Chapter 215
Chapter 215
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 215
Chapter Title: Helian Tournament (4)
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“T-Threats don’t s-scare me one b-bit...!”
Everis shuddered as she unleashed a slash.
In that instant, strength surged into Everis’s arm. Demian swiftly read her movements and the flow of her mana.
‘Neck.’
The moment he raised Dawn, the slash came rushing in. Demian’s body was pushed back slightly.
“...H-How did you block that?”
Everis asked with a shocked face.
Demian stroked Dawn’s hilt. A faint tingling sensation lingered in his palm.
‘Incredible speed and power.’
Even Demian hadn’t seen the slash itself. He’d blocked it by reading and predicting Everis’s actions.
‘Her realm? No, that alone can’t explain this speed.’
Realm wasn’t omnipotent. It required a body and mana to back it up to unleash true power.
She was pretending to be frail, but that meant Everis’s body was far superior to that of an average master-class.
‘If she’s trained her body that much, it should show.’
Yet Everis’s limbs were far too slender. They were the limbs of someone who had never exercised.
There were techniques to alter muscles and bones, but those were for infiltration. Not for use in combat.
‘I need more information.’
Demian lunged forward.
He didn’t charge in a straight line. He kicked off the ground left and right, zigzagging.
“Y-You won’t dodge this time!”
Everis swung another slash. Demian blocked it with Dawn.
In that moment, a chill ran down his spine. Demian slightly bent his knees.
A second slash cleaved through the space where Demian’s head had been.
“...H-How did you dodge that one too?”
Demian was just as shocked.
He hadn’t expected her to unleash quicksword strikes with this speed one after another.
What was even more astonishing was the precision.
Demian Haksen had moved in a complex pattern to avoid pinpointing his position.
Yet Everis had accurately grasped Demian’s movements and swung her slash.
‘Too precise for a blind person.’
Demian had encountered a blind master-class in his previous life.
He had compensated for his lack of sight with his other senses.
But even that method couldn’t fully replace vision. There were clear shortcomings in precision compared to other knights.
‘Can she actually see? No. If so, she wouldn’t have blind spots.’
The blind master-class Demian had seen had incredibly sharpened other senses in place of sight.
That was why he had no blind spots. No assassin could hide from him.
‘A master-class with high precision and no blind spots...’
A hypothesis flashed in his mind.
“Let’s test it.”
He finished deliberating.
Demian kicked off the ground without hesitation.
* * *
‘What is that man?’
Everis thought to herself.
‘Master said it. No one in this world can block my quicksword.’
But that man hadn’t just blocked it—he had dodged.
‘Did Master lie? No, impossible. Who is Master! Don’t doubt! His words are truth!’
Everis erased the doubt blooming in her heart. She thought only of Master’s words.
‘Master’s words are truth, so failure is impossible.’
But if that man existed, Master’s words would become a lie.
There was only one way to make Master’s words truth again.
‘I’ll kill him this time.’
Everis gripped her sword hilt tighter. Black mana erupted from deep within her body.
At the same time, the world she saw became clearer.
In a world filled only with darkness, halos of light in every color floated up.
Some were white, others blue.
Everis was blind, yet not blind. Because in place of sight, she could see people’s mana.
Seeing mana allowed her to read exactly what actions a person would take next, how they would move.
Thanks to that, Everis could swing her sword with precision beyond even those who could see.
“Let’s test it.”
At that moment, Demian Haksen lunged forward.
Everis didn’t immediately unleash her slash.
Her slashes lost precision and speed the farther the distance.
About 10 meters.
The moment Demian Haksen entered the optimal range, Everis swung.
No—by the time she thought of swinging, she had already slashed. Everis’s quicksword was too fast even for her to see.
‘...Dodged again?’
No impact. And Demian Haksen’s mana was fully visible.
‘I’ll pour everything into him.’
Everis resolved to slash Demian Haksen again.
36 times.
Countless slashes dyed the world. They were swung so fast that no feedback reached her hands.
But Everis could see it. Demian Haksen’s mana scattering to pieces.
“Hee, heehee... Master’s words are indeed truth...”
In that instant, the eerie sound of air being sliced rang out.
At the same time, Everis’s face split diagonally.
* * *
“Aaack!”
Her face split, slicing through the bandages covering her eyes.
Everis screamed and covered her face with her palm. Blood poured through her fingers.
“W-What is that?”
“B-Blood... the blood is...”
The imperial citizens in the stands cried out in horror.
“It’s purple!”
Human blood was usually dark red. Dead blood turned black.
But no one in this world had purple blood.
“M-My face... H-How dare you scar the face Master made for me...!”
Everis pulled her hand from her face, spewing rage. At that moment, the spectators were shocked once more.
“E-Eyes...”
“N-Not even a fly, what is that?”
Everis’s eyes were unlike a normal person’s. Tiny pupils clustered together. Like an insect’s compound eyes.
Demian wasn’t particularly surprised. He had already expected it.
“So you had magic eyes after all.”
The Clear Night Magic Eyes.
The Clear Night Magic Eyes could detect mana and visualize it.
Being able to see an opponent’s mana was a tremendous advantage.
Whether knight or mage, using a technique required mana.
In other words, the Clear Night Magic Eyes allowed one to grasp an opponent’s movements completely.
Demian had recognized the Clear Night Magic Eyes early and manipulated his mana flow. That was why Everis couldn’t land a proper slash on him.
“I didn’t expect to see that thing here.”
The reason Demian could identify the magic eyes was simple.
In this world, only Dorgo could create them.
The monster that possessed Clear Night Magic Eyes had gone extinct in ancient times for some reason. They existed only in records.
Dorgo had meticulously researched the extinction cause and, after long effort, succeeded in restoring the Clear Night Magic Eyes.
“And purple blood to boot.”
No human could have purple blood. It meant Everis had been modified by Dorgo.
Now he understood how she wielded such refined quicksword with that body.
It was possible if she’d received Dorgo’s modifications. Dorgo’s skills in creating undead were unrivaled.
Of course, no matter how skilled Dorgo was, he couldn’t create such a monster from nothing.
He’d probably captured a master-class somewhere and modified them.
A master-class knight modified by Dorgo and implanted with magic eyes?
That explained why the other tournament master-classes had been defeated so helplessly.
“Demian Haksen!”
Everis ground her teeth and shouted.
“You dodged my slash again! And you scarred the body Master made for me!”
Everis no longer pretended to be weak.
She lifted the massive greatsword with one hand.
“I’ll kill you right now! I’ll chop your body into hundreds of pieces!”
“That’s pretty scary.”
Unlike the excited Everis, Demian’s enthusiasm had somewhat cooled.
Thinking of Dorgo made rage boil within him. He wanted to rip Everis’s limbs off right then and interrogate her about Dorgo.
But it was pointless. Dorgo hid himself obsessively.
He would have layered all sorts of restrictions on Everis to prevent her from revealing anything about him during modification.
Moreover, Dorgo never revealed valuable undead before the War of Ruin.
Everis was likely a disposable pawn to test modification results.
In other words, interrogating Everis would yield Demian nothing.
“Still, just in case... let’s try.”
“What nonsense are you spouting!”
Everis spat curses. The killing intent she exuded grew even fiercer.
“I’ll kill you right now!”
Everis swung her quicksword. With her enlarged body, the speed was even faster.
“Die! Die!”
Everis swung her quicksword relentlessly. Countless slashes completely blanketed the arena.
“Why won’t you die!”
But Everis’s slashes couldn’t even graze Demian’s clothes.
The Clear Night Magic Eyes were fearsome, but their weakness was glaring.
A slight manipulation of internal mana was enough to fool them easily.
Demian dodged Everis’s slashes and sheathed Dawn in its scabbard. He gripped both scabbard and hilt.
“I’ve learned everything I need. No reason to hold back anymore.”
Demian drew Dawn and swung.
In that instant, light flashed. The released Aurablade cleaved the arena in half.
At the same time, Everis’s shoulder was severed. The arm clutching the greatsword fell entirely to the ground.
“...Huh?”
Everis blankly muttered as she stared at her shoulder.
Her black mana was cleanly severed from the shoulder. The weight of the two-handed sword was gone.
“H-How... Gah!”
Demian, who had closed in unnoticed, seized Everis’s face.
At the same time, he manipulated the black mana within her body.
Everis’s black mana escaped her control. It moved at Demian’s command, seizing her soul.
“D-Don’t...!”
Demian tore Everis’s soul apart without hesitation, then searched within it for memories and absorbed them.