54. The Return of the Phantom of Martial Arts

Although Davey didn’t know the name or face of the man in front of him, he was sure that the man was the Alpha Reinforcements’ captain.

“This is still a place where people live.”

“Warning. Detection of high energy. Rinne will remove it if it approaches any further.”

“Hm, a very loyal young lady, as expected. I didn’t know that experienced knights from the outside would struggle to face her,” the man mumbled. He stared at Rinne, who took back her metal bat and summoned her two lightsabers.

Rinne looked nothing but confident as she stood with the two lightsabers that she had summoned from the equipment on the back of her hand.

‘Prxxoss?’ [1]

Although the final appearance was completely different, Rinne instinctively made most of her weapons by using the information she gathered from Davey. It was probably true that her instincts were linked to Davey’s ideas.

“Well, don’t be so hostile.”

“I think we’ve seen each other before.”

“Hm? I have never seen you before?”

“You shouldn’t lie so much, you know.” Davey grinned, then intensified the sword energy that he was releasing from his fingertips. He added nonchalantly, “Is it really the first time we’re meeting? You’ve already seen me once, and we even talked. Remember when you asked me to hand Rinne over?”

The man’s smile disappeared from his face. “I don’t know if you’re just quick, or…”

“I am crazy good at detection.” Davey smiled before adopting a serious expression. “How could I just accept a compliment without giving anything in return?”

Boom!!! The counter-attack happened in mere seconds.

“Keugh?!” The man was knocked back without even being able to react to the sudden, invisible attack. He rolled and flew much further away than Davey had been pushed back.

Davey could tell that the man was incredibly powerful; it meant that the man was strong enough to easily beat a new Swordmaster. Of course, he had expected this kind of power from someone who was a captain of the knight order.

“Cough… It’s even more amazing than I thought now that I have seen it myself. Of course, you’re fearless; you have this kind of power.” Faintly groaning, the man stood up with his jaw still slightly clenched. “Amazing. Would you like to join me?”

“I’ll hear you out at least,” Davey shook his wrists and said casually.

The man chuckled. “I will compliment you on sending Trainee Illyna de Pallan away. She has talent, but her personality isn’t really fit for us.”

“She’s a little brazen, but it’s true that she is nice.”

Davey wondered how difficult it would be for royalty, who were born divine, to see humans as humans and to stop injustice by analyzing the problem realistically. In that sense, Davey thought quite highly of Illyna.

As Davey gestured for him to talk, the man chuckled. He asked, “You. Do you know how far in the Zone of Evil the Alpha Reinforcements have discovered?”

“I heard it was the beginning of the central forest.”

Then, the man set down his sword on the ground. “You’re wrong. To be honest, we haven’t even gone near the central region.”

“Haven’t gone there?”

“Yes, the evil beasts are stronger when you get deeper into the forest. There were too many huge dangers in the Pandora Region to push through with force alone. As such, the farthest the knight order has gone in history is up to the beginning of the forest… We also couldn’t clear all the monsters.” After mumbling quietly, the man continued on, “Not only that, but there are also kings of evil beasts in each part of the Pandora Region. As the trainees know, there is Shandra, the king of the central region, and three more kings behind Shandra.”

“…”

“Now do you understand? The knight order will never be able to overcome the Pandora Region like this.” The man was trying to persuade Davey.

“Numerous members of the order would die, and more lives would unnecessarily be sacrificed. So, I thought… Why do humans have to die fighting evil beasts?”

“You’re denying the foundation of the knight order.”

“Can’t we make evil beasts fight each other?”

Planting his sword into the ground, the man spread his arms wide as if he was explaining a grand goal. “If it were up to you, what would you do? What would you do if you had the chance to capture and take control of Shandra, the transcendental being and king of evil beasts… If you had the chance to kill the catastrophically powerful monster?!”

The man was already in euphoria as he shouted loudly. “Wouldn’t we be able to reform all of the Pandora Region without any more knights dying?!”

“Taking control of transcendental beings... I assume you mentioned it because you have something in mind?”

‘Is this guy serious? He doesn’t know what a transcendental being means to me right now.’

“That’s right. We have already somewhat succeeded in controlling Shandra. However, it is unstable.”

Davey was a little surprised by the man’s answer, but he wasn’t completely surprised.

“That is why I am proposing this! There is no need for any more human sacrifices. We will reform the Pandora Region by using the powers of Shandra and the evil beasts that follow it! We do not know what will be discovered at the end of it! That is why it’s all the more worth trying!”

“…”

“There might be something exceptional, or there might be an ancient sacred item from an ancient ruin! Or there could be something new that has yet to be discovered in this world!” The man continued to shout in madness, “In the west, they say, ‘Take care of barbarians by using barbarians.’ The sacrifices now may be painful, but if we succeed in taking complete control of a transcendental being! It will be the greatest accomplishment in the knight order’s history!”

“Is that a reason to mass slaughter the knights?”

“The only opportunity was right now when most of the knights who observed the condition of Shandra were all scattered.”

Davey was wondering why the less effective barrier compared to the one around the headquarters was cast over the forest, and now he knew. It meant that this was a fight for power among the knight order, but the outside. It was best to stay out of something like this since it would just complicate things, but it becomes entirely different if it was about him.

“Let’s get one thing straight.”

The man looked at Davey curiously.

“I have a brain, so I’ve read the rules to the knight order.”

Davey took away his sword energy and pulled out Red Ribbon.

‘Definite slaughter instead of stopping them.’

The choice was simple.

“Wasn’t the overall rule of the Last Wisp not the exploration and acquisition of the Zone of Evil, but the protection of humanity from the dangers from the Zone of Evil? Since when did the ancient promise turn into something like that?”

“…”

“The cart was put before the horse. You lost focus on what it should actually be about; you slaughtered dozens of completely normal members of the knight order, saying that you don’t want any more people suffering.”

The man’s expression tensed up as he heard Davey, who added, “I don’t know if you understand double standards. You have different standards for yourself compared to other people.”

“How unfortunate. I thought someone as realistic as you would understand our great goal.”

“To be honest, the reason I am declining is not because of the two things mentioned before…” Davey said calmly.

The man widened his eyes slightly.

“It’s because you attacked me. You should at least apologize if you pointed your sword at someone. And the transcendental being is mine. It’s not something you should want.”

‘He also shouldn’t think to cooperate if he has no intention of apologizing.’

As Davey spoke while using [Aura Blade], the man smiled bitterly and said, “Yours… Haha, how extremely arrogant. It’s too bad, but what can you do? You have no choice but to die here.”

“I assure you that you should give it your everything when you attack me.”

“Seems I should. I thought you were just a strange little kid, but that sword… It’s not just any ordinary sword.” The man stared at Red Ribbon with greed, then raised one hand. He added, “I’ll tell you one thing before you die. Aren’t you curious about how we took control of the transcendental being?”

“I already know.”

“What?”

“He’s not exactly an illusionist, right? You just call him that because there’s no other way to describe his ability to control senses.”

Davey swung his sword toward a space not too far away from him.

[Demon Sword 15th Form]

[Destruction of Rifts] 

Crack! This was a sword technique that split open crevices in space. As Davey’s red blade energy cut through part of the space, the void began distorting to reveal a boy standing there. The boy who was covered in blood looked familiar.

“I told you that illusionists were really unique.”

“How did…”

“If you can’t find them with your five senses, use your sixth sense.”

For the first time, the boy looked surprised and not emotionless. Davey shrugged when he spoke to Treve, the illusionist.

“I don’t know how powerful that transcendental being is, but I assure you that this insanity will definitely fail.”

“How unfortunate.”

As the man spoke…

Boom!!!! As the empty space began distorting, something large swung at Davey and knocked him far away.

“It is true that you are strong, but I wonder how you will be against a transcendental being that can take on dozens of Swordmasters at once.”

The monster revealed from the empty space was so gigantic and powerful that it seemed like a dragon from an ancient legend.

* * *

The monster was about one hundred fifty meters long, and it had large scales and four tough claws. There was a sharp horn on its long neck and its jaw was like a living battering ram. Its amber-colored eyes were so overwhelming that it could be considered an ancient dragon only if it had wings.

Davey could instinctively tell what this dragon, which had blue light shining from between its scales, was.

“Ouch…”

It was the new, enormous transcendental being, Shandra, which had rooted itself in the Pandora Region. As the unprecedented monster that took down four Swordmasters without getting a scratch, its presence was so overwhelming that most people would tremble just by looking at its overwhelmingly big size. Considering that Treve had hidden the presence of something this big, it seemed like he was quite talented as well.

-Davey!

Perserque shouted in surprise; perhaps it was because this was the first time Davey had bled. It wasn’t that Davey had underestimated the transcendental being, but the attack was faster than he could have reacted to.

“Ouch… I’m fine.”

-The transcendental being!

“It’s not a transcendental being.”

At first, Davey thought that it might be. He thought that there was no way, but just as he expected, there was no such thing as 100% in this world.

“People call it a transcendental being because it has this kind of power.” Speaking up, Davey stood up from in between the cracks of the completely shattered rocks and pulled out Red Ribbon and Blue Ribbon. He released all of his energy.

‘If I’m going up against this guy, I’m going to have to release all the power I have.’

“Shandra Minea. You’ve gone too far.”

Shandra Minea, the king of the mythical beasts that was once called the Overlord of the Ground, was completely different from the Shandra Davey knew; it was just boasting its enormous presence in front of him as a monster with nothing but instincts.

1. From StarXraft ☜