The Return of the Legendary Golden-Handed Blacksmith - Chapter 259

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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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Episode 259
259.
The Southern Last Stronghold.
There, Nordin and armed spirits stood their ground.
“Knights.”
Nordin spoke with a weary face.
The spirit knights clenched their teeth at the sight of him. They too were utterly exhausted.
They had just returned from battle.
“Grendan was… stronger than we anticipated.”
The southern edge.
Nordin and the spirit knights had been driven back to this very limit.
The enemy was the Three-Horned Demon, Grendan.
“We couldn’t defeat even the demons under the command of the 72 Demons—let alone the tower’s own bosses.”
The spirit knights hung their heads at Nordin’s words.
They had numbered a thousand strong at the start.
But through battle after battle with the demons, their numbers dwindled, and when several spirit knights suddenly betrayed them to side with the demons, scarcely a hundred remained.
A long exhale escaped Nordin.
At this dire turn of events, Nordin pressed his forehead with his palm.
No strategy came to mind to break the deadlock.
Then the oldest among the spirit knights spoke.
“Had Your Highness not returned, all would have been lost already.”
“We have not yet surrendered.”
Even as they spoke, their eyes held no hope.
The Three-Horned Demon, Grendan, was far too powerful.
No method could fell him, and they found themselves forced to cut down their own comrades turned traitor by his hand.
How could they bring themselves to strike down those they fought beside only moments before?
And so they had retreated, again and again.
“First, let us devise a strategy.”
Nordin forced himself to speak again.
“A plan, then.”
One of the spirit knights pointed at the map and spoke.
“We must seize this position. Only then can the eastern and western routes be opened. But… the Three-Horned Demon Grendan blocks this very place.”
The Three-Horned Demon, Grendan, was far too formidable.
“Moreover, as Your Highness is well aware…”
There was something more urgent than driving out the demons.
The spirit city of Elementia was, true to its name, home to spirits of countless natures.
To live in this city, they required powerful anchors—Artifacts.
Those great and precious objects lay shattered by demonic hands.
Even if the demons were driven out, the land itself would remain broken.
The worst. Truly the worst of circumstances.
Nordin had no answer.
Yet not all threads of hope had been severed.
There was one he had called upon for aid.
The monstrous foreigner. If he came, even a glimmer of hope might remain.
Though even if he came…
it would be difficult to reverse this despair, but at least a final counterattack might be possible.
“Your Highness.”
“…”
But he could not wait for hope that might never come.
“Gather the Spirit Stones.”
At Nordin’s command, the spirit knights collected the Spirit Stones.
These stones were minerals of many uses.
“We march on Grendan.”
Waiting here meant the end of all things.
Flight would bring the same.
There was no path but forward.
* * *
Jin-woo had already swept across the Southern Battlefield to save the younger spirit sibling of the little spirit.
Because of this, Grendan, a mid-boss-tier demon overseeing the southern operations, had received a report.
“Lord Grendan, I report! A village has launched a fierce counterattack!”
At those words, the massive demon with three great horns, Grendan, frowned.
“Nothing should be there. Surely not that Nordin?”
Then he smiled as if amused.
“I thought he’d lost his nerve and fled deeper. Oho! A counterattack, is it!”
Nordin held no hope left.
Grendan had crushed him thoroughly, using the power of discord to make allies fight one another.
Since orders forbade killing Nordin, it was meant to break his spirit entirely.
“The Greater Demons say he must be turned into a demon to manage this spirit city. I cannot fathom what they see in that frail creature, though.”
Grendan immediately seized his weapon.
A massive black Hammer with an unnaturally long head.
The Hammer bristled with vicious spikes, making it a fearsome sight.
“Summon my demons. I shall personally deliver fresh torment to Nordin.”
Grendan led the demons forth.
“Shrieeeeeek!”
But what he heard was screaming.
“What joyful sounds already!”
There Grendan witnessed it.
The screams came not from spirits, but from demons.
“…?”
“Finally, you show yourself.”
Jin-woo met Grendan.
“As I hunted the demons, I realized the materials were quite decent.”
Grendan saw a human. And around that human, he saw subordinates radiating strangely potent power and black aura.
Whoooosh—
Blue flames flickered in those eyes.
It was eerie enough to chill the blood.
Demons and Undead were, in a sense, similar creatures of darkness—yet their very nature differed fundamentally.
“Hm. A Necromancer, then. And human, no less. Who are you?”
“Reinforcement.”
Jin-woo replied.
“Reinforcement? Ha. Hahahahaha! Very well. Let us see how you ‘reinforce.'”
Grendan spread his hand.
“Demons.”
Hundreds of demons unfurled their wings as one.
“Hunt him. And bring him to kneel before me!”
The order given, the demons surged forward—but something moved faster still, slicing through the air in a blur.
Crack!
Crack! Snap! Splinter!
An invisible force was shredding the demons to pieces.
“What—what is this!”
Grendan, alarmed, twisted his head about. Yet he could not catch sight of that something with his eyes.
At the same moment, Jin-woo’s other subordinates moved.
“An excellent vanguard.”
Pur had already rushed into the demons arrayed before Grendan.
Whoooosh—
The Extreme Sword swept in a straight line, freezing the demons outright.
And beside him, First traced his blade from top to bottom.
“Destructive Strike.”
A blood-red crescent slash tore through all, striking Grendan directly.
“!”
Grendan desperately threw himself aside.
Whoooosh—
Instinct drove him.
Every ounce of Grendan’s power surged forth. The ground around him trembled, and waves of force rippled outward.
Whoosh! Whoooosh!
Even with his full might unleashed, Grendan could not hide his shock.
“Even with all my strength…!”
The first attacker—still invisible.
Crack! Crack!
Only the sound of demons dying reached him. Having lost the initiative from the start, the battle’s momentum had slipped entirely to the other side.
“Any creature with wings must have my permission.”
Then a shadow fell.
A massive Bone Dragon appeared overhead.
“To take to the air, that is.”
Whoooooosh!
Bone Breath erupted over the demons.
“Shrieeeeeek!”
The fleeing demons’ bodies suddenly lifted skyward.
Moltus’s Telekinesis gathered them together.
Clustered, they burned in the breath.
“Kahahaha! Moltus, magnificent!”
“…”
Moltus had been created first, yet he felt no displeasure at this. If anything, he found Jin-woo commendable.
“Praise from that arrogant fool—how could I not be pleased?”
Coming from such an unbearably conceited creature, praise felt almost precious.
“Just who in blazes are you!”
The Three-Horned Demon, Grendan, could not comprehend what was happening.
“This is impossible. It’s all been settled. All of it settled!”
Elementia had been on the verge of complete absorption.
Nordin was kept alive so the Greater Demons controlling the three towers could absorb him personally, while the rest were reserved for amusement.
In such a situation, how could there be reinforcements?
No—why would a human seek to save a spirit city in the first place!
“A mere human, no less…!”
It was absurd.
A solitary human appearing to call himself reinforcement could only be laughable.
Yet the summoned creatures were genuinely intriguing.
They seemed to possess tremendous power, and subduing them promised exquisite satisfaction.
But everything had inverted from the very start.
“Who are you! I demand to know!”
“I told you. Reinforcement.”
Jin-woo spoke thus as he inspected the byproducts his subordinates had brought—gathered from the hunted demons.
Save for Grendan, every demon he had dispatched was now slain.
Grendan’s gaze swept the surroundings.
“My Demon Legion…”
…had been hunted by six Undead, no less.
“When armies clash, it’s rather entertaining.”
Jin-woo laughed as he examined the byproducts his subordinates carried.
“The soul Tiers are respectable. The bones are decent too.”
He grinned as he approached Grendan.
“You have three horns, though.”
Jin-woo’s eyes gleamed.
“Two plus one—I can’t pass this up.”
Jin-woo grasped the Chaos Judgment’s Scythe.
“Come.”

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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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