The 9Th Class Swordmaster: Blade Of Truth [EN]: Chapter 156

122. Beyond the Barrier

“Whew, that’s incredible.”

Miliana muttered under her breath, gazing at the massive barrier before them.

It was dozens of times taller than a human and stretched endlessly to both sides. Despite its age, the barrier looked surprisingly pristine, as if it were brand new.

Its grandeur was so overwhelming that the only way to describe it was as an awe-inspiring spectacle.

“I wonder who made something like this?”

Tung… Tung… Tuwoong…

Aidan tapped the barrier as if knocking on a door, and a strange resonance echoed.

“…….”

He thought it was a solid wall, but to his surprise, the bricks rippled like waves on a calm surface. Startled, he quickly pulled his hand back.

It felt as if it were hollow inside.

“Watch closely. The wall isn’t shaking. There’s a magical shell on the barrier.”

Miliana chuckled at Aidan and, feigning knowledge, tapped the wall just as he had done.

Doong… Doong… Dooong…!!

The sound was different from Aidan’s.

Moreover, there was a distinct tactile sensation.

However, the resonance was so unreal that even she was taken aback and quickly stepped back in surprise.

“According to legend, this barrier wasn’t made by humans.”

Kahlil spoke, observing the two of them.

“Hmm…? Then?”

“Dragons made it.”

Gordon continued his sentence. He looked at Miliana, who had stepped back.

“I guess you’re still the Queen of Digon. When people like us approach the barrier, it sounds hollow, but it reacts to dragonic mana like yours, right?”

“Ah…….”

Only then did Miliana nod in understanding at his explanation.

It seemed to be the first time in their conversation that they had moved on without arguing.

“Now do you get it? That’s why Kahlil called you. Only those with dragonic mana can open this barrier.”

At Gordon’s words, Miliana glanced at Kahlil.

It was a plausible guess, but Kahlil himself possessed even denser dragonic mana than she did.

Gordon, unaware of this fact, saw Kahlil shrug as if telling her to let it go.

“Then, the door?”

Miliana asked him.

Gordon looked at her as if asking why she was asking him.

“Left.”

At that moment, Kahlil, who had been quietly observing, spoke in a low voice. All eyes turned to him.

“Just a feeling. It feels like that way. Miliana will check properly, though. Right?”

“Ah, yes. Y-yes.”

Quick-witted Miliana placed her hand on the barrier, pretending to search for a path.

“Lef-left, it is.”

Then, with a sheepish expression, she glanced at Kahlil and quickly started walking.

“My mana has increased, right?”

As she walked, she whispered to Kahlil as she passed him.

Kahlil chuckled at her question.

“Of course. You must feel it too. Another bloodline has opened, and I’ve transferred my mana to you. It’s just that you can’t handle your mana right now.”

“Ugh…….”

She couldn’t deny it.

She definitely felt the increased mana.

However, Kahlil’s dragonic mana was so incomparable that even though she was approaching Sword Master level, she couldn’t feel the difference.

Kahlil had become an existence beyond standards to others as well.

However, in another sense, Miliana was reminded of that night in the barracks at Kahlil’s words and unconsciously straightened her clothes.

‘Come to think of it, this party is… an incredible lineup.’

Walking along the barrier, Kahlil suddenly had that thought.

Three out of the four were Sword Master level [a master of swordsmanship, a very high rank].

Moreover, considering Aidan’s growth rate in his past life, he would later grow into an assassin with skills close to a Sword Master.

This was a force that even the Empire, with the most knights, couldn’t find.

‘It’s become this much already.’

Kahlil felt the connections with the strong of the continent, which he couldn’t achieve in his past life, were gradually forming anew.

“Is there something on my face?”

Miliana, feeling Kahlil’s gaze, asked him with a slightly flushed face.

“No.”

The connections that continued became stronger,

“Why would I look at an ugly face?”

Gordon, with his years of experience, seemed to have noticed Miliana’s feelings and teased her.

“What? You old geezer…….”

The connections that started anew were fresh,

Kahlil once again felt the present life was different from his past life.

Koooooong…….

A slight tremor was felt.

Standing beneath the massive barrier, Kahlil said in a low voice.

“We’ve arrived at the door.”

* * *

“Wait here.”

As Miliana focused her mana and placed her hand on the barrier, a hazy mist formed around them, and a door of light appeared.

The dazzling magic, unfitting for a land where the dead reside, was definitely something a dragon would create.

[Krrr…….]

The Sand Serpent, who had brought them to the barrier, seemed worried about letting Kahlil go into the poisonous depths and whimpered softly.

Kahlil stroked the creature’s large cheek.

“If anything happens, don’t come inside and return to the hills. Understand?”

[Krrk…… Krrrk…….]

The Sand Serpent nodded, and the others looked at it with curiosity.

“I’m ready.”

Aidan said to Kahlil, looking at the open door in the barrier.

“But is it okay not to wait for Su-an?”

“Once we go in, Su-an won’t be able to cross the barrier alone anyway. For his sake, we need to remove the magic on the barrier first.”

“And air out the nasty smell a bit.”

“Right.”

Kahlil nodded at Aidan’s words.

Tchuh-duk… Tchuh-duk…

There was a bizarre sound coming from the other side of the barrier, as if they were being greeted.

A sound like bones grinding together.

True to its name as the land of the dead, they saw hundreds of skeletons.

“That’s a lot.”

“We have to break through this, huh…….”

Aidan and Miliana muttered with expressions of dismay.

“Hmph.”

However, Gordon, standing behind her, who had opened the door, snorted as if he wasn’t fazed by the onrushing undead and strode inside.

“Annoying bastards.”

He didn’t earn the reputation of being one of the Five Great Sword Masters for nothing. Excluding Kahlil, who had lived two lives, he was the one who had conquered the most monster zones here.

There was no way he hadn’t experienced hunting not only undead but also incorporeal spirit-type monsters.

Puh-uhk……!!!

The head of a skeleton in front of him was completely shattered by a punch thrown with all his might.

As he stomped on the fallen skeleton’s ribs, the bones scattered in all directions with a loud crash, like toothpicks breaking.

“But there’s one thing I’m curious about.”

“Yes?”

Gordon didn’t stop walking, as if he were going for a stroll. It seemed as if nothing could stop him.

Pow!! Pah-wack! Pow!!

However, he was swinging his fists so fast that it was almost invisible, and his attacks shattered the bones into dust, creating a hazy mist.

“…….”

The two were speechless at his sight.

“You said my medicine is in Ghost Castle, right?”

“That’s right.”

“Is that… really proper medicine? If it’s a relic that’s been stuck there for a thousand years, won’t it cause problems if I eat it?”

Pah-seuk-!!

Gordon crushed the skull of the skeleton he was holding and asked with a queasy expression.

“If you tell me to eat a corpse again, I’ll turn you into this first.”

Then Kahlil chuckled and said.

“Come on…, the monster you ate before had lived for at least hundreds of years, right? You’re the one who boiled and ate even that, so why are you being so picky now? It’s medicine, so what can’t you eat?”

“Is that the same as these guys?”

[Kuo…… Ok…….]

At Kahlil’s words, Gordon frowned and grabbed the head of a zombie next to him, shaking it back and forth.

Puh-uhk-!!!

The zombie’s head exploded, and old, viscous blood flowed out with a rotten stench.

“Monster…….”

But conversely, Miliana and Aidan looked at him with surprised faces.

“Crazy. Seriously. You ate a monster? Wow, even our barbarians sell monster hides but don’t eat them.”

She shook her head as if she couldn’t win and said teasingly.

“Quiet. You little brat who hasn’t even experienced the Continental War. When your mother was protecting Digon, what were monsters? There was a shortage of food, and there wasn’t even that.”

“…….”

“How did I end up with these kids who haven’t even lost their baby fat…….”

Gordon clicked his tongue, looking at Miliana.

“You should be grateful that your mother worked hard to dig an oasis for you.”

“Ah, yes. Who was it that was planning to use that gratitude for blackmail?”

“…….”

The conversation between the two, bickering even in the face of the endless onslaught of monsters, never stopped.

Kahlil chuckled at their sight, finding it amusing.

“Gordon, don’t just complain so much. When else will you have this experience? It will be a lifelong memory.”

“What? Memory, my foot…… It’ll be a memory I want to forget.”

Puh-uhk-!!!

Gordon looked at Kahlil, smashing another skeleton’s head.

A huge mauler [a type of warhammer] was hanging on his back, but he didn’t even need to take it out. He was literally smashing the monsters with his bare strength, without even using mana.

“What we’re about to do has never happened before.”

Kahlil said, looking at the approaching Fortress of Lost Souls.

“Isn’t that obvious? We’re the first people to come to conquer the Fortress of Lost Souls.”

Miliana said to Kahlil with an expression that said he was talking nonsense.

“That’s right. The first.”

Even during his two lives.

This wasn’t like the changes in the future that Kahlil had created.

It was a challenge that existed before and would exist in the future, but no one had ever conquered it.

‘I’m not just here to get Gordon’s medicine.’

He recalled his conversation with Aln Zabiuss in the past.

-If you temper it through the Spring of Vision, the spiritual power of the Five Divine Weapons will be strengthened, and you can even contain souls.

At first, Kahlil had firmly believed his words and searched for the Rock of Depths, but Aln had instead transferred his Visionary Power and disappeared.

‘Although I couldn’t contain Aln’s soul, the tempering of Ice Claw was completed.’

The attributes of the sword were not suitable for containing the spirit of Raminu, the Flame King.

Moreover, since his essence, the Ein Trigger, was already embedded in Kahlil’s body, it would be correct to say that Ice Claw’s place was empty.

‘Coldness(冷氣).’ [Literally ‘cold energy’ or ‘chilling aura’, referring to the essence of coldness.]

The spirit that would best suit that sword would undoubtedly be Eteral, the Queen of Tides, one of the Five Elemental Kings.

However, since he couldn’t find the existence of the other Elemental Kings except for Raminu, the spirit that best suited Ice Claw’s coldness was, no matter how he thought about it, only this.

The King of Lost Souls.

Lich, Jarka Hochi.

Death.

It already possessed coldness in itself.

‘The last force I need to acquire.’

The moment that force was ready, the all-out war with the Empire would finally begin.

“Ugh, but it’s so far away. How are we going to get there? It would have been easier to go by airship.”

Aidan muttered, seemingly getting tired of the endless undead onslaught.

“Gordon, have you ever passed over this place by airship?”

Kahlil asked calmly at his grumbling.

“Of course. I passed by once to go to the Eastern Kingdom a long time ago. Honestly, it was quite a struggle back then too.”

Aidan’s interest was piqued at the mention of the Eastern Kingdom, and he looked at him.

“Why? Do the undead fly in the sky too?”

“Yeah.”

He thought it was a joke and chuckled, but Gordon nodded at Aidan’s question.

“……Huh?”

“Wait and see. It’ll show up soon anyway.”

[Kuaaaaaaa—!!!!]

At that moment,

A bizarre roar was heard from afar, as if answering Gordon’s words.

Kahlil, as if knowing who the protagonist of the cry was, called out the creature’s name in a low voice.

“Bone Dragon.”