Chapter 33
Screeeech! Crunch!
Whoosh! Sizzle!
"…."
Roas's crossguard was shattered.
The midpoint between the handle and the blade.
As the axe slipped, it sliced clean through the crossguard and advanced.
A moment later, and his wrist would have been severed.
'With my current self, I cannot win against this opponent.'
His own rough breath filled him to the brim, but the bastard was unaffected.
No different from before the fight.
A majestic appearance, an unchanging expression, and his red hair remained the same.
The aura he exuded was also prickly like needles.
'It's huge.'
The bastard's physique.
His axe looked exceptionally large.
The difference in their skills was clear.
The Predator Sword, Roas, screamed, and cracks appeared on its blade.
Drip, drip.
Piercing through Dexter's gloves, blood dripped profusely.
The more he blocked the Grand Warrior's axe, the more his hands trembled.
His grip had already burst apart completely.
Riiiip!
He tore the cloth from his forearm and tightly wrapped his hand and Roas together.
"Huu-"
He circulated his divine power to the extreme to maximize his physical abilities, and with his nerves on edge like a freshly sharpened blade, he thrust out a single strike.
Clang-! Whoooosh!
Every time the axe and sword clashed, the earth soaked in blood kicked up blood-dust, and the shockwaves rode the medium of the air, making his skin sting.
Boom! Kwaaang-!
His bones throbbed.
The divine power he had gathered was now less than half remaining.
The divine power, purified over a long period, narrowed the gap in their levels slightly, but that was all. Between Calius and the Grand Warrior Keltuk, there existed a massive wall that could not be filled by that alone.
Experience and talent.
An indescribable gap that could not be dismissed with simple words manifested through the exchange of axe and sword.
At a glance, they seemed evenly matched.
But the reality was completely different.
The bastard's twin axes had leeway.
He could have been a little faster, could have put a little more force into it. He could have deflected or parried Calius's sword.
However, he did not do so, and was simply receiving all his attacks as if he was enjoying the current fight.
Clenching his lower lip tightly, Calius's sword changed.
A change in sword aura occurred that one could not feel without looking closely.
The sword aura of the Silver Flower Wave Sword changed.
The smooth sword aura soon transformed as if countless petals were attached to it.
It created the illusion that his sword had instantly multiplied into dozens.
'The profound truth of the Silver Flower Wave Sword is endless transformation.'
All there was, was change.
A variable sword that dazzled the opponent and threw them into confusion with endlessly changing strikes.
A sword for the weak to face the strong.
It deceives with the first strike, and deceives again with the second.
Deceiving and deceiving again until even deceiving oneself—that is the Silver Flower Wave Sword.
Clang!
Petals fluttered.
It scattered the divine power contained in the bastard's weapon and fluttered as petals.
Those petals circled in the air and attached themselves back to Calius's sword. The deflected sword, driven by centrifugal force, viciously aimed for the Grand Warrior's neck once again.
Heh. Seeing the lethal blade, the Grand Warrior's lips curled up.
Shraaak-!
Taaang-!
A fierce shock spread throughout his entire body from his widely swung arm.
Along with a shock strong enough to make him stagger, Calius's body flew into the air.
"Keok!"
Fresh blood splattered in the air.
He clearly aimed for the neck, but...
Another axe had already taken its place, and Calius could not pierce through the bastard's fierce axe energy.
A clear blunder.
The blunder of failing to slash instantly approached before his eyes in the name of death.
Keltuk leaped into the sky and his axe flew down sharply toward Calius, who had been kicked away in an instant.
Kwaaang-!
Roas, which had barely grown back, had its blade snapped once again and flew into the sky.
Shwaaak-!
The line extending from his right shoulder to his side soon spewed a fountain of blood.
Thud.
"Kreukh!"
Red blood soaked the floor.
Calius's life poured out.
'Did I lose?'
The sky is red.
What is rising is the dawn, yet...
He was setting as red as dusk.
"Ha..."
The breath exhaled as he fell was hot.
The breath inhaled was endlessly cold.
A simple principle.
Exhaling hot breath and inhaling cold breath, his flesh grew progressively colder.
The hot blood inside his body also cooled before he knew it, putting his fervor to rest.
Splat.
Calius, collapsed on the floor, simultaneously saw the reddened sky and the Grand Warrior looking down at him.
His gray retinas turned red from the blood, and the fleeting moment felt like eternity.
With every exhale, hundreds of memories and lingering regrets floated to the surface.
However, time still gradually flowed and concluded in a single truth.
"Ah... Aaaaaah!!"
His ears rang.
Like eardrums filled with water, sounds didn't come in properly and wavered.
Nevertheless, one of his talents, [Bard's Blessing], mischievously delivered the sound of despair to Calius's eardrums.
"Everyone's going to die! I don't want to die!!"
"Uwaaaah!"
When Calius fell, the knights fell into panic.
The slightly wise ones realized that running away was meaningless and stood in despair, while those consumed by fear foolishly screamed and ran and ran.
The Grand Warrior's eyes furrowed.
"Ամոթը չգիտես!!"
Shouting "Do you not know shame!", Grand Warrior Keltuk picked up his thrown axes and killed those fleeing.
He only killed those who ran away unbecomingly of a warrior.
Snorting, Keltuk then looked at Calius with satisfied eyes.
A rare paragon of a warrior.
Even knowing he would die, he showed the best sword he could muster.
Being able to show one's sword even while knowing the difference in skill was not something anyone could do. Even beasts would tuck their tails and flee from those stronger than them; that was the law and instinct.
We call those who go against that instinct warriors, and revere them.
Therefore, he was qualified.
At least to the Orc Grand Warrior.
Keltuk thought so.
Thus, Grand Warrior Keltuk gripped his axe. As much as to pay his respects.
The enemy's life must surely be ended. It was their courtesy toward a warrior returning to the embrace of the gods.
Whiiing-
It was then.
Suddenly, Calius's aura changed.
The light vanished from his retinas, and a strange energy swirled around him.
His breath, which seemed like it would stop at any moment, was exhaled long and slow.
"…."
Keltuk narrowed his eyes.
Calius was somehow holding a box in his grasp.
Divine energy was imbued in the box, whose origin was unknown.
As the box opened, Keltuk involuntarily stepped back.
"Սուրբի աստվածային զորությունը."
The divine power of a saint.
High-purity divine power began to dominate the space.
What rested in the box was a sacred stone.
It was a saint's sacred stone.
The reason he suddenly took that out... Keltuk momentarily mistook it as a gift for himself.
Handing over spoils of war to the enemy with his own hands.
He was a man who respected and acknowledged his opponent even if they were an enemy. But such a misunderstanding did not last long for Keltuk.
Gulp.
Suddenly, Calius ate the sacred stone.
"!?"
A shiver.
An inexplicable sense of anxiety swept over Keltuk's entire body.
He immediately raised his axe.
It was dangerous. Eating a sacred stone wouldn't change anything. But contrary to reason, his instinct was screaming that he shouldn't leave him alone.
Thud. Thud. Thud!
Keltuk quickly approached Calius.
And when he swung the axe down.
Kwaaang-!!
Keltuk's gaze locked into focus.
A north wind that cooled the hot air.
Along with the north wind, lightning was blocking his axe.
* * *
Kwaaang-!!
'Damn...'
He was one step late.
Bernard had flown all the way here from Jaibarshu using the wind of the North Wind and his Lightning Sword, Lakan.
He had no time to worry about landing. As it turned out, he didn't need to either.
"Calius, you foolish bastard..."
He took the bait, unable to endure that moment.
Bernard's fury erupted from the tip of his sword.
Bzzzt!!
Boom-!!
The lightning energy engulfed the surroundings in blue.
Massive explosions erupted simultaneously.
Grrr! Keltuk's groan echoed as he was struck by the blue lightning.
The bastard immediately raised his axe high into the sky and struck the ground.
Kwaaang-!
Crrrrack!!
The ground split, and the chunks of earth that shot up divided the lightning energy.
Whoosh! Spinning his body to dodge the rocks, Bernard knocked them all away with the flat of his sword and threw Calius.
"Emily! Take him and flee!"
"What about you, Grandfather!"
"Don't worry about me! You have to save him! You must save him!!"
"Y-yes! Brans!"
"Leave it to m... eh?"
It was then.
Calius stood up straight.
Blood poured from the wounds he had received.
His face was bloodless as if he could die at any moment, and his lips were blue.
Yet, for some reason, his gaze was clear.
"My Lord! You must not!"
Calius pushed Brans away and staggered forward. His destination was the famous sword, Lucen, which he had driven into the ground.
Roas was broken, but he had one sword left.
It was Lucen.
"You're crazy... Why are you going so far! Don't just think about yourself, you idiot!"
Calius looked at the empty air.
[The Glutton trait is digesting the Sacred Stone...]
[Absorbing the Sacred Stone...]
[Unable to absorb entirely...]
[Absorbing...]
Messages repeatedly went up and down in succession, and his body pulsed.
'I'm groggy... but my senses are clear.'
It was a bizarre statement.
His mind was hazy, yet his senses were exceedingly clear.
He had no strength in his body, but everything was strangely vivid, as if seen with his eyes or heard with his ears. He felt like he could easily know the exact location of everything as if he could reach it if he stretched out his hand.
'Is it the characteristic of Sasijakbi?'
Perhaps it was thanks to the characteristic that one only realizes it right before death.
Calius swallowed the sacred stone.
It was not an action done with conscious thought.
It was an instinctual move.
However, precisely because of that, he could move like this now.
'The Glutton trait is digesting the sacred stone, which I normally wouldn't have been able to do.'
And it absorbs its divine power.
It was an idea that the original Calius would never have even thought of.
It was a reckless and undignified act.
But because of that, he was alive now.
[You have imperfectly absorbed the Sacred Stone.]
[Manhwa Bongyuk has risen to the Second Star.]
"Haa...."
To Calius, who had absorbed the saint's divine power, the flow of all energy seemed visible to his eyes.
Whether this was temporary or permanent, he knew one thing.
'Manhwa Bongyuk became the Second Star.'
The quality of his divine power had increased.
So that was why the 2nd Star was breached.
He wasn't exactly sure.
His head kept spinning and bizarre things kept passing before his eyes.
But the new bud seated in his dantian stabilized his mind.
Rustle.
The blooming bud exuded a divine power quite different from the First Peak.
And at the same time, it was absorbing.
The divine power of the swallowed sacred stone.
It absorbed all external divine power as well, swelling its size.
"I see..."
Even from wounds where it wouldn't be strange for him to die right away, the blood stopped. Calius gathered his focus while holding Lucen.
'Now I know.'
How to imbue divine power into the sword.
Ki-i-ing-
Lucen's resonance shook the earth.
Dirt dust spread around Calius, and pure divine power enveloped him in silver light. His eyes saw Lucen as red, then gradually as gray, and finally as blue.
It was the Three-Colored Eyes.
He observed his lacking sword talent with the Three-Colored Eyes and adjusted his sword path.
This way, he could manifest the forms of the Silver Flower Wave Sword that he had not been able to use before.
"Silver Flower Wave Sword - White Vastness."
A name given because the bizarre white sword path resembled the White Vastness Chrysanthemum.
White Vastness.
White Vastness bloomed on Calius's blade.
The bizarre sword strikes, seemingly tangible yet elusive like smoke, looked as if they were dancing.
And in an instant.
Thud.
He stamped his left foot heavily.
Fine sand dust spread in a circle, and a bizarre energy dominated the area.
"White Vastness blooms from the ground."
Splendid yet simultaneously subtle, the swordsmanship deceived the opponent's eyes and split the ground.
Crrrack!
Spreading in all directions like ice crystals, White Vastness soon transformed the silver divine power beneath the ground into sword aura and erupted.
Kwaaang-!
With Calius at the center, everything within ten paces blew up with silver sword aura, so not only Bernard but even Keltuk hurriedly retreated.
However, the complexions of the two were distinctly different.
"Since when did he have such techniques! Where are you going!"
Having recognized the technique's power at a glance, he did not leave Keltuk alone as he tried to flee. He couldn't let the technique his disciple had unleashed with all his might go to waste.
His Lightning Sword roared with a single strike.
Bzzzt! Boom-!
Grrr! Keltuk's axe, which had been blocking the lightning energy, flew away.
From the ground where he couldn't dodge in time, Calius's silver sword aura flew in.
Slash slash slash!
He knocked all the sword aura away with his one remaining axe, but his skin progressively split open, and blood burst forth from his body.
Splatter! Drip drip!
There was no way to block all the indiscriminately flying silver sword aura.
Kaaak!
Seeing Keltuk screaming in agony, Calius took another step forward.
'If it's now, I can do it.'
Just like when he fought Esther.
The Silver Flower Wave Sword, gathered at a single point, scraped off the opponent's sword aura, shattered it, and made it his own.
As it shattered, it reverse-utilized it and turned it into an attack.
Like a wave. The petals fluttered violently.
As if the sword aura in the shape of petals had gained a will of its own.
His gray gaze shone silver.
His pitch-black hair was momentarily dyed silver.
'Silver Flower Wave Sword - Shattered Harmony Path.'
Shatter and combine.
Such petals become a single path.
The petals, like a slowly driving wave...
...became a massive storm and raged.
And right now.
One of the legendary techniques unfolded from Calius's hands.
Kwaaaaaaaah-!
The storm of blades swept through the area.