WeTried Translations

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ I Pulled Out Excalibur

Chapter 261

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War (5)

Najin was rarely swayed by emotion.

It was not that he had no impulsive side, but even then, he usually moved with his own rational reasons. It was not because of any grand belief.

He had felt it in his bones since childhood.

No matter how much you raged, no matter how emotionally you acted, very little changed. What changed a situation was not anger, but cold judgment.

"Emotional people die quickly. Those ruled by anger cannot avoid a brutal end."

He had seen many people meet terrible fates after moving on emotion, so Najin learned to rein in his own feelings to survive. Rage when needed, but be cold when making judgments. That was Najin's core principle.

Najin had kept that principle well.

Except for when he first encountered the Carnival King, he had kept it well. Najin believed that himself, and Merlin agreed. It was true that Najin had restraint far beyond his age.

-......

So.

"Merlin."

-Yeah.

"You can cut the link."

Merlin felt something unfamiliar in Najin's emotions flowing into her.

Sticky, dragging rage.

A murderous intent that clung and smeared.

Those were emotions Najin rarely showed.

Right now, Najin was furious.

A fierce killing intent was boiling, so strong he wanted to tear the opponent in front of him apart and kill him immediately.

Najin had already predicted that Ivan was dead. Ivan had openly raised a rebellion against the Order, so his chance of surviving was not merely low, it was effectively none. And Najin had also known Ivan would not die peacefully.

He knew that, but.

Knowing it and hearing it confirmed as fact were different things. Najin replayed Kabin's account of Ivan's end. He had not seen the scene himself, but Najin's imagination easily painted it in his head.

Ivan hanging in the square with both arms severed.

Having lost his remaining eye as well.

A slow death.

A miserable end beyond words.

Najin's grip tightened on his sword. Blood vessels stood out in his eyes. Squeezing out the last of his patience, Najin told Merlin it would be better to sever their connection.

-Cut it?

"Yes. They are not emotions worth sharing."

-Did you think I stayed with you just to watch the good parts?

Merlin sighed and tilted her head.

-I doubt I could stop you even if I tried, and more than that, I do not plan to stop you. As I see it, this is justified revenge.

"......"

-So do what you want.

"It will not look pretty."

-Why? Are you going to grind him down completely?

"Probably something close to that."

Merlin gave a short laugh.

-I was worse than you, not better, so do not worry. If you saw how I hunted witches down in my prime, you would be horrified too.

Najin smiled inwardly. I already was.

Thanks to Merlin, his chest felt a little lighter. Najin exhaled briefly and spun his sword once.

Now nothing was in his way.

At least in this moment, he did not need to rein in his emotions, dull his anger, or make a cold judgment. Based on Kabin's description, Najin identified Berlot.

That one was last.

As Najin let out a short breath, the Order's hidden operatives who had been lying in wait on all sides rushed him. The five Holy Knights at Sword Seeker level moved with them.

With enemies closing in from every direction.

Najin moved a beat late.

Something flashed around him.

Sword light.

A flash created by the blink of Sword Aura gathered on his blade.

That flash flickered briefly, then again, several times in succession.

The Sword Seekers could at least react to that movement.

The hidden operatives could not.

Shraaaaaak!

As if carving up Forgotten Ones, Najin carved up the hidden operatives rushing toward him. If there was a difference between Forgotten Ones and those operatives, it was this: they had none of the Forgotten Ones' transcendent regeneration or toughness.

Blood sprayed.

Red surged upward.

Najin moved through the pouring blood. This movement was not the one Najin usually showed. It was not the clean, concise, dignified movement of a knight.

It was the movement of a hound and an executioner.

As if announcing that Ivan's hound had returned to the Underground City, Najin charged at the Holy Knights.

2.

The Order had dispatched five Holy Knights to the Underground City.

Just below the Holy Knight Commander, they were classified as top-tier Holy Knights, powerful experts who had all reached at least Sword Seeker level. Two had completed Sprouting, and one had reached Blossoming, an elite among elites.

They also had abundant experience.

Knights who had served the Order for years and had been deployed on all kinds of missions, with more than enough real combat experience. In other words, they had more than enough strength to handle a single Sword Seeker.

Level and experience alike.

All of it fulfilled.

All of them knew of Najin's existence.

None of them treated Najin as just another Sword Seeker. They knew what kind of fate had befallen the Arbenia family's knights who had thought that way. Because they knew, they did not let their guard down even a little.

From the very start, all five attacked at full power at once, throwing away even a knight's pride.

The one thing they overlooked was this.

The Najin they had seen in the Arbenia trial by combat had not gone all out, and he had held back enough to avoid killing or crippling his opponents.

Kwaaang.

And compared to then, Najin had climbed to a higher place.

The instant Najin kicked off the ground and took one step forward, they could not even track his movement. By the time they moved their eyes, Najin had already slipped into the chest range of the knight in front.

"......!"

Even in that situation, the knight chose immediate counterattack over panic, showing his skill. But in battle, skill is always relative. Between Najin and the Holy Knight was a gap that could not be bridged.

Najin swung his sword.

The moment Najin's blade touched the sword the Holy Knight had swung for a counterattack, the Holy Knight had no choice but to widen his eyes.

Kwachik!

The touching blade broke. More than broke, the steel curled inward and crumpled. It was a sight the Holy Knight had never seen and a sight he could not understand.

"My sword broke? How?"

He too was a Sword Seeker. His sword was wrapped in Sword Aura infused with Imagery, just like Najin's.

Yet his sword shattered from mere contact. How could that make any sense?

The output was different. The recoil force was different. The density of Sword Aura was on a different plane. The moment he saw his sword crumpled like scrap metal, the Holy Knight sensed his end.

Najin's sword struck the Holy Knight's arm.

Originally, when Najin formed Sword Aura, he valued cutting power over recoil force. It was more useful in combat. But in this moment, Najin prioritized recoil force.

The reason was simple.

It hurt more.

Kwoooooooong!

With a thunderous blast, the Holy Knight's body flew into the air. Thrown far away, he groaned and tried to rise with his hand on the ground, but realized too late that he could not.

"...Ah?"

Both his arms were bent in directions they should never bend. The fingers that had held his sword were twisted into bizarre angles like petals in bloom, and his arms held no strength, as if every bone had shattered.

Pain crashed in belatedly.

He screamed.

One strike.

Even though one Sword Seeker had been crippled in a single strike, the remaining Holy Knights rushed Najin.

"What in the world..."

And Berlot watched it with wide eyes. In his view, it was not a fight he could join.

"...What in the world is this?"

Berlot could not keep up with the scene before him. Information from outside was very limited in the Underground City, but even with that, Berlot knew roughly who Najin was.

The youngest Sword Seeker.

And the young man seated in the position of Free Knight.

Berlot knew that this young man was the main culprit who had twisted his life, the same boy who had pulled Excalibur and fled that day. The person who had ruined his life was right in front of him, yet Berlot could not even feel anger.

Kwooooooong!

Because the scene before him was too overwhelming.

Boom, kwaaang!

Thunderous blasts rang out. Najin was clearly swinging a sword, yet it sounded like artillery shells exploding. Berlot could barely perceive Najin's movement, but he could see the results.

A roar exploded and a Holy Knight was pushed back. The pushed-back Holy Knight trembled in his limbs and tried to reset his stance, but once more, and again, and again, endless blasts erupted, forcing him backward without end.

Then the Holy Knight's back hit a wall.

Through rising dust, Najin emerged and lightly swung his sword. That alone shattered both the Holy Knight and the building behind him. Berlot could not understand how something like that was possible with a single sword.

Sweeeeeek!

Taking advantage of the moment his ally was being overwhelmed, one Holy Knight launched a surprise strike at Najin's back. But his thrust did not pierce Najin. As if he had eyes behind him, Najin's hand reached backward and grabbed the wrist holding the sword.

With a sharp pull on that wrist, Najin extended his other hand. Letting go of his sword with that hand, Najin seized the Holy Knight's throat.

"Keok!"

The Holy Knight coughed out blocked breath as his throat was seized. Najin lifted him up as he was. As if even a sword was unnecessary in subduing a Sword Seeker, Najin overpowered him barehanded.

"Kugh, keup, kugh......"

The Holy Knight struggled. Choking, he thrashed and clawed at Najin's arm, but Najin's movement did not waver in the slightest. Berlot's common sense could not understand that scene at all, subduing a Sword Seeker barehanded.

Crack.

Something breaking was heard.

Soon the Holy Knight's body went limp. Najin casually threw him aside and looked at the two remaining Holy Knights.

They shouted and charged at Najin.

Even that movement was so fast Berlot could barely follow it with his eyes.

But to Najin, it seemed otherwise.

Light flashed.

Berlot could not understand what happened during the two or three flashes. He only saw that when the first flash came, both Holy Knights' arms were cut off, when the second flash came, both their weapons shattered, and when the third flash came...

Kwooooooong!

With a thunderous blast, both were slammed into the ground. To Berlot, who had missed the middle process, all of it felt grotesque. It was a scene with not even a speck of reality.

Knights called top-tier even within the Order.

Experts who could easily suppress ten fighters at Berlot's level.

Those experts were destroyed without even using their strength once. Seeing Holy Knights sprawled on the ground convulsing, or clutching broken or severed arms as they screamed and fainted, Berlot felt fear.

These were knights with tolerance for pain and torture.

Yet they screamed like children and fainted.

Gulp.

Berlot swallowed dryly.

His upper and lower teeth clacked together repeatedly.

"......"

After destroying all five Holy Knights, Najin turned his head. His gaze was aimed exactly at Berlot.

"U-uaaahhhhh!"

The moment their eyes met, Berlot screamed and turned his body. He began to run without looking back. He knew in his head that this escape was meaningless, but instinct made him flee.

Naturally, the escape did not last long.

Swip.

Something brushed past Berlot's leg. In that instant, Berlot fell to the ground. He realized his ankle had been cut halfway through. A stinging pain climbed his spine, but fear was a step ahead of pain.

"Huhk, huhk!"

Berlot reached out and crawled across the ground, trying to get farther from the footsteps behind him. But no matter how much he crawled, the sound did not grow distant.

It grew closer.

Then, tak.

The footsteps stopped right beside Berlot.

3.

"Berlot."

A voice came from behind Berlot. Berlot, sprawled on the ground and crawling, could not turn his head. He was too afraid to even make eye contact.

"Your name is Berlot, right?"

Berlot reflexively shook his head side to side, as if denying it was him. Without a word, Najin reached out and tore off the necklace around Berlot's neck.

A crest hung from the necklace.

A crest proving he was a Holy Knight.

Reading the name Berlot written on the crest, Najin said shortly.

"It is. Berlot."

As Berlot's teeth clattered, weight pressed down his back. Pressing Berlot's back down with his foot, Najin spoke.

"Do you know the names Ivan and Offen?"

He knew them. They were the men Berlot had killed with his own hands. He tried to answer, but Najin did not seem to ask for an answer and continued speaking.

"Those two are my benefactor and my teacher. Which means I have a duty to avenge them."

Shrrng.

A chilling Sword Cry rang out.

"From now on, I will cut off both your arms. I will gouge out your eyes. And with only your life left, I will personally bury you among the corpse heaps in that landfill."

That was what he had done to Ivan and Offen.

Trembling in terror, Berlot screamed.

"I only did it because I was ordered from above...!"

"I know."

Najin dismissed Berlot's excuse.

"After you comes High Priest Orland. After him comes the Lighthouse, the patron god of the Starlight Order."

Najin extended his sword.

"What the Starlight Order had been plotting, your plans, what High Priest Orland was preparing, the traps and methods you made in collusion with those demon bastards I want to chew to death, all of it..."

Sword Aura with cutting force suppressed and only recoil force maximized.

Najin slowly placed that aura-wrapped blade against Berlot's shoulder.

"I will crush every single one of them. Without leaving anything behind."

The recoil force of Najin's Sword Aura, now close to a transcendent level, was not something a human body could endure. It was easy to predict what would happen when that Sword Aura, powerful enough to crumple even aura-wrapped steel, touched human flesh.

Duduk, dudududududuk!

From Berlot's shoulder, flesh was shoved away. Skin tore, muscle and bone were pushed aside and began to break apart. Najin did not sever Berlot's arm at once. Slowly, deliberately, he pressed the sword in.

It was only that he had never done it before.

Najin knew well how to inflict pain on a human.

"AAAAAAAH!"

Berlot let out a scream. The torture tolerance he had built while becoming a knight, and all his training not to scream, did not help at all here. In pain beyond imagination, Berlot thrashed, but he could not escape because Najin's foot pinned his back.

One arm came off.

Berlot foamed blood at the mouth, making guttural sounds as he blacked out, but Najin did not let him remain unconscious. Najin turned his sword toward Berlot's other arm.

"I do not know whether you have any faith left."

At the returning pain, Berlot opened his eyes. As Berlot screamed with bloodshot eyes wide open, Najin spoke by his ear.

"If you do, pray to your god."

And tell them.

Tell them that I, whom you tried to bury that day, have returned.

This time, I will bury you.

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