The Crazy Battle God Has Returned - Chapter 58

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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A Mad Swordsman Returns – Chapter 58

The Dragon Lord’s Lair appeared in the west.
Players strived to locate the Lair’s position, and when someone with exploration talent succeeded in finding it, the Lair’s location became widely known.
After that, the interior of the Lair became a cauldron of chaos.

“Dragon Spawn! Dragon Spawn are swarming from the right! Fall back!”
“We can’t! Damn it, the Guardians are behind us…!”
“M-Monsters are coming this way too!”

Guardians and Destroyers, monsters, Dragon Spawn.
And various factions among the players as well. With all manner of groups mixing together in one place, the interior of the Lair became utter pandemonium.
Even the rankers found their feet bound, unable to move properly.

“Leo! We can’t go that way! Let’s turn back here!”
“I’ll open a path! Everyone follow me!”
“We lost sight of Wei Hao twenty minutes ago? At this rate….”
“We must be falling behind considerably. Let’s move faster. Go!”

Still, rankers are rankers.
Using their respective strength, they carved paths forward and advanced.
Among them, the ones advancing particularly swiftly were the Destroyer rankers, especially Wei Hao’s faction.
There was only one reason this was possible.

“Wei Hao, there are markings left by the Japanese here.”
“Excellent. We’ll continue following them.”
“Yes.”

Because there were Destroyers ahead of them.
Suzuki Haruto and Inoue Seigo, ranked 2nd and 3rd respectively. They had connections before participating in the trial and frequently operated as a party together.
Wei Hao and they maintained an alliance of sorts.
They had left markings behind for Wei Hao to follow.

“Those Japanese are fast. Weren’t they the first to discover this place? How do they navigate so well….”
“I heard they obtained a compass with a special function.”
“Ah, I see….”

Wei Hao recalled the conversation he’d had with the Japanese duo.
They said they’d obtained a special item called a compass here. Since they hadn’t disclosed its detailed performance, Wei Hao didn’t know either.
But it was clear that it was something that would be of great help in finding their way.

“Well, I can’t just blindly trust what those Japanese bastards say….”

Wei Hao muttered as he passed by the carved markings.
They were people who could become enemies at any moment, but this time it would be fine. Because there was a powerful common enemy—Han Yu-sung.
Since he didn’t know how strong that guy was, at least in this Dragon Lord’s Lair, they could trust and cooperate with each other.

“Let’s move quickly. If we’re late, things will become troublesome.”
“Yes, Wei Hao. Don’t fall behind!”
“Move out!”

Thus, countless players pursued Han Yu-sung.

“Man, that Korean bastard. I don’t know who he is, but he’s no joke?”

The Japanese duo.
Suzuki Haruto and Inoue Seigo stood at a crossroads, surveying their surroundings.
What they saw were countless monsters and the remains of dragon soldiers.

“He did all this alone? It’s hard to believe.”
“Right? If the dragon soul’s growth value is 40,000, that would be impressive, but I don’t think he’d become this strong because of that.”
“Hmm….”

Suzuki Haruto stroked his chin, lost in thought.
He couldn’t know for certain who had opened this Dragon Lord’s Lair. But judging from the circumstances, it was highly likely to be Han Yu-sung, the 1st ranked Guardian.
Han Yu-sung. A name he’d never heard before.

“Is the player himself strong, separate from the dragon soul?”
“Who knows. Either way, we need to be careful. I guess we should be grateful that Wei Hao got us those subordinates from that Chinese guy.”
“Exactly.”

Multiple Destroyers followed behind the two Japanese men.
They were subordinates Wei Hao had entrusted to them, saying they were necessary for communication.
They’d thought they’d only be a hindrance, but they were turning out to be useful.
Thanks to them, their numbers were in the hundreds.
If the opponent was alone.

‘This should be manageable.’
‘Even if his growth coefficient is 40,000, combined we’re evenly matched.’

Besides, Wei Hao’s group should be following behind us.
Even if unexpected circumstances arise, we’ll have sufficient means to respond.
With that thought, Suzuki Haruto and Inoue Seigo drew out a compass.

“Which direction?”
“This way. It’s not as far as I expected.”
“Good, let’s go.”

The compass was an item obtained from Dragon’s Tomb.
Its core function was to indicate the direction of the ‘most precious treasure.’
By utilizing it well, they could even find the path leading to the dungeon’s end.
The two of them navigated forward using the traces scattered about and the compass as their guide.

“….”
“….”

No words were exchanged.
The deeper they descended, the more frequently lava erupted, and the heat grew increasingly fierce.
Sweat poured down like rain, and the air itself was so scorching that breathing became labored.
Yet Suzuki Haruto and Inoue Seigo remained vigilant of their surroundings, descending rapidly.
Then, in that moment.

“…Huh?”
“What is it?”

Something entered Suzuki Haruto’s field of vision.
Beyond the Corridor, a heat shimmer rippled upward.
Through it, a blurred silhouette—unmistakably human in form—flickered into view.
The moment Suzuki Haruto tried to cry out.

“Enemy…!”

Krrrrrrrrrr!

The shadow engulfed the Corridor in an instant.
Before they could even comprehend the situation, the sound of tearing flesh erupted from all directions.

A piercing shriek!
The crackling sound of shattering magic!

Suzuki Haruto, a mage, hastily deployed defensive magic to block the assault, but the Destroyers standing beside him failed to respond in time.

“What is this…!”
“An enemy! There’s an enemy! Where?! Show yourself!”
“Uaaaaargh!”

Darkness.
As if the brightness from moments before had been a lie, not a single ray of light penetrated the gloom.
Even Inoue Seigo, standing not far away, was invisible.

Clang! Clang!

“Gack, ugh… Aaaaaargh!”
“No, don’t come… Kuhack!”

The clash of weapons. Screams wrought with agony. The final gasping breath of those staring into death’s abyss.
Suzuki Haruto exhaled roughly, summoning his mana.
Who could it be?
There was only one possibility. Han Yu-sung, the Korean.
What was this shadow? Magic? Could he maintain magic of this magnitude for long?

‘Impossible. Such a thing cannot be possible!’

By a mage’s understanding, this magic could not be sustained indefinitely.
It would dissipate soon. He merely needed to endure until then.
Defend against the attacks emerging from the shadow, and once it vanished, coordinate with Inoue Seigo.
And….

Thud!

Something was hurled before Suzuki Haruto as his thoughts spiraled.
His eyes had grown somewhat accustomed to the darkness by then.
Suzuki Haruto blinked, confirming what lay at his feet.

“Huh?”

Suzuki Haruto’s thoughts came to a complete halt.
There was no way around it.
What lay before him, discarded like garbage…

“S-Seigo?”

It was Inoue Seigo, his heart pierced through, dead.
And he had been killed by the very spear he favored.
Confronted with this incomprehensible sight, Suzuki Haruto’s eyes widened in shock.

“So easily… he’s dead?”

Only a few minutes had passed since the shadow engulfed the area.
Two, three minutes? No, considering the darkness had dulled his sense of time, it could have been even shorter.
Inoue Seigo, of all people.
A man currently ranked third among the Destroyers, dying so pathetically?

“You’re next.”
“Ugh, uaaaaaaah!”

The voice came from right beside him.
Suzuki Haruto unleashed magic in a convulsive frenzy.
A magical circle bloomed around him as countless sharp stones erupted upward.
As the stones shattered, blade-like fragments scattered in all directions.

Kwaaaang!

Suzuki Haruto continued casting without pause.
Among the various elemental affinities, he chose earth magic—it synergized perfectly with his unique ability, 【Earth Affinity】.

‘Keep going, relentlessly… without stopping…!’

If he stopped attacking, he would be the one to fall!
Half-panicked, Suzuki Haruto continued unleashing spell after spell.

– Aaaaagh!

A scream pierced the air.
Was it one of ours? Or the enemy? I couldn’t tell.
Beyond my vision, the image of Inoue Seigo with his heart pierced flickered like a phantom.

“Gasp, hah—hah!”

Suzuki Haruto, who continued unleashing magic, exhaled heavily.
The surroundings fell silent. The screams that had filled the air moments before vanished.

‘Did he finish them off?’

Then, the shadow that had blanketed the Corridor dissipated.
What emerged was—

“You’re quite skilled at killing your own allies. Remarkable, even.”
“….”

The corpses of Destroyers littering the Corridor.
And behind the shadow and ice wall stood Han Yu-sung.
There was no need to say who had slain the Destroyers.
Suzuki Haruto, of all people, knew well what happened when you indiscriminately fired area magic in such a confined space.
The problem was that he had momentarily forgotten this truth in the throes of extreme panic.

“Startled by your comrade’s death? Well, in any case….”
“Uuuaaaagh!”

Cold eyes, tinged with something like boredom, fixed upon Suzuki Haruto.
Upon receiving that gaze, Suzuki Haruto convulsed, summoning mana desperately.
A magic circle materialized behind him.
And at a speed even faster than that—no.

“You’ll be joining him shortly anyway.”

In an instant, divine judgment descended.
There was no process of summoning mana, no preparation or completion of a spell.
As if skipping such steps entirely, the magic unfolded ‘instantaneously’.
Suzuki Haruto’s magic, which manifested too late, created countless boulders.
But it was meaningless.

BOOM!

The cascading lightning obliterated the rocks entirely.
Shattered debris scattered in all directions. Through it all, wind tore through the space.
A wind bearing the name Han Yu-sung.

‘Movement technique? From a mage? No, surely not….’

Fast. Impossibly fast.
Both his physical speed and the speed at which he deployed magic were extraordinary.
Was it even possible to manifest magic of this magnitude instantaneously?
And for someone capable of such magic to also possess—

CRASH!

—such overwhelming physical power?
The moment Han Yu-sung’s blade cleaved through the barrier Haruto had erected—

“Cough, ugh….”

It split through Haruto himself beyond it.
Haruto’s body, drained of all strength, crumpled.
Han Yu-sung turned his back on the fallen corpse without a second glance.

“For a mage, his mental fortitude was remarkably weak. Made things easier, at least.”
[And yet you deliberately created those conditions. How cruel.]

Kakasha muttered in a tone dripping with exasperation.
Han Yu-sung wiped the blood from his blade, then retrieved an oddly-shaped compass from the dead mage’s possession.

‘A Grave Robber’s Compass.’

An item usable only within the Dragon’s Tomb.
It revealed the direction of the most precious treasure, and it also possessed the function of roughly indicating the distance to that treasure.

“Not much distance left.”

The compass pointed in the same direction as the Red Hatchling’s path.
In most dungeons, the most precious treasures lay in the deepest reaches.
Where the Red Hatchling led, the greatest treasure surely awaited.
According to the compass’s distance reading, we weren’t far now.

“Well, I’ll find out soon enough.”

I wanted to finish this before any pursuers caught up.
Han Yu-sung followed the Red Hatchling deeper into the darkness.

* * *

The heat intensified with each step.
I could almost convince myself my body would evaporate at any moment.
As we descended further into the Deep Layer, the passages grew more labyrinthine, and the number of enemies blocking our path multiplied exponentially.

– Crack, crack….

Boom!

After dispatching the colossal drake soldier, I wiped the sweat from my brow.
This creature differed vastly from any drake soldier I’d encountered before—its frame, its strength, everything surpassed them.
Perhaps it was a mid-tier boss of sorts.
Which meant.

“I think I’ve arrived.”

The colossal drake soldier I’d just defeated had been guarding a doorway.
A door whose mechanism remained a mystery to me.
Yet the moment the Hatchling approached it, the door groaned open of its own accord.
What lay beyond was a vast cavern.

– Kyuuuu….

There stood a colossal dragon statue, towering majestically.
It was half-destroyed, fractured and weathered.
Yet from it emanated an overwhelming presence—a pressure, almost a tangible aura of dominion.
The Hatchling approached the statue as if drawn by an invisible force.
And the instant they made contact.

[Ku, uu, uuuuuu….]

A tremendous roar erupted as the statue blazed crimson.
The presence emanating from within grew exponentially more formidable.
I sensed souls of such overwhelming power that ordinary mortals would struggle merely to comprehend them—not one, but many dwelling within the stone form.
Multiple souls, layered and intertwined.

[Lamentable, and yet calamitous….]

A voice steeped in lamentation and despair flowed forth from the statue.

[Has this world, then, truly perished….]
[Was it impossible to escape the predetermined fate….]

The statue’s solitary remaining eye socket stirred.
The stone gaze turned upward toward the ceiling.
Though carved from lifeless stone, the eye conveyed something far more complex—a tempest of emotion crystallized in mineral form.
After lingering upon the ceiling for a long moment, the eye shifted once more.

[Yet hope has not entirely vanished….]

Hatchling met the gaze fixed upon me.
From those stone eyes poured forth a crimson radiance—fierce, overwhelming, absolute.

[Hatchling, born against the threads of fate itself.]
[Are you prepared to become the final sovereign of a ruined world?]

Destiny began to move.
The destiny that had remained frozen for eons, seemingly immobile, stirred to life.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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