The Reincarnated Assassin is a Genius Swordsman 1305

 Chapter 1305

 

“Gaaaaaaah!”

The archangel Sariel burst into a scream that sounded as though his throat were being torn apart as he burned within the flames of the Ten Thousand Flames Cultivation. His body and soul began melting away simultaneously in the golden fire.

“S-Stop! Stop!”

Sariel coughed up black, dead blood as he realized that even the divine power protecting both his body and soul could no longer withstand the heat of the Ten Thousand Flames Cultivation. He tried desperately to transfer into another body, but Heavenly Drive, radiating a faint golden glow, refused to release his soul.

“I have a proposal.”

Raon twisted Heavenly Drive, easing the pressure crushing Sariel's soul.

“A proposal...?”

Sariel lowered his eyes, looking as though he would accept any proposal if it meant escaping the agony.

“If you answer my questions truthfully, I'll let you go.”

Meeting Sariel's gaze, Raon slowly nodded.

"H-How am I supposed to believe that?"

Despite the unbearable pain, Sariel bit down hard on his lip as though he couldn't believe Raon's words.

“Look at yourself....”

Raon's eyes turned even colder as he spoke.

“Do you really think you're in any position to be questioning me?”

With a scoff, he drove Heavenly Drive deep into Sariel's heart once more. It was a sword that subdued not only the body, but the soul as well.

“Aaaaaaaaargh!”

Overwhelmed by even greater agony, Sariel's entire body trembled violently. Yet, true to his pride as an archangel, he didn't immediately accept Raon's offer.

The King of Essence doesn't know what kind of proposal you're planning to make, but however stupid that bastard may seem, he's still an archangel.
Wrath descended onto Raon's shoulder.

He won't accept some half-baked deal. He'd rather die.

He shook his head, warning Raon not to underestimate Sariel.

'I figured as much.'

Raon smiled faintly.

'You should never underestimate an archangel or a demon king.'

He nodded slightly, assuring Wrath that he was well aware of this fact.

Of course... huh?

Wrath nodded instinctively, then flinched when he saw the expression on Raon's face.

W-Why are you smiling like that...?

Seeing Raon's smile, Wrath drew in a sharp breath as if chills had run down his spine.

What are you plotting now?!

‘Who knows?’

Ignoring Wrath's question, Raon turned back toward Sariel.

“Very well. I swear upon a 'soul.'”

He nodded at the trembling archangel.

“If you answer my questions truthfully, I'll release you.”

Raon placed a hand over his chest as he made his vow.

“A-are you serious?”

Sariel narrowed his eyes slightly, unable to believe it.

“You should be able to tell.”

Telling him to see for himself, Raon closed his eyes and unleashed the level of his soul.

Ruuuuumble!

A terrifying energy wave surged around Raon. It was not aura, but the power of the soul itself. The level of his soul, powerful enough to overwhelm an archangel, shook heaven and earth.

“Ghk!”

Feeling the soul level that Raon had revealed without reservation, Sariel swallowed dryly.

“W-What in the world are you...?”

He exhaled a ragged breath, unable to comprehend how a human could possess such a thing.

“There have been humans with might like yours before, but a human whose soul can suppress an archangel...? How could that even...?”

Unable to understand, Sariel trembled even more violently as the pain intensified.

Even the King of Essence doesn't understand it.

Wrath nodded, admitting that although Sariel was an enemy, he understood exactly how he felt.

“That's none of your concern.”

Raon shook his head firmly and twisted Heavenly Drive.

Crrrkkk!

As agony tore through both soul and body at the same time, red veins bulged across Sariel's eyes.

“AAAAAAH! F-Fine! I understand! Just ask!”

He nodded frantically, as though willing to answer any question.

“Derus Robert.”

Raon exhaled slowly, speaking a name dripping with malice.

“Where is he?”

Even though he had killed Derus Robert with his own hands, he had never truly been at ease. Even now, it felt as though the man might suddenly appear and swing a sword at his throat.

“Derus Robert?”

Sariel snorted in disbelief.

“You killed him yourself. What kind of nonsense are you talking about?!”

He frowned as though he couldn't understand why the person who killed Derus Robert was asking such a ridiculous question.

“Wasn't he the one who summoned you?”

Raon narrowed his eyes to slits as he looked at Sariel. Knowing that Derus Robert had been the one calling down the archangels, he wanted to know how Sariel had descended into this world

“It was him who summoned me. However....”

Sariel snorted again.

“That was a long time ago! The other archangels and I had already taken residence within human bodies and completed our adaptation before revealing ourselves to this world.”

He frowned, saying that their descent had already been completed while Derus Robert was still alive.

“...”

Raon remained silent and looked directly into Sariel's eyes.

“He's not lying.”

Using Heart Sword, he examined Sariel's soul, and it showed none of the signs of falsehood. Sariel genuinely believed that Derus Robert was dead.

'Did he really die?'

Even while believing that Derus Robert was dead, part of him had still felt that the man might somehow be alive. But judging from Sariel's reaction, it seemed safe to conclude that he was truly dead.

“Then why were you controlling the royals and nobles here?”

Gripping Heavenly Drive once more, Raon continued.

“If you weren't acting on Derus's orders, why would you go out of your way to do something so troublesome?”

Someone like Sariel, who regarded humans as insects, would never personally brainwash nobles and royalty without a good reason.

“It... it was Uriel's order...”

Sariel pressed his lips together as he spoke the name of the archangel Uriel.

“He told me to rule this place, saying we should use humans to exterminate humans.”

Letting out a ragged breath, he said that he had brainwashed the royals and nobles under Uriel's orders.

“Uriel...”

Raon recalled his first encounter with the archangel Uriel, slowly closing and reopening his eyes.

“Then here's my next question. Where are Uriel and the other archangels?”

The archangels possessed overwhelming might, along with special abilities of their own. If they intervened in the war against Eden, the resulting devastation would be beyond imagination.

‘Because I'm probably the only one who can deal with a being like Sariel.’

It wasn't arrogance. I was the only person on the continent who understood Sariel's abilities and could counter them. The archangels who had yet to reveal themselves would likely possess abilities no less troublesome, so if possible, I wanted to eliminate them beforehand.

“I-I don't know.”

Sariel shook his trembling head.

“All archangels do whatever they please. I have no idea where they are or what they're doing!”

He squeezed his eyes shut, insisting that interrogating him on this was useless.

“That's a lie.”

Raon frowned as he stared directly into Sariel's eyes.

“Your soul is telling me that you're lying.”

Unlike when he spoke about Derus Robert's death, Sariel's soul trembled ever so slightly. It wasn't an outright lie, but he was clearly withholding something.

“Ugh...”

Seemingly shocked by Raon, Sariel swallowed dryly.

“Speak. What do you know?”

Reminding him to honor their deal, Raon slammed Heavenly Drive down even harder.

Craaack!

The blades of Heavenly Drive and the Heart Sword dug deeper into Sariel's body and soul, causing his eyes to bulge as if they were about to burst.

“Guaaaaaaargh!”

Letting out the loudest scream yet, Sariel flailed his arms wildly. Even his severed legs twitched uncontrollably.

“S-Stop! Stop! I don't know where the Archangels are right now! But!”

Raising a finger as if begging him to stop, Sariel continued.

“I do know a place that every archangel must eventually visit!”

Coughing up blood, he shouted that it was all he knew.

“A place every archangel must visit?”

Raon nodded calmly, signaling for him to continue.

“B-because archangels aren’t natives of this dimension, we need an adaptation period to shed the burden of causality, and we also need time to prepare our bodies to accept this world’s mana. There is a place specifically meant for that.”

Sariel nodded, saying that he himself had gone there.

‘What do you think?’

Raon gestured toward Wrath with his chin.

It's entirely possible.

Wrath slowly smacked his lips.

Unlike us demon kings, who only ever think about our war with the archangels, those bastards seem to have something else in mind.

He snorted, saying that "something else" was probably the destruction of humanity. “Where is that place?”

A cold gleam flashed in Raon's eyes as he twisted the sword lodged in Sariel's heart even harder.

“The summit of the mountain you humans call M-Melvin.”

Sariel shifted his gaze.

“There is a temple there for the archangels. It has existed for thousands of years, making it the ideal place to adapt to this world.”

He nodded, saying that sooner or later, every archangel would have to go there.

“And which archangels haven't gone there yet?”

Raon steadied his breathing, easing some of the tension in his body.

“I-I don't know about the others. But...”

Sariel hesitated briefly before speaking through trembling lips.

“Uriel probably hasn't gone yet. His power is... different.”

He nodded, saying that Uriel had not yet fully completed his adaptation to this world.

“Uriel...”

Raon murmured Uriel's name as he tightened his fingertips.

'He was definitely different.'

Just as Wrath and Pride were exceptional among the demon kings, Uriel seemed exceptional among the archangels. No, in a sense, he appeared to stand on an even higher level than those two demon kings.

“T-That's enough, right?”

Sariel weakly waved his fingers.

“I've answered everything you asked, so let me go now!”

Swallowing hard, he told Raon to keep his promise.

“Right. I did make a promise.”

With a sigh, Raon grasped Heavenly Drive and pulled it free.

“However...”

Instead of bringing the sword down, he raised it above his head once more.

“What I swore upon wasn't my soul.”

The corners of Raon's lips curled upward as he told Sariel to think carefully about what he had said earlier.

“Huh...?”

Recalling Raon's exact words, Sariel's eyes widened.

“Y-You swindling bastard!”

Before he could even finish screaming and attempt to flee, Heavenly Drive, descended first.

Thwaaack!

A silver blade that perfectly severed both body and soul.

Having descended into this world as an archangel, Sariel met his end without even managing a final scream.

Hah...

Staring at Sariel's head rolling across the ground, Wrath's jaw dropped.

W-What?! What did you just do?! Didn't you swear on your soul?!

Wrath blinked repeatedly, unable to comprehend what had just happened.

"I said, 'I swear upon a soul.' I never said it was my soul."

It wasn't as though he had linked another person's soul to himself like Sariel did. He had merely used Heart Sword to deceive Sariel's ability to detect falsehoods.

Insane. Insane! You lunatic!

Wrath shouted in a reaction not much different from Sariel's.

You actually conned the so-called swindler Sariel! How can a bastard like you even exist?!

Grinding his teeth, he muttered that he truly couldn't understand how Raon's mind worked.

'In any case, we got some useful information.'

Smiling, Raon flicked the blood from Heavenly Drive.

'Melvin Mountain....'

It seemed I would have to pay that mountain a visit after finishing my duties as acting head of house.

This is something the King of Essence has no choice but to acknowledge....

Wrath was still shaking his head in disbelief when the messages appeared.

[You have utterly shocked an archangel!]

[You have earned a demon king's acknowledgment!]

[You have accomplished a unique feat!]

[All stats...]

[Trait...]

The moment Wrath uttered the word "acknowledge," the reward messages immediately appeared.

N-No! That wasn't admiration!

Wrath shouted in protest.

He was just shocked by how devious that bastard is!

Wrath shouted that it absolutely wasn't the case, but the messages had already expanded and engulfed him.

'At this rate....'

Grinning as he looked at the messages burying Wrath.

'Maybe being a swindler isn't so bad after all.'

 

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