I’m Here to End This Fight

Chapter 229. The Second Hundred Steps Ceremony (3)

“Ugh!”

Mucci, in a prone position, struggled desperately to raise his upper body.

Creak—.

The superhuman physique he inherited from his grandfather, Ralph, was resisting the overwhelming presence of the Sword Master.

Veins bulged prominently.

Muscles swelled as if they were about to burst.

Mucci put in his best effort, pushing his body beyond limits he had never reached before in his life.

Crack—.

His body shuddered with strange sounds, but he still couldn’t fully stand.

‘Ah, is it really impossible after all…?’

When he first saw the Sword Master, Mucci was seized by intense fear.

But when the Hundred Steps Ceremony began, he was the first to step forward and walk toward the Sword Master.

Mucci did not know why he had done that, just as he didn’t know why he was now struggling so hard to stand again.

He just thought he had done all he could.

‘Should I… just give up?’

His mana was almost depleted, and his body was reaching its limits.

Perhaps his strength would soon fail completely.

Mucci, deciding there was no need to push any further, began to release the power that had been resisting the pressure weighing him down.

As his upper body, which had been propped up, started to lower toward the ground—

Step—.

A shadow stretched long across the ground Mucci was staring at.

Then, a pair of shoes abruptly entered his line of sight.

Immediately, he heard a voice he knew all too well.

“What the hell are you doing?”

At the cocky and mocking tone, Mucci, who had been collapsing, stopped in his tracks.

Grinding his teeth, he lifted his head.

“Ugh…”

With all his strength, Mucci managed to meet the gaze of the person looking down at him.

And when he saw who it was, his pupils shook in disbelief.

‘Yuri… Hyung? How is Hyung here?’

Why was Yuri, who belonged to the 50th class, present at the Hundred Steps Ceremony of the 51st class?

As if reading Mucci’s bewildered expression, Yuri smirked.

“I had an appointment with someone.”

With a quick glance at the Sword Master, Yuri returned his gaze to Mucci.

The smile on Yuri’s face vanished instantly, replaced by disdain.

“Hey, I asked what the hell you’re doing here.”

“……”

Naturally, Mucci couldn’t respond.

With pressure crushing his lungs, all he could do was barely exhale.

Instead, he found himself marveling at Yuri.

How could Yuri speak so calmly under such immense pressure?

Seeing Mucci’s gaze, Yuri clicked his tongue.

“Tsk, pathetic bastard.”

“…?”

At the sudden insult, a flash of resentment passed through Mucci’s eyes.

Seeing this, Yuri sneered even more.

“I saw you make it into the Cradle with some skills, and I thought you had changed a bit… but you’re no different from when we first met, huh?”

With each harsh criticism, Mucci felt a growing sense of injustice, not understanding why he was being berated.

No, beyond feeling unjust, he began to feel a rising anger.

‘What does Hyung… What does Yuri Hyung know?!’

How hard I worked just to meet you!

What decisions I made to get into the Cradle!

Yuri dismissed Mucci’s intense glare with a scoff.

“What’s with that look? You think you’ve been wronged? I don’t get it. Did I say something incorrect?”

Yuri’s voice, still laced with sarcasm, dropped to a heavy tone.

“Hey, you snot-nosed brat. That pitiful look on your face… It’s the kind of look you get after you’ve done everything you possibly can and still failed.”

“……”

“But have you actually used up all your mana yet? Or are you so drained you can’t even lift a finger?”

Yuri’s voice filled with increasing contempt.

“Clearly, you’re not in either of those conditions, but… were you just about to give up?”

“……”

“What the hell is wrong with you?”

The offhand question sent Mucci’s pupils into a violent tremble.

Yuri, who had been gazing down at him, took a step forward.

Step—.

Yuri easily took the eighth step, the one Mucci had struggled to make despite his utmost effort.

Yuri paused at that spot for a moment and, while looking straight ahead, spoke in a calm tone.

“You’re still the same snot-nosed kid who gives up at the slightest hurdle and cries about it. You haven’t changed at all.”

Leaving those words behind, Yuri continued moving forward.

Nine steps.

Ten steps.

Then eleven.

Mucci watched in a daze as Yuri’s back grew more distant.

Yuri’s last words echoed in his ears.

[You haven’t changed at all.]

The more those words resounded, the tighter Mucci’s chest felt.

Mucci easily recognized the cause of his discomfort.

‘Because it’s not… wrong.’

His mana wasn’t fully depleted.

He wasn’t completely out of strength either.

Yet he had been about to give up.

Yuri’s criticism was… entirely correct.

And that meant, just as Yuri said, that Mucci had not changed at all.

‘Yuri Hyung…’

Mucci blankly stared at Yuri, who had just taken his twelfth step.

‘What kind of world is it over there? How did you get there?’

Even reaching the seventh step felt this excruciating, so what kind of place was Yuri’s twelfth step?

What was more astonishing was that Yuri didn’t stop there and was now taking the thirteenth step.

Though his pace had slowed somewhat compared to before, he pressed on, standing tall and moving forward.

Watching that unyielding back, Mucci clenched his teeth.

‘I came here to follow him…’

Yet he was sprawled out here.

Yuri was moving further and further away from him.

At a pace that was hard for Mucci to keep up with.

Mucci realized.

‘I also worked hard, but Hyung worked even harder than me.’

Despite spending the same year, Yuri had pushed himself to such an extent that the gap between them had grown so wide.

‘Even though I’m this inadequate… I said I wouldn’t lose the next time we met.’

But here he was, ready to give up!

Shame filled his chest once more.

Trying to dispel that feeling, Mucci let out a fierce roar.

“Uaaaaah!”

Creak, crack—.

At the same time, Mucci’s body began to rise, making eerie noises.

‘I’ll catch up!’

Mucci’s bloodshot eyes fixed on Yuri’s back.

‘I’ll catch up to Yuri Hyung…’

Crunch, crack—.

‘I’ll catch up!’

Mucci drew out every last drop of his remaining mana.

For the first time in his life, he used all his mana.

Though he felt pain in his mana core, also a first for him, Mucci had no time to even register the pain.

His focus was solely on moving forward.

Crunch—!

One of Mucci’s legs lifted.

Thud—.

Finally, he succeeded in taking the eighth step.

In that very moment—

Step—.

Yuri, ahead of him, took his fourteenth step.

Though his pace had slowed slightly, Yuri steadily reached the fourteenth step, prompting Mucci to extend his leg.

Crack—.

The pressure closing in from all sides.

The pain from a mana core at its limit.

The screams of his own body.

Mucci could focus on none of it.

His mind was filled only with thoughts of catching up to Yuri, who was getting further and further away.

‘I’ll… I’ll catch up…!’

For the first time in his life, Mucci unleashed an intense concentration.

As a result, Mucci’s body exerted strength beyond its limits.

And finally—

Thud—!

‘I’ll catch up to Yuri Hyung!’

Mucci succeeded in taking his ninth step.

Originally, he was supposed to stop at the seventh step, but chasing after Yuri had driven him two steps further.

But there was no time to celebrate this achievement, as Mucci immediately tried to take another step.

Or rather, he tried.

‘Just a bit more…’

But his body, pushed beyond its limits, could no longer keep up with his will.

‘I need… to go… further…’

Mucci’s eyes rolled back, showing the whites, and—

Plop—.

He collapsed forward, his face hitting the ground.

* * *

Mucci had taken nine steps.

That was a record surpassing Gunther Ryder’s eight steps.

It was also equal to the record set by May Winchester, the highest record holder before Yuri, 36 years ago.

In other words, Mucci’s record was truly remarkable and would have astonished those who witnessed it.

Yet despite witnessing such a record, the audience remained silent.

Even Gunther paid no mind to the appearance of the new recruit who broke his record.

They focused on only one person.

The one walking at the very front of the circular arena.

And just at that moment—

Thud—.

Yuri took another step forward.

‘Fifteen!’

‘He’s finally… matched last year’s record.’

Last year, Yuri’s record was fifteen steps.

In other words, this was his starting point.

The audience watched with keen anticipation.

‘How many more steps will he take?’

‘Twenty? Thirty?’

Since none of those seated in the audience had taken more than ten steps in the Hundred Steps Ceremony, the path ahead of Yuri was a complete mystery to them.

So all they could do was watch him intently, losing track of time.

* * *

Thud—.

“Phew…”

Having taken his fifteenth step, Yuri

took a light breath.

‘Finally… I’ve arrived.’

Around this time last year, this was the spot where he had collapsed.

Setting foot here for the second time brought a fresh sense of accomplishment.

‘It feels light.’

Last year, he had squeezed out every bit of his strength, and with the aid of Magic Flow, had barely reached this fifteenth step.

But not this time.

His whole body brimmed with energy, and he was filled with the confidence to continue forward.

What uplifted Yuri the most was the fact that he had reached this place solely through his own capabilities.

‘I reached here without using Magic Flow… purely with the strength I developed!’

To others, Yuri’s record was fifteen steps.

But Yuri knew the truth.

His real record was only ten steps.

The rest of the steps had been aided, practically handed to him, by Johan.

Those who understood the circumstances might argue that mastering Magic Flow was his achievement, and thus the fifteen steps were his own doing.

But Yuri couldn’t accept that.

‘The Magic Flow from a year ago… wasn’t mine.’

The Magic Flow he had mastered then was entirely Johan’s creation.

A shortcut Johan Redner had carved out with his life’s work to reach the Sword Master.

Yuri had merely walked comfortably along that path.

But today was different.

Yuri had blazed his own trail using his strength, not the shortcut Johan had made.

At last, he stood at the spot he had reached last year via the shortcut, relying solely on his own capabilities.

And beyond the fifteenth step, this was now the true stage where his strength would be tested.

Yuri stared into the distance, toward the special seats where the Sword Master was watching him.

Below that, he saw the shadow of Johan, who was walking with his back turned.

‘He’s gotten further.’

Over the past year, perhaps because he had helped complete the Magic Flow, Johan had moved closer to the Sword Master.

He had advanced further from the fifteenth step where Yuri had finished last year.

But Yuri smiled.

Because from this moment on…

‘I’ll catch up!’

Thud—.

Yuri took his sixteenth step.

‘I’m going.’

He began his pursuit of Johan.

* * *

Yuri, who had paused at fifteen steps, finally started moving again.

Sixteen steps, then seventeen.

Eighteen, and then nineteen.

Eventually, he reached the twentieth step.

Without any hesitation, Yuri completed twenty steps.

However, at his twenty-first step, his pace noticeably slowed.

Still, Yuri did not stop.

Step by step, he pushed forward, reaching his twenty-fifth step.

“Ugh!”

Yuri’s face contorted as he groaned for the first time that day.

Seeing this, Theresia also let out a soft groan.

“Yuri…”

She couldn’t even begin to imagine the battle Yuri was fighting there.

But Theresia’s heart was there to support his back.

She believed that Yuri would show the incredible miracles he always did once more.

Perhaps driven by her encouragement—

Thud—.

Yuri, who had briefly stagnated, took his twenty-sixth step.

Then his twenty-seventh.

Thud—.

The sound of Yuri’s heavy footsteps reverberated throughout the arena shrouded in silence.

It took him two to three minutes to take his twenty-eighth step.

Thud—.

It then took him eight minutes to take the next step.

Thud—.

Another ten minutes to move forward again.

The time between each step continued to increase.

In proportion, Yuri’s face reddened and he began to sweat profusely.

Creak, creak—.

Just as it had been for Mucci, eerie sounds emanated from Yuri’s straining body.

Yuri lifted his foot with all his might.

It was an excruciatingly slow movement.

It took him nearly twenty minutes to finally take the thirty-first step.

It might have seemed a tedious ordeal.

But no one in the audience left their seats.

Instead, they were engrossed in Yuri’s forward march, losing track of time.

Moreover—

“Ugh!”

None present at the scene—

Those witnessing a man’s desperate struggle to advance against a powerful storm—considered it tedious.

* * *

“How boring.”

High above in the sky.

Johan lay sideways on a bed of clouds, observing Yuri’s struggle, and made this assessment.

‘Heh, how’s it feel? Like you’re dying, right?’

Did it start with fifteen steps?

Just moments ago, Yuri had reached his thirty-second step.

From fifteen steps onward, it had taken Yuri nearly three hours to advance seventeen steps.

But this wasn’t something to be dismissed.

No one knew the Sword Master better than Johan, and he was certain of it.

‘Even though it’s just a seventeen-step difference… the pressure that kid is feeling now is likely hundreds of times greater.’

The gap between him and the Sword Master.

Those seventeen steps represented that gap.

And this was only at the periphery.

As he took more steps forward, the closer he got to the Sword Master, the larger the gap between each step would become.

“The brat was so cocky, calling me out here to watch, and now he’s struggling like this. Heh heh.”

Johan sneered down at the ground.

Yet, his calm eyes never strayed from Yuri.