Chapter 72
Chapter 72
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Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 72
Chapter Title: Deadly Rematch
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“What’s wrong, Celia?” Yunes sneered. “You’ve waged war for over a century, with mountains of corpses and seas of blood on your hands, yet you’re afraid of something this trivial?”
Behind him, a diplomat slowly rose to his feet, his face deathly pale and his eyes vacant. He turned, seized his wife—who wore the same dazed expression—and suddenly smashed a heavy fist into her temple, instantly bursting her skull open!
The woman’s body crumpled limply to the floor. Karyan and the others leaped up and lunged toward the diplomat, but it was already too late—they had barely moved when Dark Star Warriors surrounded them. Then, dozens of mind-controlled guests rose from the VIP seats below, grabbing their companions by the hair and slamming their heads against the walls!
Those victims didn’t even struggle amid the agony. Some had their skulls cave in on impact, leaving streaks of blood on the walls. A few guests seated farther away hadn’t been fully hypnotized by Yunes yet; they were stunned at first, but the gruesome sight finally snapped them out of their daze. They screamed in terror and bolted for the exit.
Yunes glanced back with a signal, and several Dark Star Warriors immediately sprang up to pursue them!
Celia’s expression shifted drastically. He moved to intervene, only for Yunes to force the blade down several inches. “—What’s wrong, Celia? Weren’t you going to stop me?”
In a blade standoff, it all came down to that single breath. Celia faltered in shock, and the black lightning blade pressed against his cheek, carving a thin line of blood with its searing edge.
“You’re just as infuriating as you were four hundred years ago, Celia…” With their faces nearly touching, Yunes inhaled deeply in that position, his raspy voice laced with fascination. “But you smell much better now. I might even find you a little less detestable.”
“Pity my opinion of you hasn’t changed.” Celia gritted his teeth, forcing the words through clenched jaws. “—You filthy sewer rat!”
A metallic clang rang out as sparks flew in all directions, the brilliant blue lightning exploding several meters away!
The immense force shoved Yunes back half a step. In that flash, Celia circled around him and appeared before the Dark Star Warriors chasing the guests. His crimson-gold blade swept out in a dazzling fan-shaped arc, hurling several warriors flying at once!
Yunes roared, “Cry for your womanly mercy, Celia—!”
It was too late to stop. The instant Celia landed and sheathed his blade, Yunes descended like a massive raptor from above, appearing behind Osroed. The black lightning blade pierced straight through!
With a squelch, black blood sprayed out. Osroed looked down in disbelief at the blade tip protruding from his chest. “Yu… Yunes… you bastard…”
He didn’t finish. His body began melting from the feet up into a puddle of black sludge, vanishing completely within seconds.
·
Yunes sheathed his blade and turned, gazing down imperiously at Celia.
Karyan and Abel were hurriedly dragging the terrified lawmakers out, then rushing back in to stop the guests slaughtering each other. Several corpses already littered the floor. Celia faced off against a few Dark Star Warriors, his grip on his hilt so tight that veins bulged on his hand.
“You’re as easy to handle as ever,” Yunes remarked casually.
He flicked the black blood dripping from his blade and strode toward them. The warriors bowed and parted to clear his path. He halted a few meters from Celia, his slit pupils faintly glowing with crimson bloodlight.
Karyan and the others edged warily toward Celia, only to be blocked by other warriors the moment they moved.
The vast hall crackled with tension, every inch of air thick with killing intent.
Everyone’s nerves were stretched to the breaking point when Yunes finally spoke, his tone slow and gentle:
“Do you remember when we were young, Gavin?”
—His voice was so mild that, but for the blood still dripping from his blade, it could have been old friends catching up after years apart.
Celia just scoffed, saying nothing.
Yunes didn’t mind. He savored the faint, sweet, bloody scent in the air and sighed. “Your smell stirs up such nostalgia… But back then, we never imagined a day like this, did we? Maybe this is punishment for our youthful ignorance. Though looking back, I was just a way for you to rebel. Nothing special about me to you.”
“You were specially loathsome,” Celia said flatly.
“Oh? What kind?”
“Like a rat scurrying out at night to squeak and make trouble. Anyone would feel the natural disgust. Nothing special about it.”
Yunes fell silent for a moment, then a strange smile crept across his face. “Why do you keep emphasizing your disdain, Gavin? You and I both know that ever since the Desert Saint Walton died, the bond and hatred between us have burned stronger than anything else…”
“He wasn’t a saint!” Celia snapped. “He was just an ordinary old man! An unremarkable traveler, nothing more!”
“An ordinary old man who produced a student like you? You know full well he was canonized the moment you rose to fame.”
Celia went quiet, his jaw clenched tight, eyes boring into Yunes with icy fury. The other man ignored it, flicking his blade toward Celia in a blatant taunt. “—Come on, let’s settle this, Gavin. Four hundred long years have passed. It’s time you got to know me again.”
The ground trembled ever so slightly. In that instant, Celia drew his blade with a sharp ring and charged like lightning!
·
The grand airborne auditorium was instantly shrouded in countless lethal, chilling blade lights.
No one could follow their movements—only the electric arcs from clashing blades, weaving like tangled bolts of lightning, dazzling eyes with their brilliance. Crushing pressure radiated from the center of the fight, shredding any furniture or walls touched by the glow into dust amid thunderous crashes!
“Marshal!” Karyan took a step forward, only for several Dark Star Warriors to close in. Abel yanked him back. “Don’t be reckless!”
The battle was now too fast and furious to track with the naked eye—Celia favored the long spear, his strikes sweeping and powerful, channeling his full might into thunderous blade edges. Yunes countered with ferocious speed, each slash whipping up a razor-sharp black gale that collided with crimson-gold lightning, erupting in blinding sparks meters away!
The ground quaked harder, as if something massive approached from above. Many looked up in horror. Then came a deafening thunderclap—“Boom!”—as blade winds shattered the cracked walls. Yunes burst from a storm of debris, savage and unstoppable, lunging at Celia in a flash—
“You’ve lost, Gavin!”
The black lightning blade descended. With a deafening clang, Celia’s military blade flew from his grasp!
Unimaginable force slammed Celia into the wall, stones exploding outward as cracks spiderwebbed from the impact. Celia spat blood and reached desperately for his plummeting crimson-gold blade—but the next instant, the black blade pinned his palm to the wall!
Blood sprayed in all directions, like a slow-motion film scene, Yunes’s black robe billowing then settling in the smoke.
He loomed over Celia.
“I just wanted to see a bit more of your blood… Look at that, Gavin. So nostalgic.”
Yunes slowly pressed the hilt down, driving the blade deeper through Celia’s palm. He watched with relish as Celia’s hand shook violently, blood gushing from the edge.
“I’ve dreamed of this moment for so long. If I ever stood before you as the absolute victor, what should I say to ease four centuries of constant hatred and longing?”
“But today I finally get it. Nothing needs to be said. Just watch quietly… Watch you like this, sear your pathetic state into my memory…”
Yunes leaned in close, nearly brushing Celia’s ear, his voice cruel with amusement. “—That’s enough.”
Celia narrowed his eyes. Despite the pain, his face showed none of the humiliation or wretchedness Yunes craved—only a slightly hoarse voice when he spoke. “You’ve got one thing wrong.”
“—Oh?”
“You’re the victor. But not absolutely.”
The auditorium shuddered again, muffled thunder rumbling from above. Shingles rained down from the buckling roof, and gale winds howled through the fractured walls, whipping both men’s hair.
“I let you gain the upper hand temporarily because someone else will deal with you.”
“And I need all my focus for a trickier foe.”
A mocking smile tugged at Celia’s lips, utterly unmasked.
Yunes froze. Suddenly, the entire hall quaked violently, every glass window shattering in the roar! He whipped around, too slow to react fully—half the roof exploded in a blast, and a heaven-splitting dark-gold flash arrowed down like a massive bolt, the debris around it pulverized to powder by the rushing airstream—
It was a towering mecha giant, dozens of feet tall!
“Yu—nes—!”
The earth-shaking roar split the air. The mecha disassembled midair, its parts hurtling together into a massive sword that Heinrich seized from above, swinging it down with a gale-force strike—
The blow was apocalyptic. Yunes couldn’t block it and was smashed flying by the golden greatsword!