Chapter 109
Chapter 109
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 109
Chapter Title: The Sword of Dawn
-----------------------------------------------------------------
* * *
[My lord! You're so cool! So, so cool!]
Mitra exclaimed in excitement. She seemed like she was bouncing up and down just like Eizel.
In a way, it was only natural.
Unlike Kabrakasa, she knew the spectacular display of grand magic before them came from scrolls. But knowing that was one thing.
Right there in the carrier that had reached Cheon-ho's side were nearly twenty scrolls. If each of the golden statues held that many, there would be over two hundred scrolls in total. It felt like they could fire them off indiscriminately like this.
But no.
There were many, but they weren't something they could replenish right away. And Cheon-ho had a rough idea of how much a single scroll cost.
‘Son, nothing is more precious than your life. Use them when you must.’
So he accepted the massive expenditure. An army of three thousand couldn't be ignored. If melee combat broke out, even if Cheon-ho himself was fine, the angels and heroes could lose their lives or suffer severe injuries.
‘No, I can't relax either.’
The scariest thing on a battlefield was a stray arrow. That's why Cheon-ho chose to unleash a barrage of magic. He threw the demon beast horde into chaos, dismantling the very premise of individual and army combat.
Cheon-ho focused.
He blocked his hearing to shut out the roar.
For a moment, he even blocked his vision.
Divine Devouring.
With that power, he discerned them. He located the beings amid the thousands of demon beasts.
With this many demon beasts gathered, there was no way evil gods weren't present.
‘Bingo.’
Sure enough, there were. He pinpointed six auras. Without hesitation, Cheon-ho launched himself toward the strongest one.
Boom!
He heard the thunderous roar through his released hearing.
Through his released vision, he perceived the distance to his target and everything in between.
Amid the unified techniques under the name of the Sword of Dawn, Swift Scanda raised its cry. It made Cheon-ho's toes lighter than a feather.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
He darted between explosions. He rode the winds they stirred. Becoming one with them all, he turned into a gale.
[Kyaa!]
Mitra cried out again. She sounded far more excited than usual.
And she really was. Thanks to the clothes from Cheon-ho's mother—the first clothing gift she'd ever received since her birth—she was in a state of utter exhilaration.
Lucille watched Cheon-ho charge. She spread her four wings wide and raised high the banner of the God of Healing. The pure white dragon plate armor responded to her. It amplified her power to nearly double.
“Sword of Healing!”
Lucille shouted loudly and extended her hand. Swords over five meters long materialized in the air. Crimson and massive, they streaked after Cheon-ho like arrows.
Their purpose was to guard Cheon-ho. They protected his back as he charged.
Some even overtook him. As a result, a kind of corridor formed between Cheon-ho and Kabrakasa.
“Insane!”
Kabrakasa spat curses. Her red eyes gleamed as she unleashed her divinity.
From the back of the red-haired human woman emerged spider legs. Fur-covered exoskeletons enveloped her arms and legs.
Spider God.
That was the divine rank she had claimed in the Great Labyrinth. It was also the word that revealed her essence.
She wasn't born in the Great Labyrinth.
Nor was she a being of the Labyrinth World.
From another world. One of the many worlds eroded by the Great Labyrinth.
Kabrakasa let out a scream-like howl. Crimson divine power erupted from her entire body like flames.
Cheon-ho saw it. Yet he didn't stop.
His mother had told him.
The sun was on his side now.
It wasn't a metaphor. It was the literal truth.
The evil god before him was far from weak.
A notch below the Winter King, but not something to underestimate. If it were the Cheon-ho before visiting Aiterium—or even before sparring with Machina—he would have had to brace for a desperate struggle.
But not anymore.
He had changed.
Irrevocably changed.
The dragon plate armor roared.
It reacted to the solar mana Cheon-ho possessed. In that instant, his divinity activated. It drew power from the sun in the sky.
The woman said.
It was a recorded image, but it had foreseen this situation. Believing this day would come, she recited the words she had kept in her heart.
“As long as the sun exists in the sky, you shall never fall.”
It was the Sun's Blessing.
A myth writable only by one who possessed solar divinity.
The sun's power was with Cheon-ho. The dragon plate armor amplified that solar power.
And it gathered. Cheon-ho knew exactly what to do with it. As naturally as a bird flapping its wings, he raised Mitra.
[Aah! Aaaah!]
Mitra let out a gasp of ecstasy. Solar power enveloped her entire body. It merged with her.
Kabrakasa gasped for breath. The dazzling golden sword rushing toward her seemed about to blind her.
‘No, no, no!’
She couldn't even form words. She simply screamed, pouring out all her divine power.
Cheon-ho's assessment was correct.
Kabrakasa was no weakling. Her divinity was at a level that could threaten the Winter King.
But it was uncontrolled power. Just fear-driven flailing.
Cheon-ho beheld the wave of divinity unfolding before him. He swung Mitra at the tsunami crashing toward him.
Single Strike.
Like Leon's.
Like Mitra's.
Hero's Sword.
Not an imitation, but a true hero's sword—even if immature, undeniable.
[Sword of Dawn.]
Mitra said in a thrilled voice. She exhaled it with hot breath.
One sword cleaved the tsunami.
It slashed through the divinity.
* * *
The entire battlefield froze.
The golden statues ceased their magic barrage. The roar faded, and the demon beasts' screams and howls vanished.
“Insane.”
Serikiel muttered. She was the one who always told Lucillia to use kind and pretty words and never curse, but she couldn't help it. She had no pretty words for the scene before her.
Lucillia blinked her large eyes as she watched. The sight evoked old memories. Something from before she was summoned to the Labyrinth World. A memory from her infant days, but so vivid it lingered in her mind.
‘Demon King?’
One swing incinerates heaven and earth.
It reminded her of the Demon King's strike. Though completely different powers, the impact was the same.
Machina lowered all six of her swords.
Saschiell let out a foolish laugh, and Eliel did the same.
Aurael glanced at her spear for a moment. Raguel slumped her shoulders, and Eizel bounced in place.
“Hero.”
Lucille said. She looked at the severed ground. The massive wound on the earth stirred old memories.
It wasn't that old, really.
Just a few months ago.
The day she first met Cheon-ho on the first floor of the Great Labyrinth.
Her shock at seeing him effortlessly fell the Rat Ogre. And her excitement, thinking it was a jackpot.
Her eyes welled up unwittingly. She recalled the branch chief's face as he handed her the summoning stone and told her to run.
“Hero.”
Lucille said again. She bit her lip, unable to hold back any longer, and shot toward Cheon-ho like an arrow.
“Woooah!”
Eizel bounced and shouted. The rock dwarves cheered in response, and the angels and heroes raised their voices too.
The demon beasts cried out again. Without looking back, they fled. Trampling each other just to escape the severed ground, they ran and ran.
Cheon-ho stood.
Kabrakasa lay fallen. Sprawled atop the massive sword's trajectory that had cleaved the ground, she couldn't move.
The Sword of Dawn had severed Kabrakasa's divinity. And not stopping there, it had torn open the earth. Leaving a sword scar dozens of meters long etched into the ground.
[Ah, ah, ah!]
[My lord! My lord! My lord!]
Mitra, who had been dazed for a moment, cheered. She poured out joyful cries endlessly, immensely pleased.
Cheon-ho had grown strong.
Truly strong.
[You're so cool, my lord. Really, really cool. My lord, is there anything you desire? I'll do anything. How about a hug? Hug!]
Overexcitement piled on exhilaration had made her lose a bit of her composure.
Instead of demanding a hug from Mitra or stroking the golden gem as usual, Cheon-ho let out a long breath.
And he thought to himself.
‘I overdid it.’
He had given his all. He achieved the feat of felling the 10th floor's evil god in one strike, but now he couldn't even twitch a finger.
If Kabrakasa had been just a bit stronger.
No, if she had properly unleashed her power instead of flailing in fear-driven panic.
The outcome might have been different.
Not a fatal wound, but unlikely felled in one blow.
So he shouldn't have gone all out to the point of immobility.
If Father knew, it would warrant a scolding. The old Cheon-ho never would have done it.
But he didn't regret it. He was satisfied with the result.
Sword of Dawn.
His own hero's sword.
His chest swelled.
It still fell short of Mitra's—or Leon's—but even so, his heart pounded.
‘Father.’
He was a little closer now. The day he could share Father's view felt truly within reach.
“Hero!”
A delighted voice rang out. It was surely Lucille's.
[I'll let it slide today.]
Mitra said, and Cheon-ho used his last strength to spread his arms wide.
Lucille hugged him tightly. Cheon-ho, barely standing, naturally couldn't hold, and they tumbled into the snow together.
And then the feast of light spears began.
Cheon-ho closed his eyes. He savored the victory with Lucille.
* * *
“Uh, um… thank you for going easy on me.”
About thirty minutes later.
While Cheon-ho devoured Kabrakasa's divinity, the rest of the party completely drove the demon beasts from the basin.
They still outnumbered the party, but too terrified to fight, it was no challenge.
Just seeing Eizel made some convulse and flee.
Anyway, with everything wrapped up.
Machina said with an awkward expression.
She seemed to have mistaken it for Cheon-ho completely going easy on her.
“No, I learned so much thanks to you. I should be the one thanking you.”
Without the spar with Machina, he couldn't have created the Sword of Dawn.
[Still, it's incredible. It's no exaggeration to say you've become a completely different person after just over three hours of sparring.]
[You're amazing, my lord. Really, really amazing.]
[Hehe, hehehe.]
Mitra giggled with a silly smile. She still seemed a bit out of it. How much would she kick the blankets later?
But she was cute, and her joy at Cheon-ho's growth was touching, so he said nothing.
‘I’ll tease her later.’
Teasing when she's embarrassed is the best.
[You seem to be thinking something naughty, but it's fine today.]
[I'm in such a good mood today.]
How cute.
After stroking the golden gem a few times, Cheon-ho looked back at Machina.
Interpreting his words humbly, she gazed at him with eyes of respect.
“Let's head inside first.”
The battle ended quickly, but it was still a fight.
Moreover, they needed to check the golden statues' conditions. What was inside the others besides the first? Were there other messages or communication devices like in the previous carrier?
Of course, they also had to search for the divine artifact—the main reason for coming to the forge.
“Hero, let's go.”
Lucille beamed, hugging Cheon-ho's arm. She looked as happy as Mitra.
The Primordial Forge.
Where the five goddesses' divine artifacts and Mitra were forged.
Cheon-ho stepped forward.
[Lewd has reached Lv7.]
[The Labyrinth World remembers your astonishing tale.]
Chapter 13? Evnail's Sacred Treasure
Tower of the Sun.
Among Phayen's existing structures, it was the oldest—and the place closest to the sun.
In its topmost chamber.
In the woman's room, a man and woman lay in the same bed, gazing at the same spot.
“One is pretty, the other is cute.”
“Cute…?”
She readily agreed with the former, but the latter was a bit hard to accept.
The image extracted from the woman's memory featured her son, angels, and the holy sword. Pretty referred to the angel, cute to the holy sword.
The woman possessed the ability to peer through souls, the essence of life itself. So unlike ordinary people, she didn't see the holy sword as mere sword.
True to the image shaped by her vision, a woman's faint form hovered over the holy sword.
A woman with deep blue hair and golden eyes.
Undoubtedly the sword spirit.
She was beautiful. No, like the woman herself, "beautiful" suited her better than "pretty."
So the man tilted his head slightly.
She looked aloof, proud, cool, and chic at first glance—yet cute?
“She's cute, for sure. You can tell just by looking. Makes you want to tease her. Teasing her would make her even cuter. Definitely.”
“Uh, yeah, sure.”
He agreed to the woman's sparkling-eyed words for now.
It was half-hearted, but she didn't mind. She leaned her head on his shoulder and giggled.
“Our son is popular. Right?”
“Hmm.”
By her claim, both adored the son immensely.
“So that's why you prepared two sets?”
“Yeah, yeah. Gotta be fair with this stuff.”
The woman seemed quite pleased.
She'd been gloomy since her son vanished, but seeing him safe and well eased her worries.
“As expected, he's your son. Walking around with angels and a holy sword. Don't know the details, but he's clearly doing great.”
“Hmm.”
The original master of the poker face wore a cool expression, but inwardly he grinned like her.
They'd taught him everything from childhood to prepare for such a crisis.
He felt proud of the results.
“I wonder if the carriers arrived safely.”
“They should have. They had to.”
The woman's beaming smile hardened slightly.
The man shrank a bit and nodded.
“Yeah, they must have.”
And they absolutely had to. Preparing even one more batch would bankrupt not just the Holy Kingdom but the neighboring allies too.
“Anyway, it's a relief. He awakened solar mana.”
The woman let out a long breath as she said it. In truth, this was the biggest reason for her relief.
Solar mana.
Proof that her son had fully inherited her blood.
She interlaced her fingers with the man's hand. Instead of rejecting, he squeezed back.
She hadn't shown it, but she'd been deeply anxious.
Her son looked human to anyone.
No signs of inheriting her great blood.
But not anymore.
By awakening solar mana, he proved he was her son—bearer of that great blood.
Her relief had two reasons.
One, whatever the Labyrinth World was, her son's survival odds had skyrocketed. Solar mana held that much power.
Two, he was now the rightful heir to the Tower of the Sun. No one in the tower could challenge it. She could pass on everything she owned, from one to ten, freely.