Weapon-Eating Bastard [EN]: Chapter 355

Whoooooooosh!

I snapped awake, the sudden shift in air pressure jolting me.

‘I must have blacked out for a second.’

How long was I out? Seconds? Minutes?

In that instant.

Something hurtled toward me!

“Kugh!”

Thrusting Obsidian Night forward was pure instinct.

Crack, crack, crack!

My arm joints vibrated violently as I felt something massive slam against my sword.

It was a tentacle of the Primordial Beast.

As I floated in the air, the Primordial Beast attacked again.

The excruciating pain cleared the fog from my mind.

‘……Explosion. There was an explosion.’

The moment I slashed the Primordial Beast, an explosion erupted.

The blast from its severed body part created a mushroom cloud, violently displacing the surrounding air.

Thud!

My limbs throbbed.

My ears rang.

Even without looking, I knew my eardrums were gone.

Regardless, the Primordial Beast’s attack pressed on.

Whoosh!

If death had a physical form, it would look like that.

A tentacle of immense size, like a falling meteor, hurtled toward me.

‘I need to evade……’

Too late.

It was too fast, and the range too wide to escape.

Blocking it… impossible.

Without any footing, could I withstand that kind of force?

My eyes widened, and I shouted at the top of my lungs.

“Blackbird!!”

-Bawaaaaaaaaa!

Thwack!

In that instant, Blackbird swooped in from afar, snatching me up.

Crack!

The sudden inertia made my entire body scream as if it were being torn apart.

But it didn’t matter. It wasn’t as bad as what that monster could do, and I could regenerate from this much.

“Blackbird! Fly!”

I quickly climbed onto Blackbird’s back and shouted.

Whoosh! Bang!

Attacks rained down.

Lightning struck from the sky.

Torrents of fire poured from the tentacles.

Hailstorms, typhoons, and hailstones made of the Primordial Beast’s flesh crashed down.

Boom! Rumble!

Each strike carried enough force to obliterate a small country.

The excessively concentrated power distorted space, and Blackbird, carrying me, soared through the distortions in an acrobatic flight.

-Screeeeeech!

Blackbird emitted a shriek-like groan.

I was gathering my strength to help, but it was a miracle Blackbird had evaded the Primordial Beast’s attacks this long.

I couldn’t rely on Blackbird any longer.

“Fly away and escape… Kugh!”

I pushed Blackbird away and jumped off.

Or, at least, that’s what I tried to do.

Throb!

My arms, legs, and torso.

Everything ached madly.

I turned my gaze and saw my body tilting.

A dark, murky substance covered my entire body.

‘What is this?’

I realized belatedly.

It was the monster’s blood that I had been drenched in when I slashed the Primordial Beast.

But… was it just mere blood?

Sizzle!

The sound of flesh searing filled my ears.

The pain of a branding iron searing my flesh.

I quickly looked at my wounds.

‘The wounds…!’

They were already rotting.

Every part stained by the Primordial Beast’s black blood was rotting and decaying as if time had been accelerated tenfold.

And that wasn’t the end of it.

A dizzying sensation washed over me.

It was poison.

‘How?’

I had resistance to all poisons.

No matter how potent, it shouldn’t have overcome my mana.

I felt the aura of death rapidly spreading from within my body.

Crack!

Bones, tendons, muscles, and veins—every part was being contaminated at an alarming rate.

Whoosh!

I tried to push it away with mana, but it didn’t work.

Only then did I realize. This wasn’t just a poison that corroded the flesh.

I felt the cohesion of my body, spirit, and soul unraveling.

And then.

Crack!

The Primordial Beast’s body split open.

Like a beast opening its mouth before roaring.

And from that gaping maw, an immense shockwave erupted.

Oooooooong!

It wasn’t just an ordinary sound.

-DieDieDieDieDieDieDieDie.

-WhyDidYouKillUsFoolishHumanVillainDieDieWeAreGodsDamnUnbeliever.

-PleaseSaveMeLetMeLiveAgainIWillBeYourWeWill……!

An overwhelming barrage of psychic waves, incomparable to those of the Great Demon, struck my brain.

Even without fully understanding what they were saying, I knew.

The thoughts of all the beings I had killed.

The psychic remnants of all the beings I had trampled on to get to this point were now pouring down on me.

“Cough, cough──!”

Blood welled up and spewed from my throat, and the mana circuits within my body were completely disrupted.

-Screeeeeech!

I wasn’t the only one being attacked.

I felt Blackbird screaming and plummeting rapidly.

I had been injecting mana into it until now, but how could it resist those psychic waves without that support?

Slash! Bang!

My father’s sword energy surged in to protect me, but it was too late.

With a terrible sound as if space itself was warping, the Primordial Beast’s tentacles crashed down on me.

Whoosh!

In that instant.

The power of purification surged from around my heart, enveloping my body.

A feeling like my eyes were opening.

However, when I belatedly regained my senses and looked ahead, all I saw was the ground stained black.

Boom!

And Blackbird and I plummeted to the ground.

* * *

All the warriors of the Soongmoo Lee family struggled in this place, fighting against the encroaching monsters.

It was a nightmare.

No matter how many they cut down, there seemed to be no end to the monsters.

However.

‘We can’t fall here!’

‘We’re not the only ones shedding blood!’

The direct line of the Soongmoo Lee family.

The elders who should have retired.

And the warriors who held the fight in their hearts—their gazes were fixed on Lee Cheol.

Boom!

Light shattered, and sword strikes raged.

The battle there was unlike any they had ever seen.

Slash!

The Primordial Beast’s tentacle that Lee Cheol deflected was sent flying into the distant sea.

Rumble!

……It divided the earth.

It was a literal division.

The force that was deflected was enough to shatter the massive land into pieces.

‘Maknae [youngest child]……!’

‘Win! We believe in you!’

Lee Jin-yoon and Lee Seo-hyun.

The undisputed best of the Soongmoo Lee family in this era couldn’t help but be awestruck by the scale of the battle.

It was truly a battle that seemed to recreate myths.

A monster that could split a continent just by awakening.

And Lee Cheol was holding that monster back.

‘……!’

In that instant.

The only one present who could match Lee Cheol’s pace leaped forward.

Lee Tae-shin.

His sword strikes supported Lee Cheol’s charge.

The world seemed submerged in light by the erupting sword radiance, and Lee Cheol’s sword energy finally bisected the monster.

From the severed cross-section, black blood like ink gushed out like a fountain.

‘It’s done!’

Everyone sensed victory.

Lee Tae-shin assisted, and Lee Cheol struck.

This grueling battle was coming to an end.

That’s what everyone thought, but.

“Kuh-euk!”

“Kuaaaaagh!”

-Kieeeeeek!

-Kyaaaaagh!

Suddenly, screams echoed.

The screams came from those near the monster.

Black-stained… water.

The Primordial Beast’s size was no different from a mountain range.

The black blood that gushed out from the severed area poured down like a tidal wave.

And the warriors who came into contact with it.

The thousands of monsters surrounding the Primordial Beast.

All of them were screaming and collapsing.

Just a little touch was enough.

Even those who had only a single drop touch their bodies were instantly decaying and dying.

‘Could it be!’

All those at the main family who witnessed it quickly turned their gaze to Lee Cheol.

If just a single drop could lead to death.

What about Lee Cheol, who had taken it head-on……?

It was at that moment.

Thud!

Far away, something faint was falling from the high sky toward the ground.

-Screeeeeech!

Lee Cheol, who had been riding Blackbird, was falling toward the ground at an alarming rate, his entire body rotting.

‘Cheol-ah!’

Lee Kyung-hwa, who had been using Mind Sword to protect the surrounding troops, screamed.

Whoosh!

Lee Cheol’s figure began to appear beyond the rising dust.

Lee Kyung-hwa’s face turned pale as she saw it.

It was gone.

Lee Cheol’s arm.

From his shoulder to his fingertips, Lee Cheol’s arm was rapidly decaying like a rotting corpse, dripping blood.

It wasn’t just his arm.

Lee Cheol… was covered in that blood.

‘No!’

Lee Kyung-hwa tried to break formation and rush out.

However, a hand grabbed her.

“Wait.”

“Brother?”

It was Lee Tae-shin.

Lee Tae-shin, who hadn’t lost his calm even in the midst of battle, his eyes gleamed.

“Let go! This! I need to go quickly……!”

“Look.”

Lee Tae-shin’s sword pointed at Lee Cheol.

At that moment, Lee Kyung-hwa couldn’t believe her eyes.

‘Huh?’

Lee Cheol’s arm, shrouded in a hazy mist, was regenerating.

It wasn’t just his arm.

The black miasma and impure energy clinging to his entire body were disappearing.

‘How?’

It was like watching time rewind.

As Lee Kyung-hwa was astonished and the faces of all the warriors were filled with shock.

Only Lee Tae-shin muttered in a nonchalant voice.

“Yoo-jung… your power is creating miracles.”

Lee Tae-shin’s deeply sunken eyes were fixed on Lee Cheol.

Lee Tae-shin understood what was happening.

A miracle.

It was truly a moment that could only be described as a miracle.

* * *

The moment I was swept away by the Primordial Beast’s attack.

I felt the Black Qi [dark energy] within my body reaching out.

And a miracle occurred.

The Choi family’s power burned away the divine power that the Primordial Beast had unleashed.

As if time were rewinding.

The impure forces that had penetrated my body were extinguished, and my arm, which had seemed to fall off, was regaining its form.

“I see… so that’s what it was.”

-Screech, baaa……

I stroked the head of Blackbird, who was collapsed and groaning, and vomited blood.

I could feel the Primordial Beast staring down at me, having stopped moving.

I steadied myself with Obsidian Night, using it as a support, and stood up.

“You damn beast.”

And I raised my sword again.

Whoosh!

Black Qi like flames engulfed my body.

“It seems those powers beyond your providence are useless against the power my mother entrusted to me.”

What had happened?

It was simple.

The power the Primordial Beast emitted was beyond the norm.

With its will alone, it manipulated the life and death of all beings, distorted space, and scattered poison that contaminated and corrupted humans.

However, the power at the opposite end of that absolute authority existed within me.

The Soongjung Choi family.

The power of purification.

And the sword created by that blood, Obsidian Night.

Only then did I realize the meaning behind the words of the dwarves who called me the Adversary.

Someone stronger than me, someone with more power than me, could not confront the Primordial Beast.

But only I.

Only I, the master of Obsidian Night, the one with the power of Black Qi and purification, could undo the Primordial Beast’s authority.

“Cough!”

Of course, the wounds caused by the authority had disappeared, but the other wounds had not.

It was a stroke of luck that I was even standing here now.

No, it wasn’t.

It wasn’t luck, but the power of all the relationships I had built.

Flutter!

The Silver Armor, now tattered to the point of losing its effectiveness as armor, fluttered in the air.

In the last moment, what saved my life was none other than the power of the Silver Armor that my ancestor had entrusted to me.

I recall once again.

This sword that I wield.

These many powers that dwell within me.

The warriors of the main family who made this battle possible.

Even my father, who made my sword reach that thing.

All those processes had pushed me to this point.

With them on my back, I finally see a chance for victory.

Crackle!

I tore off the tattered Silver Armor and wrapped it around Obsidian Night and the hand that held it.

Clang!

Obsidian Night emitted a mournful cry.

‘Spirits of the Choi family, at this moment, I will use your power to cut down destruction.’

──────────!

The Primordial Beast let out a bizarre scream.

I spat out the last of the blood that had pooled in my mouth and took a step forward.

“Now, I will resist all of your bizarre powers. Let’s see if you can face me with your other powers.”

Now.

All of that monster’s transcendent powers were sealed.

To defeat me, it would have to rely solely on its physical strength, not the authority it possessed.

Step!

I extended my foot forward.

“Let’s go, monster. Let’s end this.”

My sword absorbed the starlight.