Chapter 506
It was a light-hearted, carefree voice, unbefitting for a place like a battlefield. The amount of confidence contained in this voice matched the speaker’s character and clearly expressed who the voice belonged to. It was the voice of Hans and Lara’s savior, whom even Glen welcomed at the moment.
“Sir Zich!” Hans yelped in joy to see Zich, while Zich glanced at Hans to evaluate his condition.
“Oh my. It looks like you received quite the beating.”
“Nothing critical though, sir.”
“Seems like it. Still, back away for now and rest.”
“With our lacking numbers, don’t we need every person on board to fight?” Hans asked.
It didn’t seem like Hans had any intention to leave the battlefield, and Zich smirked. “Is that so? Then, do as you wish.”
Zich didn’t train his disciple so weakly that Hans would fuss over such ‘minor’ injuries anyways. Furthermore, Zich didn’t only push his disciples to their limits—he also taught them to measure them too. Thus, Hans wasn’t someone who would keep on floundering around and forcefully stay in the battle, because he was swept by his emotions.
“You still have some potions left, right?”
“Yes, but my injuries aren’t at a level where I would need to use them. Don’t we also need to save them right now?” The potions they had earned from previous achievements were disappearing now even though it was natural considering their harsh training with Zich and the intensity of their travels.
“Use them. You should use them when necessary. Plus, we’ll be able to grab a whole bunch more if we win this war anyways.” In this war, Zich planned to wipe away the Pinne family while he was at it as the Bellid’s base, and if he did that, he would be able to secure a significant number of potions again as a reward.
“I understand.” There was no need for Hans to refuse when Zich was going that far. Hans nodded and backed away after taking out a potion. Then, he looked at Glen.
“Be careful, Sir Zich. He’s not the same man as before. I don’t know how I should describe it, but…”
“You think he’s stronger than me now?”
“…Yes.” Hans looked warily at Zich, worried that Zich would feel offended by his honest answer. However, Zich showed no change in expression. Hans also knew that Zich wasn’t the type of person who would be angry at such a statement, but he had only been worried because of the subject of their conversation: Glen. Hans was well aware of how much Zich hated Glen.
“I got it. You guys should quickly go ahead and help other guys.”
“Yes!” Hans took Lara and moved to help the other knights. As if she was worried, Lara turned around to check on Zich multiple times, but Hans didn’t look back even once. That was his display of trust in Zich.
“Are you done with your chit-chat?” Glen then asked. His usual polite speech was nowhere to be found, but Zich wasn’t peeved by this and was actually relieved by it instead.
‘The fake, polite mask he used to wear was more horrifying,’ Zich thought. Now, they could finally express their dislike of each other blatantly. This was only possible because of Glen’s change in attitude, and the fact that Glen showed this change after he wore a mask of a hero wherever he went showed the big change in heart he had recently experienced.
‘As I thought, what happened at Yuras must have been a huge shock to him.’ However, Zich wondered how Glen could be so shocked by just that much when there were so many more fun things to come.
“Yup, I’m done.” Zich also took off his mask and replied bluntly. He felt so refreshed to no longer have to put up a polite face in front of Glen.
“Hope you don’t have any regrets since that would have been your last conversation,” Glen said.
“Oh, that makes me so scared that my body is shuddering in fear.” Zich hugged his body tight and trembled like he was in a cold storm. Zich’s mocking didn’t perturb Glen since his goal was clear anyway: Zich’s death.
Glen rushed to Zich. Claang! The two swords collided. As if the fights that had taken place before were all a joke, the sound of their collision was more fearsome than any other. Glen’s black sword created a silverish trajectory that flashed at Zich wildly.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
Zich deflected Glen’s attacks, but that didn’t mean Zich was fighting on even footing with Glen.
‘As I thought, it’s tough,’ Zich thought while deflecting another attack flying his way. The current Glen had suddenly become much stronger with some mysterious method, and he was stronger than Zich right now. Furthermore, the difference in their swords was also a huge setback for Zich. Although he was using a high-quality sword, it was just an ordinary one that was incomparable to Tornium; Zich was especially aware of this as Tornium’s previous master.
‘This makes me miss Windur.’ Zich wanted to see his peculiarly-shaped, fickle sword again.
Bam! Zich’s sword bounced off widely from Glen’s big attack, leaving his body open. Glen dashed forward with Tornium. Whoosh!
Zich darted backward, so Glen’s sword only grazed his chest slightly. However, Glen didn’t look disappointed. Instead, he chased after Zich with gleeful eyes, he was overflowing with joy that Zich was bleeding.
Crunch! Although Zich had been protecting his sword’s outer layer with mana, it couldn’t endure Tornium’s sharp and hard blade. There were dents all over Zich’s sword and a slight crack now.
‘I can do it! I can do it!’ Glen cheered. In the beginning, Zich used to be an existence like the clouds in the sky, a being that he could never reach and could only gaze at. Yet, these feelings gradually disappeared as he regressed again and again, and eventually, the great Zich swayed under his plans and fell from Brave to Moore. It was as if he had flung and wrapped a rope around the giant cloud floating in the sky and planted it in mud.
However, this timeline had been very different. Glen thought that Zich would remain stuck in the mud, but in this timeline, it felt as if Zich would free himself of the ropes binding him and fly high in the sky once again. The sense of inferiority and hopelessness he once felt appeared in his mind again. Glen thought there was no way he would lose with a perfect power like a regression, but these unpleasant memories kept vexing him.
Thus, he stubbornly continued this timeline. Glen now felt elated that he was pushing back someone like Zich with his power. Glen felt the thrill of throwing down a cloud floating in the sky to the hard ground once more.
‘I’ll definitely kill him this time!’ He was going to kill Zich and search Zich’s surroundings to find the cause of this timeline’s variable. Then, he’d be able to follow an even more polished plan in the next timeline—all for his perfect life.
However, Glen’s expression grew worse the more he attacked. He was clearly leading the fight, but the fight that was supposed to end quickly showed no signs of ending.
‘Damn it!’ Glen couldn’t help but curse after his swing toward Zich’s heart was blocked.
“Why don’t you just die!” Glen loudly yelled out in frustration and fiercely swung his sword down.
Bammmmm! However, his attack was blocked again.
“Your strength and speed have increased, but in exchange, you have a lot of openings in your movement. You didn’t gain that strength naturally, right?” Zich had received various injuries but nothing serious enough to hinder his movements. He casually added, “I clearly see that your body is getting controlled by your new power. You should know better than to wear clothes that don’t fit you. How high is your inferiority complex that you forcibly push your arms and legs into clothes that don’t fit you?”
Zich mocked his opponent like usual. However, Zich’s words affected Glen more than even his expectations. The word ‘inferiority complex’ was the key to triggering Glen’s fury.
“Dieeeee!” Glen indiscriminately attacked Zich with all of his might. His attacks were so ferocious that even Zich wasn’t able to easily retaliate and had to focus on defense.
However, his swift tongue continued moving. “What the— Why are you getting so mad? Perhaps, did I hit it right on the mark? Then, instead of getting so angry like this, why don’t you reflect on your past actions? If you just get angry like this, you’ll never be able to move forward.”
“Say those words only after beating me! You can’t even properly retaliate against my attacks!”
“Ah, I admit current skills definitely do surpass mine. I’ll humbly admit this since even though the clothes don’t fit you at all, I have to agree they are really extravagant.”
However, Zich’s voice was as nonchalant as ever. “However, I learned something in the past. There’s no reason for me to fight by myself when facing a strong opponent. Am I right?”
“What nonse…!”
Baaaam! Glen quickly moved to the side. An enormous shockwave hit the area where he used to be.
“Ughhh!” Glen let out a groan. However, he was able to endure the attack by moving a few steps away.
“Hmm, amazing.”
Glen heard the person who attacked him; he glared in the direction of the voice and was shocked to see the speaker. Glen knew this person very well. ‘Til?’
Til was the captain of the Wolf’s Canine. According to Glen’s plan, he should have become the Demon Lord of Disaster and eternally cause chaos in the world till the end. However, Til was rubbing his sword next to Zich, and he looked like Zich’s close comrade. Glen’s thoughts weren’t far off either.
Zich said, “That’s why I told you that it won’t be easy.”
“When I briefly saw him at Pialu, I thought he was fairly amazing, but I didn’t think that he would be able to block a surprise attack like this.”
“So you’re saying you don’t want to fight?”
“Hmm.” Til pointed his sword towards Glen. “Trust and performance are basically the symbols of the Wolf’s Canine.”
“Then, there’s only one thing left to do.” Zich pulled out a new sword and looked at Glen.
Anyone could see that two people were going to join forces and fight; Glen stared at them with intense hatred. He didn’t just lose the opportunity to defeat Zich. The sight of Zich and Til fighting together made Glen recall an extremely terrible memory.
‘I can’t believe those two bastards are joining hands. It’s like when he was Brave!’ The memories of when Zich used to be a hero lingered in his mind. ‘If those guys are heroes, then, what am I?’
Glen thought that this couldn’t happen; it should never happen. The only true hero had to be him. He had put so much effort to erase all traces of Brave. However, an unpleasant image was lingering in front of his eyes.
‘I need to erase it!’ Glen tightly clutched Tornium, and the sword let out an ominous resonance as if it could read its owner’s heart.
“Huaaaaat!” Glen let out a cry and began fighting again. Their surroundings had already turned to waste due to Zich and Glen’s fight. Their fight had been so astounding that even the knights and soldiers around them couldn’t even think about approaching them, and their fight became even more intense as Til also joined in.
Zich and Til’s collaboration was extremely smooth. Glen became even more furious at this sight because they looked so similar to Zich Brave’s timeline.
“Diiiie!” Glen burst out with his mana and attacked Til and Zich. However, Glen couldn’t recklessly attack as he did just recently since they were fighting him on almost equal footing.
‘Damn it! If I had just a bit more time to get used to it…!’ Since he had forcibly infused a strong power into his body, Glen couldn’t yet utilize all of his skills yet. He was extremely angry about this fact. Of course, it was his choice to forcibly increase his power, so he had no right to get angry. However, even then, Glen managed to hold onto his upper hand and that was also a testimony to how much he exponentially increased his power. Glen was able to take the offensive again with confidence.
However, a flying arrow shooting toward him shook his confidence.