Published at 26th of January 2024 10:49 am

Chapter 294: Sword Emperor’s Return (2)

This chapter is updated by NovelFree.ml

Translator/Editor: Ryuu

-But do you really have time to curse at me now?

The Guardian Spirit laughed slyly.

-The alarm has been sounded. In a blink of an eye, the spiders will swarm us.

"Damn it. Followers of Hamustra!"

I ran towards the prison, holding the bunch of keys.

"If you are a disciple of Hamustra! The [Master of the Great Library of All Knowledge] is the greatest Constellation in the universe! If anyone is there, make even the slightest groan!"

"Uuuugh..."

Weak groans emanated from various places.

My aura-enhanced hearing didn't miss even the faintest sounds. Twelve places in total. I began fumbling with the bunch of keys to find the right one, but then---

"There's no time for this!"

I threw the bunch of keys on the ground and drew my holy sword, slashing through the iron bars. Clang, clang, clang! The bars, as if enchanted, were incredibly sturdy, but they snapped like straws under my surging aura.

"Come on! Anyone who still has the strength to stand, hurry…"

-Rooooooar!

That's when it happened.

A sinister roar echoed from afar.

I couldn’t tell what kind of monster was howling. One thing was certain; it wasn’t howling to announce the dawn.

[The 'Eyes That Dwell in the Labyrinth' find your predicament amusing.]

[The 'Lone Seeker' is keenly observing how you'll overcome this situation.]

[The 'Incarnation of Love and Lust' is excitedly imagining your future as a captive!]

This is insane.

"Everyone, just follow me! Let's escape!"

I cut the restraints of the disciples.

"W-Who are you...?"

Some, severely tortured, couldn't even stand up. For them, I stimulated their acupoints to circulate aura and poured potion into their mouths.

"Drink this!"

"Gulp, gulp......."

"Don't throw up! It's damn good for you!"

I handed out a bottle of potion to each disciple. It was a special medicine from the Apothecary, now invaluable due to scarcity.

The loyal Apothecary had said, 'For you, I'll offer it at a friend's price…' Thanks to that, I could generously distribute it in a situation like this.

"Oooh?"

"This, this taste…!"

"Incredible. Such efficacy from such a tiny dose…"

Apothecary's skills seemed to be recognized even on the 50th floor.

‘Truly, she’s my friend.’

-That girl was quite a nut too. Come to think of it, isn’t this Charumu kid somewhat similar to her?

‘Keep it down, will you.’

Most of the Hamustra disciples had taken the potion.

But 'most' is not the same as 'all'.

"Wait. Who are you to tell us to follow you?"

The woman, who looked suitable in glasses and had a sharpness in her eyes, spoke up. Her disheveled hair from imprisonment made her look fiercer.

"I am also a follower of Hamustra."

I said.

The woman frowned.

"I've never seen a librarian like you. I won't leave until you explain what your intentions are…"

We didn't have time for this.

"Just focus for a moment."

"What?"

I accelerated my aura to stretch the perception of time. On this elongated timeline, I looked around carefully.

The Hamustra disciples were watching the woman with anxious faces.

Not as colleagues or subordinates, but clearly as someone superior. They seemed eager to flee but hesitant to move without her permission.

‘As expected.’

I realized immediately.

‘This person is the [Assistant Writer].’

Wasn’t it said that she is almost treated as an apostle among the Hamustra disciples?

To lead the disciples, I needed to gain her trust first.

‘If she's an apostle-level person of a Constellation, she should understand telepathy, right?’

I spoke while maintaining the stretched timeline.

"The [Master of the Great Library of All Knowledge] personally asked me to take care of you, [Assistant Writer]."

My words flowed out at a speed impossible for ordinary people to mimic. To a human of lower realm, my sentence would sound like a single word, ■, an incomprehensible buzz.

As expected, the [Assistant Writer] was capable of understanding telepathy. She knitted her eyebrows.

"The Master asked you…?"

"Yes. To take care of his disciples. The believers who stayed loyal to him. His current situation…"

"I can't believe it. We are far from the top of the Master's [Favorite Character Ranking]. You're telling me he sent you to rescue us? That's a [convenience-driven, incoherent plot development]."

Favorite Character Ranking, character breakdown, convenience-driven plot development... What are these?

That Constellation and its apostle, I thought, but again, we didn't have time for this.

"I knew this would happen, so I brought proof."

"Proof?"

"The Master said there's a phrase only you and the Master of the Library know. A phrase you heard from someone when you entered the apocalypse."

I whispered into the Assistant Writer's ear.

"[I am looking at your face right now.]"

"......."

The Assistant Writer's eyes widened.

"[Someday you too shall die. If you think of my face when you close your eyes, then both of us will die looking at each other. The same. Looking at each other. The same. I'll be here, waiting only until you close your eyes.]"

"……Enough, no. I understand."

The Assistant Writer made a difficult expression.

"That's enough…"

She seemed sad, angry, and surprised all at once.

For a moment, scars that everyone accumulates in life seemed to surface on her face.

"Yes, you must be the person sent by the Master. It’s hard to shake off the feeling of implausibility, but well, I'm not exactly the [protagonist] anyway…"

She shook her head bitterly. Then, her eyes regained focus.

She spoke.

"I'll handle the disciples. What’s the escape plan?"

"Originally, I planned to sneak out quietly…"

In the stretched timeline, the alarm echoed strangely.

"But with this mess, let's just push through with force."

"Can we really do that?"

"The quicker this conversation ends, the higher our chances. We're talking telepathically, but we don't have much time. So hurry…"

"This man is indeed sent by the Master!"

The Assistant Writer shouted to the surrounding disciples.

"Everyone, follow this man's orders! Damn these spider bastards! Let's escape!"

"Yes!"

The disciples responded eagerly, as if they had been waiting for this command.

-Rooooooar!

The monster roared eagerly, as if it had been waiting for just that command. Finally, it rounded the corner and burst into the prison.

Consequently, the disciples’ initially spirited response of "Yes!" turned into a twisted, panicked "Yeeeees!?" by the end.

-Oh. A chimera. Haven't seen one of those in a while.

The monster didn't waste time sizing us up or anything like that. If there's one advantage beasts have, it's living in the present moment.

And this monster's present moment was drooling from its maw as it charged toward us.

-That’s a hybrid of a manticore and a slime, a mutant bred by mixing the two.

Thump! Thump! The ground shook with each stride of the monster. Where its eyes should have been, there were none. Instead, a sticky green liquid continuously oozed from its eye sockets.

The Guardian Spirit clicked his tongue.

-Ugh. Perverts. They’re the same as they were a hundred years ago.

“I'll lead the way! Just follow me!”

I charged forward.

“Ah…! In-Intruder! That is…!”

Charumu tried to say something with a swallowed groan, but I didn’t listen and charged ahead, guessing what he might be trying to say.

‘It must be something like, “It's a lifeform that can't be killed without a special method!”’

Monsters inhabiting the 50th floor are usually special.

For example, to kill a [Creature that Dies When Split in Half], you need to split it precisely in half, and to kill a [Screamer], you must overwhelm it with sound, not slashes.

This chimera, a monster emerging from the Magic Tower, is one from the highest difficulty dungeons on the 50th floor. It won't die just from being cut recklessly.

‘So…’

I slid, skidding under the chimera’s belly, and before it could react, I plunged the tip of my sword deep into its underbelly.

‘If I obliterate it down to the last speck of dust, that should do it!’

The sword flashed brilliantly. Red lightning seemed to shoot up, and then the next moment, Boom! The beast’s belly burst open.

But it wasn't just the belly. The chimera’s innards, body, spine, head, even the slime oozing from its eye sockets – its entire being exploded instantly.

“Eeek!?”

The mage boy screamed. I had used the holy sword like a syringe, pumping aura into it like crazy.

The monstrous infusion of aura beyond any logic caused the creature to explode while still alive.

“Phew.”

I exhaled, having expended my aura.

I didn't just settle for bursting the chimera’s body; I burned its skin, bones, and even the last trace of its existence. For a brief moment, ash-like dust fluttered in the air, but even that was incinerated.

I had literally erased the monster's existence.

“Okay!”

I sprang up and looked back.

“There’s no need for a special strategy when you can just obliterate it! Let's go, quickly!”

The mage boy, the Assistant Writer, and the disciples stared at me blankly.

“What are you waiting for? Let's go!”

“Ah, yes. That’s right. Let’s hurry!”

The Assistant Writer was the first to snap back to reality. She grabbed and pulled at the shoulders of other disciples, sometimes kicking their behinds to urge them on. The disciples then joined in, following me as we fled.

[The 'Lone Seeker' is speechless at your aura manipulation.]

[The 'Eyes That Dwell in the Labyrinth' are amazed you’re not exhausted and still in good shape.]

[The 'Incarnation of Love and Lust' is already preparing a long campaign just for you.]

Yeah, yeah, thank you, thank you!

But such stories are for later!

“That chimera was a pet especially beloved by the big spiders…”

The mage boy, panting heavily, still managed to follow me. Despite struggling to run, he kept trying to look at my face, seemingly shocked by the recent events.

“The chimera’s heart, being like slime, circulated endlessly within its body… unless it was precisely stabbed, it wouldn't die…”

“Ah, I see. So my method was the right one.”

"......."

The mage boy opened and closed his mouth but then shut it, focusing on running.

-Roar! Roar!

Monsters appeared non-stop in the corridors, as if springing from nowhere.

“If you don't want to die, move, you weirdos!”

Not slowing down, I swung my sword. Whack! Splatter! Every monster that my sword touched exploded like a balloon.

For about 3 seconds, monstrous creatures of terrifying appearance kept emerging, but I was eradicating them at a rate of one per second, clearing the path ahead.

“Hyaaah!”

In roughly 40 seconds, I had exploded about fifty monsters.

Then, I felt something off.

I had been tense infiltrating and now cautious escaping, but I wasn't tired at all. Sure, the monsters were terrifying. But wasn't it enough to just smash them with brute aura?

‘Isn’t this easier than I thought?’

It wasn't as difficult as I had imagined.

Maybe, just maybe.

‘Have I become much stronger than I thought?’

Pause.

I halted my steps.

“Huff, huff… huff…!”

“In-Intruder, just a little… slower, please…”

The sounds of panting followers came from behind. Strange. I had only enhanced my legs with aura and ran, yet my companions, all hunters who had made it to the 50th floor, were struggling to breathe.

"......."

I looked up, still holding my holy sword.

We were still underground in the Magic Tower.

Beyond that wall would be the city on the 50th floor.

‘Let’s give it a try.’

I gripped the sword handle and activated a skill.

‘I relinquish all memories of the hunters I met at the open-air bar.’

Woosh!

The holy sword wrapped itself in red aura. [The Torn Goddess's Salvation]. A skill that grants temporary power in exchange for memories. Channeling a skill inherited from the Constellation Killer, I swung my sword at the corridor ceiling.

With just a single slash a blood-red storm surged. The stone wall crumbled amidst roaring thunder, overpowering the screams of the disciples behind me. I swatted away falling rocks, heading for the disciples’ heads, and looked upward.

[The 'Eyes That Dwell in the Labyrinth' are in shock.]

Before long, the ceiling was cleanly punctured.

"Oh."

Through the gap in the ceiling, dark clouds loomed. The 50th floor was always cloudy. But even that gloomy sky was brighter than the underground corridor's ceiling.

It felt like looking up through a hole from the bottom of a well.

“This works?”

"......."

The disciples gaped at me in awe.

“Line up one by one. I'll lift you up. What are you waiting for? If the spiders catch up, it'll be a headache. Let's line up orderly and with decorum.”

“Intruder…"

The mage boy, trembling, opened his lips.

“What, what exactly are you…?”

I shrugged my shoulders and replied.

“The boss of evil.”

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