WeTried Translations
Translator: Hydrogen B
Editor: Hydrogen B
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 176: The Red Banquet (15)
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The wind was cold. The killing intent pouring down on him made his skin tingle. Somewhere, he heard the flutter of a flag. The moon hanging high in the center of the night sky shone even brighter.
Six Imperial knights charged at him, intent on killing him.
The moment Blade Storm was blocked, Kyle kicked off the ground without a moment's hesitation, charging straight at the six knights. He put Philip, collapsed behind him, out of his mind. His gaze held only the knights before him.
With every step he took, the blades closing in from all directions drew nearer. Countless fragmented afterimages swept across Kyle's body. Some pierced his heart. Others cleanly passed across his throat. Their Sword Paths differed, but the result was the same.
His death, a possibility that could become reality in just a few seconds.
The more his perception of time stretched, the more Prisia's mana surged through his entire body like a raging tide. In his thoughts, accelerated to their limit, Kyle felt a sudden wave of dizziness.
What did it feel like to see possible futures?
He had not known in the past. Interfering with time in any way had been impossible. Now he knew. Even catching a glimpse of fragments of the future was an absurd Authority.
Once knights and mages rose beyond a certain level, strength and destructive power alone could not decide a battle. What mattered more was the contest of tactics. That was why real combat experience was so important. In that sense, being able to see a few seconds into the future was an outrageous advantage. He could understand why Hermann and Walter had been so shocked.
But it wasn't invincibility.
He had to end this as quickly as possible. He still had no answer for the extreme exhaustion and weakness that followed. Perhaps it was the price of a human body coveting the power of the Progenitor Dragon.
The first knight to reach Kyle's side thrust a sword forward.
It was a clean thrust without a wasted movement. Kyle neither dodged nor blocked. He angled Yurian's sword in his right hand against the flat of the incoming blade.
Screeeech.
The tip of the star iron sword raced up the surface of the enemy's blade as if climbing a hill. The Sword Path aimed at Kyle's heart curved into the air. At the same moment, the afterimages of the knight before Kyle vanished.
One future had become fixed.
Only then did the knight who had confidently charged in first panic and try to twist away. Kyle did not hesitate. He thrust out his right arm.
Out of countless possible futures, this was the only move that could kill the knight in a single strike.
There was no escaping it. Whether the knight struggled to pull back their sword, twisted their body, or tried to duck, it was all useless.
Crunch!
Yurian's sword pierced through the first knight's throat. The knight's blade, its Sword Path disrupted, passed harmlessly through the air beside Kyle's head before falling limply to the ground.
"Rex!"
Kyle pulled his sword free to the side. The knight's body, neck nearly severed, crumpled helplessly to the ground. When Kyle turned his gaze, another wild-eyed knight was charging at him, crying out the dead knight's name.
Efficient. The first knight roughly drew attention before falling back, then the second continued the offensive and surrounded him from both sides.
Ordinary knights would have been unable to move and died.
Kyle lowered his body and lightly stomped with his left foot. The ground trembled faintly, and the approaching knight's stance faltered. Dirt flew up from beneath the knight's feet as ice spikes erupted all at once.
The knight was startled, but only for a moment. Instead, the knight ignored them all and accelerated even more. Ice shards burst apart from the ground with sharp cracking sounds.
Still, an opening was unavoidable for that brief instant.
The future afterimages floating before Kyle were cut in half.
Their swords clashed. Kyle knocked the blade upward and slipped through the opening in his opponent's guard as the knight shifted into a defensive stance.
Stab!
"Urk!"
The knight stared at Kyle in disbelief, their heart pierced through. There was no armor, so Kyle had no need to use Sword Aura. He pushed the sword to the side. The star iron blade tore through the knight's flank and emerged from the other side.
One, two, three, four...
After that, it became a one-sided slaughter.
The charging knights could not last even two exchanges. As if they had been cursed, all of them lost their stance to the first strike and helplessly exposed a vital point to the second.
At some point, Kyle became able to instantly identify which Sword Path offered the shortest route among the countless splitting afterimages. He slipped into it, thrusting and swinging his sword.
There was no need for complicated tactical exchanges.
Every possible response his opponents could make was in Kyle's grasp.
The fifth knight fell.
Clang!
For the first time, a sharp metallic ring echoed out. The last remaining wyvern knight glared fiercely at Kyle. The moment Kyle moved in along the shortest route, the wyvern knight instinctively pulled back and swung their sword upward.
The future afterimages warped irregularly.
"You..."
A brief silence settled between them, a deadlock.
The wyvern knight widened the distance and looked around. Not even ten seconds had passed, yet the five knights who had been alive moments ago were all dead, bleeding across the ground. Philip, the sole surviving King of Russel, could only tremble as he stared at the two, unable to keep up with what had happened.
"You... What did you just do?"
"......"
"This is impossible. They weren't the sort to die without even lasting two exchanges. How did you..."
The wyvern knight muttered in a trembling voice. Instead of replying, Kyle steadied his labored breathing and calmed Prisia's mana.
As expected, it didn't work so easily against someone at a higher level.
It had been the same when he sparred with Hermann. The stronger his opponent was, the more possible outcomes Kyle had to account for. It was normal for the afterimages to twist here and there in response to Kyle's sword. The wyvern knight before him was the same. There were twice as many afterimages as with the other knights. Even when Kyle took the optimal Sword Path along the shortest route, the wyvern knight instinctively reacted and retreated.
That was how many variables there were in real combat.
Hermann had lost to Kyle in that spar because his injuries had not fully healed and he had let his guard down. If they fought again with Hermann in perfect condition, it would not be easy. Still, Kyle had undeniably become stronger than before. A year ago, he would not have been able to force a wyvern knight of that level back so one-sidedly.
He was clearly stronger now.
So if Prisia's mana flowed through him even more smoothly. If he became more accustomed to using the Authority. If the drain on his stamina became less severe.
Then...
"Blue Wolf... So that strange feeling back then wasn't my imagination. It was true."
The wyvern knight's low voice shattered Kyle's thoughts. Having cast aside confusion and accepted reality, the wyvern knight's eyes burned with rage.
"How are you alive?"
"Didn't Duke Mortein tell you?"
"You definitely died. The Commander personally confirmed that you had stopped breathing. The dead cannot be brought back. That is the law of the world."
"Not with the power of the Progenitor Dragon."
"You have the Dragon Heart?"
"You didn't hear that much? Or... there was no time to tell you. Did the Grand Duke block the news?"
It was not difficult to grasp the situation. The knight before him was a wyvern knight of the Celestial Knights who had infiltrated Russel long ago. The knights Kyle had killed were likely elite Imperial Knights, even if they were not wyvern knights themselves.
Hermann, Walter, and Adrian had worked behind the scenes without rest in preparation for this day, so it would not be strange if recent information had been controlled. Or perhaps Archandia and Renavik were simply very far apart.
Either way, it was not bad for Kyle.
It meant the Empire's First Emperor, like Prisia, was not an omniscient and omnipotent god.
"Then I have even more reason to kill you."
"......"
"At the very least, I'll take one of your arms. Even if I die here."
The atmosphere changed in an instant.
The wyvern knight took a stance with a resolute expression. Crimson Sword Aura rose over the sword in their hand. Their attitude was completely different from when the other knights had been alive.
"......"
Kyle, on the other hand, leisurely walked toward the wyvern knight. The sound of his footsteps on the dirt echoed through the quiet night. Prisia's mana, which had settled down, began circulating violently through his body once more.
When half the distance between them remained, Kyle forcefully pushed off the ground.
Bang!
Dirt scattered savagely beneath his feet. At almost the same time, dozens of red afterimages appeared before him. The wyvern knight's red-hot blade was already swinging.
It was a sword technique.
A relentless succession of strikes from the Celestial Sword.
Kyle did not dodge. As he had until now, he pushed his body into the web of Sword Paths. Red blades rising like afterimages threatened to tear him apart at any moment. Using Prisia's Authority, Kyle fed every last bit of his remaining mana into his sword.
Asherad Royal Swordsmanship, Second Form.
Dance of Embers.
Fwoooosh!
Prisia's mana, visible as pure white light, transformed into scattering flames. The flames coiled around the red web in a spiral. The white sword and crimson blade collided.
Clang!
A piercing metallic crash struck his eardrums. Scattered white sparks brushed his cheeks and melted into the air. Several crimson afterimages floating like illusions shattered like glass. Ignoring the countless possibilities that targeted his vital points, Kyle guided his sword along the best path in real time.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.
Crunch!
The pure white blade swung eight times, tearing apart every red afterimage. By the time he realized it, Kyle's sword had passed through the wyvern knight's open left flank, shattered the knight's ribs, and split their heart in two.
Cough!
The white Sword Aura slowly faded. Fresh red blood seeped over the star iron blade as it regained its original sheen. A beat later, the wyvern knight dropped their sword to the ground.
Their lips trembled as they looked down at the blade embedded in the center of their body. There was no rage in their eyes now, only emptiness and confusion.
"The Authority of Progenitor Dragon Prisia... was time, wasn't it?"
"......"
"Earlier, and now... did you see the future? Were you reading my Sword Path from the beginning?"
"Yes."
"Ha! Is that what it was? I wondered what that faint sense of wrongness was. I could never have won from the beginning. I never thought I'd die so pointlessly..."
The wyvern knight coughed up a mouthful of blood. Red stains spread across their black formal attire, but Kyle did not so much as twitch an eyebrow.
"Do you still... dream that empty dream of the Empire's destruction?"
The wyvern knight asked with a much calmer look than before.
"There has never been a time when I didn't."
"A dreamer, then. You still hope for a dream that can never come true?"
"It isn't an impossible dream anymore. I won't hesitate or make mistakes again. Never again."
"Is that so?"
Kyle pulled his sword from the wyvern knight's body. Pent-up blood gushed from the wound, and the wyvern knight collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut, their eyes losing focus.
Silence had already settled over the area.
At times, he could hear sobbing and ragged breathing. Kyle glanced once at Philip, who was blankly staring in his direction, then turned his head back toward the banquet hall.
The moonlight still softly illuminated the surroundings.
Footnotes:
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