C895
A blinding golden flash cleaves the death energy palace, revealing the Demonblade. His lips tremble, pale with shock from Raon’s sword strike that erases the death energy.
“Ugh!”
The Demonblade hurriedly raises his sword to defend himself, but it’s too late. The radiant blade that cut through the purple death energy is already at his nose. With one last brilliant flash, the golden light shatters the Demonblade’s sword and opens a deep wound in his chest.
“Gah…”
The Demonblade clutches the wound in his chest, spitting out black blood. Despite the severity of the injury, his groan is surprisingly silent. It seems he has used death energy to dull his pain receptors.
“Ugh”
Raon also spits out black blood, hunching over.
“It seems I went overboard.”
Even with Askara’s Fighting Spirit, the death energy invades his body and mind the moment he lets his guard down. He needs to maintain his focus, as the battle is not over yet.
“Huffff.”
Catching his breath and regaining control of his body and mind, he approaches the Demonblade, who has fallen to his knees. Having spent a massive amount of death energy at once, the enemy can barely maintain his balance, his hands and feet trembling uncontrollably.
“This… this is impossible…”
The Demonblade murmurs, shaking his head vigorously in disbelief.
“This power was obtained by sacrificing over a hundred humans! It’s beyond even my peak, but how could someone like you…!”
He screams in shock, unable to believe that his death energy has been shattered.
“The answer is simple.”
Raon tilts his chin, looking down at the Demonblade.
“You are weaker now than you were before.”
“Insolent brat! If you hadn’t used such strange tricks, I would have won!”
“That’s not what I meant.”
Pointing the Heavenly Drive towards the Demonblade’s neck, Raon tells him not to misunderstand.
“W-what do you…”
The Demonblade lowers his trembling eyes to look at the blade of the Heavenly Drive, dripping with his own blood.
“I mean you are weaker now than when I saw you at the Five Divine Orders’ festival.”
“Nonsense!”
He grinds his teeth, raising his distorted eyes.
“The amount of death energy I possess now is completely different from then. How can that make sense? If you’re going to mock me, at least do it properly!”
The Demonblade clenches his fist, saying that such provocation won’t work on him.
“It seems he doesn’t even realize. He has already been consumed by power.”
Wrath clicks his tongue in disdain.
“When I first saw him, he at least had the audacity to challenge me. Now he’s completely broken.”
He shakes his head, saying that the guy is no longer worth fighting.
“Indeed.”
Raon nods calmly.
“But he didn’t crumble like this on his own.”
There must be someone else who extended a hand of dark temptation to the Demonblade in his desperation.
“The amount of aura has increased. But…”
Raon lowers his hand, looking into the Demonblade’s eyes, which are shining with a purple hue.
“Your martial arts are dead.”
“What?”
The Demonblade frowns, as if he doesn’t understand what Raon means.
“W-what are you talking about…”
“You have focused so much on the overflowing death energy that your swordsmanship has lost its sharpness and complexity. It isn’t even at the level of a beginner Transcendent.”
Raon continues with a firm tone, as if he were giving a lesson to a lower-ranked martial artist.
“Your last sword strike was truly powerful. A technique that shapes death energy into a palace form to pressure the opponent. Probably not even hundreds of Grand Masters could have blocked it. But for a Transcendent who has reached the same realm, it was nothing more than a pile of power.”
The death energy palace created by the Demonblade was certainly sharp and solid. Even if Raon had used all his aura, he wouldn’t have been able to block the massive amount of death energy emitted. However, the most important pillar of martial arts wasn’t properly established.
Even if one concentrates massive death energy, a sword strike without the will of a martial artist is nothing more than food for the Ten Thousand Swords he has accumulated.
“You were twice as strong when you faced the Leader of the Holy Sword Alliance. Although your death energy was weaker then, your swordsmanship was imbued with your beliefs and efforts. Even that sword-obsessed man was impressed.”
Raon shakes his head, saying that strong death energy alone doesn’t make a strong sword.
“The Leader of the Holy Sword Alliance gouged out his own eyes to reach a higher realm. He’s probably standing in another domain now.”
The Leader of the Holy Sword Alliance is a madman who gouged out his own eyes with the sole intention of surpassing Glenn. It’s no exaggeration to say that he’s the biggest lunatic Raon has met so far, but in a way, he’s also an admirable swordsman.
On the other hand, when the Demonblade found himself in a slightly difficult situation, instead of trying to overcome it himself, he sacrificed his subordinates to obtain death energy that he couldn’t even handle.
Seeing a human who had reached Transcendence fall into such a miserable state was pathetic beyond words.
“The death energy you obtained by sacrificing your loyal subordinates is now just a pitiful power that can’t even reach me, who has barely reached Transcendence. And now, you don’t even have that.”
Raon twists his lips and swings the Heavenly Drive downwards decisively. With a sound like water splitting, the Demonblade’s purple arm separates from his shoulder. His arm falls to the ground, spilling sticky blood like sewage.
“Urgh…”
Despite losing an arm, the Demonblade only clutches his shoulder without screaming. As expected earlier, it seems he has numbed his sense of pain with death energy.
“What do you know to talk like that?”
The Demonblade bares his teeth, stained black with blood, and rolls his eyes.
“A pampered brat who grew up in Zieghart’s greenhouse without experiencing any hardship!”
“That’s not true.”
Wrath shakes his head, saying that the Demonblade is getting uglier by the minute.
“Even if this guy had consumed all my power, he lived through terribly difficult times. I thought he might have received the blessing of the Angels, given how unlucky he was.”
“What happened to you?”
“Facts are facts, after all.”
He snorts, saying that one must acknowledge what needs to be acknowledged.
“Hmm.”
Thinking about it, even without mentioning his past life, Raon seems to have had a pretty tough time in this life too. While it may not be the most painful life in the world, it probably wouldn’t lose to the hardships of most people.
“Enough of the useless talk.”
Raon shakes the blood off the Heavenly Drive and points its blade at the Demonblade’s neck.
“Who helped you commit this atrocity?”
Although the Dark Black Lotus, led by the Demonblade, uses various spells and tricks, it’s ultimately a group of martial artists. Given the scale of the magic used, there must be others behind it.
“Grrr…”
Instead of answering about his sponsors, the Demonblade just glares at Raon with eyes full of anger.
“If you don’t speak…”
Raon clicks his tongue briefly and uses the Heavenly Drive to shatter the Demonblade’s collarbone. With the sound of bones crushing, the Demonblade falls forward.
“Urgh…”
Even now, the Demonblade doesn’t seem to feel any pain, he immediately raises his face and grinds his teeth.
“This is your last chance. If you shut your mouth this time, I will torture you until all your death energy is gone.”
Raon tilts his jaw to the side, saying he’s serious.
“I would like to kill him right away, but I need to know who’s behind him.”
Although Wrath said he couldn’t smell the scent of the Angels on the Demonblade, Derus Robert could still be behind this, so Raon wanted to make him talk.
“Kuhehe…”
The Demonblade lets out a twisted laugh as he slowly raises his head.
“You’re quite perceptive. You’re right. I had help from others for this magic. But…”
With a trembling hand, he lifts the purple arm that had fallen to the ground.
“The only one who can be behind me is myself!”
The Demonblade screams, biting the purple arm and swallowing it.
“What are you…”
As Raon’s eyes widen in disbelief, purple veins begin to bulge all over the Demonblade’s skin. The change isn’t limited to the veins. Like the purple arm, his entire body begins to turn purple.
“Hmm.”
Raon quickly swings the Heavenly Drive downwards to stop the Demonblade’s transformation. The silver blade falls on the Demonblade’s neck, but instead of cutting through flesh, it bounces off as if it hit a piece of metal.
The Demonblade gets up, his entire body covered in purple death energy as if he had been dipped in purple paint.
The sword wound in his chest disappears, and a new arm sprouts from his severed shoulder. He no longer looks human.
“Even if I become like this…”
The Demonblade raises both hands, now rippling with death energy, and bared his ferocious teeth.
“I will kill you, Raon Zieghart!”
He lets out a bestial roar, saying he will sacrifice everything to kill Raon. The sky howls violently, and the ground splits open, spewing passionate purple lava as the Demonblade’s overwhelming death energy erupts.
“I don’t care what form you take.”
Raon calmly shakes his chin, unfazed by the Demonblade who is distorting space with just the manifestation of his death energy.
“You can’t defeat me as you are now.”
“Shut up!”
The Demonblade charges with a scream. He’s so fast that only a purple afterimage is seen, but Raon can tell where he’s coming from. He swings the Crimson Slash towards the Demonblade’s chest as he lunges from the right. The blade bounces off the Demonblade’s chest, unable to penetrate the black death energy armor that burns like flames.
“A body reinforced with death energy! Your insignificant needle won’t pierce it!”
The Demonblade, confident in his death energy-wrapped body, charges relentlessly and swings a sword made of death energy.
“It’ll be difficult to use Heaven’s Rift.”
Using Heaven’s Rift would completely kill the Demonblade, but Raon would also immediately pass out. With things to do, it was better to choose a different method for now.
“Die!”
The Demonblade thrusts his death energy-wrapped sword. The purple death energy erupting from the tip of the blade begins to erase the very space Raon is standing in with a tremendous explosion.
“I told you.”
Raon advances towards the purple radiation, raising the Heavenly Drive.
“You can’t build a tall tower without a foundation.”
Shaking his head slightly, he draws the Azure Sky Drive, imbued with flames. The blade of the Heavenly Drive, reaching the end of the sky, falls slowly, pressing down the wave of death energy that was trying to devour the world. The Demonblade, standing behind the wave of death energy, also falls to his knees, unable to bear the weight of the sky built by the Azure Sky Drive.
“H-how can you have so much power without even using a Sword Domain…”
The Demonblade trembles his jaw, unable to believe it.
“This is true swordsmanship. A sword doesn’t become stronger just because your aura is powerful or your body is tough.”
Raon gives an answer that the Demonblade could never understand while firing the Blade of Requiem. The small, thin blade of the Blade of Requiem pierces the purple armor and lodges itself in the Demonblade’s chest, making the death energy reinforcement seem insignificant. The Blade of Requiem emits a chilling red aura as it devours the death energy residing in the Demonblade’s body.
“Argh!”
The Demonblade lets out a scream that he didn’t even utter when his arm was cut off or his chest was torn open, rolling on the ground. Judging by his eyes rolling wildly, it seems he’s finally starting to feel pain.
“It seems your senses have opened.”
Raon nods and strikes the Demonblade’s thigh with the Heavenly Drive.
“Aaaaargh!”
A heart-wrenching scream comes from the Demonblade’s mouth. As expected, he wasn’t enduring the pain; he simply couldn’t feel it.
“I-impossible. How could my death energy…”
“That sword is surprisingly the best at destroying negative energy, despite its appearance.”
The Blade of Requiem may be a cursed sword, but it despises negative energies like demonic energy or blood energy. This time too, it seems to have absorbed the Demonblade’s death energy and shattered his magic.
“Since you’re such a great Transcendent. Let’s see how much you can endure?”
Raon pushes heat and cold into the wound he opened in the Demonblade with the Heavenly Drive.
“Aaaaargh!”
The Demonblade twists his entire body, letting out a scream that even a third-rate martial artist wouldn’t make. He tries to forcefully pull out the Blade of Requiem, but of course, it doesn’t budge.
“Urgh…”
“The people you killed must have suffered much more.”
Living sacrifices are killed after being subjected to extreme pain in order to utilize even the resentment of the dead. The fact that this guy can’t even withstand this level of pain after using living sacrifices makes Raon feel nauseous.
“S-stop. Please stop…”
“I’ll do whatever you want.”
Raon raises the Heavenly Drive dripping with blood.
“Die right there.”
Seeing the Demonblade’s transformed appearance, Raon thought he might escape using a special spell, or that his sponsors might intervene. Even if he couldn’t find out what’s behind this, it was better to kill him now.
“W-wait!”
As Raon is about to bring the Heavenly Drive down on the Demonblade’s neck, he raises his hand urgently.
“I’ll talk! About who’s behind me!”
“I don’t need it.”
“The Black Tower!”
As Raon is about to ignore the Demonblade’s words and behead him, he screams as if he’s desperate.
“I know the location of the Black Tower!”
-
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