Chapter 295

“Everybody out of the way!”

Grasping the hilt, Marja thrust her greatsword down. The thick blade pierced the abdomens of the four believers who stood in its way.

“Kaboom!”

The blade that tore through her back was red. With a bang, she swung the blade in a scattering motion, and the skewered worshippers were flung into the distance. Wiping the blood from her face, Marja sighed.

“Haaaa–you’re not giving me a break.”

“Hmmm—I didn’t expect there to be so many—hmmm, I didn’t expect that either.”

Behind him, Braum whimpered, his own breath catching in his throat. His armor and shields were stained a deep red with blood. They must have killed a hundred of them each, if not more.

They wandered through the interior of the General Headquarters. The interior of the pale castle was vast and complex beyond its grand exterior.

He had long since been separated from the others. With Abel’s newfound stellar favor, the commandos were like rats in a poisonous furnace, under siege by Nebula Clazier.

It was a decent enough fight, but the problem was that Ronan was almost out of blood. One in ten of the cultists he encountered were using the Star Sign, and it was clear that he was at his limit.

Of course, there was something else that bothered me the most,” Marja muttered in a worried voice.

“—I wonder if everyone is okay.”

“Of course. You know they’re not normal people.”

“Yes, but.”

Marja chewed on her bottom lip. He was right, but she couldn’t help but worry. There were too many enemies, even if they were the best of the best.

It was too bad there was nothing he could do right now. She lowered her greatsword and paused to catch her breath. A shout came from around the corner of the hallway.

“There’s a sound over there. Catch it!”

“—Cheat.”

Marja clicked her tongue. They had no sense of propriety, anyway. Judging by the sound of their footsteps, there were at least twenty of them. For some reason, Asel’s sobbing face flashed before her eyes.

“I miss you–my sweetie.”

Tsk. Spitting on her hand, Marja raised her greatsword again. She pushed aside the unfortunate thought that she might die here.

Her father used to say, out of the corner of his mouth. The journey is worth the return trip, and she couldn’t agree more.

“Come on.”

Marja gripped the hilt of her blade. The blue auror began to curl around the blade. Footsteps drew nearer, a car coming around the corner.

“You, are you?! Kuck—!”

“Wahhh! Help me!”

Suddenly, a pitiful scream rang out. From around the corner, one dismembered body after another began to fly. Marja flinched.

“What, what?”

“Oh, my God.”

Cold sweat trickled down Braum’s temples. The blood, gushing in real time, was soaking the hallway.

It looked like a mad beast was on the loose. Finally, someone stepped out from around the corner. The two men’s eyes widened.

“Schuh, Schlieffen?”

“You’re alive.”

Schlieffen replied dryly. It was their first reunion since they had been separated, and his body was covered in blood, no different from theirs. Not his own blood, of course.

Unlike Marja or Braum, he showed no signs of weariness. The dignity of an imperial rising star could only be described. Wiping the blood from his blade, he asked a question.

“You. Do you still have Ronan’s blood in you?”

“Well, you know what?”

“Great, follow me.”

Suddenly, Schlieffen spun around, the suddenness of his behavior causing Marja to flinch in embarrassment. When she finally regained her composure, she opened her mouth.

“Hey, where are you going?”

“I have found the place where the ritual is taking place.”

****

“That’s a lot of noise.”

Ronan frowned. He gazed up at the bustling sky. Giants and flying boulders battled beneath a field of magic flashing in bizarre colors.

It was like watching a madman’s fantasy. The battleship Dynhar was shooting red beams in all directions, drawing the attention of the giants who were about to attack the Alliance. I wondered how the natives, who had lived in caves all their lives, could pilot such a precise machine.

The giants were responding to the battleship’s taunts. Dozens of spears of light pounded at the stone mass relentlessly. But the shield that surrounded Dainhar was not easily broken. The Savior’s own stellar protection was of unimaginable strength.

“That’s pretty good. Dad, too.”

There had to be a limit, of course, and I couldn’t just stand by and watch. Suddenly, I heard a thick groan from the front of my vision.

“–What have you done, mortal?”

“Oh, you’re up?”

Ronan lowered his gaze. The giants he’d pulled down earlier were rising to their feet. Ronan’s eyes locked with theirs, and his lips twitched.

“That’s it. That’s it. Now we’re eye level.”

It was a satisfying result. He no longer needed to raise his head to face them, for the first giant to rise hurled a spear of light. Ronan swung his sword with a motion as light as dust.

The spear shattered into particles and disappeared. The next spear flew out immediately, but this time the result was no different. Ronan repeated the trick twice more, and then opened his mouth.

“Listen up before you go to hell, you assholes, I hate you.”

“What?”

“I don’t like your bald head, I don’t like your skin as pale as a ghost’s piss, and I don’t like your unnecessarily fancy voice.”

Ronan’s arm suddenly disappeared from view. A small explosion erupted from the giant’s face as it continued to hurl its spear. The giant that had just gathered light fell backwards.

“K-billion!”

“But there’s another one that sucks the most. What do you think?”

Ronan said. The other giants flinched. The giant’s eyes were gouged out. Blue blood dripped from where the eyeballs had been crushed.

『Ugh… Grrr…』

The giant drooled in pain, one hand covering his face as he struggled to his feet. Even for the most immortal of beings, eyes were among the slowest to heal.

“What do you think?”

Ronan asked again, but no answer came. The expressions of the other sensory-sharing giants were rapidly rotting.

The giants suddenly spread their wings and quickly rose to their feet. Unlike the caved-in and upturned ground, their white bodies were devoid of any signs of life.

The corner of Ronan’s mouth lifted slightly. The cut would be worth it. Ronan frowned, his gaze following the giants.

“Yeah. That’s the look.”

He wasn’t in the air yet, but the height difference was so great that he had to lift his head. Ronan hated it.

His hatred stemmed from a previous life. Ronan was unable to defend his people because his sword could not reach the flying Ahayute. Then, the giant in front of him opened his mouth.

“So much for your indulgence, mighty one.”

A low, deep voice called out. Ronan didn’t answer, just stared at them.

The giants, who shared the plan in their minds, were about to take flight in unison. Once again, a streak of light resembling a sunset shot out from Ramancha’s blade. A radiating glow covered the sky.

“Billion—!”

Bam!!! The giants that had risen simultaneously crashed to the ground. A few more giants that hadn’t been in range earlier fell as well. Ronan smirked.

“Why, did your wings harden?”

“How—did—this—!”

The giants shed tears of bewilderment. They flapped their wings with all their might, but they could not lift themselves. It seemed as if something invisible and massive was pulling them down to the ground.

“I gave you a clear warning, come if you want to get fucked.”

His liberation from the curse also explosively strengthened his auras, which attracted opponents. Even now, the auror was strong enough to pull down four-winged giants. Ronan growled low as he twirled his sword once.

“You ignored me, now you’re going to get screwed.”

“You are—!”

It was the car the giants were trying to say something about. BANG! Ronan lunged forward and yanked on the hilt of his sword. The giants, sensing the attack, launched a counterattack, but Ronan was basically faster than them.

The head of the first giant to run at him fell to the ground. Ronan, leaping over the leaning flesh, fired a stab into the chest of the giant right behind him.

A sword thrust through the heart ripped through his back, and he swung his sword in a backward swallow, splitting the giant’s face in half as he tried to throw a spear at the back of his head.

Ronan made a fourth body before the first three had even fallen. Landing with a swallow, he activated Auror, and a giant who was about to throw a spear from a distance was dragged before him. Grasping the hilt with both hands, Ronan brought his sword down vertically. The thick neck was sliced off along with the forearm that tried to defend itself.

“This is what happens when—”

The giants wept with bewilderment. As Ronan swung his sword across the battlefield, he seemed to live in time three or four times faster.

I had never encountered anything like it: an invincible race of predators who had lived as predators since the beginning of time was being slaughtered unilaterally, and with a single sword.

Less than five minutes later, the head of the last giant fell to the ground. It was the giant named Nirvana, the one who was supposed to have been joined with Lorhon’s soul.

“Whoa.—”

Frozen in place, Ronan turned his head toward the castle. There were still half a dozen giants left, but there were others to deal with now, he said, pointing the tip of his sword at Abel.

“Get down here. You never learned, asshole.”

“You—!”

Abel narrowed his eyes. He had forgotten Cain’s presence, watching Ronan’s slaughter. Seeing no response, Ronan gripped the hilt of his sword.

“What did you say, come down?”

Paaah! The sunset burst forth once more. Before he could do anything, Abel was being dragged right in front of Ronan, who reflexively drew his sword as he realized the danger. A sharp metallic sound rang out in front of him.

“Bam—!”

Abel gritted his teeth. A moment too late, and he would have been decapitated. His hand felt like it would explode from the recoil of the blocked blow alone. Steadying himself, he turned to Ronan.

“—Well, it wasn’t this bad, what did you do?”

“That’s none of your business.”

But Ronan had no intention of biding his time. He turned on the Auror and unleashed a torrent of swordfire. Kagak! Embers leapt wildly as the blades clashed in the air. At last, the slack was gone from Abel’s face.

“Damn you, you son of a bitch—!”

Abel cursed as he nearly lost his grip on his sword. He was being outpaced, both in speed and strength, as he hurried to pull himself back.

“You can’t do that.”

Once again, Ronan’s sword glowed in the sunset. Realizing his mistake, Abel tried to react quickly, but Ronan’s body was already spinning in a wide circle.

“—that’s a sword skill you stole from me.”

Nabiroze whispered to herself. She had been watching her apprentice’s fight with Archbishop Thierria, halfway through which she had devised a technique of her own.

Memories flashed through my mind, coloring my vision. It seemed like only yesterday that she was taking the entrance exams for Pileon, and how she had grown. Thieria let out a scream.

“Kyo, Master!”

I could tell by looking at it. That was dangerous. Withdrawing her hand in panic, she was about to leap to support him. Suddenly, the sounds around her faded, and her vision went black. Nabiroze’s voice echoed in the darkness.

“Don’t interrupt. We’re in the middle of a good time.”

“This, this?!”

I didn’t see anything. Heard nothing. Instinctively, Thieria turned her head and gulped. A giant viper stared down at her, tongue lolling.

“Mansa—!”

Thieria’s face went white. A snake mourning its own death. It was the last of Nabiroze, one of the most powerful Aurors of all time. It was said that he had lost his auror in the defeat of the Zaifa, but the mystery was unclear.

“You bitch!”

Of course, that wasn’t what mattered now. The snake was coming toward her. Desperately regaining her senses, she lunged at it.

Nabirozé’s blow sliced through Tieria’s throat. At the same time, a lamancha flying in a circle slammed into Abel’s sword.

“What…!”

Abel’s eyes widened. A piercing explosive sound rang out. The hilt of Abel’s sword shattered like an explosion from the impact.