Chapter 363
Chapter 363
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 363
Chapter Title: Swordsman, and Superhuman (6)
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◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Superhuman.
The most striking feature that appears in those called by this name is the disappearance of the limit to their growth.
The superhumans say it.
Once you tear down the wall and press forward, all that lies ahead is a vast plain stretching out endlessly. A landscape so immense that you doubt whether it even has an end, no matter how long you run for your entire life.
The first superhuman. The first Sword Saint.
Ganikalt van Galatric saw the same plain. He swung his sword his whole life and finally reached the end of that plain, which countless superhumans doubted even existed. Looking up at the sky from that place, Ganikalt laughed.
He had reached the end.
He thought his growth had stopped.
Yet even so, there was still something left that needed to be cut down.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ A body in ruins. Flesh collapsing.
All that remained untouched by shadow were human eyes and a human arm. No superhuman physique, no divine blessing to instantly heal any wound. But precisely because of that, Kyle's sword grew a fraction faster.
Slash.
Kyle swung his sword.
No more sword aura shot from the tip. The starting point and endpoint connected the instant he swung. The spot Kyle intended to cut split open with a schwick.
It wasn't a strike that shook the earth.
Nor one that cleaved everything in sight.
But it was more than enough to cut what he aimed to cut. Each time Kyle swung, space shattered. Raniel ran through the gaps of that fracturing space.
Thud.
The moment she stepped forward, Kyle swung. Raniel slammed her foot back down with a bam and accelerated in place. Right after, the spot where she'd stood and the one she'd aimed for split diagonally with a shrrk.
Shwaaaaa!
Raniel landed with a slide, gasping for breath. Fresh wounds had already multiplied across her body. Blood dripped in patters with every exhale.
'...Can he see me?'
No, that wasn't it.
Kyle's eyes couldn't keep up with Raniel. He still couldn't track her instantaneous acceleration. Yet the sword he swung always reached the spot where she was about to step.
As if peering into the future.
Veins bulged in Kyle's eyes.
His wide-open gaze didn't see the present. It saw one step into the future. Hyper senses gathering data from the slightest movements, predicting the future through that information—foresight.
Gazing one step ahead into the future, Kyle swung his sword. The blade cut the present. The splitting space was the future. Raniel gritted her teeth and kicked off the ground.
Schwick.
The spot she'd stood and the one ahead split diagonally. Had she not changed direction in that split-second judgment, she'd have been caught in the strike and died. Cold sweat trickled down Raniel's spine.
'...One judgment, one mistake.'
It led straight to death.
This was a realm of death. Every step was death. Yet Raniel pressed on.
Thud, then schwick.
With every step, the ground beneath her feet vanished by a handspan. Glancing around, she saw it filled with diagonally split space. Touch it, and die. Retreat was no longer an option.
So forward, ever forward.
Kyle predicted her movements and swung, but Raniel targeted his sword in turn. Timing it to the moment he swung, she accelerated, dodging the strike by a hair's breadth.
...Of course.
Raniel had no special techniques like hyper senses or foresight. She simply widened her eyes and inferred the future from what she saw.
The swinging blade tip.
The quiver of space, the ripple of air.
Watching Kyle's swinging blade tip, Raniel kept moving. Her predictions weren't as precise as a superhuman's. Nor refined. That's why wounds multiplied with every step.
Drip, drip.
Blood poured with every step.
The bloody footprints marked her path. Wounds barely healed. As if something inside had snapped.
'...Forward.'
Not many steps left.
The closer she got, the faster and more precise Kyle's sword pressed her. Predictions grew harder bit by bit.
Boom!
Raniel used the trump card she'd been saving.
Rolling across the ground, mana scattered everywhere. Ash particles. Mana scattered anticipating what he'd cut. If she could lure his motion with it, a gap would open.
Shing.
As predicted, Kyle raised his sword. But its tip wasn't aimed at Raniel. She seized the opening and dove toward him.
But that judgment was wrong.
Kyle's sword traced an eerie arc.
Soaring toward the sky, it seemed to drop, then curved into a rising diagonal. The rising blade flipped downward again, the downward one upward.
Slash.
In frozen time, only Kyle's blade moved. Raniel saw the strike but couldn't comprehend it. An incomprehensible sword. Scattering afterimages, it kept moving.
Tick, tickity-tick-tick-tick.
The scattered ash particles were all sliced. Severed, they lost their function. Mana flow broken, they melted into the air like dust.
The endless chain of strikes.
The flowing sword finally turned toward Raniel charging at his flank. She and the blade tip aligned in a straight line.
Whoosh.
Kyle swung lightly.
The flat drew a line and fell. His blade tip stabbed the ground. Raniel's eyes widened. A line was etching from above her head to the earth below. Air wailed. Space creaked.
A schwick of severing echoed.
A beat later, blood sprayed high.
2.
Raniel tumbled across the ground.
Rolling, she clutched her left shoulder hard. She'd twisted to dodge, but a chunk of flesh was gouged out. Splat, blood pooled on the floor.
Flesh and bone severed in one stroke.
Muscles shredded, her limp left arm wouldn't rise. Teeth gritted, Raniel braced her right hand on the ground and stood. Reeling, she released her shoulder.
Sticky blood stretched.
Raniel transferred the chain wrapped on her left to her right. Her dangling left arm mirrored Kyle right before her. A hollow laugh escaped her as she took another step.
The distance closed completely.
Now her fist could reach if stretched. Not his strikes, but the blade he gripped could cut her.
...Finally made it this far.
Kyle still stood glaring, legs cracked like they might collapse with one step.
So that's why he hadn't moved.
Instead of stepping, he raised his sword. Raniel staggered forward. Each swing crumbled his body further. Likewise, her face paled with every step.
That's why their fight was so brutal.
Kyle swung. Crack, his fingers crumbled. Raniel slid behind him, dodging. The instant her foot landed, crunch, her ankle snapped, making her stumble.
Thud, Kyle pivoted, stomping. His blade arced like a crescent after her. Raniel rolled clumsily to evade. Not fully—slash, another wound.
Crack.
Kyle's ankle crumbled; he staggered. Kneeling, he stabbed his sword into the ground. Leaning on it for balance, he swung again.
That was the fight.
No attacks landed on Kyle, yet his body crumbled. Raniel dodged every strike, yet blood flowed endlessly from her.
Splat.
Kyle's surroundings were stained with her blood. Treading dark red pools, Raniel kept moving. Staggering, she evaded his ever-faster sword.
The body's limits met. Death approaching.
Yet consciousness sharpened beyond ever before. Her mind raced faster than ever. Acceleration upon acceleration in thought. Stretched subjective time felt like the world had stopped.
Blood droplets suspended midair.
Rising dust frozen.
Beyond them, unmoving, Kyle's sword crept slowly. Reading its trajectory, Raniel moved. Ever moving, she thought.
She needed an answer.
This way, she'd lose. Dodging alone wouldn't end it. To win, she needed the answer.
'Land one solid hit.'
For that, she needed magic.
Raniel was a mage, always finding answers. Magic was a tool to reach them. To touch the untouchable, she recalled magic now.
'Magic, magic, magic...'
Basic acceleration brought basics to mind.
The basics of magic.
Magic is gaining the right to interfere with the world through deals with the stars. Conjuring fire from thin air, raising earth, bursting shockwaves, creating matter.
The impossible. Against natural order.
Performing it 'legitimately' is magic.
Offering payment for the right to interfere—that's magic's root. Built on that, Raniel had woven her spells. Stacked her own mage tower.
'...But.'
Now, it was utterly useless. Everything she'd built failed against Kyle. The moment spells manifested, twisting order, he severed the distortion.
If it didn't work, rebuild.
Raniel toppled her tower. The countless-th time. Sifting rubble, she rebuilt from the start.
...Come to think of it, same back then.
Even as curses eroded her to death, she'd rebuilt from scratch like now. Like then, she accelerated her thoughts. In reality, dodging blades; in her mind, stacking and toppling towers repeatedly.
Precarious movements continued.
The closer to death, bleeding out, the faster her thoughts raced. Acceleration showed her too much. Memories flashed like a lantern show, researched spells, countless recollections swirling in her head.
Leaning on those memories, she built towers.
Countless towers rose, countless fell. Endless cycles. Then, one moment. Raniel's vision blurred.
That instant.
When an entirely different landscape began to appear.
3.
Frozen time.
In blurred vision and tangled thoughts of memories, Raniel saw a wholly different vista. Her sight showed a vast plain. A first for her.
The plain was littered with rubble of collapsed towers.
As if revealing her inner world, amid shattered tower remains, Raniel looked ahead. Far off, there he was. Kyle.
Kyle stood ahead of Raniel.
Seeing him ahead, she unconsciously reached out. But her hand didn't reach him.
Thud.
It met a transparent wall.
A wall she hadn't noticed, yet always caged her. Beyond it, Kyle. Raniel let out an unwitting laugh.
...The guy always chasing from behind.
To let him catch up, she'd always glanced back while walking. Using the Kyle following her as motivation to press on. She'd vowed to stand before him while he chased his dream.
But Kyle no longer stood behind. Nor chased her.
He'd gone ahead. To a place beyond her reach. So Raniel looked forward, not back. There was Kyle. The wall she'd thought absent blocked her.
Wall, wall, wall—the limit to surpass.
She had to cross this wall to reach Kyle.
Grab the guy heading wrong. Raniel reached for the transparent wall. Blocked, her hand fell short.
She needed something.
To chase him, she had to discard something. Raniel looked at her palm. Starlight bloomed there. Something not hers. Planted forcibly.
...A soul that could bear the stars.
What she'd always longed for.
Without it, she'd always broken. Unable to endure power, courting ruin. Knowing that, Raniel advanced.
Her soul warped.
Raniel smiled, clenching her fist. All her starlight gathered in her grasp. She punched toward the wall.
Crash!
Shattering glass.
As the wall crumbled, Raniel returned to reality. The instant she did, starlight madly leaked from her body. Her soul screamed from the unbearable power.
But Raniel pressed forward.
Ahead loomed Kyle's swinging sword.
The strike tearing space was sharper than any before. His fingers crumbled as he swung.
'Final blow.'
As Raniel threw her desperate gamble, Kyle swung what would be his last.
Tick, tickity-tick-tick.
No evasion, no defense possible.
Facing oncoming death, Raniel stepped forward instead. Her wide eyes unwavering.