Chapter 881
Episode 220: Tireless (3)
“Could it be… Lord Jikallo is losing?”
“If Lord Jikallo falls, then we must capture the Little Lord of the Hidden Bow ourselves!”
The great generals pressed Siris hard, but unease gnawed at them.
Originally, they had hoped to quickly finish off Siris and then support Jikallo’s side. That was the plan—and their expectation.
But the energy emanating from Jikallo’s position in the rear was weakening, and Siris—whom they thought would be caught easily—was still very much alive.
“Even if I’m underestimated, is it wise to focus so much on the First Cavalry’s battlefield?”
Swoosh!
Siris’s eyes snapped open as she swung her Frozen Blade. Though her body felt heavy from blood loss, she unleashed an even colder chill to slow her enemies down.
A pure white frost spread in all directions, filling the battlefield. Vilagul and Shikan released their own mana to push back the cold, swinging their swords fiercely.
Each clash of the Frozen Blade against the two swords scattered the surrounding frost and mana, briefly revealing the three warriors’ figures.
To the great generals, Siris’s furious onslaught was clearly flawed, but every time they tried to exploit her weakness with a thrust, she countered instead. Throughout the fight, they struggled to understand this.
“She’s holding on by the power of her weapon… But such cold is rare underground. This is the last time she can endure by sheer will!”
Vilagul gritted his teeth and shouted.
Like Jikallo, he was a member of the Ramier family—a demon clan ruling the Flame Zone. Though not as powerful as Jikallo, he could also wield the Flame of the True Demon Realm.
Rumble!
Suddenly, a massive pillar of fire shot up right before Siris’s eyes. Charging forward, she twisted her body to dodge, but Shikan’s sword grazed her side.
Siris had to pull back again, only to find another pillar of fire behind her. With no other option, she forced her Frozen Blade’s power even higher, using the cold to counter the flames.
“Huff… huff…”
The relentless assault of two swords and fire, combined with the suffocating mana that made every breath a struggle.
In that chaos, Siris barely clung to life. A single moment’s lapse would mean a fatal blow; a single misstep, the same.
Countless ways to die, all looming at once, pushing her senses to the limit.
Breaking through all that to find a way forward.
That’s what fighting always is.
“How long has it been since I fought like this?”
Looking back, Siris realized she hadn’t had a ‘normal’ fight like this in a long time. Among the so-called second-generation leaders—Jin, Veradin, Dante, and herself—she had certainly fought the easiest battles.
Born as the sole daughter of Thalaris, destined to inherit everything of the Hidden Bow, she had always been protected by Thalaris and the Seven Swords of the Hidden Bow. Even when facing someone stronger alone, she had the special power of the Frozen Blade.
And in the two biggest wars of recent years—the Sword Emperor War and the Fierce God War—Siris had participated but still held a better position than her peers.
Dante had defended the Sword Emperor’s fortress alone before Gliek awoke; Jin had united all earthly forces to end the Fierce God War; Veradin, though corrupted by Keliak’s schemes, ultimately overthrew him and became the clan head, ruling a pillar of the world.
But Siris knew well.
Her inability to become the main figure in such grand battles wasn’t just because she was weaker.
She had simply walked a relatively smooth path.
That’s why, despite training harder than anyone, she lacked truly life-threatening combat experience. The Hidden Bow had remained neutral until the Balmel Alliance formed, so they couldn’t just invade other factions on a whim.
“Come to think of it… that banquet—the duel with Jin at the Runkandel banquet—was probably the first time I nearly died.”
Amid the dizzying flurry of the generals’ swords, that memory suddenly surfaced. Embarrassing, yet strangely not unpleasant, Siris was drawn to it as she instinctively parried the enemies’ blades.
This fight was a hundred times more dangerous than that day.
But Siris now felt the shell of her ‘safe fate’ cracking open.
“As the rightful owner of the Hidden Bow, I must always stand at the forefront when the world is in danger.”
The true purpose of the Hidden Bow, unknown to the world, was to protect it.
Now that the Underworld had begun invading the surface, she had to leave behind safe, smooth ground and walk a path of thorns.
Sssst!
Shikan’s sword grazed Siris’s neck.
Each battle, each second, the risk of death renewed. Every time she overcame that risk, Siris felt her vision clear a little more.
She was beginning to understand what Luna meant by ‘growth.’ Growth was breaking through a new phase of fate. It was standing up after fear and despair.
“These bastards are terrifying.”
Siris spat out the words and tightened her grip on the Frozen Blade.
Experience.
Though she lacked real combat experience and had a relatively easy fate, she trained hard to avoid being underestimated, to erase her inferiority complex.
The fierce opponents she’d faced occasionally, the exhausting days spent chasing friends who were always far ahead.
Siris realized all of that was stirring inside her, ready to explode. Death and fear had broken the dam of her accumulated experience.
“Die already!”
Vilagul’s flames and Shikan’s sword struck again. The flames were countered by the cold, but the sword pierced her left shoulder.
As Shikan twisted his sword to detonate the mana wrapped around the blade, Siris roared and slammed the Frozen Blade upward. Ssshk! Shikan’s arm was severed, and the distance between them widened.
Siris pulled out the remaining sword and arm still lodged in her shoulder and froze them with the Frozen Blade.
“Hah… ugh…”
After stomping on the frozen arm to shatter it, Siris froze her own shoulder to stop the mana from spreading.
‘Now, there’s only one chance left.’
Even without his arm and sword, Shikan wasn’t powerless. Vilagul’s flames were growing fiercer by the moment.
Frozen Blade Technique No. 3: Avalanche.
Siris unleashed the move, gathering the scattered cold into a massive blast of ice crystals. The deafening roar forced the great generals to retreat briefly.
‘Is this their final desperate move?’
It came right after Siris suffered a fatal shoulder wound. That she could still unleash such a powerful technique meant this had to be their last stand.
Though threatening, if they avoided the explosion and waited for the energy to subside, they could strike when Siris was spent.
Now, the generals had only one worry left. If Jikallo fell and Luna joined their side, there would be no hope.
So, when they glanced back at the rear battlefield—
“Ah…”
“Lord Jikallo!”
The generals swallowed hard as they saw the blood-red energy staining the sky. The endless crimson sword aura meant only one thing: Jikallo was dead.
They had only ever seen the red aura through videos distributed by Sakiel and memories of fallen demons. They had been warned countless times about its danger, but seeing it firsthand far exceeded their imagination.
“Just looking at it feels like my whole body is being torn apart…!”
“Besides Lord Zito, is there even a demon in the True Demon Realm who can withstand that?”
Before they could think further, they caught sight of Luna striding toward them—and they panicked.
She didn’t even look particularly tired.
“Could it be… already?”
But Luna waved off the generals’ alarm as if there was nothing to fear.
“Ah, I’m not here to interfere. Just finish what you’re doing.”
“…What?”
“Go kill the Little Lord. If I have to explain this again, I’ll just barge in and take them both out. I swear on Runkandel’s honor.”
What was her intention?
The generals couldn’t understand, but they had no choice. Running would only get them caught and killed by Luna.
So, they turned back toward Siris’s side. They saw Luna sitting down, pulling out some snacks and eating casually.
“Hang in there.”
The avalanche’s momentum was fading fast. Amid the clearing frost, Siris trembled, coughing up blood.
If Luna truly kept her promise, the time to finally end Siris’s stubborn life had come.
Without hesitation, the generals amplified their mana and charged at Siris. With no aura or cold left, cutting her down would be easier than crushing a bug.
“Wait, no aura or cold left at all?”
Vilagul was the first to sense something was off.
No matter how exhausted she was, it felt only natural that there should still be a faint trace of aura and coldness. Sikan, standing about ten paces away from Siris, felt the same unsettling sensation.
But it was already too late.
The Frozen Blade Secret Technique
White 白
Siris bent forward as if collapsing, driving the Frozen Blade into the ground.
She had used the avalanche like a trick, all to set this in motion. In that moment, she concentrated every last bit of her remaining aura and cold energy to unleash the secret technique, White.
Compared to the one Talaris had unleashed during the Sword Emperor War, Siris’s White was much smaller in scale.
That was only natural, given how little energy she had left. Still, within ten paces, it was enough to unleash the same devastating power.
Krrrrrkkk…!
An absurdly sharp and solid ice flower erupted between Siris and the generals. The blooming ice instantly pierced through the generals’ bodies, tearing them apart. Vilagul and Sikan were swallowed by the icy bloom of White without even a scream.
However, Siris never saw their final moments of destruction.
She had already lost consciousness and collapsed.
Luna, having confirmed the battle was over, swallowed the Littra cookie she’d been holding in one bite. Then she approached the fallen Siris and said,
“Alright. Let’s get you back for treatment and then head to the next battlefield, Little Palace Lord. There’s no time to rest—not now.”