CH 247

However, Gerard had enough foresight to predict Juan’s movement.

Even before Juan took his foot off the ground, his soaring murderous intent was aiming for Gerard’s neck.

Gerard just shook his head at such an obvious attack. He simply shook his finger with the intention of seizing and tearing apart all of Juan’s limbs.

At that moment, Juan moved strangely in the air, as if bouncing off, and then immediately jumped at Gerard again.

Seeing this, Gerard quickly pushed Juan away; it was as if he released his strength explosively as soon as he saw Juan approach him.

Juan was pushed out as if it could not be helped, but Gerard looked at him in disbelief.

“Are you curious as to how I dodged your attack?”

Gerard silently looked at Juan instead of answering.

“It’s not like you’re using some mysterious power or anything. All you’re doing is using a transparent hand of some sort. To be precise, it’s a very dense mass of physical force condensed from mana. But no matter how good a person, they can only move based on their past experiences. At the same time, everything is even clearer after giving up one of my arms.”

As Juan said, whenever Gerard used his fingertips to move everything around him, he was simply doing so by pouring a huge amount of mana. In the eyes of others, Gerard seemed to be exercising a mysterious power, but in reality, that power simply involved holding and moving things around with an arm made up of mana.

Of course, even that alone was quite incredible. After all, it took an enormous amount of mana to lift up just a spoon.

Magic was just a way to use mana with the help of knowledge and with expediency.

All Gerard was doing was using mana to generate enough force to move mountains. But it was easy to dodge as long as one found out that it was just like moving one’s limbs, especially in the case of Juan, who was more sensitive to mana than the others.

“You’re just a human being in the end. You have no choice but to imagine the movement of your joints and muscles before you actually move.”

“Shut up.”

Gerard was full of murderous intent toward Juan. After all, to him, Juan was only a shell of his father. His real father has already been murdered at his own hands.

Juan managed to easily capture the mana arm and quickly dodge the attacks even if Gerard did not show any physical movement.

Gerard had no choice but to admit that he couldn’t beat Juan with only a single mana arm.

However, the mana arm was only a fraction of the power that he could exert.

Meanwhile, Juan was having a difficult time attacking Gerard. He was barely managing to avoid the mana arm, and it was clear that he would be in huge trouble if he got caught by it even once, just like when Gerard severed his right arm in just the blink of an eye.

“Your Majesty!”

Anya summoned the Army of Undead and began to send them toward Gerard. Gerard tried to hastily capture Anya, but she avoided his arm in a different way—she was able to dodge Gerard’s attack by summoning endless amounts of bones.

Gerard clicked his tongue as bone dust scattered everywhere. The bones that were summoned by Anya and then ground down by Gerard did not disperse; instead, all that bone dust turned into a huge face that jumped toward Gerard.

“Do not disturb me.”

As soon as Gerard glared at the face made of bone dust, thunderbolts spread everywhere. A large explosion occurred in the area as dry bone dust scattered and flames spread.

It was a dust explosion.

The moment the flames from the explosion filled the basin created by the earthquake, Nienna summoned a barrier of ice to trap the explosion.The flames completely drowned Gerard.

“Anya! That was amazing!”

Nienna burst out in admiration, but Anya looked puzzled.

“Um, but why did it explode?”

Hearing this, Nienna looked at Anya with a dumbfounded expression, speechless.

“Captain Anya, when a dry and powdery substance spreads in the air and catches on fire, the flames spread rapidly due to the oxygen…”

Pavan tried to explain what had happened, but the sound of the ice barrier summoned by Nienna being shattered interrupted him. The ice barrier shattered like broken glass and scattered in all directions.

It was hard to find a single wound on Gerard, even though he had been trapped inside the ice barrier summoned by Nienna along with the flames. However, he looked very upset.

Nienna and Anya immediately prepared for a counterattack, while Pavan ordered the archers to knock their bows. But even in the face of the force of the entire army, Gerard simply raised his index up without showing any signs of being intimidated due to being alone.

“That’s enough.”

For a moment, the world shifted.

The surrounding area shook and the ground began to tremble all of a sudden. The soldiers who were nocking their bows accidentally launched arrows toward empty space, and Nienna, Anya, and Pavan also had no choice but to lower their stance and stabilize themselves.

While it wasn’t too difficult for them to attack even on the trembling ground, they couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed by what was happening in front of their eyes.

An entire mountain range was soaring into the air.

“It wasn’t the earthquake that raised the ground level…” Nienna let out a groan.

The ground level had been raised due to ‘that thing’ coiling around. The huge figure began to rise quickly and continued to soar for a long time. A huge pillar large enough that it could be referred to as a mountain fluttered into the sky and stirred it, almost as if ridiculing it.

“You have been completely corrupted, Gerard! To think that you would summon a monster from a different world!”

Despite Nienna’s cry, Gerard just looked down at Nienna and the Northern Army in a calm manner.

“I didn’t summon it. It’s always been there from the very beginning,” Gerard said.

“What?”

“It’s just a small fraction of Qzatquizail that broke through the Crack thousands of years ago. It is just one of the smallest sections of its body. Although I can only barely communicate with it for now, I will show you my ideal.”

Gerard glanced over the Northern Army.

“Sure, you might be able to avoid an invisible arm, but what about this?”

Giant tentacles rapidly moved, following Gerard’s fingertips.

“Everyone get down!”

The soldiers crouched down even before Nienna said anything. Unfortunately, that was not enough to dodge the attack.

The tentacles passed well over the soldiers’ heads. However, they were so huge that it was not exactly adequate to say that they actually passed over anything; although the tentacles didn’t directly touch anything, the wind pressure alone was enough to fling the soldiers into the sky. Some of the soldiers were instantly torn apart in the places where the wind was particularly rough.

It was just a single blow. It wasn’t like Gerard had attacked the army directly either. His tentacles had only swept over the soldiers’ heads, but that alone was enough to show that they couldn’t do anything against Gerard. If it had been a direct attack, then not a single man from the Northern Army would have been alive.

Nienna was angry but felt the difference in their powers.

A quick look at bit.ly/3iBfjkV will leave you more fulfilled.

“As I already said, I am doing this for the sake of humans. No one needs to die,” Gerard said.

“You are attacking humans even when you say that you are doing all this for humans,” Nienna gritted her teeth.

“Nienna, you seem to be mistaken. If I really made up my mind to attack humanity, then it would be like cleaning, like sweeping all of you away with a broom.”

As Gerard said, the giant tentacles swirling around in the air would be able to sweep through the entire Northern Army with ease.

Seeing this, the Northern Army lost their morale. Even the victories they had gained by fighting against monsters countless times were meaningless in front of Gerard’s overwhelming power.

Nienna could feel the Northern Army’s despair.

“The fact that the Northern Army is in despair means…”

Nienna let out a long.

“…that they are ready to die with their enemies.”

Nienna picked up the handle of her broken sword. Instead of a blade, white ice began to grow from the handle. She aimed the sword at Gerard and cried a loud roar.

“Die!”

Gerard made a pathetic look and tried saying that he wouldn’t die no matter how many times Nienna told him to.

But he felt something strange before he could—someone who was supposed to be here was nowhere to be seen.

For a moment, an eerie premonition passed through Gerard’s head. Gerard clicked his tongue.

“He must have climbed up.”

With the momentum of a meteorite, Juan’s Sutra struck Gerard at full power. However, Sutra couldn’t even brush past Gerard. Gerard just stood still on the spot and moved Sutra out of his way by simply beckoning.

Yet, Juan’s attack didn’t end there. Dozens of attacks followed, but in the eyes of others, it looked like a single attack.

Gerard’s expression hardened. The reason wasn’t that he was nervous. It was that the power displayed by Juan while using the Baltic Sword with his left hand, his non-dominant hand, was so great that it wasn’t even comparable to Gerard’s sword skills from his heyday.

Gerard would have already lost his head if he had been facing the opponent in front of him without the Crown and Mananen McLeir’s heart.

“But how…”

Gerard felt more disgruntled the more he fought against Juan. Each attack that Juan poured out contained an intense murderous intent and energy. Juan’s swordsmanship was the same as the swordsmanship of the emperor that Gerard wanted to reach.

Gerard was blocking Juan’s attack only with his fingers, but he seemed rather ashamed of himself.

“You’ve become so weak, but how do you have the same power as my father!”

The momentum built with the help of mana and a loud roar immediately pushed Juan away. However, Juan was not surprised at all and firmly kept his eyes on Gerard as if to not let him out of his sight.

Gerard felt as if the sticky murderous intent was tying him up. He almost felt chills from Juan’s concentration and persistence of not stopping at all until he achieved his purpose. He had been clueless about this as he had watched Juan from behind, but now that he had become Juan’s target, Gerard was overwhelmed by the feeling of being a prey.

Gerard clenched his teeth. Then, while glaring at Juan, who was running directly toward him, he summoned Solvane.

Juan’s eyes narrowed as soon as he saw Solvane condensed in Gerard’s hands. He could immediately tell that it was a dangerous weapon; it was this spear that had simultaneously killed all of Dane’s physical forms scattered throughout the empire.

But Juan did not stop. Gerard was also unwilling to dodge Juan’s attack and prepared to confront him directly. He focused his whole body’s strength and senses to forget about the feeling of unease.

It was clear that Gerard had been captivated by the thought that he might be overwhelmed by Juan, who was nothing more than an ordinary human being now. Upon seeing the opponent attack him using strength rather than magic, Gerard decided to respond in kind.

“I will kill you now, and…”

After all, Gerard was confident that he would not die no matter what Juan did. Gerard intended to let Juan get close, then look him in the eye as he thrust a spear into his heart.

“…and cut off everything I have here before I leave for a greater purpose!”

Gerard roared and used his best attack. At the same time, Juan jumped toward Gerard with all his might. The two could feel each other’s breath burning inside the frozen world brought about by the use of Fleeting Moment.

Not even for a second did Gerard think that he would actually lose. His physical form was stronger than ever with the help of mana, not to mention that he had the power of Solvane to assist him as well. On the other hand, his opponent was incapable of recovering his mana and only had a single arm.

There was no way Juan could use the Baltic Sword properly in such a condition. It could already be considered a miracle that he was able to use Fleeting Moment.

Gerard was the first to swing Solvane and use Causality Denial, the sixth stage of the Baltic Sword. A storm of blades swirled around in the frozen world.

Juan’s left eye was instantly destroyed by Gerard’s attack. Every part of Juan’s body that Gerard’s gaze landed upon split open, almost as if flowers were blooming. Bubbles of blood rose. In just the blink of an eye, Juan turned red with blood.

Juan’s movement was one step slower. Gerard already knew that Juan could not use Causality Denial when he only had one arm left. Sutra’s blade flew toward Gerard, but Gerard also threw Solvane. Solvane’s blade shattered Juan’s left arm, which meant that Juan could no longer even hold his sword.

The frozen world brought about by the Fleeting Moment was breaking apart. But in that very short moment, Juan was dominated by Gerard. This time, Solvane pierced Juan’s left thigh. Then, it pierced his right waist, lungs, liver, kidneys, spine, and lastly, his heart.

The afterimages of Solvane flashed as it stabbed through Juan, and only then did the frozen world of Fleeting Moment end.

As soon as Juan appeared with both arms missing and having been turned into a pin cushion, terrible screams erupted from all around him. Juan stumbled, but he stubbornly approached Gerard while supporting himself with the spear that had pierced him.

Gerard couldn’t help but panic at the sight. No weapon or magic could harm him by any means.

‘What can he even do after losing both his arms? He doesn’t even have a weapon. Is he going to bite me or something?’

“Have you really fallen to the level of a beast!?” Gerard burst into an angry cry and extended his mana arm toward Juan.

Victory and defeat was already decided.

At that moment, the grotesque sound of flesh being cut echoed through the air.

Only then did Juan slump to the ground with a long sigh as if everything was finally over.

The sound of flesh being cut did not come from Juan.

Gerard fumbled and checked his left cheek. Blood was oozing out of a very slight scratch; such a wound was nothing to him. In fact, the wound made by Juan with his life on the line was already healing on its own at a rapid pace.

The question was, what had Juan used to cut him?

“Do you know how I was able to notice that your arm was made out of mana so quickly?”

Drenched in blood, Juan smiled deridingly.

“It’s all something I’ve already experienced before. One arm is enough to kill you, bastard.”

Gerard recalled how he had pulled off Juan’s right arm. Only in that moment did he belatedly feel the mana arm created by Juan. This was the reason Juan was able to use Fleeting Moment, even with just a single arm.

And the mana arm was holding something familiar.

It was Elkiehl.