Chapter 174 (Continued)
Isaac looked at him with an annoyed expression.
“Why do you keep making those strange remarks about blades and petals? It doesn’t seem like a prayer.”
Startled by Isaac’s comment, Cedric’s face contorted fiercely.
“How strange! It’s the name of the technique!”
“Technique name?”
Isaac had indeed named his advanced sword techniques, but he never shouted them out.
It seemed childish and unnecessary.
“Seems better to just swing the sword than waste time shouting that.”
“Hmph, what would a vulgar Holy Grail Knight of the Codex of Light know about style?”
So it was all about style, then.
Isaac found it difficult to bear the sight of a man over thirty, shouting technique names while fighting. A murderous intent began to swell deep within him.
At the realization that the real fight was only just beginning, and knowing instinctively that this battle should not be drawn out, Cedric gripped his sword and whispered,
“I wish to imprison you in a prison made of flowers.”
“Please shut up.”
Thunk. Cedric moved.
It was a speed Isaac hadn’t anticipated.
Everything seemed to slow down before Cedric, who was now moving three times faster than before.
He had prayed to Elil for a miracle. His body, soaked in blessings, swung the sword at a terrifying speed aiming to slaughter Isaac.
Thud, thud, thud. Although Cedric swung his sword only once, thousands of blades materialized around Isaac. Unlike the first protective circle, this time all blades were directed at Isaac.
Only after the blades appeared did Isaac manage to react.
Reading the surprise on Isaac’s face, Cedric felt a premonition of victory.
‘I’ve won…’
But then, Isaac raised his arm.
From the shadows behind him, something flashed.
It was Hesabel.
The assassin from Wallachia, lying in wait for the decisive moment, targeted the swordmaster.
Fzzzt. Hesabel turned into a mist of blood, diving through the prison of blades.
Cedric realized that to block her, he would have to thrust his blade prison at her.
If he didn’t, her dagger would pierce his body.
But Cedric was not one to reject a gift from a lady.
‘How could I refuse this timidly offered bouquet of steel?’
If Hesabel had heard this, she would have grimaced.
Thump. Hesabel’s dagger pierced Cedric’s left hand. Simultaneously, the sword energy prison Cedric had created shattered.
Seizing the opportunity, Hesabel kicked Cedric’s chest, sending him flying.
“Wow! We did it, Lord Isaac! The greatest assassin and the master of conspiracies, Hesabel Gullmar, has successfully ambushed a swordmaster!”
“…Yeah, well done.”
Isaac honestly felt his hair stand on end when Cedric’s sword energy prison had enveloped him. Of course, he had several ways to escape, one being turning into a mist of blood, as Hesabel had done. But sword energy is undoubtedly part of a blessing or miracle.
Turning into mist didn’t guarantee he wouldn’t be injured.
‘Hesabel turned into mist but was surely cut by the sword energy, how did she pass through it?’
Only Cedric knew the truth. And the only person who knew that truth had just been kicked to the ground by Hesabel.
Isaac, seeing the fight leave Cedric, judged it safe to leave him to Hesabel.
His gaze then shifted to Edelred, just as the Green Knight was raising his sword high towards him.
Isaac’s eyes darkened to a deep purple.
“Stop it right now!”
Crrreeeak. Isaac’s left hand transformed into tentacles, gripping the Luadin Key. The moment the Key touched the otherworldly being, it burst into flames, screaming.
A brilliant flame seemed to set the underground of Aldeon ablaze, drawing everyone’s gaze.
Isaac gritted his teeth and swung the Luadin Key.
The tentacles, which caused fractures and turned everything into chaotic irregularity, swung the Luadin Key, illuminating and revealing the darkness.
Crrrrrrack! The Luadin Key broke through the invisible barriers of space.
Like unlocking a door, the temporary space created by the angel shattered into pieces.
Nothing visible had changed, but Isaac could tell he was no longer just a spectator.
He was the intruder who had barged into Elil’s order to cause a disturbance.
“I object!”
The argument was to be made with teeth and claws, blades and fire.
***
“What is this…”
The angel summoned from the Kaldbruch, the Green Knight, was astounded by an anomaly he had never experienced before.
An heretic intruding on the place of judgment.
There had been plenty of objections or complaints about the angels’ verdicts before. But they could do nothing. The angel was merely to execute the judgment mechanically.
The emotion that followed the shocking anomaly was anger.
“To intrude on a sacred judgment!”
At that moment, Edelred and Rosalind were no longer of any importance to the Green Knight. The angel opened all its power to eliminate this blasphemous heretic immediately.
Crrrrrack! His roar caused the marble floors in the underground storehouse to crack and split like spiderwebs.
Isaac felt a chill and couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh. He had just barely managed to defeat a swordmaster, and now an angel?
It didn’t seem likely that Elil’s angel would be weaker than a swordmaster.
Even in a normal state, facing an angel would require hundreds of thoughts, plans, and the combined efforts of many people. How many people and relics had been involved when they faced the Plague King? No matter that it was a Basic Angel, it was not something to be taken lightly.
‘No choice.’
He had to give it his all.
“A trial conducted without a lawyer is illegal! I demand a retrial for a fair review!”
Of course, Isaac knew the angel wouldn’t understand half of what he was saying. The important thing was that the angel would waste time trying to comprehend it.
Isaac kicked off the ground and ran. And from where he stepped, ‘The Colors Beyond’ burst forth like a flood.
“What is that…?”
Rosalind’s dazed gaze followed Isaac and the wave-like colors surging behind him. Isaac, with his left hand grotesquely swollen, gripped the Luadin Key and struck the Green Knight hard.
Bang. The Colors Beyond swiftly engulfed them.
Crrrrrrack! A chilling sound echoed from beyond the darkness.
The moment everything was submerged in the Colors Beyond, Rosalind lost all her senses.
It felt like floating in the air, with no sense of up or down, her limbs felt worn out, devoid of touch. No fragrance, no color, no sound, everything faded dimly. In this color beyond, the sounds of Isaac and the Green Knight fighting also seemed distant.
As her senses were cut off, the only thing that became clear was the voices in her head she had tried to forget.
The burning sea, the screaming villagers fleeing, a child gripping her hand with his emaciated fingers, her husband vomiting blood in the stormy sea, his lips again speaking of forgiveness, her own refusal to accept his words…
Rosalind screamed. Her scream intensified the mocking laughter.
She moved, uncertain if she was running, walking, or crawling, trying to distance herself from the voices. But those voices were coming from inside her own head.
Then someone appeared before her eyes.
‘Ah.’
In a world where all senses were blurred, the only figure that remained intact beckoned Rosalind as if enchanted.
The boy was lying down, covering his ears, sobbing.
The colors whispered nightmares and hallucinations into the boy’s ears. They were also the laughter directed at the fragile boy, the reprimands from his father, the voices of condemnation for sins.
And at that moment, Rosalind realized.
She was not the only one seeking salvation.
She staggered toward Edelred.
“It’s okay.”
She grabbed Edelred’s shoulder and embraced him. Edelred flinched, but calmed down as she patted his back and hugged him tightly.
Neither had the capacity for rational thought.
“It will be alright.”
Rosalind herself didn’t know what she was saying.
In this dark, sorrow-filled world, they had only each other to lean on, so they just held each other and endured.
–TL Notes–
Hope you enjoyed this chapter. If you want to read more than 20 advance chapters or support me, you can do it at patreon.com/Akaza156