Ch.948What Good Is a Weapon?

“What did I say earlier?

That it wouldn’t be difficult to face ten guardians without wasting power on sword techniques?

I need to take that back.

“Don’t get caught in his range! Use the high elementals as shields! In the end, he’s just a swordsman—ranged attacks aren’t much!”

…Well, this is harder than I thought.

If they’d honestly engage in close combat, I could slaughter them in an instant, but these fairies aren’t fools—they refuse to give me any opening.

“Not much, you say? You wouldn’t talk like that if you got hit!”

Karma Art of Murder: Karmic Fire.

Heaven Demon Destruction Arrow.

“If I don’t get hit, it’s nothing! Isn’t that right?”

“Shaaaark!”

The compressed heat ray of crimson Karmic Fire that I shot toward the arrogant guardian Jeirpalos collided with the flame serpent he summoned, and they canceled each other out, devouring one another.

A high elemental of fire.

Perhaps because its body was made of flame itself, even my runes and Karmic Fire couldn’t penetrate its body—they just mixed, scattered, and were canceled out.

In terms of exchange rate, I was gaining the advantage… but that’s only when fighting one-on-one.

With ten enemies, there wasn’t much advantage to speak of. When I created an opening by destroying a high elemental, the other nine guardians would immediately fill the gap.

“Kwooooar!”

Nine high elementals charged from all directions, smashing walls and ceilings, while the guardians who maintained their distance launched elemental arrows that created whirlwinds of lightning and frost.

A sight that would chill even a dragon’s guts.

Each high elemental was enormous, standing several meters tall, and the elemental arrows were fired so rapidly they resembled a heavy machine gun mounted in a trench.

[It seems they know fire doesn’t work. Well, it’s about time for that information to spread.]

‘Don’t talk like it’s someone else’s problem!’

I stomped hard on the ground, flipping the terrain to block the elemental arrows, then used the rebound to launch myself onto the head of a turtle-shaped rock elemental.

‘You’re just enjoying the show, aren’t you?’

And as I sliced through the rock turtle’s head with Durandal, I inwardly spat out a complaint.

– Kwaddeuddeuk!

A slash delivered with brute force instead of the space-severing sword technique. Rock fragments scattered like blood as the giant turtle’s head shattered into pieces.

[If you feel wronged, surrender your body to me. I’ll clear this entire area with my Field of Mortality.]

Meanwhile, Hersella, who had neutralized several elemental arrows by wielding tentacles of Karma, whispered seductively.

She claimed that fighting multiple opponents was her specialty, and if I just handed over control, she’d take care of everything.

What a ridiculous proposal.

‘Clean up? If you did that, everyone still in the palace would die too.’

Her hero’s tale, Field of Mortality, was a massacre technique that killed or tore apart all life within its range, regardless of friend or foe.

With Hersella now stronger than in the original work, the range of her Field of Mortality would cover almost the entire palace and beyond.

Among those staying in the palace, only Demian could withstand that power.

She was suggesting sacrificing more than ten times as many allies to eliminate ten guardians—how could I possibly agree to such a proposal?

[Isn’t the monarch’s life what matters most? Their deaths would be, well, noble sacrifices for their lord.]

More nonsense.

“Kuwowowoeng!”

“Kenaz.”

I glanced at the ice bear that was bringing its claws down on the beheaded rock turtle, then spewed rune flames like a flamethrower, melting the upper half of its body while sneering.

‘I should have left Jahan and Imara here.’

Let’s see if she’d still talk about noble sacrifices if those two were involved.

[But you sent them away? How unfortunate.]

Hersella sneered back.

‘…Stop talking nonsense. If you’re not going to help properly, at least keep your mouth shut!’

[Even when I help, I’m treated as a nuisance. Look, your conscience is crying. It’s wailing that its master threw it into the gutter. How pitiful.]

Always irritating with her sharp tongue. I wonder who she learned that habit from.

If she were completely idle, I could at least curse her out properly, but she was freely wielding Karma power to block elemental arrows while making snide remarks, so it was hard to complain further.

—-

One superhuman against ten elite fairies and endlessly resummoned giant monsters.

The quarters of the Heavenly Sword Corps, which had become a battlefield for extraordinary powerhouses, deteriorated into ruins resembling a thousand-year-old relic in less than a few minutes.

It had become so devastated that rebuilding would be cheaper than restoration.

…Eleonora is going to flip out. All that money spent on construction, and now it’s all turned to dust and rubble. How much more money and time would it take to rebuild? Even if we captured all these fairies and sold them down to the last strand of hair, it wouldn’t be nearly enough.

“Huff… Hey, can we bill Alvheim for compensation?”

I pushed aside the rock that had covered my body, throwing it sideways, and got up after being struck by the combined attack of lightning and rock elementals that had buried me in the ground, brushing the dirt off my shoulders.

It felt like I’d been hit by about ten thunderbolts. My limbs were still a bit numb. Without the dragon scale armor, it might have hurt quite a bit.

“Even if you sold yourselves for a thousand years, you couldn’t repay this amount.”

I’m not sure how much fairy male prostitutes make, but it certainly wouldn’t be enough to cover large-scale construction work.

“Keep draining his power! Human strength is not infinite!”

No answer from them.

Jeirpalos, who had lost all his high elementals due to his passionate fighting, ignored my provocation and shouted.

Conveniently leaving out the fact that their elementals weren’t infinite either.

“True, my power isn’t infinite. But—”

“You’ve greatly underestimated Alvheim, you mad short-lived woman!”

The auburn-haired fairy guardian, Tiberius, cut off my words and charged at me like a beam of light.

Thrusting his mana-filled spear straight at me like a siege weapon.

What was that spear called again? Mistilteinn?

He was showing it off like a nouveau riche kid with a golden calf, and though it was annoying, it was certainly a magical spear worth boasting about.

“Let me finish talking, you brat.”

I twisted my body to avoid the tip of his spear and snapped at him. I couldn’t block or parry it.

The magic imbued in that spear was the kind of ability that couldn’t be physically defended against.

“Talk all you want in hell!”

“I don’t have much to say to your parents.”

The blue-silver longsword I swung in counterattack. Durandal’s blade writhed like a snake and shot toward his neck.

“Kugh…! More nonsense!”

Tiberius rotated his spear shaft in a circle to catch Durandal.

The spear blade became semi-transparent with a whoosh. Instead of creating an explosive sound upon collision, Durandal’s blade naturally penetrated the spear blade as if cutting through water.

– Wooooong!

And the next moment, as the semi-transparent spear blade became clear again, Durandal, which had been passing through the middle of the spear blade, was deflected upward.

Sending its mighty destructive power uselessly into the air.

Dematerialization. That was Mistilteinn’s ability.

The spear itself disappeared like a ghost at the moment of attack, and when the semi-transparent spear blade passed through the enemy’s body, it rematerialized to inflict wounds.

Indeed, any defense would be meaningless against it.

No matter how sturdy the armor, if the spear blade passed through it in a dematerialized state instead of striking it, the armor would be useless.

Moreover, when it rematerialized after passing through armor, the part overlapping with the spear would be cleanly annihilated.

The fairy called it spatial overlap annihilation phenomenon or something, but I didn’t really understand that—all I knew was that it was a weapon that couldn’t be blocked or deflected.

However, Durandal’s indestructible property seemed to be superior to the spear’s ability, as when the spear and Durandal overlapped, the blade didn’t disintegrate but held firm.

It could only withstand rather than reverse-annihilate the spear, and it would still be deflected with a whoosh, but at least it didn’t break.

“Tsk, that’s silver spoon kids for you. Got yourself a nice heirloom, didn’t you?”

I clicked my tongue and returned my sword to continue the engagement.

“Ah, or perhaps you sent them off yourself because you wanted to inherit sooner?”

While looking for the briefest opening to activate Defying Fate.

“Yeah, that makes sense. I understand. You guys have to wait like hundreds of years to get your inheritance.”

“My parents are alive and well!”

Tiberius roared and thrust his spear like a downpour.

“That can’t be. I clearly saw them stuck like rings in the World Tree’s roots.”

I dodged his spear with quick footwork while sneering.

Meanwhile, elemental arrows kept coming endlessly, but Hersella was handling those for me.

So I just needed to focus on the spearman in front of me.

“Shut your mouth!”

Spear thrusts pouring down like a torrential rain, filling the entire space.

Is this how my opponents felt when facing my sword? It was surprisingly irritating and tricky when a weapon that couldn’t be blocked came at a speed difficult to avoid.

Yes, having such a weapon must be why he dared to engage me in close combat.

With a spear like that thrust at such speed, there would be few opponents who could respond. Even I was so focused on evasion that I couldn’t use Defying Fate.

[Are you just going to keep dodging? That’s how you plan to win?]

‘Shut up.’

Hersella wasn’t entirely wrong. Indeed, at this rate, I would eventually get hit.

I became certain. I probably couldn’t dodge forever. I had the intuition that I would eventually be pierced by that spear.

Well, if that’s the case…

I just need to change my tactics.

“Your parents enjoyed it too. Well, when else would they get to be stuck in the World Tree? It’s quite a valuable experience!”

I deliberately swung Durandal widely while continuing my blatant provocation.

“Y-you vulgar monkey!”

The monkey is your distorted face. Taunting that his parents were enjoying being stuck in the World Tree’s roots.

An insult that achieved a grand slam of offensiveness—family insult, sacred blasphemy, and sexual mockery all at once—Tiberius thrust his spear with a demonic face.

A trajectory directly aimed at my heart.

As I was about to twist my body to avoid it as before, my foot slipped slightly on the ground, and my body tilted forward a bit.

In a clash between superhumans who could exchange dozens of attacks per second, that moment was truly a fatal opening.

“You made a mistake!”

Tiberius thrust his spear forward with a joyful smile. A strike I couldn’t avoid as I hadn’t regained my balance. In an instant, his semi-transparent spear blade passed through my armor and penetrated my body.

“Tiberius! It’s a provocation! Don’t fall for it!”

Jeirpalos tried to stop Tiberius urgently upon seeing this, but…

“Too late?”

Tiberius’s spear blade had already penetrated my body.

Since it was still dematerialized, there was no wound yet, and because I had stumbled forward, it pierced just below my collarbone rather than my heart, but it had penetrated nonetheless.

And the next moment.

– Wooooong!

The materialized Mistilteinn tore through my flesh and muscle, spraying blood. Just as I had expected.

“Now for the heart…!”

“Will you?”

As Tiberius, smiling with joy, tried to drive the spear deeper to pierce my heart, I pulled my lips up to my ears in a grin and grabbed his spear shaft with my left hand to stop it.

– Teok.

As I thought. I can grab it. I knew it. Once he had stabbed me, he wouldn’t dematerialize the spear again but try to drive it deeper. That would be faster.

He shouldn’t have done that.

“Oh no…!”

Tiberius, finally realizing the situation, desperately tried to dematerialize his spear, but my grip tightening and swinging downward was several times faster.

– Kwajik!

The spear shaft caught in Frosting’s claws split in half with a death cry.

Tiberius, who had been holding the back part, naturally lurched forward.

“Heok…!”

Into Tiberius’s face, full of shock and terror, my forehead rammed like a mace.

– Peoeoeoeok!

His head shattered into pieces. Like a leather water balloon being stomped on, spraying its contents in all directions like fireworks.

“…One down.”

Licking something that had flowed down my forehead to my lips, I showed an incomparably refreshing smile.

Toward the fairy guardian commander who was shouting the name of his comrade who had just died and raging with fury.

With this, nine enemies remained. Not a bad start.