60. Sword Eclipse (7)
BOOM! Crash! KABOOM!
Another earth-shattering strike from the greatsword kicked up a thick cloud of dust. Once more, Roengreen had failed to land a proper cut on anything. Cold sweat trickled down his cheek, and his eyes bulged wide—not from thoughts of defeat, but because ever since he'd started trading blows with Isaac like this, it already felt no different from losing.
Proof of that lay in how his gaze had stopped drifting toward Arandel at some point.
“You think you can win just by running away like that!?”
Roengreen bellowed at Isaac, frustration boiling over. But Isaac's eyes showed not a flicker of distraction; they were locked in utter focus, advancing toward the next exchange. As if these meaningless clashes were each a step closer to victory.
And that... that made Roengreen's heart pound even harder.
The sensation of being cornered by some lowly commoner—when he was a Helmont, called an overwhelming force. Worse, it wasn't just him feeling it; the others around them sensed it too. The Helmont knights' napes burned with an inexplicable fear, while the onlookers watched him with thrilled, pounding eyes.
It felt like he'd become one of those beasts the knights captured for training—live prey to teach real combat experience. The moment his thoughts reached the idea that Isaac was using him to demonstrate how to fell a Helmont beast...
Roengreen's eyes rolled involuntarily. Even as their swords clashed, he glanced at Arandel instead of Isaac.
And there...
Arandel Helmont stared at Isaac with an expression he'd never shown any family member before. His body was tilted slightly forward, the corners of his mouth lifted toward his ears. Even Galeniya and Lianna flanking him looked stunned—not at the duel, but at Arandel's face.
It wasn't hard to guess just how astonishing this was.
And...
He's... smiling?
Clang!
Roengreen's greatsword dipped low for an instant. Cheers erupted from all sides, cries that Isaac's efforts had finally borne fruit and reached him. But...
He's smiling?
Unable to pierce the Red Aura surging from Roengreen's body, Isaac pulled back again.
“Ha, haha... hahaha!”
Roengreen clutched his face, demon aura flickering in his eyes. Madness flooded the rose-like red glow, turning his darkened gaze into that of a bloodthirsty fiend.
“I'll kill you.”
Everything grated on him. The shift in the duel at some point. The fact that he was being attacked not by a Helmont greatsword, but by two flimsy blades. The way it seemed to preach to everyone that Helmont swords weren't invincible. Why this cripple he'd always beaten senseless was now fighting him tooth and nail. How the sunset dyed Isaac's black hair red like a Helmont's. And finally...
His father taking an interest.
“I'll definitely kill you.”
His pride and self-esteem lay trampled. The Red Aura cloaking Roengreen's body vanished for a split second.
And then—
Whoosh!
It surged skyward from his greatsword, blotting out the heavens.
“Kyaaak!”
“He's gone mad! What the hell!”
“C-can't... breathe...”
The spectators screamed in terror and shock. Just being nearby made agony spill from their lips. The overwhelming Helmont power dominated the space, slicing toward the sky itself.
Roengreen hoisted the blade high with both hands, tears welling as he grinned brightly.
“Do you see it, Father?”
He desperately wanted his father to witness this clearly.
“The strike you showed just once.”
The greatest, most overwhelming blow Arandel Helmont had ever unleashed. He'd never been taught it, but Roengreen had never forgotten that sword he'd glimpsed as a child. He'd strived endlessly to imitate it, to replicate it.
And now...
It was complete.
“I am your successor! The next head of the great Helmont familyyy!”
He just wanted to follow the path his father had walked. To chase that glorious back as a son, elevating its brilliance. To become someone worthy of the name.
Exterminating Crimson Strike.
It shattered, tore, burned, and crumbled. The legendary ultimate blow, shown only by Helmont heads, now bore down on Isaac.
* * *
Staring at the strike meant to crush him, Isaac's lips twitched upward. In the distance, he caught Lianna's shocked attempt to intervene and Arandel holding her back. Could his father-in-law wear such a grin? A roguish smile paired with excitement Isaac had never seen before—not before regression, not after.
Seeing Arandel thrilled like that, Isaac's own lips curled into a grin.
The greatness of that sword is undeniable.
Until moments ago, he'd dismantled Helmont swordsmanship, showing the warriors around them that Helmonts were no longer invincible.
But conversely...
Because he'd broken down Helmont swordsmanship, Isaac had to admit it honestly. Helmont blades were truly captivating. Something countless swordsmen yearned for but couldn't replicate—praised to the point of being called insurmountable.
[Why fight them again?]
...
[Your heart's like a reed in the wind. Hate the Helmonts or love them—pick one.]
It's just frustrating that one of our allies spouts that moronic line about Helmonts fighting only with brute force.
[Tch, fine. I get it.]
He hated the Helmonts.
But he admired their swords.
Only his Great Master had understood those tangled feelings.
[The work of the world's most talented swordsman, built by casting aside everything.]
[You can't deny yearning for it.]
Truth be told, from some point while studying Helmont swords, he'd found himself convinced. If they'd discarded everything for this...
Yeah, he'd have to accept it.
But...
When he'd delved deeper, pursuing greater understanding and probing Arandel's testament to glimpse the Helmont pinnacle...
Isaac had sighed—and raged.
“Raaahhh!”
With a shout, the Exterminating Crimson Strike descended. He'd never dreamed he'd face this in his lifetime.
As the flame-like Red Aura roiled toward him, Isaac raised his taedo skyward.
Astoundingly, the aura's flow shifted. Such a simple, unadorned motion. Like ink from a brush tip, as Isaac swung, the Red Aura rippled and coiled around it.
The ferocious power that had howled moments ago now meekly submitted to the enemy. A shocking sight.
“Wh-what the hell is that?!”
“He took the Helmont power?”
“Impossible!”
They knew nothing. Isaac sneered inwardly.
Helmont swords centered on power, but power wasn't everything. Roengreen was merely imitating the strike Arandel wielded.
Did Arandel truly swing solely on brute force?
Never.
If the Kaldias spear was designed for all to wield universally...
The Helmont sword felt infused with intent to make it inimitable.
Roengreen's blunder lay in: one step too short, grip position on the greatsword, blade angle, the greatsword's unsuitable length for Exterminating Crimson Strike, shallow breaths, uncondensed Red Aura—and more.
Petty errors, layered upon each other.
Conversely, Arandel's sword—the current Helmont head's—allowed no such trifles.
“Ah, niiiya—!”
The imperfect Exterminating Crimson Strike's Red Aura twisted its flow, now swirling around Isaac. As if he commanded it. Roengreen's face twisted in horror.
His father's strike, honed over years of effort—stolen by that bastard.
“No!”
His own Red Aura lay empty. Clutching only his greatsword now, terror flooded Roengreen's eyes.
“It's mine! That power! It's mine!”
He lunged forward.
For the first time in his life.
With Helmont's Red Aura bolstering Isaac...
“Helmont pride! The great glory—! Isn't for scum like you! It belongs to—! To—!”
Roengreen wailed, and Isaac's words pierced his ears.
“Too crude.”
Crude enough that Isaac could warp its flow with mana in his taedo. If he'd just crushed with raw power from start to finish, Isaac might have lost.
Imitation, not true learning...
“Is second-rate.”
[Don't become a mere copycat.]
“...!”
Isaac's voice overlapped his father's in his mind. A sword wound carved into Roengreen's chest.
He collapsed into the pooling blood, knees buckling.
Thud!
The Helmont heir apparent. The eldest Helmont son.
Roengreen's defeat brought instant silence. No one had anticipated this—or prepared to accept it.
In the frozen world...
Isaac locked eyes solely with Arandel.
He wanted to say it. Why the Silent Sword had raged after fully grasping Helmont swordsmanship.
Not because they'd discarded him.
Did you truly think Helmonts reached the end?
They'd arrived there by discarding everything.
But conversely...
They couldn't advance further—for the same reason.
The discarded man declared it.
Clap!
A massive, thunderous applause.
Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap!
For the first time in his life, Arandel Helmont applauded someone's sword.
And then...
The crowd's cheers engulfed Isaac.