The Sword Of Salvation
Ch. 7 — A Battle and the Truth
“ALAH, Primordial Devil Lucifer. Show me your strength as one of the eight strongest demons!”
Lukhiel meets the challenge of the king. He darted straight, not bothering himself to use silly tricks. Meanwhile, Arthur bent his knee and then darted too. The king's Exaclibur glowed golden, then swung with all his might.
“Golden Radiance!”
Lukhiel, despite being in his strongest mode, did not try to do such reckless things as block the energy that Excalibur's slash unleashed. He needs to master the skin hardening technique (Hardening Skin) that is commonly controlled by fighters from the Northern Continent if he wants to try to hold the slash. It was not enough ordinary level skin hardening technique; it needed the highest level of skin hardening technique. Or, he needed the same Devil Curse as Celinee. Without one of them, blocking the power of Excalibur without a holy weapon was impossible.
Lukhiel arched his body backwards, thinly avoiding the Excalibur slash energy that shot rapidly splitting the air. That slash was stronger than the previous slash. The previously split barier was instantly completely destroyed. But Lukhiel had no time to see if Athrecia had fixed it immediately or not; arthur was already in a state of stabbing him.
Demons who had strayed into this path of goodness reacted quickly. He brushed aside the sharp blade of Excalibur with one of the wind-sparking swords. Then he turned his body (still in a body tilted backwards) while swinging the other wind sword.
Lukhiel's actions startle Arthur. The devil is in a difficult position. Just avoiding is hard, let alone counterattacking. But Lukhiel managed to do it – combat experience is no longer question. Arthur was unable to avoid the slash.
Unfortunately for Lukhiel, his wind sword slash was only able to cut through the thin steel armor the king wore under his clothes. The wind sword was unable to hit the king's skin directly. Not incapable in the sense that his body was immune, but because Arthur had moved away before his wind sword could wound him.
“Reflex and control of your body is amazing,” praise Arthur while removing clothes and dumping them on the ground that is still glowing, making his sturdy body directly licked with blue fire. “I've decided, you deserve my sword technique.”
Lukhiel had no interest in hearing such useless idle words. He immediately shot forward while creating and then fired dozens of wind bullets. Arthur did not move from his floating position, but he had created dozens of blue fire bullets to overcome the devil's wind bullets.
A bang occurs every time a wind bullet hits a fire bullet, and Lukhiel darted straight between the blows. The two wind-piercing swords were already more than ready to slash the opponent's neck.
“First Technique,” Arthur put up tight horses with slightly bent bodies— lightning sprinkles began to appear between his blue fire robe and his skin. “Lightning Drive.”
Lukhiel widened his eyes full of shock. The king had vanished from before him before he could land the attack. Instead of teleporting; Arthur darted just as fast as the speed of a lightning strike. That is also the reason why (though surprised) he still had time to move one of the wind swords to fend off the super-speed slash of the king.
“Reactive speed and your reflexes are really troublesome,” muttered Arthur who floated back to Lukhiel with a distance of dozens of meters. “I've thought I'll be able to slash you, but only your wind sword is broken.”
Hearing that remark, Lukhiel reflexively looked at the wind sword he used to block Arthur's sword swing just now. And sure enough, the high density wind sword cracked violently in the middle then broke. Lukhiel saw the part of the sword that had fallen began to wander and then disappeared.
The demon deployed its prana, making the broken wind sword return as it was. Then he turned to look at Arthur who was also looking at him.
“Original elements of lightning,” Lukhiel said. “Fire is your spirit power. You deliberately make people think that fire is your element.”
“Quickly once.” Arthur is not evasive. “But there's nothing you can do with the information I gave you. I have ten sword techniques; let's see if you can live to the tenth. If you can live until then, I will show you the peak of my spirit power.”
Arthur's remark implied that he could use the final stage of spirit power. That's hazardous. Arthur had never fought with a person who could use the final stage of spirit power. Moreover, the fire power that spirit Arthur possessed made the Devil Curse Lukhiel ineffective. He didn't even look overwhelmed despite being around him a few times.
If it was anyone else, their bodies would have been charred just by being adjacent to Lukhiel. But Arthur is different. He was now like immune to his Devil Curse. And, it's still the second stage—Stage of Unification or Union. What if he got to using the Origin Stage (Origin)? Lukhiel admits it will be impossible for him to win.
Realizing this made the image of Nessthanovla's power clearer in Lukhiel's head.
The strongest demon is able to defeat the Emperor Gilgamesh in his full power, while Gilgamesh is the strongest man in history. He was even nicknamed a demigod for being the first human to be able to use the Origin Stage of spirit mastery. More than that, he possessed the sacred weapon of Ishtar Gate, a weapon superior to Excalibur. And, Nessthanovla actually defeated Gilgamesh.
For Arthur IV Pendragon to declare his ambition to defeat Nessthanovla, it was certain that he had truly mastered the Origin Stage. In the Basic Stage he could use fire easily. In the Unification Stage the fire becomes hotter and changes color; it also has resistance to heat. What about the Origin Stage?
Not surprisingly Nessthanovla says humans have the potential to become stronger than the devil, Lukhiel's mind remembers the wise words of the strongest demon—of course he ignored the continuation of the speech. Nessthanovla is a little narcissistic: she excludes herself in the word “iblis”.
“Using the Origin stage will shorten your age. Are you sure you will use it if I can overcome your ten lightning sword moves?” lukhiel asked after removing Nessthanovla's laughter from her head.
Arthur was silent for a moment, but then his lips curved and praised, “Though you're a demon, I thought you deserved respect. You're quite knowledgeable and don't underestimate. And to answer your question, great power requires great sacrifice. But, I thought you understood that.”
“So, yes. Good. In that case, I only have to kill you before you use the last stage of your spirit mastery.”
Arthur laughed loudly after hearing Lukhiel's declaration, but the devil ignored it and attacked again. He did not have a sword style like Arthur; Lukhiel flying a flexible swordplay without any special skills like Arthur. However, that does not mean he can not do anything in front of the moves.
Along with Arthur putting up different horses than before, two tornadoes were formed on the right and left of the demon. The ground that was red glowed like lava had slowly cooled, so the two Lukhiel wind tornadoes did not turn into fire tornadoes. And, immediately the two tornadoes he leaned on Arthur.
“‒Lightning Cutter!”
In the blink of an eye, the two wind tornadoes belonged to Lukhiel's two terpo-tongs horizontally. The curvature of the lightning was still faintly visible after the two tornadoes were cut. And, if not for his amazing reactive speed, Lukhiel would have been cut in half as well. His reactive speed allowed the demon to aim the two wind swords to block Arthur's sword slash.
However, cracks began to appear on the middle of his two wind swords. This made Lukhiel take immediate action. Before his two wind swords broke, a wall of high-pressure wind instantly hit Arthur's body. The wind wall was as large as the barrier wall, so there was no gap for the king to dodge.
Unfortunately for Lukhiel, Arthur did not avoid. He doesn't bother himself to do things that can't be done. On the contrary, along with the wind wall hit, he also put up different horses again – this time his sword pointed forward. Lukhiel did not hear what he whispered. However, in the blink of an eye his stomach had been pierced by lightning.
Fortunately, the one that pierced through his stomach was only lightning, he was able to regenerate himself. And more profitable, the wind wall hit Arthur on the barrier wall. The barrier wall was destroyed on the part that hit Arthur's body, making the king thrown out. Lukhiel decided to take advantage.
However, the intention was immediately paused when suddenly the barier barbarian was back intact and Arthur appeared right in front of the barrier wall.
“I'm sorry, Athrecia shouldn't have interfered. But, he had to teleport me back here to avoid any excess damage.”
Lukhiel gave no verbal response; he again darted against the king.
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As a spectator, Athrecia had to admit that she had little trouble maintaining a barrier. Both Arthur and Lukhiel, both of whom can break out of their barrier in their current state. Their bodies are hot enough that the barrier is not strong. This reaffirms the fact that the ones who are fighting are two individuals who are at the top level.
The last time Athrecia witnessed a fight of such a degree was when Rhemea fought his apprentice Merlin. At that time, he and Rhemea (based on records left by Morgan Le Fay) managed to reach the Tower of Babel. Even though Rhemea had lost heavily after the opponent was serious, it was still an amazing fight before that.
And even if they had to flee, the experience was still worthwhile. Because, because he and Rhemea managed to escape, Merlin eliminated the Tower of Babel and changed positions. He had no idea where the goddamn witch and her student were now, but Athrecia remained satisfied that she had irritated the immortal witch.
Seeing the fight Arthur and Lukhiel really reminds him of the fight that occurred decades ago. Arthur was in the position of his disciple Merlin, and Lukhiel was in the position of Rhemea. The difference, in addition to their fighting style, Arthur needs to use the third stage of spirit mastery to defeat Lukhiel, while his student Merlin only uses the second stage.
Arthur is no stronger than the girl, concluded the witch.
Although his eyes saw the course of the fight from outside the barrier, Athrecia actually did not care about the course of the fight. He was just waiting for an opportunity to take “Sword of Salvation” without Arthur suspecting. The king did not know that the sword at Lukhiel's waist was the one he was looking for. And, he'll make sure it stays that way.
Athrecia has been lying a lot and hiding information from Arthur. It was not intentional, but he had already taken the wrong path before meeting Arthur. If only the king had been born a hundred years earlier, it would probably not have been like this. Moreover, Arthur was really serious when he said he wanted to kill Nessthanovla, so it was better that he did not know.
But as long as I'm by his side, I'll do whatever it takes to make sure he won't become anyone's pawn, let alone get killed.
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Arthur swung his sword quickly overcame the barrage of super-hot wind spears Lukhiel had fired at him. The wind heat of each spear was fine for him, but the sharpness of the spears could stab his body if he was off guard.
Lukhiel's control of the wind was truly great; he could not control his lightning element as easily as Lukhiel controlled the wind element. Thus he developed his lightning sword. And so he showed as if fire was the element he learned.
“I have one question,” said Arthur after releasing the Golden Radiance that the demon was able to avoid. “Why didn't you use your sword?”
It's a little strange that Lukhiel hasn't used the sword on his grill yet. In fact, he had already unleashed five of his lightning sword techniques and had already broken both of the demon's wind swords many times. However, instead of pulling out the bandaged sword from the end of the hilt to the end of the blade, he was precisely sacrificing prana and recovering his two wind swords.
“This sword is a gift for my disciple,” Lukhiel replied while creating ten wind tornadoes and throwing them at the king.