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Chapter 301

Cold sweat trickled down their foreheads.

“Uuuhm… who are you?”

The one who rubbed her eyes and awoke from the rocking chair was a little girl.

But inside the cultists, sirens of utmost alarm rang.

Arsha Cascadia!!

Why in the world was Leon Cascadia’s younger sister here at this hour?

As they froze in shock, Arsha clutched the teddy bear in her hand tightly, rubbed her eyes, and stood up.

“Are you my brother’s friends?”

At that question, the cultist bishop widened his eyes and forced an awkward smile.

“Y-Yes. That’s right. We are your brother’s friends, little lady. But why are you here at such a late hour…?”

“Mmm… I was playing here, but I dozed off. Since my brother wasn’t around, I thought I wouldn’t get scolded…”

She hesitated for a moment before answering cautiously.

The cultists involuntarily took a step back. The rightful source is noveⅼfire.net

If Arsha Cascadia had seen them, then their top-class dangerous target, the Mad Dog Leon Cascadia, would inevitably learn of this.

Which meant only one thing.

—What do we do?

—Seal necromancy and black magic. Leave behind only the traces of a simple burglary and kill the girl.

Arsha Cascadia already bore Leon’s protective magic.

In other words, unless they killed her to silence her, there was no way to erase her memory.

Thus, without a sound, they drew their blades.

“Eh?”

Seeing that, Arsha widened her eyes and began stepping back.

“M-my brother’s friends, you said you were…”

“We bear you no grudge. But resent us for what you’ve seen here.”

At the bishop’s slight nod, the cultists swiftly closed in on her.

“Kyaaa!!”

Terrified, Arsha tried to run, but twisted her ankle and fell.

One cultist, without the slightest hesitation, thrust his sharp dagger straight at her heart.

Puck!!!

A chilling tearing sound echoed.

But the one being torn apart wasn’t Arsha’s frail body—

It was the cultist’s own flesh.

Without even understanding what had happened, he watched blankly as his body burst into chunks of meat and collapsed lifelessly.

The cultists flinched and quickly scanned their surroundings.

And then they saw it.

From the darkness, a small cat with golden eyes gleaming fiercely appeared.

Radon, the Golden Beast.

But the cultists did not recognize what it truly was.

They merely thought that some strange cat had reduced a man to such a state.

“Move! We don’t have time!”

At that order, some of the cultists charged the cat, while others moved to finish Arsha.

But there were a few things they did not know.

First, that mere cultists could never hope to stop Radon.

Thoom…

“O-Oh God…”

“Damn it, what the hell is that…”

And second—there was another being who lived and died for Arsha.

The demonic sigil carved into Arsha’s hand shone, and her shadow beneath her feet expanded monstrously.

Boooom!!!

At once, colossal tentacles like those of a kraken burst forth from the ground and ensnared them in an instant.

And then the being revealed itself.

A body with the torso of a whale and the lower half of a giant octopus.

Nessy, the Forbidden King.

“N-Nessy!”

Arsha’s eyes widened as she shouted, and one of Nessy’s enormous tentacles gently curled around her protectively.

“B-but you said you were my brother’s friends… and then you suddenly tried to stab me…”

Tsk.

As Arsha babbled in confusion, Nessy clicked his tongue softly.

Then he lifted his massive hand and wagged his index finger side to side.

“N-not friends?”

This time, he nodded.

“My brother’s… not friends? Then… bad people?”

Again, he affirmed.

Just the sight of the gigantic being’s black eyes, seething with fury, made the cultists swallow hard.

The bishop’s legs gave out and he collapsed on the spot.

Resist?

Against that?

With what strength?

“Damn it… this is going way too far.”

BOOOOM!!!

What they did not understand—

Was who exactly stood guard over the seemingly delicate Arsha.

* * *

In the sky, unnatural rifts appeared, ones that had not been there before.

As if time itself had stopped, the world froze stiff.

I tapped Lispa Elde’s shoulder twice.

“You said they wouldn’t find us.”

“N-no way… there’s no way they could locate us with such a brute-force method…”

So, they hit blindly and just happened to be right?

From her flustered expression, it seemed that was exactly the case.

“Leon! I’ll try to block it!”

She suddenly jumped up and summoned her lyre into her hand.

Plucking its strings, she released a mysterious, beautiful melody into the air.

The song she created was imbued with a special power.

Its effect appeared immediately.

As if frozen time began to flow again, the world started pulsing once more.

However, the presence of Lispa Elde, who had just begun to make contact with the outside world, felt faint.

In fact, even though the gentle melody surrounding her carried a power that could make anyone lose themselves in it, no one reacted to her music.

“Ugh?!”

KAAAAANG!!!

At that moment, Gu Hwan, who had been trembling and gasping for breath until just now, suddenly stood up with bloodshot eyes and attacked So Wuryeong.

The suddenness of his action drew cries of shock from those around.

But what was even more shocking was…

So Wuryeong, who blocked Gu Hwan’s sword, let out a scream and was helplessly blown away.

It was a force that clearly exceeded the capabilities Gu Hwan could possibly display.

“Urgh?!”

“Kh… khuhuhu. This can’t be. Everything I worked so hard to prepare… it can’t all crumble like this.”

A strange and alien power began emanating from his body.

It was unmistakably otherworldly power—akin to the power of the Outer Gods.

For the power of the goddess Eve to resemble that of the Outer Gods… it could only mean one thing: Eve had joined hands with them.

Because of his presence, striding toward So Wuryeong, the entire assembly hall was thrown into chaos.

Naturally, those present were not foolish enough to simply sit back and watch.

Including the heads of the Four Heavens Clan, the elder-level martial experts of each clan, sensing something had gone terribly wrong, surrounded him from all sides.

Regardless of their rivalries, anyone could see his current state was far from normal.

“Stop this at once, Gu Hwan! What madness is this?!”

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An elder’s voice rang out, but Gu Hwan only laughed harshly and staggered.

“You worms. Do you know how much we’ve prepared for this? And now, blinded by mere martial arts, you’d betray us?!”

BOOOOOM!!!

An immense shockwave swept through the area.

The elders all drew their weapons and unleashed their power, but Gu Hwan’s shockwave brushed aside their resistance with insulting ease.

“Keghk!!”

“Gahk!!”

Even those with high-level martial prowess were sent flying in an instant, wearing expressions of disbelief.

“Khuh… kuhk!”

“My insides…!”

They stared at the training grounds in shock.

Inside, only So Wuryeong, collapsed on the floor, and Gu Hwan remained.

“A method where you set conditions on the growth level of the body and push everything else away… amusing, isn’t it?”

He cackled.

So Wuryeong and Gu Hwan remained within, but the others were expelled.

It was a barrier that excluded anyone whose physical body had surpassed a certain age.

“You bastard! Dispel this at once!”

The head of one of the Four Heavens Clan roared, pounding the barrier despite his internal injuries, but even his sword aura could not make a dent in it.

“Do you know whose fault this is? Yours. All of this is because of you!”

Gu Hwan staggered toward the fallen So Wuryeong.

At the same time, swords suffused with a bloody aura floated up around him, trembling with murderous intent.

“That… that’s Sword Will?!”

“Impossible! The realm of Intent?!”

Their shock was more than justified.

For one so young to reach the level of Sword Master, to achieve the Five Qi Convergence—let alone go beyond it into the realm of Intent—it was unthinkable.

Among those gathered, not a single one had reached that state themselves.

“The condition strengthens this barrier beyond limits. Now, there is no one left to protect you, So Wuryeong.”

“You filthy wretch.”

“Spout whatever you like. I’ll tear you apart here, before everyone’s eyes.”

With a flick of his will, one of the swords imbued with intent shot toward her as though alive.

She hastily raised her sword to block, but to withstand a strike of Sword Intent without intent of her own was impossible.

“Kyahh!!”

Her scream rang out as she was sent tumbling across the ground.

Meanwhile, several younger experts had rushed inside the barrier, but even gathering them all could not guarantee victory—their blades were swatted aside as Gu Hwan’s overwhelming power carved through them.

“Damn! Only those of younger blood can enter this formation… conditional, then! No wonder it’s so strong.”

“Hahaha! Don’t worry, old fools. Once I rip her to shreds, you’ll all follow soon enough!”

Shouting, he raised his sword high.

The swords floating in the air all turned toward her.

And then—

Crackle, crack.

Through the fallen bodies, I silently stepped in and smashed Gu Hwan’s head with the club in my hand.

Then, as he staggered, I kicked him hard away.

“Keghk?!”

“Your mouth is your downfall.”

All eyes turned to me, filled with disbelief at the sudden intrusion.

“Y-you… who are you?!”

“What, why? I’m young blood too, so I can enter, can’t I?”

Thinking back to the Labyrinthos incident, maybe I was being shameless—but they’d said time didn’t flow in there, so it was fine.

My conscience was clear.

“Right… you. You’re still here.”

He staggered back from me, his expression chilling as he gestured.

Even after I smashed his head with a club, he still looked almost unscathed.

At his will, the swords floating around him launched toward me.

CLAAAANG!!!

But a broken sword lying on the ground suddenly trembled, shooting like a bullet, and shattered his heavy Sword Will construct in an instant.

“What?! Why… why is my Sword Will breaking?!”

“……”

Silence fell over everyone.

“What? Why. You didn’t really expect a borrowed power to work properly from the start, did you?”

Borrowed power or not, that guy was only at the mid-to-high levels of an Expert.

“Sword Master? No… Five Qi Convergence, was it? That half-baked realm isn’t even worth mentioning.”

Many of the martial experts flinched sharply.

But no one spoke.

All eyes were fixed on the intent-infused swords hovering between us.

In other words—both of us had already reached the realm of Intent.

The realm of a Mind Master.

From the standpoint of a Mind Master, a Sword Master was truly nothing special.

“You’re not ready yet.”

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