Chapter 374: Dawn (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 374: Dawn (2)
In Europe, the established power, no matter what anyone said, was the nobility.
Not only had they accumulated wealth through unjust means for ages, but they also easily evaded punishment even when they broke the law.
In fact, just a few decades ago, a high-ranking noble had gone so far as to declare the right of the first night in his own territory.
There had been several attempts to spark a revolution to abolish the class system, but each one had ended in failure.
The existence of Gates and magical beasts threatened their very lives.
Nevertheless, the resentment toward the nobility never faded, instead piling up in the hearts of the commoners for hundreds of years.
And then, finally, an incident occurred.
Marquis Leboire, a high-ranking French noble, was assassinated in his office.
Alongside him was the S-rank French hunter, Louis Aymos, who had been serving as his guard.
The bodies of the two men were covered in bizarre spots, said to have resembled the marks of a plague.
This incident triggered a wave of noble assassinations across Europe, and over the next three years, more than forty nobles lost their lives.
There were frequent cases where entire families, and even entire territories, were annihilated.
Their cause of death was always the same.
Death by disease.
As nobles, who were obligated to handle the Gates that appeared in their territories, were murdered one after another, the damage from Gate Breaks in Europe inevitably became severe.
When it was later revealed that a single person was responsible for all these incidents, all of Europe was thrown into shock and chaos.
From that day on, Talion acquired two epithets.
The Plague Doctor, and the Noble Killer.
*
“Aaaargh!!!”
Crimson blood scattered through the air.
Talion couldn’t believe what had just happened to him.
He hadn’t let his guard down for a single moment.
He had even kept a spirit in reserve to use as a shield.
But the instant an unknown bolt of lightning flashed, his right arm had already been severed, barrier and all.
He had no time to writhe in pain, no leeway to grasp the situation.
Seeing the slash flying toward his neck, Talion used an artifact.
With a distortion of space, he teleported several dozen meters back.
The authority of Marbas was disease and healing.
The arm severed by Kang Hyun-woo’s sword grew back in an instant.
“Kill him!”
The moment Talion’s command fell, the spirits charged toward Kang Hyun-woo.
Their furious momentum violently shook the ground.
But that alone wasn’t enough to stop Kang Hyun-woo.
KRRRRR-G-G-GAK!
With a sound like rock being ground in a blender, an ink-black Aura Blade flew in all directions, dismembering Talion’s spirits one by one.
Watching the scene, Talion’s eyes began to tremble.
Normally, a reverse summon of a spirit would inflict internal damage on the caster, but thanks to his contract with a demon, he got away with only expending mana.
However, the successive reverse summons quickly drained Talion’s mana.
He couldn’t comprehend the situation.
The authority of Marbas was absolute.
Even if his opponents were the two dukes of England, resisting its power would not be easy.
But a mere 5th Circle mage was completely unaffected by it?
By all rights, his entire body should have rotted away by now.
“...Dammit!”
Talion bit his lip and squeezed out every last drop of his remaining mana.
At that moment—
—!!!
With a roar as if the very axis of the earth had shifted, something began to rise.
It was a golem, incomparably massive compared to the other high-level spirits.
It had once been Talion’s contracted spirit, on the verge of becoming a supreme-level spirit, but it had been corrupted into a demonic spirit when he made a contract with Marbas, a grand duke of Gehenna.
Rumble—
Though it had already lost its sanity, the golem raised its massive arm in obedience to its master’s command.
The collision of such overwhelming mass was, in itself, no less than a large-scale offensive magic spell.
Kang Hyun-woo knew this better than anyone, but he didn’t back down.
If an attack like that were to fall on the duke’s mansion, it was obvious that the aftermath would engulf both Delia and Lady Ophelia.
“...Cough.”
Kang Hyun-woo spat out a clump of internal organs and watched the scene with an emotionless gaze.
He had already used the energy of Emptiness once when he defeated Sir Lancelot.
A second time was dangerous.
His body wouldn’t be able to withstand it.
But this was no time to worry about such things.
“Hoo...”
Just once would be enough.
He would recreate the sky-splitting sword that Vajra Divine Monk had shown him that day.
Kiiiiing!
Imbued with Golden Vajra Qi, the Heaven-Shattering Demonic Sword began to emit a brilliant, golden Aura.
A single streak of light shot up beneath the night sky.
After a meditation that lasted but an instant, Kang Hyun-woo began to run.
Crackle!
Becoming a bolt of lightning, he closed the distance in a flash, then kicked off the ground with all his might and leaped.
‘...Slash, slash, slash, slash, slash, slash.’
Only one desire filled his mind.
A single strike of the sword that would cut down everything in his path.
It didn’t matter if his opponent was a golem the size of a massive building.
If Vajra Divine Monk were here, he would have effortlessly chopped the golem to pieces with a smile on his face.
“Crush him to a pulp!”
Talion, who had collapsed to the ground from the sudden mana drain, watched Kang Hyun-woo charge at his spirit.
A clear smile was drawn on his lips.
The Duke of Rutland might be one thing, but to think he could block a strike from a spirit that was once on the verge of becoming a supreme-level spirit with just one sword?
It was nothing more than the reckless bravado of a brat.
He believed that without a doubt.
But the moment Kang Hyun-woo’s sword, radiating a pure white brilliance, swung toward the golem.
“...Huh?”
Formless Sword Art: Genesis - Sever.
—!!!!!!!!
The clouds covering the sky split apart as dawn arrived in Avalon, driving away the darkness.
The single strike Kang Hyun-woo swung succeeded in cleaving the golem’s arm in two. The golem collapsed, screaming a silent scream.
Talion stared blankly at the sight of his spirit being reverse summoned.
No, to be precise, he couldn’t help it.
It felt as if his common sense was being utterly denied.
Even if it had fallen into a demonic spirit, the one he had just summoned was a high-level earth spirit that had once been on the verge of becoming a supreme-level spirit.
There was no way it could be defeated so easily...
“—You’re not thinking something like that, are you?”
“?!”
At that moment, Talion’s eyes met Kang Hyun-woo’s.
Battered and broken, Hyun-woo tossed an empty holy water bottle to the ground and took a step toward Talion.
A refined killing intent dominated the surrounding space.
“...Spirits are nature itself. But a corrupted spirit can no longer borrow the power of nature. A so-called spirit user couldn’t possibly be ignorant of what that means.”
Kang Hyun-woo recalled what Iris had told him.
Spirits are not born only in the spirit realm.
They are born from all things in nature and live alongside that nature.
Therefore, a spirit’s power is thoroughly rooted in nature, and if they can no longer communicate with it, they lose their power.
A prime example was when a spirit was corrupted into a demonic spirit.
And a corrupted spirit was nothing more than a magical beast with brutish strength.
“You sold your contracted spirit to a demon for your own greed, and now you’re trying to rely on it?”
“...”
“Have you no shame, you demon worshipper?”
Pluck—
Kang Hyun-woo pulled the arrows embedded in his shoulder and waist.
Tristan’s sniping was stealthy and precise.
It had been impossible to dodge or block everything in the midst of that chaotic battle, and the result was four poisoned arrows stuck in his body.
The poison on the arrowheads was potent enough to melt organs with just a minuscule amount, and a dose far exceeding the lethal limit had already been absorbed into his system.
But Kang Hyun-woo’s complexion didn’t look like that of a poisoned man.
It was only natural.
He might have had trouble with the poison Old Monster Mangong used, but this much could be neutralized with his Black Flame.
Moreover, he had recovered a fair amount of his stamina with high-grade holy water.
He would collapse if he relaxed for even a moment, but for now, he could hold on.
“What the hell... What the hell do you know to be spouting such nonsense!” Talion screamed at Kang Hyun-woo.
His voice, a complete 180 from before, was thick with killing intent.
Crack—
At that moment, a crack appeared on the mask-shaped artifact that had been supplementing the enormous amount of mana required for summoning spirits.
Not only had he summoned multiple high-level spirits simultaneously, but they had also been reverse summoned one after another. It was an expected outcome.
The face that was finally revealed was shocking.
“I cast aside shame the day I vowed revenge on those noble bastards! As long as I could get my revenge, I would have sold anything—my spirits, my soul, anything!”
His features were half-melted from burns, and his skin had a strange purplish hue.
At the sight, Kang Hyun-woo’s eyes widened.
“...A Druid?”
Druids.
They were a race that communicated with nature, priests who led the Celtic faith in ancient Britain, and the entire race was composed of exceptional spirit users.
But in the modern era, their bloodline and lineage had been completely severed.
Centuries ago, all Druids had been killed in a great massacre across Europe known as the ‘Druid Hunt.’
‘I didn’t expect any survivors to still be around...’
Druids were fundamentally a long-lived species.
According to the history books, they could live up to 300 years, so it wasn’t entirely strange for a survivor to still exist.
“Do you have any idea how I felt, selling my most precious friend for the sake of my people’s revenge?!”
Talion’s voice was less a cry of anger and more one of anguish.
Kang Hyun-woo silently looked into his eyes, which had been stained black.
“...You’ve been devoured.”
It was a Heart Demon.
And a particularly nasty one that had burrowed deep into his soul over many long years.
“Marbas!”
Talion called out a name in a desperate voice.
At that moment, an intense demonic energy began to gather in one place.
Soon, the face of a lion with a black mane materialized in the air.
—You called.
A chillingly pleasant voice came from beyond the beast’s maw.
A danger signal, even stronger than the one I felt when I faced Gremory, began to urge me on.
“Kill that bastard right now!”
—I am not your subordinate.
“You think I called you to listen to that kind of bullshit?! Besides, if I die, you’re the one who stands to lose the most, aren’t you?!”
At Talion’s words, Marbas sighed and looked at Kang Hyun-woo.
In that instant, a ripple went through his eyes.
—Now I see why you asked for my help. I never imagined the natural enemy of demons would appear in this land.
Marbas’s eyes, as he looked at Kang Hyun-woo, were filled with a deep curiosity and wariness.
—My apologies, but let’s end the contract here. It seems killing that man will be impossible.
“...What?”
Swoosh—
At that moment, a black, ominous energy began to drain from Talion’s body.
It was the authority and demonic energy of Marbas.
“W-Wait! I didn’t agree to terminate the contract!”
—Fool. A demon’s contract does not require the consent of both parties.
“Kh-Kuhuk?!”
Thud—
Once all the demonic energy had left him, Talion collapsed powerlessly on the spot.
Contrary to Kang Hyun-woo’s expectations, he was already well over 500 years old.
The only reason Talion had been able to live this long was purely due to his contract with Marbas.
But now that the contract was broken, the aging process that had been postponed for so long began to accelerate rapidly.
Talion, who had become a white-haired old man in the blink of an eye, reached out a trembling, tear-filled hand toward something.
“L-Like this...!!!”
Tuk—
But his words were left unfinished.
All that remained there was a withered corpse.
Watching Talion’s anticlimactic end, Kang Hyun-woo stood silently for a while.
Eventually, he turned his gaze to Marbas.
The demon seemed to have no interest in the fate of his former contractor.
—To think the one Purpur mentioned was a Devil Slayer. So it was you who killed Gremory, not the Church.
“...You know about Devil Slayers?”
—Heh heh, is there any creature that doesn’t know its own natural enemy?
Natural enemy.
The implication of those words was by no means light.
—It seems we will be seeing each other again soon.
As Marbas began to fade, Kang Hyun-woo raised his middle finger with a deadpan expression.
“Fuck off.”
—Khehehe, you’re a feisty one. I like that.
With that, Marbas vanished with a final, unsettling laugh.
Kang Hyun-woo stared into the empty air for a moment before turning to leave.
But at that moment.
Thump—
“Ugh!”
Dropping to one knee, Kang Hyun-woo vomited a mouthful of crimson blood.
Chunks of his internal organs were mixed in with it.
This was the price for a mage with only five rings presumptuously using 6th Circle magic.
On top of that, in such a state, he had even unleashed a sword technique of a realm not yet permitted to him. It wouldn’t have been strange at all if he had fainted on the spot.
Indeed, his hands and feet were trembling, and his vision was spinning.
Despite it all, Kang Hyun-woo gritted his teeth and staggered to his feet.
He scanned his surroundings, his face pale.
“Tristan... did he run away?”
The lack of any more arrows flying his way was proof.
Either that, or he was hiding somewhere, waiting for an opportunity.
In any case, he had no time to hesitate here.
With trembling hands, Kang Hyun-woo downed holy water and a potion.
He felt like he would throw up at any moment, but he forced it down, suppressing the pain.
“...So this is what it feels like to face one mountain after another.”
Kang Hyun-woo thought to himself.
There could be no worse trip abroad than this.
For the record, he had searched Talion’s body, but any useful artifacts had been destroyed, likely due to some special measure.
It was a shitty feeling.
*
Clang!
“Kyaa?!”
A shrill scream erupted as sparks flew.
Delia, after tumbling across the ground, tried to get up quickly, but her exhausted body refused to obey.
As she gasped for breath, a man’s figure came into her view.
A large man with a tattoo on his head and bronze skin, exuding a killing intent that made her skin crawl.
From his appearance, Delia was certain he was Van Kruger, the Mage Slayer, who had been identified as the mastermind behind the Cairo terror incident.
“Give up and hand over the holy sword. I’ll give you a painless death.”
“...I refuse.”
Delia dragged her battered body and staggered to her feet.
In her hand, she held a beautiful black sword.
Drip—
A line of red blood trickled down Delia’s pale forehead.
Her condition was at its worst.
Her body was covered in bruises, and a broken rib was pressing against her lung.
Furthermore, her mana had run out long ago.
Even so, Delia had no intention of giving up.
“A half-baked pretender who hasn’t even been acknowledged by the holy sword is trying to imitate the Knight King?”
“...”
“If you wish for a painful death, I will grant your wish.”
Van Kruger unleashed an intense killing intent and slowly approached Delia.
She silently gritted her teeth, steeling her resolve.
She vowed that even if she were to die here, she would not break.
