Requiem Of A Failed Hero

“Ah, shit! I think we are lost” Yeon-Woo said as he came to a sharp stop amidst the thick forest.

They were trying to find the red elves that had gone in search of Raith and he was supposed to be the direction coordinator but even he wasn’t sure what is what anymore.

The forest was indefinite and no matter how deep they ran, they couldn’t reach any destination nor did they catch the sight of any red elves.

“Have you lost your sense of direction from laziness,” Shin whined, standing arms akimbo. The others were also looking inquisitive at him, this was a serious moment unlike one of those moments where they joked around.

Yeon-Woo looked at the expression that they all had, he had always been the one carrying the team when it came to coordinates and first-hand information about monsters due to his scouting ability, and when they needed him most, he was disappointing them.

He didn’t take it well with himself, he dropped his head losing his self-confidence.

“Hey don’t pressure yourself too hard.”

Yeon-Woo raised his head as Mok Jae-Hwa touched his shoulder as he consoled him.

“I’m sorry.” He muttered, pressing his lips and his fist.

“What do you apologize for? You don’t need to apologize. We are a team and should work as a team. Besides, I think this was way beyond you, to begin with.” Mok Jae-Hwa said, looking up around the canopies of trees.

“What?” Yeon-Woo was confused by his statement.

“What do you mean Hyung?” Sung Min asked, stepping closer to Mok Jae-Hwa, his clothes ragged due to his monstrous transformation from before.

“I can tell, there’s a seal…” Mok Jae-Hwa stated, but paused and continued to look around.

He had the same ability as Raith, but he was on a lower level which allowed him to analyze things, situations, and even persons but not as effectively and as fast as Raith. But this much was enough for him to tell there was a seal around the forest that trapped them in some kind of illusionary space.

But his problem was how to undo it.

“So you are saying we are trapped?” Yujin asked.

“Yes,” He nodded.

“That’s not making any sense, I would have sensed it if there truly was any magic seal?” Yujin stated.

But Mok Jae-Hwa nodded, “No one ever said it was a magic seal?”

“Are there other seals apart from magic seals?” Yujin inquired, her head stretched forward and her brows raised for an answer.

“Hmm, arguing about it is not going to solve the problem. Can we just focus on the solution for now and put aside our thought of what it may be.” Chong-Yol spoke, folding his hands gentlemanly.

All of them were dazed and their expression spat ridicule at Chong-Yol’s sudden composure.

“That’s quite ironic coming from you Chong-Yol?” Shin broke the silence.

Chong-Yol’s forced serious face easily switched to one full of scowl, his pupils thinned in, and a rigid cord appeared on his head as he glared at the arrogant and foul-mouthed kid.

“You want to die? When did I ever permit you to talk to me so informally?” Chong-Yol blabbered, taking a step closer and wanting to just grip him by the neck.

“That’s enough”

Even though they all wanted to see the two go at each other Mok Jae-Hwa had to step in, this was not the time to be having disputes with each other.

“We will find a way to get out of this together. Put aside all differences like we always have. Remember this is an S-rank gate. So far so good, I have counted three different kinds of monsters in a single gate, that didn’t happen the last time I raided an S-rank dungeon with Catastrophe rank Hassan Mohammed.”

They all retreated in their faces, and their tense expression became calm, although worry and tension folded themselves into their faces, it was better than before when they were all getting furious at each other due to uncertain unconfirmed, and inadequate information.

“I’m sorry, I talked to you like that.” Shin pouted his mouth, looking away.

“It’s fine,” Chong-Yol replied briefly and also looked away, he was like a little kid despite being one hell of an adult.

They all turned their gaze to Mok Jae-Hwa.

He was the leader for a reason, these guys had a lot of differences and were strong enough to be the star of different guilds but all gathered in the Rain guild, and are one of the reasons why the Rain guild is considered the strongest. Now, an outsider might think they all just swarmed into the top guild because they wanted to make money, but Mok Jae-Hwa was the reason, he was the only glue that could stick all of them together despite their differences.

Shin-Hye smiled as she watched her boyfriend do his thing again.

“So… what do we do now?” Ga-Yun questioned.

They all turned their face to Mok Jae-Hwa again, now back to square one.

***

‘This is crazy, I get that he is an asura, how can he be so powerful? Thard-Harl wasn’t even half this strong?’ Raith complained inwardly, his pupils dancing around trying to calculatively suck in the movements of the hundreds of Thard-Harl that surrounded him and Jarvis in an instant. .𝒄𝒐𝒎

‘This is getting very annoying… Should I just summon everyone since my dark energy has been replenished?’ He thought but was indecisive. He wanted to savor every moment of this and make it an experience that will grow him.

Summoning his soldiers seemed like an easy way out and he was uncomfortable buying that way. He would have loved to fight alone but fighting with Jarvis has been even more beneficial than he thought. He has gained a lot and is still learning a lot from his death knight.

The excellence of Jarvis’s swordsmanship, down to little details in his movement and legwork made Raith question, ‘Who is that man in the prison where he was before he was taken to the Fenrir after they thought he was dead’

He also remembered that [Way Of The Sword] came from reading the paper that was in front of the skeleton, after he died from the poisoned apple, [Devourer] activated and he sort of devoured the man and he became an ego which he created a body for and named Jarvis.

There is more than meets the eye about this death knight.

“Are you tired?”

Jarvis tilted his head leftward in inquiry, more like him wondering why Raith would ask such a question.

“This bastard? Are you trying to tell me you don’t even feel shit?” Raith very much understood Jarvis without him speaking. The death knight was incapable of feeling tiredness as long as Raith had dark energy to spare but it wasn’t the same case for Raith.

‘I guess, I have to spend some points on my stamina.’ Raith’s breathing was unsteady, he had pearls of sweat all over his face and some had dried on his skin.

“Hundred points to stamina” Raith mumbled.

[Your stamina has been increased by 100 points]

[Increase in stamina has affected strength stat]

[Your strength stat has increased by 10 points]

Raith could feel rejuvenation seep into every corner of his body, bones, and his legs that were so heavy and throbbing with pain became light and free of pain.

‘It feels so good’ The refreshing feel spread a smile across his face.

“How unwise. You cannot defeat me. You will be stuck here with me.” Egard-Hearl said, to be exact; all his clones were talking at once so it was quite noisy, but the synchronization of their voice didn’t make each statement too far from each other.

“How unwise? I would have left here a long time ago. But I decided myself. I must kill you before I leave.” Raith said to him putting his sword above his shoulder as he stood with a relaxed and careless composure.

“I will not give up until I kill you…” He narrowed his gaze, ‘…I need to prove to myself… that I have grown. I know Thard-Harl’s death was luck, but I will earn this one His subconscious with him a newfound conviction that came from the unfairness he had felt with Thard-Harl’s death.

Even now that he saw the power of his brother, he began to wonder if Thard-Harl deliberately decided not to bring out his best because he was seeing him as some emotionally hurt puppy.

Raith remembered how ragged and desperate he was but devouring Thard-Harl, especially when he said it in his first visitation of the abyss over ten months, he was filled with so much embarrassment.

He shook his head and brought himself back to the present.

He braced himself for the onslaught ahead of him and his muscles tense as the clones rushed at him once again.

Their movements were fluid and they all had golden swords that flashed in the darkness as they raised them into the air—Raith darted forward, his sword aimed at the nearest clone’s chest. The clone parried the blow with ease, and Raith leaped backward just in time to avoid a counterstrike. Just as Raith jumped backward the clone’s strike swept through the air– Jarvis appeared below it and thrust his long sword into its head from its jaw.