Master of All Sins

Chapter 8 : A Monster That Wields Fire - 4

It felt like barely half a day had passed, let alone a full day since our escape.

I'd have to say the Fire Dog was that formidable, rather than Hoa's sorcery being lacking.

Despite that, perhaps feeling ashamed and sorry, Hoa tried to protect me, not letting me go from her arms.

“I will buy time. Until you are ready to fight, Noble one, I will not let even a shadow touch you!”

– It doesn't matter who's first, since you won't be able to tell the difference once you're burned anyway!

“……No.”

Gasping for breath, I pushed her away and stepped forward.

“Didn't you say earlier that you can't face it with your abilities? Step back, unless you want another hole in your stomach.”

“But Noble one, you can't fight in your current state.”

– If you're going to dawdle like that, I'll burn you both at once─!

The impatient Fire Dog once again spewed flames toward the two of us as we talked.

Looking directly at the sight, I completely unwound the bandage on one hand and scattering the blood that dripped from it in all directions, shouted again.

“Fire blood!”

“Kyaaaak!”

Hoa's scream was probably because the amount of my bleeding was unusual.

But she likely couldn't have imagined that this was a reduced amount thanks to Myodusa's treatment earlier.

My words about not being able to move any further were not an exaggeration.

My entire body, having reached its limit, was screaming, and it wouldn't have been strange if my muscles or blood vessels ruptured, or even if my bones were crushed, had I moved any more violently.

Still, thanks to that, enough blood came out to create a barrier.

– How are you blocking me with such a pathetic spell!

As the blood scattered in all directions transformed into a barrier of fire, the incoming flames collided with it and flowed backward, causing the Fire Dog to shout in a rage.

As if flames alone weren't enough, the beast finally scratched the ground once and charged forward.

If that massive body so much as grazed me, my frail body would never withstand it.

“Pardon me!”

Before I could make any judgment, Hoa rushed in, held my body tightly, and leaped to escape that spot.

“Fire bomb, Art of a Thousand Blossoming Sparks!”

With that, she flicked her sleeves and scattered dozens of Fire bombs in a single breath.

The Fire Dog tried to ignore them and leap after us, but the Fire bomb that collided with it surprisingly burst into dozens of smaller fire bombs, as if flowers were blooming, and hindered it.

– Something with no real power keeps being annoying!

“Fire body, Art of the Blazing Flame Whip!”

While I had to risk my life to use even a basic ‘Fire body’, Hoa used an advanced spell as if it were nothing and threw herself forward again.

From beyond my sight, something like a whip of red demonic power stretched out, then soon split into several strands, spectacularly coloring the air as it entwined itself around the Fire Dog's body.

Since Fire body is a sorcery that takes fire into the body, Hoa's entire body was naturally colored like fire, but strangely, it did not harm me.

If she has such firm control over fire, couldn't she win even if the opponent is the Fire Dog…….

‘Foolish!’

The moment I had that thought, I quickly shook off the wicked idea.

This fight was mine from the beginning.

It was shameful enough to have come this far by borrowing the hand of a monster, so how could I think of entrusting it to someone else until the very end?

Even if people called me a cripple, I am a gatekeeper who has undergone the ritual and a sorcerer.

I may be shabby, but I cannot be wretched.

Even if I die, I must die as a sorcerer.

This was not to say I would give up on life.

It meant to live rightly, even if only for a moment.

“Hoa.”

I tightly gripped the staff I had somehow managed not to lose while being carried around, and opened my mouth.

“Put me down now.”

“But the ground is dangerous right now, Noble one!”

“If your flames are near mine, they will transfer and be tainted. Didn't you say I must attack with my own pure flames?”

“Kkeueueueu…….”

– Aaaargh─! So annoying! Annoying to death! If you had obediently offered your neck, I would have at least let your soul face the judgment of Yama!

-Kwang! Kwaang!

The earth all around was overturned, and flames shot up like lava.

Seeing this, the terrified Hoa crossed her hands.

The several strands of flaming whips that had been under her control until now bent to block the flames and once again controlled the Fire Dog's movements, but because of that, I was released from her arms and fell to the ground.

“Ah!”

“Fire blood!”

Shaking my head firmly at the sight of Hoa extending a whip in fright, I scattered blood beneath my feet just before hitting the ground and chanted the spell.

A hemispherical barrier of fire, created from a mixture of blood and spiritual power, gently caught my body, so the Fire Dog's flames that shot up from below could not dare to harm my body.

Having succeeded in a stable landing, I instinctively fumbled at my chest to check if my heart had fallen out, while not hesitating to taunt the Fire Dog.

“You must not have a good head on your shoulders because you're a dog. Didn't you see earlier that your flames don't work on me?”

– There is nothing that cannot be burned by His flames. There's no way the likes of you could properly wield His flames!

Explosion, another explosion.

While I had to think about my remaining reserves even when using a single spell, the Fire Dog poured out flames as if its demonic power was infinite.

Indeed, its claim was not entirely wrong, as cracks were gradually forming in the barrier I had created.

Furthermore, creating Fire blood consumes blood, and maintaining it consumes spiritual power, so it was absurd to think I could wait for its strength to wane by repeatedly creating it.

Thus, I took a step toward the creature.

– Your courage alone is impressive. I'll chew you to death myself…… Aaargh, really!

“Says who!”

Just as the Fire Dog opened its maw and was about to kick off the ground.

Hoa's flaming whip flew in elusively, tying up the creature's legs and muzzle.

She too was breaking out in a cold sweat, as if maintaining Fire body was strenuous, but her movements were still nimble, and no matter how the Fire Dog tried to catch her, it couldn't.

– Fine, I'll kill the man first, just as you wish!

Finally giving up on catching Hoa, the Fire Dog gnashed its teeth and closed the distance to me.

Hoa's check had prevented it from charging, but even she couldn't completely stop the Fire Dog's movements.

Of course, she was only stopping me from being crushed by the Fire Dog's charge, so she had achieved her goal.

Anyone who saw her worrying about me yet absolutely following my decision would think Hoa was my Shikigami.

“Fire Dog, oh loyal Fire Dog. I will ask you one last time.”

Avoiding the flames shooting up from the ground, constantly brushing away the flames the creature emitted with my staff as I advanced, I opened my mouth.

“If I say that I truly do not know this ‘Him’ you speak of. If I say that I, too, am truly curious as to why these flames are in my hands, would you have any thought of listening to my words for once?”

– No. The sins you wear on your body tell me everything. You are a traitor and a liar. I have only to destroy your body and capture your soul to offer to Him.

“……Is that so. In the end, you are just like the humans.”

– What?

At my words, the Fire Dog's eyes flashed like a beast's and it raised even fiercer flames, but I was no longer afraid of it in the slightest.

The humans who looked at my hideous, crippled self and sent me disappointed glances as if they knew everything about me, who decided that all the sins of the world were my karma.

The monster who decided that I must die because I carry the sins I was born with, which no one ever explained to me.

Their appearances are different, but their insides are the same, so how could I fear it?

It is just frustrating, and hateful.

– I, the same as humans? You! A sinner dares to spout such words!

The area had already transformed into a landscape like a volcanic zone, as if it had changed according to the Fire Dog's mental image.

No matter that this was the Phantom World, it is not so turbid as to be changed by the demonic qi emitted by a single monster.

To color even a part of the world to one's will, one would need to have at least 3rd or 4th-grade demonic power.

Although I was being chased by the creature because of the flames I wielded, if it weren't for these flames, I wouldn't have even been allowed to breathe in the same space as this Fire Dog.

Even the family members who had pushed me beyond the Shin Blood Great Gate with the intent to kill me probably didn't imagine that I would face such a high-ranking monster on the very first day I performed the gatekeeper ritual!

However.

“Did you know? The heat of this place is also helpful to me.”

– The likes of you! His flames! There's no way you can wield them properly──!

The heat that exploded from the Fire Dog's entire body evaporated all of Hoa's flaming whips that had been hindering its movements.

Did it refrain from charging because it would invite Hoa to join the fight?

The Fire Dog strode toward me and raised its forepaw.

Blades of fire, emitting a gruesome orange light as if they had condensed the sun's heat, sprouted above its jaggedly protruding claws.

– I'll cut you into as many pieces as there are worldly desires, and burn you as I recite each and every one of your sins!

“Did you say my sins? If there is one, it is only this. Being born.”

I dispelled all the barriers I had created with the Fire blood.

The flames that had maintained their form until then turned into droplets like the blood they originated from and floated around me.

I slowly closed and opened my eyes as I watched the Fire Dog's massive forepaw strike down.

“The only reason I wish to be fire is to burn myself. Fire body.”

Immediately after the whisper.

All the flames in the air flocked to me, shining like a small sun.

As it erased all five streaks of the fire blades that had sprouted above the claws of the Fire Dog's descending paw, the Fire Dog screamed.

– Impossible─!

The enraged Fire Dog focused demonic power into its forepaw and brought it down as it was.

Once, twice, each time the spear and shield of high-purity flames clashed, one side was being unilaterally chipped away.

‘This will be difficult…….’

Just by using Fire body once, I could already feel my body starting to go.

Blood burst from all over my body, my bones twisted, and a series of ominous popping sounds echoed from the back of my head and along my spine.

And yet, it was not enough to reach the Fire Dog.

I can't convey my boiling rage to it.

In my extreme frustration, the moment I struck the ground hard with the staff I held in one hand, a slight change occurred.

Suddenly, several tree trunks shot up from the ground and blocked the Fire Dog's forepaw as it struck down at me.

– What is this? Ogre magic? Are you kidding me?

To think that the power of the ogre still remained in the staff, which was nothing more than an ogre's corpse.

Whether it was because the ogre's rank wasn't high or a problem with me who was wielding it, it burned away quickly, but.

It earned me enough time to regain my senses, as my thoughts were starting to distort.

‘Yes, I see.’

Thanks to that, I realized.

I was going to die soon anyway, so why was I still wasting spiritual power on protecting my body when claws aiming for my life were flying at me?

Wasn't it I who, just a moment ago, had resolved to die performing my duty as a gatekeeper until I died?

Now that I had realized, there was no more need for hesitation.

The spiritual power that I had been overworking all over my body to keep my bones from breaking, my back from bending further, my skin from melting, my brain from cooking, my stomach from being damaged, my heart to keep beating, my lungs to keep breathing, to walk on two feet, to move my arms, my liver to detoxify, my teeth from falling out.

“You can't do that──!”

“The only reason I wish to be fire is simple.”

– What?!

I changed it all into flames, and gathered it at my fingertips.

“To prove my life, Fire body!”

I instantly unleashed that, which had swollen like the sun, toward the Fire Dog's forepaw.

– You─!

“Keuhak!”

The spiritual power in my body temporarily reached a state of void and a shock ran through my entire body.

My body creaked and my brain heated up.

Finally unable to even properly distinguish right from wrong, I could not continue my thoughts, stiffened, and rolled onto the floor.

What entered my blurry, blood-tinted vision was.

The Fire Dog, unable to handle the flames I had shot, crying out in agony, and.

A nostalgic and resentful face──.