Wandering Mercenary in an Open World

A dazzling light burst in all directions.

At the same time, the floor that had cracked like a spider web crumbled down.

Ruon, who had fallen to the lower floor again, slowly relaxed his clenched fist. He didn’t need to swing it anymore.

His eyes were fixed on the demon that had stopped moving completely.

There was no twelfth resurrection.

There was no sign of life from Fleur, whose upper half had been completely annihilated above the shoulder line.

The great demon, who had revealed his new appearance after hundreds of years, and had ruled with terror for hundreds of years after that, died by the hand of a human.

No, he had left something for sure. A huge amount of experience that was hard to describe was it.

Yeah, he deserved this after coming back from the dead.

Ruon felt the exhilaration that exploded inside him wrap around every corner of his body twice before settling down.

It was two level-ups. Considering that the experience required for the next level increased tremendously as he grew, it was a remarkable growth for sure.

Krrr-

At that moment, a loud noise that shook the ground made Ruon get up from his seat without any time to sink into his mind.

“This is bad.”

Even he, who knew nothing, could see that the tower was now entering the collapse phase. He wondered how such a huge structure that spanned dozens of floors could collapse so easily, but when he looked around, that thought disappeared.

The tower’s interior was in a ragged state from the aftermath of the ritual that summoned the abyss and the relentless battle.

Ruon lifted his head and shouted at the top that he could no longer reach.

“Kyle! Strabo! Igor!”

There was no answer.

He was sure that his companions had done something with Tivela’s power that blocked Fleur’s authority, but something must have happened to them afterwards.

Krrr-

The shaking became stronger than before, and he gritted his teeth. He had no way to climb the tower again, since he had already used up the large floating objects as footholds on his way up.

Meanwhile, the tower was expressing with its whole body that it had little time left.

The windows and doors were twisted, the floor surface began to sink rapidly, and the cracks that appeared everywhere began to expand their territory without hesitation.

His reason screamed at him to get out of here, but Ruon’s legs were rooted deep in the floor and didn’t budge.

He could survive somehow even if the tower collapsed like this. But what about his friends? It was impossible that their ending, who had finally won, was to be buried in the tower.

As he thought of that, Ruon tried to climb up the wall with his hands, when

Pwoooh-

A sharp sound of a jet stream came.

What?

He moved his eyes to the direction of the sound and opened them wide.

A huge something was gently landing inside the hole that was pierced through the roof of the tower, spreading its wings.

In the blink of an eye, the one that landed in front of Ruon was a white-headed eagle with a sharp-eyed look. The fur around his head was silver-white, giving him a more mysterious feel. He opened his beak.

“Ruon!”

“Strabo?”

The bird nodded his head as if he had seen him properly, and skipped the trivial explanation of how he became like this, and went straight to the point.

“I’ll take Kyle and Igor with me somehow. But it’s too much to carry you too.”

Ruon, who easily understood the meaning implied in his words, nodded his head with a calm expression.

“That’s enough.”

“Are you okay?”

The strabo, who had taken the shape of a bird, had a worried expression on his face. Ruon smiled and said to him.

“Go ahead.”

“Then see you outside!”

The silver eagle flapped his wings hard and soared up and disappeared.

Ruon didn’t linger any longer either. No, he was about to. Until he heard a faint heartbeat from the corpse of the demon that fell to the floor.

He lightly stabbed his sword into the chest of the corpse and pulled it down without hesitation. Then he frowned.

“What is this.”

***

The silent darkness was like a huge swamp, pulling everything it embraced.

…Swamp, if only his other friends could see this sight, they would have praised him for his good expression.

Friends?

Tarwen sneered. He felt strange to define them with such a fluffy word, when they had only spent less than a fortnight together.

So he laughed again. He was grateful for the opportunity to try something and die for them, who had stayed warmly at the end of his worthless life.

She felt relieved. The fact that she couldn’t see her companions here meant that they hadn’t been swept up in the ritual of the great demon.

That was enough for her role.

“I’m not cut out for this kind of thing.”

She muttered to herself, trying to cool down her burning eyes, when she heard a voice from afar.

“Where are we-! Where are we-!”

A black crow, panicking as if it had gone mad, was flying around and screaming. The creature that landed on the head of a nameless corpse was someone Tarwen knew well.

How could she not? It was Fleur’s pet.

“Shut up, Sven.”

The crow, Sven, was startled by the sound of his name and turned his head frantically. He soon spotted Tarwen and cawed loudly.

“Traitor-! Traitor-!”

“You still haven’t gotten rid of that habit of repeating yourself twice. Idiot.”

“No…caw!”

Sven tried to retort with a raised voice, but he quickly flew up when the corpse he was standing on started to sink into the dark abyss.

He ended up landing on Tarwen’s slender shoulder. He seemed to have some shame, as he avoided her gaze and said.

“Let me borrow your shoulder- your shoulder…”

“If you say it twice again, I’ll bury you in there.”

“Caw!”

The crow made a pitiful sound, as if he had lost his spirit. Tarwen looked at him for a moment and said.

“Well, at least it won’t be lonely at the end.”

Sven asked in a miserable voice.

“Why? The end? Are we dying? Where is this?”

Tarwen didn’t get angry at the barrage of senseless questions. She didn’t want to waste her remaining life on such emotions.

Instead, she pointed her finger at the dark horizon.

And she explained.

That was the black water that had risen inside the tower, and those floating corpses were the souls that had been caught in the ritual. And soon, they would be submerged in the water and assimilated with the great demon. She also added that.

Her voice was soft, but the content was terrifying. Sven shivered nervously.

“Why do we have consciousness? Scary-scary-”

The crow repeated the same word without realizing it. He clamped his mouth shut in surprise, but Tarwen just smiled faintly.

“Because we were alive when we got caught in the ritual.”

“Is there a way to escape?”

She tapped the crow’s beak with her index finger and replied.

“Stupid, there’s no such thing. This is literally a mental disaster. Just think of it as you’ve come to the afterlife peacefully. Maybe then you can let go of some of your regrets.”

At that moment, she felt a sinister swamp pulling her in.

Her legs, which had been holding on well against the force beyond cognition, were sucked into the darkness.

Sven shouted in shock.

“Don’t go-don’t go-”

Tarwen chuckled. She never thought she would face death with Fleur’s pet crow.

Well, he wasn’t that bad.

Sven was the only living being that Tarwen didn’t hate in the cradle. He was annoying with his constant squawking, but that was it.

In an instant, the water reached her chest and then her neck. She looked up at the pitch-black sky, which had no trace of light.

And she whispered a calm curse, letting go of her regrets.

“Fleur, I sincerely hope your grand plan gets smashed by his fist.”

Her words echoed in the desolate space, and the world shook.

“What?”

Tarwen’s eyes widened like lanterns as she looked around at the unexpected situation.

Sven, who was trembling with primal fear, also started to flap his wings and make a fuss.

“Light! Light! Light!”

There, in the dark sky that wouldn’t allow even a handful of light, a white crack appeared and grew larger.

The warm light that poured out like a firework broke through the shell of darkness and shone like a beacon of hope.

“Ah…”

Tarwen saw it.

Beyond the shattered darkness, the warrior who was kicking the ground.

She also saw his fist clenched like a hammer to condemn evil and his sword glowing red.

“…Leon.”

But it was too late. She couldn’t do anything about the darkness that had risen to her throat.

If only she could reach the light that was shining in front of her, she might have been able to do something. But she couldn’t muster any strength in her body.

That was when.

Sven, who was circling above Tarwen’s sinking head, grabbed her slowly drooping arm with his foot.

“Save me-! Save me-!”

His desperate flapping of his wings a few times created a small miracle.

The hand of the fairy, who was already buried in the darkness up to her hair, touched the light.

At that moment, a bright light burst out.

***

Tarwen opened her eyes at the dry wind hitting her face. She struggled to get up and realized that she was naked.

“Huh?”

She gasped and pulled up the cloak that was covering her body. A familiar voice reached her ears.

“Are you awake?”

She turned her head and saw Ruon leaning against a withered tree.

He held a crow upside down by its legs in his big hand, and it flapped its wings.

“Are you awake-! Are you awake-!”

Ruon frowned at Sven’s noisy voice and shook his arm lightly.

The crow was dizzy and screamed.

“Ask me-! Ask me-!”

“If you repeat that twice more, I’ll take it as you want me to break your legs.”

He finished his chilling warning and looked at the fairy who was staring at him.

“This kid says he saved your life. Is that true?”

Tarwen made a dumbfounded expression for a moment and then nodded slowly.

“…Surprisingly?”

“Right-? Caw!”

Sven flew wildly in the air as Ruon threw him away. He landed on Tarwen’s shoulder, amusingly.

“I didn’t expect you to make friends with a talking crow while I was gone…”

Before Ruon finished his sentence, Tarwen ran to him without caring about the front or back and hugged his neck.

She had barely suppressed her longing for life, and it gushed out like a fountain. She spoke with a face that was hard to tell if she was laughing or crying.

“I thought I was going to die without seeing you guys…”

She continued with a choked expression and then noticed Kyle, who was watching her with a what’s going on? expression from the shade of a tree. She fell down in surprise.

Sven dropped the cloak on her head and started spinning around.

“Fool-!”

She put on the cloak with a flushed face and ran to hug Kyle.

“Doesn’t this look too obvious?”

“No, no!”

Kyle chuckled and patted her back.

“You did well.”

Tarwen saw Igor next to him and said.

“…You too, come here.”

“Don’t try to use me.”

“Shut up!”

When she finished hugging Igor, someone coughed on the floor and opened his mouth.

“There’s nothing more romantic than a hug! But I’ll pass for today. I feel like my body will break even if a feather touches me right now! Haha!”

She saw a dwarf with a pale face lying on the floor and hugged him despite his warning.

“Ouch!”

Strabo, who had broken his natural limit as a dwarf to save his two friends who had fainted from overusing their divine power, and finally got the wings he had always wanted, fainted.

She checked his breath by putting her finger on his nose and walked back to Ruon with a wobbly step.

He was staring at something.

She followed his gaze and turned her head. She saw the tower that had collapsed without leaving a trace and muttered incredulously.

“…You really destroyed the cradle.”

She paused and clenched and unclenched her fist.

“Where did you find my body?”

He hesitated for a moment at the question that seemed to know something.

“Inside the body of the great demon. With that crow.”

Fortunately, Tarwen was not disgusted or tormented by that fact. She just murmured as if she expected it.

“…I see. I remembered the original form of the soul’s body that escaped from the control…”

Ruon cut off her words with a dull voice.

“You’re analyzing that even in this situation? Don’t you see the scenery you’ve been longing for?”

Tarwen looked at the tower with an oops expression. The tower, which was aptly named ‘the cradle of the dead’, collapsed with all kinds of corpses and witches in its arms.

The voice of the fairy, who engraved that sight in her eyes, came out so that everyone could hear.

“Thank you very much.”