Ch.193Valenstein’s Judgment

‘This is troublesome….’

As Haschal had predicted, Valenstein, who was hiding among the knights and observing the battle situation, was clearly showing his perplexity.

“Ahahahahahaha!”

Every time the red monster swung her arms with mad laughter, fountains of blood sprayed into the air like hot springs erupting, staining the sky.

Drinking the pouring blood, chewing on torn flesh, ripping out entrails and scattering them about—Orhan’s daughter was now rampaging like a demon, having thrown away all her previous pretenses.

“Aaaaargh!”

“Uugh, uuugh!”

“Geeeeek!”

The spears and swords of the terrified knights were helplessly seized and thrust into their own masters.

Incapacitated men looked at the monster before them with expressions of despair, then screamed as their facial skin was torn off.

Haschal, who had demonstrated shocking brutality by dismembering and bursting people.

Now, as if her interest had shifted from killing enemies to tormenting them, she wasn’t killing them quickly.

She was only reducing them to a state where they would beg to be killed.

Like a hungry cat that, after fierce hunting, simply plays with its prey once it’s full.

It was no different than giving a handful of clay to a child.

Kneading and molding, tearing with fingertips, pressing and crushing with force, even connecting and mixing different lumps into one.

Her surroundings were now filled with crude crafts that looked like they were made by orphanage children.

It was the kind of play everyone had tried at least once in childhood. Except for the minor difference that the material was human.

The stench of entrails and blood was so thick everywhere that you could taste it with every breath.

“Uweeeeek!”

Someone who couldn’t bear it anymore added a new stench by violently vomiting.

The fact that they still had the judgment to feel nauseous meant they were among the mentally stronger ones.

Valenstein observed various reactions among the knights.

Some dropped their swords and sat down, trembling uncontrollably.

Others giggled hysterically, as if they’d lost their minds.

Some even muttered the names of gods with blank expressions, as if believing this was not reality but a nightmare.

Despite the woman who had turned their comrades into meat sculptures being within arm’s reach, not one of them was swinging their sword.

Those with such courage… had already been caught while swinging their swords and had become part of that carnage.

All of this had happened within one minute of Haschal breaking into the encirclement.

Not one of them had the presence of mind to wonder why Lord Valenstein wasn’t stepping forward.

They were simply trembling, denying reality with empty minds.

—-

‘She’s a completely different person from before. Did she hide her true abilities and nature until the brink of death? For what purpose?’

Though she appeared to be rampaging in madness, Valenstein wasn’t fooled.

Her technique in handling Karma and her chosen tactics had actually become sharper than before her serious injury.

As if wary of the critical wound she’d received from the Ghost Sword, her blue eyes repeatedly scanned the empty air.

While devastating everything around her, she always kept herself surrounded by enemies. Ensuring no opening appeared for Valenstein to exploit.

Clearly, this was a countermeasure against the Ghost Sword.

Normally, such behavior would be suicidal.

No matter how fast and strong she was, she couldn’t possibly block attacks coming from all directions.

In fact, before being critically wounded by the Ghost Sword… when she first dropped into the midst of the knights, she had barely managed to block and deflect even a dozen attacks, being pushed back helplessly.

But now it was different.

Deliberately not speaking a word and howling like a beast, tearing people apart and devouring them.

A strategy to break the knights’ morale and cloud their judgment by adorning herself with alienation and terror.

This wasn’t possible for a madwoman.

That cruelty should be considered not a loss of sanity but a cold calculation.

The effect was clearly evident.

The knights, having lost not only their coordination but their fighting spirit itself, no longer posed any threat.

There were three reasons why Valenstein had been silently observing the situation.

First, to analyze Haschal’s suddenly transformed abilities.

This was almost complete.

Her skill in handling Karma, her boldness, and her judgment had dramatically improved, but her actual power had rather decreased compared to before.

She had only stopped the bleeding, but the effects of her injuries remained, and while she was handling her power more delicately, the power itself hadn’t increased.

The second reason was that he needed to increase the scale of damage to some extent.

Earlier, he had changed his mind to simply subdue the knights since she wasn’t even trying to kill them… but for his original plan, he needed some knights to be sacrificed.

The results were more favorable than expected.

Having displayed a cruelty that would make even demons shake their heads, as long as there were witnesses left, her reputation would plummet.

Leopold, who had taken the side of this monster, would also find himself in the center of controversy.

The third reason was that the strategy she had adopted was actually targeting the weakness of the Ghost Sword.

‘Did she figure out the Ghost Sword’s weakness after seeing it just a few times…? No, no matter how much of a genius she is, that’s impossible at her age. Orhan must have taught her.’

Valenstein raised his sword and glared at Haschal with cold eyes.

—-

His signature technique, the Ghost Sword.

It was a skill that Valenstein, who had already reached the limit of a Master in his mid-thirties, had glimpsed beyond and achieved.

In the Karma that enters the realm of Hero, the next stage beyond Master, the owner’s soul seeps in.

The life they’ve lived and the ideals they’ve pursued begin to manifest in reality.

The same was true for Valenstein.

His mad desire for higher realms, his nature that knew neither loyalty nor benevolence, his life lived as an excellent knight and seeker without revealing his true nature.

A life full of deception had seeped into the Karma he had built.

His Karma deceives the world.

The power to spread the Karma of deception throughout his body, tricking the world into not recognizing his existence despite being clearly present.

That was the first page of the heroic tale that Valenstein had obtained.

At first, it was an extremely crude technique.

He could only drastically reduce his presence when standing still; once he started moving, his position was immediately revealed by sound and wind.

Valenstein continuously improved the Ghost Sword.

Believing it would be the key to advancing to the next realm.

Years later, when he faced Orhan.

His Karma had completely erased sound and smell.

He couldn’t eliminate the vibration of air, but Orhan wasn’t sensitive enough to detect that.

If Orhan’s level had been even slightly lower, he would have died that day like butchered livestock.

A body harder than steel that wouldn’t cut easily.

That was probably the entrance to the heroic tale that Orhan had reached.

‘That was the limit.’

Valenstein gritted his teeth as he recalled the old memory.

Even after that, despite endless training… neither his realm nor the performance of the Ghost Sword improved at all.

Rather, due to his aging body, his skills began to deteriorate.

As if that was the realm permitted to him.

When he didn’t know the reason, he even prayed desperately to the gods and repeated training that bordered on self-abuse.

The moment he learned the truth… he cursed Elpinel with hatred.

And then.

Recently, his sword had finally progressed again after literally decades.

Suddenly, without any trigger, just as those who had taught him the truth had guaranteed.

A truly ghostly sword that could deceive even the flow of air.

Though it still couldn’t deceive sight and thus couldn’t be called complete… that too was not far off.

On the day when one layer of the world’s restrictions was peeled away.

Valenstein, having gained certainty, joined them.

To advance to the next realm before his aged body lost its strength.

—-

Due to being an incomplete technique, the Ghost Sword had clear weaknesses.

The fact that he needed to escape the enemy’s sight to activate it…

And the fact that the more obstacles around, the greater the consumption of Karma.

This was natural since there were more elements to deceive.

Therefore, whenever Valenstein entered battle, he skillfully guided the situation so that the enemy wouldn’t realize this.

This battle was no exception.

When first revealing the Ghost Sword, he deliberately hid in the crowd, approached stealthily, and then spoke casually.

As if the activation of the Ghost Sword wasn’t affected at all by the presence of people around.

In fact, if he had swung his sword in that situation, he would have cut down other knights before Orhan’s daughter.

He only started swinging his sword in earnest with the Ghost Sword activated after sufficient space had been secured.

Even when he briefly released the Ghost Sword midway, it was to naturally create a one-on-one fighting environment and prevent interference from obstacles.

Indeed, Orhan’s daughter, who seemed completely deceived, had rushed in without a hint of suspicion and received a critical wound.

However, now the battlefield situation had completely changed.

Because she had set up the deranged knights like shields, it was impossible for Valenstein to move at high speed.

Even if he were to cut through the knights and charge in, it wouldn’t be very meaningful.

After all, the Ghost Sword only deceived about his own existence; it couldn’t apply its effect to the knights he cut through.

Just by seeing knights suddenly collapsing, she could predict the direction he was moving.

Additionally, due to the rain of blood and entrails, his strength would be greatly consumed each time he activated the Ghost Sword.

‘Excellent. If Orhan had used such a method, it would have been dangerous.’

Yes.

If it had been Orhan.

Finally, having finished his thoughts, Valenstein charged toward Haschal.

Pushing aside the dazed knights with his body, covered in spattering blood droplets, without a moment’s hesitation, straight ahead.

He had completely released the Ghost Sword.

“Haaaap!”

“Kyaaaht!”

Haschal, spotting the charging Valenstein, let out a fierce roar and swung her sword.

– Kwaaaang!

The Jin longsword and the black iron greatsword collided violently, producing an explosive sound.

The shockwave swept the surroundings, scattering the blood and entrails pooled on the ground in all directions.

Knights overwhelmed by the force fell helplessly.

And one sword was deflected by the force.

The black iron sword wrapped in red energy. It was Haschal’s.

Perhaps for the first time, the sight of her sword being pushed back in a pure contest of strength.

Valenstein smiled coldly.

“That’s right. You’re just Orhan’s daughter, not Orhan himself.”

If it had been Orhan, he wouldn’t have received such a serious wound in the first place, and even if he had been injured, clashing like this would have resulted in being crushed instead.

But she was not Orhan.

Now, in terms of raw strength, Valenstein had the upper hand.