Su-hyeun was angry, but his expression became composed once more.
Just like it had always been, the rational thing to do was to swallow his anger rather than letting it explode. Anger created openings and dulled oneâs sword and body.
It was his habit. Of course, that didnât mean he had forgotten his own emotions.
âYou angry?â Thomas was tilting his head in confusion. âWhy?â
He seemed to be missing something somewhere.
To look at him, Thomas mustâve been similar in age or slightly older than Su-hyeun, but the way he spoke and the looks he was giving Su-hyeun belonged to a child.
âYou shouldâŚ.â
Swiiiish-
[Leap.]
Su-hyeun exploded forward. In the blink of an eye, he flew to a spot just above Thomasâs head and swung his sword down.
Claaaang-!
ââŚ.Think about it while I beat you up!â
Giii-iiing-
Thomas was shoved back. A curtain, a veil of some sort with visible cracks running on it, was spread over his hands.
Was it because of the unexpected force of the impact? Thomas looked quite surprised right then. He clenched and opened his fist repeatedly before raising his head.
At that exact moment-
Craaack, claaaang-!
Kwa-rummmm-!
Powerful sword strikes began raining down from all sides with Thomas caught in the middle. Even then, he didnât panic. Instead, he spread out both of his arms and moved smartly to defend against Su-hyeunâs attacks.
âThis is so cool! So cool!!â
Thomas was smiling brightly while blocking Su-hyeunâs sword as if this whole thing was just too entertaining.
The curtain spreading out from his hands regenerated immediately right after Su-hyeunâs attacks shattered it. Instead of the curtainâs defensive powers, it was Thomasâs control over his own powers that allowed him to quickly regenerate it, shining brilliantly for all to see.
Rumble-
[Flame.]
Boom, bang, bang-bang-!
Blue-colored divine Flames suddenly appeared and caused a chain of explosions all around Thomas. Previously, he had been focused on the sword so he hurriedly crouched, furrowing his brows.
The explosion of divine Flames blinded his sight for a short moment, and Su-hyeunâs sword exploited the opening by stabbing straight at Thomasâs shoulder.
Stab-!
Whiiiir-
Thomasâs figure faded little by little. There was no sensation coming from the tip of the blade. Su-hyeun instantly swung his sword behind him.
CLAAANG-!
[Doppelganger.]
A metallic noise echoed from behind Su-hyeun. His sword had caught Thomasâs hand, just about to stab him in the back.
From the sensation alone, Su-hyeun could tell what happened to Thomasâs hand that had changed color to brown.
<< Is that a skill that changes a portion of your body into a specific metal of your choice? >>
He only knew one light brown metal that was blessed with such hardness.
<< Adamantium. >>
The metal that could easily be called the best in regards to either magical energy conductivity or hardness and lightness.
Even if it only transformed a portion of oneâs body, that skill was quite impressive to be able to change human hands into such metal in the first place.
Not only that, Thomasâs movements were rather remarkable, as well. Despite possessing several skills, he was wielding them freely, displaying his mastery over them. Normally, youâd be unable to deploy the right skills at the right moment if you had too many of them, and youâd eventually end up neglecting certain ones.
âWow, so strong! Youâre so strong!â
Clang, clang, clang, clang-
Thomas increased his distance from Su-hyeun and clapped his hands. His palms, modified to replicate the characteristics of adamantium, clashed against each other and produced hard-edged metallic noises.
He looked as if he had lots of leeway still.
âAre you having fun?â Su-hyeun asked.
Thomas stopped clapping his hands abruptly and raised his arms in sheer shock.
CLAAANG-!
Gu-gugugugu-
Su-hyeunâs sword, striking downwards, pressed on Thomasâs body. He crossed both of his arms to defend against the attack, and he finally stopped smiling. Before he could react, Su-hyeun had disappeared once again.
âWhy donât you keep at it, then?â
âWhereâŚ?â
Thomas hurriedly spun around. His opponent was definitely in the air above him just a moment before, but now, Su-hyeun was already right behind him.
Clang, clang, clang-
Piiik, pii-piik-
Chwa-aaahk-
Su-hyeun darted in and out non-stop.
From the front, then the back; from above, then left and right. Su-hyeunâs sword danced around disorientingly and without any set pattern, causing numerous wounds to appear on Thomasâs body one by one.
âWhyâŚ.? Are you getting faster?â
Thomasâs voice trembled ever so slightly.
The more he blocked the attacks, the faster Su-hyeun got. He rained down more sword strikes, too many to be blocked or avoided.
[Spiritâs Grace.]
[Thorn Armor.]
[Reflect.]
Tiii-iiing-
Several skills overlapped and reinforced Thomasâs body, causing Su-hyeunâs sword to issue a metallic cry.
Even the previously-deep wounds changed into small scratches, instead.
Thomas began smiling again. âDoesnât hurt anymore.â
âNope, wrong.â
Splaaash-!
Blood spurted from Thomasâs back.
He was so sure he couldnât be sliced up anymore that he didnât recognize what had happened for a moment.
The confusion was greater in his mind than the pain. Thomas covered his head with both of his hands and curled up into a ball.
Piiik, pii-iik, pii-piik-
Slash, splaaash-
Wounds began appearing once more on Thomasâs body. Su-hyeun, in the meantime, grew so much faster that his silhouette couldnât even be seen anymore.
It was at that moment that Thomas remembered what his opponent had said earlier.
âThat wasnât a fight, but a display of one-sided brutality.â
âIs that right? In that case⌠it looks like Iâll have to do the same.â
Not a fight, but one-sided brutality â this was exactly that situation.
Right then, Thomasâs smiling face distorted greatly.
âEuh⌠I donât like it, I hate it, I HATE IT!!â
FWOOOSH-!
Pitch-black magical energy began whipping around him violently. At the same time, his curled-up figure grew blurry and faint, before melting into the surroundings.
Shu-sususu-
The dark magical power soon enveloped the entirety of the arena Su-hyeun and Thomas were fighting in. The former stopped his rapid movements and scanned his vicinity.
<< Isnât this⌠that skill? >>
His eyes widened in surprise. He had no idea that heâd stumble into this very skill in this place.
[Black Forest]
Ranked as one of the very best among all the spatial-type skills out there.
No, not just among the spatial-types. It easily qualified as one of the top ten skills ever to exist in the world, even after including all the skills yet to appear in the future. Thatâs how high-grade the skill was.
ââŚ.So, it was this bastard?â
Thomas Mathiras.
Su-hyeun had only heard that name in passing a couple of times, but, other than what heâd seen in the competition, he didnât know anything about him. His first and last public appearance was during the Ranking Wars.
His whereabouts afterward were vague, to say the least. There wasnât even any news about his death either, so people often wondered if he had literally vanished into thin air.
But such a man had activated the skill, âBlack Forestâ.
-Please donât hit me, donât hurt meâŚ
Thomasâs voice came from somewhere in the air. It was filled with palpable fear. But, it didnât seem to be directed at Su-hyeun, somehow.
<< Whatâs wrong with this guy? >>
Thomas definitely made his way onto Su-hyeunâs blacklist just by being able to use the âBlack Forestâ. There would be a news story a few years in the futureâthis skill got invoked in the middle of a city and caused the deaths of thousands in the process.
<< Itâs a relief that I got to learn early who the culprit is, but⌠>>
Su-hyeun raised his sword, then swung it down on the floor, just like that.
CLUNG-!
The blade simply bounced away.
A sword collided against another sword. And his opponentâs weapon just so happened to be exactly the same as his.
<< Reflect? No, did he fold the space, instead? >>
Su-hyeun wasnât sure about the specific effects of the Black Forest. He only knew that thousands of people would get swept up in the skill and lose their lives. As such, he didnât know of a way to cancel or invalidate this skill.
-My dear Sung-in.
A voice suddenly came to him. A gentle voice that he had forgotten about until now. The name being called out was different, too.
The current him wasnât Sung-in, but Su-hyeun.
-S-Sung-in⌠Please, please save me, your mother.
-There was no one beside you, but⌠Why did youâŚ.
-Why did you do that! Why?! If only you were here, my dad would still be alive!
-Hero? Donât make me laugh. Youâre just pretending to be one!
The voices changed with every passing second.
Su-hyeun remembered all those voices. The âvoicesâ buried deep within his memories were leaking outside of him.
It was like a nightmare.
Rumble-
Suddenly, the image of a burning city appeared before his eyes. But it changed in an instant. Now, it showed the pitch-black skies and the destroyed cityscape.
The voices from his past stopped plaguing him. Su-hyeun had been living on, forgetting about the life of Sung-in.
<< Attacking oneâs trauma, is that it? >>
No matter how bright your personality was, the past memories you didnât want to remember were bound to exist. People without a reverse scale didnât exist. No, the difference between them simply had to do with how much that reverse scale could painfully affect you.
The âBlack Forestâ attacked that very reverse scale. In other words, it forcibly dragged out the past the targets didnât want to remember and crushed their minds in the process.
The scene currently laid out before Su-hyeunâs eyes was the most horrifying image he had ever seen in his life. The sight of a devastated, ruined world, and the voices of people crying out the words of resentment that squarely blamed him.
-Iâm sorry.
A man knelt in front of Su-hyeun.
It was none other than his past self, Sung-in.
-Iâm truly⌠sorry.
Su-hyeun remembered himself from back then. He couldnât forget even if he wanted to.
Back then, he had to choose between two outbreaks occurring in Tokyo and London. Regardless of which one he chose, itâd be too late to help the other one.
In the end, he chose to save the one nearer to him, Tokyo. And thatâs how countless people ended up dying in London.
<< Yeah, they really resented me back then. >>
Many people died because of meâthatâs how he blamed himself.
My familyâs dead because of you, they said.
He was subjected to curses and denunciation several hundred times the level of resentment he had been receiving all his life until that point. That caused his previous feather-light body to suddenly feel heavy like a ton of bricks. For a while, back then, he couldnât eat anything and even forgot how to smile.
It was the worst memory Su-hyeun possessed.
UnfortunatelyâŚ
âSorry about this, butâŚâ Su-hyeun wasnât even remotely moved by the illusion before his eyes created by his old trauma. âIâve reflected on it for so long that I canât even feel anything particular about it anymore.â
Ever since this life began, Su-hyeun had been moving tirelessly to change the future he knew. And, in the process, he couldnât help but retread his past.
If he was scared of the approaching future and tried to hide, then he wouldnât even have thought of changing it in the first place.
He chose to confront the future since he had already faced it and knew it couldnât be avoided.
And thatâs how he got over it. The painful past was now nothing more than thatâthe past.
Shu-rururu-
The illusions disappeared from his eyes. It seemed that something or, rather, someone had realized Su-hyeun couldnât be shaken by these things. Although he didnât know whether Thomas or something else had made this admittedly rational choice, it was still a logical one nevertheless.
Rumble, tumble-
But that didnât seem to be the end just yet. The black space filling up the battle arena began to quiver and wiggle around. He couldnât be sure what else was in store for him, but he definitely wasnât planning to sit back and let it happen.
<< Since I donât know how to invalidate or cancel this skillâŚ. >>
He couldnât forget, the âBlack Forestâ was a top-tier grade skill. Su-hyeun didnât possess a higher-grade skill that could potentially overcome it.
<< The best thing to do is to cut down the space itself. Does that mean I have to resort to a somewhat unsophisticated method? >>
Rumble, ruuumble-
Flames lit up all around Su-hyeun. Pure blue flames illuminated his surroundings, their awakening causing the Black Forest to wriggle slightly and display hints of rejection.
It wasnât enough, though.
Rumble-
The color of the divine Flame changed from blue to dark navy blue next.
RUUUMBLE-!
His entire body was soon wrapped up in divine Flame.
Light, to fight against the darkness.
<< In the end, thereâs a limit to the total amount and density of the magical energy that can be contained by a single skill. >>
This couldnât even be called a proper cancellation method. No, he was simply âexperimentingâ on where the limits of the Black Forest currently trapping him lay, thatâs all.
âFine, then. Letâs have it.â
RUUUMBLE-!
The divine Flames sticking close to Su-hyeun gradually grew bigger and wider. The navy-blue colored flames were now forcing the darkness back.
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The world of darkness.
This spatial-type skill was seen as one of the top ten best skills available, even after including the skills that would appear in the future.
He didnât know how to counteract it. It wasnât even known in the first place. But that didnât matter.
The absolute difference in power would simply ignore everything, after all.