Chapter: 59
‘Heavy.’
From the tutorial floor until now.
A sense of weight that she had never felt even once pressed down on Isia’s arms.
It was a sword that had always shown a sense of unity, as if it had become one with her own body.
There was no weight, nor any feeling of unfamiliarity.
It had been like that from the moment she first held it.
But not now.
The sword felt like it would fall to the ground under gravity at any moment, and the hand gripping it was stained with pain to the point where her mind grew hazy.
‘It hurts.’
Even while half-conscious, Isia instinctively swung her sword.
Slash-!
Even without applying much force, the zombie was split apart by the sword and collapsed.
‘Should I stop?’
How many hours had she been doing this?
One hour? Two hours?
No, it felt like it had been much longer than that.
‘How much time is left?’
She didn’t know.
How long she had fought, or how much time remained.
She only kept cutting the waves of zombies rushing toward her.
Cutting, cutting, and cutting again.
‘Ah, what about Jihoo?’
Then suddenly, she remembered the boy who had been supporting her from behind.
Since when had it been?
The reliable wall that had always been there had disappeared.
‘Don’t tell me…’
Had something happened to him?
Her mind snapped awake, and she quickly scanned her surroundings.
‘Ah…’
Fortunately, that wasn’t the case.
Park Jihoo was fighting zombies in a place separate from her, smashing them apart.
One zombie per strike.
His gauntlets had lost their characteristic metallic shine and were covered in dark red blood.
‘He’s tired.’
She wasn’t the only one struggling.
Park Jihoo, who had been turning zombies into chunks of flesh without rest, was also showing clear signs of exhaustion.
The fact that he was still moving like that was almost unbelievable.
‘I need to join him.’
They were somehow holding on right now, but they would soon reach their limit.
No, perhaps they had already reached it.
They looked like they could collapse at any moment.
Isia immediately changed direction and headed toward Park Jihoo.
But it wasn’t easy.
The number of zombies between them numbered in the dozens.
There were simply too many for the exhausted Isia to break through in one rush.
‘The skill…’
For a moment, 『Black Flash [D]』 came to mind.
If she used it, she could reach Park Jihoo’s side instantly.
‘No.’
But she held herself back.
If she used 『Black Flash [D]』 now, she would definitely collapse from exhaustion afterward.
Then there would be no reason to use it.
She was going there to support Park Jihoo.
She couldn’t become a burden instead.
In the end, Isia had no choice but to move forward one step at a time.
『Black Wing [C]』 cut through the air.
The sword strikes were performed unconsciously, but the evolved 『Sword Heart [C]』 faithfully supported Isia’s will to keep walking.
In other words, it meant the sword casually cut down the zombies blocking her path.
As if it was thinking and moving by itself.
Slash slash slash slash-!
Sticky blood splattered, and pieces of flesh that had been torn apart stuck to her body.
But Isia didn’t avoid them.
She had to save even the strength required to dodge.
Like that, slowly.
Very slowly, she moved toward Park Jihoo.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr-!
A massive roar echoed from far away.
Isia’s body stiffened before she even realized it.
‘What?’
The sound was completely different from an ordinary zombie’s cry.
The power contained within it was terrifyingly strong and immense.
‘Ah, a mutated zombie?’
She had forgotten.
The sight of countless zombies swarming around had been so overwhelming.
It had been impossible to pay attention to the words “mutated zombie.”
But she couldn’t forget.
Just from hearing that roar, she could tell.
How powerful that creature was.
It was an existence that couldn’t even be compared to the zombies being split apart by 『Black Wing [C]』 right now.
‘If that thing comes here…’
It was over.
Her current self could never fight against it.
It was an instinctive realization.
‘If I fight together with Jihoo?’
Park Jihoo was strong.
Because he was quiet and didn’t reveal himself, it was hard to feel, but his attack power was clearly superior to Isia’s.
If he obtained a C-rank or higher item, he would undoubtedly show strength on an entirely different level from now.
Even so.
‘I can’t win.’
Isia shook her head.
They couldn’t win.
If the two of them were in perfect condition, maybe.
If their stamina and mana were full, and they were completely unharmed.
Then perhaps they could try fighting.
But what was the point of such assumptions?
The current Isia and Park Jihoo were nowhere near a perfect state.
‘Should we run?’
Judging by the size of the roar, there was still some distance.
There were countless zombies between them, so it would take quite a while for it to arrive.
They had to retreat now and create distance from it.
“Jihoo!”
Isia barely forced open her lips, which refused to move, and shouted Park Jihoo’s name.
Because she was so exhausted, her previously clear voice sounded like metal scraping.
And then.
Before Park Jihoo could even turn around.
Something passed through the space and flew toward them.
It came from the direction where the mutated zombie was.
‘No way?’
Isia’s eyes widened.
The rapidly approaching object was reflected in her large pupils.
‘A mutated zombie?’
Compared to its roar, its size was small.
But its speed was fast.
A speed that couldn’t even be compared to ordinary zombies.
Isia squeezed out her remaining strength and cut down the zombies around her.
The recoil made her arms tremble, and she could feel the strength leaving her legs in real time.
But she had to do this.
She needed to finish preparing to fight before it arrived.
‘When it gets here, I’ll use 『Black Flash [D]』 immediately.’
It was the strongest skill she could currently use.
Naturally, she would collapse from exhaustion right after.
If she was unlucky, she would fall and become food for the zombies.
Even so, she had to stop it somehow.
At least if it was to save Park Jihoo.
Isia made that decision.
But.
“…Hmm?”
Her head tilted slightly.
She had assumed the approaching thing was the mutated zombie.
However, the closer it got, the more she felt something was strange.
‘It isn’t moving.’
It was only flying rapidly.
There was no other movement.
It was as if something that wasn’t alive was simply falling freely due to gravity.
Isia cut down the zombies rushing toward her again, then infused her gaze with mana.
Whoosh-!
Space folded, and the shape of the object became clearer.
It was indeed a mutated zombie.
Unlike the ones scattered around, its face was closer to that of a monster than a zombie.
But the problem was that was all there was.
A severed head.
She couldn’t see where its body had gone.
Only the separated head was flying through the air toward them.
Isia unconsciously stepped back.
Boom-!
At the same time, the creature’s head slammed into the asphalt.
It was so hard that even while half-buried in the ground, the head didn’t have a single scratch.
Drip, drip, drip-.
Only then did dead blood flow from the cut surface, staining the ground.
‘It’s dead.’
The mutated zombie was dead.
A powerful threat comparable to the zombie wave had descended upon the ground in a dead state.
It was a situation beyond surprising.
It was so shocking that even the mindless zombies stopped walking and hesitated to approach.
“This is…”
The cut surface was incredibly smooth.
As if it had been created that way from the beginning.
If not for the dark red blood flowing out, she wouldn’t have even thought it had been cut by something.
‘Can I do that too?’
She instinctively compared it with her own sword.
Impossible.
With her current ability, it was nowhere near possible.
At least level 100.
No, she would probably need to be even stronger just to imitate something similar.
‘Who could do something like this?’
At that thought, someone’s face appeared in Isia’s mind.
‘Ah.’
Seong Yujin.
The crazy bastard whose true identity she couldn’t understand despite having been together with him all this time.
The only person nearby capable of displaying this level of skill was him.
‘He’s really amazing.’
They had been barely surviving while being swept away by waves of zombies.
Even that was only because they were constantly on the verge of collapse.
But Seong Yujin had jumped over a mountain of zombies and cut down the enormous threat known as the mutated zombie.
‘He probably cut it with those threads, right?’
Just how strong was that crazy bastard?
Looking only at their levels, there wasn’t even that big of a difference.
But in terms of actual ability, the gap felt like it was easily ten times larger.
‘He’s impossible to understand.’
How did he possess such ability?
How did he know so much about the Tower?
And despite having such strength, why did he suggest offering sacrifices?
From beginning to end, none of it made sense.
Her mind felt uncomfortable.
Along with the slowly rising respect she felt for him, there was also the sense of contradiction caused by their different beliefs.
Every emotion she had toward Seong Yujin felt uncomfortable and unpleasant.
‘…This isn’t the time to worry about that.’
Isia shook her head weakly and cleared her thoughts.
No matter what kind of person that crazy psychopath was.
There was only one thing she had to do right now.
Cut down zombies and protect the survivors.
Until this damn quest ended.
‘The remaining time is…’
She still didn’t know.
Even so, she swung her sword.
Until all her strength ran out and she collapsed.
She never stopped.
“I have no choice but to admit it.”
From a distance, Yujin, who was shredding zombies apart with 『Heavenly Silk Thread [C]』, let out a small sigh and scratched his head.
“Twenty hours have already passed.”
Surprisingly, Isia and Park Jihoo were still holding back the zombies without stopping.
Of course, Seong Yujin’s help had played a major role.
Using his threads and blades, he greatly reduced the number of zombies approaching them.
He had also dealt with the strongest enemy of the second quest, the mutated zombie, alone.
If Yujin had not provided that help, the two of them would have already died.
But even taking that into account.
“Not bad.”
The two of them, especially Isia, were enough to make even Yujin admire them.
Her mana had been empty for a long time.
Her stamina had already gone beyond its limit.
Yet 『Black Wing [C]』 continued cutting through zombies without rest.
All thanks to a mental strength that completely surpassed expectations.
‘My opinion that she’s still inefficient hasn’t changed.’
Still, watching how these two fought when pushed to their limits wasn’t entirely useless.
“Four more hours?”
A full twenty hours had passed, and four hours remained.
There were still countless zombies.
The number of moving ones was several times greater than the number they had killed.
Yujin continued crushing zombies with his threads while observing Isia and Park Jihoo’s condition.
“Try holding on until the very end.”
The evaluation of the two people in Yujin’s mind had already risen several levels.
From “a useful idiot” to “a decent slave.”
If they managed to endure the remaining time completely, he might change his evaluation once again.
Perhaps one day, they might no longer be called idiots or slaves.
Perhaps they could be called companions.
“Either way, no matter how this ends, I need to save one more person.”
Just like he had thought before.
Someone with healing abilities.
Slash slash slash slash-.
Dozens of zombies were split apart at once, making the mountain of corpses around them even higher.
“This really is a horrible thing to do.”
The fingertips gripping 『Heavenly Silk Thread [C]』 trembled slightly.
He wasn’t as exhausted as Isia or Park Jihoo, but Yujin was also tired from the endless battle.
If they had offered sacrifices, the quest would have already ended by now.
Clicking his tongue inwardly, Yujin continued slaughtering zombies.
And then, another four hours passed.
