Chapter 233: Endgame (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 233: Endgame (2)
There was a sword.
It was not a blade forged by human or dwarf, but a celestial sword imbued with the power of the goddess herself.
No other famed or demonic sword in existence could compare.
Whoever drew the sword, regardless of gender or status, became a hero who would define an era. In reverence, people began to call it the Holy Sword.
A long time passed, and a young man from another world drew the sword.
An unremarkable young man.
That was the sword’s assessment of him.
The world hailed him as a genius of incredible talent, the hero chosen by the goddess, but to a sword that had met countless heroes, he was nothing special.
Just another one to annoy me, I suppose, was all it thought.
From that day on, the sword was with the young man through everything.
It accompanied him through his trials, stood by him when he was lost in sorrow, and was there when he steeled his resolve to rise again.
As time went on, the sword began to feel that something was wrong.
Heroes face hardships.
The scale of those hardships varied from person to person, but the greater the trial, the greater the reward for overcoming it.
And when the trials finally ended, the hero would live out the rest of their days in happiness with what they had earned.
A life of gaining something with every hardship overcome.
That was the life of a hero as the sword knew it.
But the young man was different.
When he overcame one trial and gained something, he would lose it in the next.
Sometimes, he lost two things.
When all his trials were over, he was left with nothing.
The sword thought that was still all right.
He still had his strength and his fame.
If he could forget the past and blend back into human society, he could live a life of luxury and pleasure, as other heroes often did.
But he did not.
He could not.
He tried, but he could never let go of the bonds he had lost. He lived on, unable to die, his mind corroded by despair, rage, and guilt.
The sword grew curious.
Why did this man have to suffer so much?
The sword had forgotten.
It had forgotten the sight of this man’s genuine smile.
And so, the sword began to think.
I want to see this man find happiness.
On the day his lingering attachments to the past wandered the world aimlessly before reaching the celestial realm, he faced the fury and ridicule of the gods, crying out in anguish. It was then that the sword, for the first time, accepted him as its true master.
The sword’s name was Astrea.
The heaven-defying Holy Sword that turned against the sky for its master.
For her master, she once again revealed her blade.
*
“I… have descended.”
As the white radiance faded, a silver-haired woman appeared. She lifted her head and muttered the cryptic words, her expression full of anticipation for something. Most of the onlookers, knowing neither what she was anticipating nor who she was, could only stare at her blankly.
All except for one person: Cloud.
With a familiar look of faint contempt, he kicked her in the ass.
“Ugek!”
The woman face-planted on the ground, and the mystical image she had cultivated with her entrance instantly vanished.
“Hey! What the hell was that for?!”
The woman scrambled to her feet and confronted Cloud. But he just crossed his arms and answered with a sullen look.
“Because you were striking a stupid pose.”
“Is that any way to talk to someone who came to help you?!”
“Ah, sorry. It was just too damn cringey.”
“There’s not an ounce of sincerity in that!”
The sight of Cloud casually conversing with the woman who had made such a dramatic entrance left everyone bewildered.
Ironically, the first to snap out of it and ask Cloud about the situation was Angelica, who had been in a panic just moments before.
“Master. What is that?”
“Huh? Master?”
The woman scanned Angelica from head to toe, a strange expression on her face.
“So you got a girlfriend, and this is your type? Can a person’s taste really change this much? This is like, the complete opposite of what you used to like. Did you have some kind of complex emotional breakthrough or—”
“She’s not like that. She’s just a slave.”
“A sex slave?”
“Are you a crazy bitch?”
The dizzying conversation was enough to bring Frillite to her senses as well.
“Cloud, who is that woman…?”
To Frillite, the woman was beautiful. And this beautiful woman was chatting so casually with Cloud.
‘From the way they’re talking, it seems like they’ve known each other for a long time…’
A sudden wave of anxiety washed over Frillite, and she began to fidget with the ring on her finger.
The woman, on the other hand, furrowed her brow as if she’d heard something she shouldn’t have. Then, as if realizing something, she quickly looked Cloud over.
Her gaze stopped at his face. Her eyes widened at his unexpectedly handsome features, and then she burst into raucous laughter.
“Ahahahaha! Right, right. You said you became a game character, didn’t you? Holy shit, this is amazing. You look way better than before! Why don’t you just live like this forever?”
“Shut up.”
“Aw, why? Weren’t you the one always grumbling about how all handsome guys should just die? But now that you’re decent-looking yourself, you’re acting all high and mighty? What’s this? A classic case of Korean hypocrisy?”
“Agh, that mouth of yours, I swear.”
Cloud pinched the woman’s lips shut and shook her head in annoyance.
“Mmph!”
“I’ll let go if you promise to shut up and do your job.”
“…”
The woman answered by grabbing Cloud’s wrist and putting him in a flying armbar.
“Hey, hey. That hurts.”
“Oh, stop being a baby.”
Cloud tapped her thigh to signal his surrender, but she just scoffed and applied even more pressure.
Crack.
“Huh?”
Startled by the sound of bone breaking, the woman released the armbar. Cloud’s arm hung limp and powerless.
She scratched her cheek awkwardly and said, “…You’re surprisingly frail.”
“Is that what you say after breaking my arm?”
“It’s not my fault you possessed such a weak body, Master. You should’ve just stuck to watching normal porn instead of messing around with some weird-ass game…”
“You little shit. How many times do I have to tell you? I wasn’t playing it for fun! It was because that bastard wouldn’t pay me back…”
The two continued their conversation, which only they could understand. Feeling that things would get out of hand if she let them continue, Frillite intervened again.
“Cloud!”
“Hm? What… Oh, right. You asked who she is, didn’t you? This is—”
“Hello, Master’s lover. I’m Leah, his eternal soul partner!”
“…Soul partner?”
The words only added to Frillite’s confusion. She narrowed her eyes, but Leah maintained a friendly smile.
“Are you confused? It’s okay. I get it. I can explain later, okay?”
“No, I’d rather you explain now.”
“I’d love to, but…”
Leah put on a mock-sad expression, then clapped her hands. A shimmering, semi-circular barrier materialized around Cloud’s party, and at the same moment, massive black orbs of magic slammed into it.
The orbs were packed with magic so dense it was visible to the naked eye, but they couldn’t penetrate the barrier.
Soon, the magic lost its power and dissipated.
Leah pointed a finger in the direction the orbs had come from.
“It doesn’t look like they’re going to give us time for that, do they?”
Frillite’s gaze followed Leah’s finger, and she let out a soft gasp.
There stood the Dragon King, preparing various attack spells, and the Blood King, his blood energy surging. The deadly magic orbs from moments ago had been just one of the Dragon King’s attacks.
“…That’s a fair point. So, what’s the plan? Do you have a way to resolve this situation?”
“I have a plan.”
“That’s a relie—”
“It just doesn’t involve any of you.”
“What?”
“Go back and get some rest.”
Clap!
With the sound of a clap, magic circles appeared beneath the feet of Frillite, Angelica, and Hailey. Before any of them could react to the flow of magic, the spell activated.
As he stared at the empty space where they had been, Cloud spoke.
“You sent them to the right place, right?”
“If the coordinates you gave me were accurate.”
“Then it should be fine.”
“Really? Well then, now…”
Just as Leah began to speak with a smile, a furious voice roared.
“How dare you clowns perform in front of us!”
Along with the Dragon King’s enraged shout, a torrent of magic poured down on the barrier.
*
When the silver-haired woman first appeared, the Fairy King, the Blood King, and the Dragon King had been on high alert.
The pure white radiance that had engulfed the Demon Realm had not only nullified the Blood King and Dragon King’s attacks but had also completely blocked their senses.
They didn’t know if it was due to a powerful dominating force or a temporary, recoverable disruption of their nerves.
But the mere fact that it had affected their bodies, which had transcended the mortal coil, was enough to raise the tension.
Depending on how things unfolded, they might have to risk their very lives.
They had steeled themselves for that possibility, but…
—Because you were striking a stupid pose.
—Is that any way to talk to someone who came to help you?!
—Ah, sorry. It was just too damn cringey.
—There’s not an ounce of sincerity in that!
The silver-haired woman named Leah was just trading quips, devoid of any tension. It was only natural that the Blood King and Dragon King, who valued authority above all, were incensed.
“How dare you clowns perform in front of us!!”
The spells they had prepared for a life-or-death battle were unleashed all at once. BOOOOM! The magic created a deafening explosion, shattering the very ground. Rubble, stone fragments, and dust billowed up, completely obscuring the area.
“Huuu…”
Having expended a significant amount of magic at once, the Dragon King breathed heavily and polymorphed back into his human form.
It was better to recover magic in a smaller, polymorphed state than in his massive true form.
But the moment he transformed into his human shape, something brushed past him.
A chill ran down the Dragon King’s spine. He used his magic to blow away the dust and looked behind him.
The silver-haired woman was standing there.
“Alright. Playtime’s over.”
Her aura, however, was heavy and sharp, completely different from when she was joking with Cloud.
It felt as if taking a single step closer would get him sliced in two.
“But before that, you should take these back.”
Leah tossed what she was holding in each hand toward the Blood King and the Dragon King.
They landed on the ground with a soft thud. They were arms.
The Dragon King’s and the Blood King’s arms.
They had already been cut.
“What’s wrong? Not going to reattach them?”
And there was more to come.