Reincarnation of the Sword Demon - Chapter 115

WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Chapter 115: What Are You?

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The mutant that had once been the Chemical Research Department head did not regenerate again. Chunks of flesh dripped from the ceiling, but they could not stick to the mutant's body and simply slid onto the floor.

The power of annihilation Baal possessed was real. Orban and Layla, having witnessed it with their own eyes, swallowed hard.

[Ahahahahaha!]

Beside Kyle, who was staring at the mutant's corpse with a deeply dissatisfied expression, Baal put both hands on her hips and burst into laughter.

[Look, master! Behold the beautifully cruel strength of this Baal! Something like a product of dark magic could never stand in this one's way!]

Baal shouted in excitement, holding her chin high. Too high, in fact, until her head was nearly bent backward. After showing off like that, Baal suddenly grabbed Kyle by the waist and shook him.

[Master! What is with that expression? You saw this Baal's power! Hurry and praise this Baal, sing this Baal's praises!]

"Tsk..."

Kyle smacked his lips again. Baal was strong and sharp. He had felt that several times while swinging her as part of his training, but now that he had cut down something living, he knew it for certain.

She was too sharp. The moment the edge touched something, the blade surged forward on its own. Because of that, Baal demanded extremely delicate swordsmanship, despite her crude appearance and destructive power.

Even the slightest misstep would send the blade rushing wherever it pleased.

'It's not even a matter of taking the wrong path. If I misjudge the pressure in my fingers even a little, the trajectory twists.'

[Cutting everything down recklessly is this one's charm!]

Baal, who had been shaking him by the waist, now wrapped both arms around Kyle's waist and clung to him. For the first time in five hundred years, she had splendidly split a living being in two, yet her master was not praising or admiring her. He only looked dissatisfied, and that made Baal anxious.

[A-and that was not this one's fault! Master, did you not say it yourself? This one is only a sword! A sword is wielded by a swordsman! So any dissatisfaction with this one is entirely due to your own inadequacy, master!]

That was why Kyle's expression had soured. Baal had openly pointed it out, and Kyle glared at her with wide eyes. Baal flinched at his gaze and hunched her shoulders.

[Eek!]

"Tsk..."

She had hit a sore spot, but he could not scold Baal over it. As she said, the reason he disliked the path of that strike was because he had not swung the sword perfectly.

'Maybe because it's different from the sword I always used...'

With that thought, Kyle looked at Fenris hanging at his waist. As if sensing his gaze, Fenris gave a faint tremble and let out a cry.

[Woof!]

[Shut up, you little shit dog! Today is this one's solo performance!]

Baal glared at Fenris and pretended to kick him. Hearing that, Kyle nodded.

'Right. I need to swing her a lot at times like this if I'm going to get used to her.'

[O-ohhh...! Master, my master!]

Moved by Kyle's thoughts, Baal's body trembled.

Even during this, the agents continued firing. They did not only shoot their guns. Magic exploded one blast after another as well. Kyle glanced their way, then turned back at the vibrations coming from behind him.

Mutants were pouring from the ceiling and walls. Every one of them was grotesque, hideous, and enormous, yet the traits they had possessed as humans clung to them with obsessive persistence. One had cleaning brooms embedded in its body. Another wore a security guard's cap where its head should have been. Whether that could truly be called a head was another matter.

They had been ordinary employees near the central laboratory on the day the Black Cube went berserk. Struck directly by the mana of dark magic, they had become vicious monsters that imitated their old personalities and possessed regenerative abilities.

"I'll handle this side."

Kyle spoke before Orban could say anything.

"Isn't this why you hired me? You said the payment would be raised depending on conditions at the site, so... watch closely, and let's negotiate once we get outside."

Kyle had no intention of receiving the increased payment in money. What he wanted was the information handled by Orban Rubalt, the Central Branch Head and a member of the family that led the Crows.

Information about the Empire that Alastor could not see, and that Alastor might be charged with treason for trying to approach. If the hidden force wanted the Empire divided, war would naturally follow. The Crows knew how to fly above a battlefield.

Orban composed his expression. Though he stood under Layla's protection, he had received military training as a member of the leader's family. He pulled a large handgun from inside his coat.

"I'll provide cover."

"You're not going to hit me, are you?"

"Do not worry about that. Layla, take the rear."

"Yes, Branch Head."

Mutants with regenerative abilities were appearing sporadically behind them as well.

Kyle gripped Baal and ran down the corridor. The more one swung a sword, the more it settled into the hand. This was his first time using Baal in real combat rather than training, so his swing had been slightly off, but if he kept swinging, he would correct the trajectory until it satisfied him.

Bang!

A gunshot rang out behind him. Orban had pulled the trigger of his handgun. The report was far louder than the agents' machine guns, more like a cannon than a gun.

Splurt!

The head of a mutant charging down the corridor burst apart. It did not die from that alone and staggered onward, but halting it for a moment was enough for Orban to do his part.

Slash!

The headless mutant was split in two by Baal.

[Good, very good! Master! Next, from top to bottom! Split it open from its head to its crotch!]

Baal let out a shriek of delight.

'If I do everything she asks, she'll get spoiled.'

Even as he thought that, Kyle swung the sword as Baal wanted. Baal's feel in his hand was completely different from Fenris. She was exhilarating and relentless. Large or small, she cut it all apart. To be honest, the feeling was a little addictive.

[Whine...]

As if she had sensed Kyle's feelings, Fenris made a dejected sound. He felt a little sorry, but there was nothing he could do. He had wielded Fenris five hundred years ago, then wielded her again after reincarnating. He had grown just a little tired of it.

[This one is the true beloved sword!]

Baal shouted as she hopped up and down, then turned into crimson smoke and seeped into the blade. A chilling eye appeared in the middle of the sword. Just as Kyle was about to swing at the next mutant, the eye darted aside and tried to interfere with his sword path.

'Hey, do you want to die?'

Kyle forcibly twisted the sword path that had begun to change.

Crash!

The sword cut well no matter how he swung it, but Kyle opened his eyes wide and glared at Baal.

'Don't overstep. I might melt you down. Or throw you into a cesspit.'

[P-please, anything but that...!]

Baal shook her eye in terror. The threat worked well, and Baal no longer interfered with his sword path. She simply entrusted herself to Kyle and immersed herself in the slaughter she was tasting for the first time in five hundred years.

Before long, all the mutants had been dealt with. The walls still squirmed, but they no longer sprayed disinfectant as they had before. Despite cutting and killing to his heart's content, not a trace of blood or flesh clung to Baal's blade. Kyle held Baal loosely and gestured to Orban.

"I think we can go now."

"It appears so."

Orban lowered his handgun with a sigh. He nudged a shell casing on the floor with his foot and muttered.

"If I'd known it would turn out like this, I should have just broken through by force from the start."

"Please do not say that."

Layla spoke with a serious expression.

"Branch Head, you carry the leader's blood. You should never have come to such a dangerous site yourself, yet now you are suggesting we make the situation even more dangerous."

"Didn't it turn out this way in the end? I avoided the danger and played along with those monsters, saying things I did not mean, and then they started spouting nonsense about disinfection..."

Orban sighed deeply and scratched his head with the grip of his gun. Then he noticed Kyle watching and quickly composed his expression.

"I only meant that a twenty percent bonus is too much. Of course, the survivors will receive compensation more than sufficient to comfort them, and the victims' families will receive more than the amount set by company insurance."

"I didn't say anything."

"I wanted you to know that I am quite a moral person."

Since they had decided to maintain a relationship as individuals from now on, Orban cared about such things.

"We fought an unintended battle, yet the building does not seem to be trying to eat us. Could it be because, in a sense, we disinfected the filth?"

"Considering the mutants are contaminated beings, what we did may truly count as disinfection. At least in this corridor, it may be regarded that way."

An agent checking their weapon answered. It was too convenient an explanation to be certain of, but the building would not answer even if they asked. For now, they had no choice but to prioritize their judgment at the site.

"Then... let's continue. To where the Black Cube is."

At Orban's words, the agents took the lead again. The agents who passed Kyle no longer had the same insolent look in their eyes. The Boundary Realm created through the Crows' technology. They could not help but feel that, compared to Kyle, their own realm was hollow.

"Beyond the disinfection room is the central laboratory. Based on the situation forty-three days ago, the Black Cube should be there."

"There may be stronger mutants there. The researchers who were struck first and hardest by the mana."

"Then we will borrow Sir Kyle's strength. Ha ha, bringing Sir Kyle was the right decision. To think Baal would be this sharp... Ah, of course, it is Sir Kyle's skill in wielding such a sharp sword that is remarkable."

The fierce battle was over, and the Black Cube lay ahead. Perhaps some of his tension had eased, because Orban approached Kyle with a smile.

"Many researchers died. Isn't that a tremendous loss?"

"Our Central Branch has more than ten research buildings of this scale. And the most important resource, the Armaments Bureau Director, survived, so this much is not a loss. If anything, this experience will prove valuable later."

At the end of the corridor stood a door. The agents did not approach it, their faces tense, so Orban drew his handgun and fired at the door.

Boom!

The door flew backward with a thunderous blast.

"We already came this far using violent methods."

Orban spoke as if making excuses when Layla gave him a sidelong look. Though he had shot the door apart, nothing changed in the corridor. Orban shrugged as if to say, See?, and pointed at the doorway.

"Enter."

"Yes, Branch Head."

The agents entered first. A moment later, after checking the interior, they called from inside.

"You may enter."

Beyond the door was a control room overlooking the central laboratory, and there were no mutants inside. Orban strode in, glanced at the devices buried beneath flesh, then approached the glass wall looking directly into the laboratory.

"Hmm..."

Orban's eyes trembled faintly. Kyle stood beside him and looked down into the laboratory as well.

It was a grotesque sight. The laboratory he had seen on the tablet during the briefing had originally been a pure white space, but the area visible through the control room's glass wall was filled with dark crimson.

Dark red masses of flesh tangled together at random completely covered the walls, ceiling, and floor. The floor looked like raised burn scars, veins covered the walls, and tongues seemed to be entwined across the ceiling. They pulsed at the same rhythm, as though resonating with one another.

Five figures stood there.

They no longer looked human. The only things revealing that they had once been people were the white lab coats draped over them and their employee identification cards. They had been the five researchers near the Black Cube when it went berserk.

At a glance, they even looked like trees. Roots resembling veins branched from where their feet should have been and were buried in the flesh on the floor. Their torsos stretched high, covered in black and white calluses. Their arms had split into dozens of branches that extended nearly to the ceiling, and where their heads should have been, huge blood-red flowers bloomed like sunflowers.

"Terrifying."

Orban muttered. Like the floor, walls, and ceiling, the trees moved little by little as if they were resonating.

At the center of the circle formed by the five trees sat the Black Cube.

A pitch-black cube. It had the same form as the one he had seen on the tablet. Flesh rising from the floor had formed into hands that supported the Black Cube.

"It looks like an altar."

Kyle spoke. According to Lentz, the Black Cube had first been found in a Demihuman tribal village on the western dark frontier. There, too, the Black Cube had been enshrined atop an altar, and the village had been empty.

"What should we do? Go down?"

"We cannot turn back after coming this far."

Speaking tensely, Orban reached into his coat and pulled out a strip of pure white cloth that looked like a bandage.

"What is that?"

"The Out-of-Place Artifact I mentioned earlier, for sealing the Black Cube. Our family... corporation calls it the Holy Shroud."

He had said family before corporation. As Orban had said, it was not something that belonged to the Crows, but to Orban and the Rubalt family.

'Hmm.'

Just in case, Kyle focused on his necklace and suddenly grabbed Orban's hand.

"Sir Kyle?"

Orban flinched in surprise and looked at Kyle.

"You've worked hard."

Kyle shook Rubalt's hand up and down, then let go. The necklace did not react.

'I can't make sense of its standards at all.'

Orban was briefly bewildered, but soon gave a hearty laugh.

"It is too early to say that. Let us go down first... and see the situation."

The agents took the lead toward the stairs connecting the control room and the laboratory. It was the closest place to the Black Cube, the place that had taken the full force of the rampage's aftermath. Everyone's breathing was quick with tension. Kyle did not lower his guard either and tightened his grip on Baal.

Squish.

The corridor had been made of flesh as well, but stepping on the laboratory floor felt far more unpleasant. The whole laboratory shook with its throbbing pulse, and the trees that had once been human shuddered, making the sensation even more revolting. His stomach even began to itch.

'Hey, Jor. How do you feel?'

Jor, who normally would have groaned about entering a place like this, was strangely silent. Thinking back, she had been quiet since earlier.

'Jor?'

There was no answer when he called. He could clearly feel her in his Middle Dantian, and whenever he circulated the Primordial Chaos Sword Canon, he could feel Jor passing through it.

Yet she did not answer. Kyle tilted his head and rubbed his chest.

'What's wrong with you?'

Following the agents, Orban approached the Black Cube. The trees only swayed and did not attack. The laboratory was the same. Swallowing a relieved sigh, Orban raised the Holy Shroud.

"At last, this is resolved."

Orban murmured softly and stepped closer to the Black Cube.

Bzzzz.

That was the moment Kyle's head rang violently. Thump! His heart pounded hard. Jor twisted in his Middle Dantian with a scream.

[Oh...! It's coming! It's coming!]

"What?"

His ears rang. Only Jor's voice came through clearly. His nose felt hot and wet. At some point, blood had begun streaming from it.

"Uh... uh?"

Kyle was not the only one bleeding from the nose. Blood flowed from the noses of the agents standing guard around the trees near the Black Cube. Before long, blood began to flow not only from their noses, but from their eyes and ears as well.

"Cough!"

One of the agents spat blood from their mouth. Thump, thump, thump! The beating of their hearts began to overlap with the throbbing of the room. Bzzzt...! Static rang through Kyle's head and ears. Gripped by a headache, he clutched his head.

"Ah... ahhh...!"

The agent who had spat blood grabbed their head and began twisting their body.

Crunch!

The bracelet on the agent's wrist shattered first. Then the helmet they wore broke apart. Once all their equipment had been destroyed, the agent's body began to swell grotesquely.

"Ugh... urgh, urghhh...!"

"W-what is this?!"

Orban, who had been approaching with the Holy Shroud, cried out in horror. Layla, following behind him, went pale. Like Kyle, only her nose had been bleeding so far, but then her eyes began to fill with blood as well.

"B-Branch Head, Branch Head, evacuate! Evacuate!"

Layla shouted hoarsely. She hurriedly grabbed Orban's shoulder and pulled him back.

Kyle clutched his chest and glared at the Black Cube. His Chaos Spirit Root. Every sense he had gained after awakening screamed at him.

He had to run.

Bzzzt, bzzzzt...!

The Black Cube was wrapped in dark crimson light. A thin crack appeared along its surface, and the Black Cube began to vibrate.

Thump, thump, thump.

Hearing his heart pounding madly, Kyle glared at the Black Cube. He was not the only one staring. The Black Cube was staring at Kyle as well.

"K-Kyle, Sir Kyle!"

Orban ran toward Kyle, blood streaming from his eyes.

"B-Baal! No, no! Come this way! Quickly!"

Orban raised the Holy Shroud. Kyle did not know what was happening, but he leaned forward to do as Orban said.

Before Kyle could approach, however, all of Orban's protective equipment shattered. His bracelet broke, then his helmet. From there, Orban should have mutated just like the agent before him.

That did not happen.

The moment his equipment broke, black tattoo-like patterns spread across Orban's entire body.

Whoosh!

The tattoos on his skin emitted light, then became pitch-black feathers. Soon, the Holy Shroud in Orban's hand tangled with the feathers and swallowed his body whole.

Thud.

Covered in feathers and the Holy Shroud, Orban collapsed onto the floor like a mummy. Kyle stared blankly at the sight.

"Ha ha ha ha."

A clear laugh rang out.

"Humans truly do amusing things. Have you succeeded in handling the remnants of Ascension?"

Kyle turned toward the voice.

Someone was crouched atop the Black Cube, now split wide open. He was a man with loose black hair, dressed in the clothing of the East.

"What are you?"

Kyle asked the man blankly.

At that question, the man's eyes gleamed as he turned his gaze toward Kyle.

"What are you, then? Why are you fine after looking at this one?"

The man scratched his head with the folding fan in his hand and tilted his head.