Decisive Battle (6)
With a roar, Manakiras swung both front paws forward.
“Grrrr!”
A dark red whip made out of Aura flew in incessantly. Kibie tried to stop it, but her strength wasn’t enough.
Her muscles twitched, contracting and relaxing repeatedly. A white light flashed in front of her.
“Gasp…”
Her wounds only increased.
“Incarnation!”
In a hurry, Plater cast spiritual arts. The light of healing enveloped the beautiful woman with black hair.
There wasn’t much effect.
Unlike before, when the wound was healed to the level of abrasion, it now could barely stop the bleeding.
It was because he couldn’t handle the Aura residue of Manakiras, which was left on Kibie’s wounds.
‘It’s too much for me…’
Plater groaned. He was exhausted as well.
Rapidly consuming Prana, he felt his whole body aching.
‘How much longer can this old body hold out?’
He was already over 70 years old.
A little too much walking, let alone a battle, would make his knee joint scream.
“Now you’re running out!”
Manakiras breathed in as she roared.
The Breath of the Ancient Dragon cut through the atmosphere.
Plater’s wrinkled eyes opened wide.
He had no power to stop that anymore. Death was on the horizon for a moment.
‘Is it the end…’
It was then.
Boom!
Her Breath was split in two.
Two streams of darkness spread from side to side, splitting the land in half.
Manakiras and Plater were both astounded.
It was Kibie who split the Breath.
They couldn’t understand it.
She, who had been pushed back so hard, suddenly stopped the Breath with formidable force.
“What? What?”
“Incarnation?”
She was no longer using a pitch-black Blade Aura.
The vivid darkness itself flew around the beautiful woman with black hair.
It was an absolute power that made even a Level 141 Ancient Dragon look like a child.
She took her long spear back.
There was silence.
Amid that quiet, Kibie turned her head and looked beyond the basin.
“… Han-bin?”
* * *
Ryu Han-bin was barely holding on.
“Gasp… Gasp…”
He breathed hard, his lungs seemingly blocked. He couldn’t even feel the pain in his left arm, and his right hand was slowly losing the grip over Gigant.
His whole body was full of fatigue and anguish.
Garhan, on the other hand, stood tall.
There was no blitz, no life, or no justice. He just stared indifferently at the young Sword King in front of him.
A calm voice came out.
“… Did you master the Heavenly Sword?”
“I could’ve used it from the beginning.”
Han-bin didn’t even have the energy to bluff. He was honest with Garhan.
“But I couldn’t get it right.”
The range was too short, and the trigger time was too long. It was a skill that could not be used without a pre-emptive strike.
Of course, it was different for those at the level of the Thunder King, but to those weaker than him, Han-bin didn’t have to use the Heavenly Sword.
“I see.”
Garhan stared blankly at the sky.
“Even though I tried hard, I didn’t master it in the end…”
And he asked a question in lamentation.
“What the hell was the Heavenly Sword? What did it mean by cutting down the enemy’s world with my own?”
Ryu Han-bin agonized.
‘How am I supposed to explain this? No, is it even possible to explain?’
In the end, he had no choice but to answer closest to the truth.
“I don’t know. I just did it.”
After a moment of silence, Garhan burst into laughter.
“Hahaha!”
It was a genuinely delightful laugh.
“Well, that’s the same answer as what my friend gave me. You deserve to take over Baotolt’s sword.”
“I think you misunderstood something…”
Han-bin continued, feeling embarrassed.
“The Heavenly Sword itself is not that difficult of a skill.”
Valtara’s Fighting Spirit’s trick was to compress a vast amount of Aura into a single point and explode.
The compression of the Aura worked by itself.
The Aura explosion also worked by itself.
It was just difficult to have such a vast Aura to create such a phenomenon, and it was difficult to control the activated fighting spirit.
The same went for the Heavenly Sword Diastima.
When pure fighting spirit dwelled in the whole body, the Heavenly Sword went out by itself.
“I still don’t know why it works…”
It just took practice to swing it right.
“It would have been easier for others because they could have done it without much talent.”
Garhan let out another laugh.
“Didn’t you think it’s already great that it just activates out on its own for you?”
Well, Han-bin wasn’t so wrong.
“I’m sure you lack human talent.”
Garhan didn’t feel like the young Sword King was a martial arts genius. Rather, the silver-haired girl named Effir was closer to that title.
“But your talent as a monster is overflowing.”
The life in the eyes of the Thunder King began to fade.
‘Like that friend…’
Baotolt wasn’t exactly a genius.
Unlike Garhan, he didn’t have a good sense of combat and could not grasp and acquire skills at once.
Except for the transcendent physical skill of the Valtara barbarians, he was surprisingly normal for a warrior.
Yeah, he certainly wasn’t a genius.
Unlike the geniuses from the heavens, he didn’t pioneer new paths or create new martial arts theories.
Instead, he had done what others couldn’t.
He went to down the wrong path and made incorrect swordsmanship correct.
“Baotolt, Baotolt…”
Looking up at the night sky, the strongest Magic Swordsman on Latna sighed deeply.
“I never got over you…”
Blood flowed around the middle-aged man’s mouth.
His presence gradually faded away.
His soul no longer dwelled in his body but just seemed to be hovering around.
Darkness spread out in front of him.
‘Is this death?’
A soft voice came out.
“Truly…”
At the same time, everything about Garhan collapsed.
“It hurts…”
The strongest Magic Swordsman on Latna, who had challenged the Goddesses to overcome his mortal fate, disappeared like dust.
* * *
Effir’s arms were fine. Unwavering and holding her twin blades, she pointed at Genovia.
But her legs were trembling like an aspen.
‘Oh, it’s hard to stand.’
The other party members were no different.
The Fire Dragon King’s Staff was now almost used as the third leg of Artis. No longer able to stand properly, he used it as a cane instead.
Leon Hart’s whole body was covered in blood. Uroboros’ coat was ragged and could be called garbage at that point.
Everyone was on the verge of collapse.
With a snort, Genovia aimed with the Staff of the World.
“Finally, your limits have come.”
She was about to release another spell when she stopped.
“Garhan?”
She could feel it.
Enormous energy, which had never been extinguished amid countless groups of monsters, disappeared in an instant.
What that meant was clear.
‘That’s ridiculous!’
Nevertheless, Genovia couldn’t easily accept the reality.
‘Garhan is dead? The strongest Magic Swordsman on Latna even used his ultimate technique.’
No matter how she calculated the odds, there was no chance that the young Sword King could defeat the Thunder King.
The number that she had relied on so much betrayed her.
“It can’t happen! I’m not wrong!”
Panicked, Genovia raised her staff high.
A huge circle of light spread under her feet and grew in all directions.
The realm of power quickly covered not only Leon Hart’s party but also all the surrounding tens of meters of ground.
“Round of Destroyers!”
A massive mace of ruination hit the magic circle.
Under formidable pressure, everything in its range was crushed. Hundreds of monsters were smashed in an instant and spewed blood fountains.
Neither Leon Hart nor his party could escape the pressure.
Everyone was put to their knees, groaning.
“Ugh!”
“Ugh!”
In the meantime, Genovia soared into the air using flying magic.
‘If Garhan was defeated, I no chance to win.’
She was the Archmage, the greatest Mage on Latna.
Despite her panic, her mind grasped the situation calmly and found the best response.
‘I have to get out of here now!’
Unfortunately, her intentions failed.
Leon Hart’s party was on their knees, but they didn’t collapse.
“Do you think we’re going to miss it?”
On the ground, Artis raised his head high.
His right hand lifted the Fire Dragon King’s Staff.
“Meteor Swarm!”
He looked banged up, but magic spells couldn’t care less about how their casters looked.
Boom!
Hundreds of massive meteor showers fell around Genovia.
Of course, none of it hit her.
In the first place, that was a spell meant to deal with a vast number of enemies, not a small human being.
Nevertheless, Artis was confident.
“Ugh!”
The soaring Genovia stumbled and landed back on the ground.
It was because her flight magic was interrupted by the Mana Storm of the Meteor Swarm.
Mages were also weaker in terms of flight compared to Magic Swordsmen.
She could burn everything around her and proudly leave her place. Regardless, they wouldn’t let her go peacefully while she was ignoring everything around her.
“… Now I feel like I’m using some wizardly magic.”
In self-praise, Artis stuck his nose in the ground.
He was so tired that he couldn’t even keep his head up.
“These bastards are…”
The stranded Genovia burst into anger.
“You’re alive because I’ve been nice to you!”
Effir shouted back, gritting her teeth.
“Honestly, you never held back! You were doing your best to protect yourself!”
She wasn’t wrong.
Genovia certainly did her best.
She had protected only her perfectly and hadn’t taken any damage.
It was different now.
‘I haven’t used it yet because it’s too dangerous…’
The pupils of her eyes glowed goldenly. At the same time, all the Mana of the Archmage began to converge into a single light.
‘That’s…’
Leon Hart turned pale.
‘You’re using Althea Burst in this situation?’
That powerful magic would destroy everything in sight.
Even Genovia herself!
‘The aftereffects of Althea Burst at such a close distance would be life-threatening…’
Genovia completed the incantation with a snort.
Her staff shone with power.
“Everything will be gone!”
At that moment, the darkness swallowed the light.
Althea Burst, which was lit up, faded without a trace.
Genovia turned pale.
“… Huh?”
* * *
The night was moving.
It flowed, fluttered, and obeyed one will. It cast a shroud of darkness and surrounded everything, sinking into an abyss.
At the root of that will stood a woman with black hair.
She was darkness, and darkness was her.
Genovia’s black skin got goosebumps.
“Ah…”
Fear squeezed her heart.
“Ahhh…”
The sinner against the Goddesses let out a silent scream.
The true master of the night, the object of reverence for all, Kybriel, the Goddess of Darkness, had been resurrected!
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