Chapter 72
Chapter 72
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 72
Chapter Title: 20-2. Knowing Love.
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Whoosh─.
A sudden downpour crashed down.
Amid the torrent, two knights stood side by side, swords in hand.
"...So you're finally drawing that blade."
"I figured there was no beating you without it anyway."
Like David facing Goliath, I stood against the colossal Glass Knight, utterly overwhelmed by its presence. My grip tightened on my sword as I resisted.
"Faith. Kiwoo. Say hello. It's like a son to me."
"Hello, Kiwoo."
Mardol slowly waved at the sword. What an oddball. If I'd thought about it even a little, I'd have realized right away he wasn't Lupus.
"Haha... You're really doing this."
"...Is that bad?"
"Nah, it's just so you."
When it came to our Saintess, I turned dumber than a mutt. My brain just froze up, going blank. A hollow laugh escaped me.
I was such an idiot. If the Saintess knew, she'd give me an earful.
Probably call me 'Dumb Puppy' in that high-pitched voice of hers. Her voice echoed in my ears.
What the hell was love, to leave me in this pathetic state? It was ridiculous. I'd always prided myself on quick thinking, but apparently not anymore.
"...Licht."
That's when it happened. Lost in memories amid the rain, the figure across from me spoke up.
"I want strength. Licht."
"I'm not strong, Mardol."
Our values had always run parallel, never intersecting. I reflected on my past struggles and laid it all out honestly. I looked up, facing Mardol head-on.
"If anything, I've climbed this far precisely because I'm weak."
"Really? Even if you're weak... can you protect what's yours, like you say?"
Whose philosophy was right? It was time to prove it. We were close yet forever apart, our paths in life worlds apart.
"Yeah. Even weak as I am, I can protect it."
One side was a liar who'd piled up nothing but defeats.
"...Fine. Prove me wrong, Licht."
The other was a cold, crystalline figure fixated on claiming victories.
"Got it, Mardol."
I nodded and answered her. In the end, we'd have to take down the Demon King together as comrades. The least I could do was fix that trauma of hers.
And so, black clashed with white. Gripping Kiwoo, I turned to water droplets, darting here and there. Cold rain soaked my body as wind whipped past.
"You're fast, as expected."
Mardol tracked my movements without fail, sending knight phantoms from behind to strike.
Boom! Crash! The impacts rocked the arena, mercilessly shattering everything around us.
A barrage like he was begging me to land just one hit. The blind swings of that glass-carved greatsword targeted me relentlessly.
He knows tricks like that won't work.
I slipped through his sword strikes amid the raindrops, pondering. Mardol wasn't the type to resort to such desperate measures. There had to be something he was aiming for.
"They say flowers fall, so Falling Petals."
But I couldn't ignore the opening he'd created. My sword had its weaknesses too.
I closed in swiftly, readying the swordsmanship the Heavenly Demon had taught me. A technique born from watching magnolia petals drift down.
"Magnolia Swordsmanship, Form 3. One Sword Falling Petals."
Magnolia Swordsmanship Form 3
One Sword Falling Petals
White petals fluttered around us as my blade arced softly from above, slicing down toward Mardol.
In that instant, her golden eyes met my brown ones.
"Too hasty, Licht."
Clang! A metallic ring echoed as she erected a wall of glass. The Heavenly Demon's techniques reflected right back at me. He could even copy qi-infused moves?
"If I turn to raindrops...!"
"...Won't work. Licht."
I shifted to raindrops again, trying to evade the phantoms bursting from the glass wall. But that attempt backfired spectacularly.
A massive transparent glass dome enveloped the entire arena. Plink. The rain stopped falling. I'd lost my means of evasion.
A perfect sealed chamber. An impregnable fortress no one could breach except the two of us inside.
So this was his goal all along.
I couldn't dodge. Caught off guard by the momentary gap.
Come to think of it, Mardol had once sheltered me under an umbrella.
He already knew how to counter it. I'd let my guard down and launched a big attack, so he'd scattered strikes to reflect them back.
Two sword paths hurtling toward me. Identical to the overhead slash I'd aimed at Mardol earlier. If I took this, the phantoms would hit home. I had to defend.
"Magnolia Swordsmanship, Form 1, White Mountain..!"
Magnolia Swordsmanship Form 1
White Mountain
Screeech. A metallic grind rang from my blade as it blocked the assault. A snowy white landscape unfolded behind me. Techniques born of imagery, fueled by qi rather than magic.
"Impressive. Doesn't even feel like mana."
"..."
"Got more to show?"
That's what he says after barely blocking a glass phantom? His obsession with strength was unreal. The giant behind him kept launching attacks.
Kaboom! Even White Mountain had gaps. I'd already taken a massive hit to my upper body, burning through most of my mana shield. No choice.
I had to use it.
My most precious imagery.
"...Yeah. As much as you want."
Time to see if it outshone my feelings for the Saintess—or if this Glass Knight was stronger. I reset my stance. Focusing every ounce of will, I poured all my qi into the blade.
A few weeks prior, during training with the Heavenly Demon.
"Boy, isn't it time you forged your own imagery?"
"Huh...? What do you mean, Heavenly Demon?"
"You need your innate strength. Merely mimicking my forms leads nowhere."
She'd eyed my swings with draconic scrutiny several times before nodding in satisfaction.
"I don't quite get it..."
"Tch. What a dense boy, my disciple. You think copying is the path to mastery?"
The white magnolia shook her head, tongue clicking, eyes squeezed shut in disapproval as her brown hair swayed.
"The strength of the Heart Sword doesn't come from others' emotions, boy."
"So it comes from my own? But I already have Kiwoo as my heart sword..."
Her vague words eluded me. The sword was already forged from my heart. What more did I need?
"No. Do you know why they call me Heavenly Demon, boy?"
"Not really..."
Game character perks? Some otherworldly origin? She shook her head at my answer.
"In the Central Plains I hail from, unaffiliated martial artists were dubbed Earth Demons—demeaned to scorn them."
"...Branded from the start?"
"Precisely. Laughable. Those cliques shunned outsiders, acting superior while preaching harmony and valor to feign righteousness."
The Heavenly Demon raised her right hand skyward. A palm blotting the heavens. Absurd as it seemed.
"So when those 'Earth Demons'—mere worms in their eyes—ascended to draconic heights, what did they call them then?"
"What... did they call them?"
She clenched her fist as if grasping the sun. Darkness fell, like Laplace unleashing his power.
"...An imugi touching the heavens. Heavenly Demon."
With a twist of her grip, crack! Something shattered, and the sun fragmented.
"The worldly hailed me with that name."
I stared, speechless, at the scattering light shards.
"..."
"Surely you have one precious imagery of your own, boy."
She waved dismissively at my dazed face, snapping me back as daylight returned like nothing happened.
I collapsed into my seat amid the reborn morning. All from mere imagery?
"Kehhehe. Keep at it, boy."
The woman in black hanbok across from me just chuckled softly.
The Nameless Saintess.
A memory he'd cherished alone through time ordinary folk would forget.
To Licht, it was his most treasured imagery.
"...White Wolf, Shadow Fangs."
With those words, the air reverberated.
Awooooooh─!!
A massive white wolf emerged behind him, howling fiercely. The black-helmeted man charged blade-first at the Glass Knight.
Not a Drake-style piercing thrust or combo. Just a straightforward rush. He advanced step by pounding step.
Is that... me?
Pine Granasia, inside the glass armor, felt like she was facing herself in a mirror at the sight of the platinum wolf leaping from Licht's shadow—white-furred, golden eyes flashing.
A subtle déjà vu sharpened her nerves.
Suddenly, she sensed defeat looming. Not from logic, but raw instinct.
Rain evasion was sealed. Magnolia Swordsmanship, Drake-style— all countered by the glass walls. Where had this move even come from?
He's betting everything on this one strike. A straight charge, no feints.
Chills ran down her spine watching him sprint at full tilt. Why abandon restraint and deception now?
Glass walls erupted to block his path. Phantoms lunged to match his charge, yet he didn't stop, smashing through them.
"He... broke through them all?"
He didn't even bother deflecting his own reflections—just barreled straight ahead, aura thick with intent to annihilate everything in his way.
"G-Glass Knight!"
Even the giant knight couldn't halt him. Swings meant to stop him only let him exploit gaps, pressing on. His relentless resolve, blind to front or back, left her flustered.
This won't work. Need another way.
Brown eyes gleaming, black helm closing in. Pine had to decide now.
"Granasia Style... Form 5."
She reset her stance, glass sword in hand.
Granasia Style's strongest technique short of the ultimate. She raised her blade sky-high. Normally, such a telegraphed wind-up was suicide.
...I have to replicate Father's form as closely as possible.
Obsessed with strength, she went all-in to unleash the Wolf King's raw power on Licht. An overhead stance to cleave from above.
Granasia Style Form 5
Heart Slash
No matter how strong the foe, it would always pierce the heart.
Unlike the recent One Sword Falling Petals, this was overpowered, brute force. Licht was nearly upon her; she slammed down.
Chaaang─! Metal screeched as his cobalt blade parried once. His balance faltered for a split second.
"Blocked it..!"
Pine eased up momentarily. But the brown eyes behind the black visor remained serene.
"No. I said it from the start... 'Shadow Fangs'."
Turning her strike against her, Licht deflected her sword with fluid grace, like a dance, then reversed into an upward slash from below.
"Ugh..!"
Pine jerked her head back. A cobalt flash grazed past her face. She'd barely dodged by a hair.
Or so she thought.
"This is the real one."
"...What?"
Her sharp eyes caught the anomaly. Something odd emerged from his shadow—a black mass rising like a breaching dolphin.
A black wolf, size matching the white one before, soared skyward.
Shadow Wolf..?
It resembled the Shadow Wolves Licht and Kainel had fought before. Jaws agape, it menaced as if to devour the arena.
Too late to muster spells. Pine desperately raised her sword to fend off the wolf.
Kwaaaaaang─!!
The shadow wolf collided with Pine, air quaking with the shockwave.
Immediately after, black darkness billowed like smoke, filling the glass dome and obscuring them from view.
"Kai, what happened? Did Licht win?"
"Did Mardol... lose?"
"Junior...?! Now we can't even tell who won!"
A pitch-black hemisphere. The crowd buzzed, clueless to what transpired inside.