I Became a Foreign Worker Loved by Transcendents

Chapter 213: Hero Of Trials

Hero Im Tae-yang.

No matter how strong the enemy, he had always emerged victorious, building his legacy as an undefeated hero.

His achievements shone even brighter as hope for the people, especially because the world he had been cast into was harsh and cruel.

When such a man suddenly lost his life, it came as a great shock to me, who had believed in him.

-Whoosh!!!

And now, the remnant of the one who had caused that shock stood before me as my enemy.

The wraith that embodied the strongest regret he had held in his final moments was now the opponent I had to face.

-Boom!

The flame that trailed from his swinging torch collided with a blast, causing an explosion.

As I was pushed back by the shockwave and barely regained my focus, a fierce kick tore through the smoke and came straight at me.

-Thud!

I withstood the impact of his attack, repositioned my weapon, and swung it toward his head.

A counterattack launched as I endured his onslaught. With his larger stance, dodging seemed impossible.

-Crack!

However, his leg twisted unnaturally, causing his body to contort and easily evade my strike.

It was a completely unexpected movement.

It meant that responding to his next attack would be nearly impossible.

-Boom!!

Once again, the blue flames exploded with force.

I rolled across the ground from the impact, and as soon as I steadied myself, the weapons around me flew into my hands, and their power surged.

The will coursing through the handles of the weapons caused the blades to unleash a torrent of power.

Using that momentum, I launched a series of relentless attacks with all my might.

-Swish! Slash!

But they didn’t connect.

Each of my strikes was fast enough to leave afterimages, but he dodged them all with just a few steps, all the while keeping his gaze fixed on me.

It was as if he didn’t need to look at the attacks, already knowing where they would land.

Almost as if he knew exactly what I was going to do next.

-Thud!!

At the end of that absurd train of thought came a follow-up kick.

As the shock of his kick rippled through my abdomen, a light began to flicker above my head.

-Whoosh!

No, not a light, but flames.

An attack meant to incinerate my head where I stood, stunned.

“Ugh!”

I gritted my teeth to endure the impact and raised my weapon to block the attack.

I had to block this attack and stab his abdomen to launch a counterattack.

-Crack!

However, his movements were so abnormal that he twisted the trajectory of his attack, which should have landed on my guard.

Movements that were impossible to predict.

As my mind began to go blank, the torch he swung exploded right in front of my head.

“Euugh...!!”

It wasn’t that powerful.

To the past me, it would have been fatal, but now I had endured far stronger attacks and learned how to counter them.

If I could just respond properly, I could easily turn an attack like this around and sever his neck.

-Whoosh, whoosh.

But he wasn’t giving me any opportunities.

Even as a fallen wraith, he didn’t utter a single word of complaint. He simply kept charging at me, focusing solely on landing effective strikes.

The back-and-forth combat felt not just unfair, but almost selfishly one-sided.

Realizing that someone like him was still approaching me, I felt fear rising in my heart.

“Ugh...”

Could I even win?

He rendered all of my attacks meaningless while making every strike of his count...

This monster was practically a cheat—could I really defeat him?

“Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!”

I screamed to shake off my anxious thoughts, throwing and swinging every weapon I had deployed in every direction, trying to push him back.

Hit him, please, just once.

Just one hit will be enough—please let it land.

-Boom!!

But at the end of my desperate assault, all that came back was a powerful strike from his torch.

My body was thrown to the ground by the explosion, and as I lay there, I felt my hand, which should have been gripping my sword, trembling in helplessness.

“Wh-why...?”

I thought I had gotten stronger.

I knew I couldn’t match beings like gods, but I believed I could stand on equal footing with someone like him...

If someone like him stood in my way, I thought I could somehow break through and protect the ones I held dear.

“Why... why can’t my attacks hit him?”

But why, of all people, him?

Why was the one blocking my precious person someone even more hopeless to overcome than the ones that had rendered me powerless before?

“Will you give up?”

At the moment when I was overwhelmed with frustration, a small whisper echoed in my mind.

-Thud!

As soon as I realized this and prepared to counterattack, the torch, which had been swung with unwavering force, suddenly fell to the ground.

The once-unshakable hero had faltered.

It was as if my realization had altered the future that was about to unfold before me.

“Ugh, aaaargh...!!”

I knew my theory was correct when I saw him grab and tear off the paper bag from his own head.

“Ah, argh. Aaaaaah...!!!”

The groans that escaped from his mouth were unlike his previously silent demeanor.

Despite all the fierce exchanges we had, now he was writhing in agony before me, as if desperately trying to escape something.

“What’s going on...?”

“I’ve found the way to defeat him.”

I explained my realization to Annabel, who still hadn’t fully grasped what was happening.

“For me, it’s just been a brief moment, but for him, it’s been repeated countless times.”

Even though I had found the way to defeat him, it was only for a fleeting moment.

But now, I could feel the time rewinding.

I could sense when time was being rewound and respond with a counterattack in that altered moment.

Just by seizing that one possibility, the immortal hero charging at me would fall.

For him, a brief moment for me had become thousands, perhaps tens of thousands...

He had experienced death over and over, and, unable to find a way to win, his mental strength had finally reached its limit.

-Whoom, whoom.

Even as he reached that limit, I could feel him charging toward me again.

Again and again.

-Whoom!

As soon as I felt that awareness repeatedly surface, the writhing before me grew more intense.

The future became clear in my mind—a future where he would keep charging at me, only to lose his life over and over again.

“...How many...”

And that vision quickly led to another realization.

How agonizing his journey had been.

And how painful and wretched his end must have been, despite having a power that theoretically made death impossible...

“Just how many times... have you died...?”

-BOOOM!!!!

Before my lamentation could finish, a powerful explosion erupted.

The moment I realized the explosion came from his head, I instinctively held my breath and raised my sword defensively.

For some unknown reason, his head had exploded.

That should have signified his death, yet time continued to flow, and I remained fully aware of the moment.

Even though his head had exploded into fragments, the remaining scorched pieces stood before me, held together in a ghostly form.

“Ah... ah... aaaah...”

From within the flames rising from him, strained moans escaped his mouth.

Despite the agony, his jaw, no longer able to close, hung open as if eternally screaming...

“AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!”

Even as his entire body became engulfed in flames, he refused to fall, still trying to stand his ground.

He had long surpassed biological death, and it was only as a wraith that his existence continued, barely hanging on.

Just from seeing this, I could feel how strong his will to live was.

I could sense how fierce his regret had been.

“Just how many...”

The persistence and determination to fight against any foe, no matter how powerful.

And the countless times he had repeated acts of self-harm, like placing explosives in his mouth and detonating them to achieve his desired result.

“To save Ga-ram... just how many times have you turned back time?!”

“AAAAAAHHHHH!!!”

Yet, even the wraith created by that strong will had reached the limits of his mental strength, driving him into a berserk state.

Unable to bear watching him any longer, I gritted my teeth and aimed my spear at him as he charged toward me.

To grant peace to the wraith, who was no longer capable of rational thought.

Reminding myself that this was the only thing I could do for him, who wanted to protect Ga-ram.

-Squelch!!!

The spear I thrust pierced his chest, and after a moment of convulsing, he slumped forward, resting his head on my shoulder.

Time would no longer rewind.

The flames consuming his head slowly died down, and his hands hung limply, showing that his will had finally faded away...

“...I... am... sorry.”

In the silence that followed, he whispered his regret, as though confessing what he had left unfinished in life.

His will, which he had tried to uphold until the very end.

“I... couldn’t... protect... in the end...”

His whispered words carried the sorrow of not being able to fulfill his wish, despite passing his will onto me.

“No, you protected her wonderfully.”

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But his end would not be a pitiful one.

I paid tribute to the final moments of my steadfast friend, suppressing my tears as I approached the crystal behind him.

“It’s because you protected her that I made it this far.”

Even in a world that dealt such tragic fates, there was still a reason to live.

And through the life of this hero, who had endured so many trials, I realized that there was still value in protecting someone.