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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Night]
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Chapter 154
At Ropal’s threat, I realized they were making a grave mistake.
Taking a short breath, I spoke clearly for everyone to hear.
“My family is more precious to me than every human on this continent.”
“……”
“The moment you did that to my little sister, the war had already begun.”
But the war wasn’t between the Pinas Archipelago and Bata.
It was between the Pinas Archipelago and Leon Cascadia.
“Nonsense!! Do you truly believe a mere individual can wage war against an entire nation?!”
At his outburst, I looked at him calmly and directly.
“Let me ask you the opposite.”
The keen aura blade of my demon sword, Elekstra, shimmered as it coursed with power.
Aura was something I had in abundance.
Rather than worrying about running out, I should be more concerned about killing them too easily.
“What makes you think you’re going to leave here alive?”
“W-what…?”
“If I kill every last one of you here and leave, who’s going to know who did it?”
It was just wordplay, but even if they took the bait, it didn’t matter.
If it escalated into an international incident, Melissa could simply disown me from the family.
“You’re insane…”
“The real insanity is staying calm after seeing what happened to my family.”
Even though the backlash from the Hall of Truth had been severe, it was clear that without my newfound control over elemental magic, I wouldn’t have been able to fully resist the ritual magic.
Swoosh!!!
With those words, I swung my sword, and in an instant, an expert-ranked knight at the beginner level—his aura still flaring—was beheaded.
“Attack!!!”
At Ropal’s command, attacks came from all directions.
* * *
The intruder moved like a ghost.
Dozens of arrows rained down on him, yet he dodged them effortlessly, moving as if he were out for a stroll.
In the blink of an eye, he closed the distance and sliced through a soldier’s neck.
From Ropal’s perspective, the most terrifying thing about him was that, despite having the power to kill in an instant, he was deliberately cutting them down one by one—slowly.
Even as he alternated between attacking and evading, his breathing remained steady, not once growing ragged.
“Th-this monster…!”
Ropal quickly realized his intent.
“Ugh… Aaaahhh!!”
“Don’t come closer!! Please, no!! Gah!!”
“Spare me!!! Spare—guh…”
As his men fell, blood spraying everywhere, they were being forced to endure the maximum amount of fear.
He could have wiped them all out instantly, but he was purposefully cutting them down, ensuring everyone bore witness to the slaughter.
Within mere minutes of battle, Ropal could already see his army’s morale plummeting.
The bigger problem was that even using rotation tactics wasn’t working.
Normally, a warrior would exhaust their aura or gradually tire over time.
But this man…
What kind of experiences had he been through?
Not only did he show no signs of exhaustion, but he was actually using their rotation tactics against them.
And despite everything, they had no way of subduing him.
The most pressing issue was the lack of anyone strong enough to hold him down.
At that realization, Ropal understood that conventional means would not work against him.
Then it happened.
From the ground where Leon stood, black smoke began to billow and spread in all directions.
“H-he’s trying something….”
His voice was suddenly smothered, as if physically crushed.
Thump!
The black smoke spread, swallowing sound itself.
Within the black mist, soldiers screamed in terror, slashing their weapons in every direction.
With their sight and hearing rendered useless, fear overtook them completely.
Ropal desperately shouted for them to hold their ground, but his voice vanished into the void.
And then—
Amid the darkness, a pair of sky-blue eyes gleamed, tracing smooth, ghostly lines before vanishing.
“AAAAAHHH!!!”
“NOOOO!! HELP!!”
Inside the black void, only the streaks of sky-blue light and the chilling screams of the dying could be seen and heard.
Their own voices could barely travel a meter.
And yet—
The screams of the dying rang vividly in their ears.
More precisely than ever before.
“Y-you damned monster!!”
Ropal channeled his aura, swinging his sword with all his might, but the black mist refused to dissipate.
“It’s a 7th-circle necromancy spell, after all. That won’t be enough.”
“Ggh!!”
A whisper—right behind him.
Ropal reflexively swung his sword, but felt nothing.
He was completely at his mercy.
And all the while, the screams continued.
Then—
After about four minutes of unrelenting horror, the black mist vanished.
And what was left…
Ropal clenched his lips tightly at the scene before him.
In just a few minutes—
How many had died?
Amid the grotesque carnage, he let out an anguished roar.
“Do you still call yourself human?!!!”
How could a human be this cruel?
Leon casually flicked the blood off his demon sword and looked at Ropal with cold, empty eyes.
“At least I don’t do this to my own kind.”
“What?!”
“You expected those who did that to an eleven-year-old child to still be human?”
With that, he turned his gaze toward a kneeling, immobilized soldier nearby.
“P-please… spare me…”
Squelch!
His sword gleamed once, and the soldier’s head flew into the air.
“Keep coming, you damn beasts.”
This wasn’t a battle.
It was a massacre.
“Ropal.”
At that moment, the voice of his master, who had remained silent and tense until now, reached the ears of Sword Master Ropal.
"If this continues..."
"My lady?"
"If this continues, our long-cherished wish will..."
Ropal silently looked at Vania Remilish.
Everything had gone awry, and that invader was relentlessly cutting down soldiers one after another.
Amidst the bleak situation, Ropal recalled an artifact given to him by a cultist when they shared information about a ritual.
It had exuded an ominous energy.
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HELHEIM SCANS
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—If things go awry, use this. You must protect your lord, mustn't you?
Back then, he hadn’t given it much thought, but now, things were different.
Both he and his master knew the truth.
After a brief moment of hesitation, Ropal bowed his head.
"My life is dedicated to you, my lady. Please, remain safe."
"Ropal..."
"I will accept the sin of letting my lord die on the battlefield. May the Central Continent be cursed."
Long ago, during a war against the Central Continent, the previous head of the Vania family had perished in a foreign land.
Having offered his final farewell to his lord, Ropal ran without hesitation toward the ritual circle.
Then, activating the artifact he had received from Vania, he shouted:
"O Predator of the Dark, devour my heart, consume my longing! I offer you my soul and body entirely!"
* * *
As soon as I realized Ropal's sacrificial ritual, I beheaded the soldier who had been barely holding off my sword and stepped back.
"Lunatics."
A Sword Master is someone who has reached a state that only an extreme few among countless geniuses can achieve within a human lifetime.
The time I burned away in Labyrinthos to become a Sword Master must have been equivalent to reliving a human life dozens of times over.
To reach that formidable height and finally reap the rewards of such effort—Sword Masters tend to have a strong attachment to life.
And yet, such a powerful warrior had no hesitation in activating the ritual, using himself as the sacrifice.
Moreover, although I was a bit late in breaking it, the ritual had already progressed significantly, and something was about to emerge, tearing through the void.
The space around him cracked and fractured, and dark-colored liquid began to pour out in rivulets.
The ominous energy flowing from the artifact quickly enveloped Ropal’s entire body, reducing him to shimmering light and scattering him into nothingness.
"You will die here."
With Ropal’s final curse, a massive surge of water erupted from where he had stood.
His body had completely vanished, but from the spot where he had been, a colossal, eye-like light began to ripple across the ground.
It blinked once, slowly.
At this point, it was too late to stop.
Just what kind of bizarre artifact is this?
Even so, I had no regrets.
I had deliberately killed the enemy in a slow and visible manner to ensure everyone witnessed it, and I had anticipated some unexpected developments.
I had no idea what exactly they were trying to summon, but the outcome wouldn't change.
If necessary, I could simply retreat and act accordingly.
"Hah… Haha… Hahaha!"
Just then, a girl’s laughter echoed in my ears.
I turned my head and saw Vania Remilish, sitting on the ground, laughing.
"It's over. You're as good as dead!!"
She shouted hysterically before abruptly standing up.
"Now! Tear that bastard apart!!"
At her command, the ritual circle fully shattered, and a massive entity began to reveal itself.
"Wh-what in the world?!"
The surviving soldiers gasped in terror at the monstrous presence emerging from the rift in space.
Even if one was aware of its arrival, witnessing such an enormous unknown being inevitably evoked fear.
A gigantic arm extended outward, twisting the sundered space as the entity revealed itself.
And then, through the gaping rift, the head of a massive whale came into view.
The rest of its body consisted of octopus-like tentacles, with two additional enormous hands.
"Huh?"
Seeing it, I instinctively let out a confused noise.
No wonder—I recognized this creature.
The one emerging from the rift was none other than the King of the Forbidden Zone, whom I had previously encountered.
The octopus-whale thing.
Radiating an overwhelming presence, the creature appeared while Vania Remilish cried out again:
"O King of the Forbidden Zone! We have summoned you, so fulfill our desires in exchange for the price!"
At her desperate plea, the octopus-whale silently gazed at her.
Now that I looked closely, there was definitely some kind of connection between them.
"Kill him... Kill that monster right now!!"
She commanded with extreme hatred in her voice.
The King of the Forbidden Zone silently glanced between her and me.
And then—
Rip!!!
It grabbed the invisible tether binding them and tore it apart.
"Huh?"
Vania’s eyes widened in disbelief at the completely unexpected turn of events.
"This can't be..."
Then, from seemingly nowhere, the creature pulled out a radiant, multicolored pearl and handed it to me.
"A gift?"
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HELHEIM SCANS
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