The Reincarnated Assassin Is a Genius Swordsman

Chapter 1488 Hwooooooong! "Holy... Sword... Alliance...?" Derus Robert's chin trembled as he looked at Raon standing before his eyes. "This is the Holy Sword Alliance?" He let out a ragged breath as he surveyed, in turn, the sky of the Holy Sword Alliance shimmering with sunlight and starlight, and the surroundings covered entirely in gray mist. "W-what nonsense is this…." The Silent Serpent Swordsman stepped forward, grinding his teeth as if dumbfounded. "You clearly said Zieghart was the weak point of the barrier! Why did we come out at the holy ground?!" He shouted, asking why breaking Zieghart's walls had led them to come out at the Holy Sword Alliance instead. "Hoh!" The Magician in the black robe let out an exclamation, looking around as if feeling surprised. "This won't be boring, at least." The man in the blue robe clenched his fist as if wanting to start the battle right away. "Haaah…." The man wrapped in an eerie aura like a robe glared at Raon and let out a bone-chilling breath. [….] The being emitting a faint gray glow before the Angels remained silent again this time. He seemed to know everything, yet also seemed indifferent to everything. "Haaa…." Derus Robert chuckled while gripping his own forehead with his hand. "I see. So that's how it was." He nodded slightly, as if only now understanding. "From the very start, the road was a single path leading to the Holy Sword Alliance." Derus Robert took away the hand covering his face, his eyes flashing with burning black currents. "Whether we went to the Holy Sword Alliance, to Zieghart, west, or east. No, even if we stayed in the south where Robert is, the place we'd come out would always be here, the Holy Sword Alliance." He said the fake continent itself had been a giant trap, slowly closing and opening his eyes. "Did you tell me to chase you? That statement itself was a huge deception." Derus Robert even applauded toward Raon, as if to say he had been thoroughly deceived. "That's not it." Raon shook his head firmly. "What answer did you come up with all on your own?" He let out a hollow laugh, asking why he was deciding on the answer all by himself. "What…?" Derus Robert tilted his head, unable to understand Raon's words. "As you judged, it's true that the barrier weakens the further you go toward its edge, and it's true that going to Zieghart brings you out at the Holy Sword Alliance. But it's not true that you'd come out at the Holy Sword Alliance no matter where you went." Raon waved his hand as if teasing Derus Robert, saying that couldn't be the case. "If you had gone to Cameloon, the center of the continent, or to the west or east, and broken the barrier there, you would have come out at that location. No, even if you'd gone north and attacked somewhere other than Zieghart, you could have come out into reality from that position." He gave a short laugh, saying Derus Robert's judgment had been wrong. "Outside of Zieghart and the Robert territory, the barrier's strength isn't high and there are no protective devices, so you could have rampaged as much as you wanted." Raon shrugged, saying that if Derus Robert had gone west or east, a situation like this wouldn't have happened. "Nonsense!" Derus Robert glared at Raon, grinding his teeth. "Does that even make sense?! If we had come out there, your entire plan would have been meaningless!" He narrowed his brow, saying Raon was lying just to mock him. "No, it's true." Archmage Chamber of Eternal Flame emerged, cutting through the gray mist. "Honestly, I thought it was a ridiculous plan too, but it actually worked?" She rolled the candy in her mouth with her tongue, saying it didn't make sense even after seeing it with her own eyes. "H-honestly speaking, there was far too little time…." Mage Tower Master Larian stood beside Chamber and let out a deep sigh. "We could make the fake continent, but it was difficult to install all the protective devices. I thought Lord Raon had gone mad for giving up on everything else and only setting up the transfer device at Zieghart…." She bowed her head, saying that thanks to Derus Robert moving to the north — specifically to Zieghart — the unstable plan had been completed. "How…." Derus Robert looked at Raon again and bit his reddened lips. "…could you have come up with such a plan?" He swallowed dryly, asking what he had seen to make such a judgment. "I believed in you." Raon nodded calmly, looking into Derus Robert's blue eyes. "No, I should say I believed in myself, who knows you." He said he had devised this operation because he trusted Derus Robert, slowly closing and opening his eyes. "Hmm…!" Derus Robert clenched his molars, watching Raon's composed appearance. 'Does that mean he read me?' That vermin? Hearing Raon say he had trusted him, Derus Robert felt a mental shock greater than simply having fallen for his plan. It felt as though his very thoughts had been perfectly read, as if stripped bare, and chills rose over his entire body. "Don't be so flustered." Raon lightly waved his hand toward Derus Robert, who was glaring with wide eyes. "Looking down from above is different from looking up from below." He smiled brightly, saying it was only natural since they stood in different positions. "Ah, however…." Raon lowered his chin slightly and looked up at Derus Robert with reddened, moist eyes as if teasing him. "Why don't you drop that unconvincing formal speech now? You keep failing to keep it up anyway." He said there would be no time to be at ease from now on, raising the Heavenly Drive. "Haaah." Hearing those words, Derus Robert's fury seemed to boil even further, giving rise to flames of anger so intense they became almost tangible over his eyes. -Kyaa! Wrath let out an exclamation, watching the scene. -Just watching from the side makes my insides boil! The creature cackled, saying Derus Robert, the one directly involved, had no choice but to explode. -As expected, you truly are the demon king of mockery! Wrath nodded, vowing to take Raon to the Devildom and make him a demon king without fail. 'That's a matter for later, I keep telling you.' Raon narrowed his brow and glared at Derus Robert, who was breathing raggedly. -You need not worry. Anger has already taken root in that one's mind... Eh? Wrath, who had been saying that it would be simple to strike down a Derus Robert who had lost his reason, opened his eyes wide. "Ahh." Derus Robert cleared his throat, clearing his voice. "I'm sorry about that part. Since I kept switching between formal and casual speech, it's understandable to be confused." He nodded and raised his gaze. "Hmm…." Raon's chin trembled as he looked at Derus Robert's clear eyes. The fury that had been on the verge of exploding just moments ago had vanished like melted snow. "From now on, I'll always speak to you casually. It'll be more comfortable for both of us that way." Derus Robert let out a faint smile, saying that even if he had composure going forward, he would speak informally to Raon. "Speak formally or informally, whichever you like." Raon scoffed and lifted his chin. "It doesn't matter what a corpse does, after all." It was the moment he pointed the reddened, glowing Heavenly Drive at Derus Robert. Uuuuuuung! The massive gray mist that had enveloped Derus Robert and his forces vanished as if washed away, revealing the Five Kings' Martial Artists standing in perfect formation behind it. They gripped their swords, burning with a terrifying fighting spirit as if ready to crush Derus Robert's forces at once. "The enemy stands before us." Raon opened his lips, sword still pointed at Derus Robert. "The enemy who killed our family, insulted our friends, and corrupted our comrades stands before us." His voice was not particularly loud, but it resonated through the souls of thousands. "Now the time has come to repay that grudge. Fight for yourselves, and die for me." Instead of telling them not to let anyone die, Raon shouted not to fear sacrifice, unleashing a magnificent surge of energy powerful enough to shatter the sky. "Uwaaaaaaaaa!" No sooner had his words ended than the Five Kings' Martial Artists rose with a fighting spirit overflowing with killing intent, as if ready to kill Derus Robert here today even at the cost of their own lives. "Hheup!" "T-this can't be…." "We're completely overwhelmed!" "O-our numbers have already dwindled so much…." Derus Robert's forces broke out in cold sweat and stepped back, as if overwhelmed by the momentum radiating from the Five Kings' coalition. Of course, surrounded as they were by the Swordsmen, there was nowhere for them to go. "Impressive." Derus Robert nodded, steadying his breath while the Five Kings' battle cry died down. "I judged that I had read you, but I never imagined that you had instead read me and devised such a plan. The student surpasses the teacher — I never thought I'd come to feel the truth of that saying so vividly." He lowered his chin calmly, saying it had been worthwhile to teach Raon. "Don't talk nonsense. I've never had a teacher like you." Raon frowned, looking at the composed Derus Robert. "My only teacher is that one person." He let out a heavy breath, saying there was only one person he could call his teacher. "Heh, I suppose it's not strange that you'd react that way." Derus Robert smiled and nodded. "In any case, I mean it when I say it's impressive. Investigating the target, predicting its movements, laying out false information and a fake stage to handle everything perfectly — that has certainly surpassed me." He applauded, saying Raon's plan had bordered on being a work of art. "However…." One corner of Derus Robert's mouth curled upward. "I never taught you how to overturn a perfect setup." He straightened his back, letting out a chillingly sinister smile. "What?" It was the moment Raon's chin trembled at the sight of Derus Robert's sinister smile. From beneath his feet, a chillingly thick death aura bloomed and covered the ground of the holy sanctuary. The mist created by the magicians still remained, but it could not push back the darkness. Sssssssss! The death aura spread over the ground surged like waves, and figures with eyes of black light rose above it. The dead. Those who had already met their end were returning from the darkness. 'Those are….' Raon narrowed his eyes as he looked at the faces of those who had risen from death. 'Are these the ones I killed just moments ago?' Derus Robert's subordinates, whom he himself had gone alone to the Robert territory to kill, were being reborn as the undead. "The Authority I possess is death. It is the ultimate Martial Prowess that buries the living in darkness and calls the dead back into the light!" Derus Robert raised his death-burning sword toward the sky of the Holy Sword Alliance. "Everything you've done until now has no meaning at all. You've merely wasted time and strength." He muttered that Raon's plan itself had been meaningless, thrusting his death-imbued sword toward the sky of the Holy Sword Alliance. "I'll give your holy ground the gift of perfect darkness." Derus Robert raised his head, anticipating the sky of the Holy Sword Alliance collapsing and the Black Darkness descending to dye the entire world in shadow. Kyaaaaaang! But even though Derus Robert, an absolute being, had unleashed a sword strike imbued with death, the sky of the Holy Sword Alliance did not split. "What is this…." Derus Robert's eyes went wide as he looked at the sky of the Holy Sword Alliance that had repelled his death. "You say what I've done has no meaning at all?" Raon shook his head toward the flustered Derus Robert. "Absolutely not." He let out a chillingly sharp smile, looking at the sky of the Holy Sword Alliance that had withstood Derus Robert's sword strike. "The moment you set foot in the holy ground, the outcome of this war had already been decided."