The Reincarnated Assassin is a Genius Swordsman 1069

 Chapter 1069

 

“We… we won! The White Blood Religion has collapsed!”

“It’s finally over….”

“Now I can breathe easy.”

“Ugh, it felt like I was dying.”

The Zieghart swordsmen gathered in the training ground cheered and shouted toward the warriors of the Five Kings, who had finally brought them victory.

“…But what happened to Sir Denier?”

“I-I don’t know. He stabbed King Lecross, and then why did he stab the White Blood Religion’s leader as well….”

“If you think about it, it was betrayal upon betrayal, wasn’t it? But for what purpose?”

“We won, but the questions still remain unanswered.”

Since there was no clear explanation, many swordsmen still carried doubts about Denier’s betrayal.

But Glenn left behind the training ground, where cheers and questions were spreading, and was running toward the foot of the North Grave Mountain.

He, as if he had already gone beyond even the realm called Transcendence, moved his body to the place his heart was drawn and advanced toward the peak where combative energy had bloomed.

Fwooosh!

Glenn reached the highest peak of North Grave Mountain and faced a man draped in a crimson long coat.

Snowballs poured down endlessly as though the ground had no bottom, but before touching him they melted into transparent droplets.

The master of demons, who had reached the heavens was overlooking the world from within the helmet of the Demonic Dragon, the one who had sought to destroy the world.

“You’re late.”

As if he had expected Glenn to come, the Heavenly Demon slowly closed and opened his eyes.

“Was your purpose to hold me here?”

Glenn furrowed his brow as he met the Heavenly Demon’s calm gaze.

“Coming all the way here has lost its meaning. The White Blood Religion’s leader is dead.”

“……”

The Heavenly Demon said nothing, simply gazing steadily at him. From those tranquil eyes, it seemed he already knew of the White Blood Religion’s leader’s death.

“You haven’t changed.”

The Heavenly Demon nodded his chin, saying he was no different than when he last saw him.

“Are you still suppressing it?”

“……”

This time, Glenn gave no answer, only staring at him.

‘He’s gotten stronger.’

The last time they met, the Heavenly Demon had said the Heart Sword was dangerous, but that if he grew his soul, he could withstand it.

As though keeping that promise, he now revealed a soul level far stronger than before.

“You are afraid of ascending to the heavens.”

The Heavenly Demon’s sharp eyes shone as if he had read Glenn’s thoughts.

“If you possess such a pathetic will, you will die by my hand.”

He clenched his fist with certainty.

Goooooooh!

The red combative energy blazing beneath the Heavenly Demon’s feet brought forth a fresh green vitality even to the peak that had not melted in ten thousand years. Combative energy that stirred life, not death. His power had already reached the heavens.

“What is your purpose?”

Glenn turned his chin slightly while meeting the Heavenly Demon’s gaze.

“Why did you stop me?”

“Restoration. We are all just walking that path. Besides that….”

The Heavenly Demon closed his mouth before finishing the rest of his words.

“The next time we meet, one of us will die.”

His low voice was tinged with conviction. It was as if he could see the future without having read the heaven’s flow.

“Of course, if things continue as they are, it will be you who dies.”

Leaving those words behind, the Heavenly Demon dissolved into red smoke like a phantom and disappeared.

“……”

After he left, Glenn bit the inside of his lip as he looked upon the peak where sprouts had begun to lift their heads.

“Head of house!”

As Glenn let out a heavy sigh, Roenn came running with a grave expression.

“Darkan’s condition is not good!”

Roenn’s eyes creased as he said the balance of the battle had tilted sharply.

“Understood. I must go.”

Glenn gave a brief nod and turned his body.

“But the way to travel that far….”

His brow furrowed as he mentioned that Chamber, who needed to control the long-distance teleportation magic, was unconscious.

“No.”

Glenn calmly shook his head and kicked off from the peak where life was budding.

“There is someone who can take Chamber’s place.”

*   *   *

‘This is….’

Darkan chewed his lips as though he would tear them apart.

‘Does this… make sense?’

In the mental world created by the Heart Sword, I can see the opponent’s soul with my eyes.

I had brought swordsmen like Raon, who looked solid and tough, into this space and fought them several times, but never once had their soul’s level gone beyond my expectations.

But now, Derus Robert, standing before my eyes, was releasing a soul so immeasurably vast that even my soul, which had reached the realm of the highest Transcendence, felt like it was nothing but a mere shell.

Rumbleeeeeee!

Black shadow-like filth rose endlessly, and within it, countless eyeballs sneered with mocking laughter. A chilling shiver ran down my spine.

‘That is absolutely not a soul a human could possess.’

The true soul Derus kept beneath his heart was not one, but hundreds, perhaps thousands, resonating as one immense chorus. And every single one of them carried a sinister hue.

Rumbleeeeeee!

Derus’ soul spread wider and wider, shaking and twisting as though it would tear apart the mental world itself.

This space I had created was about to break under the sheer enormity and power of his soul.

‘That such a soul could exist….’

Even when I faced Glenn’s Heart Sword, I thought only that I would die, I never felt fear. But this was the first time my soul itself was shrinking. It wasn’t the difference in strength, but a primal fear born from human instinct.

“Human, you ask?”

Derus twisted his lips as he looked up at the black shadows covering the mental world.

“Obsessed with the sword enough to create a space like this, and yet still distracted by trivial matters.”

He shook his head, as if such things were utterly irrelevant now.

“Why are you just standing there, watching?”

As Derus smiled, the thousands of eyes behind his back blinked in unison. The sight went beyond eerie—it was grotesque.

“I’ve revealed my soul just as you wanted. Come in, like you did before.”

Derus curled his finger, beckoning me to attack however I pleased. Even now, his soul kept surging forth, staining my mental world in darkness.

Gooooooooh!

I felt it, the massive sword shape of my mental world was sprouting black cracks.

‘This is not good.’

If I got any closer to that black existence, I felt a dreadful certainty that before I could even swing my sword, my soul would be sucked into Derus and turned into one of those eyes.

No, even at this very moment, Derus seemed to be devouring my mental world and growing stronger.

“Here, it really pays off to have eyes.”

Derus sneered at Darkan.

“If you had recklessly rushed in like before, I would have swallowed you whole.”

He smacked his lips in regret, and the eyes all at once flashed with a chilling smile.

‘If I had come closer…?’

Hearing Derus’ words, Darkan narrowed his eyes.

‘Then… does that mean even he cannot fully control that soul?’

Thinking about it, there was no reason for someone with such an enormous soul to have stayed hidden until now.

If he could unleash all of that soul’s power, he could defeat even Glenn or the Heavenly Demon.

But Derus had been blatantly avoiding battle with Glenn. That meant he had not fully made that massive cluster of souls his own.

‘Then I’ll aim for that gap.’

If Derus cannot fully control that colossal soul, then I still have a chance. If I strike from a place where my soul won’t be sucked in, an opportunity will come.

“Hoo.”

Darkan clenched the black sword and bent his upper body.

“So you’ve figured it out.”

Derus tilted his chin as if amused.

“Even though you’re obsessed with the sword, you’re not such a fool that your head doesn’t work.”

He nodded his head as if his judgment was correct.

“But…”

Derus’ right eye began to darken, dyed in the energy of death.

Rumbleeeee!

The thousands of eyes rising behind his back also turned black, burning like fire.

Kyaaaaaaang!

At that moment, the gray sword that made up Darkan’s mental world could no longer withstand Derus’ soul, it cracked like a spiderweb and shattered.

Rumbleeeee!

Since his Heart Sword was the mental world itself, the moment the sword broke, the Heart Sword, too, was destroyed.

Kwoooong!

Hearing an ear-splitting roar, Darkan opened his eyes with difficulty.

Derus was still standing before him, but the black soul and eyes that had loomed behind him were no longer visible. It seemed he had returned to reality.

Goooooooh!

In the meantime, Derus was releasing a level of soul and domineering energy waves greater than before, as though he had awakened.

“You… cough!”

Darkan tried to approach Derus but spat out black blood. The aftermath of the mental world shattering into pieces had left him with severe internal injuries.

But the bigger problem was not the internal injury, but the damage to his upper energy center. Since the upper energy center, most used in battles between Transcenders, had collapsed together with the Heart Sword, it was the worst possible situation.

“To think of a Heart Sword that merely creates a place to fight… utterly foolish.”

Derus sneered and wagged his finger.

“Of course, even if you had wielded a proper Heart Sword like Glenn Zieghart, you still couldn’t have cut our souls.”

He narrowed his blue eyes as he looked at Darkan, who kept coughing up blood.

“To you, it must seem that way. You’re a man without any romance for the sword.”

Darkan brushed back his hair and curled his bloodstained lips upward.

“My nature is to grow stronger the deeper I fall into crisis. I’m already looking forward to how I’ll overcome this filthy situation.”

Even though cornered, he lifted his chin as if he truly intended to defeat Derus.

“I’ll bring you down, and then I’ll ask about that soul.”

“Fine. If you defeat me, I’ll tell you everything.”

The moment Derus nodded calmly, his body vanished like smoke.

Whoooosh!

When he reappeared, it was directly before Darkan. Without any preparation, he thrust his sword straight toward Darkan’s heart.

It looked like an ordinary thrust, but within it flowed a sword principle of terrifying caliber.

Claaaang!

Darkan raised his black sword diagonally and deflected Derus’ sword, which was piercing toward his heart, to the left.

But even doing only that strained him so much that black blood seeped from his lips.

“You’ve weakened.”

Derus let out a short laugh and shook his head.

“Even if I were bedridden, I could still beat you down.”

Muttering that he shouldn’t worry, Darkan parried the strike of Derus’ sword rushing from the left.

“At least your fighting spirit is worth acknowledging.”

Derus gave a dry laugh as he closed the distance and unleashed heavy sword techniques in succession.

Claaang!

Darkan’s hand holding the black sword trembled as he staggered ten steps back.

‘…This is not good.’

It was true that Derus had grown stronger than before, but if my body were in normal condition, I could have handled him. The reason I’m being pushed back now is because of the backlash from the Heart Sword’s destruction.

‘It’s hard to use my upper energy center.’

If I hadn’t used the Heart Sword, I could have captured Derus or forced him to retreat. I regretted using the Heart Sword so lightly against this unknown opponent.

‘Still…’

I cannot break here.

What I said about turning crisis into opportunity and overcoming it, that wasn’t a lie.

I had always grown stronger in hardship, so I stoked my sinking focus and began to analyze Derus’s swordsmanship.

‘I can still see it, somehow.’

After blocking Derus’ strikes with minimal losses, I began healing the damage to my organs and upper energy center. Not relying on sight, but sensing it with perception, actually helped.

“You are worthy of being called the Dark Night Sword God.”

Derus twisted his lips as though Darkan had read his movements.

“From here on, I’ll change things a little.”

The moment those words left his mouth, his swordsmanship shifted drastically, fast, then slow, light, then heavy.

In the time I hadn’t seen him, his sword was also pursuing the flow of the versatile sword, just like Glenn or Raon.

Clangclangclang!

Darkan spewed a fountain of blood from his mouth and staggered back like a drunken man.

‘Damn it….’

Trying to grasp the change in Derus’ sword only worsened the damage to my upper energy center. Now my vision blurred so badly that I could hardly act.

“You’re already exhausted after I acknowledged you lived up to your name? Dark Night Sword God, Darkan?”

Derus raised his tone arrogantly, already certain of victory.

“I am not the Dark Night Sword God. I am nothing more than a swordsman. As long as this sword does not break, I will not fall.”

He shouted for him to come at him however much he wanted, striking down his incoming sword and even countering.

Even with blood flowing from his eyes, nose, and mouth, he swung his sword with a smile. It was willpower that overcame a collapsing body.

“Nothing more than a swordsman….”

Derus furrowed his brows slightly and brought his sword down upon Darkan.

Kwoooong!

Darkan raised the black sword and blocked Derus’ descending strike.

But Derus was no longer pressing with sword principles, he was simply layering aura upon aura to crush him with brute force.

Rumbleeeee!

Unable to withstand the weight and force within Derus’ sword, Darkan began to collapse.

“Urgh….”

Pressed by Derus’ blade, Darkan bit his lip as he saw the black sword falling toward his own forehead.

“Since you are obsessed with the sword, I shall let you die by your own sword.”

Derus murmured that it would be a fitting end and poured more strength into his sword.

Whoooosh!

As Darkan’s forehead was cut by the black sword and blood flowed down, a powerful aura stretched out toward Derus’ face.

“Hmph!”

Derus scoffed and raised a wall of death energy to block the aura approaching his face.

Paaaak!

But the white aura pierced through Derus’ energy of death and struck his chin inside.

“Urgh….”

Derus, as if shaken by the blow, was pushed back along with the sword he had been driving against Darkan.

“Haaah….”

Darkan bent over, breathing hoarsely as if he had barely escaped death.

“Are you all right?”

Ogram brushed the energy of death off his fist and stood at Darkan’s side.

“Why…”

Darkan exhaled a blood-tinged sigh and furrowed his brow.

“Why did you interfere? I was right about to cut him down.”

Instead of gratitude, he glared at Orgram for stepping into the fight.

“Really….”

Ogram clicked his tongue as though he had expected Darkan to say exactly that.

“You saved me, so of course I save you in return!”

He shook his head, saying the question itself was meaningless.

“I didn’t save you. I just wanted to fight.”

Darkan raised the black sword as if that thought had not changed even now.

“I’m the same. My strength has recovered, so I need to test it.”

Orgram clenched his fists, drawing up aura, saying he too only wanted to fight Derus.

“You come looking for your own death. If you’d stayed still, I would have let you die cleanly.”

Derus wiped the blood dripping from his lips with the back of his hand and smiled.

“Since it’s come to this, I’ll send the two of you off at once.”

Even with Ogram’s intrusion, he was confident of victory.

Baaang!

Derus exploded forward with a fierce sonic boom, charging between Orgram and Darkan.

Fwoooong! Thudd!

Darkan swung his sword down, and Orgram hurled his fist, but Derus’s blade pushed back their combined power head-on and drove inward.

“Hold on just a little!”

Orgram left the defense to Darkan and unleashed the Tidebreaker. The spiral current infused into his fist tore through the energy of death, striking straight toward Derus’ heart.

Baaang!

However, the fist strike wrapped in the Tidebreaker vanished, pushed away by the black fog before it could reach Derus.

“It won’t work twice.”

Derus, as if he knew everything about the Tidebreaker, twisted his lips and swung his sword. It only seemed like a sword technique that was merely fast, yet strangely, Ogram’s body did not move.

Smaaash!

The moment Ogram’s right arm was about to be severed, Darkan kicked him away, narrowly pulling him out of Derus’ attack range.

Sssshhhk!

But they couldn’t avoid it completely. A black burn-like sword wound appeared on Ogram’s shoulder, and on Darkan’s chest too, a dark crimson scar formed where Derus’ blade had struck.

“For two people fighting together for the first time, not bad. But still….”

Derus condensed the energy of death on the tip of his sword and unleashed a sharp thrust.

Baaang!

At his first strike, Darkan spat blood and fell, while Ogram reacted too late and was blown back, unable to defend properly.

Although Derus stood at a similar level, to Darkan, who had sustained internal injuries, he overwhelmed with the amount and strength of aura, and to Ogram, who had a difference in level, he displayed advanced martial arts.

It was the perfect strategy to suppress the joint attacks of two opponents.

“Repeating the same picture is boring, so let’s end it here.”

Derus raised his sword as he stood before Darkan.

“Just from consuming your mental world, I gained this much. I wonder what power I’ll gain from killing you.”

He smacked his lips as if in genuine anticipation.

“Your sword is not beautiful….”

Darkan snorted at Derus’s sword.

“What?”

“Glenn Zieghart’s sword is lofty and majestic. Raon Zieghart’s sword is aggressive and free. However, in your sword…”

He shook his head and gave a mocking laugh.

“I feel nothing from it. Strong, certainly, but hollow.”

Darkan blew his nose as if to say it was a boring sword.

“I’ve felt it for a long time, you know how to provoke people. Of course, it doesn’t work on me.”

Derus shook his head, saying the words of a loser would not reach his ears.

“Besides, my hollow space will be filled with your soul and power, so you need not worry.”

He said that soon his sword would gain meaning, and brought down his sword blazing with energy of death toward Darkan’s head.

Whoooosh!

Darkan was watching Derus’ fiercely falling sword as if he would witness his own death.

Kyaaaaaang!

A blue dimension opened, and a silver blade surged forth, blocking Derus’ strike.

Rumbleeeee!

Derus’ sword, which had been overwhelming Darkan and Orgram, began to tremble and was pushed back in force.

“This is…”

Derus’ eyes widened in genuine shock as he stared at the sword coursing with red lightning.

“That’s it!”

Darkan clapped his hands as he looked at the sword driving Derus back.

“That’s a real sword!”

He shouted in excitement, as though he knew exactly whose sword it was.

Crackkkkk!

The blue dimension opened fully, and from within stepped Glenn Zieghart, a black long coat draped over his shoulders.

The greatest sword under heaven, Heavenly Tremor, grasped in his hand, let out a ferocious cry.

“Chamber and Larian were down, so how are you here!”

Because he had grasped everything that was happening, Derus’ jaw trembled as if he couldn’t believe Glenn’s sudden appearance

“You too look down on the growth of the children.”

Glenn’s gaze, filled with pride, turned behind him.

“Haaahk….”

Jaina, princess of Balkar, who was renowned not for magical skill but for arrogance and insolence, and who inherited the name of the Eternal Flame by following her teacher, managed to perform long-distance teleportation magic even while blood was flowing from her nose and mouth.

“Today, your plan…”

Glenn stood before Derus, eyes gleaming with lightning.

“…was broken by the children you underestimated.”

 

Advance Chapters