Chapter 202 : Chapter 202
Translator: AkazaTL
Pr/Ed: Sol IX
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Chapter 202. Ruin (5)
Visente’s night was quiet. Under the star-lit sky, buildings and people were burning. Beneath the smell of charred flesh, the warriors of the plains raised their swords and laughed joyfully. As if all of this were nothing more than a game.
The dream had ended. Reality was harsh. But even if it was harsh, we still had to live in reality. Because only by surviving could we do anything at all.
“Crushing those who grew soft in peace isn’t half bad—ARGH.”
Pfft!—with that sound, the head of one of the plains warriors roaming through the darkness flew off. Red blood sprayed as one man died. The moment a single death occurred, warriors gathered from all directions. Their response was frighteningly quick. Clang!—sparks burst in the darkness.
“So you were still here, prey.”
What I saw were eyes closer to a beast’s than a human’s. I slid down the blade locked against mine and swung cleanly. Right after that single swing, another head flew. But the enemies didn’t stop. Even though two of them had died so pointlessly just now, there was no fear in their eyes. As if the emotion of fear had been carved out entirely.
“Two warriors of the plains have just departed for the infinite plains beneath the sun that never sets—!”
Like a beast roaring, someone shouted.
“Let us follow them, warriors—!”
“To the infinite plains!”
Thud-thud-thud!—something approached at tremendous speed.
A horse. A warrior with a spear rode it like an arrow. Behind him, three more warriors drew their bows and aimed at me. One spear, and three arrows—four different kinds of death aimed at me.
‘As efficiently as possible.’
Wind settled onto my swinging blade. 「Gale」. The moment the mystery that broke all flow manifested, the incoming arrows tangled chaotically. I kicked off the ground and leaped toward the warrior charging on horseback. Wings fluttered as I leapt, and in the next moment, a long line sliced through space, and both the horse and rider were chopped into pieces. But no matter how many I killed, their numbers didn’t decrease. Neither their numbers nor their momentum showed any sign of diminishing.
“The Sun That Never Sets watches us—!”
A thunderous voice. And with it, thwack!—my body jerked violently. A rough lasso wrapped around my wrist. Something one might use to hunt beasts.
But such an attack didn’t work on me.
『Do you know the genius who became a specimen?』
The mystery of 「Flight」 manifested, and a blue sky spread. Azure Heaven drove away the night, the lasso burst apart, and my body moved with incomparable speed. The ten plains warriors who had gathered died in an instant. Heads fell thunk-thunk to the ground, and something struck my chest—clang!—accompanied by a sharp pain.
‘Damn.’
Reacting a step late, I swung and killed another. Had it not been for the armor gifted to me by Zeppelin Gold, I would’ve suffered a fatal wound just now. I bit my lip, stomped once, and slipped out of their encirclement. Arrows thwip-thwip-thwip pierced the spot where I had stood.
‘There are too many of them. Strangely many.’
The Conquest Army of the Great Land was far from easy prey. Their overall level was high, but more frightening was the fact that fear had been excised from them. The plains warriors hidden in the darkness didn’t fear death. They almost seemed to consider death an honor. Like orcs.
‘No— even orcs aren’t like that. That’s…’
That was something truly demonic.
‘They are nothing like the Conquest Army I faced in the War Duel.’
The army of the Great Land that I fought in the Arena’s War Duel had been the Conquest Army without the Descendant of Khan. They knew fear. They flinched from blades and blood.
But this Conquest Army? They didn’t avoid death—they seemed eager to run toward it. And among them, even a few Sword Runners were mixed in.
‘If an army like this arrives in the Central or Western Continents…’
I didn’t even want to imagine it. They were not an army. Now I understood why they were called demons running across the plains. The Conquest Army of the Great Land was a living catastrophe. They would kill and burn everything that lived. Until nothing alive remained.
“Let us go, to the infinite plains—!”
Clang!—a blade sound rang.
I barely blocked it, and immediately another sword flew at me. The unexpected trajectory sliced across my wrist. Blood sprayed just as an arrow struck my breastplate—thud!—forcing a breath out of me. The opening created by that moment was fatal. With frantic neighs and slaughter-hungry bellows, warriors rushed in. I regained balance quickly and swung.
Second Steel, Polishing.
“Sun—!”
“Ha!”
Shraaak!—their bodies were cleaved in half. But over their bisected corpses, more warriors rushed in. I wasn’t given even a moment to think. I surrendered myself to instinct, swinging and swinging again. And through that chaos, stray arrows and stray blades targeted me. Even the air itself felt hostile.
「That is war.」
Thunk.—bone was pierced, and another enemy died.
「Do not forget, young descendant.」
Clack.—armor struck armor. Instead of swinging, I twisted the enemy’s center of gravity and threw him down. Then, holding my sword at an angle, I stabbed between helm and armor at the neck.
Sword wrestling. Fetel’s techniques etched into my body unfolded amidst the chaos.
「A phoenix blooms from ashes.」
There was no time to pull out the sword. Leaving the blade buried in the neck, I let go of the hilt, drew a dagger from my thigh, and rammed it into the helm of the next one rushing in.
The Karavan Line could pierce crude steel helmets in one motion. The dagger pierced the helm and skull instantly, letting me feel the sensation of death along its short blade.
「Karavan must know war.」
A sharp earthy smell. Mixed within it, the reek of blood. Another blade flew through it. Instead of dodging, I raised both arms and deflected it with my armor. TCHANG!—a harsh shock rattled my body. But this much was fine. The Heart of Steel could withstand such impacts easily.
「Only a Karavan who knows war can achieve true Steel.」
I pulled out the blade I had stabbed in and drew a circle around me. The moment the circle was completed, the bodies of those rushing toward me were cut into pieces. The blood that spilled drenched my head and body. Sticky sensation—my eyes stung as the blood seeped in. The pitch-black night had now turned red. In this reddened world, I ran.
「Grow harder, young descendant.」
In a single breath, my depleted stamina surged back. My Heart of Steel beat, and vitality exploded outward. With one wide swing, three or four warriors died. Their slack bodies collapsed, and I was soaked again in their flesh and blood. Breath rising to my chin, the unpleasant stench of blood—within it, a foreign memory crackled to life.
「Only then will you understand my sword.」
A world where everything had died. A world where broken swords stood like tombstones, and a man soaked in blood looked up at the sky, resembling a lion.
That man’s memory overlapped with this moment for a brief instant. With it, my sword traced a different trajectory than before. Along that trajectory, the enemies’ blades were drawn in—like moths flying into flame. In the next moment, a dozen enemies burst apart as if exploding. In the spectacle of that inexplicable death, the plains warriors finally stopped.
“What… the…?”
Looking at their eyes, I regained my senses.
‘Dokbul.’ Liam’s sword technique had just unfolded from my own hands.
How? I didn’t know. In the chaos of this war, when I had immersed myself completely, my body began to move on its own. The blood flowing inside me seemed to remember this movement. Vague yet vivid.
“Master—!”
While I stood dazed, Tom shouted from behind. When I turned, Tom was riding toward me on horseback. He must have stolen one of the Conquest Army’s horses.
“Take my hand!”
I snapped back to reality, grabbed Tom’s hand, and leapt onto the horse. Tom stomped his foot, and the horse charged forward powerfully. But there was no way they would let us escape so easily. Thud-thud-thud—I felt the enemies closing in.
“At this rate, they’ll catch us!”
“No, it’s fine!”
“It’s not fine! The harbor is still far away! It’d be better to finish them off here—”
Fwoosh! An arrow grazed Tom’s ear.
Tom shouted, “A friend of Young Master Arhan is going to draw their eyes!”
At that moment, golden light exploded from the center of Visente, ripping through the darkness of the night. It looked like a fire lit by burning gold coins as fuel. If there existed flames made of gold, they would look exactly like that. It wasn’t hard to guess who ignited them.
“Trust your friend, Master!”
Zeppelin. Zeppelin Gold.
“Look— at ME—!”
My timid friend.
“You beasts of the Great Land of the East Continent! Slaughterers beneath the Descendant of Khan! You have crossed the sea, violating the order of the Sky Empire! And not only that—you committed unspeakable atrocities on the Southern Continent, declared sacred by the Seven Lords and the Nine Goddesses!”
Every plains warrior was now looking at him.
“I, Zeppelin Gold, as a descendant of House Gold, declare once more! I challenge the Descendant of Khan to a duel! If you do not accept my duel at once, the Black Archipelago will block your path! The Black Archipelago, the oldest ally of the Sky Empire and the ruler of all seas, will bar the Great Land—!”
“That damned bastard!”
“A coin-chasing rat dares invoke the Sun That Never Sets!”
The plains warriors chasing us went wild. To them, Zeppelin Gold challenging the Descendant of Khan—who was currently fighting Hugo Rhapsody—must have been a grave insult. A man who wasn’t even a Swordmaster, who seemed like he had barely held a sword, daring to invoke their lord’s name?
“Catch him! Catch that dog!”
“Don’t kill him, take him alive!”
“We’ll show him hell today—!”
Not only those chasing us, but every Conquest Army warrior nearby charged toward Zeppelin Gold. Zeppelin looked at the incoming warriors and shouted boldly:
“I call the Descendant of Khan, and instead the underlings come running! Is the Descendant of Khan frightened? They say he flees whenever he sees the sea—are you afraid of the Black Archipelago, rulers of the ocean—?!”
With that, Zeppelin Gold threw a red orb from his coat. The orb exploded, and Zeppelin’s body grew gigantic like a giant. Grown to massive size, Zeppelin roared with a voice fit for his enlarged form:
“YES! COME! COME TO ME, ALL OF YOU!”
Woooooo!—a roar swept across the Conquest Army as they redirected.
The tight encirclement broke, and we dashed toward the harbor.
As the harbor grew closer, Zeppelin Gold grew farther away. Spears of the Conquest Army stabbed into him, and Zeppelin fell clumsily, gigantic in the middle of the city. He flailed and struggled, over and over.
“More! COME MORE—!”
His voice grew distant.
The item that made him a giant must have been one of his many treasures. He must have had more. Zeppelin would draw all eyes to himself and meet his death. And then he would revive in his homeland.
Once revived, Zeppelin would return one day after all this ended—wearing the bright smile I remembered. So there was no reason to look back now.
After all, we would meet again anyway.
“Look— AT ME—!”
Zeppelin Gold’s bold voice slowly turned into a scream. The heroic tone of a legend-like man became tinged with terror, and by the time his voice was barely audible, it had already turned into pure, wordless crying.
I did not look back. I let my body ride the galloping horse.
To survive. Forward—only forward.