Requiem Of A Failed Hero



The cherry-red blood puddle beneath his knees instead of spreading began to come together to a single point. His blood centered in between his knees and began to harden, it was like a clotting but more than a clotting. 

Before Raith's eyes, his blood had become a crystal. 

A red crystal. 

'What is this?'

Those were the last words on his mind as his vision got deemed and he died. 

—

He woke up instantly as usual, with the crystal still in front of him. It was a bit sad that he didn't receive any level-ups or Stat from his death but he wasn't disappointed since he wasn't expecting it in the first place. 

This crystal in front of him, however. 

He took it up and used the appraisal skill on it. 

[Blood Crystal Shard]

> A low-grade crystal shard birthed from the crystal of creation itself. It can be used as a mineral, it has a heterogeneous nature. 

'Wow...'

Raith didn't know what to call this. But at the very least he understood that his body had now become a house of minerals. 

Having blood that can clot into crystals didn't really come off as convenient for him, it made an irritated look escape his face. 

'Imagine being kidnapped and turned into a mineral-supplying human...' 

Raith was halfway through his imagination before he realized that he was standing under the same pressure but wasn't going through that same feeling of fear. 

That fear that made him feel like he was about to choke to death wasn't there anymore. 

Was it because of the pain? Was that why it left him?

He touched his chest for a while, felt the right heart beating, slide his hands slowly to the left side, and also felt it beating with the same ratio. 

Then he looked at the big door ahead of him, ignoring his generals who seemed to still be struggling under the pressure of the atmosphere. 

Antares however... seemed to be overcoming it. He was pushing himself off his knees slowly. Although it was a. Eru tedious thing to do because the more one tried to resist, the harder the force of the pain. 

In a sudden frenzy, Antares slashed himself in different parts, his hands were very fast, and nothing but gales of winds were seen in that split moment. 

When he dropped his hands, gaps were already on his body, although his body glowed grin and tried to restore the places sliced off. His arm, a chunk from his shoulder, another chunk from his ribs, his chest slashed a large X, and other areas. 

He lowered his head as his body slowly recovered. 

Seeing him trying like that kind of made Raith proud. 

The other two did the same thing and were freed from the atmosphere.

'If any other human meets themselves under this kind of pressuring fear, does that mean they can just get out of it by inflicting themselves with pain?"

For one to be truly liberated from this kind of fear, they needed to inflict themselves with pain just as Raith thought but it wasn't just that. 

He brought his hand to his chin as he thought more deeply about it. 

If anyone could just get out of the dragon's pressure then perhaps they are not as strong. 

But Raith was about to find out just as strong they were. And he was about to understand that only a pain equal to that of death could liberate one from 'Dragon Fear' 

He moved closer and touched the door, it was cold and was already beginning to freeze his hand even though he didn't touch it for more than a second. 

He tightened his fist–

Took a leg back and swung back his fist to draw as much momentum as he could.

'The power of a punch does not start with the arm...

...it comes down from the leg and runs through the hips...'

Raith grimaced as he remembered Volmak's words as he clenched his fist tighter. 

Volnak thought him a lot in a short time, but even till now he had never truly applied them. They have built up the foundation for his survivability but beyond that he was weak. 

'I wonder how weak I would be if I didn't have the power of death... or if I didn't meet Thard-Harl.'

Meeting other asuras had proven to him that his defeating Thard-Harl was pure luck. 

Should we talk about Egard-Haerl who was in a weakened state and he still couldn't beat until he accepted his darkness and merged with the abyss? 

Or Cor-Ellion whom he couldn't put a scratch on no matter how much he tried. 

The game with Thard-Harl was rigged and it took meeting Cor-Ellion to realize it. 

As his train of thought slowly came back to the door in front of him. Raith felt an unusual hunger for growth. 

One that he didn't have to die to get, something he could proudly call a result of his hard work. It was like he was thinking for the first time in twenty-two years. 

Sometimes his age puts him to shame. Because of his anti-social abilities and always silent demeanor, no one would know he wasn't all that. He wasn't wise, he wasn't mature.

A lot of times he even feared not measuring up to the standards of people. 

Even though the wisdom Stat had helped with his poor decision-making skills, Raith felt like he was far behind compared to other people of his age. 

'...I mean look at Mok Jae-Hwa.'

He is twenty-two and is already leading a guild since he was eighteen. 

Raith at that age kept whining about not receiving love from his father. 

Finally, his thought drove him back to the present.

'I wonder why these things are coming now...'

He looked up at the door. 

"Are you just trying to distract me from opening you?" 

He smirked and opened his palm. Then he clasped hard dispelling a circular torrent of wind merely by the power of his grip. 

And... he swung forward...

-THUD!!!-