Chapter 573: Sword Emperor (5)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 573: Sword Emperor (5)
Dante was convulsing. His black blood trickled down the nape of Jin’s neck.
Jin bit his lip as he stared at the blood, tainted pitch-black by chaos. The body pressed against his back felt cold and rigid.
Just after Ron and Jin had rescued him, his pulse had been faint, but his body temperature had nearly returned to normal. Now, Dante was undeniably dying.
After everything they had endured to save him…
Jin didn't even have the luxury of feeling rage toward Gliek. His heart was consumed by a single, desperate thought: he could not lose the friend he had finally reclaimed.
His mind focused on a single goal: Dante must live.
Jin recalled what Ron had said before they escaped Gliek’s abyss. While Ron fought the final battle, Jin had to take Dante and get out by any means necessary.
‘I have to reach the rear of the battlefield and find Lady Talaris!’
He had to ask Talaris if she had a sealing method that could delay Dante’s death. He would even check with Rosa and Kelliark to see if they possessed any means to save him. If they held a legacy of Numerus, he would demand they use it on Dante.
Under normal circumstances, they would never use such a sacred artifact to save Dante, but things were different now.
With Ron having reached the Realm of Creation, the Great Families would be forced to save Dante, if only to avoid the Sword Emperor's wrath.
‘The chances of Runcandel or Zipple possessing a legacy of Numerus are slim. Even if they did, they would have used it by now, given the state of things. Still, I have to try…!’
Jin frantically looked around. Everywhere he turned, Gliek’s chaos blocked his path.
He moved without pause, following the trails carved by Ron’s sword as he searched for the slightest opening.
Though the invisible sword energy continued to annihilate the chaos, no gap large enough to escape through appeared. Furthermore, as Ron swung his sword to forge a path, openings in Jin’s own protection were inevitable.
The black claws of chaos swarmed toward those vulnerabilities.
Fortunately, the attacks weren't unavoidable yet, but he knew that wouldn't last forever.
Ron separated a portion of the energy protecting himself and layered it over Jin and Dante.
Strictly speaking, Jin was not the one fighting Gliek. Unlike Ron, who had ascended to the Realm of Creation, he couldn't accurately read the flow of the monster's attacks. As a result, Jin didn't even notice the chaotic energy from outside his field of vision targeting him.
He only realized it when a black spike struck the barrier from behind.
“Jin, do not stop to dodge or block! Just keep moving forward!”
Jin nodded. Every time a spike cracked the barrier surrounding him, Ron sent more of his energy to reinforce it.
Having the power to defy fate does not mean one will necessarily succeed…
Gliek’s words had not been a lie. The humans had only gained a chance to win because Ron reached the Realm of Creation; victory was not guaranteed.
Full power.
The current Gliek was pouring out every last ounce of his strength. And for the King of the Black Sea to go all out meant the aftermath of this battle would not be confined to the lands of the Sword Emperor’s Castle.
Rumble…!
At the sudden, thunderous roar, everyone on the battlefield except Ron instinctively looked up at the sky.
The sky, stained black by chaos, was splitting open.
A rift was forming on a scale incomparable to when the Demon God Stones had warped the heavens. Pitch-black lightning struck down through the swirling chaos.
Knights and mages who had been barely holding on perished under the merciless black bolts. Every spot the lightning touched was gouged into a bottomless pit.
Chaos erupted from those pits like lava. Under this intensified disaster, even the elites of Runcandel and Zipple were falling helplessly.
And this was only what was happening within the territory of the Sword Emperor’s Castle.
Streams of chaos could be seen flowing out from the whirlpools in the sky. That chaos surged beyond the battlefield, heading toward the Empire. Beyond the Empire, it raced toward other inhabited lands—toward the territories of Runcandel and Zipple. It moved with inconceivable speed.
‘Is he planning to attack the entire human world?!’
Even Rosa, who had once told Jin she wouldn't care if the whole world perished as long as Runcandel survived, was horrified. As she watched the chaos advance, she wondered if she had ever faced a more shocking moment in her life.
This was a chaos that even the elites of each faction could not withstand. If such a thing were unleashed upon the world, ordinary humans would stand no chance. The extinction of humanity seemed a certain outcome.
‘Must we rely on the Prophet to prepare a countermeasure? There’s no telling what she might demand in return,’ Kelliark thought, his mind racing along a similar path. ‘At this rate, not only will the Empire fall… Zipple will be in danger as well.’
Both families had already suffered profound damage. In Runcandel, casualties were beginning to appear even among the Black Knights. Zipple had lost almost its entire fleet, and it was impossible to count how many dragons and mages had fallen.
The fleet could be rebuilt. Dragons could be replaced by finding and binding those currently dormant. However, even if the Zipple casualties were revived with the Demon God Stones, the authority was not yet perfect. Once dead, they could never truly return to their original selves.
Furthermore, as Gliek exerted his full power, the Demon God Stones were being affected once again. Previously, they had only trembled in fear, but now they were unstable, looking as if they might go berserk at any moment.
‘…Veradin. Should I have left his rampage unchecked from the start? I can only hope that Kadun and Hedo make the right decisions without me.’
As Kinzelo had first predicted, it wasn't that Runcandel and Zipple lacked a final trump card. It was simply a measure both families desperately wanted to avoid. Had they known of Gliek’s existence from the beginning, things might have been different, but now it felt too late to bring it out.
“The land where my daughter must live… how on earth can that be stopped?”
Talaris, who had been slumped over catching her breath, looked up at the sky with a face of utter despair.
The titans of the battlefield had no way to stop the chaos now multiplying across the entire world. Gliek said nothing, but his sense of triumph pierced them to the bone.
But their despair did not last long.
In the next moment, they witnessed a massive wall of protection, the likes of which no human had ever seen.
A colossal, hemispherical barrier of light encompassed the entire battlefield, extending even beyond the distant coastline.
Protection—the characteristic of the Creation Ron had achieved. That power, or rather, that ‘Authority,’ reacted to the chaos, blocking it from spilling out into the world.
The protection wall expanded faster than Gliek’s chaos could spread. A power so magnificent it was hard to believe a single human had created it began to shield the entire world.
It was a feat even the gods could not achieve. It was a protection possible only for Ron Hairan.
“I believe you said that to defeat you, I must have nothing left to protect,” Ron said, thrusting his sword forward.
At his gesture, the scattered chaos before him coalesced into a humanoid shape. It wasn't Gliek’s doing; Ron had forcibly dragged the chaos together to create a form suitable for cutting.
Slash—!
As Rashid tore through that form, the entire space occupied by the chaos shook. The torrent of chaos emerging from the whirlpool momentarily ceased. As soon as the form dissipated, Ron forcibly seized the monster's energy once more.
“If I didn't have things to protect, I never would have made it this far.”
And so, Ron continued to cut him down.
If Gliek had been facing Cyron, taking the entire human race hostage would have been a brilliant move. While Cyron might have killed him faster than Ron, he wouldn't have been able to stop the world from being devastated.
But against Ron, it was a blatant mistake. Gliek should have focused his entire strength on Ron Hairan alone.
Gliek’s actions hadn't been without calculation. He had expected that the sight of Dante dying and the world facing destruction would accelerate Ron’s inner demons. It was true that Ron still faced the threat of becoming a monster himself.
However, the Protection Ron had attained through Creation reached a realm far greater than Gliek had perceived.
Ron’s protection wall wasn't perfectly blocking every single particle of chaos. Some still leaked out. But at this level, those outside the battlefield could manage it. There would be damage, but the total destruction of the world was now off the table.
“No matter what you do, I will never become a monster like you. Even if Dante—my grandson, whom I fought so hard to save—ultimately meets his end at your hands, I will never break.”
[That remains to be seen.]
At those words, Ron broke into a wide grin.
“Do you think you’ll be around to see it?”
Gliek did not answer.
Urgh!
Dante, carried on Jin’s back, spat out another glob of black blood.
The convulsions had completely subsided, but Jin could barely feel a pulse. Thanks to Ron’s barrier, he had moved a significant distance from the center of the battle, but he still needed time to reach Talaris, Rosa, and Kelliark.
It didn't seem likely that Dante would survive that long.
Regardless of Dante’s survival, Ron had clearly seized the upper hand. Because Gliek had dispersed his power, he couldn't stop Ron from forcibly shaping and cutting his chaotic body.
Every time Ron struck, the tremors on the battlefield grew more violent, and the amount of chaos escaping the protection wall decreased.
For the first time, Gliek was driven into a corner. Ron was pressing him like a predator that refused to let go of its prey’s throat.
Finally, those fighting on the periphery found some breathing room. Rosa and Kelliark quickly ordered the wounded to be moved toward the section of the protection wall with the least ambient chaos.
And Gliek, watching Ron—who had left Dante entirely to Jin and was focusing solely on him—suddenly sensed something strange.
Ron’s goal was clearly to save Dante.
If that were the case, Gliek thought, the first thing Ron should have done was share his energy of Creation with Dante, not attack him.
[Ah.]
Gliek spoke, as if he had reached a sudden realization. The conclusion he drew was this:
[Ron Hairan… you intend to take me down with you.]