Chapter 332: And It Was Winter (8)

Everyone’s eyes stung, and a smoky smell filled the air. Those who survived panted, and their hearts pounded as if they would burst out from the tension. They gripped the weapons in their hands tightly as if they didn’t believe the fight was over.

Keter also observed the battlefield with the sword still in his abdomen.

My attack definitely landed on point. That much is certain.

Keter had tricked Eslow three times to land a decisive blow on him. The multiple Annihilations falling from the sky had acted like the real attack, and when the smoke obscured their vision, he had deliberately taken the hit and let Eslow’s sword pierce his abdomen. Finally, Keter refrained from actively using one of the Five Element Relics, the Terra Ring, making it seem as if he couldn’t use it well in battle.

Originally, those three points were the plan, but Henya had helped as well. Whether real or fake, she ran away to distract Eslow.

Nice assist, Henya.

It was supposedly going to be a suicidal attack, but thanks to Henya, he had managed to land a heavy blow only on Eslow.

I don’t see him anywhere, and I can’t sense him either.

The explosion of Annihilations had been powerful enough to distort the air itself. Even a Prime wouldn’t have been able to escape. It would have been comforting to assume Eslow was dead, but that would be greed. He was definitely alive.

However, with both his presence and form being undetectable, Keter sharpened all his senses and became tense. After all, an enemy was most frightening not when visible, but when unseen.

The world felt frozen. Everyone stood still on guard as if time had stopped. They held their breath and didn’t even blink. They all knew that even the slightest movement or a momentary loss in focus could lead to death. Of course, this could all be their misconception. Fatally wounded by Keter’s Annihilations, Eslow might have fled.

Thirty seconds passed, but for those in extreme concentration, a single second felt like ten minutes. Maybe he had truly died or escaped by now. Perhaps a force beyond this world warning them not to move was just their imagination.

Just when that doubt crept in, one of Eslow’s swords embedded in the ground moved ever so slightly, even though no wind blew. At that moment, everyone instinctively jumped, but Keter alone lowered his stance.

Severed legs, which belonged to the swordmen, scattered through the air. Keter’s right arm also flew through the air and tumbled across the ground. Then Eslow appeared again and unleashed a barrage of attacks at Keter.

Eslow’s appearance was abnormal. Though he still had a human form, he looked like he was made of charcoal.

Keter lost his right arm, but he used the Demon Bow Amaranth in his left hand to deflect the attacks as if he had never had his right arm to begin with. Moreover, losing an arm wasn’t a problem for Keter. Arrows created from his willpower shot in all directions.

Eslow began using the two sword technique, but there weren’t only two swords. He held two swords in his hands, and controlled six more Mindswords. All eight swords targeted Keter, each infused with the extreme foundations. Extreme joy, extreme strength, extreme illusion, extreme change. Extreme heaviness, extreme softness, extreme dominance, extreme concealment.

Protecting only vital points was meaningless. The moment even a single strike landed, it was over. Any non-vital area would become a fatal one. As a result, distinguishing parts like the head, face, neck, and shoulder was meaningless since Eslow’s swords targeted every area.

Keter had originally been a swordsman. Because of that, he was confident in close combat, but not to the level of his archery.

Moreover, his opponent was Eslow. A master of every weapon. Would the crude martial arts Keter learned in the lawless city work against him?

They would. Only once.

If he used it only once, there would be no chance for Eslow to see through it. That wasKeter’s calculation.

He took a deep breath. He recalled the techniques, and the vivid memories gave him certainty.

I’m gonna borrow them for a moment.

With the butcher Hans’ hook, Leg Sweep. The weapon thief Aman’s Finger Sever. Ailos’s Dragging Back Kick. Gyro’s Swift Elephant Sword, Celestial Route. Sword Demon Balt’s False Draw. The Chain Scythe Jenny’s Sudden Fall.

Keter instantly pressed Eslow back. Faced with Keter’s barrage of ever-changing techniques, Eslow gave up on analysis and further increased his strength and speed.

Keter’s arrow and Eslow’s sword crossed paths. They clearly crossed, yet the sound of flesh being cut was only heard once. Keter’s right ear was severed. His arrow should have struck Eslow’s chest, yet somehow Eslow appeared behind Keter. It wasn’t a speed that could be measured. He had moved as if he had always been there.

However, Keter wasn’t a fool who fell for the same trick twice.

Teleportation to his weapons. So he does indeed have additional abilities beyond just creating weapons.

Eslow could teleport to weapons he created, but that wasn’t all.

If it were just teleportation, it wouldn’t explain how his presence vanished completely.

Keter’s assumption was that Eslow could also enter inside his own weapons. To summarize, the abilities of Eslow’s Authority of Weaponization were as follows. He could turn anything he touched into a weapon. He could teleport to weapons he created, at a speed of less than a tenth of a second. And he could hide inside his weapons to make his presence vanish entirely.

What an absurd ability.

Eslow had scattered hundreds of weapons just before the battle began. The weapons themselves could be destroyed, but each possessed strength comparable to orichalcum. They couldn’t just be broken like twigs. In fact, quite a few of them had been destroyed by the Annihilations and vanished.

But there are still at least fifty visible weapons that remain.

And the real problem wasn’t the weapons themselves.

He’s fully recovered.

Eslow had perfectly recovered to his original appearance. Even the wounds on his chest and shoulder were gone.

On the other hand, Keter had lost his right arm. Although he was currently matching Eslow in close combat, it was only a matter of time before Eslow gained the upper hand again. No matter how many techniques Keter had learned, their completion was imperfect and limited.

Just one minute.

That was the final amount of time Keter had.

It’s a desperate time now, huh.

At moments of crisis, the more unfavorable the situation, the bigger Keter’s smile became.

***

Henya clenched her teeth. As planned, she pretended to run away to draw Eslow’s attention. Keter had succeeded in landing a significant blow, but Eslow hadn’t died. Instead, he revived as if even stronger now and was pushing Keter back.

Should I run again?

Henya shook her head. That would be meaningless. The empire wasn’t involved in the trap, and without someone’s help, escaping Eslow was impossible.

But standing around doing nothing won’t help either.

Henya turned to Ryse, whom she had kept as another trump card.

“Ryse, give me your mana.”

𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

“My mana? That’s...”

“There’s no time to convince you. Hurry. Right now.”

“Okay...”

As someone with Extreme Mana Overload Syndrome, Ryse possessed limitless mana. However, his talent for magic itself wasn’t so special, allowing him to use only four-circle magic at best. Four-circle magic wasn’t enough to even touch a hair on Eslow, so it was better to inject his infinite mana to Henya instead.

Ryse pressed his palm to Henya’s back and began pouring in mana. Of course, this was madness. Henya already had aura in her body and wasn’t accustomed to mana. If mana entered her body, it would clash with her aura and lead to death.

Dark red blood flowed from Henya’s mouth and nose. Still, she grit her teeth and endured it. She knew aura alone couldn’t stand against Eslow. Even with mana, it wouldn’t be enough.

But I can at least buy some time.

If anything went wrong, the mana inside Henya could explode and blow her apart, but she no longer cared about death.

Boom!

With a single leap, she crossed hundreds of meters and unleashed a powerful strike at Eslow.

Eslow slightly raised an eyebrow as he saw Henya suddenly intervene, then assigned four Mindswords to her. Henya wanted to pull Eslow away from Keter, but that was impossible. Even four Mindswords were overwhelming. Still, the pressure on Keter was noticeably reduced.

Eslow, of course, had no intention of giving Keter any distance as archery was the one thing Keter surpassed him.

At that moment, the other surviving swordsmen charged at Eslow.

“We’re still alive as well!”

They weren’t in a normal state. They had all at least lost a leg or suffered fatal wounds that could kill them at any moment. Yet, they still charged at Eslow.

Even Eslow couldn’t simply ignore them and had to send at least one Mindsword.

“

Tsk

,” Eslow clicked his tongue.

That was all of Eslow’s reaction.

With the shortest at one second and seven at the longest. Both were far too brief for a Grandmaster’s final stand. Each of them had trained for at least thirty years to reach the level of Grandmaster. They had gained countless insights along the way, yet before Eslow, they were like falling leaves. If they managed to block even a single exchange of his sword, it would have been considered remarkable.

Thanks to the Grandmasters throwing themselves in, Keter managed to make a little distance.

“That’s pointless.”

Whether by misfortune or intent, Eslow’s spear was embedded in the direction Keter retreated. Eslow teleported to the spear, instantly closing the distance the Grandmasters had bought with their lives.

However, that was exactly what Keter had aimed for. Sefira Style Limitless Archery, First Form: Big Bang. The strike that had destroyed the Fist Emperor’s fortress struck Eslow.

But Eslow didn’t take it head-on. Since moving from weapon to weapon had no restrictions, he simply teleported again to another weapon and dodged with ease.

Keter’s decisive blow missed in a way that felt almost absurdly anticlimactic.

Watching from afar, Henya felt devastated. No matter how much she tried to suppress it, a single word blossomed in her chest. Defeat. There was no way to win. They had managed to ambush Eslow and deal significant damage, yet he revived as if nothing happened and even grew stronger. Even now, his movements were only getting faster.

So this is how strong the Four Lords truly are.

Every circumstance had been unfavorable for Eslow, but he neither fled nor negotiated. He simply crushed it all. The dignity of a Lord. It proved exactly why he bore that title.

The only answer now is to run. There’s no need for everyone to die.

Of course, Henya had no intention of saving herself. But she desperately wanted Keter to live. She looked at him, silently pleading him to run. At the very least, Eslow would want her more than Keter.

At that moment, Henya doubted her ears.

“Fun. But it’s time to end this.”

That wasn’t something that should have come from Keter. His arm had been severed, his body was drenched in blood, and his allies were either dead or incapacitated.

Has he really gone crazy?

Even Eslow seemed taken aback, stopping his attack to briefly scan his surroundings, checking if Keter had another ally. But of course, there was none. If there had been, Eslow would have noticed. To evade the senses of someone who surpassed a Transcendental and reached a demigod status would be impossible unless they were a demigod themselves.

“You bluff right up to death,

huh?

”

That was Eslow’s conclusion, and Keter shrugged.

“Come see for yourself.”

The moment Keter finished speaking, Eslow’s sword was already pressed against his neck.