Episode 215: The Helian Tournament (4)
“You think you can scare me with threats? Not a chance…!”
Everis, trembling, swung her sword with all her might. In that instant, a surge of power coursed through her arm. Damien quickly read the flow of her movements and magic.
‘The neck.’
As soon as he raised his sword, the strike came crashing down. Damien was pushed back slightly.
“How… how did you block that?” Everis asked, her face a mask of surprise.
Damien rubbed the hilt of his sword, feeling a slight tingle in his palm. ‘The speed and power are incredible,’ he thought. Even he hadn’t seen the strike coming. He had only managed to block it by predicting Everis’s movements.
‘Is it because of her level? No, that alone doesn’t explain this speed.’
Skill alone wasn’t enough. True power required both physical strength and magical support. Despite her frail appearance, Everis’s body was far superior to most master-class warriors.
‘If she trained her body that much, it should show.’
Yet, Everis’s limbs were thin, as if she’d never exercised a day in her life. There were techniques to alter one’s physique, but those were for infiltration, not combat.
‘I need more information.’
Damien darted forward, not in a straight line, but zigzagging to throw off her aim.
“This time, you won’t dodge!” Everis swung her sword again, but Damien blocked it with his own.
A chill ran down his spine. Damien bent his knees slightly. A second strike sliced through the space where his head had been.
“How did you dodge that too?” Everis was as shocked as Damien. She hadn’t expected him to evade such rapid strikes.
The precision was astonishing. Damien had moved unpredictably to avoid being targeted, yet Everis had tracked him perfectly.
‘Too accurate for someone blind.’
Damien had once met a blind master-class warrior. That warrior compensated for his lack of sight with heightened other senses. But even then, he couldn’t match the precision of a sighted fighter.
‘Could she actually see? No, she has no blind spots.’
The blind master-class warrior Damien had known had no blind spots, thanks to his acute senses. No assassin could hide from him.
‘A master-class with both high accuracy and no blind spots…’
A theory formed in Damien’s mind. “Let’s test it.”
His decision made, Damien charged forward without hesitation.
‘Who is this man?’ Everis wondered. ‘My master said no one could withstand my swift sword.’
Yet, not only had this man blocked her strikes, he had dodged them too.
‘Could my master have lied? No, impossible. His words are truth!’
Everis banished her doubts, focusing solely on her master’s teachings. ‘His words are truth, so failure is not an option.’
But if this man existed, her master’s words would be false. There was only one way to restore their truth.
‘This time, I’ll kill him.’
Everis gripped her sword tighter, dark magic surging from deep within her. The world around her became clearer, colors swirling in the darkness.
Some were white, others blue. Everis was blind, yet not blind. She couldn’t see in the traditional sense, but she could see magic.
By seeing magic, she could predict her opponent’s actions and movements, allowing her to strike with unparalleled accuracy.
“Let’s see,” Damien said, charging forward.
Everis didn’t strike immediately. Her sword lost accuracy and speed over distance.
At about ten meters, when Damien was in the optimal range, Everis swung her sword. Or rather, by the time she thought to swing, the strike had already been made. Her swift sword was so fast, even she couldn’t see it.
‘Did he dodge again?’
There was no impact. Damien’s magic remained intact.
‘I’ll give it my all.’
Determined, Everis resolved to cut Damien down.
Thirty-six times. Countless strikes filled the arena, too fast for her to feel any feedback.
But Everis could see it. Damien’s magic scattering into pieces.
“Heh, heh… My master’s words are truth…”
Then, a chilling sound of air being sliced reached her ears. At the same time, a diagonal cut appeared on Everis’s face.
“Aaah!”
The bandages covering her eyes were sliced away. Everis screamed, clutching her face as blood dripped through her fingers.
“What… what is that?”
“Blood… the color of the blood…”
The audience gasped in horror.
“It’s purple!”
Human blood was typically dark red, turning black when it dried. But purple blood was unheard of.
“My face… How dare you mar the face my master gave me…!”
Everis removed her hands, seething with rage. The audience was shocked once more.
“Her eyes…”
“Not even a dragonfly has eyes like that.”
Everis’s eyes were unlike any human’s, with multiple small pupils, resembling an insect’s compound eyes.
Damien wasn’t surprised. He had anticipated this. “So, you have the Eyes of Cheongya.”
The Eyes of Cheongya could detect and visualize magic. Seeing an opponent’s magic was a significant advantage. Whether knight or mage, using techniques required magic. Thus, the Eyes of Cheongya allowed one to predict every move.
Damien had manipulated his magic flow, preventing Everis from landing a hit. “I didn’t expect to see that here.”
The reason Damien recognized the eyes was simple. Only Dorgo could create them.
The monsters with the Eyes of Cheongya had gone extinct in ancient times, their existence known only through records. Dorgo had studied their extinction and painstakingly recreated the eyes.
“And purple blood.”
No human had purple blood. It meant Everis had been modified by Dorgo. Now Damien understood how she wielded such a formidable sword with her frail body.
If Dorgo had modified her, it was possible. Dorgo was unmatched in creating undead.
Of course, even Dorgo couldn’t create such a creature from scratch. He must have captured a master-class knight and modified them.
A master-class knight, modified by Dorgo and given the Eyes of Cheongya? No wonder the other master-class participants had been defeated so easily.
“Damien Haxen!” Everis shouted, grinding her teeth.
“You dodged my strike again! And you dared to damage the body my master gave me!”
Everis no longer pretended to be weak. She lifted her massive sword with one hand.
“I’ll kill you right now! I’ll cut you into hundreds of pieces!”
“Scary,” Damien remarked, though his interest had waned.
Thinking of Dorgo filled him with anger. He wanted to tear Everis apart and interrogate her about Dorgo. But it was pointless. Dorgo was obsessively secretive.
He would have placed countless restrictions on Everis to prevent her from revealing anything about him. Moreover, Dorgo never revealed his precious undead before the War of Destruction.
Everis was likely a disposable pawn to test the results of his modifications. Interrogating her would yield nothing.
“Still, there’s always a chance… Let’s give it a try.”
“What are you muttering about?” Everis spat, her killing intent intensifying.
“I’ll kill you right now!”
Everis swung her sword, her increased size making her even faster.
“Die! Die!”
She swung relentlessly, her strikes filling the arena.
“Why won’t you die?”
But Everis’s strikes couldn’t even touch Damien’s clothes. The Eyes of Cheongya were formidable, but they had a glaring weakness.
By slightly manipulating his internal magic, Damien could easily deceive the eyes.
Damian deftly dodged Everis’s strike, sliding his sword, Dawn, back into its sheath. He gripped both the scabbard and the hilt firmly.
“Now that I’ve learned everything I need to know, there’s no reason to hold back.”
With a swift motion, Damian drew Dawn and swung it.
In that instant, a brilliant light flashed. The unleashed aura blade cleaved the arena in two.
Simultaneously, Everis’s shoulder was severed. The arm that had been holding the greatsword fell to the ground.
”…What?”
Everis stared blankly at her shoulder, mumbling in disbelief.
The dark magic that had coursed through her was abruptly cut off. The weight of the two-handed sword was no longer there.
“How… how could this…?” she gasped.
Before she could react, Damian was upon her, his hand gripping her face.
In that moment, he manipulated the dark magic within her.
Her own dark magic slipped from her control, moving at Damian’s command, ensnaring her very soul.
“Please, don’t…!”
Without hesitation, Damian tore her soul apart, extracting and absorbing her memories.