Chapter 227
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 227
Chapter Title: Second Gate
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7th-level Commander of Ten Thousand.
From the moment he appeared, Jun had already anticipated that retreating would be difficult.
'Orc Lord class.'
A level of power comparable to an Orc Lord fully unleashing its strength.
With their current party's mobility, they couldn't shake him off.
His very existence was likely the trap in this operation.
Using ten thousand refugees as bait to assassinate their main force—that must have been the goal.
"What do you think, Aiden? Can you handle it?"
"Level 7... is it."
"Yeah."
Aiden stared at him with deeply sunken eyes.
The first 7th-level he'd faced was Bern.
Back then, against Bern—who had lost his reason in the aptitude test—Aiden and Maya had to risk their lives.
And that was even though the holy knight wasn't using divine power, relying only on pure instinctual martial arts.
The next was the Slaughter Monk.
A 7th-level warrior at full power.
When they first clashed, Aiden could only watch from behind Bern's shield.
The helplessness from that time still stung when he thought about it.
Yet now, he could stand proudly before a 7th-level.
Though one-on-one was still impossible.
'With my comrades, it is.'
This strength wasn't grown to survive alone.
It was cultivated to advance together with his comrades.
"I can do it."
"Good momentum."
Jun then looked at Eleanor.
She showed no sign of backing down either.
"Get hurt as much as you need to. Just keep your life intact. I'll definitely save you."
"Reliable."
Finally, he turned to Maya.
She was barely suppressing it now, but her undisguised killing intent was seeping out.
"Someone said revenge is futile."
"Who the hell said that crap?"
"I think the same. Revenge is futile? That's just what people say after going mad with it and losing everything."
How could revenge—taking nothing from one's own and slaughtering only the enemy—be futile?
Just thinking about it sent thrills down his spine.
"We'll help you. So don't try to shoulder it alone."
"......"
"Got it?"
"Yes, sir."
She calmed her trembling heart with deep breaths.
The ancestral spirits rampaging in her mind also suppressed their beastly rage and sank into cold stillness.
The mage before her was always fascinating.
In his gaze, there was an inexplicable sense of kinship—or pity.
Like someone who had lost everything looking at another who would lose it all the same.
At first, she'd followed him because she sensed that sticking with him would let her achieve the revenge she craved.
And that instinct wasn't wrong, but she wasn't in the mercenary band just for revenge anymore.
"Hahaha! What fine camaraderie! Excellent retainers!"
Then, from behind, Rikedaimon's hearty laughter boomed.
As the giant bear-like man spread his massive hands, energy surged from the ground, forming the shape of a greatsword.
He lifted the enormous greatsword—big enough for an average adult—like a twig and unleashed his aura.
It was a ferocity beyond words.
"Come, valiant foes! Let your heartbeats drum in place of war drums! Warriors, seize glory in your hands!"
"Quite grandiose."
"I dedicate this moment to His exalted one!"
There was no yielding the first strike.
Like an excited child, he shook the earth and launched toward them like a cannonball.
The two massive greatswords soared high into the sky before crashing down toward Jun and his comrades.
Kwaaaaaang――!!!
The swords that struck with tremendous force halted against an invisible barrier.
An enormous shockwave ravaged the area.
Rikedaimon twitched his brow upon recognizing what had blocked his strike.
"Truly sturdy, this invisible power."
Blocked the attack head-on.
It wasn't a standard 3-circle spell, of course.
It had undergone such transformations that it might deserve a new name altogether.
At the same time, the shockwave erupting from [Shield] blasted Rikedaimon's body far away.
"Urgh!"
Absorbed his strike and redirected it fully.
A tingling sensation coursed through his entire body. Rikedaimon grinned fiercely.
"Excellent. Truly excellent!!"
This wouldn't be an easy fight.
Yet he had no intention of retreating. Instead, he seemed delighted as he moved again.
"I'll take the vanguard."
"Do it."
In the exchange of blows...
Aiden, wrapped in Jun and Eleanor's magic, shot forward like a flash of light.
Maya, meanwhile, had already melted into the shadows.
"To clash with His bloodline—what greater honor could there be? Coming to the surface was the second-best choice of my life!"
"You talk too much!"
Bam!
He blocked Aiden's sword—rushing in like the wind—with one hand.
The tremendous rebound force pushed Aiden back slightly, but the power of wind enveloped his body.
"Ngh!"
Wind spirit empowers Aiden.
With a momentum like a typhoon, Rikedaimon's expression shifted.
Unlike before, he raised his sword to block Aiden's typhoon-like strike.
Kagagagagak――!!!
Relentless gales of wind aura.
If an ordinary person had taken that sword, the razor-sharp winds would have shredded their body to pieces.
But Rikedaimon's aura never yielded to it.
"Splendid! However..."
Disappointment flickered in the red glow of his eyes beyond the helmet.
"Compared to Him, you're sorely lacking."
"What?!"
Horror filled Aiden's eyes in that instant.
His Rune Sword suddenly felt heavy.
He soon realized it was due to the enemy's monstrous strength.
Without using mana, with pure muscle alone, he was pushing Aiden's sword back.
"Your skill far exceeds your abilities. Meeting me here is your misfortune."
"Kuh..."
"Rampage once. Survive this battlefield!"
The gap with a 7th-level at full power weighed this heavily.
But there was no reason to bear it alone.
Shuu...
Maya emerged from his shadow unnoticed, seizing his rear and swinging Acander's Fang.
"Moving like a shadow doesn't make you one. Impressive skill, but unlike your father, you can't conceal the spirits' aura."
Maya's silent sword was halted by an invisible aura.
"......!!"
Her translucent sword, activated for [Spirit Frenzy], was blocked.
Maya's eyes widened.
"Swordsmanship wielding spirits may be mighty, but nothing is invincible. Even our king had counters—let alone mere swords."
Willpower.
Not sword qi formed from pure mana, but power forged from will and clad in mana.
It even blocked Maya’s sword infused with [Spirit Frenzy].
"Your father didn't falter like that. He fully controlled the spirits he claimed."
Disappointment colored his eyes once more.
Kwaaaang―!
The battle spirit he erupted engulfed Aiden and Maya.
Both raised their weapons to defend, but couldn't prevent being flung back.
Their bodies creaked all over.
Though protected by mana, internal injuries lingered deeply.
"I thought you'd provide some amusement, but even that you can't."
The one who had been laughing wildly moments ago fell noticeably silent.
But perhaps he hadn't abandoned hope yet.
His gaze turned to Jun.
"Don't disappoint me."
"Who knows. You seem overly confident."
"Why so?"
"Not just me... those guys are monsters too."
"Ha, monsters."
The heroes before him were enough to stir Rikedaimon's heart.
Just four holding back ten thousand.
How could a lover of battle not admire them?
But that was the extent of it.
Their talents would one day shake the world, but they were still too young, encountering him too soon.
Pity lingered at the thought of these heroes dying by his hand.
"You don't think so?"
"Even in my lifetime, there were such folk. Talented beyond measure, vessels that might have toppled even me given time. But I crushed them all. We don't let such things grow on the battlefield. That's how it is."
Rikedaimon continued.
"So this undead shall remember. That I slew with these hands the seeds that would one day uproar the continent. As always."
Rikedaimon hadn't even gone all out yet.
Just a fraction of his power, and Aiden and Maya couldn't compete.
Yet the party's two years of deeds weren't a smooth path either.
"Hoo... Maya. How's your condition?"
"Fine."
"Good. Let's go again."
"Yeah."
And those two had always lit the way ahead for Jun.
Maya moved first.
Maya merges with the shadows.
Her body became one with the shadow.
Present yet absent.
The rippling shadow there hurled something into the sky: hundreds, thousands of needle-like projectiles.
Pure Maya power forms a shadow encirclement.
Not relying on tools like before, but pure Maya manifesting the shadow net.
Rikedaimon blasted away the raining needles with a shockwave, but the ones littering the ground connected their shadows, instantly forming an encirclement.
In that moment, he instinctively knew he couldn't easily escape this shadow trap.
He'd need to annihilate every needle completely.
But Aiden and Maya gave him no such time.
"If you're so confident, take this."
"Hm?"
Aiden lowered his stance, sword pointed downward.
A straightforward charge posture.
But the aura it exuded was different now.
The typhoon winds had become a gale storm.
"Ngh!"
This wasn't something he could parry with raw strength alone.
Sensing that, Rikedaimon grinned savagely.
His cooled excitement reignited.
"A new era has dawned. This is what I've awaited. Endless glory under our king, but one regret: never seeing sights like this."
His eyes were on Aiden, but his mind drifted to a distant past.
Heroes fading on countless battlefields.
Those who opposed the empire's unification, vowing to defend their lands.
The empire always moved swiftly, leaving no room for rising stars to shine.
"Come, hero. I, Rikedaimon, shall judge if you qualify to open a new era!"
With that, Aiden charged, swinging his wind-infused sword wide.
Destructive gale power clashes with Rikedaimon's greatsword.
Even with mana-infused, Rikedaimon's sword couldn't push Aiden's back as before.
"Uuum!!"
Northern chill winds synced with the sword aura, spewing razor-sharp cold in all directions.
And in that brief moment his feet were bound.
Maya, hidden in shadows until now, erupted with pent-up killing intent.
Her pupils glowed gray-white.
Before her nemesis now.
With the ancestral spirits raging more fiercely than ever, Maya could finally face them properly for the first time.
In the past, those spirits were a burden.
Always shrieking wails in her ears, howling for revenge.
Any normal person would have gone mad long ago.
But Maya was already a vengeful ghost, enduring it to venture into the outside world.
'I know you acknowledged me because I was the only one you could use.'
Thus, she'd used them in turn.
Their goals aligned, after all.
Yielding her body occasionally to absorb their techniques.
Training to wield them solo.
Growing by inheriting their skills one by one, but lately, she'd felt limits.
Many spirits, but only some followed her will.
They wanted something else.
As if demanding proof.
Prove you can bear our karma—they watched from a distance.
How to prove it? She'd always wondered.
They wouldn't speak, so she waited in frustration.
But as mana accumulated and conversations deepened, she realized.
'It's not that they didn't say. I just couldn't understand.'
How could the living converse normally with the dead?
No one taught her; she was late to notice, but it was fine.
No mentor, but she had a mage.
'I'll prove it. That I can bear your karma.'
Maya's gray-white gaze fixed on Rikedaimon, but her eyes saw elsewhere.
Hundreds, thousands of spirits.
Souls who chose to become vengeful ghosts, forgoing rest to dream of searing revenge, now stared at her in unison.
Second Gate.
Grasping the First Gate let her converse with ancestral spirits for the first time.
Entering the Second Gate required standing before hundreds, thousands of spirits.
Facing their vengeful will, proving she could shoulder it.
Right here, right now.
Spirits of the Second Gate initiate the trial.