Chapter 352: How About Living in My Body? (2)
Flap!
Countless flags fluttered in the wind. The once reckless boy had now become one of the most famous warriors on the continent.
Behind him, astride a massive steed, a gathering of rough and fierce-looking individuals formed a crowd.
Their attire was diverse, their weapons varied. It was far from a conventional army. To an outsider, they might have appeared as nothing more than a band of marauding thieves.
Yet their presence alone was overwhelming, powerful enough to shroud the entire world.
People continued to struggle and despair, weighed down by hopelessness. However, the King of Mercenaries allowed no such emotions to invade his mind.
Regret, despondency, and an emptiness born from the past clawed at him, attempting to devour him whole.
But he suppressed all those emotions, smothering them beneath the weight of a singular burning passion.
Revenge.
With the tremendous power and forces he had amassed, he finally drew his sword, aiming it at those who had slaughtered his people his vassals, his friends, his family.
At long last, his army began its march toward the kingdom.
“Screeeech…”
The specter wailed in agony. The emotions radiating from the King of Mercenaries were too immense, too profound for it to fully absorb.
Yet, the King of Mercenaries possessed the mental fortitude and indomitable will to endure such overwhelming emotions. He had driven himself relentlessly to arrive at this point.
The despair he once felt when facing a mighty foe began to morph into something else.
Crack!
Every time he bared his white teeth and slaughtered another enemy, the specter shuddered.
Ecstasy.
With each target of his vengeance he eliminated, he laughed.
“Wh-What is this man…?”
Corpses began piling up one by one. Soon, they formed mountains, rivers of blood flowing from their peaks.
Flap!
Amidst the unending expanse of corpses, his army pressed forward. At the sight of their banners, enemies would drop to their knees, trembling in fear.
At the forefront of that army, as always, stood the King of Mercenaries.
With burning crimson eyes blazing like wildfire, he roared and charged a veritable incarnation of vengeance. None could stand against his army.
There was no need for elaborate strategies or tactics. The moment they engaged in battle, they mercilessly ground their enemies to dust. Their sheer destructive force was unmatched.
However, their adversaries possessed even greater strength and resources.
Wave after wave, the enemy forces launched relentless attacks to entangle and exhaust the King of Mercenaries’ troops. Corpses piled ever higher, forming colossal mounds and filling the scarlet battlefield.
His army steadily dwindled. The enemy also suffered losses, but they had far more manpower and resources than the King of Mercenaries.
As the ceaseless fighting dragged on, exhaustion overtook his forces, and they became increasingly isolated.
Though they brought an entire kingdom to the brink of collapse, they lacked the foundation to endure a prolonged war.
Eventually, after days of grueling combat, the wounded and weary King of Mercenaries fell to his knees.
Before him, a man as powerful as himself leveled a sword at him.
“Who would have thought you were a survivor of the Ferdium Count’s family?”
Only then did the King of Mercenaries realize there was another force behind the ducal family forces he had failed to anticipate. He needed more preparation, more intelligence. But his army was annihilated, and he was utterly spent.
[I wasn’t ready.]
A torrent of emotions began consuming him once more.
Regret, futility, frustration, and sorrow…
Yet, in the end, what remained was an unrelenting blaze of anger.
He recalled the words of a close friend.
“There’s talk of being reborn, you know.”
[If I’m reborn! I’ll rip every single one of you to pieces!!!]
Flash!
Those were his final thoughts as he felt the chilling sensation of his neck being severed.
Darkness engulfed him. The specter quivered in the void, where nothing remained.
“D-Dead? Then who is this man?”
Lost in the pitch-black void, it had no idea what to do.
Then,
Fwoosh!
Light burst forth, and the world shifted. The specter was thrown into disarray.
For the man had returned to his younger self.
Now restored to his youth, his path diverged sharply from his past.
He knew the strength of his enemies and the existence of a hidden mastermind. Using the memories of his previous life, he meticulously began his preparations.
“Th-This is impossible.”
The specter couldn’t believe what was happening. How could a person return to the past?
He slew an orc, saved his younger sister, and won a war.
He eradicated monsters, amassed wealth, rallied troops, developed technology, and fortified his lands. With these newfound powers, he hunted down his enemies one by one.
“This… this is impossible!”
The specter watched the world change before its eyes, yet it couldn’t believe what it was seeing. It simply wasn’t possible.
With all the knowledge he possessed, everything progressed according to his plan. Though there were occasional deviations, he had the experience, insight, and capable allies to overcome any discrepancies.
The owner of the body weakened his enemies one by one, systematically, and ultimately became a great overlord. His path was completely different from his previous life, and so were the results.
Even now, he continued to prepare against a powerful adversary, advancing step by step. He grew stronger far more quickly than before, and the unfolding events largely aligned with his expectations.
His relentless pursuit toward his goal brought his memories to a halt as he reached the tower where Edwin was imprisoned.
Fwoosh!
The world shifted again. Within his mental realm, he stood alone on the same barren land as before.
But now, something was different.
A tree had taken root in front of him. What had started as a mere sprout had grown little by little as the memories flowed. Now, it has become a sizable tree.
In this desolate land, the tree was his sole source of solace.
Looking at it stirred one emotion within him.
Responsibility.
He felt a powerful resolve, a duty to protect it at all costs.
The specter trembled, retreating step by step.
This was no ordinary human. He was a transcendent, a being who had survived countless agonies, pushing beyond human limits.
‘No. This mental world was far too vast and intense for the specter to consume. Attempting to devour it would result in being devoured instead.’
It was nowhere near strong or determined enough to absorb such a realm.
Swoosh.
The man turned around, his figure still that of the scarred King of Mercenaries.
Those scars symbolized his inability to escape the pain of that era.
Step. Step.
The man approached. The specter retreated further.
It appeared human, but its form was merely a mass of dark smoke.
However, the man bared his teeth in a savage grin and grabbed the specter’s neck without hesitation.
Thunk!
“Gyaaak!”
The man, the King of Mercenaries Ghislain, asked with his crimson eyes aglow.
“Enjoyed snooping through my memories?”
“L-Lies. This is impossible. It can’t be real.”
“Whether it’s real or not doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’ll never be able to consume me.”
The specter struggled desperately, but there was no escape. Since it couldn’t consume him, Ghislain was akin to a god in this space.
“P-Please spare me. Send me back to Edwin’s body.”
“No, I don’t think so.”
“Please! I beg you, spare me!”
The specter pleaded pitifully. It didn’t want to vanish. It had existed for an eternity, not knowing why it lived, but it still didn’t want to die.
Ghislain smirked.
“I told you…you can live in my body.”
“What?”
“You can amplify my power, can’t you?”
“H-How do you know…?”
“I just know. Now answer me yes or no?”
The specter clasped its hands together and responded with utmost humility.
“Yes, I can amplify your power. The stronger the emotions you’ve experienced, the more I can enhance it. However…”
“However?”
“It also requires the mental fortitude to withstand the amplified power. Judging by this mental world, it should be possible, but… if it becomes too strong, your body might not endure it.”
“That’s for me to handle. From now on, live inside me and become my strength.”
“Ugh…”
“Unless you’d rather vanish here.”
The specter hesitated. The offer was akin to becoming a slave, but there was no escape.
Unwilling to vanish, the specter ultimately accepted his terms.
After all, it needed mana to survive, and the mana in this body was exceptionally pure and potent. It resolved to live in this body until the man’s death whenever that might be.
“V-Very well. I agree.”
Fwoosh!
The specter’s body dissipated, merging with Ghislain’s mana. Its consciousness was separated and confined to a space he had prepared for it.
As the new power blended within him, Ghislain’s eyes briefly turned black.
Arel, who had been anxiously watching from the side, was startled and drew his sword.
Grrrr…
Ghislain bared his teeth in a grin. Since his regression, he had tirelessly pursued his goal. He crafted plans step by step and confronted his enemies accordingly.
As a result, the situation now differed from his previous life. The people he loved were still alive, and he was protecting them.
His resolve to stop his enemies and his sense of responsibility remained unwavering. However, the emotions he had experienced in his past life were gradually fading.
This could not be allowed.
He had to burn with even more intensity. His mind needed to remain cold, but his heart had to stay aflame.
He couldn’t afford to forget. Just because he had returned to the past didn’t mean the emotions and memories of that time had vanished.
He could not let go of his anger and thirst for vengeance until his enemies were completely annihilated.
The new power he had gained would rekindle the memories and emotions of his past life with greater intensity.
Fwoosh!
Ghislain’s eyes returned to their original color. However, the mana emanating from him was utterly different.
A dark red aura surged around him. At first glance, it resembled demonic energy, but upon closer inspection, it was something else entirely.
“Not bad.”
He felt his power multiply several times over. Even though he hadn’t pushed himself to his limit, fearing his body wouldn’t hold out, the strength coursing through him now was incomparable to before.
That wasn’t all. The creature he had trapped within his body possessed abilities beyond merely amplifying his power.
The ducal family had left several records regarding this being.
[…We searched for ‘it’ for a long time. Surprisingly, it was closer than expected inside Edwin, the son of Count Mowbray of the South. Because Count Mowbray tightly controlled all rumors, we couldn’t find it until we were on the verge of a final battle with the royal family.]
The being wasn’t a specter. It was closer to a spirit.
It had wandered from body to body, parasitically living for eons, not even remembering its true identity.
This spirit was what the ducal family had been seeking in his previous life. Though Ghislain didn’t know why they sought it, he had a clear reason to claim it before they could.
The spirit had the ability to nullify mental magic.
[Even Elois, a master of illusion magic, couldn’t separate it from Edwin’s mind. Instead, it mocked Elois and even dispelled all the control spells Elois had placed on others to keep them away.]
This spirit had nullified the mental magic of a 7th-circle mage, even with Edwin’s crude mana.
With Ghislain’s mana, it could likely overwhelm an entire battlefield.
[We tried various methods and finally persuaded it. It lived in the body of Count Balzac, a Sword Master, drawing upon his mana while helping us. The spirit accepted our offer. Its power was extraordinary.]
Having gained the spirit, Count Balzac became far stronger than before, even defeating the royal family’s Sword Master during the civil war with overwhelming ease.
As a result, Count Balzac became the sole Sword Master of the Ritania Kingdom.
And now, that power belonged to Ghislain.
The spirit’s abilities would also provide an excellent defense against Elois’ wide-area mental magic.
Grrrr…
As Ghislain drew upon his mana, the air around him began to tremble.
Unlike Edwin, he neither went mad nor behaved erratically. This was because he had thoroughly isolated and controlled the spirit’s consciousness.
Thus, he was not consumed by emotions but merely used them as fuel to amplify his strength.
When he activated his Third Core, an enormous surge of mana erupted from his body.
Fwoosh!
As he gripped his sword, a dark red aura blade easily formed around it.
Previously, he had to take time to gather strength, but now, that process was unnecessary.
“This should make me a match for Count Balzac.”
When he met Count Balzac at the banquet, the latter’s power had been immeasurable.
The rumors of him being the Kingdom’s strongest swordsman seemed like an understatement. Being by the duke’s side most of the time likely limited opportunities for him to unleash his full strength.
Ghislain grinned savagely. The emotions he had buried in his past life seemed to erupt like a volcanic explosion.
If there was a downside, it was that those emotions could be overwhelming. But Ghislain didn’t care.
He had already ascended to the ranks of the strongest in his previous life. Now, he could retrace that path faster and with greater control. Refusing such power wasn’t an option.
Grrrr…
At his will, dark red energy swirled around him, forming dozens of spears.
These spears were pure manifestations of mana, resembling magic. In fact, they might have been closer to the refined mana of mages.
The spears burst outward, unable to contain his strength.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
With deafening explosions, the spears demolished the ceiling of the tower.
“Argh!”
Edwin clutched his head and collapsed. Arel, startled by the falling debris, drew his sword to defend himself.
No one was hurt, of course. Even amidst the chaos, Ghislain’s mana shielded them.
“Hahaha!”
Ghislain let out a booming laugh, clearly satisfied with his newfound power.
Meanwhile, the spirit, observing from within, trembled as it thought:
‘This guy is insane. He must have some kind of mental disorder. I’ve ended up in the worst possible situation. Now I’m stuck as the slave of this lunatic!’
No matter how this new host looked, Ghislain was undoubtedly crazy. There was no other way to describe him.