Chapter 247
Chapter 247
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>Translator: penny
>Chapter: 247
>Chapter Title: One Strike, Certain Kill
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>Crack—
The sword cracked, shattering like glass fragments.
The king instinctively let go of his hand.
It felt as though even the hand gripping the sword was about to shatter.
It wasn't just the sword. Everything in the straight line was breaking.
Crack, crack—
His own sword energy, boiling as if it would devour anything in its path.
The massive white lion that had leaped toward him, mouth agape as if to chew and swallow him whole.
Even the blizzard swirling around it, freezing the entire area.
The moment that man swung his sword down.
Everything shattered and scattered into nothingness, as if returning to void.
Ah...
In a world slowed to slow motion, as if sound itself had vanished.
He could see every detail of his energy breaking into pieces and turning to dust.
That was why he knew.
The formless sword energy was shattering everything it touched along its trajectory.
And furthermore, it was about to swallow even him.
Step, step.
The man who had shattered everything stood tall, gazing at this place, then slowly approached.
Unyielding eyes that wouldn't falter before any adversity, and footsteps steady as a mountain, headed straight for him.
It was then that cracks appeared in the king's dazed pupils as he stared.
He couldn't tell if the cracks originated from himself or from that man.
To be precise, he had no time to care about such things.
[Th...is...]
Along with a sensation as if his head was splitting open, certain scenes flashed by.
A dark night, burning ruins.
Just before losing his sense of self, a wretched figure collapsed on the ground, and a man walked toward him.
He stopped right by his head and looked down at the bloodied him with arrogant eyes.
Struggling to lift his gaze, he saw it.
The chilling black eyes of the man.
The moment his horrified face reflected in those inhuman yet human eyes.
Flash—
[Ah... Aah...]
Certain memories passed by like a panorama.
The scene of locking eyes with that arrogant, chilling man from afar.
The moment of trying to self-destruct in the giant abyss, eyes meeting as the man grinned.
Underground, in a forgotten tomb, fighting a massive figure over 2 meters tall with black wings that ambushed his fallen self.
Ultimately defeated, losing his sense of self, rampaging madly before collapsing.
—You've got what you wanted. Don't come back.
In his blurring vision, he saw five silhouettes and a low voice.
—Then where do we store this guy's lingering thoughts, Captain?
Compared to the arrogantly standing man, a relatively light voice replied.
Even as a silhouette, the voice belonged to a man with a lion's mane.
—Handle it yourself. Do I have to tell you that too?
—No, not that, but still, if possible... Ah, that witch would be good. Seal it in a tombstone and hand it over.
The muttering voice faded, and his vision clouded white.
Tears were blocking his view.
Ah...
Why tears were flowing.
Why his hand clutching the dirt floor felt such profound sorrow even in the moment of dying.
The king didn't know.
Aaaah...!!
But the boiling emotions felt in those memories told the king.
Those ones were the most dangerous existences of all.
He had to eliminate those who threatened the empire's peace.
It became an obsession,
[The hidden effect of the Executioner trait activates.]
[Your body burns to gain the power to execute the target.]
[The activation conditions for the Supreme Realm trait have been met.]
[The Forgotten King manifests the Supreme Realm.]
The obsession ignited into flames, burning his eyes and heart.
As his mind grew hazy from the scorching sensation as if all his internal mana circuits were burning, the king's eyes rolled back halfway.
[Temporarily reaching the Supreme Realm.]
[The sense of self is unstable.]
[The knight's mana from the Supreme Realm goes berserk.]
[Danger! Do not receive the sword strike.]
Urgent alerts rang out overhead like alarms.
“...What?”
Just as Do-hyun was about to finish it off, his eyes widened at the sudden flurry of messages.
Something flashed within the black mana overwhelming his vision like an explosion.
That was when the desperate voices of his minions reached him.
—M-Master...!!
—My lord!
—Rizariza!!!
And the moment he realized it.
[The Forgotten King unleashes his unique swordsmanship imbued with the Supreme Realm, One Strike, Certain Kill.]
[Overwhelming realm swordsmanship.]
[Second Form: Break is devoured.]
[Uses the first ability of Tears of the God.]
[Entering 2-second invincibility state. (Cooldown: 90 minutes)]
[One Strike, Certain Kill ignores invincibility.]
“...!”
Do-hyun's feet, which had seemed unstoppable, halted as his sword dropped,
Slash—!
His throat was slit.
* * *
—Insane...
—Uh... Um...
—What the hell am I watching right now?
—This can't be right, guys.
—Damn... I don't know anymore.
—Whoa... Never thought I'd see something like this in my life.
The live broadcast had now surpassed 200 million viewers.
Though split across countless channels, the chat reactions were largely similar.
And rightly so—there was no other response to the scene unfolding now.
Boom! Crash!
What the broadcast showed was the ground and buildings crumbling pathetically in the wake of a massive deep-sea monster fish thrashing about.
“Uwaaak! Save me!”
“Gahk!”
—I-It's retreating! Who the hell suggested raiding this... Khek!
“Damn...”
High rankers, honored to experience its power up close, were fleeing for their lives.
Raid? War?
No such grandiose terms were needed now.
Boom! Groooar!
This was a one-sided massacre.
Compared to the raid party suffering near-annihilation, the monster's health still sat at 40 million.
No more rankers were announcing their participation.
The Top 10 Guild Masters commanding the raid had to choose.
Total annihilation, or a cowardly retreat.
“...We retreat.”
Faced with the worst of worst choices, they picked the latter.
No honor in annihilation, better to plan for the future.
Their earlier ambitious demeanor was long gone.
—The Top 10 Guilds tucking tail and running...
—Rare sight in a lifetime, damn...
—Look at Leon backpedaling in panic. Where's that confident declaration to raid it?
—Who called Leon the epitome of bravery? No different from Berger.
—Visual novel gay alert lololol Every time he shows up.
And that choice shocked the viewers.
Who were the Top 10 Guilds?
The pinnacle who cleared all impregnable bosses like God o'Say. Leading a high ranker raid party, to suffer such a crushing defeat.
—One thing's clear: we're screwed right now.
—Fr.
—Should we call off the annihilation?
—If we don't catch it in time, we're fucked big time.
—Won't the Empire handle it?
—Problem is it spawns randomly in cities. Damage scale means the game's future is uncertain.
—Ernest is truly fucked lololol
Xiao clicked her tongue at the bustling chat.
She wanted to turn off the broadcast right then.
Other guilds were doing so one by one, but her pride wouldn't allow it.
At least she needed to end it with dignity.
—But is Kaiser still fighting the king?
With no hope left in the disaster raid, Kaiser's name began creeping into the chats.
—Over 40 minutes, is he really gonna get it?
—Only hope is Kaiser...
—Kaiser, is he truly a god?
—No no, I heard the king is absolutely uncatchable. Apparently there's an impossible pattern in phase 2.
—That's just sour grapes cuz they couldn't clear it, idiot.
—No, it's not that level. Top 10 Guilds never kneel anywhere, would they bail right after Arthur lost? They must've heard something huge.
It was as they said.
The Top 10 Guilds, including Xiao, hadn't skipped challenging just because Arthur and other rankers failed.
[Arthur: The Forgotten King is a trap card.]
“What does that mean?”
[Arthur: Current users can't catch it. Need at least Sword Emperor level... Unbelievable. It's like advancing a world quest that should've opened years from now...]
Back when Arthur's defeat caused a stir.
The masters here had received a whisper. No reply after that last message, probably dead.
‘If even Arthur was that certain, something's definitely up.’
Annoying as he was, he wasn't one to spout nonsense.
So they shifted to tackling the giant disaster instead.
But the result was a crushing defeat.
‘Like advancing something years ahead... Might be right.’
Given the absurd difficulty.
Xiao glanced up with a sigh.
—But why's the Armory Master just sitting in his chair this whole time?
—Propping his chin watching from up there is hilarious lololol Thought he was Rodin.
—Lolol Look at that calm face. Disaster? Not his problem.
—Armory Master is a comic character?
—Still, should join in, fuck. Free ride. Boycotting Babylon from today.
—Joining gets it caught? That's smart~
‘Ast, that guy competes with me one minute, now I have no idea what his game is... Tch, is this really the end?’
Nothing but devastation around.
Only glimmer of hope was Kaiser, but even that seemed impossible.
Defeat naturally rose in her mind.
And the others felt the same.
“...It's over.”
Arthur, master of The King, watching Xiao's broadcast, let out a sigh.
Failure in the giant disaster raid meant failure of the world quest.
The king he'd faced was something no solo user could catch.
It hadn't always been that way.
Due to his trait of growing stronger against evil, phase 1 was manageable.
Even entering phase 2, just a bit harder, seemed clearable.
‘...Supreme Realm. The moment that trait activated, everything changed.’
A different breed from what the Sword Emperor showed.
Rather like Sir Lebed of Brion's sea-splitting single stroke.
No, fiercer, rougher, more desperate.
Unlike Sir Lebed's awe-inspiring sight, this swordsmanship sent chills.
‘One Strike, Certain Kill pours everything into a single blow. No user can block it now.’
Only one way to block it.
‘Reach a similar realm.’
Thus, only the Sword Emperor could catch it, he was certain.
“Unless the king somehow takes his own attack.”
Arthur chuckled wryly at his mutter.
A joke.
Even without sense of self, it wouldn't do something that stupid.
‘If the city disaster repeats, chaos for a while. Can't ignore chance of Ernest disbanding. Vacancy in Top 10 means war potential. Total mess.’
In Arthur's mind, planning post-world quest failure, Kaiser was already forgotten.
* * *
Slash—
Silence flows. Only the sound of the throat being slit echoes.
A beat later, touching it with both hands—thankfully, his head was still attached.
—Ugh...
—C-Charlie, you okay?
—Riza...
Meanwhile, Charlie knelt on one knee behind, wracked in pain.
It was all thanks to Charlie.
[Charlie has activated Oath on Kaiser-nim.]
[Sacrifice effect activates, taking the powerful damage instead.]
[Received instant-death level damage; Charlie's health drops to 1%.]
The hero-grade skill Oath of the knight.
Acquired before but unused for sacrifice thanks to Tears of the God, only used for buffs.
‘Without this...’
His head would've been gone by now.
Do-hyun swallowed hard at the terrifying crater of unimaginable size before him.
From where the king stood to here.
The entire path was torn to shreds, like clawed by a giant beast.
Unable to withstand the energy in One Strike, Certain Kill, it had been shredded.
‘Is it really insane? Even phase 2 should crumble reasonably, what's with ignoring invincibility?’
Do-hyun furrowed his brow deeply.
Shocking enough to have an invincibility-ignore pattern, but why now of all times.
Good thing he instinctively used Oath.
If he'd trusted only Tears of the God, he'd be staring at a gray screen—thinking that made his guts shrivel.
—...Sorry, my lord. Seems this is the end for me.
“No, Charlie, you've done more than enough. Thank you.”
—Rizariza.
Eliza chimed in agreement, consoling Charlie.
Thus, Charlie retired.
[Guardian Jihad Black's mana is fully depleted.]
[Undead summoning is canceled.]
—...Master, this is the end for me too.
The undead legion, practically wiped out except Pain, vanished completely.
Now only Do-hyun and Eliza remained.
After Eliza hopped lightly into his clothes, Do-hyun faced forward.
[Execute... Execute... Must... execute...]
The king, eyes bloodshot, muttering only that endlessly, approached slowly.
This king was vastly different from before.
As the message said, temporarily ascended to Supreme Realm—the leaking energy was extraordinary.
Behind such a king, a black lion slowly emerged.
Grrr...
Behind the black lion, the white lion revealed itself too.
Both lions gazed here.
He knew instinctively: fighting now meant certain defeat.
But Do-hyun smiled.
“Finally time to use this.”
Grinning widely, he slowly opened his clenched hand.
In his grasp was a mirror. Small, shabby, dull. Even half-broken.
Yet Do-hyun's eyes on the mirror weren't pleased at all.
[Confirming death-level damage.]
[Usage conditions met.]
[Using Mirror of Revenge.]
Mirror of Revenge.
Reward for S-rank clearing of Brion's graduation quest.
The moment the long-curious ??-grade consumable activated.
[Firing One Strike, Certain Kill as a shockwave.]
Flash—
Dazzling light burst from the half-broken mirror,
[Exe... cute...?]
The Forgotten King trailed off at the massive shockwave hurtling toward him at light speed.
The king had become the idiot taking his own attack.