The Swords I Raised Are Too Strong - Chapter 69

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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 69. The Truth (1)
“Jesus Christ!!!”
China, as observed through Shin Si-woo.
The United States had plunged into an abyss of shock.
“My brother… you keep poisoning the world, don’t you?”
Shin Si-woo continued to force-feed the red pill.
But the dosage was staggering—lethal in its magnitude.
Demon Worshippers. Fallen Awakeners.
And now, the hidden truth of China itself had been laid bare.
“The intelligence from our field agents and what we’re observing in China are vastly different.”
President Bill Johnson, who had been clutching his head in distress, spoke with careful deliberation.
The United States had CIA operatives embedded deep within China.
To be precise, they were already stationed there when the Gate incident erupted, and they Awakened within China, continuing their intelligence operations in place.
“Jesus, is there any possibility that they’ve been turned by China?”
“Bill, our operatives remain devout Christians and Catholics.”
“Then why….”
What had the CIA operatives confirmed about China?
Hong Kong.
Xinjiang Autonomous Region.
Taiwan, absorbed and annexed by the Gate incident.
According to intelligence from the surviving operatives, China’s condition was horrific.
‘Most of it was supposedly a hell comparable to North Korea—.’
Hong Kong’s entire island had been dragged into the depths of a submarine Gate.
Xinjiang Autonomous Region was shrouded in impenetrable darkness, and Taiwan’s entire territory had been transformed into a grotesque ecosystem.
Yet….
“I never imagined the Chinese Mainland would remain so intact.”
Originally, the American leadership had theorized that all of China had been Gatified—collapsed.
But that assumption proved spectacularly wrong.
The reality of China, as observed through Shin Si-woo, was an intact territory where humans lived.
“Jesus. Are the Chinese Military… human?”
“Pure humans. However, they all seemed to be either Awakeners or shared in the power of Awakening.”
This was what ordinary people and ordinary SSS-rank Hunters had witnessed.
However, because Jesus was a god, he could even perceive the [Evil God’s Servants] that appeared within China.
That entity, beheaded by Shin Si-woo’s lightning the moment it appeared.
“I beheld a fallen being at the heart of China.”
Guan Yu, with inverted eyes—fallen.
A legendary figure from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and a divine avatar worshipped in China.
“If monsters from China’s history begin to manifest, it will be quite troublesome.”
America’s history is short.
Thus, the structure makes it difficult for mythological beings to descend.
I wish that at least Marvel-like heroes would awaken as Awakeners….
Jesus took a moment to collect his thoughts before announcing his intentions to the transcendents and government officials gathered in the Church.
“I, Jesus Christ, command it—from this moment forward, the United States prepares for war with China.”
The air grows heavy.
War.
War meant the clash of human against human.
The word—war—spoken for the first time since humanity’s shared calamity, the Gate Incident, had erupted.
The word war, long dormant, had been uttered from the lips of the Monotheistic God Jesus.
In the silence, Jesus gazes toward the heavens.
Shiiing————.
Radiant light of five colors pours through the Church’s stained glass.
Jesus [observed] beyond the light.
A final contingency prepared for any unforeseen circumstance—he recalled a solitary existence drifting through the vast cosmos.
‘Elon, how fares the universe?’
—Ep. 23 Truth.
[Do not reveal my death to the enemy.]
The Patriot possesses a transcendent invincibility skill of sorts.
As long as he does not declare to others that he is ‘dead,’ he can resurrect from the Aircraft Carrier at any moment.
Because his interpretation of Yi Sun-sin’s famous maxim manifested the [Skill] according to the Patriot’s will.
But….
Flash!
‘D-damn bastard!!!’
The Patriot regained consciousness.
Under the effect of [Absolute Patriotism], the Patriot’s mind can never crumble.
Yet….
‘Did I lose consciousness?’
Even when struck by Japan’s nuclear weapons—a thousand Little Boys—he had resurrected rather than perished.
Against China’s ten thousand nuclear bombardments.
Even facing ten billion Chinese Military undead legions, he had never lost consciousness.
Yet the Patriot had lost consciousness.
Which meant….
———he had nearly become Demon food.
—Almost.
The Patriot felt the damp sensation of his lower body and quietly pricked up his ears.
‘First, assess the situation.’
He does not open his eyes.
That mad swordsman might still be targeting him.
“I understand your desire to strengthen South Korea’s military power. However….”
A familiar voice reaches his ears.
“Isn’t this going too far? How exactly….”
President Lee Seok-hyun and Chief Prosecutor Kang Mu-jin.
I considered opening my eyes at the sound of these manageable voices.
That was when it happened.
“It’s not excessive. Even as we speak, China is literally mass-producing Awakened ones.”
A terrifying voice cut through the air.
Shin Si-woo, who had threatened me with dual blades.
The Patriot started to open his eyes before feigning unconsciousness again.
A chilling memory had surfaced.
Specifically, the memory of that moment when Shin Si-woo’s blade touched his throat.
‘That bastard is absolutely terrifying.’
The Patriot had heard an utterly horrifying voice.
It was as if the blade itself was speaking….
—I have never tasted a Constellation before. Come now, defy the Sword Master’s will and become nourishment.
A threat to feed him to the Demon.
—What is born when you strike a star? You yourself seem worthless to behold, so I shall simply extract that [Awakening] ability of yours. Now, defy the Sword Master’s will!
A terrifying threat to eliminate the great figures who had stood alongside him throughout his life to protect this nation.
The actual content of Shin Si-woo’s threat was simply to choose ‘2’ unconditionally.
‘What exactly is 2?’
My legs trembled and my knees went weak.
Fear sharpened the Patriot’s mind.
I could sense something.
Surely, Shin Si-woo had asked whether I would enter the [Tower].
Combine the Tower and 2, and what do you get?
‘The second option in the choices.’
The answer was Yi Do—dual-blade swordsmanship.
True to his nature as a swordsman, his intention to turn me into a dual-blade swordsman was unmistakable.
‘He’s threatening me to wield two blades and choose the second option, Yi Do?’
No matter how I thought about it, President Syngman Rhee seemed cooler than a dual-blade swordsman….
Before that thought could even finish, the Patriot’s eyes flew wide open.
Because he had heard words so brutal they overcame his fear of Shin Si-woo.
“If I modify my territory in Pyongyang, through the Sword of Protection, Kim Jun, I could infinitely increase South Korea’s Awakened ones.”
The Sword of Protection.
No, rather, the Bastion of Patriotism, Kim Jun.
What was his ability?
“B-but even so, that procedure is quite….”
“I’m not sure if the people would accept it. There’s such a thing as national sentiment, after all.”
An ability so potent that even the President and Kang Mu-jin, who nod first and ask questions later when a transcendent speaks, would hesitate.
The Patriot jolted upright, nearly jumping out of his skin.
“You’re going to put the people in coffins and turn them into Awakened ones?”
The [Coffin] that had birthed 170,000 Awakened ones.
But the process itself was hardly a pleasant one, was it?
“Junior, have you lost your mind?”
Originally, the Coffin was meant to be used for soldiers awaiting euthanasia due to contamination by aberrations.
Enduring within the Coffin was preferable to euthanasia, after all.
However, Shin Si-woo used the power of [Purification] to heal all contamination afflicting the South Korean Military personnel.
Now Patriot understood the reason.
“Insane… was that the purpose of treating the military personnel?”
He would thrust ordinary citizens into the Coffin and push them into the Gate.
That was Shin Si-woo’s intention—to cultivate Awakened ones in this manner.
Wasn’t this the act of a madman?
Yet why did it feel different?
“Patriot.”
Shin Si-woo gazed at Patriot with an impassive expression.
Then his eyes shifted toward the President and Kang Mu-jin.
Slowly, yet with solemn gravity.
He looked at each person present in the Aircraft Carrier’s command center.
Then Shin Si-woo spoke.
“I overcame my trials in that manner.”
Shin Si-woo’s ordeal—something never once mentioned before.
He was speaking of that.
* * *
‘There is no answer.’
The Evil God and the Demon.
Even there, higher-ranking entities are already exerting influence over Earth.
‘Through the method of higher species dominating lower species…’
Furthermore, Muratan made this inference.
⦗Sword Master, it is highly probable that ordinary people have come to possess the seeds of Awakening through contracts with the Demon as a medium.⦘
According to Muratan’s words, [Awakening] is a power that can be separated.
If I can do it, then someone else could likely accomplish something similar, and China may very well be doing so right now.
They may have woven together tens of thousands of ordinary people to create a single, formidable Awakened ability.
“In my assessment, humanity’s golden window is at most within the next ten years.”
In [Sword Raising], the moment when the world’s descent accelerates is called the ‘critical point.’
We already stand precariously upon that threshold.
“Ten years is still—”
“The golden window means the time until ‘annihilation.’ Prevention and mitigation are already too late.”
I recounted, in abbreviated form, the path I had walked with my swords.
“I unified humanity’s collective will into one.”
The population of that world was far smaller than Earth’s.
Yet despite that, there were countless nations and diverse races, making it an arduous task to integrate their opinions.
“How could you unite them when there are so many nations? What about those Islamic states that won’t eat pork and marry off nine-year-old girls to sixty-year-old men?”
Patriot asks.
I have witnessed the world’s end in both its form of salvation and its form of destruction.
Yet even that salvation, when measured against all of humanity, proves ambiguous.
This is because of how I gathered humanity’s collective will.
“Those who opposed were cast aside. Those who resisted were slaughtered without exception.”
In Reinhardt Euclid’s world, only a single empire remained as a nation.
In Yulia Lanestia’s world, only the Holy Kingdom she ruled.
In Muratan’s world, clusters of humans protected by the [Fortress of Invulnerability] scattered across the globe.
As for Iris Ruzbella, only the Last Empress and a million demons comprised the entire world.
‘Jun.’
Of course, there are cases where more nations survived.
The three Swords not yet awakened—Jun.
Paradoxically, Jun, who lived most harshly, saved the most of humanity.
Yet I cannot employ that method.
‘Whether he will even awaken is questionable.’
Jun is the Assassination Sword.
My greed to witness the world’s end in its most complete form shattered his sense of self.
There are no signs of his awakening, and even if he does, I lack the resolve to face him.
In any case, while harboring such thoughts, I uttered my final words.
“I will make humanity one on Earth as well.”
I struggled even to control my own Swords—could I truly bend this chaotic world to my will?
A hundred people means a hundred different wills.
But what is needed now is a hundred people following a single will.
I will accomplish it.
“Only by exerting all their strength as one unified humanity can they barely ‘endure.'”
Yes, and so we endured.
Until my Swords slew everything that threatened to destroy the world.
Had we failed to endure, my Swords would have faced a ruined world—so I made certain people survived by any means necessary.
“How is the world now? Countless nations would collapse if even a single Transcendent disappeared.”
The difference between Earth and [Sword Raising], if I must name it, is the existence of ‘Transcendents.’
I will gather them all to face evil and demons, and in that window, the remaining humanity must at least acquire the strength to endure.
‘I cannot do everything alone.’
I have no intention of doing everything myself.
If I did, all the powerless would perish.
Fortunately, my sincerity reached them.
“Shin Si-woo, we will prepare according to your will.”
It began with the Righteous Swordsman, Director Kang Mu-jin, nodding his head.
“I will be the first participant to minimize public backlash.”
The President declared himself the first awakened being to be born from the [Eye].
And Patriot, who had been glancing at me nervously this whole time—.
“I still don’t understand your idea of putting ordinary citizens in coffins.”
I continued to reject his notion.
I gazed at him intently, and the Patriot reluctantly averted his eyes.
He seemed to have steeled his resolve.
“I… I will become stronger.”
With those words, the Patriot tore apart the [Tower Admission Ticket].
Flash!
The Patriot vanished in a burst of light.
He had entered the Tower.
Yet for some reason, the Patriot’s Aircraft Carrier remained in the world.
“It is the law that existing Constellations cannot intervene when a new Constellation is acquired.”
Yi Sun-sin spoke those words with a troubled expression.
* * *
Flash!
[External interference has been detected.]
[The choices have changed.]
The Patriot, now inside the Tower.
Choices materialized before his eyes.
‘Wait… the order changed?’
Flash!
[Options]
1. Constellation, Yi Do.
2. Constellation, Syngman Rhee.
Originally, option 2 was Yi Do.
But now option 1 had become Yi Do.
According to Shin Si-woo’s threat, he said ‘definitely choose 2’…
The Patriot’s sharp mind worked through the logic to arrive at the wisest answer.
‘Option 2 or the Yi Do style?’
Judging by how he threatened me while wielding dual blades, option 2 is absolutely not it.
Since he’s a swordmaster, it has to be the Yi Do style.
But…
‘Do you really think I’ll do what you say?’
The Patriot’s head tilted stubbornly.
His finger was about to point toward the first president, Syngman Rhee.
‘Damn, that’s terrifying.’
The memory of being threatened by the Swords came flooding back.
Right, a senior transcendent who listens to his junior’s opinion.
That narrative sounds better.
Flash!
[You have selected Yi Do.]
Patriot’s vision shifts.
Somewhere within an immense palace.
A portly gentleman in dragon robes sits upon what appears to be a throne.
‘A king, then.’
Through successive trials, Patriot has come to recognize that this figure is a ‘king’ from somewhere in Joseon.
I identified him easily enough.
‘Is the king himself not a Constellation?’
There is no king like Yi Do in Korean history.
‘Should I just kill him first and think later?’
Kings are nothing but obstacles to the creation of the Korean Empire.
That much my experience has taught me.
As Patriot stares intently at Yi Do seated upon the jade throne.
“How dare you—who do you think you are, raising your head in my presence?”
A weighty baritone descends upon the great hall.
‘Usually they’d be terrified and ask if I’m an immortal, but this one’s different.’
A Taegeuk flag cape.
A Taegeuk flag hoodie.
A Taegeuk flag cap.
Despite Patriot’s strange attire, the mysterious king seated upon the jade throne rebukes him with a stern voice.
‘This is no ordinary king, then.’
Patriot begins the ceremonial procedure, harboring a glimmer of hope.
If this were some thug like Soo-yang, I’d kill him on the spot, but I must restrain myself for now.
‘The possibility of meeting that great one.’
As always, when I see someone who looks like a ‘king,’ there’s a line I recite.
Because there’s always that chance.
‘Tae-jong, Tae-se, Moon-dan, Se….’
Two Taes, two Ses.
And one Jong from Sejong.
It was a bit difficult to ask in order.
Let me just throw out a direct question!
“Could you be King Sejong?”
A temple name is a title bestowed when a king’s spirit tablet is enshrined in the ancestral temple after death.
Even King Sejong himself would not have known this during his lifetime.
Of course, Patriot knows nothing of such things.
“How dare—.”
Yi Do—the king—exhales in fury.
Just as Yi Do is about to shout for someone to cast out this insolent fool.
Those words escape from Patriot’s lips.
“The language of our nation differs from that of the Central Kingdom—.”
That which has only been created but not yet proclaimed.
It was something the royal family had created in strict secrecy.
“How… how did you obtain that?”

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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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