Chapter 191
Caladi is the capital of Carpe.
As such, it is a grand and massive city.
Surrounded by forests and mountains along its pathways, it is no different from a fortress, like an impregnable castle. Because of this, the Empire also judged penetrating the capital to be difficult and used a holy artifact along with Geochang to teleport their grand army.
Anyway.
Caladi has many high mountains.
When Callius served as the captain of the Sixth Squad, the place he and the members stayed was also a villa located in the mountains.
However, those mountains.
Kwaang-!
The mountains south of Caladi were currently in the process of being completely obliterated.
"Aaaargh!"
"Crazy!"
Gigantic flames and ice clash.
Kwang!
As the extremely heated flames and ice collided in the atmosphere, a fierce storm raged and mist swept in.
Caught in the aftermath, not only did soldiers have their armor melted by the flames or frozen solid, but even knights harboring conviction in their hearts were helpless, unable to do anything.
"T-This is..."
Is this truly a fight between humans?
With one sword strike, the forest burns.
With another, the forest freezes and shatters into pieces.
In between, sharp sword auras crush rocks and cleave the mountains, making the vicinity seem like an earthquake had struck—it was absolute chaos.
"How dare a scoundrel who only toys with women!!"
Kaang-!
Sparks fly from the clashing swords.
From her hand to her arm and shoulder.
The weight of the sword pouring over her entire body is far too heavy.
The purity of his divine power.
The physical abilities connected to it. Along with his transcendent rank having reached Master, his swordsmanship makes Karina falter.
'The sword he possesses. He doesn't even possess a scabbard, yet he can use it to this extent?'
Possessing a scabbard means becoming one with the sword.
It means spewing the flames erupting from the sword through one's entire body, which is no different from saying one can freely wield the sword's inherent abilities.
Becoming one with the sword.
The so-called realm of Divine Sword Unity.
However, Callius was wielding his power while ignoring such a realm of Karina's.
That's right. This was not a sword, but merely wielding ruthless violence.
It was abnormal violence.
"Ugh! Where are you-!"
Chaeng! Chaang! Kkaang! Seureung!
In the time it takes to take a single breath, dozens of sword auras pour out.
It is incredibly fast, but its flow is like a tide, leaving no room to counter.
Offense and defense perfectly interlock.
By the time she gathers her wits, she is already desperately trying to keep up with his sword, and as she blocks, she unknowingly reveals an opening.
Swish-!
"Damn it...!"
Karina, gripping her sword with both hands, engulfed in flames, spat out a curse.
At her intense flames, the ice of sorrow melts away, and her red hair shoots high into the sky.
"White Flame Demon."
Karina's eyes suddenly changed.
Her eyes, brimming with killing intent, were as cold as when she slaughtered enemies on the battlefield.
Her swordsmanship that turns the flames of white into a demon. The demon of white flame envelops the heated red sword.
The heated red sword soon turned pure white and shot violently towards Callius.
Kwoaaaah-!
The pure white flames spreading out in a fan shape burn everything alive.
The surroundings dyed pure white by the white flames. A faint smile formed on Karina's lips.
"Only two have survived being hit by my brother's white flames."
She didn't know when Jervan had reached Master, but he was still a greenhorn.
The skills of a guy who had just reached Master were quite good, but it was only to that extent.
As she thought that.
"White Tomb."
Callius's voice, coming from somewhere, pierced Karina's ears.
And immediately.
"Ugh!"
Kwagagagagaga!
From beneath the ground Karina stood on, a barrage of sword auras began to erupt.
Dozens, hundreds of crescent moon sword auras shot up from the ground.
Karina tried to dodge what she could and block what she could, but for the swords on trajectories she absolutely couldn't evade, she had no choice but to offer her flesh.
"...."
A painful mistake.
Starting from her thigh, the armor on her side and other parts was torn, and blood seeped out.
Not only that.
Peong! Pweong! The sword auras that tore her armor soon exploded.
The wounds burst open of their own accord, making Karina dizzy.
Pitter-patter.
Karina's red blood dyeing the earth clouded her mind.
Thud, thud.
Callius von Jervan leisurely walking out from the dust and sand.
Holding a single sword, he looked at her with ease.
"Flame Demon, Karina. Is this all there is?"
Grind.
Karina, grinding her teeth as if crushing them, soon let out a scoffing laugh.
"My blood is flame."
"What nonsense..."
Callius's eyes narrowed.
Her aura was unusual.
At Karina's low voice, the atmosphere trembled faintly.
'Her momentum has changed.'
Thunk.
Her eyes blazed fiercely as she plunged her sword into the ground.
"The earth dyed with blood is my fire."
Hwarreureuk!
Every single drop of blood she shed turned into flames, and fire blazed up.
It was a deep crimson wall of fire.
Like fire made of blood.
"Fire is will, and conviction."
Hwaaaaaaaah-!
The wall of fire around Callius began to burn with even higher intensity.
The mist covering the vicinity from their fierce clash vanished without a trace.
As the mist disappeared due to the giant Flame Demon, everyone stepped back from the scorching heat.
"My conviction does not go out."
Therefore.
"The flames of conviction never die out."
The flames engulfing Callius soon burned as if dancing, moving alive.
As if possessed by a ghost.
Or as if howling madly.
Then, in an instant.
"Haaaaah-"
Karina's sword.
And fire dwelled in her body.
The fire became Karina's armor, and made her sword even more massive.
She, whose entire body was burning, could now be considered fire itself.
Flame Demon (火魔).
A demon of flames. Or rather, her epithet called witch—it was clear how it came to be seeing her current appearance.
"The demon's fiery pit. This place is my Sacred Domain. Scoundrel."
"...."
"Are you confident you won't turn to ashes?"
To her, ablaze with scorching heat.
Callius replied with a sneer.
"I was born as ash."
Karina's sword, transformed into a Flame Demon, charges.
With speed incomparable to before and flames burning so hot they leave not even ash.
The saying, 'Not a single blade of grass grows in the west where the Flame Demon resides,' was not wrong.
However.
"Flowing Water Transformation."
He received her sword, burning like a demon, as if it were a flowing stream.
A swordsmanship that seemed to steal away the noise.
A technique that is merely about flowing.
Bernard's will, which had woven that technique into swordsmanship, manifested through Callius.
Seureureuk.
His sword, drawing a half-moon, erased the flames at some point, and cleaved the wall of fire.
And soon.
Kkeoeoeoeoeong-!
It even split apart Karina's Sacred Domain.
* * *
Tat, tat!
Swift figures crossing Caladi.
One is a giant black knight. And the other is a resolute old man.
If the Empire has spears that protect it, Carpe has swords.
The Five Swords of Carpe.
The pitch-black night, Black Knight Leviathan, and the master of Trista, Judgment Jerald, were members of the Five Swords.
In the past.
They had a record of defending the royal castle even during the Empire's invasion.
Although Leviathan was someone constantly picked on by the Pope, his ability to control darkness was of a nature that excelled on the battlefield, and Judgment Jerald was a loyal sword of Carpe and an unyielding veteran.
The place they were heading was Caladi's south gate. Exactly where Callius and Karina were fighting fiercely.
"Things have really blown up."
"I wish that fire tigress would have done things in moderation."
Jerald and Leviathan running swiftly, stepping on the rooftops of Caladi.
They felt utterly uneasy about entrusting the authority to arrest Callius to her.
And sure enough, things blew up.
No one was unaware of Karina's fiery temper, but since the opponent was a scoundrel, it blew up spectacularly.
But the opponent was a hero of many battles who reached Master at the youngest age and rolled around battlefields for over ten years.
She was not some easy opponent that Callius could handle.
Yet seeing the situation unfolding now, they were fighting quite fiercely.
Kuuung-
With the sound of something exploding and mountains collapsing far away, the aftermath was rolling all the way up to here.
Seriously, how do you fight to make entire mountains collapse?
"In the worst case, Callius could die. I'll help Callius right away, so Leviathan, you stop Karina."
"Understood."
And when they arrived.
Kkeojeojeojeojeojeojeong-!
They took in the sight of the whole world turned pure white and a completely frozen snow mountain created right there.
At the center of that snow mountain, a fading flame lay asleep.
"K-Karina!!"
"Flame Demon!! No, how did this...!"
Beside them, who were so shocked they were speechless. Thud, thud. A man walking through the snowfield.
The master who subjugated the North.
Jervan of the North.
Callius glared at them with his usual ice-cold face.
"Did you also come to arrest me?"
"...What did you do to Karina?"
"I merely shattered her Sacred Domain and froze her."
"S-Shattered the Sacred Domain...?"
Sacred Domain.
Why is a Sacred Domain a Sacred Domain?
It is a territorialization created by blending the user's imagery and the sword's ability into one.
The power of the one who created the Sacred Domain varies from individual to individual, but they inevitably become about 2 to 4 times stronger.
To say he broke such an opponent's Sacred Domain meant....
'You must be at least twice as strong as the one who deployed the Sacred Domain.'
Seeing that the sword he possessed turned the entire vicinity into a snowfield, there was some degree of elemental advantage, but....
'It's beyond expectations.'
The power Callius possessed.
When they clashed, he had already reached Master, but he was easily several times stronger than when they faced each other at the royal castle before.
It was to the point of making one wonder what on earth he had done during a mere 1, 2 years of pilgrimage.
"Well now... I don't know if things have gotten easier or harder."
Originally, he came to stop Karina.
But he had no intention of going against the royal command.
Because he planned to coax Callius and detain him for now before Karina took extreme actions.
But Flame Demon, Karina was defeated.
To the point where she couldn't even put up a fight.
'Without a single wound.'
Callius was in a perfectly dressed state without even a single scorch mark on his collar from the fire.
Seeing Callius exuding such perfect aristocratic elegance, even bizarre goosebumps rose on him.
The fact that Carpe had five Masters meant there were five powerhouses within the top five fingers of this country.
Now two more had been added to make seven, but even so, Karina was quite a strong one among them.
It wasn't for nothing that the west was entrusted to her. But to think he subdued her without a single injury, a headache began to form.
But he was Judgment Jerald.
The so-called Knight of the Royal Command.
Jerald's sword was solely for the country.
To follow the king's orders.
The loyal king's sword does not waver.
Jerald's sword pointed at Callius.
"Accept the royal command obediently."
"...."
Callius looked at the disaster he had created.
The lush forest had burned, frozen, and disintegrated into fragments of ice.
The mountain had collapsed and melted, eventually creating a single iceberg, and a few soldiers who couldn't avoid the aftermath were frozen along with it.
He had vented his anger for a while, and the cause of his fury had been frozen along with the iceberg long ago.
As his returning reason gradually settled in, he realized that it was only natural to obey the royal command obediently.
"Do you intend to resist? Count Jervan."
At the question of Carpe's Black Knight, Leviathan, wearing pitch-black full plate armor from head to toe and carrying a black greatsword on his back, Callius, instead of lowering his gripped sword, clenched it even tighter.
"Originally, that would be the right thing to do."
It was unjust, so very unjust.
And there was no other place to resolve this injustice.
Staying still seemed like it would only make him feel more wronged, so he wanted to test something out at this opportunity.
"I want to see if you have the qualifications."
He had become this strong.
Karina, the named among the named of Carpe.
He subdued the Flame Demon without difficulty.
His heart was full of pride, as if he had been rewarded for his efforts.
He had become this strong.
Then what about Carpe?
What about my country, Carpe?
Regardless, the deed was already done, and Carpe, instead of commending him for it, was being played by someone's schemes.
Wasn't this a great opportunity?
"Callius.... You bastard! I thought you had come to your senses a little, but you're as arrogant as ever! No matter how you've gained the power to subdue the Flame Demon, a Master's sword has its limits."
No matter how high the realm of a Master is.
It is common sense that one cannot face two Masters at once.
Even for the high-spirited Callius, facing two Masters of Carpe would be impossible.
'But qualifications?'
Qualifications.
Callius, even with Jerald and Leviathan in front of him, talked about qualifications.
Whether they had the qualifications to make him kneel.
Whether Carpe had such power.
'To think he'd be this arrogant.'
The old man who was worrying about the hero of the nation just a moment ago had vanished.
What stood before him was only a veteran of a hundred battles who had crossed countless battlefields and an unwavering Black Knight.
Swoosh.
The moment they drew their swords, the snowfield transformed into a battlefield.
Hwiiing. Only the wind sweeping the silence expressed the momentum they radiated.
And in an instant.
Paang-!
The ground where Callius stood exploded.
"......?"
Just as they tensed up at his figure disappearing in an instant and scanned their surroundings.
"Ugh!"
"What is it, old man."
They soon realized Callius's objective.
His faint presence was moving away from here and heading towards the royal castle in an instant.
"Damn! He's heading to the royal castle!"
"Damn it!"
A speed that couldn't even be chased with the eyes.
It seemed there was no one in Carpe, at least, who could catch up to Callius, who was using Shunpo continuously.
'Not bad.'
The newly acquired trait.
[Efficiency]
Because of it.
Callius was now able to freely use the Shunpo, which he could previously only use in single bursts.
With that alone, Carpe had allowed the enraged scoundrel through the castle gates.
Kwoaaaaang!
"Keuaak! R-Run away!!"
"W-Who are you!"
The blown-open castle gates.
Amidst the settling dirt and dust.
"I've come for an audience with the Queen."
Carpe's scoundrel had infiltrated the royal castle.