Chapter 158: Operation Abel (4)
『The Crossroads of End and Ruin』
Everything that is born into this world, including humans, will eventually face death.
But that death can be a predestined ‘end’ or a sudden ‘ruin’.
And right now, the Apostle who dreams of ruin is right before you.
The choice of what to choose is yours.
「1. End」
Win.
Just like you’ve done so far.
「2. Ruin」
Lose.
Your world will be ruined.
+
Cain grinned.
“Even if you didn’t say it so kindly, I intended to win.”
The 〈Sacred Treasures of the Four Seasons〉, combined into one, 『Four Seasons』, rarely gave quests.
At first, he thought it was something he had to do no matter what.
But it wasn’t.
Like a guide accompanying you on a climb up a snowy mountain, the quests and messages of the 『Four Seasons』 were milestones guiding Cain’s path.
It even had the kindness to tell him about other paths.
‘Thank you.’
Like other sacred treasures, the 『Four Seasons』 had never spoken or reacted, but he vaguely sensed something was there.
Cain expressed his sincere gratitude and looked ahead.
Fwooosh━.
There was an old man engulfed in blue flames.
His bushy hair was all lifted into the air by the power of the flames. The way it fluttered looked like flames themselves.
And his eyes.
One of his blue eyes, filled with a chilling murderous intent, slowly turned golden.
It wasn’t a human’s gaze.
That’s what the gaze of a devil from hell would look like. Like the gaze of the enemies he had fiercely faced at the Great Wall.
“My destined adversary.”
Golden Dawn no longer paid attention to Edmund.
He looked directly at Cain, who was enveloped in a chill that seemed to extinguish his flames at any moment.
“Before I kill you, I have just one question.”
“Go ahead.”
Cain nodded.
The cloak of coldness, created by the chill that ‘Winter’ had brought from space, rippled like waves, and the pure white crown placed atop his head shone brilliantly.
Like a true king.
Or like a god.
Watching his appearance, Golden Dawn opened his mouth.
“I can understand wielding the Sword of the Snowfield. But how can you use the power of ‘Winter’ without the magic sword━”
Thud━.
Cain’s figure vanished.
In the gap between Golden Dawn’s words. The moment his breath changed.
Clench━.
Cain dashed forward, gripping Agweska as if to crush it. At such high speed that only black and white trails were visible where Cain had passed.
Screeeech━!
Golden Dawn crossed his arms to block Cain’s strike.
No.
Crack!
━As long as ‘Cain Ethelred’s’ will is not broken, despair will not break either.
Agweska, perhaps even harder than the main body of ‘Winter’, instantly shattered his fang-like sword.
Golden Dawn’s eyes widened. The blue flames that were engulfing him surged, then gathered entirely in front of Cain’s sword.
The flames grew larger and larger, but Cain’s Agweska did not stop piercing through them.
“What in the world!”
He gasped and barely managed to speak. Then, as if enraged, he shouted, glancing back and forth between Edmund, who was watching for an opening, and Cain.
“When someone’s trying to speak━”
Dark Sky.
Original Style.
Gloria.
Cain’s sword, unleashing a pure strike, transformed.
First horizontally, then vertically. And then, the trajectory of all the swordsmanship in the world!
Shheeeesh━!
The great sword, which had once lifted a train into the air in place of collapsed railroad tracks, manifested.
No matter how strong the flames were, they could not penetrate Gloria.
Boom━.
Golden Dawn stepped on the half-destroyed arena. The arena cracked like a spiderweb around him.
Impact.
His flames momentarily flared up.
The ‘Impact’, pouring all his strength into aiming for a single moment, was targeting Cain’s chest.
Clench━.
The manifestation of that power was his fist, covered in fangs.
With that, Golden Dawn threw his right fist.
Crimson Flood.
One Fist一.
Soul Crushing Explosion.
Boooom━!
His fist, clad in an armor of fangs harder than gauntlets, shone. And it struck Agweska, which was pressing him from all sides.
Cain was pushed back.
Enough to leave long marks on the arena as his feet dug into the ground.
How could one man’s fist be so strong?
Cain narrowed his eyes.
“Eastern fist.”
The Great Wall was not the only one fighting monsters surging from the East.
North of the Great Wall.
The city where refugees who had flowed in after the East’s fall gathered to live, ‘Reminiscence’.
The people of the continent romantically viewed ‘Reminiscence’ as a place overflowing with gold and steeped in legends. Yet, they believed it didn’t actually exist.
But Cain knew.
They had no gold, but they had something more precious than gold, and instead of legends, they had humans trying to kill legends.
“How?”
Cain tilted his head.
They were extremely reclusive.
Even meeting outsiders was controlled, and the Eastern techniques they possessed were kept strictly hidden.
But what Golden Dawn was using now was undeniably Eastern fist techniques.
“You keep cutting me off, so I don’t see why I should bother answering.”
He liked Cain’s reaction.
He shrugged like a childish child and raised his fist once more.
Cain clicked his tongue at the sight.
“You’re acting like a child even though you’ve eaten your fill.”
“…….”
“Fine, I won’t interrupt this time, so go ahead and speak.”
“You insolent brat.”
“Well, it’s not like it’s authentic Eastern style, you probably just stole and learned it somehow.”
“That’s not true!”
He became enraged, unlike himself.
As if this fist was his very soul and will, his pride in the martial art ‘Crimson Flood’ was immense.
“You, a mere child, wouldn’t understand, but originally, Crimson Flood is━.”
Thud.
[Future is being consumed.]
Cain kicked off the shattered ground once more.
This time, he even consumed the future, accelerating his speed to that of the morning sun chasing away darkness.
White Starlight Step
Snow fell.
It was merely the illusion of winter’s brilliant white scattering around Cain.
Boom━!
Golden Dawn’s eyes widened.
As Cain’s steps pressing him grew faster and faster, and he began to freeze from the terrible power Cain emanated.
The Sword of Despair, Agweska, in Cain’s hand, accelerated once more.
Dark Sky.
Threefold.
Gloria Deo Excelsis.
Shwaaaaaaa━!
It was swung only once.
But what followed that sword was a path of glory and a world of peace.
Golden Dawn’s expression gradually changed as he faced Cain’s sword, both heavy and seemingly slicing through time, a sight that seemed to crumble upon mere observation.
He took a stance in the midst of it all.
As if to strike down Cain’s sword, he tried to thrust his fist towards the blade.
Thud━.
But it was too late.
Because Agweska, enveloped in ‘Winter’s’ brilliant white light, had already severed his arm below the elbow, armor of fangs and all.
Spurt━.
Red blood gushed from his body like a fountain.
Before that blood even reached its peak.
[Future is being consumed.]
Shhh━.
Cain twisted his body once in mid-air and thrust his sword.
‘I’ll finish it this time.’
The optimal opening created through provocation.
Only a fool would miss this.
With his arm severed, his neck was left vulnerable. Even though the armor of fangs possessed tremendous defensive capabilities, against Agweska and ‘Winter’, and Cain wielding them.
It was powerless!
━Lord, have mercy.
He thought of the warriors of the Great Wall, who had passed down Dark Sky from hand to hand, from life to life.
Kyrie.
Thus, the moonlight sword, created at the very beginning.
Chaat━!
It severed his neck.
It shattered the fangs surrounding his neck, split open the witch’s mouth that had been muttering the same words so pitifully, and severed his neck where red blood pulsed.
As Cain met his eyes, scattering into the air, he thought.
‘There’s a feeling.’
It wasn’t an illusion.
Cain definitely felt that he had cut him down.
Thud, thud, thud━.
The most certain proof was his head rolling across the shattered arena.
━Ah! Cain Ethelred-nim has slain the suddenly intruding monster!
Baron Moliot’s commentary.
Cain turned his head.
Beyond Oleciren’s black barrier, which seemed to bring down the night upon them, he could see the cheering citizens of the kingdom.
And in the distance, he saw Oleciren smiling.
‘Something’s strange.’
Cain frowned.
He was certain about everything.
His own hands, which had killed countless enemies, felt it clearly, and everyone around him was shouting that he had definitely killed him.
Cain turned his head and looked down at Golden Dawn’s body, which had been split in two.
‘Something doesn’t feel right……’
Edmund was smiling.
A smile as if he was looking at a proud son, setting aside his broken sword. A genuine smile, removing the bucket he was wearing on his waist.
At that moment, Cain raised the right corner of his lips.
[‘Winter’ gives a wry smile.]
“Aha.”
Clench━.
Cain gripped Agweska tightly once more and looked down at Golden Dawn, who was lying on the floor.
“This place is a lie.”
Clank, clank, clank━.
In the distance.
All the colors of this world faded, and the roar of gears began to echo.
“You are a lie.”
Only black and white remained.
And when only that boundary line was left, in this familiar moment, Cain raised his sword high.
“Only I am the truth.”
Cross Strike.
Kyrie Eleison.
The vertical sunlight connecting the horizontal moonlight.
The great cross, cleaving through a world where both light and darkness had vanished, ripped apart space.
Beyond that.
The original world appeared.
🔹🔹🔹
“H,How?”
The blue eyes were gone.
Two pupils, now completely dyed gold, were visible.
Thud━.
Cain’s Agweska pierced the heart of Golden Dawn, who stood before him.
“Edmund was smiling.”
“……?”
The golden flames that were blazing around Golden Dawn flickered.
Atop the same arena as before.
And in the distance, he saw Edmund, still wearing the bucket, aiming for this place with his half-broken sword.
Cain jerked his chin towards him.
“In the world you created, he was smiling proudly at me.”
“Isn’t he your father?”
Golden Dawn asked back, as if he genuinely didn’t understand.
Cain shook his head.
“He is my father. But that man, the moment you die, is the kind of person who would immediately try to fight me.”
“……What a scoundrel.”
Crrrrk━.
Agweska dug a little deeper into Golden Dawn’s chest.
Drip, drip, drip━.
His red blood dripped down the blade, and his flames, which had changed from blue to gold, wavered.
“And also,”
Cain glanced at Edmund, who was on guard with his sword drawn, and opened his mouth.
[‘Winter’ nods.]
Cain then lifted Agweska and vertically sliced through his body.
“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”
Clickety-clack, clickety-clack!
The sound of gears echoed.
Like a window shattering, the entire world that Cain was looking at crumbled.
A dream within a dream.
Cain realized that the world he thought he had awakened to was once again an illusion, and immediately struck.
🔹🔹🔹
And what he saw was the same arena.
In the distance, Golden Dawn, clad in his armor of fangs, stood there with a dumbfounded look on his face and asked.
“How did a human escape the illusion of ‘Daydreaming’ so quickly?”
“It was Edmund the second time too.”
Edmund was holding his sword just like he had in the illusion. Perhaps Golden Dawn had modeled him after the current Edmund within the illusion.
“……How?”
“He’s not the kind of person who would just watch me kill you like that. The moment I stabbed you, he would have flown over and plunged that broken sword of his into your head.”
Because Ethelred was the type to stab first and ask questions later if he saw an opportunity.
“Crazy bastards.”
Golden Dawn knew that the two he was facing were extraordinary, but only now did he realize how crazy they truly were.
And Cain, with a grin, brushed back his hair.
“Now, let’s see you really die.”
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