Weapon-Eating Bastard [EN]: Chapter 333

Weapon-Devouring Bastard – Episode 333

Ordinary secluded training no longer held meaning for me.

Having already broken the mold of the Sword Heart, there was little point in training my body or mana.

What I needed to train was the expansion of the realm I had attained.

It was necessary to pursue a different kind of training than before.

To that end, I sought to absorb the knowledge of those pioneers who had already walked my path.

“Hoo.”

The air was familiar.

The disorientation I felt when entering the records was gone.

I could sense that the quality of mana flowing into my magic circuit was quite different from that of the modern era.

Soon, I was face to face with a man.

“You are…”

Ru, the one-eyed god.

The man of miracles, known by many names, stood there.

“Ru, it is an honor to see you again.”

“…”

The magic eye in Ru’s single eye gleamed.

He soon burst into laughter, as if in admiration.

“I see. So that’s how it was.”

I realized that he had discerned what had happened through his magic eye.

Ru said nothing more.

He simply raised a spear high.

The original Gyeongcheon [a legendary spear], similar to mine but different.

“I do not know how much of what I have will be of help, but I will assist you as much as I can.”

“I appreciate it.”

I drew out all my energy.

In any case, this was within the records.

Unlike illusions, it was undoubtedly real, but it was also true that I could unleash my power without worrying about the consequences.

‘I will absorb everything from them.’

My eyes gleamed as I began to unfold the Cheonra [a powerful technique].

* * *

The Aerial Fortress records the world itself.

Within those records, countless pieces of knowledge lived and breathed, and scenes unfolded that were not recorded in human history.

The dwarves gathered together to watch the unfolding situation in the records.

“To think he would use the records in this way.”

“The master is truly different from anyone before. He’s already become that strong.”

“But it’s still not enough. Not compared to that man.”

That man.

The dwarves recalled that existence.

That existence was none other than Yi Hyul-hyun.

Shiver.

The dwarves trembled.

He was an existence that had stepped outside the rules of this world.

That was why he stopped the primordial monster, and ultimately fell, becoming an existence that led the world further into chaos.

He was no longer a singularity [a unique and powerful individual].

Rather, he was another monster that devoured singularities.

“The bloodline from him seeks to oppose him… What a cruel twist of fate.”

The dwarves looked at Yi Cheol.

Yi Hyul-hyun might be watching them at this very moment.

During the Aerial Fortress’s test, in the trial to see Yi Cheol’s origins, he had even invaded the test site and threatened the dwarves and Yi Cheol.

“In any case, we’ve bet everything on the master.”

“The master is also an unprecedented existence. We do not know how great a destiny will befall the master, who absorbs all causality.”

In their eyes, they could see the torrent of fate swirling around Yi Cheol.

Yi Cheol was an existence that absorbed all the causality he experienced.

The singularities intertwined with him had either followed or assimilated with him, and the factors of the past that had disappeared were being awakened by Yi Cheol.

The same was true now.

All the records of the Aerial Fortress were now in Yi Cheol’s hands.

Yi Cheol would absorb all those past records and become some other, unpredictable existence.

KWA-AAAA!

Within the records, Yi Cheol and Ru began to fight.

What would he gain, and what would he absorb?

The dwarves watched them with such thoughts.

* * *

I had reached a new realm in my fight against Yi Gun-seong.

It was something above the stage of Sword Heart, and I defeated Yi Gun-seong with that realization.

But that realm was like a mirage, not easily grasped even when I tried to reach it.

“The ‘place’ you have reached is different from Sword Heart. You must completely discard the old framework of thought that you know.”

Ru gave me such teachings.

And it wasn’t just Ru who stood before me.

Next to him were many unfamiliar figures.

They were beings from within the records.

They were beings who, depending on the era, were called gods, kings, heroes, fictional beings, or heroes from stories.

The countless singularities of history that had been responsible for their eras.

The figures of those who had reached incredibly high realms, each in their own time, were being replayed before me.

Among them was my ancestor, Yi Hyang-seon.

“There exist things called absolute rules, laws, orders, and truths in this world.”

“Things fall from above to below, there is death if there is life, and all beings are imbued with mana. Things like that.”

That was the basic and absolute framework that allowed this world to be maintained as a world.

To put it simply, it was like a blueprint.

“Mana can be said to be a line drawn on top of that blueprint. Depending on how it is drawn, a person can do many things, as long as the blueprint allows it.”

Ancestor Yi Hyang-seon continued.

“But among them, there are those who dream of being outside that blueprint. Immortality, eternal life, regression, reincarnation, and the like.”

“There is no such thing as impossible in this world, so it may seem like it has succeeded. But it has only temporarily distorted it at a great cost. It has only forcibly rewritten the design.”

I knew such beings.

The leader of Cabala, the Behemoth cultists, Yi Gun-seong, and Yi Hyul-hyun were like that.

“What do you think will happen if you forcibly rewrite a meticulously completed blueprint?”

Ru asked me.

The answer was obvious.

A price was needed to maintain that distorted building.

The biggest example was Old Freak.

He split and transferred his soul to create something similar to eternal life, but his mind was worn down just like his body.

“That’s right. There is no such thing as impossible, but there is no power without a price. As I said, there are things called rules or laws in this world.”

“But.”

Ru raised his Sword Heart.

Vast light spread out from him.

The light was clearly consuming mana, but it was a power that was far removed from the rules of this world that he had spoken of.

The floating air became light, and the scattering dust became light.

“Sword Heart is the power to overwrite the rules of that blueprint.”

It made it possible to cut sounds that could not be cut, to break things that could not be broken, and to swell up like a huge mountain with a mere human body.

Sword Heart meant the power to draw one’s own lines on top of the blueprint of the world’s rules.

“Then, what exactly is this realm?”

I asked the previous singularities.

I was asking about the new realm I had wielded when I cut down Yi Gun-seong.

“If Sword Heart is something that overwrites the blueprint.”

Ancestor Yi Hyang-seon opened his mouth.

He gripped his longsword and slowly brought it down.

For a moment, I felt as if the world was splitting.

And for a moment, I snapped out of it and turned around.

‘This is…’

Rumble!

The wide field where I was sitting with the singularities.

The back of it was cracked and turned into a canyon.

The wind blowing down the field poured down into the canyon, spewing out something like a thunderous sound.

‘Rather than simply pouring out power and cutting it, it was as if this field had split itself.’

There was no violent storm of mana, nor any unusual flow of power.

Moreover, I was even caught in the path of Ancestor’s longsword.

Yet Ancestor had cut that out.

“…This realm is akin to rewriting the blueprint.”

The blueprint was, in other words, the rules of the world.

Ancestor was saying that he was rewriting it.

“Sword Heart is about overlaying a few new lines of ‘my standards’ on a completed blueprint. But this realm is different. It’s about rewriting the very foundation of the blueprint itself.”

Ancestor Yi Hyang-seon waved his longsword and pointed it at me.

“Child. Therefore, you must think differently. The rules of this world will no longer be of use to you. What matters is your standard. There are no limits to you now.”

Ancestor Yi Hyang-seon waved his longsword and pointed it at me.

“From now on, cast aside the limits you think of. Depending on the size of your will, you will pioneer a new world.”

“Is that possible?”

“Why are you asking such a thing?”

Ancestor Yi Hyang-seon smiled brightly.

“You have already come this far.”

I faced Ancestor Yi Hyang-seon and raised my sword.

“Since all of our intentions have been conveyed to you.”

“Grow endlessly. You can do it.”

Ancestor Yi Hyang-seon’s sword energy swirled towards me.

I put more strength into my hand and faced it.

* * *

I faced Ancestor Yi Hyang-seon’s sword strike.

Ancestor Yi Hyang-seon’s sword was graceful.

Honest, clean, and the lines drawn in the air were filled with an admirable nobility.

Clang!

At the swinging sword strike, I unknowingly moved my sword to block it.

At that moment, my sword was cut off by Ancestor Yi Hyang-seon’s longsword as if cutting through tofu, without any resistance.

I couldn’t help but stiffen at the unbelievable sight that deviated from common sense.

“Keuk!”

I quickly tilted my head, and the sword brushed past where my head had been.

But.

Kwaaaang!

That sword strike blew away all my power.

The power of this completed realm was so formidable.

“Straighten your will. Didn’t I tell you? If you intend to cut, there is nothing you cannot cut.”

Ancestor’s voice echoed.

I got up again and picked up my sword.

‘I can do it. If I think I can do it, it will be so.’

That was the new realm I had reached.

My will becomes the rule of this world.

The strength of that will will determine how much the rules of the world can be changed.

“I’ll go again.”

“Come on.”

* * *

After Yi Cheol began his secluded training in the Aerial Fortress, a month had passed.

The dwarves felt hesitant as they looked at Yi Cheol.

“Master. Are you alright?”

“Yes, I’m fine. More than that, let’s move on to the next person. This time, set it up as that knight with the holy sword from the Middle Ages. I want to face him.”

For a month since the training began, Yi Cheol had not rested for a single moment.

He endlessly jumped into the records.

His heart was pierced by Ru’s spear, his body was cut by Yi Hyang-seon’s sword, and his skin was torn by ancient monsters.

After being ejected from the records, he would take a very short time to recover before jumping back in.

That kind of life had continued for a month.

It would have been strange if the dwarves hadn’t hesitated.

“…Understood.”

According to the master’s request, the dwarves simply sent Yi Cheol back into the records.

* * *

When I first started training in the records, I would only win once or twice out of ten fights against singularities like Ancestor Yi Hyang-seon or Ru.

There was no need to worry about life or death in the fights between me and the singularities, so the battles were extremely fierce, and each fight was an ordeal and hardship for me.

Even so, I continued to move forward.

Another two months passed.

From then on, something changed.

It became more and more common to reach a draw, and sometimes I would win more often.

Following that, three months.

Four months.

Time flowed endlessly.

Time within the records was longer than time outside, depending on the era.

I didn’t actually know how long I had spent in the records.

Sometimes I would fight for days, and sometimes the battle would be decided within minutes.

At some point, I stopped thinking about victory or defeat when fighting them.

I won when I won, and I lost when I lost.

That wasn’t the important thing.

I wanted to absorb everything from them.

I learned the sword from Ancestor Yi Hyang-seon.

I learned the spear from Ru.

Those were more realistic times than when reading memories through Black Ki [a type of dark energy].

* * *

My foundation lay in freedom.

I had not been bound to any one place, and I had absorbed and learned countless things.

The same was true now.

I competed in martial arts with figures who were only mentioned in legends.

Among them were wizards, shamans, warriors who fought like beasts, and knights who fought like gentlemen.

I learned their power and engraved it deep within my bones.

Soon, my movements were permeated with the countless things I had learned.

The sword techniques I learned from my father, the realizations I had with my brothers, the things I learned from cutting down monsters, and the things I learned from Mu Jin.

All those realizations melted together to create one ultimate skill.

Ultimate Skill, Muguk [Limitless].

My third brother had given it the most fitting name.

There was no limit to this ultimate skill I had reached.

Thinking about it, it had always been like that.

I had divided and used the things I had absorbed separately, but I had never thought of putting them together.

Everything I had learned.

I gathered all those things and forged them into one.

They were powers that sometimes collided and broke, sometimes combined and fused, and intertwined.

“It’s complete.”

Ancestor Yi Hyang-seon smiled happily and faced me.

“Yes, it is.”

“Can you now cut what you want to cut?”

“Yes.”

I nodded.

“Thank you for everything.”

“It may have been a long time for you, but it was only a moment for us. We are just specters in the records, after all.”

“At least they were people I actually faced.”

Facing countless singularities, my eyes gleamed.

“I will carry on your legacies.”

Those who sacrificed themselves to protect the world, beings created by the era.

All their legacies were imbued in me.

“At least the world you protected will not be devoured by those monsters whose identities are unknown.”

I grinned.

“I will make it so.”

The countless singularities surrounding me smiled at the same time.

Soon, their figures disappeared as if seeping into the world.

I felt that the time to end my training was approaching.

* * *

Within the records.

Yi Hyang-seon, Ru, and the countless heroes who had disappeared from history or remained only as legends looked at each other.

“They say we are heroes created by the era?”

Ru muttered.

It was the moment before the record completely disappeared.

At Ru’s words, Yi Hyang-seon simply smiled.

“Then what exactly is that child?”

All the heroes thought of Yi Cheol.

“Was there such a person among us?”

“No. There was no one who could do as much as him.”

“In the first place, that child has surpassed all of us.”

They were all those who had faced the primordial monster.

They were beings who had written legends in their own different positions.

Yi Cheol was to inherit the legacies of all of them.

And, he developed it.

Now, Yi Cheol had risen to a place that even they could not fathom.

A child who inherited all the legacies of the fallen beings of the old era.

If they were heroes created by the era, then Yi Cheol was….

“A being created by the world.”

Past, present, and perhaps even the future.

Yi Cheol, who lives in the present, tries to carry everything from the past and move forward.

“Indeed, what will become of it…”

They soon disappeared as if seeping into the darkness.

These times spent with Yi Cheol are illusions.

Even their existence is merely a record of the Aerial Fortress.

Perhaps even if they face Yi Cheol again, they will not remember this moment.

But it didn’t matter.

Because all these memories would be imbued in Yi Cheol.

The only regret was that they could not see what Yi Cheol would draw in the future.

* * *

Aerial Fortress.

I slowly opened my eyes.

The dwarves were huddled together in front of me.

“Is it over now? Master.”

“Yes, it’s over. But…”

I stood up and looked at the dwarves.

“Before I leave, there was something I wanted to ask. I was going to ask after the training was over so that my head wouldn’t get complicated.”

“What would you like to ask?”

“This sword.”

I tapped the Black Night that was stuck in my waist.

Now the power of the Black Night had become so strong that it wouldn’t fit inside my jeogori [traditional Korean jacket].

That was why I was wearing it on my waist.

“Black Night. The origin of this sword and the reason why Yi Hyul-hyun made it. You guys are related to those, aren’t you?”

No answer came from the dwarves right away.

But I was sure.

“I think it’s time to hear it now. About the identity of this sword.”