The Reincarnated Assassin Is a Genius Swordsman

Chapter 1542 "What is this?" Raon's eyes went wide as he looked at the two chains embedded in his back. 'When on earth did these chains…' Even though the chains were clearly buried deep in his back, he felt no pain, no sensation at all. He couldn't understand how he hadn't noticed such thick chains embedded in his own back. 'They definitely weren't there when I was on the surface.' Raon narrowed his eyes at the two chains giving off a faint glow. 'Did they get embedded when I ascended? Or…' If chains had pierced his back while he was on the surface, there was no way he wouldn't have known. This meant one of two things: either they'd been driven into his back during his Ascension, or a restriction that had always been there had simply been revealed. "There's no need to be so tense." Glenn drew a faint smile as he watched Raon's flustered expression. "Neither of the two chains in your back holds any malice." He gave an unhurried nod, as if telling Raon to feel it for himself. "Hmm…." Raon examined the chains again after hearing Glenn's words. 'Huh?' The moment he activated the Ring of Fire, he felt a very familiar Aura coming from the blue chain. 'Don't tell me this is…' Raon let out a hollow laugh and grabbed the blue chain with his hand. 'Wrath?' The natural Aura flowing through the Heavenly Realm was so immense that he hadn't been able to sense it before, but now he could tell for certain. The Aura he felt from the blue chain was Wrath's own wrath. The guy's Authority had frozen blue into the shape of a chain and lodged itself in his soul. 'But why?' Raon frowned as he listened to the cold, clinking sound of the chain, like ice striking together. 'Why is Wrath's Authority lodged in my soul?' He couldn't understand it. All his ties to the surface should have been severed the moment he ascended, yet he couldn't think of how Wrath's Authority could still remain. "Could it be…?" Raon's eyes darted about, and his lips trembled. "It seems you've thought of something." Glenn emptied his cup, his eyes gleaming softly. "Is this about that friend of yours you introduced me to before?" He gave a calm nod, as though he'd sensed Wrath's Aura through the chain. "That's right. It seems to be the power of Wrath, the demon king of Wrath I told you about before." Raon raised his eyebrows as he gripped with his fingers the chain from which Wrath's Authority bloomed. "Honestly, I'm not sure if I'm right, but…." Now that he actually had to say it, he seemed a little embarrassed, taking a short breath before speaking. "I promised Wrath that once I killed Derus Robert and ended the war, I would go to the Devildom with him." Raon smacked his lips, saying that was the only thing he could think of. "Then that must be it." Glenn nodded, as if turning Raon's guess into certainty. "Huh…?" Raon's eyes went round at Glenn's words. "So, so are you saying my promise really gained binding force and lodged itself in my soul?" Even he himself found it absurd and embarrassing to think about, but getting a definite answer from Glenn left him flustered. "You said that both today and before, you received a great deal of help from the Monarch of Wrath. You told me he was an enormous source of strength in achieving your revenge." Glenn lowered his brows as he stroked his sharp jaw. "Conversely, you probably haven't done much for the Monarch of Wrath in return. At first, since you were weak, it wouldn't have mattered. But once you grew strong enough to stand on equal footing with the Monarch of Wrath, the Law of Causality would have begun crumbling little by little. And he would have borne that burden alone." He continued speaking as naturally as if he'd personally watched over Raon and Wrath's relationship. "That's right. I only ever received from Wrath, and I never really did anything for him in return. He's such a grateful friend to have, so…." Raon bit his lip as he took in Glenn's words. "I decided I would definitely grant his request to go to the Devildom together. I was also a little curious about what the Devildom looked like." Wrath had brought up going to the Devildom together as casually as eating a meal, and not long ago, he'd made one more promise to go once the war ended. Raon never imagined that words spoken out of gratitude toward him and curiosity about the Devildom would come back to him like this. "When beings of high standing make a promise with sincerity, it becomes a covenant and lodges itself in the soul. That's why higher beings try not to lie. On top of that, your soul was in contact with the Monarch of Wrath, and you held gratitude toward him, so a covenant would have formed all the more easily." Glenn closed his eyes briefly and opened them again, as if silently thanking Wrath for looking after his grandson so well. "Ah…." Raon let out a low groan as he grasped the blue chain in his hand once more. 'To think that promise would become a covenant like this.' In truth, a promise could simply be broken, but once it became a restriction lodged in the soul, it turned into a covenant he had no choice but to keep. The instant he broke it, the chain would be torn out, and his soul would take an enormous shock. 'Still, it's a relief…' Raon let out a sigh of relief as he gripped the chain tightly. 'That I never answered when he told me to become a demon king.' Aside from asking him to come to the Devildom together, Wrath had also thrown out the suggestion that he become a demon king several times. When he was younger, he'd often brushed it off with a vague reply, but after growing up, he stopped answering altogether. If he had ever responded to the suggestion of becoming a demon king, things would have gotten much bigger, so it was a relief he'd managed to avoid it. 'But…' Raon let go of the blue chain and looked at the red one. 'What's the red chain? Why…' was he also feeling Wrath's Aura from this chain? The red chain didn't openly give off Wrath's Aura the way the blue chain did. But a very faint Authority of Wrath bloomed from it, subtle enough that only someone who carried Wrath within himself could sense it. It felt like catching the lingering scent of an incense that had already burned out. "It seems you don't know about that chain either." Glenn tilted his jaw as he read Raon's expression. "Yes." Raon nodded as he examined the red chain. "Nothing at all comes to mind." He lowered his brows, saying he truly had no idea about the red chain. "From what I can see, that chain doesn't seem to have appeared suddenly either. Before the blue chain, even. Or rather, should I say it feels like it started together with you?" Glenn flicked a finger, saying the red chain had been lodged in Raon's soul even before the blue one. "Hmm…." Raon tightened his grip as he looked at the red chain, embedded deeper than the blue one. Hearing Glenn's words only worried him more. It was as good as having a blade whose intent and meaning he couldn't fathom lodged in his own soul. "It's not a covenant like the blue chain, but it doesn't seem like something you need to worry about too much." Glenn shook his head calmly. "As I said a moment ago, that red chain doesn't hold any malice toward you either. Rather…." He continued speaking with his eyes narrowed. "It seems to miss you? No, it seems to be hoping you'll come find it." Glenn smacked his lips, saying he could sense that kind of willpower from the red chain. "A chain that started together with me…?" Raon lowered his hand and grasped the red chain for the first time. He'd clearly felt Cold Energy from it, but the moment he gripped it, it was hot enough to scald his hand. A tingling, burning sensation, as if fire had touched his skin, spread through his entire grip. It was the kind of cold burn one only felt from touching something far too cold. But the stinging pain lasted only a moment. Soon the chain cooled down entirely, turning to a lukewarm temperature like water that had gone flat, and slowly began to lose its light—as if it had finally fulfilled its role. "Mm!" Raon frowned as he watched. Strangely, seeing the chain's Cold Energy fade began to bring back memories of his death in his past life. 'Why? Why am I remembering the moment I died in my past life right now?' That final moment—his head severed by Derus Robert, the moon turning upside down, dying submerged in his own blood—played out with a vividness chilling enough to raise goosebumps. It seemed this chain was somehow related to his reincarnation after all. "It seems…." Glenn rose to his feet as he watched the red chain cooling. "It looks like time is up." As he nodded, as if the red chain losing its light was not a good sign, the table in the annex building vanished, and the pitch-black expanse of space reappeared. "Time?" Raon lowered his brows as he gripped the chain, whose Cold Energy was fading more and more. "I told you before, didn't I? That I couldn't refuse my Ascension, but you can." Glenn waved his hand lightly, just as he had when he first brought up the topic of the chains. "That chance is disappearing right now. Because if that red chain vanishes, you too will be dragged upward without any way to resist." He nodded, saying that the red chain and the blue chain could keep Raon's Ascension at bay. "Is that really possible? Refusing Ascension because of a covenant left behind on the surface?" Raon asked Glenn, his face full of disbelief. "It's impossible. However…." Glenn drew the sword from his waist with a faint smile. The Heavenly Tremor. The beloved sword of the Destructive King of the North, the one that shook the very heavens, revealed its blue-tinged blade. "Don't you have me?" He nodded calmly, saying that he himself could sever the shackles of Ascension. "So I'll ask you this." Glenn's presence changed. From the benevolent grandfather who accepted everything about his grandson, he transformed into the Sword God who had achieved Ascension from the Continent for the first time in a thousand years, his absolute Aura carving a swirling vortex of starlight through the cosmos. "Do you want to go back down?" He raised the Heavenly Tremor as he asked for Raon's answer.