Academy’S Gumiho Is A Magical Genius [EN]: Chapter 289

Academy Gumiho is a Magical Genius – Episode 289

Academy Gumiho is a Magical Genius 289

Supreme Art (4)

Merak.

A technique that strikes from below.

It’s used to deliver a final blow when the opponent gets close.

The technique accurately cleaved through Baek Seok-ho’s chest.

A clear sensation of cutting through flesh, blood vessels, organs, and bone.

It was an attack that would have instantly killed an ordinary demon.

If my body were in its previous condition, I could confidently say that this technique would have killed any ordinary demon or even a notable noble in a single strike.

However, the power of swordsmanship unleashed with a weakened body was, regrettably, short of my expectations.

Thud!

Baek Seok-ho’s hand reached for me.

He struck the barrier surrounding me.

A short, thick impact.

Protected by the barrier, I was pushed back with a dull sensation. The impact was so strong that I flew farther than expected.

─Are you okay?! You just flew across to the building opposite!

“…I defended, so I wasn’t seriously injured.”

─Then cover your eyes quickly. There’s blood coming from your eyes…!

“I know without you having to explain it indirectly. I suppose there’s a scene unfolding in front of me that I shouldn’t be seeing?”

For example.

“Looks like that guy’s a pervert.”

─…You know a lot.

“I’ve dealt with those kinds of guys a lot before.”

Transforming when they start to get pushed back.

Those kinds of guys.

Baek Seok-ho, who allowed my weak attack, now abandoned his human form.

In fact, it was ridiculous for a demon to maintain a human appearance.

Demons are beings who have given up on being human.

Those without talent didn’t look or act much different from humans, even after giving up on being human.

The only difference was that their hearts and blood vessels were filled with demonic energy instead of magic. Oh, and their eyes were completely black without any distinction of the white.

Anyway, that’s it, except for that.

However, I’ve seen many high-ranking demons so far.

Not the insignificant nobles playing with titles like baron or viscount, but the real ones, each of whom poses a threat to the survival and security of humanity.

The real deal.

“You’ve transformed again. Now, even the black fox from before looks like a fairy?”

I released the barrier to secure my vision.

At the same time, Baek Seok-ho, transformed into an ugly sight, came into view.

Not wanting to miss this opportunity, I mocked Baek Seok-ho, who was proud of his pure white fur.

“Now your ancestors look like squid. Why don’t you remove the fox tails around your waist? With eight of them, you look like an octopus.”

I mocked and ridiculed him relentlessly.

But there was no reaction in return.

“In the world, guys like you are called marquises.”

The higher the demon, the more different their appearance is from humans.

At that level, he’s a marquis.

Ah, maybe even a duke.

“The stronger the demon, the higher the rank, the greater the transformation.”

For most demons, that change happens internally.

In that case, they gain abnormal regenerative abilities, and their powers evolve.

In Baek Seok-ho’s case.

“A partial change in the body.”

The lightning has become more powerful, but.

That’s because the magic that makes up the lightning has been replaced with demonic energy, boasting greater destructive power.

His ability hasn’t evolved.

Baek Seok-ho’s body changed.

Instead of completely breaking away from his human body from his human days.

His base was still human, but he changed in a way that transformed the necessary body parts. He was exactly that case.

Look at his appearance right now.

“Your fingers are stretched out like taffy. No, there’s no such thing as fingers that reach the ground when you dangle them from the roof of a building.”

Rather than taffy.

“It would be more accurate to call your fingers tentacles. Don’t you think so?”

Now, the fingers on Baek Seok-ho’s hands can be considered tentacles.

Baek Seok-ho wielding a total of 10 tentacles, five on each hand.

Seriously, it’s disgustingly grotesque.

I hastily tried to cut off his fingers with my sword out of revulsion.

Clang!

Instead, the sword bounced off.

What I don’t know whether it’s a finger or a tentacle was intact, and it was so hard that sparks flew when I tried to cut it with a sword.

Damn it, even alloys forged with magic aren’t this hard.

I have no choice.

I raised my sword and poured a lot of magic onto it.

‘Cut.’

A very simple thought that anyone who wields a sword has.

Based on this thought and mindset, magic is processed.

Commonly referred to as will or intention.

Magic processed with such intention became sword energy.

Soon, the energy contained starlight.

The haze of the Big Dipper. The energy soon contained the Gang [a powerful, refined energy].

In an instant, sword Gang was created.

Baek Seok-ho was momentarily startled by the natural flow of energy and took a deep breath. He was so surprised that his naturally progressing breathing was disrupted.

“To create Gang energy so quickly and simply?”

“It’s a trick I learned from using it so often.”

“What a load of crap!”

The fingers, transformed into tentacles, were weapons that transcended human common sense.

Sharp, hard, flexibly bent, and freely adjustable in length. In addition, the lightning-fast speed and the result of wrapping lightning around the tentacles created a crazy club.

If you hit the ground, the ground is crushed.

If you hit trees and buildings, they turn to powder.

It was that threatening and powerful, but somehow, when it collided with the pure white starlight-filled sword, it couldn’t muster any strength and was pushed back.

“What kind of Gang energy is this so freely…!”

Among the countless martial artists, fewer than the stars visible in the sky can illuminate their swords with starlight.

That’s Gang energy.

Baek Seok-ho was also someone who had reached the realm of creating Gang energy with a spear before he became what he is now. Moreover, he was a martial artist who could proudly say that he had not only entered Gang energy but had also mastered it to some extent.

That’s why Baek Seok-ho knew a lot about Gang energy.

Even now that he has fallen into a demon, he is wielding his tentacles by mixing the mysteries of Gang energy into the lightning made of demonic energy.

Of course, he can’t help but know it well.

But.

“The same Gang energy! Why is there such a difference?!”

He strengthened his twisted body with demonic energy, surrounded it with lightning, and wielded it with Gang energy.

Even though he wielded all ten at the same time to launch a combo attack, the opponent was concentrating Gang energy on one sword, blocking all ten tentacles.

In the beginning, he didn’t even wear the flames that had been mocking him.

He confronted all the tentacles with only pure white Gang energy.

At that time, Baek Seok-ho could never accept the current tense situation.

He didn’t become a demon to fight so evenly!

To overwhelm the opponent with overwhelming power.

He had come this far to become the head of the family solely through his own efforts.

Baek Seok-ho began to draw out all his strength and wield his tentacles faster and more precisely. And now, he began to actively use his feet.

He would kick like lightning in the gaps created while wielding his tentacles.

I, who was blocking and dodging all those attacks, felt that my stamina was slowly reaching its limit. It seems like it’s going to be all or nothing soon.

I have no choice.

‘Tamamo. Step back for a moment.’

─What are you going to do?

‘It’s hard to build an image when someone is nearby.’

She, who had been assisting me with magic and protecting me from fierce kicks and eerie lightning, stepped away from me for a moment.

The distance became quite far.

The moment I felt alone because no one was nearby.

All my nerves were focused on the sword.

It wasn’t just limited to focusing on the sword in my hand.

Anything is fine as long as it’s a sword. My mind and image were filled with swords, and before I knew it, I dropped the pure white sword from my hand.

Now there was no sword in my hand.

There was no physical means to deflect the tentacles.

Then I will forge my heart into a sword.

What’s so important about a famous sword?

It’s enough if I become the sword myself.

At that moment, deeply immersed in thought.

───!

The tentacles flew.

I stared blankly at the tentacles aiming for my heart.

When I didn’t respond, the tentacles accelerated even more.

The moment my heart was within striking distance of the tentacles.

Slicing!

The sound of cutting squid legs was heard.

The tentacles, which could not be cut no matter how much I swung my sword, were neatly cut and fell to the ground.

But strangely, there was nothing in my hand.

I didn’t feel any signs of magic.

The tentacles were cut the moment I thought I wanted to cut them.

“Heart Sword.”

The ability that is no exaggeration to say is at the end of swordsmanship.

No, this was not something that could be tied to words like swordsmanship, realm, or ability. Heart Sword is a kind of authority.

It was an authority that all martial artists could reach and grasp.

Ironically, Baek Seok-ho, who was said to be among the top ten martial artists of the time, was hearing it for the first time.

“That can’t be! Isn’t the end of martial arts the Invisible Sword?!”

“…That can’t be.”

“I’ve never heard of a concept beyond the Formless Qi [formless energy]!”

Formless Qi (無形之氣).

Unlike magic, the formless energy that transcends the purity processed with intention cuts and crushes everything.

Most weapons made with such formless energy are shaped according to the owner’s favorite weapon.

As there are many swordsmen in this world, it was common to call it the Formless Sword (無形劍).

That Formless Sword is the supreme realm that a martial artist can reach.

That’s what the martial artists of the time believed without a doubt.

Baek Seok-ho also thought the same.

It had already been 10 years since he had come to handle Formless Qi, but he could never even imagine that there was a next level.

“You can’t stop me with such tricks!”

“You don’t think so?”

“……!”

Something.

Something is uneasy.

Baek Seok-ho’s gaze, unable to stop his heart from trembling, turned to me.

He looked at my face, the fox tail behind me, and my empty right hand in turn, and then hardened his expression.

He sensed a strange energy.

“Amazing. To be able to sense the signs before wielding the Heart Sword.”

I praised him willingly.

But Baek Seok-ho had already started to run away.

It wasn’t a rational escape, but an escape where instinct suppressed reason.

“Your judgment is quick, but you can’t escape like that.”

The mind has no form.

It’s not a concept that can be blocked.

It’s the same even if you create distance.

I muttered, looking at Baek Seok-ho’s tail.

“The Heart Sword is not affected by distance.”

“……!”

“Have you ever seen a person’s heart being restricted by distance?”

This is why the Heart Sword is powerful.

The mind has no shape or concrete concept.

Therefore, the Heart Sword, which has been tempered and sharpened with the mind as a sword.

It is not restricted by distance.

It is not blocked by space.

It is not bound by time.

“A sword that can never be blocked.”

That’s the Heart Sword.

“What kind of irrational martial art is that in the world…!”

“Irrational? Don’t insult those who walk the path of the Heart Sword.”

Heart Sword Road (心劍之路) [the path to mastering the Heart Sword].

The path to the Heart Sword.

You don’t have to shape the form of your heart into a sword.

Heart Spear, Heart Fist, Heart Claw.

Anything is possible.

It is the end that anyone who walks the path of martial arts reaches, no matter what they practice.

“They may be weaker than you, but they are people who cross this path with a much stronger heart than someone like you.”

Even if the path seems rough.

Even if the path is winding.

Those who reach the end of this path reach the extreme, whether weak or strong.

If you want to become stronger after reaching the extreme, you can go back.

When you went, there was only one path, but when you look back, tens of thousands of paths will be waiting for you.

That’s why it’s called Many Rivers Return to One, and the Heart Sword is called the Supreme Art, located at the extreme of martial arts.

I don’t know if that concept exists in this world.

‘If you don’t know, I’ll have to make you experience it firsthand.’

In the end, Baek Seok-ho gave up on escaping with lightning due to the anxiety felt throughout his body. But he didn’t fight back.

Crack!

The ten tentacles replacing his fingers began to create gaps in the sky and squeeze through. It was the power to transcend space.

Was he hiding something like this?

I couldn’t help but admire the sight unfolding before my eyes.

Baek Seok-ho’s body, who had created a gap in space with his tentacles and escaped into it, gradually became translucent. Now he was in a different space than me.

Baek Seok-ho looked translucent, but his main body had already taken refuge in a small pocket space that connected space and space.

Certainly, physical attacks won’t work in this state.

…If what I held in my hand wasn’t the Heart Sword.

“I’ve said it over and over again. You can’t avoid this sword.”

Even if you cross space.

Even if the opponent is in an area that is impossible to even touch.

Such things are not important to the human heart.

If you want to reach it, you reach it.

Slash!

A sword that cuts through the space itself when swung.

The sword that cut out the pocket space also cut off Baek Seok-ho’s legs.

“What nonsense…!”

“It’s not for nothing that the Heart Sword is called the Supreme Art.”

Baek Seok-ho, who was trying to escape beyond space like that, lost his chance to escape along with his quick legs.

For a high-ranking demon, legs were a part that could be regenerated in the blink of an eye, but his regeneration speed and the speed of wielding the sword were the same.

Because the concept of speed does not apply to the mind.

If you want to cut, you just cut it immediately.

Slash!

This time, a clear and neat sound is heard.

At the same time, Baek Seok-ho lost his legs again.

The same part as the one just cut off.

Because he cut it off as soon as he recovered, Baek Seok-ho could not visually confirm that his legs had been regenerated.

“Kuaaaaaaak!!!!”

Only the pain felt in his legs.

Made him realize that his cut legs had been regenerated and cut off again.