The Reincarnated Assassin Is a Genius Swordsman

Chapter 1528 "Ah...." Michael's ashen, blazing eyes trembled as she watched Pride, whose entire body had been shattered by Ashen Kalpa Radiance, refuse to fall. "Foolishly, it seems you thought you could beat this King right now." Pride chuckled, as if he could read Michael's mind completely. "This King loses to no one. The moment I lose, the name Monarch of Pride would vanish." He spoke of his own conviction while burning the Authority of Pride even fiercer. "This King only loses when this King wants to lose." Pride said he had no wish to lose right now, and raised a fist in which the Authority of Pride was endlessly amplifying. "Uwaaaaah!" Michael let out a scream-like roar, unleashing the whole of her Ashen Kalpa Radiance and Divine power to wrench her sword free from Pride's grip. Even after recovering her sword, she didn't flee, but thrust another full-powered sword strike at Pride, who had closed in right before her eyes. Kuwaaaaang! A colossal sword strike, enough to split not just the Holy Sword Alliance's sacred ground but the entire Continent, came crashing down, and Pride's body split apart. No—it looked as though it had split, but in truth it hadn't. Hwoooooo! Pride had wrapped his body in the Authority of Pride and endured Michael's slash as it fell with terrifying force. "Ngghhh...." Michael found herself stepping back without meaning to, watching Pride smile despite a wound that should have killed him. She didn't want to feel it, but she felt it—her heart was breaking before the Monarch of Arrogance, Pride. "Now that I've taken all of your sword...." Even as flesh fell away and blood gushed out like a fountain, Pride never lost his smile. "It's this King's turn now." He said this was only the beginning, and thrust out a fist in which the Authority of Pride was condensed without limit. Kuwaaaaaaang! Pride's fist carried none of the subtle principles of martial arts. It was a level Michael, with her talent for the Martial Soul, could easily have dodged. But Michael did not dodge Pride's fist. It wasn't to imitate Pride. She simply could not dodge his punch. 'T-this is bad....' Michael shook her head, the hand gripping her sword trembling. There was truly not a single grain of martial flow in Pride's fist. But within it lay the very soul of the Monarch of Arrogance. 'To stake his life on a single fist....' Michael's chin trembled with shock and fear. 'He's insane. He's even more out of his mind than during the Heavenly Demon War!' If she could take Pride's fist and endure it, then he would die instead. Right now, Pride was staking his own life on the fist he had thrown. It was an attack she couldn't dodge, and even if she could, it would still be fatal. 'There's no choice. I have to block it with my sword!' Michael gritted her teeth as she watched Pride's fist rushing toward her. She poured everything she had built up as an Archangel into her sword, unleashing the secret technique of Ashen Kalpa Radiance once more. Since she couldn't dodge, it was her firm resolve to block and survive. But Archangel Michael's firm resolve did not last long. Jjeoeoeoeoeong! Pride's fist tore through the immense Aura and will held within Michael's sword as if it were paper, and came down upon her face. "Aaagh!" Michael struggled desperately to break free, but Pride's fist never once lost its target. Ppeoeoeoeoeoeok! The moment Pride's fist reached Michael, a roar like a mountain splitting in half rang out, and her body burst apart like a balloon pricked by a needle. Instant death. The Archangel of the Martial Soul, said to be the strongest in the heavenly realm, exploded into a fountain of blood without a scrap of flesh left behind. "Lady Michael...." "No, this can't be!" "Lady Michael has been defeated?" "Even after unleashing her full swordsmanship, she couldn't bring Pride down...." "He's a monster! That guy is still a monster!" "Aaaaaargh!" The Angels, who had barely been holding on while believing in Archangel Michael's victory, screamed in despair. They dropped to their knees even with the enemy before them, like people who had given up on the war itself. "It's already over?" Pride, not caring in the slightest about the Angels' screams, flicked Michael's blood off his fist and smacked his lips. "Not yet...." He drew an arrogant smile of appetite and looked toward Raon. "You're still far from enough." * * * "Ha...." Raon's mouth fell open as he watched Pride's eyes staring at him. 'He wins like that?' He had thought Pride could win, but he hadn't expected him to kill Michael in such a brutish way. 'Not just the body, but breaking the heart too.' It really was a battle style fitting the Monarch of Arrogance. Archangel Michael had poured out every sword strike she was capable of, yet still failed to kill Pride. After that, her heart broke, and so the outcome of the fight was already decided. 'Maybe it's because I've never seen a fight like that before—I'm feeling a lot from it.' Recently, even watching other Absolute beings fight hadn't stirred much in him, but through the Monarch of Arrogance Pride's battle, he seemed to have gained yet another realization. Archangel Michael's sword strikes and the Monarch of Arrogance's unyielding body and spirit were etched into his mind and would not fade. -You saw that, right? Wrath waved a hand, as if he hadn't harbored a shred of doubt. -The problem with that damn bastard is he pulls stunts like that. But he doesn't lose. The guy shook his head, as if Pride had won but he still disliked the way he fought. -But.... Wrath smacked his lips as he watched Pride. -That damn bastard's eyes look strange—like he's about to come this way...? The guy's eyes darted rapidly, as if worried about Pride. 'With Michael dead too, none of the enemy's leaders remain.' Raon, not even listening to Wrath, surveyed the battlefield again. 'Revenants, the undead, and Angels still remain, but they'll be cleaned up soon.' A great many forces left behind by Derus Robert and the Demonic Dragon of Destruction still remained at the Holy Sword Alliance's sacred ground, but the Continental Alliance had even more troops left. Thanks to the string of victory reports, the enemy's morale had hit rock bottom, while the Alliance's Martial Artists' morale was soaring, so the outcome seemed likely to be even better. 'On top of that, all of our side's leaders are still alive.' Many Transcendents were still alive in the Continental Alliance, so it seemed the war would come to an end on its own even without him stepping in. 'Now I can check the state of my body.' Raon, certain of victory, slowly closed his eyes. -W-wait a moment! Wrath swallowed hard and waved his hand. -Maybe it'd be better to do that later? His chin trembled slightly as he watched Pride smacking his lips again and again. -That guy's eyes are seriously off! He's targeting you...huh? Wrath's eyes went round as he was speaking to Raon. -You're going this fast already? His mouth fell open as he sensed that Raon had already fallen into the State of Enlightenment. -The mental world isn't some bathroom—you can't just close your eyes and go there! Wrath shook his head wildly, at a loss for words. -Honestly. What a damn talent! It was the moment he was grinding his teeth, as if envious of Raon's talent. Gwooooooo! Pride was approaching Raon with a deep smile on his face. -A-as I thought.... Wrath gulped hard as he saw the arrogance blazing fervently in Pride's eyes. -That crazy bastard's eyes have gone wild! He's targeting you! * * * By simply closing his eyes, Raon naturally entered the mental world—a place every Martial Artist could only reach by falling into the State of Enlightenment—as easily as walking into his own room. 'It's been a while.' Raon's mouth curled up as he gazed at the mental world, where the light of the Crimson Peak bloomed softly. Perhaps because the war had dragged on so long, even though he'd been here just before the war began, it felt like a long time had passed. 'The death aura is definitely gone.' The death aura that had once coiled in a corner of the mental world like a snake waiting for prey was no longer visible. Together with the immense death aura Derus Robert had left behind, it had been absorbed into the Crimson Peak and had now truly become a power that followed him. 'The Ring of Fire is still stopped, just as—huh?' After confirming the death aura, Raon looked up toward the Ring of Fire and his eyes went wide. 'That's not stopped....' He gulped as he looked at the eleven rings that appeared stopped. 'It only looks stopped!' Now that he had entered the mental world, he could feel it clearly. The Ring of Fire was not stopped. The eleven rings were still spinning at the speed of light. It only appeared stopped because his own senses had surpassed even the Absolute realm. 'Then....' Raon narrowed his eyes as he watched the demon kings' Authorities slowly moving toward the Ring of Fire. Composed of different colors each, the demon kings' Authorities faced off against one another as they slowly advanced toward the Ring of Fire. 'Now I understand. All of this.' Raon let out a gasp of realization, understanding why the demon kings' Authorities had begun to move after the Ring of Fire started to feel as though it had stopped. 'The time has come to create a new ring.' The realization he'd gained from defeating Derus Robert and the Demonic Dragon of the Demonic Dragon of Destruction had reached its limit, and he had clearly risen to a level where he could create a new ring. 'And a ring made of the demon kings' Authorities, no less!' Unlike the existing rings, it seemed the twelfth ring could be created using the demon kings' Authorities. It seemed to be thanks to the senses etched into him and the mental growth gained through the battle between Pride and Michael he had just witnessed, which let him wield the power granted by the Devildom's Monarchs no less skillfully than they themselves could. 'The time has come, that's true, but....' Raon's brow furrowed slightly as he looked in turn at the Ring of Fire and the demon kings' Authorities. 'It won't be easy.' First, he had to gather the demon kings' Authorities into one so they wouldn't scatter, then push that Aura into the gaps of the Ring of Fire spinning faster than light, in order to create a new ring. It was clearly a near-impossible task. 'It's definitely difficult to the point of impossibility, but....' Raon's furrowed mouth softened and curled upward. 'Strangely, I feel like I can do it.' In truth, his own body wasn't in a normal state either, so this was a challenge he didn't need to take on now, with the war coming to an end. If he attempted the twelfth ring and failed, there was a chance he could suffer severe injury to his barely-recovered body and be unable to move for some time. As head of house of Zieghart, he ought to hold back. 'But before I am head of house of Zieghart, I am a Swordsman.' A creature called a Swordsman has no choice but to head for greater heights even at the risk of his life, so he couldn't let an opportunity like this slip by. 'And a chance like this might not come again.' Thanks to the realization gained from cutting down Absolute beings one after another, he could feel the rotation of the rings vividly, and the demon kings' Authorities were moving as he willed. It was the perfect moment to create the twelfth ring. 'Let's do this.' Feeling that this moment was a chance to overcome yet another wall of his own, Raon reached his hand out toward the demon kings' Authorities as they moved wildly of their own accord. Following his fingertips, the demon kings' Authorities, which could never fuse together, began to link into one.