Side Story Chapter 195
The war torn plains outside Arcadia, the capital of the Avalon Empire, monsters voluntarily bowed and humans stared blankly, their breaths held, as two different battles raged.
“Huff, huff, huff.”
“Phewwww...”
Over fifty death knights had been incapacitated, but over two hundred death knights were still able to fight. Regardless, everyone was in shock because the men responsible for putting down those death knights were the two princes who were just over twenty years old.
“Wow, Prince Selim is exceptional indeed...”
“H-How much stronger did Prince Kireua get? Hasn’t he killed a similar number of death knights?”
“Prince Selim’s number is still higher right now, but Prince Kireua seems to have made more progress lately.”
“I knew he was a late bloomer.”
“You’ve gotta be kidding me. ‘I knew’ my ass. You badmouthed him at every possible opportunity. You were all, ‘How in the world is he the emperor’s son—’”
“Shh! Shhh! Are you trying to get me executed? Be quiet!”
“A man should be consistent, my friend. Anyhow, His Highness Kireua must have put in an incredible effort. I’d bet he’s looked death in the eyes more than once in the process.”
The Second Prince had once been looked down on for having no talent and failing to live up to expectations as the Marital God’s son, but the knights and soldiers of Avalon now saw with their own eyes that that prince was gone now.
However, those princes’ prides were actually rather hurt right now.
“Hey, Selim,” Kireua said. “Don’t these death knights seem to have gotten weaker for some reason? They used to be twice—no, three times stronger than they are now.”
“...Well...” Selim trailed off and glanced up at the emperor, who hung in the sky gazing imperiously down at the demons. “...It must be His Majesty’s doing.”
“I guess so. He’s a remarkable man indeed.”
“It seems His Majesty has made up his mind on retiring after this war.”
“What in the world are you talking about?” Kireua frowned.
“Otherwise, he has no reason to give us a chance to shine in front of Avalon’s forces.”
“...That just hurts my pride more,” Kireua grumbled.
He stopped using his mana, and the blazing fire around him quickly died out. With the deterrence gone, three death knights immediately charged Kireua.
“What are you doing?” Selim asked incredulously.
“What do you mean, what am I doing? I’m doing this.”
Selim's eyes widened as Kireua leaped over the death knights’ attacks.
“He’s nuts...!” Selim cursed.
It was suicide. Kireua was already surrounded, so the moment he landed, multiple death knights would skewer him regardless of where he landed.
As expected, the death knights were quick to determine Kireua’s landing location, ready to turn it into a veritable spike trap—only to be tossed about by a thunderous explosion.
“What?” Selim exclaimed.
A chain of fiery columns erupted out of the ground. Kireua walked forward, stepping on the pillars of fire.
“When did he accumulate that much mana...?” Selim blankly murmured.
Although the amount of Kireua’s mana was quite a shock, Selim had never seen mana used like that either.
“This is not the time for you to watch, you know.”
Selim’s eyes widened.
“I’m not going to waste a chance to increase my popularity.” Kireua looked toward the Emperor of Avalon and the demons meaningfully.
“Wait...” Selim knew exactly what Kireua was thinking, and yet...
“Judging from the way you’re still holding your head up over there, you’re their leader, yes?” Kireua pointed his gleaming sword at a demon who looked like a bull.
-Ah, crap!
Moloch was about to go crazy. The only reason he was still there was them! Moloch quickly turned to Joshua.
-P-Please...
“What?” Joshua asked.
-I-I’m going to die if I don’t move.
“Did I forbid you to move or something? Get going if you want to survive,” Joshua scoffed.
Moloch's eyes widened as the invisible force and overwhelming power of Pride that had been binding him down miraculously disappeared. By that time, Kireua was already dangerously close to Moloch.
-After all you humans put me through, even a boy like you is looking down on me now... I’ll make you regret it!
Moloch unleashed his demonic power.
“...Ugh!” Kireua frowned at Moloch’s immense murderous energy. However, there was nowhere to run—nor did he even want to. Instead, Kireua commited to the attack and swung his sword. “Die!”
-You want to kill me? Come back in a million years, boy!
Moloch swung his colossal ax.
Kireua’s sword and Moloch’s gigantic ax clashed, throwing sparks into the air. Kireua was able to withstand Moloch’s power for a moment but was then helplessly thrown away.
“Shit!” Kireua cursed.
At this rate, he was going to land in the center of the death knights.
“Kireua!” Selim shouted.
A red spear came flying toward Kireua.
“Longin...?” Kireua murmured.
The familiar spear flew toward him at a steady speed which was neither too fast nor slow. Not a single trace of murderous energy nor mana could be sensed from the spear.
“That absolute nutjob. Is he trying to kill himself or what? Why would he throw his weapon when his enemies are right in front of him?” Kireua muttered to himself even as he used the spear’s shaft as a stepping stone midair.
The flow of the battle astounded the audience. Abandoning one’s weapon was equivalent to sticking out one’s neck in front of an executioner, but Selim didn’t hesitate in order to protect his brother, his competitor, lighting a fire in the hearts of Avalon’s many knights and soldiers.
“Ohaaaaaaa!”
“Prince Selim! Prince Kireua! Please win!”
“That demon is nothing! Give him hell!”
The soldiers on the ramparts were the first ones to begin cheering. By that time, the Imperial Knights hastening toward the princes were getting close.
“My brother gave me the last act, so I can’t waste it.”
Kireua picked a direction and shot through the air with a deafening boom.
“One more time!” Kireua shouted. His eyes zeroed in on Moloch with menace, right when Moloch was thinking about ambushing the Shining Darkness.
-How dare you!
“Why do you keep saying ‘how dare you,’ bullhead?” Kireua scoffed.
The prince enveloped himself in a shroud of black fire.
All the soldiers in Arcadia were looking at him. So were the Imperial Knights who had looked at him with subtle contempt during his childhood.
Kireua had disparaged himself as well.
While other people started to view him as a completely different man, Kireua himself was also being reborn.
“I am Kireua Sanders, the son of the Martial God!”
A black aura coated Kireua’s sword. The people of Igrant had considered the color black to be ominous for generations because black was the color of demons’ demonic power and there were almost no examples of someone possessing black mana.
There was one. Only one person among all the swordsmen, mages, and Superhumans used mana of that color. The person was called the Dark God, once the greatest swordsman on the continent; a martial artist who would go down in history. The path he had walked down was heinous, but his talent was undeniably exceptional.
“D-Duke Agnus?”
“The Dark God’s black aura!”
“Why is His Highness Kireua’s mana also like that...?”
There had been a time Cain’s mana had been black too. He had been privately tutored by the previous Duke Agnus for years, causing his mana to turn black. Cain had overcome his limit completely and obtained his own color, a radiant gold.
‘I can’t hide it forever, so I’ll prove to everyone that I’m using my sword techniques and mine only,’ Kireua determinedly thought.
Instead of letting rumors develop by only using this black aura in the shadows, Kireua was going to use it out in the open. There might be evil swordsmen, but there was no such thing as an evil sword technique. In that regard, the Agnus family’s techniques were the finest essence of martial arts.
‘Magic Sword Arts, Level 4.’
Kireua tensed up. This was his first time attempting this. He was mixing the Agnus family’s mana circulation technique, the Flame Emperor’s moves, and his own “Magic Sword Arts,” as he had dubbed it, which was his interpretation of his father’s Magic Spear Arts. People might call him a maniac and suicidal for attempting such things, but Kireua was confident in his ability to interpret a style of martial arts and make it into his own.
‘From nothing to something... This is the sword technique that only I, in all of this vast continent, can use. Yes, this is Kireua Sanders’s Magic Sword Arts.’
The ebon flames that cloaked Kireua mixed with the black aura on his sword and grew into an enormous blaze. Even the pillars of fire that speared out of the ground reached into the sky like a pathway to heaven.
‘The Sky Trail of the Fires of Retribution.’
The technique was made by Kireua, for Kireua, and only for Kireua.
-What?
Moloch quickly raised his ax to fend off Kireua’s remarkable attack, but the giant weapon was engulfed in black fire before he could even swing it toward Kireua. Worse, the ax rapidly melted in the heat.
-Impossible...!
Kireua black fire etched a deep line in Moloch.
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