Chapter 217: The Beggar Siblings – Divine Sword Unity
*Slurp*
Oriax lowered his head. Leo watched in shock as the monster licked the blood pooled on the banquet hall floor, maggots dropping from its body with a sickening sound.
A terrifying form and a menacing aura. He couldn’t look away. The creature’s back was so tall it almost touched the chandelier hanging from the ceiling.
The massive body blocked the stairs behind it, and its head, weighing as much as ten grown men, caused everyone in the hall to freeze in fear.
‘How… how is this possible?’
This doesn’t make sense.
The barrier separating gods and their creations shouldn’t be crossed so easily. Even if Prince Eric sacrificed his life— a life that should have belonged to me— Oriax shouldn’t have been able to descend like this. Leo felt a wave of defeat as strength left his limbs.
But… it was already done.
Leo forced his heart, which felt like it was about to stop, to keep beating and stood up. He took a sword from a dazed Lev and raised it high.
In the blood-soaked hall, the terrifying god, and the glowing white Aura Blade opposing it. All eyes turned to the returned prince. Leo shouted, instilling light and hope into everyone present.
“My subjects! Raise your weapons and fight!”
[Achievement: Master-Servant Relationship.2v – ‘299’: Those who swear loyalty to Leo will never betray him.]
Without needing to mention the achievement, a cheer erupted.
The strongest human on the continent, a Sword Master. The returned prince’s display was as shocking and dramatic as the presence of a god. Soldiers, knights, crusaders, and even dignified priests raised excited shouts.
Leo, who had inspired these people, gave his command. The soldiers continued to engage the minotaur monsters.
Crusaders formed a shield line, and knights eagerly became the swords. Priests in the rear blessed the knights, filling the blood-soaked hall with a radiant light.
That light reached its peak as Bishop Berg resumed his sword dance. The divine figure, as large as Oriax, wielding a sword and shield, bestowed its warm grace upon the warriors fighting the grotesque god.
*Roar*
Oriax didn’t remain idle.
Having licked up most of the blood on the floor, it roared. If the humans’ shouts brought a sense of hope, its roar plunged them into despair.
*Thud* Maggots fell as it planted its front foot. A dark red wave spread in all directions, and we braced for its charge…
= Rot Thiab tuag!!
“Aaagh!”
Soldiers screamed.
In the wide banquet hall, the screams came mostly from the injured at the back. Some knights in formation also collapsed in pain, gasping for breath.
The wounds were burning.
No, they were rotting.
Maggots swarmed in the wounds of the injured. Their blood turned discolored, mold covered the wounds, and the rot spread rapidly. Even those uninjured felt stinging and unintentionally rubbed their reddening eyes.
= Kuv yuav yog ib tug!!
Black lines filled the air. Oriax’s enormous body, the mass of decaying flesh, shot out hundreds of lines, targeting every human in the hall: soldiers, knights, priests, and crusaders. The purpose quickly became clear.
“T-the, they, they…!”
Corpses floated up. It was an unreal sight. People who had died fighting the monsters were being sucked into Oriax, becoming part of the rotting god as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Equally.
*Gulp.*
If I die, I’ll end up like that too.
The sound of people swallowing dryly had never been louder. Leo, realizing the morale was plummeting, shouted, “Charge!” but it seemed their feet were reluctant to move.
[Achievement: Master-Servant Relationship.2v – ‘299’: Those who swear loyalty to Leo will never betray him.]
Yet the knights bravely stepped forward.
For the prince they had sworn loyalty to, they attacked Oriax, the towering figure wielding unnatural power. However,
*Bang!*
Oriax did not just stand there and take it. When they struck, blood poured out. The knights drenched in the rotting blood lost their composure and fell.
“Aaagh!”
Their flesh was melting away. Moreover, the wounds decayed rapidly, causing the knights to die instantly. The dead knights floated up and became part of Oriax’s leg, the same leg they had attacked.
It was hopeless.
How could humans possibly fight such a monster? As Oriax looked down on them arrogantly with eyes full of rotting blood, the knights and crusaders began to feel a dangerous sense of reverence.
“Everyone, clear the way!”
“Lord Racharr!”
Leo leaped forward. The sword of Racharr, the fourth incarnation of the main god, slashed Oriax’s shoulder, and Leo, wielding the Aura Blade, cut into its chest.
*Slash!*
Blood sprayed from Oriax’s chest, but thanks to Leo’s warning, the knights avoided it. No blood came from the shoulder cut by Racharr’s sword.
“Slash and dodge! Avoiding blood splatters should be second nature to any knight! Answer me!”
“Yes, sir!”
“Then— everyone, charge!!”
Inspired by the prince’s example, the knights rushed forward with renewed courage. The crusaders, awed by the majesty of Racharr, the deity they prayed to daily, raised their shields high and bravely blocked the raining blood. Priests began to chant sacred spells in earnest, causing the symbols of the Holy Church to glow white in the air and on the floor.
Oriax was on the defensive.
There were three hundred knights, plus dozens of crusaders and priests. Oriax began to bleed profusely. It stomped its feet, but the knights attending the feast in Akinen were lightly armored and not easily trampled.
= Ruam thiab rhuav tshem!!
Oriax, its eyes filled with bloody rage, identified the source of its problems. It adorned itself with numerous curses before charging at its most threatening adversary.
“Watch out!”
“Get out of the way!”
There was no way to stop such a massive creature.
The knights split to the sides and dodged, and Oriax, gaining speed, charged at Rachar with a bang! His seventeen horns shattered the radiant shield.
“Gah!”
There was no way the shield of a god could be broken. However, it was Bishop who summoned the god Rachar.
The Bishop, who had been performing his sword dance, spewed blood. He had some confidence in the amount of divine power he possessed, but it was woefully insufficient to endure the clash of a god and a Asin. The god Rachar vanished without a sound.
– Moooreeeeeee!
“Keep attacking!”
From that moment, it turned into a bloody battle.
As the knights began to read its movements, the situation seemed to improve, but Oriax was cunning.
He deliberately spilled blood, scattering it everywhere, and occasionally used the magic Rov qab los!! that Prince Eric often employed to blast away the knights that clung to him. If they didn’t quickly regain their stance, they were trampled into mush by his hooves. Even Leo’s slashes didn’t seem to have a significant effect on such a large creature.
However, he was undoubtedly weakening. The decisive proof came…
– Guoooaaaarrrgh!
It was revealed when Oriax grabbed and devoured the minotaur, Prince Eric’s summoned creature that was fighting alongside the soldiers. It was clear that his divine power was running low.
“That beast is getting exhausted!”
It was strange for divine power to be overflowing. Asins always suffered from a lack of divine power. The demon Barbatos, who had once taken over Lev’s body during a past childhood round, had been an exception.
So, how much divine power did Oriax have? It depended on how much Prince Eric had offered in worship and how conservatively he had used it over the years.
Moreover, the efficiency varied greatly depending on the apostle (though it only made a difference in the second or third decimal place at best), so it was hard to calculate.
However, it was correct to assume that most of the divine power Eric had gathered had been exhausted when he first summoned the monsters. Previously, and this time as well, he had summoned the same number.
So, where did the divine power come from that allowed Oriax to descend and fight like this? Leo concluded that Eric must have stolen his efficiency and sacrificed his own life.
How he managed to do that, Leo did not know. But otherwise, it was a power that couldn’t be explained.
Still, could one be so strong with just a single human life? The information from the History of Asins provided the answer.
Asins accepted anything of value, anything imbued with the emotions of a sentient being. The more precious it was, the more emotions tied to it, the higher the value. And for most beings, there was nothing more precious than their own life. Eric had offered his life at maximized efficiency.
Knights clung to his legs, slashing. They boldly went under his belly, leaving knife wounds. Oriax’s four legs were becoming tattered to the point where the black bones were exposed.
Moreover, there were priests generously casting blessings and divine spells. From Leo’s experience, receiving blessings consumed a lot of divine power, something he knew from his time as Barbatos’s apostle.
Even staying like this, the beast would fall.
But Oriax, having devoured his devotee, rampaged with renewed strength.
The knights were getting exhausted, and the divine power from the priests was running low, so it wasn’t a time to relax. An opponent like Oriax, who healed his wounds with corpses and replenished divine power by killing enemies, could turn all of them into part of him if they weren’t careful.
As Oriax seemed to abandon his pride and shifted his focus to the slower-moving priests and the relatively weaker soldiers rather than the difficult knights, Leo’s anxiety grew.
Delivering a critical blow and ending the fight early seemed like the best option, an obvious statement.
Was there no weakness? Leo, who momentarily stepped back to observe Oriax, noticed something unusual.
Behind its neck…
‘Why is my sword stuck there?’
The sword he was holding now belonged to Lev. A soul-bound item. It was identical in every way, and he had forgotten momentarily, but his own had been lodged in Prince Eric’s chest before he was summoned.
It was lodged in the neck. Upon closer inspection, in the mound of corpses…
Was Prince Eric’s body. Bobbing back and forth as Oriax moved.
It could be a coincidence, but Leo set his target. He then snapped to and joined the fight with the knights, throwing the sword to Lev, “Here! Catch!” and started climbing the wall. It wasn’t difficult, adorned as it was with gold, silver, fancy ornaments, and burning candelabras.
However, Oriax didn’t obligingly come to the desired spot, so Leo found himself repeatedly climbing up and down various walls, columns, and stairs.
Now, I have to throw myself into that filthy heap.
Placing Oriax below him, Leo swallowed nervously. Since the knights had been dying one after another while trying to protect the priest, Leo kicked off the wall with a thud and jumped down. For a brief moment, he felt the sensation of floating, and then Leo was buried in Oriax’s back.
Ugh.
On second thought, it was a blessing there were no wounds on his back. If Oriax’s blood had been flowing over him, he would have been melted away in no time.
Thinking positively, Leo held his breath.
Taking a step by grabbing the shoulder of a half-rotted, naked woman. Two steps by holding onto the tail of an unknown demonic creature. When Oriax wobbled from charging, nearly causing him to fall, Leo grabbed onto the body of a child and crawled forward little by little.
After tremendous effort, Leo finally reached Oriax’s neck.
He realized that the sword embedded in Prince Eric’s chest wasn’t a particular weakness or anything significant.
Damn it. I guess my life has always been like this.
Leo rose and grabbed the sword’s hilt. He tried to pull it out with all his strength, but—
= “It’s too late. I have been waiting for you for a long time.”
The dead Prince Eric’s eyes opened wide. With eyes burning red, he looked at Leo and smiled.
Leo was so startled his heart almost stopped. But as Prince Eric grabbed Leo’s arm, blood surged up from where he stood, and a terrified Leo grabbed the sword’s hilt and ran.
With the sword firmly lodged in place, Leo found himself at a crossroads: either get crushed by the fall or melted by the blood.
“Damn it!”
Naturally, he rejected either outcome.
Leo activated the Aura Blade on the sword. At that moment, an ominous message appeared, obscuring his vision.
[ Achievement: Demon Beast Hunting – ‘2’, Weak mana clings to your body. ]
The Demon Beast Hunting achievement counter dropped. As he cut through Oriax’s neck with a resounding clang, the mana within his body was rapidly consumed. The Aura Blade didn’t appear endlessly, and the Swordmaster’s realm was truly
“The Fusion of Sword and Body”
where the sword and body become one.
The Aura Blade was merely the mana gathered in the body spreading through the sword, which burned with the will of the swordmaster.
[ Achievement: Demon Beast Hunting – ‘1’, Weak mana clings to your body. ]
Anyway, Leo fell. As he fell, cutting through Oriax’s neck halfway, he rolled to avoid the pouring blood. However, Oriax’s gigantic hoof landed directly on him.
Is this the end?
Still, Lena would become a princess even without me. Just as he was accepting death,
– *Thud!*
The god Rachar struck down with his fist.
Bishop Berg, expending the last of his divine power, summoned the faintly manifested god Rachar to strike Oriax’s head.
The half-severed neck under Leo’s sword couldn’t withstand the divine blow. Oriax’s head fell to the ground with a thud, and cheers erupted, but Leo was engulfed in darkness.
Blood was gushing out of Oriax’s severed neck.
I need to avoid the blood… I can’t die in such a pathetic way…
Just as he was about to push off the ground again, Leo froze, unable to move. Oriax’s severed head, its eyes swirling with blood, was staring at him.
[ Debuff: Oriax’s Footsteps – Taunt, You cannot escape. 11 years 11 months 11 days 11 hours 11 minutes 11 seconds. Fixed ]
Whether it was sensing that I would reverse time or foreshadowing that it would come after me as a priority in the future, it seemed like Oriax’s head was giving a fleeting smile. But more pressing was the blood from Oriax, about to engulf Leo.
Leo closed his eyes, cursing his frozen feet. But when he gently opened them again, Lev was standing before him, completely drenched in Oriax’s blood and melting away.
“Lev!”
“…You lied to me.”
