The Reincarnated Assassin is a Genius Swordsman 895

 Chapter 895

 

Kwoooaaargh!

Through the collapsing palace of energy of death, split apart by a golden flash, the DemonBlade's figure emerged. His lips, drained of color, trembled in shock at Raon's sword strike, which had erased his energy of death.

"Krrgh…!"

Panicking, the DemonBlade tried desperately to raise his sword in defense, but it was already too late. The radiant blade that had cut through his purple energy was already at his throat.

Shyaaaaak!

As if delivering a final farewell, the golden light shone even more brilliantly, shattering the DemonBlade’s sword and carving a deep wound across his chest.

“Kuh-oook….”

The DemonBlade coughed up black blood, clutching the wound blooming across his chest. Yet, despite its severity, his groan was barely audible, he had likely numbed the pain by manipulating his energy of death.

“Nngh...”

Raon also coughed up black blood, bending at the waist.

'Looks like I overdid it.'

Even with Ascara’s Combative Energy, lowering his guard for even a moment would allow the energy of death to invade his body and mind. The fight wasn’t over yet, he had to stay focused.

“Hoo.”

Regaining control over his body and mind, Raon approached the kneeling DemonBlade. Having exhausted a massive amount of energy at once, the man could no longer hold himself upright, his hands and feet trembling uncontrollably.

“T-This… This is impossible….”

The DemonBlade shook his head furiously, mumbling in disbelief.

“I sacrificed hundreds of humans as live offerings to obtain this power! My strength surpasses even my prime! How could a mere brat like you—?!”

He let out a horrified scream, unable to believe that his own energy of death had been shattered.

“The answer is simple.”

Raon looked down at him and flicked his chin upward.

“You’re weaker than before.”

"You insolent brat! If you hadn’t used those weird tricks, I would have won!"

“That’s not what I meant.”

Raon warned him not to mistake his meaning, pressing Heavenly Drive against the man’s throat.

“Wh-what…?”

The DemonBlade’s trembling eyes lowered to the sword’s blade, where his own blood was slowly dripping down.

“I mean the current you is weaker than you were back at the conference of the Five Divine Orders.”

“Nonsense!”

He grit his teeth, his trembled eyes flashing with fury.

"The amount of energy of death I wield now is on an entirely different level! How could you possibly claim such a thing? If you’re going to mock me, at least do it properly!"

The DemonBlade clenched his fist, as if to show that such provocations wouldn’t work on him.

He doesn’t even realize it. That means he's already been consumed by his own power.

Wrath clicked his tongue in disappointment.

When he first saw him, at least he had the audacity to defy the King of Essence. Now, he’s completely broken.

Wrath shook his head, as if the man was no longer worth fighting.

'Agreed.'

Raon nodded calmly.

'Still, I doubt he ruined himself all on his own.'

Someone must have reached out to him in his despair, offering the temptation of power in the shadows.

“You do have more aura now. But…”

Raon lowered his hand, his gaze fixed on the DemonBlade’s purple-glowing eyes.

“Your martial arts are dead.”

“What?”

The DemonBlade’s brows furrowed.

“Wh-what are you saying…?”

"You’ve focused solely on amassing the energy of death, but in doing so, your swordsmanship has lost its sharpness and complexity. It’s not even at the level of someone who has just stepped into Transcendence."

Raon spoke firmly, like a master instructing a disciple.

"Your final strike was certainly powerful. You shaped your energy of death into a blade, refining it into the form of a palace to overwhelm your opponent. Even if hundreds of Grandmasters stood against it, they wouldn’t have been able to stop it.

But to someone who has reached the same realm as you, it was nothing more than a lump of raw power."

The palace of energy of death the DemonBlade had created was certainly solid and sharp. The sheer quantity of energy he unleashed was enough that even Raon, using all his aura, would have struggled to block it. But the foundation of his martial arts, the very essence that made his swordsmanship what it was—was missing.

No matter how much energy of death he condensed, a sword strike devoid of a warrior’s will was nothing more than fodder for the versatile sword he had cultivated.

"The version of you who fought the Holy Sword Alliance's master was twice as strong as you are now. Your energy of death may have been weaker back then, but your swordsmanship carried the conviction and effort you had built over time. Even that sword-obsessed man admired it."

Raon shook his head. Just because his energy of death had grown stronger didn’t mean his sword had.

"The Holy Sword Alliance's master gouged out his own eyes to reach a higher level. By now, he’s likely standing in a completely different realm of swordsmanship."

The Holy Sword Alliance's master was a madman who gouged out his own eyes with nothing but the obsession to surpass Glenn.

Among all the people Raon had encountered, calling him the greatest lunatic wouldn’t be an exaggeration. Yet, in some ways, he was also a swordsman worthy of respect.

In contrast, the DemonBlade had thrown away his subordinates as live sacrifices to obtain an uncontrollable amount of energy of death, simply because he had faced a difficult situation, instead of overcoming it through his own strength.

Seeing a once-Transcender warrior reduced to such a wretched sight was pitiful.

“The energy of death you obtained by sacrificing your loyal subordinates is nothing more than a pitiful power—one so weak that even I, someone who has only just reached Transcendence, can defeat you. And now, you don’t even have that left.”

Raon curled his lips in disdain and swung Heavenly Drive downward.

Shyaaaak!

With a crisp, clean cutting sound—like water being split apart—the DemonBlade’s purple arm was severed at the shoulder.

His arm hit the ground with a dull thud, and thick, dark blood oozed out like filthy sludge.

"Urgh…"

Even with his arm cut off, the DemonBlade only clutched his shoulder without screaming. Just as Raon had suspected, he had numbed his pain receptors using energy of death.

"You… You think you know anything?"

The DemonBlade bared his bloodstained teeth, his eyes burning with fury.

“You’re nothing but a pampered brat, raised in Zieghart’s greenhouse without a single hardship!”

That’s not true.

Wrath scoffed, shaking his head.

This brat may have devoured all of the King of Essence’s power, but he still endured relentless hardship just to survive. His luck is so atrocious that the King of Essence sometimes wonders if he was cursed rather than blessed by the celestials.

‘You’re defending me?’

Facts are facts.

Wrath snorted, saying that truth should be acknowledged, no matter what.

‘Hmm...’

Thinking about it, Raon realized he didn’t even need to mention his previous life, his current life alone had been filled with enough suffering.

He wouldn’t call it the most miserable life in the world, but compared to most people, he had endured far worse.

"Enough pointless talk."

Raon flicked the blood off Heavenly Drive and pointed the tip at the DemonBlade’s throat.

“Who helped you pull this off?”

The Black Snake Coalition, under the DemonBlade’s led, did practice various forms of sorcery and mystical techniques. However, at its core, it was still a group of warriors.

For him to execute such a large-scale sorcery, there had to be someone else involved.

“Khhh….”

The DemonBlade refused to answer, his eyes burning with fury as he silently glared at Raon.

“If you refuse to talk….”

Raon clicked his tongue and drove Heavenly Drive into the DemonBlade’s collarbone, shattering it.

Crack!

A sickening crunch echoed as the bone shattered, and the DemonBlade collapsed forward.

"Hrgh…!"

Even then, he did not cry out in pain. Though his strength had been broken, his dulled senses allowed him to immediately lift his head, grinding his teeth in defiance.

“This is your last chance. If you stay silent, I’ll torture you until every last bit of your energy of death is gone.”

Raon tilted his chin slightly, making it clear that he meant every word.

‘I’d rather kill him now, but I need to know who’s behind this.’

Wrath had confirmed that there was no trace of celestial energy on the DemonBlade. However, there was still the possibility that Derus Robert was involved, which meant getting him to talk was the priority.

“Kuhuhuhu….”

The DemonBlade let out a twisted laugh and slowly lifted his head.

"You’re sharp. You were right, others did help with this sorcery. But…"

With a trembling hand, he picked up his severed arm from the ground.

“There is no one above me but myself!”

Letting out a crazed scream, he sank his teeth into the severed limb, tearing into it and swallowing it whole.

“W-what are you doing...?”

Raon’s eyes widened at the bizarre scene unfolding before him. Suddenly, veins of deep purple began to protrude all over the DemonBlade’s skin.

But it wasn’t just his veins that were changing. Like his severed arm, his entire body was being consumed by a purple hue.

“Hm.”

Raon swiftly swung Heavenly Drive, aiming to stop the DemonBlade's transformation before it was complete.

Clang!

The silver blade struck his neck, but instead of slicing through flesh, it rebounded with a harsh metallic clang, as if it had struck solid steel.

Crackle!

The DemonBlade stood up, his entire body coated in a thick layer of energy of death, as if he had been submerged in a pool of purple ink.

The deep sword wound that had been carved into his chest disappeared without a trace, and from his severed shoulder, a new arm burst forth.

He no longer looked like something that could be called human.

"Even if I’ve taken on this form…"

Raising both hands, now overflowing with surging energy of death, the DemonBlade bared his fangs in a savage grin.

"I will kill you, no matter what—Raon Zieghart!"

With a beast-like roar, he declared that he would sacrifice everything to bring Raon down.

Rumble!

As the DemonBlade’s overwhelming energy of death surged, the sky howled in fury, the ground split apart, and violent purple lava erupted from the fissures.

"It doesn’t matter what form you take."

Even as the DemonBlade’s mere presence distorted space, Raon remained unfazed, shaking his head.

“You still can’t defeat me.”

“Shut up!”

The DemonBlade let out a furious scream and charged forward, moving so fast that only a purple afterimage remained.

But Raon could see exactly where he was coming from.

Sizzle!

Raon slashed toward the DemonBlade's chest with Crimson Slash as he surged in from the right.

Clang!

The strike collided with the DemonBlade's armor of purple, flame-like energy of death, but instead of piercing through, the blade was repelled with a sharp rebound.

"Hah! My body has been strengthened with the energy of death! A pathetic little skewer like that will never pierce me!"

Trusting in his fortified body, the DemonBlade lunged forward without hesitation, swinging a sword forged entirely from his energy.

‘Using Genesis would be too risky.’

If he unleashed Genesis, he could annihilate the DemonBlade completely, but the recoil would cause him to lose consciousness immediately.

With unfinished business still ahead, choosing a different approach was the better option.

“Die!”

The DemonBlade thrust his sword, wrapped in dense energy of death. The moment the blade extended, purple energy erupted from it, creating a cataclysmic explosion that began erasing the very space around Raon.

“I already told you.”

Stepping into the purple radiance, Raon raised Heavenly Drive.

“You can’t build a tower without a foundation.”

Raon shook his head slightly and traced the Azure Sky’s Grand Elegance, flames flickering along the arc of his sword.

Whooooom!

The blade of Heavenly Drive soared toward the sky’s peak before slowly descending, crushing the towering wave of energy of death that threatened to consume the world.

Boom!

Standing behind the surging tide of energy, the DemonBlade was also unable to withstand the weight of the sky that the Azure Sky’s Grand Elegance had summoned. His legs buckled, and he dropped to his knees.

"H-how…? You haven’t even activated your sword field, so how can you wield such power…?"

The DemonBlade’s jaw trembled in disbelief.

"This is what a true sword is. Having strong aura or a tough body alone doesn’t make a sword powerful."

Raon spoke words the DemonBlade would never understand before driving the Blade of Requiem into him.

Thud!

Despite the DemonBlade’s efforts to strengthen his body with energy of death, the Blade of Requiem’s small, thin blade pierced through his violet armor and sank deep into his chest.

Wuuuuung!

The cursed blade pulsed ominously as it devoured the DemonBlade’s energy, releasing a chilling crimson flow that spread through his body.

“Graaagh!”

For the first time, the DemonBlade let out a bloodcurdling scream—one he hadn’t even made when his arm was severed or his chest torn open. He rolled across the ground in agony.

His eyes spun wildly, his pupils dilated and unfocused.

It seemed that he was only now beginning to feel pain.

"Looks like your senses have finally returned."

Raon nodded in satisfaction and brought Heavenly Drive down onto the DemonBlade’s thigh.

“Guaaaaaagh!”

A harrowing scream tore from the DemonBlade’s throat. As expected, he hadn’t been suppressing his pain, he simply hadn’t been able to feel it.

“T-this is impossible…! My energy of death… why…?”

“That sword may not look like much, but it’s the best at destroying corrupt energies.”

The Blade of Requiem was a cursed blade, yet it despised corrupt energies like demonic energy and bloody energy.

This time was no different, it had absorbed the DemonBlade’s energy of death, shattering the sorcery that had been sustaining him.

"You’re an esteemed Transcender, after all. Let’s see how much you can endure."

Raon smirked and drove Heavenly Drive deeper into the DemonBlade’s wound, channeling both searing heat and chilling cold into the exposed flesh.

“Gyaaaaaah!”

The DemonBlade let out a scream so wretched that even a third-rate warrior would be ashamed to make such a sound. His body twisted violently as he desperately tried to yank the Blade of Requiem out of his chest, but of course, it wouldn’t budge.

“Aaargh…!”

"The people you sacrificed suffered far worse than this."

For human sacrifices to fully channel the resentment of the dead, they had to be put through unimaginable agony before taking their final breath.

The thought of someone who had inflicted such suffering now writhing over a mere fraction of that pain was utterly disgusting.

"P-please… stop… Just stop…!"

"I’ll grant your wish."

Raon raised Heavenly Drive, its blade still dripping with blood.

"Die as you are."

Looking at the DemonBlade’s transformed state, he suspected that a powerful sorcery could allow him to escape, or that whoever was backing him could interfere.

It was better to kill him now, even if it meant losing potential information.

“W-wait!”

Just as Heavenly Drive was about to come down on his neck, the DemonBlade hastily raised his trembling hand.

“I’ll talk! I’ll tell you who’s behind this!”

“I don’t need it.”

“Black Tower!”

Raon was about to ignore him and strike, but the DemonBlade screamed at the top of his lungs.

"I know the location of the Black Tower!"

 

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