The Reincarnated Assassin Is a Genius Swordsman

Chapter 1517 "I knew this would happen!" Dark Night Sword God Darkan scowled hard enough to crease his eyepatch. "That's why I said I'd take that sly bastard!" He gritted his teeth, saying hadn't he been the one to say he'd handle Derus Robert. "A sly fox should be fought by a sly fox... Ugh!" Because of the flames of destruction suddenly falling, Darkan stopped the nagging he'd been pouring on the Heavenly Demon and swung his sword. "This King doesn't want to agree with that shabby human's words, but…." Pride, the Monarch of Pride, glanced sideways at the Heavenly Demon and let out a sigh. "You're making it so I have no choice. I regret lending out [Pride] for the first time." He clicked his tongue as if the Heavenly Demon were pathetic. "Even if you lost your right arm, even if you fell once, if you rose again, you're never truly broken. However…." Pride shook his chin as he pushed aside Archangel Michael's slash with his fingertips. "Once the heart collapses, defeat cannot be reversed." He let out a heavy breath, as if thinking the Heavenly Demon was finished, and took up a position where he could block both Derus Robert and Michael at once. "Seems you've misunderstood what I said." The Heavenly Demon exhaled a ragged breath and raised his head. "My heart hasn't broken. I've simply moved to where the odds of victory are higher right now." He shook his chin firmly, saying he hadn't given up on facing Derus Robert. "Hmm." Pride smacked his lips as he looked at the Heavenly Demon. "Seeing that look in your eyes, your wings haven't broken after all." He gave a small nod at the sight of the Heavenly Demon's eyes, where a faint but unbending fighting spirit burned. Fwoosh! Darkan split apart the flames of destruction and landed beside the Heavenly Demon. "You owe me one now!" He wagged a finger, saying that since the Heavenly Demon had failed to stop Derus Robert and the situation had gone awry, he'd better take responsibility later. "Anytime." The Heavenly Demon slowly closed his eyes and opened them again, as if telling him not to worry. "One half-wit, one fool, and…." Derus Robert swept his gaze over the Heavenly Demon and Darkan in turn, then turned his eyes to Pride. "And an old fogey who still thinks he's the strongest. Quite the lineup." He curled up the corner of his mouth, provoking not just the Heavenly Demon and Darkan, but Pride as well. "It seems it's time for you to give up your seat as Monarch of Pride, too." Derus Robert snorted, as if trying to provoke Pride. "It's not that I think I'm the strongest…." Pride scoffed and waved a hand. "This King alone is the strongest." He tilted his chin arrogantly, declaring that he alone was the being entitled to use the word "strongest." "Did you say to protect Raon Zieghart." Pride smirked as he met the Heavenly Demon's gaze. "I refuse. This king simply wants to get rid of the insects that get on my nerves." He blazed with the Authority of Pride, declaring he wasn't protecting Raon but would crush the enemy before him instead. "Heh." Derus Robert chuckled at the sight. "It's pointless to pretend to be the Monarch of Pride now. The concept of pride no longer suits you, now that you've moved for someone else's sake." He waved his hand about, as if to say Pride, the Monarch of Pride, was finished too. "None of you understand the noble concept that is pride." As Pride, the Monarch of Pride, unleashed an aura close to his full power, the mental world lost its light and began to collapse. The sky and the earth turned inside out, countless cracks sprouted between them, and the Revenants and the dead collapsed, screaming. "Belittling others, mocking them, looking down on them? Do you think pride is merely being conscious of others' eyes and proving you're superior to them?" Pride sneered at Derus Robert, as if the very thought were beneath him. "That is not pride. That's the ugly inferiority complex of weaklings who can't even prove their own worth without others." He twisted up the corner of his mouth, as if scorning those who deemed themselves superior. "Pride does not presuppose the existence of others. It is to not even have anything to compare oneself to. Aside from this King, no demon, no human, no god, and no law can ever reach into this King's domain." Pride calmly lifted his chin, radiating a resonance as if he alone existed in this world. Despite his tranquil expression, a sense of pride greater than anything else came flooding forth. "In other words, whether this King protects Raon Zieghart, kills you, or simply turns back as he is, his pride will not waver." He lowered his brows, looking down on Derus Robert in quiet stillness. "True pride is that only I exist." Pride stamped his foot down, declaring that the path he walked was itself the path of pride. "And right now, this King…." He aimed his hand at Derus Robert's heart. "…will kill you." Pride raised a chillingly sharp killing intent, declaring it wasn't to protect Raon but to kill Derus Robert. "It was a tedious lecture, but not bad." Derus Robert smiled, calmly meeting Pride's gaze. "But I have something to do, so…." He gestured to Archangel Michael standing beside him. "For now, this one will be your opponent." Derus Robert smiled, as if to say Archangel Michael would take on Pride, and stepped away to the side. "…." Without a word, Michael raised her ash-grey blazing sword and aimed it at Pride. "Ha." Pride let out a sigh. "It's not like you're even a leashed dog. You've truly become pathetic." He clicked his tongue, genuinely pitying Michael. "…Come." Michael ignored Pride's mockery and drew upon her power. The Authority of Pride that Pride had drawn out was pushed back by the ashen aura, and a gray waterspout that seemed to pierce the heavens and earth soared up. Kugugugugu! Michael's eyes settled into quiet stillness. She was clearly following Derus Robert's orders, but her martial prowess never wavered in the slightest. "Very well." Pride ground his molars and nodded his chin. "I'll kill you first, and end this war in this King's name." He detonated the Authority of Pride and charged straight at Michael in an instant. Fwooooosh! Pride's fist and Michael's blade collided, and the terrifying shockwave turned the entire Holy Ground of the Holy Sword Alliance upside down. As the battle between the demon king and the archangel resumed, the left and right flanks, which had been at a standstill, moved once more. Kugugugugu! The Demonic Dragon of Destruction unleashed the breath of ruin it had gathered, and Dark Night Sword God Darkan gritted his teeth and swung the Vast Heaven Sword to cut through the massive flames. "Heh heh." Derus Robert curled up the corner of his mouth and kicked off through the air. Moving as if piercing straight through space, he closed the distance to right before the Dance of the Golden Flame in an instant. "Where do you think—!" The Heavenly Demon read Derus Robert's movement as the man disregarded him and moved past, and just before Derus Robert could stop, he unleashed a fist strike condensed with Fighting Spirit. Peoooock! Because of the Heavenly Demon's fist strike that suddenly bore down on him, Derus Robert twisted the Sword of Beloved Death, which had been about to cut into the Dance of the Golden Flame, and focused entirely on defense. Jjeoooong! But he showed no intention of giving up, and instead used the recoil from the clash of sword and fist to move toward the Dance of the Golden Flame even faster. "As expected, being one-armed makes your attacks slow… hm!" It was just as Derus Robert mocked the Heavenly Demon while trying to aim for the Dance of the Golden Flame. Fwooooosh! As the Heavenly Demon pushed off against the air with the tip of his foot, his body surged forward as if it had turned to light, arriving right before Derus Robert's chest. It wasn't simply fast footwork. It was a profound technique that advanced while reading the enemy's movements exactly as they were. "Hah!" Derus Robert's eyes went wide, as if he hadn't expected the Heavenly Demon's footwork to be this fast and fluid. "Take this." The Heavenly Demon stamped down a step that seemed to crush the darkened sky, and thrust out the fist he'd cocked at his waist. Kwadeudeudeuk! In that brief instant, Derus Robert brought down the Sword of Beloved Death to defend, but the Heavenly Demon's fist tore through that defense and drove deep into his chest. "Kuhak!" Struck by the Heavenly Demon's fist, Derus Robert spat black blood and was flung backward. Yet despite taking a blow severe enough to pierce his chest, he swiftly spun his body around and dashed toward the Dance of the Golden Flame. His will to kill Raon no matter what could be felt clearly. "Ngh!" Having thrown his footwork and fist strike at full power while already gravely wounded, the Heavenly Demon couldn't react immediately. "Tch!" "Damn it all!" At the sight, Pride, who had been forcing Michael down, and Darkan, who had barely been holding back the Demonic Dragon of Destruction, both dashed toward the Dance of the Golden Flame at once. To protect Raon, the two of them poured their full-strength auras toward Derus Robert's back. "Stop!" The Heavenly Demon too shook off his body's sluggishness and unleashed a fist strike faster than light, aiming for Derus Robert. Fwoooook! But just as the combined assault of the Heavenly Demon, Darkan, and Pride was about to reach Derus Robert, his figure vanished like an illusion. "Just as I thought, you took the bait." Derus Robert's voice came not from the front, but from behind. As if he'd been aiming from the very start for the moment everyone turned their backs to protect Raon, he thrust in a sword strike ablaze with death aura, accompanied by a chilling smile. Derus Robert had feigned an urgent strike at Raon, and in turn, used it to create an opening in the even more frantic Heavenly Demon, Darkan, and Pride. Kugugugugugu! Archangel Michael and the Demonic Dragon of Destruction, too, as if they'd received Derus Robert's signal, unleashed a full-powered ashen slash and a breath of ruin in the same instant as the death aura. "Ngh!" "Damn it! We fell for it again!" "I thought something felt off…." The Heavenly Demon, Darkan, and Pride turned to look back, but the auras the Absolutes had unleashed at full power were already right before their eyes. They could only swallow hard at the overwhelming force they could neither dodge nor block. "Now, it's all over." Just as Derus Robert, wearing a smile certain of victory, was about to tear apart the flesh of the Heavenly Demon, Darkan, and Pride— Chwaaaaak! A bone-chilling sound of cutting rang out, sharp enough to sever the soul itself. As that spine-chilling sound flowed through the air, Derus Robert's head—which had been about to cut off the Heavenly Demon's—was severed; the Demonic Dragon's heart, which had been about to burn Darkan, blazed black; and Michael's upper body, which had been about to pierce Pride's chest, was split open. Thud! As Derus Robert's head fell from his neck, his gaze turned backward. He narrowed his eyes to see who had struck him, then froze in shock. "Y-you…." Derus Robert, stunned by the sight of someone who should never have been standing there, tried to scream, but his severed throat let no sound escape. "Raon Zieghart!"