Chapter 296

Ｒｅａｄ ｏｎ Ｋａｔ​Ｒｅ​ａｄｉｎｇＣａ​ｆｅ

The moment a sharp ringing echoed in my head.

My body was already moving faster than my thoughts.

It was the “Danger Sense” I had desperately honed through sparring with the God of War. In battle, the process of ‘thinking’ was unnecessary. By the time you were thinking, you should already be moving. If you recognized something, your body had to react before your head. Otherwise, you’d just get beaten one-sidedly. 

Eugene had been exposed to violence to the point that he would have died long ago without Super Regeneration.

Of course, this wasn’t senseless violence.

The God of War had imprinted ‘experience’ onto Eugene’s body.

Repeated stimulation was etched into his spinal cord, causing him to move reflexively.

Even before nerve impulses reached his brain, his body responded to external stimuli.

A simple, brutal, violent, and inhumane training regimen made possible by Super Regeneration.

The hellish training that only Eugene, with his near-obsessive desire for strength, could endure was finally paying off.

Just as Danger sense issued its warning, Eugene accelerated, repeatedly, to block Lucia’s path.

He usually loathed the God of War’s training, but this time he was genuinely grateful.

Thanks to it, he hadn’t been too late.

“You’re too excited, Lucia.”

He deflected Johan’s radiant holy sword with his scarlet blade.

Even though it was a blow weakened in consideration of the sparring, a considerable burden was transmitted to his wrist.

It was dangerous. If Lucia had taken that blow, she might have suffered significant blood loss. Of course, with Super Regeneration, she would recover quickly. Eugene had experienced the effects of Super Regeneration to the point of exhaustion. He understood better than anyone what that ability was. Even if her entire body was chopped to pieces, Lucia could recover without much trouble.

Inflicting damage on the opponent by assuming injury.

Yielding flesh to claim bones.

No, yielding bone to claim flesh.

It was a tactic that was only possible because any injury could be healed.

Eugene understood Lucia’s mindset because he had used a similar method in his battle with Belial.

But understanding was one thing, accepting it was another.

“This is a sparring, not a real battle. I know your unique combat method using super regeneration, but there’s no need to try it here.”

He didn’t want to see her get hurt.

Even if she recovered in an instant.

Even if it was cleanly healed by Super Regeneration without any aftereffects.

He didn’t want to see Lucia covered in blood.

Who would want to see a girl they liked suffering?

“You must be tired, so rest now. It’s a player change.”

“U-Uh… Thank you for your concern…”

Lucia gave her thanks with a slightly stiff expression, then turned away sluggishly.

Perhaps she thought it was too much to attempt a mutually destructive tactic in sparring. Although that was her primary combat method, it felt excessive to use it in a non-combat situation. Feeling a sense of satisfaction that he had stopped her before she became covered in wounds again, Eugene looked at Johan.

His head was already burning hot from just one clash.

Despite deliberately suppressing his energy, an undeniable pressure was transmitted throughout his body.

Eugene knew this feeling. He knew the intense pressure. It was the primal strength possessed only by those who had reached the pinnacle in the truest sense, not those who imitated it through tricks like himself. A captain-level Supernatural. The young man before him was also one of humanity’s apex figures.

“Ha, that scared me. Her reluctance to lose is exactly like that person’s.”

Johan sighed and shook his head.

Even from his perspective, Lucia’s sudden action had been quite disconcerting.

He looked at Eugene, who had intervened at the right moment to block the holy sword’s strike. His lips formed a thin arc. The swiftness he had shown in that instant. The strike that had deflected the holy sword. All were excellent, beyond praise. He had instantly proven that he wasn’t being called a supernova for nothing.

“If the opponent is you, I don’t think there’s any need to hold back.”

“Yes, please give it your all.”

Heat emanated from blade, causing a heat haze to rise. Eugene gripped the sword hilt with both hands and stepped forward with his right foot. He was ready to spring out at any moment.

This was a good opportunity.

He was curious.

The God of War had said he had reached the captain level, even if by trickery.

He had praised him highly, saying he had the martial strength to rival captains.

Was that really true? He hadn’t felt it because the only captain he had ever faced was the Commander. Sparring with the God of War was always one-sided. Combat couldn’t even be established, he was just beaten. He desperately swung his sword, repeatedly falling to the floor. At best, he would graze his opponent’s clothes. It was an unavoidable result since his opponent was the Commander.

And now.

A captain-level powerhouse was before his eyes.

How much would his strength be effective against a real captain?

“Here I go.”

Acceleration.

Eugene’s figure vanished in an instant.

The sound of rushing wind followed a beat later.

With an explosive sound, the holy sword and blade collided.

Immediately after, crimson light and radiance intertwined, shattering all the windows of the training ground.

◈

Although all the lights had been blown out in a single blow, the interior of the training ground was dazzlingly bright.

Light flooded the area.

The flame-like crimson light and the sun-like radiance clashed endlessly.

Colliding, bouncing, bending, and breaking, they repeatedly clashed, scattering brilliance.

The blows were heavy.

His grip felt like it would tear apart from the impact.

His forearm creaked ominously on the third strike.

But Eugene met it all head-on.

He used flames as a propellant to compensate for his lack of physical strength.

He used Danger Sense to discern attacks and Acceleration to respond without being late.

“Hoo-eup!”

He exhaled roughly and swung the sword horizontally.

The area touched by the crimson light was heated to a murderous degree, distorted like a heat haze.

But the opponent suffered no damage. A powerful attack was useless if it didn’t connect. The slash cut through the empty air. The holy sword’s protection granted Johan solid durability, and Eugene’s heat didn’t inflict any meaningful damage on Johan.

Kling!!!

The holy sword scraped against the sword, emitting a piercing noise. Flowing along the blade, it aimed precisely for Eugene’s Adam’s apple. Eugene immediately twisted his upper body. He leaned back greatly, dodging the holy sword’s trajectory, and at the same time, he jumped into the air and rotated his body. Spinning like a top, Eugene, with added acceleration, swung the blade upwards like a flash of light.

Clang!

Johan’s body was pushed back as if being pulled.

“Hoo.”

Johan let out a short exclamation.

He had heard that Eugene wielded multiple Supernatural Abilities, but his usage was extremely skillful. He maintained Acceleration while increasing power with Pyrokinesis, and further maximized firepower with Heat Ray. He layered more than three Supernatural Abilities in a fleeting moment. The power of each individual ability was not comparable to Johan’s, but when combined, their power was considerable.

“Not bad.”

Johan sincerely praised Eugene and kicked off the ground, leaping forward. Eugene gritted his teeth and charged in to meet him. 

Bang! Kwaang! 

Explosions that were hard to believe came from colliding weapons erupted continuously. Broken lights and glass shards fluttered in the wind pressure, and dust fell from the ceiling.

He divided time into units of seconds.

He couldn’t stop accelerating for even a moment.

Because if he didn’t accelerate even for a moment, he couldn’t keep up with his movements.

The places where the flashes of light lingered were violently destroyed. The training ground, specially built for Supernaturals, couldn’t withstand the two’s sparring. The training ground, which had some semblance of aesthetics, melted like salt in water.

‘Speed… I’m falling behind!’

An uncompromising offensive and defensive battle.

Almost simultaneously falling and colliding again.

They continuously unleashed fierce attacks that were hard to believe were part of sparring.

In the midst of it, Eugene bit his lip to hide his dismay. Acceleration. Acceleration. Acceleration again. He was exerting his maximum speed, but it was still difficult to keep up with Johan’s speed.

‘I’m predicting his attacks with Danger Sense… But even so, I’m a step behind…!’

How can this person be so fast without ‘Acceleration’?

He wouldn’t have been able to properly perceive it without Leo’s Supernatural Ability.

Moreover, Johan’s swordsmanship was overwhelmingly superior. Everything from physical specs to everything else was superior to Eugene. It was natural. A current knight leader who had even experienced the Great Catastrophe, and a freshman who hadn’t even graduated from the academy. It would be stranger if there wasn’t a difference in level. Rather, the current situation where a ‘battle’ was being established was much more abnormal.

‘…Well, it’s as expected.’

He wasn’t particularly surprised.

Eugene’s level was at best at the vice-captain level.

Compared to the apex of humanity, he could only be weak and inferior.

‘If the knight leader in front of me was really an enemy…’

Although he was certainly the one with the Supernatural Ability of Acceleration, Johan’s movements were gradually becoming faster.

Eugene’s gaze turned cold in the dizzying exchange of blows.

Unlike his words that there was no need to hold back, he wasn’t giving it his all. He was gradually increasing his pace to match Eugene’s level. Thanks to that, Eugene still had some leeway. But if Johan revealed his true strength, he didn’t know what would happen afterwards.

‘If this battle was a life-or-death struggle…’

The holy sword and blade clashed again.

This time, they entered a stalemate without falling back.

Klang. 

The sound of metal crumbling from the blade flowed out.

‘Could I beat this man?’

He was a strong and skilled swordsman. His skillful swordsmanship inspired respect from the heart. He admired and revered him in a different sense than the God of War.

Even in sparring, the mindset should always be the same as in actual combat. It was something the God of War always said. 

He had just stopped Lucia’s mutually destructive tactics, saying it was just sparring, but paradoxically, Eugene imagined the current sparring as an actual battle. If this fight was truly a life-or-death struggle, then…

‘I can’t win.’

There was no room for hesitation.

He absolutely couldn’t win.

He couldn’t take victory from the sword saint before his eyes.

‘But.’

Eugene saw someone else superimposed on Johan.

Hair woven with sunlight and lotus-like pupils.

It was Lucia, but not Lucia, the apex of the monsters.

‘It doesn’t feel like I’ll lose either.’

The Devil God, Belial.

Knight Leader Johan was certainly one of the strongest.

But she was much stronger.

Author Note

A/N (Author’s note):
The once strong Belial is currently inside Lucia…

Well, wouldn’t it be great if she were happy?

Translator Note

T/N (Translator’s note):
Hogging all the spotlight for himself, smh.

What a noob.