Chapter 65
Chapter 65
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 65
Chapter Title: Those Who Follow the Prophecy (4)
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Azel deployed his mana force. The three Life Rings, processed with Dual Banding, vibrated as enormous mana force poured out.
Wooooo!
‘Full power from the start!’
He was taking a bold stance, but Azel heeded the danger signal from his instincts. The Undying before his eyes was dangerous. The bizarre armor cloaking its entire body and the blackness were products of powerful magic, and the soul manipulating it was no pushover.
[You must simply watch quietly.]
At that moment, another Undying’s voice echoed from the darkness. Not one, but two.
[This is a trial conducted by the Guardian Shadow’s Prophecy Guardians.]
“That… are you ordering me?”
Kairen bared his teeth in a grin.
From the darkness emerged an Undying that appeared to be a mage, along with an Undying swordsman clad head to toe in armor similar to what Zeta—facing off against Azel—wore, encircling Kairen. The Undying swordsman concealed his face with a black mask and wore an intimidating helm crowned with two sturdy horns reminiscent of a Dragon Demon’s.
[Rather than an order, please take it as a request from a fellow organization member.]
“What if I refuse?”
[Then we’ll have no choice but to stop you.]
“That sounds more fun? Even if you’re Guardian Shadows or whatever, I’m not generous enough to obey Undying bastards barking orders at me.”
Whoooo!
Kairen drew his twin swords and deployed his Dragon Demon power. Seeing the surrounding air thrum and resonate in response to his will, the Undying mage spoke.
[Oh dear. They said it would come to this, and here it is.]
[Well, even if I were alive, it probably would’ve happened anyway. That’s just how sword wielders are.]
The Undying swordsman replied in a voice laced with amusement. A deflating hiss leaked from between the skull’s sockets, as if he were chuckling in his old living habit.
The Undying swordsman said.
[Let’s see the skills of the Dragon Sword Duke, hailed as a living legend of this era. I’ve always wondered about the caliber of you modern kids.]
“Modern kids, huh. Have you lived long enough to spout that arrogance to my face?”
[Sufficiently.]
“Then you’re old enough to be senile, so ditch your pathetic obsession and crawl back to your grave!”
With that, Kairen surged forward like a hail of arrows, clashing against the Undying swordsman.
Kwaaaaaang!
A flash erupted, shaking the earth.
And Kairen was stunned.
‘What the hell is this guy?’
The first strike had been a full-power ambush. Any human would have evaporated in an instant, defenses irrelevant.
Yet the opponent stood rigidly in place and blocked it. Overwhelming mana force erupted amid the quaking ground. Mana force on a whole different level from the Undyings Kairen had slain before.
‘At this level, his mana force is nearly equal to mine.’
Kairen’s Dragon Demon power was the strongest among the Dragon Demons of the Lurein Kingdom. Astonishingly, the Undying swordsman’s mana force held its own against Kairen’s Dragon Demon power.
The Undying swordsman said.
[Zeta, stay out of it.]
[You’re making this difficult, Delta.]
[We need a bit of fun from this now and then, don’t we? You peace-lover, just spectate.]
[Can’t be helped. If it goes south, I’ll step in.]
[You think I’d lose to some punk like this?]
[How much older are you to talk like that? Besides, a retiree from life doesn’t strike me as sharper than a fresh active-duty swordsman.]
[Mages—why are they all so warped, with mouths that spit venom? Anyway, shut up and watch.]
A deflating hiss leaked from inside the mask of the one called Delta. It sounded like a snort from his living days.
[Here I come, punk.]
“That’s a term I haven’t heard in ages—it doesn’t even feel like it’s about me, you bag-of-bones geezer.”
[Then I’ll make it personal, legendary punk!]
Delta kicked off the ground and charged. His darkness-wreathed sword then clashed against Kairen’s twin blades.
6
Explosions boomed around them, the air growing scorching hot. Meanwhile, Azel and Zeta glared at each other while circling in a ring. But they weren’t merely standoffish. In this instant, a fierce battle raged in the unseen realm.
‘This bastard—for an Undying, he’s no slouch?’
Azel felt dismay.
Right now, the two were manipulating psychic waves in a high-speed exchange of attacks and defenses.
They drew the eye conspicuously to certain body parts to mask their attack stances. But when the foe adapted, they shifted posture to disrupt distance perception. Once parried, they altered their center of gravity and breathing rhythm to throw off timing.
None of this relied solely on sight or sound—it was impressed directly onto the opponent’s senses via mana force. And Zeta, an Undying bereft of the living’s senses, countered Azel with remarkably sophisticated technique. Skill befitting a high-ranking Spirit Order practitioner.
‘Even a dead guy shouldn’t find this easy.’
Mages gained more than they lost upon becoming Undying. But Spirit Order practitioners lost more.
At first glance, Spirit Order practitioners also fundamentally handled the mind, so it seemed unproblematic. However, they did so centered on the Life Rings, predicated on a living body’s functions.
The instant one became Undying, every technique from life lost its foundation. Rebuilding them all to Undying standards was no simple task.
Chaeng!
At some point, convinced they had disrupted the other’s timing, Azel and Zeta clashed. But both had to confirm their judgments were off.
[Certainly enough to question if you’re truly not the prophesied one. You know arts they consigned to oblivion.]
“So, as expected, it’s the Dragon Demon Worshippers’ fault that this era’s Spirit Order practitioners are so immature at handling minds?”
[This era?]
Zeta reacted sharply. Azel cursed inwardly but pressed on without showing it.
“What even is this ‘prophesied one’? I can’t see you Undyings—who barge in and pick fights without a word of explanation—as anything but bad news.”
[Whether you view us as good or bad is irrelevant. We merely…]
Zeta lunged, vaulting across space. A motion living humans struggled to predict. Undyings, with dead flesh, neither breathed nor telegraphed muscle twitches. They offered far fewer cues for anticipation than the living.
Kwachang!
Sparks flew.
Not from the front, but the side. The forward dive was an illusion; a rotational Flash Step had carried him diagonally from the flank.
[…Impressive. Do you grasp how Undying Spirit Order functions?]
Zeta stroked the chest of his armor. Azel’s sword had left a gouge on its surface. Azel had read the move and counterattacked to boot.
Azel snorted.
“Nothing special. You flaunted that much prowess from the start. That said, this armor’s damn tough.”
Azel had swung to cleave man and armor alike. Yet the armor’s hardness yielded only a scratch.
‘Wounding this’ll be no joke.’
A league apart from Zikel the Dragon Demon Worshipper’s Undying. That armor was a pinnacle of potent magic.
An ill foreboding washed over him. Cold sweat trickled down Azel’s back.
[Good. Let’s coax out more of your hidden depths. Watch yourself. I won’t be as sluggish as before.]
Zeta charged. No Flash Step, yet his assault seemed to leap space itself.
Chaeng!
Flashes crossed. Azel’s blood ran cold; he had no spare moment to blink before countering the follow-up.
Chaechaechaechaechaeng!
Trails of light and shadow tangled in frenzy. Azel’s expression twisted.
‘Damn! Why’s this guy so fast?’
Zeta’s speed was climbing. Azel parried, and it accelerated further; he adapted, and it surged even more, limitlessly escalating.
Pipit!
Azel’s leather armor split at the shoulder.
Pit!
Blood sprayed from Azel’s arm.
‘Damn it!’
Too fast to track. He’d baited minor openings for counters, but Zeta’s velocity rendered even that futile.
His eyes kept pace. Azel’s senses accelerated to the brink, dissecting and processing every detail.
But his body lagged. He minimized motions and anticipated defensively, yet limits loomed. Zeta’s speed and power overwhelmed technique’s reach!
Kak!
Balance shattered. Azel, who’d endured by whirling sideways without retreat, yielded a step. Once defensive, he was pressed relentlessly.
[No matter your skill, you’re human in the end. How long can you match a breathless assault?]
Undyings required no breath. They could assail endlessly, mana permitting—no dulling from respiration or muscle fatigue.
Worse, Zeta’s high Undying darkness aura was a curse that sapped vitality on contact. Azel burned mana defending against it.
Mind manipulation couldn’t forge openings either. Zeta’s mental arts lagged Azel’s but were cunning enough, overwhelming with sheer volume via mana superiority. The physical melee was too furious for elaborate psychic flourishes.
Papapapapapapa!
Zeta accelerated on, as if far from done.
Zeta’s strength dwarfed Azel’s several-fold. His speed outstripped Azel’s by multiples. His mana force was incomparably vast.
The power gap between Zeta and Azel yawned vast. Yet Azel’s endurance without instant ruin proved his technical supremacy.
In that moment, Azel’s clones materialized. Zeta ignored them. With the real Azel locked, clones were mere mana sink.
But that was hubris.
Tuhak!
‘No way?!’
Azel’s flank clone landed a blow on Zeta. The typhoon-force Zeta caromed sideways. And then…
Kwarung! Kwang!
Azel exploited the breach, sword unleashing lightning to hammer Zeta.
“Huk, huk, heuk……!”
Azel gulped air in heaving gasps. Breathless exertion neared its limit. His heart hammered wildly; his head reeled.