The Reincarnated Assassin Is a Genius Swordsman

Chapter 1534 It was just as Raon sent a cold glance toward the sun. Twoong! A resonating sound could be heard. Along with a bizarre sound, as if the land that had barely survived and was gasping for breath had sunk beneath the sea and was spewing out foam, blood gushed out from every corner of the Holy Ground. The scars carved by the collision of countless armies split open like a massive canyon, and through the gaps, dark crimson blood poured down like a waterfall, forming a true river of blood. A heavy, merciless air, so thick it was hard to breathe, settled over the Holy Ground as the intense stench of blood mixed with the metallic reek of iron. As if a wound had torn open across the Continent, blood surged endlessly from the ground. The river of blood, once only deep enough to wet one's feet, had before long become a sea of dark crimson light covering the earth. The sea of blood grew deeper and deeper. Everything was dyed in dark crimson blood, as if the Holy Sword Alliance's Holy Ground had become land that recorded defeat rather than the ground where victory had been won. The faces of those still basking in victory turned a sickly dark red as well, and the fear that had barely settled in their eyes began to revive. Kugugugugugu! Just as people's fear reached its peak and they tried to flee screaming, the red river that had been surging like a great sea abruptly stopped flowing. Above the sea that churned as if surging upward in reverse, the massive body of a Demonic Beast large enough to blot out the sky rose into view. The Demonic Dragon of Destruction. The monster's corpse—its chest torn open by Raon's sword, its wings broken, and finally its head severed—spewed out sticky blood as it slowly rose into the sky. Fwaaaaaaah! From the corpse of the Demonic Dragon, crouched like a mountain, a pitch-black abyssal fog billowed out. The Demonic Dragon's bones and flesh instantly crumbled into dry powder, and its soul and Authority of Destruction condensed into a single drop of essence, drawn into the darkness hidden within its ribs. Kung! Once again, a resonating sound could be heard. It was like a heartbeat, but the pulse was so dull and heavy that it painted terror across the sky and earth. Kung! Kung! Kung! The moment the bone-chilling sound that froze even the wind rang out three times, the Demonic Dragon's corpse, reduced to nothing but bone and hide, exploded in a burst of black radiance. Kuwaaaaang! Amid a tremendous roar that shook heaven and earth, the darkness harbored within the Demonic Dragon of Destruction slowly fell away. What emerged from within that pitch-black current was a set of bare bones without a single scrap of flesh. Yet the bones weren't merely stripped of flesh—even with every bone twisted out of shape, they seemed not to be dead, emitting a chillingly black light from within their hollow eye sockets. As if intent on devouring everything of the Demonic Dragon, the bones let out a twisted laugh and pushed the essence—melted down from the dragon's soul and Authority of Destruction—into a mouth that no longer even had teeth. Ssssss! The moment the Demonic Dragon's essence passed through the throat and past the ribs, the bones' form began to change. From the chest of the skeletal figure, a current of dark crimson light surged upward; the twisted joints let out grotesque sounds as they began to settle back into place, unbreakably firm muscle sprouted forth, and over it formed pure white skin without a single blemish. Jade-white skin like the Snowfield, eyes of a blue so cold it was chilling, and silver hair as if shaped from moonlight itself—the true identity of the bones, having reclaimed its original form, was Derus Robert. (E/N: As if anyone actually believed he was dead) Derus Robert had obtained a new body, but it no longer retained a human form. The Demonic Dragon's Authority of Destruction and the death aura intertwined to forge pitch-black armor, and behind his back, flames of the abyss spread out magnificently like an Archangel's wings. Derus Robert slowly opened his eyes. What flowed from those hollow sockets, devoid even of pupils, was neither wrath nor hatred. It was the void that those who lead all things must inevitably possess, blended together with pitch-black death. The demon of death had not perished. Rather, he had chewed up and swallowed the Demonic Dragon's Authority, and manifested in this world as a true god of death who could govern the life and death of humankind. "Aaah...." "D-Derus Robert! He's come back!" "B-but Lord Raon definitely cut him down...." "He can't die! He's become a true god of death!" "Nngh, I—I can't breathe!" "A power even more vicious than the Demonic Dragon of Destruction...." The people who had been celebrating their victory turned pale with dread at the absolute death aura blooming from Derus Robert and sank to their knees. They couldn't even lift their heads, as if the very thought of resistance was beyond them. Ssssss! Derus Robert raised his hand toward the humans who had bowed their heads of their own accord. Now describable only as a god of death, he nodded with eyes full of benevolence. "The blood you shed was not in vain. For all of it has become an altar of death." Derus Robert's low, resonant voice spread across the entire battlefield. He said that thanks to the blood spilled upon this land, he had found his true form, and pointed his godly fingertip toward the earth. "My children." As Derus Robert's finger pointed downward, the sea of blood that had surged over the Holy Ground formed a massive whirlpool and began devouring the corpses strewn across the battlefield. Angels with severed necks, monsters with torn-off limbs, Revenants and the dead whose hearts had burst, and even the Martial Artists of the Continental Alliance who had burned themselves out to protect their comrades—the corpses of all who had died on this land began to convulse, cloaked in black flames. "Rise." As Derus Robert, in his role as god of death, issued his supreme command, the sound of tearing flesh and clattering bones spread out like a symphony from hell. The Demonic Dragon of Destruction, the Six-Headed Scourge, Archangel Michael, even the victors among the Five Demons—without a single exception, tens of thousands of the dead who had bled and perished in this war rose to their feet all at once. Kuooooooooo! The dead that Derus Robert had revived sang songs praising the god of death, black flames spewing from every blood-soaked eye socket. It was the moment when every victory achieved after a battle that had transcended mind and body instantly crumbled into meaningless foam. Gwaaaaah! Endless despair fluttered like a banner over the dead, and at its center stood the god of death, staining even the golden sun with darkness, casting a black shadow beyond the horizon as he pronounced the end and death upon the world. "Aaah...." "W-what is this!" "T-they're alive again. The Demonic Dragon of Destruction, the Six-Headed Scourge, Archangel Michael—they've all come back to life!" "T-this doesn't make any sense! How can this even be possible!" "W-we can never win!" "That's just a god of death!" "Destruction is coming to the world...." The Martial Artists who barely managed to lift their heads screamed in anguish, feeling the victory they had risked their lives for turn into despair, and despaired once more at the killing intent their fallen comrades' corpses now radiated toward them. Every Martial Artist broke their sword. Every Magician forgot their incantations. Every priest cursed their god. It was the moment humans, thinking of their own destruction, bowed their heads to the god of death. Only one. A single Swordsman who alone had not lost his light amid the wave of death rose before the god of death, to defy the heavens. "Raon Zieghart." Derus Robert, now transformed into the god of death, narrowed his eyes as he looked at Raon. "I suppose I should thank you too." He nodded, saying that it was thanks to Raon that he had been able to achieve his current feat. "Because you killing me let me transcend death and become a true god." Derus Robert curled his lips into a twisted smile, saying he had realized what true death was and, having obtained the Demonic Dragon's essence, ascended into the ranks of gods. "Transcended death?" Raon repeated what Derus Robert had said, tilting his head. "You really think you've transcended death?" He tilted his chin, asking why, if he had truly transcended death, he couldn't kill him. "You're mistaken." Derus Robert sneered back at Raon. "The reason you're still alive right now is because of my consideration." He waved his hand, saying he hadn't killed him yet only so he could have one last conversation with Raon. "But it seems pointless. It appears gods and humans simply don't suit each other after all." Derus Robert, saying that he was now on an entirely different level from Raon, slowly closed and reopened his death-blooming eyes. "Now that human ties mean nothing to me anymore...." He raised his hand and aimed it at Raon's throat. "I'll send you off without pain." Derus Robert declared he would kill Raon and dropped his hand. At that instant, death fell upon Raon's soul, not as an aura, but as an absolute command. "...." But Raon, even after receiving the death Derus Robert had pronounced, remained floating in the air with a calm gaze. "Hm?" Derus Robert frowned as he watched. "Such a pointless struggle...." He pronounced an inescapable death upon Raon once more. "What are you doing?" Raon tilted his chin, as though he hadn't received any death from Derus Robert at all. "It seems you've gotten a little stronger, but...." Derus Robert bared his white teeth and extended a hand flickering with death. Even though he pronounced an even deeper and darker death, it had no effect on Raon whatsoever. "W-what...." Derus Robert, seemingly flustered, stepped back with his jaw trembling. "I clearly bestowed the Authority of death upon you!" He gnashed his teeth, seemingly unable to understand how Raon had withstood the Authority of death that erased life itself. "My children!" Derus Robert bit his lip, then let out what sounded like a scream as he looked at the tens of thousands of troops he himself had raised. "Kill them all! Kill every last one of them!" Leaving aside the incomprehensible Raon, he gave the army of the dead he had raised the command to kill the humans. Kugugugugugugugu! It was the moment the army of death Derus Robert had raised was about to trample the humans of the Continental Alliance, who had no intention of resisting. "Kneel." Raon resonated his twelve Rings of Fire, releasing an unyielding Willpower. The moment his will-laden voice spread across the ground, the dead Derus Robert had drawn out from death all knelt at once, their heads driven into the earth. Creeeak! The dead struggled to obey their master's command, but unable to overcome Raon's overwhelming Willpower, they were instead driven even deeper into the ground. "Ha...?" Even Derus Robert's eyes trembled with shock, as if he hadn't expected Raon to crush tens of thousands of the dead with a single word. "This? If something like this is enough to become a god...." Raon looked down at Derus Robert as though it were nothing much, tilting his chin arrogantly. "Then I guess I'm a god too?"