Chapter 78
Chapter 78
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 78
Chapter Title: Surpassing the Limit Once More
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Clang! Chaaang!
The resounding clash of swords echoed through the air.
From Lakradion's lips, who had been clashing blades with Nokcheon for quite some time now, came ragged breaths.
Was it because her lifelong devotion to the sword wasn't a lie?
Even against Nokcheon, Lakradion didn't back down, meeting his blade head-on.
However, wounds continued to accumulate on her body.
It stemmed from the nature of Thunderclap Aura.
Each time their swords collided, the shockwave of thunder-like aura exploded beyond the blades, inflicting damage on Lakradion.
Because of this, she had to constantly envelop her body in aura, which was depleting at a rapid rate.
If it were an overflowing aura like Charlotte's that never ran out no matter how much she used, it would be one thing.
But Lakradion's aura, superior only slightly to an average person's, was like a stream between a brook and a lake.
As such, her thin layer of aura couldn't fully block Thunderclap Aura's effects.
And that wasn't the only problem.
Sslash!
Lakradion seized a brief opening and successfully slashed Nokcheon's arm.
But the deeply gashed arm regenerated to perfect condition in an instant.
This was precisely why Nokcheon was deemed an unkillable monster.
Supported by the Demonic Palace, Nokcheon possessed infinite regenerative power—even if his head were severed, it would regenerate.
A monster that regenerated no matter how many times it was killed, now wielding infinite aura through Thunderclap Aura.
Thus, countless people despaired before him.
Nokcheon alone was already beyond specifications, and immortal to boot.
Everyone naturally gave up on reaching the 9th floor.
Yet Lakradion stood before this Nokcheon.
She, who had once crumbled before him.
Clang!
Another resounding sword clash unleashed a shockwave of aura that sliced into Lakradion like a blade.
Her lungs felt like they were tearing apart from lack of breath.
Still, Lakradion gripped her sword tenaciously and parried Nokcheon's attack.
Perhaps because she had no major wounds but many minor ones.
Her clothes soaked in blood here and there, she felt her mind growing hazy from blood loss and physical limits.
'A bit more.'
But she forcibly clung to her fading consciousness.
And parried Nokcheon's sword once again.
'A bit more.'
Lakradion felt all sounds and presences around her vanish.
She poured her entire focus solely on Nokcheon before her eyes.
Perhaps because of that, her sword movements grew even faster than usual.
Where her blade needed to go to fully transmit its power to the opponent.
And what form her swordsmanship needed to take to buy just a little more time and withstand.
Various thoughts filled her entire body.
It was a realization.
A realization that stepped her one pace up the wall.
Though many steps remained to reach the summit, that steady footfall lifted her higher once more.
"Ha."
Lakradion swallowed a short laugh.
Yes, so this was it.
This was the world she had swung her sword so desperately to see until now.
She now rediscovered why she had once yearned so fiercely for growth through the sword.
Splatter!
Flesh torn by the blade's shockwave splattered to the ground.
Yet she was still not enough to defeat Nokcheon.
But she could see the path ahead.
Climbing it steadily was her specialty.
This alone was a tremendous achievement.
"So, Lord Krash."
Lakradion declared amid the black flames that now filled the surroundings.
"You no longer need to worry about me."
Crackle, crunch!
The moment the sound of flames bursting rang out.
Black flames surged along the cracks throughout the carriage.
The carriage collapsed, revealing the bare grassland below.
Nokcheon and Lakradion plummeted in tandem.
With numerous wounds and depleted stamina, Lakradion could do nothing as she fell toward the ground.
Thus, when she closed her eyes.
Instead of the impact of the fall, she realized someone had caught her.
Rumblecrash!
It was none other than Krash.
Though Krash was slightly shorter than her.
He effortlessly caught Lakradion, withstood the carriage's fall, and landed on the plain.
Krash set her down.
Lakradion staggered but bowed her head.
"Thank you for waiting."
Lakradion had noticed that Krash had long since burned the entire carriage.
Yet Krash had waited.
Because he had seen that Lakradion was using this moment to grow.
If she were a soaring genius, she might have seized this chance to take flight like sprouting wings, but she lingered at a level above average yet below genius.
Thus, the step she took was a tiny footprint nearly invisible to others.
However, Krash could see that footprint clearly.
Because he knew the efforts he himself had made for such a single step.
"Good work."
Leaving Lakradion behind, Krash began walking across the field.
This was outside the Demonic Palace.
An unknown grassland expanse.
Fortunately, the Armed Princess was nowhere in sight.
Since the carriage kept moving and changing terrain, it had probably crashed far from here.
Through the smoke rising from the shattered carriage, an elderly man stood on the field.
The old man, with Thunderclap Aura extended, had a caved-in chest revealing his exposed ribs.
He panted roughly, looking as if he might collapse any moment.
Of course.
The old man, whose life was prolonged by the Demonic Palace, now drew on his own life force outside it.
He no longer possessed infinite regeneration or vitality.
Outside the Demonic Palace, Nokcheon was merely an old man skilled with the sword.
'If a few more years had passed, he would have collapsed outright.'
According to Belokin, as soon as the carriage shattered and Nokcheon emerged, he crumbled into a corpse.
By then, he likely had not a shred of life force left.
Thanks to that, Belokin had acquired Thunderclap Aura with ease.
Yet now, Nokcheon did not collapse like before.
It meant he still had some life force remaining.
"No need for talk, I see."
Now freed from the Demonic Palace's bondage.
His mind had surely returned as well.
But he answered by silently aiming his sword at Krash.
A red glint flashed in Nokcheon's eyes as he regarded Krash.
As if he intended to burn every last bit of his life force in this battle, they blazed fiercely.
A life ending anyway.
He would fight and die as a swordsman to the end. Was that it?
What a self-centered man.
'Perhaps.'
Maybe he wanted one final confirmation if Krash suited Thunderclap Aura.
'Though it's my own judgment.'
Krash lowered his stance, preparing the Sword Demon Convergence Technique.
If the other wanted to fight, he would oblige.
After all, Krash had one thing he wanted to test as well.
At that moment, Nokcheon kicked off the ground and charged.
The presence of the golden aura pouring from Thunderclap Aura was overwhelming.
Facing such a Nokcheon, Krash's action was to close his eyes.
Crackle—
Sparks flickered across Krash's body.
In that brief instant as the sparks passed.
Clang!
Krash's drawn sword clashed with Nokcheon's.
Nokcheon's eyes faintly widened between his brows.
Then, maintaining the clashing stance, he withdrew Thunderclap Aura and thrust his sword again.
Chaaang!
Chaaang, chaaang, chaaang!
And Nokcheon's sword dance began.
True to a sword specter, the blades pouring from him were like a torrential downpour.
Amid that ferocious storm.
Krash calmly parried every one of Nokcheon's swords with his eyes closed.
And that wasn't all.
Despite Thunderclap Aura's nature causing wounds from aura shockwaves, not a single mark appeared on Krash's body.
Because Krash was deflecting even the shockwaves entirely with his sword.
Nokcheon's brows furrowed.
He was the one attacking, yet Krash's feet were steadily advancing.
An incomprehensible situation unfolded before his eyes.
'It's working.'
Parrying Nokcheon's sword dance, Krash felt his presence far more intensely than before, even with eyes closed.
Crackle!
Sixth Sense thinly spread threads of aura, and between them.
Sparks from Lioner traveling along the threads continuously relayed electrical signals to Krash.
Those signals detected even invisible aura shockwaves.
And true to lightning's nature, they transmitted the information to Krash in an instant.
Sixth Sense, enhanced by Lioner, had vastly improved its information relay.
And when Blunt Sword was added to that.
Krash had stepped into an entirely new realm.
'1m.'
Within one pace.
This space birthed a new boundary where Sixth Sense met Lioner.
Thunderbolt
A new domain of Blunt Sword, reacting like lightning to all things.
"Grk!"
Watching Krash close in step by step, Nokcheon growled from his throat.
He realized this wouldn't pierce Krash.
Thus, Nokcheon changed his approach.
Boom!
Their swords collided, unleashing a massive shock.
Even as Krash deflected the force with Thunderbolt, the impact hit.
"Ha, you mad old coot."
Krash, parrying the strike, showed disbelief.
Wrinkle after wrinkle deepened on Nokcheon's face in an instant.
But in exchange, the Thunderclap Aura swung at Krash burned far more intensely than before.
Innate vitality, called the source of life.
The bastard was now burning that innate vitality, trading life force for a final, brilliant blaze.
"A dying life anyway. Is that it?!"
Krash shouted, invoking Annihilating Flame Erosion.
If the other was drawing even on innate vitality, Krash would get serious too.
As Annihilating Flame Erosion's heat permeated every corner of Krash's body, entering its second stage, his sword movements changed.
Boom!
The successive explosions made it impossible to believe their attacks were made with swords.
A pure clash of brute force.
With his eyes glowing scarlet and spewing smoke, Krash began colliding with Nokcheon.
Boom, boom, boom!
Sweat droplets flew.
Even with Annihilating Flame Erosion, his bones rattled, muscles screamed as if tearing.
His insides felt like they would cook from the heat.
And Nokcheon fared the same.
His burned life force flickered away moment by moment, draining vitality from his body, his skin rapidly aging to a dusky black.
Muscles on his arms withered continuously, exposing bare bones.
Yet Thunderclap Aura, fueled by his aura, blazed an even stronger golden light.
And atop Krash's dark sword, pitch-black flames roared as if devouring everything.
Golden light and black flames clashed once more, engulfing the surroundings.
From afar, Lakradion watched, entranced.
Because she knew both had wrung out their limits to surpass humanity.
Rooooom!
In the erupting explosion.
Krash gripped his sword until his hands bled.
'One second ahead.'
The time signaled by his body, accelerated by Annihilating Flame Erosion.
At the same time, Krash sensed Nokcheon had reached his limit too.
The next exchange would be the last.
As both realized this.
Nokcheon's sword moved first.
His blade transcended gold into pure white.
That blade, imbued with the resolve to cleave anything, embodied all his life force.
The ferocious light warping the very air made it seem as if he had momentarily surpassed human bounds entirely.
Watching this, the hairs on Lakradion's neck stood on end.
Even without facing it directly, she knew.
The moment she met it, she would die.
"Lord Krash!"
As she screamed his name.
Krash had sunk into utter tranquility.
Deep within Krash's mind.
A single drop fell into the endless lake, rippling outward.
The process Krash reached for One Sword upon attaining Sword-Mind Unity.
But this process differed from before.
Atop the fiercely burning flames alone.
A streak of lightning surged upward.
Atop the dark sword.
Lightning enveloped it like a scabbard.
Simultaneously, like the Sword Demon Convergence Technique within that lightning scabbard, Krash's black flames wildly threaded through the interior.
The moment Sword Demon Convergence Technique merged within the lightning scabbard.
That power steadily grew, soon reaching storm force.
The sword in his grip felt ready to burst from weight.
Yet Krash gritted his teeth, tenaciously enduring the force.
And when that storm reached its peak.
Krash's eyes flashed open, and the lightning scabbard split.
Flash!
In that instant, the erupting light swallowed everything.
The storm of black flames and lightning finally revealed itself to the world.
Annihilating Flame Erosion
Third Form
Heavenly Thunder of Annihilating Flames
The storm of black flames and electric charge devoured all light in that instant.