Chapter135
The viscount could not believe it.
A single strike.
With one strike, the white robes fluttered.
With the second strike, the bodies of the knights all exploded.
The soldiers of Kibaek.
The dozens of knights he had painstakingly raised.
All died in just this brief exchange.
‘How could this happen...’
At best, a pilgrim.
He thought the man was just some worthless, lowly attendant, but he was wrong.
Furthermore, what he held was a sword.
A Sword Pilgrim.
For such a man to be operating openly in the empire meant he was that confident in his skills.
‘How could he do this with a divine power as small as a rat’s tail...’
Did he hide his divine rank?
A pilgrim capable of such a thing.
No.
It was highly likely he was a Master disguised as a pilgrim.
‘Gehalt, think. You must think. Or else you die right now.’
Should he run away right now?
Or should he try talking?
If the opponent was truly a Master, he would die the moment he tried to run, so that was rejected.
Trying to talk was also meaningless.
The opponent had drawn his sword.
He dared to take up a sword within the empire, revealing his identity.
He probably wouldn't even engage in conversation.
If so, there was only one method left.
Squeeze.
Power flowed into the hands of Gehalt, who held his spear.
If he died either way, receiving a Master's single sword strike would be a great honor.
"Come!"
Click.
Sheathing the sword again.
And drawing the sword.
‘I will give up an arm.’
Offering flesh to break bones.
Swish!!
His spear was bestowed by the empire.
It lacked nothing.
The tip of Gehalt's spear glowed red.
The light wrapped around his arm, and his muscles bulged grotesquely.
He pulled the spear to his side and burst forward to a single point.
At the same time, Kalias's sword was drawn again. Gehalt thought.
When he first drew his sword, he couldn't see the end of his strike.
Then there wouldn't be much difference now. So the time to thrust the spear was right now.
"Huaaaa!!"
His bulging muscles, swelling like a sturdy man's torso, squirmed as he thrust the spear.
Crack!
Cleaving the wind.
A single thrust piercing through the air.
With this, he should be able to withstand one move.
Just as he thought so.
Slice.
With a chilling sound, Gehalt blinked once.
Before he knew it, his gaze was directed at the ground.
The thrust spear was precisely split in half, opening wide like a mouth.
"Ah?"
Slide. Thud.
"How..."
Gehalt's body fell, severed in two.
In his left hand, a small short spear was gripped, but it was meaningless.
Crumble.
With Gehalt's figure weathering away like dust, the imperial army was annihilated.
"Haa..."
A long breath escaped Kalias, and the sword was thrust back into its scabbard.
Click.
Crackle.
Kwa-aaaaang.
The Spear Estate burned and collapsed.
In front of the burning, collapsing Spear Estate, Kalias looked at Chris.
The silence between the two lasted a long time.
Just as Chris was about to say something.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, thud.
The sword Kalias threw spun through the air and stuck at Chris's feet.
A famous sword with excellent balance.
It was one of the swords Kalias commonly possessed.
Chris unknowingly fell to the sword's allure and grabbed the hilt.
‘Heavy.’
Unlike his struggling body, his heart beat so fiercely that he wanted to swing it as soon as possible.
It was right after seeing a swordsmanship like a fantasy.
Anyone would feel that way.
In Chris's heart, the spear and morning star had long since disappeared.
"M-Mister! Your name? What's your name!!"
As he shouted at his retreating back, he slightly turned his head and answered.
"Find out."
He disappeared into the darkness again.
The pure-white pilgrim holding a sword.
Chris looked at his back for a long time, swallowing his tears.
"Sword Pilgrim."
Muttering as if engraving it in his mind, Chris held the sword that didn't suit his small body, looked at the burning Spear Estate and the path where he disappeared, and then looked up at the sky.
Especially, the stars were twinkling in the sky.
* * *
Rattle.
"Hey! Slow down a bit!"
"B-bandits are chasing us, how can I slow down!"
"Ah, he said you don't need to worry about it."
Thud, thud thud! Ping.
Arrows embedding into the carriage.
Philomatur flicked them away as if they were annoying and irritably furrowed his brow.
"Serena! Aren't you going to catch those guys?"
"Lord Kalias told us to wait."
"No, until when exactly..."
An open carriage without a roof.
Sitting at the edge of the carriage, Kalias had his eyes closed and held his scabbard.
He was maintaining his balance so well inside the rattling carriage.
"He must be planning to practice some swordsmanship. He's been doing that a lot lately."
"That hundred-something thing?"
"It's Baekjeolhwa. It's the noble Lord Kalias's swordsmanship, so don't speak of it with your filthy mouth."
"No, what..."
It was then.
Kalias's eyes opened.
He immediately drew his sword and swung it.
Slaash.
A half-moon sword qi flew out and bisected the bandits.
"Oh."
"Kya! That's cool!"
"Amazing."
The complaints they had been pouring out vanished in vain.
They praised Kalias as if they had never complained. However, Kalias himself didn't seem satisfied.
"Why are you doing that?"
"It's hard to use on top of a carriage."
"Isn't that obvious?"
"It is not obvious."
Swordsmanship.
It is right to be able to use it fully anytime, anywhere.
That was why Kalias was training to be able to use it in any posture, in any situation.
Originally, Baekjeolhwa takes a long time to concentrate despite being a sword-drawing technique.
Of course, that was only because Kalias's proficiency was low.
Originally, Baekjeolhwa is not like that.
Thus, Kalias had been practicing Baekjeolhwa whenever he had the chance since leaving the kingdom, and although he had reached a certain level, it was still not perfect.
"But is that kid okay? His mother asked you, right?"
It was Aldo.
He asked while grooming his hammer.
Kalias handed his Gluttonous Sword to Aldo and answered.
"I did as much as I could."
There are many people with circumstances.
If he dragged all of them around, he wouldn't be able to achieve his purpose.
Originally, he was a man on the run.
Taking along a child who couldn't even take care of himself would only be a burden.
So Kalias gave him a single sword.
A sword that was common to him, but not at all to Chris.
If Chris embraced the sword. If he truly made up his mind to walk a grueling path.
A single worthless sword like that was not a waste at all.
If a single sword became a boy's dream.
The sword had achieved its worth.
"Was there any need to go that far? You said you left Veronica's money too."
"I already received something else."
When Philip's sword turned into light.
Kalias had been sufficiently compensated.
[Faith +2]
Thanks to that, Kalias's Faith was now.
[Kalias von Zervan]
[Title] - Hero of the Nation
[Class] - Pilgrim
[Divine Rank] - 3rd Class
[Divine Power] - 15703/16934
[Talent] - [Bard's Blessing] [Instinctive Intuition]
[Trait] - [Grace] [Noble's Duty] [Sisajakbi (Repenting Past Wrongs)] [Order's Prodigal Son] [Glutton] [Tricolor Eyes] [Yo-hyang]
[Constitution] - [Yongol (Fused Bones)]
[Stats]
Strength - 102 (30)
Agility - 86 (30)
Technique - 19
Health - 89 (30)
Faith - 95 ▶ 97
His Faith became 97.
‘I should start preparing slowly.’
He needed to prepare to raise the quality of his Divine Rank.
The moment Faith reaches 100.
He would break through the limits of the 3rd Class.
Normally, he would have to buy a large amount of holy stones and find a suitable training room, but there was no need to make a fuss.
"Oh, I can see it now!"
His destination was the Sahara Holy Land.
"Do we just need to cross the border now?"
"That's right."
Beyond the border.
The Sahara Holy Land visible beyond the ridge.
The tower soaring high into the sky was tilted as if it would fall at any moment, yet it did not fall.
"Truly a great place."
"Old man, have you been there?"
"I have a memory of going there with my father when I was young. It's faint, but the Sahara Holy Land was still amazing enough to leave a vivid memory in a young brat's head."
Aldo raised the corners of his mouth as he looked at Philo and the group.
"Do you know the anecdote of Sahara? I mean why a holy land was created in the center of the Sahara Desert, where there was nothing."
"Don't try to show off and just tell us."
"Kalias, do you know?"
Kalias nodded.
"It is said that what ended the Dragon-Demon War was, ironically, humans who possessed the power of gods."
"Oh! You know well. That's right. Sahara was originally not a desert."
The desert of Sahara is exceptionally red.
A place also called the Red Desert.
But they say Sahara was originally not a desert.
Due to the war between dragons and the corrupted, the land was shattered and devastated, eventually absorbing blood, dyeing red, and becoming desolate.
Their war was so fierce and its aftermath so great that humans were easily caught up in it, meeting meaningless deaths.
Thus, what appeared at that time.
"Were the followers of various gods who now make up the continent."
Sword, spear, morning star, bow, hammer, and so on.
It is said that armed heroes following various gods appeared and ended the Dragon-Demon War.
Afterward, a tower was built to honor that.
In Sahara, no one...
...kills recklessly.
It became a sanctuary in the truest sense.
"They say if you kill in Sahara, a dragon or demon appears. They are sensitive to the vows they have sworn."
"As expected..."
Serena looked at Kalias.
She seemed to be having another strange delusion on her own. Kalias didn't care.
Sahara Holy Land.
Kalias had quite a lot of expectations for that place.
There were complex reasons, but among them was an important purpose.
‘Iron Lord.’
First, obtaining the Iron Lord.
To prepare for the war with the empire, there was no sword better than the Iron Lord.
And second was Stella.
‘There are traces of Stella in the holy land.’
As Aldo said, Stella was one of the heroes who ended the Dragon-Demon War.
In the holy land, there were traces of Stella.
That is, traces of her swordsmanship remained.
Although Kalias had inherited Stella's progression, it was not complete.
How could he inherit all of the progression from a swordsmanship manual that only had a few letters and pictures written on it in the first place?
Even growing and understanding it as much as he did now was an amazing feat.
‘Originally, Stella's swordsmanship...’
It was not a swordsmanship for fighting people. What she modified for anti-personnel use right before she disappeared was exactly what Kalias had learned.
Originally, Eunhwapageom was not for humans.
It was a sword for fighting dragons and demons.
‘It's powerful enough even now, but.’
The original Eunhwapageom was not merely at this level. The strongest swordsmanship on the continent.
That was Eunhwapageom.
Stella was famous as a saintess, but before that, she was a person called the Dragon Slayer.
Her swordsmanship was a sword that killed dragons.
‘She must have incurred the wrath of the dragons because of the Gwangryonggeom anyway.’
Learning Stella's true swordsmanship was more important to him.
And the third reason for heading to the holy land.
That is...
"I expected it, but it's going to be difficult."
Philo's voice awakened his thoughts.
Far away.
The ones guarding the border could be seen.
Imperial soldiers wearing red armor.
The two standing at the vanguard.
The Imperial Princess and the Princess.
The two were guarding the border.
They looked to be four times the normal border defense force.
It was a formation that showed their resolve to absolutely not let them go to Sahara, since killing was impossible there.
While all the companions frowned as if they were in for a headache.
Only Kalias remained unchanged.
He just.
The ring on his finger.
Was only stroking Leteti.