Chapter 208: Two Graves (2)
Stras intended to turn everyone lIbing in ‘Mordan’, the city of the earth where he grew up, into undead.
Along with the otherworldly monsters summoned at the cost of their souls, to make them his subordinates.
And using those monsters and the undead army, he planned to bring down other cities one by one, turning all the ‘humans’ who had discriminated against him for being half-demon into undead and making them his slaves.
The kapers, who grasped that insane conspiracy, immediately tracked him down and eventually succeeded in capturing him.
At that time, the very person who caught Stras and stopped the ritual was Toric.
Toric was in charge of the action squad in the team formed to track Stras, and thus he had always been at the forefront fighting Stras.
“Stras──!!”
That day was no different.
As befitting the one who cut down the most of Stras's undead slaves, Toric cut through the undead soldiers blocking his way, rushed to Stras faster than anyone there, and finally knocked him to the ground.
“Finally caught you…!”
He had succeeded in capturing with his own hands the most dangerous and vicious existence among the enemies he had faced while active as a kaper.
“This is the end.”
However, even in the situation where he was knocked down by Toric and tied up, Stras showed an appearance of not losing his composure.
Stras looked up at Toric while forcibly pinned to the ground like that.
The one who cut down the most of his undead slaves, the man who ‘interfered’ with him the most.
“──Is that so?”
Grinning, showing a bizarre smile.
“…!”
It was such a creepy smile that even Toric, who had seen many terrible sights as a veteran kaper, instinctively shuddered and felt goosebumps.
But Toric tried to ignore that instinct, telling himself that now that he was captured by him like this, there would be nothing he could do.
“Teresa, David.”
“What?”
“The names of the ones you just cut down. They were children who have served me ever since I first made them slaves.”
Stras smirked and added.
“When I was young, they were neighborhood friends who tormented me terribly. If you can call that friends, that is.”
“What are you trying to say?”
“Since those bitches and bastards, you are the first. A guy who tormented me to this extent.”
“I only tried to stop your crazy act.”
“Of course, you would say that. Since you are a kaper, the apostle of justice!”
Stras shouted in sudden fury.
“If you guys are really apostles of justice, why didn't I see hide nor hair of you when I begged and begged every night to be saved?! If there really is a god, why! Did he ignore it even when these damn city bastards spat every time they saw my face and beat me to death!?”
But it was brief, and Stras returned to a calm tone and continued speaking composedly.
“And yet, why interfere now when I try to execute justified revenge?”
Saying you bastards are all the same too.
“You are just arrogant strong people who treat weaklings like me as bugs.”
“Justified revenge, you say?”
At those words, Toric scoffed as if dumbfounded.
“You speak well. Turning this entire city, tens of thousands of innocent people, into undead?”
“Innocent?”
Stras once again distorted the corners of his mouth bizarrely and said.
“Every single one of them treated me like trash. …This city sinned against me. They are all just sinners.”
So everyone deserves to serve me.
“That is the punishment they must receive.”
Just like Teresa and David, whom you just cut down.
And.
“──That goes for you too, Toric Silverhand.”
To his eerie smile, Toric answered with a sneer.
“That won't happen.”
After all, the current Stras was nothing more than a loser who was caught without achieving the evil conspiracy he had plotted for a long time.
“You are the one who will receive the due punishment for what you have done so far.”
Such last-ditch efforts of losers were something he had already seen countless times.
“I look forward to the day we meet again.”
“Such a day won't come.”
So what Toric had to do was, as always, lightly laugh off that struggle and then hand the guy over to his colleagues.
“We’ll see about that.”
There was no need to pay attention to Stras's bluff at all.
Having finished the long pursuit of Stras and returning home for the first time in weeks, Toric realized only then that Stras's words were neither simple struggle nor bluff.
Stras took an interest in Toric who interfered with him at every turn, and investigated him thoroughly.
As a result, he learned the fact that he had sworn to dedicate his life to protect the world even while gIbing up all of his family's wealth and honor.
That he had a wife who understood and supported him by his side for a long time after he abandoned everything to become a kaper.
That he had a child whom he loved just as much as that wife.
And even where Toric had safely hidden them.
The only ones who knew that fact were Toric himself and a very few kapers who would absolutely never betray Toric.
Indeed, they did not betray Toric until the moment they died.
But after dying, they couldn't do that.
Because the dead cannot lie.
Therefore, what Toric saw upon returning home was not the appearance of his wife and child welcoming him with the same smile as always after his return in a long time.
What was waiting for him were only undead rushing to bite him.
With the appearances of his beloved wife, and child.
Even the parting conversation often shared at the last moment was not allowed for Toric.
Because they, who had already become undead, become zombies, were no longer beings with whom he could share something like ‘conversation’.
Toric screamed.
Because he had to cut down with his own hands these people he wanted to protect no matter what.
And that wasn't to survive from them trying to bite him.
He just couldn't bear to leave them in such a state.
That was all.
If he ignored them, this village would become a den of zombies as it is.
But above all, he, simply, couldn't bear to leave the two people he loved more than anyone in this world in such a hideous appearance.
That was the biggest reason.
So, he cut them.
Just like the other undead he had dealt with so far.
And then, to ensure they could never ‘revive’ again, he burned them all without leaving even bones.
A big explosion occurred, and not even corpses remained of the two.
Toric, who sent the two away with a funeral ritual of dwarf warriors that finishes with a splendid explosion, just shed tears endlessly.
If the two had met a normal death, Toric might not have broken.
Because this world is a world where one can 「Resurrect」 the dead.
Of course, it is never an easy task, but there is hope somehow.
So Toric would have tried to revive the two even if he had to dedicate his everything.
He would never have broken until then.
However, one who has become undead once could not be 「Resurrected」 no matter what happens.
Absolutely.
That was the ‘rule’ of this world.
People go to the Underworld when they die.
However, those who became undead could not do so.
The Underworld does not accept a soul once defiled, tied to a rotten and decayed body.
That is why 「Resurrection」 is impossible.
Because they become a state where even gods who received a priest's ‘request’ cannot bring them out again.
Because they just, disappear.
It was the worst farewell.
He couldn't share a last conversation.
He couldn't even see their last appearance properly.
And even the hope that they could reunite someday, did not exist.
That is why, Toric broke.
When tears no longer flowed, he grasped the axe he had thrown aside again and stood up.
With an appearance no different from the corpses he had been cutting down.
Toric headed to the prison where Stras was detained.
Colleagues who heard the news tried to stop him, but there was no one who could withstand Toric's strength.
Eventually, he approached Stras.
“Didn't I tell you.”
Showing a fishy smile while his whole body was tied up.
“Didn't I say we would meet again?”
Toric swung his axe silently instead of answering.
Thud, roll.
Stras's head, cut off mercilessly like that, rolled on the ground.
Without even closing his eyes, just as he was showing a smile.
The kapers who chased after him belatedly looked down at that scene blankly.
The sight of Toric, who was an idol and mentor to many kapers, abandoning the oath as a kaper to solemnly follow the law and walk the right path in any case, by himself.
“……What have you done, Mr. Silverhand.”
Especially Logan, who respected him more than anyone and followed by his side, muttered in a voice suffering from the guilt that he couldn't stop it.
He cut down an opponent who couldn't resist.
Even though it was a situation where they might have been able to save more people through the information they could still obtain from him.
It was an action far from the ‘justice’ they had protected so far.
“My oath is over.”
Toric, who also knew that fact well, left the prison again leaving just this calm remark.
After that, he didn't return.
Toric went to Haim Village.
It was his wife's hometown.
That day, Toric dug two graves.
There were no bodies, nor remains.
Because he couldn't leave them.
Instead, he placed the necklace his wife always wore.
He placed the wooden doll he had carved himself for his child.
Like that, he buried the traces of the two that barely remained in the ground, and erected a stone tower to replace a tombstone.
He couldn't die.
Even if he died and went to the Underworld anyway, he couldn't meet the two.
The only thing that could meet the two again was just, his memories.
He couldn't bear to let go of that sole opportunity for a meeting.
To remember the two who left his side forever.
He lived this reality where the two were not by his side, somehow.
He had to live.
***
“Didn't I tell you.”
Looking at Toric who appeared before him, Stras showed the same smile as back then.
“I said you would be punished.”
Crunch, veins popped on Toric's hand holding the axe.
“It is no exaggeration to say I have waited for this day ever since you took Teresa and David from me.”
But Stras continued speaking to rather incite his anger.
“This day when you, will serve me forever.”
However, Toric did not commit the same mistake as before in the end.
Meaning he didn't give his body to anger and try to strike the bastard's neck.
“…You, turned yourself into an undead.”
Since his goal was, after all, to stall for ‘time’ as much as possible.
“Did you only realize it now.”
“…That’s a relief.”
“Hmm?”
To not repeat the same mistake as back then.
“If I kill you now, your soul, completely torn apart, won't be able to go anywhere.”
To kill the opponent in front of his eyes properly this time.
Lifting his axe, he.
“Without even being remembered, by anyone…!”
Calmly 「Enraged」.