Chapter 68. Reappearance (5)
The massive green magic circles that Tantalus had constructed.
Between the greatly blinking green lights and the test tubes.
The experimental subjects charged towards me.
In the darkness of the basement. Immortal beasts running while roaring madly, having lost their reason.
And from directly in front of where they were sprinting,
A streak of flame rose, burning the darkness.
Fwoosh!
Facing the charge of the experimental subjects that echoed through the basement, I alone lowered my stance, holding my sword.
One deep breath.
Gripping the sword, concentrating mana in my left foot, I stepped forward greatly and ignited it.
Bang!
In that moment, with an incredible recoil, my body shot out at a speed that left afterimages. A tremendous acceleration, enough to narrow my vision, enveloped my body.
Form 1, Explosive Sword.
Behind me, who was sprinting like a bullet, the sword's flames left a clear red trajectory, driving back the darkness.
The distance to the pack of Magical Beasts narrowed explosively.
I then swiftly passed by one of the experimental subjects running at the very front and cut it down with my sword.
─Slash
Without even understanding what had happened to it.
The experimental subject couldn't overcome its body's inertia and walked a few more steps before its body suddenly split in half.
The one that fell forward could not get up again.
A charging slash that happened too quickly.
The experimental subjects behind, witnessing that sight, became even more enraged and charged towards me without stopping.
Whoosh!
One approaching experimental subject slammed down a giant fist, as if to crush me along with the floor.
Immediately turning my body halfway to evade.
At the same time, I swung my sword greatly upwards in a diagonal cut.
Swish!
In an instant, both of its forearms were severed.
Without it having time to check its severed arms, whirlwind-like slashes continuously cut the experimental subject.
Sword strikes wreathed in flames raged like a storm.
In an instant, the experimental subject's body crumbled.
Just as I was about to break through the enemies behind without slowing down. Suddenly, the ground shook violently.
My dark blue eyes glanced sideways.
Directly to the side, another experimental subject was launching a physical charge, leading with its massive shoulder.
A sprint with power no different from an armored vehicle.
I immediately turned my body and moved out of its attack path.
Swish.
I narrowly avoided colliding with it, but immediately behind, another Magical Beast swung an arm, targeting me.
I narrowly lowered my stance and evaded. However, it wasn't perfect. Its sharp claws grazed my shoulder. A small amount of blood splattered beside my cheek.
For a moment, my eyes narrowed.
‘Unlike last time, there are no experimental subjects emitting anesthetic gas, but their physical abilities have increased dramatically.’
The physical abilities of the experimental subjects, penetrating close range at speeds unsuited to their massive size and build, were truly threatening.
The moment I carelessly allowed a single attack, I would be the one turned into a mangled lump of flesh.
However, there was no problem.
‘Still, compared to the original work, these guys are incomplete.’
Even so, they fell far short of Tantalus's experimental subjects who rampaged everywhere in the original work 5 years later.
Naturally, they were still in the development stage currently.
If so, it was worth a try.
I spun my sword back into grip and sprinted quickly.
The next moment, the sword's flames surged forward, drawing a spiral tail.
In the darkness. A violent storm of flames raged.
Countless enemies in the path of the sprinting sword were instantly bisected, and the experimental subjects were swept away by the sword.
I looked at the familiar trajectory my sword was drawing and suddenly felt a strange emotion.
‘So this is what it felt like.’
Beyond the familiar movements of the sword.
Someone's emotions enveloped me.
Within the sword strikes drawn by the sword, the memories of the Sword Saint I had inherited until now were faintly overlapping.
In the past, the Sword Saint who wandered, cutting down packs of Magical Beasts alone.
The emptiness, sadness, and sorrow he had felt.
His sword that endlessly sought the answer to life.
His entire life was faintly felt beyond the trajectory of the flames cutting down enemies.
I smiled slightly at that strange sense of déjà vu.
When I first saw the memories of the young Enoch. The voice I had heard suddenly came to mind.
─ [But you are different. You have the potential to understand the swordsmanship created by others, the unique mana contained within that swordsmanship.]
Sword Genius.
Now I could be certain.
That title was not an exaggeration at all.
I had a talent for swordsmanship that transcended magic.
Stop.
My sword, which had just cut down the experimental subject charging at me, suddenly stopped abruptly in the air.
The enemies no longer charged.
My dark blue eyes swept across the surroundings once.
The tide of battle had already completely turned.
By now, the experimental subjects seemed to have lost their will to fight against the slaughterer with the sword, hesitating and shrinking back.
In front of them, my footsteps echoed.
Step.
Gripping the sword of flame in my hand.
Me walking from the darkness of the basement.
The fierce flames I projected onto my sword.
As I approached and the area of red light illuminated by the flames widened, the surviving experimental subjects trembled with fear and backed away into the darkness of the basement.
Searing pain.
The greatest agony among the pains felt by living beings.
The will to fight had clearly vanished from the roars of those already wounded by the sword wreathed in fire.
─Hiiiii....
Tantalus's gaze contorted.
Experimental subjects who should have lost their reason and gone berserk long ago.
Yet, even such beasts that had lost their reason were feeling a primal fear towards me.
They had instinctively realized.
That if they were cut by that sword of fire, they would not recover.
The bodily tissues, cauterized by the sword's flames and rapidly bleeding after being cut, were utterly incapable of recovering.
The beasts began to slowly back away, as if fearing the raging flames from my sword.
"I understand."
Holding the single-handed sword wrapped in flames.
I slowly walked towards them.
"Because I've been through it a bit myself."
The countless hours I was cut down by the Sword Saint in the Inner World.
Recalling the pain of that learning, I smiled a little.
"It was so painful that it felt better just to die."
I simply added.
"Right?"
Thud.
By now, the experimental subjects were backing away in sync with my steps, being cornered to the extent that their backs touched the basement walls.
Hesitating for a moment at the fact that there was no longer any retreat path, they were soon gripped by extreme fear and instead began to charge towards me like mad.
Simultaneously, I also concentrated mana in my legs. Igniting it consecutively, I charged forward as if cleaving the air.
Raising my sword, I leaped greatly into the air.
Above the final resistance of the experimental subjects who were running towards the flames like moths to a fire, gripped by fear.
The last Sword Saint of the Empire, had arrived.
***
How much time had passed?
Tantalus stared blankly ahead for a moment.
By now, only the corpses of the experimental subjects were strewn across the floor.
Thump.
The last experimental subject, pierced by the flames, fell.
The boy with the sword was now moving his steps towards him, who was left alone.
‘What in the world.’
Looking at me, who had reached right in front of him, Tantalus opened his eyes wide.
‘Those flames...?’
Flames that burned the immortal beasts.
The experimental subjects whose vital points were cut by the sword wreathed in those flames, every single one of them, ceased vital activity.
Surely the improved experimental subjects would have considerable resistance even to powerful fire-attribute magic.
It wasn't for nothing that they had repeatedly researched and raised the experimental subjects' performance to be comparable to Rank 10.
That should be the case.
It certainly should have been.
How in the world did the flames blooming from that sword overwhelm the specifications of those experimental subjects?
"...Indeed."
Tantalus muttered, clenching his cigar.
Things that simply couldn't be explained by magic.
"Is that the Unique Mana the Sword Saint manifests?"
I silently surveyed the surroundings once.
Although I had now dealt with the experimental subjects, the situation was still not very relaxed.
The large-scale magic circle Tantalus had unfolded.
Like the gears of a complex machine. Numerous small magic circles were interlocked and rotating.
I had seen such a form in the original work before.
‘Large-scale Composite Magic Circle.’
An extremely difficult magic structure where magic with multiple effects worked in conjunction, and the magic to turn all the last Beast-kin of the Empire into Magical Beasts.
Furthermore, it was almost fully constructed.
Judging by the progress, the reason Tantalus himself hadn't intervened in combat while I was dealing with the experimental subjects was obvious. He was likely trying to quickly complete and activate the large-scale magic circle, his main objective.
If that happened, it would be Tantalus's victory.
Now, there wasn't much time left until that happened.
As expected.
Hummm....
The massive magic circles constructed by green mana.
The geometric patterns filling the entire air were gradually completing and slowly beginning to rotate.
It was already fully constructed and entering activation preparation.
There was no time.
How to stop that?
I quickly scanned the surroundings.
The lines of Tantalus's mana that already filled every direction, even covering the entire basement.
‘I can’t cut all these mana lines.’
Even if it were possible, I wouldn't be able to do it in time.
As it was a large-scale magic circle, the mana lines Tantalus was drawing from the surroundings were countless.
Anyway, even if I cut one or two here, it would be impossible to cancel the entire large-scale magic.
‘There’s only one answer.’
The main body that directly manipulated that mana.
Targeting Tantalus's life directly.
Bang!
Without a word, I kicked off the ground and surged towards him.
Tantalus also looked at him approaching and calmly exhaled green cigar smoke.
Immediately, magic circles rotated and deployed behind his back.
Hiss!
The green magic circles summoned and sprayed a large quantity of powerful corrosive liquid that corroded the surroundings.
I immediately flipped my running body sideways in the air once, narrowly avoiding it.
Glancing behind, I saw the pillar's cement and steel framework melting significantly with a terrifying sound.
The moment I had just landed on the ground and raised my body. A tremendous roar poured out from all sides of the basement.
Rumble!
The stonework of the basement area's floor and walls were all ripped off in an instant by the magic circle's powerful pulling force.
And then, building massive barriers on both sides of Tantalus in real-time, they quickly began to block my path.
It wasn't attack magic. It was evident that Tantalus's combat power was currently reduced, perhaps finding it difficult to simultaneously engage in combat while pouring mana into the large-scale magic circle.
But if I ultimately couldn't stop him in time, it would be over.
In other words, what Tantalus was trying to do now was─
‘Buying time!’
Only a few seconds until the magic circle activated.
If barriers of that magnitude were constructed in front of Tantalus, they would surely block my approach for a while. Then he would secure enough time, perhaps a few seconds, for the magic circle to fully activate.
I couldn't let that happen.
‘I have to close the distance in one go.’
Judgment preceded thought.
The mobility of Form 1, Explosive Sword wasn't enough either.
I had to traverse the distance even faster than that.
Otherwise, the barrier's construction would be faster!
Then how?
For a moment, only one answer came to mind.
Form 2, Fire Wheel.
The Sword Principle of Fire Wheel was to ignite the mana projected onto the sword blade, gaining propulsion from the recoil to cut quickly.
The three consecutive strikes unfolded based on violent rotation were powerful, but that wasn't all there was to Fire Wheel.
‘If it were the Emperor's Supreme Sword.’
I held my sword horizontally beside my waist, taking a stance so the blade faced towards my back.
The tip of the single-handed sword was pointed towards my rear.
‘He would have applied it like this.’
Red mana concentrated on the sword blade.
The flames on the sword blade extending behind my back condensed further.
Kiiiiiing───
The maddening searing sound gradually changed into the sharp roar unique to an engine emitting high-pressure heat.
Soon, the red mana condensed in a spiral form behind my body, where the sword blade was pointed─
KABOOM!
In that moment, the gathered mana exploded in a single strike.
The sword blade propelled forward, dragging a tail of raging fire, like the jet engine of an aircraft.
With the violent recoil that erupted from behind me, I shot out like a beam of light.
Simultaneously performing Form 1, I accelerated by consecutively exploding mana from the sword blade three times with Form 2, Fire Wheel.
Leaving a long trajectory of flames in the air, I ran through the darkness at a speed approaching the speed of sound.
Before the rock barriers could even be fully constructed.
Breaking through the still incomplete center in one go.
Tearing through the middle of the curtain formed by the gathering massive rocks, a meteor wrapped in fire surged in a straight line.
"...!"
Seeing that, Tantalus's eyes widened.
He immediately put his cigar in his mouth.
But before he could properly construct his next magic, I, who had closed the distance in the blink of an eye, cut down the mana lines he had deployed in a single stroke.
Clang!
Beyond the luminous cluster of the shattering magic circle.
Penetrating the thick, green-glowing cigar smoke, the tip of the sword I thrust forward instantly pierced Tantalus's chest.
Yet, unable to reduce my speed, I pushed the guy impaled on the sword and violently charged to the very end of the basement.
I finally slammed his back against the large stone wall standing firm at the far end of the basement.
A strong impact sound shook the entire basement.
The old cement wall cracked and burst, and the wall surface with jagged cracks spat out fragments and dust.
"Khhuk."
And from the mouth of the guy who had received such a large impact, the cigar he was biting on slowly fell.
Thud.
I quietly exhaled.
Perhaps from the recoil of consecutively using large swordsmanship techniques for the recent sprint, my heart was pounding as if it would burst.
Slowly catching my breath, I raised my head.
By now, the appearance of the large-scale magic circle that had been unfolding before my eyes had changed.
The large-scale magic circles that had been constructing themselves, emitting dazzling light in the air, were slowly coming to a stop.
Shhh.
Soon, the large-scale magic circle Tantalus had constructed, having lost its master's command, broke into pieces.
The light crystals breaking as the magic circle was canceled, scattered throughout the basement like translucent light snow.
Seeing that, I quietly released the mana from my sword, gradually recovering my breath, which had become ragged from the battle.
The sword's flames flickered, then slowly died down.
"...Impressive."
At that moment, Tantalus quietly opened his mouth.
"This is, the Sword Saint, is it."
I looked down at him for a moment.
Tantalus's wound, where the sword was embedded, had been cauterized by the flames, stopping the bleeding.
Was that why he hadn't died from excessive bleeding even after being pierced through the body?
However, he seemed already unable to support his body, appearing barely capable of leaning against the wall in the same posture he was in when stabbed by the sword.
"I have something to ask."
Still gripping the sword that had pierced him, I quietly asked Tantalus.
"The Book of Gnosis. What is written in it?"
To live in this world, it doesn't end just by avoiding my death.
Surviving as myself is merely the first step.
What I truly needed to prepare for were the 'incidents' from the original work.
I had to thoroughly prepare for them.
That's why I had to know.
Because there were several instances in the original work where the book was mentioned, not only by Tantalus, who would cause my death through the Magical Beastification experiment, but also among major forces including Vendetta.
‘It’s doubtful if he’ll answer, though.’
At the very least, if possible, I had to know.
The prophecy that didn't appear in the original work. About the 「Book of Gnosis」? H?