Awakening the Great Bloodline Chapter 147

Chapter 147: The End of The Law

Sound vanished.

The impact had certainly been there. Blades clashed, mana was ground away. Yet nothing reached the ears. Within the silence, only three trajectories were visible — Imran's pale heat, Calix's dim pulse, and Kohtan's emotionless upward slash.

Each ti the blade tips crossed, the surface of the barrier rippled thin.

Ti shifted back by one layer. Color bled out by one tone. Calix saw the gap. Mage Yelayen's energy ford hairline fractures in the air. Imran aid for the space between them, while Kohtan's shadow moved to seal it shut.

Exactly that much margin, exactly that much breath remained.

Boom!!

The ray of light that burst from Imran's hand pulled at Kohtan's sword. The path opened slightly wider. Calix slid forward one step and thrust out his blade tip.

The timing was perfect.

Rather than extending his own sword, the Red Knight blocked with his left forearm. Crack — the outer surface of the armor was properly sheared away. Like parched earth splitting open, fine fractures spread across his shoulder and ribcage.

[You... you...!]

A low reverberation rose from beneath Kohtan's helm. A faint tremor took hold — sothing close to warning and fury, or perhaps displeasure.

Even so, the wind blew on without rest. As the magical force churned through the barrier, the clerics' prayers seeped in thin threads.

Calix's Core absorbed the divinity, then rged it with darkness and sent it outward. There was no feeling of catching on anything. It simply flowed smoothly — from heart to spine, shoulder to wrist, to blade tip.

Shhhhhhk!

Kohtan's blade tip ca driving down vertically. In the past he would have retreated unilaterally, but this ti was different. Calix instead stepped in half a beat faster and raised the back of his blade. A spark flew from the mana collision, but the pressure was deflected to the side.

Following that, he slid his foot in a half-circle and shifted his center of gravity.

In an instant — once, twice, a third ti — they clashed again. Kohtan's rhythm was clearly familiar to the eye now. Indeed, in so ways, it seed faintly slower.

If there was a weapon capable of matching the enemy, he would not fall behind in swordsmanship.

Chaos rode on his blade tip. A force that was neither darkness nor light. The mont the trajectories of his cuts layered upon one another, part of Kohtan's breastplate crumbled.

Fissss.

Fine cracks spread outward from a small hole at the center. Considering the position of the Core, it was a wound that could not be permitted. Naturally, Kohtan's authority unfolded and sealed it shut almost at once. But what mattered was the fact that the opening was widening.

[...I will not let you die cleanly!]

Calix drove his foot in deeper. Imran ca charging in from the side across the space, while the mage's energy descended from overhead and the streams of divine power poured from behind.

Within his field of vision, Kohtan's energy appeared vivid and clear. He could see everything — where to open, which axis to twist.

He declared once more. This ti firmly, in a voice anyone could hear.

"I open the path!"

The legendary sword Srna tore through the enemy's domain once again. Now, the balance of the battlefield was tilting in the opposite direction.

***

Kohtan's movent stopped. His blade tip slowly tilted, and from the gap in his helm — fsssst — dim steam leaked out.

He finally sensed that the ti to decide victory and defeat had co. However, unlike certain others, he did not fear the mage's arrival itself.

Those red eyes swept, for a mont, to the distant silhouette of Yelayen.

[Even if you co, nothing changes.]

A mage was a being bound by the laws of the world. Kohtan possessed a law of his own, and for that reason, he did not fear him.

Rather, it was the mortals who grated on his nerves. One was the sword of n, Imran Akran. The other was Calix, who wielded a vicious power.

Thousands of living creatures were locked in combat at the center of the battlefield, and though the survivors of the Kriya Order were pressing in from the outer edges, the outco rested solely on those two.

[Without eternal rest, there can be no annihilation.]

Naturally, Kohtan too fought back with full force. In an instant, a dense mass of shadow burst outward in an explosion.

Srrrrk.

First, the axis of ti slipped out of alignnt. The sound of iron striking iron, and the sparks leaping from the point of contact, blood late. The mingling of beasts and humans, the clerics' prayers — all of it flowed several beats slower. Movent and sound beca disjointed.

Fwsh!

The ground heaved in reverse. Clumps of mud suspended in the air all collapsed at once. Black viscous masses poured inward toward the center as well. It was not fatal, but it was a desperate struggle to sohow shackle Calix's feet.

Simultaneously, color drained away. The red armor, the silver cloak, the mud staining their skin — every elent faded to black and white. The only colors remaining were the flash at Imran's blade tip, Kohtan's darkness, and Calix's chaos. Even those were being shaved away thin.

Then thousands of shadows surged upward, trying to bind the two n's limbs. But the distance between the two sides was already too close.

Rrrrrumble!

The dark energy rose vertically. Along the path Kohtan's sword traveled, the entire space warped under the pressure.

Bang — Bang —!

Two consecutive strikes. Calix's first cut slightly twisted the enemy's pressure, and Imran's second thrust struck an opening. The dark crimson armor and pulped flesh ca away in fragnts.

Kohtan, for the first ti, pulled back in a wide movent. A large motion he had never shown before. There was nowhere left to retreat.

Soon the surrounding space and ti folded like beams of light, and the length of the blade multiplied to a range invisible to the naked eye. A distance where touching was possible without touching. Calix's expression stiffened in an instant.

Along the blade tips, two energies collided. The force of chaos devoured Kohtan's darkness, then was pushed back by the darkness that followed — and the cycle repeated. A contest of quality against quantity.

At its end, Calix threw himself forward.

Half a step toward the Core, and then another half. He drove through the whirlpool of mana and thrust forward, throwing his full weight behind the strike. The spiral riding the blade tip split between black and white, then converged once more into a single point.

BOOM — !!

And so, once more, the enemy's barrier was torn open. Kohtan's blade shattered, and through the gap, the tip of Calix's sword drove in.

That was exactly the mont.

"...!"

Rather than withdrawing his sword, Kohtan thrust it inward in return. A short, deep stab. It was too late to evade. Calix's vision turned white.

Thunk.

The blade pierced through flesh. A brief exhalation. The blade hilt that had run through the abdon flashed out the back. Because of the dark energy churning through it, no blood spilled. There was no pain.

"Cough—"

Belatedly, blood burst from his lips.

The one who had taken Kohtan's blade was none other than Imran.

Even so, he did not fall. He hardened both arms, shoulders, and back muscles and locked the enemy's sword in place. The Red Knight's arm was montarily bound.

"...Go."

There was no ti to express emotion. Calix gritted his teeth and took the final step. His blade tip slid toward the fractured breastplate. The darkness radiating from Kohtan's Core scorched his skin.

A distance of no more than a few spans.

Yet his hand trembled.

Beyond the grip holding the sword, an invisible wall made itself known. Like the surface of a lake with a thin sheet of ice, like a thorned thicket coated in poison. The Core could not be destroyed without paying a price.

Kohtan's law demanded that a toll be paid.

The hesitation lasted only an instant.

'With my life, I will save the Mountain Rabbits.'

This was not a price to be surrendered to Kohtan, but rather the responsibility owed to his own choices. Calix gave the sa answer this ti as well.

He took the final step.

No — he was about to.

Grab!

A blood-soaked hand seized his wrist. The heat of its trembling was conveyed unmistakably.

It was Imran Akran.

"You..."

His voice was low and brief. A faint breath was mixed into it.

"...must walk forward into tomorrow."

Then their gazes locked. A bond — long if long, short if short — passed between them in an instant. A cool reprimand, the shadow of an emperor, a confrontation by a riverbank, the cry of a newborn, a teaching that resembled the bond between master and student — all of it passed in a single mont.

And stopped.

Imran seed to smile faintly. Just barely.

He grabbed the young man by the nape of his neck and threw him backward. At the sa ti, he let go of his own sword, took hold of Calix's, and gripped it even harder.

He pushed his body forward. Kohtan's blade tip drove deeper into his abdon. At so point, the Neural Accelerator's warning tone and the alert window before his eyes no longer appeared.

Color went out. Sound vanished. The world held its breath.

This was not Kohtan's sole authority — it was a world that only one who stood in strength could enter.

The extre of Extinction.

There was no fla, no explosion. Only the state of erasing what exists. Where the blade tip advanced, light extinguished and shadow retreated. Shade ceased to be.

Imran's stride beca a single line. It extended straight along the path Calix had opened.

[A coward who fled the battlefield... thrashing about now, of all tis!]

Kohtan reacted swiftly as well. The darkness ca surging back like a rewinding tide. The tags of ti snapped and broke, and the shattered armor fragnts recovered in reverse.

But it was slightly too slow.

The sword Imran held cried out plaintively within the silence.

Trdrdrd.

Then the origin of the wicked being was laid bare. It was a geotric form with no fixed shape.

Angles appeared and dissolved, circles swelled and collapsed, sharp points were etched like stars in a night sky. And throughout, without a single ray of light — sothing that beat like a heart. That was Kohtan's Core.

The tip of Imran's blade did not waver in the slightest. It simply moved forward, and erased that which had to be erased.

Shuuk—

The legendary sword Srna pierced the enemy's heart.

In that instant, the red helm tilted back. As though alive, rough steam billowed from the joints of the armor.

[...!]

An incomprehensible shriek spread outward. Cracks ran in every direction, and the dark barrier split open in a circle. The black-and-white world broke. The delayed sounds returned to their proper ti. The clumps of mud that had been endlessly overturned lost their force and fell.

The world ca back. As the decisive battle within the barrier ended, the battlefield outside also found its footing.

Imran did not bother to press harder. There was no need to confirm whether the kill was certain. There was nothing left there at all.

Thud.

Calix rushed over and caught Imran's body. He instinctively stepped in front to stand as a shield. Lest the aftermath that followed swallow them both.

But Kohtan had already reached his end. The red armor broke apart and fell away. Beyond rely fracturing, flesh turned viscous and began to lt.

[Soone like you... My eternal...]

It dissolved before the words were even finished.

The final cry Kohtan left behind tore through the battlefield in every direction. The red fragnts scattered into dust, and the shells of darkness drifted through the air. The sunlight that had concealed itself peeked out from between the clouds. The clerics' prayers, the sound of soldiers catching their breath, and weeping — all of it ca crashing in at once and burst forth.

The wind blew.

Yelayen set foot at the outer edge of the battlefield and lowered his hand. The split sky shuddered finely, then gradually settled, as though being sutured shut. He swept his gaze over the scattered monster horde. The dead no longer rose again.

Just then, his eyes t Calix's. The wind that blew in silence swept the remnants of darkness cleanly away.

The silver ranks of the Kriya Order joined as well. The war cries of battle transford into the lody of mourning. A middle-aged man with a familiar face approached Imran's side and knelt. Sier Lagrin assessed his condition. Against the back of his hand, a pulse fluttered faintly.

The new Pope lowered his head, his expression darkened.

Calix held Imran upright and laid him down quietly. The abdon was half-severed, yet almost no blood ca out. The wound appeared too deep even to flow.

Then his eyes opened for a brief mont.

"...Well done."

It was an extraordinarily small voice, yet it rang out clearly. Calix nodded. Beyond that, no answer ca to him.

Imran's grip pressed his wrist one final ti. Strength slowly drained away.

Just as Yelayen moved to approach, Calix shook his head. Only Ella and Sier Lagrin, the two clerics, remained by his side.

In the distance, the worn banner of the Mountain Rabbits rose again. Gregor helped the veteran soldiers of the Silver Shield Legion to their feet. Volga looked after Zahira, and Basim and Marik sorted through the survivors.

Calix closed Imran's eyes. His gaze t Adrian's briefly, but no words passed between them.

He rose slowly to his feet. His knees trembled, but he could not neglect to retrieve Imran's sword.

At that mont, Mage Yelayen approached and spoke in a low voice.

"I was... Too late."

Still no answer ca. Calix, with his back turned, looked toward the walls of the capital. That city — far too quiet throughout the entire battle.

Victory had ant liberation, yet there was no cheering. The battlefield was still, and only the breath and pulse of the living, and the words of a mourning song, remained.

Calix picked up his own sword and slid it into its scabbard. The sky from which the barrier had lifted scattered small snowflakes, as though reclaiming its rightful season.

Only then did he draw in a long, delayed breath. And then, in a voice just barely small enough for only himself to hear, he spoke.

"Imran Akran."

That the law of evil had been severed was owed entirely to the sacrifice of one man. Yet the people of the world would not think of it that way.