Chapter 68
Chapter 68
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 68
Chapter Title: The Sword
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'[Exploding Justice]'.
Boom!
"You didn't manifest it just to swing your sword around while spouting omens, did you? If that's the case, go learn some sorcery and punch things instead!"
Gaon sat on the sand dune with Bison, yelling down at Gil, who was locked in a brutal fight below. On this scorching land, Gil kept summoning flames to hunt the bugs.
"How about not putting your weight on your body-instead, let yourself follow the sword?"
"Like this?"
Thud!
Following Gaon's advice, Gil swung his sword with both hands, letting his center of gravity shift entirely toward the blade. But without a stable base, he lost his balance again and dropped to one knee. A bug flew at him, spraying poison, and Gil smashed his fist into its face.
"Hmm, not quite?"
Since he hadn't wrapped his hand in flames this time, the poison and the bug's bursting eyeball splashed onto his skin, sending smoke rising from his hand. Gil jammed it into the sand to clean it off, gritted his teeth, stood back up, and shouted.
"Damn it, then what the hell am I supposed to do, you wandering knight!"
"You know why you can't direct your weight toward the sword's path or use your omens properly, don't you? You don't trust your sword."
Gil knew full well that the flames wrapping around him were slowly burning his own arm.
"Damn it."
Maybe it had started from the moment his sense of justice began to waver. The flames he summoned had forgotten their nobility, burning any creature in sight indiscriminately. But there was no other way. So he swung.
'[Exploding Justice]'.
Boom!
The bug's brittle shell burst open, spilling eyes and brains onto the sand. The creature, writhing in agony as the flames spread, tore off the clothes it still wore-remnants of its human past-before finally succumbing to death. At the sight, the remaining two bugs lost their will to fight and scurried away on limbs of mismatched sizes.
"If you manifested by awakening to your sword's name, you have to believe that the sword is you."
Gaon stood from his spot and asked again. Gil snapped back to his senses amid the searing heat-whether rising from the ground or from the black blood of the bug he'd crushed-and examined his sword.
It was a blade of iron larger than even Bison, unyielding and steadfast in itself. Wasn't it the embodiment of his justice? Chedikahamai.
"I believe..."
The flames of the omen cloaking his sword were merely the product of his unwavering justice. What mattered wasn't the fire, but the justice itself. He knew that too.
But if that was true, what should he do now? Gil looked up at the gray sky stained red. It hung thick and dark like his own heart, ready to drown him in the desert at any moment.
"It's too shaken to believe. My justice was to eradicate demons from the world, but now I don't even know what demons are. I don't know who my enemies are. So what should I be? What should my justice be?"
"No."
Gaon, who had approached unnoticed, left Bison behind and lightly tapped Gil's massive arm before continuing.
"Who cares what justice is, or what your enemies really are? What you need to worry about right now-since you said you'd trust me-is figuring out what the sword you need to believe in actually is."
The sword is...
"Your own unbreakable conviction."
Nothing but yourself.
"That's too profound for a knight as green as me. By the way, what's that skinny wandering knight's omen? Is there some invisible something on that weird hilt? Why does the sand turn to dust one swing and scatter like wind the next?"
"Oh, right. I got caught up in the fundamentals and forgot. Technique matters too, of course."
Gaon drew his sword, Shava, and held it out before Bison and Gil. Predictably, the blade was invisible, and the hilt was rough and unadorned, barely qualifying as decorative.
"It'started as a sword with a red blade, but when it manifested, it shattered like cotton flying apart. Made it hard to get assigned to a knight order. But if I had to explain... my omen is in the swing of the sword. Like when Riu drew her blade."
He pressed the hilt's tip against Gil's chest.
"And when it manifested, I realized its true power: 'cutting.' I can'turn anything into my blade's edge. Even your shaking justice right now."
While Gil panicked, Gaon drew the flames from his chest. A formless red energy-the overwhelming power that could incinerate any foe in an instant-crept up from the hilt, taking shape.
That glow merged red and golden auras in a flash.
It was unmistakably the radiant, blazing sword of the one he trusted most.
"This is... the Hero's?"
It took the form of a hammer, just like the Hero's sword. A gale swept the sand away and stirred even the heavy sky.
The dune around them crumbled and rushed outward. Bison had to draw his own sword to block the holy wind. Seeing this, Gaon sighed as if deflating, shook off the hilt to dispel the blade, and said,
"Your justice is still like the Hero's, huh. Sure, maybe one day we'll all be Heroes. But that's not yours. Define your own justice. Don't just follow the guiding star-forge your own unyielding conviction."
But his words weren't fully reaching Gil.
"My conviction is..."
And why would they? It was the first time Gil had truly faced the self he'd imagined. The ideal version he'd longed for-and thus struggled and wavered over-had suddenly confronted him amid the sandstorm.
"Me too..."
Living things only truly perceive the world when they face themselves directly. Gaon patted the dazed Gil's shoulder and continued.
"Once this is over, you might find your own justice, knight. Onward."
At his words, Gil pulled himself together, resolved to trust the wandering knight fully, and replied.
"Somehow, I'm certain fate will guide me to the end of this path! Yerutsa Rahav!"
"Yeah, yeah, Yerutsa blah blah."
"So what about me? I know Nabatgahar's sword name and manifested it, but I can't cut worth a damn? You, wandering knight..."
Just as the three prepared to set off again.
Wham!
Something enormous swung an arm from behind the group. Bison instinctively raised his sword to block, but he flew far off, his armor shattered, embedding into the sand.
"Ahh..."
"Bison!"
"Forget that beastkin knight-look ahead, knight!"
At Gaon's words, Gil turned and saw the massive scorpion that had sent Bison flying. Or rather, it resembled one, with its huge body and razor-sharp tail.
"Face your enemy straight on and raise your sword again."
"What the hell is this...? Another seed creation?"
It was clearly 'human.' It looked like humans fused together, akin to the Demon King's massive pus monsters, but slightly different.
The Demon King's death-spawned pus was a mangled mess of flesh and bone, barely alive. But this one had small human pillars sprouting from its torso, and at the end of one, the upper body of an adult woman that seemed to possess at least animal-level awareness.
It was like a human impaled like a spear in the head of a giant scorpion made of bone and shell.
"But why?"
What could create such absurdity? Why must he feel sorrow seeing these things? As Gil sank back into thought, Gaon shouted.
"Don't try to understand evil. Don't pity it, don't grieve it! It's just vermin! Crush it! I won't step in. Go on, exterminate the bug."
The giant scorpion bug let out a horrific, piercing screech and charged at Gil. He drew his sword, ducked low to evade the claw, then leaped up and slashed downward.
'[Exploding Justice]'.
Boom!
Flames, metal, and sand erupted in a spray as the scorpion leaped back. Gil pressed the attack, swinging wildly-down from above, to the right, to the left, thrusting when that failed. The flames burned ever deeper.
"I don't know the reason!"
Tears welled from sorrow. Everything grew clearer.
"I won't understand! Evil! This wretched sin!"
His justice blazed.
"My sword crushes evil!"
Like the Hero's, it was the wick of colossal rage-his unyielding sword.
"That's what my conviction demands!"
The reason for Gil's wavering was clear. He was weary of seeing justice fall, pitying those it crushed. Gradually, he'd begun to feel sorry for them-the demons, no, the humans who'd become demons.
And in this desert, drenched in heat hotter than his own flames, he'd grown curious about their stories. But now it was different. He'd reaffirmed the ideals he'd once chased.
So shake all he wanted.
"Yerutsa Rahav!"
He would smash any evil.
'[Justice Burning One]'.
He'd carry this absurdity to its end and incinerate the evil hiding there. Rage and rage again until he slew that singular 'evil'-neither demon nor human.
Boom!
A massive blaze and sandstorm hammered the scorpion bug. It couldn't even scream as it burned from within, innards bursting before it died. Gil swung his great sword to stir the wind, driving away the acrid, fishy stench.
Filled with fury, he demanded,
"Wandering knight, now Gil will follow your guidance without hesitation. Tell me how to burn my enemies. What's your plan for Godel?"
Gaon, already helping Bison up, brushed off the sand and murmured to himself.
"Well then, it's about time for the prince to head back."
He grinned playfully at Gil and replied.
"Come on, it's just a little further now. I'll tell you how to truly save Agagtur, destroy the seed, and spark a revolution in Godel."