Chapter 266

“As I thought, you were here too” was translated as “Figures you'd be here too,” and ‘nonsense’ was translated as “absurd.” The scene where Yoo Jun felt “there's an aura that doesn't feel unfamiliar for some reason” was also translated naturally._TITLE: You've Received the Goddess's Grace!

"Huh?"

The Goddess's Grace felt a little different this time. Every stat had climbed an extra five percent, and attack and defense had each risen by five percent more. It wasn't a dramatic shift, but a change was still a change.

"The blessing got better?"

"Yeah. I used a gem, and the rank went up."

"You spent a gem on that?"

"It was only mid-grade anyway... and I don't really have any higher-rank skills."

"Doesn't it feel like a waste? The blessing doesn't even apply to you."

"If it helps you, I'm happy with that."

"......"

What is this. I'm actually touched.

He hadn't known Manuela's loyalty to her companions ran this deep. She was a pure-blood witch who had made her name in the Demon Realm, and pure-blood witches were usually infamous—yet from the moment they first met, she hadn't struck him as particularly vicious. He'd long since realized the rumors about witches were exaggerated, but Manuela was gentle. Far too gentle.

They hadn't even traveled together for very long, and already she was ready to give something up for a companion. Yujun found himself looking at her anew.

"......Why?"

"Thanks. Wait here. All of you. I'll be right back."

"Okay."

Cloaked in the Goddess's Grace, Yujun tore through the forest on a body that felt lighter than before. Countless vines lashed toward him, and not a single one so much as brushed his skin.

This is all experience, too. Doesn't feel right to just ignore it and run.

He moved while unfurling a barrier of swords. Once, the technique had demanded fierce concentration. Now it came effortlessly—so effortlessly he didn't need Super Concentration at all. Moments like this were when he felt, truly, that he had grown.

If I can do this now, I could probably push even further.

He didn't try. There were more important things to settle first. The distance to the Lord of the Forest closed, and the five heavenly beings of the Moderate Faction were still there.

They've caught my presence.

Their urgency seemed to reach him even from here. Among the Moderate Faction, there couldn't be a single heavenly being who didn't know who Shin Yujun was. He had hit them so many times that anyone who failed to recognize him would have been called a spy.

Rather than step forward and deal with him themselves, they seemed to have decided to make use of the Lord of the Forest. The woods strained harder to bind him, but catching his speed with vines was absurd. Yujun broke into a full sprint and reached them in no time.

"......Shin Yujun."

Four of the heavenly beings were strangers. The last face, he knew. Utria.

"So you were here too."

He'd thought that aura felt strangely familiar. Utria's face was tight with tension when she spoke.

"What are you doing here?"

"You?"

"Patrol."

"Then what's that monster beside you?"

The Lord of the Forest stood beside Utria and the others, and its appearance could only be called bizarre. It had the body of an infant, a diaper around its waist, and a hideous face and hide. The eyes took up half its face. The nose was a stub, the mouth mashed flat, and filthy, sticky fluid seeped from between the crushed lips.

Of every form it could take, why did it have to be that one...

He couldn't begin to guess the reason. What he could say for certain was that the Lord of the Forest was horrifying to look at.

"Wasn't that thing supposed to be asleep? You woke it by force, didn't you?"

"An outsider who isn't even of the heavenly race—a human, no less—has no business interfering."

"I took a commission from those heavenly beings, so I think I do."

"A mercenary, then. How much were you paid? I'll give you twice what they offered."

"I don't take money. Items only."

"Fine. Then I'll give you items worth twice as much."

"And who decides what they're worth?"

"My older sister."

"Who's that?"

"Ukria. Even a human like you ought to know the name."

Yujun nodded. He knew it, all right. For a long time he had only ever seen her name written on items, and he had learned who she actually was relatively recently.

"Ukria does appraisals too?"

"There is nothing she cannot do."

"Can she hand over a Transcendence-grade item?"

"Yes."

Utria answered without a heartbeat of hesitation, and Yujun's eyes went wide. She could offer a Transcendence-grade item with that kind of confidence?

"Hard to believe."

"Only because you've never seen her yourself. Among the items she has made, there are Transcendence-grade pieces."

"......She makes Transcendence-grade items?"

The unfairness of it stung. He had clawed his way to a Mythic-grade item with a Synchronization Marble, then burned a Transcendent Stone on top of it just to produce something of Transcendence grade. Ukria, apparently, simply crafted them. It would have been stranger if he didn't feel hollow.

"Even so, a mercenary lives on trust. Playing both sides the moment a better offer shows up doesn't sit right with me."

"You're refusing my proposal?"

"Yeah."

"You'll regret it."

"I live with regret. You have no idea how much I regretted not killing you properly when I had the chance."

"Attack!"

At Utria's cry, the heavenly beings who had been waiting behind her with weapons drawn charged. Projectile magic rode with them, and their speed was nothing to dismiss. Yujun didn't even draw his sword. Through Sword Unity, he met them with duplicate blades conjured in empty air.

Shhk. Shhk.

Calling it a fight was generous. It was closer to a one-sided slaughter. Their opening momentum vanished without a trace, and they could only scramble backward, faces slack with disbelief. Six Planet Destroyer's Swords hung in the air, and their attack power was simply too high for the heavenly beings to withstand.

Two of them died in a single instant. They hadn't grown careless. Their minds simply hadn't registered the blades in time to react before they were cut.

That was when Utria seized control of the Lord of the Forest.

"Kyaaaak!"

With a shriek that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠crawled up the spine, the creature hurled itself at Yujun. Small as its body was, the energy pouring off it was monstrous.

This doesn't even compare to the heavenly beings.

The aura it carried was not something he could laugh off. A graze might be enough to kill him.

Careful. I have to keep it from getting close.

He raised a wall of swords. The Lord of the Forest seemed to understand the power loaded into those blades and couldn't bring itself to approach, edging forward and back as it waited for an opening. While it was afraid—that was his chance. Yujun reached for Ancient Magic, for Space Domination, and tried to bind it.

The Lord of the Forest sensed the spell and surged ahead, slipping clear of its range.

Sharp, as expected.

A being with that much magic was always going to dodge. The moment it escaped, two swords flew in.

Whoosh—!

Clang!

A vast burst of magic erupted from the Lord of the Forest, and for a brief instant the flying Planet Destroyer's Swords slowed. In that gap the creature dropped to all fours and closed on Yujun. Its charge was ferocious. Yujun, however, had twelve brand-new ships—no. Twelve swords.

"Eububyu."

The Lord of the Forest, which hadn't realized there were this many blades, stopped dead. It looked as if its brain had stalled, utterly at a loss for what to do.

"Eubik. Byububu."

Yujun stared, dumbfounded.

Does its intelligence drop to match the body?

For him, that was welcome. If the Lord of the Forest had been clever, putting it down would have been far more troublesome. The problem was Utria. She had called for reinforcements, and hundreds more heavenly beings of the Moderate Faction came pouring in. This time it seemed only the elite of the elite had been gathered—an unprecedented concentration of powerful foes.

"Why is it always the enemy who gets backup?"

He was fairly sure he had never once seen the Hardline Faction show up with reinforcements.

Well... them showing up would be a problem too.

If allies arrived now, they might only get in the way. Against numbers like these, it was better to have no allies at all.

I'll just tell myself Sertiphs is smart enough to be holding them back on purpose.

Yujun looked over the heavenly beings. There had to be well over four hundred of them. Killing every last one with magic wouldn't even come close—they would certainly be prepared for spells. They weren't fragile, either, and if they had come ready, there was only one answer. Crush them with overwhelming attack power.

Cutting them down one sword at a time would take too long. I don't have that kind of room, not while I still have the Lord of the Forest to deal with...

So he decided to load magic into the swords. Weapon Earthquake was not the only area attack he could unleash through a blade, and in any case it only worked on enemies with their feet on the ground. Against winged heavenly beings, it was nearly useless. What worked on them was lightning. He poured Chain Lightning in equal measure into ten swords holding a perfect, even spacing.

Had a proper mage witnessed it, they would not have been able to hide their shock. Imbuing magic into an object was several times harder than simply casting Chain Lightning, and he was performing that difficult work ten times at once. More astonishing still, the swords were not even in his hands. Loading a blade with magic from a distance was already beyond imagination. He was doing it to ten swords simultaneously.

It ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was not a sight that would stun only mages. Utria sucked in a sharp breath.

"......"

And among so many heavenly beings, there were of course no small number of players well versed in magic.

"How did he do that?"

"A skill, you think?"

"A skill? Ha. You really believe a skill like that exists? I'd sooner believe he pulled it off by hand with magic."

"And that's not Lightning Chain. That's Chain Lightning, right?"

"Looks like it."

Chain Lightning and Lightning Chain. The names seemed only reversed, but their power was worlds apart. Lightning Chain was a spell anyone past a certain level could cast. Chain Lightning was infamous as magic of extreme difficulty—and ten of those spells had been linked. Worse, the magic had been enchanted onto the weapons so the swords' attack power would feed it. Even Yujun couldn't guess how hard it would hit.

Zzzt. Crackle.

A vicious sound, the kind that stood every hair on end, held for only a moment.

Sword stood far from sword, which meant the formation enclosed a vast stretch of ground, and the heavenly beings had almost no time to flee. Every one of them, save Utria and a few quick enough to read what was coming, fell inside the range.

Sparks burst again and again, and then the tremendous blast tore through the woods. Not a single heavenly being inside the Chain Lightning survived.

They were wiped out.

From loading magic into the swords a single time.