Swordmaster of the Fallen World

Chapter 3 The End of Childhood, The Hunt Begins (3)

[???, The Master of Broken Dawn is watching you.]

It was different from the Holy Spirits.

I couldn’t explain it well, but something was fundamentally different.

While the Holy Spirits made my mind feel cold and unpleasant…

This was like basking in the warmth of spring sunlight.

“…Jun! …Baekjun?”

Park Jiyeon’s voice pulled me back to reality.

She had an expression of utter confusion.

When I looked at what she was staring at, my face mirrored hers.

‘What… is this?’

I was lifting the debris by myself, albeit with difficulty.

Something that hadn’t budged even when five people tried to move it earlier…

I was lifting it with surprising ease.

“Oh, Mommyyyyy!”

As soon as I pushed the debris aside, the children burst into tears and ran to their mother, hugging her tightly.

“……”

“……”

Park Jiyeon and Hwang Chulman stared at me, mouths agape.

I couldn’t understand this miracle myself.

But now wasn’t the time to be lost in thought.

“Hwang Chulman, please transport the lady.”

“Tr… Transport her?”

“Her leg has been completely crushed. You need to leave immediately!”

“O-Okay!”

Hwang Chulman quickly hoisted the civilian onto his back and started running toward Exit S-042.

At the same time…

Something suddenly began rushing toward us.

Squelch…!

Squelch-squelch…!

Squelch-squelch-squelch…!

I steadied my violently racing heart, drew my revolver, and pushed the children toward Park Jiyeon.

“Jiyeon, take care of the kids!”

“What about you, Baekjun?”

“Go!”

At that moment…

A silhouette emerged from the thick fog.

“Damn.”

At a glance, its height exceeded three meters.

Before I could even get a good look, it suddenly accelerated.

I shouted and pulled the trigger repeatedly.

Bang—Bang—Bang-bang!

The sound wasn’t right—it was the kind you’d expect when bullets hit reinforced armor.

But wasn’t it a living creature? How could it deflect bullets so easily?

Just as I reached for my baton in confusion, an absurdly massive arm struck my side.

“Urgh!”

The arm dug deep into my ribs, breaking several of them.

Before the pain could fully register, I was sent flying, rolling harshly across the ground multiple times.

The force and speed were unimaginable; I lay face-down on the ground, gasping desperately for air.

The pain coursing through my shattered body echoed like a buzzing roar.

Breathing…

I couldn’t breathe…

“Hurry, run! Now!”

I heard Park Jiyeon’s urgent voice.

Barely lifting my head, I glared through the fog and saw the worst possible sight.

Three people desperately fleeing…

And a monster leisurely pursuing them, as if toying with its prey.

One of the fleeing figures, the smallest one, stumbled and fell, screaming.

Was it a boy or a girl?

Not that it mattered.

I couldn’t even breathe.

It was over for me.

As I closed my eyes, resigned to my fate, something unbelievable happened.

[???, The Master of Broken Dawn is watching you.]

A hallucination overlapped with reality.

A vision from over a decade ago.

The fallen child reminded me of myself, crying in the flames that day.

Park Jiyeon running toward the child overlapped with two firefighters.

They were my parents.

– “We’re here to save you.”

The starlight spotlights that once illuminated me now seemed to scorn me.

The voices mocking my life and impending death rang out clearly.

Yes, I was indeed a fool, prioritizing others over myself.

But I had survived because two such fools had once saved me.

I had admired their lives, vowing to emulate them.

How could I face them if my end was disgraceful?

[???, The Master of Broken Dawn is watching you.]

I clenched my left fist desperately.

Ideals are proven through actions.

Admiration is achieved through deeds.

“Haaaaaaaah!”

With a desperate cry, I forced out my voice.

Blood poured from my mouth, but I could breathe again, just barely.

It was a fleeting moment that felt like eternity.

My trembling fingers reached into the bullet pouch.

Fumbling around, I found a single bullet.

I gripped the revolver tightly in my right hand.

I ejected the spent casings and inserted the bullet into the chamber.

The goal wasn’t to kill.

I just needed to divert its attention.

That would be enough.

In a critical moment…

Just as the massive creature was about to extend its arm toward Park Jiyeon and the children…

I aimed the gun and pulled the trigger.

Two strokes of luck saved me.

First, the bullet loaded was a tracer round.

Second, despite my poor aim, the bullet struck the creature’s chest.

Fwooosh…!

As the brilliant, fiery light burst forth, I caught a glimpse of the creature’s form.

In that instant, I thought I might lose my sanity.

It was too horrifying for even a madman to imagine.

Its jade-colored body was roughly humanoid in shape.

But instead of hands, it had crab-like pincers, and its feet were webbed like those of a duck.

The most horrifying feature was its squid-like head.

Its massive eyes blinked, and the writhing mass of tentacles was a living nightmare.

The creature roared furiously after being struck by the tracer round.

「BIRASHIAAAAAAAAA!」

Shrugging off the tracer round, it glared at me with deadly intent.

Was it enraged?

Thankfully, it abandoned its prey and charged straight at me.

Just as its pincers were about to seize me, I mustered the last of my strength to shout at Park Jiyeon.

“…Run!”

One single syllable.

The loudest sound I could manage.

Relief washed over me.

This was enough.

In the next moment, its tentacles and pincers seized my limbs and head, lifting me into the air.

The creature seemed intent on making me suffer, pulling my limbs slowly apart before releasing them, only to pull again.

Sorry to disappoint—it had been a while since I felt pain.

In fact, I was almost grateful for the time it spent on me.

After an eternity of torture, as my limbs were torn apart and my head was about to follow…

[???, The Master of Broken Dawn has chosen you as their successor!]

– Messages from other Holy Spirits are now blocked.

[The Light of Transcendence is being passed to you!]

– Unique skill, 《Time Rewind》 acquired.

– Unique skill, 《Sacred Fire Succession》 acquired.

As my fading vision filled with blinding text…

[Unique skill, 《Time Rewind》 is being activated!]

***

The first sense to return was hearing.

“…Jun! …Baekjun?”

Next came the sensation of hefting a heavy object.

At that moment…

As my senses returned, so did my awareness of reality.

“What’s going on?”

Amid the returning sense of reality, I exhaled a breath that had been trapped in my lungs.

The surrounding scene quickly came into focus.

I felt a heavy weight in my hands.

I was lifting the debris of a building.

Superhuman strength.

The dazed stares of those around me.

The thick yellow fog surrounding everything.

‘…Why does this feel so familiar?’

Recalling my memories, I cleared away the building debris.

Then…

“Mommyyyyy!”

The children reacted exactly as they had in my memory, 100% identical.

It was absurd.

As déjà vu overlapped with reality, a cold sweat drenched my back.

I fumbled at my arms, legs, and chest.

‘…My body is intact?’

Was it just a hallucination?

But it had been too vivid to be dismissed as a mere hallucination.

As I entertained such doubts, strings of light appeared before my eyes, as if on cue.

[Unique skill, 《Time Rewind》 execution complete.]

– Return to 300 seconds prior to death completed.

– Remaining rewind uses: (0/1).

– Unique skill, 《Time Rewind》 is now deactivated.

Glaring into the void, I tried to process the barrage of information and understand the situation somehow.

There was no time to waste… so, fine.

Let’s assume that a virtual reality game has overlapped with reality for now.

I had played my share of games as a typical South Korean man.

With that line of thinking, I pondered.

I didn’t know what kind of being the “Master of Broken Dawn” was.

But it was clear that thanks to the transcendent power bestowed by that being, I had “returned” to this moment.

…Wait.

I had returned?

As I chewed on those words, a chill swept over my head.

“That means…”

Squelch… squelch…

The dense stench of blood.

Goosebumps rippled down my spine.

‘It’s coming.’

“What did you just say?”

Hwang Chulman asked, breathless, but I urgently asked in return.

There was no time.

“How many tracer rounds do you have left?”

Regular bullets were useless against that monster.

“Two… two shots, I think. Regulations limit the number of rounds per type—”

“—Give them all to me.”

Squelch.

“Wh-what?”

Squelch.

“Hurry! And carry this civilian to S-042. Park Jiyeon, take the children and go ahead.”

Hwang Chulman reluctantly handed over the tracer rounds from his ammo pouch.

As he hurriedly carried the civilian on his back, Park Jiyeon asked me in a trembling voice.

“What are you going to do with tracer rounds?”

“Well…”

I almost said, “Buy time,” but stopped myself.

My fingers trembled as I loaded the four tracer rounds into the chamber.

Squelch, squelch… squelch, squelch…

Buying time was the best I could do.

Even with more tracer rounds—or even rewinding time again—there was no option to defeat that monster.

Squelch, squelch, squelch, squelch, squelch…

In that future, I had to die.

Only by dying could those five people survive.

Saving all five earlier had been nothing short of a miracle.

「BISHUIAAAAAAAAAAAAA!」

With a roar, the monster charged at me, and I raised the gun, slamming the chamber shut.

My aim: its face.

I had already studied its features during the previous encounter.

As soon as I aimed, I fired a tracer round.

“Don’t look back! Just run!”

Fwoosh!

As the tracer round sparked brilliantly, the monster roared.

Was it because it hit that horrifying squid-like face directly?

Unlike before, it flailed wildly.

──Slash!

I unfolded my electric baton.

Its body was damp; maybe it would be vulnerable to electric shocks.

If I wanted to save everyone and survive myself, I had to subdue it.

To do that, I needed to land a critical blow, no matter what.

After landing a second tracer round on its face, I cautiously advanced.

One step, then another.

The suffocating tension mounted.

Three more steps until I was within range of the baton.

Just then, its enormous eyes snapped open and fixed on me.

──Boom!

The massive pincers slammed into the ground, creating a shockwave.

If I hadn’t rolled backward in time, I would have been crushed instantly.

Boom—Boom!

The other pincer struck the ground repeatedly.

I barely managed to roll to the side and fired the third tracer round.

Fwoosh!

After being blinded three times in a row, the enraged monster began striking the ground indiscriminately.

「SHYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!」

As I retreated cautiously, I nearly tripped.

Fragments of rubble scattered from the shattered ground had pierced my calf.

“Ugh.”

I gritted my teeth and endured, but the situation was dire.

‘I only have one tracer round left.’

How on earth could I defeat a monster like that?

I needed a weapon capable of delivering a critical blow.

Was there any weapon I could find?

– Will a weapon alone suffice?

What…?

At that moment, a thought not my own brushed through my mind, followed by glowing text unfurling before me.

[Unique skill, 《Sacred Fire Succession》 is being activated!]

《Sacred Fire Succession》

: Select a combat memory to inherit.

* Only one memory can be selected for succession.

* Achievements above the required threshold.

1. First Successor, Apostle of Grace

2. Second Successor, Knight of Mirrors

…

…

42. Forty-second Successor, Mage of Tears

…

…

98. Ninety-eighth Successor, Artist of Radiance

99. Ninety-ninth Successor, Prayer of Anguish

What was this? Sacred Fire Succession?

If I understood correctly, did it mean inheriting combat abilities?

Like overlaying save data in a single-player game?

Amid my confusion, I scrolled to the very bottom of the list and froze.

What was this translucent entry?

* Achievements below the required threshold.

Was it because it didn’t meet the requirements?

It seemed to be hiding out of embarrassment.

Wait, could this be…?

At that moment, I sensed danger and raised my head.

As expected.

The monster, having shaken off the tracer rounds, was charging at me.

There was no time.

‘This’ was my only option.

‘This’ was the best choice I had.

I didn’t have the luxury to overthink, nor was there any need to.