Aaron's Side Story Chapter 31: The One Who Yearns for Strength (2)
* * *
"Ah, hello."
The training ground behind the cabin.
Aaron swallowed hard and greeted a man.
The man was wearing loose-fitting casual clothes instead of his usual uniform.
He was lost in thought, his eyes closed.
The man's name is Lydigion.
He had seen him a few times at the Niflheim training ground.
Aaron recalled his first conversation with the man.
‘You’re that guy’s successor?’
‘Yes...’
‘Do you want to die?’
His eyes widened.
Aaron had to shrink like a rabbit in front of a tiger.
Honestly, this man is scary.
"I heard you were waiting for me."
When Lydigion didn’t answer, Aaron continued hesitantly.
"Hmm."
The man opened his eyes.
If you made a straight blade into an eye, it would be like this.
It was a gaze that seemed to cut.
‘Is this the only time you leave me alone?’
Aaron resented his Master, but the boy had already stepped back.
He had to solve this situation himself.
"I see. You have no talent for martial arts, but you have talent for Karma. I know that you fought Master in that competition and achieved some success."
He seemed to be understanding.
Lydigion spoke in a stiff tone.
"Show me that power."
"Uh, what do you mean...?”
"I’m asking you to show me your Master’s Moon Shadow."
"Moon Shadow?"
"Don’t you even know the name of the technique?"
Moon Shadow.
Was that the name of the thrust that pierced through that Bifrost?
Aaron suppressed his anxiety and said,
"I’m sorry, but I’m not skilled enough to use that technique at will."
"It was just a coincidence?"
"Perhaps, that’s true."
"So that’s why he called me."
Lydigion sneered.
He then raised the corners of his lips and smiled wickedly.
"I guess I can test it directly with your body."
"Oops!"
Unwittingly, Aaron caught the flying object.
A long pole with a steel blade.
It was a spear.
But it wasn’t a practice wooden spear.
It was a real weapon for killing people.
Swoosh.
Lydigion drew his longsword from its scabbard.
A cold light emanated from the blade.
"Wait a moment, please."
"I’m sorry, but your Master’s power is not martial arts. I don’t think I can help you with anything more than this."
"That’s a real sword."
"So?"
"If I’m not careful..."
"You’ll die."
"Huh?"
A real sword duel right from the start?
"I heard about your situation back then. I’ll adjust it."
"Adjust?"
"It’s just a matter of pushing you to the brink of death without killing you, right?"
“......”
"Don’t worry about treatment. I brought a professional healer."
Aaron’s mind went blank.
"I don’t personally like it, but I have to do it since I was asked."
Lydigion muttered, then said,
"Let’s try it."
"What, do you mean?"
"Moon Shadow."
"Back then... ”
"I won’t be using words from now on."
Swoosh.
Lydigion lowered his longsword.
The tip of the blade glowed blue.
‘Damn it.’
Aaron closed his eyes tightly.
He had no choice but to try, whether he could do it or not.
Back then, what did he do?
How did he thrust the spear and how did he shoot out the shadow?
He focuses, assuming a stance.
The key is imagination.
To visualize the image.
Of that fatal thrust.
‘Like this!’
Aaron thrust the spear with all his might.
Then he opened his eyes.
"I... ”
It wouldn’t be possible.
Aaron was thrusting the spear into the air in a clumsy stance.
At that moment.
"Ugh!"
His vision turned red.
A tingling sensation traveled up his thigh.
A pain as if he were being burned by fire.
In an instant, Lydigion had slashed his thigh.
As if nothing had happened, he was standing in the same place.
A drop of blood dripped from the tip of the sword.
Aaron looked down at his leg.
The hem of his torn pants.
The wound between them was soaking in red blood.
"Again."
Lydigion spoke in a emotionless tone.
Aaron gritted his teeth.
‘It means there’s no need to speak.’
If he opens his mouth here, he’ll just be cut again.
There’s only one way to get out of this hell.
To recreate ‘Moon Shadow’.
“......Huff.”
He focuses his mind.
He revives the sensation of that time.
Assuming a stance and thrusting in that state.
Of course, the result was the same as before.
‘Damn it.’
Swoosh.
The sound of air splitting.
This time, his shoulder was torn.
"Again."
Aaron thrust, imagining the image.
His calf was slashed.
"Again."
This time, it was his side.
His body began to heat up.
"Again."
His right forearm.
"Again."
His left wrist.
His right cheek.
The back of his neck.
His left scapula.
The center of his spine.
His right thigh.
The blade began to carve Aaron’s entire body.
Each time he made a useless thrust, an unavoidable wound was carved.
His whole body felt as if it were burning.
"Ugh!"
Aaron, who was about to assume a thrusting stance, staggered.
The amount of blood loss was nearing a dangerous level.
Most importantly, it hurt.
It hurt so much that he wanted to scream.
"Ugh..."
Was it intentional?
It must be.
The man was deliberately targeting areas where nerves are concentrated, areas that were particularly painful.
He wasn’t even cutting all the way through the bone and muscle.
If he had, Aaron would have already been incapacitated.
As if filleting a fish.
He was carving his entire body, to the point where it wouldn’t hinder his movement.
It was a godlike skill.
"Again."
But there was nothing he could do about the bleeding.
Aaron grabbed the spear shaft with his blood-soaked hand.
‘I... feel a bit dizzy.’
Aaron’s arm, which was about to thrust the spear, fumbled.
The spear shaft bounced off the ground and rolled away.
‘Damn it.’
Swoosh.
A chilling sound.
Just hearing that sound made the hairs on his arms stand on end.
The result was the same.
"Ugh!"
There are still places he can hurt?
He doesn’t even know where he’s been cut.
It just hurts and makes him dizzy.
If this continues, won’t his body be torn to shreds while he’s still alive?
"Hmm."
The one who had pushed Aaron to the brink of death spoke.
His tone was analytical.
"It doesn’t seem like it’s just a matter of being in an extreme situation. Are there other conditions?"
Aaron’s knees naturally buckled.
He grabbed the discarded spear shaft and gasped for breath.
Blood dripped from various parts of his body.
"That’s all for today. We’ll do it again in three days."
"Wait a moment, please."
"What?"
Lydigion said with a cold expression.
"You’re not saying you can’t do it anymore, are you?"
The young man in front of him, Aaron, must be experiencing hell on earth.
Lydigion knew that.
He had deliberately done that.
He was deliberately targeting areas that would make anyone accustomed to pain scream.
And if you add the fear of being torn to shreds while still alive, it’s no wonder he would lose his mind.
‘Excessive training.’
Lydigion scanned Aaron from head to toe.
His body was completely battered.
His eyes were severely bloodshot.
Blood-mixed saliva dripped from his mouth with each breath.
His knees trembled.
He tried to recreate the extreme situation where the guy used Karma, but it was similar to torture.
There were other ways.
This was originally a method suggested by the boy, and it wasn’t even training.
Torture-like training that pushed the body and mind to their limits.
This method went against Lydigion’s beliefs.
"We’ll change the method next time. Take a week’s rest."
"I’m not... ”
"Hmm?"
Aaron spoke to Lydigion, who was about to turn around.
"I’m not on the verge of death."
"What?"
"Look, I’m standing here. You’re not going to stop now, are you? You just said that, but you were actually going easy on me?"
Lydigion’s eyes gleamed.
Aaron glared at him with bloodshot eyes.
"If you stop now, it’ll be neither here nor there. Are you going to forcibly end something you started?"
"I can’t guarantee your life after this."
"So... I wasn’t on the verge of death."
Aaron smiled.
‘It’s okay.’
He won’t die.
He won’t die from this.
If the goal of training is to recreate the situation of the finals, he’s far from it.
"You’re foolish. Can’t you even tell the difference between training and suicide? If you have potential, it’s possible through other methods."
"It’s probably possible. For a genius like you."
Lydigion furrowed his brow.
Is he saying that’s all he can do?
"Please."
“......Don’t blame me.”
Lydigion held the hilt of the sword vertically.
Seeing that, Aaron nodded, then thrust the spear into the air again.
The result was a failure.
Swoosh.
The wind gently parted, spraying blood on the ground.
Aaron staggered but didn’t fall.
‘It’s not training, it’s suicide.’
Lydigion’s words.
They might be right.
There might be other ways.
But this is the most certain.
Aaron can guarantee it.
Because he can already see it.
‘A flashback.’
It’s said that when you’re about to die, various memories flash through your mind.
If, as Master said, the power of Karma is latent in those memories, there’s no more efficient method than this.
“Hee hee hee...”
Swoosh.
Every time he repeated the clumsy movements, the blade slashed through his body.
The sensation of death he had felt back then began to creep up.
‘If I die here...’
Wouldn’t it be better?
It was a life without any achievements anyway.
Fifty years, or rather, more than that according to Master.
He swung his spear for all that time, but he gained nothing.
Yet, the desire to expect achievement and move forward remained, gnawing at Aaron’s heart like a wedge.
He can’t move forward.
He can’t step back.
Aaron can’t ascend to heaven.
He can’t fall into hell.
He’s wandering lost in the maze of purgatory.
‘The difference between 0 and 1.’
But if there was a path in that maze.
Even if it was just a mirage, he had no choice but to go.
Even if his whole body was torn to shreds by thorns.
It’s a world of difference between a maze with no path from the start and one where it exists, but is deeply hidden.
He can’t miss it.
Absolutely not.
He will never forget the scene he saw in that illusion.
“......”
Aaron’s body staggered.
The amount of blood loss had exceeded the limit.
If he didn’t take action immediately, he would die of excessive bleeding.
Lydigion, sensing this, was about to move.
"Stop."
The boy, who had appeared out of nowhere, blocked him.
Aaron staggered like he was drunk, but he managed to stand, using the spear as a cane.
"Not yet, Gion."
"Are you going to kill your student?"
"He’s not like you, a genius. The talentless Aaron needs to risk his life to move forward."
Lydigion and the boy’s eyes met.
"The wall you stepped over like a staircase, for that fool, it’s a matter of life or death."
"There will be other opportunities. If he dies, the opportunity will disappear completely."
"What are you saying? It’s only you guys who have opportunities galore. For our Aaron, an opportunity is something that disappears forever once you miss it. That’s how foolish he is."
"Is that a compliment?"
"Anyway, just watch."
If it were the world of martial arts, Lydigion would have retorted and stepped forward.
But this world is not his domain.
Aaron, who had been staggering, stood firm.
"Oh! How about it?"
"What?"
"Did you see it? The flashback?"
Lydigion grabbed the back of his neck.
While his student was on the verge of death, the boy was laughing brightly and chattering.
"When you’re about to die, your brain starts searching for all your memories and information to survive. That’s a flashback. It’s a pretty scientific method, isn’t it?"
"Is that scientific method the one that makes you get hurt to the brink of death?"
"Oh, Aaron is so stupid that he can’t understand if you tell him with words!"
"I don’t understand your methods at all."
In any case, Aaron stood silently, moving his lips.
A voice that couldn’t become words.
Neither of them knew what he was seeing.
His unfocused eyes were as clear as glass beads.
"Woohoo! It’s coming!"
The boy exclaimed, his eyes sparkling.
And then it happened.
Whum.
The spear blade Aaron was holding began to tremble.
A black shadow gathered at the tip of the spear, slowly coalescing.
Of course, this couldn’t be martial arts.
It was some kind of magical phenomenon.
The shadow clinging to the tip of the spear created a translucent phantom, swaying subtly.
But it was only for a moment.
The shadow disappeared like a candle being extinguished.
Thump.
Aaron’s body collapsed to the ground.
"Oops, is he dead?"
“......”
This guy is his Master?
Lydigion flew like the wind and checked Aaron’s pulse.
His pulse was weak, but he was alive.
Lydigion slung Aaron over his shoulder and moved across the ground.
The healer he had called for this occasion was waiting at the cabin.
Blood transfusion packs were also prepared in abundance, so there was no way he would die from excessive bleeding.
‘Was it Aaron Delcut?’
The man examined the unconscious Aaron.
He recalled the black shadow he had seen earlier.
‘It’s certain.’
He couldn’t be mistaken.
It was definitely the shadow of Karma that the boy uses.
As his Master had guaranteed, this young man had inherited Karma.
“......”
Lydigion’s eyes narrowed.
He accelerated his pace.