Chapter 105: Night of the Purge (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 105: Night of the Purge (4)
"Phew, looks like things are wrapped up on this end."
This was what Medea muttered after beating down three villains with her bare hands.
The enemy's offensive had been fierce. They had unleashed all kinds of bizarre magic to force Medea and the Sword Emperor onto the defensive.
But the result was a crushing defeat. The strength of the Seven Stars far exceeded their wildest imaginations.
"Ugh..."
One of the villains squirmed on the ground. His leg bones were completely shattered, leaving him unable to walk.
Medea's gaze locked onto the back of the man crawling across the concrete like an earthworm. Sensing her stare, he instinctively rolled over to beg for his life.
"P-p-please! I'll tell you everything. Just spare me!"
"Really?"
"Of course! Ask me anything you want to know!"
The villain spoke passionately, desperate to prove his worth. If it meant living, he would make up lies on the spot.
Click, clack. The footsteps of death stopped right in front of the man's nose. Medea let out a soft sigh and shook her head.
"Hey."
"...?"
"If you were in my shoes, would you trust a villain?"
"N-no—!"
Crunch!
The Tyrant's heel crushed the man's skull. She lifted her foot and shook the blood off her shoe.
"Hey, Zieg! How's it going over there?"
"Almost done."
The Sword Emperor was poking the severed heads of the villains with the tip of his blade.
It was a cleanup routine born of decades of experience. As he aged, he had become cautious in everything he did.
Only after confirming that all signs of life had completely ceased did the Sword Emperor wipe the fresh blood from his steel.
The Sword Emperor scanned the surroundings.
'I guess five really was all of them.'
Yet, what was this ominous feeling creeping up in his chest?
While the Sword Emperor was lost in thought—
Boom!
An explosion echoed from somewhere in the distance.
The Sword Emperor and Medea immediately turned their heads in that direction.
"...!"
Their pupils dilated. It wasn't hard for either of them to guess that the sound had originated from Cladi's annex.
For a brief moment, the Sword Emperor and Medea stared blankly in that direction. A chilling sensation. They felt a massive surge of magic power, easily belonging to more than ten individuals.
They quickly locked eyes and nodded silently.
Without delay, they dashed out of the clearing.
Their steps were directed toward where Kang Geomma was.
* * *
Rumble!
The pristine white walls crumbled. Debris scattered in all directions, and a thick layer of plaster dust settled over the area.
"W-where the hell are these bastards?!"
"Fuck, how should I know?!"
The villains hurled curses at each other.
With faces painted in frustration, they repeatedly flicked their hands to cast spells, but the obscured vision made it impossible to aim properly.
Someone gasped. Stone dust clung to the inner walls of his lungs, forcing a cough out of him.
Shhh.
A blade pierced through the dust cloud, skewering the man's temple.
With a short groan, the man collapsed. Nox flicked his wrist to pull his blade free, then vanished back into the hazy mist.
"The assassin brat is over there! Blast everything in that direction!"
Kaboom!
A barrage of elemental magic struck all around, unleashing deafening explosions.
Fire, water, wind, and stone materialized in midair and rained down in every direction.
However, their chaotic, uncoordinated joint attack only struck empty air.
"You son of a bitch! Your magic collided with mine!"
"You wanna die?"
"What, you bast—"
Just as the man bellowed—
Patter, patter.
Squelch!
A blade protruded like an awl straight through the solar plexus of the villain who had been arguing.
"Gah...! Fuck..."
Al'tair put his weight into the hilt and dragged the blade straight down. A burning sensation, like a searing brand, accompanied the torrent of fresh blood erupting from the wound.
Having uttered his brief final words, the villain collapsed, his eyes rolling back. The blade of the Syndicate swept across his throat without hesitation.
"Go to hell, trash."
Al'tair spoke a line far removed from his usual "Rest in peace." There was absolutely no reason to show respect to a villain.
"O-over there... everyone! Blast it, blast it!"
A villain with slicked-back hair shrieked hysterically. Al'tair sneered and immediately activated the Raven's Blessing.
The Auditores were masters of presence concealment. And among them, Al'tair Auditore da Sicilia was a pinnacle-class assassin.
His presence concealment, forged over decades, could even delude the senses of his enemies.
Moreover, this dust-shrouded environment, where visibility was zero, was the perfect stage for them to unleash their true potential.
"F-fuck! Where did that crazy old man go?!"
Al'tair's presence vanished without a trace. Terror flooded the slick-haired villain's face.
Rustle.
Stab!
A sword strike thrust from a completely unexpected angle. No, to be precise, it was impossible to predict.
Thrust! Slash!
Without even a chance to leave any final words, the slick-haired man joined his fallen comrade on the road to the afterlife.
The pupils of the surviving villains dilated in confusion. They couldn't read the flow of battle.
They could only roughly estimate positions based on the fleeting silhouettes appearing here and there, frantically casting their magic.
But their casting speed was far too slow to match the swift movements of Al'tair and Nox.
The Crimson Ring Blade drew an arc. The blood-soaked steel sliced through the dust, followed by a clean cut through a villain's forearm.
A right arm rolled across the floor.
Severed mid-cast, the condensed mass of magic power burst like a bubble and dissipated into nothingness.
"Aaargh!"
The villain clutched his stump. A scream tore from his throat, but it was instantly cut short as his neck was slashed, swallowing the sound back down his windpipe.
"T-this is insane," Cladi muttered, his face completely pale.
He collapsed backward onto his rear.
His heart rattled like a broken machine, and he felt his spine and veins freeze over in an instant.
There were clearly only three enemies, while the villains numbered fifteen.
Why were they losing? Even if the villains refused to cooperate until the very end, this was an utterly one-sided massacre.
No matter how formidable Al'tair was, the balance of combat shouldn't tilt so drastically to one side.
Cladi stared blankly ahead. Through the obscured vision, a short blade flashed.
A sharply honed sword strike pierced a fireball forming in midair. The menacing heat vanished in an instant.
The caster of the magic spat out a curse.
Though his pronunciation was slurred in his panic, the sentiment was roughly, Does this even make sense?
His confusion was short-lived.
Just like his magic, he was instantly sliced to pieces by a sashimi knife.
Faced with this incomprehensible phenomenon, the villains were driven to the brink of madness.
They didn't know where the attacks were coming from, what techniques were being used, or even how many enemies they were facing.
A villain wearing glasses screamed, his eyes bloodshot.
"Regroup, now!"
But a sharp swish immediately reached his ears.
A sashimi knife smoothly sliced down from the crown of his head.
Slice.
The bridge of his glasses snapped like a taut string.
Another futile demise added to the sashimi knife's tally.
"Just die already!"
A nearby female villain lunged at Kang Geomma.
Whoosh.
Pivoting on his left foot, Kang Geomma spun and swung his hand.
Slash!
The counterattacked villain's upper body bid farewell to her lower half and slid off, landing with a wet splat.
"...!"
An unbelievable sight. Cladi's eyes grew even hollower. His sense of reality had long since vanished.
'A monster like that... is a student?'
As if steel had never even met bone, she had been sliced as cleanly as warm butter.
The Auditores were one thing, but Kang Geomma's methods were on an entirely different level.
Though Cladi was completely ignorant of swordsmanship, even he could tell that those movements were bizarre.
It wasn't a mere figure of speech; it was a truly demonic display of blade work.
It wasn't just his blade work. Kang Geomma was cutting down magic to create an environment where the two assassins could run rampant.
It looked like he was killing indiscriminately, but his vast field of vision allowed him to pinpoint and slice down only the villains who were on the verge of casting.
His movements navigated the confined space with the absolute minimum, most optimal paths.
Even when he could easily dodge, he went out of his way to cut the magic, instilling despair and shock in the villains.
Footwork, blade work, psychological warfare.
He utilized everything to overturn their numerical disadvantage.
Cladi had known the boy was extraordinary, but who could have guessed he was this capable?
'...Kang Geomma, that bastard...'
But what sent a chill down Cladi's spine—something far beyond mere awe—was a different reason entirely.
There was no hesitation in his slaughter.
Even the assassins had a faint trace of emotion infused in their blades, but Kang Geomma swung his weapon with absolute apathy.
At this point, Cladi began to wonder if the boy was even human.
He looked like a blade mimicking a human form.
"Aaaaaaargh!"
One scream.
"Eeeek!"
"Fuck, I can't die like this—!"
Two, then three screams piled on top of each other, seeping into the walls and floor.
Chaos and shock spread through the villains' ranks. Everyone trembled in terror. Even if they had discarded their humanity, their fear of death remained.
"Run! We can't beat them!"
The villains' formation broke in utter panic. Several tried to flee in desperation.
"Where do you think you're going?"
Kang Geomma immediately sensed their frantic footsteps.
His sensory domain, sharpening day by day, had transcended mere progress and entered the realm of evolution.
This was why Kang Geomma could move so freely even when his vision was completely blocked.
Kang Geomma lightly tapped off the wall and launched himself forward.
Bang!
The marble wall shattered with a sound like a gunshot.
"...!"
Landing before them like a flash of lightning, Kang Geomma crouched and swept his sashimi knife.
Sliiiice!
The sashimi knife flashed with light, sweeping across the ankles of the fleeing men.
The villains didn't even realize their feet had been severed. Red dots stamped the corridor floor tiles like ink seals. They ran for a few meters without feet before collapsing.
"Fuuuuuck! My feet! My feet!"
Multiple screams echoed. A blade slit their throats in a single motion, abruptly silencing the cries.
A dark-skinned villain stood frozen with a dazed expression. He still had his head attached only because he had been providing fire support from the rear with water-attribute magic.
The man shook his head violently to clear his shock.
'Ugh, I need to clear the field of vision first.'
It felt a bit late, but if they could regroup now, they might still stand a chance. His brain worked rapidly. He quickly gathered magic power and shaped a massive sphere of water.
He then immediately burst the water sphere in midair. The sphere popped with a loud splash, sweeping over and drenching the surroundings like a tidal wave.
As the air grew damp, the dust gradually began to settle.
The man smiled with slight satisfaction and shouted, "Hey, you bastards! The dust is clear, we can fight now!"
"..."
The only response was silence. He shouted once more.
Still, no one answered.
'W-what's going on?'
Feeling a sudden throb of unease, the man looked around. Just then, the dust settled completely onto the floor, revealing a perfectly clear view.
"Uh..."
A groan escaped his lips involuntarily.
And then he understood why no one had answered.
It was for a simple reason: he had no allies left. Blood and flesh were splattered everywhere.
The only living things were three humans stepping over the corpses, each shaking blood off their weapons. His eyes locked with the black-haired boy standing in the center.
'Ah.'
A short, silent cry of despair.
A storm of emotions washed over the man's face. His dark skin turned deathly pale.
Cladi's reaction was no different. In fact, he felt an even more intense terror than the villain.
Then, Kang Geomma took a step toward them.
Splash, splash. He stepped through the blood pooling on the corridor floor.
It was merely the sound of footsteps, yet it carried a suffocating pressure that felt like a hand squeezing their hearts.
Neither of them intended to just sit and wait for death. However, their paralyzed brains couldn't squeeze out a single thought, like a dry rag.
Just as their bodies grew limp and they were on the verge of losing consciousness from the sheer tension—
Rumble!
A deafening roar shattered the eerie silence, blasting in from the side. At the same time, everyone's gaze shifted toward the source of the sound.
"..."
A large, perfectly circular hole had been blown through the wall. From it, someone walked out leisurely, hands clasped behind his back.
"Hmm... quite a heavy casualty rate. I never expected everyone to be dead except for one. This is outside my calculations. Still, there is no moment more rewarding for an educator than seeing a student grow."
A middle-aged man revealed himself, speaking in a warm, pleased tone.
Color returned to the dark-skinned villain's face as he looked at him. Unable to hide his excitement and relief, he shouted joyfully,
"Hey! What took you so long?!"
The man was an incredibly obnoxious bastard, but at this moment, there was no one he was happier to see.