All-Out War (1)

Boom! 

Rex, who had successfully cornered Kruud, Rectus, and even Judas with his overwhelming superiority, suddenly felt a jolt from the vibration that reached his ears.

He couldn’t bring down the sword he had raised to kill them. If he was in such a state, what about the others?

The demons who had been slaughtering human soldiers were all frozen in place.

Looking closely, they couldn’t even breathe. Though breathing wasn’t necessary after becoming a demon, most couldn’t completely shed their human habits and felt uncomfortable if they didn’t breathe.

Depending on their level of consciousness, some might even feel psychological pain.

Amidst this pressure that prevented even such natural actions, Rex could actually feel more alive.

“Aha… Ahahahahaha!!”

He knows.

Who is here right now.

“Calips de Ares!!”

Of course, he had seen his opponent hundreds of times on the battlefield. He had survived by Calips’s mercy more than dozens of times.

And during those dozens, hundreds of encounters, Rex had never seen Calips’s true power.

Only Belial had witnessed his true power.

That’s why Rex thought this was his chance. Himself, now openly a demon, and the being considered to be at the pinnacle of swordsmanship.

Wasn’t this finally a moment when they could both go all out?

“There are quite a few of you.”

Calips’s appearance was strange.

A single man. But he arrived as if leading a mountain of fire, with fog and water vapor at his back.

This was because the aura blazing from his sword evaporated every raindrop before it could touch his body.

Hot air meets falling raindrops to create fog.

The presence emanating from a single being. It was power visible even to the naked eye.

“And… hmm, I see. So you’re the one they call the Blade of Destruction?”

“Huhahaha!”

Crack!

When all the surrounding demons couldn’t even move, Rex twisted his body forcefully to move.

Long desensitized to pain and fear, he seemed to feel more alive in the face of death.

As always, he struck with full force, leaving nothing in reserve.

A destructive blow befitting the title Blade of Destruction came crashing down.

“Hmm.”

“Haha…”

But Rex’s sword, which should have had enough force to shatter mountains and cleave the earth, produced neither sound nor destruction.

Calips had clearly used his aura blade to block Rex’s sword, but Rex’s blade hadn’t even touched that aura.

“What the…”

“Young one, you’ve developed a bad habit.”

Rex’s great sword was fixed in place, slightly away from the aura blade.

Only then did Rex realize that what he could see wasn’t everything.

The fact that everyone around had stopped, that movements seemed sluggish.

It was because Calips’s invisible aura enveloped the entire area.

The aura had been colorless and transparent.

That’s why Rex’s sword gradually lost its power and speed, as if submerged in deep water.

‘What nonsense is this…!’

Then what was this blue light visible to his eyes? If that wasn’t aura, what was it?

A transcendent realm.

An unexplored domain.

The landscape that throughout human history, only the Sword King Calips had reached and witnessed.

Rex finally remembered.

Another epithet given to Calips.

“…Is this the power of a Grand Master?”

“No, it’s not even worth calling power. This is merely a natural phenomenon. It’s just a difference in caliber, nothing special.”

A difference in caliber.

The aftermath of power possessed by the pinnacle of swordsmanship, which even Belial couldn’t capture.

Yes, Rex simply wasn’t permitted to even touch his body.

“When one reaches this level, the boundary between aura and sword disappears. That’s commonly called the realm of mastery, and people refer to it as an aura blade.”

This wasn’t much different from that.

Calips spoke as if this was nothing special.

“But isn’t it strange? They say one should treat their sword as their own body, but why can’t they think the same way about the world they inhabit?”

First, the boundary between the aura flowing through the body and the sword disappeared.

The metal merged with the flame each person cultivated in their life to become one.

That was the aura blade.

Then shouldn’t the same apply to the world from which such life originated?

The body is the world. The world is the body.

Everything is connected.

People are inherently bound to the world, and the world embraces people.

“How is that even possible? You crazy bastard…”

“Love greatly. Suffer greatly and grieve deeply. Instead of living through the sword, live through your surroundings. That’s all there is to it.”

That’s why Calips reached a level no one else had.

That’s why Calips had to suffer and fall apart.

Because he loved too much. Because they were Calips’s very flesh.

The Kingdom of Ares itself was Calips’s very life.

That’s why he had to suffer more than others. Had to hate on behalf of others too.

That was the natural price to pay for the realm Calips had reached.

But bodily wounds usually heal with time, and even if they leave scars, one can still move.

The same happened to Calips.

Because he had been wounded and fallen in the lives of others, he rose again through the lives of others.

“That’s why I don’t kill people easily. I understand the weight of human life better than anyone.”

That’s why Calips hated the imperial army during the war but still spared them on the battlefield.

That’s why he didn’t actively counterattack against the empire.

“But you’re no longer human. If you don’t know pain, don’t know fear, don’t even know how to be wounded, what difference is there between you and an inanimate object?”

Woong!

Calips’s sword emits a small vibration. He raises his sword as if drawing it from the world itself.

“Urgh?!”

Rex, who had swung his sword with all his might, rose as if gripped by some enormous hand.

Calips had engulfed the entire area with his aura, like a grand mage.

Yes, they already had a sword at their throats.

“You were born in the world but refuse to return to it. Though the two are one, why do you defy the natural order and cycle…”

A monk who attained enlightenment through the sword.

Calips pitied the demons who could no longer even die as they pleased.

Even if they had committed countless evil deeds and felt no guilt.

Calips, deeply connected with the world, couldn’t help but feel sad.

In his eyes, they looked like lost souls.

“Now return. All of you.”

Slit!

The nearest demon’s neck is severed, and it dies without even regenerating.

Slit!

He didn’t even need to swing his sword. Calips’s colorless transparent aura had already permeated the area, so his will was the blade.

One by one, straight lines appear on the necks of the stiffened demons around his center.

A precise strike targeting vital points.

A realm of aura approaching divinity that didn’t even allow regeneration.

Tssssh!

Like stone flowers blooming, a mist of blood forms around Calips.

Rex, who was at the center, stared wide-eyed, resisting Calips’s aura that was slicing through his body.

He was the Blade of Destruction, a being on a different level from other demons.

But…

“I’ll return fear to you as well.”

At that moment, Calips’s sword moved.

A power that transcended even the realm of aura.

An undefined blue flame touches Rex’s neck.

“Ah…”

Like sacred fire, or like the very concept of destruction itself.

Just touching Rex’s neck, it showed him a clear vision of death.

Swoosh.

Calips’s sword flowed elegantly.

Yes, it didn’t cut, but moved naturally like flowing water.

And in this flow of the world, Rex died.

Rex’s severed head falls with a thud and rolls on the ground before stopping.

“Since I’m not a priest, I couldn’t save you and return you to humanity. But I hope that while your soul may be corrupted, at least your flesh can return to its parent’s embrace.”

Click.

Calips sheathed his sword.

Countless demon soldiers had been annihilated.

The bodies of demons that should have turned to dust and disappeared were all intact.

On this day, the number of times Sword King Calips swung his sword was only once.

*     *      *

It was too late. That’s what Titan thought when he arrived at the battlefield.

Before his eyes, a massive mountain with a vicious expression was stomping on the ground.

And being crushed like ants were nothing but blood and flesh chunks beyond recognition.

The situation here was different from other battlefields. The monster before him could burst people just by moving, unlike the others.

Even if his power might be less than the others, he was overwhelmingly powerful against such ordinary soldiers.

“A monster that knows no honor…”

<One Who Holds the Sky> Atlas.

He was different from the other trials Titan had faced so far. Atlas lacked intelligence.

That’s why he didn’t know the meaning of his actions.

Yes, too many warriors had died meaninglessly on this battlefield, leaving nothing behind.

“Even a mere beast has purpose in filling its stomach!”

BOOM!

Earthquakes ring out every time Atlas stomps the ground with both feet in anger.

Amidst this, a new vibration spreads.

The moment Titan takes a firm step, the earth around blooms like flowers.

“Grrrrr…”

Atlas, who had been stomping around in apparent anger, looked at Titan.

His eyes still showed anger, but his anger was random, without a specific target.

Titan couldn’t tolerate such a being that was worse than a beast.

“Come, monster.”

Originally, Titan’s goal was to buy time for the soldiers to evacuate.

But by the time he arrived, most of the battlefield had already been sacrificed.

The monster doesn’t chase after the survivors.

He simply stomps repeatedly on what he has already killed, leaving not even a shape behind.

Facing a monster without honor or purpose, Titan set a new goal.

“I’ll kill you.”

That was to hunt the monster before him. The opponent is a trial.

Even if he’s considered the weakest trial, that doesn’t diminish his strength.

But still, Titan couldn’t tolerate the being before him.

A conclusion reached in cold rationality, not anger.

‘This thing is a mindless monster.’

Buy time? Yes, he could do that for now.

But what then? Even now, he was too late. More than half the soldiers were dead, and the rest who escaped were just lucky.

‘The damage from letting such a monster loose is unacceptable.’

If it had been a rational monster, the situation would have been different.

They would know how to strike strategic points and consider when to retreat, being capable of thought.

But the monster before him did neither, having no purpose or reason.

Retreating from a monster whose movements are unpredictable means being at his mercy in the future.

Right now, Atlas, with his enormous size, moves across village streets in just seconds. What would happen if he suddenly decided to run?

Even if they could track and report his movements one by one, it would be too late to respond.

Vwoom!

Titan’s golden aura begins to gather at the tip of his spear.

Rocks bloom like flowers from where he stands firmly.

“If you are the one who holds the sky…”

Atlas is larger than any other living being in this world.

That’s why his head seems to be supporting the sky.

Hence the epithet as a trial: <One Who Holds the Sky>.

“I will become <One Who Shakes the Earth> and bring that tall head of yours down to the ground.”

Ironically, the title Titan declared was the same as the trial name given to Craig before the regression.