A sword,
a weapon that cuts down enemies.
Fiore had reached the pinnacle of it.
The magic arts unleashed by Dan Socheon, the black magic cast by Cedric, all crumbled into halves beneath Fiore's blade.
All the two of them could do was to keep swinging their swords, piling on black magic to slow his advance.
Nothing could stop him.
"No way to deal with this?"
"Not sure."
"You sounded so confident earlier."
"I didn't know it would be to this extent."
"You do make miscalculations, then."
Cedric smiled.
"My father is also entangled with that guy, so it's not strange if he surpasses my expectations."
"Damn it…"
"And you, calling yourself the Heavenly Demon, is that all you've got?"
"In the East, there was no one who could rival me."
"Just hold out a little longer."
"And then?"
"I didn't want to waste this here, but I'll have to use more power."
"How long do I need to hold out?"
"I don't know either."
Dan Socheon took a deep breath and stepped forward again.
Even with countless black hands grabbing at him, Fiore kept walking forward, uncaring. It was, quite literally, terrifying.
So, the resentment and screams of so many humans could not restrain him at all?
"Hoo, hoo…"
Dan Socheon breathed heavily.
He had wanted to clash with the strongest human in the West, but the gap was immense.
Now, all he could do was struggle to survive.
He stole a glance at Cedric.
Since he was the madman who had obtained the Demon's Grimoire, his wicked secret arts were certain. He would somehow stop that monster, so Dan Socheon just needed to buy time until then.
Dan Socheon unleashed his most powerful magic art. His entire body's blood and energy twisted. The stronger the demonic energy, the greater the side effects, but one who feared such things could never be a member of the Demonic Cult.
And he was the Heavenly Demon who stood at its peak.
"Come."
Fiore raised his sword.
It was nothing special in movement.
Not smooth, nor graceful, far removed from such impressions.
Like someone picking up a sword for the first time, he naturally pulled it back.
And swung.
Within that rough motion, a killing intent that had reached its pinnacle resided.
It must be avoided.
But that was impossible.
The moment Fiore swung, his fate was no different from a fish placed on a cutting board.
Thus, he could only do his utmost to block the strike.
Heavenly Demon Divine Sword.
Heavenly Slash.
Dozens of streams of sword aura stretched out at once, forming an arch to meet Fiore's sword.
The two forces clashed.
Dan Socheon ground his teeth.
Fiore's sword was unbearably sharp.
An infinitely condensed line cut through his defenses and invaded within.
Once the boundary was breached, there was nothing he could do.
The Heavenly Demon Divine Sword shattered.
Dan Socheon, wounded by the sword aura, collapsed to the floor.
"Khuek…"
Fortunately, he wasn't dead.
The sword aura had absorbed part of the impact, and the black hands clinging to Fiore's body had, to some degree, hindered his movements.
Dan Socheon rose to his feet again,
but he no longer felt like facing him.
"Khuek…"
He glanced back again.
Around Cedric, an unknown ominous energy was swirling, though it was not yet complete.
"Where are you looking?"
And in that time, Fiore's sword was already near his neck.
Dan Socheon closed his mouth. Slowly, he turned his head. Blood trickled from his neck.
Fiore's indifferent eyes met his own.
Those eyes were exactly like Cedric's.
"You…"
As Fiore drew closer, Dan Socheon could see the black hands of Gu Poison Cedric had created more clearly.
Even just being closer made a shiver run through his body.
The wretched emotions of people who had been eaten alive and devoured each other as zombies, had taken form and were grabbing Fiore's limbs.
One of those hands touched Dan Socheon's body. Even he, accustomed to demonic energy, held his breath at the intense curse spreading through him.
His insides churned.
"As expected, you're no ordinary human…"
Dan Socheon muttered.
The hands that blocked Fiore now reached out toward Dan Socheon as well. His pupils turned black.
Fiore moved to stab him without hesitation.
At that moment, Cedric spoke.
[Snap out of it.]
It was not human language, but something far more dreadful.
In that instant, Dan Socheon felt the resentment spreading through him fade away.
Solitude obeyed Cedric,
no, it obeyed the deeper darkness that Cedric commanded.
Fiore, too, took his eyes off Dan Socheon and looked at Cedric.
[Fiore Briol.]
From Cedric's mouth came incomprehensible sounds, yet their meaning reached the mind.
[Stop.]
Then, a giant hand appeared.
It was different from the ones coiling around Fiore's body.
If the hands rising from Solitude were dark clumps of shadow, the one Cedric summoned had physical substance.
It had five fingers, with long nails, a mane-like growth jutting out in all directions, and between them, skin covered in wounds from which pus seeped was faintly visible.
It was the arm of a creature that did not exist in this world.
[Or I will tear it away.]
That giant hand was holding something faintly glowing.
Fiore halted.
[You didn't care about all these resentments, yet this, you don't want to lose?]
Fiore quietly gazed at Cedric.
He could tell another being was speaking through him.
While Fiore paused, Cedric formed hand seals again.
The hands wrapping around Fiore's body bound his limbs tighter. The ones that had seemed to drag him like a burden regained vigor, encircling his body.
[Let us negotiate. I will protect your precious memory. In return, you will slumber within the darkness. It won't take long.]
Fiore remained silent.
[Fine.]
The giant hand began to approach Fiore. The glowing thing it held was returning to him.
In that moment, Fiore swung his sword.
The sudden move brought another change.
With a death cry, the hand was split in two.
The light within escaped its confinement and was absorbed into Fiore.
Fiore swung his sword again.
The black hands formed of resentment retreated, and the giant hand Cedric had summoned fell to the floor, bleeding.
His sword distinguished no enemy from ally.
Dan Socheon, who had stepped in front of him, was sent sprawling, blood spraying.
Cedric kept forming hand seals, but all the black magic was destroyed.
Fiore and Cedric stood facing each other.
"You're a monster, Father."
"I think you're more of a monster than I am."
"You weren't at this level before."
"I've had an awakening recently."
Fiore swung his sword.
Black energy burst from Cedric's body, forming a shield.
But Fiore's sword aura shredded it all and pierced through.
One of Cedric's arms flew into the air.
Blood poured out.
Cedric, without even screaming, bent his upper body and chuckled.
"As I thought, it must be because of Yuri, right?"
Fiore, expressionless, raised his sword. Now his blade was no longer aimed at Cedric's arm, but at his neck.
Without dragging it out, Fiore swung.
It was at that moment.
Once again, a strange language slipped from Cedric's mouth.
From his severed arm, darkness billowed out, transforming into a mass of tentacles like those of an octopus, wrapping around Fiore's sword.
For the first time, his blade was stopped.
Fiore tried to pull his sword back, but the tentacles refused to release it.
Cedric spoke.
"Father."
His pupils turned pitch black.
[To force me to use this much power, you truly are amazing.]
"Cedric."
[The loss is so great, it's making me feel wonderful. Hahahaha…]
Cedric, in a drug-like high, kept laughing.
[But, this is as far as you go.]
"Cedric."
[Rest in peace.]
Cedric grinned. On his cheek, something like reptilian scales began to rise.
And at the same time, the hands of resentment completely engulfed Fiore's body. The black mass was once again wrapped by Cedric's tentacles.
Fiore became a black sphere made of tentacles.
Cedric chanted in that unknown tongue.
With each word, an increasingly thick miasma seeped out. The ground around him began to die from the point where he stood. The weeds that had been growing all withered yellow and rotted away.
Cedric placed his hand atop the sphere.
At that moment, a pure white blade suddenly pierced through the surface.
Blood ran down Cedric's cheek.
Through that narrow gap, Fiore's eyes glimmered.
Cedric smiled.
[Rest.]
Cedric clenched his fist.
The evil energy reached its peak.
The sphere trapping Fiore shrank. Smaller and smaller, until it was only the size of an ordinary man's fist, rolling along the ground.
Cedric sank down.
"Hahaha…"
The tentacles had completely hardened, now looking like a grotesque stone carving.
"Hahahahahahaha…"
Cedric, supporting himself with one arm, had the stump of his lost right arm fused shut in a hideously gnarled manner.
"So this is, the continent's strongest Swordmaster."
Meanwhile, Dan Socheon staggered to his feet and approached.
"You alright?"
"No. You?"
"I'm not alright either."
Both of them were in tatters.
Around the ground where they had collapsed, deep scars remained where Fiore's sword aura had clawed at the earth.
"A whole city offered up, the Heavenly Demon with no rival in the East stationed here, me joining in, and still we couldn't stop him."
"But in the end, you did stop him."
"I've burned through another page of the Demon's Grimoire."
"So it came to that."
"I've lost far too much. We couldn't even kill him, just barely sealed him away."
Cedric picked up the sealing orb that had fallen to the ground.
"Still, the greatest crisis is over."
"What do you plan to do with him now?"
Cedric turned his head.
Some distance from the battlefield, Laurent was there.
"Leave him be."
Laurent had watched their battle, and had seen Fiore being sealed by Cedric and Dan Socheon.
From Laurent's perspective, it must have looked like Fiore was killed by black magic.
"He'll take care of himself."
Cedric tucked the sealing orb into his robes.
"Now, we head for the Empire."
***
While Yuri lay unconscious, many things had happened.
First, Fiore, King of Briol, and Crown Prince Cedric had gone missing.
Francaise was left in complete ruins.
Some suspected the Empire's hand in it, but there was no evidence. And even if there had been, no one could hold the Empire directly accountable.
In the sudden turmoil, Joshua, the second prince, temporarily took control of state affairs, and he signed a truce with the Empire.
As the price, Briol had to hand over Bezos.
But the Empire was not satisfied with that alone.
Though they called it a truce on the surface, they stationed a large army in Bezos and began stockpiling vast amounts of military supplies.
For Briol, it was as if an Imperial fortress had been built right on their doorstep.
Meanwhile, the war between Bursen and the Holy Kingdom had only grown fiercer.
Countless soldiers died.
With Fiore gone and Briol on its knees, there was no longer any nation on the continent willing to voice dissatisfaction toward the Empire.
"Mmm…"
"Your Highness?"
"Mmm…"
"Your Highness!"
When Yuri opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was Ena's tearful face.
"Ena…?"
"Yes, it's me, Ena."
"This is…"
"The royal palace."
Yuri jolted up and looked around.
It was his room.
Just like when he had regressed, the surroundings were familiar yet strange. His body felt weak, as if he had been lying for a long time.
Yuri spoke.
"My brother? And the Empire?"
"It's over."
"What is?"
"The war. We've signed a truce. So don't worry and rest."
"Cedric?"
"For now, please rest."
Ena pushed Yuri's shoulder, making him lie down again.
"If you rest a bit more, I'll explain slowly."
"Ena, how long have I been unconscious…?"
"A month."
"What?"
"You've been lying here for a month."
Yuri stared blankly at the ceiling.
A month.
It was a long time.
So distant, that Yuri closed his eyes.
[You can buy paid chapters or support me on any platform below:
☕ Buy Me a Coffee: buymeacoffee.com/punisher87
💎 Ko-fi: ko-fi.com/reaper87
🔥 Patreon: patreon.com/Punisher87translation
📘 Payhip Store: payhip.com/revengerscans
For latest Updates VisitOfficial Website: https://revengernovel.com/
Choose the platform that works best for your country. Thank you for your support!]