The Sword Emperor Transmigrates

Chapter 159

“...What? How did we just hold them off?” said Zepar, the senior mage in charge of the magic corps. He squinted.

The defensive battles they periodically had at the Hellgate were always repetitive. The seasoned troops of the Cardenas and Wickeline families stationed at the Hellgate had long grown accustomed to the Demoniacs’ physiology, and similarly, the Demoniacs had long grown familiar with their strategies. Since the two sides knew each other so well, they had no other choice but to go through a never-ending cycle of full-frontal assaults.

Gifted soldiers, each worth more than their weight in mithril, always died in vain.

There was no winning.

There was no losing.

It was a battlefield that was supposed to be made of a constant cycle of life and death, and the change was almost incomprehensible. Zepar had also been stuck in the repetitive loop, but his eyes slowly began to widen.

“It... doesn’t seem like a trap. Why is that?”

When he felt his mage’s curiosity piqued, he became aware of the weight of the responsibility on his shoulders and pushed away the distracting thoughts.

He had to use this.

It didn’t matter whether it was a one-time fluke or if it could be replicated. If the knights, who were only supposed to hold the line, were pushing the enemy back, then the magic corps could attack from a safer distance.

“Men! Bombard the enemy from the rearguard!” he ordered.

They’d already shot down all the hide Demoniacs swooping over their heads like bats. Since the mages no longer had to focus on what was happening on the ground, the power they would usually use to support the Black Dragon Knights had been poured into sniping the flying Demoniacs, which they were able to hit with several times more accuracy. Bombarding the enemy was the obvious next move.

The magic corps, who were split into several squads, accepted the new order and attacked as one.

“Flame Strike!”

“Freezing Ray!”

“Chain Lightning!”

The offensive spells shot forward, each spaced out with five paces.

Craaaack! Fwoosh—! Boom!

The spells flew in an arc, crashing down in the middle of the Demoniac troops and burning, freezing, and scorching the monsters. The mages continuously released highly destructive attacks, and the only reason the creatures were enduring was that they were highly durable bone Demoniacs. Had they been from the hide or claws, they would’ve already been annihilated.

The Black Dragon Knights posed a grave danger to them as they continued to sweep forward, and the magic corps didn’t stop their wave of attacks.

The Demoniacs were in great peril.

■■■—! ■■! ■■■■■—!

As if frantically giving orders, someone shouted several times in the demonic language, which was reserved only for the higher-ranking Demoniacs.

“The claws are coming! From this point on, the noble classes can appear at any time, so be on guard as you fight!” As soon as Zepar finished giving the order, hundreds of Demoniac troops flooded in from the Hellgate again.

The claw Demoniacs.

In the hierarchy, they were considered low-ranking like the bones and hide, but they were more dangerous because they had the intelligence of humans. The other two were considered to be no different from beasts, so the claw Demoniacs, who were also considered inferior, were the troops that the higher-ranking Demoniacs ordered around.

The line of four-legged, beast-like bones had started to fall apart, but as soon as the claws quickly joined them at the frontline, the bone Demoniacs pulled themselves together, and their bloodlust surged again. This showed just how strong the presence of the claw Demoniacs was.

So these bastards are the claw Demoniacs? Leonard quickly scanned the appearance of the Demoniacs as they reached the Black Dragon Knights’ third line. They looked similar to bipedal beasts such as lycanthropes, but there was a major difference. Instead of fur, their bodies were covered in hideously contorted skin, and there were several places where bones were piercing through the flesh and protruding like horns.

They looked just like humanoid beasts that were born in the Demonic Realm with their bulging eyes, blazing with malice.

Graaaah!

One of them charged at Leonard, thrusting its elbow forward. The bone protruding from the joint was as sharp as a blade, glinting as it headed toward his neck. There was a reason they were called “claws”—that bone could rip through armor made of mithril.

Its footwork was impressive. It looked as if the Demoniac was trained in hand-to-hand combat.

Shing.

But it stood no chance against the Five Elements Augmented Qi, and when Leonard’s sword met the elbow, he cut it right off, bone and all.

Grah! Graaaah! The monster writhed in pain and shock, but Leonard was impressed by the resistance he’d felt when amputating the arm.

The bone that pokes out of its body is almost as tough as a Vajra Physique. I can tell that it has trained in hand-to-hand combat and used these bones as weapons. If a rank-and-file soldier is this strong, a higher-ranking Demoniac must be dangerous even to Transcendence Tier fighters.

Even though Leonard admired the monster’s toughness, he cut off its head and stabbed its heart, just to be sure. He turned around.

He couldn’t waste time on just one opponent.

The Demoniacs had started pouring out of the Hellgate in earnest, and they already numbered in the thousands. Though flesh and blood Demoniacs were quickly exterminated, if any stronger ones increased in number, they would become troublesome. The Black Dragon Knights had to step forward and use Skanda’s Demon Felling Sword to maximize the damage dealt to the Demoniacs.

Skanda’s Demon Felling Sword

Severing Technique

Demon’s Death by a Thousand Cuts

This technique had two main methods of use. The first was to concentrate consecutive hits in a small area and hack a small number of opponents into pieces, while the second was to scatter the consecutive hits and sweep across a large number of enemies.

Leonard did the latter. n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

He took four steps forward and rained down 48 strikes like a sudden rain shower.

Grahh!

Kraaa!

Gak

He swiftly cut off the bones that the claws boasted from the root, killing more than ten monsters as he cleared the way.

The Black Dragon Knights smoothly followed behind, killing the Demoniacs who tried to fill in the gaps made in the line of troops. The fifth stage of Skanda’s Demon Felling Sword was deadly to lower-ranking Demoniacs.

The casualty rate became astoundingly low. There were 330 knights, 331 counting Leonard, and not a single one had been incapacitated.

If we keep this up, we might be able to win without a single death.

But right then, a chill went down his spine as if to deny his optimistic hopes.

His instincts picked up on the presence of something approaching the Hellgate from the other side, and he automatically used his technique.

Five Elements Style

Black Tortoise Seventh Form: Ice Shell Barrier

He didn’t stop until the immaculate Sword Curtain was complete.

“Haa...! Haa...!” Leonard took in ragged breaths.

It had been a while since he felt drained like this. The technique had absorbed a massive amount of mana, and he hadn’t felt the internal energy leave his body like this after he reached the Transcendence Tier. He used nearly a fifth of his mana just to make this shield alone. His Dragon Heart pounded violently from the sudden strain.

He could likely pour out power like this once or twice, but any more than that might make his qi pathways collapse.

However, his move was well-timed.

⸻⸻⸻!!!

Immediately, something stepped out of the Hellgate and into the Middle Realm. It emitted a tremendous superpower.

A wave of violent psychic energy flooded the entire enormous cavern.

It would have caused brain death in the reserve troops and made them the slaves of the Demoniac that had released the psychic shock. The force was so powerful that a few Transcendence Tier knights could have also been enslaved.

Claaaang!

The Sword Curtain was infused with Five Elements Augmented Qi, and it shattered when a force that was psychic, not physical, hit it. The Rift Guardian, the Mind Kraken Leonard had encountered at the Atlantis Maritime Alliance couldn’t even compare to this output of psychic strength.

Leonard could sense that this was a superpower that only someone well past the rank of a Master could have.

He swallowed the blood that rose all the way to his throat, his eyes widening.

The Corps Commander?!

Leonard could see it from a close distance. The first thing that shocked him was its hideous appearance, but he was even more shocked when he realized that the monster was observing him as he too observed it.

Its large, bizarre skull was transparent. Floating inside was a shiny, fluorescent brain, and other than bones such as the cervical vertebrae and the spine, the rest of its body was made of green ectoplasm. The monster was somewhere between material and immaterial.

Is that a brain Demoniac?!

The brains sat at the very top of the hierarchy that ruled the Nine Hells. Unlike the hearts, which had unique physical capabilities, the brains displayed the peak of supernatural abilities. After seeing its power with his own two eyes, Leonard sensed danger. He felt some kind of force swell up, but it was too vicious and immense to be described as Intent.

In any case, he could tell that it knew that he had blocked its attack. If it weren’t for Leonard’s Sword Curtain, more than half of the Black Dragon Knights would have been incapacitated.

It was about to use something even more dangerous than a heart sword.

“How dare you try to touch the boy!”

Audrey shot out from the rearguard like an arrow and swung her glaive down.

Extermination

The Black Dragon Commander’s techniques were not based on any specific martial principles because using her unique trait made basic movements lethal. Her deadly attacks didn’t use any opening displays or require any type of preparation.

Her glaive swung with tremendous force in the shape of a half-moon. Her Aura Blade was as black and hazy as the night sky, and it came down on the brain Demoniac, destroying everything in its wake.

⸻⸻⸻!!

Shockingly, the brain stood its ground and used its powers to meet the massive attack. Its psychic force bent time and space as the brain Demoniac stood its ground against a unique trait that could erase all existence.

Leonard watched from less than tens of meters away, seeing through the principle behind its powers. The Demoniac developed its Visualization and upper dantian to an unfathomable level and uses them to manifest its will. It doesn’t have a unique trait—it’s just that it’s reached the peak of mind arts in a primitive form. A human wouldn’t be able to do that.

Only a being that gave up its physical form to evolve into a more psychic entity would be able to reach that level.

“How troublesome,” Audrey growled. Even though she had interfered in a heartbeat, her eyes narrowed like knives.

Its ambush had nearly put the Black Dragon Knights in danger, and now it was planning to target Leonard after he’d so valiantly blocked its attack.

Her eyes blazed, her Demigod Tier aura blending with so much rage and murderous intent that the brain Demoniac forgot all about Leonard and turned to the woman instead.

That was what the two commanders had been planning.

Parallel Infinite Fatal Strike

One of Thousand

Using a unique trait that he hadn’t shown Leonard, Demian lunged forward from a crack in a “mirror,” launching a deadly attack.

As one thousand strikes overlapped each other, the output became so tremendously powerful that it shook the entire cavern. Not even the brain Demoniac dared to try to meet it. Instead, it reacted by shortening the space behind itself in an attempt to run away.

Shing! Demian’s sword just barely missed the skull, but it shredded through the body made of ectoplasm, leaving only parts above its ribs.

The brain Demoniac had ended up escaping the reach of One of Thousand even though the attack had a range of ten kilometers. Demian clicked his tongue at its speed. His only greeting to Leonard was a look of acknowledgment, and then he charged forward with Audrey.

Now that two commanders had joined together, not even the brain would last long.

The only problem was that there was another threat remaining.

“Dammit! It’s the tongues!”

“There’s no point in blocking your ears! You have to resist with your mental power!”

“Sir! Be careful!”

The Black Dragon Knights that Leonard had protected created a formation around the boy to protect him. They raised their swords against the Demoniacs trailing behind the brain.

The tongue Demoniacs were just as hideous as the other Demoniacs and were one of the two noble classes of Demoniacs existing in the Nine Hells.

While their heads were round like a human’s, they did not have eyes, ears, a nose, or even teeth. They only had a mouth with a long, dangling tongue. Even though there were only four of them, for a brief moment, Leonard sensed that they were more dangerous than a thousand claw Demoniacs.

The tongues’ special ability is False Words. Their power was the antithesis of the ancient magic known as words of power.

The monsters went beyond deceiving and controlling living beings and could tell lies that tricked the laws of nature themselves. That was how they caused such massive human casualties.

The Demoniacs made a sound that resembled cackling, their tongues darting in and out as they commanded False Words.

―■■.

―■■■■.

―■■■.

They communicated mysterious, inexplicable words that could not be described as auditory, shaking the knights’ minds.

Kill each other.

Stab your comrade’s back.

The Demoniacs smoothly whispered malicious suggestions to the knights, as if they were devils on their shoulders. They had the ability to bring out the evil one harbored in one’s heart.

Like I thought, the One Origin Five Elements Cultivation Method blocks psychic attacks. Leonard easily pushed away the voice trying to invade his mind, but his face fell when he looked around.

The Black Dragons were supposed to be closely watching their surroundings from their position at the heart of the enemy line, but they were wavering. Even the elite troops in the Transcendence Tier were damp with cold sweat. And even worse, the reserve troops’ eyes had gone bloodshot, their hands trembling.

They were in serious danger.

Learning Skanda’s Demon Felling Sword only helped one slay demons. It didn’t strengthen one’s mind.

It’s a shame that I couldn’t teach them proper cultivation methods. If they had only learned how to apply it at a greater scale, they would not have been affected by the tongues’ attack.

Leonard pushed away his thoughts and tried to look for a way out.

Dwelling on the past would not solve their predicament.

If he used the Azure Dragon’s Roar, the knights might snap out of it for a moment, but it would not solve the core problem. Going back and forth between being in a daze and being awake would only drain and further weaken the mind.

Thump.

Just then, Leonard’s Dragon Heart became enraged at the Demoniacs that had dared to use words of power in its presence. It was similar to the feeling he’d had when he faced opponents from beyond the Rifts.

According to ancient records, dragons could take hold of natural laws without having to go through the whole process of constructing spells or laying magic arrays.

They had an ability that reached the peak potential of the words of power, and the people who witnessed its might named it as such:

Draconic Words.