Chapter 68
Chapter 68
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 68
Chapter Title: 32. Endgame (2)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The orc warrior's attacks were ferocious.
Yuri dodged the assault and thrust Guilty forward.
A mana-infused fist came flying back at him.
"Tch."
He ducked low to evade it, glancing around at the same time.
Everyone was holding their own against the enemy in their own ways.
Even though the Allied Forces had gathered only those with the highest cultivation levels, they couldn't kill the foes outright.
That spoke volumes about the skill of the elite orc warriors blocking their path.
"Kuhahaha! Is that all you've got?!"
Hose of Burseon cleaved the orc warrior's crown with his massive sword. Instantly, several more orc warriors swarmed him.
He fended off the horde one after another.
As expected of someone destined to become one of the Ten Strongest.
The Empire's knight order fought silently and effectively. Graham and the Third Knight Commander had already slain several orc warriors and were slowly pushing forward.
He couldn't afford to fall behind.
Yuri refocused on the orc warrior in front of him.
"Akuak kai!"
"You recognize me too, huh?"
"Akum metum che kua!"
Yuri evaded the orc warrior's strikes while steadily accumulating damage.
It would take time, but this wasn't an opponent he couldn't beat.
"Kuh."
The orc warrior swung its axe. The moment Yuri dodged, a follow-up barrage came.
Rather than relying on brute strength, it wielded its weapon with masterful technique, launching high-level attacks.
"Not bad."
But Yuri had grown through his experiences with the Allied Forces.
He watched for the openings that appeared between the orc warrior's attacks.
At first, they were too shallow to exploit easily. So he baited the enemy into committing deeper.
He stumbled as if by mistake, swaying just slightly—a minor wobble that wouldn't disrupt the battle's flow.
This made Yuri's counterstance look unstable.
The orc warrior stepped forward for its combo, its thigh bulging as it put power into its stance foot.
In that instant, Yuri saw it.
A tiny gap opened between the orc warrior's side and lower abdomen. The flaw began contracting as it crouched.
An opportunity briefer than a blink.
"Die!"
Yuri shouted as he plunged Guilty in.
It seemed reckless at first. But Guilty was drawn straight into that minuscule hole invisible to the eye.
The orc warrior's mocking expression froze solid.
Its thick hide was pierced.
Guilty burrowed inside.
"Kraaaak!"
Yuri's acrobatic strike left his posture precariously bent.
The orc warrior bellowed, swinging its axe down. But then, a strange sound whistled in Yuri's ear.
At first like wind, then like a spinning top. Something whirling rapidly was grinding away.
Heat surged from its lower belly.
Too late to grasp what it was.
The orc warrior dropped its axe and collapsed.
"Kraaaaa!"
Mana spiraled from Guilty.
Its innards were shredded like grain under a millstone. The rotation widened into a massive vortex, tearing a huge hole in the orc warrior's gut.
Rotation Whirlpool Sword Application: Minor Vortex
A simplified version of the vortex principle created earlier. Inflicts lethal damage through even the smallest gap.
He trampled the dead orc warrior and pressed on.
Okua, standing beyond them, was coming into clearer view.
Its eyes were still fixed distantly—likely glaring at Moyong Chan.
The two were locked in some battle only they understood.
"How long are you two just going to stare each other down?"
Yuri sometimes gauged enemies' levels or engaged in invisible clashes of intent. But Okua and Moyong Chan had transcended that realm entirely.
While he blinked, another orc warrior lunged.
Mid-clash, Yuri sensed something off. This orc warrior felt weaker than before.
Something was wrong.
The chill hit him the moment he realized it.
He couldn't pinpoint it, but the war was veering off course.
The Allied Forces were crumbling to monsters from behind, stalled by elite orc warriors ahead.
And at the center, Okua hadn't truly entered the fray yet.
Yuri kicked the orc warrior's chest, toppling it as he eyed Okua.
It had grown.
Yuri's eyes widened.
Bigger than when he'd first seen it. It was already huge, but now its bulk had visibly swelled.
Black aura rose from its body like heat haze.
Suddenly, the blind shaman's silhouette flickered beside it before vanishing.
"No."
Yuri's eyes bulged.
"We've been had."
He realized something was deeply amiss.
Yuri unleashed Heart-Soul Severing.
Shaking off the clinging aura, he swung Guilty, slaying the orc warriors swarming him. The Heart-Soul Severing energy whirled around him.
He strained his eyes.
The voice of the black shaman he'd seen in the tent before.
He had to kill the elite orc warriors to force Okua and Moyong Chan into a one-on-one.
He discarded that thought.
Yuri charged straight at Okua.
"Yuri!"
"Your Highness!"
Voices called from behind.
But Yuri ignored them all, barreling toward Okua.
A couple of orc warriors latched on, but he shook them off.
He hurtled forward at full speed.
Only then did Okua lower its gaze to him.
"Okua!"
As he closed in, Yuri spotted something he'd never seen before.
Okua was guarding a pit.
Dark energy roiled within.
The aura rising from the black pit continuously flowed into Okua. With every passing moment, its power grew.
"That thing..."
Okua whipped its long arm.
No weapon, yet Yuri instinctively sensed mortal danger. He tilted Guilty's blade horizontally, pressing his hand to its center.
Clang!
Guilty shuddered violently, and Yuri's body slammed into the ground.
Blood welled up in his throat.
But he couldn't stay down.
Yuri stood.
It had been wrong from the start.
Why had Okua just watched? Why had Moyong Chan waited for a one-on-one chance?
Because Okua's sorcery grew stronger with time—that was exactly it.
Yuri muttered.
"Black magic..."
Ordinary magic could be dispelled.
Black magic was different.
From its first appearance, Okua had clouded everyone's vision with black magic.
Yuri hadn't suspected a thing, relying on Moyong Chan.
The shaman's silhouette appeared before Yuri.
It laughed. Okua's lips curled up too.
Yuri lashed out wildly at the shaman with Guilty. Its body split in half, then rejoined.
Its face twisted.
The shaman flicked its hand. Okua began to advance.
The ground trembled.
Yuri yelled toward Moyong Chan in the distance.
"How long are you going to stand there?!"
But he didn't come.
Yuri gritted his teeth and raised Guilty.
He understood what he had to do.
What no one else could sever, he could.
To bring Moyong Chan in, he had to cut it now.
He drew up the Heart-Soul Severing energy.
He ignored his body's limits. He forgot the backlash from overheating the Mana Circulation Method.
His eyes bloodshot.
See what must be seen.
His vision inverted.
Colors bleached away like evaporating paint. A monochrome world of shades remained.
Within it, Yuri saw black tendrils extending like tentacles.
He realized what lay in the black pit Okua guarded.
Sacrificed humans.
Now he understood why black magic resisted dispelling.
It wasn't mana—it was powered by sacrificed lives.
"Disgusting."
It repulsed him.
Orcs were vile.
But this black magic was viler still.
His heart screamed. Guilty vibrated like an earthquake.
Yet Yuri pressed on.
Veins bulged in his eyes. His vision blazed brighter.
Everything else vanished.
A massive black mass loomed.
Faces erupted from it, wailing endlessly.
Save me...
It hurts so much...
Get me out...
Aaaaa...
Despairing shrieks echoed.
That was the energy fueling the black magic.
The souls of the dead.
Yuri suppressed his nausea and raised Guilty.
He couldn't handle that black mass.
But the black tentacles spilling from the pit, spiderwebbing everywhere—he could sever those.
Among them, one thick trunk stood out.
He hefted Guilty.
In this world, Guilty in his hand took a new form: a wedge of light without fixed shape.
Yuri leaped at the black tentacle.
A pale mass surged toward him, but he ignored it.
Suddenly, the lion's voice revived.
'That means the time has come for that power.'
Yes.
He vaguely grasped Erich Brioll's will, the creator of this Mana Circulation Method.
To sever that cursed power, a fitting tool was needed.
"Heart-Soul Severing."
Yuri swung the beam of light.
Thus, he cleaved the black magic.
Moyong Chan surveyed the battlefield with a stern face.
The Allied Forces were faring well against the orcs. Especially Yuri Brioll, his new disciple—his feats were dazzling. A kid with real potential.
He wanted to jump in and butcher orcs himself.
But he had to conserve strength until he could fight Okua.
He waited for the moment to fully engage that cursed being.
"Okua..."
Just when the Allied Forces seemed to seize momentum, tamed monsters from sorcery threw the battle into chaos.
He saw soldiers dying.
Moyong Chan clenched his fist.
To kill Okua, sacrifices were necessary.
Soon, Yuri and the Allied Forces' elites he'd gathered launched the final charge. They clashed with the elite orc warriors guarding Okua.
Just endure a bit longer.
Once they cleared the orc warriors, he could duel Okua.
Then Yuri suddenly broke through the orc lines, charging at Okua.
Why now?
Facing Okua meant death.
Only he could stop it—and for that, the other orc warriors needed clearing to create a one-on-one.
"Foolish..."
Should he intervene?
But he couldn't let sentiment derail the greater cause.
Moyong Chan gripped his fist.
To stop a calamity like Okua, sacrifices were inevitable.
He steeled himself that way.
Then, in an instant, Yuri's sword blazed white and became a beam.
It severed something.
He couldn't make it out clearly, but it sliced a massive, tough thing. The dull thud reached him from afar.
A bizarre sound, like the world tearing.
Okua's strike sent Yuri tumbling.
Yuri vomited blood.
"Ah."
Watching, Moyong Chan blinked.
A suppressed realization awoke unconsciously.
"Aah..."
Why had he just stood there?
Conserving strength to beat Okua made sense. But was it right to idle while the fight dragged on?
Especially as its sorcery swelled with time.
Why had he done that?
Moyong Chan roared in frenzy.
"Go!"
True energy erupted.
The lingering black aura on his body evaporated completely.
The delusion lifted.
Moyong Chan realized.
From their first encounter, he'd unwittingly fallen to the sorcery.
Evil qi had eroded his mind, fixating him on false thoughts.
Anger surged.
The last Daoist of the Azure Purity Sect, toyed by vile sorcery. Watching his disciple cough blood without moving.
Moyong Chan bellowed in rage.
His lion's roar shook the plains.
Before the echo returned, he was already in the fray's heart, batting away Okua's arm hurtling at Yuri.
A grumble came from his fallen disciple.
"Cough... why are you so slow..."