They're all dead.

Everyone I hold the most dear has all perished, their corpses displayed before my eyes.

It is enough to break any man.

But… I have come to realize something as I witness all of this pain and loss.

This is life.

It is simply part of the vicissitudes of life.

Do I grieve? Yes, of course!

Even now, in my moment of clarity, I can feel such an overwhelming pain swirl within me, threatening to eat me alive. It burns hot in my chest, tempting me to either scream in madness or fall into the pit of absolute despair.

I have been tempted to take my own life as well, just to escape the pain.

But… no.

It has taken me so long, but I have finally come to terms with it:

'I don't want to die.'

I refuse to.

Who am I to defy the wish of the strong? To resist the will of my superior? I am but a powerless man, yet hope has made me refuse to accept my inevitable defeat.

And so, I slowly rise to my feet.

Right as the Leviathan looks at me, I get up and hold my C Grade Armament.

My legs are shaky.

After all, my bones have still not fully healed.

My sight is blurry, and there's still a constant pounding pain in my body.

My muscles are strained.

Everything hurts to an absurd degree—more than I can describe.

But I get up anyway.

"Human… you are quite impressive," Zarius says with a low tone, his voice calm and slightly amused. I can see his cruel gaze, so empty and wicked, that it nearly makes me crumble to my knees.

But my resolve remains firm.

I tightly hold my blade and steady my stance. It's hard to breathe, but I do so anyway.

This is a Leviathan.

He possesses powers that are a mystery to the world—abilities that I still haven't comprehended.

I only have my C Grade Armament.

Potions will no longer do me any good, and my body has long reached its limits.

But… what of it?

"Why won't you just die already?" Zarius asks with a curious gaze. "You are on your last breath, your body is in a ruined state, and you have no chance of victory. Yet why do you still stand with that useless Armament in your hand? What do you hope to achieve?"

"…."

"Just admit defeat… and maybe I'll offer you a quick death. Come on…"

I understand it now.

'He wants me to admit defeat to reinforce his worldview regarding the strong and the weak. He wants me to behave like he did after losing everyone he cared about…'

But Zarius does not know me at all.

I am not him.

I am not like him, or anyone for that matter.

I am simply an ordinary, talentless man who managed to have a second chance at life.

I am a Failed Knight… and this is my Treatise.

"Haa… haaa…" I slowly break into shaky breath and try to take in gulps of oxygen despite how hard it is for me to breathe.

My single eye remains focused on him.

A hot, stinging sensation courses through my body as several wounds I have incurred are on the verge of reopening. Several cracked ribs ache. Broken bones. Wrenched muscles, sprained tendons, and torn ligaments all send my body into indescribable agony.

I can even feel the side effects of some Potions.

My body feels numb. My spirit is fallen. Every fiber of my being is diminished to its limits.

Yet…

"… No." My shaky voice silently lets out my answer.

Zarius tilts his head to the side and stares at me with a confused demeanor.

He sighs before asking—

"Why?"

"Because… I do not want to!" Then, I ready myself, brandishing my Dark Edge Slaying Blade.

Overwhelming emotions churn inside my body.

Hatred burns from within.

I let the pain guide me.

I embrace the sorrow that swirls within my soul.

Even though I know my weapon is useless against this horrifying creature, and he possesses terrifying might beyond anything humanly possible, I still point it at him with unshakable resolve.

"You aren't afraid of death… yet you don't want to die." He murmurs, perplexed at my answer.

I don't expect him to understand.

Ever since I regressed to the past and lived a new life, I haven't had a single person who understood me—not entirely. I do not seek such a thing as that.

All I simply want is to live according to my wishes while staying true to my desires.

And right now… the only thing I desire is to see this Zarius die!

Expire!

Perish, never to return!

"Even if I die trying… I will use all of my strength to achieve this goal of mine!"

I will fulfill my promise…

Zarius must suffer!

He must scream and writhe in pain before I finally put him out of his misery with my own two hands—I'll make sure of it.

Despite how impossible all of this seems, I do not back away from it.

It's just as Brad told me: Nothing is impossible to a man who has chosen to bear hope in his heart.

Hope that I will succeed.

Hope that I will win.

Even against such a being as a Leviathan… I will slay it and emerge victorious!

I spit out blood and let out a crazed grin.

Then, with a shout of triumph, I let out a heaven-piercing cry.

"This… is my final treatise!"

"Fool…" Zarius shakes his head and moves towards me. "… Just go and die."

'Here he comes!'

My eyes widen, and I grit my teeth, ready for impact.

Then—

BOOM!!!

I hear a loud explosion behind me, and my lips curl up almost immediately. In response to the sound, I hurriedly twist my body and send all manner of slashes in that direction.

Much to my satisfaction, Zarius is right there—stunned.

"Y-you!"

He hurriedly retreats backward, but another explosion—this time thrice as destructive as the one earlier—bursts from beneath him.

"What?"

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

'H-huh?!'

My eye widens in slight shock as I see his body weakly fly away, affected by the blast. I did hope that my trap would cause him some damage, but I never expected it to be so effective!

He expertly twists in the air, before landing on his two feet as he looks at me, stunned.

"You… planted traps?"

I smile.

Yes… I did!

I used my expenditure-type Armaments to create mine fields all over this area.

"When did you…?" Before he finishes his sentence, Zarius's eyes widen a little. "I see… so while I was distracted with that army, you decided to set traps around yourself."

He is right on point.

I quickly charge towards him, blade in hand.

'I could have spent my time whining and crying, but after my friends died, there was no point in grieving any longer. Rather than stay paralyzed, I decided to make the most out of my time.' My thoughts flow as I glare at my opponent.

Even though I had to drag my body through most of it, I made sure to set up a decent number of traps. Even Zarius may never be able to find all of them.

"Tch!" He scoffs mildly. "I'll just kill you before they activate, then…"

"Give it a try, then!"

Before I realize it, he vanishes once again, and I am unable to detect his presence in the slightest.

Then—

WHUUUSH!

A bright blue light shimmers around me, serving as a layer of protection.

After seeing this, I realize Zarius must have tried to attack me.

But where is he now?

I quickly look and find out he has been sent flying by the pulse from the third C Grade Armament that perfectly complements this barrier one.

His destination… is just as I predicted.

—Towards yet another explosive mine!

BOOOOM!!!

Unfortunately, he vanishes right before the Armament explodes, creating some distance from me.

He sends a few concealed daggers in my direction, but my barrier deflects all of them.

Then, I once again rush towards him.

However, midway—

"Gahh!" I fall to the ground, groaning heavily as a result of the searing pain that courses through my already damaged body.

"Haha! At your limits already? Then, let me finish you off!"

Zarius once again vanishes, closing the distance in a flash. I only hear the sound of my barrier shattering before I see his feet above mine, ready to crush it like he did Dahlia's.

But—

"Potion of Tempest Breath!"

I quickly let out vast gusts of wind from my lips. It shifts him further from me, protecting me from his powerful stomp, which causes the ground right in front of me to shatter into several particles.

"You're only delaying the inevitable…" He sighs and shakes his head, drawing his blade as a murderous glint manifests in his eyes.

The winds from earlier did not damage him whatsoever, but that was never my intention.

I just needed him to be a distance away.

… For my last trick, the only thing I managed to learn from my Shaman friends.

"Sealing Cube!"

In a flash, bright white sparks erupt from all around Zarius, merging to form a translucent box barely two meters in height and half a meter in width.

This was one of Nathania's specialty Spells, useful for trapping her targets within a short moment. The cube doesn't last very long, but it takes a brief activation time, and it is quite sturdy.

Naturally, it can be countered by Armaments and Potions, but this man doesn't use any.

All this time, he has been attacking with his body or weapon.

However, because he possesses incredible strength and speed, this has been more than sufficient to handle all the situations he has experienced thus far. He would attack before the enemy even had the chance to do anything, and his blows were decisive.

Fighting him made me realize it quickly: he is impossible to defeat in a straightforward battle.

But… with traps, that's a completely different matter.

I laid my traps everywhere, then doused the rest of my Potions around to create Trace Elements everywhere, making it difficult to differentiate between areas with Armaments and without Armaments.

I carefully hid the Special Resources necessary to cast the Sealing Cube Spell with my only Grade 4 Potion of Mistwalk. The Potion turns its target into mist for a few seconds to a few minutes, depending on dosage.

I had to time it perfectly, so I used the appropriate dosage, turning the Special Resources into mist in that location, while making it seem like they were simply Trace Elements.

Once it was time, I pushed Zarius to the location I prepared and activated the Sealing Cube Spell.

"Hehe…" I chuckle coldly. "You won't be able to escape for a while, but that's enough for me."

"Y-you—!"

I can see his expression slowly twisting into an ugly one.

His brows twitch in panic.

He can't believe it, I'm sure, that he could have been fooled by a mere human like me.

"Do you know what is beneath you?" I point to the ground below, laughing aloud as I see his eyes flash with deep suspicion.

Within the blink of an eye, I see that the bright light of the cube beneath the ground has been exposed. All the dirt around has been scattered in all directions, most likely as a result of Zarius's mindless digging.

"I think I understand your power now…" I mumble, my eyes narrowing at him suspiciously.

"You hold the power to control time."

He glares at me deeply, his face showing both shock and anger.

"More specifically, you can increase the flow of time on your body… making you faster than everyone else. At first, I thought maybe I was the one moving slowly, but that isn't at all the case."

No one is moving slowly.

Not me… not the army… not the rest of the world.

It's him who's moving quickly.

One thing that confirmed this is the way the Trace Element on him vanished so quickly, even though he touched my Armament for a brief moment. Depending on the kind of Armament, Trace Elements last a long time and can exist for weeks.

Mine is only a C Grade Armament, so anyone who merely touches it for a brief time would have the Trace Element embedded on them for about a day. The environment would have more Trace Elements present, since the Armament would have been exposed to it for longer.

However, now that I look at this man, I see no Trace Elements on him… even though it was previously present.

That means a day has likely passed to him, even though it has only been some hours to me.

Also, seeing how the injuries he sustained from my initial trap's explosion have only aggravated over time, rapidly affecting him a lot more than would be necessary in such a brief period, it's clear that his time is faster.

How exactly does it work, though? What are the parameters? The limitations?

I have no idea.

But does it matter?

If I trap him in a single location, does it matter how much time passes for him? As long as he is stuck in a designated position, he won't be able to do anything to me.

That's why I went with the Sealing Cube.

Honestly, I already had my suspicions from way earlier, after feeling the impact of his blows and watching his footsteps on the ground.

It's clear that he is not running, but walking casually, yet his speed is unreal.

The velocity he carries and the impact of each strike are much too powerful for casual blows.

This speed… It's all about time.

If he experiences time faster, it allows him to casually attack, yet his body will display an absurd level of strength upon impact. The same applies to how high he leaps and how easy it is for him to initiate certain actions without any effort.

He isn't using Potions or Armaments, which means this has to be his innate power.

The power of a Leviathan!

'Time is the most valuable thing in existence. If the Leviathans hold the power to control such a thing, then they are indeed the ones who move the world.' I sigh deeply, brandishing my blade as I slowly rise to my feet.

Of course, I pretended to fall back then.

It was all to get Zarius to the designated location and activate my plan.

Now… the time has come.

"You have nowhere to run. I know exactly when the Sealing Cube will deactivate, but right when it does, I will make sure all the traps I planted in the vicinity activate at the same time. This includes poisonous Potions and explosive Armaments. In fact, right beneath you is an Armament that will deactivate the moment the cube deactivates. I don't care how fast you are; you still have to travel through space, which means you will have to traverse the distance to escape. Without knowing where the traps are, you will simply die amidst all of these traps."

The more I speak, the paler Zarius' face becomes.

"As for me, I will be watching from a safe distance. Even if you manage to survive, I will come for you… and I will make sure to finish you off." I tell him with utmost certainty. "This place will be your grave, and I will be your executioner."

To be honest, even though I said all of these things, I am bluffing for the most part.

How could I have so many useful Armaments and Potions at my disposal? Even if I did, without knowing full well how this man's power operates, it's difficult to be confident about my plan.

But—

'Just look at his face…' Despite the deep pain in my chest, I laugh aloud. 'Does he seriously believe me? He's panicking so much!'

Honestly, I'm trying my best to make him waste his energy trying to try and escape the Cube.

The more time he uses, the quicker the effect of my very first explosive trap will spread through his body.

What effect, one might ask?

Clearly, it's poison.

If he keeps increasing the rate of his time, the poison will flow faster, and he'll become more sluggish, eventually reaching his death. I have indeed planted some traps around, but they are mainly to stall him.

Even that explosion from the second trap only wounded him, but didn't finish the job, so I'm not confident that my other traps will be able to kill him.

He is simply too sturdy.

It's also why the poison is taking so long to completely get rid of him.

"You… will regret this." Zarius stares at me with deep killing intent. "Once I get out of here, I will make sure you experience the greatest pain while struggling to your utmost."

Confronted with his terrifying gaze, I merely smile lightly.

"So what?" I shrug casually, ignoring the intensity of the moment. "In the end, struggle and pain are proof that I am alive."

I hate this man—far more than I have ever hated anyone.

I want to kill him more than anything.

So, instead of focusing on my pain and fear, I have chosen to keep my focus on the desires embedded deeply within my heart.

To hell with despair!

I have long abandoned the possibility of loss, only clinging to hope.

I have chosen to stand and fight—living true to my desires up until the end.

This is the true meaning of my life.

And, even if I have to forfeit this life of mine, I will keep marching forward towards my goal.

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