After the Rain (14)



The aura on Tarkan’s sword grew stronger.

His body shot forward like an arrow.

Although it was hidden by a sensory-disruption shield, the movement of the wounded Great Beast was incredibly obvious to Tarkan.

《Your left.》

《Look back!》

《No! Bend down.》

The voice ringing in his ear was just a fragment of old memories.

Memories that were reproduced due to similar circumstances.

However, Tarkan was gripped with the feeling that she was with him, just like back then.

The sweltering heat made steam rise off his body, and beads of sweat rolled down his face.

His golden eyes were filled with a predatory gaze.

The beast’s teeth grazed his shoulders and its claws pierced his thighs.

However, Tarkan’s movements never wavered.

《That’s good enough. Go in.》

Tarkan didn’t hesitate to get hurt and closed the gap between him and the great beast.

It was possible because its forepaws were in shreds and the speed of the Great Demonic Beast had been significantly reduced.

The golden aura rising from his sword shone brilliantly. The aura was so dense that the blade itself looked like gold.

And that golden sword accurately pierced through the great beast’s neck.

The Great Demon King struggled, but that was its limit.

With a gurgle and bloody foaming cry, strength eventually drained from the demonic beast’s body.

Tarkan watched, and slowly pulled his sword from the beast’s neck.

He won.

He held his chest, which was pounding from the thrill of battle, and looked back.

Just like he did after he defeated Murzika, the Great Demonic Beast, when he was young.

However, his mouth slowly hardened as he took in the empty space, filled with the traces of battle.

The pounding fervor and heat running through his chest began to cool down.

It was the same back then too.

When the girl said to close the gap, Tarkan complied.

Right then.

Something flew and a wall arose in front of him.

No, its height was too low to be called a wall; it only came up to his stomach.

‘A barricade?’

Tarkan swiftly made the decision to stop his sword and ducked. In a moment too brief to understand what was happening...

《This way!》

He heard such a hallucination.

And a voice that was even clearer than that cut through the air right after.

“This way!”

Tarkan looked back.

The dazzling silver hair fluttering in the wind, the white arms beckoning towards him, the purple eyes staring straight ahead at the great demonic beast, not looking away for an instant.

Everything seemed so slow, like time had suddenly slowed down.

Seeing someone that he never thought would be here, Tarkan wondered if he was still buried in his memories.

“Tarkan!”

His wife’s voice calling for him reached him more clearly than ever.

The vivid sense of reality made Tarkan’s body move before his head.

The scene somewhere in his mind overlapped with the present.

The figure of a child hiding behind a rock in the Demonic Beast Plain and beckoning to him, somewhere in the distant past.

The child’s blonde hair was fluttering in the air like Aristine’s silver hair right now.

Aristine, who had been staring at the great beast, moved her eyes to Tarkan.

Those purple eyes like the dawning sky were filled with Tarkan alone.

Just like the spring-green eyes of that girl.

It was a completely different color.

But it was the same.

The same clear, firm, and unwavering eyes.

The moment he looked into Aristine’s eyes, Tarkan realized.

It was you.

From the beginning, it was always you.

“I found you.”

He pulled his love right into his arms.

Like he would never lose her again.