Chapter 968
Mirtran Village, home of Zieghart’s blacksmiths.
Though the sun had set, the artisans seemed even more energized—sparks burst violently, and hammers struck with their full strength.
Clang!
Vulcan let out a long sigh like smoke from pipe tobacco as the thunderous hammer sounds rang out.
“This damned sword….”
He ground his teeth as he glared at the black blade, its surface dark red like congealed blood.
“What am I supposed to do if it withstands the heat of three gold-charcoal pieces!”
Vulcan’s thick fists trembled like pot lids.
“There’s no answer. No answer at all!”
Gold-charcoal wasn’t something that could be mass-produced. Even with all his skill, only one out of a hundred perfectly crafted charcoal pieces might become gold-charcoal—yet even using three of them hadn’t melted the blade’s surface.
“Might as well smash it!”
Vulcan raised the massive hammer hanging on the wall, fully intending to strike.
“S-stop!”
The shaman Pasiron—dispatched by the Beast Union to break the black sword’s curse—jumped to his feet.
“It’s not completely unchanged!”
Waving his hands, he urged Vulcan to pause.
“Thanks to the heat you provided with the gold-charcoal, we were able to erase a small portion of the curse. It’s like carving a huge crack into the thick fortress that is the Curse of Blood!”
He clenched his fist, insisting that now that they knew the method, repeating the process would eventually let them break the curse entirely.
“That’s not easy!”
Vulcan frowned deeply as he glared at the black sword.
“You can’t just make gold-charcoal at will. And all the shamans performing the purification collapsed!”
Pasiron and the shamans of the Beast Union had applied their purification arts over the black sword heated by gold-charcoal.
At first, it seemed to work—but the sword’s vicious blood-energy overwhelmed them, causing them to spit blood and collapse.
“We suffered internal injuries, but nothing critical. After some rest, we can resume the ritual.”
Pasiron shook his head calmly.
“Whew…”
Seeing Pasiron so composed calmed Vulcan slightly.
“How much of the curse remains?”
He rotated his wrist and tilted his head.
“Nine-tenths… we’ve only dispelled one-tenth.”
Even as he said it, Pasiron looked embarrassed.
“But now is when it truly begins! We’ve made a crack—next time, we might be able to break the wall altogether!”
He pressed his hands together, urging Vulcan to trust him.
“Can’t we just smash it?”
Vulcan bit his lip and reached for his hammer again.
“P-please don’t!”
Pasiron raised both hands frantically.
“That sword is asleep. If you provoke it into waking, the workshop will turn into a slaughterhouse!”
He shook his head furiously, insisting they must not recklessly disturb it.
“Damn it! Damn it all!”
Vulcan threw the hammer behind him and grabbed his head.
“How long will it take to make another gold-charcoal piece? How long to restore that sword….”
He clicked his tongue helplessly.
“S-sorry.”
Pasiron lowered his head apologetically.
“I’m not angry at you. I’m angry there’s nothing I can do for Aris.”
Vulcan waved his hand—Pasiron had no reason to apologize.
“Aris couldn’t bear waiting for the purification and prepared to restore her strength on her own.”
He stroked his beard as he looked in the direction of Zieghart.
“She didn’t tell us a single word, moving on her own. It means she didn’t want to burden us. I think I understand what that troublemaker was thinking, and it makes me frustrated.”
Vulcan furrowed his brow as he recalled Aris’s gloomy eyes.
“I understand….”
Pasiron nodded heavily, knowing exactly how Vulcan felt.
“Our Lord still hasn’t fully recovered his true strength. He smiles like he’s fine, but watching him is agony.”
He bit his lip, thinking of Ogram, who surely felt the greatest sense of loss.
“Hmm….”
Vulcan slowly closed and opened his eyes, sympathizing with Pasiron.
“There’s no choice. I’ll try to make gold-charcoal again. It’ll take time, but….”
He clicked his tongue—it seemed like the only option.
“Thank you.”
Pasiron bowed, grateful for Vulcan’s belief.
“No need! You guys came all this way to help—we should be thanking you!”
Vulcan waved his hand, apologizing for venting earlier.
“How about sharing a drink tonight instead?”
“Gladly. I’ll win this time.”
They exchanged faint smiles—
Wooooooom!
The black sword on the worktable let out a chilling tremor.
“Wh-what!”
“What’s happening…?”
Both men widened their eyes at the violently vibrating black blade. Even when heated with gold-charcoal or bound by ritual, it had never reacted like this.
“Get back!”
Pasiron brought his hands together—gray smoke rose from between his fingers and wrapped around the black sword. It was a suppressive sealing spell meant to choke hostile energy.
Bang!
But even bound by the spell, the black sword thrashed like an unbroken colt, spewing dark red blood-energy in all directions.
“I-it’s waking! Get out!”
Pasiron stomped the floor, shouting for Vulcan to leave the workshop.
“Pasiron!”
“I’m fine! If you go first, I can escape too!”
He urged Vulcan to flee.
“Damn it!”
Vulcan gritted his teeth and ran toward the door—but the black sword’s blood-energy surged, making it impossible to reach the walls or exit.
“Damnable sword!”
He hurled a massive hammer at the blood-flaring wall.
Crackle!
The blood-energy shattered the hammer entirely, refusing to let anything approach.
“We can’t escape!”
As Vulcan swallowed dryly and scanned the room, the blood-energy spread through the workshop, erasing the very space they stood in.
“If we wait, the other shamans will—”
Pasiron’s trembling voice matched his shaking hands—he was already overexerting himself.
“Ha….”
Vulcan looked at the trembling ceiling and walls, and a bitter sigh escaped him.
‘So this is how I die?’
Memories floated through his mind.
Unfulfilled childhood love, weeping alone after forging his first sword, regretting the blade he made for a murderer, the sorrow of sending off the Heavenly Tremor’s last moment.
But only one sword sat in his heart now.
Heavenly Drive.
He wanted to forge Raon’s sword until that boy stood at the peak of the continent—but dying here made it all feel unbearably regretful.
‘No… you’ll be fine even without me.’
Vulcan smiled brightly as he remembered the young Raon he’d first met at the charcoal kiln.
‘Raon. Never break—just like back then.’
As he closed his eyes—
Boom!
The workshop doors and walls exploded—and a tall woman with sunset-colored hair flowing like waves strode in.
“Uh….”
Vulcan’s eyes widened at the cool, striking figure approaching through the dust.
“Aris? What are you doing here…?”
It was Aris. She was supposed to be resting in Zieghart—why was she here?
“Long time no see.”
Aris smiled as she waved at Vulcan.
“So it was here.”
She twisted her lips as she looked at the black sword thrashing violently even while bound by Pasiron’s spell.
“What?”
“This thing was calling me.”
Aris chuckled, saying the black sword had led her here.
“Calling you…?”
Pasiron looked between her and the sword, shaking his head.
“M-move back! That sword is trying to swallow your soul and fully awaken as a demonic sword!”
If that happened, no one could stop it.
“It sensed your presence even now—that’s why it’s rampaging!”
He gritted his teeth as his spell chains pushed against the cursed blade, blood trickling from between them.
“You two, step outside. This place is about to collapse.”
Aris gestured for them to leave.
“Aris?”
“Don’t worry. I’m not the same as when this thing first found me.”
She hadn’t told anyone—but ever since waking, she had felt the sword.
Whether her eyes were open or closed, the black blade called to her.
That voice was temptation, threat… and a curse that dragged up memories of Sif.
She had pushed herself to the brink with physical training just to suppress it—but now she no longer needed to resist.
“Come on then, you damned sword.”
Aris bared her teeth and grabbed the black blade.
Fwooooom!
The moment she touched it, a monstrous surge of blood-energy roared up the blade.
It was powerful enough to swallow her body and drown her soul in an instant.
Whoooosh!
Aris didn’t resist the blood-energy pouring into her—she accepted it. Her skin reddened as if ready to burst.
“Aris!”
“No!”
Vulcan and Pasiron shouted with wide eyes as veins rose across her entire body.
“It’s fine.”
Aris waved them off with a smile.
“I’ve been waiting for this.”
Once her mana circuits were filled with the sword’s blood-energy, she opened her core.
The refined blue aura born from the Dragon Heart shot out like a blade, shredding the blood-energy flooding her circuits.
‘My turn now.’
Once she erased the invading blood-energy, she struck back at the sword.
Woooooom!
Her roaring blue aura flooded into the blade’s interior.
Whoooosh!
Her vision darkened as her soul resonated with the sword’s curse, entering something like a mental world.
An impossibly thick wall of blood-energy loomed before her. But in the right corner—a deep crack.
‘There.’
Aris recognized it instantly as the black sword’s weak point and unleashed her aura at full force.
Rumble!
The blood-wall protecting the curse began to break apart.
But the sword refused to go down quietly—it flared with titanic blood-flames.
Kwooooooosh!
The crimson fire tried to devour her blue aura and crush her soul.
‘Is that supposed to kill me?’
Aris clenched her teeth and flung open the full depth of her soul, unleashing all her aura.
Rumble!
Her aura and the sword’s blood-energy devoured each other like beasts, growing more violent.
But this place—the mental world—belonged to the sword. Slowly, she was being pushed back.
Hooooooo!
The sword exuded sticky blood-energy, trying to seize the space beneath her feet and swallow her soul completely.
‘Ha….’
Aris bit her tongue as she felt the immense pressure.
‘This is dangerous.’
The sword couldn’t unleash its full power due to lingering seals, but even so, it threatened to crush her soul. Without the earlier crack, she would’ve been doomed.
‘But…’
I’m not going all-out yet either.
Climbing Northgaze Mountain, she hadn’t only trained her body.
She had sharpened her spirit—resentment toward herself, the pain of failing to raise her son properly, and the desire for vengeance against those responsible.
‘And…’
She still held the pure aura Raon had given her. She drew out that grateful, powerful energy.
Fwooooosh!
Her soul, stronger than ever before, flared with blue light that burst forth brilliantly.
Whooooosh!
The blood-energy that had been crushing her retreated before the radiance.
Crackle!
The sword resisted to the end, spurting blood-energy like a volcano from sky and earth.
“You damned sword!”
Aris stomped her foot, grinding her teeth. Her ocean-blue aura suppressed the sword’s frenzy as she advanced.
“You’re powered by my strength! Give it back and behave!”
If it disobeyed, she’d break it—she grasped the blade with both hands.
Fwoooooom!
Aura and blood-energy collided endlessly. The workshop walls collapsed, the earth gave way, and dark red sparks scattered in every direction.
Boom!
Crimson and blue lights intertwined in a shattering explosion that erased the entire workshop and its surroundings.
“Ugh!”
“Hoo….”
Pasiron flung out his hand, clearing the smoke rising toward the sky.
Whooo…
Aris knelt on charred earth, gripping a blade half-melted with dark red residue.
“This little brat… never listens. Just like someone I know.”
She let out a wry laugh, rubbing her nose bridge. The black sword in her hand had gone completely still—like an ordinary blade.
“Wh-what happened….”
Pasiron stared in disbelief.
“Isn’t it obvious?”
Vulcan grinned.
“The damned sword found its master!”
—
A sharp moon rose into the night sky.
Karoon walked the corridor of the main house with heavy, muted steps. He stopped before the reception room at the end and lifted his calm gaze.
“I was waiting.”
Roenn bowed and opened the door.
“….”
Karoon nodded to him and stepped inside.
“You’ve come.”
Glenn nodded beneath the blue moonlight on his shoulders—mystical like a sword deity, yet serene like an ascetic monk.
“Speak. Why did you seek me?”
He lowered his gaze slowly, ready to listen to anything.
“You remember I said I would come again after my duel with Raon?”
Karoon stepped onto the red carpet and stood before the dais.
“Of course.”
Glenn nodded.
“…Please make me stronger.”
Karoon’s shoulders trembled faintly before he sank to his knees.
“I know the position of Head Of House isn’t determined by strength alone. But I don’t want to give up on strength either. I want to chase him—no, surpass him.”
He bowed deeply, asking for Glenn’s help to grow stronger. Once, he would have been too embarrassed to say such a thing—but defeat had changed him.
“I’ll follow any path you set for me, Father.”
Karoon bowed, calling Glenn “Father” instead of Head Of House.
“Hm….”
Glenn stroked his chin.
“With your achievements, helping your training is easy. But…”
He narrowed his eyes beneath the moonlight.
“Even if I help, you alone cannot catch Raon.”
He smacked his lips—Raon was still growing stronger, even now.
“…I see.”
Karoon bit his lip hard enough to bleed.
‘So it’s impossible after all.’
He had feared refusal—but hearing that even Glenn’s help wasn’t enough felt like the sky collapsing.
“Understood. Thank you.”
Forcing his legs to support him, Karoon stood. His mind was blank, his body weak—but he couldn’t show a pathetic sight before Glenn.
“Then I will—”
“Wait.”
As Karoon bowed and turned to leave, Glenn raised his hand.
“Wait a moment. Someone else is coming.”
He motioned toward the door.
“I apologize, but I’m not in the state to—”
Boom!
The doors burst open violently, and Aris strode in.
“Aris?”
Karoon’s eyes widened. He had heard she’d collapsed after restoring her aura—but hadn’t expected her to already be awake.
“Father.”
Aris bowed to Glenn.
“I’ve come for the request I mentioned before.”
She straightened proudly, as if retrieving something she’d left in his care.
“Please help me regain my former strength!”
She lifted her chin—asking for training, but sounding like an order.
“….”
Karoon was stunned. Her attitude was so bold that he couldn’t help but let out a small laugh.
“Karoon.”
Glenn rose from his throne.
“As I said, no matter what you do, you alone cannot catch Raon. But…”
He looked at Aris—her newly tamed black sword resting on her shoulder—and smiled faintly.
“With the two of you together, it’s possible. Will you do it?”
A red light flashed in Karoon’s eyes. He didn’t hesitate even a heartbeat.
“Of course!”