Chapter 153
Chapter 153
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 153
Chapter Title: The Twilight of the King (2)
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*
The greatsword slammed down against an invisible wall, sparks flying. Fernandez spun his body the instant the blade was blocked, dodging the spot.
-Kwa-jijik!
A sturdy ice spear suddenly erupted from the solid floor. He could see the enemy forming hand seals, and at the same time, light creeping from the runeglyph tattoo on its forearm.
Hand seals combining, mana knots tying, magic manifesting. For a mage on Malern's level, it was a sequence as simple as breathing—
'But breathing like that doesn't mean there are no openings.'
Especially since even breathing had fleeting gaps. Natural gaps one might not even notice oneself. Gaps that existed in every living being!
-Ka-deuduk!
The greatsword whipped through the air and crashed down in another direction. Harsh sparks reflected off the flurry of snowflakes, and the moment the attack was blocked, Fernandez had already turned and evaded to another spot. Another ice spear shot up and embedded itself right there.
Half a beat. Half a breath. That was the only time he had to move first against the enemy's onslaught, and even that fleeting flash was enough for him.
-Kwaduk!
Again and again, the greatsword cleaved down from midair. At the same time, Fernandez's eyes tracked the enemy's hand seals, the mana knots, and the massive flow surging through the entire ship.
His brain burned hot. Processing complex calculations and precise movements simultaneously. His mind was being forced into brutal neural activity that would overload any ordinary person.
-Kaduk!
He struck the next gap. Malern swung his hands relentlessly, blocking assaults and countering. Their attacks flowed like a duel between two master martial artists in perfect sync, never once touching each other's bodies.
"How long do you think you can hold out!!"
Malern bellowed, his eyes blazing. His defenses were nearly flawless. Dozens of layers of protective spells manifested with mere gestures, guarding his body like an iron fortress. Fernandez's actions were no different from waves battering a breakwater.
-Kwang! Kwang! Kwang!
Was it his heartbeat, or the sound of the greatsword striking the barrier? The line between them had blurred. His head grew feverish, his vision burned red. The sword advanced, struck the wall, retreated, and used the rebound to pivot his body.
Every moment in the sequence happened within a single breath, without a hint of hesitation. Fernandez gripped the greatswords in both hands, swinging them in different directions, feeling the recoil each time he hit the barrier.
It was swordplay in a state of mushin. His mind had no spare capacity for technical finesse. His brain was fully focused on the enemy's spells, magic, and their manifestations.
In that perfect calm, that total concentration, Fernandez raged like a storm of steel.
-Kwang! Kwang!
Just a little more. Fernandez's eyes burned deep blue. He struck the barrier with the greatsword, immediately pulled away to reposition, then swung again from another angle—
-Kaduk.
Something caught between the barriers. This was it. Fernandez's eyes flashed. He crouched low, aligning both hands horizontally, and swung both greatswords at once!
-Kwaaaaang!
"Wh-what?!"
The barrier shattered. For the first time since the spells began, Malern rebounded backward. He frantically formed hand seals in midair, confusion etched on his face.
'How did he destroy the spell? It wasn't the kind of magic that could be broken by physical force.'
Malern formed seals for a new barrier and cast attack spells again. The heart dangling from the ceiling pulsed wildly, pouring viscous mana into his incantations.
At least in this place right now, he was no different from the god of magic. He lacked time for complex, transcendent spells at the moment. But here, with infinite mana and countless auxiliary computation devices hanging from the ceiling to compensate!
-Kwaaaaang!
Yet the barrier tore like paper. Malern recoiled, his face twisting in fury. How? How could he so easily dismantle my spells...
"Mage!"
In that instant, realization flashed through Malern's mind. Two greatswords. That young man, who seemed a mix of barbarism and knighthood, possessed monstrous physical power one couldn't imagine. But he was a mage.
Spell knots, hand seal combinations, mana flows, magic manifestations. Those blazing blue eyes had been fixed solely on his fingers through every attack and evasion, every single moment!
Pinpointing spell weaknesses and inserting wedges half a beat faster. It was crude, rough.
"You... bastard!!"
Sparks flew from Malern's eyes. The delicate work he himself couldn't attempt. The sensation that his talent, his efforts, his time were rendered meaningless in those gaps.
The unbelievable fact that he wasn't the absolute, that this young mortal's magic surpassed his own. Malern felt terror and rage simultaneously.
"My power is infinite! You, a fool wielding mere blades—do you dare challenge millennia of mysteries with just two swords!"
"Millennia of mysteries."
Amid the storm of blades, sweat, heat, and steel, blue eyes gleamed.
"That long decay spanning millennia. You, and things like you. Your selfish little games. And the culmination of it all."
-Kwaaaaang!
The barrier exploded into fragments, and Malern's body was flung outward by the shock. His long silver hair fluttered in the air before he crumpled weakly to the floor. Kneeling on one knee, Malern glared at the approaching Fernandez with blazing eyes.
"I come from beyond the end of all those events. King Malern. Your millennia of achievements—sucking your people dry, feeding on your children's blood—hold no meaning."
"You will fail."
"So will you."
"No!"
-Hooooung.
Winds howled. Even in the windowless throne room, snowflakes and gales whipped up a brutal North Sea storm. Malern's eyes blazed through his whipping hair.
"I have seized infinite power. I am Malern, lord of the mage tower with a thousand spires, master of thousands of spells, and finally, I have broken our chains and claimed the power of gods!"
-Kwa-jijijik!
Ice spears erupted from all directions. Snowflakes froze into thin needles en masse, swarming toward Fernandez. He swung his swords and dashed, evading the onslaught.
It was movement on an almost instinctual level. The warning bell awakened by his heated battle sense. Against attacks bursting from positions with no precursors, Fernandez suffered dozens of gashes and bled in that brief moment.
'I couldn't see the mana flow at all.'
-No mana knots. The magic... no. It just appeared suddenly.
'Causing results beyond the cause? That's... the realm of divinity.'
The greatsword tore through the air, slicing snowflakes. Almost simultaneously, an ice spear embedded in his thigh. As he teetered, losing balance, his other arm swung the greatsword into the floor, propelling his body.
-Kwaduk! Kwajik!
Dozens of ice spears crashed down where he had stood. No time to stop. Wounds multiplied across his body, his sense of balance in ruins.
Survival instincts and his talent blooming in this cliffhanger moment kept him alive. Even when mana flows were invisible, his instincts—perhaps his battle intuition—held his life together.
-Kwadududuk!
The blizzard raged. The greatsword too. Two storms of snow and steel clashed, ripping the atmosphere. His muscles surpassed limits, creaking past critical points. Tendons tore and reknit. A miraculous moment born solely from Demonica physical prowess.
'It awakened some divinity suddenly, or the power it's accumulated has reached a realm touching the divine...'
'Or maybe it triggered divinity hunted from slain gods.'
No time to analyze. All he needed now was one blade to sever the enemy's neck. Fernandez pierced the blizzard, advancing step by step toward Malern.
-Kwaaaaang!
Now one step away, within reach of his sword. Malern and Fernandez's gazes crossed. Fernandez instinctively swung the greatsword down at the enemy's head.
-Kwaduduk!
But the enemy's arm moved, conjuring a barrier in midair. The keyblade embedded in it, and in that short moment trying to destroy it— one breath, a mere instant.
"Mortal, it's over!"
Malern's eyes shone with assured victory. In the fierce battle, Fernandez, who had been half a beat faster, missed that breath, and in that tiny gap, Malern's magic shone. Dozens of curses and destruction spells coalesced in that instant, ready to pour onto Fernandez's body. Too late to block; one swing of the arm, and the enemy's life would end—
-Kwaduk.
In that moment, Fernandez's other arm—the one paused midair—moved. The sound of glass shattering echoed in empty air.
-Kwadududuk!
Then, the atmosphere, the space itself. The dusk-hued greatsword traced a black trajectory, beginning to rend the air.
Space: the boundary between illusion and phenomenon forming the material world. Grinding through it meant projecting force not just on physical entities, but on mana ones too.
The Dual King's Space Slash. Not precisely named, but. Yes. Fernandez smiled despite the immense strain on his arm. Names don't matter. What mattered in this moment, what he needed here, wasn't some trivial name.
Just the one blade to sever the enemy's neck.
-Kwadududuk!
Space tore, magic shattered, spell flows broke. Malern's arm flew through the air. It must have been some instinctual evasion honed over millennia of life that let him dodge. But the arm covered in runeglyphs scattered into the air.
"Kuaaaak!!"
One-armed Malern screamed in rage, terror, pain, and madness as he leaped back. The blizzard gradually died down, his sweat- and blood-soaked hair settling.
"Hoo."
Fernandez steadied his ragged breath, planting his sword in the floor and standing. Time to end it. Time to sever millennia of the bastard's obsessions and desires. Time to kill the ancient spider that fed on his people's lives and talents.
"Inquisition judicial authority. Heretic summary execution rights. Demon exorcism military transfer rights. Ecclesiastical greater proxy rights. By the authority guaranteed by the Holy Pantheon, I shall conduct this heresy trial. King Malern."
-Drrruluk.
Dragging his greatsword, Fernandez advanced toward the staggering Malern in agony. Malern couldn't fully comprehend his words amid confusion and fear.
"I am the father of this race."
"No father sees his child as prey. A father's role is to raise the child. Once fulfilled, it's merely blessing the grown child's back as they depart."
"I'm no such fossil from history!"
Malern roared in fury.
"I slew the gods and broke our chains! For our race's freedom alone! Even adrift on the great ocean, when dragons rampaged, demons whispered, and dwarven cannons blazed in those wretched times! For our race's freedom, I needed to grow strong!"
"Is the freedom you speak of for your race... that?"
Fernandez pointed to the ceiling. Amid the battle's ravages, dried-up elven corpses hung like fruit along the mana lines. Fernandez frowned at the gruesome sight.
"Crime of slaying your race's god and stealing its divinity. Crime of taking your children's lives for your own security alone. Crime of a king usurping his people's souls and flesh!"
"My sins... are defeat alone!"
"Holy Pantheon, grant your blessing. The defendant's punishment is death."
Fernandez's greatsword rose. As he swung to take the enemy's neck, Malern's eyes blazed with rage.
"And I have not been defeated here. You will fail!!"
"...What?"
A flash erupted.
*
His senses, hypersensitive from the fierce battle, became poison instead. With no warning, the explosion blinded Fernandez's vision for an instant. He swung his sword without panic, but felt no contact.
-Hooooung!
Wind howled. No sense of the enemy's mana. Vision restored, he saw the vast empty throne room and a massive door newly formed in the distance.
Through the shattered-open door, the dawning horizon line gleamed.
"Broke through the wall and fled?"
-Into the middle of the sea... What's its game?
'The elf king abandoning his flagship to escape? Is that possible?'
-Well, guess the ship wasn't more precious than its life?
'No, the Serpent King's flagship holds more value to them than life itself.'
Fernandez glared beyond the wrecked hull. Reia's fleet floated on the sea, encircling the flagship and pounding the reconstructed spell barrier.
Any chance of survival jumping into the center? Fernandez moved to pursue Malern, then glanced at the still-pulsing heart on the ceiling.
'Tch.'
-Hweeeng.
He clicked his tongue once and hurled the keyblade. It flew straight and clean, staking through the heart's center like a pile. Soon, the murky, curse-tainted divinity and viscous mana poured out like a waterfall, corroding the ship.
-Chiiiiiik.
But in between, Beitasser's holy sword began neutralizing the poison. Catching his breath briefly, Fernandez shouted.
"Kirhas!"
"Yes, milord!"
The door opened as Kirhas dashed in. Through the gap, kneeling elves still waiting obediently were visible.
"Take them down. Separate the living from the dead."
Kirhas paused, staring at the suspended elves in midair, her face paling in shock. Soon it twisted in rage and horror. She spoke in a heated voice.
"King Malern's doing?"
"Yes."
"You're saving them?"
"At least those still breathing."
At Fernandez's words, Kirhas gazed at his face proudly for a moment. Fernandez kept his eyes on the massive door in the throne room's corner, ignoring her.
"I'm going after it."
"From here... to there? By jumping?"
"Can't let it go. Miss it now, and we get no second chance."
"Milord has no next life either. Better wait just a bit, even briefly, for Queen Reia's lead..."
"No time for that, Kirhas."
Fernandez stroked Kirhas's hair once. She lowered her eyes slightly and growled softly.
"Save them, and urge surrender to everyone on this ship. With Malern—who held his entire race's power—fled, the war's meaningless. No more needless sacrifice. Hand the flagship to Reia and announce the armistice."
"Milord...!"
"I must finish my verdict."
With that, Fernandez threw himself out the door into the churning North Sea.