Chapter 355: It Is His Revenge (3)
Chapter 355: It Is His Revenge (3)
While Patrick was in the midst of a desperate struggle against the Heavenly Demon, two women were engaged in a bloody battle on the first floor.
"Urgh…."
"Lady Persona!"
"Worry about your own opponent… damn it…."
Boom!
Persona raised her blade to block the enemy's attack. But in that instant…
Crack!
The ground beneath her feet crumbled like a dry cookie.
'What kind of power is this…?'
The person attacking her was Do Jon, a master who used the same type of weapon as her.
He was a powerhouse who ranked among the top three masters in the entire history of the Hebe Peng Family. He had been a spirited warrior who challenged the Heavenly Demon, carrying his family's hopes that he would be the one to take the demon's head.
Though he had failed to defeat the Heavenly Demon and was now enslaved to him, his blade still held the very essence of the path pursued by the Hebe Peng Family.
And he wasn't the only one.
Thump!
"I can't catch a break."
As soon as she heard the heavy sound of a foot stomping the ground, Persona gritted her teeth and thrust one hand out to the side.
Mountain-Breaking Palm.
It was a palm technique she had learned from her master in a crash course.
In truth, Patrick used twin swords and didn't use palm techniques, but Persona's weapon was a single blade. In the Martial World, palm techniques were essential for those who used one-handed weapons.
So, he had taught her.
Of course, since she wasn't used to it yet, her technique was clumsy in many ways. However, thanks to the massive dragon energy slumbering within her, the power of the palm force she unleashed was outstanding.
But…
Crrraaaaack!
"Gah…!"
It was Persona who was pushed back.
The moment the opponent's fist collided with her palm, blood erupted from Persona's mouth. She staggered back, barely catching her balance, and saw a high monk standing there with one hand raised in a half-prayer gesture, his other fist extended. It was Shin Kwon.
"This is just cheating. Seriously…."
It wasn't a level of power that should have been possible from such a small fist. If she hadn't seen it with her own eyes, she would have thought a small mountain had flown into her.
If it hadn't been for her constitution, she would have been blown to pieces without even a corpse remaining.
Still, she couldn't hope for help from the others.
She glanced at Catherina, the only ally left here…
"Kill her! Pour it on until her Spirit Transformation breaks!"
"Yes, sir!"
Boom! Crash! Bang!
Catherina was holding off Jonsa and his disciples all by herself.
The terrifying magic being concentrated on her was not something a human could normally withstand. However, having awakened the blood of the Spirit Royal Family through Patrick, she was somehow holding on through Spirit Transformation.
Persona couldn't ask her for help.
In fact, Persona needed to finish the powerful enemies in front of her quickly so she could help Catherina instead. Catherina's Spirit Transformation had its limits.
"Whew…."
Persona raised her blade and glared at the two powerful foes before her.
This wasn't the first time she had seen them. She had seen them when they invaded Dragon Land in the past, slaughtering her kin. But the way she looked at them now was different from back then.
'So this is what it means to be an Absolute Master.'
Do Jon and Shin Kwon.
Both were said to be high-level warriors who reigned as absolute powerhouses in the world her master came from.
No matter how gifted Persona was with a heavenly physical constitution, she had been training in martial arts for less than a year. There was a vast, yawning chasm of experience between her and those two.
'What was it that Master said back then?'
*
Persona had once asked Patrick.
"Master, how can I catch up to them?"
"Who?"
"The warriors from the other dimension being controlled by the dark mages."
"Ah… those guys."
"Yes. I believe they are a wall I must overcome to get my revenge."
"I suppose so."
"So please, tell me how."
"Tell you what?"
"How I can catch up to them."
Looking into his disciple's eyes, which were sparkling with a pure desire for growth, Patrick…
"Pfft!"
Hey, Master.
Patrick looked at Persona with a face full of pity and said, "Catch up? You? To them?"
"…I have to, if I want to win."
"……."
"Master."
"…Pfft!"
Master or not, I'm going to—!
A moment later.
"Sona."
"What?"
At Persona's slightly pouting voice, Patrick spoke.
"You have talent."
"……."
"If you train hard, you'll eventually have the skill to defeat them."
"Really?"
"Yeah. But you'll probably have to train for about fifty years."
"……."
Persona's shoulders slumped.
The battle against the Outer God was imminent. They didn't even have five years, let alone fifty. What kind of nonsense was this?
"Are you telling me to give up on my revenge, then?"
"Huh? Why would I say that?"
Patrick shook his head as if the very idea was preposterous.
"It is a rule that if you get hit once, you pay them back with at least a hundred hits. That is the sect rule of the Great Twin Dragon Gate."
[There is no such rule!]
Someone protested fiercely in his mind, but Patrick ignored it completely and continued.
"The opponents are definitely stronger than you. But…."
"……."
"If you utilize your characteristics well, you can win even against masters who have reached the Absolute Realm."
"Really?"
"I only lie occasionally."
So you do lie.
No, that wasn't the important part.
"What should I do?"
"My sworn brother once said something."
"That Orc Warrior?"
"Ah, not him. I have another brother."
There's another poor victim?
"Ahem, anyway, he said this."
"……."
"Softness Overcomes Hardness is bullshit. In a real fight, power is everything."
"…Pardon?"
"If power is blocked by technique, it's because my power is lacking, not because the opponent's technique is superior."
"Master, that's…."
"Well, honestly, it's not like I entirely agree with that."
I should hope not. Who would agree with such a simple-minded opinion?
"But he used that logic to take down several opponents stronger than himself in real combat."
"……."
"Well, he almost died every single time, but that's a minor detail, right?"
It was sincere advice in Patrick's own way.
Persona's face, however, was full of disbelief.
*
"To think I'd actually have to follow advice that doesn't even sound like advice…."
Persona let out a sigh. Then, she looked at the blade in her hand.
[I'm telling you, it's true! That's how that weapon is meant to be used. Just smash them with raw power!]
"Whew…."
Well, since it had come to this, what else could she do? She just had to try….
Persona's body began to transform.
Fangs grew, horns sprouted from her head, and wings unfurled from her back. Dragon scales emerged to protect the vital points of her body.
This was the combat form her father, the Sword Dragon Arcana, had developed through constant research to manifest the power of a dragon while maintaining a human form to utilize martial arts.
The Draconian.
In that state, she fully activated the power within the Lord's Seal and her own Dragon Heart.
Rumble, rumble, rumble….
"Wait…?"
"What… what is this?"
"That girl?"
The dark mages who had been pushing Catherina back were horrified. A terrifying energy was erupting from Persona.
This wasn't the kind of power that should come from a dragon that had only recently reached adulthood. It clearly surpassed the power of the previous Dragon Lord when he was alive.
"How… how can that young girl…?"
Jonsa's mouth hung open.
He didn't know it, but Persona was currently amplifying and using two sources of power.
The Dragon Heart she was born with.
And the Lord's Seal she had inherited from the previous Lord.
She was operating these two powers simultaneously, making them resonate with each other to amplify the output several times over.
Naturally, it was a suicidal gamble. Who in their right mind would not only handle two powers at once but also force them to resonate and amplify?
[We would.]
In this instance, Patrick was right.
The Twin Dragon Primordial Chaos Heart Method.
A legendary, insane internal energy method that split even a perfectly fine Dantian in half to operate two separate cores. Compared to that, operating two already separate powers was relatively less dangerous.
In fact, Persona was operating the heart method perfectly—
"Gah…!"
She coughed up blood.
"Urgh…. I almost died just from circulating the energy."
It was only relatively less dangerous. Relatively.
'I can't hold this for long.'
Persona was certain she couldn't maintain this insane heart method for an extended period. She had to end the fight as quickly as possible.
"Catherina, get back!"
"Yes!"
At her command, Catherina retreated. Persona then raised her blade high.
"Take this!"
As she took a step forward, her body arched like a bow for a split second. And the moment her hands, which had been raised above her head, swung down…
Five Tigers Single Gate Sword.
Raging Tiger’s Fierce Assault.
From her fingertips, the ultimate technique that the Iron Blood Dragon Peng Mu-jong of the Hebe Peng Family had spent his life refining was unleashed.
Raging Tiger’s Fierce Assault.
The name of the move sounded fancy, but… in reality, it was just a downward strike.
What Peng Mu-jong had pursued in his blade techniques was never subtlety or elegance. He pursued only one thing…
KABOOM!
"B-Block it!"
"Lunatic Shield… Gwah!"
"Aaaargh!"
Absolute Destruction.
The realm that the Iron Blood Dragon Peng Mu-jong had so desperately sought to reach was now being manifested through someone else's hands.
The violent Taoist Energy Persona unleashed easily shattered the defenses of three of Jonsa's disciples, tearing them to shreds.
"Aaaah!"
"Noooo!"
"Master… gah…."
At that moment, Pride, Jonsa's oldest and most loyal disciple, instinctively turned his head back, worried for his master's safety.
And he saw them.
Do Jon and Shin Kwon were standing only in front of their master, guarding him.
A position meant solely to protect Jonsa.
The moment he saw the two of them, Pride felt a pain greater than his flesh being torn apart.
'Master….'
The master who had saved him, a collateral royal who had almost died in a struggle for the throne. The master who had helped him hone his talents as a dark mage. The master he had secretly thought of as a father.
That master…
"How… could you…."
Rumble!
Swallowed by the violent torrent of Taoist Energy, Pride couldn't even finish voicing his question.
"Do you think I will die here?"
Watching his disciples die before his eyes without even leaving a corpse, Jonsa gritted his teeth.
His entire life had been a struggle for survival. For the sake of the Outer God… so that when the great Sunset of Salvation finally arrived, he could reach the Divine Rank and become a great being transcending humanity….
He had endured thousands of years solely for the sake of patience and survival. To be compensated for his past years of living abjectly after being born in the lowliest of places, he had to ascend to the Divine Rank.
Once he became a great being transcending humanity, all his misfortunes and sins would be validated as years of endurance.
Until then, he could never die.
"I will not die!"
With Jonsa's shout, Do Jon and Shin Kwon unleashed powerful strikes.
The majestic golden Fist Force and the sharply refined Taoist Energy certainly possessed the discipline and momentum of Absolute Masters. However…
CRASH!
Their attacks barely left a scratch on the wall of the violent torrent.
The Taoist Energy swept over them without mercy, swallowing their bodies. As they were consumed, a faint smile played on the lips of the two masters.
Now, there was no one left to protect him.
But Jonsa used his final move as if he had been waiting for this very moment.
"Curse Explosion!"
Corpse Explosion. A magic favored by dark mages that detonated undead to damage enemies.
However, the power varied wildly depending on what the corpse was. A corpse explosion triggered by sacrificing two Absolute Masters who were revered in another world…
BOOOOOOM!
It possessed enough power to seemingly blow away even Persona's violent attack.
The explosion was so massive that a mushroom cloud rose in its wake. After the blast cleared, there was nothing left in front of Jonsa.
"Ha…. Hahahaha…."
He had survived.
He had been abandoned by the Outer God. He hadn't even been chosen by the new one he sought. The disciples he had raised for over a thousand years were all dead.
But he…
"I survived. I survived again."
As expected. He knew it would be like this.
He would survive. Hadn't he survived countless crises over that long span of time? Until the day he could ascend to the great Divine Rank by his own power, he would never die.
"That is my destiny—"
Stab!
At that moment, a sword pierced through Jonsa's heart from behind, protruding from his chest.
"Guh… ugh…."
Jonsa struggled to turn his head. There stood Catherina, holding the exhausted Persona under one arm, glaring at him while her other hand drove the blade into his back.
"Y-You… you bitch…."
Jonsa tried to reach out with a trembling hand. Catherina looked down at him coldly and spoke.
"This is his revenge."
Then, the Spirit Flame blooming from her sword incinerated Jonsa where he stood.
Whoosh!
The Jonsa of the dark mages, who had reigned as the sovereign of his kind for ages and even brought about the resurrection of the Outer God.
His end came at the hands of Catherina, whom he had once considered nothing more than a pawn.