The Dead Demand Hell
Burren swallowed hard as he watched the blood aura rain down like a meteor shower.
He really smashed through that...
When the sun vanished and the sorcery array revealed itself, he hadn't been able to so much as twitch a finger. Crushed by the sheer scale of the blood aura blanketing all of Gransavil, swallowing was all he could manage.
The others were no different. Even Runaan, who seemed as if she didn't possess the emotion called panic, was breaking into a cold sweat.
While every member of the Light Wind Squad stood taut with tension, hands trembling, an aura message arrived from Raon.
"Scared?"
The flippant words, so mismatched to the dire situation, made a vein bulge on Burren's forehead.
"I didn't train you to be that weak."
At that icy voice, the training he'd endured with that bastard came flooding back. Death tag. Sleepless duels. Personality-destruction drills. Just thinking about them painted those hells in vivid, spine-chilling detail.
Right. I've come too far to die to some sorcery like this.
Burren clenched his hilt. Because he had tasted true hell, the fighting spirit the array had crushed roared back to life.
"I can't die before I land a punch on that man."
"Yeah. We've got to get at least one hit in."
"Hang in there."
"Compared to that bastard's training, this is nothing."
The other members of the Light Wind Squad steeled themselves and glared at the sorcery array. The emotion reflected in their eyes was not fear, but the confidence that they could do this.
"That's a good look in your eyes."
Raon wasn't even looking their way, yet he nodded as if satisfied.
"Don't worry about the sorcery. I'll break that. You do what you have to do."
True to his word, Raon shattered the array alone — and drove his blade into the 7th Apostle besides.
Burren and the Light Wind Squad clenched their fists as they watched him.
From peers to comrades. And now they gazed at the back of the man who stood ahead of them, and prayed for his victory.
Raon narrowed his eyes as he studied the 7th Apostle's wound.
A shame.
It wasn't deep. The instant the Requiem Sword had surged in, the 7th Apostle had thrown his body back and slipped a fatal blow. Watching him staunch the bleeding in his chest while dropping his stance, he was already bracing for the follow-up.
He's not going berserk.
He was clearly rattled, but he hadn't lost his reason. Through their previous fight, he seemed to have learned that going wild would only get him killed.
"I'll give you that."
The 7th Apostle nodded, forcibly sealing the wound in his chest. Even with the bleeding stopped, the pain from the demonic energy should have been enormous, yet he barely showed it.
"I didn't expect you to throw a sword like that. Inventive."
"What are you, a compliment machine? What's with all the acknowledging, talking to yourself?"
Raon snorted and spun the Heavenly Sky Sword.
"I don't need your acknowledgment. The only thing I want is your head."
He evened his breathing and crossed both sword-arms on a diagonal.
Better to finish this fast.
He hadn't shown it, but shattering the Blood Manifestation Aberration Formation had burned through a considerable amount of aura. There was no need to drag this out. He decided to end it quickly.
"You insect..."
The mockery seemed to sting more than the sword wound. The 7th Apostle's face twisted as he leveled his saw blade. Blood aura flared along the jagged steel until it was enough to make one's hair stand on end.
Raon slammed his foot into the earth. Stepping the second form of the Taehwa Footwork, he shot toward the 7th Apostle's front like a thunderbolt.
"You bastard!"
As if taking the frontal charge as an insult, the 7th Apostle brought his saw blade crashing down head-on.
A ghastly blade, wreathed in colossal blood aura, filled Raon's vision. Fast, heavy, and sharp all at once.
His swordsmanship has improved too.
It wasn't just his realm that had changed. The 7th Apostle had acquired a new, top-tier sword art.
Raon slid his slightly turned left foot forward. Treading the earth as softly as if walking on water, he painted the Refining Sword Technique with the Heavenly Sky Sword.
A silver blade flowing along the constellations, laden with biting cold, intercepted the 7th Apostle's saw blade with a ringing crash.
Raon leaned his upper body forward. He'd defended — now it was time to attack. With the Requiem Sword held in a light grip, he bloomed the Flower Spirit.
Yellow and crimson petals unfurled from the short blade and became a razor storm that crashed over the 7th Apostle.
"I've seen this too."
The 7th Apostle bled off his power and retreated, spinning his saw blade like a windmill to raise a wall of blood aura.
"It'll be a little different from last time."
The instant Raon's voice rang out, the petals' movement transformed. The fragments of flame, as if alive, surged forward and detonated their blazing force right in front of the 7th Apostle's vital points.
Under the successive explosions, the wall of blood aura the 7th Apostle had raised heaved violently.
"Kh... this kind of power..."
"You're not the only one who's gotten stronger."
Raon tilted his chin and tugged up the corner of his mouth.
"What?"
"Before, and now — you are beneath me. Stop babbling and die."
The declaration, laden with certainty, made the 7th Apostle's jaw tremble so hard it looked unstable.
"You arrogant little shit!"
The 7th Apostle screamed and charged. He'd exploded with rage, yet his sword-force had grown even sharper. He hadn't discarded his cold reason — he'd only amplified his power.
Raon caught the 7th Apostle's boar-like charging strike on the reverse-gripped Requiem Sword. He'd put everything into it — Raon's shoulders and arm bones ached, and the shock reached all the way into his gut.
"Insect! I'll crush you right here so you can't even swing a sword!"
As if he'd expected the block, the 7th Apostle rotated his wrist and immediately launched a second strike.
The blood aura dwelling in the saw blade swelled threefold in an instant, slamming down to crush Raon's entire body. It seemed to be a secret art that sacrificed sharpness to maximize weight and destructive force.
The power is definitely strong.
The 7th Apostle's strike carried force on the level of an Upper Master. But the realm he had actually reached was not Upper. At best, the extreme of Intermediate.
If that's all...
I have the advantage.
He couldn't catch up to the realm itself immediately, but power, speed, and aura were things he could pursue as much as he wanted.
Raon expelled the turbid energy that had risen in his lungs and resonated the Ring of Fire to its extreme.
The descending saw blade slowed. The flow of its force entered his eyes.
His proficiency isn't that high.
Honing his concentration, he found the gap in the 7th Apostle's downward strike. Amid the overflowing flames of blood aura, he felt a faint weakness at the blade's tip.
A line of flame blazed like a ray of light along the Heavenly Sky Sword's blade and smashed into the tip of the saw blade.
The saw blade, packed with brute, mindless force, was violently knocked aside.
"Th-this—!"
The instant the 7th Apostle tried to slip away like an eel, Raon stepped the Taehwa Footwork. Folding space, he followed and drove the Requiem Sword down toward the man's shoulder.
The 7th Apostle's collarbone tore free, and murky blood fountained into the air.
"Gaaaaah!"
Clutching his shoulder, he staggered back with a scream of agony.
"H-how did you break the Blood Demon Absolute...?"
Raon gave no answer. He stepped the Taehwa Footwork again, gliding forward as if riding a current of water, and drove in from the left.
"Get lost!"
True to a martial artist who had reached Master, the 7th Apostle wiped the panic from his face in an instant and swept his saw blade around. The sword-force was every bit as devastating as the strike a moment before.
I expected this much resistance.
Raon didn't retreat. Over the reverse-gripped Requiem Sword, he raised the Ten Thousand Flames in a rounded form.
A shield of blazing heat sprang up and knocked the 7th Apostle's saw blade aside.
In the same breath, he brought the Heavenly Sky Sword down, packed to the brim with Glacia's frost.
Caught between the two swords, the saw blade shuddered as if it would snap. Blood burst again from the chest and shoulder wounds the 7th Apostle had barely managed to close.
"Nngh!"
Raon poured everything into the press — Ten Thousand Flames, Glacia, and the raw strength of his body besides — and shoved the 7th Apostle back.
The earth, already trembling under that overwhelming force, gave way, and the 7th Apostle plunged through it.
"Not going to do that thing you always do?"
Wrath narrowed his eyes at the pulverized floor.
That thing I always do?
"That filthy business of toying with your opponent to steal their techniques."
I don't need anything of his.
Raon shook his head and dropped into the hole where the 7th Apostle had fallen.
Below was a vast cavern. Countless corpses lay scattered along the outer edges, and the floor was thick with the stains of dried blood.
Because there's nothing worth learning.
This cavern was clearly the place where the 7th Apostle and that man called Tus had murdered people to harvest blood aura. He had no use for the martial studies of a creature like that. He would overwhelm him until he felt terror and dread — then end it.
"You maggot..."
The 7th Apostle ground his teeth so hard they seemed ready to break, gripping the saw blade in both hands. Blood aura, sharp as if it had become one with the blade, surged without end.
Raon kindled a flame that was smaller, but far denser, kicked off the blood-caked earth, and brought his sword crashing down.
The 7th Apostle barely caught Raon's strike and bit down on his lip.
Why? Why, damn it!
Why couldn't he, a man on the verge of Upper Master, beat this bastard?
Why couldn't he even block the sword of some Lower Master?
He stood in a higher realm. The volume of his blood aura overwhelmed Raon's aura besides. And yet every time he stopped the bastard's strikes, a shock rattled his insides. The bleeding he'd barely halted burst open again, and his blood aura was draining at a terrifying rate.
Does this make any sense?
In a clash between martial artists, the most important things were realm and the quantity of aura. No matter how brilliant the martial studies one had mastered, it was rare for a warrior of a lower realm to defeat one of a higher realm.
And yet Raon Zieghart — then and now — had put his blade to the throat of a man who stood above him. A sharper, more powerful blade, at that.
He could not understand how that was possible.
"Uwaaaaaaah!"
The 7th Apostle screamed and detonated every last drop of remaining blood aura. Wrapping that colossal force around himself, he brought down the secret art of the Blood Heavenly Peerless Art he had learned from the Cult Leader — Soul Severing Blood.
The ultimate offensive blood slash — the strongest firepower in the Blood Heavenly Peerless Art.
Between the blade he had thrown with everything he had, two lights flashed. A radiance of blue and crimson. Raon's sword-strike, carrying frost and heat as one.
Soul Severing Blood was carved apart by the slashes of the two swords. The 7th Apostle was hurled backward and smashed into the wall.
"Khnnn..."
The 7th Apostle stared at the blood-beaded rubble raining down over his head, his jaw trembling.
Even Soul Severing Blood was overpowered...
Soul Severing Blood was the strike that boasted the greatest firepower in the Blood Heavenly Peerless Art. If that had been broken, beating this bastard with raw force was impossible.
A footstep pressed into the sticky floor. He lifted his head. Raon Zieghart was coming, his eyes gleaming with a ghastly light.
"Ugh..."
The insect he had thought he could kill with a casual twist of the neck now loomed enormous. He no longer merely exceeded the 7th Apostle's height — he seemed large enough to fill the entire cavern.
A-afraid? Me?
That could not be. As an Apostle of the Blood God, as a disciple of the Blood Cult Leader, he must never fear a maggot like this.
A way! There has to be a way!
His rolling gaze caught the blood pooled in the cracks scored across the floor and walls.
Ah!
The 7th Apostle gave a low nod.
There is. A way to kill this bastard!
This was the place where they had raised the Blood Manifestation Aberration Formation and charged their blood aura. The blood aura that had escaped the sorcery array was gathering here again. If he absorbed it, he could kill a creature like this as many times as he pleased.
"Hah!"
The 7th Apostle stepped his footwork to the extreme and shifted sideways. At the same time, he raised white-blood aura and began to suck in the blood aura collecting in the cavern.
Good. This will work.
He hadn't even cultivated for long, and already a considerable amount of blood aura was flowing in. If he could just stall a little, he could erase his wounds and gather enough blood aura to kill Raon.
I have to focus everything on the footwork.
He turned his gaze to flee from Raon — and the bastard wasn't approaching at all. Instead, he had driven that demonic short sword into the ground.
"What are you— huh?"
The 7th Apostle's mouth fell open. The blood aura that had been coalescing split in two, and half of it was flowing into Raon's short sword.
The short sword devoured the blood aura, swelling its demonic energy with a low, rolling groan.
"Kh! That's mine! Why is a bastard like you taking the blood aura!"
"It isn't blood aura. It's the resentment of the people you killed."
Raon pulled the short sword from the floor, his eyes shining with a cold light.
"These people."
Masses of blood aura surged into the air as if a vein had been opened. Through the mist of blood, he raised both swords.
Raon felt the colossal power the Requiem Sword was feeding him and filled his grip with strength.
The Requiem Sword rang with a piercing cry. The owners of the blood aura — the vengeful spirits of those the 7th Apostle had murdered — were telling him they wanted revenge.
As if those words were true, the blood aura that had flowed into this cavern gathered far more toward the Requiem Sword than toward the 7th Apostle, and poured a tremendous force into it.
Then I should grant that wish.
Raon dropped his stance and charged the 7th Apostle.
The Requiem Sword, wound with the principles of the Mad Fang Sword, crashed into the 7th Apostle's saw blade. The power of resentment and screaming that dwelt in that tiny blade shoved the saw blade back on its own. Terrifying demonic energy crushed the blood aura underfoot.
"Kh, with some filthy power like—!"
"The filthy one is you."
Raon held his breath and drew the Heavenly Sky Sword back. A fire dragon descended upon the silver blade and opened its maw wide. Its bright yellow eyes flared, and it loosed a roar of blazing heat.
Under the terrifying firepower the Flame Dragon Form unleashed, veins stood out all across the 7th Apostle's face.
He raised his blood aura in a frenzy, holding both the Requiem Sword and the Heavenly Sky Sword at once — but his limit was approaching. The hand gripping the saw blade trembled.
Raon leaned his upper body forward and poured more force into both swords. Blue and crimson energy became a mountain and shoved the 7th Apostle back.
The 7th Apostle's legs sank into the blood-soaked floor, and his whole body swayed like a paper doll.
"Ghhh..."
"The ones you killed couldn't even resist, I hear."
Raon looked down at the 7th Apostle with eyes burning like flame.
"I'll crush you to death like the insect you keep screaming about."
He stamped a true step and pressed further in. Through the demonic energy flowing in from the Requiem Sword, he amplified the Ring of Fire, the Ten Thousand Flames, and Glacia all at once.
"Uwaaaaaaaagh!"
The 7th Apostle screamed and made a last, thrashing stand, but Raon ignored the struggling and drew up every ounce of his strength, driving the 7th Apostle down.
Under the pressure, now a level stronger still, a stark white crack bloomed on the saw blade.
That single line multiplied exponentially, and the blade shattered into pieces. Through the scattering fragments of the saw blade, the 7th Apostle's eyes, filled with horror, came into view.
"This is the end."
"Goddaaaaamn it!"
Just as Raon was about to cut the screaming 7th Apostle's throat with the Requiem Sword and the Heavenly Sky Sword—
A ghastly energy dropped from behind him like a thunderbolt. A hand shot out at a speed that surpassed the limits of Master. Twisting his waist, Raon thrust the Heavenly Sky Sword backward.
Instead of a pulling gravity, a maximized repulsive force blasted the one who had surged in from behind.
"Kh—!"
The 7th Apostle did not miss that sliver of an opening, and tried to flee.
I can't let him go.
Raon clenched his teeth. Enduring a pain as if his mana circuits were burning, he brought the Requiem Sword in his left hand crashing down.
"I said get the hell out of my way!"
The 7th Apostle swept the shattered saw blade around. It was a move to stall the Requiem Sword and buy time for the one behind him to close in.
As the saw blade came surging up from below, a blue flash sparked in both of Raon's eyes.
A dreamlike blue aurora brushed past — and the Requiem Sword's blade buried itself in the 7th Apostle's neck.
Raon turned to look at the newly appeared man, twisting the corner of his mouth.