Chapter 1308: Battle of the Sword-Bearers
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The sudden encounter in front of the Ark of the Sacred Covenant caught Willie and the others off guard. The same happened to Hao Ren. After a shouting match, Hao Ren stared dead at the robed old man next to Willie, and the black sword in his hand.
The demonization of the old man turned heads with his two-meter-tall body, solid muscles, and beltfish tattoo, which was a magic pattern. Master Anthony, who had always bared his upper arms, was the only one who could match the old man’s tendon. But what caught Hao Ren’s attention was the weapon in the old man’s hand.
The sword that looked like a cosmic fragment and had light spots, which shifted in the darkness, seemed somewhat familiar—it was the Godslayer!
“This is your pope?” Hao Ren asked when Calaxus’ voice jolted him out of his stupor.
“Your Holiness Pope Auguste VII,” Calaxus said. “My teacher, how did you become like this?”
“Auguste?” A burst of raucous and dead laughter came from the mouth of the old man holding the sword. It was completely unreminiscent of the majestic and avuncular pope. “Muahaha, that soul stubbornly resisted for a while, but under the charismatic influence of the Great Lord, no mortal can resist him. The one standing in front of you is a faithful servant of the Great Lord. As for you, are you ready to die?”
After saying this, Auguste VII strode towards Hao Ren. Hao Ren may have had an absolute advantage in terms of numbers, but Auguste VII was fearless. He was confident in his strength and the sword.
But Hao Ren shouted and interrupted the old man, “Wait a minute! Let me ask you again: where did you get the sword, old man?”
Auguste VII probably never expected that under the double-menacing presence of the Worldbreaker and the Ark of the Sacred Covenant, there would still be someone talking back to him. Auguste VII was startled for a second before he proudly said, “It’s the power given by the Great Lord Lockmarton, the Worldbreaker!”
“The Worldbreaker? Lockmarton made that thing?” Hao Ren was wide-eyed, and he could not help but grin. “Very good. What a surprising discovery in Collow!”
Meanwhile, Willie had just recovered from his stupor. He hurried Lavinia to come up to the pyramid. “Don’t worry about them! Start the ceremony immediately!”
Lily jumped to her feet when she saw what Lavinia was about to do. “That’s the plate form my home! Be careful; it kills if you don’t know how to use it!”
The two Cult of Armageddon members naturally did not listen to Lily. With Willie’s urging, Lavinia put the disc on the side wall of the crystal pyramid without hesitation and began to chant an evil, abstruse incantation in a low and hoarse voice. This abracadabra would excite the seal on the disc and conduct the energy of the disc into the crystal pyramid.
While Lavinia was performing the ceremony, Willie roared and lunged in Lily as well as Calaxus’ direction. His body suddenly swelled and grew an extra demonic arm, which emitted a dark-red glow. When Willie waved his arm, ripples appeared in his surroundings. Hideous and distorted shadows began to squirm out from those ripples. They quickly expanded and grew into figures in black robes when they hit the ground.
During the short time that Willie lunged at Lily and others, dozens of cultists had appeared behind him.
These members of the Cult of Armageddon were fanatics of self-sacrifice in black magic. They latched on the senior believer with the purpose of helping Willie clear any potential resistance in Asurmen. Now, they could finally put themselves to good use.
The large group of cultists began to perform their magic and evil powers. They shouted the name of Lockmarton as they lunged at the church soldiers and abhumans. Seeing this situation, Lily had to forget about her plate for the moment. She commanded her beast guards, “Arf! Guys, tear them apart!”
The ogres lunged forward with a roar, brandishing their large staffs made of obsidian to meet the cultists, who were only half their height. Meanwhile, the demonic wolves and bear monsters, using their jungle-hunting skills, flanked the alpha’s enemies on both sides.
The abhumans had also swung into action. The church knights were glowing in white light, following Calaxus’ order to stride forward and meet the cult members in black robes.
Lily and Calaxus realized that Willie, who had turned into a half-human, half-monster creature, was the toughest one to beat. The abhumans, the church knights, and the ordinary monks were probably not his match. So they transformed; Lily shapeshifted into a giant wolf, while Calaxus cast his magic spell and stood in the way of Willie.
Amid the battle cry and explosion, Hao Ren pounced on Auguste VII.
Hao Ren had no idea how powerful the sword in Auguste VII’s hand was, but he knew that the cosmic fragment was lethal to mortals. So he could not let the old man go near Calaxus or any of the others.
Hao Ren’s provocation had enraged Auguste VII. With his pure blind worship of Lockmarton, Auguste VII thought that he should deal with Hao Ren first. Raising his sword in the air, Auguste VII went up to meet his enemy. “What a sad and struggling mortal. You don’t even know that annihilation is the ultimate destiny of the world. How could the short-lived Order compare to the eternal Chaos?”
Hao Ren stared into the dark eyes of Auguste VII. A faint light appeared as Hao Ren reached his hand into the spatial rift around him with a smile. “Old man, let me show you something!”
A black light was drawn out from the spatial rift, and it came down on Auguste VII. The old man, shocked, quickly raised his hand to block the dark light with the Worldbreaker in front of him, barely avoiding being torn apart by the law of the universe. But his body still took the force of the impact and flew a dozen meters back. In the cobweb of spatial rifts, Auguste VII now could see the thing in Hao Ren’s hand; it was another Worldbreaker sword!
Hao Ren brandished his sword and bragged. “I have one too!”
“Ahh, what a long-lost feeling of airiness. Hao Ren, are you in a fight again? Sigh, there seems to be no end to the days of killing. I can split the world but I can’t break away from my fate as a weapon. Oh, we seem to have company here. Hi, everyone, I am Godslayer, alias Echo Wall, epithet Small Sword. You can call me McStabby. I—”
“Shut up.”
“Okay.”
On the other hand, Auguste VII was staring dead at the black cosmic fragment filled with starlight in Hao Ren’s hand. His facial muscles rippled as Auguste VII tried very hard to ascertain if the sword was a genuine Worldbreaker.
However, Auguste VII did not have to do that, because the sword had struck the Worldbreaker in his hand. Shortly after, the space in their surrounding cracked and slowly closed, which meant that the sword in Hao Ren’s hand was another Worldbreaker. There was nothing in the universe that could produce this collision phenomenon other than the Worldbreakers.
“Why is the power of the Great Lord with you?” the former pope asked hoarsely. “You stole it! No… No one can steal his power. Are you his… No, it’s impossible. Oh Lord, is this a test?”
Hao Ren would not give Auguste VII the opportunity to catch his breath. He lunged out again, but this time, in a much faster speed that he left a trail of shadows behind him. “Three-pronged Throat Slicer!” he shouted his move.
Before Hao Ren’s voice trailed off, his sword was already inches away from the old pope’s waist.
“You—” The old pope managed to dodge in a split second. He had learned to anticipate the enemy’s moves after years of training, but he barely succeeded this time. As the two colliding swords tore the space apart, a tooth-soring sound was produced. Sporadic starlight shot out of the swords’ point of collision, and crack lines appeared in the air, tearing the open space around them. Farther out, an optical distortion happened and their surroundings became elusive, causing spatial disorientation.
Even in the vicinity of the Ark of the Sacred Covenant, which was under the goddess’ field of influence, the energy from the collision of the two swords still disturbed the physical law of space.
The old pope was shocked and enraged at the same time. Amid the distorted space and disturbed gravity, Hao Ren’s ferocious offensive left him scrambling and on the losing side.
Auguste VII’s mutated arm, infested by the power of the Worldbreaker, began to billow in black smoke. He was losing control of the sword.
On the other hand, Hao Ren’s control over the Godslayer was like a duck to water. It felt weightless in his hand and would have been the perfect weapon if not for its annoying characteristics.
After several collisions, the silent Godslayer seemingly discovered something and broke out in excitement. Its shout of joy spread out in the form of energy waves, breaking the restriction of only having the sword-bearer hear its voice.
“Hey bro, who are you? We look the same!”
At that moment, Hao Ren wished that he could kill himself—he was embarrassed.
The Godslayer had found out at last. It would be hard to keep its mouth shut this time.