Book 14 Chapter 34

Episode 41

The blue light and dark blue sword dance, going back and forth dozens of times in an instant.

Those sword strikes, with even the wind pressure arriving half a beat late, were truly the dance of pinnacles.

The sword-wind was enough to carve and shatter the surrounding environment, so anyone could easily gauge the power of those slashes.

"You've truly grown old, Leland! Hahahaha! Are you already tired!"

However, as time passed, the silver slashes began to subtly yet surely slow down, while the dark blue slashes began to accelerate even further.

As if it were just beginning in earnest.

The middle-aged man called Leland realized that he had no chance in a war of attrition.

'If that's the case.'

He had no choice but to end it with a single, sure-hit, sure-kill technique.

Like that day, that moment, twenty years ago.

Leland pulled the blade of his greatsword far back behind his side. All his muscles, magic power, tendons, in short, his entire body contracted, preparing for a momentary, violent release all at once.

"Ha, that trick again!"

This was the absolute slash that had placed Leland in the position of Sword Saint and given him the epithet 'Flash of the Frontier'.

The light of the three-layered mana chain interwoven behind Leland's back also transformed from merely radiant to brilliant.

Its luminosity was so high that it brightly illuminated this deep night, which had no lighting whatsoever.

"Here I come, Jiheet."

At that very moment, a wave of power, truly all his strength (全力), concentrated everything into a single flash, surged towards Jiheet.

"Four Pillars Ice Mirror (四柱氷鏡)."

Suddenly, the air in front of Jiheet froze over on a large scale, and what unfolded was… a mirror?

That mirror, in one breath, absorbed it.

All the power Leland Appeltas had unleashed. The mirror shook as if it would shatter, then in the next moment, it reversed that light and spat it out.

Puh-aaak…!

The best Leland could do was to defend so that no limbs were lost. In the process, his sword shattered into pieces, and fresh blood erupted from his entire body.

"Did you really think I'd fight you fairly?"

As Leland squeezed out magic power for emergency hemostasis, Jiheet's mocking laugh spread over the mansion.

Only then did he see it.

Someone clad in a dark blue robe, emerging from the shadows of the night.

"No, that's impossible. Defeated by that cowardly technique you're so proud of. That suits your end perfectly."

With breaths that seemed about to cease, Leland, his face pale, knelt on one knee in his own puddle of blood.

His old adversary drew closer and closer.

Beyond the confusing sounds, which seemed to recede and then approach, soon came a splash… the sound of ripples spreading in the puddle of blood.

"I'll tear your limbs apart. It's too early to die yet. You'll have to watch the city you stole from me burn completely."

Get up, I must get up… He tried to push off the ground, using his broken sword like a cane. He tried to raise himself.

As if to mock such a Leland…

A slash flew in. A blade meant to cut off his sword-wielding hand, spilling blood, flew in.

───Cha-a-a-a-ang!

But it blocked and disrupted that strike, a light so… heartbreakingly beautiful. The sword-light of a blade forged to punish evil.

It was, the light of the holy sword.

Without even a moment to be surprised, the woman who appeared with her back reassuringly turned, her hair fluttering, was none other than his eldest daughter, Lista.

"You…"

Leland tried to hide his helplessness at 'again' being helped by his daughter, with a reprimand about lingering in old family matters instead of departing on his journey as a hero.

"Why did you come to a place that has nothing to do with you?"

But his daughter…

No, the hero.

As if she had already read his true feelings from Leland's expression, she spoke first.

"Hmm, my mother always used to say."

As she elegantly wielded the holy sword, chasing away the darkness of the night.

"Helping someone who has nothing to do with you is the duty of a hero."

And on his daughter's smiling face, the face of his wife, who had died nine years ago, clearly overlapped. That overlap was heartbreaking.

'Sena…'