The Swords I Raised Are Too Strong - Chapter 46

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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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Chapter 46. Awakening (3)
The entity shrouding Jeolla Province was, as I had anticipated, a Black Gate.
Whoooosh——.
Muratan crushed the World Tree sapling—the boss-tier entity of the Gate—just before departing, and immediately after, a portal materialized before my eyes.
The Gate had been conquered.
If the Black Gate possessed one advantage, it was that the space remained intact even after the escape portal opened.
‘Now, what remains….’
I fixed my gaze upon the man before me.
The man who carried 170,000 survivors within his body—Kim Jun.
Squelch—.
Countless blood vessels erupted grotesquely from his back.
Hundreds of thousands of blood vessels burst from his spine, compressed to their limit, resembling an enormous tube inserted into flesh.
As they spread outward and swelled to tremendous size, the sight was profoundly grotesque.
‘Like luxuriant vines….’
Like a dense tree sprouted upon the earth that was Kim Jun.
It was bizarre enough to defy comprehension.
‘This must be the power of the contract.’
The blood vessels, like lush branches, were undoubtedly the power of the [Evil God].
Authority granted through contract, one might say.
Meanwhile, the ability to conceal countless people within his body was unmistakably [Awakening].
The reason Muratan marveled was because he was both an Awakener and a contractor of a demon.
‘He must have awakened and become a contractor.’
The sequence would be thus.
Kim Jun—he most likely became an Awakener without realizing it, undergoing [Trials] in an extreme environment.
Among ordinary people caught in the Gate incident, those who survived naturally achieved Awakening.
Everyone else perished.
A Gate is an extreme environment where ordinary humans cannot survive.
‘But here is the exception.’
Thanks to Kim Jun confining countless people within his body, this place harbors many survivors.
So from the Evil God’s perspective, he would have seemed a suitable entity for contract.
Freshly awakened, he must have sought to fill his insufficient power by contracting with the Evil God.
His purpose was, most likely——.
“Survival… of….”
To save tens of thousands of lives.
Though I do not yet know the specific method.
‘I grasp the general situation now.’
Now I must enter into Kim Jun’s Awakening ability.
A technique only the Aga Sword can accomplish.
By utilizing its characteristic of transcending [time and space].
‘The problem is how so many people remain alive….’
Natural awakening manifests differently for each individual, making it difficult to draw definitive conclusions.
However, as a civil servant of the Awakener Management Bureau, I have encountered diverse cases.
Kim Jun’s ability is likely―.
‘Subspace-class.’
And it’s a formidable ability capable of containing living beings.
If that weren’t the case, the survival count of 170,000 wouldn’t make sense.
Even so, problems still remain.
‘How did they solve the food situation?’
The number of people caught in The Void was approximately 300,000.
Though it has decreased significantly over time, the last known count of 170,000 is still an extraordinary number.
That many humans need resources to survive.
‘Internal procurement is impossible.’
The entire city was consumed by The Void.
Yet not a single trace of the city’s structure remained recognizable within The Void.
Not even a single supermarket survived—everything was swallowed by darkness.
While I pondered this dilemma.
⦗It’s possible this is a condition of a contract.⦘
Reinhardt Euclid spoke to me.
I too had anticipated such a possibility.
Though I couldn’t guess what that condition might be.
I only hoped it wasn’t the worst-case scenario I was imagining.
* * *
The human soul is twisted and warped.
Few beings are as contorted as humans, so in a sense, it was inevitable.
Within that crooked world, dozens of people with inverted eyes had gathered together.
—The seed has perished.
Dozens of black eyes and pristine white pupils stared simultaneously into the void.
This was The Altar where countless sacrifices congregated, a place where the evil god’s amusement unfolded.
And yet, suddenly, sorrowful news had reached them?
All murmured in confusion, unable to comprehend.
“The seed is dead?”
“How?”
“Who on earth could have killed it, and by what means….”
This place is The Void.
The land where a gateless calamity devoured an entire city.
Only those permitted by darkness were guaranteed safety—an absolutely secure sanctuary for the Demon Worshippers.
Even the Patriot refrained from bombing it out of concern for the survivors.
This was the optimal place to cultivate the seed.
And yet….
“The seed is dead?”
The [Seed] that Korean Demon Worshippers had painstakingly obtained.
They corrupted the Black Gate using the power of the Demon King, and swallowed an entire city whole with a calamity named The Void.
Thus, they secured hundreds of thousands as sacrifices.
Yet the Seed had died.
Suddenly, one of the Demon Worshippers noticed something strange.
“That coffin. Its color isn’t changing.”
The place where the Demon Worshippers gathered was [The Tomb].
A graveyard where all survivors trapped within The Void had congregated.
This was a world solemnly guarded by a man called the gravedigger, and that man was an irregular that the Demon Worshippers could not handle.
“The bloodline remains connected. The Demon King’s contract is still valid.”
The Demon Worshippers had swallowed a population of 300,000.
When that many people gathered, one or two irregulars were bound to emerge.
In the extreme environment, multiple Awakeners appeared. Some converted to Demon Worshippers, while the rest perished in their death throes.
And….
“Because of that bastard, what a mess this has become.”
One man, Kim Jun, had awakened a grotesque and peculiar ability.
His combat power was unremarkable, but the authority he possessed was absurdly overwhelming.
A bizarre ability to place living people into [coffins], suspending life and death.
“I-I’ve developed a special ability! Everyone, please trust me!!!”
The number of coffins was nearly infinite.
Everyone within The Void entrusted their lives to Kim Jun.
The reason was that he had been a renowned civil servant who had built trust from the beginning.
This too was absurd, but what happened afterward was even more ridiculous.
“If I die, you will gain only one life—mine.”
Kim Jun accepted most of the survivors into his own being.
Thus he reached a point of negotiating in reverse with the Demon Worshippers.
According to the Demon King’s words, if he died, all the people in his world would also disappear….
An interesting fellow. Let’s make a deal.
The Demon King proposed a contract to Kim Jun.
Kim Jun had no choice but to accept.
Even if he placed people in [coffins] to suspend death, he needed energy to sustain life.
The moment you give up, they will all be consumed by the Seed.
They will share their life force with one another and continue living.
You will forget everything and merely repeat muddled thoughts following your instincts until you surrender—.
The Demon King tested Kim Jun’s [nature], and Kim Jun demanded maximum survival of the masses through the Demon King’s authority.
Thus time passed, and 1,135 days had elapsed, with 170,000 survivors still remaining in this land.
And the Demon Worshippers who had caused this catastrophe were also observing Kim Jun’s world—The Tomb—within the Demon King’s mark.
A foolish man nurturing the Seed of the World Tree that had fallen in an eternal dream.
And today.
————A grotesque sound echoed.
After 1,135 days, a change manifested within Kim Jun’s Tomb.
The inner world of an Awakener, isolated from the outside flow, was split asunder by an incomprehensible force.
The figure that emerged from within was a man wielding a sword.
He intoned toward the Demon Worshippers with a growling resonance.
“———.”
Someone’s name.
Then the man’s sword stained crimson.
A chilling voice reached the ears of the Demon Worshippers.
——Ahahahahaha!!!
A woman’s laughter so rich it seemed to tear the eardrums.
The voice of an absolute victor.
Suddenly, the laughter ceased.
Then came a single utterance of death.
“My time has come.”
* * *
“A mark of the contract, a mark indeed. Ah….”
Iris Ruzbella’s eyes gleamed with sinister brilliance.
Her crimson irises deepened like fresh blood, and her lips curved into a smile that seemed ready to split her face.
Though she still bore the appearance of a small girl, her expression, her gaze, her laughter—all of it evoked that of an absolute predator.
That rapture spoke of——
———death itself.
The Heavenly Killing Star.
Her innate star blazed.
Instinct set her blood ablaze.
A being who had transcended by devouring all demons now faced the deepest darkness for the first time in ages.
The sword that had grown stronger by consuming evil welcomed this moment with such fervor.
“Iris Ruzbella.”
Knowing her joy, the Sword Master likewise spoke her name without hesitation.
Iris did not waver.
The moment her name was called, she answered by manifesting as a sword, unleashing her full power with the same eagerness.
Shhhhhhhhh————.
This place was a desolate tomb.
Upon the burial mound, Demon Worshippers guarded ‘something,’ and beneath it loomed a massive hexahedral structure.
It was a coffin.
Coffins stacked upon coffins, constructed to resemble a building.
‘I will become a good sword.’
In the Sword World, Iris had read her master’s heart.
Unlike herself, who had been abandoned and left alone, her master lived among countless people.
She had been with the sword, so meeting her end in a world devoid of life was the greatest happiness imaginable.
But her master would be different.
‘She’s chosen the most difficult path.’
Iris Ruzbella realized this as she conversed with the other Swords.
In truth, slaughtering everything indiscriminately would be the easiest way to overcome destruction.
Yet with hundreds of thousands of such burdens accompanying them, maintaining the world was nearly impossible.
Still, Iris Ruzbella believed.
‘If our Master, the girl’s lord, wills it—.’
The Sword Master, Shin Si-woo.
With his power, it was possible.
With even the final Sword that transcended time and space itself, nothing was truly impossible.
As proof, had she not manifested within another’s world?
———A sharp, tearing sound.
In that brief instant.
A procession of crimson Demons consumed all the Demon Worshippers.
A legion of Demons that shook an entire Awakener’s world to its foundations.
The Demons, devouring everything with ravenous hunger, forced their way through the cracks and consumed even the void of the Black Gate entirely.
What remained were structures built entirely of coffins.
Coffins containing the lives of 170,000 souls.
Had she been her former self, Iris Ruzbella would have devoured all 170,000 lives and coveted this extraordinary world as well.
—My subjects, cease your consumption.
The Empress commanded.
The million-strong army halted at her single word.
From the great crimson Sword, gems gleamed with an eerie light, and the Demons moved in accordance with that radiance.
The Demons approached the burial mounds where the Demon Worshippers had stood and excavated something.
As the Demons worked, Iris Ruzbella spoke.
⦗This is a gift the girl offers to the Sword Master.⦘
It was as though she were seeking praise, asking, ‘Didn’t I do well?’
What she presented to Shin Si-woo was [Memory].
Records from the void absorbed while consuming all the Demon Worshippers—the desperate chronicle of a man’s survival.
After reading the memory, Shin Si-woo fell momentarily silent.
“That was your best effort, in your own way.”
After a pause, Shin Si-woo offered words of gratitude to Iris Ruzbella, his expression a complex smile tinged with bitterness yet relief.
⦗Girl, there is still more to present.⦘
The burial mounds where the Demon Worshippers had stationed themselves.
The Demons excavating that place approached, bearing something large and dark.
It resembled a dragon’s egg, yet also appeared as a black crystalline sphere….
Shin Si-woo, knowing its true nature, stood with eyes wide, unable to speak.
And with good reason.
“Why is an actual World Tree seed here?”
Incomparably different from some corrupted sapling.
A true seed from which the World Tree itself could grow rested in his hands.
And….
[Mark of Contract]
This was evidence of a contract forged between the Demon King and a man named Kim Jun.

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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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