Chapter 166
Chapter 166
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 166
Chapter Title: Unbreakable Dawn, Holy Flame Cemetery (5)
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9.
“Now, just a moment──”
The metallic tang of blood lingered on my tongue.
A ringing whirlwind echoed in my eardrums.
Into that chaos came Tersia’s voice, laced with concern.
“──I can still…… keep…… going!”
I clenched my fist.
Coughing up congealed blood, I rose to my feet.
Liam gazed down at me in silence.
To that strongest of inheritors, I aimed my blade once more.
“I can still…… keep…… going…… please…….”
“101st. Only soul-forged bodies regenerate infinitely. Your mental strength won’t recover.”
“I can do it. So…… please, one more time…….”
Liam glanced at Tersia.
“Arbaher. What say you?”
Tersia looked at me with worry, then sighed like a mother indulging a child’s whim and nodded.
“Face him, Talorden.”
Hold on.
Time rewinds ten days prior.
[Dawn Sword].
[Twilight Bow].
[White Dharma Palm].
[Moonlight Sickle].
[Morning Glory Ten Crimson Mirror].
“You’re saying I must master the use of these five Berkenxias?”
At my question, Tersia carefully spread her fingers.
“It’s not enough to just get familiar with each one individually. You can’t practice that way either.”
Huh?
I had to tilt my head.
“What do you mean by that?”
“I taught the 100th to harmonize [Spacetime Control] and [Force Concentration]. Remember?”
“Yes.”
“Think of this as the advanced version. You need to wield all five powers in harmony like that.”
All five…… in harmony?
But there was no time to be overwhelmed by the lesson’s depth. I nodded.
“That’ll be tough.”
“All Berkenxias contain the user’s memories.”
“You mean combat memories?”
“Yes. You’re the successor directly chosen by the 100th.”
The 100th…….
Every time he was mentioned, a shattering pain tore through my heart.
“The more you use a Berkenxia, the more those memories you gradually inherit.”
Oh……?
So that’s why my mastery of the Dawn Sword progressed at an absurd speed?
And why training accelerated even further once I decided to become like the [Master of the Broken Dawn].
“Alright. Let me show you what battles become possible once you master these five.”
Tersia cradled the Moonlight Sickle in both hands, then suddenly clenched her fist demurely.
“If I had a thousand lives.”
In that instant, the spectacle began.
“I would offer them all, here and now.”
The Moonlight Sickle lost its scythe form…… condensing into a sphere of light.
“Rubie, K?ienDricia.”
The moment Tersia finished her incantation.
The sphere exploded, scattering moonlight petals in every direction.
“Berkenxia form transformation, 《Moon Heaven Cherry Realm》.”
So…… beautiful.
The range was just a 40-meter radius.
The moonflowers formed an orderly semicircular curtain, dyeing the world silver.
“A total of a thousand blades. Quasi-soul manifestations born by fragmenting my life force.”
Soul manifestations?
Like this beacon guardian’s cemetery?
“Liam, care to spar for a bit?”
Liam.
Bowed respectfully to his own master.
“How shall I proceed, Arbaher?”
“Of course, at full power.”
“As Arbaher wills.”
My heart…… my heart raced.
To witness a battle between the 1st inheritor and the 2nd……?
Liam drew his Berkenxia from its sheath fused to his shield.
No blade.
Just a guard remaining on the longsword.
The moment I thought that…… I shuddered at the spectacle unfolding before me.
Dazzlingly…… radiant.
A blade of dawnlight erupted from the guard like a sword edge.
A sword aura of early morning light that incinerated all the world’s darkness in an instant.
This is it……!
The original power that the Sacred Dawn Sword imitates.
The next moment.
Liam charged at Tersia.
Leg strength?
No, footwork.
A speed my eyes couldn’t track.
A mirage of Berkenxia’s radiance shimmering along his charge trajectory.
But Tersia reacted.
“Come to me, Moonlight Sickle.”
She extended one hand to the left.
In that instant…… a single petal plummeted from the moonflower curtain, landing in Tersia’s grasp.
Chaaaaaaaang──────
Such…… impossible?
And then, in a flash, it transformed into the Moonlight Sickle’s form?
───Chaaaaaaaang!
A clear metallic ring.
She…… parried Liam’s Berkenxia as it rushed right before her eyes?
“…………!”
Liam, whose guard was opened, quickly widened the distance.
That instant.
The Moonlight Sickle shattered into light particles from Tersia’s hand.
“Come at once, Twilight Bow.”
At Tersia’s command, a second moonflower flew in, transforming into a greatbow in her hand.
Then another.
The third moonflower arrived, becoming a twilight arrow the moment……
Chrrrrrrrrrrrrrang!
……Tersia elegantly released the greatbow’s string.
What…… a railgun……?
As the torrent of twilight surged forth.
Liam raised his mirror shield and chanted something.
“Morning Glory Ten Crimson Mirror, open!”
The shield vomited dawn.
From the shield’s face, crimson divine light unfolded into a triple barrier of crossed beams.
- What the hell is that supposed to block?
The moment I witnessed that power.
I cursed my past self who had said exactly that before.
…………Chaaaaaaaang!
One of the triple barriers shattered.
Moments later, another. The barrier scattered into countless light fragments.
But the damage ended there.
“………….”
The remaining barrier held firm.
And above all, it inflicted no harm on the caster, Liam.
Truly incredible…….
This is the Sacred Dawn Sword.
Using the Sacred Dawn Sword’s power for defense.
“Come next, Dawn Sword.”
“Again, Moonlight Sickle.”
“Here, White Dharma Palm.”
Just five clashes.
Five exchanges.
But it was enough time to fully feel the might of Tersia’s soul manifestation.
Overwhelming power indeed.
With this…… I can face it.
Ikilath’s apostle…… Sword God Choi Sin-yul. His flashy sword dance.
“The key to this technique lies in the erratic use of the weapons.”
“Understood!”
“Yes. For the 101st to wield this, all five Berkenxias──”
Tersia, mid-sentence.
Suddenly dropped to one knee as if collapsing.
“──Arbaher!”
Liam immediately supported the gasping Tersia.
“Tersia……!”
Tersia raised a hand to stop me as I rushed over.
“Didn’t I tell you……? What I teach shortens your own lifespan…….”
“………Yes.”
“Whether attacking or defending…… every time one of these floating fragments vanishes…… the caster’s life vanishes with it…….”
I understood immediately.
So that’s what it means for lifespan to be shaved away.
“Not just lifespan…… precious memories…… emotions from those times…… they fade bit by bit too.”
Tersia looked at me again, her face pale.
“101st…… do you truly…… want to learn this power……?”
────Kaaaaaaaang!
Once more.
The Berkenxia slipped from my hand.
The Moonlight Sickle spun through the air before embedding far off in the dirt.
“Now rest…… won’t you?”
Tersia spoke with concern.
In answer, I thrust my hand forward and shouted.
“Berkenxia…… form manifestation!”
Barely steadying my bursting heart, I shouted again.
“Appear, Moonlight Sickle!”
A sphere of dawn condensed in my grasp.
The next moment, the dawn sphere transformed into the Moonlight Sickle’s form and settled in my hand.
“Here I go!”
I had to return as soon as possible.
Even a second sooner…… learn one more thing…… and go.
─────Kaaaaaaaang!
Into the terrifyingly brutal nightmare.
To the people waiting for me, trapped in that nightmare.
- The more you use a Berkenxia, the more those memories you gradually inherit.
“Again!”
What I was learning now was the basics.
The fundamentals for manifesting and using Tersia’s soul manifestation, 《Moon Heaven Cherry Realm》.
“Berkenxia, form manifestation──!”
Mere basics.
So I had no room to lie down and rest…… not even a little.
“──Appear, Twilight Bow!”
10.
“What…… the hell?”
Shin Tae-yeop had to slam the brakes on his sprint toward the chapel entrance.
[Warning: Entry Prohibited]
Entry prohibited……?
Panting, he looked up…… and there was the Star Messenger Karlen.
Deepest inside the chapel.
Kneeling before the altar, hands clasped in prayer.
Atop that altar…… my God.
“Isn’t that Ha-kyeong?”
“Yes!”
Starlight poured through the three-faced glass windows, converging on the altar…… where Jeong Ha-kyeong lay.
“Sis, no! You have to come out!”
Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud.
He pounded the invisible barrier with his fists…… but it seemed sound was completely blocked.
“You do that, and it’s game over!”
“Shraaaak!”
“Ha-kyeong, you can’t stay there! Can’t you hear me?”
How already……?
This is insane, totally insane…….
“Sis! Please!”
The cathedral’s long stairs and corridors.
Despite sprinting full tilt and being out of breath, he bellowed.
“Listen to me for once!”
Please, please, please, please.
If even Sis disappears…… Seodaemun-gu is truly done for.
No…… should I force my way through?
Shin Tae-yeop took a deep breath, gripped the rosary around his neck…… that’s when it happened.
“That won’t work either.”
Suddenly.
A beastly growl more animal than human came from behind.
“……?!”
Boom. Shin Tae-yeop’s body slammed into the chapel’s outer wall.
I…… can’t move?
Something…… had seized both his wrists and was shoving him forward.
“No matter how you strug gle, you can’t get in there.”
“Min-young! What the hell are you doing right now!”
Gong Min-young……?
No…… her voice is wrong.
Syllables unnaturally breaking or fusing. An eerily sinister voice.
“Get your hands off, now!”
Lee Seong-mi drew her Lotus Sword and approached…… but the moment Gong Min-young glared, she froze like a statue.
“ShiraaaaaaaaaaaakkkKK!”
Then Shrak bared her jaws……
“What the hell?”
……something grabbed her throat and slammed her to the ground.
“Sh, Shrak……!”
Unbelievable…… what……
Shrak’s neck was discoloring to a dark bluish hue.
The Abyss’s power is this strong?
“If you’re a mage of your level, you could tell with mana sight right away?”
What……?
Faced with the overwhelming power gap, Shin Tae-yeop twisted desperately to look.
His hair stood on end.
Gong Min-young’s face was right there.
But those eyes.
They were dyed in the outer void’s hue.
“Long time no see. Sword shield human……?”
Long time……?
When the hell did I ever meet this bitch?
“Try resisting. Like back then. Heh. Hehehe. Huhuhi. Huha. Hahaha. Hehehi. Hihihe. Hehehihehu.”
“My hands…… my hands are bound……!”
It’s not just the power gap.
Damn…… what is this……? This presence strangling my consciousness like it’s crushing it……?
“Hands? You…… how did this happen. Can’t form hand seals, can’t cast spells?”
────Chilling.
A fragment of memory flashed like lightning in his mind……
- Am I scary? You’re trembling?
……The girl-king who walks time controls spacetime. She reads future dangers, intervening in present and past…….
- Poor thing.
Throb. It hurt, dizzy……
Shin Tae-yeop gasped for breath and met the eyes of Gong Min-young…… no, the Holy Apostle within her.
“You…… what are you…… how do you know me…… know me?”
Gong Min-young tilted her head, then her pupils gleamed sinisterly.
“Boring.”
“……?”
“If you wanna live, beg to live. No forgiveness though.”
Why……?
No strength in my body……?
Gong Min-young’s fangs brushed his shoulder……
No, don’t, stop.
……Then plunged deep into his bone with icy sharpness.
“──Aaaaaaaaaaagh!”
Damn, it hurts, hurts!
The excruciating pain of his collarbone shattering.
“Mmm.”
Gong Min-young withdrew her fangs and licked the blood from them with her tongue.
“Blood tastes the same. Why pretend otherwise?”
“I don’t…… don’t know what you mean…… I don’t know…… who the hell you are……!”
“Mana tastes the same too?”
Gong Min-young stretched her mouth in a creepy grin and waggled her slimy tongue.
“Don’t like liars. I eat lying kids.”
Madness invading his mind…… Shin Tae-yeop desperately clung to his consciousness.
But.
But……
The slimy cold tongue coils around his brain, licking…… come here…… come here…… Ahihihihahahahahahaha……
His mind would have shattered completely. If not for…… that voice.
“Stop, Anridal.”