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[Translator - Kiteretsu]
[Proofreader - Kyros]
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Chapter 249
Cutting the moon here, really.
“Are you out of your mind?”
The Dragon God spoke with disbelief.
“I know you're strong. But do you have any idea how far the moon is from here? Even when you were in perfect condition, you needed the Earth God’s help to get there. And now, you’re saying you’ll cut the moon while your mana is depleted like this?”
“I’m not the same as I was back then. I fought the Celestial Demon God on the moon and learned a lot when returning from space to Earth.”
When he escaped from the Celestial Demon God's magic circle and returned to Earth from space—
Kaylen had experienced space firsthand and had gained insight.
How could he cross that space and send out his aura?
He had already come to his own answer.
“Now, my sword can reach the moon.”
If anyone else had said this, it could’ve been dismissed as nonsense.
But if it was Kaylen—the one even the gods acknowledged as the Sword Deity—then it was a different matter.
[If the moon is destroyed… there will definitely be some impact on Earth.]
“Tides will weaken. The moon’s gravity pulls at the oceans.”
[The moon also serves to block asteroids heading toward Earth. If it's gone, we’ll have to prepare more for such collisions.]
“Right. And if moonlight disappears, the night world will become more chaotic.”
[Still…]
The Water God, who had been listing the potential problems, came to a conclusion.
[Those are issues we can handle. The Celestial Demon God surviving up there is a far greater threat.]
“Yes… you’re right.”
Letting the Celestial Demon God return to the past out of concern for the chaos that might follow the moon’s destruction—
That wasn’t a tolerable option.
[We’ll bear the aftermath.]
“O Sword Deity. Worry not for Earth, and strike down the moon. What can we do to help?”
“You just need to supply mana properly. And…”
Kaylen turned to look at Ernstine.
“Even if the Celestial God’s mana is being drained, traces of him may still remain here. I’ll teach you the Divine Slayer. With it, invade the heavens together.”
“Divine Slayer?”
“The Six Sword Divine Slayer. It’s something you created.”
The Divine Slayer.
The sword that Ernstine, whose body had become the vessel for the Dragon God, used to strike down the Celestial Demon God on Earth.
If Ernstine could master it again, the remnants of the Celestial God in the heavens could be dealt with.
“You’re going to teach me swordsmanship…?”
Ernstine looked truly unfamiliar with the idea.
Since becoming a Sword Master as a child, he had never learned from anyone else.
“To think I would become a Grand Sword Master and end up having a master.”
“You're calling me a master just because I have one of the Six Swords?”
“No, not just one, is it?”
Ernstine looked toward the moon.
“Because I’ll also come to witness the sword that cuts the moon.”
—Dark Side of the Moon—
‘Is this truly the best way?’
The Celestial God supplied the last of the mana to the time regression magic circle, yet even at the end, he remained in deep thought.
‘If I go back to the past now, I won’t know which point in time I’ll end up at.’
The original goal was to return to the time before the God of Theia became a god.
Kill him before he became a god.
Return Theia to a stable planetary state before it collided with Earth.
That was the long-standing goal of Krugen, director of the Solar Power Plant.
‘Learning the Divine Word of Theia was encouraging, but… I still need to gather more mana…’
The mana extracted by the Celestial God after becoming the Celestial Demon God, for a thousand years on Earth.
Because the amount was enormous, his future self was eventually able to nearly complete the Time Reversal Magic Circle.
If not for the uninvited guest named Kaylen, the Celestial Demon God could have easily achieved all of his goals.
‘…Seriously. Is that guy really that strong?’
The Celestial God saw fear in the memories of the Celestial Demon.
Though he had lived for ages, calling himself a god of the sky and of magic—
In the end, after suffering repeated defeats by Kaylen, he was killed while impaled by more than a thousand swords.
To him, Kaylen was no different than a god of death.
‘And yet…’
Even after reading the memories of the Celestial Demon God again—
The Celestial God still couldn’t understand the existence known as Kaylen.
‘How does one create ten from one?’
A sword.
A mere metal weapon used by mortals.
Among humans, knights sharpen mana into aura and boast of swordsmanship and techniques.
But in the eyes of a god, it was no more than a child’s play.
Even those techniques that unleashed aura in various ways—
No matter how refined, they could only bring out a force of 0.4 or 0.5 using a mana of 1.
Since moving mana with one’s will already consumes it.
No mortal could stand against a god, who could unleash mana’s power in its entirety.
‘Even though these are memories of my future self… I can’t understand it without seeing it with my own eyes.’
If the Divine Word of the Earth God hadn't been vividly preserved in the memory of the future, he would have thought it a hallucination.
Because that Divine Word, “ERDER,” was embedded in memory, he believed it—and intended to return to the past.
‘…Right. There’s no need to take unnecessary risks. Let’s go back to the past.’
Tick. Tock.
From the ceiling of the Dark Moon, clocks began to reveal themselves one by one.
Though mana was still lacking, and the Time Reversal Magic Circle was incomplete—
Even this much was sufficient to turn back several hundred years.
“If I can’t face him, then I’ll avoid him… That’s a good strategy.”
An inviolable existence that breaks the very laws of mana: the Sword God.
There’s no need to fight someone you can avoid.
‘Instead, let’s wipe out the humans.’
Once he returned to the past, he resolved to eradicate the human race from the very beginning—
The race that gave birth to Ernstine, the creator of the Sixfold Sword Path.
With that thought, the Celestial God began to activate the magic circle in earnest.
Rumble…
Cogs rose from the floor.
The clock’s second hand came to a stop—then began to slowly turn backward.
The final hope of the Theia bloodline, a spell to reverse time.
It began to stir in earnest—but then,
“What the…?”
The mana flowing from the moon completely ceased.
The second hand of the clock no longer turned backward.
And then—
A pure white light struck the moon.
“…So this was it.”
The Celestial God only then realized.
Why the Celestial Demon God had felt fear toward him.
‘I should have… acted faster……’
It had been a critical mistake not to proceed swiftly with the great undertaking, simply because the Celestial Demon God’s memories seemed too absurd.
The Celestial God’s final consciousness was consumed by regret.
The training grounds of the Imperial Palace in Meier.
Until just recently, knights had been sweating through their drills on that dirt floor—but now, its appearance had drastically changed.
“My Lord… what on earth is that?”
The Spear Master, Duke Bormian, asked Ernstine with a trembling voice.
Six golden swords were engraved into the floor of the training ground.
From those swords emanated an aura so intense that even Bormian, who had reached the level of a Master, felt utterly insignificant.
“My teacher is the Sword God.”
“…What? The Sword God? The Sword God, you say? That title is meant for you, my lord… and what do you mean, teacher?!”
Sure, the aura flowing from those golden swords was overwhelming…
But now he’s suddenly calling someone his teacher? And calling them the Sword God?
What in the world was his lord talking about?
‘Could it be that he abdicated the throne… because he’s lost his mind?’
As Bormian cautiously glanced at Ernstine, seemingly sensing that irreverent gaze—
Ernstine shouted furiously.
“How dare someone like me be called the Sword God! Bormian. Just stay still and watch. Soon, my teacher will make his move.”
“…Understood.”
“To witness this sword as a knight is a glory unmatched in ten thousand generations. Watch closely as my teacher cuts down the moon.”
‘What? Cut the moon?’
It seemed his lord’s condition had worsened dramatically since the last time they met.
At this point, they might need not just a priest, but a Saintess.
Although Bormian looked at Ernstine with deep concern—
He soon had no choice but to look away.
Wuuuuung……
As the six swords embedded in the ground simultaneously rose into the air,
The mana of the heavens and earth was sucked into them all at once.
Mana being drawn in without end.
Bormian’s eyes widened in shock.
‘Was there… this much mana in the world?’
Feeling the torrent of mana surging toward the swords, Bormian could hear the wild pounding of his own heart.
Thump. Thump.
The golden swords devoured mana and shone with radiant brilliance.
‘Perfect… it’s perfect.’
Even when they were just engraved into the ground, he could feel it—
The Six Swords were flawless, without even the slightest imperfection.
And now, fed by mana, they grew and transformed into the pinnacle of beauty.
How could any knight possibly take their eyes off such a thing?
Sssssss.
The Six Swords began to spin and slowly merged into one.
Each sword contained immense power.
And as they came together to form a single sword—
What emerged was a crude, iron blade.
And the moment that sword entered Kaylen’s hand,
Bormian trembled.
‘The world’s mana… is gone.’
As if mana had never existed in this world at all.
Even at the level of a Master, he could no longer sense the mana in the air.
Instead—
All the mana of heaven and earth had condensed into that crude iron sword.
Kaylen looked at the sword.
‘I pour myself into it.’
A sword that crosses the cosmos and severs the moon.
Even if Kaylen’s level had risen after his journey to the moon, it was still an almost impossible feat.
To make it possible, he had to pour his entire being into the sword.
Six Sword Path
Realm of the Sword God
Moon Slayer, Sky Shattering
The tip of the iron sword pointed toward the sky—toward the full moon.
Slowly, the sword descended to the earth.
An overwhelmingly simple motion.
What meaning lay within that single strike—
Even Bormian, despite being at the Master level, could not comprehend it at all.
“Ah…”
But Ernstine was different.
Awe and reverence. And… sorrow.
His eyes, filled with many emotions, gazed endlessly at Kaylen.
And then—
Basusus…
The tip of the iron sword began to scatter.
And along with it, Kaylen’s hand that held the sword also began to disappear.
Starting from his hand, then his arm—
And eventually, his entire body.
Kaylen poured his entire existence into that single strike.
“Ernstine. I leave the rest to you.”
With those final words spoken just before his head vanished,
Ernstine wordlessly nodded.
Aside from the traces of the Six Swords engraved into the training ground—
Kaylen’s form disappeared completely.
And then—
As the night sky split open, the moonlight briefly illuminated the training ground—
“Th-The moon…”
The center of the moon, where the Sword God’s blade had pointed, turned black.
A black line was drawn vertically across it.
That line grew larger, spreading in all directions—
Until it fractured the moon.
“It’s… breaking…”
Even as he said it, Bormian couldn’t believe it himself.
With just a single swing—
The moon split in half and began to collapse.
“……”
The moonlight that had just illuminated the earth vanished.
And as the world sank into deeper darkness,
Everyone fell silent.
“This… is the sword of a god…”
The moon that once lit the night—was no more.
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[Translator - Kiteretsu]
[Proofreader - Kyros]
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