Ch.643Red Scale Blade

“This might work…?”

Hersella, gripping the true demon sword with its red gleam, thought to herself. With this weapon, she might have a chance.

Even at a glance, its strength rivaled true silver. Unlike Durandal which rejected the power of murder karma, this true demon sword would allow her to freely unleash techniques that would be too burdensome to cast barehanded.

She couldn’t waste what little strength she had left, though.

Hersella pushed her murder karma into the Crimson Scale Sword gripped in her left hand. Crimson lightning coursed along the blade, emitting a screeching noise.

“A path has opened…!”

Orhan, who had seized the other blade, thought the same. Heaven had favored him.

The twin swords with red scales were the finest among the countless weapons he had acquired. The mystical power contained in those blades was a lifeline that could break through the trap Hersella had prepared.

—-

“Haschal. Do you know what this sword is?”

An unexpected question. Hersella slightly furrowed her brow as she recalled.

“The Crimson Scale Twin Swords… I believe that’s what you called them. You said they were weapons you’d use after defeating me.”

“Yes. That was the plan. Not anymore though.”

Orhan raised the Crimson Scale Sword high.

Hersella looked at the blade Orhan held up with puzzled eyes, wondering why he suddenly acted as if he’d already won.

‘What is he thinking? He knows that with the blessing of the Unyielding Flesh, fists are more effective than swords or spears.’

Though Hersella despised and loathed Orhan, she never thought him stupid. Therefore, she didn’t believe he had forgotten about her blessing.

His confidence upon drawing the sword meant that weapon could genuinely threaten her.

Several possibilities quickly flashed through her mind.

The possibility that, like Durandal, this weapon had some power that amplified cutting force, capable of penetrating her blessing and cutting her down.

The possibility that he might use the true demon sword like a shovel to dig up to the surface.

Even the possibility that he might flip the sword and strike with its blunt edge, arguing that it wasn’t a bladed weapon.

“The Red Scale Sword. As the name suggests, the blade of this true demon sword was forged not from metal, but from the scales of a spirit beast. Can you guess what scales?”

“Don’t care.”

With her answer, Hersella lunged toward Orhan. She overlaid Hwipyeok, the lightning of murder karma that penetrates and tears, onto her blade.

While Hersella was also extremely curious about what spirit beast’s scales the blade was made from, she chose to block Orhan from attempting anything rather than satisfying her curiosity.

However, Orhan’s answer came faster than her movement.

“The reverse scales of a fire dragon.”

Orhan gripped the hilt in reverse and plunged it down into the lava on the ground.

—-

The Crimson Scale Twin Swords.

Weapons said to have been forged from the reverse scales of a red fire dragon that once flew across the skies of the steppes in ancient times.

They were both weapons and ritual implements.

Products of an ancient era containing power close to sorcery, classified as sacred objects by western standards.

The blades contained some portion of the power of a fire dragon whose breath had been extinguished in a fall. The power of a dragon that controlled fire, devoured fire, and breathed fire.

Therefore.

– Woooong!

The moment the plunged blade was swallowed by the lake of lava, the entire underground cavity began to be engulfed in darkness.

The melting, boiling earth cooled down with smoke, and the flames that had been burning rocks and soil diminished as if being sucked into the ground.

‘The fire…!’

Hersella, who had been rushing toward Orhan, frowned in shock.

The heat that had melted even rock and steel, the flames that had filled everywhere, were all disappearing as if being sucked into the Crimson Scale Sword blade that Orhan had plunged down!

‘…It worked.’

Orhan felt relief as he sensed the heat that had been constantly eroding his Unyielding Flesh subsiding.

The power of the Crimson Scale Sword to absorb fire and heat, and then exhale the absorbed flames. Even for him, this was the first time using it. Until now, he had never been in a crisis severe enough to rely on a weapon’s power.

Originally, he had brought this weapon not out of concern for the flames Haschal might emit, but because it was the best weapon for slaughtering enemy troops quickly and efficiently after defeating Haschal.

That’s why he had half-forgotten about the Crimson Scale Sword’s power until he saw it falling into the underground cavity.

In any case, this meant he had escaped the immediate crisis.

—-

[ Heat absorption?! ]

“Haschal” screamed in astonishment at the sight before her. The disappearing flames and rapidly solidifying lava. The trap she and Ludwig had prepared was being rendered useless in an instant.

A variable no one had anticipated, all because of a single sword.

‘To think he had such a move in reserve…!’

Hersella, rushing toward Orhan, bit her lip tightly. It was a frustrating situation for her as well.

The core of their trap had been to use flames and extreme heat to make Orhan waste his karma.

But now, the fire had been extinguished and the heat that had filled the cavity was cooling rapidly. This meant Orhan no longer needed to maintain his Unyielding Flesh continuously.

With the heat that burned his body gone, Orhan only needed to manifest Unyielding Flesh at the moment her blade was about to touch his body!

‘In this case, a war of attrition is meaningless. My strength will run out first.’

Hersella’s mind raced.

She couldn’t be certain how much time Orhan had left, but it seemed to be more than she had. It was clear that fighting to drag out time as she had been doing would be meaningless.

‘Then I have no choice but to bet on this one move!’

So she gripped the Crimson Scale Sword in her hand more firmly. Hoping that the new technique she had only conceptualized would work.

– Kwaaang!

After charging forward, kicking off the cooling, hardening ground, she finally reached Orhan’s vicinity.

“Give up. It’s all over now, Haschal!”

Orhan pulled out the Crimson Scale Sword he had plunged into the ground, flipped it in his grip, and swung. The thick back of the blade flew toward her side. Like a blunt weapon as thick as a finger. At least one of Hersella’s predictions had come true.

“Who decides that!”

Hersella swung Durandal to block the back of the Crimson Scale Sword. A flash erupted with a deafening roar.

– Wudeuk,

Her wrist twisted from the massive impact transmitted through the sword hilt.

It was impossible from the start to block Orhan’s full-strength strike with one hand. Durandal was torn from her grip and flew away, and the Crimson Scale Sword continued its path to shatter the bones in her leg.

‘She didn’t defend?!’

Orhan was bewildered at the sensation of shattering Hersella’s thigh bone. Though it was a strike with his full strength, it was an attack she could have blocked if she had tried.

Either by swinging her sword with both hands to counter, or by reducing the force with the shield of murder karma she had used several times.

But to take an attack that would shatter her thigh without any resistance meant—

“Keu…uaaaa!”

It meant she would pour all her strength, even what should have been used for defense, into a single attack.

Hersella, who had gritted her teeth at the impact of her thigh bone being crushed, transformed even the pain into rage, burning with hostility, and swung the true demon sword firmly gripped in both hands.

Tear it apart.

Thinking only of that.

New lightning overlaid the crimson lightning dancing on the blade.

One layer, then another layer.

Hwipyeok. Created during the process of analyzing the power of spatial cutting, the most violent and destructive force among the techniques of murder karma was layered again and again.

Five layers in total.

– Kwajijijik!

The murder karma lightning condensed on the blade tore at each other, mixed, and merged as if devouring one another.

Thorny lightning danced like a madman’s choreography, and the fire dragon’s reverse scales, as sturdy as true silver, emitted a metallic sound resembling a wail under the massive strain. The air touching the blade was torn to shreds, letting out a shrill scream.

And then.

Five layers of Hwipyeok condensed into one. Hersella, wielding the extreme of destructive power she could create,

“Kyaaaaat!”

Roared like a beast as she brought down the blade of lightning.

Toward Orhan’s upper body, left open after deflecting Durandal and crushing her thigh.

‘This is dangerous…!’

A catastrophic momentum that even Orhan himself couldn’t manifest.

With a chilling sensation like ice water being poured down his spine, Orhan reflexively extended his Unyielding Flesh to its limit and raised both arms to cover his upper body.

——————!

The next moment, the extreme of destruction and the extreme of defense collided with a roar.

His severed left arm flew up into the air.