The 9Th Class Swordmaster: Blade Of Truth [EN]: Chapter 389

238. Annihilation’s Prelude (5)

“It’s here…”

Hongak said with a voice full of exhaustion.

Like the meaning of ‘shell’ (殼) in his name, he was a demon with skin like hard armor, like a beetle.

However, the armor he was so proud of was ridiculously useless. Only after losing his last leg was he able to guide them inside the dragon bone tomb, his whole body bound.

“Hmm.”

Caryl looked inside without much reaction to his words. Inside was a huge hall that resembled a temple.

‘It’s almost identical to the temple I found when the oracle was given. Even the patterns drawn on the stone walls are the same. Did they move the temple where the artifact was hidden, intact?’

Caryl glanced around, examining the interior.

[If what you say is true, it means that these temples inside were already moved to their designated locations before the oracle was given,]

Aln scanned the surroundings and replied.

[That would mean they already knew the contents of the oracle before it was given.]

Caryl, with an expression that showed he wasn’t surprised anymore, roughly threw Hongak’s body to the ground.

“Cough…!! Hack!!”

Hongak, thrown to the floor, coughed up blood from the impact and collapsed.

“…”

Despite being a formidable demon known as one of the Four Horsemen of the Demon Realm, his current state was pitiable.

“We won’t even have a chance to step in.”

“Us stepping in would just be a chance for our lord to test our achievements.”

Hashir replied with a bitter smile to Kinu Mukali’s words.

They already knew that Caryl’s power was beyond the norm, but the more they saw it, the more the scale of their accumulated strength seemed insignificant.

“Serika, keep a close watch on that guy. Demons have excellent recovery. Freeze him if necessary.”

She nodded at Caryl’s command.

Click-

Then, she opened the lids of the two huge coffin-like boxes inside the temple.

With the sound of the latches being released, familiar objects from Caryl’s memory were revealed inside.

One was a dark gray ring.

“They say even gods can’t stop human desire. No matter how strong you are, you won’t be able to covet the demons’ artifacts!”

“…”

Caryl ignored Hongak’s cry and took out the ring, holding it up to the light. Then, inside the gem embedded in it, a black liquid like ink swirled.

The Lament of Denial.

Caryl put the ring on the finger where he had lost four fangs while fighting the Platinum Dragon.

Charrrr…!! Thwack!!

Then, sharp needles popped out from the inside of the ring’s band and bit tightly into the finger it was placed on.

Red blood droplets formed and began to seep into the ring’s needles.

Woo Woong…

As Caryl’s blood entered the black liquid in the gem, the ring began to react lightly.

“Kekeke…!! You fool!! You were just an artifact hunter after all! You’re the one who made a mistake without any caution…! Ugh!!”

Hongak’s only remaining arm froze from the shoulder down and fell off with a loud crash.

“So noisy.”

Serika said, kicking the back of the severed limb’s head to knock him over.

“Kyak…! Kyaaa!!”

“Shut up and watch. Mistake? There’s no way a monster like that would make one.”

Serika sneered as she looked at Hongak.

It was then.

Surprisingly, as the ring that had absorbed Caryl’s blood mixed his blood into the black liquid, the gem began to turn silver-gray.

“No way…”

Hongak watched the scene with a pale face, reacting in disbelief.

“I absorbed the Platinum Dragon’s heart. It would be stranger if I couldn’t use the Lament of Denial.”

Caryl replied nonchalantly.

However, even after hearing his answer, Hongak’s head became even more confused.

“No matter how much you have the dragon’s heart, there’s no way a human body can receive the Lament of Denial’s recognition! It’s an object that denies time…! The moment a human, a race chased by time and only able to live for about 100 years at best, uses it, they’ll become a mummy in the rapids of time…”

Caryl smirked at Hongak’s words.

“If you’re curious about the reason, open the dimensional gate. Who knows? If the Demon King acknowledges my defeat, your life might be spared.”

“…”

Hongak stared at him with a pale face.

A human so powerful that even two of the Four Horsemen, called the elite of the Demon Realm, couldn’t do anything.

But still, he was human.

Mortal.

The reason why humans were fragile was precisely because of that.

Unless they were gods, they couldn’t escape the absolute rule of time.

But now, Hongak was witnessing that rule being broken. That’s because he would never know that Caryl had already experienced an immeasurable amount of time in Phare, going back in time.

Caryl was also human, so he couldn’t escape his mortal lifespan. But there was something that even Hongak, one of the Four Horsemen of the Demon Realm, didn’t know.

The Lament of Denial didn’t devour time.

‘It devours the memories of time.’

In Caryl’s memories, which had emerged from Phare, time was already immeasurable, so it couldn’t be compared to demons who could only live for a few thousand years at best.

‘I’m glad I knew what kind of power the artifacts from my past life had.’

Caryl smiled bitterly.

Clang…

Then, he took out a thick plate mail from another coffin.

It was a roughly made silver armor, but when Caryl wore it, the size adjusted perfectly as if it were originally his.

“Hmm. Not bad.”

Caryl lightly tapped the solid armor and uttered a short impression of the last artifact, the Armor of Extreme Qualification.

[The Dragon’s Mixed Blood Barrier, the Eastern Nation’s Celestial Array, and the Rothschild family’s formation techniques are amazing, but this surpasses them,]

Aln said with wonder as he looked at the dozens of magic circles that appeared and disappeared when the armor was worn.

Pazzzzzik…! Crack!!

When he brought his hand to the armor, he was repelled with a sharp electric shock as if rejecting his touch.

[Huh…]

The tingling energy was transmitted not only to Aln but also to Duat, who was contracted with him.

[It’s something Hagané made himself. If you only consider defensive magic, it’s a piece of armor comparable to Blader’s weapon, Folsettia. Of course… this is also cursed. Because it’s a demon’s item,]

“The Demon King himself?”

[That’s right. In the past, there have been instances of demons appearing in the human realm… but they could only exert power to the extent of lower-level demons. But it’s strange that something cursed and directly related to the Demon King remains in the human realm like this,]

Caryl shrugged at Duat’s words.

“Well, we can ask him the reason.”

Caryl moved his feet and picked up Hongak, who was lying on the floor, and stood him up.

“You heard, right? I’ll ask you a few things before you open the dimensional gate. Why are you guys in the human realm? If you’re one of the Four Horsemen, you should be an elite even in the Demon Realm. What’s the reason why two of them are left in the human realm?”

“Kuk… Keuk…”

Caryl grabbed the back of Hongak’s neck and shook him roughly, and Hongak let out a painful groan.

“The Emperor must have created this tomb to hide your existence. The fact that Kaie Essier made this place with Liselria’s bones means that the Imperial Family and you guys colluded at least 250 years ago.”

Swoosh-!!

Caryl put down Hongak, whose limbs were severed, and nonchalantly stabbed his side with a sword.

“What’s the reason for hiding humans and leaving demons on the continent for hundreds of years?”

“Aaaaaaack…!!!”

Hongak screamed.

Caryl spread out the hand that wasn’t holding the sword, and an old codex appeared on his palm.

Charrrr…!!

As the book opened, several magic circles appeared in the air, overlapping and disappearing.

The magic circles gathered and formed a sphere, and as the Ain Trigger embedded in Caryl’s back of hand turned red, Lamine’s flames enveloped the sphere.

Chiiiiik…!!

“Khaaaaaak!!!”

As the sphere was mercilessly pressed against Hongak’s severed shoulder like it was being heated in a fire, a pungent smell of burning flesh filled the air.

“Demons have better regeneration abilities than any other race. But if you burn them like this, the wounded area won’t be able to regenerate.”

“Y-you… crazy bastard!! I’ll kill you!!! Aaaack!!”

Hongak shouted out impossible things in pain, just screaming as if he would devour Caryl.

People were speechless at Caryl’s cruelly cold appearance, just quietly watching the scene.

“It’s the first time I’ve seen our lord so enraged.”

“Did something happen with the demons?”

“Well… whatever it is, it’s certain that they’re dead meat.”

Hwarin even felt a chill at Hashir’s words, and she spoke in a low voice at his chilling appearance.

“Hmph, isn’t it foolish to show mercy to the enemy in front of you? That’s the kind of appearance a leader should show.”

Unlike the two, Miliana seemed satisfied with his appearance.

“If you want to kill me, go ahead. But before that, you have to answer the questions I asked.”

Caryl hooked his fingers into Hongak’s mouth, who was shouting, and pulled it out.

Chwaak…!!

Then, his right cheek couldn’t withstand the force of his fingers and tore off.

“Ugh, Uaaaaack!!”

“The answer?”

“If the Demon King knows about this, he’ll turn the Empire into a sea of fire…!!”

Caryl grabbed Hongak’s lower jaw and this time hooked his fingers into the opposite side of his mouth.

“Oop… Oop…”

“I think he won’t be able to speak properly if I tear it off… but if it’s the demon’s recovery, it’ll recover in a bit.”

Chwaaaak…!!

Hongak, with his mouth torn raggedly to the cheekbones, looked at Caryl with a tearful face, unable to pronounce properly.

“About 30 seconds should be enough.”

Caryl didn’t move from his spot and waited for Hongak’s cheek to reattach.

“Then…”

As soon as the cheek he had torn off earlier reattached, he hooked his fingers inside his mouth again without hesitation.

“W-wait…!! Wait a minute…!!”

Hongak shouted, trembling.

“Is a demon knight giving up so easily with just this? I thought I’d have to do it a few more times.”

Caryl said to him, shuddering as if he was disappointed.

[I put divine power in my fingers, so the moment the skin is pierced, he must have felt the pain of his whole body being paralyzed. It’s something I don’t even want to imagine,]

“The demons’ torture is a joke compared to this. They start with one fingernail, one toenail. You should be grateful that I only cut off your arms and legs.”

“Kuk… Keureuk…”

Hongak made a sound that was hard to tell whether he was sobbing or not at Caryl’s words.

“We don’t know anything! We were just following orders. It was the Demon King who made a deal with the human who came to the Demon Realm…!!”

“A human who came to the Demon Realm?”

“Kaie Essier, who you mentioned earlier. He came to the Demon Realm and made a contract to send three artifacts to the human realm.”

Caryl’s eyebrows twitched at his words.

‘He’s a quirky guy who you never know where he’ll bounce, but he made a contract with demons that could harm the human realm? Even targeting the empire he founded…?’

On the surface, it just seemed like a crazy act, but Caryl knew that Kaie Essier he had seen was never a simple eccentric.

‘This tomb is made of Liselria’s bones.’

Caryl recalled his last moments he had seen in the heart of the Flame Dragon. Although the memory was old, several years had passed, it still remained vivid because of the assimilated heart.

[I only ask one thing. Does my death give you a new transition?]

Liselria asked Kaie Essier that before she died for the last time. And Kaie Essier nodded at the question.

“Of course. But my magic ends with my generation. My essence…”

Caryl couldn’t hear Kaie Essier’s last words in the memory he saw in Einherjar.

“…will be there.”

A huge flame rose from Kaie Essier’s sword, and burning meteorites fell from the sky, emitting a roar.

‘Could it be…’

Caryl lightly trembled without realizing it in the memory that came to mind.

His forgotten legacy.

By obtaining Folsettia, which could be said to be the ultimate in magic, he was no longer interested in his legacy.

Although he was a great talent with the 8th class, it was ultimately just a level that remained in the human realm for Caryl.

‘Could the legacy that Kaie Essier left behind be related to the Demon Realm?’

If so, things would be different.

The item that could open the gate to the Demon Realm was the Demon King’s artifact that Yula was told to find in the oracle.

But the fact that he, a person from an era before the oracle was even given, had a direct agreement with the Demon King meant that he had opened the dimensional gate without the Demon King’s artifact.

Connecting dimensions without a medium?

‘Even an 8th class magician can’t do that.’

Caryl felt that there might be another hidden story that he didn’t know.

As soon as he had that thought, he lifted the fallen Hongak without hesitation and walked into the huge temple-like hall.

Deep inside, there was a large well similar to the Soul Spring. Caryl put Hongak’s head into it and said.

“Open the gate to the Demon Realm right now.”