Sword Master With One Strike Kill - Chapter 321
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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One-Strike Kill Swordmaster Episode 321
Episode 321. Ancient Legacy (7)
Half a year ago.
When Gaon ascended to Sword Master, the thirteenth star was added.
Dorico Shiro had heard that news as well.
But.
“…Twelve.”
Dorico Shiro’s expression hardened stiffly.
Right.
Twelve.
No matter how many times she counted the stars, the number was twelve.
“Ah, shit…”
Dorico Shiro began scratching her head irritably.
Her already disheveled hair became even more of a mess, but she couldn’t spare the attention to care.
A Sword Master had died.
And at this particular moment, no less.
“…Why are you like that?”
When Hodu Pie tactlessly asked a question, Dorico Shiro whipped around to look at him and snapped irritably.
“Is your head really just for decoration?”
“Huh?”
“No, I don’t understand. How can you create excellent chimeras with such a brain?”
“…?”
While Hodu Pie flinched at the sudden personal attack, Dorico Shiro continued without caring.
“A Sword Master died. So Middle Temple’s interior must be in chaos, right?”
“Ah…”
“In that situation, what do you think will happen if two continental criminals show up at the city gates? Hm?”
Hodu Pie’s face turned pale.
It seemed he finally grasped the situation.
“What do we do? Should we just go back?”
“Go back where? We need somewhere to go back to.”
Whew-.
Dorico Shiro let out a sigh.
It was a dilemma.
The timing was terrible to enter the Holy City, but there was nowhere to return to.
But if she had to make a choice…
“We have to go to Middle Temple. That’s right.”
“Why, why…?”
“My intuition is telling me so.”
“…”
That meant there was no particular basis for it.
“No, you said the atmosphere in the Holy City would be a mess too!”
“Yeah. There’s a high probability of that.”
“Then that means this place isn’t safe either! Let’s find another hideout instead! I’m really going crazy… Ugh, Lord Zahhar! Please stop this person!”
Hodu Pie gave up on persuasion and asked Zahhar for help.
Cluck cluck-.
While the chicken head clucked stupidly, Zahhar on the Cockatrice’s Tail answered listlessly.
“Fuck off. I don’t care if you bastards get slaughtered.”
“…”
“No, I’d rather you died while we’re at it. And if only the religious fanatics of Middle Temple would help me achieve nirvana and free me from this damn body… Huh?”
Pause-.
Right then.
Zahhar stopped what he was saying and looked somewhere.
His vertically slit pupils contracted.
Sensing something strange, Hodu Pie and Dorico Shiro also followed his gaze.
“…?”
Not far away.
Someone was struggling to cross the Uncharted Wilderness.
Hah, hah-.
A body made of black bones.
And ghostly flames flickering faintly in the empty eye sockets.
“That bastard is…”
Dorico Shiro’s eyes narrowed.
“Heukgol?”
Right.
There was no mistake.
He was the Black Bone Sword Master.
But…
‘…What? Why has he gotten so short?’
The last time she saw him, he was tall enough that she had to crane her neck to look up.
Now he had shrunk to a size that didn’t even reach her waist.
‘And why is his body so tattered?’
His left leg was completely gone from the knee down.
More than half his ribs were crushed, leaving his insides clearly visible, and his skull was caved in with cracks running through it.
“Ah.”
Stop-.
Then, Heukgol also spotted them.
A groan leaked through his broken jawbone.
“Fuck.”
Thud-.
With that single word, he collapsed right onto the dirt ground.
No, he crumbled.
It seemed he didn’t even have the strength left to stand.
“Fleeing from the Intruder… luckily barely made it this far…”
Heukgol muttered while looking up at the night sky.
That sky where twelve stars shone.
“How do I run into one of the Five Nightmares right in front of the Holy City…”
His voice gradually became fainter.
“Really… life… shit…”
Flicker-.
Soon the ghostly flames that had been blinking in his eye sockets went out.
“Jeokyo… I’ll follow you soon…”
Thunk-.
His skull dropped powerlessly.
He wasn’t dead.
She could faintly sense the energy connected to his Life Vessel.
He had just fainted.
“Hmm.”
After looking down at Heukgol for a moment, Dorico Shiro opened her mouth.
“Fine. I don’t know what’s going on, but…”
“…?”
“Let’s carry that bastard and head to Middletemple.”
Hearing those words, Hodupayi immediately questioned back.
“Why? Isn’t the Sword Master our enemy?”
Shake shake-.
Dorico Shiro shook her head.
“Not anymore.”
“…?”
“Think about it. If we rescue a dying Sword Master from the Uncharted Wilderness and bring him to Middletemple, wouldn’t they welcome us?”
“Bullshit.”
Zahhar’s cold voice cut off Dorico Shiro’s words.
“The moment we enter the Holy City carrying that Death Knight bastard, do you truly not know what will happen?”
“…!”
“A night when one star has disappeared. When two Continental public enemies appear dragging a dying Sword Master, what do you think the Paladins of Middletemple will think?”
It was obvious.
They would think Dorico Shiro and Hodupayi had joined forces to kill Heukgol.
“Then our heads would fly off without even a chance to explain. If we’re lucky, we might get tortured first.”
“Ah…”
A stupid sound leaked from Dorico Shiro’s mouth.
Swoosh-.
She slowly turned to look at Hodupayi and asked.
“What should we do?”
“Why are you asking me that! Didn’t you have a plan for everything?!”
While Hodupayi shouted angrily, the cockatrice’s head just kept clucking stupidly.
* * *
“The Protagonist.”
Pean called out to me. His voice carried a question about what we should do.
Swoosh-.
I held out my hand as if to say wait a moment, then organized my thoughts alone.
‘…The Intruder’s intrusion.’
It was a situation I had sufficiently anticipated.
That’s why I had wanted to save 2 MP.
‘The problem is…’
〔MP : 0/10〕
‘I underestimated the Golem Knight’s【Soul Offering】too much.’
It was a mistake to judge that it could be broken with just 1 MP.
It was because I had overconfident in the power of【Soul of the Sword Master】after obtaining the Tsunami Condenser.
Because of that, I had consumed all my mana.
‘The Intruder is an extremely strong opponent.’
Didn’t even Heukgol die helplessly without even being able to deploy the Transcendent Realm?
The Intruder was more skilled than Pean’s Master, even more than the Golem Knight.
In the story, he was the most skilled among the old generation Sword Masters.
‘…That’s why he carried such a ‘burden’ on behalf of everyone.’
Anyway.
The Intruder was absolutely impossible to defeat without【Soul of the Sword Master】.
The reason I had acquired the Dragon Heart to increase my MP was to prepare for the Intruder, so that said it all.
‘Still…’
If the location was here, the Ruins of Rashutku, the story would be different.
Here, there was another way to deal with the Intruder.
‘The original reason I came to the Forge.’
Hadn’t I said to secure the core rewards before encountering him?
Precisely, tools that would help when facing ‘him’.
The target I was referring to was none other than the Intruder.
‘First, I need to find that quickly…’
While I was continuing such thoughts alone.
“The Protagonist, he’s getting closer.”
Pean urged again with his voice.
Right.
I knew it all too.
I had been activating【Hypersense】since earlier and personally feeling the Golem Knight’s presence getting closer.
Flinch-.
Just then, Jeungmu and Balhwan made serious expressions.
It seemed the two Sword Masters had also detected the energy felt from far away.
Before they could even ask questions, I opened my mouth first.
“The Intruder has come.”
“…!”
“…!”
The other Sword Masters simultaneously held their breath.
Pean’s expression became even more serious, and the Bifurcated Siblings also gripped Heukya and Baekya.
In the midst of that.
Pushhh-.
Jeungmu turned to look at me and sharply asked a question.
“However, Gaon.”
His eyes visible through the monocle flashed.
“A moment ago, didn’t the Golem Knight call the Intruder his ‘old comrade’?”
“…”
Right.
It was a very sharp question.
The words the Golem Knight had casually uttered.
─Moreover, even my old comrade has guarded the empire’s entrance for thousands of years to prevent Rashutku from falling into the hands of the ancients!
Pean frowned.
“The Golem Knight’s old comrade, you say. That can’t be right.”
“…”
“I haven’t personally met all the old generation Sword Masters either, but I’ve never even heard stories about someone like the Intruder.”
“…”
“An ascetic who simultaneously possesses the characteristics of both the Bifurcated Clan and the Iron Spirit Clan?”
Wooong, woooong-!
That was exactly when it happened.
A subtle trembling was transmitted from the Feather Sword in my hand.
‘…Yeonwoo.’
She was someone with many connections to the Intruder.
When we faced him in the Valley, Yeonwoo had completely frozen up, unable to say a single word properly.
It was natural for her to react sensitively to this story now.
[Master.]
Yeonwoo’s voice rang out cautiously.
It was clear she was trying to bring up something she hadn’t been able to say until now.
[The Ascetic is….]
‘It’s fine.’
I cut off her explanation.
‘I already know about it, so you don’t need to explain.’
[…!]
Ding-!
〔Your bond with Yeonwoo the Feathered Sword deepens.〕
〔Skill: 【Avatar Manifestation】 proficiency has increased. (40%→41%)〕
‘…Well, this isn’t surprising anymore.’
Swoosh-.
I slowly raised my head.
Pean, Jeungmu, Balhwan.
The three Sword Masters were looking at me.
Now they just expect me to explain whenever they don’t know something.
This too had become a natural scene at some point.
“Huu….”
I let out a quiet sigh.
“…First, there’s something we need to find.”
* * *
“So.”
Adelia furrowed her brow.
This was after hearing the explanation from Captain Yaakov and the Relic Expedition Members.
Too much information had poured out at once, requiring organization.
“Emperor Tarosk knew in advance through the Mukgyeon Lord that the Great Ones would abandon this land….”
Adelia continued speaking slowly.
“And so he joined forces with the Old Generation Swordmasters to extract the divine artifacts’ power in advance and make it their own?”
After catching her breath for a moment, she added.
“To survive even in the land abandoned by the gods?”
“Yes.”
Captain Yaakov nodded.
“At least according to what we’ve understood, that’s correct.”
Swoosh-.
Having said that, Captain Yaakov handed over an old chronicle.
Adelia carefully turned the pages.
Inside were detailed illustrations.
“This is….”
Her brow furrowed involuntarily.
It was a drawing that gave off a strange sense of unease.
Meanwhile, Captain Yaakov continued his explanation from the side.
“The divine artifacts’ power was concentrated on the strongest Sword Master. So that he could preserve the Elders’ authority.”
Adelia looked closely at the illustration drawn in the chronicle.
Brilliant light was emanating from various swords.
Among them were drawings that looked similar to the Feathered Sword and Heavenly Transformation.
And receiving that light was a man wearing a crown.
But….
‘…This is strange.’
The man’s body was splitting into two.
No.
More precisely, it depicted the process of one person being separated into two.
“Who is this person?”
Adelia asked, pointing to the illustration of the crowned man.
A moment of silence passed.
And.
Markus Koshate, who was beside them, answered quietly.
“Aurellius Tarosk.”
“….”
“The Twin Emperor, specifically the younger brother.”
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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