The Return of the Iron-blood Sword Hound

'He will never again have to live such a painful life of being hung by a thick chain during the day and having the rope pulled by him at night.'

-Park Young-hee, from『Hound』-

* * *

Hugo Le Baskerville.

The iron-blooded swordsman Baskerville was there.

The body that transformed into a Death Knight was covered in jet-black armor forged with the flames of hell, and the dark red aura was completely changed to black.

The life that was pledged is drained like a tide.

His skin turned white and bluish, and just as the horizon between life and death flipped, so did the black and white of his pupils.

A pact to give life and draw power in return.

In the final battle, Hugo pushed his entire body's mana beyond its limits and crossed the threshold of the 9th Formation, which he had only seen from afar for so long.

kwakwakwakwang!

The flames from the Gates of Destruction clash with the aura of a single Death Knight.

Even the world-famous sword Balmung, which was at its closest point, was unable to withstand the rebound damage and slowly began to melt away.

That Balmung.

The sharp and sturdy sword.

The core that was colder and sharper than anything else in the world.

Slowly. Hot. Melting. Breaking apart.

Vikir looked at it and asked, unable to help himself.

"...Why did you do that?"

The voice was slow and hot, melting like a steel blade dropped into a furnace.

It was a heavy tone, but that made even the slightest tremor feel even bigger.

It was the first time Vikir had ever asked a question he was genuinely curious about, hoping for an answer.

Unreasonable paternal love? A false sense of responsibility? A bit of guilt? Belated atonement?

What was it that drove Hugo to make the choices he did?

....

Hugo didn't look back at Vikir's question, which left out a lot.

As always, he simply marches forward, facing straight ahead.

His broad back slowly dissolves into a blinding halo of light.

Suddenly, Vikir heard a small voice in his ear, distant and faint.

'I don't know.'

...Is there anything in the world that he doesn't know? Vikir wondered, subconsciously.

He looked at the back of Hugo's head with a newfound sense of dread and unfamiliarity.

He had crossed many lifetimes, and he was certainly older than his current father, but ... why? He could not understand him, could not fathom the depths of his heart.

The back, which moves away to a distance that cannot be reached, is wide and solid.

It was black and murky, as if sinking beneath the surface of lava.

And then.

...pas!

His vision cleared.

He could see a black sky, and a red portal.

The initial impact from the Gate of Destruction had dissipated.

The one who blocked it in front of everyone.

The Ironblood Swordsman, patriarch of Baskerville and Master of all hounds.

...And in fact, he himself was a hound who had lived his entire life hanging on a thick chain.

Hugo Le Baskerville. He was 64 years old. Burning white on the battlefield.

The only way to describe it is that it was a very Baskerville death.

Even Major General Orca and the Marquis de Sade were speechless at the sight of Hugo's exertion and oxidation.

"...That was definitely the 9th Form Baskerville. Was that really possible?"

"I can't believe it. CaneCorso, the old man wasn't senile?"

It was overwhelming and spectacular.

Hugo's last stand had everyone in Tochka gritting their teeth in disbelief.

In the end, Fortress Tochka survived. And so did Vikir.

"...."

Vikir stared at the white ash scattered by the wind.

White, charred ash. Complete combustion that burned everything.

It was impossible to tell if that was what Hugo had left behind, but somehow Vikir thought it was.

... But.

Hugo's sacrifice did not end the whole situation.

...Rumbling!

The Gate of Destruction, summoned by Flauros with his life, still stood firm in the sky. freewebnove(l).com

Only the firestorm that had first opened it had dissipated, but the rainy season of fear that followed had not.

Soon, tiny glowing red drops began to fall from the giant gate.

Patter-patter-patter-

It was fireworks. Tiny sparks, the kind you'd see when iron clashes with iron.

Soon they were falling in dots, then in clusters, then in countless numbers.

"It's a rain of fire!"

Someone among the refugees shouted.

They were right.

Countless drops of fire rained down from the sky, hitting the ground and scorching the surroundings.

No one stood a chance against this searing shower of fire, which fell in a searing trajectory.

The apocalypse. It was surely casting its dark shadow, starting here in Tochka.

Screams began to come from everywhere.

Refugees gathered on the ramparts fled down the stone walls, heads bowed to avoid the rain of fire.

Tents, wooden poles, and anything else that could be burned fell prey to the flames.

The ground was already smoldering with red ash.

"...It's over, there's nothing we can do about it."

"Pushishishi- as expected. I was destined to burn to death."

Orca and Sade also looked up at the red raindrops falling down and said with a sense of despair.

Just then.

Sammua, the girl standing next to Tudor, caught the raindrops that fell on her face with her hand.

"Huh?"

There was no pain or despair in the girl's expression.

There was only surprise and delight.

"Is this water?"

Tudor and Bianca turned their heads at the girl's words.

"It's not water, it's fire! We have to get away from it!"

"Run under the stone wall now!"

But Sammua is still dumbfounded.

"No, big brother, it's water!"

After saying this, Sammua wiped the raindrops off her face with her hand and held it out in front of her. freewe(b)novel

Moist water. It was clearly an ordinary raindrop.

"Huh?"

"Huh?"

"What?"

One by one, the people who were running inside the castle to escape the rain of fire raised their heads.

Fire droplets pouring down from the Gate of Destruction.

But soon, more and more droplets were falling through the gaps.

pusisisisig-

Fire and water droplets meet in the air and turn into white vapor.

The red flames rising from the ground began to fade in power.

Soon, the rain from the sky began to grow thicker and thicker.

sswaaaaa-

It was all water.

"It's raining! It's really raining!"

"Wa, water! It's water!"

"Water drops are falling!"

People looked up at the sky with their eyes wide open.

The Gate of Destruction, and the thick dark clouds that hung over it.

hwiiiing-

A gust of wind from the southeast pushes the dark clouds this way.

kwalkwalkwalkwalkwalkwal...

The raindrops, which had turned into a torrential downpour, were creating a raging torrent down the steep walls of Tochka Fortress.

It was a torrential downpour, sudden and maddening, powerful enough to overwhelm the rain of fire falling from the Gate of Destruction.

Camus, Aiyen, Dolores, Sinclair, and Kirko opened their mouths to speak as they watched the sudden downpour.

"I've never seen anything like this before."

"Even in the rainy jungle, we've never seen anything like this."

"Oh my god, it couldn't be this timely...."

"This will solve our drinking water problem!"

"The climate on earth is constantly changing."

The rainfall was so heavy that everyone else was speechless.

Of all the refugees gathered here in Tochka, there's probably not a single one of them who has ever experienced rain of this magnitude.

...kuleuleug! pusisisisisig...

The scorching Gate of Destruction began to cool.

A torrential downpour that would have dampened even the rainy season of fear.

Waves of floodwaters swept away the fires that had just begun to ignite on the ground.

"Everyone back inside the fortress!"

Major General Orca ordered.

Tochka is a plateau made of solid rock that is not subject to erosion.

The land is so high that it is naturally not subject to flooding.

The terrain is made up of huge boulders and sand between them, so the water drains away quickly.

"A fortress that can withstand any major flood. Avoiding fire and water... It's like an ark from mythology... oh!?"

Dolores was muttering to herself when she suddenly realized something.

'Only here will fire and water escape, and only here will true salvation be found.'

It was a false myth she had created and spread.

And the being who had earlier instructed to create that myth.

'There will be a great flood soon, so prepare the ark.'

'Hold on. All I can say is to hold on.'

'Just wait and everything will work itself out. I promise.'

A person who has made a home here in Tochka for a very long time.

Even in a situation where drinking water was running out and demons were running rampant, a person who endured everything alone and waited, and who promised salvation.

Vikir.

He stood at the very front of the fortress, peering through the Gate of Destruction.

pusisisisisig-

Most of the raindrops evaporated before they even got near the Gate of Destruction, but the ones that followed, falling and falling, pushed through the heat and pushed forward.

The gate, scorching hot from Flauros's mana, was cooling rapidly under the torrential downpour.

Vikir turned his head.

He could see a star in the southeastern sky.

Seven stars commonly called guiding stars.

It's a special constellation, visible only from a specific direction, that has guided countless people throughout the ages.

Now, however, the constellation of the Guide Star was made up of eight stars.

...kwaleuleung!

Vikir stared at the eighth star, which shone unusually brightly through the pouring rain.

"...Poseidon."

All that hard work rolling around in the Nouvelle Vague was finally paying off.

The rainy season of fear that lies ahead. A 150-day shower of fire.

And the torrential rains that began to fall almost simultaneously. A 150-day flood.

It was essentially a declaration of the end of the war, completely cooling down the furnace that would open the Gate of Destruction.

The Gate of Destruction cooled and eventually ceased to function.

The wave of mana has dispersed, and the summoning circle that formed the door is also fading.

The Age of Destruction is no more.

Vikir gazed down at the corpses of the poisonous people, all of whom had been swept away, and the plain below, which had turned into an ocean.

Then he gave his final command.

"Tudor."

Tudor responds to Vikir's call, raising his spear.

As if he's been waiting for this moment, Vikir speaks immediately.

"We need Don Quixote's Armada."

Everyone who heard the words could not help but think the same thing.

The destination is Imperial Capital. A symbol of the empire where the emperor resides.

The center of the world where everyone's youth and prime years have been at least once.

...And the final enemy, the First Corpse.

The last demon is lurking there.

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