Join our separate discord server now: The Imperial Of BL
103
“A sword, you say… I thought I felt a familiar aura.”
A blue light flashed in the man’s eyes. He seemed somewhat excited, as if unexpectedly receiving a long-awaited gift.
“Was it that demon sword that came to the church back then? I heard the experiment had failed… Ah. The mysterious ability to become human, I’d love to research it right away. No, that won’t do. I shouldn’t do that to a precious vessel.”
Haa. An inhuman voice leaked out with a deep breath. The clear excitement and ecstasy in that breath evoked an unpleasant sensation.
“Beautiful, so beautiful… There couldn’t be a more perfect vessel. It’s a shame that traces of lesser gods remain, but I suppose we must endure it to avoid breaking the vessel. Once everything is over, we can erase those traces with His power.”
So come with me, the man said.
The strange voice that had been resonating throughout the village gradually grew louder. It wasn’t an illusion. As he drew closer, the sound resonating with an unknown power became heavier, and the vibrations in the air intensified. It was as if every small element composing the world was desperately trying to avoid him.
“You seem to be talking nonsense…”
But even such pressure couldn’t break Rohan.
Even though the village had come to this state, and when the executive first appeared, Rohan’s eyes, which had shown signs of tension, were now coldly calm. His slightly lowered gaze, fixed on the ground, began to accumulate killing intent.
“I won’t hand him over.”
From referring to Arpel as a ‘vessel’ to mentioning research and the nonsense about going together – every word was irritating. The action of slowly releasing and gripping the sword handle was imbued with intense anger.
The eyes behind the mask, which had been dreamy as if wandering in a dream, hardened coldly. The empty eyes, too alien to be called ‘human’, bore into Rohan.
“You’ll die here if you don’t hand him over, you know?”
The arrogant voice, not considering even the slightest possibility of losing, didn’t waver at all. As if it were an eternal, immutable law of nature.
Rohan simply smiled at him without answering. A black area began to spread from where his feet touched the ground. The masked man’s gaze turned to this strange sight of darkness spreading as if paint had been spilled.
The black shadows that had expanded their numbers finally reached out to those collapsed on the ground. Soon, a clear ripple spread with Rohan at its center.
What started as small waves became a tsunami as it moved away from him, and that wave swallowed up the unconscious people in an instant.
“…You’re behaving in an incomprehensible manner.”
The center of the village, swept by the shadows, emptied in the blink of an eye. The man tilted his head as he looked around with an impassive gaze.
He could have stopped it, but he didn’t. When was the last time he had fought? That distant memory fueled his curiosity about the one who was boldly challenging him, and the man willingly gave in to that impulse. He did so even after seeing the ominous energy swirling around Rohan.
This was a kind of whim, mercy, and curiosity. To protect a sword that inherited fragments of His power despite being on the opposite side. He felt an irresistible interest in this new phenomenon he had never seen before.
“It’s an interesting power, but… you know, don’t you? The power connecting to those things hasn’t been severed.”
“I know.”
Rohan calmly replied, gripping his sword.
He knew too. That the numerous people submerged in the shadow realm were still bound by the power of the spirits. Rather, because they were within the shadows, that fact was even more palpable.
If he closed his eyes, the darkness surrounding everything showed him all. As if drawing on white paper, he could clearly see something as thin as a thread wrapped like a spider’s web around the bodies of the unconscious people. The end of the thread, flowing with an ominous aura, was connected to the man with the strange appearance.
Yet Rohan remained calm because his original aim was not to sever the spirit power connected like a spider’s web.
Rohan wanted to protect them. If he started fighting with all his might, the unconscious people who couldn’t escape would surely be severely injured and die from blind attacks.
No matter how unpleasant these people were, he didn’t wish for their deaths. It would be troublesome for him if the number of people to protect behind his back increased, so this was the best choice for him.
The eyes visible through the mask’s eye holes narrowed. He had belatedly realized his opponent’s purpose. The widely spread sense of energy noticed presences increasing one by one in the far, secluded areas of the village.
“Weak and foolish… but not bad. Rather, it’s a pity. If you hadn’t received the blessing of lesser gods, I would have personally taken you along with the vessel.”
Kuhehe. A grotesque laugh followed, as if squeezing his vocal cords.
Without any response, he tightened his grip on the sword. He exhaled slowly at the faint trembling of the sword felt at his fingertips.
“Arpel.”
A brief whisper. Rather than to steady himself, it was closer to a small comfort, saying that everything would be alright.
The moment the ground the man stepped on was contaminated by the power of spirits, Rohan dashed towards him.
His body, enhanced by magic power, scattered black light as he swung his sword at the man with lightning speed. The sword, slashed diagonally downward, drew a large semicircle filled with the extreme of pleasure. Something caught on the sword’s tip, and the sharp blade cut through it in an instant.
<Behind!>
Responding to the fragmented shout in his mind, Rohan quickly turned his body. Without time to think, he swiftly cut the black hand that had appeared right in front of his face.
“Can we have a conversation?”
As if he had felt the wave of power exchanged in the brief exchange, the eyes behind the mask showed undisguised interest.
Just one exchange of offense and defense. That alone was enough to feel the caliber of the opponent before him. A glance behind revealed the black hand turning to dust and disappearing. What Rohan had cut was not the man, but a black hand he had substituted. The man’s position had changed so quickly that he hadn’t noticed.
Black hands began to rise one by one from the contaminated ground. They wriggled repeatedly as if searching for prey, dripping with a sticky aura of spirits.
Rohan neither opened his mouth nor showed confusion at the scene unfolding before him. His sharp eyes, honed like a blade, instantly grasped the situation, and his body shot towards the inside of the dark blue earth.
“Kuhehe!”
A laugh of utter joy shook the earth.
Every time he moved his body, spirit hands sprang out to obstruct his path. The sword that cut through all these obstacles finally reached the man, but as if by magic, his body appeared behind.
The man only attacked using the hands sprouting from the ground or dodged. His undisguised laughter showed how much he was enjoying the current battle. As if the exchange of attacks was nothing more than a one-sided struggle that didn’t even pose a threat.
But although Rohan’s brow furrowed slightly, he never charged in excitedly. He simply moved his body and cut the hands as he had been doing all along. He did so even as the dark blue hands he cut wriggled and regrew as if by magic.
“Hmm. Are you ignorant, or just foolish? You can’t even scratch me like that.”
The man clicked his tongue. The dark blue hands that had bloomed on the ground rose all at once in response to his will. Rohan took a short breath and moved his body as they rushed at him from all directions, as if to tear his body apart.
Although it seemed he would cut them down with his sword right away, he showed acrobatic movements as if playing tag, narrowly avoiding all attacks. Eventually, Rohan rushed towards the man at high speed.
“Ha!”
An exclamation tinged with slight realization burst out. He laughed, twitching ‘where his mouth should be’ as if watching the antics of a small child.
“Not a bad judgment, but you don’t understand two things. Those hands can’t harm me at all…”
It looked as if he wanted even himself to be caught in the wave of hands surging like a tide. If those were real hands with substance, that might be the case, but unfortunately, they were spirit powers subservient to him.
The numerous spirit hands moved only targeting Rohan, not caring about anything else around them. One of them brushed past the man’s body, but the moment it touched him, it scattered like mist and lost its form.
Just as he was about to burst into sneering laughter, the man realized that the corners of Rohan’s mouth were gently raised.
Kiiing!
An unknown noise following him. The man instinctively found the source of that noise and realized that the ominous sound was leaking from inside all the hands he had summoned.
“This…!”
“This is what they call arrogance.”
In that moment, Rohan, who had leapt right in front of the man’s face, drew his sword in a straight line. The man’s body instantly vanished from sight, but the smile hanging on Rohan’s lips didn’t disappear.
By the time the man’s instincts screamed that something was wrong…
The dark blue hands that had stopped in place as if by magic burst all at once. A huge explosion that shook the ground, and the storm of magical power that quickly gained momentum from within instantly engulfed the village.
In the center of the raging storm, dust rose from a deep crater. Although no presence could be felt, Rohan didn’t loosen his grip on the sword.
<Not yet. He’s still alive.>
Along with Arpel’s voice asserting this, he too instinctively felt it. The fact that the man was still alive, despite being swept up in the massive magical storm without time to prepare.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
