Chapter 212: Darkness Splits Under the Light (2)
In that instant, my preemptive strike began.
My form vanished, and a translucent Slashing Strike fell from above.
Shuaaaaaak! Kwaaang!
Because it was saturated with holy energy, Marbas nullified it with his own Slashing Strike and imdiately leapt upward.
Cha-chaeng! Chaeng! Kwakwakang!
“To think your skill rivaled the greatest swordsmanship of the Demon Realm! Let’s see how long you can keep blocking!”
Marbas’s blade, brimming with excitent, left afterimages.
It was twice his own height in length and moved so fast it was nearly impossible to see.
Then Marbas appeared behind .
“Can you dodge even at this distance!”
The sword tip was about to pierce my back.
Feeling the danger by a hair’s breadth, I twisted my body.
True Martial Art Hand-to-Hand Combat Shining Dragon
The pitch-black aura grazed past my side, barely missing .
At the sa ti, I continued rotating my body and bent low.
True Martial Art Tremor Step Thousand Falls
My target was Marbas’s ankle.
With a sweeping kick, I lashed at his ankle and continued attacking as if mincing him together with my sword.
Dust wrapped around my attacks and spiraled upward into the sky.
Kwaaang! Puh-puh-puk! Kwakwakang—!
Violent impacts and explosive sounds resounded in all directions.
‘So there really were Demon Race mbers who used swords like this?’
The Demon Race I had faced before relied purely on brute force.
At first, I thought Marbas was the sa, but experiencing it properly showed he was completely different.
That enormous sword stabbed into gaps I never expected.
Shuaaaak!
Even now, as I moved behind him where I thought there was an opening and swung my sword—
Kkaang!
Before I knew it, the flat of his blade was already raised behind him, blocking the attack.
Marbas’s greatsword did not stop at defense and was swung straight away.
Huaaaak!
It generated trendous wind pressure like a giant fan, violently flipping the ground.
Kwakakakakakakok! Kwaaang!
The ground beneath where I had leapt shook, and pitch-black magic power erupted as if it had been waiting.
“Keugh!”
It was a completely unexpected attack.
I was engulfed by the pitch-black energy and blown backward.
Kwaaang!
“Your skill is respectable, but it seems you can’t properly react to attacks like this.”
A textbook case of feint and real strike.
After movents full of openings, the real attack was concealed and unleashed.
I had been hit because I dodged too comfortably.
Of course, I hurriedly wrapped my entire body in the energy of the Aura Circle and managed to block it.
“I won’t go easy on you anymore, so prepare yourself.”
“That sounded like you were testing .”
“It wasn’t you I needed, but myself. And if I couldn’t defeat you, there’d be no reason to pass through here.”
I drew energy from the Aura Circle and wrapped it around my sword.
The translucent aura faded and disappeared as if being neatly gathered.
Only a complete single-edged blade remained.
“So the Blessing of the Goddess could be used in such a way as well?”
“I don’t know how it was before, but this is how mine works.”
“Fascinating. Still, you only learn what kind of sword it is once you clash blades.”
“You’re not wrong.”
Dense pitch-black energy gathered around Marbas’s greatsword as if swallowing a vortex, then he swung it.
The Dust Storm raging around us looked as though it were being chopped apart.
Yet the splitting stopped midway.
Chwaaaak!
This ti, the storm split both vertically and horizontally like crashing waves.
It looked as though the two sides were tearing into each other.
Kwaaang! Kwakwakang!
From the backlash of our energies colliding, wounds appeared across both our bodies.
Sword marks crisscrossed us, carving deep gouges here and there.
‘That impact is no joke. And what is that sword made of?’
It only left marks on a blade made from a solid mass of Adamantium.
The sa was true for my sword.
Cha-chaeng! Cha-cha-chaeng!
“Take this as well. Red fa desolata(Desolate Red Hunger).”
Dark-red energy surged from Marbas’s sword and was swung violently.
In response, I drew up the Aura Circle, split it in half, and charged straight in.
“I don’t know how long you plan to stall, but I can see your bottom.”
“I wonder if what you saw is truly my bottom! Dies festus adhuc rubens fa(Feast of Desolate Red Hunger).”
The dark-red energy burst forth even more intensely, writhing as if coiling in all directions like the heads of a hydra.
Each head emitted an enormous amount of energy.
‘This much power without even Awakening?’
It was more intense than when Zelphinia absorbed Kamio.
Judging purely by power level, he was practically the Demon King’s right hand.
“Taste my bottom. I’ll make you feel exactly what it tastes like!”
The dark-red energies writhing along Marbas’s sword moved and then poured toward .
Shwaaaak!
Kwaaang! Kwakwakang!
I avoided the attack with Shining Dragon while drawing the sword’s trajectory.
True Martial Art Sword Form Slashing Bow Linked Severing Strike
It was a technique I had applied by combining it with Raizen-Style Swordsmanship.
My blade rapidly sliced through the air, weaving a net from the dense trajectories.
Chwaaaak!
Thousands of Slashing Strikes poured toward the massive hydra.
‘The real target isn’t the heads, but the core.’
Every Slashing Strike subtly slipped past the dark-red energy.
A harsh screech of tal grinding echoed as they dug deep.
Chwaaaak!
“You avoided every attack and stacked the energies?”
Marbas had thought the attacks would collide and cancel out like before.
But instead, my blade, which had forced its way through by a hair’s breadth, swept across him.
“Have you finally seen my bottom first?”
“Nonsense…….”
“Heh heh heh. So you had noticed?”
A smile ford at the corner of Marbas’s mouth, which had looked as though it would remain tightly shut.
“Now it begins for real.”
“Should I at least repay you for eting your expectations?”
“There’s no need for that. It’ll end soon.”
I released the energy of the Aura Circle that I had been deeply gathered and restrained.
The hue of the energy, which had been translucent at first, gradually beca transparent and wrapped around my entire body like the wind.
It was the first ti I had drawn it up to its maximum.
At that mont, a notification window appeared before my eyes for the first ti in a long while.
[Tip : The Blessing of the Goddess has grown to its limit.]
‘What does that an?’
To begin with, the term ‘Blessing of the Goddess’ itself was sothing I was hearing for the first ti from a notification window rather than from the Demon Race.
I learned its aning from the notification that appeared afterward.
[Tip : You may request the Descent of the Goddess. Would you like to proceed?]
[Yes]
[No]
Two options appeared beneath the notification.
‘The Descent of the Goddess? Does that an Zigasis, the Goddess of the Sun and Blessings?’
Another notification appeared over the previous one.
[Tip : The Goddess is the best way to drive away pitch-black darkness.]
A question arose in my mind.
At first, ‘Tip’ ssages were sothing I saw often, offering help with almost anything.
Then, at so point, they had almost stopped appearing.
‘Suddenly calling it the best way…….’
My doubt deepened.
But I had no ti to think further.
From the front, Marbas’s greatsword, surging with montum, was swung widely.
Hoo-woong! Hoo-woong!
As its speed increased, afterimages flared up and multiplied.
“Tristis piceis nigra formica inferni(Blue-edged pitch-black ant hell).”
With Marbas’s shout, hundreds of split afterimages of the greatsword rushed toward .
Each one spun like a massive boorang, threatening to tear everything apart into hundreds, thousands of pieces.
‘A technique like a shredder?’
The trajectories of the greatsword densely filled the surroundings as they closed in rapidly.
‘So this is another way to use a sword. Or is it because that notification appeared? My power is…….’
I felt it swelling more strongly than before.
At the sa ti, the clear energy of the Aura Circle concentrated intensely from my entire body into my sword.
This was no ordinary swing.
More than any slash, I narrowed it down—one surface, one line, one point—swinging toward an even narrower, more precise gap.
Seogeok—!
“Keok!”
In an instant, dozens of afterimages of the greatsword scattered like dust and vanished.
It was the result created by a single trajectory.
Marbas tried to continue extending his attack, but he felt the greatsword in his hand grow lighter.
Tunggeureong—.
Despite clashing blades continuously until now without issue, his greatsword had split cleanly in two.
“My sword, made from the bones of a Chaos Dragon…….”
It was a na I was hearing for the first ti.
More importantly to , the situation was already over.
“Whether it’s dragon bones or the Demon King’s bones, once it’s decided, you see it through to the end.”
With those words, I swung my sword again.
The Aura Circle’s energy, more concentrated than before, wrapped thinly along the line of the blade.
Shwaaaak!
Marbas’s hand, holding the severed sword, moved quickly as well.
But what could he possibly do with a blade that had already been cut? It shattered further, and the trajectory split Marbas apart.
Chwaaaak—!
“Kuaaaak!”
“Are you still going to talk about bottoms? If not, then die quietly.”
“Keugh! So even I wasn’t enough in the end?”
“You dragged it out long enough. Well, it’s not like I gained nothing either.”
As a swordsman, I had confird Marbas’s techniques.
His skill in wielding a greatsword was certainly exceptional.
But that was all. I raised my sword to finish it.
“…If there’s nothing else I can do, then I’ll offer myself to Him.”
“What?”
Sensing sothing ominous, I imdiately tried to sever his head, but he had already begun to move.
“Ego sacrificium tenebris(I shall beco a sacrifice offered to the darkness).”
The chant was not long.
In an instant, Marbas’s entire body collapsed, turning into smoke that scattered into the air.
Its direction was toward the Imperial Palace.
“Did he offer himself as a sacrifice and go to the Demon King?”
I should have finished it faster.
Of course, it was possible that I wouldn’t have been able to stop it no matter what.
Holding my sword, I flew up toward the Imperial Palace.
Papak!
At that mont, another notification window appeared.
[Tip : A mont of crisis has arrived.]
[Tip : The Goddess’s help will be required.]
[Tip : You may request the Descent of the Goddess. Would you like to proceed?]
[Yes]
[No]
I selected [No].
[Tip : The Demon King cannot be faced alone. The Goddess’s help is required.]
[Tip : You may request the Descent of the Goddess. Would you like to proceed?]
[Yes]
[No]
It felt like I was being forced into a single choice.
Even so, driven by a sense of foreboding, I pressed [No] again.
This ti, nothing appeared again, and it went quiet.
“Is that it?”
As I flew through the sky, I couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling.
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