Chapter 54 : Chapter 54

Chapter 54 - Conquering Eclipse

Consciousness fades away.

First, the sound fades away.

Next, the pain fades away.

Beyond that, thoughts fade away.

Finally, consciousness faded away.

The feeling of being erased from the world.

The more I swung the sword, the stronger that sensation became.

As if the thing I was holding now was not a sword but a broomstick.

The movements of extending for an attack and retracting for defense, all of it chipped away at the person that was me.

In that process of oblivion, strength was the easiest thing to overlook.

Slither─

The strength in my forward-extended leg gave out for a moment.

As naturally as a leaf falling to the ground.

There was no time to question this.

The necessity that survived within the unnecessary, which had been cleared away by oblivion, still moved the intact body.

Kwadeuk─!!

The Bone Sword and the great bone sword met for the first time.

When evasion was blocked by the weakened leg, the final method was defense.

However, the chance for defense, which should have been the first and last, vanished in vain.

Patter-patter─

The Bone Sword shatters into fragments and flies in all directions.

The hand that held the Bone Sword was torn and dripped blood.

Thanks to the Monarch's Aura Body, I managed to prevent my arm from being blown off, but.

“Tsk….”

I clicked my tongue and urged my leg, which had barely regained its strength.

My body pulled back.

It was the first retreat I had chosen since the battle began.

My eyes went down.

A blade, more than half of which was gone.

Now the hilt was longer than the remaining blade.

It had become something difficult to even call a sword, but I did not let go.

If a swordsman lets go of his sword, is he still a swordsman?

It was a Bone Sword I made while serving a sorcerer family, but now even that was impossible.

Creating that slow Skeleton Soldier now would be a problem.

The process of carving a bone into a Bone Sword was also a problem.

There was no way the bastard would wait.

The Demon Knight still stood with its great bone sword hanging limply.

Like its body, which was slightly tilted toward the side holding the sword, that skull's expression could now be read.

A mocking smile.

The bastard was smiling.

It was not being hasty, but leisurely waiting for the right time.

The moment a gap like before opened up due to my own exhaustion.

That single-edged greatsword, caked with human bones, would add another human bone today.

“Haaa….”

Gatekeeper. Mesher Attica let out a sigh.

“I've certainly gotten old.”

He nodded his head.

I had to admit what needed admitting.

I don't know what kind of stubbornness had set in as I aged.

I was under the delusion that just because I lived a little longer than others, I had seen the whole world.

I was under the delusion that I had seen all the sweet, sour, and bitter tastes of the world.

I looked down on that Youngest Son for a long time, wondering what great thing he could possibly show me.

The Bone Sword in my hand was proving it for him.

And yet, the Youngest Son presented a monster before my eyes as if spitting on that Bone Sword.

I had to admit it.

It was fun.

My heart was pounding like crazy for the first time in a long time.

My breath was caught at the tip of my chin, and my lungs had shrunk to their limit.

The pressure in my eyes was so high that it felt like they would pop right out if I got hit once on the back of my head.

The strength in my grip had long been gone, and my joints were tingling.

It was the fun of battle, which I hadn't felt in a very long time.

“I had forgotten.”

Behind the noble honor of wearing the Executioner Knight's helmet and protecting the Family Law.

I had forgotten where I had dedicated my life and in what kind of place I had lived.

“And I understand. Why you, Youngest Son, put me in this place. Why you had me read the Scripture of the Dark Wheel.”

The Scripture of the Dark Wheel.

It was divided into chapters 1 through 6, but in a larger sense, it was a diary.

The First Family Head left his diary for later generations, hoping that there would be parts where his descendants' lives overlapped with his.

Because if so, understanding would be much easier.

But who could possibly.

Live a life similar to the First Family Head, who started with nothing in the land of demon worshipers?

It was difficult to empathize with even a little, so no one had interpreted it, and it was abstruse because no one recognized that little bit.

But if one understood even a few sentences from chapters 1 to 6 and accepted them as their own.

If someone pushed them from behind and showed them the way.

The Scripture of the Dark Wheel would embrace anyone with open arms after enlightenment.

Even if it was a ten-year-old kid.

It was the same even if it was a man who had no talent in any sorcery.

Drrrrrrrrrrrrrk─

The pillars of the altar tremble.

The ceiling vibrates, the ground shakes, and dust falls.

It dirties my clothes and stings my eyes, but a smile formed on this side.

“Phase 2 isn't something only you guys have.”

The Youngest Son still leaned back in his chair and leisurely crossed his legs.

The passages where he had felt something.

That feeling was something only Mesher Attica could feel.

The Scripture of the Dark Wheel says.

When the five senses become quiet, the mind also becomes quiet, and reason also becomes quiet.

One can reach the highest state.

The Scripture of the Dark Wheel says.

Only those who know both knowledge and ignorance.

Will pass beyond death and reach immortality.

“……”

Haaa─

I breathed out.

It was not a breath exhaled to live.

It was a breath moving towards death, a breath exhaled to find life within death.

Drip. Drip-drip.

Something falls from my hand.

It was the melted Bone Sword.

It no longer maintained its form, leaving only its essence, its sharpness.

—Erase yourself (Muyo). Embody only the meaning of your birth (Honjil).

A hand that left only an intangible sharpness instead of a blade.

I imbued that sharpness into the fire that had allowed only that to remain.

The fire was rolled and clumped in both palms, then stretched as it was led.

I don't know.

What I'm making now.

I was truly ignorant, but my body moved on its own.

Even if I burned my own name with oblivion, I still knew what a sword looked like.

Between knowledge and ignorance, the sword of Asura was born.

「Six Paths - Path of the Asura」

Fire of Annihilation - Slash

…Time flows.

The world, which had been moving as slowly as if it had stopped, began to find its speed.

‘Why was I standing here again….’

I couldn't get a grasp on it.

All I could see was the hard surroundings and the broken floor.

And the bony joints that were running like crazy, as if crawling towards this place.

“What are you.”

I narrowed my brow and raised my arm.

Ah, right. I was holding a sword.

Hwoooong─

That was the thought that came to mind as I watched a skull float aimlessly into the air.

Even though the body of only bones had collapsed.

A rather dull sound echoed through the arena.

‘Why did that thing charge at me. I feel like there was a reason.’

That reason sent light applause from behind.

“Good work. Gatekeeper. Rest now.”

“……”

The impassive, flat eyes began to bend slightly.

The brow was the same.

The Youngest Son raised both hands as if in surrender.

“You won't have time to swing that at me. You'll die if you do.”

“…Ah.”

Along with a cry like a last gasp.

The Fire of Annihilation that was burning in his hand died down.

The consciousness that had barely surfaced finally realized the pain and felt the exhaustion.

“Thank, you….”

“No. It was very stable for a first attempt.”

“This, you say?”

I saw both his trembling hands next to the rolling skull.

Those hands were burned black.

Beyond red, the skin was cooked like a shell.

It was a good outcome for having continuously held a flame that erases whatever it touches.

“Don't worry. As your proficiency with the technique increases, your own shortcuts will continue to emerge. And this hand now.”

He brought his index finger to the completely ruined hand.

Two marrows extended from behind his back.

「Six Paths - Path of the Beast」

Human Transmutation

He formed a Hand Seal with the marrow and muttered the activation word.

Beast Sorcery of a completely different dimension because it was of the Six Paths.

The hand, which looked like it couldn't be revived without pouring an Elixir on it, quickly grew new flesh.

The wrinkles even improved a little, making it look as if it had been rejuvenated.

This time, even the Gatekeeper's eyes went wide.

“Can you, Youngest Son, also use the Six Paths…?”

“Have you already forgotten who told you the interpretation you memorized?”

“W-Well then, Youngest Son, can you use all Six Paths….”

“That's going too far. Don't expect too much from a ten-year-old.”

Wah. I'm a baby Youngest Son.

This time, I used the excuse of my young age to avoid the look of astonishment.

Because now it was my turn.

The demon of the altar seemed to have recognized that as well.

Kuuuuuuuung─

The floor of the inner chamber split open, revealing a circular platform.

“I'll be back.”

I walked towards the circular platform with my hands habitually behind my back.

Then, a voice that seemed a little hesitant, but was uttered without stopping, reached my back.

“…You will return. Of course, this time too.”

“Of course.”

I stepped onto the circular platform.

The Youngest Son, who had turned his back to him, wore his usual leisurely smile.

“I might be back sooner than you think.”

Woooooooooong─

I couldn't ask for the reason.

Because the circular platform ascended faster than that.

It quickly passed the lowest level and rose to the upper part of the altar in one go.

The view of the altar's interior helped me formulate a plan for furniture and room placement.

Of course, it was news that the landlord here would not be happy about.

Koong─

The circular platform stopped.

The space I arrived at was a sealed and dark place.

There had been light, but it disappeared as the circular platform became one with the floor.

I don't know if the landlord will agree to this either, but I'll have to use this place as an attic.

First, before that.

The Youngest Son spoke into the darkness.

“If we're going to fight, it should be in the same space as the proxy to follow the rules. What's the reason you brought me to this place?”

[The reason….]

A gloomy voice echoes seamlessly in this attic.

[The reason is simple. To borrow the expression of humans.]

The more I heard the voice echoing from all sides, the more I could pinpoint its direction.

Straight ahead.

[I have raised the white flag.]

It was right in front of my nose.

I could clearly see the dark purple eyes.

At the same time, the shadows lifted.

The attic revealed its original form.

A small altar filled with the words of demons that defile God, and a box placed on top of it.

That which was carved from stone should have originally required a long journey.

From that lowest level, I would have had to kill demons and climb up until all the demonic energy of Eclipse was exhausted.

The voice was still audible.

[Young Millesdusk. Let's make a deal.]

He recognizes that I'm a Millesdusk.

-There was no need for such words.

Because the demon of the altar here must have seen the First Family Head in person.

Furthermore, he was an ancient being in human history, having seen even the First Family Head's Six Paths in person.

Such a being offered a deal.

“What deal.”

This time, I really didn't know.

It was the first time I knew there was a platform in the altar here.

To think that the dungeon Eclipse had such a skip process.

It was probably because of the establishment of two absurd conditions: the request for a Battle for Dominance and showing the Six Paths.

And so, the absurd development of the demon of the altar raising the white flag was unfolding.

[You want to obtain this land, don't you.]

“Yes.”

[And I want to preserve my life.]

“That would be so.”

The demon's voice was clearly audible even though there was only one person here.

The sensation of it being directly inserted into my head continued.

[Then the answer is simple. You make me your familiar in this very spot.]

[It's a trap. The moment your souls are connected to make me a familiar, he will surely dig into the gap in the contract and possess you.]

“…What.”

The voices of two demons, two voices, echoed in my head.

One was the demon of the altar. The other was.

“Is that you, Enad?”

[If that's my name, then yes. A familiar is not such a simple matter.]

[…You're just a scrap clinging to a magic sword. Don't interrupt when adults are talking and stay crushed.]

He said adult, but this side was ten years old.

Of course, only when considering physical age.

Enad shot back.

[I had my eyes on this body to possess it. Where do you think you're belatedly butting in and putting your claws on it.]

[Ha. Living for a long time, I've experienced all sorts of humiliations. Young Millesdusk. The master-servant relationship in a familiar contract is clear. There are no such loopholes.]

[Another lie. Isn't a familiar a demon? Rather, the best thing to stab you in the back is a familiar. You should just kill it.]

[This…! This one is the one telling lies! That one is spouting nonsense out of fear of having his place taken!]

A life urged to choose between two demons.

I don't know what kind of life this is.

“Everyone be quiet. I've already made my choice.”

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