Chapter 99

"...!"

It was the first time in my life experiencing my whole body being frozen, so I was feeling quite helpless.

I'd instantly raised my energy to protect my body, and if not for that, I would've died in that instant.

Thanks to that, I was able to decide the rank of that sword in my head.

'It's not a vision sword.'

I wouldn't have been able to resist it so easily, otherwise.

But even for a simple spirit sword, it wasn't something common.

'I'm glad I was right.'

The enemy was mindless. He must've lost his mind once he got his hands on the sword, hence he couldn't take any other action after freezing us in place.

"..."

"..."

As I slowly warmed myself up so as not to startle Gid, my eyes met with the Golden Lion's.

He gave a small nod, and kept doing what he was doing.

Even the Golden Lion was thinking the same, quietly spreading his Golden Cloak Qi to warm himself up.

I warmed my own body up by spreading the Six Peak Flowers technique to the extreme, and watched the enemy. The old man who seemed to be Gid was just looking at the sword he had made with an ecstatic expression, his eyes bulging and cheeks ballooning like a clown.

Added to that the fine wrinkles and age spots on his face -

And the haphazard gray hairs, gave the finishing touch to an exceedingly gloomy countenance.

Someone you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley, that was for sure.

The sword he was holding with such ecstasy was - dazzling.

A straight white blade.

The unadorned but luxurious cross guard, and the pommel studded with blue gems were gorgeous enough to give it a noble air.

'Is the ice almost melted?'

It'd been a pretty brutal chill, but I was now able to at least move around.

The moment when I blinked at the Golden Lion and tried to move slowly -

A cold sentence rang out as if stabbing at that gap.

"Don't move."

It was Gid's voice, but it wasn't singular.

Several voices came simultaneously from one throat.

He was still looking at the sword in his hand, but his consciousness was focused on us.

"I feel it. / The blood that the sword wants. / The sword wants blood. / Lots of blood. / To elevate my soul."

This pervert sounded so confused it was hard to tell what he meant, but I had a feeling that it was important somehow.

When I tried to move slowly -

His eyes moved slightly.

"Black-haired Jervain. Blond-haired Ryudren. Did celebrities from the four great noble families come to see little ol' me? But, it's not your turn yet."

"What are you talking about?"

When the Golden Lion asked the question, Gid responded by wiggling his sword.

"My sword, Valentine, wants a lot of blood. To put it simply, I don't think it's perfect yet. The body has been mixed well, but the soul is still immature. It hasn't been refined to its full extent. It's still got impurities mixed up. Since I couldn't achieve perfection, I have no choice but to forcefully raise its level."

It wasn't difficult to understand what the word "raise" meant.

If it ate me and the Golden Lion, it might get a stomachache, so it meant going outside and slaughtering the knights.

"Does that mean that the sword you made will be upgraded to a vision sword?"

"Yes. Jervain's pup."

I didn't ask how he could know that.

He was overflowing with demonic magic that didn't seem natural at all. Perhaps he'd already established a bond with his sword.

Anyway, the situation wasn't looking good.

'It's dangerous.'

A spirit sword that was equivalent to a vision sword.

Although Gid was an old man and not even a knight, but that alone gave him tremendous strength.

"Jervain's pup, and Ruydren's lion cub. Struggle for a while, until I'm back to feed on your blood one last time."

Puff.

He crossed the distance to us with a free gait as if he was floating in mid-air.

"Ugh."

Craaaackkle.

We'd almost melted the ice around our bodies, but as Gid hit us with his sword again, the chill that engulfed us grew stronger.

"This...!"

The Golden Lion tried to talk, but Gid disappeared, ignoring us.

Aaaaaaaaah!!

And it tandem, screams of the soldiers began to be heard in the distance.

Claaaang!!

"He even closed the door, this bastard."

"Are you alright?"

"Fine. You?"

"Fine. I'd almost solved it, but now it's become a lot harder than I thought."

Although the sword had a soul of spirit rank, it seemed to be nearing the limit of its rank, and the power output was similar to that of a vision sword.

Obviously, the chill was really strong. My whole body had been covered with thin ice with just a breath, and when the blade surface had touched it, it'd completely frozen over.

"I was careless."

The power of the sword Gid had created, depended on the psychology of the person used as the final sacrifice.

I never thought that the difficulty level would be set to the worst.

"I couldn't even draw my sword."

My sword was frozen and didn't even get the chance to come out of its sheath.

I didn't know any ice resistance techniques, so there was nothing I could do about it.

"If we leave him alone, he'll kill everyone in the county."

The Golden Lion Knights were present, but Gid's sword was close to a vision sword.

It was safe to say that few people here could stop him.

"Can you get out?"

"But what about you?"

"I think I should be fine."

Although he was trembling, a golden colour was beginning to shine from beneath the ice.

Then the problem was me.

It was my first time my body being frozen, so I was nervous too.

There was no other way I could think of, so my choices were limited.

"I think I'll have to overdo it a little bit."

"Eh?"

Soon, with a Raging Flower Wave in the left hand -

A White Haze in the right -

Divine power surged from my whole body, and the two qi were fused into one.

"Be careful."

"...!"

The Golden Lion's eyes widened, wondering what I was talking about.

And soon.

Baaaaaaaang!!

The ice burst.

"Ugh!"

The sword he had made.

Gid's heart pounded as he held the sword called Valentine, and blood rushed through his veins.

Slaaaaash!

He'd never thought a sword this great would appear.

It was better than he'd thought.

He couldn't even understand what he was feeling.

"Kakakakahahaaaaaa!"

With every swing, a chill breath flowed, and all the soldiers in its path were frozen in their tracks.

Beheading them was as easy as eating grapes from the bedside table.

The white, frozen ground turned red. Blood flowed and pooled, gradually thickening.

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!"

A very brief amount of time was enough.

After killing all the soldiers, the knights came. The rushing knights were also frozen and decapitated.

As he grabbed a severed head and shook it, blood dripped down.

Gid sprinkled the blood over his head and around him. There was no reason.

It just felt like a libation to God.

"Crazy..."

An old bloodstained man holding on to a severed head and dancing, the sight of him was getting more and more bizarre.

Normal people instinctively avoid lunatics.

Because the latter are beyond the formers' understanding.

Such was the case with Gid.

Nobody could understand him.

They were afraid of him because they couldn't understand him, and the instinct to avoid him surged through their heads.

Gid had no talent in swordsmanship.

He'd originally been a pilgrim, but he couldn't find the sword he wanted, and in the meantime, he took on the task of making swords.

He made a sword, made another, and another.

However, even so, he couldn't find his own sword.

But that sword -

The sword he'd been searching for his whole life -

He thought he might've found it now.

"Good... very good!"

Gid slumped down on the floor.

On the frozen white floor, severed limbs of the soldiers were scattered haphazardly.

The moment he leaned forward, his eyes fluttered close, so he lay his head on a severed thigh.

The sky was dark.

But soon the clouds lifted and the moon shone brightly.

Today was a full moon.

"I haven't seen the moon in a long time. What? You too? Knock it off!"

Gid muttered to himself as if he was having a conversation with the sword.

The soldiers trembled in fear, and even the knights did not approach hastily.

"Why? Why? Why do you look so afraid? Oh, it's because of all the blood. Even my eyes must look red. Ha ha ha ha ha ha! Sure, makes sense!"

"Ahhhhhhhh!"

"R-, run away!!"

He pretended to rush in, but the soldiers who'd been frozen in fear immediately ran away.

Even the knights couldn't move as if they were frozen. The world seemed to belong to only him and him alone.

Was life this easy?

Gid once again blamed himself for not having a talent for swordsmanship, but really, the problem was with having the proper sword, not his swordsmanship.

It was because of the sword.

If he'd made such a sword right away when he was young, he would have cut, ripped, and eviscerated the world all around him!!

"Oh, aren't you Count Valentine! I killed you already, didn't I? How come you're here?"

Gid's neck twisted at a bizarre angle.

He had a puzzled look on his face.

"What..."

Gid, who looked at Tala, strode closer as if confused.

"It's strange, strange. Count, how could you be here? When I slowly lowered you into the furnace from head to toe?"

"...!"

Fear and anger intermixed.

But Tala couldn't say anything.

It felt like Gid would kill him if he uttered a single word.

His toes wiggled, but his legs didn't move for some reason.

... He couldn't run away.

"Hmm... I can't help it. I don't know how you're alive, but it's fine as long as I kill you again."

'Death.'

Tala's eyes, which had been brimming with tears, were tightly closed.

That was then.

There was a man who grabbed the frozen Tala by the neck and threw him away.

"This bastard! Who the hell are you, making such a fuss!!"

"You... who?"

"I am the servant of Callius von Jervain, the man who entrusted his life to his master, and the one who wants to be like the Hero of the North!"

It was Bruns.

"You old fogy, you're so old even your hair's gone gray with age, what are you doing swinging around a sword at night? Scram before we beat you up. Yeah?"

"I... Are you blind? Can't you see me?"

Gid's appearance was terrible.

There were bloodstains all over his body, and even lumps of flesh were hanging from his sword.

But Bruns proudly folded his arms in front of him.

"Yeah, I see a lunatic, so?"

Even for the lunatic Gid, Bruns seemed like a crazy bastard.

"You look crazy, old man, but still... No, what are you all doing? If only my master and the Golden Lion came, his limbs would be broken four hundred and fifty-six times! Come on, everybody attack!"

So he had something to believe in. The Golden Lion knights who were behind Bruns rushed in.

The sixth squad also didn't stand still.

Bruns had come with them.

Had he ever seen such a filthy bastard?

It was so ridiculous and a laugh escaped Gid's throat. Then he raised his sword high and chopped down.

Craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaackkkkkkkle-!!

A frigid chill fell from on high like a tidal wave in front of the rushing knights.

"Hic!"

Seeing the frozen knights, Bruns began to hiccup.

Gid, who had frozen the knights and the inquisitors with one chop of his sword, slowly walked in front of Bruns.

As the gray-haired old man approached with a red glare in his eyes, Bruns slapped his buttocks.

"Hiiiiic! Please! Please spare me!!"

There was not a shred of self-respect in his actions.

Seeing his get down on his knees trembling like a leaf, Gid felt sorry for the sword he'd fed with the knights' blood.

"You piece of trash. I don't need the blood of a worm like you on my sword."

Boom! A kick launched Bruns crashing through a nearby storage shed.

"You cur!"

Most of the knights gathered were the nobility and their subordinates, but there were also some carrying the emblem of the Golden Lion Knights, as well as heretic inquisitors with the insignia of the Sixth Inquisitorial Squad.

They kept congregating, and once their number exceeded one hundred, the barons' momentum began to surge again.

"How dare you make a fuss here! On behalf of the count, I must reap your soul!"

"Congratulations on coming here to die!"

What happened after that was a slaughter.

The frigid ivory wave that spread from the sword wasn't something that could be stopped.

Once swung, a chilly wind spread like a storm. And anybody struck by the sword would have their limbs severed, yet due to the cold they wouldn't die immediately, instead squirming in place like wriggling worms.

Although the ones frozen by the chill breath of the sword couldn't be saved, and the barons as well as their knights were almost completely wiped out, the Golden Lion Knights and the Sixth Inquisitorial Squad suffered relatively little damage.

But it was only a matter of time.

There was no knight who could use his power in front of that ice.

Even if they avoided that arctic explosion, their bodies would still slowly freeze.

Was this why the Church revered the sword so much?

The knights, helpless in front of a single sword, felt the futility of their struggle in their very bones.

They couldn't help but have the same thought as the gray-haired old man knocked down man after man, one opponent overcoming more than a hundred spirit swords.

That this - was a disaster.

A natural disaster, in and of itself.

That was then.

Claaaaaang-!!

"Wh, what!"

"The ground suddenly started to collapse!"

There was a violent vibration, like an earthquake.

Whiiiiiiiiiiiiish - bang!

Something soared high into the sky and fell to the floor.

Everybody looked.

"A door?"

It was a door about three handspans thick.

From within the rising cloud of dust, two forms appeared.

"Stand back."

Whoooooooosh.

After clearing the white chill, the men who appeared like they'd walked through a storm - were Callius and Ruen.

A gray wolf, and a golden lion.

Editor's Notes:

None for this chapter.