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The fierce battle between Glen and Rowen had already continued for nearly twenty minutes.
However, the situation had changed greatly compared to when their swords first clashed.
KWA-A-A-ANG—! BOOM!
Amid the particles of holy power and demonic energy that exploded one after another, Rowen spotted a gap and stepped forward firmly to thrust her sword.
Click—
KWA-A-A-ANG!!
The dark matter buried in that spot exploded and swallowed Rowen.
“!”
Rowen frowned and tried to kick off the ground again, but Glen was not someone who would miss the gap created in that brief moment.
Fwoosh—!
Breaking through the smoke left by the explosion, Ainheria rushed toward Rowen’s neck.
Rowen barely twisted her head away just before the blue blade could touch her.
Tss—
“Ugh!”
The blade of Ainheria grazed Rowen’s cheek and the tip of her ear, and Rowen rolled on the ground, retreating from the spot where she had been standing.
Hot blood flowed down her cheek and ear as she quickly stood up and took her stance again.
“Haah… haahh……”
Her eyes were still cold enough to cut, but her breathing had clearly become rough.
Not only that, but the armor covered with various magic from mages had also become visibly torn and battered.
Just when she had begun adapting to the coordination of Glen’s party, a new trial called dark matter had been given to her.
Even when the sixth dark matter exploded, she had still not found a way to counter it.
Rowen was losing.
Shing—
Watching Rowen trying to steady her breathing with an unstable posture, Glen adjusted his stance.
Unlike the battered Rowen, Glen’s armor still reflected sunlight and shone with dignity.
Of course, since his opponent was who she was, the holy armor layered over it had already been completely destroyed.
And because he had spent too much concentration fighting her, Glen himself was also greatly exhausted.
“Still… it looks like I won, right?”
Even though he knew there would be no reply, Glen let out a crooked smile while looking at her.
The dark matter he had obtained as a reward after annihilating the Black Cult totaled ten.
Six of them had already been used, so four remained.
The enchantment magic placed by Ridenhall still had plenty of duration left, and Romina had also controlled her pace well enough to keep fighting.
Two more times.
If he used the explosion of dark matter a couple more times, he would be able to bring Rowen down.
‘So please just fall like this.’
The demon sword Tearbel.
Hoping that the magic placed on that legendary artifact by Kacherto Rienz would not cause something strange, Glen lowered his stance.
“Alright, let’s finish this.”
“Haah…….”
While steadying her rough breathing, Rowen grabbed her beloved sword, Tearbel.
Soon, a red aura began to gather on the transparent blade of Tearbel.
“…Right. I wondered why you weren’t using that.”
A serious light appeared in Glen’s eyes.
Items that exist in the world of Gray Eden gain unique abilities when they rise to the level of Hero-grade or higher.
Some grant overwhelming stats.
Some grant new skills.
And some grant both.
And Tearbel, which is also a legendary-grade weapon like Ainheria, gives massive stats and also conveys the power within the sword to the user in the form of a skill.
Gooooooo—
The skill possessed by Tearbel was called Red Meteor.
It was a technique created by the player, Rowen, named after the image of a Red Dragon struck by a slash and falling from the sky.
‘Intercepting it… won’t work.’
Even if he rushed forward to stop her, Rowen would still execute the technique even if it meant giving her heart to Glen.
Then there was only one method.
“Suu…….”
He would respond with a skill equal to her final strike.
Thinking that, Glen pulled Ainheria toward his waist.
Then he cast away all previous thoughts and focused his mind solely on the trajectory that Rowen’s sword would leave behind.
By doing so, Glen’s mind was sucked into a world where everything around him turned black.
“…….”
Time, which had been slowly flowing, slowed even further and then stopped.
A single pure white point formed before his eyes through intense concentration.
And beyond it flickered a red aura.
However, the white point created by Glen’s mind did not reach the red aura.
Even if he pushed the drawn sword forward and executed the first form, that red aura would not be extinguished.
In other words, the First Form of the Tyrant King’s Wrath would not be enough to win.
So instead, Glen quickly thrust his sword forward and rapidly consumed the first stance.
Whoosh—
It was a light draw without any sharpness, but Glen did not care.
It was only a process needed to properly express the second form of the Tyrant King’s Wrath.
The Ainheria drawn with the slash slowly rose upward.
His left hand joined his right hand gripping the handle.
Leaving a translucent afterimage in the frozen time, Glen raised the sword above his head.
The downward strike that should follow was simple enough that he did not even need to think about it.
But in the frozen time, Glen did not bring the sword down.
“…….”
Because the white point created by his mind still had not reached the red aura.
However, he did not waver.
Because his instincts already knew what would fill the remaining gap.
Whoooooosh—
Particles of black demonic energy flowed from the fingertips gripping the sword and climbed up along the handle.
Soon they tangled together with the holy power surrounding Ainheria, forming a spiral.
Kiiiiiiing—
The white point reached the red aura.
At the same time, time began to move again.
KWAGAGAGAGANG—!
His entire vision was filled with red light.
The strike capable of bringing down a dragon—one of the strongest beings in existence—from the sky tried to swallow Glen whole.
“…….”
But Glen did not waver.
He simply brought down Ainheria, wrapped in a spiral of white and black particles, which he had raised above his head.
Shaaaak—
From above to below.
A gray flash fell.
On top of the walls of Raygle’s capital.
Ridenhall doubted again and again what he was seeing before his eyes.
The red slash created by the sword of the magic swordsman Rowen was so massive that it could swallow an entire tall tower.
Yet the elegant strike of Glen Wordsworth erased the hero’s blow as if destroying falsehood itself.
The crack stretching behind Rowen’s fallen body looked as if a massive earthquake had struck and sunk the surrounding land.
Second Form of the Tyrant King’s Wrath.
The second slash of the Nameless King who had once killed a hundred knights.
But Ridenhall, who did not know the truth, simply believed it to be a miracle performed by God—and by Glen.
“Ha…….”
Even though he had no lungs and possessed neither flesh nor blood, a breath escaped him naturally.
Even in the distant past, when he had been a saint loved by God, would he have been able to create such a miracle?
‘…Only Brother Glen could do it.’
Staring blankly at the unforgettable sight, Ridenhall simply remained silent.
The violent storm and shockwaves that had been raging without rest finally stopped, and silence settled.
“Ugh… damn it.”
His whole body creaked, and the heart filled with holy power and demonic energy felt empty.
He used Ainheria as a support, but merely standing up was the limit.
Even though Glen had already reached the realm of over nine stars, the recoil of the Tyrant King’s Wrath was still the same.
“Damn… if I use the final form, I might actually die……”
In fact, the final form—the Third Form—was a unique skill whose number of uses was limited even in the original story.
Back when he was watching through a monitor, he had simply thought, Wow, the player fainted. What an exaggeration, and moved on.
But now that it had become his own problem, he understood it all too well.
‘I might seriously die. Anyway…’
Glen raised his head.
A short distance away, the magic swordsman Rowen lay on the ground.
“You’re seriously a monster too……”
It was already amazing enough that she could execute Tearbel’s skill Red Meteor, but he had never imagined she could produce a slash that could surpass the second form of the Tyrant King’s Wrath.
If he had not used both holy power and demonic energy together, he might have ended up lying on the ground beside her.
‘What the hell did you create, Lunatic?’
He never imagined that a being who didn’t even exist in the original story could unleash a slash that surpassed the concept of the ring.
And she was even ranked second among the demons.
‘Then how much more buffed is that bastard Rupellos…….’
“Ha… ah…….”
Rowen, lying on the ground, stared blankly at the sky.
Blood flowing from the large wound that ran from her right shoulder toward her body dyed her clothes and the ground red.
The bleeding was severe, yet she had not died.
And the fact that the slash had not reached her heart was astonishing in itself.
At least it was some comfort that above her among the demons stood only the Demon King.
“…Tha…nk you.”
Rowen murmured.
She could barely turn her eyes, yet she expressed gratitude to Glen.
It seemed the magic of Kacherto had been released after she suffered heavy damage in the battle just now.
Glen knew very well what she was thanking him for, because he had heard many things about her.
And although Victor Carden might not know, she herself must also know what she had done while under Kacherto’s magic.
“Say thanks to Victor Carden. He’s the one who asked me to help.”
“…I’ve done too many unforgivable things to my master. I can’t face him. And to you humans as well.”
Her red eyes flickered faintly.
The eyes of the woman who had once been called a hero had lost their strength and were now waiting for death.
“But still… thank you for stopping me now. Can you… tell me your name?”
“…Glen Wordsworth.”
“Glen… Thank you for giving that name to someone like a butcher.”
Looking down quietly at Rowen, who smiled bitterly up at him, Glen felt that none of the things he had heard about her were lies.
—Rowen? Honestly, she’s a good woman.
—A true hero of the demon race who protects the weak and is nobler than anyone.
A hero who finds even a thread of nobility only at the moment before death.
The more he looked, the more he could feel just how horrible the things Kacherto Rienz had done.
“And I’m truly sorry. No… I apologize. I won’t ask for forgiveness, but please calm your anger by stabbing your sword into my heart.”
Rowen closed her eyes as she said that.
“I may be wicked, but beyond the land of demons there are many who live pure lives without knowing anything. So please show mercy at least to them… sob… I’m… sorry…….”
Glen was speechless.
Knowing she was asking for too much, Rowen bit her lower lip and began to sob.
Since she had killed countless innocent lives—even if unwillingly—she believed the same fate would now fall upon the demon race.
“Hey.”
But Rowen was wrong.
In the future Glen envisioned, there was no revenge, no massacre, and no need to distinguish between humans and demons.
So he decided to tell this pitiful hero the truth.
“I never gave you permission to die.”
“What… do you—?! Ah…! Ugh!”
But why did bad premonitions never miss their mark?
Tearbel, lying near Rowen, suddenly began releasing particles of deep purple light.
From that eerie glow, dozens of grotesque vein-like tendrils burst out and began wrapping around Rowen’s right hand and arm.
“What…?! Don’t tell me—!”
“Ugh! Aaaah! Aaaah!!”
Rowen screamed sharply as her body convulsed in agony.
Even when using a spatial stone she had screamed, but if someone at her level screamed like that, how terrible must the pain be?
An ordinary person would probably have already fainted from shock.
But Glen had no time to worry about Rowen’s pain.
The magic of Kacherto he had feared had activated the moment Rowen’s defeat was confirmed.
And the moment he realized that it was the most cruel and vicious magic among the ones he remembered, his mind began racing.
“Kacherto, you damn bastard… even if you’re crazy, how could you place Flower of the Other Side on a legion commander?!”
Looking at the purple veins that had already reached Rowen’s shoulder and heart area, Glen roared.
Flower of the Other Side.
An original magic that summons a plant from another world equal to the host’s level by using the host’s power and life force as a medium.
In exchange, the host becomes the plant’s vessel and suffers eternal torment in both mind and soul.
It was the most vicious magic Kacherto Rienz had created over hundreds of years.
—If such excellent life force is going to be lost anyway, shouldn’t we at least use it to our advantage until the very end?
It felt as if words Kacherto would say were echoing in his head.
In the original story, he had summoned otherworldly plants by using subordinates who failed missions or the defeated 7th and 8th legion commanders.
‘But he improved the magic enough to use it even on the demon ranked second?’
Glen couldn’t even imagine how much Lunatic elements had advanced Kacherto’s magic research.
Anyway, if this continued, an otherworldly plant would take Rowen as its host and root itself here.
If that happened, the land around Raygle’s capital would lose all life force.
According to the original system, plants summoned from another world were indestructible elements.
During the brief moment he was thinking, the purple tendrils that wrapped Rowen’s arm had already climbed to her shoulder and heart.
‘There’s no time to think.’
‘First, retreat and evacuate everyone in Raygle territory right now.’
Just as Glen turned to leave with that thought, his eyes met Rowen’s.
And time stopped.
Even while writhing in pain, she was sending him signals with her eyes.
Run away.
It’s dangerous.
“…….”
His heart dropped.
Countless emotions crossed his mind.
Just moments ago, he had decided to give Rowen a chance to atone.
But when the situation worsened, he had been about to turn away immediately.
Meanwhile, Rowen, who knew nothing, was only thinking about him.
Even at the moment of her death, she was trying to live her last moments like a hero.
“…….”
It pissed him off.
It pissed him off that a hero who had lived nobly protecting the weak had fallen.
It pissed him off that he had to fight her.
It pissed him off that Kacherto Rienz not only corrupted her but was now trying to use her life as well.
But the thing that pissed him off the most was himself, who was passively accepting all of this.
Shing—
So Glen turned his body.
Rowen looked shocked as the human began running toward her.
He kicked off the ground toward her.
At the same time, he drove out all the holy power and demonic energy left in his heart.
Honestly, he didn’t even know what he was trying to do.
He didn’t know if anything would change even if he did this.
His body just moved.
Because all the miraculous possibilities that could overturn this terrible situation were contained in that movement.
Praying for a miracle, Glen raised Ainheria.
Woooooong—!
His gaze was fixed on the demon sword Tearbel.
He brought Ainheria down toward the place where Kacherto Rienz’s cursed magic had begun.
Imagining the ugly face of that vile old demon who felt no guilt about his actions.
Swaaeeek—
“From now on, nothing will go the way you want, you…!”
Holy power and demonic energy once again tangled along Ainheria.
And as the elegant blade descended toward Tearbel, which was releasing ominous purple energy, a gray power that had never existed in this world wrapped around it.
“You filthy bastard!!”
KKAANG!
With the clear metallic sound of blade striking blade, the world shook.
PAAANG—
Glen himself couldn’t tell what had happened as his vision was filled with white and black light.
He could only lower his head as he struggled to keep his fading consciousness.
