The Return of the Iron-blood Sword Hound

Chapter 417: Goodbye Nouvelle Vague (1)

...Kwakwang! Rumble!

The entire Nouvelle Vague prison shook violently.

Vikir and Aiyen raced down the spiral staircase on Vakira's back.

[keong! keong! keong!]

Vakira's sprint was faster than it had been in his prime, significantly reducing the time it took to climb the floors.

chwaaaag-

A huge tidal wave surged in front of them.

"Oh no, this must be a flooded corridor!"

"This is the shortcut. Break through!"

At Vikir's words, Aiyen nodded and loaded an arrow.

peo-peong!

The arrow flew in a straight line, tearing a gaping hole in the waves.

Vakira leaped over the ring of water like a circus act, kicking the ground beneath the waves where the arrow had cut through and leaping again.

... Thud!

Through the flooded corridor and landing on a half-destroyed bridge pier, Vakira continued to run.

Off to the side, the blue pillar of fire continued to rise, burning away at the Gate of Good and Evil.

"We're on the 5th floor now!"

"Yep. There's an gulper eel kennel on this floor."

"Do you think there are any eels left?"

"Last time I checked, there were quite a few of them. Even if they escaped first, they couldn't have used all of them."

Vikir was right.

There were still a few gulper eels in the holding tank, with debris and water raining down from the ceiling.

There was chaos all around, as many of the prisoners and guards had already escaped.

There was blood everywhere and bodies floating around.

It was easy to see that there had been a terrible fight for the gulper eel.

'It's a good thing I sent those who would escape first to the fifth floor.'`

Vikir had ordered that as many people as possible who were worth saving were to wait on the fifth floor before entering.

He'd even gone so far as to forge the orders, so there must have been quite a few people on the fifth floor.

They were already on the fifth floor at the time of the rampage, so they had a good chance of getting out safely.

"It's a miracle there are any eels left."

Aiyan picked up a fishing hook and rope and jumped into the fish tank himself, catching a large gulper eel.

Chua-ak.

She twisted the jumped eel's mouth open with a grimace and said.

"Husby. Are you ready for this?"

"I'm ready."

Vikir nodded.

But nevertheless, Aiyen opened her mouth once more.

"The land has changed. It's not the world as my husby knows it anymore."

"I know the general picture."

"...?"

Aiyen tilted her head.

The world was different before and after Vikir's imprisonment in Nouvelle Vague.

How could Vikir know that?

A newspaper, a story told to him by a new prisoner, or an informant he'd kept to himself?

Aiyen looked back at Vikir with a puzzled expression, but Vikir didn't really have an answer.

Instead, Vikir was thinking about the world before he had returned.

Memories of that day always haunt his nightmares.

How could he forget that devastating season when 98% of humanity was wiped out?

The sky suddenly torn apart and the flames that flowed from the cracks.

The countless drops of fire that fell like snakes and showers.

The torrential rain that lasted for 150 days, the Rain of Fear.

A terrible weather event that turned the world's forests into deserts and its lakes into bottomless pits.

Even after the dead have closed their eyes, the sounds of the dead wandering the parched wastelands, howling, and the unborn gasping for their dying breath, will haunt their dreams.

A time when nothing could be promised or assured.

A long rainy season that sentenced humanity to destruction.

'...It is about to begin.'

Vikir could already see that the gates of destruction were about to open.

The changes on the earth now are but fresh blood, mere signs and omens.

They are merely the demons warming up before the real game begins.

So Vikir has arranged all of this in advance.

Slowly, patiently, and thoroughly.

Now it was time to give the demons a good kicking.

"The volcano is about to erupt."

Poseidon has hatched, and it's time to begin its ascent to the heavens.

It was the beginning of the Great Nouvelle Vague Eruption.

"We must get out of here before then."

"But why did you explode the Nouvelle Vague?"

"Showers of fire. To counter the rainy season of fear."

"...?"

Aiyen scratched her head.

But Vikir had no answer for her this time.

He merely replayed in his mind over and over again the thought of the Gates of Destruction, a great rain of fire that would last for 150 days.

"Now that Poseidon has hatched, the climate will change dramatically. All that remains is to wait and see."

With those words, Vikir reeled in the gulper eel.

kwakwakwang! uleuleuleung! ...cheolsseog!

Everywhere, earthquakes rumbled and collapses fell.

The rising tide flooded the castle hour after hour.

The roar and crash of the waves was faintly interrupted by the shouts of the prisoners and guards upstairs.

Aiyen stood in front of the faint remnants of the flubber doors, dragging an gulper eel with her.

"Let's get out!"

"...."

Vikir took a step forward.

... Just then.

"Wait."

A voice stopped Vikir and Aiyen.

"...?"

"...!"

Aiyen wiggled one eyebrow.

Vikir's expression hardened slightly as well.

Captain Kirko Grimm. She was standing in the corner of the kennel.

Her uniform was torn to rags, revealing her scarred and bare body.

He noticed that her beloved sword, which she had always honed, was broken in half.

Red blood oozed from every part of her body, staining the waters around her red.

"...."

"...."

Vikir and Kirko stood facing each other.

It was the first time they had ever shown their bare faces.

There was a sharpness in Kirko's gaze.

She asked Vikir pointedly.

"Are you a prisoner?"

"...."

Vikir didn't answer.

Why she hasn't escaped yet is unknown.

But if she tries to escape, we'll have to take her down by force.

...However.

"If you ride any current, you'll die before you can escape. Go back out the door on the left and take current 3021."

Kirko showed an unexpected reaction.

There are thousands of currents that can carry an gulper eel from the fifth floor.

Only one of them is a circulation current that connects to the surface.

All the rest were trap currents that would keep them at the bottom of the sea for hundreds of years.

Vikir asked.

"Why are you telling me this?"

"...."

Kirko spoke after a long silence.

"I saw you kill Black Tongue."

"...!"

Kirko took off his guard's hat.

Then, in a dry, clear voice, Kirko asked.

"What happened to the real Garm?"

The question was cold and sharp, like a stab to the lungs.

Vikir answered in a flat tone.

"Dead."

"...when."

"Two years ago, during the riots in Sakkuth. Saving you when you were unconscious."

"...Where's the body?"

"Buried."

"...."

Kirko was still staring at Vikir, her eyes emotionless, her gaze unwavering.

Her lips curled again.

"Did he say any final words?"

For a moment, Vikir's mind flashes back to Garm's last words.

He had muttered these words before he died.

'I wanted to show that... girl... the outside world... and... her....'

That was Garm's last words.

Vikir complied.

"He wanted to show you the outside world."

A moment.

"...!"

Kirko's pupils, which had not even moved until now, shook violently.

Vikir remembered Garm's long-burned diary.

At the end of her diary, Garm wrote that he always wanted to get out of here with Kirko.

Even though Garm was now forever unable to leave Nouvelle Vague.

And then.

tag-

The sound of Kirko's footsteps broke Vikir's reverie.

She turned around.

And walking forward.

It was not in the direction of the escape route.

kwakwang- uleuleung...

Dead land with huge piles of stones and waterfalls.

"Aren't we getting out?"

Vikir asked, and Kirko answered without looking back.

"I'm not leaving. This is where I was born and raised."

She paused after she finished speaking.

Then, after a long silence, she turned her head slightly to the side and said in a whisper.

"...Goodbye."

It was such a small sound that it was barely audible, drowned out by the roar of the tidal wave crashing next to her.

Unable to waste any more time, Vikir forced himself into the eel's mouth.

Aiyen cuts the rope, and the gulper eel is carried out of the castle by the current.

The gulper eel is quickly moving away from the ocean current.

With that, Vikir and Aiyen left Nouvelle Vague and headed for the surface.

"...."

The castle is crumbling and falling apart. Seawater rushing in from everywhere.

Kirko was the only one left.

She could see a man's face in her mind.

A man from the surface.

A man who looked and acted friendly.

But no matter how she looked at him, he was not fit to be a guard.

...and who seemed to think that one day he might return to the ground from which he came.

So she didn't want to stick around.

Such a weak guy.

But what is this?

The guy who seemed like he was going to return to the ground at any time ended up not being able to do so.

Tug-

She took it off and threw the hat in her hand onto the flooded floor.

And finally, she lowered her stinging gaze and spoke.

".....Stupid Garm. You're such an idiot."

That was the end of it.

Soon, a huge amount of sea water rushed in and completely filled the castle.

kwakwakwakwang! kkuleuleuleuleug...

And just like that, Nouvelle Vague was buried beneath the pitch black water.

Forever.