Chapter 529: For a Friend (7)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 529: For a Friend (7)
Dante could not tear his eyes from the brilliant blue sword energy flaring up from the distant rear.
His entire family had staked their lives on this fight, and he refused to be the only one to survive like a coward. He wanted to prove that Hairan was still Hairan, even without his grandfather. He had never wanted to drag his friend into this quagmire.
And yet, seeing that blue sword energy with his own eyes felt like a ray of light piercing the deepest despair.
‘Jin…!’
Jin had never received Dante’s letter.
But even if he had, the outcome would have been the same. He and his people would have surely come to the aid of Sword Emperor Castle.
“Hairan!”
“We have arrived!”
As Jin shouted, pouring aura into his voice, the entire battlefield vibrated. Even Dante, standing alone at the very front, heard his friend’s voice with perfect clarity.
The Imperial soldiers in the rear guard looked up. Jin stood atop a high cliff rising behind Sword Emperor Castle.
“As of this moment, the Barmul Alliance and the Tikan Kingdom shall defend Sword Emperor Castle alongside Hairan.”
The Sealed Lightning Sword Sigmund—the God-Slaying Sword bestowed upon him by the Fighting God himself—was wreathed in sharp, crackling lightning.
The muzzles of the Dragon Spears that had been aimed at the rear gate frantically swiveled toward Jin.
“Therefore, enemies, clear the way.”
Rumble—!
The moment the Dragon Spears fired, Jin’s sword erupted in a blinding light.
Runcandel 5th Secret Technique
Light Speed Thrust – Pluto
The flash generated by a single sword thrust momentarily turned the night sky into day.
The projectiles from the Dragon Spears vanished without a trace, leaving only the thunderous roar of their firing as proof they had ever existed.
They had been swallowed whole by the sword energy of the Light Speed Thrust.
The sword energy, having consumed the shells, tore through the shields of the Imperial knights and mages before continuing on to completely obliterate the Dragon Spears themselves.
It all happened before the echoes of the explosions could even dissipate.
Those watching could not comprehend what had just occurred.
Only by observing Jin’s posture and the lingering trail of lightning and aura stretching in a straight line from the cliff to the shattered Dragon Spears could they deduce one thing:
He had thrust his sword once.
But the shock did not end there.
“Aaaagh!”
“W-What is this…!”
From the point of impact where the Dragon Spears had been blown to bits, bolts of lightning began to pour down like rain.
The original Light Speed Thrust was, as Talaris had once described it, merely an insanely fast thrust. However, Jin’s version of the technique, which bore the name of his clan, contained the ferocious energy unique to the Pluto Sword.
It was the ruthless power of a race that had once conquered the world and reigned as its sole victor.
Blue lightning trampled over the Imperial knights and mages.
They possessed no means to defend themselves against such power.
With a single strike, the rear ranks of the Imperial Army had collapsed.
Allies and enemies alike trembled at the sight of Jin’s blade, all sharing the same thought:
This is what it means to be a knight who overwhelms the battlefield.
Jin drew up his energy once more.
He unleashed a succession of Light Speed Thrusts until the cliff could no longer withstand the force and began to crumble.
To the enemy, the blue flashes descending upon the battlefield looked like divine punishment.
As members of the Empire, it felt as if they were paying the price for daring to betray Hairan. As humans who had once been safe behind the bulwark that was Hairan, it felt as if they were being punished for failing to stand against the Emperor’s tyranny.
The cliff finally gave way after five more Light Speed Thrusts were unleashed.
The collapse of the cliff meant that the monster would now be roaming the battlefield in person.
The enemy’s terror intensified.
The Pluto Sword was created solely for conquest and destruction. No martial art in the world was more specialized for war.
The moment Jin stepped onto the battlefield, the scale of death changed.
Every time lightning spread, bolts fell, and thunder crashed, dozens—sometimes hundreds—of enemies died or writhed on the ground, too injured to fight.
Forget ordinary soldiers; even the renowned high-ranking knights of the Imperial Army didn’t dare block Jin’s path. If they approached recklessly, their bodies would be incinerated before their blades could even meet.
Screams loud enough to deafen filled the air.
But Jin did not hear them.
Only the ragged voice of his friend, whose heart must have been torn to shreds by this senseless war, resonated in his chest.
“Back off, you bastards! How could you do this to Hairan…!”
The Path of the Overlord—people were witnessing the very reason Runcandel was known by such a name.
The Dragon Spears and all cannons of Imperial Dragon-Class or higher that had been targeting the rear gate now tracked Jin’s every movement.
The cannons Dante had cut down at the front were merely a distraction. Far more Dragon Spears were being deployed at the rear and flanks.
Over fifty were being loaded.
Furthermore, the enemy commanders regained their composure and began preparing a coordinated attack.
“Jin Runcandel! Do you realize the people you are killing are soldiers of His Imperial Majesty of the Great Viment Empire? Runcandel is intervening in the Empire’s internal affairs. Do you not know what that implies—?”
The commander of the Lilista Magic Squad never finished his sentence.
Jin immediately unleashed another Light Speed Thrust toward the source of the voice.
The moment the commander died, the knights of the Central Knights—the hundred or so key figures Dante had identified earlier—formed a defensive line to block Jin.
Jin scoffed.
“The fact that you can die by a Runcandel’s hand on the battlefield is likely the greatest honor trash like you could ever hope for.”
The knights of the Central Knights offered no reply.
They recognized it at a glance: no matter what they said, Jin would not stop.
“That is why, if possible, I don’t even want to grant you that honor. Isn’t that a fitting price for forgetting your own?”
As soon as Jin finished speaking—
Boom! Crackle!
Suddenly, shells fired from somewhere else dropped onto the heads of the Central Knights.
They were Dragon Spear rounds. The knights hastily raised their shields and swung their swords, but the largest-class shells the Empire boasted still claimed the lives of three of them instantly.
‘Damn it, why are the Dragon Spears hitting us?!’
‘The Henserck Magic Squad would never make such a mistake. Could it be…!’
Jin smiled coldly and shrugged.
“I clearly shouted that we have arrived, not just me. Did you ‘commanders’ already forget that?”
Crunch, boom!
Dragon Spear shells continued to rain down on the Central Knights.
The person aiming those cannons from the left side of the rear battlefield was not part of the Imperial Army.
“A hit! Hehe, the Lord will praise me for this, right?”
Amela giggled as she loaded the next shell.
The Great Mercenary Amela—the moment she entered the battlefield, she had begun identifying the enemy’s best equipment and swiftly seizing it.
“Old man Valkas, that one. That one looks useful, too. Bring it to me.”
“…Understood.”
“I wish my cuties had brought it instead of you, old man. I wonder if our Prochi beauties are cleaning up the flank properly.”
Black King Commander Valkas and Great Mercenary Amela.
Two individuals who could be called incarnations of war were tearing through the rear of the battlefield alongside Jin.
The Imperial Army, realizing this far too late, felt a horrific sensation, as if all the blood was draining from their heads.
Valkas hoisted up the Dragon Spear Amela had pointed to.
He lifted the massive cannon, which normally required over a hundred knights to move, as if it were just a slightly heavy rock.
Before a human who had reached the realm of a superhuman, numbers meant nothing.
“It’s not quite as good as the Mana-Injection Spray-Type All-Weather Crushing Cannon, but this isn’t bad either. Let’s take a few back and install them in Tikan when the war is over! Fire, fire!”
In the end, the Dragon Spears operated by Amela annihilated all the knights blocking Jin’s path in less than thirty seconds.
“Guh… argh… cough.”
True to his word, Jin hadn’t even cut them down himself.
He hadn’t even granted them the honor of dying by a Runcandel’s blade on the battlefield.
“Even in death, you will apologize for what you have done. And you will pray fervently that Dante does not die or get injured. If such a thing happens, I will slaughter not only your families but your retainers and all their relatives, down to the last soul…”
At those words, the dying knights of the Central Knights felt that this was not the end.
It was a voice so deep and dark that no one who heard it could dismiss it as a hollow threat. It was the ultimatum of a pure-blooded Runcandel.
As Jin began to walk forward again, the Imperial soldiers surrounding him recoiled.
Though the plains were vast, it felt as if a precipice had opened right behind them. One more step back, and they would fall into an endless abyss.
Yet, they could not bring themselves to step forward.
A massive shadow of terror, one that eclipsed even the Emperor’s orders and the madness of war, was striding toward them.
When they thought they were facing a Hairan without Ron, the entire Imperial Army had been certain of victory.
They believed that before the countless dragons, knights, mages, and the Empire’s strongest war machines like the Dragon Spears, Sword Emperor Castle would finally meet its end.
That was why the Imperial Army had struck, even knowing this purge was in no way justified.
Regardless of right or wrong, standing on the losing side of a war meant only death and ruin. The moment they chose to defend Hairan, they, too, would become traitors and be finished.
But they had overlooked one thing: Hairan was not alone.
They had failed to recognize the bond, thicker than blood, between the Young Lord of Hairan and the 12th Flagbearer of Runcandel.
And so now, a certainty of defeat and despair weighed down upon the Imperial Army. It went even beyond that, leading them to a single question:
Can the Empire continue to exist as an Empire after today?
They wanted to confess their sins right now and beg to be allowed to stand on Hairan’s side.
They wanted to cry out in pathetic voices that they had only followed the Emperor’s orders because they were powerless, and that they actually respected Hairan more than the Imperial Family.
But there was no way Jin or Hairan would accept such a ridiculous story.
They knew better than anyone that the excuse of "just following orders" was no justification at all.
Some eventually lost their minds and began to wail. Others dropped their weapons and shook uncontrollably.
Some screamed, not to fight their opponent, but because they had lost all reason and been reduced to terrified beasts.
“I swear on the name of the 12th Flagbearer of Runcandel. Run, and I will not pursue. However, every enemy who remains on this battlefield shall die, without exception. Though, in my opinion…”
It would be better for you to die here than to endure a lifetime of disgrace and self-loathing.
Jin glared at his enemies as he finished his thought.
Those who met his gaze realized it with agonizing clarity.
Whether they fought or fled, only hell awaited them.