The Reincarnated Assassin is a Genius Swordsman 1222

 Chapter 1222

 

Screeeech!

The black long jacket Derus Robert was wearing was ripped open diagonally, and bright red blood burst from his chest.

“Ugh…”

As if struck by a tremendous shock, Derus Robert’s brow creased deeply, vertical wrinkles forming as his lips trembled uncontrollably.

“I told you, didn’t I?”

Raon gave a cold smile and lightly flicked the fingers of his right hand, the one holding the divine sword.

“That I could do it.”

Before I entered Heaven, no matter how much Glenn helped me, I would never have been able to land a hit on Derus Robert. Between us stood a wall wider than an ocean.

‘But coming here let me build a ship to cross that ocean.’

As the Ring of Fire reached ten rings, my overall might had grown across the board.

My swordsmanship realm rose, my physical abilities strengthened, and even my willpower had climbed to a level that couldn’t be compared to before.

The massive wall between me and Derus Robert still existed, but thanks to the ten rings, I could at least carve scars into it now.

“Hmm! That wasn’t bad.”

Glenn nodded calmly, as though evaluating Raon’s swordsmanship with indifference.
In truth, however, he seemed quite pleased, the tips of his ears had turned noticeably red.

“It’s thanks to you, grandfather.”

Raon bowed slightly toward Glenn.

“I absolutely could not have cut him on my own.”

Derus Robert was a monster whose might was enough to threaten even Glenn.

No matter how much I had stepped into a new level, without fully stabilizing it, inflicting a truly fatal wound on Derus was impossible.

The reason I’d been able to cut Derus Robert’s chest just now was because Glenn had opened the path using the same Azure Sky sword.

“I-is that so?”

Seemingly pleased with Raon’s answer, Glenn smacked his lips with satisfaction.

Wow. Even at a moment like this, this geezer is putting on a full demonstration of what shameless doting looks like.

Wrath let out a long, exaggerated sigh, sounding as though it had gone past being tiresome and had somehow crossed into something almost impressive.

“Khh heh heh heh.”

Derus Robert chuckled as he roughly wiped away the blood flowing from his chest with his hand.

“I’d heard the Destructive King of the North doted excessively on his grandson, but this goes beyond what I imagined!”

He nodded slowly, as though it genuinely surprised him that Glenn had ever allowed Raon to be sent out on external missions.

“It makes me want to kill you all the more!”

Derus Robert’s eyes flashed coldly as he scratched at the wound on his chest with his fingernails. His lips twitched like a beast’s, as though dark, murderous thoughts were boiling inside him.

‘That bastard….’

Raon felt a slight shiver in his shoulders as he sensed the malice and killing intent reflected in Derus Robert’s eyes.

‘He’s still agitated.’

Derus Robert was a man so cold, rational and calculating that it was often said he might as well have no emotions at all.

But with the death of the archangel Raphael, the collapse of Heaven, and even this headquarters finally exposed, it seemed that the composure he had always maintained was beginning to crack.

‘This is the chance.’

Derus Robert wasn’t making it obvious, but to my eyes, it seemed his composure was slipping and his restraint beginning to falter.

If we could land just one more serious blow on him now, today’s battle could be turned into a complete victory.

“Grandfather!”

Holding the divine sword and demonic sword upright, Raon looked at Glenn.

“I know. But times like this are precisely when we must be even more careful.”

Glenn had reached the same conclusion, yet he narrowed his eyes, clearly unwilling to let Derus Robert drag them into his pace.

“Yes. I’ll be careful.”

Raon nodded as he resonated the Ring of Fire and pushed his aura to its limit.

“Haa…”

Glenn straightened slightly, drawing out as much of his might as he could reveal at this moment.

“I’ll go in front. You break through again.”

With no need for further words, he moved toward Derus Robert the instant he finished speaking.

Kwaaaaaang!

Red lightning bloomed atop Glenn’s Heavenly Tremor, smashing through the thick ceiling and surging up into the sky.

The sky shook as if about to collapse, and even denser red lightning rained down, dyeing Derus Robert’s darkened headquarters in blood-red light. It was the ultimate technique of Heavenly Lightning Cultivation, Ten Thousand Red Lightning.

“Hmph!”

Perhaps because of his injuries, Derus Robert couldn’t directly block the Heavenly Lightning Cultivation. He twisted his sword, trying to divert the lightning instead.

‘Now…!’

Reading the flow of Glenn’s swordsmanship, Raon kicked off the lightning-scorched ground. With the divine sword raised and the demonic sword lowered, he charged straight at Derus Robert.

“The same Heavenly Lightning Cultivation!”

Once again, Glenn had carved open a path through Derus Robert’s defense.
To capitalize on that opening, the best choice was to ride the very same flow of lightning Glenn had created.

“Get lost!”

Derus Robert unleashed a sword strike infused with death, its edge so sharp it sent a chill through the air. But the wall of lightning raised by Glenn intercepted the blade, stopping it short.

Boooom!

Raon advanced along the lightning path Glenn had opened and slammed into Derus Robert’s left side, where the wound had split even deeper. Wrapped in red lightning, his Supreme Harmony Steps were so fast that even Raon himself was shocked by the speed.

“Huh?”

The moment Derus Robert widened his eyes at that speed, Raon crossed the positions of the divine sword and the demonic sword he had been holding symmetrically and swung them.

The ultimate technique of Heavenly Lightning Cultivation, Nine Skies True Strike.

It was a form of the Heavenly Lightning Cultivation originally executed with a single sword, but infused with Raon’s own interpretation, aiming simultaneously for Derus Robert’s neck and heart.

“Fast, but…”

Derus Robert’s twisted expression smoothed out. The rage that had filled his eyes dispersed like smoke, replaced by an icy calm.

“Weak!”

As if he had been waiting for this exact moment, Derus Robert took Glenn’s lightning across his back and thrust his black, blazing sword toward Raon’s chest.

‘Don’t tell me….’

Clenching his teeth, Raon watched Derus’s blade writhe toward him like a snake.

‘It was all an act?’

I knew what Derus Robert looked like when he was truly enraged.

That bastard had shown genuine fury just moments ago, yet it seemed he had hidden a cold, calculating reason behind it.

Sssss!

Even the deep wound that had split open on Derus Robert’s chest stopped bleeding and closed in an instant. Even the fact that he hadn’t healed the sword marks until now seemed to be part of the act.

‘So he endured both my sword and grandfather’s head-on… all so he could kill me with the counterattack.’

Derus Robert had deliberately weathered the initial attack, trusting in his monstrous body, iron will, and inhuman regenerative power, waiting for the moment to strike back and finish Raon.

‘Fine.’

Raon clenched his teeth and resonated the Ring of Fire.

‘Then I’ll stake my life as well!’

If I pulled back now, I’d only end up running without landing a proper blow, and my head would be taken anyway. In a do-or-die situation, the only answer was to push forward.

Thud!

Pouring the full strength of his body and mind into the divine sword and demonic sword, Raon planted his foot.

Kwaaaaaaaa!

With the Heavenly Lightning Cultivation’s Nine Skies True Strike descending from above and rising from below, he roughly slashed Derus’s shoulder and waist.

They were wounds deep enough that it would not have been strange for the upper body to be cut in half, but the ominous energy of death flowing through Derus’s body prevented that most desired outcome.

“Now it’s my turn.”

Derus Robert extended his sword toward Raon’s chest, letting out a chilling smile as if he felt no pain at all.

“Not yet.”

Raon stepped forward once more. At point-blank range, breathing in the stench of death pouring from Derus Robert, he released the divine sword and the demonic sword, whose positions had been swapped from the beginning, from his hands.

“You madman!”

Derus Robert scoffed, clearly not expecting Raon to charge again at this point.

Wooooong!

Freed from his hands, the divine sword and demonic sword spun in an instant, radiating dazzling light.

Two Dancing Swords unleashed at the same time. The ultimate form of Divine and Demonic Harmony, Red-Blue Invincible Sword, connected by his soul, collided with Derus Robert’s sword that was advancing with death.

Kwaaaaaang!

The sword forged of flames imbued with death crashed against swords forged of sun, moon, and light, twisting sky and earth as the space where Derus stood sank beneath the ground.

Black clouds rolled in all directions, and on the bizarre land where magma spewed forth, the three men exhaled breaths of different colors.

“Haaah…”

Wiping the blood from his lips, Raon turned his gaze to Glenn on his right.

“Thank you, grandfather.”

Even after using the Red-Blue Invincible Sword, he had been pushed back by Derus’s sword and nearly had his chest burst open, but thanks to Glenn slamming down his lightning sword, he had barely survived.

Of course, being exposed to the energy of death had still left him with both major and minor injuries, but that was far better than having his chest blown apart.

“…That’s why I told you to be careful.”

Glenn rotated his left wrist, frowning deeply. His expression was slightly hardened, as if something displeased him.

“I’m sorry. I really thought he’d lost his composure.”

Raon bit down on his lip as he stared at Derus Robert, who now looked colder than ever.

“I nearly did lose it.”

Derus Robert nodded calmly.

“But I am not always in that state. Just like you, Raon.”

He drew a chilling smile, as if admitting that he had pretended to lose his reason in order to draw Raon in.

“What a shame. If I’d killed you a moment ago, your grandfather would have followed you soon enough.”

Derus Robert gave a soft clap, sounding genuinely regretful that he’d missed such a good opportunity.

“Though the end result won’t change anyway.”

Curling his lips upward, he looked as though he had fully returned to his original, composed self.

‘…What?’

Raon narrowed his eyes as he examined the wounds visible on Derus Robert’s chest, shoulders, and waist.

‘They’re healing already.’

Derus Robert hadn’t received any healing magic. At most, he should have only been using the energy of death to prevent the wounds from spreading any further.

And yet, the sword marks on his chest and shoulders were slowly being erased.

‘No… this isn’t healing,’ Raon realized.
‘The wounds themselves are disappearing.’

As if time itself were being rewound, the wounds vanished outright. It was a form of recovery Raon had never seen before.

That bastard really seems to have stepped beyond being human.

Wrath clicked his tongue in disbelief.

Still, he’s not flawless. The energy he possesses has visibly decreased.

He nodded his chin, saying that because of that recovery method, the death energy Derus Robert possessed had been reduced.

“There’s no need to be surprised.”

Glenn shook his head calmly.

“Abilities like that inevitably consume a tremendous amount of power.”

Like Wrath, he pointed out that Derus Robert had expended a great deal of power, his brows lowering as he spoke.

“That’s right. But….”

Derus Robert tilted his chin toward Raon and Glenn.

“Here, my power isn’t going to run out. Because all of this is the energy of death.”

He swept a hand through the black mist spreading beneath his feet, curling his lips into a smile.

“Glenn Zieghart. You might want to start using your true strength.”

Raising a finger toward Glenn, Derus Robert continued,

“If you hold back too much, you might end up losing that precious grandson of yours.”

He sneered as he told Glenn not to hide his power and to reveal his full might.

“You know you were lucky just now.”

Derus Robert folded his fingers one by one, saying that if the lightning hadn’t already been spread across the area, Raon would have died in the clash just now.

“…Hmph.”

Unable to refute, Glenn said nothing and merely furrowed his brow. He clenched the hand gripping Heavenly Tremor, then loosened it again, clearly deep in thought.

“….”

Watching Derus Robert provoke Glenn, Raon smacked his lips softly.

‘Why is he provoking grandfather into going all out, when that should put him at a disadvantage?’

If Glenn were to reveal his true might, Derus Robert wouldn’t be able to escape. Raon couldn’t understand why he would provoke him and pull himself into a disadvantageous fight.

‘Because he can regenerate? Even so, against a true Hearth Sword… Ah!’

Raon let out a quiet gasp as he looked at the buildings and ground saturated with the flowing energy of death.

‘Now I get it.’

Derus Robert’s true intention was…

 

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