Red Sea (2)
“Your Majesty, a malevolent slayer star has risen over the empire. And of all places, beneath Your Majesty’s own star…”
A Heavenly Slayer Star had been born in the Rozvela Empire.
Even if it appeared in some lowly orphan, it warranted dispatching the Execution Squad to eliminate it—a fate of utter dread.
But it had to be the emperor’s youngest daughter.
“Confine the princess to eternal imprisonment.”
Iris Luzvela was abandoned in the most remote corner of the palace.
Guarding the palace were knights of the imperial Five Stars.
The wet nurse assigned to her in childhood took her own life when Iris was just four.
How could everyone abandon me?
After the wet nurse’s death, meager food arrived in a small cart.
Even that stopped once she turned eight.
I’m hungry.
In the desolate palace devoid of people, Princess Iris shivered in loneliness.
No one—not even the knights—could enter her palace.
I’ll hunt my own prey…
For some reason, monsters began appearing within the castle walls.
She yanked a candelabrum from the wall and swung it like a sword.
She roamed the castle herself, securing food.
No one taught her swordsmanship, yet she mastered it in an instant.
Word got out, and she was cast into the Abyss.
【I shall fulfill your dream. Seize me, lonely girl.】
There, she met the Sword—no, her Sword Lord.
Is there truly a being who needs me?
Though the entire world had forsaken her, the Sword Lord protected her.
Even when the world sought her death, the Sword Lord supported and shielded her.
She overcame solitude with the sword as her companion.
“This one despises the entire world.”
The sword understood her will.
It granted her the power to achieve her dream.
And so, she became the final empress who brought the continent to ruin—
“We beheld the world’s end together… How could you abandon this one?”
In the sword’s world, Iris wailed in despair.
One day, this eternal space connected to her Sword Lord’s world.
She strove endlessly.
She overcame the meddling of that loathsome old sword and earned the right to speak with her Sword Lord.
Yet the Sword Lord remained silent.
Has this one become too small to see?
From their first meeting, the Sword Lord had always emphasized her nutrition and growth.
Perhaps he disliked her childlike form.
In this tiny state, I fail to catch his eye. Is there no way to grow this body—perhaps by slaying and absorbing the other swords…
Amid such despair—
Thuuuuuush————.
A thick scent of blood wafted in.
Clear enough to reach even the sword’s world.
“Ahh, as expected! My Lord did not ignore this one!!!”
Iris realized.
She had not been abandoned.
“A feast for this one…”
Her Lord intended to share a banquet of blood with Iris, reveling in their reunion!
A massive red greatsword tore through the air and surged forth.
A blade of lustrous purple hue.
A hilt radiating eerie menace.
Any who beheld it would deem it the root of all ten thousand evils—a sword to inspire terror.
But…
Thump—!!!
My heart pounded.
The sword I had raised alongside me since childhood, the one with whom I’d witnessed the world’s end.
How could it not tremble as I grasped it with my own hand?
My other swords quivered in kind.
The Blood Lord who commands a million devils, the continent's final empress. Iris Luzvela, heeds her Sword Lord's call.
She spoke.
Her voice trembled faintly.
I nodded impassively and surveyed my surroundings.
The world was already bathed red from the Red Sea, but the crimson aura surging from the sword dyed everything an even deeper scarlet.
I expanded my vision far.
Ruuuush————.
In the slowed world, hazy red waves rippled.
Monsters of the Red Sea erupted from within.
“Run—.”
“The sea—!!!”
People fled with waves at their backs in the decelerated world.
All this unfolded in an instant, but my transcendent cognition captured and processed every detail.
This one has never forgotten the grace of fulfilling her wish. Now, it is my turn to repay. Use my power freely, my Lord.
Iris whispered.
Sweet as a devil’s temptation.
I gladly accepted.
Swish—.
Suppressing my surging excitement as best I could.
I aimed Sword 2, Iris Luzvela, at the vast sea.
My foe was a pseudo-natural disaster.
Towering waves poised to engulf Goyang City and flood Seoul.
Yet I felt no fear.
I can kill anything.
I sensed it.
How to wield the power within the sword.
The myriad authorities and memories earned raising the sword.
Plus the enlightenment gained as Sword Lord, flashing through my mind in an instant.
Kill the sea. Kill the Red Sea.
The red blood within the sword was my power.
The vengeful spirits slumbering inside were devils at my command.
All it took was my word.
“Devour—.”
A simple command.
And the swing of my sword.
Swish——.
The red greatsword slashed toward the waves.
No mere swing.
One Annihilation: Horizontal Slash.
Reinhardt’s first transcendent technique, manifested through the red greatsword.
Originally a technique emitting vast heavenly blue light.
Now, different.
A sinister crimson took its place.
Thick red sword energy poured toward the waves.
Fissures cracked the air.
Craaaack—craaack.
The atmosphere shattered along the sword’s path.
From the cracks, dark red blood oozed.
Thus, I manifested the million devils slumbering in the sword upon the earth.
Kiiiiiiii—————.
Dark red blood.
It became devils.
These devils were monsters with enormous heads—bald, with a single crude eye, their faces splitting horizontally in grotesque fashion.
They multiplied by tens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, leaping toward the Red Sea.
Squelch—.
The devils opened their maws.
Teeth like massive human molars chewed and swallowed the Red Sea’s aberrant monsters.
They swelled to a million, plunging fearlessly into the sea.
Power—.
The devils devoured the Red Sea, growing larger.
The Red Sea was blood.
They consumed it.
An indescribable elation surged through my body.
Thump!!!
My heart thundered.
I felt blood filling some void in real time.
Yet paradoxically, a deep thirst followed.
The devils quenched it by devouring the Red Sea.
Blood Lord.
The authority I gained from Iris.
It was manifesting in my very flesh.
The emptiness filled.
I didn’t know the specifics.
Right now, I am nigh omnipotent.
Sword and wielder are one.
The truth of Raise a Sword.
Thus, I was now on par with 5-Sword Iris.
Approaching omnipotence.
I’ll know the changes once the sword’s summoning ends.
Even as these thoughts raced, the devils grew, sucking the Red Sea dry.
The devils were the subjects.
The sole loyalists of the final empress who razed the continent.
They saw me as their lord, devouring all per my will.
Devour only the Red Sea—.
The power that destroyed a world.
They yearned to consume everything.
But I was their master.
As sword lord, I restrained them.
The devils obeyed, absorbing the Red Sea’s blood at astonishing speed.
Unbelievable power.
Soon, the sea fell eerily still.
I stared in awe at the phenomenon I’d wrought.
Huuuush——.
The Red Sea vanished.
Not just the waves from the gate overflow, but the sea engulfing Goyang City entirely.
Goyang’s land emerging after a decade might make me seem a savior…
Crunch—.
But million devils, swollen to the size of the Red Sea’s waves, filled the area.
They rolled their gleaming single eyes, demanding more to devour.
And I stood at the heart of this cataclysm.
Ahh, this one has grown a little. She eagerly awaits reunion with her Sword Lord.
Four seconds total.
With Iris’s farewell, the world quaked.
Booom————.
The colossal devils dissolved into blood mist in an instant, vanishing into the sword.
The massive red greatsword in my hand returned to its invisible sheath.
And…
My body has changed.
I’d absorbed immense blood.
The Blood Lord trait evolved everything about me further.
Scents sharpened.
Vision clarified.
Every muscle twitch registered; I felt total control over my flesh.
No sooner had I registered it than another change hit.
Agasword has gained massive indirect experience.
Please select a new trait!
My small, precious ‘Agasword’ had grown.
Now I could choose its lineage and build a specific path.
Countless observers have witnessed the feat of Sword Lord—Shin Si-woo.
The world sends acclaim for this great achievement.
You have resolved most of the Enigma.
Mystery 1kg ingot has been granted.
Seek and resolve the origin of the Red Sea.
1kg of Mystery… and a World Quest?
Distracted by the barrage of messages and astronomical rewards—
Hm?
A strange smell wafted from behind.
I glanced back.
“W-What the hell just happened!!!”
Kang Mu-jin, Seol-ah’s father and Chief Prosecutor, collapsed backward with a thud.
Too much happened in four seconds; no wonder he’s shocked.
I assumed it was shock at the sword erasing the Red Sea—but—
“D-Don’t come closer!!!”
He stared at me in horror.
Visibly terrified.
A quick look around: everyone was the same.
I’d gone a bit too flashy, it seemed.
Yet martial law persists.
In normal times, citizens would protest—but—
Chaos erupted after a live reporter spewed blood and fainted mid-broadcast.
Koreans recalled one hero.
Justice’s Prosecutor, Kang Mu-jin.
He’d shouldered this massive, terrifying bomb alone for the people.
Everyone bought it.
Shin Si-woo’s power was overwhelming—threateningly so.
Like—
Patriot’s diehards freaked.
But even they wondered who was stronger.
Patriot repelled it with firepower.
Barely, up to Goyang.
His diehards backed down.
Shin Si-woo was a Korean hunter.
Fearsome power, sure…
But a great hero who resolved a national threat.
Public opinion shifted fast on facts.
Focus turned to the act’s essence.
Jesus, America’s top hunter.
The madman who turned the entire Grand Canyon into a church.
The world’s sole EX-rank hunter.
Not gate-spawned fake Red Sea—Jesus split the actual Atlantic.
No disabled in America now.
‘Jesus’’ blessings cured even mental illness perfectly.
“Oh, damn God!!!”
Even Jesus gaped at Shin Si-woo’s feat.
“Such a horrific, gruesome monster appearing in the mortal world…”
In the Grand Canyon church.
A black man with twin cornrows muttered.
“Gates aren’t the issue now.”
He’d watched Korea after the forced gate break.
But…
Something far more sinister than the Red Sea emerged.
“A—men.”
Jesus gripped his cross necklace, murmuring prayers.
Moments later—
Sizzle.
SATAN, DEVIL, DEMON, EVIL, POWERS OF DARKNESS.
“My God—.”
Meant to be torn apart on sight: a devil.
That eerie red greatsword.
The devils it summoned.
True evil power.
“We must hunt that demon now. Summon President Bill!!!”
Jesus commanded.