Chapter 330: Savior of Hell (1)
It all started with a terrified soldier guarding the back gate. He had been a guard at the back gate for several years now, and he never really had any complaints about his job.
The only thing that bothered him was having to face the same view from the fortress rampart every day, but he was glad that he didn’t have to risk his life fighting the demonic beasts like the other soldiers.
Moreover, although he got paid less compared to the other soldiers in the fortress, he made more than regular citizens, so he was happy to just fulfill his tedious duties.
But one day, that peace was suddenly ruined.
The soldier had heard from the others that the demonic beasts in the forests were on a rampage, but he didn’t think much of it because it seemed like the kind of thing that would sometimes happen.
He figured that in a few days, things would be back to normal.
However, the real problem was the unidentified hordes of zombies that started showing up one day.
He thought he was dreaming at first, given that he was stationed at the back gate of the fortress, which was facing the opposite direction from that of the Demonic Beast Forest.
What started out as two zombies soon multiplied to be in the thousands in a matter of days.
The only good news was that these zombies didn’t have any special abilities. In other words, they couldn’t climb the rampart, use tools to start a siege, or anything else that would threaten the fortress itself. All they did was pound on the rampart.
At first, the soldier tried to ignore the zombies, but given that he was a guard, he had to spend most of his day looking outside the fortress. So, he had to stare at those god-forsaken zombies whether he liked it or not. This was the first horror that started to eat away at the soldier’s sanity.
- Kuaaaa…
- Kuhhhh…
Amid the incessant groans and moans of the zombies, the soldier’s mind grew more and more weary.
However, the soldier didn’t notice that his sanity was slowly declining because everyone around him seemed just as distressed as him.
Everyone had the same attitude, so this soldier was completely unaware that fear was slowly eating away at his sanity.
Even the sturdiest old tree would eventually rot and fall if the parasite was persistent enough. In that sense, the soldier was merely an old tree in a forest full of many. However, not all of them were the same, for this soldier was particularly faint-hearted.
Thus, when the fear finally pushed him over the edge, he decided on taking his own life, but doing so took more courage than he had ever imagined.
No matter how sick he was of listening to the zombies’ cries, he couldn’t bring himself to jump over the rampart with a spear to his throat. He was too scared.
Therefore, the soldier was forced to make an extremely selfish decision—opening the gates.
Even though he didn’t have the guts to take his own life, he knew he was sure to die if he let the zombies into the fortress. He also thought that he would feel less lonely because he wouldn’t die alone.
Indeed, just opening the gate and welcoming death like this required less courage than slitting his throat. So, when everyone was asleep and the moon was at its highest point, the soldier pulled the lever that opened the gate.
Nobody had suspected a thing. It just so happened that he had been stationed close to the gate’s control room. He was also one of the longest serving soldiers in the fortress rampart.
“Sniff… I’m sorry… I’m really, really sorry…”
Drrrr!
The soldier pulled the lever in the control room with tears running down his face. The pulley turned smoothly and the massive gate opened.
After opening the gate, the soldier locked himself in the control room so that nobody could close the gate back. He had to make sure that enough zombies would swarm in so that the other soldiers wouldn’t be able to handle them.
When the others realized what was happening, they rushed to the control room, but the door didn't budge.
As a result, many of his comrades who rushed to close the gate were bitten to death by the swarm of zombies as they were trying to bust through the door of the control room.
- Khaaaa!
The open gates looked like the gates of hell.
Before, the blind believers had only been able to pound on the fortress rampart, knowing that their prey was out of reach. However, they had now transformed into demons that unleashed hell upon everyone, all because of the foolish choice of one cowardly, selfish soldier.
“How could this happen…?!” Iselan murmured in disbelief as he belatedly arrived at the hellish scene.
It was horrific.
Iselan looked over to Gate One, which was open.
‘Just who would do such a thing?’
Gate One couldn’t be opened from the outside, and yet it was wide open. Iselan shifted his gaze to the control room. The door was tightly locked, and there were a few dead soldiers in front of it.
Iselan assumed that those soldiers had tried to close the gate, but with the door being locked, they had died without being able to do anything.
After analyzing the situation, Iselan was overcome by an intense rage.
“Just who in the hell…?!”
Iselan gritted his teeth until they almost cracked. His anger completely negated the effects of exhaustion, and it also pushed him to use his sword once again.
Iselan shifted his gaze to Gate Two.
There were two gates at the back of the fortress; Gate One was the largest and most resilient one, and Gate Two was a temporary holding area for any people that would enter the fortress.
Hell broke loose between Gate One and Gate Two, and the latter was too weak to withstand this nightmare. Thus, Iselan’s current task as the commander of the fortress was to get through those damn zombies and close the first gate.
Iselan unsheathed his sword, and with a rage that seemingly revitalized him, he activated his Aura.
“Commander…!”
As Iselan drew his sword, the officers called out to him, their voices full of concern.
However, Iselan had already made up his mind.
“I’ll go close the first gate, so in the meantime, defend the second gate no matter what!”
With that, Iselan leaped into the nightmare between Gate One and Gate Two.
- Khaaa!
Slice!
Several heads flew in the air as Iselan drew a line with the tip of his blade. Another head fell before the blood could gush from the previous corpse.
The enraged Iselan looked like Asura, the giant warrior demon, as he unleashed death around him. He moved with such tremendous speed that his murderous eyes seemed to leave a red afterimage behind.
He wielded his sword with great speed and precision, his blade only grazing flesh and severing heads. Iselan showed no hesitation or mercy, which made it all the easier to cut and kill. He also didn’t struggle. It was merely a one-sided slaughter between the first and the second gate.
The soldiers who were shooting arrows from the rampart eventually stopped drawing their bows. Instead, they stared in awe at the fierce Asura below the rampart.
Time passed.
The battlefield between the gates was plunged into silence, and the blood-soaked demon was finally catching his breath.
“...Move.”
“Y-yes, sir!”
When there was nothing more to cut down, the demon moved toward the control room. The door was still locked, so Iselan slashed it diagonally.
Thud!
The top part of the door fell to the ground with a heavy thud, leaving only the lower part of the door in place.
On the other side of the door was the cause of this whole mess, crouched by the lever and trembling in fear.
Crack!
With a strong grip, Iselan ripped off what remained of the door. Even though it was a simple wooden door, Iselan’s grip still made for a terrifying display of strength as it caused the door to crack loudly and bend.
His ferocity caused the guard soldier to be even more terrified. He had hoped that opening the gate would kill everyone, and then the zombies would later burst through the door and kill him as well. However, with Iselan’s arrival, all of his plans were out the window.
Guilt and fear overwhelmed the guard soldier, and the weight of his selfish decision suffocated him. He had condemned innocent people to death because of his own fear of death, and now he was even more scared of the consequences of his actions.
Iselan stood before the soldier and calmly said, “Raise your head.”
The soldier was visibly shaking. He was obviously scared, but Iselan wasn’t about to let him cower in terror.
“I said, raise your head.”
Iselan repeated his command to the terrified soldier, his tone more firm than earlier.
The soldier finally raised his head, his thoughts written all over his countenance.
Seeing the soldier’s expression, Iselan stayed silent for a moment while he looked into his eyes and read his emotions.
They maintained eye contact for quite some time, and after what felt like an eternity of silence, Iselan finally said, “Get up, Newk.”
“...!”
The soldier’s name was Newk.
Newk was surprised that Iselan knew his name, given that he was nothing more than a low-ranking soldier on guard duty. Perhaps that was the reason his trembling subsided slightly.
Newk slowly stood up, pushed against the wall, his shoulders still slumped.
“Newk, I understand what you must be feeling. I’m sure you were scared, but you survived, whereas your comrades lie dead outside this control room. So, you have to apologize to each of them,” said Iselan.
“...A-alright.”
Instead of the fiery rage he had felt earlier, Iselan looked at Newk with compassion. For that reason, Newk didn’t try to resist or oppose Iselan.
Iselan was the first to leave the control room, and Newk followed behind. But just before they left the room, Newk hesitated. He was too afraid to step outside in the moonlight.
Iselan felt that Newk had stopped, so he urged, “Be brave, Newk.”
Once again, he encouraged Newk to face his comrades. He was like a ghost, wandering through the battlefield after the carnage was finally over.
Newk found some comfort in the fact that the scariest being within the fortress was showing him compassion.
At the encouragement of the battlefield ghost, Newk mustered up the courage he thought he had lost and took a step out of the control room.
All eyes were on Iselan and Newk, but they soon focused on only one of them.
Their stares were sharper than the arrows that had been fired at the blind believers, piercing Newk. It was incredibly hard to have everyone look at him after what he had done. However, Newk found comfort in the fact that Iselan walked in front of him, even though he kept silent.
The two soon reached the highest point of the second gate.
The soldiers who had shot the arrows, the officers who had commanded them, and the men who had survived the carnage between the two gates all stared at the two men.
Iselan set Newk on the edge of the fortress rampart so that everyone could see him. He then gestured to Newk with his chin, who was looking back at him with eyes full of fear.
Apologize for the tragedy your selfishness has caused.
Newk turned away at Iselan’s gesture, facing the numerous resentful eyes that stared at him.
He was afraid, so afraid that he couldn’t even open his mouth to speak.
‘All I wanted was for this nightmare to end, so why am I being asked to pay for my sins?’
Fear mingled with selfishness, creating a new kind of rationale.
Newk broke out in a cold sweat, his breathing becoming quicker and more shallow as the resentful stares washed over him. His chest hurt.
On the edge of the rampart, it felt like time had stopped, imprisoning Newk in this abject reality.
Finally, in the midst of it all, Newk was forced to make a final decision. He closed his eyes and muttered to himself, “I can’t do it…”
With that, Newk jumped off the rampart.
“NOO!” Iselan shouted desperately.
Suicide.
Newk had decided to die and attempted suicide, but he had failed. He had been lucky enough to survive, but the world beyond that seemed like an even worse nightmare than before.
In a way, two extremes had met, his miraculous survival amplifying his despair.
But ironically, his survival had given Newk courage, which was why he had thrown himself to a comfortable end that would finally end his torment.
Gravity pulled Newk closer to his end, and everyone stared in silence as he was approaching the ground. Someone took a short breath, but the silence was so stifling that nobody heard them.
Finally, a terrible sound came from beyond the rampart.
“...”
Iselan had jumped to the edge of the rampart in an attempt to save Newk, but he had missed him by a hair’s length.
Beneath the rampart, Newk’s gruesome remains glistened in the moonlight among the bodies of the blind believers.
“Why… Why…!”
Iselan felt like his chest was being crushed.
Even though Newk had been the sole cause of this terrible situation, Iselan refused to hate him because it was this nightmarish reality that had driven the poor soldier to despair.
Iselan clutched at his chest and bit his lips. He pounded on his chest, feeling that it was about to burst open.
“If only …! If only I were a bit stronger and more capable…!”
Iselan’s eyes were red and full of tears. He blamed his own weakness for Newk’s death.
He hopelessly looked at the sword in his hand.
Ironically, even though he was already a Peak Sword Master, reaching the pinnacle of swordsmanship, he regretted having dedicated his entire life to the sword. If only he could use other powers, like magic, he could’ve prevented all of this…
Of course, that was nothing more than foolish self-reproach brought on by his subordinate’s tragic death.
“Do you really think so?”
But just then, a voice called out to Iselan, comforting him. It sounded familiar.
Iselan widened his teary, bloodshot eyes and slowly turned around.
Behind him stood none other than Henry.
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