Chapter 42
Chapter 42
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 042
Chapter Title: Fierce Training, Graveyard of the Beacon Keeper (2)
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2.
“First lesson.”
The [Master of the Broken Dawn] lightly assumed a combat stance.
“You’re under a very fatal misconception about the power of the Dawn Sword.”
Combat stance……?
In my eyes, it was nothing more than a languid posture. It looked wide open with vulnerabilities everywhere.
“Learning with your body will be faster. Shall we try coming at me?”
“Coming at you?”
“I mean, charge at me with the resolve to kill.”
For a split second, I doubted my ears.
“This is…… still a real sword, even if it’s broken.”
He shrugged lightly, as if finding the intent in my words amusing.
“It’s far too early for you to cut me down. Don’t worry about it.”
Well, if you say so.
More than that, this was a virtual world, or so he said. Even if I died, it wouldn’t be real death.
“……Understood.”
I steadied my scattered breathing.
Gripping the hilt firmly. With the sword tip forward, I spread my feet wide into a charging stance.
“That’s a bad habit. A tell that reveals your next move.”
Before his advice could finish.
I kicked off the ground with superhuman physical ability. In that instant, a fierce acceleration surged through my body, blurring my vision white.
A perfect ambush.
I arrived at the target point.
My flipped vision settled, and there he stood still before me.
By the time I thrust my sword tip forward, he had only just gripped his hilt with both hands.
This could end it.
But then──he vanished.
The moment I saw that, a kick slammed into my abdomen.
My lungs compressed in suffocating agony. I rolled across the dirt like a bounced ball before sprawling on the ground.
……What was that?
Cha-Ratevil’s shadow ambush?
No, not that. It wasn’t anything like it.
I snapped my head up, and there he was in the same spot, same posture. The Dawn Sword unchanged.
“The correct answer is that I used [Time Control], the power of the First Liberation: Dawnlight Yeomyeong Sword, for just an instant.”
First Liberation: Dawnlight Yeomyeong Sword?
Ah. Of course he could use it too. Then it hit me, and I furrowed my brow. But it wasn’t in dual swords form?
“The sword’s form isn’t the original right now?”
“That’s the misconception you need to discard this time.”
“……?”
“You’re placing too much emphasis on the First Liberation: Dawnlight Yeomyeong Sword. To put it in terms you’d understand…… like it’s the ultimate skill in a game.”
But it’s a unique skill.
Wasn’t it supposed to be like that?
“Isn’t it?”
“No.”
He pulled the Dawn Sword apart to both sides, and a brilliant flash erupted as the twin Dawn Swords were born.
“It’s just one form you need to use flexibly according to the combat situation.”
This time, he clashed the twin swords fiercely. Then something truly astonishing happened.
The spreading flash converged back to one point, reforming into the broken greatsword—the Dawn Sword.
What…… is this?
You can deactivate it too?
As I stared in bewilderment, he spread the five fingers of his left hand.
“The First Liberation: Dawnlight Yeomyeong Sword is one of the five forms of the Dawn Sword’s powers. The governing power is [Time Control].”
“……Five forms?”
“It’s useful for catching opponents off guard or evading. The key is using it in bursts. Like when I countered you just now.”
Evading an attack with the First Liberation: Dawnlight Yeomyeong Sword.
Readjusting stance and countering in a slowed world…… an assault the enemy could never anticipate.
This…… I’d never even imagined it.
“You mean to use the First Liberation: Dawnlight Yeomyeong Sword in short bursts?”
“That’s ideal for now. The Dawn Sword’s power isn’t fully restored yet.”
“The Cha-Ratevil fight was so impressive…… I naturally assumed it was an ultimate skill concept.”
He nodded.
“Of course, you could fight solely with the power of the First Liberation: Dawnlight Yeomyeong Sword, but it has limits. You understand now, right?”
I lowered my eyes weakly.
I do. I know well from experience. When I struck Arishelrab’s exoskeleton, I was utterly powerless.
“Let’s change locations now.”
He snapped his fingers.
The wasteland scenery shimmered like a heat haze, transforming in an instant into a gray rocky terrain. I blinked.
A massive rock ten meters in diameter.
A perfectly circular rock.
It towered before me in overwhelming majesty.
“Can you cleave this with the First Liberation: Dawnlight Yeomyeong Sword?”
“No matter how much I slash…… it seems impossible.”
Absolutely. My wrist would snap first.
“You need to be able to cleave this rock within the next two days.”
“What…… how in the world?”
“The answer lies in the Dawn Sword. Specifically, the form governing [Power Burst].”
……[Power Burst]?
He raised the Dawn Sword overhead with his right hand.
His left hand gripped the upper blade.
He swept it upward smoothly and intoned.
“Sacred Dawn Sword.”
Threads of dawn light.
A breathtaking sight flowing from the countless cracks in the Dawn Sword.
With a clear ringing cry.
The threads wrapped around the blade, swirling in mystical radiance.
The next moment.
It forged into a crimson blade.
Dawn…… the sword of dawn.
A perfect blade.
A long, wide greatsword. A sword fantastical to the point of awe.
Dawn’s blood-red patterns shimmering on the blade like dragon scales. A dignified bearing that nobly burned away the world’s darkness.
I shuddered.
“The Sacred Dawn Sword. This single form has countless applications. For now.”
He gripped the greatsword with both hands.
Slowly drawing it to his right side. Then, in the next instant, he thrust it forward fiercely.
The tip stopped before the rock. However.
Following the thrust’s trajectory.
A clear, ringing──chara-rarararang. At the same time, a dazzling crimson wedge of sword energy erupted majestically…… good god.
──Kwa-gwagwagwa!
The rock shattered miserably.
No, it was pierced through by the sword energy, completely disintegrating into gravel and dust.
Overwhelming, utterly overwhelming.
This was the Dawn Sword’s [Power Burst].
My fists clenched involuntarily.
With this weapon, even Arishelrab’s exoskeleton could be shattered effortlessly.
And things beyond that.
“Thrusts work, as do ground slams. There are many other ways to use it.”
He swung the greatsword through the air. The blade unraveled into countless threads once more, reverting to the rusted, broken greatsword.
“If you hold back the power burst, you can swing the perfect greatsword form multiple times. Ah, and like the First Liberation: Dawnlight Yeomyeong Sword, you can deactivate it mid-use.”
He snapped his fingers.
The shattered rock debris vanished, replaced by a new rock in its place.
“Can I do that too?”
“No.”
An unexpectedly blunt immediate answer came.
“Not yet, that is.”
“Not yet……?”
Puk.
Uh……?
Something pierced my chest. Looking down……
……The Dawn Sword.
That searing blade plunged deep into my chest, stopping only when the base touched my sternum.
Strength drained away, and my knees buckled. Strangely, no blood flowed, and I could breathe.
Yet I was so depleted I could barely open my mouth.
“If you don’t pull that sword out within two days, you’ll die.”
“Why……?”
“When the soul dies, the body dies too. That’s the principle.”
That wasn’t what I’d asked.
I’d meant why stab me with the sword.
“This is the last chance I barely managed to create.”
“……?”
Eyes that seemed to draw something.
Not at me, but at this world perhaps.
“If you can’t even accomplish this basic feat, I’ll have no choice but to seek a more suitable and capable successor.”
What the hell does that mean.
Die? Why? Didn’t you say you’d make me stronger?
Defiance surged, and I grabbed the hilt. But…… it was so hot I had to let go immediately.
“You can’t pull it out with strength or skill. Absolutely not.”
This is insane.
My palms blistered red and stung. Burns?
“There’s only one way to pull it out.”
“……Way?”
I barely lifted my head.
I saw him raising his index finger.
“By using your Humanity to pull it out.”
Humanity……?!
“The core of the first lesson. It’s about you learning to wield Humanity freely!”
“I don’t know…… how…….”
I know nothing about Humanity.
Just that it rose when I did good deeds, and it linked with Holy Flame Succession to raise levels.
“There’s no way to teach this.”
“……?!”
“You must realize the answer yourself. As a hint, it’s hidden in the battles you’ve fought so far.”
This is utterly unreasonable.
Suddenly facing death, and now find the answer on your own. Even my strict senior officer from police days didn’t teach like this.
“I’ll return to the graveyard until you pull the sword.”
As I gasped feebly.
His fading, translucent form added a warning.
“And…… you’d better hurry.”
It’s hot. Insanely hot.
My chest burned unbearably.
I looked down…… and was horrified.
Around where the blade was embedded, blood-red light flickered.
“The Dawn Sword’s purification has already begun.”
This doesn’t make sense.
This…… it’s that light from hunting Heteromorphs?
“As I said, the deadline is two days. It could shorten depending on your mental strength. Good luck, then.”
3.
“Uwaaaaaah!”
The fortieth time. Finally, a shout burst out.
Gripping the hilt with both hands, I began to pull.
It’s maddeningly hot.
The stench of burning flesh.
But my hands had no strength, and the sword didn’t budge.
“Damn…… shit…… damn…….”
I collapsed sideways, gasping raggedly.
A headache like my skull splitting.
My back slick with cold sweat.
How much…… time has passed?
And so again.
Losing consciousness in pain.
Waking to sharp agony. Repeating.
A hundred times, a hundred fifty, a hundred eighty……
“……Ahk.”
The agony…… spreading again?
When the purification expands, it’s like this. The pain of flesh searing makes even screaming a burden.
Use Humanity?
How am I supposed to awaken something like magic on my own?
I’ve thought about it.
Humanity rose whenever I did good deeds, as I recall.
How to apply it here.
I tried thinking pulling this sword was a good deed.
“Uwaaaaaah!”
No effect.
I kept trying. Thought endlessly. But no answer.
“Like──”
That’s as far as I got.
Excruciating pain raked my spine.
What?
The blood light began devouring my body.
My head spun, breath choked off, I thrashed rolling, but the erosion spread mercilessly.
Already…… is this the end?
- When the soul dies, the body dies too.
Vision blurred.
Utter desolation enveloped me.
Yet I gritted my teeth.
I couldn’t end so meaninglessly. This precious life handed down by Kim Gye-sang.
So easily.
I slammed my fist into the ground.
The recoil barely helped me rise amid the pain.
I can’t fall.
「Humanity.」
Then from somewhere.
「It’s not something to think of so complicatedly.」
A mystical voice drifted in.
A voice noble like moonlight, yet poignant.
「The answer is right there, plain as day. On the trajectory of your life.」
A woman with long snow-white hair.
A woman with exotic features.
Gazed down at me with compassionate eyes.
「Just look back sincerely once.」
Who is she.
She felt similar to him.
Similar, yet…… her mystical aura was hundreds, thousands of times stronger.
「Why you’ve fought until now.」
Why…… have I fought……?
Why? I push back the horrific headache to recall.
- Hunting prep done, Lead Hunter?
Because I’m Lead Hunter?
No, no. That’s not it.
- I hope we can keep gathering like this and laughing.
For my new comrades?
Important, but not the reason.
“Haa…… haa…… haaaah.”
The blood light’s erosion rose to my chin. Breathing…… breathing feels choked like a lump in my throat.
「Hurry. It’s not those individual reasons. Go to the source of your resolve. The origin of your life’s guiding star.」
Why…… did I fight.
Why? Why? Why? A frenzy of whys.
- Please save at least the children, I beg you.
Why did I struggle so hard to save that mother and daughter on the first day of ruin.
Why have I swung this sword through nightmares until now……?
Why?
Why, you ask?
Of course.