Chapter 209
Chapter 209
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 209
Chapter Title: Dawn's Return, Against the Sword God (1)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
0.
“Who are you?”
Sword God Choi Sin-yul glared at the man who had returned alive for the third time, his eyes filled with wariness.
[Lv: ???]
No level displayed...?
Impossible. There’s no way he could’ve risen to a point where even a single blow can’t gauge him in just three days.
“How are you still alive?”
At that moment, by a hair’s breadth.
────Kaaaaaaaang!
This guy...?
Choi Sin-yul summoned his Crystal Sword and blocked Kim Baek-jun’s thrust that came charging in an instant.
“I told you.”
Kagagagagagak...!
The two blades clashed in midair, sparking and writhing against each other.
“Seize the momentum!”
This bastard... What was that just now?
He was clearly holding a greatbow, but now it’s that rusted sword from before.
I need to draw it out and confirm.
In an instant, Choi Sin-yul’s killing intent erupted in an overwhelming aura.
Centered on where he stood.
The ground within a 10-meter radius rippled like waves before collapsing powerlessly with a thunderous roar.
This time, I’ll tear his corpse to shreds and make sure he’s dead.
The moment Choi Sin-yul tightened his grip on the sword in his left hand, Kim Baek-jun did the same with both hands on his blade.
Kaaaaaaaang──────!
With a deafening clash of metal.
The two swordsmen’s thrusts pushed against each other, and the moment their sword pressure caused a fierce explosion.
───────Chyararararang!
Twilight’s radiance.
An arrow piercing through the smoke.
As expected... Choi Sin-yul thrust out his right palm and immediately clenched it.
《White Crystal Ice Veil》.
Countless crystalline blades.
The blades scattered, shredding the twilight arrows into sparkling dust in midair.
Now I get it.
To bridge the gap in swordsmanship, he’s using archery──
“《Original Iron Halberd》.”
───Clap.
The sound of hands clasping together.
In that instant, kugugugugu... Fatal iron spikes burst up from the ground.
Sorcery...?
He took a deep breath and launched his body into the air with full force. Then Choi Sin-yul flinched for a moment.
Did I show an opening?
As if it were natural, the twilight arrows flew at him. But they were plain as day... Targets: heart and brain.
Still such childish attacks...
In an instant, the air around Choi Sin-yul froze, forming over a dozen crystalline swords. And then.
Zuzuzuzuzuzu─────!
The sword tips all aimed at Kim Baek-jun in unison.
────Chyachyachyachyachang!
Flying Sword Technique. The moment preparations were complete, he unleashed it with an incantation.
Launch.
Two blades neutralized the twilight arrows, while the remaining eight bore down on the sorcerer.
“Verkenxia, form shift─────!”
Pupu pu pu pu pu pu pu pu pu pu...!
“─────《Dawn Radiance Ten Crimson Mirrors》!”
In that instant.
The crystalline swords covered where he had been, and the moment he saw the snow dust and earth rise like a cliff in a frenzy.
No...?!
Piercing through that dust storm.
Kim Baek-jun burst forward from the front with a shout, shield raised in defense.
A mirror shield...?
A mirror shield...?
Before that shield unfolded a curtain of ten crimson veils spewing scarlet flame.
Fwoooooosh───!
Ridiculously, the crystalline swords didn’t pierce the blazing curtain—instead, they evaporated powerlessly the moment they touched it.
───Shuwaaaaaaaaak!
And once more.
Blade met blade.
With their blades locked, Choi Sin-yul examined Kim Baek-jun’s changed armament.
One-handed sword and shield...
He said form shift, didn’t he?
Does that mean he can freely change the sword’s form?
Chyaeaeeeeeeang────!
Kim Baek-jun knocked Choi Sin-yul’s sword aside and slipped into the gap.
Where do you think you’re going...!
Choi Sin-yul immediately redirected the momentum of his deflected sword in midair to strike down at Kim Baek-jun, but... What?
─────Tuuuuuuuung!
1.
“GRrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa……………!”
Was it the usage limit of his unique skill?
Ugh...! Gong Min-young felt her entire body grow heavy as lead and leaned on her shepherd’s staff against the ground.
Naturally, the situation was dire.
Excluding Gong Min-young, there were only about five survivors left who could fight.
“Hurry over here!”
The rest were either injured.
Or tending to the injured.
“Goddamn it! There’s fucking so many!”
In that situation, the snail monsters kept gathering. The only thing they ignored was Choi Sin-yul’s prey.
A battle royale was Gong Min-young’s specialty.
But she had long since pushed her body and mind past their limits just breaking through Nowon-gu...
As time dragged on.
The number of her hunting dogs dwindled, while the snail monsters only increased.
“Ah, front, watch the front──!”
Someone shouted urgently then.
Gong Min-young snapped her head up immediately, but... What the fuck... She was a beat too slow to react.
An ominous shadow engulfed her body.
The shadow’s owner... A snail monster overhead with both arms raised high to smash down.
“《Lotus Protection Veil》……!”
At that moment, with a pungent floral scent.
Lotus pollen enveloped Gong Min-young’s body.
Uh... This skill...
The fist that should’ve pulverized her skull merely tapped her head lightly.
Shock absorption at a whopping 99%.
But... The only one who can use this skill... Before she could even turn around.
“Kill them all! My unlimited power!”
An army of black-and-white heteromorphs made of ink... entangled with the snail monsters and began to fight.
And that wasn’t the end.
Injured survivors who had lost consciousness were coming to one by one... lending their strength to the battle.
“Sister... The Association President... The President’s... back, right...?”
A voice on the verge of breaking came then. The owner of that voice... was surprisingly Lee Seong-mi.
“I saw... the light... My whole body went cold... I thought I was done for... but suddenly... it warmed up...”
As Lee Seong-mi spat up thick blood, Seo Hwa-yoon, supporting her, shed tears of emotion and cried out.
“Don’t strain yourself talking, you idiot...! You’re not fully recovered yet...!”
What the hell is going on...?
The luck didn’t end there. Gunfire and shouts erupted from beyond the snail legion.
“They’re over there!”
“You bastards, wipe ’em all out!”
“Division Chief! Division Chief! Over here!”
It was the miraculous reunion with the <Association>’s 2nd Unit, which had fallen behind earlier.
“Wow... This is seriously insane.”
By now, even Gong Min-young couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh amid the overwhelming relief swelling like tears.
From then on, everything was a miracle.
Everything from securing the retreat route and safe zone...
Some of the late-joining 2nd Unit hunters asked in dazed voices.
“Division Chief... That light over there... Don’t tell me...?”
Seo Hwa-yoon looked toward Surak Mountain.
Precisely toward Surak Mountain’s 1st Pillar Gate, wiping away tears and nodding.
“Whoa... Whoa, this is crazy...!”
“I-I knew it! No way he’d die!”
“Yeah right, quit the bullshit! You were bawling your eyes out at the funeral.”
Kim Baek-jun’s influence was tremendous.
In an instant... The hunters were overcome with near-ecstatic emotion, laughing and crying. Then Park Ji-yeon shouted.
“We have to go help! He’s fighting alone...!”
But Seo Hwa-yoon shook her head with a gentle !).
“No need to panic. Let’s regroup and trust him while we wait.”
“But...!”
“The stage ahead is Baek-jun’s solo show. Just like always...”
2.
A shield...?!
The moment his sword was blocked by the shield.
The dawn-hued blood-red blade tore into his flesh and burrowed into his right arm.
Puhwaaaaaak……………!
A single step.
Choi Sin-yul kicked off the ground in an instant and retreated, but... he felt hot blood trickling down his right arm.
“Dullblade, can’t use it now, right?”
Once more, Kim Baek-jun slid forward.
“《White Crystal Ice Veil》!”
Choi Sin-yul intercepted immediately.
But his form dispersed into a haze of light, and the countless crystalline blades struck empty air.
“Just as I thought.”
In that very instant.
Kim Baek-jun had suddenly closed in right before Choi Sin-yul’s eyes.
Chwaaaaaaaaak────!
Choi Sin-yul summoned a crystalline sword.
He traced a sharp trajectory to dominate the space where Kim Baek-jun would appear. But.
───────Tuuuuuuuung!
Again, again.
With a dull metallic clang.
Choi Sin-yul’s sword bounced off. The tip of the blade grazed past his throat.
“Korea's top swordsmanship family, the Seo clan. Their world-champion prodigy, Seo Yul.”
“...?!”
“I should’ve noticed from that old drama-like speech pattern... But you changed your name weirdly, so I wasn’t sure. You’re Seo Yul, right?”
Choi Sin-yul felt something in his mind go coldly blank.
Why is this bastard suddenly...?
He couldn’t understand why he was bringing up irrelevant nonsense mid-battle.
“Does that matter?”
“Not really a big deal.”
Chyaeaeeeeeeang────!
“Just a guess I made while figuring out how to beat you!”
“A guess? What guess?”
“Dullblade’s base is an insane amount of combat experience!”
Chaeng───! Chyaeaeeeeeeang───!
“Being a sword prodigy, you’ve had tons of sword duels! But get this!”
Kim Baek-jun, who had been pushed back by the sword strike.
He charged but suddenly sank his momentum deep.
“You’ve never fought a shield before!”
His form turned back into a haze of light, closing the distance in one breath and targeting Choi Sin-yul’s opening.
Focus. Focus.
Extreme concentration.
In that split second, it allowed Choi Sin-yul to precisely read the shield and sword’s trajectories.
Dullblade.
That’s why, in that moment.
The instant he subtly deflected the shield’s blow with his sword’s flat, and slipped his blade into the path of the incoming sword.
─────Chyaeaeeeeeeeaang!
The burrowing offense reversed on itself, sending Kim Baek-jun’s sword soaring upward.
“…………What?!”
He turned defense into offense.
A lethal momentum born from the counter.
Calm yet swift, dull yet sharp, Choi Sin-yul swung his sword.
SugaAAAAAak──────!
Dodged by a hair.
If Kim Baek-jun had been half a beat slower in pulling away.
───────Tududududuk!
That upper body of his, thinly sliced by the crystalline sword and spraying blood droplets, would’ve been rolling across the snowy field.
Impressive... I like it.
Choi Sin-yul gazed up at the snowy sky for a moment, then glared back at Kim Baek-jun.
“Playtime’s over.”
“...?!”
“No more leisure to run that cheeky mouth.”
The silver eyepatch covering his left eye.
He slowly gripped it with his left hand... and ripped it off violently with a snap. Then.
……Kiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeiaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa……!
Outer space began to wail.
The writhing snowy sky suddenly... flickered with alien, malevolent hues.
Pale pure white.
Sticky pale green.
Aborted blood clot crimson.
That chilling sky split open as if torn...
Wuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!
……From the unreachable beyond, a pillar of light descended from outer space.
Zuzuzuzuzuzuzu─────
Blindingly brilliant.
Ecstatically rapturous to the point of hollow laughter, alluringly unreal... yet crushing his bones with its weighty glow...
That pillar of light.
Shot straight down.
[Lv: 368]
[Lv: 436]
[Lv: 512]
[Lv: ????????????]
Dyeing heaven and earth in chaotic flashes, it descended upon Choi Sin-yul.
─────Kugugugugugugugu!
Whirling into a formless storm.
A fierce storm of silence and chaos rose around Choi Sin-yul.
Creeeeeecrack─────!
The heavens touched by the storm froze in an instant, then shattered to pieces, unleashing a sharp roar.
─────Puuuuuuuung!
Kim Baek-jun, who had thrust his sword into the ground.
He seemed to barely withstand the storm by clinging to it.
“The only times I’ve taken off this eyepatch.”
The momentary storm subsided.
Followed by a split-second silence.
“Are against the ‘Exalted Ones’ and the [Daughter of the Abyss].”
The next moment, Choi Sin-yul.
Opened the eye he always kept covered with the patch... the eye where a god dwelled.
???
Etched into the eyeball: a spiral.
The spiral of Ikhilas, the mark of the apostle of Cherashul’toryak, the [Sovereign of Silent Chaos].
“What the…………………?”
Overwhelmed by the transcendent sight, Kim Baek-jun blankly looked up. Choi Sin-yul spoke toward him.
「“Kim Baek-jun, you’re the first.”」