Chapter 331: And It Was Winter (7)

In the fierce battle between Keter and Eslow, it seemed like Keter held the advantage from afar. All the arrows embedded in Eslow’s chest, shoulder, and the center of his back were fatal wounds.

“Is the Divine Bow of Sefira going to win against the Lord of the South?!” someone muttered.

At that, half of the people gathered nodded in agreement. However, a few remained silent with serious faces. They were the ones who knew that Eslow hadn’t even used half of his power. Of course, Keter was aware as well.

I expected he wouldn’t be an easy opponent, but this is... Has it really come to this?

The more they fought, the more Keter realized he had been mistaken, believing he could face one of the Four Lords. The basis of that misconception had come from experience in his past life of fighting the Lord of the East, Deyal, on equal footing.

Keter now realized and admitted he hadn’t truly matched Deyal back then. Deyal likely hadn’t even used half his strength. In other words, Deyal had gone easy on him.

Absurd monsters...

In conclusion, the current situation was the worst possible. The Lord of the South wasn’t simply twice as strong as Keter had thought, but twenty times stronger.

Even after taking Eslow’s five greatest weapons, ambushing with a Demon Sword, Wid’s unexpected strike...

It initially seemed like Eslow, who was said to have mastered all weapons, was being defeated due to the Limitless Archery as it was an unfamiliar type of archery to him. Yet, there was a reason he was known as a genius. Eslow continuously adapted to the technique at an unbelievable speed.

Would buying more time to cause more blood loss be meaningless?

Eslow had red blood like a human, but something was different. The blood that left his body evaporated in the blink of an eye. The blood on his clothes didn’t evaporate, making it look like he had suffered massive bleeding, but there wasn’t a single bloodstain at his feet.

And that wound on his shoulder is deep enough to pass through his muscle and reach his bones. Yet he moves his arm perfectly fine. That’s not something you can do with concentration alone.

Eslow had the appearance of a human, but he wasn’t one on the inside. That was Keter’s conclusion. The moment Keter realized this, he changed his combat style. He used Tusk as a fake and began to mainly use Milky Way.

Since explosions of ordinary power hardly did any damage to Eslow, Keter quadrupled his energy output. As a result, the duel that had taken place shorter than a tenth of a second was instantly overturned.

However, Eslow smoothly counteracted. The moment Keter shifted from aiming at Eslow’s vital points to throwing swings, Eslow countered by switching to straight attacks. The sword in his hand traced a smooth arc. Milky Way’s chain explosions swallowed him, yet the sword aura carved through the blasts as if shaving them away.

The people watching clicked their tongues.

“There’s no way an attack that tries to overpower someone like Eslow with strength would ever work.”

Strength couldn’t overcome flow. No matter how hard steel was, it couldn’t block water. Water would simply flow along the steel.

At that moment, a condensed sphere fell above Eslow’s head. It was a technique Keter had used once before, Heavenly Rain of Exploding Fire, Complete Annihilation. The energy sphere was condensed enough to make anything it touched disappear, but that was meaningless. Eslow had already cut through it once. Using the same technique twice against someone like Eslow was foolish.

As expected, what he had once split with a greatsword, he now cut through it with a light sword in one hand.

However, there wasn’t only one. After the slice, another Annihilation sphere fell. Eslow swung his sword again without hesitation, and the sphere was easily sliced apart without fail.

Just then, those who were watching hurriedly took steps back.

“That’s insane.”

Not just one or two Annihilations were pouring down on Eslow, there were dozens. Thirty-seven massive spheres of energy, each as large as a small hill, rained down over Eslow.

With one hand raised above his head, Keter grinned and said, “If it’s not enough, I’ll just add more.”

***

The terrain once called Cherry could no longer be called that. Instead, it had become terrain better named as Grape. Massive pits with bottoms that couldn’t be seen were left by Keter’s Annihilation.

Henya swallowed hard as she looked at the countless craters.

“It’s as clean as if it were carved. The detail is incredible.”

She had witnessed Keter’s Annihilation smoothly piercing the ground without making a single sound of impact. Even if there were steel, amantir, or orichalcum that had been there instead of the earth, it likely wouldn’t have made any noise.

That said, not all the Annihilation spheres had reached the ground. Eslow had cut away more than half of them.

The aftermath left the area filled with smoke, but a single blow of the winter wind cleared it away. What unfolded afterward made everyone’s breath stop.

Eslow’s sword had pierced Keter’s abdomen. The only reason the attacks didn’t continue was that Keter used both his hands in the strength contest with Eslow. Blood gushed from the pierced wound. It was proof that, although very slightly, the blade was still moving. Even while using Heavenly Strength, Keter was being pushed back.

Henya’s breathing grew faster, but she calmly observed the two. She didn’t know exactly what happened in the less than three seconds between the Annihilation spheres striking the ground and the smoke clearing, but Eslow wasn’t unscathed either. His entire body was ash-gray, as if scorched by fire. Still, his recovery speed was absurdly fast.

I wonder if he charged by taking the risk of damage, and Keter couldn’t stop him.

Having roughly grasped the situation, Henya contemplated whether she should rush in to help Keter, or carry out the plan she had thought of earlier. But that plan assumed Keter was alive. If he died, it would become meaningless.

Anyone could see Keter was in a life-or-death crisis. Even the people who had only been watching were rushing toward Eslow. Both of Eslow’s hands were occupied as he engaged in a power struggle with Keter, and they aimed to exploit that opportunity.

If Eslow wants to counterattack, he’ll have no choice but to let Keter go. In that case, Keter’s hands will become free too, so this might actually be the chance right now.

Just as Henya finished that thought and was about to join in, she saw Keter’s face. Keter was smiling. Even with a sword embedded in the spot where his heart should be, and even at a moment when moving the sword just two centimeters would mean death. It wasn’t the smile of someone who had lost his mind. Seeing that smile, Henya immediately changed her direction. Instead of helping Keter, she turned the other way and began to run away.

At Henya’s movement, Eslow’s gaze slightly shifted as he looked at Keter. In that instant, Keter slammed a headbutt into Eslow’s forehead. As a result, the sword dug deeper into Keter’s body, but he didn’t pay any attention to it.

Instead, he headbutted Eslow again and said, “Where are you looking? I’m not dead yet.”

Eslow didn’t respond and instead put more strength into both hands. The sword moved, but only a tiny bit. Eslow remained expressionless, but he was very shocked on the inside. Limitless Archery was a technique he had never seen before, but Keter’s raw strength was far stranger than that.

This is the strength a human body could never produce. What kind of trick did he use?

Eslow wasn’t going easy on Keter. He was applying force with the intent to kill him as quickly as possible. Even so, he couldn’t understand how Keter was still enduring.

The secret was, of course, the sixth level of Heavenly Strength. The strength Keter had gained from passing the trial of one of the Five Element Relics, the Terra Ring, was preventing his instant death.

Because of that, Eslow wasn’t able to kill Keter in one blow and had even been driven into a situation where he was being surrounded. But that wasn’t a big problem as the people trying to surround him didn’t possess Ein. Even if they used sword aura, aura and magic were incomplete powers to begin with. They could inflict physical wounds, but they couldn’t reach the soul. That was only something Ein could do.

Soon, the swordsmen who had closed the distance saw that Eslow still hadn’t removed his hands from the sword, so they unleashed their special moves. They were all Grandmasters, and some were close to Prime.

However, Eslow somehow managed to summon a Mindsword without using his hands. He faced all eight of the swordsmen at once with eight Mindswords.

It was widely believed that Mindswords were stronger than augmented aura, but that was a distorted rumor. While Mindswords might have the advantage in versatility, pure destructive power was far greater with augmented aura wielded by a swordsman.

Even so, the fact that Eslow controlled eight Mindswords without faltering ate away at the swordsmen’s pride.

“

Ahhhhh!

”

Those gathered here weren’t there to help Keter. They were there to surpass their own limits and become a Prime. Each of them fought with everything they had to gain recognition for their self-created sword styles and the fame of killing one of the Four Lords. They dragged out every ounce of strength and used all their techniques, but they couldn’t even touch a hair on Eslow.

Seeing Keter’s archery work had made them think they could do it too, but that had been their excessive arrogance.

“How noisy,” Eslow said.

In that instant, four of the Grandmasters were slashed in half and died. Their belief that Eslow would let go of Keter and counterattack if they intervened was also a misconception. Eslow still refused to release his grip, intent on ending Keter’s life.

At that moment, Eslow suddenly reacted to something. Was it because of the swordsmen’s attacks? No. He noticed Henya moving farther away.

That can’t be.

Eslow’s gaze shifted to Wid, the human Henya said she loved. He was alive, but in critical condition.

I see... she’s running away.

Eslow understood. Even if he were in her shoes, running away would be the correct choice. After all, there was no chance of victory. The mages of the Green Tower had been annihilated. Baen Kingdom’s Titan was useless. Her lover was dying, and even Keter, whom she had trusted, was on the brink of death. Moreover, the Grandmasters’ combined attacks were nothing more than a nuisance. Thus, fleeing was the correct choice, at least from Henya’s perspective.

That’s a bit troublesome.

Eslow had no way of tracking Henya’s whereabouts. If the empire intervened, even someone like Eslow wouldn’t be able to find her. Now that she had revealed herself to lure him into a trap, this could be his last chance. He couldn't let Henya escape.

Eslow scanned Keter. Keter suffered wounds severe enough to kill him even if left alone. He needed emergency treatment with an elixir immediately. However, Eslow’s instincts told him that if he let him go like this, Keter would attack him instead of healing.

I admit it. Turning my back on him is troublesome even for me.

Capturing Henya was more important to Eslow than killing Keter. Therefore, he injected his divine power into Keter through the sword. This wasn’t an attack but rather an act of assistance. If Keter could neutralize the divine power he received, it would convert into his own. But that also required time. He would need to calmly neutralize the divine power for at least an hour. It was essentially Eslow offering Keter a deal.

I’ll spare your life and even give you divine power as a bonus. In exchange, give up on Henya.

Eslow released his grip on the sword and sprinted toward Henya. She had already put more than five hundred meters between them, but Eslow closed half that distance in the blink of an eye. And at that moment, a chill ran down Eslow’s spine. He gripped his swords and scanned his surroundings, but saw nothing.

Even so, his instincts screamed danger and urged him to counterattack, but he couldn’t tell where the strike would come from. Still, he instinctively succeeded in locating Keter. Keter hadn’t moved an inch from where he stood.

Keter had already been smiling, but this smile felt far more ominous. Then a thought suddenly crossed Eslow’s mind.

All of this wasn’t a part of his scheme, was it?

The instant he thought that, the ground beneath his feet crumbled like desert sand, and a blinding light erupted through the gaps.

“This is...!”

Heavenly Rain of Exploding Fire, Complete Annihilation. The technique he had thought was completely gone surged up from beneath the ground. Even Eslow was too late to react. He swung his sword anyway, but the pillar of Annihilation erupting from the earth was so intense it pierced all the way toward the sky.