SHHHHH...

Kyle had never seen the sea in this life, but he had seen it many times in his previous one.

Not for any romantic reason. There had simply been plenty of battlefields near the coast. The Sword Demon had spent most of his former life on battlefields, not for some desperate, tragic reason, but simply because he loved them. In a way, then, perhaps it had been romantic.

Anyway, the point was that the waves he could hear now sounded profoundly strange and unpleasant. It wasn't as though he had never seen the sea in his previous life. He had heard waves countless times. But this sound was very, very grating.

SHHHHH...

There was nothing refreshing about it. It was a dull sound, like a mountain of mud collapsing. A sticky sound, like that collapsing mud tangling and grinding against itself.

Kyle looked into the distance, toward the far edge of the sprawling Mudflats. Toward the horizon, where the clinging purple mist met the mud.

"..."

He swallowed involuntarily. Far away... something shimmered into view. Beyond the horizon, beyond that faintly visible boundary, there was an enormous hand that seemed to hold this world in its grasp.

The hand was deathly pale, the color of a waterlogged, bloated corpse. Though he perceived it as a "hand," Kyle could not be certain that was what it really was.

It was something utterly incomprehensible, something that could not exist, on an entirely different order. His brain was therefore interpreting that enormous thing by substituting something similar that it already knew. In other words, it resembled a "hand," but it was some enormous thing that was not a hand at all.

"..."

He felt an urge to gouge out both his eyes. Then he wanted to crack open his skull and scrape his brain clean. Without the lifeline, he might actually have done it. No, he might simply have killed himself outright.

He had spent most of his previous life loving the sword and living for it. He had traveled from battlefield to battlefield, killed countless people, suffered a handful of defeats, and won far more victories. In his own way, he had left his name in history.

But those were ultimately human achievements. The Sword Demon of his previous life had certainly been powerful and extraordinary, but he had never transcended humanity and ascended into something other than human.

That was plainly a being humans could not—and should not—understand. Kyle forced his eyes, which would barely move and did not want to, to look above that "hand."

The hand extended above the purple mist. Was that the unknown presence looking down at the ground from the sky? Was there only one? Perhaps there were more.

"Ha..."

Jorm was no longer trembling, screaming, or whimpering inside his chest. He had gone rigid as a corpse. He wasn't actually dead. He was playing dead, desperately hoping to be mistaken for a corpse.

"Hahaha..."

Kyle let out a cracked laugh. A thought he had had many times since dying five hundred years ago and being reborn surfaced once more.

He was glad he had reincarnated.

Being reborn had been a wonderful thing.

He truly believed that. The world had changed so much in five hundred years. Strange things like spiritual roots and circuits had appeared, and swordsmanship had changed dramatically too. The world now held many powerful people of entirely different kinds from those of five hundred years ago.

Yet he felt far more grateful now than he had when experiencing those changes. Five hundred years ago, he had fought other humans like himself until Ruin Alastor defeated and killed him. But in this age, there were even things that weren't human at all, things beyond human comprehension. That was no mere hallucination.

Perhaps such beings had existed five hundred years ago too, but the Sword Demon had died without even knowing of them. Back then, he hadn't known enough to regret it. Now, he had seen one with his own eyes.

'Someday...'

Laughing in his throat, Kyle became conscious of the wooden sword in his hand. He hated to say it after Lucia had given it to him, but this wooden sword was an ordinary object. And Kyle, who held it, was ordinary too. Most humans would be, before that being.

'Could I cut that down someday too?'

CREAK, CREAK.

He continued his train of thought. Not now. If he charged at it intending to cut it down, he wouldn't last even a moment before killing himself.

The Sword Demon loved a challenge. He loved fighting and cutting things down too. As for killing others, well, he thought saying he liked it was far too twisted and abnormal a sentiment. But he didn't dislike it.

Naturally, he didn't want to die himself. If he had no attachments left in life, he could charge headlong toward death. Unfortunately, the present Kyle had a great many attachments. Especially after seeing something like that, he could only have more.

He didn't want to be killed by it. He wanted to cut it down. So he ignored the impulse stirring in the depths of his chest. Charging at it now would be suicide. A lifeline might be attached to the crown of his head, but even that would not protect him if he confronted that thing.

"The world is fucking vast."

Kyle muttered the words with a throaty chuckle.

SHHHHH...

Time had passed while he was absorbed in that thing. The waves sounded louder and closer.

ROOOOM!

The hand that had descended from beyond the horizon moved again. Its enormous fingers closed around something on the far side and scooped it up. It looked like someone splashing water over a sandcastle to knock it down. Depending on how one understood it, the act could be seen as innocent play or a malicious catastrophe.

Pitch-black waves were rushing toward the Mudflats. At the same time, the mud below shook, and white bone pillars began thrusting up all around him. Their shape was better described as pure-white coral than as pillars of bone.

'I was going to try weathering it once, but that's out of the question.'

He didn't want to die, of course, and he wanted a pointless death even less. Without further hesitation, Kyle sprinted toward a nearby growth of bone coral.

From the moment the giant hand appeared on the horizon, even all the monsters in the Mudflats seemed to have fallen silent and huddled beneath the mud.

Thanks to that, Kyle reached the coral pillar unimpeded and climbed it in a series of bounds.

Seated on the uneven surface at its top, he looked down. The waves rolling in from the distance had already swallowed the Mudflats, and black water was surging higher.

HISSS...!

White smoke rose from the base of the bone coral where it touched the black water. Just as the Fragment had said, that water was a poisonous liquid that corrupted everything it touched.

'He said it corrupts the mind as well as the body.'

He had no intention of stupidly jumping in. Having been fortunate enough to reincarnate, he had to cherish this life and use it well. If he died here from some reckless stunt, Arian, who was waiting outside, would cry her eyes out.

'Would Aslan cry?'

Having only met the man after eleven years, he still struggled to think of him as his "father." With that thought, Kyle watched the incoming tide swallow the Mudflats and turn them into a sea.

It didn't take long for the entire desolate expanse of gray mud to become a sea. The surface was smooth as a mirror, but as he stared into it, he sensed depths that seemed liable to suck his soul in.

SHHHH...

An enormous shadow glided beneath the black surface. It was as large as the bone coral Kyle was perched on. The unknown giant monster's scales looked as sturdy as fortress walls, and the fins rising along its spine were as sharp and menacing as saw teeth. If western dragons existed—no, western dragons really did exist. He even found himself thinking that this might be what one looked like.

That wasn't the only monster. Yellow light shimmered, and jellyfish-like things drifted throughout the sea. Farther down, tentacles resembling octopus arms writhed slowly.

'He said just meeting their eyes would make your mind collapse. They don't seem that bad...'

The instant he thought the Fragment had exaggerated, Kyle threw himself flat at an instinctive warning.

WHOOSH!

Far deeper than the monsters dimly visible near the surface, an enormous eye flashed open.

The eye moved slowly, as though swimming, then closed. Only then could Kyle release the breath trapped in his chest. Only then did he understand that the Fragment had not exaggerated at all. If he met that eye, his lifeline would automatically snap to prevent his mind from collapsing, sending him back to the room.

"Wow..."

With a quiet exclamation, Kyle plopped down on the uneven surface. A glance upward showed him a sky still thick with mist, beyond which there would be an unknown gaze—unknown gazes. But those gazes weren't directed downward now.

They were directed beyond the horizon. Over there, the enormous hand was still scooping up the sea as though splashing in play. Thanks to that, looking up at the sky was not as frightening as it had been at low tide.

"Jorm."

[...]

"Stop playing dead. Don't you want to eat?"

[Ugh...]

At that sharp rebuke, Jorm raised his head with a whimper.

[M-Master, when... are you going to leave this place?]

"When the Fragment finishes the cultivation method."

[Ughhh... C-could you at least let me out...?]

"You dare abandon your master and run off alone? Absolutely not. We're one in body and soul. If I live, you live. If I die, you die."

[Ughhhh...]

"I'm not planning to die, so don't worry. Anyway, if you want food, let's get to work."

He felt bad for Jorm, but he had no intention of letting him leave on his own. Hunting and eating in these Mudflats was gradually transforming Kyle's body, and those effects would surely reach Jorm as well.

For a year, he had exposed Jorm to his spiritual root's influence and fed him mana, changing his nature as a spirit. As a result, though Jorm had been born a lightning spirit, he was becoming something other than a pure lightning spirit.

'Those shitty meals and that black smoke are changing me. Jorm should be affected too.'

With that thought, Kyle closed his eyes and focused on his cultivation method.

"I'm not just doing this for me. It's for you too, so quit whining and work."

[Yes... yes...]

Jorm began moving with a whimper. The mana was softer than when they had first entered, but completing a single circulation according to the cultivation method took an extraordinarily long time.

'Just focusing on moving mana will improve my control enormously.'

Bruno still wore his bracelet when training his mana.

'Now I understand why Uncle Varkas gave him that bracelet. If he practices and gets used to it beforehand, he'll be less flustered when he comes here later. He'll be able to move his mana a little too.'

In his own way, he had been looking out for his son.

* * *

At low tide, Kyle killed and ate monsters of every kind. At high tide, he climbed a coral pillar and practiced his cultivation method. In that fashion, he lived in the Mudflats for a week.

There was no particular reason to return. His lifeline had never snapped, and he used the monsters' bodily fluids for drinking water and their flesh for food.

"..."

He had grown accustomed to the stench coming from his entire body. At first, the grime had made him uncomfortable, and he had often wanted to wash. Now, the thought didn't even occur to him.

No matter how many monsters he killed, more kept coming. Killing them hadn't been particularly difficult to begin with. After a week, his body had grown quite accustomed to the environment, making it easier still.

'I should head back to the room soon.'

Slurping down flesh whose disgusting taste he still hadn't gotten used to, Kyle turned his head. He had traveled quite far from the door over the past week, and his lifeline stretched into the distance.

As soon as he made up his mind, he started following it back. With high tides rolling in along the way and monsters interfering, it took him another two days to reach the door.

[Finally... finally!]

Jorm cheered. Over the week, he too had adjusted considerably to this place, but unlike Kyle, he hadn't been able to enjoy life in the Mudflats.

"That happy?"

[I can't enjoy the taste of that rotten flesh like you do, Master!]

"I didn't enjoy it either. I like good food too."

[F-food, food! Let's eat, please!]

Jorm begged. According to the Fragment, they could request rewards in that room based on their "achievements." Having killed hundreds of monsters at the very least over nine days, Kyle could probably ask for a feast.

"First, let's test something other than food."

With that, Kyle opened the door.

The room looked a little different from his last visit. A large desk stood in its center, heaped with all kinds of books. The Fragment sat there with a quill, busily writing something and moving his lips as he muttered to himself.

"What are you doing?"

"Developing the cultivation method I'm going to give you."

"Hmm, there's something I've been wondering about that. Come to think of it, you never asked me about my method. Don't tell me you're making it from scratch?"

"What do you take me for?"

The Fragment looked up with an incredulous laugh.

"Boy, your method uses the Violet Lightning Heaven-Striking Art as its foundation, with twenty-six grade-three cultivation methods from the grand library mixed into it. Am I wrong?"

"No... you're right."

"I know every manual you consulted and combined. When I first made contact with you, I guided the mana inside you and saw through your circulation method. I examined it once more while bestowing the blessing on you. I understand your unfinished method perfectly."

The Fragment set down his quill.

"And I know how crude and misguided it is. You ignorant little brat. A fool like you can take the slightest wrong turn and wander far down that path without ever realizing it's wrong. Just like your cultivation method."

"Do you mean I'd never have completed it in my lifetime if I'd tried on my own?"

"You would have finished it. It would have taken a very long time, and there would have been a high chance of something going wrong with your body along the way."

"But you're a far better expert than I am, so you'll be able to finish it quickly, right?"

"Who knows? I'll have to try and see. No one in the world has ever attempted this work, and it's a cultivation manual that has no need to exist."

The Fragment folded his arms and studied Kyle.

"You look like a beggar. To think your lifeline never snapped even once in a week. Would you like some praise?"

"Praise would be nice, but answer my question first."

"What do you want to ask? The true nature of the Mudflats? The hand scooping up the sea? The gazes above the mist? The eye beneath the water? The little monsters? You can ask, but I can't answer those questions. You couldn't handle the answers, and even I must be careful about mentioning them. But I can tell you this: the little monsters are a kind of corrupted residue."

The Fragment gave him a mischievous smile.

"What you've been stuffing your face with and drinking was corrupted residue. How does that feel? Doesn't it make you want to vomit?"

"I've wanted to vomit since I started eating it. I am curious about the other things, but if you can't answer, that's fine. I was going to ask something else."

"What do you want to know?"

"Can I receive rewards other than food in this room?"

At that question, the Fragment's expression changed.