Weapon-Eating Bastard [EN]: Chapter 286

Gazing at Ancestor Lee Hyang-seon’s final strike, I felt an unbridgeable gap.

Boooooo!

A strange vibration.

As the Mind Sword activated, the space distorted like a heat haze, and something immense amplified its presence.

It’s coming.

Ancestor’s Mind Sword.

The world seems to be distorting.

Something was increasing in size, but even with the Evil Eye, I couldn’t clearly perceive its true form.

The moment I saw it, I realized I couldn’t handle it with my Mind Sword.

So, I drew my sword.

Because what I needed now wasn’t immense power, but an exceptional force that defied standards.

Black Night.

The progenitor’s longsword, whose true nature even Sub Elder couldn’t fathom.

“……!”

The moment she saw the sword, a fleeting hesitation flickered in Ancestor’s movements.

Kiiiiiiing!

The unique, eerie sword’s cry erupted.

The moment I drew it, the world reflected in my Evil Eye began to crumble.

Fragments of mana touching the blade reversed magical power, and even the power of the seals within the mausoleum were severed piece by piece.

‘Should I extend it?’

Even as I extended the sword, I hesitated for a moment.

After breaking the seventh seal of Black Night, I had never properly controlled its full power.

No, saying ‘control’ is strange.

This sword isn’t the type of weapon that breaks free from control and rampages.

Rather, it is serene and still.

It simply annihilates whatever it touches indiscriminately.

The range and power of Black Night’s annihilation grew stronger as more seals were released.

It began to cut and annihilate things beyond my will, and now, with only two seals remaining, I couldn’t be sure how much it could cut.

During the second trial, when facing the primordial monster, there was no need to control it, but at that time, I couldn’t even fully unleash Black Night’s power due to the primordial monster’s pressure.

‘But not now.’

I was quite injured, but I had enough leeway to deploy the sword.

If I extend it, it will reach.

The groundwork for that had worked, and Ancestor’s movements were a beat slower.

-To my eyes, this appears to be annihilation itself in the form of a sword.

-What is cut by that sword will never be recovered and will never return to its original state.

-Of course, that also applies to the user wielding the sword.

The story Elder Lyeo told me in Mirenae Village, Jeju Island, came to mind.

Should I extend it?

Can I control the power?

‘……I can.’

With a strong conviction, I coated Black Night with mana and overlaid it with the Mind Sword.

I extended the sword towards the Mind Sword surging in like a tidal wave.

Swgaaaaaak!

It felt like pushing a sharp razor blade into a tightly stretched thread. There was that little resistance.

The moment it touches, it is cut off.

All the powers in the path of Black Night’s extension evaporated and vanished.

Diagonally from top to bottom.

The swung sword drew a semicircle, cutting off the incoming Mind Sword.

‘Stop now. This is the end!’

Kiiiiiiing!

I deliberately dragged Black Night back, lengthening it to prevent it from annihilating more energy.

Black Night’s role ends here.

No, to be precise, the range I can control is up to here.

From now on, it’s time to use the power I have, not to borrow the power of external objects!

Crack!

The sword Ancestor extended was struck by Black Night and bounced off, embedding itself in the ceiling of the mausoleum.

Ancestor’s torso was wide open.

I stretched out my left hand.

With the energy of the Mind Sword dwelling at my fingertips, I completely stripped away Ancestor’s last barrier of magical power.

“Keuk!”

Koo-oooong!

The mausoleum vibrated with an explosion.

But that explosion wasn’t caused by my Mind Sword. It was merely the shattered fragments of Ancestor’s magical power.

My Mind Sword isn’t meant to harm Ancestor.

In the first place, the Intangible [a technique focusing on dismantling and imitating energy] isn’t a technique with strong killing power.

Rather, it had greater strengths in imitating, dismantling, and permeating the opponent’s energy.

Sssssss!

Finally, stripping away Ancestor’s fortress-like defense…

‘It touched.’

My fingertips succeeded in touching the area around Ancestor’s heart.

With a gurgling sound, I felt black energy penetrate Ancestor’s magical power and infiltrate her body.

My black energy is mixed with the Choi family’s power.

This is the end.

But at that moment.

Whoosh!

Something heavy cut through the air towards my jaw.

Only after it reached my jaw did I realize it was a fist.

Military art.

It was an attack Ancestor unleashed without stopping at the last moment.

“Keuk!”

I deflected it by tilting my head, but the tremendous wind pressure tore at my skin.

That’s not the end.

A knee kick aimed at the right abdomen, targeting the liver and intestines, came up.

I bent my back and avoided a direct hit.

But I couldn’t avoid it completely.

Before I could fill my abdomen with pressure to reduce the damage, the knee dug into my abdomen.

I had clearly annihilated all energy and even pushed in black energy, but Ancestor had unleashed her martial arts right before all of that happened.

‘What a monster…’

Ancestor’s epithet wasn’t Sword King, but Martial King.

What was technically perfected wasn’t just swordsmanship, but martial arts itself.

Crackle!

Along with the pain of a partial rupture of the abdominal muscles, I felt a twisting pain in my internal organs.

But.

‘……I won.’

Kwaaaaa!

Black energy poured out, coiling around Ancestor’s body like a snake and digging in.

“Ah, ah!”

Ancestor Lee Hyang-seon, groaning, collapsed to the ground.

And the black smoke that had been covering Ancestor’s eyes began to pour out.

Ancestor, who had been spewing black smoke as if vomiting for a while, slumped down.

That which occupied the spot where Ancestor had fallen.

Black smoke.

I faced the guy I had seen in Ancestor’s tomb during the Musahaeng era [an era of martial arts prosperity] once again.

“Hoo…….”

Using Black Night as a cane, I stood up, staggering.

The end is not far off.

It was time to face that again.

* * *

The black smoke engulfed me as it was.

The guy had a presence that was on a different level from when I saw him in Ancestor’s tomb before.

It seems that he had been weakened by too much time and the power of the seal back then.

That’s why I was easily subdued even in my childhood.

But what about now?

The guy was revealing a presence as dangerous as the monster I saw in the unexplored area of Area B-1.

If I get eroded, it will constantly present disgusting illusions before my eyes.

I didn’t care. After all, he’s a guy I’ve already absorbed once.

As strong as he is, I have also become stronger.

Thump!

Around that time, along with the beating of my heart, I felt the black energy wriggling and whining to be taken out.

I shook my head.

‘Don’t worry. I don’t need your help.’

In the dark without a single point of light, I narrowed my eyes and swept around.

Goooo……!

A noise like pushing wind into a closed space.

I intuitively felt that he was carefully watching me.

It seems he’s wondering when and how to devour me.

‘You fool.’

I smiled mockingly.

‘If you block all sides like this, it’s easier to use this.’

Kiiiiiiing!

Black Night let out another strange cry.

When dealing with Ancestor, I tried to control Black Night’s power, but since all sides were blocked like this, there was no need to worry about it.

Adjustment, suppression, control—I erased such trivial things from my mind.

Hwaaaaaak!

Immediately after, the black smoke rushed in as if to swallow me.

And I swung Black Night.

And nothing was left.

There was no echoing noise, no traces of destruction, no struggles of black smoke.

Puh-wuhng!

The black smoke surrounding me burst like a balloon, tearing apart and falling to the ground like snow.

──────Kkigigigigeek!

A strange cry was heard.

No, actually, it wasn’t that a ‘cry’ was heard.

Only a strange noise like rubbing pieces of metal together remained, carried by the air.

Wriggle!

Like a leech, he wriggled and approached the unconscious Ancestor again.

To find a host.

To maintain even a little bit of remaining life.

I swung Black Night at it again.

Suh-guhk!

The stone floor that makes up the mausoleum floor on the side where the sword’s tip is directed disappears as it is.

It’s not that it was cut or smashed.

The floor surface crumbled and disappeared like dust the moment it touched the sword’s power.

That’s how far Black Night’s power was beyond measure, and the fragment of black smoke, which had become as small as a larva, didn’t even have the power to resist it.

-Kkigigigigigeek!

And he lunged at me from the air, bouncing up for the last time.

That was the end.

The guy, who had already been cut once by Black Night, couldn’t even reach me and disappeared as it was.

“Hoo, ha, damn it.”

Only then did I plunge Black Night into the ground and shake my tingling hand.

My whole body ached.

I was full of cuts, stabs, beatings, and internal injuries.

That’s not all.

The hand holding Black Night… this is the problem.

I used Black Night too much.

The magic circuit throbbed as if pierced by dozens of needles.

Suddenly, my vision spun.

My body is tilting. It didn’t seem to be because of the bleeding… it seemed to be the effect of the blow aimed at my jaw that I thought I had avoided earlier.

‘……Damn it.’

Thud!

That’s how I lost consciousness and fell.

* * *

When I came to my senses, the first thing I noticed was that the dim mausoleum had become brightly lit.

I jumped up and looked around.

No, I tried to look around, but.

“Lie down a little longer.”

A dignified, deep, and profound voice echoed.

It was Ancestor.

Ancestor gently pressed my chest and laid me down again.

Woo-ooo-oong!

Ancestor’s hand was touching the area around my chest.

I felt the sensation of magical power penetrating the magic circuit as it was.

‘Did you come to your senses?’

I couldn’t find even a single point of madness in Ancestor’s eyes.

Only a deep mystery like looking at a lake was full.

Woom!

After a while, when the magic treatment was over, I was finally able to raise my body.

‘……Hair.’

Whitish white was dwelling in Ancestor’s hair.

No, it is being bleached white every moment.

The firm skin is wrinkled like dry ground, and the forearms, which were so firm that the texture of the muscles could be seen, are gradually thinning.

It was a very slow phenomenon, but Ancestor was definitely regaining her ‘age’.

“There’s no need to say hello again. I’ve already heard it. …… I showed you an unsightly sight.”

“No.”

No one can blame Ancestor.

Rather, we should praise Ancestor’s willpower for continuing to seal that monster without Black Night or the Choi family’s power.

“Yes, Mal-ye… Lee Cheol, was it? How long has it been since I entered this place?”

“…….”

I couldn’t answer easily.

How could I say that Ancestor’s life was already over and that thousands of years had passed and it was the 21st century?

However.

“Don’t worry about it. I already know it.”

Ancestor smiled faintly.

“That clothes. The goblins wove it, and I received it directly. There’s no way I could mistake that.”

Ancestor pointed to Eunhan, which was recovering the parts that had fallen off on its own even at this moment.

And I also looked at Eunhan, which was draped over Ancestor’s shoulders.

This dress was originally received from Ancestor.

Things that cannot exist together are coexisting in one space.

There was no way Ancestor wouldn’t notice unless she was a fool.

“And since you were holding Black Night in your hand… I just wanted to hear how far into the future you came from. But… I see. Is it you?”

Even if she didn’t express it in words, Ancestor’s eyes were saying a lot.

The successor of Black Night.

The successor of Eunhan.

The descendant of the Soongmoo Lee family, burdened with heavy karma.

‘Was such an upright and strong child like this?’

Lee Hyang-seon felt a heart-pounding joy.

The completion of the things she had prepared for the distant future was right before her eyes.

Even the years of terrible sacrifice.

Even the despair over the curse of this bloodline and the abyss that she learned about from her father… seeing the figure of the young man Lee Cheol, she felt it disappear like snow melting.

Lee Cheol, by his very existence, was proof that what she had been doing was by no means meaningless.

“It’s an era that is at least a thousand and hundreds of years after Ancestor’s era.”

“Does the name of the Soongmoo Lee family remain in that distant future?”

Ancestor looked pleased but soon frowned slightly and let out a long sigh.

“I heard it from my father a long time ago. About the dwarves who record everything in the world. That’s what happened. I have also reached my destiny…….”

With those words from Ancestor, silence fell for a moment.

I looked at Ancestor like that and straightened my posture.

“……I would like to express my sincere gratitude.”

I bowed politely to Ancestor.

And with all my heart, I expressed my gratitude.

“What are you talking about?”

“Ancestor’s sacrifice has been a great help to me. No, it would have been a great help not only to me but also to this world.”

“Unlike the bloodline of the main family, you are quite polite. Or maybe only children like you appear in the Soongmoo Lee family of later generations.”

“That’s not true.”

I smiled bitterly.

Even as a empty word, my brothers were not gentle people… of course, including me.

Ancestor just smiled warmly while looking at me.

“Yes, then what does the main family in your era look like?”

The current Soongmoo Lee family.

I smiled boldly.

“I don’t know what to say…….”

A childish answer flashed through my mind. But there was no other word to describe the main family as much as this.

“Soongmoo Lee family is now called the strongest.”

I said with confidence.

Ancestor’s eyes widened slightly.

Then, he nodded with a heartwarming smile, as if an elderly grandfather was looking at a vigorous child.

“Heh heh, yes. If there is a warrior like you, there will surely be no shortage of being called that. I see. The strongest. The Soongmoo Lee family I dreamed of was exactly…… like that.”

I am here, my eldest brother is here, my second sister is here, and my father is here.

The organization size and power may be larger elsewhere, but who would dare to say that they are stronger than Soongmoo Lee family?

Paas-ss!

At that moment, I saw Ancestor’s hair turning dark gray.

“There’s not much time left.”

Ancestor smiled bitterly.

“You must have many questions. There is not enough time, so ask quickly.”

Ancestor said, looking at me.

I could actually feel that there was not much time left.

Ancestor was aging rapidly as if she had fast-forwarded time.

“……Then, I would like to ask.”

Clatter!