Chapter 99
Chapter 99
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 99
Chapter Title: Valentin's Thirst
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“……!”
It was my first time experiencing my entire body freezing solid, and it left me quite flustered.
If I hadn’t instinctively circulated holy power to protect myself in that moment, I would’ve died on the spot.
Thanks to that, my mind first had to assess the caliber of that sword.
‘It’s not a Phantasm Sword.’
If it had been of the Phantasm Realm, I wouldn’t have resisted so easily.
Even so, it wasn’t a sword to take lightly, even as a mere Spirit Realm blade.
‘At least that’s fortunate.’
The one gripping the sword wasn’t in his right mind. He was entranced by the blade, staring at it vacantly, and hadn’t moved since freezing us.
“…….”
“…….”
I slowly thawed my body without disturbing Gide’s mood, and that’s when my eyes met the Golden Lion’s.
We nodded to each other. Thawing our bodies came first.
The Golden Lion seemed to understand, quietly unfolding his Golden Lion Aura to melt the ice.
I pushed my Mystic Flame Reinforcement to its limits to thaw myself while keeping an eye on the man. The old fellow who appeared to be Gide stared at the sword he’d forged with an ecstatic expression—his bulging eyes and prominent cheekbones.
Wrinkles and age spots bloomed across his skin.
His unkempt white hair added to the eerie vibe.
He was the kind of appearance you’d never want to encounter outside.
Yet the sword he clutched in rapture was elegantly different.
A sleek, pure white blade stretched straight.
Its simple yet refined crossguard and the blue gem embedded in the pommel made it look like a noble’s sword.
‘My body’s mostly thawed now.’
It had been a vicious chill, but I could move again.
I signaled the Golden Lion with my eyes, about to make a move.
A cold voice pierced between us like a surprise thrust.
“Do not move.”
It was Gide’s voice, but distorted.
Multiple voices emanated simultaneously from a single throat.
He was still gazing at the blade, but his awareness was fixed on us.
“I can feel it. The blood the sword craves. It hungers for black blood. Much blood. To elevate its soul realm.”
What the pervert was “feeling” was beyond me, but leaving him be felt dangerous.
I was just about to shift.
His eyes snapped toward us with a jerk.
“Black hair and gray eyes. Golden hair and pale eyes. Have famed scions of the four great nobles come to meet me? Heh heh heh, but it’s not your turn yet.”
“What nonsense is this?”
The Golden Lion retorted, and Gide stroked his sword as he replied.
“My sword, Valentin, craves much blood. Simply put, it’s not complete yet. The flesh realm is well-fused, but the soul is not. The soul hasn’t achieved a perfect realm. It’s still mixed. Unable to form a pure, unified realm, it must raise its caliber.”
What “raising its caliber” meant wasn’t hard to guess.
Devouring Kallias and the Golden Lion might give him indigestion right away, so he planned to head out and slaughter the knights.
“Does that mean the sword you forged will ascend to a Phantasm Sword?”
“Indeed. Jerban’s Wolf.”
I didn’t bother asking how he knew that.
He reeked of deranged otherworldliness. He must share some connection with the sword.
In any case, the situation was dire.
‘Dangerous.’
A Spirit Sword bordering on Phantasm.
He wasn’t a knight or even in his prime, but that alone granted immense power.
“Jerban’s Wolf and Luidren’s lion cub. Squirm a bit longer. I’ll feed it your blood last.”
Swoosh.
He crossed between the Golden Lion and me with footwork as light as if floating in the air, then vanished.
“Ugh.”
Crack, crackle.
We’d nearly thawed, but as he lightly brushed us with the flat of his blade while passing, the invading chill intensified.
“Damn it…!”
The Golden Lion whipped his head around, but the man ignored us and was gone.
Kreeeeaaak!!
Screams from the soldiers erupted the moment he vanished.
Boom!!
“He’s sealed the gate too, that bastard.”
“Are you alright?”
“I’m fine. You?”
“I’m good. I’d almost thawed completely, but this power is no joke.”
It still held a Spirit Realm, but teetering on the edge, producing Phantasm-level might.
His chill was impressive. A mere graze had frosted my entire body, and the blade’s touch froze me solid.
“I let my guard down.”
Swords forged by Gide varied by circumstance and the psyche of the sacrifice used last.
Who’d have thought the worst possible setting would trigger.
“I couldn’t even draw my sword.”
The blade had frozen in its sheath.
Never imagined he’d wield such cold, so no counter.
“If we leave him, he’ll slaughter everyone in the viscounty.”
The Golden Lion Knights were out there, but his sword neared Phantasm realm.
Few could stand against it.
“Can you get out?”
“You?”
“I should be fine.”
I was shivering, but Golden Lion Aura was manifesting at my frozen base.
That left me as the issue.
First time my body had frozen like this; I was stumped too.
No other ideas, so options were limited.
“Mine might be a bit extreme.”
“Pardon?”
Soon, Flower Breaking Path dwelled in my left hand.
White Mist’s essence in my right.
Holy power surged through my body, fusing the two auras into one.
“Watch yourself.”
“……!”
The Golden Lion’s eyes widened in surprise at my words.
And then.
KABOOM!!
The ice exploded.
* * *
“Kreeeak!”
The sword he’d forged himself.
Gripping Valentin, Gide’s heart pounded, blood surging wildly through his veins.
Slash!
He hadn’t anticipated a sword like this emerging.
It exceeded expectations.
To the point he couldn’t even grasp his own state.
“Heh heh heh heh heh!”
One swing scattered frost everywhere, immobilizing stricken soldiers.
Slicing their throats was as easy as plucking grapes by his bedside.
The frozen white ground stained red. Layered blood grew ever thicker.
“Hahaha hahahaha!!”
A mere instant sufficed.
After slaughtering the soldiers, knights charged in. He froze, slashed, and severed necks of the oncoming knights too.
He grabbed a headless body and shook it, blood dripping down.
He sprayed it over his head and around. No reason.
Pure exhilaration.
“Crazy…”
Dancing with a severed head in hand only amplified the grotesquery.
Sane folk never approach the mad lightly.
They can’t comprehend them.
Gide embodied that.
To them, he was incomprehensible.
Incomprehensible meant terrifying, instinct screaming to flee.
Gide had never been gifted with the sword.
Once a pilgrim, he hadn’t found the blade he sought, and in time took up forging as his path.
He forged swords, and swords, and more swords.
Yet still, he hadn’t found his own.
But now, that sword.
The one he’d sought his whole life.
He’d finally found it.
“Magnificent… utterly magnificent!”
Gide collapsed to the ground.
Limbs of soldiers lay scattered atop the frozen white floor.
His eyes suddenly dry, he sliced a soldier’s thigh and lay upon it.
The sky darkened.
Clouds parted, moonlight flooding brilliantly.
It was a full moon.
“Moon after so long. What? You too? Heh heh heh!”
Chatting with the sword, Gide muttered to himself.
Soldiers trembled in terror; knights dared not approach rashly.
“Why? What’s wrong? Why stare like that? Ah, the blood? Everything’s red. Hahaha hahaha! Here, take this!”
“Gaaahhh!”
“R-Run!!”
He feigned a charge, and panic-stricken soldiers fled.
Knights froze in place; the world felt his.
Had life ever been this effortless?
Gide had once blamed his lack of sword talent, but no—it was the swords.
The swords’ fault.
In his youth, had he forged such a blade then, he’d have carved, rent, and slashed the world against him!!
“Huh? Isn’t that Count Valentin? I killed you—why are you there?”
Gide’s neck twisted grotesquely.
A puzzled expression.
“What…?”
Gazing at Trala, Gide approached with odd curiosity.
“Strange. I slowly dipped you from toes to head in the furnace—how are you here?”
“……!”
Terror and rage mingled.
But no words came.
Any utterance might provoke his death.
Trala wiggled his toes, but his legs wouldn’t move.
He couldn’t flee.
“Hmm… No helping it. Don’t know how you survived, but killing you again solves it.”
‘I’m dead.’
Tears welled; Trala squeezed his eyes shut.
That’s when it happened.
A man yanked Trala from his frozen neck and hurled him aside.
“You bastard! Who dares cause such chaos!!”
“Who… are you?”
“I’m Kallias von Jervan’s retainer, the man who pledged his life to my lord—and one striving to emulate the North’s hero!”
It was Brans.
“What’s this white-haired geezer doing swinging a sword at night? Get lost before I call my lord. Huh?”
“Can’t… you see me?”
Gide’s form was horrific.
Bloodstains covered him; flesh clung to his blade.
Yet Brans stood arms crossed, defiant.
“Have I gone mad or something?”
To the insane Gide, Brans seemed the lunatic.
“Mad’s the geezer—wait, what’re you lot doing? This guy’ll have his limbs broken four hundred fifty-six times once my lord and the Golden Lion arrive! Attack!!”
Explains the bravado—he had backup. Golden Lion Knights who’d been waiting charged.
The Sixth Unit didn’t stand idle either.
Brans had brought them.
Such a wretched sight.
Gobsmacked, Gide chuckled hollowly, then swung his sword sky-high.
KAAAA-BOOM!!
Towering frost surged like a tidal wave before the charging knights.
“Gulp!”
Seeing knights frozen solid, Brans began gulping in fear.
Gide, having iced the knights and Sixth Unit with one stroke, slowly approached Brans.
The blood-eyed, white-haired elder advanced; Brans fell on his rear.
“Eeeek! Mercy! Spare me!!”
No pride at all.
He dropped to his knees, rubbing hands like a fly; Gide almost pitied staining his blade with such blood.
“Vermin. My sword needs no blood from a worm inferior to insects.”
Bam! Brans flew, smashing through a warehouse.
“You scum!”
Among the gathered knights, most were nobles’ retainers, but some bore Golden Lion crests and Heretic Inquisitor marks of the Sixth Unit.
Over a hundred strong—a baron’s worth of force.
“How dare you cause this uproar! In the count’s stead, I’ll discipline you!”
“Coming to die? Grateful!”
What followed was pure slaughter.
No blocking that billowing white blizzard.
One swing unleashed storm-like frost. Sword qi blasts interspersed—struck foes severed, frozen soldiers twitching worm-like, half-alive.
Most died instantly upon freezing; Golden Lion Knights and Sixth Unit suffered least.
But merely a matter of time.
No knight could wield power before that freeze.
Dodging the blasts still saw bodies gradually icing.
Was this why the Church revered swords so?
Knights powerless before one blade felt their blood, sweat, and efforts futile.
A white-haired elder felling over a hundred men—it was inevitable.
A calamity.
Calamity incarnate.
That’s when it happened.
KABOOM!!
“Wh-What?!”
“The ground!”
Seismic tremors shook as if an earthquake.
Whoooosh—KABOOM!!
Something shot skyward, crashing down.
Upon closer look.
“The gate?”
A gate three cubits thick.
From the rising dust, two figures emerged.
“Out of the way.”
Whoooosh.
Brushing aside the white frost like a gale appeared Kallias and the Golden Lion.
Ashen Wolf and Golden Lion.