The Heavenly Demon Can’t Live A Normal Life [EN]: Chapter 348

One day before the events of this chapter.

Alvarez and the other top warriors of Valhalla had already been called back. They were told to return to the capital to get ready for war. Because of this, they were already in the city when Count Gomes gave his orders.

The warriors ranked from 2nd to 9th gathered together.

Alvarez looked at the familiar faces, but he seemed unhappy.

“Is this all? Valhalla, the proud nation of warriors, isn’t as strong as it used to be,” he said.

Only five warriors had answered the call.

Valderas, ranked 10th, and Ares, ranked 3rd, had not responded. Even so, there were still two spots open.

The reason for this went back to the past.

It was the time when Roman Dmitry caused so much trouble. Many of Valhalla’s best warriors died.

Barbosa, who was 6th, Rodriguez, who was 7th, and Morales, who was 12th, all died. The Valhalla Imperial Family said they would keep the rankings as they were for a while.

Three people had died.

Five warriors had turned away from the Valhalla Imperial Family.

The Valhalla Imperial Family decided they needed to make big changes. They said they would hold a ranking match to replace everyone with people loyal to the Emperor.

They planned to have the warriors compete for a week or two. Their goal was to rebuild the rankings with people they could trust.

Tron, who was ranked 5th in Valhalla, spoke up.

“It’s all because of Roman Dmitry. He caused Morales and Barbosa to die, and Rodriguez to die! Ares left Valhalla to follow Roman Dmitry, and Duke Vieto worked with Dmitry to start this rebellion. That means Valderas, who is missing, is also connected to Roman Dmitry.”

“What a strange situation,” Alvarez said with a laugh.

How did Valhalla, the nation of warriors, get into this mess?

Some people said the Valhalla Festival was unfair. But that day caused the Valhalla Imperial Family to lose many of its top warriors.

It was a very bad situation.

There was a time when only Chronos and Valhalla were strong enough to challenge the continental rankings. But Roman Dmitry, an unusual person, changed everything.

Alvarez’s laughter didn’t sound real.

He was angry inside.

Alvarez, who was second-in-command of Valhalla, said, “Valhalla is going through a time of trouble. If we trust and follow the Emperor, we will be rewarded. Count Gomes will call us soon. Let’s go ahead and get ready for war.”

“Yes.”

“Let’s do that.”

Everyone agreed.

They started to leave.

But then, an unexpected person blocked their way.

“It’s been a while, everyone,” said a man with silver hair.

It was Ares. Alvarez’s face twisted in anger.

Ares was a problem for Valhalla.

He was born in Valhalla and called the nation’s greatest genius. But now he had promised to be loyal to the Dmitry family.

Alvarez looked at him fiercely.

“You traitor! What makes you think you can just walk in here?” he asked.

“Traitor? I don’t think I’ve been removed from the Valhalla rankings yet,” Ares said with a grin.

Ares was right.

Ares had clearly left Valhalla, but the Valhalla Imperial Family didn’t remove him from the rankings.

The reason was that it could hurt the Emperor’s reputation.

If they removed Ares after all the trouble Roman Dmitry had caused, people would realize that Ares had left the Emperor to follow the Dmitry family.

So, they decided not to deal with it officially.

Since they were going to have a ranking match later, they hid the problem for the time being.

Ares was a real issue.

He had come to Valhalla.

He confidently walked through the warp gate. Ares looked at Alvarez and drew his sword.

“I am Ares, ranked 3rd in Valhalla. I challenge Alvarez, ranked 2nd, to a fight to decide who is stronger,” he said.

“This jerk,” someone said.

Everyone’s face twisted in anger.

Schneider, who was ranked 9th, became red in the face.

“A fight from someone who abandoned Valhalla! I won’t allow it!” he shouted.

Schneider was from the past.

When Ares became one of the Twelve Swords of the Continent, he became famous by defeating Schneider, who had held one of those spots.

The defeat was a big shock.

Schneider’s career quickly went downhill. People called him washed-up, and he eventually fell to 9th place.

Ares said coldly, “A fight is my right as a top warrior. This is between me and Alvarez, Schneider. Stay out of it.”

He adjusted his sword.

He pointed it at Schneider and smirked.

“If you want, I’ll fight you first. If you don’t like what I’m doing, you can try to defeat me and stop the fight. What will you do, Schneider? If you think you can beat me like you did in the past, draw your sword.”

The atmosphere became icy.

No one challenged him.

Ares was very skilled.

People always doubted Ares because he was only a 5-star aura swordsman. He had to prove himself to reach 3rd place.

The people there had been defeated by him before.

They had seen how talented he was, and they couldn’t bring themselves to face him.

Only Alvarez was different.

He drew his swords for everyone.

“You arrogant fool. Fine, I accept your challenge,” he said.

They moved to the Valhalla Temple, a grand building of white stone that stood tall in the capital. Inside, the air was cool and quiet, a stark contrast to the angry feelings in the room.

Alvarez looked at Ares and sneered, his lips curling in disgust. “You know, people often make a mistake. They think Valhalla’s greatest talent will be an unbeatable warrior.”

Ares was in 3rd place.

He had been in that position for a while.

People thought Ares hadn’t challenged Alvarez, but they had actually fought secretly three times.

Ares had lost every time. His amazing sword skills didn’t work against Alvarez.

He couldn’t overcome the difference in aura, and Ares stopped improving.

Alvarez grinned, showing his teeth. “Don’t you get it, Ares? History always repeats itself. You’ll lose again.”

He stretched his swords to both sides.

It was Alvarez’s signature move, using two swords.

The Valhalla priest gave the signal to start the match. Alvarez and Ares charged at each other.

The fight began in a blur of motion. Swords crashed together with a deafening clang, sparks flying in the dim light of the temple. The watching rankers could barely follow the speed of the attacks, a whirlwind of steel as Alvarez and Ares moved like lightning.

Alvarez gained the upper hand.

Alvarez pushed Ares back by constantly attacking with both swords. Ares calmly blocked the attacks, waiting for an opening.

Ares’s sword cut through the air.

It passed right in front of Alvarez’s face with incredible speed, but Alvarez twisted his head slightly to avoid the attack.

“Trying to be sneaky!” Alvarez shouted.

He struck down from above.

Ares pulled back his sword and blocked the attack. But Alvarez kept attacking, as if he knew what Ares would do, and blocked Ares’s movements.

As the fight raged, memories flashed in Ares’s mind. He remembered his past fights with Alvarez, each one ending in defeat. He knew his sword skills were sharp, but Alvarez had a raw power, a crushing strength that had always been too much for him.

That was the explosive power of the dual swords.

Usually, using two weapons weakens the explosive power. But Alvarez unleashed explosive auras from both swords, even while using dual swords.

He was truly Ares’s enemy.

Alvarez had a 6-star aura, while Ares only had a 5-star aura.

The difference in aura was too great.

Ares had proven that he could close the gap with his sword skills, but he couldn’t withstand the 6-star aura powered by dual swords.

Alvarez was much stronger than the warriors Ares had defeated before.

His aura was destructive, and he attacked without stopping. Ares had tasted the pain of losing in all three matches.

Ares stepped back quickly.

Alvarez kept attacking strongly. A bright light flashed from Ares as his aura crackled.

“Still relying on those cheap tricks, I see,” Alvarez said.

Small pieces of light aura broke off from Ares. This was a trick to spread out his aura.

Alvarez made his aura push the fragments away like wind. Suddenly, Ares’ face appeared from below, attacking upwards!

It was a surprise attack, but Alvarez reacted fast.

Alvarez calmly blocked Ares’ attack. Instead of moving back, he moved closer to Ares, right into his space.

They were so close they could hear each other breathe. They fought again, hitting each other many times.

Even though Ares’ swordsmanship was precise, Alvarez’s two swords started to win.

Wham!

Alvarez struck down from above.

Wham!

He swept in from the side.

Ares stepped back again. Alvarez chased him, quickly moving his sword to attack Ares’ neck.

Whoosh.

Rumble!

It was very close. Dangerously close.

The atmosphere was tense.

Just surviving this long showed how much Ares had improved.

But that was all.

Victory would go to Alvarez.

Alvarez attacked like a bull, not caring about anything else. He pushed Ares hard, as if he wanted to kill him.

However…

Clang!

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

Something was wrong.

The more he attacked.

The more they fought.

It felt like his feet were sinking in mud.

Something was going wrong.

It was the same the first, second, and third times they fought. The reason Ares lost was because his aura was weaker. When their auras crashed together, Ares’ aura got weaker, and he had to give up. But now, it was different.

It was strange. Even though Ares only had a 5-star aura, it didn’t get weaker no matter how much they fought.

Then…

Clang-

“?!”

Alvarez’s arm was thrown back.

For the first time, Alvarez was pushed back.

Ares saw his chance and attacked, a small smile on his face as if he was making fun of Alvarez.

“The same level as then and now,” Ares said.

Then and now.

Ares had changed.

The reason he promised to help Roman Dimitri was to close the gap in aura. He wanted to break through the 6-star wall that he could never get past, no matter how hard he tried. Chris and Kevin’s fights gave him an idea.

They beat swordsmen with stronger auras, even though their own auras were weaker. As soon as Ares realized that the star levels weren’t everything, he left Valhalla and went to Dimitri without stopping.

So, he kept taking the attacks. He repeated what had happened in the past, and Ares realized something.

“It’s manageable.”

It pushed back less.

By using Roman Dimitri’s methods, Alvarez’s two-sword attacks weren’t so hard to deal with anymore.

Whoosh.

Clang!

From then on, Ares’ swordsmanship shined.

Alvarez started to doubt himself, and he hesitated. Ares used this chance to show his amazing sword skills – the skills that made him famous.

His swordsmanship was so precise and perfect, it felt overwhelming. If you blocked on the right, he’d attack on the left. If you blocked on the left, he’d attack your legs. If you blocked your legs, he’d attack your head again, making you dizzy.

Tap.

One step closer.

He moved into the space. The moment Ares perfectly stabbed with his sword, Alvarez’s eyes changed.

‘Now is the time.’

Whoosh.

Rumble!

Aura swirled.

He crossed his two swords, and they exploded as they cut Ares in two.

It was Alvarez’s secret move.

Even if Ares could close the gap in aura, it wasn’t easy to be Valhalla’s second-in-command. He had reached that position after hundreds, thousands of battles.

Valhalla’s top fighters were very experienced.

He let Ares attack more, to make him feel strong. Then, Alvarez focused all his aura in one place and made it explode.

This could not be blocked.

Focusing the power of a 6-star aura was too much for Ares to handle.

However…

By a hair’s breadth, the attack barely missed Ares.

The moment Ares reacted to the attack he thought was perfect, Alvarez felt a terrible pain in his right arm.

Flash.

Splurt.

His arm flew off.

He gritted his teeth.

As he quickly swung the sword in his left hand with shaking eyes, his left arm also flew into the air.

“Kraaah!”

His body wobbled. He lost his balance and fell to the floor.

Ares slowly walked towards Alvarez, who was looking up with scared eyes.

“Alvarez, before going to Dimitri, I wasn’t improving,” Ares said.

Dimitri.

It wasn’t just aura that got better there.

The swordsmanship he used just now was Ares copying Chris’s fast sword style, which had scared him, in his own way.

It was funny.

Ares had never worried about swordsmen weaker than him, but his thinking changed when he fought Chris.

There were many dangerous swordsmen in Dimitri.

He knew that to keep his position there, he had to worry about not only those stronger than him but also those weaker.

So, he pushed himself even after winning. He remembered what his defeated opponents looked like, always thinking about what he could learn from them.

Tap.

He stopped walking.

Ares raised his sword to Alvarez’s face, who knew he was about to die.

“This is why I left for Dimitri,” Ares said.

Clang.

Rumble!

Aura rose.

Alvarez’s eyes widened at the strongly swirling aura.

“……No way?!”

That was clearly a 6-star aura.

Goosebumps covered his body. Ares had reached the 6-star level.

Even though he could have beaten him easily from the start, he made it harder for himself by using a 5-star aura.

He wanted to win this one fight to make up for losing three times before. He even made it harder for himself by using less power against Valhalla’s second strongest fighter.

Alvarez thought Ares was definitely Valhalla’s greatest talent.

Splurt.

Blood splattered. His whole body was torn apart, and Alvarez passed out with blank eyes.

Plop.

After that, he saw Schneider with wide eyes, and Count Gomez, who stopped walking with a shocked look.