Chapter 53
Chapter 53
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 53
Chapter Title: Storm Sword - Kallias
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"Escort the Count!! Bring the Count!!"
"Get the family head!! Hurry!!"
The swift-arriving honor guard and Bernard dragged Elveton into the fortress.
The long gash running from his left collarbone to his right waist looked grave at a glance.
Crimson blood spurted out in waves.
A fatal wound.
The overlord of the North had fallen.
To the king of the barbarians!!
"We have to save him!! No matter what!!"
Fortunately, he hadn't gone down without a fight.
One of the Orc Warlord's eyes and ear had been severed, but it wasn't enough.
"Block them! Hold the line!!"
The Warlord's roar, sensing his own victory, ignited the orc army's morale to its peak.
Three of the family head's honor guard blocked the Warlord's axe, while Bernard's lightning devastated the surroundings in the interim.
BOOM!!
But the battlefield, where the tide had already turned, refused to shift back easily.
'He's too strong.'
The family head's defeat was monumental.
Dark clouds hung over Bernard's face as he cradled Elveton.
Elveton's defeat was the North's defeat.
His loss was tantamount to defeat for every knight on the field.
"Graaaah!!"
THUD!!
The honor guard, near-paladins in strength, began to fall one by one.
Elveton had lost consciousness, but the Warlord had merely lost an eye and ear! Unfazed, he charged to finish the job.
With great warriors and orcs surging forward relentlessly around him, there was no stopping them.
The Northern forces crumbled helplessly against the orc horde swarming like a plague, the orcs trampling their corpses as they advanced.
'Are we breaking?'
A groan filled with bitterness welled up.
The orcs swarmed like bees, hurling and swinging their axes in a frenzy to claim their long-awaited reward.
"Protect the family head!!"
"Guard the Count! Damn it!!"
"Bl-block... Gahk!"
CLANG! BOOM!
Knights and soldiers alike sacrificed their bodies to shield Elveton, regardless of rank.
Yet no one could halt the Warlord's momentum as he charged to sever Elveton's lifeline. Not even Bernard. He lacked the confidence to stop that orc's charge.
It was the North's defeat.
'Kallias, Emily......'
Bernard cleaved through the air with his Thunder Sword while cradling Elveton.
Slicing one orc's neck.
Then another's shoulder.
Scattering blue lightning to paralyze them, he squeezed every drop of holy power from his body to summon a massive bolt.
"......!!"
RUMBLE! BOOM!!
But piercing through the blue thunderbolt, the one-eyed, one-eared Warlord raised his double-headed axe high into the sky.
It couldn't be blocked.
Bernard sensed death.
Behind the Warlord leaping skyward hung an ironically sunset-red sky.
'What is that? A bird?'
At death's doorstep, he saw a black bird silhouetted against the red dusk.
A massive bird flapping enormous wings approached the battlefield's center, clutching something in its talons.
'Wait, that's......!'
Not a bird.
A man.
Gripping a long sword tightly in one hand.
Ashen eyes gleaming as he plummeted.
Vast wings folded, a red cloak fluttering like it embraced the sunset glow.
The man descending like a red comet soon landed before the Warlord.
THUD!!
"Ka, Ka......!"
Emotion surged.
Amid the rising dust, a figure slowly raised his head.
"Kallias...!"
Black hair. Ashen eyes.
The one thought impossible to appear here stood blocking the orc horde.
But worry quickly overtook.
"Kallias! Run!!"
The surging emotion burst forth in a shout.
Yet he ignored it, slipping through in an instant to block the Warlord's axe.
"No!"
Even the Count's sword had been flung aside powerlessly. There was no way Kallias could block it.
Bernard envisioned Kallias cleaved in two.
KAAAAAAAAANG!!
The air exploded.
Ripples distorted the atmosphere, shattered sword aura fragments scattering everywhere like shrapnel.
"He blocked it...... No, how?!"
Ecstasy mingled with shock.
Kallias's grayish sword had fully parried the Warlord's axe.
Impossible!
Yet the miracle had occurred.
"Ah......"
Elveton, who had lost consciousness, let out a faint breath.
Cradled in Bernard's arms, the sight that greeted him was a black-haired man in a fluttering red cloak, surrounded by silver petals.
His one and only son.
"Ka......llias."
In his blurred vision, Kallias's broad back blocking the massive Warlord etched into Elveton's eyes.
When had he grown such a sturdy back? With that final thought, Elveton closed his eyes again.
* * *
"Kallias?! It's Kallias! Kallias!"
"My lord!! I believed in you!!"
"Kallias! You're alive."
"Kallias......"
"I believed in you, Sir Kallias!"
The overwhelming emotion lifted their crumbling bodies.
The question of *how* flickered in everyone's minds, but it didn't matter.
Kallias had appeared.
He had blocked the Warlord.
That alone roused the dying to raise their heads once more.
"Hraaaaaah!!"
"Grulk!"
BOOM!
The Warlord's axe soared high into the sky.
Immense power.
No matter how strong the Warlord, it fell short of a troll's might.
Seizing the opening in an instant, pure strength had sent the axe flying.
'No time.'
Divine Possession's duration, even squeezing every ounce of holy power, lasted barely a minute.
Tremendously powerful, but with a massive drawback.
Yet on this battlefield, one troll-powered strike sufficed.
WHOOSH.
The shattered sword aura transformed into Silver Flower Sword Wave petals.
Petals scattered across the field billowed on the wind Kallias stirred.
Swirling like a vortex.
Silver Flower Sword Wave crashed over the enemies like waves.
Flower Breaking Path.
It surged toward the Warlord and orcs with the Divine Sword.
SHRAaaaaaaa!!
"Graaaaaawagaa!!"
The Flower Breaking Path unleashed with troll strength was a storm of Silver Flower Sword Wave.
The power-deficient Orc Warlord lost his composure to the oncoming storm, staggering back.
The Warlord's deep wounds across his body and single step back snapped the orcs' momentum. Kallias and the Northern forces seized the flow.
BWOOOOOOOO!!
Emily's horn signaled the attack.
The Northern forces knew the opening the Warlord's retreat had created.
The small breeze Kallias stirred.
It would gather and swell into a gale.
"Chaaaarge!!"
"Charge! Kill them! Slaughter those bastards!!"
"Kallias is back!! The Warlord dropped his axe!!"
"Now's the time! You scum! Kill one more!!"
As if forgetting the family head's defeat entirely, they charged with earth-shaking roars.
In the chaos of everyone's advance, he found Brans and handed Bernard the holy water.
"Kallias, how in the......"
"Priorities first."
"R-right."
Bernard sprinkled holy water on Elveton's body and poured half into his mouth.
That alone would save his life.
Wasteful on holy water, but Elveton wasn't the type to die here.
If he died, the quest failed.
Moreover.
'The situation's bad.'
Pushing back the Warlord mid-battle boosted morale, but Elveton could fight no more.
If the Warlord regrouped and charged, Bernard and he alone couldn't hold. Everyone here would be massacred, quest failed.
No retreating.
"Kallias......"
Elveton's voice calling him.
A torrent of emotions surfaced: resentment, anger, sorrow, pity.
Feelings he'd never known.
Kallias's emotions.
"Even you have times to lie down."
A surge.
Blood-vomiting Elveton gripped Kallias's arm fiercely.
"There's an accomplice aiding him. If he hadn't bound my feet...... Kallias."
Watch his back.
With those words, Elveton handed over his sword.
"......"
Elveton's cherished blade.
Kallias's eyes widened slightly grasping it.
The Elveton he'd created would never hand this sword to anyone, even on his deathbed.
"Do you know."
"What......?"
"Your name follows our house's heirloom. Storm Sword - Kallias."
No such lore had he set.
Yet Elveton's eyes handing the sword held unshakable sincerity.
"......"
Seeing Elveton place Storm Sword - Kallias in his hand suddenly heated his eyes.
Clenching trembling fists, he lowered Elveton's bloodied hand.
Turning from the affectionate gaze he'd never received in his life, he raised his head.
Emotions not his own.
Yet now, they were.
A weak but conviction-filled voice came from behind.
"Go. Kallias. Raise the storm."
[Storm Sword - Kallias]
Grade - Phantasmal
Soul Dwelling - Kallias von Jerban
-The sword of Kallias von Jerban, the founding family head who conquered the North.
Unique Ability - Storm.
Elveton's hand pushing his back lacked its former strength.
Wiping unbidden tears.
He gripped the Storm Sword.
Divine Sword in one hand.
Storm Sword in the other, striding through the battlefield's gap.
But his remaining holy power was scant, merely ten percent.
He promptly unclasped the bracelet.
Click.
Vivi’s Bracelet unleashed, innate holy power flooded his body.
Every hair stood on end as a silver pillar of light emanated from him.
"Die!!"
The orcs charged anew.
Knights and soldiers locked in stalemate.
The retreated Warlord advanced once more.
Emboldened, the orc horde surged like a tidal wave, ants devouring humans.
Ahead of them.
He advanced to the forefront without hesitation.
BOOM!!
One strike cleaved the charging orcs.
A simple downward slash rent the earth, bursting their wave.
Then, swinging the Storm Sword in his left hand swept the ruptured wave.
KRAKAKAKAKA!!
A simple horizontal cut.
Infused with storm, ferocious winds howled like a typhoon.
Wielding Storm Sword - Kallias, he unleashed swift strikes invisible to the eye. The winds vortexed, shredding the orcs.
Slash!
Storm-wrapped blade pierced an orc's heart.
Warrior or great warrior, none mattered.
His power was troll-born, wielding storm—nothing could withstand.
Storm Sword - Kallias.
A true phantasmal sword.
One swing birthed storm; the enveloped sword aura spawned tiny vortexes, pulverizing on contact.
A fine match for Silver Flower Sword Wave.
But a phantasmal sword's true power was more.
"Whirl."
WHOOOOOOSH-!
Fierce winds ravaged the battlefield.
Seizing its flow, drawing it to him—instantly, a storm formed.
"Wha-what, the wind suddenly...... No, a typhoon! What's happening?!"
Battlefield winds howled.
Centered on Kallias.
From him, raising the Storm Sword high.
'The essence of phantasmal swords lies in domain creation.'
The vortexing storm bound the battlefield like a barrier.
A realm achievable from phantasmal swords.
The orc Warlord and great warriors glared fiercely amid the raging winds.
They sensed it too.
The battlefield's flow was shifting.
Fail to seize momentum soon, and they'd be the losers.
"Sacrifice his blood!!"
Their savage battle cries thundered across the field.
Knights flinched; orcs roared in triumph.
Cries of strife.
Receiving them at the vanguard, Kallias condensed holy power.
Even bursting Vivi’s Bracelet's energy, holy power drained rapidly. Time was short.
'But it must be done.'
Battle-weary heavy body.
Hands trembling from rapid holy power use.
Ignoring all, gritting teeth, he poured holy power into the Storm Sword.
The blade roared winds like a beast.
Plunging it into the ground, he declared.
"The battlefield is now my sanctuary."
Fierce winds from Kallias's blade enveloped them.
"Whoa...!"
"Sir Kallias?!"
Storm-like gales repelled the knights.
Soon, the winds no longer merely pushed—they tore apart any who approached.
Blind orcs shredded entering Kallias's sanctuary cluelessly.
The vortex swallowed them.
Hundreds of orcs ground to pieces in an instant.
This was the true phantasmal sword.
How to wield Storm Sword - Kallias.
Orc screams echoed within the sanctuary.
Yet its center was serene.
Untouched by the winds: their master, Kallias.
-Gr growl.
Only the growling Orc Warlord.