The Reincarnated Assassin is a Genius Swordsman 1054

 Chapter 1054

 

“Ah….”

Martha’s eyes reddened as she looked at Raon, who had cut down both the Twelfth Apostle and the fortress wall at once. Biting her trembling lips, she thrust her sword toward the Tenth Apostle’s waist.

Paaah!

Martha’s sword pierced the Tenth Apostle’s spear for the first time and split his long coat. It seemed she had come to her senses not because Raon killed the Twelfth Apostle, but because he said, now it’s your turn to show them.

It means he trusts her.

Wrath sensed Martha’s now-stabilized momentum and smiled faintly.

Since you showed your trust, the beef girl must want to respond to that trust as well.

He sniffled like a father watching his grown-up daughter.

‘Why are you crying? Anyone would think you raised her yourself.’

Raon let out a hollow laugh as he looked at Wrath.

Was it not the King of Essence who carried her on his back and raised her! Of course my heart should swell with emotion!

Wrath charged at him, furrowing his nose bridge as if to say how could he even ask something so obvious.

‘I’ve never seen you carrying her, though….’

Just as Raon pushed Wrath aside and was about to head into the White Blood Religion's headquarters—

Whoooosh!

From the corpse of the Twelfth Apostle, split in half, white blood burst out, forming a small puddle that coiled around his ankle.

“This is….”

Raon frowned as he looked at the puddle of bloody energy grabbing his ankle and pulling at his leg.

‘It’s ominous and sticky, it won’t come off.’

As if sinking into the sand of a desert, his strength drained from his body, and his leg began to be sucked into the puddle. He tried to extract his leg using aura, but no matter how much strength he applied, it wouldn’t come free.

‘Don’t tell me….’

[Haaah!]

Just as Raon raised his sword to slash at the puddle, the Twelfth Apostle’s voice echoed from within the white blood.

[I never imagined I’d die from a single strike, but you really are something.]

The Twelfth Apostle let out a hollow laugh, as if it was absurd.

“Twelfth Apostle….”

Raon lowered his brows as he saw the Twelfth Apostle’s sly face reflected on the surface of the white puddle.

“You’re still alive?”

[No, I’m dead. You cut me in half, how could I still be alive?]

Saying he was dead, the Twelfth Apostle calmly shook his head.

[This is a lingering remnant will I left behind as I died.]

“Remnant will?”

[That’s right. I engraved a sorcery of mutual destruction onto my soul, one that would drag down the one who killed me into hell together.]

He stretched his lips into a wide grin, saying it was thanks to that sorcery his soul remained.

[You will never escape the blood curse!]

As the Twelfth Apostle screamed with a grotesque cry, saying they would die together, the power of the puddle pulling at his body surged drastically. It was far stronger than the bloody energy the Twelfth Apostle had wielded while alive.

“Haaah….”

Raon exhaled roughly, enduring pain that pierced both body and mind as if stabbed by thousands of needles.

‘So he did have a hidden card after all.’

This is why I wanted to observe a bit more before finishing him off.

If I had provoked the Twelfth Apostle into continuing the fight, I might have realized there was a sorcery like this and either dispelled it in advance or just cut off his limbs instead of killing him. It’s regrettable that I didn’t have the time.

‘But this might actually be better.’

He said it was a blood curse.

Not just any curse, he specifically said it was a blood curse. That might actually turn out to be an advantage.

“Raon!”

“You okay…?”

Martha and Runaan called out to him at the same time.

“Don’t worry about me. Focus on your fights.”

Raon calmly shook his head, then released his strength instead of resisting the blood puddle pulling at his body.

Once the resistance vanished, the suction of the puddle intensified sharply and swallowed him whole.

Paaaaaah!

It felt like being submerged, he couldn’t breathe. Beneath the puddle wasn’t earth, but a sea of pure white blood. Bloody energy surged from every visible direction.

[Kihahahahaha!]

The soul of the Twelfth Apostle, shaped like a shark, charged in as if to devour him. Blood trickled from Raon’s arm where its teeth grazed.

[No matter how strong you are, you can’t escape this curse! You’ll die with me!]

The Twelfth Apostle now opened his massive jaws, declaring he’d tear out Raon’s throat.

“Didn’t it occur to you that I came in here on purpose?”

Raon smiled faintly and thrust the Blade of Requiem forward.

“This dagger says it’s still hungry.”

[What?]

The Twelfth Apostle furrowed his brow as if to ask what that was supposed to mean.

“Devour it.”

Raon raised the Ten Thousand Flames Cultivation at its utmost onto the Blade of Requiem. Flames surged atop the red blade and spread wide like a cloth, wrapping around the Twelfth Apostle’s charging remnant will and bloody energy, teeth bared.

It was the ultimate technique of Ten Thousand Flames Cultivation that erases all wicked energy, Golden Void Infusion.

Fwoooosh!

Now empowered further by the power of vengeful spirits, the Golden Void Infusion was not pierced even by the struggling soul of the Twelfth Apostle, soaked in immense bloody energy.

[W-What is this….]

The Twelfth Apostle’s voice trembled in disbelief.

“You called it a blood curse, didn’t you? This Blade of Requiem is a ceremonial sword created to console those killed by the hands of you bastards. A mere blood curse is nothing but food for this dagger.”

With a twist of his lips, Raon burned the Twelfth Apostle’s soul and his bloody energy within the Golden Void Infusion.

[Kyaaaaaaaaah!]

With the scream of the Twelfth Apostle facing true death, the white blood was melted down by the flames. The blade of the Blade of Requiem, having absorbed the remaining blood energy, grew redder than before, as if many grudges still remained to be repaid.

“Urgh!”

“The Twelfth Apostle was defeated that easily….”

“He… he even overcame the blood curse.”

“That power defies all reason. How can someone like that even exist…?”

The archbishops swallowed dryly as they looked at Raon, who had so easily overcome the Twelfth Apostle and the blood curse.

“The sorcery protecting the wall has been broken. Trevin of the Warring Steel Division and Runaan of the Full Moon Squad, go inside and subdue the apostles.”

Raon pointed past the collapsed wall toward the interior. Apostles who had been strengthening the sorcery and summoning bloody demons still remained inside, but those two should be more than enough to handle them.

“Mm…!”

“We accept the command!”

Runaan and Trevin led the Full Moon Squad and the Warring Steel Division, charged into the broken wall, and cut down the bloody demons that were trying to fill the breach.

“Leave this side to me!”

Aris winked at him with one eye, saying she’d follow after beheading the First Apostle. Though she had been fighting the First Apostle evenly, she seemed to have hidden strength in reserve, there was an air of composure about her.

“Martha. Killing the Tenth Apostle isn’t the only thing you have to do.”

Raon turned his gaze to Martha, who was clashing with the Tenth Apostle.

“I know!”

Martha nodded with tightly pressed lips, as if she had regained her composure. She clearly understood her role.

“Don’t worry, just go!”

Denier revealed a calm gaze as he said he would support Martha and protect the people on the bridge.

The most suspicious bastard is telling us not to worry!

Wrath shook his head as if it were absurd.

You worry me more than the bloody demons!

He trembled, saying he had no idea what Denier might try to pull.

‘Just looking at him like that, he really does seem like a father who cares for his daughter.’

Despite all the suspicion up to now, Denier was cutting down bloody demons and bishops without hesitation. He had saved Martha’s life, and the number of times he had protected his subordinates was too many to count.

Just judging from his actions on the battlefield, he was the very image of a father who cherished his daughter and subordinates more than his own life.

‘I don’t have a choice right now.’

I wanted to keep an eye on Denier, but I didn’t have the time.

‘I already spoke to Balder, so I have no choice but to trust him.’

After hearing what I said, Balder was tearing through bloody demons near the fourth bridge, close to Denier.

There wasn’t much difference in strength between him and Denier, so if Denier tried anything strange, he should be able to stop it.

‘Right now, stopping the White Blood Religion’s leader is more important.’

Raon entered the White Blood Religion’s headquarters, following the path Runaan and Trevin had opened.

It looked like a white, spotless, pure city, but beneath it, the stench of blood pierced the nose and flowed like a river.

Wooooong!

As if it too felt the wretched bloody energy forming this city, the Blade of Requiem let out a fierce sword cry.

‘Where’s the White Blood Religion’s leader?’

Raon narrowed his eyes as he ran toward the center of the city.

‘It seems a bit different than when I came here before.’

The roads and buildings he had seen when rescuing Ogram didn’t appear now. It seemed the headquarters had been expanded in the meantime.

‘It’s too wide. I can’t afford to wander around like this.’

Raon stopped moving and activated the Mind’s Eye of the Azure Flower. A clear energy seeped into his fatigued pupils,

and he began to sense the flow of energy spread throughout the entire city.

‘It's certainly different.’

With the fusion of Perception of the Snow Flower and the Evil Eye Wrath, both my sight and senses opened up, making it far easier to grasp the enemy’s movements than before.

Wooooong!

As he focused the Mind’s Eye of the Azure Flower and scanned the entire city, he turned his gaze to the north.

‘What is that…?’

At the northern end of the city stood a cathedral-like structure, and from within, something chilling was rising.

It wasn’t aura or bloody energy. I could feel the presence of someone’s soul itself transforming into a grotesque color.

‘Don’t tell me….’

You are correct.

Wrath furrowed his brows deeply.

That mosquito wench is inside that building, and her soul is entering the stage of awakening.

He clenched his hand, saying the White Blood Religion’s leader was about to cross the wall.

Kugugugugu!

Raon pressed the ball of his foot down, cracking the ground beneath him. With the Supreme Harmony Steps, he shattered the earth and leapt toward the northern building.

Fwoooosh!

Kicking through the air, he flew toward the cathedral where the White Blood Religion’s leader was hiding, when suddenly, a white fog rose before his eyes, completely obscuring his vision.

‘This is…’

It carried the same foul stench as the white fog that had protected the very front of the White Blood Religion's headquarters. The fog stripped away his sense of direction, making it hard to tell where he was.

“Sorry, but I have no intention of saving strength anymore.”

He thrust the Blade of Requiem forward and summoned the cold of Glacier. He opened the blue sky to call the wind and dropped the wrathful lightning that splits the land. The Heavenly Lightning of the Azure Sky. A sword strike combining the Azure Sky Sword and the Heavenly Lightning Cultivation tore the thick fog to shreds.

Kugugugugugu!

As Raon passed through the torn fog and tried to rush toward the cathedral again, hundreds of sorcery clusters and bloody demons began charging at him.

“You won’t leave this place alive!”

A bald-headed middle-aged man pointed at him and unleashed pure-white sorcery spell. It seemed that man was the apostle who had been strengthening the fortress wall's sorcery until now.

“Uaaaagh!”

“Throw your bodies forward if you must, but stop him!”

“Spill your blood to block the path!”

“Letting him through is absolutely not an option!”

At the Apostle’s command, the archbishops and bloody demons surged toward him, amplifying their blood energy as if they were willing to throw away their lives to stop him.

Woooong!

In that moment, the Apostle activated a sorcery spell that pressed down on Raon’s body and aura, making it impossible to move quickly.

“Just seeing the desperation on your faces tells me... something very important is happening for your leader right now. If you’re willing to stake your lives to guard her…”

Raon looked at the cathedral at the northern end and raised a golden flame that would burn away the white blood energy.

“Then I’ll bet my own life to break through it!”

*   *   *

A space dyed in crimson, wholly unfitting for the White Blood Religion.

“Haaah….”

The White Blood Religion’s leader swept her arms through the blood filling the room and exhaled an exhilarated breath.

‘I can feel it.’

It feels as though my soul is resonating, as if it has become one with the blood. Just as warriors who have reached Transcendence can freely manipulate the mana of nature, the very concept of blood was harmonizing with my soul.

‘So this is the ultimate truth of blood cultivation.’

The true meaning of blood, which I had only ever thought of as a tool for becoming stronger, seeps into my soul.

If I can fully internalize this sensation, then I won’t even need to perform grand techniques anymore, just by injecting my own blood, I’ll be able to switch bodies.

‘If that becomes possible, then I’ll have no rival in this world.’

Because there’s no human who doesn’t possess blood.

If I can change bodies at will, then I won’t have to care about physical durability or anything like that, and I’ll be able to unleash my full power every single moment.

Even Glenn, who’s currently considered the strongest under heaven, or the Heavenly Demon, both will be beneath my feet.

‘Heh heh.’

The White Blood Religion’s leader curled her lips as she saw the red blood filling the room begin to turn white.

‘It won’t be long now.’

The blood filling this room belongs to those with rare, exceptional constitutions.

If this blood turns clear like water, I’ll gain the power to control the blood of all humans. I won’t be a religious leader anymore, I’ll become the Blood God and ascend to the heavens.

‘Just a little more….’

The blood-red liquid that was once horrifyingly crimson began to ripple white, as if someone had spilled white paint into it. Her soul trembled so violently it felt like it was about to shed its shell and emerge.

Fwoooooosh!

Just as the White Blood Religion’s leader closed her eyes to complete the awakening of her soul, a sharp pain sparked in her head, as if she’d been struck by a tiny pebble.

‘Still has the strength to resist?’

The soul of her current body, which she had buried deep within the mental world, stirred slightly.

“Don’t worry. Just as you wished, I’ll devour that child whole too.”

The White Blood Religion’s leader lightly pressed down on the resisting soul, and was just about to begin the final purification—

Craaaaack!

A crack formed in the southern wall of the cathedral, and the nearly-purified blood began to leak out.

“N-No!”

The White Blood Religion’s leader screamed and reached out her hand, but since she had not yet completed her awakening, she couldn’t stop the blood.

“What in the world….”

Just as she was about to forcibly activate blood cultivation to stop the leaking blood—

Kuwaaaaaaang!

The wall shattered into pieces, and golden radiance poured in.

“Were you in the middle of a bath?”

Raon Zieghart. The bastard, who seemed to be carrying the sun on his back with brilliant blond hair swept back, looked down on her and twisted the corner of his mouth upwards.

“I’ll make sure to cut you clean, so wash your neck and come out.”

 

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