81. The Master's Dregs
81. The Master's Dregs
The sight of the Sword Saint's Aura Blade soaring high into the sky and Atlas's Aura Blade, merely the length of a longsword, looked at first glance like a showdown between David and Goliath.
Liber trembled in fear upon witnessing the Sword Saint's Aura Blade again.
The aura that gushed out endlessly toward the sky, filling his entire field of vision, instilled a fear akin to staring into the deep sea.
At that moment, a pure white flash blazed beneath the Sword Saint's aura.
It was Atlas's Aura Blade.
Atlas had been neurotically reluctant to display his Aura Blade before others.
He had sliced through boulders as if using an Aura Blade without actually using one, so it had not stood out much, but it was a bizarre feat.
There was speculation that perhaps his constitution prevented him from using aura, but that was not the case.
He always simply said he did not use it because his opponents were not on his level, and only now could the meaning of that be understood.
Atlas's Aura Blade, like gazing upon a sun risen upon the earth, was smaller than the Sword Saint's, but the oppressive pressure it gave off was stronger from Atlas's side.
He had criticized the Sword Saint, saying he was not even a Master.
How could he say such a thing? How could he speak so casually of that realm?
Atlas swung his Aura Blade toward the Sword Saint's Aura Blade descending like divine punishment.
-Buung!
It was an unremarkable sound, but the effect was tremendous.
Along the trajectory of Atlas's swung sword, the aura unleashed by the Sword Saint vanished without a trace.
As if such a thing had never existed in the first place.
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Titan's Secret Sword Technique, used with a Master's Aura Blade, instantly suppressed the Sword Saint's meaningless Aura Blade, which had been bloated in size merely by the Heore Ritual.
The Sword Saint's Aura Blade, which had soared endlessly toward the sky, disappeared without a trace, as if it had never existed from the start.
"Kahak?!!!"
The Sword Saint collapsed, vomiting blood from his mouth.
A straight sword wound was carved into his body from his chest down to his lower abdomen.
My strike had not merely erased the Aura Blade.
The straight downward slash aimed at the Sword Saint had simultaneously crushed his heart and Dantian.
He would no longer be able to function as a swordsman... no, as a human being.
"T-This... can't... die like this..."
Falling to his knees and clutching his chest, from which blood gushed like a fountain, the Sword Saint scraped together his remaining life force and spat out his last words.
It was an utterly miserable end for someone who had been a Master of a kingdom.
"McIntosh was protecting a thing like that, calling it a Master? I'll have to go and have words."
The Sword Saint was far below expectations.
He was a powerhouse standing on the ambiguous boundary between Expert and Master.
He might have been a proper Master in the past, though it was unknown now.
Considering the various techniques he had displayed, it was evident that he could actually fly and used a Law to crush his opponents.
However, his spirit seemed to have broken after his defeat against the Director.
The Sword Saint, the kingdom's Master, fell into ruin because he had succumbed to thoughts like, 'My own power can no longer do anything.'
Perhaps he could not admit his ruin, so he reinforced himself with artifacts and even borrowed the knowledge of demons.
"...If the Church finds out, they'll probably gather all the Masters and suggest holding a council, at least."
It was a headache-inducing matter.
Thanks to the flashy techniques unleashed, the room, which had been stiflingly sealed without a single window, now had its ceiling blown wide open, making it feel refreshing.
Looking around, it seemed to be a city near the Clover Kingdom.
Seeing that the previously absent signs of people had suddenly multiplied, the entire building had apparently been rigged with a special magic formula that blocked all interference from the outside.
Unless it was Shukuchi, not even I would have been able to enter so deeply undetected.
"It's all over, so let's get out of here quickly. There's nothing good about staying any longer."
Leaving behind the Sword Saint's cold corpse, I turned my head toward Liber, who was equally covered in dust.
I had been thinking about how I would scold him thoroughly once we returned, but Liber wore an extremely surprised expression.
Seeing the Aura Blade clutched in my hand, I thought it was natural for him to be surprised after witnessing such a thing, but apparently, he was shocked by something else.
"Atlas, behind you!!"
"Behind?!"
-Chaeng!!
The moment I heard Liber's words and swung my sword backward, someone was swinging a sword at me.
"The Sword Saint?! His heart stopped, how is this bastard moving??"
The corpse, which yielded no sensation whatsoever, was holding a sword.
A powerful pulsation began to be felt from the corpse where neither heartbeat nor the pulse of aura could be sensed.
"Kuaaaaaah!!!!"
"Demonic Energy?!"
Black tattoos began to be carved all over the Sword Saint's body, and his crushed heart began to beat.
Spewing Demonic Energy from every orifice of his body, he began to sustain his life in a cursed manner.
"Did you... think I would die from just that..!!"
Leaking a black liquid instead of blood, the Sword Saint swung his sword again.
A clear, pure aura no longer flowed along his blade.
Only a dark, murky Demonic Energy flowed, imitating aura.
"What kind of Named Zombie is this...!!!"
The Aura Blades clashed against each other, and a thunderous, ringing sound echoed out.
The collision of the two Aura Blades, containing formidable power, was a disaster in itself.
Even after becoming a Magically Infected Human, the Sword Saint was still the Sword Saint.
No, his techniques seemed far more refined than when he had been alive.
The sight of him spewing Demonic Energy from his eyes reminded me of the students at the Academy who had turned into Magically Infected Humans.
I had thought this bastard was the mastermind, but that did not seem to be the case.
Was the Sword Saint also nothing more than a chess piece?
"A so-called Master has sold even his soul to a demon? Are you out of your mind?!"
"Me? Sell my soul to a demon? No... I am the one who commands even the power of a demon!!"
From the bloodless skin to the black tattoos engraved like veins... it was a sight so hideous I could hardly bear to look.
It was unbelievable that such a thing had once been a Master.
"Ahh... I feel the power, the power!! I can feel the power of my prime..!!!"
I could now see the Sword Saint's swordsmanship, which had been imperceptible just moments ago.
The swordsmanship he displayed was commonly referred to as the Sword of the Emperor.
It was a heavy sword style that, by filling the blade with powerful aura, struck with a plane rather than a line with every downward swing.
The heavy sword technique executed with an Aura Blade containing immense power was menacing.
Just moments ago, he had only been using basic swordsmanship to a limited degree. Just how much had he weakened after his spirit was broken?
"Really... I can't stand to watch this any longer...!!"
If I kept looking at such a wretched sight, I felt like I would lose my mind. Stopping my defensive parries, I sliced off the Sword Saint's left arm while redirecting his attack.
"Something like that is nothing."
Even with one arm flying off, the Sword Saint laughed and attempted to swing his sword with his remaining arm.
Demonic Energy spewed from the severed cross-section, trying to reattach the cut-off arm, but....
"Huh..?"
When the arm severed by my Aura Blade did not regenerate, he panicked and stopped his sword.
"Senile enough to have forgotten that a Master's Aura Blade, having reached the Extreme, is lethal to demons?"
The face of the Magically Infected Human, whose vitality had faded, looked even more ghastly pale.
"W-Wait!!!"
Grasping the situation, the Sword Saint could no longer fight and fled backward desperately.
It was truly absurd.
After losing the power of a Master, the best thing he could cling to was a demon...
Was this not a sight of him flailing desperately, begging to be killed?
"W-Wait!! Wait!!! This... this isn't right!!!"
"Hey, you old bastard!! Right there!!"
The Sword Saint took flight again.
He flew away, fleeing over the city of the Clover Kingdom.
Seeing the dazzling lights shining below, it appeared a night market was in full swing.
"Where do you think you're...!!"
At that distance, he couldn't be said to have put any real distance between us.
'Shukuchi'
I closed the distance the Sword Saint had frantically created in a single step and swung my sword behind his back.
"Kuaaak!!!"
With a massive sword wound carved into his back, the Sword Saint plummeted like Icarus who had lost his wings and crashed into the city in the midst of its festival.
"Uwaah??"
"A-A person fell!!"
"A-Are they alive?? Where did they fall from??"
People crowded around the fallen Sword Saint.
"Shallow..!"
I had intended to cleave his body in two with a single blow, but he had narrowly avoided it.
But with that wound, he would not be able to move easily.
If his body were alive, recovery would be possible in that state by consuming a wound recovery potion, but that bastard was already an Undead.
He was forcibly moving a dead body with Demonic Energy, and a Master's Aura Blade severs the power of demons.
The severed left arm and the sword wound on his back would continuously restrict his movements.
I was about to descend immediately, but there were many people, so I wrapped myself in the Perception-Inhibiting Armor once more. A greater commotion began below.
"Uwaaaah!!! A-A demon!!"
"A demon!! A demon in the guise of the Sword Saint has appeared!!"
"The demon is drinking... drinking blood! Run away!!"
The Sword Saint, turned Magically Infected Human and Undead, had begun biting and killing the citizens of the Clover Kingdom who approached him.
After biting their necks and sucking their blood, thicker Demonic Energy gushed out, restoring his wounds to some extent.
"Y-You ungrateful wretches..!! You dare call me a demon?!!!"
With his mouth drenched in blood, the Sword Saint grabbed the fleeing citizens frantically, searching for his next scapegoat.
"You crazy bastard!!! You're eating people??"
From the sky above, I descended to the ground in a single step and severed the Demonic Energy spewing from the Sword Saint's severed arm as he was holding onto a woman.
"Kuaaak!! You...!! How do you keep following me..!!!"
The Sword Saint's complexion turned pale as he saw me appear right before his eyes no matter how much he ran.
Well, he was already pale since he was dead.
The Sword Saint took to the sky again and began fleeing frantically.
I stepped up into the empty air and began pursuing him.
Not long after so confidently accepting the power of a demon, the Sword Saint, having grasped the situation, exerted all his strength to escape from me.
"Stay away..! I said stay away!!!"
The Sword Saint fired Demonic Energy wildly.
Each one possessed the destructive power to blow away an entire building.
They were completely meaningless checks, but I recalled that this place was a city full of people.
"Oh, come on!!!"
I stepped back and neutralized all the incoming Demonic Energy with my Aura Blade.
It was manageable to block, but if I didn't, the aftermath would be troublesome.
As I instinctively blocked them, a faint smirk appeared on the Sword Saint's face.
"I see. You are still human, after all. Then try blocking this as well..!!!"
The Sword Saint raised his sword toward the sky again.
And then, once again, aura... no, now black Demonic Energy gushed from his sword like a colossal waterfall.
It had been massive when I first saw it, but now its output was more than three times stronger.
Apparently, he thought I would definitely block it if he attacked like this.
Had he already forgotten the fact that this very attack had been neutralized in a single blow just moments ago?
"Running away seems... to be a wrong move anyway. In that case, I will at least crush you with my full power..!! Don't think I am the same as when I was a mere human!!"
What was so great about that to keep doing it? The Sword Saint's actions were so utterly pathetic that I mimicked him.
"You handed everything over to a demon, yet you haven't even become significantly stronger."
I raised my sword toward the sky and unleashed my aura.
At that moment, the night sky over the Clover Kingdom turned into broad daylight.
It was not that the sun had risen.
The full moon still shone in the night sky, yet the sky was filled with light, causing the illusion of broad daylight.
"You... what is that....?"
"You can see what it is. The same thing you're doing right now."
The identity of the light that filled the sky was Atlas's Aura Blade.
Just like the Sword Saint had been doing, the light of Atlas's aura, emitted to its fullest extent, filled the entire sky.
The Sword Saint wore an expression of disbelief at the sight before his eyes.
What he had created was, at best, a waterfall of aura... and even now, after selling his soul to a demon, it had, at best, only grown somewhat larger.
"An aura... enough to fill the sky?"
The Sword Saint stared at the sword in his hand as if it were a worthless twig.
His expression suggested that the formidable aura gushing from his own hand suddenly felt futile, like a tree branch.
"Showing off power like this is completely meaningless, isn't it? It's just hard to swing... right?"
At Atlas's gesture, the sky began to shrink.
The light, which had illuminated the midnight sky like broad daylight, was sucked in at a terrifying speed toward a single point.
And it was forged into a single sword.
The aura that had filled the entire sky concentrated and incandesced into a single blade named Squete.
If it had been an ordinary steel sword instead of Adamantium, it would have crumbled to ashes long ago, unable to endure it.
The limit length to which aura could be concentrated was 150, the length of the longsword I frequently used, and it could not be compressed any smaller than that.
A power that felt as if it might slip away at any moment swirled within my hand.
I lifted that Aura Blade and brought it down in a massive overhead strike straight ahead.
The name of this single strike, perfected during my turbulent adolescence with the conviction of bringing down everyone taller than me, was..
"Giant's Strike."
A pure white line was etched across the sky.
The Sword Saint's Aura Blade, which had soared high, and the Sword Saint himself were bisected.
But those two were not the only things bisected.
The sky split into two pieces.