Chapter 114
Chapter 114
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 114
Chapter Title: The Ash Patriarch Emerges
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Clang, clang!
Amid the resounding clash of swords.
Havel, Penrad, and the Ash Knights were moving busily.
In the fierce exchange of blows.
Behind the Ash Knight's helmet, Penrad's eyes shook more violently than ever.
'How the hell is he this strong? Calamity clearly doesn't exist here.'
This was a secret technique developed by the August family—a spell called Calamity Erasure.
It couldn't be activated anywhere instantly.
But once set up, it could erase Calamity from that space entirely.
Naturally, it was the perfect counter against Calamity users.
Penrad's mind had never even entertained the idea of losing to a sword.
Clang, clang, clang!
Unlike his panicked thoughts, Penrad's body moved with swift precision.
As if refusing to deny a lifetime of effort.
His ingrained swordsmanship lashed out at Havel like mad.
Clang!
But each time, his ash crumbled to pieces.
Kwachik!
At the same time, the Dawn's radiant halo shattered another Ash Knight.
The Ash Knights were dwindling steadily.
"Huff, huff!"
Penrad let out ragged breaths.
A bitter taste filled his mouth.
His frail-born body was signaling its limit.
He was pouring out every ounce of his full strength with each swing.
Ashen aura blazed fiercely, reaching toward the heavens.
He was giving everything he had.
Yet why?
Havel, who had felt utterly unremarkable before, now seemed impossibly distant.
It felt like none of his strikes could ever reach the man.
'Why.'
How could such a gap exist?
He hadn't taken up the new power of Calamity.
Instead, he had trusted his sword and honed it relentlessly, straightforwardly.
That had made Penrad strong in return.
A rigorously tempered strength.
The spell of Calamity Erasure.
These two had always protected the August family.
So much so that he had earned the secret nickname of Calamity Hunter.
And yet now.
Clang!
He was being pushed back by someone without Calamity.
Havel, who should have lost his Calamity by now.
As if Calamity had merely been a bonus from the start.
He displayed the pinnacle of what a completed swordsman could be.
Penrad's breath caught in his throat.
'Is this the realm achievable without Calamity?'
What the hell was this guy?
He had thought anyone could be beaten with Calamity handled properly.
'How shallow that thinking was.'
Penrad despaired.
He realized he had overestimated himself.
This wasn't rabbit hunting.
He needed preparations to hunt a dragon.
This man was a real monster.
One that made his struggles to protect the family seem laughable.
A monster forged through absurd training.
"I said I'd teach you about reality."
Havel's voice rang out as he shattered another Ash Knight.
Just hearing it distorted Penrad's face.
Terror crept up and strangled his throat.
Moreover, Havel's sword, growing ever brighter with Dawn's light, filled him with dread.
The family he had protected was slipping away.
"Kuh!"
He swallowed a groan like a curse.
His father had told him in such moments to use his judgment.
'My judgment.'
And his judgment was unwavering.
No matter what, he would protect August.
Rumble!
The ground around them shook violently, as if struck by an earthquake.
The air grew heavy in an instant.
Aura exploded from Penrad's sword like a rampage.
Soon, the surroundings filled with a storm of ash, visibility reduced to zero.
A tremendous aura surged.
A whole mountain was swallowed by the ash.
Vegetation turned to powder, the earth cracked and vanished.
An entire mountain was disappearing into the ash.
And within that storm of ash.
Clang!
A sound like an explosion rang out.
Clang!
Again.
Clang!
Again.
Clang!
Again.
It continued endlessly.
Penrad felt it.
That sound drawing closer to him bit by bit.
And how powerless his ash was dissolving before Havel's sword.
He knew it clearly.
Clang!
Suddenly, the sound was right in front of him.
Through gaps in the ash.
He saw Havel's sword, brighter than the sun.
An utterly different presence emanated from Havel.
Only then did he realize.
What he had thought was everything—a single tree.
Was actually a forest blanketing the world.
"That's as far as I indulge a child's tantrum."
Blinded by the light, Penrad gasped for breath.
"Wh-what are you? Without Calamity, what have you been through to reach this realm..."
Could a human grow this strong without Calamity?
Penrad recalled his father's words from long ago.
"Listen well, Penrad. The Calamities that have come to this world will one day turn it into a utter mess."
A world where training might become meaningless.
His father often spoke of such a future.
"But even in that world, never lose your sword."
What had his father seen?
Penrad didn't know.
But remembering those words, he swung his sword without Calamity.
Even if it meant a sword unable to accept the changing world.
And those who embraced Calamity to fit the era crumbled powerlessly without it.
Before his honed swordsmanship and aura, they fell one by one.
To him.
Havel, this strong without Calamity, was simply unbelievable.
Penrad's eyes fell on the Ash Knight made by his father to protect the family.
Now, only one remained.
Gazing at it, he swallowed hard.
"Nothing special."
Havel raised his sword gleaming with Dawn.
"Swing a sword for about a hundred years, and you end up like this."
Penrad closed his eyes at the shining blade.
The 'present' of August he had fought to protect was tied to its history.
In truth, he wanted to preserve August's history.
And Havel's sword, aimed at the future, carried the power of the future.
Seeing it, he realized the paradox.
To maintain history, one must advance into the future.
Even after a hundred years, Havel pressed forward.
Thus, Havel's sword descended.
And the world was dyed in Dawn's light.
The Dawn light swallowed all the ash, erasing it from the world.
And Penrad's mind was no different.
Blinded by the pure white light, a scene appeared before him.
"Penrad, take good care of your irresponsible father's family."
The very man who elevated August to one of the Five Great Families.
Calling himself irresponsible.
'Well, I'm the same, aren't I?'
Leaving the family to his second brother, who always quietly did his duty.
Climbing the Tower to protect August.
Maybe he had taken after his father after all.
As the ash fully vanished and the Dawn light faded.
Thud.
Penrad's body collapsed to the ground.
Havel glanced at the fallen man.
Of course, he had no intention of killing him.
Destroying the 7th hierarchy was a bit much.
But he could just stop it if it came to that.
More importantly, he'd discovered something rare thanks to this.
'A spell that erases Calamity.'
It might help when facing the God's duality later.
'Though it probably won't be that big a deal.'
Havel vaguely sensed it.
If Calamity completed its transcendence.
Then even this spell wouldn't work anymore.
Still, it was intriguing.
And Penrad, wielding it alongside his sword, wasn't bad either.
'Above all.'
Havel's attention lay elsewhere.
His gaze turned to the lone remaining Ash Knight.
After Penrad fell, it had stood motionless in place.
Havel's eyes narrowed curiously.
"Havel!"
Suddenly, Penbola's voice came from the forest.
With Penrad down and the ash fog gone.
Penrad had pulverized the mountain and forest entirely.
So they could arrive without getting lost.
The rushing Penbola saw his fallen brother.
"...Brother."
He let out a slightly bitter sigh.
He knew Penrad's mindset all too well.
"Penbola, I'm protecting August to uphold Father's will."
Penrad had always been stubbornly single-minded.
But on that day in the 7th hierarchy when he captured Penbola.
"Protecting August is my duty."
He taught Penbola the Calamity that would open a new era.
"But not you. You need to live in the new era."
His much older first brother, Penrad.
Hearing those words, Penbola somewhat understood his brother's heart.
No, he'd probably understood long before.
He had just turned away.
"You've worked hard protecting August all this time."
Penbola lifted Penrad.
Compared to the burden he carried, his brother felt surprisingly light.
The smallest among the brothers.
Yet he had always been the biggest presence.
"So you just watched your son struggle?"
At that moment, Havel spoke up.
Penbola looked at him questioningly.
Havel was staring at the remaining Ash Knight.
The one his father had made to protect the family.
Moments later, the Ash Knight creaked.
And suddenly, its helmet clattered off.
"Wha-what?"
Seeing it, Penbola panicked greatly.
Inside the helmet was a familiar face he hadn't seen in ages.
Ashen hair and eyes.
A wrinkled square jaw.
"Well, looks like I'm busted."
The head of the August family.
Pendragon August.
"...Father?"
"Oh, Penbola, long time no see. You've grown a lot. Biggest among the brothers, I bet."
He laughed heartily as if it were nothing.
Penbola stared in shock.
After all, Pendragon had gone missing.
But Havel paid it no mind.
"August Patriarch, where are you right now?"
Pendragon was currently absent from August.
Havel knew that much from the Five Great Families' information.
This Ash Knight before them merely projected Pendragon's face.
The real one wasn't here.
So when Havel asked, he chuckled slowly.
"Havel of Banpellyon, right? I've been keeping tabs through the Ash Knights."
He hadn't abandoned the family entirely.
"I'm at the edge of the Central Continent, in the fog."
Havel's eyebrow twitched at those words.
Beyond the fog at the Central Continent's edge.
There, like the Whisperer and God's poison.
The owners of Calamity dwelled.
Knowing that, Havel sensed Pendragon's presence there was no coincidence.
"You know something."
"Unintentionally, yeah."
"What are you doing there?"
There had to be a reason he hadn't returned to the family.
When Havel pressed, the smile faded from his face.
"The fading fog—I'm replacing it with ash."
A sense of duty gleamed in his expression.
"The fog is thinning?"
"Yeah. The fewer Calamities inside the Central Continent, the thinner the fog gets."
Havel's eyes narrowed.
Soon, he pieced together why the Five Great Families blocked the Tower.
"...So the Five Great Families occupied the Tower to prevent the fog from thinning outside the Central Continent?"
"Haha, close enough. More precisely, we were trying to delay it our way."
The patriarchs of the Five Great Families knew a deeper hidden truth.
Havel's gaze sharpened.
"'Close enough' means that's not the full answer."
"We've got our own matters. Agni will probably tell you."
He seemed quite close with Ignor's patriarch.
Static!
Noise began distorting his face.
"Ah, that's as far as it goes."
Pendragon looked over with regret.
"Penbola."
"Yes, Father."
Penbola responded with a flinch.
Pendragon gave a slow, apologetic smile.
"Tell Penrad to ease up on worrying about the family now. Not sure if he'll listen."
"...Yes."
Pendragon looked at Havel one last time.
"See you soon, Havel, in not too long."
With that, Pendragon's face vanished.
Simultaneously, the Ash Knight collapsed with a thud.
Its duty fulfilled.
Havel raised his head, watching it.
What the hell was happening in this world?
The scattered info fragments were all over the place, like puzzle pieces.
Some might even be lies.
'Was Memento Mori after the same goal as the Five Great Families?'
Or the true identity of Memento Mori's leader, the Martial King.
Maybe the Glutton had other intentions in stopping the Tower climb.
It was still unclear.
'The specter, was it?'
Beating that one might make the Glutton talk.
"Penbola, wake Penrad up."
Penrad had schemed to hasten the downfall.
It was probably still in motion.
So first, let's stop Tendal's destruction.