Ch.190Manifestation

Ghost Blade.

Until it strikes, its existence cannot be detected, and when you try to counterattack, it vanishes without a trace.

Indeed, its movements were truly ghost-like.

It had been about ten seconds since Valenstein began using his wretchedly effective swordsmanship in earnest.

My armor, torn in various places, was gradually turning red with seeping blood.

If I could land just one proper hit, I might have a chance, but once Valenstein disappeared, he never reappeared before my blade again.

Feeling like a training dummy, I struggled to understand his ability.

Given that my mana resistance wasn’t reacting, it wasn’t an ability using magic or dark mana.

And since there was no holy light, it couldn’t be a divine blessing either.

The conclusion I reached through process of elimination was utterly chilling.

There was only one possibility I could think of.

EPOS

【 Tale of Heros 】

A power beyond reason, granted to those who have transcended the realm of masters and reached the level of heroes.

Nothing else could explain this ability.

—-

“Someone who has… crossed the wall of mastery…?”

At this point?

Shock and doubt alternately flashed through my mind.

No, that’s impossible.

If there had been such a gap from the beginning, we couldn’t have even engaged in a contest of strength.

But to pull off something like this, that power is the only…!

“Oh? You even know about that. The Princess doesn’t seem to have reached the level of glimpsing the ‘wall’ yet… I suppose Orhan must have taught you.”

Valenstein’s voice contained faint surprise and slight anger.

Anger…?

It was a difficult reaction to understand.

Why would this old man, who hadn’t shown much anger even when Prince Leopold insulted him to his face, react this way?

There was no time to ponder.

As if everything until now had been mere play, Valenstein’s sword began to fly at me in earnest.

The attacks that had only been slicing thin layers of skin were now coming with enough force to cut through flesh and bone.

– Crash!

The scales of my skirt shattered all at once.

Silver fragments scattered into the air.

If it had been a simple steel armor like before, my leg would have been severed.

“The Princess may not know this yet… but crossing the wall is impossible. It’s truly a lamentable fact.”

Valenstein whispered softly.

As the middle-aged man’s breath invaded my ear, a chilling sensation and disgusting discomfort welled up inside me.

“You mosquito-like old man!”

My left arm, swung reflexively, merely grazed his clothes.

A torn piece of fabric caught on my fingertips, but without a single drop of blood.

“All I could do was peek beyond the wall. The same was true for Orhan.”

– Swish!

A sharp killing intent grazed my cheek.

Heat flared from my sliced face.

If I hadn’t reflexively turned my head the moment the sword tip made contact, it would have pierced through my head.

“In the past, I thought it was just my insufficient training, that I could overcome it someday… but nothing changed even after decades passed.”

His suppressed voice was filled with frustration, betrayal, and hatred directed at someone unknown.

So he hadn’t reached the realm of heroes, but was stopped at the first step.

Yes, if it had been a perfected technique, I wouldn’t have been able to face him at all.

Perhaps I wouldn’t even have been able to see him even if he stood right in front of me.

“Do you know? The despair of realizing that all your training, built up by sacrificing everything and grinding your bones, was nothing but meaningless effort? The betrayal when you learn the reason!”

Gritting my teeth, I raised my knee.

The Karma of Murder swirled around my leg.

“I don’t know. If you felt so wronged, why didn’t you just try harder!”

Like stomping on an insect, I drove my right foot down toward the ground.

The wave of Karma of Murder spiraled out, tearing up the earth.

– BOOM!

A sound like a cannon being fired.

Like a small meteor striking, the ground beneath my foot shattered into pieces.

Dust rose like a wave, and broken fragments swept in all directions.

“Ugh!”

“Argh!”

Knights who were nearby were struck by rock fragments and fell back.

Wearing full armor, they probably wouldn’t die.

Next, I raised my left foot and stomped it down again.

– BOOM!

Once more, the ground exploded into pieces.

And again, with my right foot.

Under the continuous impacts, the earth screamed in agony.

Continuous shockwaves fired in all directions. This was my solution.

Even if I couldn’t find his whereabouts, he wouldn’t be able to dodge this…!

“Truly, everything you do is exactly like your father. Did Orhan give birth to you alone?”

Above.

The moment I hastily looked up,

– Thunk!

The straight blade plunged down vertically.

—-

The first thing I felt was the coldness unique to metal.

The chill that swept from my collarbone to my abdomen… in the next moment, transformed into burning agony.

Blood spurted out like a fountain.

“Kuh, ah, aaah…! AAAAAAHHHHH!!”

A scream-like wail burst forth.

Terrible pain like my body was being torn in two.

I couldn’t even guess where or how I had been cut.

It hurts. It hurts. It hurts…!

My waist bent involuntarily and my body trembled.

My vision began to blur instantly.

“I avoided the heart… Orhan’s bloodline won’t die from this much. Keep her alive and take her into custody.”

Valenstein’s voice giving orders to the knights sounded faint.

– Thud!

My knees, drained of strength, buckled helplessly.

I barely supported my body with my right arm as it tried to collapse to the ground.

A posture like a criminal, kneeling and bent forward.

Blood enough to fill a basin overflowed onto the torn-up ground.

My torn upper garment revealed a chest vertically sliced and dyed bright red.

“Lord Median!”

“Aishan-Gioro Princess!”

The shocked cries of Percival and Leopold echoed.

A sword wound crossing my entire upper body, plus massive blood loss.

It was beyond the level where I could suppress the wound with muscle strength.

A chill swept over me.

While my entire body grew cold, only the cut wound felt burning hot.

– Splash!

My trembling elbow gave way, and my face plunged into the crimson puddle.

Blood splashed up, wetting my face.

Defeat.

Those two characters branded themselves into my heart.

My consciousness gradually faded.

No. If I lose consciousness here, everything will…!

I desperately tried to get up, but my body no longer obeyed.

Despair weighed on my mind.

My vision slowly turned black. Like a game over screen.

Please, I’m not yet…!

……!

…….

…..

..

–

My consciousness broke off.

—————

.

I hear voices.

“…recklessly…! Kill…!”

“……!”

“…bring…in…”

Echoes clamor.

They continue to ring and gradually approach.

Murmurs like small waves on a quiet shore.

The voices I had been consciously ignoring… creep through the cracks of my scattered mind… getting closer and closer.

Finally, a roar like thunder.

“…Get out of my body, right now—!!”

A furious cry filled with hatred and resentment shook the entire world.

A voice identical to mine thrusts a resentful blade toward me.

My weakened mind sank into the abyss.

And then.

====[Aishan-Gioro Haschal]====

“AAAAAAHHHHH-!!”

What signaled the beginning of the anomaly was a scream of unparalleled desperation.

The gazes of everyone gathered in front of the palace annex turned in unison toward one direction.

Valenstein who had been nonchalantly cleaning his sword, the knights approaching Prince Leopold.

Even Percival who was blocking the seniors’ swords to protect the prince, and Leopold who was gritting his teeth with sword raised.

“Wh…what…?!”

Everyone was at a loss for words.

Because they witnessed the horrific scene unfolding there.

A Royal Guard who had been restraining the unconscious Aishan-Gioro Princess and binding her wounds to keep her alive.

Someone who had been fine just moments ago was now having his limbs severed and being devoured.

A woman drenched in blood was biting into human flesh.

She gulped down the spurting blood and chewed and swallowed the meat torn off with her teeth.

Like a hungry wolf tearing apart its prey.

“AAAAH! Stop! Please, stooop! Save meee!!”

With each bite of her teeth, the knight who had not yet died trembled and screamed.

It was a scene like a terrible nightmare.

“Were… Eater…!”

What it devoured was not just werebeasts.

An instinctive fear bloomed in the knights’ hearts.

It wasn’t their first time seeing people die.

They were familiar, if disgusted, with scenes of werebeasts and monsters eating people.

But this appalling scene of a human eating another human alive was something they had never seen even in dreams.

“Urgh…!”

Leopold bent over and retched.

While it was fortunate that the princess had risen again, the awakened princess didn’t even look human.

The prince’s reason told him that the woman before him was on his side, but his instinct only screamed at him to flee this place immediately.

– Crunch!

With each piece of the knight’s flesh that disappeared, a dark red energy rose from the woman’s body and grew denser.

Her half-dead body was regaining its strength.

However, the knights, gripped by fear, could not move.

Even as their comrade was being devoured while screaming.

Only one person awoke from the shock—the Empire’s strongest knight.

Valenstein tossed aside the cloth he had been using to clean blood and rushed toward the reawakened monster.

“Haaaa…!”

Raising her blood-soaked face, the beast of Karma of Murder let out a maniacal laugh.

The flowing blood had already stopped.

—-

‘Not enough.’

Aishan-Gioro Haschal.

The Ka’har berserker who had reopened her eyes looked at the enemy before her, suppressing her hunger.

Ghost Blade, Werner von Valenstein.

It was the name of an Imperial she had heard from Orhan.

She had said that if she ever got another chance to fight him, she would send him to his grave.

‘What did he say back then….’

Haschal searched through old memories, trying to recall the method Orhan had mentioned to counter the Ghost Blade.

Though she had acted like a madwoman upon awakening, it was not something done out of lost sanity.

Rather, her mind was colder than ever before.

The rage that had seemed about to drive her insane had, upon exceeding its limit, transformed into icy hatred.

She hadn’t torn into a person because she enjoyed human flesh.

It was to replenish her lost strength by filling her stomach, and to suppress the enemy’s movements with fear.

Without doing so, her chances of winning would have been low.

‘Damn him. Even with this power, to reduce someone else’s body to such a state…!’

Her anger was directed not at her enemy, but at the one who had stolen her body.

From collarbone to ribs, all the bones in the front of her upper body had been cut.

It was a miracle that her internal organs were intact.

Additionally, her limbs felt frozen cold.

The inflated muscles and materialized Karma of Murder had compressed the wound to stop the bleeding, but too much blood had already been lost.

She had somehow regained her strength, but probably wouldn’t be able to fight for long.

To win in this condition… she needed to weaken her opponent.

Yes. Fear tends to make people weak.