Chapter 359 – To Return (3)

“Ahhhhh!”

On a quiet afternoon something flew across the blue sky.
The villagers all looked up.

The scream which stretched out like a gum aroused fear in the people’s heart, but their shock was deeper.

“The clown must have been quite shocked.
Don’t you think?”

“Uh? Ah, yes.”

“Good.
This is fun.
I was planning to go to a place with few people, so it would be fine to make a mess.”

Phat!

Saying that, Karen Winker, his former self, slammed his foot into the ground.
He was normally fast, but even faster now.

Soaring like a star, he caught up with the clown.

“It will hurt.”

Kwaangh!

“Ackkkkk!”

The body of the clown that had been hit on the side with the sword, was bent into a right angle.
The devil, which broke down like a cut tree, flew faster with a screeching scream.

This was a funny occurrence.
Come to think of it, he had never felt afraid of the clown.

‘Because you are the one who showed me the unsightly side first.’

It was the moment when he looked down from the face of a great evil.
It wasn’t like the clown was an insignificant being.

Rather it was the opposite.

He was a monster who had been harassing the continent for a much longer time than the Demon Dragon King, and even if Airn trained and became stronger, he wasn’t confident that he could win over him.

And maybe it was true.
But, Karen Winker was pushing this devil to the corner, that too with minimal movements.

‘I didn’t expect him to be this strong…’

He knew.
At the end of his life the man had managed to land a devastating blow on the clown.

However, it was a blow that was hope and something due to the carelessness of the opponent.

He thought till there.
to be honest, it seems like Airn focused more on the story of the man than the status of the man in his dreams.

As he was busy thinking about it, Karen Winker who blew up, came down and said.

“You seem to have made up your mind.”

“Uh?”

“Your broken heart seems to have mended.
So will you not follow me?”

“Ah…”

Right.
As he heard the words of the man, Airn remembered what he had forgotten.

Why did he come here?

Why did he want to succeed in his quest, defeat the devils and get help?

So that he could get stronger.

To put it simply, it was to correct the broken cycle of the elements that was within him.

Compared to the final fight in the Warrior’s Festival, the synergy that he had then had now collapsed and everything in his world was creaking out.

‘… above all else, I need to regrow the tree.’

That was his main priority.

During his time at Godara, Airn’s convictions had been shattered.
He could no longer look at the world in a beautiful manner.
He couldn’t grow trees that would help the continent.

So what could he do?

How could he make the tree in his heart stand tall and enter the circle of coexistence?

Would it be possible with Karen Winker’s advice?

He knew nothing about the five elements in his previous life, so would it be possible?

Suspicion arose within him but it soon disappeared.

It didn’t matter how and which way the aura was operated.

The important thing was the heart.
Recalling the life of Karen Winker, Airn nodded.

He himself had gone through so many ordeals.

He had been working much harder than Airn.
And the meaning he finally reached wasn’t different from the ideal he hoped for.

Airn, who thought all that, looked at his past self.
Unlike before, the confusion he had died down a lot.

Karen Winker, who noticed it, smiled and said something unexpected.

“You will not be able to get what you want in a short time.”

“Uh?”

“You want to restore your faith in the world.
And it isn’t just that, you want to remove the distrust that is deep within you and rekindle your will to protect the entire continent.
It suits your character, but… you need time.
It isn’t just about this sphere you have made from sorcery, but it indicates that you need to get more experience and wisdom, and years of experiences like you get as you go through life.”

“…”

“Understanding with your head and accepting with your heart.
You don’t know the difference between those two.”

Airn nodded.

The man was right.
He already knew that the world wasn’t beautiful or pure.
He learned that while living in Durkali.

In the past, there have been many stories of human and orcs who have committed terrible things which were unimaginably worse than the acts of the devils.

‘But at that time, my heart didn’t falter.
The real ups and downs came after experiencing the darkness of the world.’

Right.

Knowing it and experiencing it are two different things.
Nevertheless, holding out your heart bare and wielding the sword for the world again as if your heart was never hurt is a completely different story.

Airn, who was chasing after the clown, dropped his shoulders.

Karen Winker was right.

That was his ideal, but it seemed like it would take much longer to reach it.

“He won’t die like that.”

To him…

To the dismayed young hero, Karen Winker offered xconsolation.

Airn was startled.
He didn’t know he was chasing after the man, but his form changed all of a sudden.
From a middle-aged man to an elderly man and then finally to an old man.

But he didn’t look weak.
Rather, it was the opposite.

Karen Winker, who returned to the strongest days of his life when he injured the clown, continued speaking.

“The tree in the heart cannot be planted just by heroes who have great intentions.
Even if it’s not for the entire continent, there has to be a will inside you… a will to protect something in the world which is precious to you.”

“…”

“You are stuck now.
You are obsessed with getting things quickly and easily and because they are things you cannot achieve it in a short period, it makes you feel stuck.
It is making you feel frustrated, suffocation… um.
I wouldn’t be too different from you either.
Before thinking about the tree in you, we need to prepare another basic one.
We might need another helper.”

“Prepare? Helper? Who…”

Airn frowned.

He was already thinking about the words his previous life had told him.

There were things he knew and things he didn’t understand.
It was difficult to concentrate properly, and he tried to move on only after he organized his thoughts.

Of course, during that time, his feet moved, and he looked around.
The landscape around him had changed.
It was vast and dark, a forest which hadn’t been touched by human hands was in front of him.

It was creepy

He felt chills.

It wasn’t like a lot of time had passed.
The forest was already giving out thick magi like they were in the jaws of a monster.

Even more sinister than that, the clown who had been beaten over and over, stopped screaming.

“Phew.”

The clown exhaled.

The disgusting stench because of that action spread around.
But the reason Airn frowned wasn’t because of the smell.

The figure of the clown who seemed to have found some stability, the last glance of the devil he saw as it entered the forest made him uneasy.

The bushes were swaying.

Woong

The land was shaking.

Silence fell.
The moment Airn gulped and raised the aura…

Kwaaaaa!

From the deepest part of the forest, a giant appeared.

“dlwkfrmswkfrmsTlqdjajrdjehahwkfkfroajrdlfhwnjehahwkfkfTmfprlrkxdmssutjremfdl”

“…!”

Airn summoned his great sword.
And with all his might, he manifested his aura sword.
And it reminded him of something he forgot.

‘I’ve never checked the power of the clown devil before!’

Right.

The clown he met in real life was already seriously injured.
The clown he encountered in this life had never fully used its powers either.

Because he wasn’t in his own den.
The strength of devils vary depending on where they fight.

And now the place where the clown stood…

‘It is dark.
Comparable to Godara!’

“wnrduqjflsek! wnrduqjflsekwnrduqjflsekwnrduqjflsek!”

Bang!

Kwang!

Kwang!

The clown, who seemed like a huge mountain, walked.

The shock wave then spread out like circles.
Hundreds and thousands of trees were broken and the demons in the dark forest couldn’t bear it, and some moved away.

“ehaghkdci-!”

“dlrpantmsdlfdldi!”

“rkaekdgkftndjqtsmsrhxhd!”

“This!”

Airn watched as he stood there, shocked.

The demons looked like helpless pigeons.
Each of them was strong enough to exceed an average Master.

His head felt lost as he saw all the chaos in the woods.
Even though his heart was broken, he was still a hero.

However, his worries were in vain.

The old man, Karen Winker, never lost his composure despite all this.

He raised his sword.

Pulled his aura out.

And drew it horizontaly.

Pupupupupuk!

“…!”

“…!”

And a miracle happened.

There was no other way to explained what happened next.

As Karen Winker showed his swordsmanship, it wiped out eleven powerful demons in one hit regardless of the distance, and it was beyond comparison to Airn.

It was the same with the clown.

It did get hit a lot in unexpected situations, but he thought he could win as long as he came here.

He wanted to trample on the humans cruelly in here, and he wanted to drink their blood.

But he couldn’t.

He felt it.
He couldn’t win.

But to back down like this, his pride as a great evil couldn’t accept it…

Pung

Before he could even think.

Karen Winker kicked the ground.
It was faster than before.
The clown was startled to see the old man jump right in front of him and desperately tried to crush the man with its hands.

It was an attack in the midst of panic.

Tung!

Karen Winker didn’t seem to care.
With his two hands raised high into the sky, he faced the clown with a completely defenseless upper body.

The sword of the old man looked large.

He fearlessly went for clown’s head.

Kwang!

Kwang! Kwang!

The attack continued.

Ten times, twenty times, a hundred times.
There was no sign of it coming to an end.
The body of the gigantic clown which couldn’t be smashed, sunk horribly into the ground.

The old man landed on the ground and kept swinging his sword.

Kwang!

Kwang!

Kwang!

Kwang!

Kwang!

The form of the man disappeared.

He didn’t soar into the sky, but came back to the ground.

Karen Winker didn’t stop despite the ground beneath his feet collapsing into a pit.
The ground under his feet was unable to withstand the shock of his continuous attacks.

Airn looked at him.

The ruthless attacks continued for over 30 minutes.

Karen Winker who seemed to have descended from his attacking form, said while holding the clown by the collar.

“I am sorry.
Because I don’t feel bad for you.”

“…”

“Apart from that, there is one thing I want to ask… will you listen?”

“Uh, uh…”

Under the shattered mask, the clown, with its dark and ugly face, managed to finish its sentence.

“Anything… I will…”

That was the moment another helper was created for Airn Pareira.