The Reincarnated Assassin Is a Genius Swordsman

Chapter 1505 Raon's eyes twisted as they rolled toward the sound. "That sound…." A violent throb echoed from the chest of the unconscious, fallen Silent Serpent Swordsman. It was a sound so majestic yet bone-chilling that it seemed impossible to be the heartbeat of a child who had merely reclaimed his body after the fifth soul of the Hydra had been suppressed. -Wh, what is that! Wrath's shoulders trembled as he flinched in shock. -Not even the great beasts of the Devildom had a heartbeat like this! He let out a heavy breath, saying it was a bizarre heartbeat unlike anything he had ever heard. "Wh, what?! What is that sound?!" Martha, in the middle of cutting down the Ghost of Eden, spun around urgently. "It's a heartbeat that sends chills down your spine…." Burren bit his lip, goosebumps rising just from hearing the Silent Serpent Swordsman's heartbeat. "It's like… a throb that crushes the soul…." Runaan clenched her back teeth, as though she could feel her soul ache just from hearing the throb resounding from the Silent Serpent Swordsman's heart. "Wh, what now?! Wasn't this all over?!" Krein clutched his head and shouted, demanding why things kept happening. "In, inside there…." Dorian gulped and stepped back. "I can hear the br, breathing of an entirely new being!" His jaw trembled as he explained that the breathing coming from within the Silent Serpent Swordsman belonged to neither the Silent Serpent Swordsman nor Natsu, the body's original owner. "Huh…?" The Bear Fire Demon gulped as he looked at the Silent Serpent Swordsman's body. "Na, Natsu? Natsu!" He called out the name of the son he had reclaimed, but the Silent Serpent Swordsman showed no response at all. Instead, the sound of his heartbeat grew louder and louder, until before long it spread across the entire battlefield. "I, I definitely suppressed the Silent Serpent Swordsman's soul, so why?!" The Bear Fire Demon screamed, demanding why he could hear the heartbeat of someone other than Natsu when he had crushed the Silent Serpent Swordsman's soul. "Derus Robert…." Raon looked at Derus Robert as he listened to the chilling heartbeat. "What did you do to the Silent Serpent Swordsman?" He too had sensed that the Silent Serpent Swordsman's soul had lost its power and been crushed. Given how the Silent Serpent Swordsman's heartbeat had changed, it was clear Derus Robert had done something. "Unfortunately...." Derus Robert drew a calm smile as he met Raon's eyes. "I didn't do anything." He shrugged, as though he had done nothing at all. "Nonsense!" Raon gritted his teeth and thrust his Divine Sword at Derus Robert. "You know it too, don't you." Derus Robert blocked the Divine Sword and looked at the Silent Serpent Swordsman with eyes swirling with death. "I did not send the Silent Serpent Swordsman any power whatsoever." He laughed, as though he truly had done nothing at all. Thump! Thump! Thump! With every word Derus Robert spoke, the Silent Serpent Swordsman's heartbeat grew louder and faster. That grand yet urgent sound made the battle between the Light Wind Palace and Eden even more intense. Twoong! The Silent Serpent Swordsman's heartbeat swelled magnificently enough to shake the entire holy ground of the Holy Sword Alliance, then stopped in an instant. From him, whose chest had swollen as if about to burst, no more sound came at all. "Wh, what? Don't tell me…." "Is he dead?" "Wh, what on earth is happening?" The Light Wind Palace Swordsmen, bewildered by the situation, kept glancing back at the Silent Serpent Swordsman, unable to focus on the battle before them. "Na, Natsu!" The Bear Fire Demon shed tears as he embraced his son. "Don't tell me it's like this… huh?" He had screamed, thinking Natsu's heart had stopped, but then his eyes went wide. "He, he's alive!" The Bear Fire Demon gulped as he felt Natsu's heartbeat sound again. "Thank goodness. Thank goodness…." It was just as he let out a sigh of relief. "Ngh…." The Silent Serpent Swordsman let out a low groan as he opened his eyes. "Da, Dad?" He called the Bear Fire Demon "Dad," as though he had pushed out the Silent Serpent Swordsman's soul and firmly reclaimed his body. "Natsu! You've finally come back!" The Bear Fire Demon instinctively sensed that his son had returned and embraced Natsu so tightly it felt as though his arms might tear off. "Dad…." Natsu also realized it was his father, despite the Bear Fire Demon wearing a mask, and shed tears. "I, is it resolved?" "Th, then what was that heartbeat before?" "Was that the Silent Serpent Swordsman's final struggle as he died?" "I, I don't know." The Light Wind Palace Swordsmen blinked, unable to continue the fight as the situation grew ever more confusing. "You saw that, right?" Derus Robert drew a gentle smile as he watched the reunion between the Bear Fire Demon and Natsu. "I told you, I didn't do anything." He nodded, insisting he had done nothing. "Don't talk nonsense." Raon ground his teeth and shook his head. "That heartbeat wasn't the sound of dying—it was the sound of something coming alive." He furrowed his brow, not trusting Derus Robert even the slightest bit. "Heh heh." Derus Robert let out a quiet laugh as he read Raon's expression. "As expected, I can't fool you. Is it because you've died once before?" He twisted the corner of his mouth upward, as though he found dealing with Raon amusing. "Still, I didn't lie. I merely sent a signal, that's all." Derus Robert spread his arms wide to bare his chest, as if to prove he was sincere. The flesh that had been cut away by the Divine Sword had already completely healed. "It's you all who did something." He tilted his head as if in thanks. "What do you mean by that?" Raon glared at Derus Robert, tilting his jaw to the side. "To draw out the true power of the worst monster, the Hydra, there must be no artificial death. In fact, if that had been possible, the Silent Serpent Swordsman would have died at my hands long ago." Derus Robert shrugged, saying that forcibly killing the Silent Serpent Swordsman could never draw out the Hydra's true power. "Then…." Raon's eyes widened as he sensed what Derus Robert was trying to say. "That's right. It must die in an environment where death is unthinkable for the Hydra's soul and power to pass on to the next head." Derus Robert let out a deep laugh, confirming that what Raon thought was correct. "But the Silent Serpent Swordsman didn't die! Surely, inside that body…." "That's right. He didn't die. But you're making a very big mistake." He cut off Raon's words and shook his head firmly. "The Hydra is not human—it's the worst kind of monster. Even if its soul isn't destroyed, the moment it loses its power and is severed from the body, it removes its own head on its own." Derus Robert stroked his own neck, saying one shouldn't think of the Hydra as human. "Don't tell me…." "That's right. The moment the Silent Serpent Swordsman's soul was suppressed without killing him, the true power of the Hydra was set to awaken." He burst out laughing, saying that from the moment the Silent Serpent Swordsman fell, the final Hydra, having gained all the power, had awakened. "The beat you all just heard was the true heartbeat of the Hydra. It moved on its own to remove the head that had become useless." Derus Robert slowly closed and opened his eyes, as though moved by the true Hydra's heartbeat. "Thank you, for moving just as I intended." He sneered at Raon, as though he had been aiming for this from the very start. -Th, that… Wrath raised a trembling hand, as though at a loss for words. -You garbage bastard! Just how far do you intend to insult humans! He gritted his teeth at Derus Robert, saying he hadn't known anything could make him this much more furious. "You…." It was just as Raon bit his lip, watching the weeping Bear Fire Demon and Natsu. Crackle! The sky and earth, which had turned ash-gray with the appearance of the soulless Archangel Michael, split open into a green-tinted dimension, and a small figure walked out from within. The small-framed child, who did not yet seem to have come of age, took a deep breath while wearing a serpent's helmet fitted with twelve horns and six eyes. "The air of this mortal world is still as refreshing as ever." A thick, heavy voice, ill-suited to his small frame, flowed from the child's mouth. He drew breath in and let it out again and again, as though merely having emerged into this world was satisfying enough. "No matter how much I breathe it in, it's not enough." The child smiled brightly and nodded. The serpent helmet he wore was terrifying enough in shape to feel oppressive, yet only the faintest trace of energy rose from him. "Still, there's a foul smell. Seems there are still plenty of insects around." The child in the serpent helmet clicked his tongue, calling humans insects. The helmet he wore was oppressive enough to raise goosebumps, yet not even a small trace of energy could be felt from the child himself. "I, is that the Hydra?" "Is that really the Hydra?" "I can't feel any energy from him at all…." The martial artists of the Continental Alliance had tensed at the Hydra's appearance, but sensing that the energy coming from him wasn't very strong, they blinked blankly. 'Now's the chance.' The Knight Commander of the Owen Kingdom, who happened to be standing behind the Hydra, bit his lip. He approached silently and raised his sword, as though intending to strike while the Hydra had not yet gathered its wits. Fwooosh! The Knight Commander of Owen drew in a breath and brought his sword down toward the neck of the child wearing the serpent helmet. 'I did it!' It was just as he smiled, convinced he had cut off the child's neck. Pfffshhh! Before the Knight Commander of Owen could fully swing his sword, his smiling head dropped straight to the ground. Without even realizing it, the Knight Commander's body had burst into a mist of blood. "Kheughh…." Only after his headless body's head hit the ground did the Knight Commander of Owen realize what had happened to him; his eyes trembled before his breath finally stopped. "What? He's already dead?" The Hydra let out a short scoff, flicking the Knight Commander's blood off his fist as though bewildered. "Isn't that far too weak?" He gave a brief click of his tongue, as if unamused. "Hundreds of years have passed. Show me even the slightest bit of change." As the Hydra let out a laugh tinged with expectation and took a single step forward, the Owen knights before him burst apart, armor and all, spraying red blood. The chilling sound of shredded metal fragments hitting the ground rang out. "Even after all this long, long time, are humans nothing but vermin?" With every chuckling step the Hydra took, the people around him burst apart without leaving so much as a bone fragment. It wasn't that he was using any special technique. It was simply that human bodies were shattered by his terrifying strength. "The one who has inherited all the power of the worst monster, the Hydra—the true King of Eden, the Six-Headed Scourge Yukdugeop, has emerged." (E/N: I have been trying to think of a better name, but nothing really fits.) Derus Robert applauded the being he called Yukdugeop, saying the true Hydra had finally been born. Kugugugugugugu! Archangel Michael overwhelmed the Blade Queen and the Warlord with a sword strike that shook heaven and earth, while Yukdugeop, simply by walking, instilled despairing terror in the martial artists of the Continental Alliance. "Now then, what will you do?" Derus Robert drew a deep smile, as though asking how Raon intended to stop the presence of both Archangel Michael and the worst monster, the Hydra. "What do you mean, what." Raon calmly steadied his breath and raised his Divine Sword and Demonic Sword. "I'll just have to kill you." He fixed his gaze on Derus Robert, looking at neither Archangel Michael nor Yukdugeop. "But in the meantime, all your comrades will die, won't they?" Derus Robert tilted his chin, as if asking whether that was truly all right. "That won't happen." Raon kicked off into the air and unleashed Frost Snap and Silver Sword Dream. Thwack! Blending a faintly rippling slash into a blindingly fast stroke of swordsmanship, he cut a long gash across Derus Robert's waist. "What that leech of a father wished for so desperately…." Raon nodded, looking not at Yukdugeop, who had inherited the Hydra's power, but at the Bear Fire Demon standing with difficulty on trembling legs. "…was to find his last son. And…." He drew a faint smile toward the Blade Queen and the Warlord, who did not retreat even before Michael's absolute strike. "Since those two asked me to trust them, all I need to do is cut you down." Raon turned his gaze back to Derus Robert's neck and brought the Demonic Sword down. "Let's end this now." He raised the force of Heaven-Slaying that he had kept sunken deep within his soul, pressing Derus Robert back. "Derus Robert."