Chapter 156: Everyone’s Perspective (7)
‘What on earth.’
I was utterly bewildered.
Everything I had just experienced felt far too vivid.
No—did it really happen?
Anguster’s betrayal, Professor Shagas’ death, Yuran being swallowed by the Tentacle Mass.
Even the blade that had flown toward me.
Everything felt real.
So vivid, it seemed like a lie.
‘This is like...’
As if I had gone back in time...
‘...No, that’s not it.’
I didn’t know why, but I was sure.
Maybe because I had once experienced traveling back years into the past, my instincts simply knew.
I couldn’t explain it clearly, but I was certain.
I hadn’t returned to the past.
Yes, if I had to describe it...
It was like waking up from an incredibly vivid dream, as though I had briefly glimpsed the future—a strange sense of déjà vu.
“……”
Silently, I touched my cheek with my fingers.
Though my cheek—torn open by the axe—was perfectly intact, the searing pain from back then still felt vividly real.
The memory of that pain was so intense it made my spine tingle.
This feeling I had—it wasn’t just a gut instinct.
Right now, evidence supporting it was unfolding before my very eyes.
“It's ridiculously tough. I expected it wouldn’t be easy, but I didn’t think it’d be this much.”
“On the way here, the only ones I saw were Cultists of the Evil God. And not a single woman among them.”
“Then all the more reason we should request backup, don’t you think? We’ve got no way to deal with that thing ourselves, and if we tamper with it and something unexpected happens, it could get even worse. It’d be fastest to contact someone trustworthy as soon as possible.”
Anguster’s words and actions, how the situation was playing out, even Professor Shagas’ reactions.
Everything was unfolding exactly as I’d seen in that vivid déjà vu.
Throwing the axe at the Tentacle Mass.
Discussing Yuran’s whereabouts.
Proposing to call for help.
Anguster spoke exactly as I had seen and experienced.
“...Yes, that would be best.”
“Then we should leave this place first.”
With that, Anguster approached Professor Shagas ever so naturally.
Professor Shagas, suspecting nothing, didn’t react even as Anguster moved behind him. He simply looked pensive, lost in thought.
Yes, any moment now.
Just a bit more.
“……”
My eyes turned cold.
My hand gripped the hilt of my sword tightly.
‘Now!’
Without hesitation, I lunged and swung my sword.
My target—the blade Anguster was extending toward Professor Shagas’ back.
Clang!
A sharp metallic clang echoed through the underground waterway.
My sword struck Anguster’s blade dead-on.
“...!”
Anguster’s eyes widened in shock.
As if he hadn’t expected anyone to interfere.
“...How?”
he murmured, flustered.
I didn’t answer. I simply tightened my grip on the sword.
Anguster instinctively tried to retreat, but I didn’t let the moment slip.
Riding the momentum, I pressed forward with a fierce swing.
As if repaying what he had done to me in that vision, my sword lashed out violently toward Anguster.
“Guh!”
Caught off guard by the sudden counterattack, Anguster hastily changed his sword’s trajectory to block it.
With a loud clash, our swords met again.
As I clashed blades with him, I knew it instinctively.
This was the chance.
Once.
Maybe twice, if I pushed it.
And this—this was the first of those rare chances.
“...!”
I summoned divine power.
A piercing pain shot through my arm, as if it sensed the agony to come, but I ignored it.
I could feel something writhing at the tip of my sword.
The Brand engraved on my collarbone trembled as if resonating.
All I had to do now—was swing.
But just as I was about to strike again—
Whoosh.
Anguster’s body blurred like an afterimage.
He evaded my strike with a graceful step back.
And in that same motion, he positioned himself directly in line with Professor Shagas.
“...Tch!”
I had no choice but to grit my teeth and halt my attack.
If I swung now, Professor Shagas would be caught in it too.
“Heh.”
Anguster twisted his lips slightly at me.
As if he had seen right through my trump card.
“What is the meaning of this...?”
Professor Shagas narrowed his eyes in confusion, glancing between me and Anguster.
My sudden attack.
The clash between the two of us.
And now Anguster moving as if to use him as a shield.
“……”
Then, his eyes thinned sharply, as if he understood what was going on.
“Sir, I don’t know either. Suddenly, Lord Gwendil attacked me... guh?!”
Anguster, feigning injustice, was cut off mid-sentence.
A blade had flown toward his brow—Professor Shagas’ sword.
“E-elder?”
His voice was mixed with confusion and a sense of betrayal.
To an uninformed listener, it would have sounded so heartrending they might have wavered for a moment.
But deep within his eyes, cold emotions glittered.
“……”
Shagas stood silently at my side, taking his position as if confronting Anguster.
The tip of his sword was aimed at Anguster without the slightest tremor.
That action was a clearer answer than any words could have been.
At the sight, Anguster cried out again and again as if he were wronged.
“Elder, I merely defended myself! Why on earth would you…?”
“……”
“Why are you suspecting me like this, without even hearing a single word of explanation?!”
Shagas remained silent.
Gradually, anger began to seep into Anguster’s voice.
“How… how could you possibly believe that kind of brat instead of me?! What was I to you, Elder?! Was I not a comrade who shared years upon years with you?!”
Anguster’s voice was desperately earnest.
His face even wore an expression that looked genuinely wronged.
Even so, Professor Shagas did not move an inch.
His eyes, as though they would tolerate not even the smallest misstep, were fixed solely on Anguster.
“……”
In the midst of that standoff, my gaze slipped to the side.
The massive Tentacle Mass, still writhing.
Yuran was trapped inside it.
“…Professor, please give me a moment.”
I muttered in a low voice.
Without hesitation, I added while turning toward the Tentacle Mass.
“I’ll bring Yuran back.”
Without waiting for an answer, I gathered Divine Power once more and focused all my strength.
Sssshk.
With a bizarre sound, as if space itself were tearing again, my sword swung toward the Tentacle Mass.
“~~~~~~~~!!!”
The Tentacle Mass writhed even more violently than before.
It almost looked as if it were screaming.
From the severed cross-section, dark red fluid spilled out along with unidentifiable things that looked like internal organs, pouring forth in heaps.
Yet contrary to my expectations, Yuran was nowhere to be seen.
It seemed I had aimed slightly higher, afraid of dragging Yuran into it if she was inside.
Without hesitation, I forced my staggering body forward and charged at the Tentacle Mass.
Even as I poured Divine Power into it, sensation in my right arm was already beginning to fade.
“T-that bastard!”
Anguster tried to rush at me when he saw that.
But Professor Shagas stepped in front of him, forcing him to stop.
“Don’t do anything foolish.”
“Elder!”
“I—”
Amid the horrific noises and ominous aura filling the air, Professor Shagas looked only at Anguster.
“Don’t make me kill a comrade with my own hands, Anguster.”
“……”
A brief moment passed like that.
“Khah!”
Not long after, I burst out from within the Tentacle Mass, holding someone tightly in my arms.
Though covered in dark red fluid, that person was unmistakably Yuran.
“I saved her…!”
Enduring the pain surging from my arm, along with the nauseating stench wafting from the tentacles, I cried out with difficulty.
“…Yuran!”
At the sound, Professor Shagas glanced over to confirm Yuran’s condition, surprise and relief crossing his face.
But the moment his gaze reached her back, his expression froze.
An axe was embedded deeply in Yuran’s back.
Its shape and markings were far too familiar to Professor Shagas.
Anguster.
It was his axe.
“……”
Professor Shagas slowly turned his head to look at Anguster.
His eyes were now filled with emptiness and sorrow beyond mere anger.
“Anguster.”
His voice was low and calm.
Precisely because of that, it was all the more chilling.
“Try to persuade me, then.”
“……”
Anguster fell silent.
The injustice and confusion drained from his face, leaving only cold derision behind.
He let out a short laugh.
“Persuade you… just how am I supposed to persuade you, Elder?”
His voice felt like that of a completely different person from moments ago.
There was not the slightest trace of respect for a benefactor left in it.
“You and I both make our living by the blade. The way people like us persuade each other is obvious, isn’t it? This is faster than words—!”
With those words, Anguster suddenly hurled his axe toward Professor Shagas.
Immediately after, he regripped his sword, taking a stance as if he would swing it at any moment.
But the tip of his sword was not aimed at Professor Shagas.
Anguster abruptly chopped off his own left arm.
“What?”
“Kkhh…!”
As I reeled from his sudden action, Anguster flung his severed left arm toward Shagas.
Professor Shagas, who reflexively tried to knock it aside, recoiled in horror and leapt back several steps.
“You’ve got good instincts, Elder.”
Anguster muttered.
After glancing at the dark red liquid gushing from his severed arm and the tentacles writhing like insects, he slipped away into the darkness as if hiding himself.
“Damn you!”
Professor Shagas’ furious shout echoed through the area.
But he could not give chase.
Where the dark red liquid had splashed, pale smoke rose as if acidic substances had been spilled, and the tentacles carried an aura so vile that even a demon hunter like him felt chills.
“Insolent…”
Professor Shagas easily chopped Anguster’s left arm into pieces.
Shredded by his sword, which glowed with a blue light, it burned away without leaving even a trace.
“Gwendil, let’s leave this place for now. We’ve saved Yuran, so there’s nothing more to do here…?”
Professor Shagas frowned oddly as he looked at me standing there blankly, holding Yuran in my arms.
Then, as if he had realized something, his body began to tremble faintly.
“Ah.”
No.
He whispered quietly.
“……”
Meanwhile, as I calmly checked Yuran’s condition, I once more brushed her cheek.
There was no faint breath, not even the slightest warmth.
Only the sensation of cold, lifeless skin reached my fingertips.
Yuran’s breathing had already stopped.