A dull longsword and a heartbroken villager

Bray completely ignored this scene, because "Black Key" had already completed its task.

Without the blade, the sword is incredibly light, so Bray can finish his move without any hesitation.

With his right hand moving away, the longsword pierced straight towards Redip's chest.

There was no hesitation or pity in Bray's eyes; he was calm as if the person fighting him was not an old acquaintance.

"Swoosh—" Redip's pupils contracted sharply as the broken blade emerged from his back.

One sword, piercing through.

However, after successfully landing the sword, Bray immediately withdrew it and used the momentum of the movement to create distance between himself and Redip.

Unfortunately, Bray was a step too slow.

Bray anticipated the opponent's next move, but he still couldn't keep up with the speed in time.

"Crack—" The back of the fist struck Bray's sternum before he could withdraw, and Bray could hear a crisp crack coming from his body.

The sound of bones breaking is something that the person hearing it can hear much more clearly than others.

However, because of the advance warning, the lung was barely saved and was not injured by bone fragments.

Bray gritted his teeth, and blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.

His bloodshot right eye was fixed on Redip.

It was already covered in injuries, and several key bones were broken... A normal person couldn't even stand up.

But Bray stubbornly continued to fight despite his mutilated body.

"Drink—" Bray opened his mouth, which was full of his own blood, and exhaled a breath.

The breath of a demon.

What stands there is not a hero, but a demon.

Only at this moment did Bray feel that the title "Demon Hunter" was truly fitting.

Her hair hung down, obscuring Bray's face.

But the gaze from his right eye could still penetrate through the hair and reach the other person's mind.

There is no desert, but the gloomy sky remains.

The sky, pressed down by clouds, awaits a ray of light.

That desert, that fortress, are all projections of Brei's mental world.

The mental imagery world is not used lightly, and besides, it would be meaningless to use it under normal circumstances.

The moment this mental world unfolded into reality, it indicated that Bray's condition was extremely poor.

Of course, having accepted this commission, Bray had already prepared himself for such a thing.

However, the one thing Bray had no intention of accepting was death.

But... he still has people waiting for him.

Bray didn't want Naruko to be a widow, nor did he want his child to be without a father.

He didn't want this melodramatic plot twist.

“Hey, Redip,” Bray called out in a hoarse voice.

Redip didn't respond, but Bray didn't care; it was simply Bray who wanted to speak.

It's fine if the other person responds, or it doesn't matter if they don't.

There is only one ending that you and I can accept.

Bray didn't finish his sentence, but everyone knew what the right ending was.

Brei lives, Redip dies.

“Black Key, come back.” Bray murmured, his hand trembling as he swung the hilt of his sword.

The scattered fragments returned to their nest when the words were finished.

At that moment, the world seemed to become a flat plane with only black and white colors.

White background, black silhouette.

The silhouettes of everything fall onto this pristine white "paper".

This is a silhouette painting.

Two figures stand in the very center of the painting, their presence overshadowing everything around them: one is the fisherman frozen in place, and the other is the adventurer who seems about to fall but does not.

In this silhouette painting, countless fragments pass through the fisherman's body.

Blood—no, ink—splashed onto the snow-white background like fluttering petals.

The fragments fell orderly onto the hilt, piecing together a complete broadsword.

The adventurer leisurely flicked the ink off his blade.

Then, the world returned to normal.

No, the world has never changed.

The silhouette-like scene just now was merely an illusion created by the overwhelming shock.

Bray used his broadsword to steady himself.

This isn't the first time this trick has been used... but this time it's different from any of the previous times.

Such sword techniques are probably only something that the "Black Key" could use.

In that case...

“Let’s call it ‘Returning Crow’,” Bray muttered to himself.

"I flow" "Returning crow" "Cough cough..." Redip clutched the hole in his chest, his eyes growing increasingly dazed.

His body was covered in large and small wounds from the shards, each one very deep.

He kept lying on the ground, supporting himself with one hand.

Redip did not have the ability to recover quickly, and the massive blood loss left him somewhat disoriented.

"I don't want to die."

Redip had never been so strongly driven by instinct.

His eyes lost their luster, completely obscured by cracks.

"No...it has to end here."

After Redip got up, almost as if he was about to reach out his claws to grab Bray, he forcibly suppressed his movement.

The fisherman knew that life is very afraid of death.

The premise of not fearing death is to live, for one's own life and for the life of others.

Therefore, he was never afraid of his fate, but he felt a little lonely and a little worried about Dove.

“Continue…” Redip managed to squeeze out the words from his throat.

"BOOM!!!!!!!!!" Redip pressed his battered right hand to the ground, and the ground began to shake the next second.

The water curtain was collapsing, but everyone in the secret realm noticed that the place was rising.

An undercurrent propels the area where the secret realm is located.

The power of the waves is a great force of nature.

With the "Final Echo" suppressing his own concepts, Redip is doing everything he can to push this secret realm forward.

“Bray…”

“No one can die here except me.” Redip’s hand, which was on the ground, slowly rose upwards.

But he raised his arm very slowly, as if his arm was entangled by something heavy.

Redip raised his hand slightly, and the secret realm rose slightly as well.

Water gradually flowed down the water curtain, and the current became increasingly fierce.

The seawater that was originally blocked by the water curtain is now flowing in.

Redip's consciousness was no longer sufficient to sustain this secret realm.

If these water curtains, fixed by concepts, disappear, everyone in this place will die.

To drown, or to be eaten by ocean monsters.

There were ordinary people, there was Bray... and there was Dove.

Redip's last remaining will wouldn't allow this to happen; he didn't create this place to kill innocent people.

"..." Sensing the changes around him, Bray fell silent.

He closed his right eye and understood what kind of changes were taking place in this place.

Redip is trying to use his own power to raise this place above the sea.

But this is the seabed, far from the surface.

Moreover, raising the secret realm also means raising the ground beneath our feet.

Redip... is trying to create a giant island using his own power.

If the concept hadn't been suppressed by "The Last Song," Bray had no doubt that Redip would have been able to do it.

But now all concepts are suppressed, including Redip's.

Bray laboriously sheathed his longsword, his eyelids drooping.

---

With a deafening roar, the water curtain vanished completely.

However, this torrent was not the sound of seawater flowing in from outside the water curtain, but rather the sound of water surging onto the ground after the water curtain itself disappeared.

The intense tremors on the ground slowly subsided, and the wreckage was drenched from head to toe by the seawater that formed a curtain of water.

It wasn't just Bray; everyone in the secret realm enjoyed this treatment.

However, at the same time, everyone was given a chance to survive.

This is the life that Redip won for them.

Greedy people entered what was originally a place where fishermen could rest and recuperate, but in the end, the fishermen gave these greedy people a way to survive.

Bray looked up, squinted his right eye, and saw the light.

The mental world intertwines with the sky of the real world, allowing the thick clouds to peek through with a faint glow.

If the world of mental images also sees the dawn, the sunlight will surely be very bright.

The place where Bray is standing can no longer remain the seabed.

This is now a legitimate island, a new island that has risen from beneath the sea.

However, Bray's face remained expressionless.

His slightly enlarged right eye remained as lifeless as ever.

There was nothing to be happy about; his mission was not accomplished.

"Roar!!!!!" A roar resounded directly in front of the dam.

The roar was so terrifying that it blasted the accumulated water apart, the spray forming a curtain that obscured Ray's vision.

However, Bray already knew what was behind the splash.

A ripple appeared in his right eye, but it quickly returned to calm, turning into a stagnant pool once more.

That moment of turmoil was one of sorrow.

Redip has been holding on for a long time; it's Bray who's been too slow.

Or perhaps he was too weak, too weak to give Redip a quick death.

"Dove, close your eyes," Bray said.

"..." Dove hadn't yet recovered from the transformation from the seabed to the island.