Chapter 407
Chapter 407
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 407
>Chapter Title: Star of the Plains
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Warriors charged across the devastated earth amid savage war cries echoing through the air.
“For Geyar Driman—!”
“Slaughter the empire’s dogs!”
Aster furrowed his brow at the warriors’ frenzy.
They never tired.
It was endless.
The endless waves of warriors pushing forward were enough to wear even Aster down, and the shamans watching the battlefield from the rear shared the same sentiment.
‘Is that really…….’
‘……human?’
Lightning bolts rained down from the sky without respite. The ground quaked as stone pillars erupted upward. The flat terrain twisted and writhed, forming a labyrinth, and walls occasionally rose to block the warriors’ path.
It was too surreal to be the work of a single human.
The warriors, their eyes rolled back under Oukan’s command, failed to recognize it, but to the shamans, Aster was no longer human.
Surely…… something that had transcended humanity.
But.
‘In the end, it’s still human.’
‘There must be limits.’
The shamans repeated this to themselves as they unleashed spell after spell without end. Pushk’s Driman Yurubuke deflected the grand mage’s mana this way and that, blocking the spells, but they paid it no mind.
If the vast plains could fall to a single transcendent being, they would have been trampled under the empire’s boots long ago.
The battle dragged on in this stalemate.
The warriors tried to break through Aster but could never quite do it, while Aster had to keep fending off the endless onslaught.
In truth, Aster was the one suffering the most.
‘If only I could just…….’
sweep them all away.
That would make things so much easier.
But he couldn’t, and the reason…… right, it was because of Shine.
Shine had spared the warriors. Or more precisely, he had limited the punishment to Oukan alone.
And now sweep them away? Was there a more pointless massacre?
Relations with the plains warriors were still salvageable. No telling what might happen if Shine killed Oukan, but there was no need to cross that line first.
With that, spirits roared alongside the warriors’ thunderous shouts. Wolves, bears, dogs, sheep……
‘……Sheep? There are sheep spirits too?’
He wondered if they could fight, but seeing their eyes flashing as fiercely as any wolf, they apparently could.
At any rate, spirits of all shapes and sizes bellowed furious cries alongside their masters as Aster danced through transcendence, holding back the warriors.
……Until one moment.
Kiiiiing—
The change began with an inexplicable noise.
A sound like space itself being thinly sliced.
Aster noticed it first.
“What…….”
He halted the Yurubuke he’d been swinging with mana and glanced downward.
It was around then that the warriors and shamans noticed the change too.
“What in the…….”
“This Tra is…….”
The warriors and shamans, sensitive to Tra, hardened their expressions. The Tra spreading through the air was no ordinary thing.
No, it wasn’t just unusual.
……It was immense.
So immense…… it overwhelmed.
That was when Aster spat a curse.
“……Insane!”
He’d sensed something ominous, but this went beyond ominous.
Realizing this, Aster grabbed Yurubuke and fled skyward.
The roar followed immediately.
Kwarunggrrr—!
A black torrent devoured space like an explosion. It was pitch-black darkness. A complete night without a single star.
The warriors stared dumbfounded at the bizarre phenomenon. The sun still blazed high in the midday sky……
Someone recalled an ancient legend at the sight.
- When night swallows the day, the end will come.
Of course, everyone now knew that wasn’t true. Solar eclipses were just natural phenomena, not harbingers of doom.
Yet the legend sprang to mind because of the overwhelming presence of the figure at the center of the encroaching night.
It was……
An absolute being.
The aura of a sovereign no one could defy. A king who placed all of nature and every breathing creature beneath his feet.
The night draped over the space was the domain of that sovereign.
And into that domain……
Kwaaaaa—!
An emerald aura surged upward with a thunderous roar.
“You scum—!”
Blood streamed from Oukan’s left eye as he glared at Shine with his remaining one. A moment’s carelessness had cost him half his vision. A little deeper, and it would have taken his life.
But rather than fear, Oukan felt rage, and rather than rage, he swung his blade to kill.
Bang—!
“Grk!”
“Urk!”
The warriors shuddered from the shockwave of the greatsword clashing with the magic sword. The shamans weren’t the only ones stunned.
“How…… how can this…….”
“Ah, aah……!”
The shamans knelt upon seeing night invade the realm of day and feeling the shockwave rippling across their skin.
The warriors couldn’t sense it, but they could.
How ferocious…… that night was.
Even as this unfolded, the clashes continued. Clang, craaang— earth-shattering booms rang out as emerald flashes gleamed.
Oukan relentlessly pressed Shine while chanting spells nonstop.
From the start……
‘Martial prowess can’t match it.’
His opponent was a monster.
Oukan’s own existence was hardly human either, but what was astonishing about the foe wasn’t his being itself.
It was a single martial art.
That art surpassed Oukan, who had absorbed everything from the Twelve Martial Gods. Surpassed? Was that all?
Oukan had seen it clearly.
At first, it seemed he was overwhelming him……
But in the blink of an eye, amid hundreds of exchanges, the opponent had perfectly mimicked and unleashed his own sword strikes.
An ordinary person might doubt their eyes, but Oukan knew it was his own technique.
How could he match such a monster with martial arts?
Only……
spells.
But.
“……!”
Oukan, unleashing a barrage without pause, widened his eyes. He knew he shouldn’t divide his focus, but right now, he couldn’t help it.
A maw burst from the darkness dominating the space.
And it……
Crunch, chomp!
……devoured the spells.
It greedily chewed and tore through the spells Oukan unleashed without respite, swallowing every last one.
Oukan couldn’t help but question the sight.
‘Truly…… not human—’
“—Gahk!”
A brutal impact to the gut bent Oukan’s waist like a shrimp. He vomited blood briefly before retreating upward.
But his opponent gave no quarter.
He swiftly withdrew the knee driven into Oukan’s abdomen and charged forward.
‘I have to block it.’
But how?
He didn’t know what attack was coming next. Based on prior exchanges, it’d be a sword swing, but that previous strike sowed chaos in Oukan’s mind.
Fist? Knee? Elbow?
It was just one blow, but he’d felt it clearly. The opponent’s weapon wasn’t limited to the sword. His very body could become a weapon. A fact Oukan grasped because his own martial art had reached its pinnacle.
But such deliberations proved pointless—his foe chose the sword—
‘……No.’
Oukan raised his greatsword to block, then twisted his body. As his head whipped aside, a fist pierced the space where it had been.
Pang—!
Hearing the eerie whoosh, Oukan kept thinking.
‘Martial arts can’t prevail.’
Then.
‘……What about spells?’
Oukan calmly took in the space. In the midnight darkness, spells sliced through the air. Dozens, not just one or two. And those spells……
Crunch, chomp!
……were devoured by the darkness.
But.
‘……Not perfectly.’
Not every spell was consumed. Out of dozens cast, one or two reached the target. Meaning that bizarre maw had limits too.
The moment Oukan realized this, he focused on defense and spells, firing hundreds at his foe while transcending limits.
Most were horrific curses too vile to name.
Oukan concentrated especially on the most potent ones, eroding his opponent. With focus split, the enemy’s blade tore into him, but he ignored it.
Bang—! Bang—!
Booms echoed……
Crack, crunch.
Bones twisted.
Amid the excruciating pain, Oukan grew utterly absorbed in the fight. Nothing else mattered.
Only one thing was important now.
Kill or be killed.
The battlefield’s boundaries had lost meaning.
Sometimes high in the sky.
Sometimes on the ground.
Boom! Kwaang!
Rumble—!
Blood demon force and Tra clashed. Crimson and emerald flashes blazed in the encroaching night.
The warriors watched the mythic spectacle in awe. No one understood the battle. They could only stare wide-eyed.
Thwack!
“Guh……!”
A fist slammed precisely into Oukan’s solar plexus, drawing a groan. At the same time, dozens of curses fired point-blank engulfed Shine.
Dozens of curses had already struck Shine. Each powerful enough to make a knight or mage cough blood, yet his foe didn’t flinch, leaving Oukan awestruck.
But.
Hesitation.
As Oukan retreated, he saw it clearly. The opponent staggering as he pushed off to leap.
In the night, red eyes gleamed sharply through crimson hair, too clear to believe the curses had landed……
‘……Now.’
Oukan seized the chance. His foe’s killing intent flared like wildfire, rippling the night.
Taat!
The enemy’s sword strike from the ground was too swift for Oukan to react—
But Oukan willingly offered his body to the blade.
Soon after.
Crunch!
A gruesome tearing sound echoed through space. Oukan groaned in agony as he gripped the sword piercing his shoulder barehanded.
Oukan’s greatsword cleaved space right after!
Swaaaa—
Swinging with all his might, it slashed diagonally toward the opponent’s nape.
At this point, Oukan was certain.
‘Victory is mine.’
……But only for a moment.
“……?”
Oukan flinched.
A smirk.
‘……Smiling?’
In that instant, a chilling smile curled the foe’s lips. Objectively alluring, but to Oukan, it was the devil’s own.
Why?
Tra crammed into the firmly gripped sword disrupted the ether flow. The enemy’s options were drop the sword or die.
No other choices……
As he thought this and entered transcendence.
Oukan realized.
‘……Ah.’
This fight had no chance of victory from the start.
The moment he entered transcendence.
Oukan sensed an “invisible sword” inches from his brow.
Invisible sword…… yes, that was the only way to describe it. If forced to elaborate……
‘Sword of the mind.’
That would fit.
It wasn’t ether or the foe’s strange mana. It was imagery itself.
Mind Sword.
The sole enlightenment Shine gained at death’s door in his past life. Like mages honing imagery to perfection for flawless spells, this was a sword honed to perfection—a single, ultimate blade.
In transcendence, Shine gazed at Oukan and ignited his will.
And that will became the mind sword itself.
“Gu……hng.”
The mind sword pierced his brow. The world blurred. Everything once meaningful became trivial, all sensations drifting infinitely far.
Then, a voice in his ear.
“Your last one was…….”
……decent.
As Shine finished speaking, Oukan crumpled lifelessly.
……Geyar Driman.
The star of the plains had set.
With the encroaching night.