“To be honest, I don’t understand why you felt powerless during that battle.”
It was Bern who spoke.
Aiden stood still, quietly listening to his words.
“I heard from the mage. That it’s only been a year since you first picked up a sword.”
On top of that, there was additional information he had learned from Pope Elahim.
The blond man standing before him was said to be descended from the most famous human in the world. The First Emperor.
And that’s not all.
Regardless of his swordsmanship, he had awakened aura and even mastered a fairly high-performing skill.
All of that had been achieved in just one year.
“Don’t you think you’re rushing things too much?”
That’s why Bern couldn’t help but say what he did.
He had lived a long life as a paladin of the Church and, being a skilled one, had taught many others.
Among them were those with only average talent.
And there were also those, though not quite like Aiden, who had been born with dazzling gifts yet were greedy for rapid growth.
Bern knew all too well how those stories ended.
None of them ended well.
The ability to grow at a rapid pace.
The obsession with the belief that they could climb even higher.
But even after reaching the peak of their talent, the thirst still remained.
A thirst that could never be quenched, no matter how much they drank, pushed them to keep running.
And in the end, they collapsed from exhaustion.
Once they collapsed like that, they couldn’t run again.
At least among those Bern had seen, none had ever chosen to endure that pain a second time and keep running.
He truly has great talent.
The blond young man standing before him possessed a talent greater than anyone Bern had ever encountered.
Given a stable environment and an excellent teacher, it wouldn’t be long before he caught up to Bern himself.
And yet, why was he in such a hurry?
Before he could teach Aiden, Bern needed to understand the reason why.
***
When Bern asked his question, Aiden closed his eyes for a moment.
The breeze of the meadow brushed gently across his cheek.
But Aiden’s mind wasn’t in that peaceful meadow.
It was in a dark, damp place.
A basement where it felt like eerie wails could erupt at any moment.
There, he saw Bern and the Butcher Monk locked in battle.
In truth, Aiden hadn’t cared how strong they were.
His thoughts had been entirely focused on Jun.
The first person he had chosen to follow since arriving in Blackout.
That person had been in danger.
And there had been absolutely nothing he could do.
The powerlessness he had felt in that moment had forced him to recall a terrible memory.
“…….”
The scenery around him changed once again.
Unlike the pitch-black basement he’d just been in, he now stood in a radiant hallway.
As he turned his gaze, he saw a child peeking out a window, resting against the sill, looking out at the world beyond.
It was himself as a child.
The young Aiden perked up his ears, afraid of being discovered, while focusing all his attention on the view outside.
Though the buildings were tall and the figures appeared small,
He could see the knights’ training grounds from there.
“Sir Adrian.”
At that moment, a young voice rang out behind him.
The young version of himself had flinched in surprise. He had been so focused that he hadn’t even noticed the approaching footsteps.
A plain-looking woman with brown hair looked at him with a moment of pity before quickly putting on a stern expression.
“I told you not to look outside.”
“S-Sorry… Nanny…”
He could have hidden it to the end, but doing so would only have made her scolding longer.
Realizing this, the young Aiden… Adrian hung his head low.
Back then, he had been afraid of his nanny.
“You are someone who can do nothing.”
She was the one who had taught him that.
But he only came to understand it later.
The nanny had been the only person in the imperial household who recognized Adrian’s potential.
She had been someone who had desperately wanted to keep him alive.
But even she had been sent into exile. And he lost her.
He had been powerless.
All he could feel was hatred toward his helpless self.
So he had run away.
And taken up a sword.
Even as a child, he had known one thing. To protect anything, strength was necessary.
As Aiden opened his eyes, which he had closed in reflection, he looked at Bern, who was still waiting for his response.
“No matter what happens.”
“……”
“I refuse to be powerless. I will not let my rights be taken from me.”
Adrian Lune Wyvern Arsio.
For a discarded crown prince, his words were dangerously bold.
But Bern was neither surprised nor did he avert his gaze.
“Pain that feels like death will follow.”
“Then I would rather die than have everything taken from me.”
By Jun’s side, Aiden had always shown only his bright side, but that had been a misunderstanding by others.
Flowing through his veins was unmistakably the blood of the first emperor, who had once unified all of humanity.
Perhaps more than anyone else, he had inherited that blood most strongly.
And in the annals of history, the first emperor had never once given up on what he set out to achieve.
Bern gripped his hammer.
“Then, I shall show you. What pain that feels like death truly is.”
Bern swung his hammer.
But all Aiden had seen was Bern’s shoulder move.
He had only blinked once.
Yet Bern’s large battle hammer was suddenly right in front of his eyes.
***
Aaaaaargh――!!!
Aiden opened his eyes to a shrill scream echoing from afar.
“……!!”
Instinctively, he reached for the sword at his side.
But Aiden had no choice but to erase that scream from his mind almost immediately.
“Ugh… gah!”
It felt as though his head was about to shatter.
No. Aiden’s head had actually burst open.
His brain fluids spilled out, and his radiant golden hair was soaked in blood.
The pain was so horrific, he couldn’t even think to scream.
But soon, he felt something strange.
If his skull had been crushed and his brain destroyed, then why was he still alive?
Barely managing to lift his arm, he touched his head.
“Aaagh…!!”
Once again, the unbearable pain surged through him.
And yet again, he sensed something was off.
Through his vision, now blurred by tears forced out from the pain—
He saw that there wasn’t a single drop of blood on his hand.
Instead, he noticed golden particles surrounding his body.
“Wh-What is this…?”
“So, you still haven’t come to your senses, huh.”
The moment he heard Bern’s voice,
Aiden’s feet moved.
Unlike before, this time, the [Beast Body] had manifested to an extreme degree, allowing him to sense the killing intent.
“Why all of a sudden…?!”
“You said it yourself. If you couldn’t protect them, you’d rather die.”
From Bern, who said this, Aiden couldn’t read any emotion at all.
Before he realized it, Aiden found himself staring directly at Vern.
He didn’t have time to wonder how he, whose head should have been completely crushed, was even able to look at him.
Because Bern’s battle hammer moved again.
He felt an overwhelming killing intent.
It was a completely different sensation from Maya’s rough and unrefined killing intent.
This was a firm conviction to kill.
That resolve came through with piercing clarity.
Aiden’s brain, desperate to survive, moved his body on its own.
Whoosh—!
Just as he thought he had dodged it,
The battle hammer, which should have only grazed his hair, twisted its trajectory, defying the laws of inertia.
And once more—
Crack—
His head burst open.
***
Another scream rang out.
Aaaaagh――!!
Upon listening closely, it was clearly Maya’s scream.
What in the world was happening to her that she would scream in such horror?
But just like before, Aiden couldn’t keep his thoughts going for long.
Whoooosh—
It was because the battle hammer came crashing down, giving him no time to react to the killing intent.
Instinctively, he prepared for the next attack.
However—
Crack—
Aiden lost his head to Bern’s battle hammer.
The result was the same as before, but the process had changed slightly.
This time, he managed to dodge twice, only to be struck and killed by the third attack.
***
Bern murmured quietly.
“Six times…”
Six times.
That was how many times Aiden had met his death.
This was the sacred ground of the Church of Ariklotus, the god of healing.
A land where death did not exist.
Bern considered it a blessing from the gods.
However, it wasn’t as simple as just healing wounds.
No matter how powerful the divine power was, death could not be undone.
If Jun had understood the principle behind it, he would have described it as a “backup”.
From the moment one entered this place, the information of their physical body was stored, and that data could be retrieved and restored through divine power.
“That’s no ordinary level of toughness…”
In other words, Aiden had endured the pain of having his head burst open six times.
Anyone else would have already died from shock, and it wouldn’t have been surprising.
What was even more astounding was that, just before he collapsed for the last time, Aiden had managed to dodge five attacks.
“Looks like things have wrapped up over there too.”
At some point, the screams from where Jun and Maya had been also came to a stop.
Bern hoisted the unconscious Aiden onto his back and headed in their direction.
And when he arrived—
“Urgh…”
“…Die!”
He saw Jun collapsing, impaled through the neck by Maya’s sword.
***
A real battle where one could experience death.
Was there any better place to improve one’s skills than this?
However, even within the game, this place was rarely used.
That was because every time a character died, there was a chance their mental strength would drop.
So whenever Jun came here, he would equip his characters with artifacts that boosted their mental resistance.
But that was only possible in the latter part of the game.
Usually, he brought characters who had reached the level 7 or level 8 field.
By that point, he had the resources to prepare those artifacts.
But this time, he hadn’t been able to do that.
Still, Jun wasn’t worried.
They’re both naturally high in mental strength anyway.
Both of them had extremely high stats in terms of mental strength.
They shouldn’t die too many times, but a few deaths wouldn’t cause any issues.
However, if there was one thing Jun had overlooked—
“Uh… a-are you really mad?”
—it was that the process he was putting Maya through required multiple attempts and failures.
“Kyaaaah!”
And that the process was far from safe.
The first experiment had failed.
As a result, Maya was now in a state of rampage.
This… this isn’t going to end easily.
It didn’t look like this would be resolved peacefully.
Thankfully, Jun knew a way to fix the problem.
Guess I’ll have to die once.
He just hoped the two mental support skills would hold out.
Jun spoke to the now-mindless Maya.
“All right. I figured I’d have to go through this at least once… Guhk!”
Maya passed through the golem trying to block her with [Spirit Dash] and drove both of her swords into Jun’s neck.
“…Die!”
And just like that, Jun’s body was left in tatters.
If there was any small relief—
—it was that the two mental resistance skills were holding up, just as he had hoped.
Of course, that fact brought little comfort in the face of excruciating pain.
He had to endure every bit of that pain with a clear mind.
So this is why quack methods are dangerous.
With that thought, Jun closed his eyes.
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