The Mad Swordsman of the Shadow World
Chapter 56
Thud.
The enormous wolf collapsed to the ground after taking a single blow from Theron.
That made seven.
Theron glanced at the guide.
"We just need to go a little farther in this direction."
The guide picked his way forward and quickened his pace.
Theron flicked the blood from his sword and followed him.
These creatures definitely aren't behaving normally.
Black-Mane Wolves generally avoided humans.
They were also fairly intelligent. If a fight turned against them, they knew when to retreat.
But these wolves had attacked relentlessly, as though they had forgotten how to withdraw. They had kept fighting until their last breaths.
Theron glanced at the dead wolf.
"Wolves don't normally come down to this elevation," the guide said as he walked ahead.
"There's no food, so they've been driven down here. And whatever forced them out of their territory is still farther up the mountain."
"..."
"So the deeper we go, the better it is to keep your mouth shut. There are plenty of creatures up there with sensitive hearing."
It was hardly a friendly explanation, but the guide told him precisely what he needed to know.
Theron simply nodded.
They continued walking.
After some time, the dense coniferous forest came to an abrupt end, revealing a gray cliff.
Below the cliff, which had been worn down by wind and rain over countless years, fallen boulders lay scattered in a disorderly heap.
The guide stopped.
"This is it."
"Are you certain?"
"If the coordinates you gave me are correct, this is the place. This is the only spot in the area where those three ridgelines overlap when viewed from the same position."
Theron took the map from his clothes.
He unfolded it along its creases and compared the outlines of the ridges.
The two numbers hidden among the meaningless stories in the handwritten manual.
The coordinates pointed to the area directly beneath this cliff.
It's somewhere around here.
Theron folded the map and put it away before heading toward the cliff.
The guide crossed his arms and sat on a nearby rock.
"You can search for whatever you're looking for yourself. I'm going to get some rest."
Theron nodded and turned his attention elsewhere.
"..."
At first glance, the place looked like nothing more than the remains of a collapsed cliff.
Theron began by walking slowly along its base, examining each boulder.
Whenever he found a gap, he reached inside. Whenever he saw a shadowed space, he crouched to look farther in.
But all he found were dried animal droppings and decaying leaves.
If it were somewhere anyone could find just by looking, someone would have discovered it long ago.
The person who had written the manual had been meticulous enough to conceal the coordinates within unrelated stories.
There was no reason to believe he would have hidden the entrance carelessly.
Theron stopped and closed his eyes.
Once he stopped relying on his sight, his other senses gradually sharpened.
And then he felt something faint brush against his cheek.
Wind.
A very slight current of air was escaping through a gap between the rocks.
That meant there was an empty space inside the cliff.
Theron slowly followed the airflow.
The direction in which the moss had grown.
The marks left behind by flowing rainwater.
And then...
Is that it?
One particular boulder stood unusually straight compared to the others.
Its edges were far too sharply defined for a rock that had supposedly fallen naturally.
Theron moved around behind it.
A narrow opening appeared between the boulder and the cliff.
And beneath that opening was a small tunnel.
Its entrance was just wide enough for an adult to crawl through, and its interior was swallowed by darkness.
Theron ran his fingertips along the edge of the entrance.
There are marks from tools.
This was not a naturally formed tunnel.
Someone had deliberately dug it and hidden it.
Theron raised his head and looked toward the guide.
"Found it?" the guide asked.
Theron nodded.
"Then go ahead. You should come back before sunset."
"It won't take long."
Theron took a small lamp from his supplies and lit it.
Then, without hesitation, he pushed himself into the tunnel.
The entrance was narrow.
His shoulders brushed against both walls, forcing him to lower his body and practically crawl forward.
After about ten steps, however, the tunnel gradually widened.
Soon, there was enough space for him to straighten his back and walk normally.
The ground sloped gently downward.
Step. Step.
His footsteps echoed quietly against the walls.
Before long...
Whooooosh.
A gust of air from somewhere ahead made the lamp's flame flicker.
Theron stopped.
Does this tunnel connect to another opening?
If air was flowing through it, there had to be another passage leading outside.
He raised the lamp a little higher and continued walking.
Then, as he rounded a corner...
"...Huh."
A quiet exclamation escaped his lips.
An enormous cavern stretched out before him.
Its ceiling was so high that the light from his lamp could not reach it.
A deep chasm crossed the ground ahead, its black depths opening like an enormous mouth.
And above that chasm...
Stone pillars, each barely wide enough to support a single foot, rose at irregular intervals and extended toward the opposite side.
This was clearly not a natural formation.
Theron stood at the edge and looked down.
Whoooooosh.
Wind surged upward from the depths.
He could not see the bottom.
Anyone who fell would probably never have their body recovered.
And the wind was not constant.
Whoooo...
It weakened for a moment.
Then...
WHOOOOOOOSH!
It suddenly erupted with tremendous force.
If someone were standing on one of those narrow pillars when such a gust struck, merely maintaining their balance would be difficult.
Theron looked toward the cavern wall.
Footprint-shaped markings had been carved into it at regular intervals.
Left foot.
Right foot.
Steps that shifted half a beat out of sequence.
As Theron followed their arrangement with his eyes, his eyebrows twitched.
This is...
The first steps of Wandering Wind.
The exact path of the footwork described in the first half of the handwritten manual had been engraved on the wall.
A faint smile appeared on Theron's lips.
What an interesting man.
Only someone who knew this footwork was meant to cross.
Even after death, the creator was testing whether a visitor was worthy of inheriting his legacy.
Theron secured the lamp firmly to his waist.
Then he stood before the chasm, closed his eyes for a moment, and carefully observed the wind's rhythm.
"Hoooo..."
A soft breath escaped his lips.
One.
Two.
Three.
WHOOOOOOOSH!
Four beats.
There were three beats when the wind weakened, followed by one when it surged.
He had to cross during the three quiet beats and withstand the fourth.
No.
Withstanding it was not the answer.
Was that not what the markings on the wall were telling him?
Do not fight the wind.
Let it carry you.
Theron opened his eyes.
Rustle.
The tip of his foot touched the first stone pillar.
At that instant...
Crack!
A fracture spread across the top of the pillar, and fragments of stone broke away.
So I'm not supposed to put my weight on it.
The pillar would collapse if he stayed on it.
In that case, he simply needed to keep moving.
Theron's body flowed forward.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Each time his foot lightly brushed a pillar and moved on, the sound of breaking stone followed behind him.
Crack! Crash!
But the sound always came half a beat too late.
Only the places he had already left behind collapsed.
Three. Four.
And then...
WHOOOOOOOSH!
Wind suddenly erupted from the darkness beneath his feet.
The gust came half a breath earlier than expected.
As his body was pushed sideways, Theron did not force himself to resist.
Instead, he stepped in the direction of the wind.
Tap!
His foot landed on a pillar positioned diagonally from the original route.
The wind pushing against him became the very force that propelled his next step.
So that's how it works.
A passage he had only half understood when reading the manual finally made sense now that he was experiencing it firsthand.
The name Wandering Wind was not simply meant to sound impressive.
Five.
The problem was the sixth step.
The distance to the next pillar was noticeably greater.
His current stride would not reach it.
And if he attempted an ordinary jump, the pillar would not withstand the force of his landing.
In that fleeting instant, the markings on the cavern wall flashed through Theron's mind.
Steps that shifted half a beat out of sequence.
So that's what they meant.
The moment his foot touched the fifth pillar, Theron bent his knee instead of jumping.
Then he used the pillar as it began to collapse, taking advantage of the direction of the breaking force to propel himself forward.
Whoosh.
His body glided like a fallen leaf carried by the wind.
Thud!
Rather than landing on the sixth pillar, his feet touched the ground on the opposite side of the chasm.
"...Hoo."
Only then did Theron exhale and look back.
More than half the stone pillars above the chasm had already crumbled and disappeared into the darkness.
Getting back might be a problem.
Well, he could worry about that later.
Theron turned around.
A low stone doorway stood in the wall on the opposite side.
Rather than an actual door, it resembled a hole just large enough for one person to pass through.
Beyond it was a narrow passage leading to a small stone chamber.
And when Theron entered...
His footsteps stopped.
At the far end of the chamber, a skeleton sat with its back against the wall.
Its clothes had decayed over the years, leaving little more than their original shape. Its flesh had long since returned to the earth.
But its seated posture remained perfectly composed.
Both legs were neatly arranged, and a sword rested across its knees.
It looked almost as though the person had merely closed his eyes for a short nap.
Theron slowly approached and knelt on one knee before the remains.
A longsword with a black blade lay across the skeleton's knees.
It was a plain, rugged weapon without a single decoration.
Strangely, however, not a trace of rust had formed on its blade, despite the decades that must have passed.
Even under the light of the lamp, its black surface did not shine.
Instead, the blade seemed to absorb the light falling upon it.
Is it black iron?
Theron's gaze moved toward the stone wall beside the skeleton's head.
Faint writing remained there, apparently carved into the stone with the tip of a blade.
[I've walked as far as my steps could carry me. The rest of the road belongs to whoever has made it this far.]
"..."
It was a remarkably short final message.
But those two brief lines gave Theron a vague sense of what kind of person this man had been.
Then his eyes moved toward the skeleton's chest.
A bundle wrapped in several layers of oil-treated leather rested in its arms.
Theron carefully picked it up.
When he loosened the leather cord, an old but perfectly preserved book appeared.
Words were written on its cover.
The Steps of a Wanderer.
It was the same title as the book Theron had taken from the martial arts library on Hell Island.
But this book was different.
It appeared to be at least twice as thick as the one he already possessed.
Suppressing the trembling in his fingertips, Theron turned the pages.
The first half contained information he already knew.
The basic steps of Wandering Wind.
Breathing and stride length.
But beyond those sections...
The pages that had been torn out of his original copy continued without interruption.
"...This is it."
The complete version.
Even in its incomplete form, this footwork had ranked among the three finest movement techniques on the entire continent.
And now, the true form of Wandering Wind was in his hands.
Still standing, Theron continued turning the pages.
One page.
Then another.
Simply following the words with his eyes made something deep inside his body begin to stir.
If the first half taught him how to conceal his steps, the second half taught him how to erase them.
Step upon the ground without leaving a trace.
Change direction without making any preparatory movement.
Eventually, even the boundary between one step and the next would disappear.
To anyone watching, it would seem as though nothing but a passing breeze had moved through the space.
If I master this completely...
He could cross those stone pillars with his eyes closed.
No.
It went far beyond that.
If Theron had mastered this footwork at the height of his strength in his previous life, he could have escaped the encirclement on that final night without much difficulty.
Theron closed the book.
His heart was beating steadily.
Of course, his current body could not handle the techniques in the second half.
That much was obvious simply from reading them.
If he tried to imitate those steps with his current muscles and bones, his ankles would give out before anything else.
But that was not a problem.
The path was already in his hands.
All that remained was to build a body capable of walking it.
Theron wrapped the book in leather again and placed it deep inside his clothes.
Then he reached for the black iron sword resting across the skeleton's knees.
Rustle.
As he lifted it, its considerable weight traveled through his wrist.
It was somewhat too heavy for his current body.
But the moment his fingers closed around the handle, it settled into his grip with a strangely natural feeling.
There was no comparison between this weapon and the cheap longsword he had taken from the mercenary.
Theron lowered the blade and looked at the skeleton.
"I'll put it to good use."
He bowed deeply before the remains.
He did not know who this man had been.
Nor did he know why the man had entered such a remote mountain cave and ended his life here, sitting alone.
But at least one thing was certain.
The man had wanted his legacy to continue.
Otherwise, he would never have held that book so tightly until the moment of his death.
Time to go.
Theron turned and left the chamber.
Half the stone pillars above the chasm had collapsed, but he remembered the positions of those that remained.
Crossing back would not be impossible.
Tap. Tap.
His footsteps brushed across the darkness, noticeably lighter than before.
Perhaps it was because of the book inside his clothes.
Although he was performing the same steps, the sensation reaching his feet was subtly different.
Eventually, he saw the faint light entering through the tunnel's distant entrance.
Theron began walking toward it.
At that very moment...
"Aaaaaaaagh!"
A scream erupted from outside the tunnel.
Theron stopped.
The guide?
The piercing scream had unmistakably come from a human.
And immediately afterward...
RUMMMMMBLE.
The entire tunnel vibrated.
Dust and loose dirt fell from the ceiling.
Something...
Something enormous was moving outside.
Theron's hand closed around the handle of the black iron sword.
And in the next instant, his body shot toward the light.
