Ch#156
The summon's halted strike in midair resembled a falling star frozen in place.
Tese tan blankly watched only the Necromancer King's subsequent movements.
"No, no. Blood...!"
All attacks pouring toward Tese tan had ceased.
The Necromancer King was rushing toward him through the skeleton unit.
Her hurried steps looked so precarious, as if she might trip over a stone at any moment.
Tese tan held his breath.
He could naturally tell.
At this moment, the Necromancer King was not rushing to kill him.
Her face was filled with fear.
Her eyes brimmed with worry.
'But why?'
It was strange.
The strike just moments ago had been the Necromancer King's perfect chance to end this duel.
It meant it was one of the few opportunities where she could seize the advantage.
Yet she was kicking that chance away with her own feet?
Showing weakness in front of the enemy?
Tese tan's deliberation did not last long.
Unlike the Necromancer King, he knew exactly what he had to do.
He lowered the arm he had raised for defense.
And slowly rotated the wrist gripping his sword.
"You're insane."
He charged toward the Necromancer King, who was exposing her vital points wide open.
His honed second sword technique activated.
Ku-gu-gu-gu-gwang-!
Second Sword Technique: Fusion Sword.
A lethal slash that simultaneously rampaged holy power and mana to inflict fatal wounds on the opponent.
"...Ah!"
As expected, his sword strike was blocked by the barrier surrounding the Necromancer King.
However, it was not entirely fruitless.
The shockwave from the slash pierced through the barrier and transmitted fully beyond it.
Struck by the impact, the Necromancer King floated up into the air.
She was flung back and crashed heavily atop the gathered skeletons.
Several skeletons crumbled apart with a clatter, and the Necromancer King's body tumbled across the ground.
Agavert's members watched the scene, each at a loss for words.
Tese tan, panting heavily, also stared at the fallen Necromancer King.
Had she fainted?
If so, her disguise should unravel.
Why was her appearance still the same?
* * *
Was it because he had forcibly activated the sword technique?
Or due to the severe bleeding from the injury just now?
As speculations continued, the color slowly drained from Tese tan's face.
"What the hell are you doing! We said it's a duel of honor! You bastard, filthy scum, I'm gonna kill you-!"
One of the Necromancer King's subordinates screamed from afar.
Had it not been for the association secretary blocking the way, he would have surely charged straight at Tese tan.
'A duel of honor...'
His ears rang at the lingering voice.
Yes.
That was right.
A duel of honor was a contest for honor.
Lethal slashes capable of taking a life should be restrained as much as possible.
A swordsman, one with honor as a swordsman, should fight that way.
But he...
For some reason, a tremor traveled up his arm.
'I have no such honor.'
The knight he once was had died long ago.
No, he had fallen into the deepest hell that existed in the world.
'Do anything.'
The voice dragging him back to that past hell echoed in his ears once more.
A bead of sweat trickled down his forehead into his eyes, bringing a stinging pain.
'If you devoured your mother, do anything I say.'
Holy power and mana explosively surged from his sword.
The rampaging power seemed to whisper to him.
'A bundle of flaws. Trash who pushed even his innocent mother into hell. And yet you lack even the courage to die, worthless scum.'
Tese tan raised his dazed gaze.
A blurry figure standing over there came into view.
Valentis Luminen.
And Leonardo Luminen.
The family he had deliberately avoided.
'Of all times.'
Why, of all days, did he have to face his father and brother today?
Tese tan had never wished for luck in life.
He just hoped for once, even if less than others, to accidentally stumble upon happiness.
But coincidence was only cruel to him.
Far from luck, it was as ruthless as today.
His heart pounded fiercely. Deep breaths did nothing.
The next moment, something surged up his throat.
"L-Leader!"
His executives shouted upon seeing the dark red blood.
But Tese tan merely observed his own bloodstain contemplatively, deep in thought.
'Why am I vomiting blood?'
An ominous foreboding crept up.
'Perhaps...'
The Necromancer King was strong.
Strong enough to deflect his lethal slash with a mere barrier.
And the Necromancer King's barrier was composed of pure, high-density mana.
In contrast, what about his slash?
His Fusion Sword was an unstable force fusing tightly bound mana and holy power.
A sword strike like cracked glass.
"Damn..."
A brief mutter escaped his lips.
Tese tan dropped his sword from his hand.
It was no illusion.
Definitely, something was wrong.
His heartbeat was abnormal, and the deriving pain was unbearable.
If things continued like this, the duel was no longer the issue.
He raised his head.
And after spitting the pooled blood in his mouth onto the ground, he muttered.
"This is enough. Go."
The Necromancer King's two summons looked at him.
"Take her and go. Hurry."
He knew well what the intensifying cardiac pulsation would bring.
He had experienced it once long ago.
He turned his head and commanded his Trebaga members as well.
"Get out of here. That's an order."
This pulsation could not be stopped.
It was the cursed power that had even vaporized the saintess who manifested the greatest holy power in history.
"Leader, don't tell me...?"
"Can't you hear me? I said get out!"
He finally lost his composure.
Tese tan shouted without even glancing toward the Luminens.
"That's an order! If you don't want to die, everyone scram!"
Unbearable pressure bore down on his head, and burst blood vessels in his eyes dyed his vision red.
The fragile balance of holy power and mana he had barely maintained was collapsing.
He had anticipated something like this would happen someday, but why now of all times...?
"If you stay here, all of you, heuk...!"
Tese tan staggered.
His ears gradually grew deaf.
To keep from collapsing, he plunged his sword into the ground.
After ragged breaths, he erected a shallow barrier around his body.
It was a pathetic barrier, but better than nothing.
If lucky, it might save a few people standing far away.
Thump- Thump- Thump-
Feeling the ever-intensifying heartbeat, Tese tan raised his head.
The Necromancer King lay there as if dead, not far away.
"Damn..."
The Necromancer King was still in the form of a young child.
'Ominous...'
In truth, Tese tan had lost from the very beginning.
The Necromancer King's mana had completely shattered his 'balance,' which had never been broken since losing his mother.
It meant the Necromancer King was far stronger than him from the start.
By an amount beyond comparison.
Tese tan unwittingly sneered.
In the end, it was all due to his own foolishness again.
Suddenly, moments ago flashed in his mind.
The Necromancer King, who could have killed him but didn't.
The expression as she rushed toward his injured self passed before his eyes.
No matter how he recalled it, it was incomprehensible behavior.
What was the real reason?
Why show him such generosity?
Why look at him with those eyes?
When he had spotted the Necromancer King's vital point, he hadn't hesitated for a moment.
The churning power inside his body whispered.
'You're trash.'
Tese tan laughed, blood streaming from his mouth.
It was right.
Tese tan was trash.
The most loathsome and repulsive trash in the world.
He had trampled the Necromancer King's mercy and thrust his sword tip toward her throat without hesitation.
Was this his punishment?
"Ha..."
His stomach churned.
His organs twisted, and his eyes throbbed as if they might pop out.
The ground around him was already cracking with a ka-gak- sound.
It meant the rampaging mana was not just escaping control but beginning to erupt outward.
Tese tan deliberately gripped the sword blade tightly.
He felt he would lose consciousness if he didn't endure pain greater than the rampage's agony.
Soon, a roar enveloped the ruins.
His internal organs collapsed, and the pain of tearing flesh spread throughout his body.
The explosion's torment felt like slicing every muscle in his body with a finely honed blade.
His vision whitened, and the breath he barely clung to caught at his chin.
In that instant.
"...ppa!"
The world rocked violently, and someone urgently pried the blade from his hand.
Opening his eyes, he saw the Necromancer King's face, doubled in his blurred vision.
"Go... don't go!"
The Necromancer King had pierced Tese tan's barrier and was clutching his neck.
"Huuung, Tie was wrong..."
"..."
"Don't leave Tie alone, please!"
For a moment, the pressure crushing Tese tan loosened.
Tese tan blankly lowered his gaze.
The rampaging power was draining away.
As if an object was returning to its place, like river water flowing downward...
Toward the Necromancer King.
