Star-Embracing Swordmaster - Chapter 181
One but the other two
had a very old covenant.
The oath that marked the beginning of the empire would last forever as long as one man’s blood and will were not cut off.
Clink-!
A red liquid spreads across the white floor with a sharp sound.
Sarnus fell to the ground, clutching his neck due to the sudden sharp pain.
“Oops!”
The liquor bottles in the cabinet collapse following the gesture of a lost hand.
Bright red drops of blood were already forming on the tips of his fingernails as he urgently scratched the nape of his neck as if trying to remove something.
“Off…!”
Strange tattoos starting to crawl up the neck of the oldest dragon.
The pitch-black tattoo that rose like a snake was tightening Sarnus’s leash like it was on a gallows, slowly choking him.
“This… this can’t be…”
Sarnus’ bloodshot eyes were looking out the window into the distance.
It was a sight that could not have been seen, but had no choice but to be seen.
White lightning was flashing in the storm that had gathered from the far north.
That vivid white color was also one of the sharp memories embedded in Sarnus’ soul.
Embedded with that memory is the name of the noblest and greatest man in the history of the empire.
The founding king of the empire and the great dragon slayer. And the only man who is a sword master.
“……Frausen!”
The oldest dragon screamed as he saw white lightning strike in the distance.
Did you keep your promise, cowardly dragon?
Have you kept the promise you made when you begged for my life and bowed before me?
※※※※
Rumbling!
White lightning was striking above the city of Moshiam.
The lightning that fell from the sky was adding its own color to the previously pitch-black city.
[Where have I seen these faces?]
Vlad, or rather Quihano, who replaced Vlad, was smiling, pointing at the headless knights.
[What they do is exactly the same.]
A sad priest harvesting the breath of children in a village full of fog.
Looking at the headless knights who looked exactly like him, Quijano’s cold anger rose.
[It was you.]
“……!”
And standing in the spot pointed out by Quijano is a woman who started out green but ended up being black.
Her hands trembled without realizing it as she looked at the gigantic presence in Vlad’s blue eyes.
There was a fear there that even a heart that was not beating could feel.
“Get rid of that guy right now…!”
The woman tried to call her knights to stop Quijano, but her own world had already formed in Quijano’s right eye.
[Me what?]
“……!”
The first thing that came was pure white light, and the next thing that came was sound.
There was Quijano where her finger pointed, but it was also Quijano in front of her eyes.
Only the afterimage of Quijano, fading away behind her, was still smiling at her.
bang-! Quang! Bang bang bang!
“Too fast…!”
“Kwaaaak!”
Following the belated roar, the headless knights began to explode.
A world drawn by Vlad but painted by Quijano.
Vlad’s clumsy world, which I drew for the first time in my life, could not capture Quihano’s speed at all.
“Kyaaaaaah-!”
The woman let out a dizzy scream from the heavy impact that hit her abdomen.
‘This is ridiculous!’
A body that cannot feel pain because it is not alive.
But now she was screaming and struggling.
Because a presence that surpassed the law was putting pressure on the entity that was her.
Daaeaeaeang-!
With a loud bell ringing, the buildings around the square began to collapse.
The only thing standing upright above the thick smoke is the golden tree that Vlad erected.
The white world raging above began to roar loudly.
[On my land built for the powerless and innocent!]
With each outstretched sword, the tall buildings were split apart, and with each step Quijano took, the ground was bursting open.
It was Quijano’s gesture of roughly peeling away each and every detail of the pitch-black world the woman had drawn.
[What on earth were you guys doing!]
“Aaaah!”
Her two feet completely touched the ground, crushed by the huge world of Kihano.
The woman began to scream as she felt the presence of God, whom she had been ignoring until now.
[Why on earth did you go around killing children?]
“I didn’t kill them!”
The smiling woman begins to cry.
Black tears formed in her eyes.
The resentment of a mother who lost her child, which no one could wipe away, began to crawl out of her world again.
“I did it to protect you! From this damn world!”
There was a church emblem pinned above the children, which was burning pitch black.
There was a nun who cried sadly next to the graves of children who had been swept away simply for someone else’s sake.
She was a noble person but had a beautiful voice.
“I will protect you!”
However, what is crying now is her vocal cords, which have been horribly torn apart as she is consumed by regret and despair.
Black tears were welling up in the woman’s eyes, which she could not bear to let go and had turned pitch black all over.
“In a world created by me, not by God!”
[……!]
The screams of a woman who could not distinguish between reality and the past began to call out to someone standing beyond the fog.
Kaaaaang-!
[Sigh!]
“Sigh!”
Fireworks explode loudly as swords collide.
At the same time, the silver sword depicted in Quijano’s world began to tremble violently, as if there was some confusion.
[……!]
“…….”
Quihano looked surprised and Frausen stiffened.
The man who appeared with the fog had a face that even Quijano, who had barely recovered his memories, recognized.
“…It seems like the arrangement worked properly.”
Each other’s images are reflected in the eyes that meet each other.
I never expected to meet like this, but the ironic fate ended up making them face each other in the same direction.
“As expected, he was unusual for a young guy.”
Kaaaaang-!
The silver sword trembles in confusion.
Because the greatest swordsman and the greatest dragon slayer were glaring at each other.
The tip of the sword was becoming dizzy, not knowing who to point towards.
“Aren’t you going to kill me?”
[Who.]
Frausen made a strange expression as he watched Quijano struggling to talk.
“The greatest possibility of becoming a dragon.”
[……Where is the dragon here?]
A dragon is an immortal being that cannot die because it is perfect.
It was the dragon that had been torn to pieces but could be resurrected as long as it was gathered together, and the man was afraid of it until his last moments of death.
[What I embrace is a star.]
However, some people see an ominous dragon through the boy, but others see a brilliant star through the boy.
They saw the same thing, but now they were saying different things.
“…….”
What is the basis of my existence?
The two, who had memories as different as the time they had been apart, began to clearly separate into the beings of Quihano and Frausen through the conversation just now.
“I guess the technique was wrong.”
Quijano, who dreamed of possibilities, and Frausen, who returned to fulfill his duty, could now aim their swords at each other without hesitation.
Because the person in front of me is not me.
Kaaaaang-!
My closed right and left eyes began to depict the same world.
However, even though the colors were the same, the shapes drawn were worlds different.
“Turn it off!”
[Aaaaap!]
The deadly strikes that looked perfectly similar began to rush towards each other.
These were worlds of a very high level that no one could interfere with.
bang-! Quang!
“This is not why I came back!”
[No!]
A building that collapses without fail with a single collision.
[This is why I came back!]
The men, leaving the golden tree and the crying woman behind, started biting each other without even the slightest retreat.
“What the hell is this…”
Gunter and the Holy Knights who were welcoming the commander of the Heavenly Army were looking at the collapsing city with blank eyes.
A fight between two men that seems like something out of a legend.
No one could easily come to their senses from the sight that gave them shivers just by looking at it.
Kwaaaaaaaaaaaa!
Every time the swords clashed, the sparks that jumped out were burning the pitch-black sky.
As a result, the sky of Moshiam gradually begins to find its true colors.
The sunlight shining from there began to illuminate Gunther’s eyes.
“…I will perform a magic trick!”
The sunlight was like a revelation.
The sunlight that passed by Günter traced a straight path and this time began to illuminate the golden trees.
A golden tree that resembles the color of someone’s hair.
In the place where I looked into God’s world, brightly smiling children were raising their palms, dazzled by the sunlight that was finally visible.
“Great job Vlad!”
I don’t know why, but this must be a miracle.
It was clear that the knight’s earnest wish in a very twisted city had brought about something miraculous.
-Please help these children by giving them the grace of the Holy Spirit through this holy ceremony.
The divinity gathered to welcome the commander of the heavenly army was pointing to Vlad’s tree, not to the sky.
Kwaaaaaaaaaaaa!
A collapsing city, a sinking wall.
However, even there, the undisturbed prayers of the Holy Knights were echoing high.
– Please free these children from their sins, save them, and have mercy on them!
The last prayer you can hear before leaving this world. Final Sacrament.
God’s knights were where they should be, clearing a path through the gold on the ground and the white under the sky.
“no! “My children!”
The woman’s black tears tried to block it, but God had already seen the poor children.
And so the door through the sky begins to open.
The brilliant light of salvation was shining beneath Mosiah.
※※※※
“What is that?”
An army formation with the flags of the seven families waving.
An unusual pillar of light began to appear in front of the very nervous knights.
It was the first strange phenomenon that could be seen in a city that was completely shrouded in fog.
“Oh… that light.”
“Do you recognize that light?”
Timur was a steelworker who could be said to be the highest-ranking man in the North, but even he had someone to praise.
“That’s right. “That light is a noble prayer that guides lost souls.”
An old man who saw at a glance the identity of the ray of light over Mosiah Rock.
Pope Conrad, the head of the Northern Orthodox Church, was able to realize that the light shining above Moshiam was the final sacrament for the rite of ascension.
“I think my knights inside opened the way to God.”
“The Holy Knights…”
Pope Conrad bows his head and prays, saying this is also God’s grace.
However, despite his explanation, Timur’s expression did not ease easily.
‘It’s been two months and there are still survivors in there?’
The woman’s fog was so thick that it even blurred the distinction between time and space.
So, although it was only a day inside, two months had already passed outside.
Therefore, Timur’s current suspicions were extremely reasonable.
Rumbling!
“Duke!”
“I saw.”
The walls of Moshiam were collapsing in front of me.
It was miserable, as if something had exploded inside.
Even though no attack was made, the Northern Union soldiers began to murmur as they saw the walls collapsing.
“Knights… Gather the knights sent by each family.”
Timur stutters without realizing it.
He gave instructions in a trembling voice, unable to hide his embarrassment.
“We must gather only those who know how to handle Aurors.”
“All right. “Duke.”
Even as Timur gave orders, he did not turn his gaze towards the collapsed castle walls.
Because there was an echo of the world there that embarrassed even the strongest knight in the North.
“…It’s as if a sword master has come running out.”
The sound of the world that can be clearly recognized because it was at a high level.
Overwhelmed by the sound, Timur hurriedly closed his left eye.
A pressure that cannot be endured without bringing up the world.
Even though no one instructed them to do so, all the knights standing on the ground had their left eyes closed.
※※※※
“Oh my.”
A white-haired man standing in thick smoke.
Frausen sensed the presence of knights outside the city.
Knights with their own world.
Among them, there was one person who had a world that he could not easily ignore.
[Knock!]
Quihano, who came out after lifting up the remains of the castle wall, began to laugh.
Although he was covered in stone dust, he was able to smile, unlike Frausen, who had a serious expression.
[This guy has a lot of friends here in the North.]
“…….”
[Can you handle everything, including me?]
Frausen’s eyes were looking at Quijano’s trembling fingertips.
“You’re lucky.”
[This guy is lucky again.]
Quijano was desperately trying to pretend to be relaxed, but he was now at his limit.
The will of the two was equal, but the difference in the vessels containing it was bound to be obvious. The longer time passed, the more advantageous it was to Frausen, who had a natural body.
“Do not forget, what duty I had.”
A woman looking resentfully at the brilliant light.
Frausen, who was still sitting blankly with his arms around her, opened his mouth to Quijano for the last time.
“I came back to slay the dragon.”
[…….]
With those last words, the man disappears into the fog.
Today’s sun began to shine little by little over the city of Moshiam along with the waves of fog slowly receding.
[It’s Vlad, not a dragon…] As
soon as Frausen’s presence disappears, Quihano’s vision becomes increasingly tilted.
There was something that looked like him falling down.
A golden tree that is still shining.
Glittering powder was chattering above Vlad’s sword, which had now found its own color rather than a silver sword, and was flying towards Vlad’s tree.