Barbatos thought.
Every attack he unleashed was completely blocked. And every attack the brat threw back overwhelmed him.
The second attack he unleashed, the intangible sword, undoubtedly bounced back to him in a reflective form. He confirmed that without a doubt.
This was because he gazed with eyes imbued with divine power. He saw the intangible sword he cast at Yuma bouncing back, now charged with several times more power than before.
But Yuma’s first and third attacks were of a different nature than that reflection. The inherent power—the sheer destructive force—far surpassed what he had anticipated.
The essence of [Absolute Counter] is simple.
It reflects projectile-type attacks or martial arts by harnessing the foundational power of the enemy’s attack, bouncing it back with ten times the force.
And for close-range attacks or those with ambiguous forms, it takes the strength contained in the parried attack and re-births it into the world, amplified by ten times.
It was no wonder Barbatos was in chaos.
Amid the confusion, one thing remained unchanged from the beginning to now.
Killing the human in front of him with martial arts.
That was the only certainty.
There was no fear of death. Only the overwhelming feeling of defeat, as his self-built martial prowess was being invalidated.
He had to crush this defeat. And there was only one way to do it: killing the human right in front of him.
Barbatos slowly lifted his body.
Run away?
He had no desire to flee, nor could he.
The realm of gods—Shura Road—was a battlefield.
A battlefield where Barbatos didn’t even consider retreating.
Just as Yuma couldn’t escape Shura Road without killing him, Barbatos too could only escape this realm by killing the Yuma before him.
That was the condition he had imposed on himself for entering this Shura.
He never dreamed a day would come when that condition would become a constraint, but even in this moment, he had no regrets.
Blessing.
This Shura was created in such a way that defeat was never an option.
The very essence of this Shura was conceived for Barbatos’s victory.
Strength, physical ability, destructive power, divine power, magical power.
All of it rose solely in favor of Barbatos.
That was the nature of this Shura.
By imposing such an inescapable constraint on this Shura, all blessings shone a brilliant halo upon Barbatos. Not just humans, but even second-tier gods couldn’t easily anticipate its range, granting Barbatos an extraordinary blessing.
Yet, even with such blessings, he still couldn’t defeat Yuma.
“No one retreats.”
Barbatos’s red eyes ignited.
He would kill that human.
That was the proof of martial prowess.
Step by step,
Yuma slowly advanced forward.
Whoosh…
Rook…
A massive sword shape flickered behind Barbatos. A gigantic sword pulsated like fire.
Sword and Body as One
Emperor’s Sword Shape
Barbatos became a sword.
A sword that seemed like it could cut through anything in this world.
*
Bel was watching the battle between Yuma and Barbatos from a distance, even beyond the radius of Surado.
The series of battles unfolding before her shattered the common sense she had unconsciously built up over time.
Heavenly above heavenly.
Unconventional.
No words could accurately describe the surreal events happening right in front of her.
The minimum forces that inevitably remained in the imperial palace faced the battle between Yuma and Barbatos directly.
Only a handful knew that Barbatos was a god. Even if they couldn’t fathom the idea of him being a god, they at least suspected he wasn’t human.
The immense energy emanating from Barbatos and the overwhelming aura of death dominating the space.
And the body that kept recovering even after enduring attacks that would have killed any human multiple times over.
Also, the calamity-like inefficacy extending from that author’s hand.
The empire’s knights and soldiers were astonished at Barbatos’s power, but they were even more shocked by Yuma, who continued to unleash incomprehensible attacks that held their ground against that unidentified being.
“Your Excellency…”
One knight muttered in disbelief. It seemed he had seen Yuma up close during the confrontation with the Barbarian Nation, Pineon.
“I had seen Duke Yuma’s power during the demon world invasion, but I never imagined it would be this immense.”
The knights trembled and gazed at the battlefield.
“God of War…!”
The Cat-Folk swordsman Hestia muttered while playing with the hand of the former Holy Maiden, Ermel, who stood beside her. Her lips curved into a cheeky grin, reaching her ears.
Bel and Cloney stood side by side, watching the battlefield between Yuma and Barbatos. Bel had wide pink eyes, taking in all the events from the very start of the battle.
And she had no choice but to shatter all the common sense she had built.
‘Really… it was a disturbance.’
The blue-haired swordswoman, Bel, thought about how she would have fared inside that Surado. Would she have been able to survive in that space?
Impossible.
There was no scenario in which she could have responded to even a single attack from Barbatos. If she had been grazed by any of those assaults, she would have been obliterated.
There was not a shred of probability that she could survive.
‘Yuma.’
She needed to reach that place.
According to what Yuma had told her until now, that was the realm she needed to attain.
Bel opened her eyes wide.
Once again, tremendous power was gathering within that space. The white currents rising from the depths of Surado were converging behind Barbatos.
What materialized from Barbatos’s back was a lone sword. A perfectly standing sword.
What had transformed was a single sword. A perfectly upright sword.
Bel felt a warm aura emanating from that sword.
It was as if the stars of the universe had formed into this sword, creating an air of mystery.
“Looks pretty far away, huh?”
Bel turned her head. The black-haired, golden-eyed girl, Cloney, continued speaking while staring at Duke Yuma.
“But we have to go closer. We must.”
Bel nodded at Cloney’s words.
She felt a strong desire in Cloney’s voice.
“…Yeah.”
She agreed with that desire.
*
Yuma approached Barbatos.
Barbatos slowly raised his right arm. The blade behind Barbatos straightened and descended towards Yuma.
A myriad of lights condensed onto the sword.
From the floor of the waterway. And from the atmosphere of the waterway, the white light that rippled all gathered in front of Barbatos, forming a massive sword.
Emperor Sword Form.
Barbatos’s body soon became a single sword.
A sword that moved according to Barbatos’s will.
Barbatos took a step forward. The sword lunged ahead.
And from that point on, Barbatos’s body remained still.
All of his focus was on controlling the sword form.
The sword advanced, tearing up the floor as it moved.
Barbatos slowly opened his mouth.
“[One Sword Unifies the World.]”
A vacuum violently pressed down on the ground and air.
The massive sword form advanced, sending ripples throughout the entire waterway.
A sword fiercely pushing through the atmosphere.
The endless flow of light spilling from the blade of that massive sword form looked almost mystical.
The speed of that sword form was swift.
The world felt slow through Yuma’s limited perception.
He had to dodge.
That heavy, harshly approaching single sword.
Yuma gripped Balmung tighter.
And swung it.
Yuma frowned. This was the most difficult attack to face from Barbatos so far. The atmosphere had violently expanded in a vacuum.
The divine power and magic power were heavily infused within the sword form.
Despite that, Yuma thrust Balmung into the vacuum. He swung Balmung towards the rippling sword form.
The vacuum swallowed the atmosphere.
The magic power that had expanded from [Magic Armor] was torn apart. The divine power blooming from [Guardian Armor] was also completely shredded.
Yuma pushed his arm into the vacuum.
The magic and divine powers twisted and ripped apart, and the defensive magic that Balmung had manifested was also completely warped.
[Indomitable Will]
His right arm became ragged. The armor was shred. Accordingly, his arm twisted as if it would also tear apart in an instant.
Yuma’s eyes widened in pain that pierced through his entire body and mind.
He had to make contact.
Fortunately, his arm wasn’t torn off. The [Miraculous Aegis], which contained the divine power of Athena and had the incredible force to avert disaster, activated its effect.
It was the effect of [Igis] activating.
Just before the 30 seconds of Bullet Time were about to end.
Duke Yuma barely reached the Sword Form amidst the vacuum.
Balmung met the center of the sword’s surface.
Golden waves sliced through the air.
The Sword Form, which had been attacking to kill Yuma, began to reconstruct on Yuma’s left.
Imperial Sword Form
Shshsh… shshsh…
10 times.
A massive sword danced above Yuma’s shoulder.
Crackle—
The ground, under the immense pressure created by the transcendent sword form, seemed to have formed craters.
Fragments of broken rocks scattered.
The Sword Form advanced.
Cutting through the ground.
Charging towards the Evil God Barbatos.
The hundreds of layers of barriers formed by the accumulated divine power and strength collapsed in an instant.
The Sword Form engulfed Barbatos’s entire body. It moved forward along with the ground it covered.
The single sword completely pierced through Barbatos’s body.
“……!”
He felt his body lift.
All sensation faded from his body.
Barbatos then realized: it wasn’t just the sensations that vanished; his very flesh had disappeared.
In an instant, his torso vanished.
What remained of his body was just his upper body and head. Barbatos slowly lifted his head.
He saw that the ground across the entire battlefield had split in two. Next, he looked up at the sky. The clouds were torn apart.
Thanks to the energy waves released from the Sword Form.
“Is this… Peace in the world?”
The God murmured.
“It’s regrettable that I can’t make use of what I’ve seen now.”
The divine aura that expanded across the mountains dispersed in thick gray smoke.
With just his head left, Barbatos stared at Yuma with wide red eyes and spoke.
Swoosh.
“─Impressive, human. Yuma.”
With a face filled with astonishment.
“You have won.”
Whoosh.
And then, even his head disappeared.
Annihilation.
Barbatos, the [War and Struggle God], known as the Fighting God among the Gods, was dead.
It was the second Evil God killed.
Yuma stood quietly, staring at the spot where Barbatos had died.
A stream of white energy flowed out as his head vanished and touched Yuma’s body. As it made contact, it absorbed into him.
[You are storing divine essence.]
Yuma could not understand what it meant to store divine essence. As he looked at the devastated nature, he glanced back at the imperial palace behind him. Fortunately, the palace had sustained no damage.
Step by step
Yuma slowly turned and walked out of the crushed earth.
And there were his comrades quickly approaching him.
Support me by donating at least $10, and you'll have the right to request any novel from Novelpia (excluding 19+ content) using a newly developed tool.
