Chapter 416
416. Operation
Flash!
Thunderer burst with a bright yellow light and poured lightning down on the Star Shadow.
“Kkyaaaah!”
A scream tore out over the stage.
Caught off guard, the Star Shadow’s feet were bound by a suddenly sprung tree trunk, and he could not even react properly before being struck by lightning.
The Trunk Sword, Indra.
Once the second sword appeared, the challengers were reduced to the Black Knight’s prey.
A trunk barrier that could shield the massive frame, surprise checks, and lightning that fell in succession.
In a one on one, there was simply no contest.
Twice, three times, four times.
After repeated baptisms of lightning scorched the challenger’s body, a deep green blade swept across his neck.
Swick.
The challenger’s head flew through the air.
Blood splattered around the stage.
The challenger’s death.
At the sight, a great roar erupted in the square.
“Uwaaaaaaaaaa!”
The spectators, eyes bloodshot, stared at the decapitated corpse and went wild.
The Star Shadows were the administrators of Dark Soul who maintained order in Reruze.
Absolute powers with no rivals except the Black Stars.
Watching such people die so cruelly brought a fierce thrill to those looking on.
With six challengers still remaining,
the audience shouted “More, more, more!” hoarsely, expecting another victim.
How would the next one die?
Their faces were full of anticipation.
Naturally, the challengers’ faces were dark.
Those who had died before had all been confident, saying they would bring back Rengua’s head,
but not one of them even brushed Rengua’s collar before their own head flew.
Of the ten challengers, four had been killed by that puppet’s hands.
Those left realized, watching four bouts, just how powerful that puppet was.
The puppet’s innate ability, and the armaments it held, already far outstripped their own capabilities.
We cannot win.
What on earth did they do to that puppet...
Try to wreck the puppet, and its regenerative ability was strong, and since it felt no pain or fear, every incoming strike was lethal.
And all those lethal attacks burst from powerful magic swords.
The challengers swallowed hard as they looked at the two swords clutched in the puppet’s hands, and the remaining hilts on its back.
It felt like facing a giant iron wall.
This feeling was like...
Is that, a Black Star...?
Even the puppet before their eyes was overwhelming, and the problem was that the puppet was not even their true target.
The real target was Rengua, seated behind the puppet.
He had yet to show any power at all.
The Black Star Scramble.
They had thought it was worth a try, but that was a complete delusion.
This was a fight they absolutely could not win.
The challengers’ momentum noticeably sagged.
“Have you all turned into cowards?”
“The name Star Shadow is wasted on you!”
When no next challenger appeared, jeers and mockery spilled around the stage.
The Star Shadows glared at the stands with savage eyes, but gradually began to watch each other.
Once a challenge begins, it cannot be withdrawn.
Become a Black Star, or die.
Someone had to step onto the stage.
But no one wanted to enter a duel where death was certain.
“Just a moment.”
Then Rengua, drawing the puppet back for a moment, waved a hand to calm the crowd.
At the Black Star’s single gesture, the spectators closed their mouths at once.
A stage sunk into silence.
Rengua slowly looked over the challengers and spoke.
“You six there. I will take you all on.”
“Whoever kills me will become the Black Star. The Boss will guarantee it.”
Rengua raised his head and looked at the Sword Demon.
Boredly watching the duel, the Sword Demon smirked at Rengua’s proposal and nodded.
With the Sword Demon’s permission, Rengua beckoned to the challengers.
“Come at me all at once. Consider it the last chance you will be given to live.”
At Rengua’s taunt, the Star Shadows’ faces twisted.
But they were people who had survived Reruze’s harsh environment.
They would not refuse because of pride.
The challengers exchanged glances, then sprang onto the stage together.
Scattering to six directions, the plan was to surround Rengua in an instant and kill him.
Six Star Shadows charged from every angle.
At that sight, Rengua spread his hands and lightly moved his ten fingers.
Tick.
The instant his fingers danced, the Black Knight’s blood red eyes flashed as it drew the third sword, the Ghost Sword, Oras.
Rrrrrk!
With a creepy sound, shadow arms sprouted from behind the Black Knight.
The Ghost Sword’s ability, Shadow Hands.
It allowed the wielder to use multiple swords freely.
The Black Knight with four arms.
Clutching even the last sword, the Phantasmal Sword, Karoru, the Black Knight transformed into a two meter monster that wielded four swords at once.
At the sight, the challengers gnashed their teeth.
“Die, you monster!”
“Hit it all at once!”
“Kraaaah!”
With demon like faces, the Star Shadows poured attacks onto the puppet, and Rengua wiggled two fingers and smiled brightly.
VIP gallery.
Arcane, who had been quietly watching beside the Sword Demon, clicked his tongue briefly and rose from his seat.
“I will be going now.”
At those words, the Sword Demon reacted.
“You are leaving the most watchable bout?”
“Watchable, huh...”
Arcane stared at the stage.
KWAANG! Bang!
“D, damn it! Don’t back off!”
A desperate struggle by challengers encircling the giant puppet.
Against the Star Shadows’ combined attack, the puppet’s swords unleashed unending lightning and tree trunks, shadow arts and phantasm arts.
Under that fantastic onslaught, the challengers turned into bloody messes.
A desperate, dogged duel.
Overwhelmed by the overwhelming atmosphere, the spectators held their breath as they watched.
The puppet’s might was certainly overwhelming.
At this level, it could be compared to a five star expert.
No, considering the nature of a puppet and Rengua’s assistance, it might be stronger than five stars.
But only to that point.
Arcane toyed with his sapphire earring and looked at Rengua hidden behind the puppet.
[Puppeteer of Calamity]
Rengua’s recently acquired divine investiture.
The reason Arcane had come here was to inspect the new puppet Rengua would unveil.
The investiture used the term “calamity.”
Since, as the word implies, it signifies something that could destroy the world, “calamity” is not a term used lightly in investitures.
So he examined the completed puppet.
It is lacking.
The puppet was strong.
But it looked far from worthy of being called a calamity.
It is not that puppet.
Arcane was convinced, and his interest in the match faded quickly.
“I am not inclined to pay attention to a match that is already decided.”
“As you know, no one cares about victory or defeat now. They just want to see people die.”
“Not my taste.”
To the Sword Demon’s words, Arcane replied with a gentle smile and slowly withdrew.
At that, Azolett snorted and spoke.
“If you were going to be like this, why show up and be annoying? You should have stayed holed up in your room reading, like usual.”
“Ah, come to think of it, I did not get to send my regards to Lady Azolett.”
“Cut the crap. Since when do you ask after me...”
“Did you succeed in hatching it?”
“...!?”
At the sudden question, Azolett was flustered.
Not long ago, she had succeeded in hatching the longed for Chickit’s egg.
Now, all that remained was to focus on growth until the Chickit reached adulthood, increasing the hatchling’s survival rate. And this fact was known only to her.
How did the man before her know a piece of information she had not even told the Boss?
Azolett’s expression quickly went stiff.
“...What are you? Did you sneak into my room?”
“I have never been so discourteous as to sneak into a lady’s room...”
“Talk. How did you know? Say it right now before I rip your mouth open!!!”
It was such a sensitive piece of information to her that she moved as if to kill Arcane on the spot, but the one who stopped her was the Sword Demon.
“Enough.”
“Boss, but...!”
“We have something to do today, do you want to stir up pointless commotion and tip off the rats?”
At the word rats, Azolett bit her lip hard and glared at Arcane as if to kill him.
“I will see you later.”
Then she sat, whipping her head away.
At her reaction, Arcane asked the Sword Demon curiously,
“Do you have other business today?”
“Nothing much. A lot of rats have flowed into Reruze lately. I laid some bait to clean them up while I was at it.”
“Do you mean the Black Market?”
When the Black Market came out of Arcane’s mouth, the Sword Demon looked at him in surprise.
“The owner of the Black Market has changed... you have given me precious information.”
“I must win the homeowner’s heart if I am to stay here in comfort.”
Only now did the Sword Demon grasp the situation in Reruze.
He chuckled, dusted himself off, and stood.
“If I had asked you from the start, it would have been simple. I was foolish.”
“So today’s stage is not only the Black Star Scramble.”
“Call it a sub event.”
“Now that is intriguing.”
The stage prepared in the square today was, besides the Scramble, also set to sweep the rats in one go.
Standing in the VIP box, the Sword Demon looked at the stage.
“Kkyaaaah!”
With a final scream, the last challenger spewed blood from his mouth and collapsed with a thud.
Unable to avoid the phantasmal swords that poured down, his whole body was shredded and he died in a gruesome state.
They had lost ten Star Shadows.
But there was no regret on the Sword Demon’s face.
The Sword Demon had only one goal.
The completed form of the Black Star.
His attention was only on the last puzzle needed for the completed form, the birth of the fourth Black Star.
He looked at the Black Knight and nodded.
Surely, Rengua had kept his promise to him and proved his qualifications as a Black Star.
He had never expected those men to defeat Rengua.
As expected, the Star Shadows were not qualified yet.
“Uwaaaaaaaaa—!”
Having watched Rengua’s overwhelming might, the spectators burst into a mad cheer all at once.
It became an occasion to reaffirm, in their skin, the greatness of the Black Star, and, as proof, the entire square throbbed with the name of the Black Star, Rengua.
The Sword Demon slowly raised his hand.
At that gesture, the cheers of the audience, who had been chanting the Black Star’s name, died down.
Apart from that, the hundreds of Dark Storm stationed throughout the spectators hardened their expressions and set hands to their hilts.
Once the signal fell, the rat cull would begin.
As the Dark Storm waited for the Sword Demon’s signal,
KABOOOOOM—!
A tremendous explosion erupted from somewhere, and a biting wind swept the square.
Screams poured into the square.
Startled, people looked around to see what had happened.
In that moment, some spotted something and urgently pointed in one direction.
“There!”
“Th, the north wall!”
At the shout, everyone looked north.
The shockwave was so enormous that the whole square could see it at a glance.
Black smoke billowed in countless plumes over the north wall.
Someone had struck Reruze.
Watching that scene, the Sword Demon snorted.
“The rats made the first move? Quick on the uptake.”
It did not matter.
The rats’ fate was decided anyway.
The Sword Demon lowered his hand and gave the signal to the Dark Storm.
Then, taking a great breath, he glared and let out a savage bellow at the sky.
“Freeze!!!!!!!!!!!!”
His roar, packed with his aura, swept the square.
Exposed to the Sword Demon’s energy, thousands, tens of thousands in the crowd shuddered and crouched low.
Some fainted, some coughed blood.
In an instant, the square went quiet as a mouse.
The Sword Demon’s momentum dominated the square.
In that interval, the Dark Storm drew their swords.
Then, all around the square, they began to swing their blades and shout,
“Do not move! If you do not want to die...”
The square lockdown began.