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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Prøks]
[Proofreader - Prøks]
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Chapter 210: Red
Crackle—
The moment I felt something explode inside me, a terrible pain, as if all the blood in my body was flowing in reverse, consumed me.
My legs buckled, and I fell to my knees.
I coughed up a mix of blood and laughter.
"Ptooey."
Even if the circle in my heart were to be destroyed right now, it wouldn't be strange.
But I didn't stop this madness.
Ignoring Black's shouts, I simply raised my head and glared.
The Fog of Annihilation surged forward, enveloping the pitch-black darkness.
Thud—
Black, standing in front of me, seemed to tremble.
Then, he unleashed all of his mana cores and projected a blade of aura forward.
Immediately, a powerful energy shot out from the mist, instantly shattering the blade of aura.
Following that, an immense coldness and a shockwave erupted.
"Gah!"
With Vassago's full-force attack, Black was instantly sent flying backward and disappeared from my sight.
Now, there was nothing left between me and Vassago.
Between my glaring eyes, the chilling cold grew stronger and stronger.
Blink
As the whole world was dyed in darkness, what came into view was a red mist and a red blade.
I could also see Vassago's face, his whole body flushed red.
"Red."
[You've lost your mind in the face of despair. The end of a lowly being is usually like this.]
Isn't this so familiar?
I looked at the encroaching mist.
It was approaching.
I was approaching.
I couldn't contain the laughter that burst out.
A confrontation with the past.
It was the helplessness of someone thrown into the middle of a hellish battlefield, the rekindling of anger upon facing a forgotten, terrible nightmare, the bitterness of facing idealized memories, and yet, the laughter of a madman who recognized the familiar pain that pervaded his entire body.
Weeing—
From the moment I first awakened the mana of the Yin dimension in front of Count Keliaak long ago, to the time I was left alone after a long expedition.
Moments that cannot be contained by the simple word "long," each and every moment I took a step forward was an achievement gained by enduring the despair, death, and fear that surged in resistibly just by recalling them.
[Just be absorbed.]
Weeing—
The burning, rotating circle is driven to even further extremes.
In this moment when intense pain consumes my whole body, I feel alive.
"Phew."
I finally let out the breath that had been blocked as if it had been submerged under water.
Paaaaaang—
As soon as the fog in front of me was completely cleared, I could see the guy's face in bewilderment.
[...What?]
I smiled at Vassago.
He moved his lips as if muttering something and reached out his hand to me.
[You still have the strength to struggle?]
I looked at the blade extending from Vassago's right hand. It seemed as if time was skipping, the blade appearing to approach slowly, and thoughts filled my mind.
I had tried not to repeat this damned life.
From the moment I was reincarnated with this crippled body until now, I've pressed forward, smashing the heads of those who threatened Samael.
Am I satisfied?
No, it wasn't enough.
I had never loosened my own reins, but looking back, even that was complacency.
To reach that damned realm, I had to throw myself into a damned situation.
Saa—.
A feeling like a nerve being grazed for a moment.
The sword body, appearing after tearing through space, formed a powerful gust of wind in a diagonal direction and slashed down at Vassago.
An incomplete form of the Three Swords.
In front of Vassago, who had taken a step back, the blade of the silent sword lay broken and scattered.
Looking across, I saw a comrade spitting out a stream of dead blood from his mouth. He was smiling like me.
I looked forward again.
Weeing—.
The only thing I could hear was the sound of my heart.
I continued to spin the circle.
"Blood?"
My vision gradually reddened, and finally, the whole world turned red.
The moment Vassago's approaching body also felt crimson, the pain in my heart subsided, and comfort came.
I stretched out my right hand towards the freezing air, like blades, rushing before my eyes.
Weeing—.
It only took a fleeting moment for Vassago's eyes, which had been looking at me with astonishment, to turn to shock.
As soon as I discharged the abundant mana circulating in my body forward, the mist of annihilation burst out, and Vassago's form was fully revealed.
"I hate your little brats."
[…What did you just do?]
Vassago remained motionless.
For a guy with a suspicious personality like him to be unable to do anything right now, it was because something far beyond his common sense was happening.
Drip—.
From Vassago, whose expression had completely hardened, an insane chill was spewing out, and then, the moment he unleashed a blade of frozen death with all his might,
I smiled and released mana once again.
"Can't do that."
One explosion.
The swirling chill burst out, and only then did Vassago's whole body tremble once as he realized what was happening.
[This is, ha, power….]
I stood up from my seat without a care.
One step, then another.
I slowly moved my feet and suddenly picked up the half-broken silent sword lying on the floor.
Even at that moment, Vassago could only tremble all over. Without even being able to breathe, Vassago, who had been staring at me intently, suddenly said this:
[Your eyes, why….]
Suddenly, Vassago raised his head toward the sky.
Was he sensing something?
The shape of his mouth, wide open in a grotesque posture as he began to roar with all his might, was the same as the last image of him that I remembered.
A desperate struggle he was unfolding with all his might.
"You know your time has come."
I readjusted my grip on the hilt of the silent sword.
All that was visible in my narrowed vision was the guy's head.
The surroundings were being compressed by the precursors of the sonic wave that was about to erupt, but I no longer felt the pressure on my body.
"Ptooey."
I spat out the blood welling up from within once more, then looked at him and smiled.
The moment the urgency in Vassago's eyes intensified, his mouth ripped open, and a massive shock wave exploded outward.
At that instant, I pointed the broken blade of the silent sword at him.
Mana of the Yin dimension.
Six circles, reverse incantation.
Dark sword.
A dark aura, sharp and soaring, rose above the severed blade.
The wave of darkness, completely materialized like a strong energy, surged around the blade, but its substance was completely different from a strong energy.
The materialized mana of the Yin dimension.
I swung what the Sword Saint called the energy of annihilation horizontally forward.
Saaa—.
The moment the cross-section of the massive shock wave that was extending out collided with the dark sword.
A light flashed on the point of contact, then immediately died down.
The cleanly cut center of the wave was completely pierced, as if it had never existed in the first place.
Annihilation.
The remaining shock wave, having lost its focal point, spread out haphazardly like tangled threads, scattering above.
[N-no…….]
Vassago's pupils trembled wildly.
He also knew it. The sonic pressure he had unleashed with all his might had been broken down in an unbelievable way.
His two eyes slowly moved downwards. He stared at the materialized dark aura, still surging at the tip of the blade, then began to mutter with a blank face.
[It's not an imitation……. Real power…… How, how could that be possible!]
Marquis Vassago.
The truth he had believed in was completely shattered, and the moment he finally faced reality, his authority vanished, and an unbearable fear began to overwhelm him.
[Just what is your true identity! How……. Oh, Eternity!]
"Be quiet."
Even as a sneer spread across my face at Vassago's trembling figure,
The past rushed in like a flood.
"Let's die, now."
Cheok—.
I walked towards Vassago, dragging the silent sword diagonally.
Each step slowly narrowed the distance.
Vassago, as if his body had stiffened, barely retreated, contorting his face as if cornered, and raised both hands at the same time.
The moment the cold air emitted from his fingertips flew like blades, I swung the silent sword.
Saaa.
Leaping toward his heart, visible through the shattered cold air, I thrust out the dark sword.
Poook—.
[Kuaaaaaaaaaaa!]
"Shut up."
I grabbed his collar and lifted Vassago up.
Once again, the metallic taste of blood began to rise from within like a flood.
I tried to swallow the saliva pooling in my mouth, but a nauseating cough burst out.
"Ptooey!"
I smiled as I looked at Vassago, who was covered in a handful of red blood.
My teeth were also red, reflected in his pupils trembling amidst the crimson blood.
I followed his gaze as he lowered his eyes.
The gaping hole, punched through by the dark sword, showed no signs of regeneration.
On the contrary, the area around his heart was gradually expanding.
I shoved my left fist into Vassago's mouth as he was about to scream in terrible pain.
[Keok!]
As Vassago's power waned and he lost strength, his familiars also collapsed to the ground and disappeared.
I removed my fist from his mouth and prepared for the end.
A complete terror filled Vassago's eyes.
[The prophecy…… was wrong?]
"……."
[That can't be. How, how could this be? Oh, Eternity!]
His eyes, as he screamed, were still full of questions.
Of course, I had no intention of answering him.
I also had questions left to ask, but I simply smiled.
After experiencing countless damned, X-like situations, there comes a time when you instinctively feel that you've reached your limit.
This was that moment.
Die.
I uttered the word in my mind and was just about to unleash the final incantation.
"……!"
The feeling of my feet losing contact with the ground, and then, my footing gave way with a poof—.
The moment I felt like I was falling into the abyss of the bottomless pit, Vassago, who was in front of me, began to soar into the sky at a rapid speed, as if pulled by something.
A trick?
I discharged the mana of the Yin dimension, condensed at my fingertips, as it was, and fired it towards his back.
With a final scream, Vassago, with a hole in his back, soared up and looked back.
The moment I saw his face, I knew.
A feeling of relief blooming in his terrified face.
That dog-like, insidious bastard.
This isn't just a simple trick.
It's a device that existed from the beginning in this space itself, which was prepared for summoning.
"Vassago!"
I changed my footing in the air and leaped towards him.
My vision was gradually blurring.
The moment I tried to unleash the dark sword once again, I felt something in my heart snap—, and a fountain of blood gushed out of my mouth.
A pain that felt like my chest was being squeezed.
Fuck.
Weeing—.
The mana that was gathering in my heart scattered helplessly.
I spat out the blood pooling in my mouth and threw the silent sword I was holding as it was.
The moment the mana flowing in the reverse direction was cut off, I glared and looked at Vassago, who was moving away.
"Vassago!"
Is this what it feels like to freefall in the air?
Even at this moment, he was moving away.
The moment I made eye contact with Vassago, who had turned his head again in the distant sky.
I could guess his expression.
He was smiling. He had also noticed my condition.
And indeed, it was so. The end of the rampage.
No matter how much I struggled, the circle no longer rotated in the reverse direction.
It didn't matter.
It wasn't something I had experienced once or twice.
There were times when I faced those X-like demon bastards who appeared twice as strong as I thought I had defeated them.
And there were also times when, the moment I felt relieved, I saw my comrade's head explode in front of me while he was still alive.
There has been more than one or two times when what appeared at that final moment, when I thought it was a victory, was despair.
Weeing—.
I swallowed the rising nausea from within and began to rotate the circle in the normal direction again.
What allowed me to endure despair and move forward was not hope or anything like that.
It's obsession.
I seized the faintly felt, faint mana and poured it into the circle.
I have to kill that guy here.
Here.
Weeing—.
Suddenly, I grabbed the 'Broken Joy' on my wrist and opened it as if I was about to tear it off. I knew that it wasn't time yet, but in my current state, I couldn't reach him.
I spread my fingertips and aimed at him.
At this moment, I thought of Pelleer.
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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Prøks]
[Proofreader - Prøks]
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