Chapter 216
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 216
Chapter Title: Just Going by Feel
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[Well, I do know one monster who gets stronger every time he cuts down a constellation.]
Anyone else, maybe not.
But Yuna Kyung muttered skeptically, as if to say it couldn't be true coming from Rimon.
"Gets stronger, my ass. All he's got are a few parlor tricks at best."
But Rimon didn't so much as twitch an eyebrow.
What he'd gained from absorbing fragments of starlight amounted to superficial changes like altering his appearance, crossing through space, or making stray thoughts easier to handle—mere trifles, mostly.
Nothing truly useful in a fight, in fact.
Above all, he was a swordsman.
From dragons and demon gods to ancient spirits.
He who'd felled countless transcendent beings with nothing but a single sword had no reason to rely on such gimmicks now.
[Ah, right. Of course you would say that.]
"Grrrrr."
[......!]
Yuna Kyung, who clicked her tongue at Rimon's insufferably arrogant attitude, froze.
The passage, silent save for the sound of his footsteps, hung heavy with quiet.
Then, from the far end, came a chilling noise.
An evil growl too vicious for any mere beast, it made Yuna Kyung's feathers bristle without thinking.
Flash!
It moved.
Like a predator lunging at prey.
Or an arrow loosed from its bowstring.
It hurtled along, barely skimming the ground, before slashing at Rimon's back with claws like lightning.
Or rather, it tried to.
Not until Rimon's scabbard thrust out without a backward glance and slammed into its solar plexus, sending it tumbling, did it fail.
Thud!
"Gurk!"
Whether because it had taken the hit square in a vital spot.
Rimon ignored the thing as it rolled away, eyes rolled back, vanishing into the darkness.
He just kept walking forward as if nothing had happened.
Only after a long moment did a dazed Yuna Kyung finally ask haltingly.
[Uh, Team Leader? What the hell was that just now?]
"What do you think it was?"
[Uh... a monster?]
Yuna Kyung answered uncertainly.
That mad glint in its eyes, movements no different from a wild beast, and claws long and sharp as blades.
It had all happened too fast to get a good look, but it sure as hell wasn't some ordinary animal.
"Why so unsure?"
[Because you didn't kill it.]
If it were just a monster, wouldn't he have blasted it away or straight-up sliced it? That'd be more like Rimon.
Rimon nodded at her sharp point.
Then continued softly.
"Right. As you guessed, that wasn't a monster."
[Then what was it?]
"I told you. This Tartarus is also used to imprison sinners."
[......You saying that thing was human?!]
"At least, it used to be."
Rimon said calmly.
Tartarus: a labyrinth created by a god’s miracle and cursed by that god’s death.
Those without divine blessing are eroded by the curse, gradually losing their humanity and turning into monsters.
Thus, only the worst offenders from the Holy Alliance were confined here.
Denied even death, they became monsters guarding the labyrinth—that was the gods' punishment for them.
[No way, that's...!]
Yuna Kyung gaped, beak wide.
Even she, who'd heard every horror story as a PAB agent in her past life.
This was the first time she'd encountered something so absurd.
"Surprised?"
[Surprised? That's putting it mildly! Gods doing something this horrific right under the last sanctuary?!]
"Of course it makes sense."
[Huh?]
To the baffled Yuna Kyung, Rimon replied matter-of-factly.
"That's what gods and religions are, aren't they?"
Sinners.
Those who incur divine wrath.
Or those who don't believe.
Most religions preach they'll fall to hell after death and suffer the cruelest torments.
In other words, gods are the world's most ruthless judges and brutal executioners.
"Tartarus's sinners are just receiving the divine judgment they'd get in hell a bit early. Nothing surprising about it."
Watching Rimon speak so impassively, Yuna Kyung realized anew.
His words about paradise on earth implying hell below were literal.
London's Avalon, a magic-made mock afterlife.
Tartarus, the underground labyrinth: a curse-made mock hell.
[I'd rather not know truths like this...]
"Growing up means learning things like that."
[I'm not even a year old yet? I've got ages before I'm grown up.]
She grumbled at the unwanted early lesson, but soon muttered.
[By the way, is the White Dragon Princess sis really down here?]
"She should be. There were traces of that idiot right outside the entrance."
[Ah. So you've been following her traces this whole time?]
Yuna Kyung nodded vigorously.
This Tartarus lived up to its underground labyrinth name, with forks, stairs, and doors popping up everywhere.
Now she understood how Rimon had navigated without hesitation.
"Well, about half that."
[......Half? Why half?]
"Traces of someone passing through this cursed labyrinth wouldn't stick around intact. Especially not from days ago."
If they had, it wouldn't have been Silver Age's final battlefield.
Ain'sha's traces had long since vanished due to Tartarus's power, Rimon explained. Yuna Kyung looked dubious.
[Then what the heck are you basing your path choices on?]
"What else?"
Rimon smirked.
Then added mischievously.
"Just going by feel."
[......Team Leader, didn't you say this place has 666 floors? A living hell crawling with cursed sinners?]
"Never called it a living hell. Just something like it."
[Same difference! What if you get lost wandering around here?!]
Yuna Kyung hopped in agitation.
Having survived London Avalon, she knew firsthand the terror of Silver Age's top-tier magic.
And to wander lost in its rival battlefield?
Terrifying.
But Rimon said calmly.
"Not lost. Look, there's even a signpost."
[Signpost? What're you...]
Yuna Kyung blinked.
The passage ended in a vast cavern piled with monster corpses.
Or rather, gaping at a goat-headed monster the size of a mountain, devouring one while glaring at her.
Overwhelmed by its sinister, chilling magic.
But Rimon didn't bat an eye.
He just chuckled at the few thin threads dangling from the half-severed neck of the goat-headed fiend.
"A god fallen to demonhood... That damn princess sure stirred up trouble."
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
"Exactly. If my guess is right, Sword Lord must have drawn the essence of psionics from our founder's blood."
"Impossible."
Rose cut off Li Chingwei's calm assertion.
Just from being bathed in dragon blood?
No way something so simplistic could grant Dragon Psionics.
And Rose had solid reasons for declaring it impossible.
"No human could withstand absorbing our founder's psionics directly."
Psionics are immense power, but a double-edged sword burdening the body.
Even among Seven Dragon Society masters who'd trained Seventy-Two Martial Streams lifelong, some succumbed to qi deviation or became invalids from their own psionics.
How much more a pure human, no dragon blood?
Their body would've exploded on the spot.
"Normally, yes."
Li Chingwei conceded that much.
Indeed, myths often depict dragon blood as poison because ordinary humans can't handle the psionics.
Yes.
Ordinary humans.
"But Rose, Sword Lord is a Sword Master."
"......!"
"Would a man who reached immortality through sword swings alone fail to endure a power even we can handle?"
The superhuman with the world's most perfect body.
Could even he not withstand the blood of the dragon he'd slain?
And myths calling it poison have flip sides: legends of Dragon Slayers enduring the toxin to gain mystic might.
Rose froze at the unimaginable point. Li Chingwei continued calmly.
"In fact, the three Sword Masters who fought our seven founders were the strongest among the thirteen in history."
"You're saying their strength came from absorbing psionic essence?"
"No hard proof. Could just be swordsmanship or talent gap."
Li Chingwei shrugged.
Of history's thirteen Sword Masters.
The Sword Emperor who ended Bronze Age and his two disciples were exceptional compared to the ten from Heroes Age.
But no guarantee dragon blood played no role.
Rose bit her lip watching her speak so casually.
"If they'd had Dragon Psionics from then, we would've noticed over nearly a millennium."
"What if they absorbed it but it never manifested?"
"What do you mean?"
"Forgot, Rose? What sword art Sword Lord practices."
Rose swallowed involuntarily.
She'd overlooked it amid psionics focus.
"......Demonbane Dragon Slayer Sword."
"Right. Its origin: Dragon Slayer Sword. Crafted by the first Sword Master, Sword Emperor, to be utterly antithetical to our founders and their psionics."
Thoughts raced through Rose's mind at Li Chingwei's words.
Sword Masters' sword intent is a power more mysterious than any in the world, letting them cleave creation itself with a blade.
Sword Emperor and disciples built theirs on that Dragon Slayer Sword to become Sword Masters.
If they'd absorbed psionic essence?
Would it have manifested?
Or been crushed by the antithetical sword intent, frozen like a seed under snow?
"That's probably why we never noticed Sword Lord's latent Dragon Psionics over centuries."
"......"
"Though I suspect it manifested subtly at times."
"Nonsense. No rumors of Sword Lord using anything like psionics."
Li Chingwei smiled faintly at Rose's rebuttal.
Then mentioned one fact long accepted as common knowledge—but odd on reflection.
"Ever thought it strange? Sword Lord's 'intuition.'"
Rose's eyes widened again at the unforeseen jab.
But Li Chingwei, sending her heart racing uncontrollably, continued nonchalantly.
"A Sword Master's senses are superhuman, honed instinct transcending logic at times."
"But intuition is just that. Repeat it ten, twenty times, and it'll miss eventually."
"History's full of tales like Sword Wolf's blunders."
"Yet Sword Lord saved the world countless times on his intuition. Without a single failure."
"What does that mean?"
Rose's lips trembled at Li Chingwei's meaningful smile.
100% accurate intuition doesn't exist.
If it did?
It's no longer intuition.
And transcendence beyond five senses' limits?
Rose knew the word.
"Precognition......!"