# Chapter 23
“Ugh, ungh…!”
Though he tried to endure the pain by biting his lower lip until it bled, his leg was not just broken but nearly crushed, causing extreme agony. He deserved praise just for not fainting from the shock.
The man patted Ion’s head with his rough hand.
“As I heard, your mental strength is certainly exceptional.”
Ion wasn’t pleased with the man’s praise-filled assessment. The pain made it difficult for him to think properly, and even suppressing his groans was challenging.
Meanwhile, people who appeared to be the man’s subordinates gathered around.
“You caught him, Lord Turuan.”
Turuan slung his greatsword across his back and grabbed Ion’s hair with one hand. Partially lifted by Turuan’s hand, Ion let out a painful moan as the movement intensified the pain in his leg.
“Let me ask you one thing. How were you able to hide here for a month?”
Ion glared at the man with a face contorted by pain.
“No matter how clever you are, it’s impossible for a young boy to survive alone in this forest for that long.”
Turuan only understood how damp and bizarre this forest was after stepping foot in it. The blackened ground as if burnt, dense black thorny trees that had lost all their leaves, and the maddening silence pervading the entire forest. There were no edible fruits or plants, and nothing to shelter from the moisture or cover oneself with.
In such an environment, it was impossible for a child who had only known village life to stay unharmed for a month.
Turuan carefully observed Ion’s clothing. It was black leather that didn’t fit a child properly, but the material was quite good and in good condition.
Turuan’s sharp eyes scrutinized Ion.
“There’s someone else in this forest besides you.”
Ion’s eyes widened slightly. Seeing this and becoming more certain, Turuan ordered his gathered subordinates.
“This boy has an accomplice in the forest. Find and kill him.”
“Ah, no!”
Desperate words burst from Ion’s mouth unintentionally.
“That person is, ugh, unrelated! Ungh, ugh…! So…!”
“Don’t talk nonsense.”
Turuan twisted Ion’s hair violently as if he would tear it all out.
“Look at the forest you’ve changed. He must have seen it too. Do you think he wouldn’t know anything?”
Ion’s face twisted with despair. Turuan’s eyes curved as if mocking him.
“I should at least punish whoever hid you, for the sake of my men who suffered for a month trying to find you.”
Vicious human.
Ion felt his anger towards Turuan reaching its peak, almost making him forget the pain in his leg. At the same time, he trembled with rage at his own helplessness.
If only he had power like Levi’s…
Would things have been different then?
“Aaaaargh! Aargh!”
Unable to control his anger, Ion struggled to break free from Turuan’s grip. But it didn’t budge at all, only making him feel more helpless.
Just as Turuan was quite impressed by Ion’s spirit…
The man standing at the outermost edge among the gathered subordinates suddenly collapsed. Then the men standing around him also fell without even letting out a scream.
“Wh-what’s happening?!”
Even as the men panicked, some of them continued to die silently, with faces that looked as if they had fallen into a peaceful sleep.
Immediately recognizing that the fallen subordinates weren’t sleeping or unconscious but had completely stopped breathing, Turuan released Ion and quickly drew his greatsword.
“Enemy!”
One of the subordinates shouted loudly, and several of them lit torches they had prepared for the night. Thanks to this, they could see the figure of their opponent who had been moving stealthily using the darkness of the forest as cover.
“What is that hand?!”
Levi moved nimbly, swinging his black hand to take down another man. The eerie scene where men died just from being touched by his hand or grazed by his black nails astonished the men.
‘Do they die just from being touched by that hand?’
Turuan, who had been watching with surprised eyes as the opponent killed his subordinates with an emotionless face, looked down at Ion. A complex expression appeared on Ion’s pain-filled face. The most prominent emotion within that expression was ‘anxiety.’
‘So that’s his accomplice.’
The opponent was so agile that he didn’t even get scratched by the swords swung by the subordinates and was methodically laying them on the ground.
Despite his subordinates dying, Turuan remained calm. If the opponent was definitely the accomplice protecting the prime specimen, it would be possible to use Ion as a hostage.
“Don’t move!”
Turuan shouted at Levi, pointing the tip of his greatsword at Ion’s back as he lay prone. Since he couldn’t kill Ion, he obviously wouldn’t thrust it down, but it was enough to threaten the opponent.
Indeed, the opponent stopped moving. A flash of tension crossed his previously emotionless face.
“Don’t worry about me, Levi! These people will just… Agh!”
Turuan struck Ion’s side with his greatsword, targeting it deliberately. While it wouldn’t be life-threatening, the pain of having his side deeply cut couldn’t be ignored, and a high-pitched scream burst from Ion’s mouth.
Levi’s chilling killing intent reached Turuan, who had injured Ion.
But that was all.
As if understanding, Levi lowered both arms and stood still in that spot.
A large shadow approached from behind Levi.
Shunk—!
There was a terrible sound of flesh and bone being cut. Along with it, Ion screamed. Unlike before, it wasn’t a sound caused by pain.
Levi looked down at his own body. The sword that had penetrated from behind had pierced his left chest, precisely through his heart. Seeing this, Turuan and the remaining subordinates were half-relieved.
The man who had embedded his sword in Levi’s heart pulled it out in one motion. Blood splashed front and back, and red blood flowed back up and out of Levi’s mouth.
Thinking he had killed him, Turuan put away the greatsword he had been pointing at Ion and slung it across his back.
“The dead ones…!”
Just as Turuan was about to order the remaining subordinates to deal with the dead, he opened his eyes wide at an unbelievable sight.
The opponent who had been pierced through the heart grabbed the neck of the man who had stabbed him with his black hand. Just from that, the subordinate died, taking his last breath before collapsing with a thud.
Three of the six remaining subordinates were instantly taken down, and the rest pointed their swords at Levi while standing back-to-back as if protecting Turuan.
“You bastard!”
“What kind of trick is this?!”
Levi charged at them, ducking as he easily avoided the swords swung at him. Although blood flowed from his wound with every movement and his face twitched, Levi didn’t slow down as he placed his hand on the heart area of the nearest man. The man felt an exceptionally loud thump of his heart and closed his eyes right then.
Swallowing his breath as he saw his comrade fall, another man barely blocked the black hand extending toward his face with his sword. However, unlike a normal human hand, even though part of it touched the blade, it wasn’t cut but rather pushed through.
“Ugh, uwaah…!”
The moment the red pattern on the black palm, visible beside the sword blade, approached his face, that man also ended his life.
Just as the one remaining person was about to swing his sword with extreme tension…
“Kuhak!”
“Ungh…!”
Turuan, who had been watching and learning Levi’s movements as his subordinates died, waited for the moment when Levi got close to the last remaining subordinate. His greatsword, which pierced the middle of the subordinate’s back, went through Levi’s lower chest and abdomen, protruding from his back. Turuan pushed the blade all the way in with all his strength.
“KRAAAGH—!”
The man who was pierced along with Levi screamed in agony. Even Levi, finding it hard to endure the pain this time, let out a strained groan.
With his face contorted in pain, Levi raised his right hand toward the face of the man who had been stabbed with him, rather than pushing away the greatsword that had pierced him. As soon as his black hand touched the face of the man who was coughing up blood and suffering, the scream that had been loud enough to be annoying was abruptly cut off.
“How kind.”
Turuan said with sincerity and violently pulled out his greatsword.
“Hnngh…!”
A groan burst from Levi’s mouth and he fell to his knees. His blood formed a puddle on the dirt floor where blue grass had just begun to sprout.
Bending down to face Levi, Turuan spoke coldly.
“For a monster.”
A clot of blood that flowed from between Levi’s red lips fell to the ground with a splat. An amount of blood that seemed impossible to survive was flowing from his body, which had been pierced lengthwise by the greatsword, and from his heart.
Turuan looked at Levi, who was precariously regulating his breath, with eyes filled with interest different from how he had looked at Ion.
