Reincarnation of the Sword Demon - Chapter 172

WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Chapter 172: Three, Two, One

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Kyle was just as bewildered.

That naked man had taken Kyle and Katarina's combined attack with his bare body, then turned into a heap of ash before their eyes. Kyle had clearly thought him dead, yet now he stood there completely uninjured, his pale body bare as ever.

[How bizarre.]

Fragment muttered.

[That man looks human, but he does not feel human.]

'Then what does he feel like?'

[A Spirit... perhaps. A closer comparison would be your Spirits. A mana life-form with a physical body.]

Kyle looked at the piles of fallen leaves around the man. The brittle, dried leaves did not contain even the faintest trace of life.

They had fallen when the man restored his body from that heap of ash.

Kyle stared at the leaves for a moment before turning back to the man. Despite his dumbfounded expression, the man stood there awkwardly, covering his groin with both hands.

"Someone, give him an outer garment."

Bruno immediately took off his cloak and threw it over. Thankfully, the fog did not block it.

The man hurriedly picked up the cloak and wrapped it around himself, then glared at Katarina with an indignant expression.

"Aren't you ashamed of drawing a sword meant to kill without warning? What uncouth people you are...! How dare you swing swords in a place like this!"

"Are you from Izelion?"

At Kyle's question, the man's face twisted.

"Of course I'm from Izelion! Did you swing your swords without even knowing that?!"

"We knew. We swung them so you'd come outside and greet your guests."

"G-guests? Since when were strangers who came without the owner's permission and immediately started swinging swords considered guests?!"

"That is a bit harsh. Do you truly not know who we are?"

Kyle asked in confusion.

Red hair and golden eyes. Kyle and Katarina bore Alastor's distinctive colors openly. On top of that, the uniforms they wore had their family crest, a flower made of blades, plainly emblazoned over the left breast.

There was no way someone from Izelion would fail to recognize that crest.

"Y-you are... who?"

The man's eyes went blank at Kyle's question. He stood there with his mouth half-open, and Katarina, who no longer had to cover her eyes, strode toward him.

"I am Katarina Alastor, commander of Gladiheim's Aurora Knights and daughter of Julius Alastor, the Thunder Emperor. I have come on business with Izelion, so I expect a proper reception."

"Alastor..."

The man muttered in a dazed voice.

Katarina narrowed her eyes at that strange reaction.

"Who are you within Izelion? State your name and position."

"I am... I..."

The man's body trembled.

Then he staggered backward and pressed his back against the tree he had emerged from.

"I... I am a tree... A tree..."

Sliiide...

The man's body melded into the tree. The cloak he had been wearing fell to the ground, and his pale skin turned into bark.

Before long, the man became part of the tree and vanished.

Katarina watched the bizarre sight, then gripped her sword hilt again.

"Even if we are uninvited guests, to disregard the name of Alastor after I announced it myself...!"

There was no doubt about it. Katarina truly was hot-blooded.

As she prepared to swing her sword again, Kyle hurriedly stopped her.

"Please wait."

"We already made our intentions clear. If they block us, we will break through. Judging by that response, they have no intention of speaking with us. Then we have no reason to speak with them either!"

"Still, we knocked on the door. Won't there be a response from inside?"

Kyle was willing to resort to force if necessary, but he was not as extreme as Katarina.

"Let's try speaking with them again first. If they refuse to listen, then we can draw our swords. That person just now also seemed mentally unstable."

Not only had he failed to recognize Alastor, but he had answered that he was a tree when asked who he was. There was clearly something wrong with his mind.

Katarina considered it for a moment before nodding.

"I will respect your wishes. But Kyle, Alastor is a martial family. If they do not respect Alastor, we must earn that respect with our swords."

"Um... Since we came here unannounced, perhaps we are the ones showing insufficient respect for Izelion."

"If they want respect from us, they only need to be stronger than us."

Kyle could only honestly admire that answer.

Within Alastor, respect was something earned through strength. Katarina's logic was thoroughly Alastor-like.

In a sense, even more so than Julius's. Compared to Katarina, Julius was an exceedingly rational person.

Some time passed.

Katarina's eyebrows twitched at the presence she sensed beneath their feet, but Kyle stopped her from drawing her sword.

Before long, people emerged from beyond the fog.

They had black hair and wore eastern clothing, garments similar to those Muheok and Soha had worn at the Imperial Palace banquet. A white-haired elder stepped forward from among them.

"Go back."

"Aren't you going to ask who we are?"

"Red hair and golden eyes. You wear uniforms bearing your family crest, and your appearance is that obvious. Is there any need to ask who you are?"

"The person we met earlier did not recognize us."

The elder's eyes narrowed at Kyle's reply. He glared at Kyle for a moment, then spoke.

"I told you to leave. Izelion has no intention of speaking with Alastor."

"Who are you, sir?"

"Seok-u Izelion. One of this family's Elders."

"I will speak with Izelion's Family Head."

"The current Family Head has been deposed. The selection of the next Family Head has not yet concluded, so stop interfering and leave."

"I have something to discuss with Izelion's Family Head. Why was the Family Head deposed?"

Seok-u's eyes trembled at the casual question.

"There is no reason to answer an outsider."

"Do you not want to know why we came all this way?"

"I do not. Leave."

"You seem to be saying that rather often. Do you know how many times you have said it so far?"

"Three. I have said it three times. I have repeated it enough for you to understand how firm our intentions are, so now leave..."

"Three times is enough. Right?"

Kyle glanced at Katarina as he spoke.

Katarina, who had been staring at Seok-u with cold eyes, nodded.

"Let's not kill them."

That was all she said.

Katarina stomped her foot.

Boom!

The ground shook from that ground-shaking stomp, and those hiding beneath the earth screamed as they burst out into the open.

Then Kyle and Katarina kicked off the ground at the same time.

"You mad bastards?!"

Seok-u let out a shout that sounded almost like a scream, as though he had never expected them to act so barbarically.

Still, while startled, Izelion responded smoothly.

Izelion was one of the Three Great Martial Families alongside Alastor. Those whose concealment had been exposed took up fighting stances despite vomiting blood, attacking the Sword Wolf Knights. The Izelion martial artists who had stood with Seok-u also formed up and faced Kyle and Katarina.

But they were slow.

The ones charging in now were among Alastor's strongest. The moment Izelion's martial artists formed their formation was nearly the same moment Kyle and Katarina reached its center.

A formation was only a formation once complete. Before then, it was merely people standing in awkward positions.

And Kyle was not merciful enough to overlook that awkwardness.

"Hup?!"

The martial artist at the front sucked in a breath and raised their sword.

It was an elegant draw. Fast, smooth, like flowing water.

It was a good draw, but it was slow in Kyle's eyes.

Thud!

Kyle swung the back of his hand before the sword could even leave its sheath. The sword, struck at its hilt, slid back into the sheath.

Then Kyle's left hand struck the martial artist's chest.

That alone sent them flying backward.

"Form up!"

Seok-u drew a sword and shouted, but it was too late.

Kyle was already inside another martial artist's guard.

He did not even draw Fenris. There was no need to.

A chop to the nape. An elbow to the solar plexus. A kick across the thigh with the top of his foot.

It took less than two breaths for three people to collapse.

Kyle subdued them while holding back his strength, while Katarina drew her sword and swung it.

However, she did not cut them. She struck them with the flat of her blade.

That alone was enough to send Izelion's martial artists sprawling across the ground, coughing blood.

Even so, she had not killed them.

"Th-this is impossible..."

Seok-u stumbled backward.

The guards Seok-u had brought were by no means weak, yet before Alastor's pure-blooded descendants with red hair and golden eyes, they were as helpless as children.

The two remaining guards stepped forward, but they could not withstand Katarina's single strike and were sent rolling across the ground.

"I am Katarina Alastor."

Katarina strode toward Seok-u, her eyes shining fiercely.

"Commander of the Aurora Knights and daughter of the Thunder Emperor. I came to speak with Mu-hyeok Izelion, the Family Head of Izelion."

"You drew your swords and attacked first, and now you speak of conversation?!"

Seok-u shouted and thrust a hand toward Katarina.

Though an elder, Seok-u was still one of Izelion's Elders. His strike was swift and threatening as lightning, but Katarina's sword was faster.

Thud!

Seok-u's right hand bent from the blow of her blade's flat.

"Guhk!"

"Strike once more, and I will cut it off."

Katarina whispered.

At those words, Seok-u had no choice but to stop the left hand he had been about to strike with. He swallowed hard as he looked at Katarina, but Katarina was looking at Kyle instead.

"I did not kill them. Just as you said."

"Thank you for listening to me."

"Your sword is worthy of respect. And you are the one carrying out this mission, not me."

Katarina grabbed Seok-u by the shoulder and dragged him before Kyle.

Before looking at Seok-u, Kyle turned around.

The Izelion martial artists who had been hiding underground were already lying around the Sword Wolf Knights. They had suffered internal injuries from Katarina's stomp first, but the knights' suppression of them had been swift and smooth.

Kyle grinned at the knights standing with swords drawn, then turned back to Seok-u.

"We did not come to wage war."

"Say something that makes sense...! After doing this, you claim you did not come for war?"

"If we wanted war, would only we have come? We would have brought a great many elite fighters with us."

"What you have done is no different from a declaration of war. Alastor's name may be formidable, but Izelion is also one of the Three Great Martial Families...! Are you prepared to take responsibility for this?!"

"I do not know about being prepared, but if we die here, the war you mentioned will truly happen."

"How can you be so shameless? You attack first, then say that if we retaliate, you will truly wage war? Are we supposed to simply take it?"

"Yes."

Kyle answered calmly.

Seok-u's face went blank.

"That is why you should have welcomed us, spoken with us, and opened the door from the beginning. Then neither side would have had to take offense."

"Letting uninvited people like you inside is precisely what would offend Izelion!"

"It is better for only one side to take offense than for both sides to do so. And even if we are offended at first, we may end up laughing together once we speak."

As he said that, Kyle twisted Seok-u's arm behind their back. He positioned the quietly groaning Seok-u in front of him, then gestured to the Sword Wolf Knights.

"Let's go inside for now."

"Why... Why are you trying to enter? What business do you have with Izelion?"

"You said that you deposed Family Head Muheok. You already know why Alastor, why I came here, do you not?"

Kyle raised his voice while keeping Seok-u in front of him.

He was not speaking to Seok-u, but to every member of Izelion watching them from deeper within the forest.

Katarina stood at Kyle's side with her sword drawn, releasing her presence. The Sword Wolf Knights, led by Lucia, also guarded the area around Kyle.

"The roots of the Spirit Tree... are Izelion's fate and life. If the roots are harmed, every member bearing Izelion's name will die. We cannot allow outsiders near such roots."

"You say they are already rotting. Rather than leave roots that may rot away and die at any moment, would it not be better to accept an outsider's help?"

"How can we be certain you have no wicked intentions?!"

"That is a strange thing to say. Do you think I am trying to reach the roots in order to wipe out Izelion? I have neither reason nor need to go to that trouble. What could Alastor gain by exterminating Izelion?"

"..."

"Rather, I do not understand why you and Izelion's Elders are rejecting me this fiercely. If your entire family could be exterminated at any moment, you should grasp even a straw. Why reject help and even depose Family Head Muheok?"

"Th-that is..."

Seok-u hesitated, unable to answer.

Kyle glanced at his troubled expression before turning his gaze away.

The fog blocking the edge of the forest remained as thick as ever. Kyle stared at it for a moment before speaking.

"I can cross the Wall of Severance."

Seok-u's mouth fell open as he turned to Kyle.

"Velatus, the Dragon Queen who crossed into the East, has invited me. If you do not open the way and welcome me, I will stop caring about this place and cross into the East. I, Alastor, came here because of the ties and goodwill we share with Izelion, not to attack Izelion."

To draw the line coldly, Izelion was not part of Alastor's family.

Even if Izelion were exterminated, Alastor would suffer no harm. Kyle had only come here because Julius had made a promise with Muheok to help prevent Izelion's extinction, considering the ties Julius had formed with Izelion.

"You also wish to cross the Wall of Severance and enter the East, do you not? You want to sever your bindings to the Mok Family, your main house in the East. The rotting roots may be unavoidable, but if you settle matters with the Mok Family, you may be able to resolve the threat of your entire clan dying out."

Seok-u's eyes shook rapidly.

He opened his mouth as though to shout something, then hesitated and shut it again.

Kyle glanced at his expression and continued.

"If you do not open the way and welcome us by the time I count down from three, I will leave without caring what becomes of you. Three, two."

Just as he was about to say one.

The fog completely cleared.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

The trees in the forest walked as though alive.

Looking closely, human faces were embedded in the middle of their trunks. Their unfocused eyes turned toward Kyle. Their open mouths moved weakly, leaking out voices.

"Guests..."

"Welcome the guests."

"The guests..."

As the trees moved, the scenery began to change.

The forest, already in full view after the fog cleared, warped. Its center split wide open, and an entrance appeared.

[They are not inside the forest. They are inside a door within the forest. This is like...]

'A Secret Realm.'

Kyle had never experienced anything good within a Secret Realm.

Thinking that, he stared at the entrance.

Then a group of people emerged from within the rift.

"Welcome."

A brown-skinned middle-aged person glared at Kyle as they spoke.