Chapter 1032
Boom!
Martha became a yellow flash and dove straight into the Ninth Apostle’s embrace.
‘He’s stronger than me.’
From the start, I have to fight at full power.
She drew up all the Titan Aura surging in her core and fired off a slash imbued with the earth’s energy like a bolt of lightning.
“So you’re ready to fight.”
Even as he watched Martha’s sword strikes pour down like they could sink the sailing ship, the Ninth Apostle didn’t retreat.
“Now I know why your blood smells so sweet!”
He swung a fist wreathed in blazing white blood energy and smashed into Martha’s slash.
Kaboom!
Martha’s sword strike wrapped in Titan Aura and the Ninth Apostle’s fist wreathed in white blood energy collided, making the deck of the sailing ship heave as if it would crumble apart.
Screeech!
Martha stepped back five paces to bleed off the impact of the collision, her eyes narrowing.
‘He really is stronger than me.’
While she’d been pushed back five paces, the Ninth Apostle had been driven back only three.
Even accounting for the different strengths of a swordsman and a fist fighter, that meant there was more than a step’s worth of difference in martial might.
‘An upper-level Grandmaster, or….’
No, it doesn’t matter either way.
Whether she was a mid-level Grandmaster and he was upper-level—or even top-tier—the only choice she had was to kill him.
“You’re far stronger than I heard.”
The Ninth Apostle laughed as he tossed aside the woman he’d been holding under his left arm.
“How ecstatic will it feel to drink your blood!”
As if telling her to start for real, he clenched both fists and raised flames of blood energy.
“Your nasty mouth stinks, so shut it.”
Martha sneered and made a hand gesture telling the Ninth Apostle to close his mouth.
‘That bastard’s a monster beyond what he looks like.’
She was smiling on the outside, but things weren’t good. Maybe the shock from their clash had reached deep inside, because a sharp pain pricked at her heart.
‘Still, I have to keep fighting.’
Her goal wasn’t a pig like that, but the White Blood Cult Leader—the highest-level Transcendent. No matter how much stronger her opponent was, she couldn’t back down.
Boom!
Martha drove in on the Ninth Apostle’s left and swung her heavy sword along the horizon.
Slash!
It was the Tyrant Sun Sword taught to her directly by Denier. A blade bearing the principle of dominance fell toward the Ninth Apostle’s neck.
“You really are a crazy bitch!”
The Ninth Apostle bared his yellowed teeth as if startled by Martha’s chilling sword and threw out his fist. His fist strike was also a heavy blow packed with the intent to burst his opponent apart.
Clanggg!
As the tyrant sword and heavy fist collided again and again, waves of Aura blasted outward in every direction. Countless sparks exploded across sky and sea, creating a spectacle like fireworks.
Yet the deck of the sailing ship didn’t crack or break, as if it were made from ore harder than steel.
“I’ll turn you into a nicely tenderized chunk of meat!”
Martha’s savage gaze flashed as she drove the Tyrant Sun Sword’s forms toward the Ninth Apostle’s heart.
“Is that something a swordsman of the Five Kings should be saying?”
The Ninth Apostle shouted as if that was his line, then brutally thrust out a fist wreathed in white flames.
Kaboom!
Martha gritted her teeth as she watched the Ninth Apostle’s fist strike press in with sheer force.
‘Disgustingly heavy.’
It feels like my own sword is attacking me.
The Ninth Apostle used the same combat style she did—crushing enemies with strength, speed, and weight—so it felt like fighting her reflection.
‘Then why does it feel like I’m the only one taking damage?’
Even if you block them, a tyrant sword and a heavy fist still deliver massive shock to the opponent’s body and mind.
But unlike her, whose insides throbbed as if she’d soon suffer internal injuries, the Ninth Apostle didn’t seem to feel any pain at all.
‘He’s stronger than me, sure, but he’s not a Transcendent.’
If the Ninth Apostle wasn’t even a Transcendent, it made no sense that he wasn’t taking even the slightest shock from her tyrant sword.
‘I need to figure out what he’s doing.’
Martha twisted to the right and stabbed her sword toward the Ninth Apostle’s wobbling belly.
“Hmph!”
The Ninth Apostle snorted and lifted his fist, striking at the sharp sword aura flying in.
Thud!
The instant the Ninth Apostle extended his fist, Martha twisted her blade and aimed for his shoulder.
Thud!
Because she attacked somewhere other than the front for the first time, the Ninth Apostle couldn’t defend properly and was shoved back after taking a heavy impact to the shoulder.
“So you’ve decided you can’t do it head-on anymore?”
The Ninth Apostle scoffed as if pathetic.
“….”
Ignoring the Ninth Apostle’s ridicule, Martha focused on the white current rising from his shoulder.
‘That energy is….’
She shifted her gaze to the blood curse carved across the entire deck.
“You….”
Martha frowned as she watched the Ninth Apostle’s shoulder, which had healed in an instant.
“You were using a blood curse in our fight?”
It seemed the Ninth Apostle was using the blood curse etched into this deck to erase the shock and wounds transmitted into his body.
“You’re sharp.”
The Ninth Apostle nodded with a thin smile.
“That’s right. The curse carved into this deck can absorb blood and blood energy. And if there is absorption, then naturally, there is release as well.”
When he raised his hand, the deck shone white and bloomed with massive blood energy.
“I erased the shock and pain from your sword strikes with the stored blood energy.”
The Ninth Apostle smiled as if impressed she’d noticed and crooked his finger.
“If I kept taking your attacks like some idiot, there wouldn’t be any bones or flesh left.”
He raised his brow as if asking whether she still planned to keep coming.
“Hm….”
Martha let out a short breath and stepped back.
‘I need to get off this ship.’
The Ninth Apostle was already stronger than her, and if he added tricks like this, her chances of winning plummeted.
It would be better to fight down at the harbor.
“Even if you run, it’s meaningless.”
As if he’d read her thoughts, the Ninth Apostle calmly shook his head.
“The blood curse is bound to this barrier.”
He curled his lips, saying the blood curse had spread across the entire harbor wrapped in white fog.
‘It’s not a lie.’
Martha bit the inside of her cheek as she looked at the smiling Ninth Apostle.
‘Even now, the blood wave is raging through the harbor.’
Seeing the blood wave created through this sailing ship sweeping the whole village, his words couldn’t possibly be false.
‘And….’
If we fight below, the people could be in danger.
Her battle with the Ninth Apostle was a clash of tyrant sword and heavy fist, and the fallout was beyond imagination. If anything went wrong, it would sweep up not only the Rakshasa Squad swordsmen, but ordinary civilians too.
“I never once thought about running.”
Martha muttered for him to stop spouting nonsense and leveled her sword at the Ninth Apostle.
“Not just you—I need to tear this ship apart too!”
She lifted her chin, telling him to come again.
“You’re putting on bravado that won’t amount to anything. But then, prey that doesn’t resist isn’t any fun.”
The Ninth Apostle chuckled and brought both fists together.
“From here on, I’ll crush you with everything I’ve got.”
Flames of blood energy twice as large as before blazed over his fists.
Whoosh!
The Ninth Apostle surged forward like he was firing a cannonball. He violently twisted his shoulder and slammed down his right fist.
“You think a bloated belly means a sword won’t go in?”
Martha slashed upward with the extreme form of the Tyrant Sun Sword at the Ninth Apostle charging like a boar.
Kaboom!
The moment his fist and her sword collided, an unbearable pain surged through her arms and legs. She deliberately stepped back to release the shock flooding into her body.
‘So it wasn’t a lie when he said he was going all out now.’
A shock twice as strong as before throbbed from the Ninth Apostle’s fist strike. Her stomach churned as if she’d already suffered internal injuries.
“You’re still far from it!”
As if he wouldn’t give her a moment to breathe, the Ninth Apostle dashed to the right and poured down heavy fist strikes. Despite their massive weight, his movements were as light as a feather.
Rumble!
Martha swallowed the blood rising into her throat and unleashed the Tyrant Sun Sword’s forms in succession, blocking the Ninth Apostle’s fist strikes.
‘So I did end up taking internal injuries.’
She’d parried countless fists that could shake heaven and earth with a single blow. Even Titan Aura was bound to crack eventually.
It was impressive she’d only taken internal injuries now.
Rumble!
Martha ground her teeth as she braced the Ninth Apostle’s fist, which fell as if it would smash her skull, with her sword.
‘When is Raon coming?’
He’d been close to this harbor, so it shouldn’t take long….
Raon was staying not far from this harbor where she was. The signal had gone out, so it wouldn’t be much longer until he arrived.
Thud!
The Ninth Apostle didn’t miss the opening while she was thinking of Raon. He flicked a finger and smashed her abdomen.
“Ghk!”
Martha clutched her stomach, where pain flared as if it would burst, and let out a blood-tinged groan.
“I can see your focus slipping!”
The Ninth Apostle grinned sinisterly and drove a fist blazing with blood energy upward from below.
Kaboom!
She tried to defend somehow, but the Titan Aura on her sword shattered, and she was knocked back, slamming her back into the railing of the deck. The pain was intense, as if her bones had cracked.
“Ugh….”
Martha barely forced herself upright, but the pain flooding through her whole body made the hand gripping her sword tremble.
“Where did that proud look go? Why are you hanging there so limp?”
The Ninth Apostle tilted his head as if asking whether it was already over.
“From that expression, you’re waiting for Raon Zieghart, aren’t you?”
He twisted his lips, saying it was obvious she had something else on her mind.
“Stop talking shit.”
Martha ground her teeth, chewing hard at her lip.
“It’s unfortunate for you, but this will all be over before he arrives.”
The Ninth Apostle shook his head, saying she wouldn’t be seeing Raon. It seemed he had a way to leave this place without even using the sea route.
“Now die.”
As if to finish it, he fired a fist strike wreathed in enormous flames of blood energy.
“Haaa….”
Martha spat out a heavy breath as she watched the blood-energy fist rushing toward her.
‘Waiting for Raon to come?’
Since when did I….
‘Since when did I start thinking I would lose?’
She’d started this fight after swearing she would kill the Ninth Apostle with her own hands.
But after realizing she was outmatched in both martial might and the preparation of curses, she began fighting more passively than before.
If she fought believing she couldn’t beat an opponent of the same color, it was only natural she’d be pushed back.
“You stupid bitch!”
Martha slapped her own cheek and brought her sword down at the Ninth Apostle’s fist.
Rumble!
The sword that had been driven back for the entire fight flared with a deep yellow light and pushed back the Ninth Apostle’s blood energy.
“If I can’t kill this bastard, I’ll never get my revenge!”
Martha shouted and pressed down on the Ninth Apostle’s fist with the sword she gripped in both hands.
‘Burn.’
Burn my rage and my soul!
If she couldn’t even beat a Ninth Apostle who wasn’t a Transcendent, then saving her mother from the White Blood Cult Leader would be a distant dream.
She swore that if she couldn’t win, she’d die here fighting, and she stepped forward.
“What….”
The Ninth Apostle’s eyes widened in shock at Martha’s will as she coughed blood and forced his fist back.
“You’re more dangerous than you look!”
As if he sensed something ominous in Martha’s unbroken gaze, he retreated for the first time.
“I can’t give you time.”
The Ninth Apostle spread the blood energy that had been concentrated on his fists throughout his entire body.
“I’ll erase you and all those Zieghart scraps without leaving a trace!”
Stomping as if to shatter the deck, he charged in with a body wrapped in flames of blood energy. It was like a massive cannonball rushing straight at her.
Hooooo!
Martha let out a thin breath as she watched the Ninth Apostle close in within an instant.
‘Raon told me to accept my emotions.’
After she awoke from her state of enlightenment, Raon had advised her that from now on, she should focus not only on swordsmanship and Aura, but also on emotions and intent.
Back then, she hadn’t truly taken those words in, but now she finally understood.
‘I have to burn my intent and my soul.’
The vow she’d made the moment she first took up her sword. She turned her promise to herself—to annihilate the White Blood Cult and save her mother—into pure intent, awakening a soul blazing with rage.
Rumble!
Martha squared her shoulders and slashed down at the Ninth Apostle charging in, her sword wrapped in conviction.
Tyrant Sun Sword: Ultimate Form.
Flawless Overlord of Heaven.
Martha’s intent for revenge blazed over the silver blade, igniting a thick and profound radiance.
Rumble!
A peak swordsmanship that held strength, swiftness, weight, and dominance collided with the Ninth Apostle’s body, wrapped in extreme heaviness and hardness.
Crackle!
The Ninth Apostle’s blood energy and Martha’s sword clashed head-on, and a terrifying wave surged beyond the sailing ship and swept over the entire harbor.
Kaboom!
—
“It’s there!”
Rabawin pointed at the harbor filled with white fog. With storms raging over the surrounding sea, it didn’t look particularly strange.
‘Now that I see it like this, I get it.’
Raon snorted as he looked at the fog-filled harbor.
‘It’s an artificial presence.’
That white fog looked natural, but it was leaking a faintly twisted presence.
Even he could barely feel it, so everyone else would’ve simply thought fog had rolled in.
– “A filthy stench of blood wafts from there.”
Wrath frowned as he swept his gaze over the fog.
– “It looks like those blood fiend bastards’ doing.”
He clicked his tongue, saying it was clearly the White Blood Cult’s work.
Huuuuum!
The Soul Requiem Sword, as if it too had sensed the blood scent Wrath mentioned, rang with an even fiercer sword cry than before.
‘So it is.’
Raon nodded as he gripped the trembling Soul Requiem Sword.
‘Well, the only ones who’d pull something like this are those blood fiends.’
There were plenty of villains who killed people, but the only ones who abducted more than half and took them away were the White Blood Cult.
He’d suspected it when he heard there were no bodies, and it really had been the blood fiends’ doing.
“Everyone, prepare for combat. We’ll enter immediately—hm?”
Raon frowned mid-order as he told Dorian and the Light Wind Palace swordsmen to prepare to fight at once.
‘That bastard was here too.’
Above the sea beside the harbor, the blue wolf’s face had surfaced.
‘It’s very different from before.’
Instead of the pure presence of the sea it had shown before, the blue wolf was now radiating a sinister, malicious presence.
It no longer felt like a spirit, and looked like nothing but a monster.
‘Had it really been a beast the White Blood Cult was raising?’
Its eyes were unfocused and slack, so it didn’t seem to be in its right mind.
But now wasn’t the time to deal with that wolf. He had to save the people in the harbor first.
“T-the ship won’t go in!”
Rabawin frowned, saying the barrier was keeping the ship from moving toward the harbor.
“Please wait a moment. First, we’ll break the barrier—”
Just as he was about to call for the mage among the crew—
Rumble!
A massive surge of Mana burst from inside the barrier.
From the Titan Aura he could feel, it seemed Martha was fighting a White Blood Cult blood fiend with everything she had.
“There’s no time to wait. I’ll open it.”
Raon stepped forward through the air and stood before the fog barrier. He drew the heat of the Ten Thousand Flames Cultivation into the Heavenly Drive and brought down the extreme Crimson Slash.
Slash!
A golden flash wrapped in flames connected sky and earth and tore apart the fog barrier filling the space between them.
Crash!
The White Blood Cult’s barrier shattered into thousands of pieces, and the harbor slowly began to reveal itself.
Rumble!
The first thing that came into view was, of course, the sea before the harbor.
A massive sailing ship was half-destroyed and sinking, and atop the splintered deck lay a middle-aged man with flesh torn away from shoulder to waist.
Whoosh!
Even as she staggered like she might collapse, Martha was pointing her sword at the neck of the middle-aged man who was vomiting blood.
‘Martha beat that bastard?’
The middle-aged man, who looked like an apostle, was dying, but even the presence he still gave off was enough to overwhelm Martha.
It was hard to believe Martha had defeated a monster like that.
“It’s because of you.”
As if she’d read his thoughts, Martha looked this way and smiled weakly.
“And this is only the beginning.”
Even after winning a brutal fight, she burned with fierce fighting spirit and clenched her blood-soaked fist.
“My revenge!”