The Reincarnated Assassin Is a Genius Swordsman

Chapter 1503 -Have you gone mad? Wrath blinked like a cat, as if asking what that meant. 'I said I was reincarnated.' Raon smiled faintly at Wrath's dazed expression and confessed the fact of his reincarnation once more. -Huh…? Wrath's eyes went slack like melted cheese. -Rein... carnation…? He repeated the word "reincarnation" very slowly. -Reincarnation? The thing where you die and come back to life? Is that it? Is it?! Wrath flopped about like a freshly caught fish, urging Raon to hurry up and answer. He seemed so genuinely shocked that even his unshakeable demon king's tone broke down. 'That's right.' Raon nodded calmly. 'I died once and came back to life. And with my memories intact, at that.' He smiled as he said he had died and returned to life with his memories intact. -This is insane! Wrath swung his plump fist. -Coming back to life with your memories intact? That doesn't make sense... ah! He waved his hand as if to say Raon was talking nonsense, then froze in place. -W-wait…. Wrath smacked his lips and rolled his eyes in thought. -Actually, that would explain things…. He nodded, glancing back and forth between himself and Derus Robert standing before them. -It doesn't make sense, but it does make sense! No, there's no other explanation! Wrath clenched his fist again, seemingly convinced after reflecting on everything he'd been through with Raon so far. -You! You've been reincarnated! He bared his white teeth, as if he finally understood. '…….' Raon narrowed his brow slightly as he looked at Wrath. 'I just said with my own mouth that I was reincarnated.' -Why are you only telling me this now?! Wrath wrinkled the bridge of his nose, demanding to know why he was only revealing this fact now. -It's not even a big deal! He threw a fit, as if this were something Raon should have said long ago. 'Not even a big deal…?' Raon steadied his breath, tightening his grip again just as it had nearly gone slack. 'Being reincarnated with my memories intact, and he calls it not a big deal.' He shook his head, brow furrowed. 'You were shocked too. You couldn't even speak properly….' -Reincarnation itself is a shocking thing. I've never even heard of reincarnating with one's memories intact. But…. Wrath raised his voice, standing beside Raon. -Between you and I, it is nothing at all! Did we not become friends?! He snorted, saying what are secrets between friends. 'Ah….' Raon let out a low groan, only now realizing what Wrath was trying to say. -Whether it's reincarnation, possession, regression, or that kind of resurrection, it doesn't matter! Wrath jutted his chin, gesturing beyond reincarnation, regression, and possession, even to the dead who had been resurrected because of Derus Robert. -If I have acknowledged you as a friend, then that is the end of it! He gave a big nod, as if to say that once he'd decided someone was a friend, it didn't matter what form they took. '…I see.' Raon huffed a laugh and nodded. Kuwooooong! The moment he heard Wrath's words, he pushed Derus Robert back as though he had grown even stronger. Jjijijijik! The fiercely blazing Divine Sword and Demonic Sword began to dig into the blade of death Derus Robert had forged. 'I'm sorry.' Raon nodded, a soft curve forming at the corner of his mouth. 'I didn't trust you.' Though he might have seemed calm in revealing his reincarnation, he had honestly agonized over it enough to make his head split. Negative thoughts had eaten away at his mind — 'What if he despises me?', 'What if he says everything we've built is fake?', 'What if he says our time together meant nothing?' But even so, he had wanted to tell him before this war came to an end, no matter what. 'Because I didn't want to send him off the way I did with grandfather.' The one person he had wanted to tell about his reincarnation first, before anyone else, had been none other than Glenn. He had wanted to reveal everything to him and thank him, but that chance had slipped away. He could never let that happen again. He was confident of victory, having prepared so thoroughly, but there was still a chance he could lose to Derus Robert. Conversely, if he killed Derus Robert, the wrath that had drawn Wrath to him in the first place might dissipate, and Wrath could end up leaving. Since he didn't know which way fate would turn, he had resolved to tell him before the war, no matter what. -Hmm…. Wrath too lowered his eyes, as if realizing what he himself had been thinking when he spoke. 'Still, it feels good to have finally said it.' His hesitation had dragged on so long that he'd only managed to confess at this point, but now that he'd honestly laid the truth bare, his shoulders felt light, as if a burden had been set down. 'No, it's more than just feeling light — it's as if some seal has been broken, and my whole body feels lighter.' Was it because he had earned Wrath's trust, or because some ring restraining his heart had been torn away? Either way, it felt as if strength surged through his entire body even more than when the bond between them had first formed. Peueeoeok! In a single motion, Raon shattered the blade of death Derus Robert had raised and drove the blades of the Divine Sword and Demonic Sword into his chest. "Kugh!" Derus Robert had wrapped death aura around his chest to block the strike, but the Divine Sword and Demonic Sword pierced through even that wall and carved into his flesh. "Kuhhhh!" Derus Robert let out a groan and hastily kicked off the empty air to retreat backward. He tried to heal the wound at once, but his lips trembled as though the pain were considerable. -The wrath that summoned me here — it was because of that man, wasn't it? Wrath glared at Derus Robert and smacked his lips. 'That's right.' Raon nodded calmly. 'A great many things were done to me.' -A great many things? 'I'll finish him off with my own hands, and then I'll tell you.' He smiled as he said he would tell him everything that had happened in his past life. -Very well! Wrath, seeming to have settled down somewhat from his earlier shock, returned to his usual manner of speech. -Let's stay up all night eating bead ice cream! He grinned, suggesting they talk over ice cream instead of alcohol. 'Sounds good to me.' Raon nodded to Wrath, then charged at Derus Robert, whose face had gone pale white. 'I'll finish this quickly!' He swore to end all the fighting and this ill-fated bond here and now, bringing down the Divine Sword and Demonic Sword, which shone ever more brilliantly. Jeojeojeojeojeojeok! Flame, frost, and death collided, and a storm of deep violet aura surged up from the center of the Holy Sword Alliance's sanctuary. -Reincarnated with his memories intact…. Wrath narrowed his eyes as he watched Raon push Derus Robert back. -How is something like that even possible? He tilted his head, saying that even as a demon king who had lived for a long time, he had never seen such a thing. -I've seen plenty of resurrections and reincarnations, but memories… hm? Wrath turned back to look at Raon again, his eyes going round. -No way? * * * Jjeooooong! Derus Robert kept drawing on death aura to protect his Sword of Beloved Death, but Raon's strikes were growing ever fiercer, and even holding on seemed difficult. "Hmm…." Derus Robert frowned, biting down on his bleeding lip. 'It hasn't even been a minute since he grew stronger once, and now he's grown by an even bigger margin than before.' Was this really growth? He had built his strategy assuming Raon would grow stronger over the course of the war, but the boy had grown stronger yet again in under a minute and was pushing him back. It was so absurd that no words came to mind. 'He's clearly not even drawing out his full strength.' As he had thought before, Raon hadn't brought out any hidden power. He was, quite literally, simply reinforcing his aura and body in this very moment to swing his sword faster and stronger. 'For a lesser swordsman, growing stronger in aura and body wouldn't change much, but….' That one is different. As befit a practitioner of the Ten Thousand Swords, Raon's shifts and interpretations of swordsmanship were unprecedentedly fast. Since he was growing his swordsmanship to match his strengthened body and aura, there was, quite literally, no opening to be found. Peueoeok! While blocking Raon's Divine Sword, Derus Robert took a hit to the shoulder from the Demonic Sword falling via Sword Control, and stumbled backward, spraying black blood. 'Even my recovery from wounds is slowing down.' Since he wielded death aura, he could heal even severe wounds — an arm severed, a chest torn open — in the blink of an eye. But wounds inflicted by Raon's sword were not easy to heal. On top of that, new wounds kept appearing before the old ones had even healed, making it difficult to focus on the fight. "Kkeum!" Derus Robert blocked Raon, who charged in like a bison bringing his sword down, and quickly shifted his gaze. 'The state of the ground is….' He bit down hard on his lip as he looked at the Holy Sword Alliance's sanctuary, where black blood flowed like a river. 'Not yet.' For his plan to succeed, the entire sanctuary needed to be soaked in blood. But since the Continental Alliance was overwhelming his forces, far less blood was flowing than he had expected. 'It can't be helped.' Derus Robert let out a short sigh and turned his gaze toward where the Angels stood. 'I wanted to bring this out a little later, but I suppose I need to balance the scales.' He extended his left hand toward the Angels. "Keep your promise." Derus Robert shouted, not at Raon standing before him, but toward the gray light glimmering at the center of the Angels. "Archangel of Martial Souls, Michael!" He roared out the name of the last Archangel, one who had not appeared in the First Continental War. Gooooooooo! The instant Derus Robert's cry echoed through the sanctuary, the gray light that had been glowing faintly and unobtrusively at the center of the Angels slowly rose into the air. Hwaaaaaaaaaa! The gray light blazed like gunpowder on the verge of exploding, radiating a brilliance as vivid as the sun. The dazzling gray light spread out in an instant, enveloping the entire sanctuary of the Holy Sword Alliance, before slowly settling. Huuuuuuu. Standing in the space where the gray light had settled was not a figure of sacred color, but a woman clad in gloomy gray armor. She bore none of the eight wings that signified an archangel, no radiant halo, no noble aura. She had none of the noble traits an archangel was supposed to possess, and yet from her radiated a martial prowess stronger than anything else. Seureureureureung Archangel Michael — the Angel with the strongest martial prowess in the heavenly realm — opened the sky and summoned an ashen sword, as if its blade had been burned to gray. "Everyone…." The instant Michael took hold of her sword, Raon stopped mid-charge toward Derus Robert. He stamped his foot and forced his trembling lips open. "Get away from that monster!"