Chapter 194
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 194
Chapter Title: The Revealed Monster
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The Sichuan Clan was one of the great houses of the Eastern Continent.
Naturally, that meant even their elders and other members were no slouches when it came to skill.
On the other hand, Bata's side hadn't accounted for a clash like this from the start, leaving them with pathetically weak forces.
The outcome of such a mismatch was obvious, wasn't it?
He'd said it all to shake Leon's resolve somehow, but Leon remained utterly nonchalant.
'This guy... why isn't he showing any agitation?'
He'd clearly been quite concerned about that little girl. This reaction made no sense.
At that moment, Leon spoke calmly.
"Didn't you leave someone out?"
"......"
"Luna's not as weak as you all think."
Bachen let out a hollow laugh at Leon's words.
"So that's it? You're this confident because you trust that wench?!"
Kaang!! Shwaak!!
Bachen didn't miss his chance, slamming Leon's sword away with brute force.
But Leon's blade flowed like water, piercing straight through his shoulder.
Got you!
Bachen took the flesh wound like a trade for bone, gripping his sword tightly despite the massive gash on his body.
Now what'll you do? If you want your sword back, you'll have to brace for my counterattack.
As Bachen prepared his finishing move with a smug grin, Leon simply let go of the sword without hesitation.
It was disappointing not to land a solid hit on Leon, but he'd achieved his goal regardless.
"Fine, I'll admit it. That girl does have some unexpected power. But to think she could take on the entire Sichuan Clan alone? Foolish—utterly foolish."
He didn't know Luna's true nature.
If she really possessed master-level power like Leon, you could call her an old monster in a girl's skin and it'd be believable.
But Bachen had clashed with her once before.
Her ambush and skill were no joke, sure—but he judged she couldn't handle the clan's elders and their forces single-handedly.
Leon had to know that much.
Bachen reached for the sword embedded in the ground.
If he claimed that blade, he'd have the power to cut down this arrogant brat.
"You dropped your sword. That's your downfall."
"A sword's just a tool. You can't get hung up on it."
That was his mistake.
Even with the demon sword Electra in their possession, why had no one from House Mielephon ever wielded it?
Why had their family head, Ketsi Mielephon, tested Leon in a duel to confirm his worthiness?
Bachen had no idea.
"Guhk?!"
The moment he grasped the sword, the demon sword Electra surged with malice, flooding his hand and body as if it had been waiting.
Bachen frantically tried to let go...
"Nngh?! What the hell?!"
But the blade clung to his hand like a leech, devouring his aura ravenously and injecting demonic energy.
Anyone who couldn't control the demonic energy got stripped of their aura in seconds and corrupted by it.
Then Leon's voice whispered in his ear.
"Wondered why you were so obsessed with that sword... You thought it held some special power, huh?"
His misconception.
The demon sword Leon wielded boasted immense durability and sharpness, but its demonic energy was far too thick for a human to handle. It drained power instead.
This blade offered no special gifts to its wielder.
Bachen gnashed his teeth desperately and managed to wrench it free.
But in that brief moment, the aura it sucked away exceeded his wildest imagination.
"Show's over. Hand it back."
Thung!!!
The sword on the ground sprang up like it was repelled, flying straight back to Leon.
"......"
Watching that, Bachen realized.
The realm of controlling a dropped sword with pure aura alone—what height was that?
A pinnacle even few sword masters ever reached. Countless masters despaired, never attaining it before their lives ended.
The realm of the heart: Mind Master.
What Leon had done was, strictly speaking, an imitation.
Like mimicking an aura blade back in his expert days—now at master level, he was imitating Mind Master techniques.
But Bachen couldn't tell the difference.
He'd never seen a true Mind Master with his own eyes, only heard tales.
"Wh... what the hell... are you?"
A seventeen-year-old boy?
Absurd.
He was more like one of those Eastern Continent monsters called "rejuvenated elders."
Only then did it all start making sense.
The source of that impossible power.
Leon wasn't a seventeen-year-old human. He was some monster in human guise, hiding its true nature.
A monster Bachen could never beat.
Realizing that, Bachen fell into panic.
"No way... no way!!!"
He drew his spare sword and attacked Leon like a madman.
His speed ramped up, wilder and fiercer, but Leon indifferently carved into his body one slice at a time.
That was the inevitable end for a sword master who'd lost his composure.
After several clashes, Leon clicked his tongue and caught Bachen's blade barehanded.
"Hup?!"
Shwaaak!!!!
Before Bachen could react, Leon slashed diagonally across his body.
"Monster of a bastard..."
"Hear that?"
Leon pressed the sword to his throat and spoke calmly.
Kuung... kung!
The distant rumble.
Bachen knew it came from Bata's camp.
"For the record, even I'd have a tough time beating Luna if she got serious. And she's not alone over there."
Kwaaang!!!
A Sichuan warrior, reduced to a bloody pulp, burst through the trees and tumbled limply.
To get flung all the way here...
How monstrous was that power?
Bachen gave up clinging to his fading consciousness.
Bata had a monster.
This went beyond Dragon Soldiers. Coral's military was stronger than Bata's to begin with, and they'd secured the Dragon Soldiers as a wedge.
They just needed the Dragon's Essence to control them.
That's why they'd pushed so hard for this rift expedition—and planned to use it as a pretext for war with Bata.
But they couldn't.
Dragon Soldiers?
Not enough. To counter Bata's hidden monster, they needed a massive deterrent on that level at minimum.
War deterrent.
Not something that literally prevented war.
A powerhouse so overwhelming its mere existence deterred conflict.
If sword masters were strategic weapons, anything beyond was practically a deterrent.
A being that made war too risky just by existing.
And not one, but two? Maybe more?
What the hell was going on in that puny nation Bata?
Something began slowly emerging from Leon's shadow.
Ah... from the start, Leon Cascadia hadn't even used his full power against me...
"Gordon'll be along soon too."
Staring at the massive dragon form materializing from the shadow, Bachen's vision darkened.
The last thing Bachen saw was the black shadow dragon unleashing a colossal breath toward the forest.
The shadow dragon Baril's breath, erupting from the shadows, swept across the forest, vaporizing everything in its path.
Baril's core was a dragon heart to begin with—a demon dragon's heart, no less—so this output was par for the course. Still, the firepower exceeded expectations and pleased him greatly.
Seeing Baril stronger than when first created felt like watching a newborn pup dry its fur.
Krrrng!
After unleashing one blast, the beast shuddered in what seemed like relief.
It looked just like a puppy awaiting praise.
Like Muyoung, Baril had been made into a highly sentient undead, hence the personality.
Bata's knights, frozen solid by the sudden appearance of the shadow dragon Baril, flinched as I approached.
"Anyone hurt?"
"N... no, sir!!"
They answered crisply despite their tension, eyes locked on Baril's overwhelming presence.
Who wouldn't be?
It was only natural to fear the being that had blasted Sword Master Bachen and everything beyond the forest.
"Coral seems handled for now, so I'll join up over there."
"Pardon? Then here..."
"Baril's got it covered..."
I pointed at Baril, snapped my fingers, and black droplets fell from the empty air behind me, rippling with dark waves.
Grdddr...
From within emerged a horde of undead.
Not particularly strong ones, but with Baril alone sufficient, the rest were for blocking paths.
"Hup?!"
I addressed the terrified knights.
"They'll guard you. Fire a signal flare if anything goes wrong."
"U... understood."
"Right."
Leaving the shadow dragon Baril at the lead with the undead horde, I headed toward the devastated forest beyond.
After a short trek,
I spotted a boy twitching under the wreckage, his lower body gone.
Gordon Rosbell.
A genius expert mid-level, nearly advanced.
Coral soldier.
"S... save..."
Whether he was truly alive or not, he reached out with a deathly pale face.
Under Bachen's orders, he'd rushed to join Sichuan, dodging most of Baril's breath by sheer luck—but barely clinging to life.
Not that you could call that living.
As he tearfully begged for mercy, I approached slowly, aura flaring at my fingertips.
Shwaak!!
Passing him, I slit his throat.
Better dead than like that. Luna could heal it, sure...
But no reason to.
Luna was already clashing with Sichuan's forces.
The echoes of explosions from the forest depths proved it.
Deeper in, craters pockmarked the ground like a balding scalp.
One common thread: Sichuan warriors smashed into the centers, pulped and lifeless.
All one-shotted.
Hard to judge the dead accurately, but Sichuan's fighters didn't seem that elite.
Vanguard, maybe?
Kuung!!
Another boom drew me there, revealing Luna gripping a bloodied warrior by the collar.
The others around lay collapsed, unmoving.
Her small frame dragged his legs across the dirt, but Luna paid it no mind.