Aura Energy cultivation.
The power humanity devised to hold back the hordes of monsters that surged forth after the first Great Beast appeared four hundred years ago.
Simply accumulate Aura Energy within your body, and you gain superhuman strength.
But doesn't this explanation feel a bit too convenient for humans?
To think you could wield inhuman power without any cost, just by accumulating it.
And right at the perfect moment when humanity was teetering on the brink of extinction, they came up with it.
Talk about good luck.
In truth, there was a hidden story behind Aura Energy cultivation.
One tied to the very essence of that energy.
The truth about Aura Energy, revealed only in the mid-game, was this.
Aura Energy is the exact same energy as the demonic power harbored within monsters and Great Beasts.
They had simply degraded it to the extreme, making it something humans could contain in their bodies.
But there can't be no price for harboring the same energy as monsters inside you.
Those who cultivate Aura Energy are inevitably doomed to become monsters themselves.
Aura Energy—no, demonic power—begins reshaping the body into that of a monster from the very moment it flows through it.
Since it's degraded, the speed varies, but the end result is either death or transformation into a monster.
The collapse of the Northern Frontline stemmed from this fundamental nature of Aura Energy cultivation.
Which brings up one question.
What happens to those who master Aura Energy cultivation to its absolute limit and ultimately awaken Aura?
The answer lies in the Northern Frontline collapse that unfolds in the mid-to-late game.
I oiled my sword and quietly glared at Irena Krauze.
The Empire's Spear, Irena Krauze, clashes with the first Great Beast.
After a brutal battle, she becomes another Great Beast herself and annihilates the Northern Frontline.
That was the first button sewn onto humanity's downfall.
'I have to kill that woman first.'
Even if killing her delays the Northern Frontline's destruction, the end result might still be the same.
Aura Energy cultivation had spread across the continent, and most of those who practiced it were the ones bearing the world's martial might.
If they all turned into monsters, we'd face extinction regardless of whether it came from the north.
That was one of the reasons this game was such a pain.
'To fend off the Southern monster outbreak and the Red Star in the central region, I need to buy time no matter what.'
As I mulled this over while oiling my blade, Cream approached and spoke up.
The Special Forces unit kept rotating members, but Cream and I were still hanging on.
"Ara ara, now you're targeting the Captain instead of your broken fiancée?"
"Don't talk shit. What's this about a fiancée I don't even remember?"
Cream smirked snidely.
"You're denying it awfully hard, but your eyes were practically sparkling while staring at the Captain."
"This is the glint of fighting spirit. A declaration of my intent to one day surpass the Knight Captain."
"Really? You sure about that~?"
"Dead serious."
Cream chuckled and lifted her gaze.
Counting the stars in the darkened night sky, she opened her mouth.
"Bepart's subjugation battle is tomorrow already."
Bepart was the name of the Great Beast that had ravaged the frontlines for decades.
Cream, still gazing at the sky, tilted her head to look at me.
"You're the only original member left now. Let's survive this."
"Obviously."
"Kuk, too predictable? You're that lunatic fixated on becoming a war hero to get revenge on your fiancée."
"Where the hell did you hear that crap?"
"No idea. It's just rumors I've picked up."
"Care to explain why those rumors are total bullshit?"
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
The Great Beast Bepart didn't take the form of a beast or monster.
It resembled a knight clad in full plate armor.
That was the difference between monsters and Great Beasts.
Monsters mimicked beasts, but certain specimens took on human forms entirely.
It was already confirmed that they wielded human swordsmanship.
The sheer contradiction of a monster wielding human power proved its strength.
Subjugating a single Great Beast required Irena, her knight orders, and countless meat shields.
The moment Great Beasts judged they might die, they attempted to flee.
To fell one, you had to cling to its legs, and the knight orders had to finish off the lured target.
Watching Bepart approach from afar, Cream bellowed.
"You lot ready?!"
The Special Forces' mission was to pin Bepart's feet until the knight orders arrived.
Regular soldiers couldn't even buy time against a Great Beast.
Feeding them into the grinder as meat shields would leave us short on troops to hold the Northern Frontline afterward.
Hence, they chose the Special Forces—our middling strength offered the best shot at stalling.
Superior to grunts, but inferior to knights. The tragedy of being awkwardly competent.
It was a suicide squad through and through, but I knew I couldn't surpass Irena without clearing this hurdle.
The only thing I could do was cross the line of death.
Cross it again and again, and if I could just survive in this world—
""Ready!!""
Cream flashed a grin.
"Let's go."
Led by Cream, the Special Forces charged at Bepart.
Over countless years, Bepart had slaughtered innumerable soldiers and knights. It was strong.
Ten minutes into the clash, only Cream, me, and my junior Yullen remained.
Even though we were outmatched from the start, we threw our lives into holding its feet.
Yullen and I desperately parried the Great Beast's sword swings,
while Cream exploited the brief openings to thrust her keen blade.
Just three of us holding our own in exchanges with Bepart.
But it didn't last.
The moment Yullen exhausted all his Aura Energy.
Bepart sensed the weakening blocks and lunged straight for him.
Yullen died in one strike, and the momentum carried through to pierce Cream's abdomen.
"――――!"
Even impaled, Cream stabbed into Bepart's gap.
As Bepart roared, I rushed in to support Cream's body.
Black veins bulged grotesquely around the wound in her gut.
Demonic power was eating away at her like poison.
"You okay?!"
"I'm fine, so... do something about that bastard. Countless comrades died because of him..."
Bepart was already regenerating the stabbed area.
At this rate, we'd fail the mission and both die.
Gritting my teeth, I desperately swung at Bepart.
"Fuck, youuuu!!"
My overtaxed body creaked in protest.
I scraped together the scraps of Aura Energy left and circulated it through my entire body.
Yet the gap in strength and speed persisted; my arms, clashing with its sword, began to shatter.
Fingers snapped, wrist ligaments tore.
Still, I didn't stop, swinging in a trance.
Even as my body burned to its limits, my mind grew ever sharper.
My eyes flashed open, and in an instant, every sensation in my body flipped.
The flow of Aura Energy severed, replaced by an unfamiliar resonance.
Heart, spine, lungs, joints, muscles, nerves.
Everything was vibrating.
—Wave.
Not a circulating power, but one that spread outward.
The moment I recognized it, waves appeared in my vision.
As if entranced, I swung my sword along those waves.
The blade hummed strangely, emitting a clear ring.
Ping!
For the first time, Bepart's heavy swordstrike bounced away.
Clutching the hilt with my broken thumb and middle finger, I swung following the waves.
That way, I held out alone for four more minutes.
My left arm snapped, my right wrist mangled, strength fled my hand.
The shattered sword clattered to the ground in fragments.
My ruptured leg muscles locked up.
As I crumpled, Bepart's furious slash bore down on my neck.
"You held well, Ian."
"Sorry we're late."
Two knights dropped in front of me, blocking Bepart's strike.
And right behind it, a blinding light erupted.
An ice spear pierced through the sacred armor.
The Empire's Spear, Irena Krauze, unleashed frost in all directions.
The knight order had arrived.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
The Bepart subjugation ended successfully.
I was admitted to the field hospital at the northern outpost base.
With both arms and legs wrapped head to toe in bandages, Irena came to visit my bedside.
"Thank you, Ian. We couldn't have subjugated Bepart without you."
Even her genuine praise couldn't make me happy.
The entire Special Forces unit had died just to hold Bepart's feet.
Even knowing the continent would eventually fall, that they'd become monsters or die as humans, I couldn't easily accept the deaths of those I'd grown fond of.
This world was no longer just a game to me—it had become reality.
"...No big deal."
"And I'm sorry. ...Because I was late, your comrades died."
"No, thanks to you, we avenged Cream and the others."
Irena's face was marred by deep guilt.
She could have brushed off their deaths, yet Irena carried them in her heart.
From that, I could glimpse her kind nature.
To think someone like her would later become a Great Beast, playing her part in the world's end.
It left a bitter taste in my mouth.
"...Thank you for saying that."
Irena chatted a bit more before leaving my bedside.
Friendly knights from the order dropped by afterward.
Then the Lady of Nordenhime showed up out of nowhere.
"Is my benefactor alright? I've brought medicinal herbs good for recovery and vitality!"
"Long time no see. I hope you've been well?"
"Benefactor's speech has changed! I like it even more now—it's so mature!"
In my mummified state of bandages, I received her lavish care.
I chewed the herbs and waited for my body to recover.
I had to grow stronger.
Far stronger than now.
I gazed at the Wave I'd awakened during the Bepart subjugation.
I didn't fully understand what it was, but if I could master how to wield it...
Maybe I could avert this world's apocalyptic end dictated by Aura Energy cultivation.
"Now, benefactor, open wide."
I opened my mouth, and the lady fed me some porridge.
Mm, tasty.