Chapter 42
Chapter 42
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 42
Chapter Title: The Twilight of the King (2)
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*
“Do you even know what it means to draw a blade before the Lady?”
Gaimeirn sneered as he eyed Fernandez’s stance. It was a wounded body that didn’t look threatening in the slightest. Even if he had conquered the Berailed magic faction, there was no mana left in the bastard’s body.
He already knew the man was Religiosa Demonica. But no matter how much they were called the “Butchers,” there was a clear limit to what such a frail form could produce!
-Tat!
Fernandez charged toward Gaimeirn. It was an acceleration that was hard to imagine from someone swinging a greatsword. However, Gaimeirn was an elf. Elves were a race that decided battles with strikes in the blink of an eye!
-Kaduk!
Light flashed from Gaimeirn’s empty hand, and a blade rose up. Such rudimentary magic was simpler than breathing.
Fernandez’s and Gaimeirn’s swords clashed, scraping against each other’s edges. Fernandez’s cold eyes burned right in Gaimeirn’s face.
-Kaduduk!
After a brief struggle of strength, Fernandez shook off the blade forcefully and retreated. His sword’s edge was already covered in chipped marks here and there.
Full saint metal wasn’t a metal focused on durability. Blessed steel. A sword optimized for hunting demons.
-Kang!
Gaimeirn’s sword flashed, scattering the light. Like rippling waves, like crashing tides. An immense pressure bore down on Fernandez’s body. But he could block it. He could still hold it off!
Gaimeirn wasn’t using magic right now. It had to be because of the ritual he’d been preparing up until then. This was probably the only chance to strike directly at Gaimeirn!
And Gaimeirn’s weakness was—
-Kang! Kang! Kang!
Fernandez desperately blocked Gaimeirn’s onslaughts while retreating. Gaimeirn swung his sword madly and burst into laughter.
“Was that it? Was that all you had to stand against the Lady? You foolish human child. Proxy of the human god! How laughable, how pathetic! Look at yourself!”
-Kang! Kang!
Fernandez bit his lip and kept retreating. Gaimeirn’s strikes were blockable, but their power made it impossible to slip past due to the length difference of the greatsword. To think an elf would abandon speed for a contest of strength!
-Gilgun.
‘Right. The worst five minutes.’
Five minutes. The time remaining, by his calculations, until the Bronze Throne’s overload subsided. The greatsword’s blade was gradually dulling and cracking. Would it hold out until then?
-Kang! Kaduduk!
King Gaimeirn’s strikes changed tactics. Attacks that had targeted Fernandez’s body now clearly aimed to exploit the cracks in his blade.
“Huhu, let’s see how long you can last. The Lady won’t kill you! She has so many questions for you. You’ll make a fine conversation partner!”
-Kaduk!
Gaimeirn’s eyes gleamed ferociously. Right. A conversation partner didn’t need arms or legs. Gaimeirn licked his lips and swung down toward Fernandez’s shoulder.
-Kwajik!
It was a powerful blow. The hand gripping the greatsword’s hilt trembled from the impact. The blade’s scream echoed in his ears. Its lifespan was nearly over.
Fernandez took another step back. Gaimeirn grinned and swung his sword in a wide arc.
-Chwaak!
“...?!”
Blood sprayed. A dull impact clung to the blade. Gaimeirn instinctively knew he’d sliced flesh, and Fernandez was retreating with a smile. He slowly turned his head to the side.
“Kuh... heuk.”
The sibyl who had been conducting the ritual toward the altar collapsed, vomiting blood from a deep gash from shoulder to chest! Gaimeirn hastily recovered his blade.
“Th-this?”
“King Gaimeirn. You should have watched your surroundings.”
By now, they had reached the center of the altar! A cruel smile played on Fernandez’s lips. He’d gotten too carried away with his offense.
“You bastard!!”
“I never commit to just one move at a time, great king.”
-Chwaaak!
The Bronze Throne? That was just one of his plays. Fernandez deflected Gaimeirn’s desperately lunging blade to the side and sliced another sibyl.
“Stop!! Stop it!!”
Urgency twisted King Gaimeirn’s face. Fernandez smiled and raised his blade. It was already on the verge of shattering.
The finer the swordsmanship, the more it minimized stress on the blade during clashes. And contrary to popular misconception, two-handed sword techniques—unlike longsword styles—were optimized for deflecting enemy attacks.
Yet they had exchanged such fierce blows that damaged the blade. It wasn’t simply because he’d been on the defensive.
It was all a performance prepared solely for this moment.
-Chwaaak!
Gaimeirn’s attacks grew faster and more intense. Not because he’d seized the advantage. Gaimeirn was growing anxious. He now glanced more frequently at the sun hanging from the ceiling.
One strike. Another strike, and one more. Elf sibyls were butchered by Gaimeirn’s own hand. Fernandez cleverly retreated while whirling his blade wide.
-Kaduduk!
Gaimeirn’s blade slid along the blood groove of the greatsword. A perfect deflection straight out of a manual! A human sword technique unseen in elven styles.
Fernandez deflected Gaimeirn’s blade to the side and crossed his hands in a twist. With the sensation of flicking a lever, Gaimeirn’s wrist snapped back elastically.
-Chaeng!
Like silk rippling in the wind, Fernandez’s sword slid along Gaimeirn’s blade and thrust toward the underside of his jaw from the tip.
“Such insolence!”
Gaimeirn hastily blocked and retreated.
By now, half the magic forming the altar was unraveling. The sibyls maintaining it in his stead were dying off by half. Fernandez looked at Gaimeirn, who growled with his back to the remaining sibyls.
-Fernandez. Ready.
‘Ah, I shouldn’t get used to this.’
-Kuh. Hilarious.
As Fernandez grumbled, Feizashi chuckled. The Bronze Throne was ready. With the overload subsided, it gleamed once more in deep indigo.
Fernandez crossed his grip on the hilt and charged into Gaimeirn’s guard. Even if he couldn’t finish off the remaining sibyls, the magic could no longer maintain balance unless Gaimeirn controlled it personally.
When magic of this scale collapsed, the backlash’s direction was obvious. The fate of this already half-destroyed flagship would be sealed in that instant.
“You wretch!!!”
-Kang!
King Gaimeirn roared and swung his sword. Straight ahead, in a direct line against Fernandez’s attack. Like lightning, Gaimeirn’s sword pierced the greatsword’s blade—
-Kwajijik!
Slipping through the cracks between—
-Chaengrang!
Shards of the broken greatsword flew into the air! Hope flashed in Gaimeirn’s eyes. Finally, the bastard’s sword had shattered!
‘Ah, it broke in the end.’
Fernandez smiled wryly as he gazed at King Gaimeirn’s blade approaching in slow motion. Feizashi chuckled. He could see Gaimeirn’s face drawing near. The bastard was ecstatic.
-Well, swords are consumables anyway.
-Puk!
Gaimeirn’s sword plunged into Fernandez’s chest. A brief, intense pain seared through his mind. Kuhk, blood welled up his throat and seeped through his lips.
“Huh, hahaha, hahahaha!! Fool! Regret this moment you dared oppose the Eternal King!”
-Kwajik!
Gaimeirn sadistically twisted the blade, churning Fernandez’s insides. His lungs snagged on the sword and shattered. Breathing... could no longer continue. A choked groan escaped Fernandez’s lips.
‘Right. Swords are like flesh. Consumables.’
Fernandez forced his fading vision to focus on King Gaimeirn’s triumphant face. Their gazes clashed in midair. Fernandez’s hand slowly released the hilt.
And his empty hand traced a pattern through the air.
-Chwaaak!
Gaimeirn’s sword pulled free from Fernandez’s body, and blood sprayed onto his face. Fernandez slowly crumpled to his knees.
From between Fernandez’s clothes, the stigmata shone.
Organs shaken by the heavy backlash snapped back into place in an instant.
Lost blood was replaced by divinity flowing through his veins.
-Thump. Thump. Thump.
His stilled heart resumed its heavy beats.
The hand Fernandez had waved through the air finally intertwined. The hand seal was complete.
Behind Fernandez’s head, an ominous black halo erupted and blazed!
“Immortal!! Beitasser, how could you do this to the Lady! This violates our pact, our pact!!”
Gaimeirn retreated in haste and attempted a counter-ritual against Fernandez’s magic. Slowly, the light forming the sanctuary’s magic circle began to fade.
Gaimeirn bit his lip. This wouldn’t do. He couldn’t deploy other magic before completing the ritual he’d prepared. The balance of magic was shifting. It was already beyond control.
Hope rapidly drained from the king’s face. The mana forming the ritual began to rage like flames. Backlash had begun. Overload gripped Gaimeirn’s body.
“Kuhk!”
“I never commit to just one move, King Gaimeirn.”
Fernandez’s closed eyes slowly opened. Reason burned hot, instinct sank cold. Amid these contradictory emotions, each move was precise, unwavering.
The fruit of experience as a mage. His magic never lost its delicacy, no matter the moment. Like a task repeated hundreds of times, he drove mana wedges into Gaimeirn’s ritual.
“How did it feel to kill your own son?”
“...What?”
“How did it feel to bury your son with your own hands, King Gaimeirn? Did you feel the same emotions I did?”
Like when I killed my son with my own hands. Did your world die that day too? Fernandez stared at Gaimeirn’s face. Gaimeirn cried out, his features twisted in humiliation.
“You cannot mock the Lady. No one can laugh at her. She acted solely, solely for her people. Solely for the well-being of her race!”
“Then you should have shared your god’s divinity with your precious kin, Gaimeirn. Gaimeirn, Great King of the Six Plains!”
Fernandez formed hand seals and shouted.
“Did you think I wouldn’t notice? That I wouldn’t ‘see’ this spell, this ritual? That you could orchestrate and perform your plan alone? That I wouldn’t recognize that entity!”
The sun hanging from the ceiling was blasphemy in itself. A greedy king who had monopolized the last divinity of a dead god to sustain his own immortality.
He had realized it the moment he first saw this sanctuary. He couldn’t not know. Even without his mystic sight. He had used spells with similar structures before!
Ten Thousand Ghosts to One? No, closer to Convergence Evolution. Even across different races and schools, similar results meant abundant structural parallels. This spell was an attempt to resurrect a god.
“Religious tribunal jurisdiction. Heretic summary execution authority. Demon exorcism military transfer rights. Ecclesiastical sacrament proxy rights. By the authority granted by the Holy Pantheon of Good Gods, I shall conduct the inquisition. King Gaimeirn.”
Fernandez advanced step by step toward Gaimeirn. Backlash twisted his organs, and Gaimeirn’s body shrank. He looked up at Fernandez, vomiting blood with a contorted face.
Fernandez seized Gaimeirn’s collar and lifted him. He was light. His soul weighed down by sins was so heavy, yet his flesh was as insignificant as dust.
“Y-you have no such authority. No right to punish a king! Inquisitor! Have you considered the consequences? If the Lady dies, the Gaimeirn dynasty ends! The vampires will claim dominion over the northeastern seas, and your humanity will writhe in agony!”
Fernandez’s grip slowly tightened around King Gaimeirn’s nape. The gaunt, withered king writhed, bleeding.
“The sin of stealing your god’s divinity. The sin of violating the Holy Pantheon’s domain. The sin of usurping divine authority. And the sin of a father coveting his own son’s soul and flesh!”
“Sp-spare me! The Lady, the Lady was wrong. She erred. Whatever you desire... don’t you want more? I see your greed. The Lady can fulfill it!”
Strength slowly built in his grip. Religiosa Demonica divinity pulsed through his veins, and the hand that could crush trees barehanded constricted King Gaimeirn’s throat ever tighter.
-Kwajik.
“May the Holy Pantheon of Good Gods bless us. The defendant’s penalty is death.”
-My desires are beyond even you.
‘Right. Neither gods nor demons can fulfill them.’
After a brief convulsion, strength fled King Gaimeirn’s body.
-Kururung!
The remaining sibyls at the altar had collapsed, vomiting blood from the backlash as the ritual failed. The twisted spell sucked in mana and heated up. The magic circle erupted in flames.
There was no point driving in more spell wedges. Overload had already begun. Like a melting reactor core, the ceiling sun blazed blue.
The sanctuary’s sun was setting.
A massive quake spread from its center, and the king’s sanctuary began to crumble. This sinking flagship would vanish into history at this moment.
“Hoo...”
Fatigue beaded at the corners of Fernandez’s eyes. Backlash from grand magic. Fierce combat intertwined with spell battle. Death and resurrection. Fernandez’s stamina was utterly depleted.
Fernandez staggered forward. He wanted to collapse and sleep right then. But there was still work to do. It was time to conclude Infermer.
Fernandez grasped the sanctuary’s door handle and twisted it open. He had never lived complacently in his entire life.