Barbarian in a Failed Game

‘Did I ever tell him my name?’

The memories of ‘Midland Quest’ Act 5’s boss had become faint. Darkin Perayas stood before him. This was no hallucination. The golden scales and the tail intertwined with bones were incontrovertible evidence.

‘There’s no way a creature like that would coincidentally appear at the time I fell into hell.’

There’s no need to ponder why Darkin Perayas, whom he thought was dead, appeared so intact. Considering he sold his soul to Aecharis, it’s not surprising that he would still be serving as its puppet even in hell.

“Kill. You─!!”

As Khan briefly contemplated the creature’s existence, Darkin, almost in a frenzied scream, lunged forward with his scale-covered arm outstretched.

But this beast had already suffered defeat by Khan once before, and the gap between the Khan of then and now was as wide as that between a goblin and an ogre. Khan effortlessly caught Darkin’s fist and swung his weapon without hesitation.

Crack!

The slash ran diagonally across Darkin’s upper body, shattering the golden scales and tearing his ragged cloak. As Khan was about to bring down another strike, he hesitated upon seeing the creature’s hidden face.

“Kiieeek!”

The face, once bearing an androgynous beauty, was now replaced by something resembling a beast’s maw, from which Darkin’s voice emerged.

“Die. Now!”

The tail, whipping like a lash, grazed Khan’s nose. This wasn’t a failed attempt at evasion. Khan had seen the attack with Karyan’s eyes and precisely tracked it with his own, creating distance accordingly.

Yet, he was injured.

‘The attack range is different from what it appears.’

Khan quickly deduced the source of the discrepancy.

『The space is distorted.』

“I know that…!”

As expected, the space around Darkin’s tail was subtly warped. It was clear that Darkin had inherited some of Aecharis’s power.

“Because of you, I…!”

However, any margin for error could simply be adjusted. Unless the first strike inflicted a fatal wound. And since it had failed, Darkin had no chance of winning.

『Blood Fire Technique』

Using the blood from the Heart of Predation as fuel, flames erupted and enveloped Khan’s entire body. Its power was incomparable to before. Since storing the giant’s blood in the Heart of Predation after leaving Paradise, the efficiency of the Blood Art had increased beyond measure.

It was more than enough to compensate for the gap where the mark’s buff was not at its maximum.

Boom─!

Guarding against spatial devouring, Khan swung Draupnir and cut Darkin’s tail. Indeed, the power of a spatial attack was absolute, the terrible resistance coursing through the blade made Khan’s hand tingle.

“Ugh…!”

But the one who sustained more damage wasn’t Khan, it was Darkin. Despite the spatial pressure that could break any sword, Draupnir remained unscathed, and the full-force slash following the trajectory of the sword severed Darkin’s tail in an instant.

“Yes! Crush him completely!”

Tulkan, who seemed to have forgotten he had been hit, was cheerfully cheering from the back, but the outcome of the battle had been decided from the start in Khan’s favor.

Though Darkin seemed to have gained strength after falling into hell and receiving something from Aecharis, Khan had become several times stronger.

Darkin Perayas couldn’t have been unaware of this fact. However, even as he screamed, Darkin neither fled nor pleaded for his life.

He clashed relentlessly against Khan, who unleashed an unending barrage of strikes with Unyielding and Draupnir, swinging his tail and claws in retaliation.

“Because of you…! Because of you…! Because of you…!”

The power of the Heavy Sword, tempered through countless battles to perfection, crushed Darkin’s golden scales and wreaked havoc on his insides. Each time, Darkin incessantly repeated, “Because of you…!” as he charged.

It was as if he had lost his sanity to rage, abandoning even the sensation of pain.

“Because of you…! Because of you…! Because of you…! Because of you…! Because of you…! Because of you…!”

But regardless of his insensitivity to pain, Darkin, a dark sorcerer, had to face the consequences of choosing hand-to-hand combat. Just like in that long-ago battle.

Slsh─!

Draupnir pierced from the crown of his head and cleaved straight downward.

Like a slow-motion video, Darkin’s body split open from top to bottom, his form tearing apart and collapsing to both sides, all while he continued to chant the same words over and over.

“See, I knew you would win, hyungnim!”

Tulkan, who had subtly switched to calling Khan ‘hyungnim’ and now acted overly familiar, cheered loudly. As Khan, who had now killed the same target twice, glanced between Darkin’s corpse and his experience bar curiously.

‘My experience didn’t increase.’

The lack of experience gain implied that Darkin wasn’t truly dead. However, Darkin had indeed faced death, and Khan had long confirmed with Karyan’s eyes that his consciousness had dissipated.

‘Do the creatures killed in hell not give experience points? Or perhaps because he had already died and come back to life?’

The few possibilities that came to mind were hard to decide on due to the lack of information. But an anomaly occurred immediately, rendering his worries moot.

“Damn, what the hell!”

Wriggle. Wriggle.

The corpse, which he thought was already dead, started convulsing as if in postmortem spasms, the two halves wriggling like magnets trying to pull each other together.

Crack!

Of course, Khan had no intention of just watching passively. He stomped on the corpse, crushing it, then swung Draupnir against the ground, creating a pressure wave that shredded the rejoining body parts into pieces.

“H-hyungnim! They’re still moving!”

Tulkan’s voice, seemingly having sensed the danger and retreated, was more distant this time. Yet Khan had no time to scold him. The anomaly occurring around Darkin’s corpse was far too bizarre.

‘Consciousness…?!’

The consciousness that had once dissipated was regenerating. Considering what had happened in Midland, this soul, having died twice, was attempting to resurrect again.

If only the body had revived, that would be one thing. Even Khan couldn’t hide his astonishment at the sight of a regenerating soul.

Teeth sprouted from the pieces of Darkin’s scattered body as they repeated the same phrase in his voice.

“Because of you…! Because of you…! Because of you…! Because of you…! Because of you…!”

There was no time to ponder the nature of the anomaly. Almost instinctively, Khan opened Aecharis’s pouch, adjusted the entrance’s position, and stuffed all the scattered pieces inside before sealing it.

“…….”

“…….”

Only then did Khan feel secure enough to breathe a sigh of relief. He turned toward where Tulkan had fled to.

‘Aecharis. Are you still hunting me?’

***

After dealing with Darkin Perayas, Khan prepared for Aecharis’s pursuit. Did Aecharis send Darkin here knowing Khan had been swept into dimensional collapse and fallen into hell, specifically the Blood Domain?

‘No, that’s unlikely.’

While Aecharis might have discerned that Khan had shifted to hell, recognizing his specific location as the Blood Domain seemed far-fetched. Darkin Perayas’s appearance must have been purely coincidental.

Khan’s certainty about this came from discovering other agents of Aecharis in different demon dwellings afterward.

“So, this makes four of these creatures now.”

“A-hem. Hyungnim, don’t you think it’s time we make a run for it?”

Tulkan, who had stubbornly refused to stay in his domain and insisted on following Khan, made a cautious suggestion.

But Khan immediately dismissed his proposal.

“We need to know where we’re running to.”

“What does that have to do with hunting down the pursuers?”

“Hmm. I suspect that Khan is doing this to determine the scale of the forces dispatched to pursue him.”

“What do you mean by that? Yoro.”

“The pursuers that came after Tulkan and those dispatched to other dwellings total four, and each of them was responsible for two or three dwellings.”

“So?”

Unlike Tulkan, Yoro, who had been brought along by Khan as an interpreter and encyclopedia, explained Khan’s intentions to Tulkan with his characteristic logical tone.

“And the dwellings they contacted were mainly on the outskirts of the Blood Domain. There were no pursuers further inside than Residence No. 17, where Tulkan was located.”

“Uh… So what?”

Despite Yoro’s detailed explanation, Tulkan still didn’t fully grasp it, but Yoro just continued smiling cheerfully.

“Given that the reach of the pursuers hasn’t extended to the inner areas of the Blood Domain, we now know we can evade them by heading further inward.”

“Oh. Oh, I see…! Yoro, you clever fellow!”

“Haha. Just say that I’m good at thinking things through.”

While the two demons chatted cheerfully behind him, Khan, who had stored the recently revived corpse in Aecharis’s pouch, fell into deep thought.

‘Would he notice the disappearance of his subordinates…? Of course, he would. The Scion of the Arch Demon should possess awareness akin to divine upper-tier gods. So, what is the chance that he would act personally?’

According to the hellish mythology Yoro had explained, that possibility was minimal.

Aecharis had left the deserted lands untouched, wary of Esperus, who went into hiding after being gravely wounded by an interdimensional ruler. He wouldn’t risk his life to catch one mere mortal.

However, the same Aecharis who meticulously crafted traps within quasi-dimensions to capture this mortal is unlikely to give up so easily.

This means…

‘He will move his legions to pursue me.’

Moreover, even if it isn’t Aecharis himself, there are demons under him with direct grudges against Khan.

Augrabes and Kerecatu, for instance.

‘The tasks I have are twofold. One is to find clues for returning. The other is to survive while evading Aecharis’s pursuit.’

Neither of these tasks is easy. Considering that he has to accomplish both tasks simultaneously makes it an impossible mission for an ordinary mortal.

But he can’t just lay down and die quietly.

‘I need to find a way…’

Khan stood in place for a long time, deeply lost in thought, but no answer came to mind. In such a truly desperate situation,-an unexpected glimmer of hope emerged from a surprising corner.

『So that’s what you were pondering. Didn’t you hear it from that interpreter? How the ruler of these Blood Domain returned with severe injuries. I thought you would have realized from the start who vanquished Esperus’s corporeal form. Strange how you miss certain things.』

A sly voice, reminiscent of a snake, chuckled softly.

『It was Karyan, who bestowed you with the mark, who repelled the scion of the Arc Demon, espelrus. At that time, espelrus forcibly tore a rift in the dimension to return to hell, leaving only his consciousness intact. Thus, there’s a good chance that the dimensional rift remains.』

And

『The dimensional rift is likely located not far from where Esperus vanished. Finding that location shouldn’t be impossible for you, as Karyan’s descendant. The mark engraved on your body will react.』