Weapon-Eating Bastard [EN]: Chapter 271

Weapon-Eating Bastard – Episode 271

The third son of the Soongmoo Lee family, Lee Gun-sung, stood near the Aerial Fortress, gazing up at its magnificent form.

Several days had passed since the bridge from the Aerial Fortress had been lowered, allowing forces from various nations and organizations stationed there to enter.

Though the fighting had ceased, a chilling tension still lingered in the uncharted territories.

Some were sending more forces, while others, fearing the Soongmoo Lee family’s retaliation, held their breath.

Outcries and protests against the atrocities of the Eiffel Magic Tower continued, and society was plunging into chaos with the emergence of the mysterious extremist religious terrorist organization, Behemoth.

In one way or another, all the world’s eyes were focused here.

Anyone living in this era knew that this place was the center of it all.

……However, Lee Gun-sung had not even set foot in this battle.

“The emergence of the Aerial Fortress is nothing short of a turning point in the era itself.”

Someone spoke to him from behind.

It was the great master of Kabbalah [a mystical Jewish tradition], an old man known as Sado.

“Just being inside that place proves that you are a loser of the old era. The flow of the heavens dictates it. You must know that as well.”

Whatever happens inside the Aerial Fortress, its state is nothing more than a microcosm of this Earth.

The outcome inside the Aerial Fortress will change the world.

That’s why everyone is trying to set foot there.

Those who couldn’t do so were trying to watch from afar.

“I know.”

“Yes, you couldn’t not know. But I wonder, why haven’t you even set foot there?”

“Are you asking that while you yourself haven’t even set foot there?”

The old man’s eyes narrowed, forming a grotesque smile.

“What I want to know will be brought to me by my disciple, so there’s no need for me to bother traveling such a long distance with this old body.”

Lee Gun-sung scoffed at those words.

The old monster’s ultimate goal was absurd and obvious, but it was unclear exactly what he was trying to gain from this Aerial Fortress war.

“Judging by the fact that you didn’t bother to come yourself, you don’t think what’s in there is that important.”

Even as he said that, Lee Gun-sung knew that Kabbalah had suffered considerable losses this time.

Through this, the old man had sacrificed his strongest card, the Eiffel Magic Tower.

He knew why he remained here.

It was because of him.

This old monster prioritized his deal with him over the Aerial Fortress.

“Rather, answer my question. You didn’t like falling behind, did you?”

“……I just thought it was pointless. All you can get there are old truths and useless junk.”

“Haha, you’re the only one who can so belittle that floating fortress, which hides most of the secrets of this world.”

The old man, as skinny as an old tree, let out an unpleasant smile, as if a mummy were speaking.

“Ah, now that I think about it, did ‘you’ say you’d already been there once?”

Lee Gun-sung turned his head.

His strange eyes emitted a very faint light.

“……I warned you not to pry.”

A voice that seemed to boil from the depths of the abyss.

Crack!

At the same time, a pale aura covered Lee Gun-sung’s face like a mask, then disappeared.

“Heh heh heh…….”

The old man watched this and laughed gleefully.

“Interesting, interesting. You are truly amazing. Trying to accomplish so much with the body of a mere human. I look forward to the day when you complete your deal with me.”

Lee Gun-sung turned his head without a word.

Experiencing this old monster, who dreams of transcendence into a being beyond human, such as enlightenment or ascension, makes him seem more like a demonic being than a divine one.

‘It doesn’t matter.’

Whatever the case.

Lee Gun-sung just needed to continue his own struggle.

He had waited too long for this.

And now…… only a few steps remained.

‘Go and see the truth there. What answer will you give, how will you stop me? I’m really looking forward to it.’

Lee Gun-sung thought of his youngest brother, who would be in the castle.

Whether it was the guidance of fate.

Or some predetermined destiny.

Lee Gun-sung felt that it would be Lee Chul, and no one else, waiting at the end of his path.

“Third Young Master.”

At that moment, a man approached and whispered something in his ear.

After listening to the story for a moment, Lee Gun-sung gave a faint smile.

“Finally.”

With that one word, Lee Gun-sung turned and walked away without even greeting the old man.

The Kabbalah’s Sado did not follow him, but turned his white, pupil-less eyes to look up at the Aerial Fortress.

This massive floating fortress was slowly vibrating.

* * *

I saw something endless.

Was it the emptiness where nothing exists?

Or the immeasurable vastness that contains everything?

A feeling like looking down into a bottomless abyss, where you can’t know what’s inside. An instinctive fear and dizziness arising from ignorance.

‘What on earth is that?’

No, this emotion was too static to be fear.

I was even feeling a sense of awe, like when you see a magnificent natural landscape before your eyes.

……I knew this feeling very well.

A sensation as if the ground you’re standing on is suddenly collapsing.

Familiar, but terribly awful.

It’s helplessness.

‘I shouldn’t get close.’

I can’t do anything about that right now.

Would it have been possible if I had magic?

No, that’s not the problem.

You shouldn’t even think about fighting or not fighting that.

Just as the Earth revolves around the Sun, just as it rotates around its axis, just as air flows, water circulates, and just as there is death if there is life,

It was just some phenomenon that was determined, and it was part of the structure that made up the world.

No, maybe it was the structure itself.

Even the strongest martial artist doesn’t draw his sword to cut the sun and destroy all the water in the world.

Crack!

Nevertheless, I clenched my fist so hard that my hands seemed to crumble, and I put more strength into my body.

I controlled my emotions and put more strength into my eyes.

And I stared at it even more directly.

‘Is it…… looking at me?’

Nowhere could I see an organ that could be called its eyes, but I somehow felt that it was watching me.

Buzz!

In an instant, strange scenes flashed through my head.

‘Something just…….’

They say if you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back at you.

I just saw something.

The many questions that lie before me.

The reason I regressed.

The secret of my birth.

Even the origin of the Black Knight.

The answers to the many questions I had been wondering about were coming right up to me.

And it was that moment.

Kuuuuuuuuung!

That thing suddenly began to move.

Dropping globs of dark, murky slime, it moved very slowly.

As it moved, the world screamed.

Everything turned black and crumbled, and from within, bizarrely twisted monsters rose.

“Wait….”

I tried to get up and chase after it.

However.

Thud!

My limbs stopped.

It wasn’t my will.

An unidentified force stretched out from somewhere, binding my body and preventing me from approaching any further.

‘Let go!’

I felt rage and unleashed the Black Knight’s energy.

The energy that had been constricting me scattered like broken chains.

I tried to kick off the ground again immediately, but.

Thump!

The moment I leaped off the tree, a transparent barrier in the air blocked my approach.

‘What is this? What the hell is this?’

Bang!

When I punched it, light scattered, and the barrier in front of me rippled.

A shield? A barrier? No, it didn’t feel like it was made of magic.

It was as if a boundary line had been drawn, saying, ‘You can’t go any further than this.’

Thud! Rumble!

Even amidst all this, the primordial monster continued to move away.

Even though it seemed to be moving so slowly that it made me want to yawn, the moment I closed and opened my eyes, it was far away, and when I closed and opened them again, it was so far that I couldn’t even see it properly.

-Kuaaaaaaah!

-Squeak, squeak, squeak!

-Kyaaaaaaak!

And in the place where that thing disappeared, only the ancient monsters remained, raising their voices as if in a fit.

As if worshiping the primordial monster, the creatures that had been still began to rush towards us all at once.

‘…….’

I looked back and forth several times between the receding primordial monster and the monsters rushing towards us.

It’s full of questions.

Why did the aerial fortress show ‘that’?

What is the aerial fortress in the first place?

And is the answer to the questions related to me here?

-Kieeeeek!

Even in the midst of all this, the monsters continue to approach.

“Hoo….”

I squeezed my eyes shut and shook off the shock and emotions that had been engulfing my body until just now with a strong exhale.

This wasn’t the time for this.

I turned my body around.

* * *

“Jang Han!”

After climbing down from the tree, I grabbed Jang Han’s shoulders.

His eyes were unfocused.

Unlike me, he doesn’t have the Choi family’s power or the Black Knight’s energy, yet he directly saw the primordial monster with his own eyes.

‘He might not be able to recover.’

I hurriedly tried to activate the Choi family’s power.

But at that moment.

“Huff!”

The guy who had been spaced out gasped for breath like someone who had been holding it in for a long time, and then he regained his senses.

“Are you okay now?”

“W-what the hell was that just now? How can something like that exist?”

Jang Han also stammered, feeling confused like me.

‘How did he recover?’

I hadn’t even pushed in the Choi family’s power yet.

I stared at Jang Han for a moment.

“Are you really okay?”

“……I’m okay. I prepared in advance.”

What did he prepare?

But there was no time to ask.

The Allisters were able to pass through the transparent barrier without any problems and had pushed right up to our faces.

“More importantly, if you’ve come to your senses, hurry up and run!”

I finished those words and immediately kicked off the ground.

-Kieeeeeeek!

-Kyaaaaaaak!

Thump! Thump! Thump!

The wave of monsters that stretched all the way to the boundary line simultaneously shook the ground and began to surge in.

* * *

Jang Han and I had to run frantically, climbing trees to avoid the approaching swarm of monsters.

-Kyaaaaaaak!

A monster suddenly jumped out, climbing the tree.

Jang Han didn’t even look back and swung his longsword, knocking it to the ground, and gritted his teeth.

“Damn, there are so many.”

If it were a manageable number, I would grit my teeth and fight, but this wasn’t just a number that could be called ‘many.’

Everything in sight except for the bushes was monsters.

Perhaps the only fortunate thing is that not all of them are targeting us.

‘They are spreading out in all directions, centered around the area where the primordial monster was.’

Survival.

The first condition that the dwarf who explained the test had set.

Now I felt like I could understand what that test meant.

The numerous organizations that entered the aerial fortress would all have to focus on surviving this wave of monsters.

“I’m going to retreat soon, Lee Cheol!”

At that time, Jang Han shouted.

I nodded without answering and shot down a monster that jumped towards me at that moment with the Black Knight’s energy.

“Got it. See you next time.”

“Don’t die. Not until I can properly fight you!”

Jang Han turned his body around and ran in the opposite direction after saying those spirited words.

What a troublesome guy.

He’s been trying to target me since we first met a dozen years ago.

‘I am curious, though.’

What kind of mind sword [a sword imbued with mental energy] did that guy obtain?

What is the reason he can constantly assure me that he can defeat me?

I became curious about Jang Han’s martial prowess, who would be able to use all of his strength now that he could use magic.

‘But for now…….’

I had to focus on breaking through this forest of monsters and returning to the main base.

I have no intention of failing from the first test.

I will complete the tests given by this castle to the end, and I will find out the intentions of the dwarves of the aerial fortress and the hidden secrets.

Kwaaaang!

I cut down the leaping monsters one by one, and my eyes gleamed.