Chapter 95
Chapter 95
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 95
Chapter Title: 095. Rest to This Ruined World, Gyeongbokgung Siege (4)
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11.
The sacred tree was different from the vision Kserinia had shown. Grotesquely so, its trunk blackened and rotting away.
Thump, thump, thump, thump.
My heart began to pound with tension.
Not because of the sacred tree.
It was due to the overwhelming presence seated before it.
A knight in battered, rusted plate armor.
The knight, leaning a greatsword as tall as a full-grown man on his shoulder, had been still as death... until, in that instant, the sacred tree began to wail mournfully.
Crying... a tree...?
What was it.
That moved this sacred tree.
To keep holding up this crumbling world, even in this very moment.
In that instant, I thought of the soul sickness, the tragedy that had engulfed this world.
- Grant rest to our world...
My fingers trembled on the hilt.
- Grant rest to those who guard the sacred tree...
Was it my hand shaking?
Or was the Dawn Sword trembling on its own?
......Whiiiiiirrrrr...
It was then that fruits of light formed on the sacred tree's branches. The fruits floated up into the air the next moment, scattering toward the knights before the rank stones.
The last one went to the greatsword knight.
Right then.
As if life had been breathed into him, the greatsword knight raised his head and looked at me.
An innate overwhelming majesty.
A transcendent killing intent piercing through my entire body.
Even without the info window popping up above his head, I could tell at a glance.
This knight was.
The sixth subordinate.
The first humanoid boss I'd ever faced.
A greatsword for a weapon... What would his combat style be like?
「GUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA…….」
The moment Arczrehid slowly rose with a groan.
......Clank... clank... clank...
Metallic sounds erupted from all directions at once.
What?
Startled, I looked around and saw the knights before the rank stones rising to their feet.
What...?
A one-versus-many siege?
I swallowed hard.
My necklace flashed, and Roheiritz leaped out, landing crisply on the ground.
“Didn't I say you'd need help?”
“......Roheiritz!”
“Choose.”
“......?”
“That one and the small fry. Which should I take?”
An arrogance that couldn't be suppressed.
Confidence in his own power, perhaps. As an ally, that arrogance felt utterly reassuring.
“Handle the small fry.”
“You sure?”
“Hunting subordinates is my assigned mission.”
Roheiritz nodded and opened his palm.
“The Prime Apostle of the Void, Roheiritz, issues his final command to the creations of the Void.”
A sphere of void spun fiercely there, and void demons poured out in droves.
“Grant the void's rest to all who stand here.”
The moment the abyss-devoured knights and void demons clashed in a chaotic melee.
I looked up at the ancient saint's guardian descending the stairs.
Saint's guardian, huh.
Was he originally someone as virtuous as Kserinia?
Awe, pity, a sense of duty.
Faced with the hunt before me, my heart wavered with a rush of emotions.
Just then, the Dawn Sword gleamed, reminding me of that day's advice in my mind.
Don't forget.
That hunting is, in essence, a funeral.
I flashed a bitter smile and raised the Dawn Sword's tip.
“Arczrehid, I've come to grant you rest.”
Right then.
Arczrehid vanished from my sight.
Instant leap via leg strength...?
It might've caught me off guard.
If I hadn't warmed up fighting Roheiritz, a foe of this caliber, earlier.
──Whish!
I spun around and swung the Dawn Sword in the same motion.
A thunderous clash of blade on blade.
The Dawn Sword wailed creakily in my grip... and I gritted my teeth.
What the hell... this insane power?
Arczrehid's sword was less a greatsword and more a blunt weapon.
Yet it cut with razor sharpness.
Transcendent barrages whirling from all sides. Up. Up. Right. Up. Left. Down. Up.
“......Hup!”
I barely parried the onslaught, forced to retreat again and again.
「GUUUUUUUUUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!」
Arczrehid was like a lone wolf. Swinging that sword was pure domination.
Kclang! Kclang── Kclaaang!
Leaping nimbly like a wolf.
Spinning in midair to slam down his greatsword in a lethal strike.
“Agh!”
Agony like my wrist would shatter.
I fell back again, widening the gap.
Speed and power surpassing Cha-Ratevil.
And... purely in terms of swordsmanship, he outclassed me.
That mercilessly huge blade...
If I kept blocking, I'd lose for sure... I had to find a way.
[Unique skill, 《First Liberation: Dawnlight Yeomyeong Sword》 activated.]
First, spacetime control.
Counter from behind... no, what?
「GUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU──」
Arczrehid clutched his chest in apparent pain. In that instant, dark blue mist—the abyss—began coiling around his body.
Sudden development.
Dozens of battle blueprints flashed in my mind. At the end of every one, I met my death.
If I went in... I'd lose?
I halted my foot mid-lunge toward the ground.
Threw my body back with full force.
《Dawnlight Yeomyeong Sword》 doesn't work?
A fatal conclusion.
I didn't know why... but could I only use it for footwork?
If so, my remaining options were... 《Holy Dawn Sword》 and 《Blade Wind Lianhua》.
I wouldn't use 《Shadow Ambush》—I'd learned my lesson from the crisis during last time's Ari'shel'rap skirmish.
Color returned to my vision.
As providence restored to spacetime, Arczrehid let out another roar.
「UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUAAAAAAAAAA!」
The abyss that had coiled around Arczrehid's body exploded, scattering a suffocating fishy stench everywhere.
Danger.
[Exclusive skill, 《Blade Wind Lianhua》 activated!]
The abyss closing in from all sides.
The blade gale swirling around me swept it away.
In that split-second my eyes were drawn to it, Arczrehid vanished.
What... no way?
I snapped my gaze up urgently.
There he was. Had he kicked off the ground and leaped in that interval?
Or was it an illusion from the start?
He was already spinning ferociously in midair, swinging his greatsword down.
──Kcaaaaaang!
Agony like my body would shatter.
I barely deflected Arczrehid's blow, but the impact sent me flying backward, tumbling hard across the ground.
And I dropped the Dawn Sword.
The Dawn Sword spun whirring through the air.
Scattering trails of light, it soon stabbed into the ground between Arczrehid and me.
In that instant.
Arczrehid and I both looked at the Dawn Sword, then bolted toward it the next moment.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”
「GUUUUUAAAAAAAAA!」
A clash of shouts.
My body floated weightlessly. But I gripped the hilt first.
Right away.
Arczrehid's blade hurtling through the air toward me.
[Unique skill, 《First Liberation: Dawnlight Yeomyeong Sword》 activated!]
Time slowed.
My mind gained room to think amid the battle.
In that slowed world, I crossed the twin Dawn Swords to arduously parry Arczrehid's barrage.
- There's something crucial when drawing up battle blueprints.
The [Master of the Broken Dawn]'s combat lesson flashed through my mind, cornered as I was.
- It's quickly identifying what I have that my opponent lacks. And vice versa.
Why this now?
The [Master of the Broken Dawn] wouldn't bring it up for no reason.
「GUUUUUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!」
What I had.
And he lacked.
Kclang! Kclang! Kclaaang!
Find it.
“Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap!”
Wait...?
The answer was right in front of me.
In that moment, what caught my eye was our swords.
Arczrehid's sword.
A rusted, worn hunk of iron. But mine was the Dawn Sword. A blade of light.
Then...!
I shifted from defense to offense.
Drew up a blueprint in my mind. Lure a massive swing, then reverse the flow with [Weapon Destruction].
Focus.
The fight would be decided in one clash.
“......Let's do this.”
I took a short breath, then switched my grip on the hilt.
「GUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!」
Arczrehid closed in fast. His rusted plate clanking, his tattered cloak billowing.
Right then.
I stepped forward with my left foot.
To feign first strike and draw out his momentum.
- Truth is, the greatsword's defense is its offense.
- You mean defense equals attack?
- No. For the greatsword, counteroffense is the best defense.
Remember.
The countless spars with the [Master of the Broken Dawn].
It was nearly simultaneous.
Arczrehid kicked off the ground, spun, and poured his power into the greatsword.
I'd drawn it out.
A massive offense.
In a flash, I swept my blade up with my left palm.
──Chaaaaang!
A flash bursting from the sword's fissures.
In an instant, the Dawn Sword reborn in crimson.
“Uhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap!”
A ferocious shout.
Followed by an enormous metallic screech piercing my eardrums.
「GUUUUUUUUUUUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!」
Arczrehid was no pushover.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
In that instant, abyss welled from the blade, coiling around it like sword aura.
Read me already?
A clash of auras before the blades met.
Time seemed to slow. That's why I saw it clearly.
Zzzzzz──Charrarang!
Dawn's light shredding the abyss.
Then the dawn blade clashing with the iron sword. Cracks spiderwebbing across the blade in that moment.
The next instant.
The blade shattering to pieces.
──Chaaaaaaaang!
The severed half spun whirring into the air.
I won.
The moment I was certain of victory.
The duel turned into a brutal race against time once more.
Wh... what?!
Arczrehid had snatched the broken blade from midair. I still hadn't recovered my momentum.
Again, a split-second deciding bout.
The instant.
The moment I switched to reverse grip. The moment he swung his blade half down at my neck.
My heart beat once.
I twisted my body half a turn.
Thrust the reverse-gripped sword from under my left armpit.
A thrust variation: reverse thrust.
After the fierce battle with Yujulem, I'd trained to use thrusts in any situation.
My heart beat twice.
Power at best fifty percent.
But in this dire moment, the variable of liberating 《Holy Dawn Sword》 was key.
Right now, like this.
A beat of short silence.
The holy power wasn't even complete... but did humanoids have limits to their flesh?
This strike was enough.
The Dawn Sword's blade had pierced his gut clean through, protruding from his back.
The Dawn Sword was a greatsword in its own right.
And 《Holy Dawn Sword》 was its fully liberated form.
No human body could survive being impaled like that.
Clunk.
The helmet hitting the ground with a metallic thud.
Yet... a man's voice followed right after.
「Ah... ■■■...... is that you?」
I whipped my head around.
Arczrehid's face, revealed beneath the helmet, was wretched.
Flesh rotted away completely, bones seemingly exposed.
But why.
That voice.
The quavering voice was so tender, it startled me.
「You stubborn fool... Do you know how long I've waited for you?」
The Dawn Sword trembled wildly.
What... I looked back and forth between the Dawn Sword and the saint's guardian impaled on it, utterly baffled.
「But you're here again now, so that's enough. Yes... I'll go on ahead.」
[Ancient Saint's Guardian, Arczrehid]
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