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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Ruby
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Barbatos thought.
Every attack he unleashed was completely blocked.
And every attack that creature extended overwhelmed him completely.
His second attack, the formless sword, clearly returned to him in the form of a reflection.
He confirmed this without doubt because he observed it with eyes imbued with divine power.
The formless sword he cast at Yuma was bounced back, carrying several times more power as it struck.
But Yuma’s first and third attacks were not of the same nature as that reflection.
Also, their inherent power, that destructive force itself, far exceeded the standard he had assumed.
The principle of [Absolute Counter] was simple.
For ‘projectile’ type attacks or martial techniques that could be reversed, it used the source of the enemy’s attack power and counterattacked in the form of reflection.
Of course, with 10 times more power added.
And for close-range attacks or attacks with ambiguous properties, it took the power contained in the parried attack as a source and, adding 10 times more power, brought it back into the world.
It was natural for Barbatos to fall into confusion.
In the midst of confusion, only one thing had remained unchanged from the beginning until now.
Killing the human before his eyes with martial arts.
That alone was clear.
There was no fear of death.
Only the frustration of having his martial arts denied filled his mind.
He had to break this frustration.
And there was only one way to break it.
To kill the human standing before his eyes.
Barbatos slowly raised his body.
Escape?
He had no desire to flee, nor could he.
The divine realm Asura Path was a battlefield.
A battlefield where Barbatos never even contemplated retreat.
Just as Yuma couldn’t leave the Asura Path unless he killed Barbatos, Barbatos himself could only leave this Asura Path if he killed Yuma standing before him.
That was the condition he had set for himself in this Asura Path.
It was a condition he had set without dreaming that it would become a constraint one day, but even at this moment, he had no regrets.
Divine protection.
This Asura Path was created so that defeat was impossible from the beginning.
This Asura Path itself was devised for Barbatos’s victory.
Power, physical ability, destructive force, divine power, magical power.
A place where the enhancement of all those things applied only to Barbatos.
That was this Asura Path.
By placing that inescapable constraint on this Asura Path, all divine protection shone an intense halo on Barbatos.
A divine protection that even second-tier gods could not easily predict in scope illuminated Barbatos.
Even with such protection, he could not defeat Yuma.
‘There is no retreat.’ Barbatos’s red eyes burned.
I will kill that human.
That will be the proof of martial arts.
Step.
Yuma slowly moved forward.
Whoosh…
Behind Barbatos’s back, a giant sword form flickered.
A giant sword flickered like fire.
Barbatos became a sword.
A sword that seemed capable of cutting anything in this world.
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Bell was watching the battle between Yuma and Barbatos from a distance far beyond the perimeter of the Asura Path.
The series of battles unfolding before her eyes instantly shattered the common sense she had built up naturally without being conscious of it.
Beyond heaven.
Beyond standards.
She thought no words could explain the martial feats happening before her eyes.
The minimal forces that inevitably had to remain in the imperial palace all witnessed the battle between Yuma and Barbatos.
Only a very few present knew that Barbatos was a god.
Even if they couldn’t predict the fact that he was a god, they had expected that Barbatos was not human.
The immense fighting spirit emanating from Barbatos’s body and his control of that space overflowing with the energy of death.
And a body that continued to recover despite receiving attacks that would have killed a human several times over.
Also, the disaster-like martial feats extending from that being’s hands.
The imperial knights and soldiers were surprised by Barbatos’s power, but they were even more surprised by Yuma’s ability to block all those attacks and unleash successive attacks beyond common sense without yielding to that unidentified being.
“Supreme Commander…”
A knight mumbled with wide eyes.
He seemed to be a knight who had seen Yuma up close when Yuma faced the barbarian nation of Paineton.
“I’ve seen the Grand Duke’s power during the last demon realm invasion, but I never dreamed it would be to this extent.”
The knights looked at the Asura Path with trembling shoulders.
“Martial God…!”
The Feline clan swordswoman Hestia muttered while caressing the hand of the former Saint Ermel beside her.
Literally with her lips curled into a grin that almost reached her ears.
Bell and Cloney stood side by side watching the battlefield of Yuma and Barbatos.
Bell had captured the entire process from the beginning of the battle until now with her wide-open pink eyes.
And she had to shatter all the common senses he had built up until now.
‘It really was… a hindrance.’
The blue-haired sword saint, Bell, imagined herself inside that Asura Path.
Could she have survived in that space?
Impossible.
She couldn’t envision responding to even one of the attacks Barbatos had extended.
If she had been grazed by even one of those attacks, she would have died completely.
There was no visible probability of survival.
‘Yuma.’
She had to reach that point.
According to what Yuma had told her so far, that was the realm she needed to reach.
Bell opened her eyes wide.
Once again, tremendous power was gathering within that space.
White currents rising from the bottom of the Asura Path were gathering behind Barbatos’s back.
What took form behind Barbatos’s back was a sword.
A perfectly standing sword.
Bell felt a gentle energy from that sword.
A mystical feeling as if the stars of the universe had formed a sword.
“It seems too far away, doesn’t it?”
Bell turned her head.
The black-haired, golden-eyed girl, Cloney, continued speaking while staring directly at where Yuma was.
“Still, we must approach it. We must.”
Bell nodded at Cloney’s words.
Bell felt a strong aspiration in Cloney’s words.
“…Yes.”
And she agreed with that aspiration.
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Yuma approached Barbatos.
Barbatos slowly raised his right arm.
The sword form that had been standing straight and surging behind Barbatos’s back descended toward Yuma.
Countless light clusters converged on the sword.
From the floor of the Asura Path.
And from the atmosphere of the Asura Path, all the pure white light clusters gathered into a giant sword concentrated in front of Barbatos.
Imperial Sword Form
Barbatos’s body soon became a sword.
A sword that moved according to Barbatos’s will.
Barbatos took a step forward.
The sword extended forward.
And after that, Barbatos’s body did not move.
He was focusing all his attention on controlling the sword form.
The sword advanced, grinding the entire floor.
Barbatos slowly opened his mouth.
Vacuum intensely spread across the floor and atmosphere.
The giant sword form advanced, spreading ripples throughout the entire Asura Path.
The sword advancing while violently pushing back the atmosphere.
The sight of endless light clusters flowing down the blade of that giant sword form looked even mystical.
The speed of that sword form was fast.
The world flowed slowly, limited only to Yuma’s field of vision.
He had to strike it back.
That one sword coming down heavily and fiercely.
Yuma gripped his Balmung firmly.
And swung it.
Yuma frowned.
It was the most difficult to approach among all of Barbatos’s attacks he had faced so far.
This was because the atmosphere had violently expanded into a vacuum state.
Divine power and magical power were intensely infused in the sword form.
Nevertheless, Yuma inserted his Balmung, his hand, into that vacuum.
Breaking through the vacuum.
Swinging Balmung toward the shimmering sword form.
The vacuum devouring the atmosphere.
The magical power expanded from [Magic Armor] was torn apart.
The divine power that bloomed from [Divine Protective Armor] was also completely torn apart.
Yuma pushed his arm into the vacuum.
The magic armor and divine power were twisted and torn, and the defensive wall magic that [Balmung] had manifested on its own was completely twisted away.
His right arm was reduced to rags.
Torn armor.
Accordingly, an arm that seemed as if it would be torn off in an instant.
Yuma widened his eyes at the pain that pierced his entire body and mind.
But, he had to reach it.
Fortunately, his arm wasn’t torn off.
[Miracle of Aegis], which contained Athena’s divine power and had the mighty ability to avoid crisis, had activated its effect.
Just before the 30 seconds of bullet time ended.
Yuma barely managed to tear through the vacuum and touch the Imperial Sword Form.
Balmung touched the center of the sword’s surface.
A golden wave violently split the atmosphere.
The sword form that had rushed down to kill Yuma was reconstructed at Yuma’s left side.
[Imperial Sword Form]
Slash… Slash…
10 times.
A giant sword floated above Yuma’s shoulder.
Crackle—
The ground was deeply hollowed as if experiencing a crater phenomenon due to the formidable pressure created in the process of forming the peerless sword form.
Fragments of broken rocks scattered.
The sword form advanced.
Splitting the earth.
Rushing toward the warrior god Barbatos.
Hundreds of layers of barriers spread with divine power and strong energy concentrated in both hands were shattered at once.
The sword form enveloped Barbatos’s entire body.
And while enveloping him, it advanced along with the ground.
The sword completely penetrated Barbatos’s body.
“……!”
He felt like he was floating.
All sensation in his body was lost.
Barbatos immediately realized that not only had sensation been lost, but his physical body had truly been lost.
His torso disappeared in an instant.
All that remained of his body was his upper body and head.
Barbatos slowly raised his head.
After confirming that the entire ground of the Asura Path had been split in two, he then looked at the sky.
The clouds were clearly split.
By the energy waves emitted from the sword form.
“Leveling the World indeed….”
The god muttered.
“It’s a pity that I can no longer use what I’ve seen.”
The divine realm, the Asura Path, which extended to the mountains, evaporated, scattering thick grayish smoke.
With only his head remaining, Barbatos said with red eyes wide open looking at Yuma.
Swish.
“—Impressive, human. Yuma.”
With a face filled with astonishment.
“You won.”
Whoosh.
And even his head disappeared.
Annihilation.
[The God of War and Struggle], who was called the Warrior God among gods, died.
It was the second evil god slaying.
Yuma stood still, staring at the place where Barbatos had died.
The white current that flowed out as the head disappeared touched Yuma’s body.
The current seeped in as if being absorbed as soon as it touched his body.
He did not know what it meant to store divine status.
Yuma looked at the devastated nature and then at the imperial palace behind him.
Fortunately, the imperial palace remained undamaged.
Step
Yuma slowly turned his body and walked away from the crushed earth.
And there were comrades approaching quickly, facing Yuma.
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