The Swordsman Genius Returnee Even Swallows Immortality



1

‘Which time was it?’

A hazy memory surfaced.

Havel Van Pelleon.

The man mulle

Once, he was called the Sword Saint.

And he was the head of one of the three great families that guarded the imperial palace.

But here, he was nothing.

He obliterated the capital and the imperial palace of the Unified Empire of Arhan in an instant.

‘The worst disaster in the world.’

The Demon Palace.

At least, in this place.

‘I should never have entered.’

Havel rolled his eyes.

Beneath his feet lay countless corpses.

And all of them had been alive just moments ago.

He remembered.

‘The 64th.’

It was the number of times he had returned.

As the head of one of the great families, Havel entered the Demon Palace to reclaim the empire’s capital.

Eventually, he was trapped in the Demon Palace, from which there was no escape.

Even death was not an escape with the return he held in his grasp.

* * *

The Demon Palace is a vicious calamity from which one cannot escape once entered.

It’s not a matter of metaphor or difficulty.

Once inside the Demon Palace, an automatic constraint prevents one from leaving.

There are only two ways to escape the Demon Palace.

To clear it.

Or death.

“Hoo.”

A long breath escaped Havel’s lips.

The day everyone died, and he alone survived.

Havel killed the master of the fourth floor and received his reward.

‘No, it’s a curse.’

The curse of return.

So, he had no choice but the first option.

To clear the Demon Palace.

But that was an impossible task.

The head of the great families!

Knights of the glorious Imperial Palace!

Warriors who gathered from all over the world!

The floor they managed to break through with their combined strength is right here.

And they were annihilated on the 4th floor.

Except for one.

The Black Swordsman, Havel Penfellion.

Did he clear that horrible labyrinth all by himself?

‘That’s ridiculous.’

He should say something that doesn’t even sound like a word.

“I should have died instead.”

Havel muttered to himself.

He recalled the eyes of the other Lords who died saving him.

They were shackles.

‘You must live alone’ – those terrible shackles.

Even His Majesty the Emperor, who came to save him, has passed away.

What is he supposed to do by living?

Koo-koong!

At that moment, an echo rang out.

He looked up with his sword still in his hand.

Regression is a curse.

At the point when he faced this regression.

Havel’s mind was almost at its limit.

Even so, he went down to the labyrinth.

That was all he could do.

‘7th floor.’

Havel looked at the floor he had reached.

More than half of his regressions occurred on the 7th floor.

The number of deaths that far exceeded his previous deaths.

These deaths were partly because he was pushed to his mental limits.

But it was also because the difficulty of the 7th floor was ridiculously high.

He felt a burning heat.

The soles of his shoes melted with a sizzling sound.

His breath was blocked in his throat.

His lungs hurt from the heat.

Even the beads of sweat that came out of his sweat glands shrunk.

The 7th floor, the lava zone.

And the place filled with the hottest heat among them.

“Damn it…”

It was the place guarded by the Firebird, the master of the 7th floor.

Havel realized once again that he was here because of the heat.

He had gotten closer to the phoenix that had almost killed him more than half a dozen times.

The closer he got to the culprit, the more his body involuntarily flinched.

It was the first time he had experienced this with his current body, but his mind remembered the gruesome death where his entire body was burned to ashes.

When he finally came face to face with the phoenix again, Habell actually wanted to give up.

However, even that was impossible for him.

Even if he gave up and died, he would just end up regressing anyway.

The phoenix opened its bright red beak towards Habell.

“Piyu.”

At the same time, flames erupted from its beak.

The phoenix’s two wings are unfurled, large enough to cover the sky.

Kukung!

The next moment, the phoenix figure disappeared.

Then, the phoenix’s talons, which had flown in at an incredible speed, struck Habell’s sword.

Kwaang!

The surrounding area shook from the shockwaves and lava surged up.

However, Habell’s eyes remained calm.

He had repeated this regression 64 times.

“Just because you’re a flashy bastard.”

And he had gotten stronger in the process.

Even the nickname Black Sword couldn’t contain him anymore.

Once again, the phoenix’s talons and Habell’s sword clashed.

Was it because of the experience he had accumulated from dying on the 7th floor?

Now, even the phoenix’s movements felt familiar.

Yet, he still couldn’t defeat it.

At that moment, the phoenix flaps its wings in the sky.

Then, lava pillars rose from the ground, following the air currents.

“Ugh!”

The heat from the lava pierced through his trained body.

He must have been burned all over by now.

No matter how much he trained, a human body had its limits.

At that moment, the phoenix flew through the lava.

The phoenix, which was burning its own body, looked like it would burn Habell to ashes at any moment.

Kukung!

Habell had been training a new technique for this moment.

A pure white chill flowed out from Habell’s body.

“I opened the door to my memories in order to fight you.”

The lava that was poured down solidified in an instant.

The chill that flowed out of Habell was enough to freeze even lava.

However, the same was true for Habell.

‘I feel like my whole body is going to freeze.’

It was natural.

Because he used someone else’s stigma, not his own.

The loser of the North.

A man who was called the Star Keeper just like him.

‘Jerak.’

The Stigma he completed while rolling around in the eternal snow. The Icia-style swordsmanship.

He had mastered it solely through his memory.

While dying countless times due to trial and error.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Now, carrying the stigma of his dead comrade.

Habell clashed fiercely with the Phoenix.

The ice sword swung, and the Phoenix’s flames and claws flew.

Moment by moment, the threat of instant death passed by him.

Although his time limit had disappeared, thanks to the cold,

Even so, the Phoenix was still a monster.

It could kill him with a single flap of its wings.

But Habell could only injure the Phoenix after slashing it dozens of times.

Moreover, the name ‘Phoenix’ was also a problem.

Habell had never killed a Phoenix before.

Even if he managed to kill it, there was a chance it would just be resurrected.

Habell only fought with the sole determination to get out of the Demon Realm.

And at least this time, it was different.

‘I can see it.’

The snow, which usually melted first due to the heat, remained intact.

That was enough.

Carrying the wish of Jerak, who had died before him.

Habell swung his sword with all his might.

But at that moment, a stream of lava unexpectedly flew from somewhere.

Whoosh!

Habell’s arms, which were touched by the lava, melted simultaneously.

It was an unfamiliar technique to begin with.

It was a mistake that his ability to maintain the cold had weakened due to the battle with the Phoenix.

The Phoenix’s bright yellow eyes flashed at the sudden turn of events.

It was a gaze that sensed victory.

Its claws flew in a straight line towards Habell.

‘Surely not another regression.’

Habell was now indifferent in the face of death.

But to him, a regression that would come again was much more terrifying than death.

‘Then.’

Ugh!

At that moment, Habel’s blue eyes flashed with their final light.

The coldness gushed out between his arms that melted and disappeared.

Clang!

An ice arm mixed with blood protruded through the cold.

It was too crude to be called an arm.

But that arm still held a sword.

‘It is my duty to work until death.’

That was enough.

Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang, clang, clang!

The claws of the phoenix and Habel’s sword clashed once again.

Habel’s ice sword shattered before the vicious power of the phoenix.

However, he desperately poured out coldness to maintain the sword.

Habel felt his slowing heartbeat.

Now, the cold was stopping his body more than the heat.

It was because he had forcibly pushed the unfamiliar martial art this far.

However.

He could still fight.

Then he would fight.

Because that was the only way he could go while trapped in the curse of regression.

So he fought.

Fought, and fought again.

To get out of this labyrinth someday.

Boom!

Habel’s and the phoenix’s eyes met through the shattered pieces of ice.

The phoenix’s body was now covered in ice.

It was because Habel’s cold was stronger than the monster’s flames.

Thud!

The moment the phoenix spreads its wings to fight to the end.

At that moment, Habel quietly looked up at it.

Crack, crack, crack, crack, crack, crack!

One of the phoenix’s cracked wings collapsed.

At the same time, its body also collapsed.

That was the death of the phoenix.

Accordingly, the lava lost all its heat and cooled down.

An egg was placed roundly in the center of the phoenix’s body.

It seemed that it was an immortal that regressed into an egg when it died.

It was fortunate in many ways.

Thud―

Habel knelt before the phoenix’s egg.

It was because the coldness was stopping him.

“…again.”

The grim reaper visited him.

He had just defeated the Phoenix.

This was getting repetitive.

Intuiting another regression, Habel laughed weakly.

Despite conquering the 7th floor, he felt no sense of relief.

[You have defeated the ‘Phoenix’, the master of the 7th floor of the Demon’s Tower.]

A beautiful voice echoed in the Demon’s Tower.

It was a voice he heard whenever he cleared a floor of the Demon’s Tower.

Habel ignored the voice.

He had never been interested in rewards in the first place.

‘The rewards for clearing the Demon’s Tower are always random anyway.’

Rewards from the Demon’s Tower meant nothing to someone who was going to regress.

He simply waited for the regression that would come soon.

[Distributing the reward for conquering the 7th floor of the Demon’s Tower.]

Regardless, the Demon’s Tower distributes the reward.

A single crimson fruit was dropped in front of Habel.

As he stared at it, the voice spoke again.

[The Fruit of Immortality has been given.]

‘The Fruit of Immortality?’

A sudden question popped into his mind, which had been growing colder.

Habel’s eyes widened.

“The Fruit of Immortality?!”

He realized what it meant.

“Ack!”

At that moment, he felt his heart, which had almost stopped, tighten.

It was the familiar feeling of death.

However, it was a death that should never come now.

Habel collapsed to the floor, his body motionless, but his neck stretched out.

He had eaten the fruit before him.

That was all he could think about.

Crunch!

And somehow he managed to bite into the Fruit of Immortality with his outstretched teeth.

Even if it meant wriggling like a worm, Habel desperately chewed and swallowed the Fruit of Immortality.

And the moment the familiar sensation of death approached him.

Thump, thump, thump!

A sound echoed from his arm.

At the same time, his heart began to beat loudly.

Blood is flowing.

My vision is clearing.

Bones are rising, muscles are wrapping around them, and skin is forming.

After a long while,

Havel’s eyes, which had been pouring out cold sweat all over his body, suddenly opened.

“Hah, hah!”

The breath he exhaled as if vomiting was proof that he was alive.

And his eyes scanned his surroundings.

The 7th floor lava zone that had all cooled down was clearly reflected in his eyes.

“I’m revived…”

I didn’t die. No, I was reborn by regenerating at the moment of death.

What does that mean?

“I won’t regress…”

Hot tears streamed down from Havel’s eyes.

It felt like his chest was going to burst.

“I won’t regress anymore……”

I won’t go back to that disgusting 4th floor.

Because I’m an immortal who revives even if I die.

Havel’s fists clenched tightly.

His head was lifted high towards the sky.

Havel’s legs stood firm on the ground.

He gripped his sword.

The reason was simple.

Because he had to go down to the devil’s palace and conquer it.

There is no more regression.

What was given to him was a last chance.

This was the last round for him.

“Let’s go.”

Havel muttered to himself and stepped forward.

To the next floor.

And to the next floor.

He continued to advance as an immortal who did not regress.

There was nothing that could stop him anymore, he had no death.

Kukung!

And in the end, havel opened the door to the 10th floor.

Soon, the moment he stepped inside, he was faced with a pitch-black square.

For some reason, there was nothing there.

But that made Havel even more nervous.

A chill ran down his spine, and he quietly raised his sword.

[You have broken through the 10th floor of the Devil’s Palace.]

That voice echoed once again.

Habell showed his bewilderment.

He did nothing, but a breakthrough?

‘No way.’

Was the 10th floor of the Devil’s Palace never there from the beginning?

There was a moment when a sense of emptiness swept past him.

[The reward for clearing the 10th floor of the Devil’s Palace will be paid.]

Reward or whatever, I hope he’d let me out of the Devil’s Palace.

Habell waited.

The thought that he could finally go outside if he just waited for this filled his body.

He was going out.

To his beloved hometown.

Finally, he could go out.

[Congratulations! You have become the master of the 10th floor of the Devil’s Palace.]

However, what returned was a completely different reward from what he had in mind.

“What?”

The moment he asked back very briefly,

The entire Devil’s Palace began to distort.

When Habell, who saw that, hurriedly pulled out his sword, he felt his consciousness fly away.

It was a shock that even his consciousness, trained with regression and immortality, could not withstand.

“Damn it!”

The moment his consciousness was cut off with that as his last word.

[The master of the 10th floor of the Devil’s Palace descends to the mortal world.]

Only that last voice echoed quietly.