The Failure Marquis Is A Genius [EN]: Chapter 142

Chapter 17: The Fake: A Humble Scoundrel

I first encountered Repli during the selection of the royal consort.

Amidst the fierce competition to stand beside Princess Rebecca, she attempted to execute me by borrowing the Sword of the Seven Stars.

From that moment, Repli was on my blacklist.

Later, Repli’s name surfaced again in Gallanah.

It was through the true Saintess, Merian.

Instinctively, I sensed something was off.

I had a hunch that Repli might not be an ordinary saintess.

And upon entering the Holy State, I confronted all the atrocities she had committed.

It was something no human should ever do.

To me, Repli was already a monster.

A demon wearing a human mask.

Therefore, even when facing Lust directly in the Holonium Grand Temple, I felt no sympathy for her.

Rather, my dislike intensified into disgust, and I had to suppress the rising nausea.

Perhaps that was why.

Though bound by the Word of God, it was only for a moment.

The Word of God, not yet reinforced, quickly dissolved as I circulated mana through my body.

As soon as I deciphered the Word of God, I parried the sword aimed at Merian.

Repli seemed utterly bewildered.

“Not even for a moment… did you like me? Every man is usually captivated by my beautiful appearance, aren’t they?”

“No matter how appealing the exterior, it can’t mask the stench emanating from within. Frankly, even your face is just makeup.”

“Ha! Unbelievable?”

Lust’s eyes narrowed sharply.

A chilling intent constricted my entire body.

“So you think you’re all high and mighty just because you broke a measly Word of God? The real deal starts now.”

*Splat!!*

The Valkyrie brought her sword down vertically.

A strike descending from above.

Normally, one would evade.

But behind me were Merian and the others bound by the Word of God.

This vile woman was using those around her as hostages, eliminating any chance of escape and forcing a defense.

“Celestial Demon!”

-Understood!

I maximized Dual Mana.

Emerald sword energy surged forth.

Trusting in my waist strength, I raised my sword from below.

Soon, the two swords collided.

A deafening roar echoed through the space.

*Clang!!!*

*Boom!*

Centered on the point of impact, a circular wave of energy spread out.

At this rate, people would get hurt.

“Bellanus! Please help!”

Merian’s scream was like a cry.

An immense divine power erupted from behind.

*Splat!!!*

It was the most potent release of divine power I had ever witnessed from Merian.

I could feel her gritting her teeth as she unleashed it.

Simultaneously, a system window appeared.

[The area is declared a Sanctuary]

[Caster – Saintess Merian]

[All allies’ stats temporarily increase within the Sanctuary.]

Sanctuary Declaration.

A skill I’ve never seen before.

But the effect was undeniable.

The shockwave from the earlier clash between Repli and me couldn’t escape the sanctuary.

Merian had formed an invisible barrier of divine power to protect the people.

“Well done, Merian.”

I praised her and focused on the fight with Lust.

Perhaps it was due to the increased stats, but my body felt lighter.

“It doesn’t matter anyway. If I kill you and the Saintess, the Sanctuary will naturally break. I’ll deal with the rest then.”

Lust’s indiscriminate attacks rained down.

Each strike was a fierce blow imbued with aura [a warrior’s life force or energy].

If I hadn’t frequently experienced master-level experts, I would have been defeated long ago.

“To block my aura with a mana sword, you’re quite something. And the blade is still intact. What kind of sword is that?”

Dual Mana was far more efficient than the mana typically used by experts.

The Celestial Demon kept grumbling about his aching back, but so far, it had held up well.

But it was just barely holding on.

The means to reverse the situation were ambiguous.

Lust, noticing this, wore a twisted smile.

“Let’s see how long you can hold out.”

*Bang! Boom! Ba-boom!*

Attacks too fast to see surged in.

I activated the Druid’s Intuition to the maximum and reflexively brought up my sword.

The Celestial Demon Navigation also provided constant support.

-Block from the right first.

-It’s a combo attack. Stay sharp!

-Watch out for the frontal thrust, kid.

-She uses her feet sometimes. Keep that in mind.

I blocked every attack according to the Celestial Demon’s instructions.

The results of my intense training were showing.

Lust tilted her head, puzzled that her attacks weren’t working as she wanted.

“No matter how I think about it, it’s strange. How can he defend before the attack even arrives? Does he use mind reading or something?”

“Just lucky.”

“We’ll see how long that lasts. You’ll break eventually. If this keeps up, I win.”

Repli thought she would win if it came down to a battle of attrition.

She was a Valkyrie [a female figure in Norse mythology who chooses who may die in battle and who may live], and the basic stats of a Valkyrie were incomparable to those of a human.

But that was a huge miscalculation.

I had a cheat-level Druid skill.

[Tenacious Vitality Activated]

[Health recovery greatly increased.]

No matter how much I swung my sword, I was fine.

Even better, my condition was better than usual because I was fighting in the Sanctuary.

On the other hand, Lust’s sword noticeably slowed down.

Even her breathing was faltering.

The sharp attacks from before were gone, and her attack routes were clearly visible.

The momentum of the fight had shifted.

Repli, feeling this, gritted her teeth.

But that didn’t create stamina out of thin air.

The thousand-year-old Valkyrie.

She was too old and rusty.

“What the hell? Why aren’t you getting tired?”

I didn’t have time to answer.

I’ll end it here.

[Wind Control]

[Haste]

[Flash Step]

*Bang!*

Kicking off the air, I leaped into the sky.

Lust’s face magnified in an instant.

I swung the Celestial Demon Sword horizontally.

*Clang!!*

For the first time, I attacked, and Lust defended.

That was the beginning.

A relentless barrage began.

*Bang! Boom! Ba-ba-boom!*

The Celestial Demon continued to point out weaknesses in my mind, and I stabbed my sword accordingly.

“Damn it!”

Repli was going crazy.

A mere whelp, not even master-level, was easily blocking her aura blade.

The sword he was holding, whatever kind of treasure it was, still emitted a piercing blue energy.

Moreover, his stamina seemed infinite; he didn’t tire.

Each attack was so sharp that a moment of carelessness could result in a serious injury.

“Who the hell are you?”

“I’ll tell you when you’re about to die.”

She tried to buy time with conversation, but the cunning bastard didn’t even give her a moment to catch her breath.

He knew how to fight.

He accurately grasped the flow of battle and tried to capitalize on his advantageous momentum.

It was as if a great master was advising him every step of the way.

‘Stay calm. Even the strongest opponent has weaknesses.’

She was a Valkyrie who had lived for over a thousand years.

In the past, she had recklessly challenged an unidentified super-expert and survived the extermination of her race.

She prided herself on having a stronger attachment to life than anyone else.

As she sharpened her senses, she noticed something she hadn’t seen before: Merian, struggling to maintain the Sanctuary in the corner. The weakness was right there.

“I’ll get rid of the annoying one first!”

Repli, spreading her wings wide, dodged the Celestial Demon Sword and shot towards Merian.

‘Crap! I have to protect Merian!’

I had focused all my attention on the attack and missed the most important thing.

If Merian died here, the Sanctuary would be解除 [kaijo – Japanese for ‘lifted’ or ‘cancelled’], and countless citizens of the Holy State bound by the Word of God would be exposed defenselessly.

If Lust used them as hostages and mercilessly massacred them, it would be like closing the barn door after the horse had bolted, even if we won the battle.

“Die! You damn Saintess!”

Merian stopped dead in her tracks.

Like a deer caught in the headlights of an approaching truck.

Her whole body stiffened, and she couldn’t move.

She was a girl with no defensive abilities in the first place.

I had to protect her at all costs.

‘But how? I’m already far behind!’

Haste + Flash Step combo.

So far, I had been fighting the master-level expert Lust at an equal speed with this technique.

In other words, I couldn’t even compete with her without this speed.

‘Eating acorns to increase speed? Too late. The moment she bites down, Lust will already be there.’

My mind became clouded, and my thoughts slowed down.

A million solutions flashed through my mind in a short moment.

‘Summon a golem? Too slow. Bind with vines? The plant roots can’t keep up. Block the path with a stone shield? She’ll easily break it and violate Merian.’

Every idea went straight to the trash.

How did I get this far?

How hard have I trained and honed my skills?

And I can’t even protect one innocent girl?

Rage surged from within.

‘Do something!’

Outcries materialized and writhed.

I felt like I was suffocating from frustration.

I opened my eyes wide and faced reality.

‘There is no solution.’

My inner self was emptied.

The flow of consciousness ebbed away like the tide.

Emptiness and futility washed over me.

I saw an endless abyss and chasm.

I was settling down there.

‘Should I just stay like this?’

Just as the word ‘give up’ flickered in my mind.

Suddenly, a strange fact occurred to me.

Merian was still not dead.

Lust had not reached her.

“What the hell is this…”

The world had stopped.

Or rather, it had slowed down.

The sight of Lust bringing her blade down on Merian’s crown was separated into individual frames.

How could this be happening?

The only things moving at their original speed were the mana revolving around my entire body.

Blue mana + Green mana + Dragon Blood.

The mana that had been forming a Taijitu [a symbol representing the balance of yin and yang] with Dual Mana was normally rotating throughout my body.

‘No. It’s not the original speed. It’s rotating so fast that everything around me looks slow.’

Was the catalyst my anger towards myself?

Whipped harshly, Dual Mana turned into a biker gang, breaking through its limits and running like crazy.

[Mana Awakening increases.]

[Mixing Rate skyrockets.]

[Green Mana Awakening 50%] [↑0.0%]

[Blue Mana Awakening 48%] [↑37%]

[Dragon Blood Awakening 48%] [↑7.0%]

The awakening of Blue Mana and Dragon Blood, which had been stagnant throughout training, rose sharply as if seizing the moment, and the mixing rate, which had been gradually decreasing, reversed and broke through the ceiling.

Emerald light embroidered the Celestial Demon Sword.

It wasn’t just enveloping the sword like usual, but subtly swirling around it.

As if it had its own will.

The Celestial Demon’s astonished voice was heard.

-You don’t mean…

I closed my eyes.

A book came to mind.

The secret manual that Lord Lloyd had given me.

The pages turned with a rustling sound.

The words written on them caught my eye.

[The sword is an extension of the body. Let’s assume we extend the range with a mana sword. What would happen if we extended it to infinity?]

[A point soon becomes a line, and a line soon becomes a surface. When surfaces overlap, it becomes space, that is, a domain.]

[When gears mesh and turn, one becomes a true traveler.]

Click-clack, click-clack, click-clack.

The regular sound of a heartbeat soon became the sound of gears. Energy flowed through every corner of my body with the pulsating pumping.

Why was it?

Lust was already far away from me.

But it felt like she was right in front of me.

So close.

*Swish!*

I swung the Celestial Demon Sword horizontally.

Emerald light drew a crescent moon.

At the same time, a chilling slicing sound was heard.

*Swoosh!*

Her black wings were cut off.

Even though she was clearly much farther away than me.

“Aaaaaaack!!!”

Repli’s mind was thrown into disarray by the pain she felt on her back.

As her ability to fly disappeared, she lost her balance and her body tilted.

As a result, the sword that was about to split Merian’s crown narrowly missed and cut through the air.

*Thump, thump!*

She rolled several times on the ground.

Repli, who had jumped to her feet, glared at me.

-Kid. You’ve finally realized a little bit about what a domain is. Congratulations on taking your first step into the true world of swords.

Ah, so this is the beginning of a domain.

The gibberish from the secret manual I had read before was roughly understood.

I also felt how arduous and distant the road ahead would be.

I became humble and felt small.

It was exactly as Lord Lloyd had written in the book.

“How dare you! A bug cut off my wings?”

The Valkyrie, venting her anger, was visible.

She had already lost her reason and her composure was shattered.

Targeting Merian was her last chance.

Because I would never repeat the same mistake again.

“Die.”

I said briefly and swung my sword.

She was floating in the air and keeping her distance.

Nevertheless, the sword energy fired from the sword drew a crescent moon and shot towards Repli.

“Kuhuk!!”

The moment ranged attacks became possible with the sword, the distance difference became meaningless.

I carpet-bombed her with overflowing Dual Mana.

Lust, exhausted, was barely able to block the attacks with her fading aura.

It was time to finish things off.

[Bind]

A sturdy thorny vine bound her waist.

[Wood Spear]

[Stone Spear]

Stalactites of stone and wood poured down.

[Wood Golem]

[Stone Golem]

The giants born of nature grabbed Repli’s limbs and stretched them out.

Lust’s eyes widened as I, who had only used a sword until now, launched a different attack.

“Attacks using nature… I’ve heard of it. Could it be…”

She seemed to realize who I was.

But it was already too late.

She had no stamina and her whole body was restrained, so she had lost all means of resistance.

*Thwack!!*

The Celestial Demon Sword pierced her heart.

She made a distorted expression, blood dripping from her mouth.

“You… you were Henon Lloyd…”

“That’s right. Farewell.”

“This can’t be… I’m the last Valkyrie… I can’t disappear like this…”

Lust’s pulse stopped.

It was the end of the Twilight Church’s third grand executive.