Chapter 64
Chapter 64
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 64
Chapter Title: Superior Blessing
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A surge of energy erupted from Damus's body.
It was something akin to sludge, akin to darkness.
“Right.”
Sein took a step back as he watched the sight and spoke.
“You're treated like a boss and all, but without that, you'd be done for, right?”
He had let it slip to Rasiel that Damus had not awakened his blessing.
Just like Sein, despite his skills, his blessing awakening was delayed.
A blessing was an extraordinary power.
In the lineage of the underworld, it was both alpha and omega.
“Graaaaaah!”
Just awakening a blessing transformed candidates who were mere mortals into something else entirely.
The same went for Vita, Kimo, and Dante's two master-level candidates.
They fell far short of true master standards.
Yet when they fully utilized their blessings, they approached master level.
However.
“Sein! Sein—!”
In the labyrinth, the underworld's blessings did not function properly.
The pervasive darkness swallowed lesser darkness like sludge devouring smaller sludge, rendering most blessings unusable.
That was one reason Dante had fallen so easily.
“We can't just leave him be!”
For such an intense blessing to manifest in this labyrinth.
“You think I would?”
It meant the blessing awakening in Damus right now was that powerful.
The erupting darkness was devouring the labyrinth's own darkness.
Sein had already gripped Bastion and assumed his stance.
Whoooosh!
Mana began flowing into Bastion.
Its power would be halved compared to using divine power.
Voooong!
But with an absurd amount of mana infused, that drawback was nullified.
“Seeeeein—!”
Damus bellowed, eyes bulging wide.
That was the moment.
Slash!
There it was.
The single strike Sein had used to cleave hundreds of monsters at once.
‘Dismember.’
The awakening skill he had learned in his life as a wandering swordsman.
The wandering swordsman was, in fact, the last bloodline of a sunken Eastern martial clan, and the heirloom martial manual passed down through generations contained only one sword technique.
An absolute sword strike that required a lifetime to perfect.
Kwaaaaa!
A deafening roar echoed as if splitting the labyrinth in half, with Damus at its center.
Crack!
The darkness enveloping Damus split apart.
But in that instant.
“Damn.”
Sein muttered a curse and inverted his grip on Bastion.
Crunch!
Bastion plunged into the ground.
Flaaaare!
A brilliant light burst from the holy sword Bastion, forming a barrier.
This was one of the holy sword Bastion's special abilities: Absolute Barrier.
True to its name, it generated an impregnable defensive shield, but it devoured immense divine power, making it unusable outside of the late game without special circumstances.
Using it with mana was sheer madness.
“…….”
But Sein, with his unimaginable mana reserves, fully activated Absolute Barrier.
Kwaaaaa!
It felt like a storm was raging.
Scattering debris shook the barrier, and fierce winds threatened to upheave the earth.
And in the next moment.
Craaaack!
Cracks began to form on Absolute Barrier.
“Whoa, shit.”
Even Sein looked taken aback.
Yet perhaps because he had already poured in even more mana.
Shatter!
When Absolute Barrier finally broke, no further shockwave followed.
“Huff…. Huff….”
On the other side stood Damus, clad in armor of darkness.
*
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*
Blessings were powers that had not existed in the past.
However, Sein could infer from the few blessings he had seen.
‘Awakening skill.’
A blessing was a fragment of the strongest skills granted in a single lifetime.
Cultivating and perfecting it could yield destructive power equal to—or surpassing—an awakening skill.
And lives in Sanctuary had grades.
Life grades were user metrics estimating difficulty, perks, and more, with awakening skills holding the greatest weight.
Groooowl!
Sinking mana.
“Whoa, fuck.”
Only Sein could accurately grasp what had just happened.
“That bastard's blessing is insane.”
When underworld bloodlines came of age, they awakened their blessings.
However, some failed to awaken even then, either lacking aptitude for blessings entirely.
-Or possessing a superior blessing.
Or having such an overwhelmingly powerful blessing that its manifestation was delayed.
Damus had feared he might never awaken his own, so he trained even harder to change that.
Hoping to grow strong enough to conquer the labyrinth someday and force his awakening that way.
But there had been no need.
“…So this is the feeling.”
Damus was clearly the latter case.
“A blessing…”
His blessing had been so potent that its emergence was postponed.
“So this is what it feels like.”
“Everyone, fall back.”
Sein commanded the candidates.
He couldn't lose all his carefully nurtured party members in an instant.
Then he assessed the foe.
-Grade 3.
The blessing awakened in that grotesque creature was the awakening skill of a grade 3 life.
-Life: Successor of Rebound Qi Gong.
One of the Eastern lineage lives: born as the successor of a great warrior, seeking and mastering lost martial arts.
The skill born when all those fragments were gathered and combined.
-Rebound Qi Gong.
Eastern lineage lives had high difficulty and high grades.
‘The value of that awakening skill is off the charts.’
Just like the Dismember he had used earlier.
Rebound Qi Gong absorbed all incoming force.
“Suuuuuck!”
And released it.
“Paaaaah—!”
Damus roared.
The shockwave overturned Sein and the surrounding area.
Even as the retreating candidates hurriedly assumed defensive postures, it was beyond what they could easily withstand.
“What the hell is that….”
A monstrous power.
“A superior blessing…!”
The candidates seemed to realize it too.
Boom!
Damus slammed his fist into his own chest.
The moment red light infused the chest of his darkness armor.
Kwaaa!
A beam shot toward Sein.
Clang!
Sein deflected the beam with Bastion.
“Not bad response time.”
Upon awakening a blessing, one instantly comprehended its power.
“How does it feel, Sein Demorus?”
Damus said.
The flustered expression was gone.
“Surrender to me now, and I'll gladly accept you.”
“Really?”
“I heard you haven't awakened yours either, so I'll even give you the blessing awakening you'll get after conquering the labyrinth.”
Damus curled his lip.
“But on one condition.”
“Let's hear it.”
“Kill Ciss.”
“…….”
Damus's face twisted.
“Vita and Kimo too.”
Rage.
“Geis! Deria! Kira! Slaughter all the traitorous dogs—!”
Sein turned at Damus's shout.
There.
“…….”
The candidates looked uneasy.
Sein looked back at Damus.
“But at this point, don't you get it?”
“You're rejecting my offer?”
“No. The faces you should be looking at aren't over here.”
Not Dante.
“Do they look scared to you?”
Rasiel.
From the moment they arrived at Rasiel for the exchange match, he should have paid attention.
To the confidence on Rasiel's candidates' faces.
He shouldn't have dismissed it as mere bravado or arrogance.
“Of course not. Why would they?”
Not a single word should have been glossed over.
-Welcome to the labyrinth, first time?
There had been plenty of hints.
When Rasiel's candidates had suffered at their hands, there had been a reason for the expressions on Rasiel's candidates' faces.
If he had noticed.
Groooowl!
Then perhaps seeing the expressions on Rasiel's candidates now could have changed the outcome.
Darkness.
It was in no way inferior to Damus's.
If anything, denser, darker.
Squish.
It slithered across the ground like liquid, ensnaring Damus's feet.
“……!”
Superior blessing.
No, beyond that.
“Did you think I bowed to Sein only because of a deal?”
It was Ciss's voice.
The resolve that hadn't bent even to Damus had broken.
“That guy's the real deal.”
The previous labyrinth.
“What he awakened was the founder's blessing.”
Sein had awakened his blessing.
“Bullshit—!”
*
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*
“No way!”
Damus clenched his fist.
The black gauntlet glowed faintly for a moment.
Thud!
Damus stomped.
Red light swirled around his leg.
In the next instant.
Boom!
Damus shot toward Sein like a cannonball.
An application through Rebound Qi Gong—Sein's praise was genuine.
Propelling himself by blasting the condensed energy from his foot.
Boom!
And unleashing the power gained by clenching his fist like crushing rock.
An explosion burst from Sein's cheek.
However.
Grip.
Sein, with his blackened hair, caught it.
But the terror of Rebound Qi Gong began here.
The gauntlet gripped by Sein glowed fiercely.
The clash from the attack was energy too.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-boom!
It could infinitely detonate, vaporizing the opponent.
Acrid smoke filled the labyrinth passage.
“Cough! Cough hack!”
Damus spat blood.
“Great ability, but the backlash is huge. And since it's from a blessing, you're only half-baked.”
“……!”
The voice of Sein, who should have been shattered to pieces, rang out.
“You need Indestructible Diamond Body first to boost your physical durability.”
Ripple.
Before his eyes.
“Otherwise, your own body breaks first.”
Sein looked down at Damus.
“Well, lots to explain, but you hate explainers too, right?”
Despite the obvious massive impact, Sein looked perfectly fine.
Jet-black obsidian gazed down at Damus.
Its owner quietly extended a hand.
“First time trying it for real, so take care of me.”
Sein's awakened blessing.
-That power…
Only Ciss, from the main family, knew it.
The blessing held by the founder who established Demorus.
-Alpine's blessing.
-Corruption.
The blackened darkness swallowed Damus whole.