A Vow On The Brink Of Death

The sheer amount of information flooding my mind had already exceeded what I could comprehend.

As I knelt there in a daze, unable to understand anything, Alto-san spoke to me.

“What’s with that stupid look on your face? Haven’t you figured it out yet? We’ve been deceiving you all along.”

“Deceiving… me?”

“That’s right. Did you think being left outside the barrier was some kind of malfunction? Too bad. This item was designed so that it wouldn’t activate unless the person using it remained outside the barrier.”

After hearing that explanation, my mind understood what had happened before my heart could accept it.

The teleportation crystal had a drawback, and Alto-san had known about it from the beginning.

And yet, he had deliberately kept that information from me.

In other words—this betrayal wasn’t something he’d suddenly come up with on the spot.

It had been planned long beforehand.

“Since when…?”

“Huh?”

“Since when have you been deceiving me?”

“Curious, are you? Fine, we’ve still got a little time before the teleportation finishes, so I’ll tell you. Besides, I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t been looking forward to this moment.”

After that introduction, Alto-san spoke.

His words were so utterly unexpected—and so humiliating—that I could scarcely believe them.

“You want to know when we started deceiving you? The answer’s simple. From the very beginning—in other words, from the moment we sent that monster to attack your village.”

“…………What?”

My mind refused to comprehend what I’d just heard.

His words were simply too unbelievable.

Alto-san had deliberately sent a monster to attack my hometown?

Which meant—the people who had killed my precious family and friends were…!

“Why would you do something like that!?”

Overcome with anger, I fiercely demanded an explanation from Alto-san.

However, Alto-san showed no sign of being troubled by my accusation. Instead, he grinned carelessly and began speaking.

“Don’t get so worked up. I’ll explain everything in order. Back then, we, the [Guardians of Dawn], were pursuing a B-rank monster called the [Hungry Drake]. It was a troublesome opponent, you see. The hungrier it got, the stronger it became, which made defeating it pretty difficult.”

After taking a brief breath, Alto-san continued.

“That’s when we discovered a certain village. That’s right, your village. And that’s where we came up with a brilliant idea. If the monster got stronger the hungrier it was, then all we had to do was fill its stomach first.”

“Don’t tell me that’s why…”

“Exactly. We lured the Hungry Drake into your village and let it feast on the villagers until it was full. After that, everything happened just as you know it—once every villager except you was dead, we swooped in and successfully defeated the weakened monster.”

“That… can’t be…”

In other words, I… had been wrong from the very beginning.

Rather than hating the people responsible for murdering my precious family, I had mistakenly regarded them as my benefactors all this time.

Alto-san and the others had known the truth, yet they’d kept it hidden from me.

Worse still, they had even invited me into their party—

“That’s right! Then why did you invite me to join your party!? From your perspective, since I might have witnessed what happened, wouldn’t it have been better to eliminate me right there—”

“Oh, that’s simple. Because you possessed a unique skill.”

“—! You mean [Infinite Regeneration]? But I told you it was a useless skill, didn’t I…?”

Even if it was a unique skill, there shouldn’t have been any benefit to recruiting someone whose ability was considered worthless.

That was why I’d asked, but Alto-san simply waved his hand dismissively.

“Ah, no, no. That’s not what I mean. You see, there’s a noble in this country who, for some reason, is willing to pay a fortune for people with unique skills. Seriously, I’ll never understand how rich people think… But for us, it was a chance to make some easy money. The only condition was that the person had to be over level 100, so we decided to raise you from scratch.”

“…So you never considered me a comrade from the beginning.”

“Haha! Of course not. Right, everyone?”

At Alto-san’s words, the other three nodded.

“Obviously! Do you have any idea how much of a pain in the ass it is to train someone with no talent? I’ve wanted to kill your slow, useless ass more times than I can count!”

“The humiliation of being laughed at by others simply because our party had one incompetent member was beyond description. Even though we were doing it for a considerable sum of money… I could hardly bear the embarrassment throughout this past year.”

“Watching you smile so innocently without knowing anything was truly pathetic.”

Garen-san, Sierra-san, and Cedric-san.

These were the true feelings of the people I had always considered my precious companions.

Finally, Alto-san spoke once more.

“Of course, since we’re abandoning you here, we won’t be getting that reward anymore… But at least you managed to make yourself useful one last time, Shin. Thanks to you, my companions and I will survive.”

—Ah, so that was how it had been.

I was the only one who had ever considered us comrades.

I…

I————

I felt something beginning to well up from the very depths of my heart.

But just before I could recognize what that feeling was, it happened.

“GRRRAAAAAAAAH!”

“—!?”

Suddenly, an enormous shadow descended over me, threatening to swallow me whole.

The shadow belonged to Necro Demon.

Perhaps it had recovered from the damage it sustained during our battle, because while we’d been talking, Necro Demon had somehow approached me from behind and was now raising its pitch-black greatsword high into the air.

“Kh—”

I instinctively tried to dodge, but the result was merciless.

Although I managed to avoid a direct hit, the tip of the greatsword lightly grazed my right shoulder—and that alone was enough to sever my right arm as easily as if I were a fragile doll.

“U-UWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

A searing pain erupted from the severed stump.

It was undoubtedly the worst pain I had ever experienced in my life, instantly robbing me of the ability to think.

Writhing in agony, all I could do was roll around miserably on the ground.

As they watched me suffer, everyone inside the barrier directed looks of contempt toward me.

“To writhe around in such agony that you practically lose your mind over something as trivial as losing an arm… How utterly pathetic.”

Those words came from Garen, the warrior who had always lectured me about the importance of having a strong will.

“Crawling along the ground like a maggot, with such an ugly expression as you struggle to endure the pain… Your appearance is hideous beyond words. It makes me curse the fact that we were ever in the same party, even for a short while.”

Those contemptuous words came from Sierra, the Saintess who took pride in her beauty and valued elegance above all else.

“To die so miserably without understanding anything, exposing your own wretchedness for all to see… Even I can’t help but pity you.”

That lament came from Cedric, the Sage who had always placed intelligence and pride above everything else and lived according to those principles.

Hearing their words—there, on the brink of death, I finally understood.

I finally recognized the name of the emotion that had been relentlessly surging up from deep within me.

“…………I’ll kill you.”

“…Hm? Did you say something?”

This was hatred.

—And murderous intent.

“I’LL KILL YOU! I SWEAR… I’LL KILL EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU!!!”

I poured every ounce of fury I could muster into that scream.

Upon hearing it, Alto-san—no, Alto—looked slightly bewildered for a moment before bursting into uproarious laughter.

“Ahahaha! Of all the things you could say with your dying breath, you choose to threaten to kill us!? You’re beyond pathetic, Shin. Sorry to disappoint you when you’re so fired up, but—you’re going to die right here.”

Thud. Thud.

With heavy, thunderous footsteps, Necro Demon approached me.

Behind it, the barrier surrounding Alto and the others began glowing more intensely.

At long last, the teleportation was activating.

“See you, Shin. Well, don’t take it too hard. You’re only dying because you had bad luck.”

As Alto delivered those final words, the barrier erupted in an exceptionally brilliant light.

And when the light faded, Alto and the others were already gone.

Their teleportation must have succeeded.

Only Necro Demon, the extra boss, and I remained.

There was no possible way for me to survive this situation.

Nevertheless, I continued burning with hatred until the very end.

“GRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!”

A roar.

Then, a mighty swing.

Gripping its greatsword with both hands, Necro Demon raised its powerful arms and brought the weapon crashing down in a sweeping motion from behind its body toward the front.

Propelled by an absurd amount of force, the greatsword effortlessly shattered the ground as it descended, striking my prone body with its full might.

“Gahhhh!”

After taking that devastating blow, my body, now on the verge of being smashed to pieces, was sent flying with the speed and force of a cannonball.

I flew straight across the vast hall, hurtled through the connecting passage, and was launched all the way back into the boss room.

During that brief flight, I saw it.

My HP bar, which had barely contained a sliver of health, finally dropped all the way to zero.

(Ah… Am I going to die here?)

After crashing against the floor of the boss room several times and finally coming to a stop, I continued thinking through my fading consciousness.

My HP had reached zero, and my body had reached its limit—and yet, my hatred still showed no signs of fading.

(I’ll never accept that.)

On the verge of death, I renewed my vow.

(Until the day I take revenge on those bastards… I absolutely refuse to…!)

But reality was merciless.

Despite my desperate determination, I finally lost consciousness.

—At that very instant, I thought I heard several system notifications.

‘Death of the target confirmed.’

‘All conditions have been fulfilled.’

‘Unique Skill [Infinite Regeneration] is evolving.’

‘Soul regeneration commencing.’

(Soul… regeneration…?)

At that moment, there was no way I could have known.

The awakening of my supposedly useless skill, [Infinite Regeneration], triggered by my death.

Nor could I have imagined that this event would eventually lead me to become the strongest being in the entire world.

—My revenge had not even begun.