Wandering Mercenary in an Open World
chapter-46

The first thing that opened his eyes against the ominous power that dug deep into his body was his divine power.

A ray of light that sprouted in the precarious situation where his inner self was shaken up injected vitality into Ruon’s consciousness, which was becoming murky.

The moment he reinforced his divine power while solidifying his consciousness world that was collapsing with his superhuman mental power, one of the epithets engraved in his inner self like a medal began to change.

It was a change that praised his inevitable task of continuing to fight, having single-handedly defeated the beings who received the devil’s scar.

[Devil Judge]

The transformed epithet showed off its presence and bared its teeth.

The darkness that was losing its mind to its fierce momentum began to recede gradually.

“···Are you rejecting the king’s baptism with your own power?”

Pashianu, who was watching the scene of the darkness covering Ruon becoming faint, muttered lowly. A hint of confusion crept into his voice, which had not lost his composure even when his face was distorted.

“What the hell are you?”

In the meantime, Ruon, who had completely shaken off the darkness, glared at Pashianu with a blazing gaze.

“What do you mean, what? You’re my enemy.”

He said that and lightly spun the holy sword he held in one hand. Then, a faint light began to gently swirl around the blade.

Pashianu clenched his teeth loudly at the sight.

“You’ve drawn out more of the holy relic’s power? How far are you going to surprise me? What else are you hiding?”

Hiding my ass.

Ruon couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh.

Judging by his reaction, Pashianu didn’t seem to know that his magic had backfired.

Of course, Ruon had no reason to tell him that, so he silently fixed his posture.

Perhaps because of the influence of [Devil Judge], the voice that had been nagging his head and urging him to harm himself had disappeared.

His body was more creaky than before, but he was satisfied with his clear mind and stomped the ground roughly.

“Stubborn bastard!”

Pashianu stretched out his index finger, which had grown long black nails, toward him who was rushing in like a ray of light.

In an instant, a shapeless power that was compressed was shot in the direction his finger pointed.

Ruon swung his sword with the momentum of running.

Kwang!

The magic power that was coagulated by the holy sword exploded, incinerating the surroundings.

The protective shield that was reactivated by the tremendous heat began to melt and burn red.

Then, a sound of a blade cutting through the wind came from the front.

The blade succeeded in cutting through the barely holding shield, but it failed to cut off Ruon’s head, who had lowered his head in advance.

In an instant, Ruon, who had reached Pashianu’s vicinity while leaking two magics, swung his holy sword with all his might.

The holy sword, which responded to his will, flashed and spewed light.

The black sword that flew through the wind pierced through the crimson sparks that surrounded Pashianu’s body and the shield below it, and stuck into his stomach.

The moment Ruon pushed the sword hard, intending to skewer his opponent.

“Bastard!”

Pashianu shouted with bloodshot eyes and slammed his arm down.

Following his trajectory, a black lightning appeared in the air and fell down toward Ruon.

At that moment.

Ruon, who was wondering whether to let go of the sword and retreat, decided not to do so.

He had succeeded in repelling the devil’s power with the power of the title that had changed in an instant, but his body was in tatters because of the aftermath. He thought he might lose the initiative forever if he retreated half-heartedly.

So he stepped forward instead and pushed the sword in with all his strength.

The sword that pierced through Pashianu’s abdomen came out of his back at the same time as the lightning struck Ruon’s right shoulder.

Kwak!

He endured the terrible pain of his arm being torn off and clenched his left hand, which was covered in blood.

His right hand, which had been holding the sword, had no strength because his shoulder was broken, so he had no choice.

“You’re a hard-to-believe···piece of flesh.”

Pashianu gasped for breath as if he was in pain from just breathing.

The blood that spilled from his mouth hung on his chin and dripped to the floor.

“Your···fate···is···entirely···yours···you think···big mistake···keuk!”

Ruon slapped Pashianu’s chin with his left hand, who was spitting out one word at a time with difficulty, and replied coldly.

“Shut up with your empty threats.”

He forcibly fixed the handle of the holy sword with his left hand.

“What you were babbling about, that I’m going to kill your king, hasn’t changed.”

As soon as he finished speaking, he lifted his arm without hesitation.

Chwak-

The holy sword came out of his head, cutting through his skull, and a red line appeared on Pashianu’s face.

Soon, his upper body split and he collapsed to the floor.

Ruon looked down at the sight of Pashianu’s corpse sinking into the puddle of blood he had made and slumped to the floor.

“···It hurts like hell.”

As the blood gushed out of his shoulder, which was hollowed out to the bone, he tore off his shirt under his armor and wrapped it tightly around his armpit.

He frowned at the pain and was surprised by the huge amount of experience that rose in his inner self.

When was the last time he raised two levels in a day?

He closed his eyes, thinking that, and invested his bonus stats evenly in divine power and strength.

When he opened his eyes and smiled contentedly, a light flashed from the pommel of the holy sword.

Yeah, that’s left.

The pale light that poured out toward Pashianu’s corpse pulled out the black energy from his body.

The light of the holy sword, which would have devoured the black energy in an instant, was struggling in the air as if the opponent was not easy this time.

The side that finally won the long struggle was the light of the holy sword.

The light, which had grown noticeably, was about to return to the pommel as expected, when Ruon raised his left arm without knowing it as the light flew toward his face.

At that moment, his vision flickered white.

***

He saw a man.

The man, who miraculously survived when his family died in a carriage accident, devoted himself to his studies and magic, as if he would live for his dead family.

His brilliant talent, which did not betray his efforts, led him to a higher place without allowing a single failure.

After decades passed.

The man had become the most prominent figure in Bern.

His name was Pashianu Onflick.

He was the king’s adviser, a respected scholar, and the honorable director of the Grand Library. Everyone loved and admired him.

No one knew.

The terrible madness hidden behind Pashianu’s kind smile.

The dreadful power and evil plan he had accumulated over the decades.

No one knew that his parents and two sisters, who were reported to have died in the carriage accident, were actually skinned alive and offered as sacrifices to the devil.

He was an apostle.

The most favored servant of the great devil Belducius.

Pashianu succeeded in making the kind king Polientus go mad naturally over a long period of time, and the king, who was obsessed with madness, indulged in a vain dream of conquering the world and started a reckless war.

Pashianu smiled wickedly as he saw the scene.

‘Everything is in the name of my true king, Belducius!’

The other servants thought their evil deeds were simply for the king’s amusement, but Pashianu was different.

He knew.

He knew that the series of events created by the servants who shared the power of the great devil accumulated causality for Belducius.

He also knew that the great devils were preparing to overthrow the heavenly gods with the accumulated causality.

Pashianu, who dreamed of a glorious holy war, realized one day.

Someone was killing the king’s subordinates.

It was possible because he was an apostle who could detect the king’s power spread across the continent.

At first, he thought they had fallen into the hands of the paladins or priests sent by the church, but Pashianu realized that things were going wrong as time went by.

He immediately…

… … …

… … …

… … …

Ruon opened his eyes.

He quickly propped himself up on the floor as he felt a wave of dizziness and looked at the holy sword.

“Is this what you showed me?”

The scene that was forcibly overlaid was none other than the life of Pashianu, whom he had killed.

He didn’t know why, but he couldn’t see the last scene to the end, but he could easily figure out how the whole thing was going.

Ruon muttered lowly as he chewed on his memory.

“In the end, Belducius… I have to kill that bastard.”

As he got up with difficulty and leaned on the sword, breathing heavily, he heard someone’s footsteps from behind.

“Lord Ruon!”

It was Igor who entered the room, which was a mess as if it had been bombed. He saw Ruon’s shoulder bleeding profusely and immediately put his hand on it.

“Merciful Mother. Here is your warrior who is bleeding. Please grant him the grace that befits the glorious place.”

As if responding to his earnest prayer, a gentle light seeped out of Igor’s body.

As the light penetrated his shoulder and left hand, the pain subsided a little and Ruon took a short breath.

“Much better.”

“Thank goodness-”

Igor, who was answering with a faint smile, suddenly covered his mouth with his palm and coughed. Ruon saw the blood spilling out between his fingers and asked.

“What’s wrong?”

Igor took a slow breath and answered.

“It’s the price of using too much of the Mother’s grace with my poor faith. I unintentionally overdid it.”

“Are you dying?”

Igor was startled by his words and replied.

“Bleeding, bleeding a little and dying! What are you talking about?”

“Well, good for you.”

Ruon shrugged his shoulder lightly and added.

“Since you came up here, I guess the things downstairs are settled?”

Igor wiped the blood on his mouth with the back of his hand and said.

“It wasn’t easy, but we managed to solve it. Strabo was injured, but not life-threatening. He’s more groaning from the backlash of the transformation.”

Igor’s face looked pale enough to notice, so Ruon handed him the holy sword.

“It might help, hold it for a while.”

Igor, who blinked his eyes with a sour face, took the sword.

The holy sword, as if allowing the touch of the priest of Tivella, began to emit a faint light. Only then did Igor’s complexion recover and he sighed softly.

“Thank you.”

Ruon nodded his head casually and lifted his head as he felt a sense of incongruity.

He looked at the night sky shining through the pierced ceiling and realized that the translucent barrier that covered the mansion was disappearing like burning.

“We need to get out of here soon.”

“Huh?”

Ruon pointed his chin at Pashianu’s corpse and said.

“Thanks to that bastard’s death, the spell that hid the mansion seems to be lifted. We need to get out of here before things get bigger.”

Kyle, who was sitting on the floor, watching the two people who hurriedly left the mansion, got up with a grunt.

There was a woman lying at his feet, whose lower body had turned into a snake’s tail.

“Are you okay? What happened to your shoulder?”

“Strabo?”

“He’s lying over there. He’s in a shocking state.”

Kyle said that and stretched out his arm. As he turned his head in the direction his finger pointed, he saw Strabo lying on the floor with a grin.

“Hey, Ruon! Are you here? Let’s rest a bit and go. I can’t move right now!”

“Damn it.”

Ruon walked toward the naked dwarf who had bandages wrapped around his chest.

“Why, why are you doing this? Put me down! I’m getting sick!”

Strabo, who couldn’t have imagined that Ruon would carry him on his shoulder, flailed.

“Stay still until I throw you away.”

Strabo stopped moving at the short retort. Kyle tilted his head at the ridiculous sight.

“What’s going on···”

At that moment, with a thud, the outer wall of the mansion collapsed and he backed away in shock.

“Shit, what the hell? Why is this happening?”

“It seems that the mansion was hidden by a spell so that it couldn’t be recognized from the outside. Lord Ruon killed the caster of the spell and it was lifted.”

Kyle muttered weakly at Igor’s words.

“···No wonder it was too quiet.”

Ruon nodded his head toward the main gate.

“Let’s go before the guards come in.”

Then, Strabo, who was hanging on, asked cautiously.

“Why are you in such a hurry to run away? Can’t you just tell them? That the people in this mansion are Belducius’s servants and···they bewitched the king and all that.”

Ruon shook his head.

“As you said, the king has been in a state of madness for a long time. Do you think he would let us go easily after we killed his adviser?”

Strabo furrowed his brow.

“The king’s adviser? Was he an apostle?”

Ruon nodded.

“Yeah, I wonder if you have a clue who we killed now. Do you still want to explain to the guards?”

Kyle slapped his forehead with his palm and muttered.

“Damn···this is the worst.”

The party quickly left the mansion and headed straight to the inn. While the others were packing their belongings, Ruon went to the stable and woke up the stableman who was dozing off.

“What the hell are you doing at dawn···blood, blood?”

The stableman was startled when he saw Ruon, who was covered in blood, and Ruon put his index finger on his lips and said.

“I came to get a horse. And I want to buy two more as a bonus.”

The stableman, who was rather scared by his soft voice, said with a trembling voice.

“As you know, all the horses here have owners···”

He trailed off as he saw the gold coin in his hand and swallowed his saliva.

“That’s for you to figure out.”

“Ah, okay.”

The stableman got up and brought out three horses, including Nightmare.

Nightmare, who was snorting irritably as if he was annoyed by being woken up, was startled when he saw Ruon, who had blood on his face, staring at him and quickly approached him.

The party didn’t bother to ask how Ruon got the horses.

“Strabo, hurry up and get on.”

“···Even if I get sick, just bear with it.”

Strabo, who held Igor’s hand, got on the horse and the party was ready to leave.

Kyle asked.

“Ruon, where are we going now?”

Ruon, who wrapped himself in a cloak on Nightmare, answered briefly.

“Where the holy sword leads us.”

As they left behind the night’s events, the sun began to rise behind them.