felt the ominous energy of the Encroachment Zone decrease when Kalterik destroyed the last core earlier, that only meant it had diminished, not disappeared.

Moreover, with the Dium's miasma now filling the space like this, it wouldn't be strange if new cores formed at any time. The Dium laughed madly at Harenir's reaction as he stood stock-still.

[How could we give up this land we've taken, we will surely bring back our era...!]

"Actually, I wasn't sure at first."

Harenir's calm voice was heard amidst the Dium's frenzied shouts. The somewhat abrupt content made not only the Dium but also him look at Harenir in bewilderment. What on earth was he saying? What hadn't he been sure about...

"I was uncertain whether eliminating the cores would really be effective."

[What...?]

"But, you hid the last core."

In the midst of the pitch-black raging storm, Harenir smiled slightly. The gentle smile seemed eerily out of place in this urgent situation.