I’m Here to End This Fight

Chapter 7: Thirst (2)

Yuri’s abrupt dive straight into the matter made Johan click his tongue softly.

“Tsk, kid. When someone feeds you, shouldn’t you at least say ‘thank you’?”

“Let’s call it even with the rent for using my house.”

“And bringing you all the way here doesn’t count?”

“Whose fault was it that I passed out?”

Johan gave a dry laugh inwardly at Yuri’s unyielding attitude.

‘Surely, he’s not an easy one.’

Despite the reputation of the Master and the Unyielding Sword, Yuri showed no signs of being intimidated.

Instead, he was even more guarded.

From Yuri’s demeanor, Johan could roughly guess what kind of hardships the young boy had endured.

‘People like him only rebel more when provoked.’

With someone like Yuri, rather than continuously provoking him, it was necessary to give him what he wanted and gradually build trust.

And right now, what Yuri wanted was the reward from their previous deal.

Johan wiped his greasy hands on his pants and spoke in a low voice.

“The thing you call a curse… is actually called an Avatar.”

Yuri’s eyes flashed with curiosity at Johan’s words.

“Avatar?”

“Yes, an Avatar. Or the manifestation of one’s mental image, also known as a spiritual technique used by those who have reached the level of a Master.”

“……”

“Originally, the human body can enhance its capabilities through muscle training or the use of magic. But no matter how talented, the spiritual realm is not something one can easily approach.”

Johan’s explanation was a high-level discourse on the manifestation of mental images, something many dreamt of but never achieved.

It was a lecture that someone stuck at the 9th Dan would pay a fortune to hear, being delivered in a shabby cave.

“After a long time of training the body and energy, if you gain a special trigger, you can access the spiritual realm.”

“A special trigger? What is that?”

Johan tapped his head lightly with his index finger.

“This. Your brain.”

“The brain?”

“Precisely, the brain inside this head.”

“Why is that?”

“Inside the human brain lies the entrance to the spiritual realm. The special trigger refers to opening that entrance.”

“……”

“Those who manifest an Avatar can open the spiritual entrance in their brain, commonly known as the ‘spiritual hole.’ People often say ‘the lid is open.’ Usually, this lid opens and closes…”

“And?”

“In your case, the lid remains perpetually open.”

Yuri’s face went blank as he listened to Johan.

“So… this isn’t a disease or a curse?”

Disappointment spread across Yuri’s face.

‘No wonder… no wonder I couldn’t find it!’

The reason he couldn’t find an answer despite searching desperately for years to get rid of his curse was here.

The approach had been wrong from the beginning.

How could he find something that’s not a curse or a disease within that category?

Also, the technique could only be performed by those who had reached the level of a Master.

How could ordinary people know about it?

While Yuri stood in a daze from disappointment, Johan’s voice flowed back to him.

“Of course, it’s not a curse. It’s actually the greatest treasure many spend their entire lives searching for… But for you, it’s no different from a curse.”

“……?”

“The realm you’ve reached originally requires a balance of spirit, energy, and body to open the new world. But right now, your state is abnormal with an overgrown spirit. So…”

“Due to the broken balance, my body is collapsing?”

Johan’s eyes gleamed at Yuri’s precise assessment.

“That’s an accurate expression.”

Vomiting blood, passing out.

The phenomena Yuri had experienced were precursors to his body’s collapse.

Yuri, facing the truth of the mystery he had harbored for years, looked at Johan with trembling eyes and asked,

“So, how can I survive…?”

“You need to balance your spirit, energy, and body, and further learn to open and close the lid on your head.”

“If I agree to the deal you mentioned… can I learn those things?”

“Of course. Hehe.”

Watching Johan’s joyful laughter, Yuri’s eyes narrowed slightly.

“What do I have to do in return for this deal? What do you gain?”

“Nothing much. I want you to wholeheartedly master what I teach you.”

A question mark appeared above Yuri’s head.

“Something feels off. Are you saying that what I gain from the deal is the same as what you want?”

Johan grinned at Yuri’s question.

“I won’t be teaching you the martial arts I’ve mastered, but the ones I’ve newly compiled recently.”

“Is it good?”

“Of course! Would anything I created be some cheap patchwork martial art? But…”

“But?”

“There’s a very, very minor issue… the safety hasn’t been verified yet. But that’s not your concern.”

“……”

Yuri’s gaze at Johan turned cold instantly.

He asked incredulously,

“So, you want me to be your test subject?”

“Ahem. If you put it that way, yes.”

“Can I die while mastering it?”

“It’s not impossible.”

“…Can’t you teach me something else?”

“Do you think that’s possible?”

Yuri’s eyes grew colder and colder.

Johan just shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly.

“Whether you die this way or that, wouldn’t it be better to try something and then die?”

“Earlier, you were talking about how you needed to prove to save me, as if you’d save me once it’s proven. Now, why does everything end with me dying?”

“When did I lie? If nothing happens while mastering it, you’ll live.”

“And if something happens?”

“Then, you die.”

“You scammer!”

Johan chuckled as Yuri yelled at him.

“So, do you dislike it? Not going to do it?”

Yuri’s forehead throbbed with a vein as he saw Johan’s annoying eyes curved like a crescent moon.

But he couldn’t bring himself to say no.

Yuri understood.

Maybe this was the first and last chance to extinguish his burning wick.

‘If I miss this chance… can my body hold out until the next one?’

Even if learning to handle mana and the body was something, mastering the Avatar was said to be a Master’s privilege.

When could he meet another Master again if not now?

Even if he met one, would they teach him how to handle the Avatar?

No matter how many times he pondered, ‘the next chance’ didn’t easily come to mind.

‘Damn it…’

It was an overwhelmingly disadvantageous situation for him, no matter how much he thought about it.

Conditions he had no choice but to accept.

Knowing this, that old man Johan must be so confident.

‘You sly old fox!’

Yuri let out a heavy sigh inwardly and cautiously lowered his gaze.

“…What are the chances of survival?”

“That depends on you.”

“Damn it…”

A low curse mixed with frustration.

But Johan, realizing this was an acceptance of his proposal, chuckled.

Thus, on one of the last days of winter,

A peculiar relationship between master and apprentice, experimenter and test subject, was established around a small campfire.

* * *

In a spacious room.

Ashiraf and Gunther faced each other near a fireplace with flames flickering.

In the silence, Gunther recalled the events of the day.

‘What on earth was that?’

The Unyielding Sword and a boy named Yuri had appeared after his test.

And the series of events that followed due to them.

All of it had been a shocking experience for Gunther.

And Ashiraf, sensing his son’s inner turmoil, spoke softly.

“What that boy Yuri showed today is a state called Avatar.”

“…What is an Avatar?”

In response to Gunther’s low question, Ashiraf shared what he knew about Avatars.

Of course, it was only that they were something used by masters who had reached a high level.

But even that was enough to overwhelm Gunther with shock.

He murmured with a stiff face.

“I have to compete with someone like that in the Cradle?”

That kid Yuri also passed the Cradle’s test.

That meant they would enter the same batch.

Hearing his son’s murmur, Ashiraf casually asked,

“Are you worried?”

“More than worried, I feel burdened.”

At his son’s unhesitating reply, warmth filled Ashiraf’s eyes.

‘This boy…’

Ashiraf knew Gunther well.

Worry and burden.

Although similar in negative meaning, the two words Gunther used had quite different implications.

If it was something his son couldn’t solve, he would have said he was worried.

‘But even though it’s a difficult challenge, he sees it as something worth attempting, so he called it a burden.’

Feeling burdened meant he thought it was something he could handle.

That was the meaning of the ‘burden’ Gunther mentioned.

With a smile forming at the corner of his mouth, Ashiraf spoke.

“You don’t need to worry too much about that boy. Johan and that boy Yuri won’t be heading to the Cradle.”

Gunther tilted his head slightly at Ashiraf’s confident statement.

“Why not?”

“Do you know how the Cradle came to be?”

Gunther nodded at his father’s question.

“Yes, I know roughly.”

It was said that the Lymant Continent resembled a dragon lying down.

At its southern tip was a huge lake.

The lake was so vast that from a distance, it seemed like the sea, and due to its geographical features, it looked like a dragon cradling an egg.

Thus, it was called the Dragon’s Egg, or Lake Monparche in ancient language. But this too was altered by the Sword Master.

“I know that the Sword Master created an island in Lake Monparche, which is the origin of the Cradle.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

The Sword Master gathered a vast amount of human and material resources to Lake Monparche and began creating an artificial island.

An unprecedented event that shocked the world, which everyone deemed mad and impossible.

But contrary to the world’s disbelief, the island in Lake Monparche was indeed created.

In just half a year.

‘There was even a joke that if the gold used for the artificial island during those six months were stacked, it would reach the clouds.’

The artificial island, created by spending gold like water, continued to expand as more resources were invested.

Now, decades later, a gigantic island several times the size of a typical territory stood in Lake Monparche.

The lake that once seemed like the Dragon’s Egg now looked like a cradle surrounding the egg.

Later, the Sword Master named the lake and the artificial island together as the Dragon’s Cradle, declaring it his domain.

“They say the Dragon’s Cradle is now regarded as an academy?”

It had been decades since the creation of the Dragon’s Cradle.

The talents chosen by the Sword Master were likened to eggs, and after spending five years in the Cradle, they were called the hatchlings raised by the Sword Master.

As these hatchlings gained fame, public perception shifted.

People started seeing the Dragon’s Cradle as a ‘training institution’ that one must go through to succeed.

Ashiraf laughed at such societal views.

“An academy? The Dragon’s Cradle is not such a shallow place. It’s more like an army.”

In truth, the term ‘army’ didn’t do it justice; it was more like a lawless zone running under the absolute principle of ‘the survival of the fittest.’

Ashiraf only referred to it as an army because there was at least minimal discipline.

“The Dragon’s Cradle originally referred to the Sword Master’s domain, and it still does. Even Johan Redner can’t come and go freely without permission.”

“Ah!”

“Once inside, you can’t leave for at least five years. He won’t send a precious apprentice away immediately.”

Especially if it was ‘that peculiar boy,’ he must not be sent to the Cradle.

‘If I noticed it, the Unyielding Sword surely would have as well.’

For this reason, Ashiraf was confident in his thoughts.

Maybe in a few years, but Yuri wouldn’t enter the Cradle in this batch.

‘There are about 11 months left until this batch enters. If Yuri’s peculiarity is corrected within that time, it’s fine… but that’s impossible.’

Ashiraf smiled slightly at his own thoughts.

It was impossible.

* * *

After Yuri and Johan finished their negotiations.

Yuri, about to lie down again, suddenly sat up straight at Johan’s unexpected words.

“You’re leaving? Where to?”

At Yuri’s question, Johan replied with a face that seemed to say, ‘What nonsense is this kid talking about?’

“Where else? To the Cradle, of course.”