Chapter 139
Chapter 139
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 139
Chapter Title: The Legend's Return (2)
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“Alright, Reygus! True to a ghost of the past, become a victim of advanced techniques!”
With Azel’s shout, a flash of light exploded, sending Reygus flying. Beside Azel, who was locked in a contest of strength, one of Azel’s clones appeared and landed a blow. The armor that had been as sturdy as a fortress shattered, and the darkness packed inside began to spill out.
[Urk! Should’ve at least skimmed the info the kids gave me. Hate prepping, and look what it got me!]
“Strutting around like you know everything about the world, only to get your comeuppance—same as always! I told you before, old fogeys are pathetic, didn’t I?”
Azel’s voice echoed from all directions. Lightning branches shot out in every direction, and dozens of Azels appeared amid them, exuding a presence as solid as the real thing, throwing off his senses.
[Damn it! Scream! Soul Shackle Seal…!]
“You think I’ll let you unleash a big move like that!”
Before the power of the Soul Shackle Seal could activate, Azel’s clone appeared before Reygus along the irregularly zigzagging lightning branches. For that instant, the clone boasting power equal to the original struck the Soul Shackle Seal, halting the technique’s activation.
But in that moment, Reygus’s movements stopped. His desperate downward swing with the Soul Shackle Seal seemed like a feint as he abruptly halted, enduring the attack in a way so irrational that even Azel was caught off guard.
[Once you’re undead, you can pull off tricks like this!]
It was a feat impossible for a living body. Thrusting with such force and then slamming on the brakes would damage bones, muscles, blood vessels, and nerves beyond any spot reinforced by mana.
But as an undead, such irrational movements were possible. Ignoring the joint range of motion from when he was alive, as long as he endured with reinforcing mana, he could defy inertia!
Azel, who had lunged for what he thought was an opening, had walked right into a trap. Reygus, thrown off-balance by the sudden brake, exploded forward in acceleration and smashed into Azel.
[Scream!]
Kwaaaaang!
Azel blocked the attack with his Dragon Sword, but Reygus had even accounted for that. The power inherent in the Soul Shackle Seal activated, unleashing a shockwave that upheaved the ground. Azel’s clones racing around the area were swept away in one go, and his main body was sent flying.
[It’s over!]
He didn’t think this would finish Azel. The mighty shockwave from the Soul Shackle Seal would pin down his movements, followed by a decisive blow! Without hesitation, Reygus chased after the shockwave and swung a strike that could shatter a mountain.
However….
‘Huh?’
Azel, thought to have been flung by the shockwave, stopped as if by magic. Even as the shockwave and massive amounts of earth poured down at terrifying speed, he showed no effect whatsoever, sending a chill down Reygus’s spine.
At the same time, the identity of this phenomenon flashed in his mind.
‘Infinite Wilderness!
A defensive technique Aunsor loved to use when wielding the Cup of Lament. An irrational method that warped the surrounding space via the Labyrinth of Lament, preventing attacks from reaching him.
The moment Reygus’s descending hammer should have reached Azel, something impossible happened. The distance between them suddenly stretched to an unfathomable gap, and Azel vanished from sight. It was the effect of Reygus leaping into the spatial distortion field.
And then, pure white lightning charged relentlessly.
[Kaaaaak!]
The Dragon Sword, turned to light, struck Reygus at speeds transcending perception.
This was the trap Azel had set. Even in a situation where spatial distortion made the opponent seem infinitely far, the Sword that Cleaves the Heavens dominated light and used it as a medium. Just as he had once pursued Laura into her Labyrinth of Lament, he could use pre-placed light as coordinates to ravage Reygus from a distance the Soul Shackle Seal’s shockwave couldn’t reach!
Reygus’s armor shattered, and the darkness within ignited in white flames. Before he knew it, the lightning had transformed into purifying flames, the natural enemy of the undead.
The Sword that Cleaves the Heavens, which ruled all light, could convert any light-emitting energy into any state. Reygus’s body, once like an impregnable fortress, suffered a fatal wound.
“This is a grudge I’ve already settled once! Don’t drag out the rerun, Reygus!”
The Infinite Wilderness that had unfolded vanished, and the distance between them returned to normal as if by magic. Azel glared at Reygus, who had surged up in a battered state, but he couldn’t deliver the final blow.
Thump!
Something flickered before his eyes.
A translucent phantasm resembling a young girl appeared and vanished in Azel’s vision. And then flames erupted.
Fwaaaaah!
Azel immediately wrapped himself in fire mana for defense and escaped. In that time, Reygus righted himself and landed.
[Groan. If you’re gonna help, do it sooner. Women, always…]
Reygus grumbled.
Azel heightened his vigilance and scanned the surroundings. But he detected nothing. A mage powerful enough to slip between him and Reygus without warning should have left some lingering mana resonance….
‘What is this?’
Before the wary Azel, Reygus spoke.
[Well, no more interference, so don’t worry about it. Anyway, I didn’t even break even. Nearly got wiped out without a proper fight.]
“You haven’t even shown your real power yet—is that the lame excuse you’re about to spout?”
[Bingo!]
Reygus’s form began to change dramatically, his voice cheerful.
2
The Prophecy Guardians, the core of the Guardian Shadows, were deeply worn existences.
They lived, yet were not living beings. Having lost memories of their past lives, they existed agelessly solely to exterminate the Dragon Demon Worshippers they loathed.
Even after decades, their hatred never faded, but they were exhausted. By the fact that no matter how much they fought, it never ended… and that they didn’t even know how to see that hatred to its conclusion….
The Guardian Shadows’ power was strong. But it couldn’t overwhelm the Dragon Demon Worshippers centered in the Dark Plain. It merely made them cautious in human society. They were powerful watchers and defenders, but lacked the means to strike at the root of evil and eradicate it.
In such a situation, their only hope was the prophecy. It was akin to faith. Like believers enduring trials in trust of divine salvation, they had waged this endless war for decades, believing a prophesied savior would one day end it.
Ironically, the Guardian Shadows and Dragon Demon Worshippers were like two sides of the same coin.
One side believed a prophesied figure would appear from nowhere to save them, the other that the dead Dragon Demon King would revive to gift a paradise on earth—their attitudes nothing short of religious faith.
Balsel was no different.
From the moment he inherited the codename Alpha of the Prophecy Guardian, he forsook what it meant to live as a human.
His eyesight was the symbol. Because of the power dwelling in those eyes, he kept them always closed, forsaking sight of the world. The special power sealed in his eyes allowed him to act as if seeing even with them shut, but he had long lost the awe of viewing the world directly with both eyes.
His eyes opened only to battle Dragon Demon Worshippers, and each time, the world they revealed felt alien. The colorful world was unfamiliar, and the living things moving within it even more so.
And now, Balsel beheld the most alien existence in the world.
‘Azel Karzark.’
The legendary hero who felled Dragon Demon King Atein 220 years ago, ending the Dragon Emperor War.
Two years after the war’s end, he vanished without a trace, his later life unknown. Even his friend, the great mage Kallos, claimed ignorance of his whereabouts, leaving only rumors and legends about his final years.
Prophecy Guardians who suspected the youth named Azel Zestringer might be the prophesied one had watched him closely. Sometimes testing, sometimes aiding, they sought to confirm if he was truly the one they awaited.
They thought Azel Zestringer bore a striking resemblance to portraits of Azel Karzark. Some even opined he might be Karzark’s successor, capable of bringing doom to the Dragon Demon Worshippers.
But none had imagined… that Azel was Azel himself.
“Hahaha….”
Balsel started. An utterly foreign sound had escaped his lips. Yet he continued making it.
“Hahahahaha!”
Soon, Balsel realized he was laughing.
He couldn’t recall the last time he had. Thus, the laughter from his vocal cords sounded so strange and alien.
[Balsel?]
The sleepless guardians eyed him puzzled. They had been with him for decades but never seen him laugh. For a moment, they suspected he had finally lost his mind.
But Balsel’s sanity was intact. Clearer than ever… since losing memories of his past life, the truth shrouded like thick fog on the surface of his consciousness had risen, as if prepared to reveal itself now.
Balsel, laughing like a madman, suddenly stopped.
“…So that’s it.”
A voice filled with ecstasy flowed from his lips.
“So that’s how it was…!”
Balsel had finally grasped the true purpose of the Prophecy Guardian’s existence.
As the flood of memory torrent calmed, he spoke to Azel.
3
Wooooo…!
Before Azel, Reygus erupted with a black mist-like aura explosively. At the same time, his mana surged without limit.
‘His total mana alone already surpasses his living days?’
Azel was astonished.
The current Reygus was markedly weaker than the one Azel remembered from life. His physical abilities and mana were similar, but he lacked Dragon Demon energy.
Dragon Spirit Art users could do much with Dragon Demon energy. Even filling other factors, even Dragon Demon Armaments, losing it drastically reduced available options.
Reygus’s mana was now swelling rapidly. Already immense before, it now doubled that.
For the undead, where all abilities hinged on mana, this increase meant a rise in combat prowess. Azel attacked, tense.
‘No point dragging this out!’
His own mana rivaled his prime, but he couldn’t maintain it long. Forcing control of an unfinished vessel overflowing with mana was taxing; he needed a quick finish.
His Dragon Sword turned to light and raced through the air. A light-speed strike beyond perception smashed into Reygus.
[You bastard! Don’t you know it’s polite to wait while someone transforms to bring out their real power?]