Chapter 194
Chapter 194
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 194
Chapter Title: Leonhardt vs. Apostle Sekhmet
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***
*Shing!*
The sound of a sword being drawn echoed as the pristine white blade caught the sunlight, emitting a beautiful gleam.
Watching from a distance, Sekhmet instinctively narrowed his eyes.
‘I don’t understand.’
Though it was power manifested by Azazel's clone, he couldn't sense any flaw in it. While he couldn't say it had achieved absolute invisibility, Azazel's unique ability was by no means something to be underestimated.
For example, most of the humans called instructors hadn't even noticed Azazel's invisibility.
And yet, this blond human seemed to sense it.
He couldn't perceive it precisely, but his demeanor suggested he felt an oddness. Had he perhaps caught the scent of his own death?
—But, it mattered not.
As the thought crossed his mind, Sekhmet flicked his hand.
*Snap!*
A crisp sound rang out, and the space around them warped in an instant.
All the light in the world faded. The earth, the buildings, and the sky were swallowed by darkness.
The resulting space was a world forged from deep darkness and swirling flames, completely severed from the world that had existed before.
“...!”
His eyes wide at the sudden change, Leonhardt instantly manifested his energy on his sword. Sekhmet, in turn, leisurely began to erase the blessing of invisibility Azazel had granted him.
The blessing was now meaningless.
To kill a human, he ultimately had to manifest his own power. He had infiltrated the academy even if it meant cutting his clone’s power by more than half.
And now was the time.
By killing the pivotal human before his power could blossom, the clone’s meager strength would have fulfilled its purpose.
*Whoosh!*
*Whoosh!*
Engulfed in darkness, Leonhardt’s gaze darted in every direction as he unleashed a powerful, surging torrent of blue light.
Just as that light, like a single flame resisting the shadows, drove back the darkness.
Sekhmet reached out from Leonhardt's blind spot and unleashed his power with explosive force.
*KABOOM!!*
A massive black flame erupted from the space where Leonhardt had been, detonating violently.
And it didn't end with a single blast.
*KABOOM!!*
*KABOOM!!*
*KABOOM!!*
The black flames swelled to immense sizes and burst, each explosion compounding the last.
As the even larger flames flickered, continually consuming the space, Sekhmet, having unleashed his power in succession, let his eyes sink into a deep calm.
His gaze fixed on the space engulfed in black flames, he unconsciously moved his lips.
“Hoh.”
A sound of pure admiration escaped him.
The black flames were still consuming the space. His flames, which would not die until a life was extinguished, were still burning strong.
And that, conversely, meant the human was still alive.
“Cough!”
As Leonhardt spat out a mouthful of blood, his bloodshot eyes glaring at Sekhmet's location, Sekhmet met his gaze calmly.
‘Is this the potential of a pivotal human?’
The human had not even properly awakened.
It surely hadn’t been long since he’d been granted his so-called Trait.
And yet, no matter how weak his clone’s power was, the boy had survived within these black flames.
It made him realize it once again.
He had believed that by facing humans, he could understand them to some extent.
The measure of power a being held. Even its limits.
The very origin of the human species was absurdly feeble, weak, and vulnerable to all things. It felt as if the human race had been imperfectly designed from the start.
But occasionally, there were humans who were not like that.
Much like the human standing before him now.
—!
The deep blue light enveloping his entire body burst forth like an explosion, forcefully pushing back the black flames that surrounded him.
Even that was within the range of Sekhmet’s understanding.
Leonhardt's presence had been extraordinary from the beginning, and he had a rough idea of the magnitude of power the boy held.
But the human now shooting toward him like a beam of light was strange. Suddenly, the limits of his power were no longer clearly discernible.
Could a human who had just received his power amass such potential in a mere few months?
As he pondered, Sekhmet raised his hand to block the attack.
—!!
The massive blue light of the Sword of the Azure Sky erupted like a cannonade, as if to cleave the darkness.
To Sekhmet, it was a coarse and unrefined manifestation of power. But the density and purity of that power had something special, even compared to the mana of any human he had faced before.
*Ssssssk!!*
The blade stopped dead in his grip. He took in the sight of the clear, pure blue light emanating from it.
‘So this is it.’
The source of this human's power, his Trait.
It was pure, and the density of its energy was on another level.
“With your bare… hand.”
Ignoring the human's shocked voice, he swatted his hand as if to push away the captured sword.
*Fwoosh!!*
Black flames erupted from his palm, incinerating the space.
—*Snap.*
At the same time, he twisted the sword, and it shattered all too easily.
***
—*Snap.*
The moment the sound of the blade breaking echoed.
Leonhardt hastily threw himself backward, unable to comprehend what had just happened.
“……”
An unspeakable pain traveled from his mouth, down his throat, and tore through his chest.
—The sword had shattered.
In a single exchange. No, it couldn't even be called an exchange.
His sword, imbued with the pure energy of the Sword of the Azure Sky—a power he had reached at Trait Level 4, capable of slicing through tempered steel with ease—had been extinguished so effortlessly by the black flames.
And so, the sword had broken.
…Against an opponent using nothing but his bare hands.
*Thud!*
He immediately composed himself upon landing.
His eyes once again took in the being before him.
Shoulder-length red hair, and eyes that gazed at him with an indifference that betrayed no meaning.
But his appearance and presence were utterly alien.
'It's him.'
He could now declare with certainty that the ‘something’ that had been sounding alarms in his heart just moments ago was this very being.
Conscious of his shattered blade, he unleashed the energy of the Sword of the Azure Sky even more intensely, wrapping it around his entire body.
—!!
As the abundant energy of the Sword of the Azure Sky completely dyed his vision blue, the blood in his veins seemed to flow at a breakneck pace.
*Thump! Thump!*
His heart pounded faster than ever before, and the sense of crisis overflowed, threatening to transform into the emotion of fear and consume his mind.
*Tremble.*
Even the hand gripping the sword began to shake faintly.
He bit his lip hard. The being staring at him didn't feel human at all.
He had no way of knowing if there was an entity attacking the students, nor could he understand it. But one thing was crystal clear.
His top priority was to ‘survive’.
Gripping the broken sword, most of its blade gone, he willed it with fierce intensity.
The energy of the Sword of the Azure Sky would complete the broken blade.
If the sword is gone, its energy must take its place. A sword meant to contain the heavens had to be capable of such a feat.
*Swooshhh—.*
His wish became reality.
In place of the shattered blade, the energy of the Sword of the aAzure Sky condensed, forming a new blade.
As it did, he cleared his mind, as if to reset his heart.
He couldn't panic.
He couldn't be afraid.
He had to face this being that had targeted him head-on.
*Shhh.*
He forced his hand still, erasing the tremor.
And he had to figure out if his power could even work against this being. If not, he had to devise a way to make the power of the Sword of the Azure Sky effective.
“...!”
Sensing a concentration of energy like the previous surprise attack, he urgently kicked off the ground.
*BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!*
Immediately after, a series of explosions erupted wherever he stepped as he accelerated. He didn't even have a moment to catch his breath.
He unleashed his energy at full power, to an extent he wasn't sure he had ever reached before.
Accelerating faster than ever, he was still constantly thrown off balance by the impact of the explosions.
*FWOOSH!!*
His thoughts ground to a halt just trying to avoid the erupting black flames that constantly tried to swallow him.
There was no time to think and evade. The moment he felt the energy condense, his body reacted, bursting with the power of the Sword of the Azure Sky as he darted and weaved across the area.
…And in that time, his gaze drifted vacantly.
As his body moved and dodged on instinct, he looked at the male being, as if engraving his image into his eyes.
He was still watching him with a leisurely air. There was no sign that he was even exerting any power.
…He couldn't understand it.
If it was a Trait, there had to be a precursor to its activation. But there was none at all.
‘How…’
Then what… what was he supposed to do?
His earlier surprise attack had been blocked so effortlessly. Worse, his own sword had shattered in the process, forcing him to retreat.
*BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!*
The continuous explosions were starting to catch up to his speed.
And then.
Before long… they reached him.
*KABOOM!!*
A blast even larger than before sent him flying through the air, and he felt his consciousness about to fade.
*Fwoosh!*
The violently burning black flames wrapped around him, threatening to extinguish the energy of the Sword of the Azure Sky at any moment.
‘At this rate… I’ll die.’
The thought of death jolted him, and his eyes snapped open.
“...!”
He barely managed to twist his body and unleash the energy of the Sword of the Azure Sky even more fiercely.
—!!
Amidst the power of the Sword of the Azure Sky, which erupted so powerfully it seemed to push back the very darkness of the space, he was finally able to land on the ground.
*Thud!*
The moment his feet touched the ground, a surge of blood rose in his throat.
“Cough!”
He spat out more blood, his heart racing with urgency.
Just as he was preparing for the next attack, the concentration of energy seemed to stop abruptly.
There were no more explosions, only his own ragged breaths.
“Hah… hah…”
His whole body felt like it was about to burst.
His vision was blurry, and he didn't even have the luxury to wipe the blood trickling from his lips. An agonizing pain shot through him, a sign of the immense strain on his body.
“Is this, too, the potential of a human?”
A voice, echoing softly through the space, made him pause.
Those words made me realize….
I had been thinking about this all wrong.
‘That’s an Apostle.’
The greatest enemy of the Empire, a being that humanity had to erase from the world if it were to survive.
*Grit!*
He bit his lip, instantly correcting his weakened resolve. The flickering black flames amidst the dark space felt utterly ominous.
And belatedly, he realized everything had been pointing to an Apostle.
“In the end, I must kill you myself. The clone’s power is so weak that a remote ignition can’t even kill a single human properly.”
As the calm voice echoed, I tightened my grip on my sword.
‘The instructors aren’t coming.’
This space itself might be isolated by the Apostle's authority.
The clear sky, the ground, the academy buildings—none of them had reappeared in his sight as time passed.
This could be the spatial control ability said to be possessed by high-ranking Apostles.
If so, he had to overcome this situation with his own strength. It meant that even holding out for someone’s support was pointless.
The enemy was an Apostle.
There was no way a mere student could handle one.
But that didn't matter. The crisis was here, and he had to overcome it.
'If I don't stop the Apostle here.'
There would surely be many casualties before the instructors arrived.
And among those casualties… Yumia, who wasn't far away, would certainly be one of them.
The moment that thought crossed his mind.
—!
His heart seemed to be washed in a pure light.
A small ripple spread through his urgent mind, and strength flowed into the hand gripping the sword.
—!
He steeled his resolve, his eyes fixed on the energy of the Sword of the Azure Sky that formed the blade atop his broken hilt.
'Is this how Han Cheon-seong felt?'
He, too, had faced an Apostle and suffered a terrible accident.
Han Cheon-seong had said that he overcame the crisis by manifesting his power with the resolve to die for others.
If so… what I needed now was a kind of resolve.
He couldn't win by just dodging. He had to get close to the Apostle, somehow.
—!
The moment he felt the energy condense, he was already kicking off the ground, charging toward the Apostle.
*KABOOM!*
He used the explosion that erupted just behind him to launch himself even faster toward his foe.
He imbued the energy of the Sword of the Azure Sky, gathered on his broken sword, with a different principle.
What was important wasn't simple destructive power.
'The power that had parted the surface of the lake.'
A single image, one that held absolute strength within its gentleness.
To prevent the Apostle from catching his blade with his bare hands as he had before…
He needed that principle now.