The Great Sword is not the Main Body!-Chapter 124: Branch point (3)

"...What is this?"

Rubia swallowed as she looked at the greatsword lodged in the ground.

"When did you pull off such a cute trick? It seems like one hit won’t be enough. You should take three hits."

Standing next to her, Ser grimaced as though she were genuinely irritated.

"...How did Noah know about this?"

"Uh... I felt it."

When Hermila stood up, the energy that erupted from her body covered the surroundings. At the same time, I felt it wrap around our bodies.

At first, I wasn’t sure what it was, but when I focused my perception, I quickly understood.

The energy’s identity was True Qi (眞氣).

According to Sirin’s explanation, it’s a force that uses life energy as its source. The more achievements and higher the rank of the person using it, the stronger it becomes, with a bunch of other details listed, but... what was it again?

Anyway, the essence of True Qi is that it manifests the user’s strongest desire more clearly.

It might seem similar to a unique ability, but it’s a higher-level power than that.

The downside is... because it’s based on life energy, it shortens the user’s lifespan.

Of course, the lifespan Hermila used as payment is measured in hours. Hmm... maybe quite a bit? Around 20 hours...?

There was definitely a skill in the game with this effect. It was a skill you learn at the last level, level 110.

The name... I don't remember, but it was a skill that used HP as a cost.

It wasn’t flashy, but the damage was incredibly strong... I vaguely remember it...

"Do you know about this power, Noah? The identity of True Qi?"

While I was deeply lost in thought, trying to remember a recipe for ramen, Hermila’s voice pulled me back to reality.

"Ugh... yeah, yeah."

"You can feel it too?"

Nodding—

"You know that it consumes lifespan, right?"

"Y-yeah...?"

Hermila looked at me with a complicated expression for a moment before sighing.

"Well. Noah... um, never mind."

She then brushed off her knees and stood up, stepping back before bowing.

"I sincerely apologize. I’m sorry."

"Put more sincerity into it."

"...I’m sorry."

Hermila, who had been bowing for a moment, raised her head and wore a somewhat different, somewhat stiff expression than usual.

"I attempted to use you all to ensure the eradication of Valoran. Well... to be exact, I tried to use your status and reputation to unite the villagers."

"Status and... reputation?"

"Yes. The position of the priestess and the reputation of the Master of the Magic Tower. Moreover, Rubia, since you’re revered as a hero in Cartia, uniting the villagers would have been even easier."

"Would you have sacrificed us if necessary?"

"Of course not. You all don’t need to play that role. It’s not something I would do."

Her voice was filled with conviction.

"Your existence is something that cannot be replaced by anything in this world. I believe you know this to some extent, don’t you?"

Her expression was ominous.

"From your face, it looks like you know. May I continue speaking while sitting down?"

Ser nodded and sat down first. Hermila followed her, and then I sat.

Rubia, still standing, said,

"I still can’t trust you, Hermila."

She glared at Hermila.

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"I understand."

"But..."

Slowly, Rubia’s hand gently stroked my head.

"Since Noah trusts you... I’ll try to trust you too."

"...Thank you."

"I’ll need an explanation. We can’t keep sitting like this forever."

With that, Rubia plopped down next to me.

"Hah... Now that things have come to this, I’ll put the jokes aside and get straight to the point. If you still need to apologize, I’ll do that after everything’s over, so please, for now..."

"Then, I’ll put off slapping Hermila’s face until later."

Hermila chuckled and nodded, picking up a branch that was lying on the floor.

She then drew a # Nоvеlight # circle on the ground—

"Now, Noah, you can see this, right?"

"Uh... yeah."

"Hehe, now let’s explain slowly, one thing at a time. Here, this is Cartia."

She drew a small circle inside the big one. That small circle must be the mainland, right?

"In here, the magic circle to open the dimensional rift is—"

Tap— Tap— Tap—

A total of twelve points were marked.

"This is how it is, but it can change at any time, so please keep that in mind... Oh, it’s already changed."

Hermila, who had repeatedly adjusted the position of the points, continued drawing numbers next to them.

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"The order is like this. The wizards dispatched from Erden will activate the magic circle in order. It cannot be stopped. They will activate it with their lives as the price, no matter how far apart they are."

Up to the number 13, the numbers were etched.

Huh... There are twelve magic circles, but why are there thirteen numbers?

I counted again from where it all started.

It was still thirteen.

But why aren’t Rubia and Ser saying anything?

"Mm..."

As I was tilting my head in confusion, Hermila smiled and added an explanation.

"These twelve are the magic circles, and the one in the mainland is the summoning circle."

"Aha...!"

"Do you understand?"

"Yes...!"

"Good, well done. Now, moving on. Once these magic circles are activated in order, they will devour the sacrifices prepared by Erden and activate the summoning circle."

Hermila, drawing a line from the magic circle to the summoning circle, looked at Ser.

"Normally, Ser would be the one to block the magical power from the summoning circle, but now, that is no longer possible."

Upon hearing this, Ser’s expression scrunched up.

"Isn’t it magical power?"

"Yes. As soon as Ser’s involvement was decided, Erden changed the structure of the summoning circle. Instead of magical power, they’re using human life—"

Hermila trailed off as she drew a new circle far away.

"To be precise, the life of an unborn child born in the basement of the Order."

Rubia, gasping in horror, covered her ears with both hands.

Ser, who showed little change in expression, also twisted her face and ground her teeth.

"An unborn life is the most vital and pure. It also carries the most life force, making it the perfect fuel."

"...Fuel?"

Despite the horrific conversation, Hermila’s expression remained calm.

"Of course, we’ve tried to block it with a lot of time and effort. But it was already too late. The moment it was born, its soul was already extracted. It seems like they had been planning for this variable for a long time."

In the heavy silence, Hermila tapped the ground with the branch before speaking again.

"It’s all in the past. Worrying and regretting it now won’t change anything. So, I’ll continue explaining."

Even as she told this dreadful story, there was no change in her emotions.

"When the magic circles are activated, the summoning circle will be triggered within five minutes. Then, a dimensional rift will open in the sky."

The branch moved smoothly and scattered the large circle inside, making it spin chaotically.

"Once Valoran emerges from the dimensional rift, it will immediately launch a wide-range attack. This was the case no matter which future you looked at."

The wide-area attack that triggers when the raid begins.

Valoran, riding a horse, would land and strike the greatsword to cause shockwaves.

If you started without knowing this pattern, you’d begin with half HP... such an infuriating pattern...

"We’ll enter after the attack subsides. Once we do, Valoran will show two reactions. One is charging and attacking while riding the horse, and the other is scattering red energy projectiles. There are many other variations, but these two are the most common. So, we’ll plan accordingly."

The charging attack on horseback is...

It’s the pattern where you step forward, then swing in a circular motion in eight directions—right, up, down, left, down, up, right, diagonal-left—then a shockwave hits. You just need to parry everything and jump to avoid the shockwave at the end, the easiest pattern.

The speed at which the greatsword swings is incredibly fast, but when you record the screen and watch it at 0.25x speed, you can see everything.

So, it was easy to memorize.

I had even written it down on a post-it note and stuck it on the corner of my monitor.

"First, here’s how to deal with the close-range attacks. Once it starts charging on horseback... we absolutely need to avoid it."

Huh.

Hmm... Well... that makes sense.

In reality, it’s not like you’re going to swing it in a predictable pattern. You’ll swing it wildly, and it’ll be much faster.

So, we just need to avoid it—

"Right, up, down, left... something like that. The speed at which it swings is something I can’t follow with my eyes."

Eh?

"Even if I manage to block the first four, I won’t be able to block all of them. So, while I buy time at the front, you all should spread out and attack Valoran. This is the elixir for that."

Rubia, with a trembling expression, grabbed my hand tightly.

Ser, as though not liking the plan, bit her lip.

I tilted my head, holding my breath.

If I listen to Hermila’s explanation... isn’t this the same pattern I’ve seen countless times in the game?

If that’s the case... I could easily parry it.