The Swordsman Genius Returnee Even Swallows Immortality

17

The last 49th floor of the 4th hierarchy.

There was a figure running across the permanent ice field.

His name was Pria.

He was the sub-captain of the 3rd Knights of the Blazing Star.

With his impressive reddish-brown hair, he was now running at full speed.

He was alone, having left his fellow knights behind.

So he was running at his maximum speed.

But no matter how fast he ran, Havel was nowhere to be seen.

The distance was not closing.

“Where did he go? Phew.”

Exhaling his labored breath, Pria clenched his fists.

Soon, the 4th hierarchy will be over.

‘The master of the 4th hierarchy must be the Frost Commander.’

The Frost Commander is a name given to those who handle the Frost Knights.

He practically made a golem of ice.

An ominous being that is impossible to cut with a sword.

A monster with such strong cold energy that it is difficult to even approach.

‘It’s an ominous being that cannot be attacked unless a fire wizard has the related magic.’

However, the swordsman, Havel, ran without any doubt.

What kind of confidence is that?

That was when it happened.

Pria sensed several presences.

As he turned his gaze forward, he saw a castle gate.

The castle made of ice was very beautiful even from a distance.

The tower sometimes shows such beautiful buildings.

But just as there are thorns on a beautiful rose.

The castle was sure to be filled with ominous beings.

In front of such a castle gate, a bridge made of ice.

The Knights began to appear.

Knights holding swords, clad in ice armor.

They were definitely the Frost Commander’s knights.

Pria immediately drew his sword.

‘The knights are still here, so couldn’t they have made it here?’

Did he perhaps take a wrong turn somewhere along the way?

With many questions swirling in her mind, Pria immediately brandished her sword.

Clang!

A sharp, piercing sound reverberated through the air as the ice sword and Pria’s sword clashed.

But she was no ordinary vice-captain of the knights.

Pria slid her blade across the knight’s sword, using his momentum against him.

Her uncanny swordsmanship swiftly brought the Frost Knight’s head crashing down.

Her cursed blade cleanly severed the knight’s icy head.

The curse imbued in her sword was potent.

Pria’s level was that of an Aura Guardian.

The realm is just below an Aura Expert.

‘I’ll cut through to the Frost Commander at this rate.’

Prior increased her pace.

After cutting down the Frost Knight, she leaped over the wall and charged into the castle.

Immediately, Frost Knights emerged from various points within the castle.

“Hmph!”

Pria let out a battle cry and began her relentless charge through the castle.

With each swing of her sword, a Frost Knight shattered into pieces.

However, Pria gradually began to sense something amiss.

The number of Frost Knights within the castle was simply too high.

‘There shouldn’t be this many?’

The Frost Knights numbered no more than fifty at most.

But the number she saw before her far exceeded a hundred.

Pria’s mind raced.

She could easily defeat a single Frost Knight.

But when their numbers grew, the situation changed drastically.

Furthermore, with each Frost Knight she killed, a stronger chill permeated the air.

The chill from the Frost Knights was accumulating within her body.

Sweat beaded on Pria’s back.

An ominous feeling began to creep over her.

Swish!

In that instant, a Frost Knight’s ice blade narrowly missed her head.

A few strands of her hair fluttered away, severed by the close call.

‘This won’t do.’

Her stamina was reaching its limit.

With each Frost Knight she was killed, her body grew colder.

Even in death, they left behind their icy essence.

She could no longer fight on.

Pria kicked away a knight.

He then turned his body toward the cover and dodged the ice knights.

Whew.”

Pria, who had escaped safely, pressed his body against the wall and gasped for breath.

Thud-thud-thud.

The sound of knights’ footsteps could be heard from beyond the wall.

There are many narrow passages inside the castle.

Fortunately, it didn’t seem like he would be discovered right away.

He wrapped his body, which was freezing from the cold.

‘This won’t do.’

Pria raised his head with a barely audible breath.

For some reason, there were too many ice knights.

He had to hurry up and kill the commander.

So he began to spread aura around him like a spiderweb.

Pria is skilled in swordsmanship, but his main ability is aura.

He boasts the most outstanding aura ability even in the Order of the Blazing Knights.

He was able to quickly find the commander, who would have the strongest presence.

‘I thought it would take time, but I guess it’s better to run.’

Habell didn’t seem to have entered the ice castle.

So he was able to fully support his abilities.

The aura spiderweb gradually spread, filling the castle.

That was the moment.

Thud, thud, thud, thud!

Suddenly, the aura spiderweb began to tear at one point.

“Keuk?!”

He let out a scream without thinking and coughed.

Thud.

At the same time, blood dripped from his nose.

This was the result of his aura being forcibly cut off.

“What, what is this.”

Pria hurriedly wiped his nose.

It was the first time in his life that his aura had been cut off like this.

Kukung!

At that moment, the entire castle reverberated.

Pria’s eyes shook.

It was because the sound came from the place where his aura had been cut off a moment ago.

This isn’t the commander.

There is a monster in this castle that is greater than the commander.

Kuung!

At that moment, another loud noise rang out.

Pria gripped his sword tightly.

He is the Stellar Knight.

He must fulfill the duty given to him.

At the very least, he had to figure out what this situation was.

That way, he could respond with the knights who would come here.

‘Don’t be scared. If I get scared, the knights who come after me might get wiped out too.’

Puria began to walk hurriedly.

The source of the sound was Wida.

Polygon― polygon―.

In the meantime, the frost knights tried to stop him.

However, Puria didn’t think to be tied down by them.

He cut them down with his sword.

And after a while, he finally reached the top floor of the ice castle.

A huge door appeared before Puria’s eyes.

He approached the door, holding his breath.

Kwaang!

At that moment, one of the doors suddenly flew open.

Puria gulped.

If he had approached a little closer, he would have flown away with the door.

What the heck, why did the door fly open like this?

Flustered, Puria hurriedly looked inside the door.

Then, there was an ice knight with a crown on its head instead of hair.

Very well-crafted armor.

A beautiful, translucent cloak that seemed to be woven with ice thread.

And two great swords.

It was a distinctly different appearance from the other ice knights.

However, the most outstanding thing about it was its aura.

“Oh, Aura Blade?!”

Puria exclaimed in astonishment.

This was because the knight’s greatsword had Aura Blade formed on it.

Not the hazy smoke form of Gardner’s Aura Blade either.

It had a proper form and was closer to a sword.

It was an Aura Blade at the level of an Aura Master, beyond Aura Gardner.

And belatedly, he realized.

The knight was not holding a greatsword.

What he was holding was an ordinary sword.

Instead, the Aura Blade was so well-defined that it looked like a greatsword.

“Cr, crazy.”

A curse word came out instantly.

The total commander of the knights, Cheongseong.

Or the aura blade that would only be seen from the 1st division commander.

The master of the 4th hierarchy.

Ice Saint.

That was his name.

It was an absurd act for an evil species to use an aura blade.

At the top of that, he was a master-rank.

It was mind-boggling.

However, there was a bigger problem.

The one who came flying and blew the door away.

It was none other than the Ice Saint.

“You’re late.”

At that moment, a familiar voice was heard.

Flinching, Pria turned her head.

Then, a white hair could be seen.

He was none other than Havel.

Pria’s eyes widened.

He was definitely not seen in the castle.

But he said he was late to her?

Where on earth did he come in from?

As Pria showed her doubts.

He felt the wind brushing past his face.

The wall of the top floor of the ice castle.

The wall was ‘bam’ pierced.

It didn’t seem to be pierced from the beginning.

Because the collapsed debris was scattered around the wall.

Then Pria’s eyes turned to the outside of the wall.

A place far away from the castle.

A place that was too precarious for his eyes to reach.

All the ice there was broken.

“Gulp.”

Pria swallowed her saliva without thinking.

Did he jump all the way from over there?

And he knew exactly where the master of the 4th hierarchy was?

Pria’s mind was dizzy for a moment.

The evil species handles the aura blade and is master-rank.

However, Havel was at a level that could break even that common sense.

Now she knew.

It wasn’t that she didn’t feel anything from him.

It was that she couldn’t feel anything from him.

Just like how one cannot see the whole ocean when looking at the ocean.

Even though she looked at him, she couldn’t see Havel.

Clank, clank, clank!

In that instant, the Ice Knight rose.

As if he had been dealt a blow by Havel.

His condition was abnormal.

“Shall we try?”

Havel asked Pria.

Since they had come this far, did he mean to fight them?

“…I decline.”

He knew his own abilities well.

Three minutes was his maximum against that thing.

And even those three minutes would certainly end in defeat.

“Why on earth would someone like you bother with a friendly match like this?”

No matter how he looked at it, a friendly match seemed pointless to him.

After all, he had the power to obtain anything he desired.

“For Van 펠리온.”

At that moment, he raised his sword as he answered the question.

Then, a pure white light began to surge from his sword.

“Glacies committed an act against Vanguard in the past.”

Havel stepped forward with that light.

Then, the Ice Knight also branded two swords with cold air.

“I am merely repaying that debt. It is partly my fault that things turned out that way.”

The Ice Knight’s swords now bore the strongest aura they had ever held.

Kugugung!

In an instant, so much aura gathered that the atmosphere distorted.

Aura exploded from his swords as if it were bursting forth.

The size of the amplified aura blade increased dozens of times over.

Havel merely looked at it indifferently.

Only Pria hurriedly lowered his stance.

Kwaang!

At that moment, the Ice Knight’s sword swung.

The black swords that split the walls and ceiling and closed in on Havel seemed as if they could even cut down mountains.

While Pria’s mouth hung agape at the sight.

Havel brought down his sword with the gathered light of dawn.

Vanguard on-style Dawn Swordsmanship

Dawn Sky

The moment that sword was brought down, dawn swallowed all space.

Zzzt, thump.

A sound of something collapsing echoed in Pria’s ears, which were consumed by the light.

Pria slowly raised his head.

There, he saw the Ice Knight in pieces and the ceiling collapsed.

The light of dawn poured down, filling the heavens.

Puria, who had been gazing at it blankly, slowly opened her lips.

“…Glacies has the Black Knight.”

The strongest person Puria knew.

Puria dared not imagine the Black Knight losing.

“If you wish to repay your debt to Glacies, you will eventually face the Black Knight.”

Puria clenched both fists.

The Stellar Knights would not be able to stop him.

Even if it was the Celestial Castle, she could not vouch for it.

But the Black Knight was different.

Because he was the world’s greatest swordsman.

“Glacies will not fall.”

Although they could not win this friendly match.

But Glacies would not fall.

Seeing her unwavering belief, Haberl sheathed his sword.

“Black Knight, huh.”

Somehow, it was an amusing alias.

To think that they even had stolen his alias.

“My apologies, but I am a cautious person who does not trust the words of others.”

Arrogant yet resolute.

The Black Knight of the old generation would have said just that.