Chapter 575
Claaang!
[Advanced Swordsmanship: Ability Sword proficiency increased by 2%.]
Sword struck against sword.
Taesan activated Deflection.
The Usurper’s trajectory twisted.
[What in the…]
The Usurper felt as though he were trapped in some bizarre dream.
Despite the overwhelming difference in their ranks, he was being pushed back.
No matter how he thought about it, that should have been impossible.
Craaack!
But Taesan continued to evade, block, and counter the Usurper’s attacks.
[Advanced Swordsmanship: Ability Sword proficiency increased by 1%.]
And in the process, Advanced Swordsmanship: Ability Sword’s proficiency reached 80%.
At that moment, Taesan realized it.
A great many things in Advanced Swordsmanship: Ability Sword had changed.
He did not even need to check.
His senses, his instincts, told him exactly what had changed.
[You activated Force Strike.]
[You activated Acceleration.]
Craaaang!
One of the changed effects.
The power of Force Strike and Acceleration had noticeably increased.
Taesan charged at the Usurper faster and harder.
[Annoying.]
The Usurper clicked his tongue and roughly unleashed his power.
A black wave swallowed Taesan.
Taesan widened the distance and used Essential Shattering to cut open a path.
One of the penalties of Force Strike and Acceleration.
If they were not used with precise timing, the activation of the Skills would be canceled.
It had been a rather troublesome penalty.
And now, that penalty had been weakened.
Craaack!
Shattering the wave, his sword collided with the Usurper’s.
Even though the timing had long since been broken, the power and speed contained in that sword were still amplified.
The effects of Force Strike and Acceleration had changed upon reaching 80%.
Their strength had increased, and even without matching the timing exactly, they could now remain active by consuming additional Mana.
And Mana consumption was no longer a meaningful penalty for Taesan.
[What are you…]
The Usurper was flustered.
And Taesan aimed for that moment of confusion.
He swiftly lowered his stance and raised his sword.
[You activated Leap.]
Craaaang!
The Usurper’s body was launched upward.
The power of Leap had nearly doubled.
The Usurper clicked his tongue and hurled himself forward.
In an instant, he flew in and stabbed at Taesan.
[You activated Stealth.]
Stealth had once only been usable by hiding his body from the opponent.
But not anymore.
Even while the Usurper was looking directly at him, Taesan’s form and presence vanished completely.
And after he disappeared like that, it took longer than before to pinpoint his location again.
Cra-cra-crack!
The Usurper barely blocked Taesan’s attack.
He twisted his sword and continued the assault.
[You activated Continuous Strike.]
Countless afterimages of sword strikes appeared.
And unlike before, all of those afterimages were real attacks.
Cra-cra-crack!
The Usurper exerted force and swung hard.
He shattered all of Taesan’s strikes and charged.
Taesan did not retreat and swung his sword.
[You activated Deflection.]
Craaack!
The Usurper’s blade merely brushed past Taesan’s sword and slid away.
Crunch.
Taesan’s sword grazed the Usurper’s shoulder.
[How irritating.]
Emotion entered the Usurper’s voice.
He pressed Taesan with speed faster and power greater than before.
Craaaang!
And Taesan blocked and evaded those attacks.
He aimed for the opening and stabbed.
The Usurper raised his hand in annoyance.
The Descent gathered within it and pressed down on Taesan’s attack.
[You activated Absolute Judgement.]
Claaang!
The Skill activated.
A powerful shock swept through the Usurper’s body.
At the same time, the Descent surrounding him took direct damage as well.
[What the…]
As Advanced Swordsmanship: Ability Sword reached 80%, new Skills had also become subject to the swordsmanship.
Absolute Judgement was one of them.
Its effect:
If the opponent, while wielding a sword, tries to counter an attack using something other than a sword, the power in Taesan’s sword is temporarily amplified enough to overcome the opponent’s response.
Advanced Swordsmanship: Ability Sword was a high-level swordsmanship.
It was only recently that he had not used it often; during the process of clearing the Labyrinth, he had relied on it a great deal.
Even so, its proficiency had only now reached 80%.
That meant the Skill itself was of a very high rank, and accordingly, the changes that came with higher proficiency were significant.
And it did not end there.
[Advanced Swordsmanship: Ability Sword proficiency increased by 2%.]
Advanced Swordsmanship: Ability Sword’s proficiency continued to rise.
[Hmm.]
The Usurper fell into thought.
His current form was not suited to facing Taesan.
Rather, it was a form that made it easier for Taesan to deal with him.
He was different from Taesan.
He did not need to remain fixated on the sword.
Abandoning the sword and pressing with raw power would have been the better way to deal with Taesan.
He knew that.
But the Usurper could not make that choice.
Because of his ego and his pride.
It would be meaningless unless he subdued Taesan’s body and mind head-on.
Only then would this battle have meaning.
And above all, he had to dominate both completely in order to devour him perfectly.
Simply defeating him was not enough.
Then so be it.
The Usurper made his decision.
And Taesan had anticipated that as well.
Cra-cra-crack!
At some point, the battle had begun to tilt in Taesan’s favor.
[You activated Landing.]
[You activated Continuous Strike.]
Craaang!
With the power enhanced by Landing, his sword strikes drew afterimages.
He infused those afterimages with Essential Shattering and scraped across the Usurper’s body.
It did not inflict especially meaningful damage on the Usurper.
No matter how powerful Essential Shattering was, scraping alone could not deliver a decisive blow to his condensed body.
But the Usurper was undeniably being gnawed away, little by little.
That alone was enough to grate on his nerves.
Rumble!
Advanced Swordsmanship: Ability Sword’s proficiency continued to rise at a frightening pace.
The Usurper clicked his tongue and widened the distance.
He raised his sword and swung.
A condensed black wave of blades engulfed Taesan.
And Taesan had been waiting for that exact moment.
[You activated Forced Duel.]
Forced Duel.
The effect transformed by Advanced Swordsmanship: Ability Sword:
If the opponent is wielding a sword, neither side can use anything other than a sword.
Once used, the Usurper would not fall for it a second time.
That was why Taesan had waited for the perfect opening, and that moment was now.
Bang!
The pitch-black wave crashing down on Taesan shattered.
With its proficiency having reached 80%, the effect of Forced Duel had also grown stronger.
Originally, it would only have erased part of the attack, but now it rendered the Usurper’s assault completely meaningless.
[What?!]
The Usurper was genuinely startled.
As the black wave shattered, an opening appeared.
Taesan put strength into his feet.
[You activated Acceleration.]
[You activated Skill Acceleration.]
He burrowed into the Usurper’s chest at high speed.
The Usurper hurriedly moved his sword, but Taesan was faster.
[You activated Multiplication.]
He poured all his Physical Force into the sword and swung.
Crunch.
The blade pierced the Usurper’s chest.
Taesan immediately detonated all the power contained within it.
His power swept through the Usurper’s interior.
[You…]
The Usurper’s voice hardened.
He seized Taesan’s arm.
Then he raised the pitch-black sword.
And the sword exploded.
Everything within it swept outward in every direction.
With his arm caught, Taesan could not evade.
[Your Last Opportunity has been activated.]
Against the surging power, Taesan’s body moved on its own.
The sword traced an incomprehensible path.
It blocked and scattered all the explosions engulfing him.
But it was not perfect.
Corruption began to eat into Taesan.
Taesan tightened his grip on the sword.
He forcibly tore himself free from the Usurper’s grasp.
The Usurper’s body shook.
No matter how much higher the Usurper’s rank was than Taesan’s, a direct detonation from within was bound to deal significant damage.
Rumble…
The Usurper began to collapse, unable to maintain his human form.
[…I admit it.]
The Usurper spoke.
His voice was extremely subdued.
It was a tone that would make anyone instinctively recoil and cower.
[I cannot defeat you in this form.]
No matter how high his rank was, no matter how much stronger he was, the difference in pure swordsmanship ability was too great.
He could no longer persist with the human form and the sword.
[I will give up on devouring you perfectly. I’ll just crush you physically.]
With those words, the Usurper’s body began to swell.
The condensed and compressed rank instantly expanded into something vast.
The countless things he had usurped spread in every direction like a grotesque monster.
From the beginning, the human body had only suppressed the Usurper’s true power.
Taesan had inflicted far from trivial damage.
At this point, maintaining that form had become difficult, and there was no reason to continue doing so.
That form was the Usurper’s true appearance, the one in which he could wield his full power.
Even though he had dealt massive damage, victory would not come easily for Taesan.
But Taesan had also obtained something.
Advanced Swordsmanship: Ability Sword’s proficiency continued to rise.
And at the end of it, he finally saw its conclusion.
[Advanced Swordsmanship: Ability Sword]
[Proficiency: 100%]
[A unique swordsmanship created by the Labyrinth’s Adventurer. It is fundamentally based on the Labyrinth’s system. It was created based on the swordsmanship once used by the Prince of a Ruined World. It allows perfect linkage and usage of a vast number of Skills alongside swordsmanship.]
“A Soul Skill.”
It had not reached the Domain of a Transcender’s Divine Power.
But it had reached the Domain of an Immortal.
With this one Skill alone, he could be called an Immortal.
Advanced Swordsmanship: Ability Sword was the culmination of the swordsmanship concept he had built.
There was nothing especially surprising about that.
And what had changed.
What Skills had now been integrated into Advanced Swordsmanship: Ability Sword.
Taesan instinctively understood.
He raised his sword.
[You activated Addition.]
[You activated Blade of Fighting Spirit.]
[You activated Multiplication.]
Hummmm.
Physical Force filled the sword.
And it was controlled.
Perfectly contained within the blade, unwavering, its form fixed in place.
It was not merely being controlled by the Divine Power of Physical Force.
In the truest sense, the increased damage had been perfectly embedded into the sword.
The Usurper also realized that fact.
That within that sword, Physical Force containing tens of trillions in damage was being held in perfect stability.
And what made that possible was precisely Advanced Swordsmanship: Ability Sword.
[…This is absurd.]
That a Labyrinth Skill, something like swordsmanship, could still hold meaning in a battle at this level.
The Usurper could not accept it.
But it was happening.
The Physical Force contained in that sword had stabilized.
It was not a one-time use.
It could be wielded continuously, without being consumed.
And with that Physical Force and Divine Power, it could kill him.
[Fine.]
The Usurper released himself.
The mixed Divine Powers surged forth, sweeping over everything.
[Let’s see the end.]
Rumble!
A massive bulk swallowed up the Usurper.
Taesan also stamped his foot.
Boom!
A collision spread outward as a shockwave.
A thick and deep shockwave, one that even those outside the Rift could feel.
Against the Usurper’s full power, Taesan did not give way.
The blow he had driven into him was by no means small.
It was an attack that had left deep, immense, lasting damage on the Usurper.
And from the beginning, the Usurper had been unstable.
Having devoured too much Divine Power and the concept of Descent, there were limits to his control over that power.
That made the fissures caused by Taesan’s strike grow even worse.
Boom!
He surged forward.
Then surged again.
Countless Divine Powers rushed to devour Taesan, to stain him as their own.
Taesan did not retreat.
He advanced.
Then advanced again.
And at the very end of it—
Crunch.
The sword pierced the Usurper’s essence.