Chapter 3

A year has passed.

I know that when the reddish Twilight sky turns black, that is night. And when the night sky turns the colour of Twilight again, it is day. Using that knowledge, I was able to count the number that have passed since I came here. Today is the 365th day.

One year. It went by in the blink of an eye, I thought. I’ve been wandering from place to place the whole time. I hunted monsters to live and ate them greedily. I made a water bottle out of wood using magic, and I used it to carry water around with me. I even came up with a method for preserving the monster meat I hunted by smoking it. Despite my vitality, I never built a permanent settlement. I just kept moving because I wanted to go back to the Barriered City.

And then, I’ll become a proper Exorcist. That thought is what drives me forward.

Even though I’ve spent a year here, I still can’t find any kind of structure or organisation in the Twilight World. Wherever I go, it’s simply an endless, wild forest. There was also an underground waterway, and the ruins of a village – a place where humans once lived. There were even monsters who could speak. It wasn’t a monster, actually, but a demon called a goblin. While watching me, they suddenly swooped in to attack.

***

“Wait… we were wrong!”

“…If I agree to let you go, will you do what I say?”

“Of… of course!”

“That’s a lie. I’m certain you were going to kill me. Just like this.”

“Ugh…”

I stabbed the goblin with the knife in my hand. Unfortunately, I can’t reach its brain from here, I thought.

The Illusion Magic I used a year ago – I grew and advanced my magic using that as a base. The magic I’m using right now is called [Invisible]. Not only can I establish invisible objects in the world, I can also erase them at will. I applied it to a knife, and now I can use it as an invisible sword: my [Invisible Blade]. I wouldn’t be able to handle any major changes to this setup, but this much comes as easily as breathing.

I gathered up all the goblins into one place using walls made with [Invisible], and chopped off their heads one by one with [Invisible Blade]. I’ve come to understand one thing very well this past year: in the Twilight World, the only law is survival of the fittest. The strong live, and the weak die. That was the only, absolute rule of this world.

In this world, I think I can be considered fairly strong, but there’s always someone stronger. Six months ago, I saw a dragon and a spider that was easily at least ten meters tall. I’m sure they were both stronger than me, so I didn’t fight them. When I ran into something stronger than me, I just quietly turned and escaped. I understood the rules of this world, and I showed no mercy to anyone weaker than me.

Someday, I might truly end up believing that this is right. When I realised that, my body tightened up with fear. I’m still quite afraid. Just because I’ve survived for a year, it doesn’t mean that I’ll definitely live to see tomorrow, I thought.

So, I killed. I killed them all. If I show mercy to my enemies, they’ll turn around and attack me again. Fearing that, I kept killing. I killed in order to live and in order to see the Barriered City again.

“Th-this demon!”

I thought I’d confined all the goblins, but it seems a few managed to slip out. Five goblins, holding daggers, attacked me. However, there’s no way they can kill me with their level of skill, I thought.

I exhaled all of the air in my lungs at once, and the next moment, the heads of all five goblins went soaring through the air. It happened so fast that they couldn’t even tell how they’d been killed. Alongside [Invisible], I’d also learned a new kind of magic that controls inertia.

Inertia is, put simply, an object’s resistance against changes to its velocity. With magic, I can forcibly control it. Normally, if I swing my sword, it will continue to move according to the force I put in. In order to cut off a neck, a fairly large amount of force is needed. Obviously, as a result, the sword would continue moving after slicing off the neck, and force would be required to stop it. However, when I decapitate someone, I can immediately stop the sword afterwards. From there, I can continue cutting off more heads more quickly by repeating the same action.

In order to live, I had to cut away anything unnecessary. Therefore, in order to eliminate the energy waste from having to physically control the inertia of my sword, I learned magic to control inertia. This was a matter of life and death for me. I practiced frantically and mastered it over the course of this year. I realised that I can already use this magic well enough to fight with it, so I felt a little relieved. Then, staying on guard, I began to talk to the goblin that spoke to me.

Maybe he, too, was desperate for someone to talk to.

“You should be more careful who you pick a fight with… Oh, you’re already dead.”

I looted the bodies and left. I don’t find this enjoyable. It seems I wasn’t broken enough to thoroughly enjoy the act of killing. Though, people do eventually get used to it. Even if it’s someone I can speak with, I can still kill them without emotion.

I put up my hair, which had grown to about my chest, and set off, wondering where I should go next.

***

“Is this a dungeon? I’ve heard rumours about them…”

Going north, I found a large hole leading underground. This might be a dungeon, something I heard rumours about in the Barriered City. It’s a monster nest, but deep inside there’s supposedly an amazing treasure… I don’t believe that story, but I do want to see what’s inside, I thought.

A dungeon, in other words, is a labyrinth. That means, of course, there’s a chance that I’ll get lost in there and be unable to find my way out. But I was curious, so I entered anyway. It’ll be fine. If it seems dangerous, I’ll just come back out, I thought.

I learned later that my assumption that I could return was just arrogance.

“These lights are dim…”

When I entered, I could feel a cold breeze blowing. And for some reason there were lights burning. I had the feeling that there was someone there. No, strictly speaking, it would be something, not someone…

No matter the semantics, the fact remained that I could sense a presence.

“A human?!”

“A human, a human!”

”

”

“Look, a human!”

I went further inwards and found a large number of goblins. Did the goblins I met outside come from here? I don’t know much about demon ecosystems, I thought.

As I stood there thinking, the goblins grinned.

“Long time since we had human meat…”

“Ah, human meat delicious. Now no need to kidnap one.”

“Hehehe! Eat human!”

They dance around wildly. As I stood there watching this incredibly intriguing sight, suddenly, I sensed a large number of goblins behind me. Perhaps they were hiding along the route I took here.

“Die, human!”

As if those words were some kind of signal, about 100 goblins rushed me.

I was regretting my arrogance. Can I effectively use [Invisible] in this cramped space? [Invisible Blade] allows me to change the length of the blade at will, but I’m not used to fighting large groups of enemies yet.

Up until this point, I’ve only fought in situations that I crafted to give me a 100% chance of victory. This time, though, is different. I’m at an overwhelming disadvantage. I’m completely surrounded, and I have no way to escape. On the other hand, these goblins that live here definitely have an escape route, I thought.

“…[Invisible Blade].”

Never mind that, let me activate my magic. I took the knife out of my pocket and lengthened it as I wished.

“Ahhh!”

And then, there’s a flash. With that single flash of my sword, I decapitated three goblins at once. But, perhaps since these goblins were trained, they showed no signs of fear. I created a wall using [Invisible] behind me, preventing them from approaching.

I can hear them banging on the invisible wall behind me, but I need to focus on the battle in front of me.

“The human strong!”

“Strong humans tasty!”

“Tasty, tasty!!”

Focused too deeply on the battle right in front of me, I was slow to react to a glowing red object flying at me from the rear.

“Damn it, an arrow?”

Yes, it was a fire arrow flying at me. I just barely twisted my body to avoid it, but my left arm was hit. The feeling of my arm slowly burning was quite painful, so I pulled out the arrow. I dropped the arrow and immediately applied healing magic to the wound to stop the blood.

“I’m still alive!”

“Kill!”

These demons called goblins – I can’t underestimate them. Individually, they’re not that big of a deal. However, these goblins have strong group combat skills. Their timing and positioning are spot-on, and they make good use of the terrain. They may not be as intelligent as humans, so I thought I’d be fine… but I should give up that line of thinking.

I was careless. Just because I survived the past year, I became unnecessarily arrogant. That was wrong. I’ve only survived here for one year. But my enemies have been living in the Twilight for years, or even decades. They’ve been living in this world where only the strong survive. Unlike humans, demons and monsters will even kill members of their own race. In other words, they are always fighting. Remembering that I’m living in this cruel world, I take a deep breath.

Another flash of my sword. Then, using magic to control inertia, I created another flash.

Don’t stop yet. Target the goblins nearby and precisely remove their heads. Without stopping, without enjoying it, without even a moment’s hesitation – remove a head, stop the blade’s inertia, and proceed to the next attack.

I performed these actions one after the other, as if putting on one huge performance. Yes. This is what it means to live in this Twilight World.

Finally done, I thought. The battle didn’t even last an hour. However, they were an incredibly tough enemy. They were stronger than any monster or demon that I’d fought until now. Once again, I was forcibly made aware of the ruthlessness of this world.