Chapter 253. The Last Barrier Pt. 3

Swish!

A powerful yet simple stab, one thrust without using any skills, rushed toward Arthur.

Woosh!

The sword, shining with seven colors, carried all of Heimdall’s power.

Clang!

When Arthur’s and Heimdall’s swords collided and sparks erupted, flames began to rise from beneath Heimdall’s feet.

“O’ sinner, burn in retribution.”

Horus's power was revealed. It was a flame of the utmost heat that Lee Jun-Kyeong’s flames could never compare to.

“Enemy.”

Hiss.

But with a single word from Heimdall, the flame was quickly extinguished. Red light had descended from the rainbow in the sky and consumed the flames. At the same time, the light flew towards Merlin, who was preparing a spell. Merlin quickly blocked the incoming flames with magic, which were bolstered as a mixture of the powers of Horus and Heimdall.

“Ugh!” Merlin coughed as she swayed.

Clang, clang, clang!

In the meantime, Arthur refused to let Heimdall breathe. Unlike Heimdall, who was using brilliant skills, he pressed forward using flawless swordsmanship. Excalibur constantly flashed forward, making Heimdall hesitate and retreat.

Slash, slash!

Where Heimdall stood, the ground around him split apart.

As Arthur’s blade spat out blade light after blade light, splitting the ground apart, at the same time, Athena’s spear pierced toward Heimdall’s back with imperceptible speed.

“...”

Heimdall stamped on the ground, flustered, and an orange light shone down and blocked Athena’s path. When her spear ran into the orange glow, it froze in place.

“It’s stuck…!”

The moment Heimdall turned around and saw Athena, Arthur said from behind him, “Gotcha.”

Excalibur struck with a great clang.

“Moon Cleaving!”

At that moment, Heimdall felt a mana that made his entire body feel cold. Along with the sound of the coming wave, a green light shone down on his back.

“Damn it!”

BANG!

The green light deflected the enormous mana unleashed by Excalibur, scattering it like blades of grass and blooming as they were razed.

“What sort of bullshit is this?”

As the blades of grass reached Heimdall, the Hunter’s complexion returned to the pristine state prior to the start of the battle.

“The flames…!”

On the other hand, as the leaves scattered from the green light reached Horus, they instead began to grow by consuming the mana within his flame. Before he knew it, several trees were wrapped around him.

Flicker!

Horus spewed out a dense flame and burned the trees that stopped him from moving, finally dissipating the green light.

“This…”

However, the group’s complexions darkened.

“Is this even winnable?”

The longer the fight continued, the more absurd it became.

“How can such an ability exist?”

Heimdall had something that could nullify all attacks to nothing and even heal him. Combined with the abilities that haven’t yet been revealed, it was honestly ridiculous.

“And all of that is just one ability for a single person.”

It was impossible for them to push him back. In truth, they were the ones being pushed around. As Arthur prepared for his next attack with a nervous expression, the blue light of the rainbow in the sky made a move.

“It’s coming!”

Finally, anticipating that Heimdall was about to actively go on the offensive, they took a defensive stance.

Tap, tap, taptaptaptaptap.

“Rain?”

However, all the blue light had done was cause raindrops to fall from the otherwise normal sky. The sky suddenly became dark as gloomy clouds appeared out of nowhere and started pouring down raindrops.

“Isn’t this better for us?” Arthur said, smiling at the opportunity given to them to strike back.

It was water.

“Merlin!”

The stage had set for Merlin to show her best as they could feel Merlin’s mana amplify in the rain.

However, instead, Merlin just shouted at Arthur, “Dodge it!”

It was only then that he felt the alien feeling in the air, a strange mana. The rainbow in the sky darkened as the light began to shift to an indigo shade.

Crack. Crackle.

“What the fu…”

The indigo light, the power it held within it…

“It’s a current as strong as Zeus…”

A tremendous amount of electricity crackled in the air. With the dark clouds in the air, now that their bodies were soaked—what would happen if the indigo light fell upon them?

“This is the end,” Heimdall said.

Arthur unleashed his mana, distorting the raindrops while Horus spewed out flames to evaporate them. But even so, they didn’t think they would be able to stop the coming lightning.

Rumble!

“Just rest now,” Heimdall said as if sentencing them to their final slumber.

Thud.

He lowered his sword with both hands as a blue electric current covered their vision.

CRACK!!!

***

SLICE!!!!

The blue bolt of lightning definitely should have struck Arthur and the others, but the only sound that could be heard was the sound of air being cleaved apart. The first to notice it was Merlin.

“The clouds…did you split them?”

Arthur was standing at the front, frozen in the stance as he swung Excalibur. In the sky, not a hint of the clouds or the rain remained. Staring up, Heimdall also looked surprised.

“It was split…”

The moment the lighting was about to hit them, Arthur had cleaved the sky. Thus, the lightning had disappeared, and they were saved.

“Ugh!”

Arthur got down on one knee. If that cloud had just been a regular one, then it wouldn’t have taken this much of a toll on him. However, that was an artificial cloud created by Heimdall’s mana, a culmination of his enormous reserves of mana.

Considering it had been torn apart by force just before it had erupted, Arthur had taken a massive amount of backlash. Merlin quickly tried to heal him, but was kept from moving forward due to the attack that appeared before she knew it.

Clang!

“Good, good. That’s the expression I was waiting for…” Arthur said to Heimdall.

Heimdall’s relaxed expression, the look in his eyes, which were covered in the golden helmet, had changed.

“Are you getting nervous? Don’t forget who you’re dealing with.”

So far, they had been helpless. But now, things were different.

“Look over there,” Arthur said, slowly straightening his knees and pointing into the air. He was referring to where Heimdall’s rainbow stood.

“The blue and indigo colors are gone…!”

The rainbow had changed. What had been emitting endlessly brilliant light had shifted into something akin to that of a piano missing its keys. Although the light was still brilliant, there was something different about it now.

“Look at that bastard’s face, too,” Arthur teased, motioning toward Heimdall’s darkened expression.

“There will be no more rainbows now.”

All of those things had told them that they had finally beaten him at his game. The rainbow would no longer regenerate. The blue and indigo colors had only just been used for the first time, but they had finally seen the limits of his abilities.

“The same will be for the other colors.”

The momentum had shifted. Exhausted, Arthur firmly steadied his legs into the ground as Horus slowly raised his aura once more.

“It’s true that I’ve underestimated you all too much,” Heimdall exhaled and said. “Thus, I’ll be fighting to defeat you seriously from now on.”

They had been hesitant to take up arms against Heimdall, but it was the same for Heimdall in turn. He had been hesitant to battle them sincerely. Even though by using his rainbow and golden armor, he had exposed everything he had, he had never once attacked them wholeheartedly.

“This is the beginning.”

Shing!!

Another color from the rainbow in the sky descended upon them: yellow. As the yellow aura entered Heimdall, the sounding area began to collapse as if under a huge gravitational force.

BOOM!

It was an enhancement of his mana.

Shing!!!

Then, the next color descended as the purple glow that had been used once before fell into Heimdall’s hand. The purple aura bubbled and changed shape as the power that Arthur and the others felt belied an unbelievable mana, eventually settling in the form of a second sword.

“Dual swordsmanship?” Arthur said in a questioning voice. No one had ever heard of Heimdall using dual swords.

“Well, everything we’ve seen has been things we’ve never seen before.”

Dual swordsmanship was something that was nearly impossible to learn. Moreover, no matter how strong the swords were, Arthur had never seen someone actually wield two two-handed swords using dual swordsmanship. The issue was with the reach and handleability of the swords.

In general, dual swordsmanship uses two daggers or two one-handed swords of appropriate weight and length.[1]

Still, he soon forgot about it as the man before him continued to belie expectations.

“Well, you’ll see how it works soon,” Heimdall said before suddenly disappearing. He reappeared right in front of Arthur.

CLANG!

Arthur blocked Heimdall’s dual swords with Excalibur, but it was as if he had been driven into the ground like a stake by an enormous force.

BANG!

“You’re not the only sword master here, Arthur.”

“This is impossible…”

Arthur clearly felt Heimdall’s years of experience in the attack just now. Swordsmanship was not something easy to learn as it was something completely different from physical strength or power. Martial arts were only something possible to learn if someone spent copious years, collecting time and experience.

‘That monster-like brat.’

That was why Lee Jun-Kyeong was so special. He had quickly learned all of Arthur’s sword skills, almost as if he had been reading a book. That was something that just felt impossible and could only be said to be a cheat code.

However, Heimdall’s swordsmanship clearly felt different from Lee Jun-Kyeong’s by-the-book style.

‘He has an incredible amount of experience.’

There was an immeasurable experience inherent to his sophisticated swordsmanship, and it was something that felt as though it had been built up and honed in the Andlangr.

‘It’s more than just that…’

Heimdall was someone who had only focused on the sword for countless eons. That was what Arthur noticed.

The atmosphere had changed. Although Heimdall was just lightly pressing down upon him, Arthur couldn’t break free. If it were just a matter of strength, Arthur would have escaped long ago. However, he couldn’t escape for a different reason.

‘There isn’t a single gap.’

There was no opening for him to move anywhere, so Arthur was just left believing in his companions.

Flicker!

Horus spewed out flames once again, attempting to attack Heimdall from behind.

“That’s an incredible strength. However, if you don’t have the appropriate experience wielding it…” Heimdall commented. “It just becomes too much power to control.”

There was an eerie squelching sound as Arthur directly witnessed what had happened as he was standing before Heimdall. The red light from within the rainbow had turned into a sword and pierced Horus’ stomach.

“Horus!”

Merlin used magic to cause the ground to collapse, trying to force Heimdall to stumble in order to allow Arthur to move and use the opening to save Horus. However, the strange squelching sound was heard again.

“No! Merlin!!!”

Squelch.

Arthur looked up at the sky with a blank expression. The orange glow had disappeared.

“Ar…thur…” Merlin's shuddering voice came from behind him.

BANG!

The sound of something tearing through the air rang by Arthur’s ear. As he came to his senses, he could see a spear aimed at Heimdall’s head from above him.

WOOSH!

The spear pierced forward as Athena stabbed towards Heimdall, truly intending to kill him. However, even that had stopped.

“I’m sorry.”

It wasn’t because Athena had lost conviction. Instead, the green color of the rainbow had disappeared, too.

“Cough, cough.”

Hot blood fell on Arthur’s head as he could feel Athena collapsing behind him through his senses.

“You…you bastard!!!”

Arthur used all of his might to push Heimdall back, pressing the dual swords slowly down.

Squelch!!

However, Arthur, too, couldn’t move any further, as a rainbow-colored sword had found its way stuck in his chest. It had only been just a moment. Heimdall had shown his sincerity, but everyone had fallen. Only an eerie silence surrounded the battlefield as Heimdall's heavy face looked at the fallen Arthur.

“Whew…”

All he could do was to take a long breath. But then, he looked up at the sky.

“...!”

The dark clouds that had clearly dissipated in the sky were gathering once more.

Crackle. Crackle.

A blue electric current sparked deep within them.

1. Two-handed swords are weighted and sized for using two hands, so even with the incredible strength of the Hunters, it would be awkward to wield one-handedly. ☜