The Reincarnated Assassin is a Genius Swordsman 1397

 Chapter 1397

 

“Hmmm….”

Lust curled her lips as she looked at Evelyn’s cheeks, which had turned as red as a ripe apple.

“You’re having some suggestive thoughts, aren’t you?”

She licked her lips as though she could see exactly what Evelyn was thinking.

“N-No, I’m not!”

Evelyn denied it outright, her face turning even redder.

“I-I’ve always been sincere about Raon….”

Despite saying that she had always approached him sincerely, she bit down hard on her lip.

“Of course your feelings are sincere. But….”

Lust chuckled and shook her head.

“You never seriously thought about actually pouncing on Wrath, did you? You always stopped at teasing him.”

“Th-That’s….”

Unable to deny Lust’s words, Evelyn lowered her gaze.

“Normally, the man would come to you on his own, so tempting him subtly like that isn’t a bad approach.”

Lust smacked her lips, saying that subtle seduction like Evelyn’s was fine as well.

“But that hopelessly inexperienced man is different. Approach him halfheartedly and he’ll only back away. You have to charge straight at him and make your feelings completely clear.”

She clenched her fist, saying that with someone like Wrath, she had to charge at him head-on like a swordsman.

“That’s why I learned the sword properly.”

Lust nodded, saying that Wrath was the reason she had become serious about swordsmanship.

“Hmm….”

Evelyn’s face reddened every time she heard Lust speak, until her cheeks looked ready to burst.

“B-But your confession to Raon hasn’t worked either!”

She furrowed her brows, saying that Lust was in the same situation as her.

“That’s why I keep trying. Once this war is over, I’m going to throw myself at Wrath.”

Lust curled her lips, saying that she intended to make a serious confession as well. Strangely enough, even though the two of them were calling him by different names, Raon and Warth, they still understood each other perfectly.

‘Raon….’

Evelyn closed her eyes as she thought of Raon.

Lust is right. I love Raon, and everything I’ve ever said to him has been sincere.

How could I not love the man who forgave me despite all the sins I had committed, guided me toward a better path, sought out my past self within my memories, and ultimately purified even my soul?

However, although I love Raon, I have never truly expected him to choose me and love me in return

‘There are so many people better than me.’

Runaan, who is absentminded but always thinks only of Raon. Martha, who has the temperament of a tyrant yet becomes as gentle as a lamb in front of Raon. The eyepatched woman who brings him information without asking for anything in return, and even the long-eared woman currently hiding in the forest.

Unlike me, who committed many sins in order to survive, there are pure and beautiful women around him. Because of that, I have never dreamed of receiving Raon’s true love.

“You deserve it too.”

At Lust’s words that she deserved it too, Evelyn felt as though the dam holding back the deepest emotions in her heart had broken, sending all the water that had built up behind it rushing out.

“Haaah….”

Evelyn let out a deep breath and opened her eyes. Her pale violet eyes shone more intensely, and an authority of lust just as profound as Lust’s own began to bloom from her.

“Beautiful.”

Lust curled her lips, saying that Evelyn had finally awakened to the true authority of lust.

“Now you finally look like a human who received my authority.”

Over her long life, Lust had seen countless humans and demons. She had bestowed the authority of lust upon a select few who caught her interest and watched how they lived, but none of them had ever achieved results that truly satisfied her.

Evelyn, however, was different. She had carried deep and powerful emotions within her for a long time, kept them tightly bound, then overcome her fear and released them all at once. That was not something just anyone could do.

‘So there was a reason I was drawn to her.’

Only now did Lust understand why she had taken a liking to Evelyn from the moment they first met. The feelings Evelyn had carried for so long were the kind of pure love Lust loved most.

“Okay.”

Evelyn gave Lust a suggestive smile.

“I’ll confess once this war is over.”

She said that she would sincerely convey her feelings to Raon as she looked at the golden flames surging into the sky.

“Good. Then now….”

Lust slowly smacked her lips as she felt the authority of lust rising from within Evelyn’s soul. Not only her hair, but even her eyes had turned pink as she looked at Sariel.

“It’s time to end our fight.”

*   *   *

“…….”

Sariel slightly furrowed her brows as she listened to Lust and Evelyn’s conversation.

‘Why?’

Watching the two of them ignore her and talk to each other made her chest feel tight.

‘Why does my chest feel so heavy, as though a weight is hanging from it?’

Under normal circumstances, she would have taken advantage of the Demon King of Lust letting her guard down and calmly prepared an attack.

But now, her chest felt so stifled that all she could think about was killing the two of them. No, more than that, she wanted to defeat them head-on and then stand proudly before Uriel.

‘Is this what irritation feels like?’

Sariel realized that the irritation the other archangels and celestials had spoken of was this suffocating sensation, and she lightly bit her lip.

‘And the sense of superiority I felt earlier, my current condition is not good.’

Emotions were imperfections. The thought that something as worthless as what humans possessed had tainted her made her feel even greater disgust toward Evelyn and Lust.

“I will kill you.”

Sariel forcibly suppressed the emotions blooming within her soul and spread her eight wings.

Paaaaaaaa!

The feathers forming her pure-white wings turned into transparent crystal and fired countless beams of divine power.

“It’s coming.”

Lust raised her sword, which blazed with the pink authority of lust, and traced a semicircle.

“I know.”

Evelyn steadied her breathing, brought her hands together, and unfolded dozens of magic circles.

Kwaaaaaaaaaang!

Lust’s sword strikes formed the shape of tree branches, while Evelyn’s magic circles poured out spells of different colors like fruit hanging from those branches, barely holding back Sariel’s assault.

“…….”

Sariel moved her cold eyes as she carefully analyzed Lust’s sword and Evelyn’s magic.

‘The path of her sword has changed, but it’s still within my predictions. The number of spells has increased as well, but there hasn’t been much change otherwise.’

Feeling that she could still win without much difficulty, she increased the number of flashes.

Paaaaaaaang!

The instant Sariel increased the number of flashes, Lust and Evelyn pushed back the light of divine power as though they had been waiting for it and launched a fierce counterattack.

“I anticipated that.”

As though she had already known Lust and Evelyn would counterattack, Sariel formed a wall with the flashes blooming from her crystal feathers and perfectly reflected both of their attacks.

“Huh?”

“It’s coming back! Get ready!”

Lust and Evelyn hurriedly prepared their defenses, their startled expressions showing that they had not expected Sariel’s crystal wings to reflect their attacks.

“…….”

Sariel narrowed her eyes as she watched Lust and Evelyn struggle to block her counterattack.

‘New information is coming in.’

A cool sword wind lightly brushed across her skin. To her, wind had always been nothing more than the movement of air caused by differences in atmospheric pressure. It was a phenomenon she could fully understand through numerical values such as speed, direction, and temperature.

But the information now flooding into her could not be expressed through such values. She could not systematically categorize sensations such as ‘feeling relieved,’ ‘feeling refreshed,’ and ‘being afraid.’

‘I need to calm them down. But….’

Sariel frowned as she looked at her trembling fingertips while feeling those emotions.

‘It feels good, so I don’t want to erase them.’

She knew emotions were nothing but a hindrance, but she liked the feeling and did not want to erase it.

“We’re not done yet!”

“This is only the beginning.”

Lust and Evelyn did not miss the brief pause in Sariel’s assault. Their sword strikes and magic intertwined like a cluster of grapes as they fell toward Sariel’s head. The human mage and the Monarch of devildom consecutively unleashed their respective ultimate techniques, each condensing explosive power as though putting their lives on the line.

“Hmm….”

Sariel lightly bit her lip as she saw a combination of swordsmanship and magic unlike anything she had ever witnessed before.

‘My spine feels cold, as though ice were running down it.’

Is this what a chill feels like?

She could analyze the angle, speed, and power of Lust's incoming slash, and she could understand the temperature and explosive power of Evelyn’s fire magic. But the chill she felt was not a matter of temperature, so she could not process it.

Normally, she would have defended with minimal movement and power or deflected the attacks, but the fear created by the combination of swordsmanship and magic kept her mind and body from responding properly.

Pwoooooong!

Sariel hurriedly spread her crystal wings and raised a wall of flashing light, but she was already too late. The sword strike and magic swept across her shoulder and waist.

“Hmm….”

Her fingers trembled as though the fear still had not disappeared.

“Analysis impossible….”

For the first time, Sariel found herself unable to analyze what she was experiencing. She bit her deathly pale lip and backed away.

“W-What in the world did you do to me!”

She expelled the suffocating pressure and heat clogging her chest through her words.

“Just die, all of you!”

Terrified by the uncontrollable emotions surging through her, Sariel let out a shriek and unleashed light formed from divine power in every direction. Overcome by fear, she finally abandoned analysis and released both the power she had received from heaven and the power of destruction within the Horn of Destruction, as though she intended to erase everything.

Wooooooooooooong!

Countless flashes shot out from Sariel’s feathers and linked together, and a majestic radiance burst forth from her as though a god had descended.

“Terrifying.”

Evelyn let out a dry breath as she looked at Sariel’s light pressing forward through sheer firepower.

“But right now, I think I can do it.”

She nodded, saying that with her emotions running wild, she thought she could at least push back Sariel’s light.

“That’s some confidence.”

Lust smacked her lips as she sensed that Evelyn had realized how to use her emotions.

“Good. Let’s finish this.”

Lust smiled and kicked off the ground. As though she trusted Evelyn completely, she leaped into Sariel’s radiance without even looking back.

“If you trust me that much….”

Evelyn curled her lips as she watched Lust’s back while she charged forward without hesitation.

“Then of course I have to live up to it!”

Entrusting herself to the emotions surging up within her heart, she drew a single magic circle above her hand.

Wooooooooong!

A pink sun rose from the magic circle Evelyn had drawn. Its color was paler than the sun’s, but its heat did not seem inferior in the slightest.

Kwaaaaaaaaaa!

Evelyn’s magic, imbued with the authority of lust, collided with Sariel’s light that had been destroying everything.

Jijijijijik!

As the pink sun and the divine flash collided, the surface of the earth overturned, and everything around them began to be erased.

“This….”

Sariel’s lips trembled faintly as she looked at the pink sun, whose power matched the light containing the divine power of heaven and the power of destruction.

“Is this… warmth?”

The feeling called warmth was not a simple matter of temperature. As she felt heat that touched not her skin but her heart, her crystal wings, which had been pouring out endless light, wavered.

‘N-No! I have to suppress my emotions….’

At the very moment Sariel forcibly erased her emotions and tried to focus on attacking again, a pink line was drawn across her neck.

Chwaaaaaaak!