Chapter 90
Chapter 90
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 90
Chapter Title: Fortress's Decisive Battle (3)
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Boom!
Yohan Edelfelt's Sword King Infinite Style was destruction incarnate.
Every time he swung his sword, the surroundings crumbled away.
If he kept up the assault like this, the entire fortress would collapse.
[Wouldn't this be a problem for the Edelfelt family? Their home base is getting wrecked.]
‘Yohan doesn't seem to care.’
Yohan didn't appear to have lost his reason.
What mattered to him was slaughtering every enemy in front of him right now—some mere fortress was irrelevant.
Watching him, it was hard not to wonder if a man like that even needed a fortress like this.
[Insane power anyway! It's like he's swinging a house-sized sword!]
‘Yeah, and the scary part is he has no openings despite that.’
Attacks from both sides wouldn't work.
Yohan could handle it easily.
So what now?
"I'll hold the front!"
Sershes gripped Decalibus with both hands.
A dazzling light began to pour from the holy sword, said to have been forged by some saint long ago.
Sershes's sword style had activated.
‘Seven Heavens Service Style.’
In that instant, seven swords floated in the air.
They weren't physical blades. These were swords of mana conjured by Sershes's sword style.
Each one held power equal to Decalibus itself.
"Oooh!"
As Sershes let out a spirited shout, Yohan's next attack came flying.
But it never reached us.
Sershes's seven swords moved in unison through the air, blocking Yohan's strike.
It was exactly like seven Sershes combining their strength to parry his blade.
[Impressive!]
‘Yeah, it is.’
This was Sershes Aleyas.
This was the firstborn son of the Aleyas family.
A Sky Rank Knight who wielded seven formless swords charged at Yohan with terrifying momentum.
[You can't lag behind, right?]
‘Of course not.’
The moment I leaped to the right, Yohan's attack veered toward me.
I felt the massive blade chasing me, but one of Sershes's formless swords moved instantly to block it.
"Break through!"
I moved in response to Sershes's shout.
As I dove in from the right, Sershes charged straight ahead from the front.
Yohan kept unleashing attacks, but Sershes controlled his formless swords with the Seven Heavens Service Style, blocking every one.
[What an intense battle! He's blocking all that?!]
‘Yeah, his skills really haven't rusted.’
Yohan had underestimated Sershes.
He'd assumed that as the Unified Supervision Bureau Chief, stuck behind a desk, his skills must have dulled.
But he was wrong.
The people of the Aleyas family I knew never slacked on their training, no matter the time or place.
That was why even Archbishop Hausel had been forced into such a fierce fight against them.
"Oooh!"
Sershes finally closed the distance with Yohan.
He sent his seven formless swords diving in on different trajectories while swinging Decalibus at Yohan.
Decalibus, as a physical blade, was also enhanced by Sershes's sword aura.
But it didn't land.
"Hmph!"
Boom! Boom boom boom!
Yohan simply stepped sideways to secure the perfect position, then swung his sword once in a massive arc, knocking away Decalibus and all seven formless swords.
His sword had already shrunk in size to adapt to close combat.
"You brats...!"
"......!"
Yohan dealt with me too, as I pressed in from the right.
He perfectly parried my swung Ashurai, then used mana-reinforced strength to shove me back.
[That old guy's got some serious power!]
‘It's not just mana reinforcement. His natural strength is insane.’
It wasn't the kind of power a man over seventy should have.
The Dialogue Church had guys over a hundred pulling off monstrous feats, but they got that through abnormal drugs or rituals.
According to what Suhaien told me, no one had ever tampered with Yohan's body.
Which meant Yohan was achieving this with his pure, natural physique.
"Hah!"
Sershes shouted as he kept pressing the attack on Yohan.
He unleashed a relentless barrage using Decalibus and the seven formless swords, but Yohan didn't budge.
"Useless!"
"Urk!"
Yohan stomped the ground hard, sending scattered building debris flying at Sershes like cannonballs.
Sershes deflected some with his sword and blocked the rest with mana armor, but he still took a bit of damage.
"Hmm!"
In that gap, Yohan snatched up some random sword from the ground.
He precisely defended against my attack coming in from the side.
"Is that all you got, Sion Aleyas!"
Boom boom boom!
The blade shattered from the excessive sword aura I'd poured into it, but Yohan didn't even twitch an eyebrow.
Even as blood streamed from the torn skin on his hand.
[This isn't easy......]
‘Yeah, far from it.’
This was a 9-star who had transcended the norm.
Once you hit 9-star, increasing mana further was incredibly tough, so knights focused on honing techniques beyond raw mana. That created huge gaps even among 9-stars.
From that perspective... Yohan was among the absolute elite in skill.
‘No one in the Holy Knight Order could match him one-on-one except Ianus.’
Yohan was truly strong.
Even teaming up with Sershes, victory wasn't guaranteed.
[What now? Keep going like this?]
‘Dunno.’
We weren't the only ones locked in fierce combat right now.
Est and Greta were battling nearby, and the Holy Knights who'd climbed the fortress were fighting bloody battles against the Edelfelt soldiers.
No one could come help us immediately.
‘Guess we have to finish this ourselves.’
I currently had 8-star level mana.
With that, I could use it—that technique.
"Uncle!"
"What is it, Sion!"
"Sorry, but can you buy me some time?"
"What?!"
Sershes grimaced as he strained to block Yohan's sword.
"You've finally lost it, boy!"
"Just buy me a little time!"
"I haven't agreed yet! Explain yourself properly, you little... Urk!"
Boom!
Sershes was pushed back by Yohan's strike.
He was at a disadvantage, but he wouldn't go down that easily.
[How're you gonna explain this later?]
‘Say a new power awakened in Ashurai.’
I'd fed the same line to Kurt last time, claiming a lightning spirit dormant in Ashurai had awakened.
Sershes wouldn't buy it as easily as Kurt, but I could say it got captured by the Edelfelt family and experimented on until that happened.
[You're getting sloppy with excuses lately.]
‘No choice.’
[Fine. Get started then!]
The two circles near my heart.
Tougher and denser than normal circles, they began pulsing violently.
‘8-star equivalent... mana.’
Plus, my circles still held mana derived from the Holy Grail's holy power.
That was why the mana response felt even better than usual.
‘Draw up the mana.’
I pulled mana from the circles.
Igzard began interfering with it.
Infusing his own energy and mixing it in.
My mana reacted violently as it blended with the alien energy.
[Burn.]
The moment I heard Igzard's curt voice.
Heat began rising from my hand.
Not actual fire igniting, of course.
It was the heat generated as the mana surging from within me reacted intensely.
‘Not pitch-black red.’
[Because I got involved.]
Back in the Dialogue Church days, the mana had erupted pitch-black red.
But now the color was different.
An orange hue, like real flames.
[No one will suspect Dialogue Church tech now.]
‘Thanks.’
[What, no "thank you" makes it real?]
Ignoring Igzard's grumbling, I focused my mind.
Right then, a sharp voice rang out.
"Sion!"
Swoosh!
With Sershes's shout came the sound of air being sliced.
Yohan had noticed what I was doing and thrust his sword at me.
The near-infinite formless blade targeted my heart precisely.
[Pointless!]
The moment Igzard barked.
The Demon Spirit Sword Xantia, which I'd already set up, flew through the air to clash with Yohan's sword.
It wasn't enough to fully block his mighty strike, but it did deflect the trajectory.
Yohan's slightly off-target sword only grazed my left shoulder.
By then, I was fully prepared.
"Si, Sion!"
Even our ally Sershes let out a startled voice first.
"What is that? Sword aura too? How can you have sword aura that burns like fire... Urk!"
Sershes groaned as he blocked Yohan's heavy attack.
"What the hell is that, Sion Aleyas?"
Yohan glared at me as he spoke.
"That's not a Holy Knight's power."
"Guess not."
I replied curtly and leaped forward.
"This is my power."
Yohan swung at me as I launched into the air.
In midair, with no way to dodge, he must have thought he could finish me in one blow. It was a true killing strike.
[Shatter it!]
At Igzard's shout, I maximized my mana.
Then I brought down my sword, cloaked in blazing mana.
Toward Yohan's blade, which I never could have matched before, I swung with everything I had.
"......!"
I could tell Yohan’s eyes widened.
His massive sword, forged by the Sword King Infinite Style, was burning away in my flames.
‘Purgatory.’
A technique Archbishop Hausel had devised, like heavenly thunder.
A flaming sword that altered the bonding structure of an opponent's sword aura mana, decomposing it entirely.
Reproduced with 8-star mana, it incinerated Yohan's sword and burrowed deep.
"Urgh......!"
Realizing the danger, Yohan desperately tried to evade.
But it was too late.
"Sershes, these damn brats...!"
Sershes's seven formless swords, unleashed at full power, pierced through Yohan's mana armor into his legs.
With his movement sealed, the blade wreathed in Purgatory's flames bore down on him.
"To be done in by snot-nosed Aleyas whelps like you...!"
Whoosh!
The blazing blade slashed across Yohan's chest.
Purgatory's flames tore through even 9-star mana armor.
As Yohan collapsed, spurting crimson blood, Sershes let out a ragged breath.
"How old do you think I am, you fossil?"