Chapter 134
Chapter 134
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 134
Chapter Title: The Day Dawn Swallowed the Meteor
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The clash of swords echoed through the air.
By now, the surroundings had lost all trace of their original form.
If this had been the outside world rather than the Tower...
At the very least, an entire city would have been erased from the face of the earth today.
Atop the devastated wasteland.
Boulders shattered with a single swing of the sword, tumbling across the ground.
This was far from the epicenter of the fierce battle.
Yet the aftermath was so severe that it had reached even here.
Boom!
Havel shot out from between the shattered glass fragments.
In an instant, a man with glass-colored hair stood before him.
Lebltein Glasis.
The current Sword Saint, hailed as humanity's strongest.
Sweat beaded on his face.
At the same time, he drew in a ragged breath.
If anyone who knew him had seen this, they would have been stunned.
Lebltein always wore a leisurely, relaxed expression.
Even in the demonic realms that were hell for others, Lebltein remained utterly at ease.
But now, not a shred of that composure remained on his face.
The smile he'd worn until moments ago had vanished completely.
His focus sharpened to its absolute peak as his eyes darted frantically.
'Lower right.'
His heightened concentration barely caught sight of Havel's sword.
Havel's blade, transformed into a streak of light, surged toward his head in an instant.
Crack!
Havel's sword, tearing through space itself, grazed Lebltein's face.
A few strands of Lebltein's hair were sliced off, fluttering away.
A small cut marred his cheek as well.
He was clad head to toe in aura and calamity energy.
Yet Havel's onslaught was so ferocious that tiny wounds kept appearing on his body.
That didn't mean Lebltein was just defending, either.
This place was truly Lebltein's battlefield.
The air around them was filled with meteor swords he'd conjured.
Each one possessed a density on another level entirely.
A single swing from any could shake the entire floor of the Tower like a storm.
It resembled the battle between Havel and his master, Ron, not long ago.
The problem was, the dynamic had shifted.
To Havel, those meteor swords were nothing more than toothpicks.
Clang!
With one swing from Havel, the meteor swords shattered en masse.
Shatter!
Beams of light extending from his sword pierced every last one.
"Hah."
Lebltein let out a short sigh.
Lebltein's swordsmanship was undoubtedly exceptional.
Overwhelming enough for him to claim the title of humanity's strongest.
However, the Glasis clan's Meteor Sword had a critical flaw.
It was merely an imitation of Dawn Swordsmanship—a pale copy at best.
A fake could never surpass the genuine article.
And as if to prove that reality, Lebltein's meteor swords proved utterly futile.
'How many times has it been now?'
Lebltein glanced at the shattered meteor swords.
Then at the one in his own hand.
He usually carried only a hilt.
Using aura and calamity energy to form a sharp glass blade.
But those swords shattered every time they clashed with Havel's.
Unable to withstand its power.
'This won't do.'
Lebltein realized one undeniable fact.
Even if he conjured billions of meteor swords before Havel...
One swing from him would shatter them all at once.
And wielding those meteor swords consumed Lebltein's own calamity energy and aura.
But that expenditure was only tightening the noose around his neck.
'Reduce the pointless waste of aura and calamity energy.'
With that thought, the number of meteor swords around Lebltein began to dwindle.
Instead, their power gradually concentrated into the single sword in his grip.
Shatter!
Another of Lebltein's meteor swords broke.
But this time, it blocked exactly once.
Parrying Havel's attack.
Shatter!
Another sword shattered.
But this time, twice.
Blocking Havel's strikes.
Shatter! Shatter! Shatter!
His swords endlessly crumbled amid Havel's barrage.
Yet with each one, bit by bit...
The number of attacks a single sword could block was increasing.
Wounds multiplied across his body at the same time.
But Lebltein's mind plunged deeper into the fray.
Shatter!
Shatter!
Shatter!
The ears rang from the ceaseless breaking sounds.
Before he knew it, his mind was filled with nothing else.
He could no longer tell if a sword had shattered or not.
Lebltein's heart pounded wildly.
The calamity energy and aura dwelling within him surged endlessly.
They had always been vast as the sea.
But today, they felt woefully insufficient.
Shatter!
Yet for some reason.
As the meteor swords that once filled the heavens and earth diminished...
Lebltein began to glimpse a path beyond the wall.
The sword clashing against Havel's grew heavier by the moment.
Even Havel, on the offensive, furrowed his brow at the change.
And finally.
Clang!
Lebltein's sword, clashing with Havel's, held its form.
It trembled within, but it had squarely blocked Havel's attack.
Shatter!
The next strike shattered it again.
But it didn't matter to Lebltein.
Each time, his sword grew stronger.
Ragged breaths escaped Lebltein's lips.
He was in a trance.
Havel noticed it too.
A battle with a worthy foe.
It was the greatest lesson for any swordsman.
Yet Lebltein had never truly had one.
Born strong, overflowing with talent.
Still, he sought out the mighty relentlessly.
But it didn't take long.
Before he knew it, he stood alone at the pinnacle.
And the summit was emptier than he'd imagined.
To advance, one must see the path ahead.
Even a genius struggled on a road shrouded in darkness.
But today, for the first time in decades, he glimpsed a new way forward.
He had lived by toppling the weak.
In doing so, he'd long forgotten how to fight the strong.
But today, he began to rediscover it.
Instead of spawning countless meteor swords...
Pour everything into one.
That was how to face a true powerhouse.
Before long, no meteor swords remained in the sky.
Instead, a single cracked meteor sword gripped in Lebltein's hand.
Havel's sword crossed with Lebltein's.
A diagonal slash aimed at the throat.
A straight thrust toward the chest.
An overhead horizontal chop.
Feints mingled in an endless exchange of blows.
Glass shards flaked off Lebltein's sword, scattering in the air.
Yet he even turned those to his advantage.
The flying fragments trailed his swing, hurtling toward Havel.
A shallow trick.
Havel blocked it effortlessly.
But Lebltein didn't despair—he kept throwing them.
Desperate to carve even the slightest opening.
His frantic swordplay seemed crude compared to his status as the strongest.
Yet Havel didn't mind it one bit.
Until moments ago, there had been something incomplete about his blade.
Now, it was steadily approaching perfection.
'Genius types are always like this.'
Never able to rest, even for a moment.
Shatter!
Lebltein tumbled across the ground as another sword broke.
Dust caked his hair and clothes from rolling on the floor.
Blood oozed from wounds all over his body.
The refined noble's visage was now unrecognizable, like a beggar's.
But his eyes blazed with azure light.
Clang!
Conjuring yet another meteor sword, Lebltein charged at Havel.
He threw his body about recklessly.
But each time, his sword undeniably grew stronger.
"Hah... hah!"
Lebltein's breaths now reached his throat's limit.
He'd forgotten he was even breathing.
And again.
Shatter!
His sword broke.
Lebltein rolled across the ground.
Havel's blade struck without hesitation.
Rumble rumble rumble!
A slashing beam of light followed his sword, engulfing Lebltein.
His hastily extended blade barely parried it, sending him tumbling once more.
Lebltein braced himself against the floor.
Drip... drip...
But thick blood poured from his palm.
His right wrist had been severed.
The price of failing to block Havel's sword properly.
He spared no lingering glance at his fallen wrist.
Instead, he gripped the hilt with his left hand and rose.
Glass coated his left hand like a layer of armor.
To delay its loss as long as possible.
Lebltein leaped forward.
His body was at its limit, but he charged heedless.
The moment Havel entered his sight as he rushed in...
Havel's sword pierced toward his flesh without mercy.
Lebltein's body twisted like the wind.
He'd evaded Havel's blade by a mere millimeter and closed into his embrace.
His facial skin tore away entirely in the process, but it didn't matter.
Cling!
Yet before even that could fully rip, Havel's sword returned to his guard.
At the same time, his blade began to glow with dawn light.
The instant Lebltein's eyes filled with dawn...
Kaboom!
His body staggered.
Ringing filled his ears.
His left field of vision went dark.
His left eye seemed to have been destroyed.
Gurgle...
Blood poured from his mouth.
Part of his innards must have been gouged out.
With a trembling arm, he raised his left hand.
His glass meteor sword gleamed with pristine, crystalline transparency.
As if reflecting another world entirely.
More precise than any mirror, capturing the entirety of existence.
Lebltein's remaining eye curved into a smile.
He could no longer even breathe.
Yet he grinned, as if proving the new realm he'd attained.
His hair turned transparent, reflecting its surroundings.
Lebltein himself—from head to toe—mirrored nothing but Havel.
Slowly, Lebltein raised his sword.
The world, including Havel, reflected perfectly within it.
For a brief moment.
As silence fell, like the world frozen still...
Screech...
A dissonant sound reverberated.
Centered on Lebltein's uplifted sword, the world split and shifted.
The misaligned worlds crumbled apart.
At the same time, blood erupted violently from Havel's chest.
His body had nearly split along the shifted faultline.
The gushing blood soaked Havel's clothes and hair.
Havel looked down at himself, then at Lebltein standing on both legs.
His left side of the head was crushed, eye destroyed.
The severed right hand left only an empty stump.
From his side, strands of innards spilled out.
His body, slashed countless times, was a total wreck.
Yet Lebltein still held his sword aloft.
The strongest strike he'd ever drawn from his life.
But Lebltein could do no more.
He had poured out everything.
The whipping wind tousled his hair.
Havel raised his sword before him.
"You've shown me your full power."
Dawn light gathered once more in Havel's sword.
Lebltein, with his fading consciousness, barely made out the sight.
The dawn was utterly serene.
Just as when Lebltein unleashed his world-shifting slash.
Havel's dawn was equally radiant and silent.
"Now behold mine."
Havel lifted his bloodied arm.
And thrust the dawn gathered there toward him.
Within it, Lebltein flashed a brief smile.
It was the day Dawn swallowed the Meteor.