Chapter 48
Translator: True Detective
Chapter 48. 20th Floor (5)
*—Shoo-shoosh-shook!*
Red bullets cleaved the empty air.
The Emperor twisted his body and dug between the bullets as if he knew beforehand.
His sword drew a red trajectory and flew toward my neck.
"Kugh...!"
I hurriedly threw my body backward and dodged the Emperor's sword.
But the Emperor's kick sequentially struck my abdomen.
*—Thwack!*
"Kuh-huk!"
My breath choked and my body flew backward.
Only after rolling on the ground several times was I barely able to stop.
Raising my head, familiar silver boots were seen before my eyes.
Cassia, who had cleaned up the monsters before I knew it, was looking down at me with a pale face.
"Si-woo! Are you alright?!"
She urgently kneeled and examined me.
I spat the fishy blood pooled in my mouth onto the ground.
It felt like a few ribs were broken, but fortunately, the damage wasn't huge.
I took out a potion from the inventory and downed it in one gulp.
I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and grinned.
"I'm perfectly fine. This much is worth taking."
As I answered playfully, Cassia sighed in relief.
Looking behind her, the numerous monsters had become corpses and were scattered around.
To handle that many numbers alone, the performance of the weapon I made is one thing, but her skill was also real.
"It seems the monsters have been cleaned up."
I stood up using the staff as a support.
Now the only thing remaining is that monster standing there.
Only the Emperor.
The Emperor didn't make additional attacks and just stared blankly at us, no, exactly at Cassia.
Blood-dyed red pupils shimmered.
Cassia too faced her father, her hand holding the sword trembling.
A heavy silence descended on the cold battlefield.
It was then.
The Emperor's firmly closed lips opened very slowly.
"Ca... ssia...."
A rough and cloudy voice like scraping iron.
Cassia's shoulders flinched greatly.
"Your Majesty...?"
The Emperor's facial muscles distorted as if spasming.
It was an appearance of desperately resisting something.
For a moment, the original golden eye glint brushed past the bloodshot red eyes.
He struggled to continue speaking as if squeezing it out.
"Kill... me...."
"......!"
Those words became a dagger and gouged Cassia's chest.
Her purple eyes shook and filled with moisture.
"Fa... Father...."
"Hurry... while my will... remains...."
The Emperor clutched his head as if in pain.
The red energy was trying to encroach upon his body once again.
He was trying to protect the Empire and his daughter even if it meant his death.
Until the last moment, he was an Emperor and a father.
Cassia bit her lip tightly.
She bit it so hard that blood seeped out, but the physical pain could not compare to the pain in her heart.
She knew what she had to do.
That the only way to keep the pride her mother left and save the Empire her father loved was to kill her father with her own hands.
"......."
She put strength into the hand holding the sword.
She slowly took a step.
Each step looked incredibly heavy.
She brushed past me and walked towards the Emperor.
I didn't stop her.
I just silently watched her back.
But those precarious shoulders were trembling minutely.
A transparent water drop trickled down her cheek and fell.
A small tear stain fallen on the red earth.
I couldn't say anything.
Because I dared not even imagine what her feelings must be right now.
Just protecting her back so she wouldn't collapse.
That was the only thing I could do.
***
"Kuaaaargh!"
Along with the Emperor's roar, a fierce battle began with the Emperor who had turned to red eyes.
Despite our numerical advantage of 2 to 1, we were completely unable to utilize that advantage.
Rather, the Emperor pressured Cassia and me simultaneously with dance-like movements.
I put the staff away again and swung the greatsword.
The target wasn't the Emperor but the worn-out sword held in his hand.
No matter how much the Emperor is called the strongest swordsman of the Empire, if the weapon itself breaks, he would be helpless.
"Break!"
I put my weight into it and struck down the greatsword.
But my thought spectacularly missed the mark.
*—Clang!*
The Emperor didn't receive my attack head-on.
The moment the swords touched, he smoothly rotated his wrist and deflected my force to the side.
My greatsword, cleaving the empty air, slammed into the ground, raising a cloud of dust.
Taking advantage of that gap, Cassia dug into the Emperor's opening.
"Hah!"
Her Rapier stretched out sharply like a snake.
But the Emperor didn't even look, flipped his sword back, and deflected even her attack.
It was monstrous reflexes.
My breath choked up to my chin.
But there was no lack of hope.
"Huff... Huff...."
On the Emperor's chest, the purple flame Cassia engraved earlier was blazing.
If we just stab that spot one more time, we had a chance of winning.
We didn't give up and persistently bit and hung on.
When our stamina bottomed out we downed potions, and when injured we recovered again, attacking like beasts.
At the end of the war of attrition, the Emperor's movements were also slowly becoming heavier.
It was then.
*—Rumble rumble!*
The Emperor suddenly stepped back and grabbed his right arm holding the sword.
His right arm began to wriggle bizarrely.
"Grrrrr...."
Red veins swelled as if they would burst, and the muscles abnormally expanded.
The armor wrapping the arm burst off with a cracking sound.
Dark red energy was being sucked uncontrollably into the sword held in the giant, bright red right arm.
I could tell instinctively.
That this was his last struggle and the strike that would end everything.
A massive killing intent that made the space itself scream descended upon us.
There was nowhere to dodge.
I shouted towards Cassia behind me.
"Cassia! Trust me and run!"
"......!"
She looked into my eyes.
A gaze filled with trust without an inch of doubt.
Instead of answering, she kicked the ground and ran.
As the Emperor swung his sword, it poured down, dyeing the world red.
In front of the giant sword aura that seemed like it would swallow everything, I activated the ability of the bracelet I was wearing on my wrist, not from the inventory.
*—Fwoosh!*
A dazzling purple light spewed out.
A translucent, spherical shield was created around me.
[Shield is activated.]
[Perfectly blocks all attacks for 1 time.]
*—Craaaaash!!!*
The red tidal wave and the shield collided.
Along with a roar that felt like it would burst my eardrums, the world flashed white.
The shield screamed and cracked, but it ultimately didn't break and blocked the sword aura.
That short fleeting moment when the storm swept past.
As soon as the shield disappeared, I shot forward piercing through the dust cloud.
The Emperor paused as if flustered by the fact that his technique was blocked.
The sword held in my hand drew a blue trajectory and dug into the Emperor's right shoulder.
*—Slice!*
The Emperor's red, expanded right arm soared into the empty air.
The severed arm, still holding the sword, flew in the sky.
"It's over...!"
I thought so.
But that was my miscalculation.
There wasn't even a trace of pain on the Emperor's face.
He didn't even blink an eye even while his right arm was severed and blood was gushing like a fountain.
Rather, his left hand moved quickly.
*—Snatch!*
What he snatched was his own severed right arm flying in the empty air.
To be exact, the sword hilt gripped in the right hand.
He swung the severed arm like a weapon and thrust straight towards my heart.
At the unimaginable bizarre act, I couldn't even react.
The blood-red blade approached right before my eyes.
I'm going to die.
Time seemed to stop.
The moment the sword tip came within 1 centimeter of my nose.
*—Stop.*
The sword stopped like a lie.
"......?"
I gasped for rough breath and looked forward.
The Emperor's unfocused eyes were staring at me.
Dark red blood trickled down from his mouth.
And a sharp light-purple blade was piercing the center of the purple flame that was blazing on his chest.
Behind his back stood Cassia.
Her hands were pale white, gripping the sword handle.
Because she was bowing her head deeply, her expression wasn't visible.
But the transparent water drops dripping down her chin substituted for her expression.
*—Booooom!*
Receiving the fatal attack, the Emperor's body tilted forward powerlessly.
Seeing the Emperor fall, Cassia reflexively let go of the sword and caught her falling father.
The heavy weight pressed down on her small shoulders, but she didn't stagger.
She just hugged her blood-covered father and vomited silent sobbing.
The Emperor's rough breathing was subsiding.
The killing intent drained from the red eyes that had been glistening with madness, and deep remorse and sorrow filled that place.
In his blurring vision, he looked at the face of his daughter holding him.
"Cough!... Cassia, I am sorry...."
A clump of dark red blood poured out from his mouth.
Even at the moment his life was fading, he seemed to feel more sorry for his daughter than pain.
"Even until the end... I leave as a bad father...."
"Fa... Father...!"
Cassia's throat choked and she couldn't continue her words.
Thick teardrops fell from her eyes and soaked the Emperor's cheek.
The Emperor struggled to raise his hand.
It was a crude hand covered in blood and dirt.
With trembling fingers, he carefully wiped the tears flowing down Cassia's cheek.
It wasn't the touch of a merciless tyrant on the battlefield, but the touch of an ordinary father who just loved his daughter.
"...Become a good Emperor. No, you will be."
A faint smile hung on his lips.
"Unlike this father... you have a warm heart...."
With those words, the Emperor's hand dropped powerlessly.
"Ah... Uwaaaaaah!"
Cassia buried her face in the Emperor's chest and wailed.
The dignified appearance of the Imperial Princess commanding the battlefield was nowhere to be found, leaving only a young girl who lost her father.
That desperate crying sound echoed in the red canyon.
I blankly watched that sight and bit my lip.
Do we have to end it like this?
Is there really no way?
My gaze fixed on the faint red haze wrapping the Emperor's body.
That ominous energy encroaching on the Emperor and gnawing at his life force.
If only I could remove that?
He's already fatally wounded, but if I just resolve that ominous curse, wouldn't something work out?
I reached my hand out to the Emperor without hesitation.
[Skill: Custom Production]
Light stretched out from my fingertips, trying to wrap around the Emperor's body.
Whether it became a cure or a purification tool, I had to find a clue to craft anything.
But.
*—Bzzzt!*
['Remnant of □□□' is interfering with the flow of mana.]
[Skill activation failed.]
"Kugh...!"
My hand bounced off.
It felt as if blocked by an invisible wall.
"Damn it...!"
I clenched my fist tightly.
My nails dug into my flesh and blood seeped out, but I couldn't feel the pain.
Swaggering around and making a fuss calling myself a Legendary Maker.
The helplessness of not being able to save a single person dying right before my eyes pressed down on me.
Is the only thing I can do just looking at Cassia's back and being sad with her.
It was then.
*—Vwoooom!*
A low vibration sound was heard from somewhere.
The epicenter of the sound was the [Rapier] placed next to Cassia.
The sword lying on the floor began to tremble on its own.
The entire blade was fluctuating violently, emitting a light-purple light.
As if feeling its master's bitter heart intact and crying with her.
"Uh...?"
While I was watching with surprised eyes, the light rising from the sword began to change.
The light-purple light soon took the shape of a blazing flame and spread past Cassia onto the Emperor's body.
The light-purple flame spewing from the Rapier gently wrapped the Emperor's entire body.
*—Sizzzzzzle.*
An amazing thing happened.
The dark red energy clinging to the Emperor's body, which had deflected even my skill, began to burn away screaming as soon as it touched the light-purple flame.
As if dirty grime was being washed away, the sticky and ominous energy scattered into the empty air.
When all the black smoke disappeared, the flame also slowly subsided.
The Emperor's complexion, which had the shadow of death cast over it, was faintly regaining its natural color.
Above all, the biggest change was his eyes.
The cloudy and bloodshot red pupils slowly cleared and soon returned to noble golden eyes.
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