Rune dodged under a few wild swings as he rushed toward another one of the men.
The three strikes of Triple Judgement came fast.
First came the staggering blow, meant to knock the target off balance.
The second followed with the armor-breaking swing, leaving them exposed.
The last and final strike landed swift and heavy, light erupting as the axe blade hit its mark.
This time, when the man was blasted backward, he was impaled on a jagged root jutting from the ground.
Rune hadn't seen someone truly die in this world before. All he knew was that people revived at the nearest temple of the Unnamed One, or, if they belonged to a large enough faction, they could choose to revive at their own.
The man's body dissolved slowly into blue motes of light, drifting upward through the forest canopy.
Rune didn't have time to dwell on the fact that this was the first time he'd killed something other than a monster.
The leader of the Crown thugs forced himself upright, fueled by rage and adrenaline.
"Carl! Why did you kill Carl?! Damn you! What did he ever do to you?!"
"Did you hit your head?" Rune shot back. "You attacked me. What did you expect me to do, not defend myself?"
A hesitant voice spoke up from a short distance to the leader's left.
"Um, boss? I'm right here. That wasn't me. That was one of the new recruits you dragged along today."
"Oh," the leader said, pausing as he struggled to recover.
"Shut up, Carl! Why aren't you attacking him right now?!"
The truth was, he never got the chance. Rune had used the argument to slip in behind Carl and unleash another Triple Judgement.
Just as the third strike was about to land, Rune grabbed the back of Carl's armor with his free hand, using the force of the explosion to launch himself forward.
As Rune and Carl flew toward the leader, Carl's body dissolved into motes, unable to withstand the full force of the explosion that had just struck him.
Rune landed close to the large man, who was now using his massive sword to prop himself up.
Again, shadow wrapped around Rune's body, allowing him to shift his movement with unnatural grace.
'I can really get used to this. Light and shadow really do work well together.'
Rune moved in beside the leader, sidestepping a heavy downward slash and opening a narrow path forward. He surged in with a flurry of shadow-infused blows.
He knew his strikes wouldn't break through the man's armor, so he focused on speed rather than power.
Shadow scattered across the man's body, clinging to every impact. His armor, which had already been cracked by Triple Judgement, began to melt away rapidly.
Two elements working together… that thought had lingered in his head.
Rune's body started to move on its own, remembering fights and training he couldn't.
He jumped, twisting his body in a single, tight rotation. As he spun, both axes swept through the air at a steep angle, carving two identical paths.
The first arc tore free as shadow.
It struck before the blades finished their motion, gouging a dark channel straight through the leader's body, eating away resistance and leaving only a hollowed space in its wake.
A split second later, light followed.
The second arc flashed through the same path, clean and absolute, passing straight through the man where the shadow had already stripped everything away.
There was no resistance this time. No armor. Nothing to stop it.
The leader froze for a breath.
Then he dissolved into drifting blue motes of light, scattering upward as Rune landed lightly on the ground.
[Turning of the Sky Remembered]
[Element Power increasing… +5]
The last remaining Crown thug was cowering near a tree.
"Listen, man, I just joined a week ago. These guys get you so far into debt by loaning you equipment that they force you to do things."
He stopped mid-sentence, clearly terrified.
"They made me come here. Said I could work off some of that debt by extorting you."
Rune took a second to think about what he wanted to do.
'What kind of person do I want to be? They attacked me first, so I'd be in the right to kill him.'
'At the same time, they're just slowing me down as I push toward what I'm actually here to do. Wait… I can use this.'
"Alright," Rune said at last. "You can live. On one condition. When you go back, you spread the word about what happens to people who mess with me."
Rune slid his axes back into his belt.
"That leader of yours seems like the type to try and sweep this under the rug. Make sure he doesn't. And make sure you do it well."
He tilted his head slightly. "Because next time I see you, I will kill you slowly if you don't."
"Okay, okay, deal." The man didn't wait for Rune to respond, scampering off before he could change his mind.
Rune stretched his back and cracked his neck.
'I killed people... Does it count if they come back to life?'
The thought lingered longer than he expected. This world treated death like a setback, not an ending.
A reset. A mechanic. If death had no finality here, then what did killing actually mean?
'Why didn't I feel anything other than excitement? Even knowing my life was on the line.'
He didn't know who he had been in whatever past life here.
What he did know was that every step he took in this world revealed sides of himself he hadn't known existed.
The old Rune, the one stuck in an office job, would have been terrified. Not excited. Especially not when a group of armed thugs tried to rob him.
If death was temporary, then was taking a life truly wrong, or was it alright?
A punishment without permanence. A lesson delivered by force.
This world blurred the line so thoroughly that Rune couldn't tell where morality was supposed to stand anymore.
Maybe that was the real danger of this place. Not the monsters or the dungeons, but how easily it made those questions feel… distant.
He let out a slow breath.
Then his stomach growled.
Rune blinked. 'Wait. Isn't today the day that street vendor on the way back to the inn puts out their specials?'
The thought derailed everything. If he hurried there now, cleared enough spiders, and sold the ore right after, he might finally have enough to try it. Just once.
Life, death, and the weight of taking it all slipped to the back of his mind as Rune picked up his pace toward the dungeon entrance, his focus now locked on a far more urgent goal.
Killing spiders. Getting paid. And not missing good food for once.