Chapter 48: The Plundering Shadow
The sea surged in.
Black, violent swells from another realm.
A sea that even the absolutes of Nord held in awe.
A mighty sea that no one dared to oppose.
‘To think they were this skilled…….’
This was not a simple miracle brought about by borrowing another’s power.
Opening a passage directly connected to another realm.
That was a miracle on a completely different level from summoning weapons or armaments bestowed by someone else.
It required not only an existence that had accumulated that level of stature, but also a powerful communion with the place being connected to.
Regret, resentment, pity, a desire for revenge…….
Whatever it was, only with a clear emotion and mental image tied to that place could such a passage be opened.
What the giant called Gnar held toward the sea seemed to be nostalgia for his homeland.
So strong was that feeling that the waves the giant summoned did not lose their momentum at all, even after crossing realms.
‘This is a bit dangerous.’
Waves towering well over Diesel’s height rushed in from all directions.
But to the giant before me, it was nothing more than splashing water play.
“Now you won’t be able to move like before.”
Along with Gnar’s deep voice, a rumbling storm swept in.
The violent wind made the Valkyrie flying in the air stagger.
“On the ground, and in the sky.”
The giant swung his war hammer once more.
Toward a mouse drowning in water.
‘Tch, I was trying to conserve it as much as possible……. Guess I don’t have a choice.’
Kantara’s Sixth Molar.
An artifact that awakened the user’s consciousness and slowed the surrounding time.
I only had a few uses left now.
But there was no time to hesitate.
A gigantic hammer was coming down right now to crush me.
Reluctantly, with no other choice, I was about to grit my teeth and bite down on the molar when—
Suddenly, some shadow appeared in front of Diesel.
Tung……!
A deafening roar I had never heard before shook the warehouse, and the giant’s hammer was knocked away.
‘What the hell is this…….’
As I tried to grasp what had just happened.
“Sir Diesel.”
Herja, who had somehow stepped in front of him, spoke.
“One minute.”
“……?”
“Please fall back for just one minute.”
At the same time, a peculiar shadow fell over the Valkyrie’s helmet.
The abyss that flowed out from her face spread down past her neck, staining the wings that had been shining behind her with darkness.
“Herja is…… new to team work.”
The moment those final words ended, an aura completely different from before burst out around Herja.
A pitch-black aura that greedily swallowed everything around it.
“……!”
When Diesel faced that power, a certain memory surfaced in his mind.
The Ghost of Destruction that Older Brother had faced in the distant past.
And the image of a Valkyrie who had fought alongside him.
‘As I thought…….’
Inside a building in Seoul.
In a dark room, Fixer River stared at a monitor.
‘My prediction was right.’
The fierce waves of Midgard that the sea giant Gnar had summoned.
Those unstoppable-looking waves were being sucked into the pitch-black vortex created by Herja’s wings.
“So you finally found it…….”
Chae Seol-ah, standing beside River, spoke as she looked at the monitor.
A trace of surprise colored her face, which rarely showed any change.
“It seems so.”
But Chae Seol-ah soon put on a serious expression again and fixed her gaze on the monitor.
“Is there any chance we’re mistaken?”
“There’s no such possibility. Now that I’ve confirmed it directly, I know.”
Beyond the monitor, Herja spread her pitch-black wings wide, and the vortex raging before her grew even larger.
It devoured all the surrounding waves and storms, and in the end, left nothing behind.
“That power is the very one we were searching for…… that power.”
Chae Seol-ah’s eyes, which seldom betrayed emotion, widened.
“……Yeah. Looks like we finally found it.”
“Yes. We finally found it.”
River continued firmly.
“The Shadow Sword, the successor of Hrund.”
“——— sir……. —— officer……! ——— Commander……!”
Crumbling building debris.
Horrific screams echoing from all directions.
A place filled with the choking stench of gunpowder and the metallic smell of blood.
Amid the chaos at the heart of such a battlefield.
Someone was desperately calling my name.
No, my Older Brother’s name.
“Commander Lee Hamin……!”
“…….”
“The eastern final defense line has been breached! If we don’t send support immediately……!”
At the soldier’s words, spoken in a military uniform, Older Brother replied in a flat voice.
“There’s no time for that.”
“Pardon……?”
“There’s someone else I have to deal with.”
“Then the people in the eastern shelter…….”
“Don’t worry.”
Older Brother looked toward the distant eastern ruins.
Toward the place where a faint, pitch-black shadow flickered.
“One Valkyrie already went that way.”
A Valkyrie.
A warrior descended from the realm of Nord.
But the Valkyrie Lee Hamin spoke of was no ordinary being.
‘…….’
I broke free from the suddenly resurfaced memory and came back to my senses.
Before Diesel’s eyes was the shadow beyond the ruins that Older Brother had looked at.
‘The Shadow Sword, Hrund.’
The name of Older Brother’s comrade, buried in dormant memories, came to mind.
The name of the one who had fought together against the Ghost of Destruction on the final day.
‘It’s the exact same power that Valkyrie used back then.’
Just as Herja had told me, Diesel pulled back for a moment and observed the situation.
The shadow raised by the Valkyrie was devouring the sea summoned from another realm.
No.
Was it even right to call that a shadow?
Pitch-black darkness writhed like a thick serpent as it swallowed the miracle.
‘What in the world is this…….’
It was unmistakably the same power as the one from Older Brother’s memories.
Soon, after the shadow devoured all the waves and storms, Herja spread her black wings wide.
Then the darkness around began to be absorbed into her body.
“Ugh…….”
Perhaps the process was painful, because the Valkyrie let out a small groan.
‘Is it not perfect yet.’
Compared to what the Valkyrie called Hrund had used in my memories, the form and size of the shadow were clumsy beyond comparison.
Even so, there was no doubt it was an extremely powerful ability.
It had absorbed, in its entirety, a miracle invoked by someone else.
“What in the world is this…….”
Gnar exclaimed in shock.
To think Aegir’s great waves were swallowed by mere shadows.
“Who…… are you…….”
“……Me?”
At the giant’s question, the Valkyrie gripped a dagger in her hand.
Then, from the short blade—
Fwoosh……!
A blade of shadow surged forth.
“The Valkyrie who will kill you.”
“…….”
“I already introduced myself.”
“Hm……. Herja…… was it?”
Gnar fell briefly into thought, then soon recalled something.
“……Yes, now I remember. It’s a name I’ve heard before. To think it would belong to such a small Valkyrie like you.”
“You’ve heard of me?”
“That’s right. The Valkyrie of Desolation, who leaves nothing but ruins wherever she passes.”
At the giant’s continued words, Herja flinched slightly.
“A dreadful existence who even took her own mother’s life, hiding in this land.”
“…….”
“The daughter of the Valkyrie Hrund, once called the Shadow Sword, now forgotten.”
Herja spread her shadowy wings wide.
“What a truly pitiful death. Such a strong Valkyrie dying because of her own daughter. And the tragedy doesn’t end there, does it?”
“Shut up…….”
“There’s no irony quite like this. A mother who spent her entire life trying to protect those she loved.”
“I said shut up…….”
Gnar sneered as he spoke.
“What do you think she’d say if she knew her own daughter killed everyone in the village?”
‘Such an obvious provocation.’
A provocation meant to cloud the opponent’s judgment.
But to the still-young Herja, it worked perfectly.
“Shut up……!”
The Valkyrie shrouded in darkness charged, leaving a long afterimage behind.
In response, Gnar raised his shield with a smile at the corner of his mouth.
“What do you know……. What do you know……!”
There was no trace of the sharpness from before in her attacks.
They were nothing more than the reckless tantrums of an enraged child.
“By the way, what happened to your father? I heard he went missing.”
“I’ll rip it out…….”
“Did you kill your father too? Like the other villagers?”
“That tongue……. I’ll rip it out……!”
A slash of shadow missed and carved a long gash into the solid warehouse floor.
Any attack that happened to land properly was blocked by the shield Gnar held—Svalinn.
“Don’t worry. I’ll make you comfortable soon as well.”
The giant, who had been focusing on defense while waiting for Herja’s shadow to weaken, soon grasped his hammer.
The Valkyrie continued her assault without even noticing the shadow of the massive hammer looming over her.
“Die……! Die……!”
At last, above Herja’s head—
The enormous war hammer surged down.
“Farewell, daughter of a great one.”
But before that—
“Herja.”
Another pitch-black blade cut in between.
Slice……!
The mass of metal of the descending hammer was cleaved apart like tofu.
“W-What……!”
Gnar’s face twisted as he looked toward the being who had severed his weapon.
A body imbued with the power of a ninth-tier spirit.
A weapon forged by freezing a portion of that power into attribute-awakened mana.
Before the giant stood a half-spirit holding a jet-black sword.
“Stay back.”
“Ah…… ah…….”
“I’ll finish this.”
Herja, having lost all of her shadow’s power, collapsed to the ground as if she had fainted.
〈I didn’t want to do this twice…….〉
〈You’re a kind and gentle spirit, you know.〉
〈This really feels like my very essence is being shaved away.〉
After briefly conversing with the summoned water spirit Nereid, Diesel took his stance, and Gnar roared in fury.
“How impudent! But taking on such a form changes nothing!”
He roughly threw away the broken weapon, then reached into the air to draw forth another.
At the same time, Nordr characters began to be inscribed above the giant’s head.
Seeing that, Diesel released the spirit’s power and stepped through the air.
“What a laughable attack you attempt.”
Reading the movement as an attack on himself, Gnar raised his shield once more.
But Diesel’s target was not the giant.
Instead, he used the shield as a stepping stone and leapt even higher.
His target was the miracle script of Nord being inscribed in midair.
‘Just a little closer…….’
The moment his hand touched the flashing otherworldly characters—
He made several quick alterations.
And with that—
“……!”
The weapon that should have been grasped in the giant’s hand.
More precisely, the blessings meant to be bestowed upon that weapon instead descended upon Diesel.
“What……?”
Enhancing strength.
Accelerating speed.
Supporting physical power.
Expanding size.
Reinforcing impact…….
All the miracles Gnar had deliberately invoked were engraved onto the spirit sword Diesel held, and the weapon grew massive, befitting the giant’s scale.
At the same time, the swordsmanship my Older Brother had mastered surfaced naturally in my mind.
‘Heaven-Piercing Sword.’
A sword art realized from the movements of the stars drifting through the cosmos.
Among them, the most beautiful form that descended upon the earth.
‘Falling Shooting Star.’
It was not a mere motion.
It was a collision between celestial bodies.
“What is this…….”
Seeing Diesel’s movement, Gnar hurriedly hid his face behind his shield.
But he could not keep up with the speed of the Black Ice Spirit Sword, now wrapped in blessings.
Like a meteor streaking across a pitch-black night sky.
The blade fell toward the giant’s head.
“This is impossible…….”
If one were to split a mountain with a sword, would it feel like this?
Crack——!
Gnar’s divine form split cleanly in two.