Chapter 574
Everything he had built up converged into the two swords.
He fused even the Bottomless Abyss and Boundary Negation into them. Heterogeneous elements mixed together and became one.
Crackle.
Naturally, repulsion occurred.
Even for the current Taesan, combining two complete Divine Powers of Old Gods into one was no easy task. It twisted and threatened to break apart.
“Wrap around it.”
So he used the Beast of Boundary to control that instability.
The Beast of Boundary.
The Domain of Boundary itself enveloped the swords. It forcibly controlled and suppressed the distorting repulsion.
Cra-cra-cra-crack!
Everything Taesan possessed converged into the swords.
And into that, he also poured Physical Force.
Four complete Divine Powers mixed and merged, becoming one.
Hummmm.
And it was completed.
A perfect one.
[You have obtained [system protected]%$r%$.]
“Hoo.”
Taesan let out a breath.
Everything he had was now imbued into the swords. The Usurper’s expression turned strange.
[…Impressive.]
Everything Taesan possessed had been poured into those swords.
Ordinarily, it should have been impossible. But the Boundary of heterogeneity had made it possible. At least for those swords alone, Taesan could wield power above his own rank.
With those swords, he could inflict damage on the Usurper.
But the Usurper laughed.
[But in exchange, you have become defenseless.]
In proportion to how much he had poured into offense, Taesan’s physical body itself had become defenseless. Boundary Negation still wrapped around him, but it was only a Fragment.
He had abandoned defense and concentrated everything into offense.
[Nothing changes. I still stand in a place above you.]
The Usurper moved.
For a brief instant, Taesan lost track of that movement.
Following his intuition, he raised his sword.
Craaaang!
The collision spread throughout the entire Domain. Taesan’s sword and the Usurper’s pitch-black sword clashed.
And Bardray was not pushed back.
The four Divine Powers wrapped around Taesan’s sword allowed it to contend even against the Usurper’s blade.
But Taesan’s body could not.
Taesan’s body was flung backward.
By concentrating everything into a single sword, he had barely reached the same level, but that was only true of the sword itself. Taesan was still inferior to the Usurper.
And unlike Taesan, the Usurper had no reason to focus on a single sword alone.
The Usurper lightly swung its sword.
And from within that, a wave of swords erupted.
Pitch-black, mixed Divine Powers of Old Gods assailed Taesan.
It was a vast attack that dominated space itself.
It could not be blocked with a single sword.
No matter how much Taesan focused on his blade, if the Usurper attacked like that, there was no answer.
Naturally, Taesan had already considered that.
He still had one more Skill he had not used.
[You activated Essential Shattering.]
The power to shatter essence flowed into his sword.
The Skill he had obtained this time.
Essential Shattering.
He swung it directly at the pitch-black power.
Craaaack!
Shattering occurred.
The essence of the pitch-black power broke apart and scattered.
[What.]
The Usurper was caught off guard.
Taesan’s sword was certainly powerful, but not to the extent that it should have shattered its power like that.
As the power scattered, a gap large enough for Taesan to escape appeared.
Taesan threw himself into it.
Naturally, it was not wide enough for his entire body to pass through cleanly. The pitch-black power clung to Taesan’s body.
[You received @!#%!! damage.]
[You received %”&& damage.]
[You received !!’& damage.]
His body broke apart.
Taesan shook himself free. He removed the corruption eating into him with Boundary and recovered.
The distorted corruption peeled away from Taesan’s body.
‘I can recover.’
He could not block the corruption itself, but it was difficult for it to directly affect his body. As long as he avoided fatal wounds, he could recover enough to continue fighting.
And he became certain.
Essential Shattering worked even against the Usurper.
Of course, it probably could not shatter the sword where the Usurper’s power was concentrated. But it was enough to deal with the power it swung outward.
[Hmm.]
The Usurper made a sound as if it found that unexpected.
But soon enough, it calmly raised its sword.
[Even so, nothing changes.]
The Usurper charged.
Sword and sword collided.
Taesan’s body was pushed back.
Even if he could shatter the power being swung outward, the Usurper itself was still stronger than Taesan.
The Usurper moved swiftly.
Its sword strikes targeted Taesan’s entire body.
Taesan focused his mind.
He sharpened everything even further.
Cra-cra-crack!
Sword and sword clashed.
The first problem to solve was narrowing the gap in power and speed.
[You activated Force Strike.]
[You activated Acceleration.]
Craaaack!
Sword and sword clashed.
The Usurper felt it.
That Taesan’s power and speed had increased.
[Curious.]
The Usurper muttered.
Taesan’s current speed and power were practically at their limit. It should have been impossible for them to increase any further.
And yet, Taesan’s speed and power had clearly risen.
[Even so.]
It did not matter.
The Usurper trusted completely in its own power.
It had devoured multiple Old Gods.
It stood overwhelmingly above Taesan.
Boom!
Sword and sword continued to clash.
And the longer the battle dragged on, the Usurper came to realize one thing.
That Taesan was getting faster and stronger.
Force Strike and Acceleration were ordinary Skills of the Labyrinth.
Once activated, that should have been the end of it.
But Taesan had Advanced Swordsmanship: Ability Sword.
If he timed it correctly, he could keep activating them continuously.
And beyond that, their power gradually increased.
Cra-cra-cra-crack!
At some point, Taesan caught up to the Usurper’s speed.
Craaaang!
The Usurper’s sword was pushed back.
[What.]
The moment the Usurper tried to say something, Taesan swung his sword.
The blade covered Taesan’s body.
[You activated Stealth.]
And his form and presence disappeared.
For the briefest moment, the Usurper lost sight of Taesan.
But it truly was only a moment.
A being of high rank could instantly grasp the position of a lower-ranked being.
The Usurper swiftly swung its sword upward.
Taesan brought his sword down.
[You activated Landing.]
Craaaang!
[Ugh.]
The Usurper let out a groan.
A heavier burden than expected was carried by its sword.
Taesan immediately dragged his blade.
He quickly landed and thrust forward.
The Usurper blocked the attack and countered at once.
The entire series of actions was unbelievably fast. Fast enough that Taesan should have struggled to respond.
But that did not matter.
Because he had never intended to respond in the first place.
[You activated Counter.]
[You activated Essential Shattering.]
Crunch!
Taesan’s sword drove into the Usurper’s shoulder.
Taesan was not unharmed either. The Usurper’s sword carved a long wound into his thigh.
‘Counter didn’t activate properly.’
Ordinarily, Taesan would have been able to completely ignore the Usurper’s attack.
But because the opponent’s rank was higher, he had no choice but to take damage. He recovered the wound with Boundary, but not perfectly.
Still, this was enough.
Distorted Power scattered from the Usurper’s shoulder like smoke.
[Advanced Swordsmanship: Ability Sword. So you had something like that.]
“You realized it late.”
[I thought it was a meaningless Skill.]
Advanced Swordsmanship: Ability Sword was certainly powerful.
It was a unique swordsmanship based on the Labyrinth’s system, capable of linking Skills and swordsmanship together.
But in the end, it was still swordsmanship.
An ability centered on wielding and swinging a sword.
Now Taesan had already surpassed the realm of Transcendence.
He could influence cosmic concepts.
There should have been no reason to cling to something as small as the concept of a sword anymore.
Advanced Swordsmanship: Ability Sword was certainly powerful, but not to the extent that it should still hold value in the realm of Transcendence.
So while the Usurper had known of the existence of Advanced Swordsmanship: Ability Sword, it had buried it in the back of its mind.
And from that reaction, Taesan realized something.
The Usurper did not properly know the effects of Advanced Swordsmanship: Ability Sword.
When fighting the Minions of the Old Gods, Taesan had used Advanced Swordsmanship: Ability Sword.
Whether that information had not been passed along or had simply been dismissed, he did not know.
But for Taesan, that was an opportunity.
[That was certainly my mistake, but nothing changes.]
Even with Advanced Swordsmanship: Ability Sword, the Usurper remained confident of victory.
[Swordsmanship is ultimately for the weak.]
Swordsmanship and the like held no meaning.
It was merely the weak desperately struggling against the strong.
They were only trampled in the end, unable to do anything.
The Usurper did not change its approach.
And Taesan had known it would be like this.
A being born powerful like that.
An Old God that had only ever wielded its own Divine Power and never learned anything else would never consider human swordsmanship meaningful.
“So that’s what you think?”
And Taesan laughed at such a Usurper.
The Usurper charged.
It was clearly faster and stronger than Taesan.
But its movement was, in the end, simple.
It was closer to crushing everything with overwhelming power and speed.
And what it wielded was still, ultimately, a sword.
[You activated Force Strike.]
[You activated Acceleration.]
Cra-cra-crack!
Sword and sword clashed.
Matching the timing, Taesan increased the speed of the Skills even further.
[You activated Damage Mitigation.]
Craaaang!
The effect of Advanced Swordsmanship: Ability Sword.
Damage Mitigation.
When clashing swords with the opponent, it reduced the burden transmitted through the blade.
The pressure on Taesan decreased meaningfully.
[You activated Continuous Strike.]
And the sword left afterimages.
Dozens of sword strikes pressured the Usurper all at once.
[Futile tricks.]
The Usurper sneered and raised its sword high.
Then it brought it down.
All the sword strikes shattered simultaneously.
Taesan slipped a real strike in between them.
[You activated Deflection.]
Cra-cra-crack!
The Usurper’s sword, very slightly, had its trajectory twisted.
Taesan tried to thrust into the opening created by that.
But the Usurper quickly twisted its body. The sword narrowly grazed past.
[You.]
It gave him no gap.
It immediately closed in again.
Digging upward from below, it swung its sword.
[You activated Leap.]
[You activated Forced Fall.]
Forced Fall.
The effect of that Ability Sword was this: the more the swords clashed, the heavier the opponent’s sword became.
If it had been mere weight, it would have meant nothing.
But Advanced Swordsmanship: Ability Sword synchronized with Taesan’s rank.
The more the swords clashed, the more the Usurper’s sword was undeniably slowing down.
Nothing is meaningless.
The reason Taesan had not used Advanced Swordsmanship: Ability Sword until now was simply that the proper situation had never arisen.
No matter how useful a card is, if the time to play it has not come, then it cannot be played.
It had never been because the card lacked value.
And now, this was the moment to use the card called Advanced Swordsmanship: Ability Sword.
[You activated Acceleration.]
Cra-cra-crack!
He accelerated the sword, then accelerated it again.
The Usurper realized the activation condition and tried to twist its sword strike away, but it was useless.
The Usurper merely swung.
It had no such thing as swordsmanship.
Taesan could manipulate the exchange however he pleased.
[You activated Stealth.]
Taesan’s presence vanished for an instant.
The Usurper immediately turned and thrust its sword.
Taesan raised his blade.
[You activated Deflection.]
The sword’s trajectory twisted.
It was only the slightest adjustment, so small that it was difficult even to call it an angle.
But that alone was enough.
He evaded the attack and pressed in.
The Usurper was confused.
It was clearly stronger than Taesan.
Its rank was undeniably higher.
And yet, it was not overwhelming him.
Rather, it was being led along.
Cra-cra-crack!
Taesan continued pressing forward.
The opponent was a being of clearly higher rank.
And yet Taesan was pushing it back using nothing but swordsmanship.
It was an impossible feat.
And it was precisely in achieving the impossible that proficiency rose.
[Advanced Swordsmanship: Ability Sword proficiency increased. Proficiency 1%.]
[Advanced Swordsmanship: Ability Sword proficiency increased. Proficiency 3%.]
[Advanced Swordsmanship: Ability Sword proficiency increased. Proficiency 2%.]
Advanced Swordsmanship: Ability Sword’s proficiency began rising explosively.