Future Knight [EN]: Chapter 137

Kugugugugung!

The massive impact swept over the surrounding Dark Elves, sending their multi-ton Gigantes [giant war machines] staggering backward.

Amidst the rising cloud of dust, Kang Chan, as if a meteor had struck, extended both hands over the massive crater, gradually slowing the descent of the two falling Gigantes until they gently touched down on the ground.

『Master! Are you alright?』

Kang Chan urgently checked on his master’s condition.

『I am fine, disciple…』

『Master!』

Hearing his master’s faint voice from the Elven Knight, whose lower body had almost completely melted away, Kang Chan was overjoyed, and his eyes turned red with emotion.

But the joy was fleeting.

Kang Chan glared at the enemies before him with rage.

Those who had forced him to use the life-threatening Safety Mode.

He couldn’t be sure if a miracle would happen again to save his life as before.

But Kang Chan didn’t regret it.

He would rather die than watch someone precious die.

『I won’t let a single one of you leave alive.』

It was a calm tone, seemingly devoid of emotion, but the rage within Kang Chan’s words contained a deep-seated fury and murderous intent capable of killing with words alone.

Kereimion, overwhelmed by Kang Chan’s force, felt a sense of unease, but with both sides having played their final cards, they had to see it through to the end.

『Kuh! You… Today is the day we end this! Attack!』

The Dark Elves, their formation disrupted by Kang Chan’s attack, hastily prepared for battle.

But that was all they could do. The aura blades emanating from Kang Chan’s hands stretched over 20 meters, sweeping chaotically across the ground.

No matter how hard they tried to defend with their massive aura swords, they were no match for Kang Chan’s attack.

In the blink of an eye, five enemy Gigantes nearby were shattered into pieces and collapsed.

『…』

The Dark Elves, witnessing the deaths of their comrades falling so helplessly, showed a reaction for the first time.

They, who knew no fear.

It wasn’t just them who were surprised.

『What was that just now? Am I seeing things?』

Duke Sachsen, watching the scene from above, was even more astonished than the Dark Elves.

Even seeing it with his own eyes, Duke Sachsen couldn’t easily believe Kang Chan’s massive aura blades stretching dozens of meters.

It was as if he was dreaming.

But Kang Chan, as if proving that it wasn’t a dream, began to sweep the ground again.

And he did it with ease.

The enemies, who were strong enough to force them to take refuge in the air, seemed like beings who couldn’t resist at all in the face of Kang Chan’s aura blades.

As the fleeting moment passed, only one enemy Gigantes remained in Sachsen’s sight.

The rest of the Gigantes were nothing more than scrap metal scattered here and there.

『H-How? How could this happen…?』

Kereimion asked Kang Chan, as if he couldn’t understand.

『I wanted to remain good friends with you, but what made you this way…?』

『Shut up! Even if we went back to that time, do you think I would have become friends with a human?』

『It doesn’t matter if you don’t consider me a friend. This is all I can do for you…』

In an instant, Kang Chan’s body disappeared, and a fierce storm swept past Kereimion.

Soon, Kereimion’s Gigantes slowly began to split in two.

『Impossible…』

For him, who was destined to die anyway, Kang Chan’s best choice was to grant him a peaceful death.

『If we meet again in hell, let’s be friends then.』

Kuuuung…

With Kang Chan’s last words, Kereimion’s Gigantes split in two and collapsed.

It was the moment to end the ill-fated relationship between the two.

Duke Sachsen, who had watched the scene from beginning to end, couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

The swordsmanship that Kang Chan displayed was on a different level from the swordsmanship he had seen and heard of.

It was not enough to simply call him a Sword Master.

But his bewilderment was short-lived. Duke Sachsen suddenly became aware of a massive surge of mana behind him.

The Phoenix had unleashed its breath upon them once again.

The unexpected attack struck while he was distracted.

He had no time to dodge and had to take the Phoenix’s breath head-on.

The eruption of a pillar of fire so powerful it could incinerate the world.

『No!』

The breath engulfed Sachsen in the blink of an eye, and his Gigantes was sure to melt away in an instant.

But that didn’t happen.

Kang Chan, who had flown to his side, bisected the Phoenix’s powerful breath with a massive aura blade.

Shu-ga-ga-ga-gak!

『K-Kang Chan-nim?』

Duke Sachsen, who thought he was going to die, was saved by Kang Chan.

His face was filled with deep emotion.

Conversely, the Phoenix, whose attack was thwarted, stared at Kang Chan in disbelief.

“H-How can you cut my breath with a sword!”

The Phoenix was shocked to see its breath being easily divided.

But Kang Chan’s next attack didn’t give the Phoenix any time to think.

Kang Chan’s massive aura blade cut through the breath and instantly split the Phoenix’s head in half.

And then, a merciless barrage of strikes.

“Kuaaaaaak!”

The 20-meter-long aura blade tore and ripped apart the Phoenix’s joints.

The pain was something the Spirit King had never experienced before.

As an existence without a physical form, the Spirit King was immune to physical attacks.

But the aura blade was different.

The aura blade was an aggregate of mana [magical energy] that could inflict severe damage even on the Spirit King.

For the Spirit King to be subjected to such a barrage of aura blades.

This was the first time such a thing had happened since the birth of this planet.

The Phoenix, writhing in extreme pain, soon lost consciousness and was forcibly returned to the Spirit Realm.

It was the all-too-pathetic demise of the Fire Spirit King, Phoenix.

『Huh…』

Duke Sachsen was almost in a state of shock.

He was at a loss as to how to accept the scene unfolding before his eyes.

For a human to stand shoulder to shoulder with the dragons, the absolute beings of this world, and dismantle the Spirit King Phoenix as if he were a chicken.

‘What on earth is this? How am I supposed to explain this? Is that the divine power of a human?’

Only one word lingered in his mind.

‘S-Sword… S-Sword Emperor…’

There was no other way to explain it.

As Duke Sachsen repeated the word to himself in a daze, Kang Chan, who had approached him, said to him.

『Please take care of Master and Urukanta.』

Duke Sachsen unconsciously used honorifics when addressing Kang Chan.

『Y-Yes! I understand!』

With the Phoenix gone to the Spirit Realm, Kang Chan’s next target was the Earthlings attacking Zikyon and Rekrashion.

『I will never forgive them.』

Sylphiris, riding behind Kang Chan, couldn’t get a grip on herself.

She couldn’t understand what was going on, how the situation was unfolding, even as a dragon.

All she knew was that the human in front of her shouted something about releasing something, and from that moment on, a massive vortex of mana spread through him to the Gigantes.

It was clearly a tremendous power, on par with the power of a Wyrm-class dragon [a powerful type of dragon].

It was too much power for a mere human.

Moreover, the power of mana manifested through this human was different in its power from the magic of wizards.

Extreme destructive power concentrated in one place.

It used less mana than magic but could produce hundreds of times the power.

Its power was probably superior to 9th circle magic [the highest level of magic].

Even with 9th circle magic, it would not be possible to forcibly return the Phoenix in one go.

There was something about Kang Chan’s power that even Sylphiris, a dragon, couldn’t explain.

Sylphiris no longer saw Kang Chan as a human.

It was not the weak human she had known.

‘There was a reason why Zikyon-nim was friends with him…’

Sylphiris nodded as if she now understood why Zikyon was friends with Kang Chan without pretense.

She also felt a desire to have a closer relationship with Kang Chan.

But unlike Sylphiris’s wishes, Kang Chan was dying.

“Cough! Cough! Kuwehk!”

Sylphiris, startled by the massive amount of blood that Kang Chan vomited onto the cockpit floor, asked in a worried tone.

“What’s wrong, all of a sudden? Are you okay?”

“Umm… I’m, I’m okay.”

Even if he said that, Kang Chan’s complexion didn’t look good at all.

His face was as pale as a corpse, and the blood vessels all over his body were grotesquely raised.

It was like looking at a different person.

“You don’t look okay… I’ll cast a healing spell on you.”

To Sylphiris’s worried words, Kang Chan simply said calmly.

“No, don’t worry about me, just hold on tight. It’s going to shake a lot when we fight those guys.”

Kang Chan, speaking in a determined voice, charged towards the enemies who were surrounding and attacking the dragons.

The speed of the Red Rabbit was on a different level from the Gigantes of other Sword Masters.

The amount of mana he could use was on a different level.

“Kang Chan…”

Sylphiris, seeing Kang Chan, who was always confident and arrogant, looking anxious for the first time, couldn’t understand why he was so anxious.

Just in case, she engraved a small magic circle behind Kang Chan’s seat.

It was a magic circle engraved with the highest-level healing runes.

It was a small consideration she could do for Kang Chan.

Neither Sylphiris nor Kang Chan had any idea that it would save Kang Chan’s life.

Kang Chan’s collapsing cells gradually began to recover from the healing touch transmitted from the outside.

If it had been ordinary healing magic, it would never have been able to stop his cell collapse.

But Sylphiris’s healing magic was the magic of a dragon that could revive even the dead.

There was no reason why she couldn’t save Kang Chan, who wasn’t even dead yet.

As Sylphiris’s powerful healing power outpaced the rate of cell collapse, Kang Chan’s body gradually began to revive.

And Kang Chan’s rapidly aging face regained its vitality.

But Kang Chan himself was unaware of this fact.

Kang Chan’s body was slowly healing, but Kang Chan simply thought he was dying.

In his mind, he only had the single thought of saving Zikyon.

The unmanned fighters, sensing something approaching at an incredible speed, turned their noses and fired beams at Kang Chan.

Dozens of plasma beams covered the Red Rabbit Kang Chan was riding.

To anyone, Kang Chan’s charge was a reckless act.

“No!”

Zikyon screamed as he saw Kang Chan flying towards them.

It seemed clear that he would be skewered by the ultra-high-temperature plasma beams that melted even the armor plates of battleships.

But Kang Chan’s Red Rabbit suddenly disappeared in mid-air before the beams could reach it, and reappeared right next to it, dodging the plasma beams that were attacking again and disappearing again.

Soon, the place where Kang Chan reappeared was right above the nearest unmanned fighter.

『Taat!』

With Kang Chan’s roar, the aura blade that was swung lightly cut through the shield and cut the unmanned fighter in half.

Kwaaaang!

The eight Zaids, watching the unmanned fighter being shot down by a Gigantes, not a dragon, widened their eyes in surprise.

They were seeing an enemy who easily cut in half a fighter protected by a high-output small energy shield, just like themselves.

Moreover, the Gigantes, which they had vaguely dismissed as primitive mechanics, was flying through the air and even performing spatial movement that they themselves could not do. It was truly a mechanic with tremendous performance.

『What is that?』

『I’ve never heard of a Gigantes with such abilities.』

『By the way, doesn’t that Gigantes look familiar?』

The Red Rabbit had undergone many changes in appearance by replacing its limbs, but it could not completely abandon the appearance of the Zaid, which was its base.

There was no way that their enemies would not recognize the appearance of the Red Rabbit.

The weapons, shapes, and specifications of enemy countries are useful information that extends their lives.

『Something’s fishy… Computer, scan that Gigantes in detail.』

-Understood. Scanning the enemy Gigantes in detail. Estimated time required: 5 seconds.

Everyone watched Kang Chan’s Red Rabbit, which was engaged in a fierce battle with the unmanned fighters, until the enemy’s identity was revealed.

Soon, the computer revealed the identity of the Red Rabbit.