Chapter 48
Chapter 48
************************-
Translator: uly
Chapter: 48
Chapter Title: Inscribing Red Cloud
************************-
I swung my sword. I moved in rhythm with the beating of my heart.
I ducked my head. The beast's forepaw barely grazed past, snapping a tree in two.
Strength and grip.
Even in speed, it had the edge.
I desperately swung my sword to hold my ground. I twisted my body to match its trajectory.
The deployed Ghost Spirit Step shattered before my eyes. The technique fragmented like glass, scattering in all directions.
My sword bounced away. Blood burst from the gash in my chest.
I spun my body to right myself.
"...Hoo."
I caught my breath. To leap over that ironclad fortress, I threw open every sense in my body.
Hundreds of retreats. Amid them, for that one moment's opening, I stepped forward once more.
I threw my body.
It shattered.
I threw my body.
It splintered.
I threw my body.
It crumpled.
Soul-Pulling Thrust's variations did nothing. It wasn't made to fight beasts in the first place.
They weren't effective against beasts. None of the variant forms could surpass the beast's nature.
To land even a single scratch, I had to trade it for blood equivalent to dozens of times my weight. Gritting my teeth and pressing on barely let me stack one scratch atop another.
That was the first day. I had to settle for just one scratch.
The second day was the same. The third day too.
Five days. Six. Seven.
Even as time passed, I was still circling the same spot.
But I kept holding my sword. I hunted the surrounding beasts, tore into them, and faced it down.
I could see the beast slowly tiring. Reacting to my killing intent, it didn't dare leave its spot carelessly, just watching me from afar.
Unlike me, it stayed rooted like it was guarding its territory, its haunches unmoving. It sat there as if refusing food or water until it hunted the beasts eyeing its domain.
So I brought it some.
The beasts I caught myself.
"Eat."
The beast glared at me with a puzzled look. But to prove I hadn't mixed in anything strange, I tore into the raw meat right before its eyes.
There was one reason I brought it food. I didn't want the beast in front of me to weaken.
What I needed was proof of ability.
Not by starving it to death and winning.
The Demon Valley Lord hesitantly chewed into the beast. Once the meal ended, I drew my sword again without fail.
To stack one more scratch atop the last.
I stepped back into the blood-soaked battlefield.
...
This is insane.
Number 20 couldn't add anything else to describe the scene before her eyes.
Insane. This was insanity at its most proper.
The sight was bizarre. The scene from the first day was long gone.
The surroundings were splattered in blood. Bits of human flesh and gore clung everywhere.
She'd known Number 30 was unusual. From the moment he got involved with the First Demon, she'd sensed he wasn't ordinary.
But...
Seeing something like this made common sense just drop away.
The blood he'd shed over these few days was enough for dozens of people. It wasn't like he was some wooden puppet with limbs ripping off and reattaching over and over.
Grotesque body. Unique constitution. It wasn't something that could be explained with such nonsense.
...But.
But that didn't matter.
"Th-Thirty Lake..."
So this is... so...
This doesn't make sense. Right?
A body crumpling and reforming like that had to hurt.
She'd seen it when they sparred. His face grimacing from a wooden sword strike.
Number 30 was human.
Unique constitution or whatever... this wasn't the kind of thing that explained it away.
Pain.
Humans feel pain. This was no different from carving off his own flesh.
His mind would break before his body fully reformed.
"Thirty Lake. Th-This... this isn't right..."
I have to stop him.
"Just... just think for a moment..."
Thirty Lake Red Cloud.
He stared ahead. Crouched on a blood-drenched rock, his glistening, blood-smeared body hunched low.
An eerie bloodlust rippled above him. The blood mixed with dripping sweat gave off a strange smell.
Heat. Heat radiated. From what couldn't even be called clothes anymore to the rags draped over him, energy haze poured out like mirage.
"......"
No response to her calls. No matter how much she called, he didn't answer.
He just stared ahead. His vacant eyes were transparently mad.
Number 20 reached out. She shook his shoulder.
"I don't know why you're doing this... b-but let's talk for a sec... okay?"
"......"
"C-Calm down. Thirty Lake. This... this isn't right... it hurts... it's painful..."
"......"
"Y-You've done enough. So just rest a bit... it's been half a month already. Half a month of nothing but fighting with no breaks."
Number 20 said, trembling.
"Y-You'll die."
She shook him once more.
"You'll really die!"
His ever-closed mouth cracked open slightly.
"...One..."
"...What?"
Drool trickled from the corner of his mouth.
The beast reflected in his vacant pupils.
"...One step... back, then... counter on the second step..."
"Wh-What did you just..."
"Ghost Spirit Step variant... reinforce sword energy partially on the thrusting blade..."
He reached out. Pulled the sword embedded in the ground.
Number 20 felt chills. He wasn't talking to her right now.
Even in this brief moment of rest...
"Refine the sword strikes... endure unavoidable blows with the body..."
He was reviewing and honing his duel with the Demon Valley Lord.
Like a single sharpened blade.
"...Ah... ah..."
He's lost his mind. Definitely.
Pouring every moment into the sword. Why go this far?
What for...?
"Is... is the sword that precious to you...?"
"......"
Number 30 didn't answer. He simply stepped into the Demon Valley Lord's domain.
His footsteps spoke for him.
A hollow mutter escaped her lips.
"Crazy... bastard..."
No other word fit that obsession.
Ultra-focused state, ignoring everything but the foe before him.
How many could enter such a domain? How many warriors were truly sincere about risking their lives like that?
Number 20 unconsciously gripped the sword at her waist. Without another word, she watched his back.
His foot slammed the ground. The Demon Valley Lord roared.
What stood before it was no longer human.
Another...
beast.
...
Swords clash. I move, then thrust.
The claw grazes by perilously, tearing skin. But this time, my arm doesn't fly off.
Another fall. When I rise again, I'm a bit closer than before.
Now I forget even sleep. Forgetting food too, I just charge ahead.
I swing my sword. Tyrannical Force Demonic Path. Layer Soul-Pulling Thrust atop it.
The wildly entangled Nine Heavens Blood Demon Sword howls. The beast growls even lower, moving its body.
Fast. Tyrannically so.
The power within is indescribably vast.
In the grip ripping my body apart, I catch the sword with both hands. My drained inner energy churns, on the verge of bottoming out.
I'm pushed back. Crushed once more. My bones rattle as I'm slammed into the rock.
I staggered to my feet. Through blood-filled vision, I gazed ahead.
Still far.
...Still... far.
A brief rest. Sword thrusts again.
I charge to the limit where my sword won't break. I breathe at the edge of the diagonal line.
One step forward brought agony. That horrific pain didn't awaken the mind-it dragged it into darkness.
Heavenly Tribulation's recovery. The pain that followed.
It wasn't something to adapt to. It constantly tried to suck me into the mud.
Without what the Heavenly Demon gave me, I'd have collapsed long ago. Without this freakish recovery, everything I'd built would have vanished.
Even as I moved, the swamp followed. It whispered that one step back would make it all better.
The human desire for ease versus the sword's demand.
In that gap, I moved using my parched breaths as fuel.
One step.
One step.
What is a sword? What is a warrior?
I struggled to find answers at the sword's tip for the pouring questions. The beast, scratched by the bursting Soul-Pulling Thrust, howled.
Claws slammed down. Unable to block with my missed sword, I unleashed Ghost Hand One Demon.
From White Snake to Fang Pierce.
From Shake Blood to Demon Horn.
I hurled every application of Ghost Hand One Demon I'd learned. Amid colliding inner energy and blood-red phantoms, my mind nearly flew apart.
But I endured.
Endurance was something I trusted, so I endured.
Clutching my crushed arms. Pouring strength into legs about to give way...
I endured.
I advanced. What lay ahead? Hard to see.
But even if filled with darkness, it was the path I wished to walk.
Every warrior's dream.
The back one might never reach, no matter a lifetime of running.
I flailed. I hoped that flailing held meaning.
But...
But simply that wasn't enough.
I gripped my dropped sword. Forcibly gathered my depleted inner energy, vomiting blood as I circulated the Nine Heavens Blood Demon Art.
I want to see it.
What the end of this path looks like.
I want to surpass it.
The howling beast before me.
If flailing lacks meaning, make it yourself. If it's pain no one else knows, carve it deep into your own body.
No result without effort.
No effort without result.
I... I don't know.
The genius gaze that sees all once.
The talent to lightly grasp a sword and instantly catch up to others' realms.
I know nothing.
...Yet I have something.
What...
What do I have?
"...Crunch...!"
...The sword.
---Don't I have the sword?
Nine Heavens Blood Demon Art
Third Form.
Tyrannical Force Demonic Path.
Watching, listening.
All I'd felt with my body.
The Demon Valley Lord's howls. The ferocity blooming within.
The swamp's whispers trying to swallow me. The ease awaiting one step back.
I seized them all with my hands. Amid bursting blood-red phantoms, I hammered in everything I'd learned myself.
I stand.
I stand.
I stand tall and look down.
Torn and crushed.
Sliced and shattered.
The sword that stands at the end.
The sword ultimately achieved.
---Hammer it all onto the gripped sword.
The blazing Tyrannical Force Demonic Path. The coiling blood-red phantom awakens a form absent from the Nine Heavens Blood Demon Sword.
Soul-Pulling Thrust won't do. Even its variants fall short.
Even backed by Tyrannical Force Demonic Path, it doesn't unleash full power. Stacking scratches is the best it gets.
Then what must be done?
Create it.
A sword strike surpassing scratches, surely piercing that hide.
I took it with my body.
The brutal thrashing. The Demon Valley Lord's howls.
Sword energy application. That's not enough. Twist the thread-like energy and weave it into one.
Tilting my body.
Gazing ahead.
Crouch, then unleash.
Through grueling time, someday surfacing above...
The sword of the masses.
The pinnacle form I could wield now.
The one sword mixing my soul, drawn with the Demon Valley Lord's fangs and claws.
Amid the beast's howls, I thrust my sword. Hurling my body with the blazing sword of blood, I whispered.
Draw it.
If no meaning...
---Draw it yourself and show it.
Nine Heavens Blood Demon Art
Outer Sword
Giant Annihilation Overwhelming Binding Force
I howled like a beast, spiraling sword energy around my sword tip.
Air sucked in. The atmosphere warped, blazing atop the sword.
A sure-kill strike hammered down. Blood from countless scratches on the Demon Valley Lord's body sucked into it, dyeing the world red.
The body unable to withstand the form shatters. Even the barely formed scabs fly off, mingling within.
Breath grows ragged.
Amid it, I step forward.
Sword energy fragments...
---Dyed into aura fragments.
Stepping on death.
Recalling the dream.
To see the sword's end.
"...Demon Valley Lord."
Blood spews from twisted lips as I grin.
"Bare your fangs."
I charged.
With resolve to stake even the neck I'd guarded till now.
Toward the beast.
---Like a beast.
".......!"
".......!"
The Demon Valley Lord's howls faded. A white world enveloped me. I flailed to reach beyond it.
It touched my fingertips. The wall ready to shatter any moment.
So I pushed. Firmly imprinting my handprint.
Cracks from that handprint soon devoured everything.
Imprint it. Letters.
Etch meaning into the flailing.
Bicheon Village's Red Cloud.
The two characters: Red Cloud.
...
Number 20 trembled as she watched ahead.
Before her was a massive hunk of meat. The hide that hadn't even admitted sword energy lay shredded in all directions.
A circular hole in the center. The ironclad wall she'd thought unbreakable was breached.
By whom?
---The man who'd even caught up to her entry into Tyrannical Force Demonic Path.
"......."
Number 20 walked through scattered flesh and chunks. She approached the 'warrior' leaning on his sword, gazing ahead.
He, catching his breath, turned. Like awakening from a deep dream, he briefly bowed his head, then smiled.
"What day... is it today?"
"...Exactly... day thirty-one."
"I kept it."
His form swayed back. Number 20 hurriedly caught him.
The body she held was light. As if he'd emptied everything inside.
"Number 20."
He extended his hand fully.
"Want to... see something fun?"
"......."
Number 20 glanced down at his face. The scar-riddled expression smiled in relief.
What was that earlier? That final form. It wasn't in the manual detailing the Nine Heavens Blood Demon Art.
Was it the First Demon's form?
Or...
---One he'd forged from experience?
That movement was certainly inhuman. Linked to the Demon Valley Lord, reeking strongly of beast.
Utmost power ignoring broken bones. A single unleashing brought fierce backlash, wrecking the body.
A dangerous form that could be sure-kill to foes or self.
And he unleashed it smiling.
"...Thirty Lake. Fun stories aside, one question."
"Yes?"
"Are you insane?"
"Insane... maybe. Days living as an empty shell outnumber proper ones..."
He wiggled his raised fingertip.
"Falling in so late, can't regain my senses. But no regrets."
"...Why capture the Demon Valley Lord? Still won't answer?"
"Along with proving ability... one thing I wanted to do."
"What?"
"Number 20."
Transparent energy rose from his fingertip. The haze-like tangible energy coalesced into a tiny star, floating at his finger.
Symbol of peak mastery.
Aura.
"Beautiful, isn't it?"
Number 20 freaked out.
"...You crazy monster... how the hell...?!"
"Saw dozens of deaths a day. Repeated it over thirty times."
He laughed. His shoulders shook.
"As expected... effort doesn't betray oneself."
"...Who the hell... calls that effort...?"
Number 20 raised her hand. Slapped both his cheeks hard.
---Smack!
"You lunatic!!!"
She finally vented her pent-up rage.
```