“You could have just asked about your birth mother before you died if you wanted to know, without taking the opportunity to mock me for my unmet desires.”
“Heh, since you put it that way. I’ll ask directly—you and Mits, are you childhood friends? You’ve known each other for that long?”
“It seems you know everything.”
“If that’s the case, why did you ‘betray’ her? To you, she was clearly… a very important person. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be seeing her again in this memory—”
“Mmm…”
As Carver swung his axe around, he uttered a thoughtful sound.
“What? As her own son, whom you haven’t even met, do you want to settle your birth mother’s grudge along with your own revenge?”
With a flick of his axe, if not for Will’s acceleration magic allowing him to dodge faster, Carver would have cleaved his face directly from the bridge of his nose.
“It’s not about avenging her. But… thinking about what happened to her afterward, wouldn’t anyone get angry?!”
Will was indeed telling the truth.
His feelings towards Mits’s experiences weren’t driven by the fact that “she was his mother,” nor was he seeking revenge on her behalf.
After all, as someone reincarnated here, he had no feelings for the woman he had never met.
“Alas, how regrettable that no one seems to believe me— I have never lied about this matter.”
Will watched as Carver elegantly placed his hand in front of him and bowed.
“I have always loved Mits, this is by no means a lie.”
Then…
Faster than the lightning from before, to the point where its trajectory was invisible…
“!”
In the blink of an eye, Carver appeared before Will as if he had teleported.
Relying on the forward momentum of the axe’s center of gravity, both Carver’s speed and the axe’s speed were accelerated horizontally.
He used this to catch up to Will, who was boosted by magic!
Had Carver been playing with him just now?! Was he only getting serious now?!
*Clang.*
The Ice Wall, the last defense given to him by Iaar, shattered completely from Carver’s strike.
Simultaneously, this magic, named “Ice Array – Fifteenth Form,” provided a recoil that sent Will flying to a safe distance without any cost.
“Your little maid gave you quite a lot, didn’t she.”
Carver didn’t press his advantage. He swung the axe that had fallen to the ground back up.
Will noticed that since he was still using an axe…
His attacks couldn’t avoid the “recovery animation” after a round.
Because of this, Carver also enjoyed filling this gap by talking with him.
However…
For Will, this time was still too short. He attempted to cast a few spells but couldn’t grasp the timing.
After all, Carver had hidden “trump cards.”
“Otherwise, how could I catch up to you, Father? Compared to the weak and unconfident person in my memories, I’m more curious how you became this— the strongest adventurer, Mister?”
“…”
Facing Will’s slight provocation, Carver paused, not attacking immediately. The hand not holding the weapon touched his chin as he observed Will, who stood ready with his staff.
“You shouldn’t have asked that question. Rapid spellcasting, familiarity with magic, and considerable practical combat experience…”
*Crash—*
With his axe, Carver churned up the last intact piece of land in the entire garden.
A three-hit combo of a rising slash, a horizontal cut, and a downward chop—aimed at Will!
The illusion, created from his memories, was about to be reduced to mere ruins.
“You, relying only on yourself, haven’t you also grown into what that frail-looking boy back then seemed unable to grow into?”
“Th-thank you for the compliment…?”
Will tugged at the sleeve of his clothes, which he had rolled up for convenience, just like Carver.
He keenly sensed that Carver…
Had a point of “anger” about his growth, much like Mits did.
Every point of anger on Carver’s body was worth investigating for him.
Could the reason he had hidden for so long… the reason he wanted to kill him… be that…
“You seem to have quite a bit of resentment towards me. Is the reason you want to kill me because my birth led to her… her death?”
“That sounds like a good reason. I’ll take it.”
“Reason?” The moment he said it, Will knew he had guessed wrong. “Your gaze just now was clearly…”
“My gaze? As expected… you were also stealing my reactions when you used your ability to steal other people’s memories. You’ve picked up a bad habit.”
“!?”
Another three-hit combo, closing in on Will once more!
Rising slash.
Horizontal sweep.
Downward chop!
And…
This was the second time Will used Iaar’s Ice Array – Fifteenth Form to create distance from Carver.
But he knew that if this continued, this defensive move would also be rendered useless.
Just like the Ice Wall before it.
It would be broken down by the axe in Carver’s hand.
Indeed…
Carver was much more “tenacious” than he had imagined.
Carver was the most troublesome opponent in all of Will’s plans.
He was not only a melee class Will was least familiar with, wielding a weapon Will had never seen before, but his agility and endurance were also top-notch.
“It’s fine, victory isn’t my only goal in this battle…”
He touched his eye, speaking to himself.
It’s almost ready…
Just a little bit more…
He would soon be able to…
Just as he thought this, the next attack he expected from Carver didn’t come.
“When are you going to activate your eye’s ability and start peeking into my next memory, Will?”
“!?
Will’s other eye widened.
He found out?!
“The next memory won’t be in this beautiful place.”
Carver looked around the garden of the Hysterm Family, personally destroyed by his attacks.
A hint of regret flickered in his eyes.
Then…
The two faced each other, speaking no words, nor attacking.
The sound of waves crashing on a beach, audible from their ears, repeated, rhythmically like their heartbeats.
In the midst of a high-speed chase, such a pause felt abnormal.
“You’ve been running. You haven’t even used a mage’s favorite tactic—drawing a magic circle while retreating to prepare for a larger attack.”
“Why are you so… towards mages…”
Will subconsciously started asking, then realized the question was redundant.
Because Mits…
Mits, who was so important to Carver, was a mage.
He was undoubtedly intimately familiar with a mage’s combat style.
“I think I understand… why you came alone. Because you’ve been pretending for so long…”
Carver’s hand, wearing a ring so old it was almost worn through, gripped the axe handle.
He didn’t exert force, but dragged the axe a long distance across the ground.
“Declaring war, putting on a brave front, provoking me, making me think you were purely here for revenge, but in reality…”
Carver paused and stated the conclusion that struck Will to the core—
“You’re not here for revenge, are you?”
“!?
“You’re not fighting because you want to kill me, but rather…”
Carver narrowed his eyes, and Will felt the oppressive aura he had always feared from Carver.
That kind of…
Pressing aura, where he constantly tried to see through you, and finally, after hiding all his thoughts and feelings, gripped your mind tightly.
“You’re fighting to steal my memories.”
He walked towards Will, dragging his axe.
“Let me guess, Zero Demon City, like any demon’s domain, can easily obtain the ‘memories’ of those who clear it and use them to create levels.”
Carver walked with elegant steps.
“And memories are the most truthful and important ‘intelligence’—rather than killing me and gaining nothing, you’d rather…”
Will raised his staff again.
“Dig into my memories, especially the most profound ones, to find the ‘answers’ to certain questions you’ve pondered over countless nights without success.”
Will remained silent, slowly lowering his hand, transferring the magic from his fingertips back into his body.
—No way? He’s this perceptive?
—He thought Carver wouldn’t discover this until their second entry into his memories.
“If I’m not mistaken, you were also peeking into my memories when I couldn’t attack in the illusion?”
Carver tightened his grip on the axe with both hands and began to spin it again, sweeping a semicircle on the ground.
“Yes. I’m thinking… about the existence of this world, the meaning of dungeons, and ‘answers’ about the Goddess Reviers are in your memories…”
Will breathed and, following Lia’s instructions, circulated the magic circuits in his body, concentrating more magic toward his eyes.
He hadn’t stood here from the beginning for a shallow reason like “seeking revenge for him killing my mother.”
Just as he was more willing to trade “death” for a chance to get closer to the truth of this world’s foundation than to brandish the flag of his own “death.”
His left eye blurred due to congestion, and in his vision, Carver, clad in white, spun his axe towards him.
A “black hand” that, throughout the story, seemed to be everything, a character who left an indelible mark on everyone’s life trajectory…
A character who knew everything but always spoke in riddles…
A character who had not revealed his thoughts until now…
Letting him die, letting him take his secrets to the grave, letting the truth he hadn’t spoken since his birth be completely hidden…
This was him getting off scot-free without extracting any value!
Will feigned an attack, raising his staff.
“Therefore, I will personally tear out your heart, which will never speak the truth, shatter the disguise you created with your shrewdness and elegance, and crush the hard shell covering your information…”
His staff rotated, and a black-and-white crystal ball appeared between him and Carver.
“I will pull out all the most precious ‘knowledge’ hidden beneath your hypocrisy, yin-yang remarks, and fake smiles, one by one, just like grabbing your veins.”
“Heh.” Carver chuckled, “Then come on, why aren’t you attacking anymore? It couldn’t be because… your eyes haven’t recovered yet, could it?”
—He guessed even that?!
Will suddenly felt like he was a BOSS facing the scrutiny of the strongest player in history.
Besides the seagulls calling from behind him, his ears were filled with the grating sound of his axe scraping against the ground.
He knew he couldn’t dodge.
However, his eyeballs, already extremely congested and starting to ache, wouldn’t allow him to dodge.
“Heh.”
Will chuckled.
“Then there’s nothing I can do, I’ll just have to take a little risk…”
As Carver’s axe was about to fall…
Will looked up.
“!?
Carver met Will’s purple eyes.
His entire sclera had turned blood-red, as if a stream of blood was flowing down from Will’s eyes.
He saw Will’s purple eye, dripping with blood, staring intently at him as if it could suck him in.
“I’m pulling you into your memories again!”
