Chapter 69
Chapter 69
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 69
Chapter Title: Shower of Sword Meteors
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The shower of sword meteors.
Like meteors streaming down from the Milky Way.
Artein's blades poured forth without end.
That meteor shower of swords sent shivers through all who beheld it.
True to the Glasis name, renowned as masters of the blade.
It was swordsmanship befitting one of the Five Great Families—utterly overwhelming.
Yet the Glasis Meteor Sword, held in such high esteem, was now being utterly ravaged by a single man.
"What the hell are you?!"
The man who had suddenly appeared at the Tower one day, leading the Banpellyons.
Havel, of the Banpellyon household.
He was a figure who brought fresh rumors every single day.
A true sensation.
Artein, too, had heard the tales nonstop.
Disaster incarnate. The supreme warrior.
Every grandiose title under the sun had been slapped onto Havel.
So Artein hadn't let his guard down.
Even if the Five Great Families hadn't committed their full might beyond a certain point in the Tower.
This was a man who had broken through and reached the 7th Hierarchy regardless.
But even so.
Artein had figured he couldn't possibly stand against the true power of the Five Great Families.
That was the assumption.
Yet right here, right now, he realized just how arrogant he'd been all along.
A single beam of light darted through the pouring meteor shower.
Each time it did, the swords were flung aside or shattered en masse.
Artein wielded a myriad blades, while his foe brandished just one.
But Artein couldn't see any path to victory with that single sword.
Artein ground his teeth.
No good.
The Myriad Sword Realm wasn't enough to take him down.
He had to change tactics.
Increase the output.
In that instant, pitch-black energy surged from his body.
Invisible to others, but crystal clear to Havel's eyes.
It was none other than Calamity aura.
As expected, this guy's wielding Calamity.
Artein had reeked of Calamity aura from the moment they first met.
And sure enough, the Five Great Families had monopolized it.
Monopolizing power isn't always a boon.
It was tantamount to shackling the world's progress themselves.
I wonder how the direct descendants of the Five Great Families handle Calamity.
Amid the meteor shower of the Myriad Sword Realm.
The swords, which had gleamed with icy blue light, began taking on a black hue one by one.
And those blades were on another level of intensity and power compared to before.
Their might had visibly surged.
Calamity indeed.
The pouring meteor shower grew even fiercer.
And their numbers steadily increased.
Cold sweat beaded on Artein's forehead.
"Grraaah!"
As if to settle things once and for all, he kept splitting the meteor swords.
The realm beyond the Myriad Sword Realm.
Blood vessels bulged in Artein's eyes.
"Let's see you endure this!"
Amid the pouring meteor shower, only the sword's cry echoed.
The rain had become a storm.
The world was now blanketed entirely in meteor swords.
Even Faiod, locked in battle with the Meteor Knights, lost himself staring at the sight.
He was of the Freya tribe, called a race of warriors.
Yet even he lacked confidence in surviving that meteor sword storm.
For a split second, he pictured Havel's defeat flashing through his mind.
Even that monster-like figure—he couldn't envision him emerging alive from there.
"Havel!"
Faiod cried out without thinking.
In that moment, he twisted his head to barely dodge an incoming blade.
Before him stood Morris, vice-captain of the 2nd Meteor Knight Squadron.
He too wielded meteor swords.
Faiod was struggling hard against him.
"This isn't the time to worry about others. You'll pay the price for following him too."
Morris warned, and Faiod let out a light breath.
"Pay the price my ass. You haven't gotten pummeled by that monster yourself."
Faiod steadied himself.
Then he recalled the day Havel had thrashed him.
No way that monster would lose to some direct descendant of the Five Great Families.
He'd smash them with some freakish power, no doubt.
Havel was the first guy Faiod had ever deemed utterly unbeatable.
"And before that, you're getting a beating from me first."
So his task from the start was clear.
Take down the Morris in front of him.
Faiod's aura surged another level higher.
And in the meantime.
Artein maintained the Sword Heaven Realm with bloodshot eyes.
He was wielding meteor swords to their limit using Calamity.
One slip, and his aura would backlash, twisting his insides.
But sweat beaded on his face for a different reason.
Why won't the sword cries stop?
Within the meteor storm.
The sword cries resounding from within showed no sign of ending.
And their source was none other than Havel.
It meant he was batting away every single incoming sword.
The swords of the Sword Heaven Realm had all turned to Calamity blades by now.
The pitch-black meteor storm wielded power on a whole other dimension.
So Havel should've been torn to shreds in that storm.
But against his hopes, the sword cries rang out unchanged.
Clang!
In that instant, the cry sounded closer than before.
His eyes wavered before the gradually approaching sword cries.
He's coming.
Heading straight for me.
Bursting through the meteor storm.
"Crazy bastard—insane!"
Artein screamed like a man possessed and ramped up his Calamity even further.
The pitch-black meteor storm of blades battered Havel more savagely.
The world lay in utter ruin under the rampage of meteor swords.
Not an inch ahead existed without a meteor sword.
Clang!
Yet another sword cry echoed.
Even closer than last time.
Artein's face drained white.
Before he knew it, he felt trapped inside the meteor storm himself.
Beyond that pitch-black meteor storm.
The approaching presence felt like pure terror.
Within the black storm.
A streak of dawn's glow flashed by.
He was already nearly upon him.
No time left.
If he breaks through the meteor storm, I can't fight back.
All he could see was himself being shredded by that dawn-infused blade.
Clang!
Another sword cry rang out.
That sound became the final trigger for Artein.
"You think I'll let you?!"
He roared as if vomiting blood, drawing out every last drop of aura and Calamity.
Injuries be damned now.
He would fell Havel here, the man who dared insult the Glasis name.
In that moment, the Sword Heaven Realm began to collapse.
The meteor swords, which had only multiplied before, now dwindled in reverse.
And the diminishing blades began merging into one.
Its size was enough to horrify onlookers.
The result of condensing tens of millions into a single blade.
Before long, a single sword reaching to the heavens took form.
The meteor storm died down.
Instead, the glimpses of dawn piercing through the storm finally came into clear view.
Dawn's radiance flowed out, enough to repaint the colors around it.
But it didn't matter anymore.
Artein had already completed his single sword.
To deliver the finishing blow to Havel, who had pierced the Sword Heaven Realm.
"Farewell."
The heaven-splitting sword swung down.
Krraaa-boom!
Dust and debris flew as the entire area was blasted away.
Startled crows on a distant isle took flight all at once.
The impact was so massive that the entire 72nd floor trembled.
The shockwave ensnared even the Meteor Knights, Faiod, Balop, and Owen.
They halted their battles, eyes fixed on what had just transpired.
"What the hell just happened?"
Faiod scowled at the wall of dust blocking his view.
At the same time, he felt the raw power of a Five Great Family direct descendant anew.
He forcibly shoved down the anxiety bubbling in his chest.
"If you dragged me here, take responsibility."
In that moment, light began piercing through the dust.
Faiod poured more aura into his eyes.
A gust scattered the dust, revealing what lay beyond.
And upon seeing it, Faiod let out an involuntary chuckle.
"Of course."
Beneath the single sword that seemed poised to cleave the world.
Havel stood with Dawn aglow, holding his blade aloft.
That colossal sword stretching to the horizon.
He was blocking it from the ground with nothing but his single sword.
Morris, witnessing the same scene as Faiod, was aghast.
It was Artein's captain, unleashing his full power in one strike.
Yet he'd blocked it so effortlessly.
An unbelievable sight.
"Captain! It's not over!"
Morris shouted urgently toward Artein.
In that instant, the single sword groaned and shifted.
Artein was pouring everything into cleaving Havel in two.
But the single sword didn't budge an inch.
"Shut up, you're noise pollution."
With Havel's voice came a flash from Dawn.
Thud!
The descending single sword was flung upward in an instant.
Havel's destructive force had repelled its weight.
Boom!
In the gap created by repelling the single sword.
Havel's front foot shot forward.
The light dwelling in his leg surpassed human limits.
Artein was suddenly right in front of him.
His appearance was wretched.
Squeezing out Calamity and aura had aged him a decade in moments.
"No way the Meteor Sword loses!"
Screaming, Artein swung the sword in his hand at Havel.
Before that final desperate struggle, Havel's blade glowed fiercely with Dawn.
"You've shown me plenty, so I'll return the favor."
In the past, the Glasis had been beneath the Banpellyons.
Back then, they lacked their signature Meteor Sword.
They'd used royal swordsmanship.
But over a century, they perfected the Meteor Sword.
And the Glasis took immense pride in it.
They claimed the title of sword masters.
A lingering inferiority complex from their ancient betrayal of the Banpellyons.
The swordsmanship born from that century of effort.
That was the Meteor Sword.
Yet for all that, it was merely a hundred years.
Ridiculous compared to the time Havel had wielded Dawn Sword.
So Havel decided to show the Glasis what a true sword house looked like.
"Watch closely."
The moment Dawn's radiance blanketed the world.
"This is the real sword legacy."
And so, Havel's sword thrust forth.
The moment Dawn burst from the blade in unison.
Artein realized, gazing at the radiance engulfing his entire body.
The faint glow of those tiny meteors.
Was utterly ephemeral before true dawn's light.
Even his glass-blue hair was swallowed by the overwhelming brilliance.
Artein closed his eyes.
Flash!
It devoured even the clouds draping the sky.
Only dawn's light reigned over the heavens at that moment.