Chapter 40
Chapter 40
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 40
Chapter Title: Cut It Off
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Cut It Off
Marias doubted himself.
Slash!
However, the vivid sword mark etched into his arm proved that he had made no mistake.
‘The Jester's Domain is definitely active.’
The Jester's Domain—a power that disrupts human perception.
No matter how skilled a warrior, it took quite some time to adapt to the Jester's Domain.
Yet the Halibal before him moved as if utterly unaffected by it.
There was an even greater mystery.
‘Why in the world... is this guy here?’
With the divine energy Marias currently possessed, turning a human into a monster was difficult, but objects were fair game.
The reason he had visited the doll workshop today was to purchase dolls to serve as soldiers in place of humans.
And of all places, he had run into Halibal—the vile Funeral Sword who dared to point his blade at His presence.
He had wanted to deal with him on the spot, but right now, even the divine energy needed for his grand plan was insufficient.
He couldn’t afford to waste it needlessly, and above all, the other bishops hadn’t given permission.
So he thought he had slipped away with natural acting, but why was Halibal now coming at him with open hostility as if it were the most obvious thing in the world?
Gazing at the X-shaped wound on his arm where blood flowed, Marias recalled the man he had been absorbing up until moments ago.
‘...I should have at least absorbed one before fighting.’
He tried to pull back for now, but Halibal’s movements were faster.
Slash!
An X-shaped wound appeared on his other arm as well.
‘And why is he only targeting my arms?’
At this range, stabbing the heart would be the sensible choice, no?
Of course, that was exactly what Marias hoped for.
A faint divine energy undetectable by ordinary humans thoroughly protected his heart from attacks.
He had planned to counterattack while Halibal panicked from the blocked strike.
But his opponent moved as if fully aware of that fact.
Marias panicked briefly but soon composed himself.
Permission for immediate execution had already been granted.
All he needed to do was eliminate him here.
“My, how impatient you are! The audience hasn’t even arrived yet!”
Marias shoved away the charging Cecilia and summoned four dolls, infusing them with divine energy.
In an instant, grotesque monsters formed under his command and charged at Halibal.
The monsters seemed to aim for Halibal’s head, but Marias had other intentions.
‘He’ll obviously guard his heart or head. Target his right arm.’
Swordsmen always had looser defenses on their arms.
Moreover, with his sadistic tendencies, Marias was curious what reaction a young swordsman would have upon losing an arm.
‘Will he rage and flail about? Grow despondent? Or despair? Either way, it’ll be fun.’
As the monsters shifted trajectory midair toward Halibal’s arm, the corners of Marias’s mouth tore upward like a jester’s grin.
But what he expected did not come to pass.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
“......What?”
Halibal swung his sword, deflecting every monster attack.
Even though they had ambushed from the air on purpose, his movements seemed to anticipate even that.
Cold sweat beaded on Marias’s forehead.
‘Reading the flow of battle through senses alone? If so, that’s innate genius!’
His wariness toward Halibal rose sharply.
The name Halibal Belder was newly etched onto the cult’s watchlist.
‘But he’s not ripe yet. He has the senses, but lacks the power to back them up.’
One look at the scattered minions made it clear.
The minions’ damage was minor. Deflecting rather than slicing them was his limit.
With senses and power in imbalance, victory still lay with him.
If Halibal were alone here.
“Cecilia!”
“Huh?!”
At Halibal’s shout, Marias whipped his head around.
What entered his eyes was Cecilia Ren, lady of the Ren family.
The younger sister of Senia Ren, whom the cult monitored, but dismissed due to her lack of talent.
And it was the same for Marias. Right now, his interest was solely fixed on Halibal.
‘Damn...!’
He realized his mistake the moment alien mana began gathering on her blade.
The monsters’ toughness rivaled steel, hard to cut with an ordinary sword.
But mana changed everything.
‘A mage...? No, a magic swordsman?!’
Monsters forged from divine energy were helpless before mana.
“How can the lady of the Ren family wield such pure mana?!”
“Radiant Fang!”
Instead of answering, Cecilia unleashed her art, blanketing the entire alley.
The monsters swept by the flash turned to ash and melted away, and Marias couldn’t escape the aftermath either.
“Grrraaagh!”
The sword aura-infused flash shredded his body, his pale skin instantly drenched in blood.
When he came to, he was somehow standing before Halibal and Cecilia.
‘I need to pull back first!’
Marias desperately hurled himself into the dust cloud.
But Halibal had no intention of letting him go.
Once more, Halibal charged at him.
Staring straight at Marias alone.
Normally, he would toss some lame joke, but the situation allowed no such leisure.
With Halibal and Cecilia showing no signs of relenting their assault.
‘At this rate, I won’t even get a moment to breathe.’
Slash! Slash!
Halibal’s swift sword sliced Marias twice more.
Not the heart or head this time either.
Both legs.
Seeing blood dripping from all four limbs, he finally couldn’t hold back his rage.
“What the hell are you doing?!”
“What?”
But Halibal was utterly nonchalant.
The wounds on Marias’s arms were no ordinary cuts.
Weak in power, but judging by the energy, they were clearly some kind of art.
Even trying to heal with divine energy failed—the wounds refused to close, bleeding even worse, proving it.
Had Halibal persistently targeted them, Marias’s defeat would have loomed certain.
Yet instead, he went for the legs.
So Marias interpreted it as mockery.
‘Daring to toy with me?’
The smile vanished from Marias’s face.
As he floated into the air again, hundreds of daggers materialized in the sky at his gesture.
“Thousand Knives!”
The strongest art he could unleash now.
Halibal’s expression hardened.
“Yes! That’s the face! Die with that exact face!!”
Hundreds of daggers shot forth like arrows.
Thousand Knives, with its homing property, was unavoidable.
Even if dodged, one of them would surely die.
Yet the two’s movements were strange.
Cecilia nodded with a grim face and hid behind Halibal’s back.
And Halibal stood firm, pointing his sword at the incoming daggers.
“...Huh?”
As if to take them head-on.
‘Impossible. You can’t block Thousand Knives!’
But Halibal’s gaze didn’t waver.
His crimson eyes pierced Marias.
Eyes that stirred emotions for some reason. Eyes that seemed to hold everything in the palm of his hand.
The moment he saw those eyes, Marias’s mind cooled instead.
“Bluff?! Recklessness?! Or both?!”
He quickly regained his composure and sneered.
‘Right. Thousand Knives can’t be dodged.’
Until now, he had simply been careless.
‘The Funeral Sword’s death is certain. Then the lady hiding behind him, and it’s over.’
The daggers poured down on Halibal in unison.
In response, Halibal swung his sword with full power.
Shinggggg!
At first, it looked like he was batting them away.
But there were too many daggers, and soon they began piercing Halibal’s body all over.
When the dagger rain ceased, Halibal’s body was as bloodied as Marias’s.
Seeing Halibal trembling all over, Marias was convinced.
Of his victory.
“Keheheh...! It’s over!”
That was when it happened.
“Cecilia.”
Halibal slowly raised his left arm, pointing at Marias.
“Two on each arm, two on each leg. See the wounds?”
Marias doubted his eyes.
‘Daggers should’ve pierced that left arm several times?’
Because the wounds on Halibal’s body looked oddly shallow.
As if clad in full armor. Clearly the effect of a yellow Shard.
Wouldn’t a normal swordsman prioritize offense over bodily reinforcement?
Why this?
“There, cut it off.”
“Got it.”
But Marias’s thoughts didn’t continue.
Cecilia, who had been hiding behind Halibal gathering power, revealed herself, her blade dyed pure white with mana.
“Ren Sword Style. Third Sword. White Elegant Chain Dance.”
As Cecilia stepped forward, her blade traced silver arcs in the air.
Her clothes fluttered beautifully, following movements like a dancer’s.
Crack!
Finally, with a whoosh, one object flew into the sky.
Marias looked up and realized it was his own arm.
“Uwaaaagh!!”
Cecilia had precisely targeted the wounds Halibal had inflicted, severing cleanly.
Only then did Halibal’s actions click together like puzzle pieces in his mind.
‘No way... he foresaw... all of this?’
Deliberately marking his arms and legs.
It was like preparing him perfectly for Cecilia to finish.
Crack!
But that didn’t make sense.
Because first, Halibal had to endure Thousand Knives.
If Halibal had failed and died to it, all predictions would fail, and Marias would win.
And by common sense, planning around taking hits?
A seventeen-year-old boy fighting with the premise of getting struck? Unthinkable for any normal human.
Crack!
If that were possible.
‘Freak...?’
No other explanation.
Crack!
With the final strike, Marias collapsed, limbs severed.
“Huff... huff...!”
Marias gasped roughly.
To finish him, Cecilia slowly approached, blade lowered.
But now, his mind was filled not with her, but Halibal.
He had only faced Halibal for minutes at the doll workshop.
Someone who could dictate the battle’s flow to this extent in that time was undoubtedly a threat to the grand plan.
‘I must inform the cult! It’s not the gods or the Extreme Divine Sword we need to watch!’
So Marias resolved to escape.
Squeezing out remaining demonic energy, he floated and hurled himself out of the alley.
Halibal’s face filled with dismay.
“......Ah!”
“Cecilia! We have to catch him here! We can’t let him escape!”
Seeing that expression, Marias was convinced.
This, at least, even that freak hadn’t predicted.
“Urk!”
Meanwhile, Cecilia clutched her shoulder and collapsed.
Judging by her art’s power, her body was mostly reinforced by white Shards.
Two high-output arts in a row? Naturally, it burdened her flesh.
Halibal too couldn’t move properly from Thousand Knives wounds.
Marias easily shook them off and headed to the alley’s end.
‘My victory! Once back to the cult, I can heal this body anytime. Just relay info on the Funeral Sword, and he’s no threat anymore!’
But upon reaching the alley’s other side, an inexplicable sight unfolded before him.
“......Huh?”
He had flown straight, yet there stood Halibal and Cecilia again.
He hurriedly turned and flew into another alley.
“......Huh?”
But they were there too.
As if trapped by an invisible wall, endlessly circling a small alley.
Then, the black night sky slowly split, faint blue light leaking from the rift.
Before long, the sky filled with thousands, tens of thousands of blue crystals.
Beams from clashing crystals wove a net across the heavens.
As if someone were pronouncing judgment on Marias.
“No way... this power...?”
Clear melody overlapped the cascading light fragments from above.
In that resonance, he recalled Halibal’s baffling words just before the fight.
‘Me? I came to sing.’
Watching Cecilia slowly approach again, he finally realized.
“Ahh... I see. It was all... His will.”
Shatter!
Cecilia’s blade shattered the protective barrier around Marias’s heart.
As her sword pierced it, a quiet murmur escaped Marias’s lips.
“......So the one You chose... was not us.”