Chapter 936
Glenn Zieghart narrowed his eyes as he watched Derus Robert, who hadn’t lost his composure.
‘He’s gotten stronger.’
The aura that radiated from Derus made Glenn’s fingertips tremble. A power that surpassed the bounds of transcendent. It was enough to make King Lecross, known by the epithet Black Sword Lord, fall as if it were only natural.
‘But more than that…’
What shocked him wasn’t the brute strength. It was something deeper. The very soul that belonged to the man called Derus Robert had changed. It felt alien, as if he were no longer human.
“Long time no see.”
Derus Robert slowly turned his body and looked at him.
“Glenn Zieghart.”
He lifted his chin, holding King Lecross before him as if the king were a hostage.
“Since you arrived so quickly, I suppose you were waiting in Zieghart.”
Derus tilted his fingers in mild surprise.
“I thought you’d be hiding in Montiro where the Black Tower is, but you stayed with your family. So you don’t mind if your grandson and son die?”
He mentioned Karoon and Raon Zieghart as if he knew everything about the Black Tower raid.
“Those kids are strong. They won’t fall to something like the Black Tower.”
Glenn calmly shook his head, expressing his faith in Raon Zieghart and Karoon.
“Oh? That’s different from the information I have.”
Derus twisted the sword that was pressed to King Lecross’s shoulder as if to provoke Glenn.
“…….”
Despite the flesh and bone being torn, King Lecross did not let out a single groan.
“Lord. I have witnessed terrible things. Do not worry about me; please strike down this fiend.”
He raised a steady gaze and begged them to kill Derus, to not mind him.
“Not bad for eating a king of a country.”
Derus Robert muttered, exhaling a breath.
“I ought to shut him up.”
He put his index and middle fingers together and stabbed them into King Lecross’s back.
“Um!”
It was as if the flow of aura had been completely blocked: the king could not even move a finger and froze.
“…….”
Glenn watched King Lecross, unable to move his eyes, then turned his gaze to Derus.
“When did you realize we were targeting the Black Tower?”
“A bit earlier than the Black Tower.”
Derus shrugged, as if he knew the plan before the raid.
“Then you could have prevented the ambush?”
Glenn frowned and glared at Derus.
“Why would I?”
Derus shrugged as if asking why he should stop.
“What?”
“I don’t want the Black Tower to become the final battlefield.”
He shook his head, saying this was not the time for the true war.
“While all eyes are on the Black Tower, I can test my strength and kill this useless king. That’s beneficial.”
Derus twisted his mouth, preferring to reduce enemies rather than save comrades.
“So?”
He poked at King Lecross’s wound with a finger as if enjoying himself.
“…….”
Despite the severe pain, King Lecross remained unshaken and cast a look that begged them to kill Derus.
“Wait.”
Glenn received the king’s gaze in his chest and tightened the hand that held the Heavenly Tremor.
“Really going to try it? The moment you move, this country will lose its father.”
Derus did not feel ashamed to hold a hostage despite the staggering aura he faced. His behavior was beyond comprehension.
‘And besides…’
That wound was from a surprise attack.
It was obvious at a glance. King Lecross’s wound was not a frontal stab but an attack from behind.
It was bewildering that someone with such power would fight like an assassin.
‘I knew Sky Sword Saint Derus Robert had become something of smoke and illusion, but I didn’t expect it to be this different.’
Derus had abandoned any chance to save the Black Tower lord and infiltrated Owen to target King Lecross.
Even though he had the capacity to rescue his allies, he chose the strategy of killing the enemy. Because Glenn’s memories still held the old image of Sky Sword Saint Derus Robert, it made him harder to read.
‘Difficult.’
He couldn’t read that bastard’s thoughts.
From much experience he could usually predict a person’s character by social position and behavior, but Derus Robert was different.
Despite possessing power that could overwhelm the transcedents of the Five Demons, he resorted to ambushes and held hostages without shame—things Glenn couldn’t fathom.
“Curious.”
Derus Robert studied Glenn and tilted his chin lightly.
“You’re only human, and there’s no one behind you—how could you reach such a realm?”
He narrowed his eyes as if he could not understand Glenn.
“Of course, being only human, you can’t escape causality.”
Derus smiled, apparently aware of Glenn’s condition.
“Stop hiding and come out.”
When he raised his hand, a blond youth with white wings stepped out from a pillar behind him. His appearance was dizzying enough to break composure at a glance. Not human—an angel.
“Please.”
Derus handed King Lecross, whom he had been holding hostage, over to the angel. The tone suggested it was not a superior-subordinate relationship.
“…….”
Glenn frowned at the sight.
‘He’s no ordinary angel.’
Having witnessed Uriel’s descent before, Glenn knew Derus had connections to the heavenly realm.
A flimsy angel could be seized with a single sword stroke, but this one was different. If Glenn did not deal with him properly, it could become dangerous.
‘Right now…’
Derus placed the sword dripping with King Lecross’s blood against his own heart.
‘I wanted to see how different you and I are; good timing.’
He tilted his chin as if to challenge him to a fight.
Kooooooo!
When Derus planted his sword, a chilling sensation like ice spikes rising from beneath his feet spread.
‘As a junior I’ll go first.’
He shifted his left foot and thrust the blade forward, which gleamed with a blue light.
Chiiiiing!
Even before Derus’s sword touched him, a pain spread as if his body and soul had been pierced by a blade.
Derus Robert had reached a level of manifesting a sword created in the mental realm into reality—different from other transcedents, as Glenn had expected.
‘But still lacking.’
Glenn twisted the Heavenly Tremor obliquely and blocked the space-penetrating thrust of Derus’s blade.
Zzzeoooooong!
Just the clash of steel raised a storm of aura so great that the entire palace was torn apart. The ceiling flew away, walls collapsed, revealing a blue sky and black earth.
‘You can block that so simply?’
Derus scoffed, incredulous. What looked like an ordinary thrust had actually employed the extreme season of aura.
He had meant to split the ground beyond Glenn, but it had been blocked so simply.
‘Now it’s my turn.’
Red lightning blazed over the Heavenly Tremor as Glenn lifted it. With majestic radiance his blade fell above Derus’s head.
Kwaaarrrrrng!
Glenn’s strike, like thunder caught in the sky, carried the intent to crush his enemy.
‘Impressive!’
Even as a transcendent of the Five Demons, the power could have torn limbs from a body—but Derus charged forward nonetheless.
Paaang!
A sea-like blue light burst from his sword and cut through Glenn’s lightning-infused strike midair.
He severed the flow before the sword’s true power could form—an art that cut off momentum.
‘As expected.’
Glenn narrowed his eyes as Derus shook the remaining lightning from his blade.
‘That bastard has reached a different league from the other leaders of the Five Demons.’
At this point, Derus Robert possessed power capable of defeating the leaders of the other Five Demons except for the Heavenly Demon and himself.
It was hard to understand how he had gained such strength in so short a time.
‘Now that I’ve seen his measure, shall we truly begin?’
Derus smiled faintly and waved his wrist. The blue light around his sword blackened into an ominous darkness.
‘Deathly energy…’
Deathly energy is power refined and purified from deathly aura—far more dangerous and toxic; one must be cautious to even touch it.
Chiiiiiing!
Derus’s blade sliced through the air; the ground split and black flames rose. It felt as if he were calling hell into this world.
Woooong!
Glenn watched the grotesque phenomena his swordsmanship produced without stepping back.
He drew an even deeper thunder over the Heavenly Tremor and slashed long, cutting through the advancing darkness.
Kuwaaaaaaah!
Since ancient times, lightning has had the power to break demonic energy. Deathly energy faltered against the thunder and faded away, helplessly.
‘Like a thunder god’s presence.’
Derus, unshaken though his strike had melted, poured forth an even denser blade filled with deathly energy. Darkness rose around him as if blotting out the sun.
Kuwaaaaaaang!
When deathly energy and red lightning collided, crimson cracks split the sky and earth.
The people of Owen watching the castle muttered that the end of the world had come and fell to their knees.
‘This is taking too long.’
I must finish quickly.
As Glenn cut the darkness Derus had raised and moved forward, a chilling sensation came from behind.
Suuuuu.
Derus Robert—just as with Lecross—came from the shadows to ambush him.
Because deathly energy scattered like mist, it was difficult to sense the ambush until it was upon you.
But Glenn’s body had reached the state where things from the mental realm could be projected into reality. Like taking a stance, he bowed the Heavenly Tremor down and struck aside Derus’s grotesquely bending blade.
Zzzeoooooong!
Derus was pushed back and exhaled deeply.
“Definitely different.”
He lowered his trembling hand and pursed his lips.
“But not that far.”
—
King Lecross watched the angel at his back and bit his lip.
‘No openings.’
Seeing the angel’s aura, even if he hadn’t been wounded, it would be hard to face him.
This angel seemed to be a high-ranking one with a name, unlike the angel Raon had captured before.
‘Then I must wait for an opportunity.’
If he moved clumsily he’d only hinder the fight. Watching Glenn and Derus’s battle and waiting for the chance seemed best.
‘Derus has become this powerful.’
Putting aside having beaten me, the fact he did not yield to Glenn’s blade meant Derus had risen far above the other leaders of the Five Demons.
‘I don’t understand.’
Despite having similar strength to Glenn, Derus used ambushes and filthy tactics like throwing rocks and sand.
Even if he could fight properly without much disadvantage, using such base methods was incomprehensible.
‘But no matter either way.’
Glenn blocked all of Derus’s offenses, whether proper swordsmanship or ambush. He moved as if the god of the sword had descended; each motion was near perfect.
‘Trust him and wait for the chance.’
Lecross slowly pushed away the deathly energy pressing his body and focused on the two combatants.
—
Chiiiiiing!
Glenn shrugged off Derus’s ambush from beneath his feet and thrust the Heavenly Tremor toward the man’s heart.
Paaaaaaang!
A blood-red current burst and tore open Derus Robert’s shoulder. Blood poured from him in a chilling scarlet stream.
“Hmm.”
Derus rose again as if the wound meant nothing and delivered an eerily sharp cut.
The deathly energy blossoming from his strike extended like a reaper’s scythe.
‘This is dangerous.’
The transcendent art of incorporating one’s mental realm into reality—if Derus treated that scythe as the Reaper, just touching it could cause fatal wounds.
Hoo.
Glenn exhaled briefly and summoned true lightning onto the Heavenly Tremor.
The Heavenly Thunder Assault, the soul-forging thunder: the manifested lightning poured down as a crimson flash.
Kuwaaaaaaaaaang!
The Reaper’s scythe and the thunder of the heavenly god collided and erased everything that had existed before their eyes.
Aura evaporated, a blood-red current shot to the heavens, and all beneath it was scorched black.
Goooooo.
As if nothing had happened, Glenn stood in place, tilting the Heavenly Tremor. It was as though the fight had never occurred.
But Derus Robert knelt on one knee, black blood spilling from his lips.
“Ugh…”
He frowned, pushing off the lightning that climbed his sword and affected body and soul; in a battle that had been a close match, the balance had broken for the first time.
“This is quite dangerous…”
As Derus exhaled, Glenn’s blade rose again. A sweeping, comet-like arc fell above Derus and the angel’s heads.
“Ugh!”
Derus twisted his mouth and poured deathly energy into the wavering blade. A newly rising black flame wrapped his whole sword like a rose vine.
Kuwaaaaaaang!
Glenn’s strike again cleaved the deathly energy and carved a bright red wound in his flesh.
“Ugh…”
Derus was pushed back, vomiting black, dead blood.
“Insane. Is this the perfected blade…”
The energy itself wasn’t greatly outmatched, but the gulf in the realm of swordsmanship was enormous. It felt impossible to contend.
“As expected, still not enough.”
Derus awkwardly smiled and backed away. He wiped the blood flowing from his mouth as if he had never been wounded.
“But there is harvest.”
He tipped his chin toward Glenn as the latter stood still.
“This is your current combat capacity. You did not even use the heart-sword.”
He laughed as if predicting this.
“Next time I see you, I’ll reach that level.”
“Who said you’d get to send me there?”
Glenn planted the Heavenly Tremor, aiming at both Derus and the angel holding King Lecross.
“Can you truly kill me? Along with your comrade?”
Derus twisted his mouth standing beside King Lecross.
“I can kill.”
Glenn looked at Derus without the twitch of an eye.
“If I decide to kill, anyone will die.”
Unlike before, he had perfectly honed the blade of the heart-sword. Now he could unerringly cut any soul.
‘But that angel is a problem.’
The presence of that angel, akin to Uriel, was troublesome. Even if he cut Derus’s soul, if that angel did something to revive him, it would mean nothing.
‘Also…’
I’m not sure I’m ready.
As the heart-sword reached perfection, its backlash would be great. Even if he killed Derus, he himself would leave this world immediately.
He wasn’t afraid to die, but he worried about those left behind; his fingertips stiffened with that concern.
“…….”
Glenn bit his lip lightly while holding the Heavenly Tremor and raised his gaze calmly.
“It seems you’re serious. Then I’ll give you a choice.”
Derus wiped away his playful expression and flicked his hand.
Perrrrrrrk!
The angel, without hesitation, drove a hand through King Lecross’s chest.
“Ugh…”
King Lecross spewed a fountain of blood from his chest and collapsed.
Thud.
The angel vomited blood, grabbed the king’s nape, threw him to the right, and raised a golden flash above his palm.
“You choose.”
As Derus lowered his fingers, his and the angel’s bodies began to blur.
“Either kill me or save this country’s father.”
Derus twisted his mouth, saying if he didn’t swing his sword he would disappear.
“No—there’s one more. If you kill me, you’ll vanish too. Even if the Black Tower disappears, can those left behind endure?”
He shrugged as if asking what he would do.
“Please, please don’t worry about me! Kill him!”
Even while spewing blood, King Lecross cried out for Derus to be killed.
“…….”
Glenn tightened his grip on the Heavenly Tremor and lifted his eyes in silence.