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Chapter 80: The Second Time For Sure (6)

“Mmm!”

Kale fell helplessly without even a chance to resist. His limbs were frozen, so he couldn’t cast a spell, and his mouth was frozen, so he couldn’t cast a spell.

Whoosh!

Kale accelerated as he fell, his life flashing before his eyes. It had been full of blood, sweat, and tears to get to where he was now. Tears began to fall, and the crotch of his trousers grew damp. He saw huge icebergs with the men from Salgaera frozen inside. The iceberg’s pillar-like tip resembled the fangs of a beast glowing in the moonlight. It looked as if it would pierce through him at any moment.

‘So this is the end…!’

Kale prepared for his death and closed his eyes, but just before his head hit the ice pillar—

“Prism Beam.”

Crackle! Crackle! Crackle!

Henry fired a beam that froze everything, turning Kale into a part of the iceberg. Henry had never meant to kill him at all. Kale was a member of the Magical Spire and, thus, technically Henry’s disciple.

‘A wise master will always give a second chance to a foolish disciple.’?This was enough punishment for Kale’s poor choices. A near-death experience was more effective than a hundred words to make Kale realize his mistake.

In addition, the Prism Beam froze the opponent at an extremely high speed. If the defrosting process went well, the target’s life would be preserved. After Henry was done punishing his disciple, he turned and looked down at the ten enraged Sword Masters on the ground.

‘Now that I’m looking at them from up here, they sure do look pathetic.’

For swordsmen, becoming a Sword Master was the highest status that they could aspire to be. Henry still couldn’t use aura and had to replace it with mana instead. Every time he did that, he was incredibly jealous of the knights that could use aura.

The reason Henry wielded a sword in the first place was to gain strength so that his body could digest the deadly poison of the venomous heart he’d eaten in the Demonic Beast Forest. However, as he trained, he began to grow a desire that he’d never had in his previous life: to use aura.

When Henry had seen the slow movements of the first-class wizards, he thought once more that it had been a good idea to make the decision to wield a sword. However, as he looked at the Sword Masters squirming like ants beneath his feet, Henry began to remember how stupid he thought knights had been in his previous life.

‘I remember… I used to think the knights were so stupid because they were so inefficient.’

There was a saying that victory in war ultimately relied on infantry, but this didn’t apply to Henry. Henry decided to teach the squirming knights beneath him what it felt like to be terrified of a wizard and release some of the stress that had built up during his training.

Swoosh…

Henry looked up and spread out his two arms. A visible mana that was dark and powerful began to gather around Henry’s entire body.

The knights violently storming against the barrier sensed danger and looked up at the sky.

“That is…!”

The feeling of danger that penetrated all the way through their bones was their intuition screaming at them that they might die.

Whoosh!

The atmosphere began to coagulate and made a monstrous roar.

“...Run away.”

“What?”

“W-we must run away! I don\'t have a good feeling about this. We must get out of here right now!”

“What about the unit commander and the first commander? You’re telling us to leave everyone behind, including the wizards?”

“But if we don\'t, we’ll…!”

Some of the soldiers who had good intuition began to desperately warn the others, but they couldn’t run away so easily. If they had been low-class expert swordsmen, they would have run away without looking back. However, they were confronted with Pip’s dead body, the unconscious first-class wizards, a frozen comrade, and Salmora was still missing. With their enemy also right in front of them, their pride as imperial knights would not allow them to run away.

‘How stupid. This is exactly why you guys are considered stupid.’

As Henry watched the knights hesitate, he looked at them with an expression that seemed to say that he’d been expecting this reaction all along. When Henry’s mana fully concentrated in his body and flashed brightly, he put his hands forward and said, “...Come down.”

Rumble, rumble!

As soon as Henry spoke the last part of the spell, dark gray clouds began to fill the night sky.

Roar!

The clouds began to rumble. It seemed like lightning might strike at any moment and then…

Boom!

Rumble, rumble!

Zapp!

A massive thunderstorm fell like a waterfall. After three to four warning booms of thunder, the dark clouds roiled like the sea and dropped a huge thunderbolt. It was difficult to believe that this was merely natural acting.

“Everyone, run!”

One of the soldiers shouted at the top of his lungs, but even before his voice could reach his comrades, all the staring Sword Masters disappeared without a trace as the thunderbolt struck.

* * *

The ground of Gowen Mountain was torn apart as if there had been an earthquake. A pitiful gasp rose from the fissures in the ground.

“Argh… Arggh…!”

The gasp had come from Salmora. The aura that had fallen on him had been as thin as a blade, but when it reached the ground, it became as wide as the Milky Way. In order to survive, Salmora had no choice but to throw his sword away and cover his full body in aura. However, the difference in power was still too great. Although his skin was still intact, Salmora’s bones were shattered, as if a giant’s hand had crushed them.

Thud!

Von landed on the ground like a cat and approached Salmora with a mocking exclamation, “Should I say, ‘as expected of a tenth sword’? I can’t believe you’re still alive after that attack.”

“Y-you…! Can it be… that… you’re Von…!” Salmora gathered all his strength to speak. He was like a dying candle, his breath slowly fading.

Von crouched down until he was at eye level with Salmora and stared directly into his eyes. “Did you just figure that out?”

“How…! How could…!”

“Why? Do you feel that it’s unfair that you’ll die like this?”

“How dare you…! Argh, cough! Cough!”

It seemed that the candle was sputtering. Salmora began to cough out blood but Von looked down at him without the slightest bit of sympathy and said, “Ever since the grand duke passed away, I’ve looked forward to this day. Salmora, don’t you even dare resent me. If you think about all the people that have died at your hands, you don’t have the right. Oh, and by the way…”

Von inhaled the cool night air deeply, and feeling more refreshed, he continued, “Isn’t it embarrassing to be called one of the Imperial Ten Swords with your skill level?”

“Vonnn!”

Slice!

Salmora coughed out more blood as he called out Von’s name. However, Von was sick of listening to Salmora, and he stabbed his sword into Salmora’s throat.

Spew! Gush, bubble…

When Von pulled out the sword, blood gushed and bubbled out of Salmora’s throat. It was satisfying. Von had been living in hatred, holding back all his anger. Finally, he had spat out everything that he wanted to say.

Von swung his sword in the air to shake off the blood as if it had touched something dirty.

“Phew… This was only one person.” Of course, as the saying went, well begun is half done.

He hadn’t had a day as exhilarating and satisfying as this one in years, but he also had mixed feelings because he’d only taken down one person so far. Von grabbed Salmora’s ankle and began to head toward Henry with a bittersweet smile.

* * *

“Are you done?”

“Ah, brother, you\'re here?”

Von reached Henry, who quickly glanced at Salmora’s body and said, “Wow, he looks fine on the outside, but you’ve completely made a porridge of him on the inside.”

“What about you? Where are all the knights and why is there only one discolored guy here?”

“It’s been a while since I’ve shown off my skills.”

“Be honest with me. You’re not really in the 3rd Circle, right? Something seems off.”

“Haha, my abilities are extraordinary, aren’t they? Anyway, why don’t you take a look over there?”

Henry quickly pointed to Kale.

Von frowned and asked, “Who is he and what is he doing up there?”

“He’s known as Lightning Kale and he is a mage of the 5th Circle.”

“He’s a mage? But what is such a skillful guy doing up there?”

“I told you, I’m extraordinary. Anyway, I captured four wizards, including him.”

“Why did you capture them? I thought you said we couldn’t have any witnesses today?”

“You’ll find out why right now.”

Henry gathered the three unconscious disciples and snapped his fingers.

Snap!

Crack!

The ice pillar containing Kale began to crack starting from his waist. It fell to the ground and landed right in front of Henry.

Thud!

Henry snapped his fingers once again and the ice began to melt, making Kale look like a mouse drowning in a pool.

“Haaa!”

As Kale defrosted, he began to pant for air, feeling a sudden freedom. When Kale was calm enough to speak, Henry said, “Are you awake now?”

“Y-you’re!” As though he had seen a ghost, Kale’s eyes widened.

However, Kale couldn’t speak further when he saw Salmora’s corpse with a hole in his throat behind Henry.

‘I guess it’s all over…’

A person no less than the tenth sword Salmora had died, along with his knights. Even the mage himself had been defeated without a chance to use magic. It was an overwhelming difference in power.

Kale had no choice but to kneel and lower his head.

“That’s right.” Henry smiled in satisfaction at his disciple’s wise decision and said, “Lightning Kale, is that right?”

“Y-yes! That’s correct!”

“As you can see, Salmora, Pip, and the rest of the knights are all dead.”

A simple tally was sometimes a better warning than anything else, so Henry decided to make Kale aware of what had happened and test how strong his desires were.

“Do you want to live?”

“Yes, I want to live. Please, please let me live.”

No pride could remain before death, especially for Kale, who had just had a near-death experience.

After confirming Kale’s sincerity, Henry smiled crookedly and said, “Okay, but on one condition.”

“I will obey, so please, please let me live…!”

Kale had a strong will to survive. Henry threw the dagger with his blood on it and pointed his chin at the unconscious disciples.

“Kill them.”

“What…?”

“Kill your disciples with your own hands. I will spare your life.”

Suddenly, Kale didn’t know what to do.