novelraw Chapter 202 : Chapter 202
Chapter 202 : Chapter 202
Chapter 202. The Man in the Iron Mask
First Sword Raven.
People called him the man closest to Robern.
It was a natural evaluation since his mastery of swordsmanship was a realm that no one could approach, and there were few who could actually match him.
But Raven himself denied those words.
To him, Robern was just a goal to reach and a sky he could never touch.
Because he had walked a single path his whole life, looking up to the existence of the Sword Saint, ironically, it was that endless obsession and effort that made people call him the one closest to Robern.
—Kang!
The moment their swords clashed, Evan had no choice but to admit it.
‘That damn bastard overlaps too much. It means this guy has also put in that much effort.’
Evan was the one who had been most deeply entangled with Robern in his life and had watched him from the side.
Even Evan saw Robern’s shadow in Raven’s sword.
His sword, wielded as if to prove his skill, was both domineering and flexible at the same time.
‘Robern’s swordsmanship is like a great river. It overwhelms without suppressing, and though it seems to just flow, it eventually swallows everything.’
The river is flexible.
But even a great rock shatters before its flow.
Its terror lay not in simple power but in ‘a flow that can never be resisted.’
Just as one cannot cut water, his sword brought the despair of being unstoppable.
‘While overwhelming the opponent, he occupies the high ground as if flowing… It truly is Robern’s swordsmanship. I must admit it. Many must have died before this sword.’
However, in Evan’s eyes, the Raven before him was still nothing more than a tributary compared to Robern.
Nevertheless, that tributary alone was a disaster that most people could not handle.
“Hey, why are you really not one of the Seven Stars?”
Ron, who had been receiving Raven’s sword from the beginning, shouted.
He did not hide his surprise; rather, he revealed his emotions and acknowledged his opponent’s strength.
“...I have no interest in the Seven Stars.”
Raven’s words were not a bluff.
He had never once acknowledged the Seven Stars.
It was because it was unpleasant for the being he uniquely revered, Robern, to be placed in the same category as them.
“What meaning is there in a title that is nothing more than a numbers game? In the end, everyone is equal before him.”
That one statement was made with Robern in mind.
Naturally, Ron frowned, and Evan chuckled it off.
Then Evan casually asked Raven.
“Then is that the reason why Robern never once fought against the other Seven Stars?”
“...What did you say?”
“Among the successive Seven Stars, he was the one who went into actual combat the least. It means he was that afraid of losing his life. The strongest? Don’t make me laugh. He was just a coward.”
“Shut up!”
A fierce ripple arose in Raven’s calm eyes.
That was enough.
A small tremor had appeared in his momentum, which had not shown a single opening until now.
‘Good. I’ll keep provoking him. If I make the blood he has suppressed explode, an opening will surely appear.’
Raven, who had been unshaken even by the joint attack with Ron, began to lose his posture little by little.
It was not yet a fatal flaw, but the signs of collapse were clearly visible.
“Be honest and admit it. If he really was the strongest, the Emperor would have unified the continent long ago. Am I wrong?”
In tune with Evan’s provocation, Ron also pressed with the tip of his spear to help.
And he too opened his mouth to join in Evan’s intention.
“That’s right! If he was truly overwhelming, would there have been a reason to be bound by the framework of the Seven Stars? In the end, they were all about the same, so they were called that!”
Words that belittled the continent’s top class as ‘about the same.’
In reality, being included in the Seven Stars was a great compliment, but to the current Raven, it sounded like an unbearable insult.
“Shut that mouth!”
Raven’s momentum grew increasingly ferocious.
The heavy yet relentless series of blows pounded Ron’s trident like a hammer, and a hair-thin crack began to appear on the sword Evan held.
On the other hand, Raven’s sword was completely unshaken.
A masterpiece forged by the Empire’s best blacksmith, its steel was on a different level from the sword Evan was using.
‘But the energy flowing through that sword is also being slightly disturbed.’
The solid energy wrapped around Raven’s sword.
For the dozens of exchanges they had, it had been perfectly fused with the sword and unshaken.
But from a moment ago, a slight afterimage had begun to spread.
‘It’s proof that his emotions are wavering.’
Until now, Evan had joined Ron but had not actively intervened in the exchange of blows.
It was because in a situation where his coordination with Ron did not match, interfering could have the opposite effect.
So he only intervened to block the sword when Ron was in danger.
‘Ron, I’m sorry, but this time you have to block it with your body. I’ll create an opening.’
Evan changed his strategy and instead of swinging his sword to protect Ron, he decided to attack Raven’s sturdy sword.
—Kang!
To others, Evan’s movements seemed no different from before.
But Evan’s movement was clearly aimed at Raven’s sword, and only then did Ron realize that Evan was not simply trying to coordinate but was fighting with the intention of digging into a minute crack.
‘Instead of protecting me now, he’s aiming for the sword. Damn it! Is this also the price for arriving late in the carriage?’
Ron complained inwardly, but he knew that this was the only way to break down the iron wall-like opponent before him.
The reason he did not voice his complaint was because he knew that if he broke the flow, all the wounds he had endured so far would be in vain.
‘For Evan’s plan to work, I must not give him a moment’s rest!’
Ron gritted his teeth and gripped his spear even tighter.
Then he thrust his spear at a speed even faster than before.
It was a series of thrusts so fast that dozens of illusions overlapped in the air.
But Raven was still unstoppable.
Sometimes he would deflect with his sword, sometimes he would twist his body to dodge, and instead, he would carve wounds on Ron’s body.
—Swish!
Ron’s sturdy muscles held up like armor, but in the end, small wounds accumulated, and his whole body became covered in blood.
‘Evan, you damn bastard! How long are you going to just hit the sword!’
If he had his way, he really wanted to scream.
But he endured.
He wanted to shout at the top of his lungs, but he endured.
If he interfered, all the blood he had shed so far would be meaningless.
So he just kept thrusting his spear without stopping for a single moment.
“…”
Then, Raven’s eyes wavered subtly.
A sense of incongruity.
Why are the men before me forcibly continuing this meaningless exchange?
Are they trying to tie me down and buy time?
But for that, the loss of the man with the spear is too great.
There should be give and take… Why is that side only taking losses so one-sidedly?
‘…Damn it!’
Raven realized too late.
The fact that the energy wrapped around his sword was scattering.
Due to his agitation, the management of his Qi had been slightly disturbed, and as a result, the afterimage of his sword aura was faintly visible.
“You bastards…!”
Raven spat out his anger, but it was already too late.
Evan persistently struck that gap and eventually created a crack in his masterpiece sword,
and soon a faint cracking sound spread.
In response, Raven hastily added more force to his sword aura and thickly wrapped his entire sword.
But Evan whispered coldly.
“Too late. Fake Robern.”
In Evan’s eyes, the opponent really looked like Robern.
Of course, it was only the Robern of his childhood, the Robern before he became the Sword Saint who had just been crowned one of the Seven Stars.
“Ron! Thanks for holding on!”
“Hmph! Good thing you know!”
As if confirming their trust in each other, the two simultaneously unleashed their power.
Evan channeled the last of his sword aura into his breaking sword, and Ron pushed his trident with the full strength of his body.
—Whoosh!
The sound of a fierce wind echoed across the battlefield.
Raven also gritted his teeth and thrust his sword.
‘One more thing… Robern would never have taken such an attack head-on. Unlike you.’
The impatience that his sword might shatter into pieces.
The greed to settle the match in an instant.
That heart ultimately disturbed Raven’s breathing.
—Pakang!
With a tremendous roar, Raven’s sword shattered into pieces, and at the same time, Evan’s sword also cracked, and fragments scattered.
However, Ron’s trident alone held firm and pierced Raven’s stomach.
“Keoheok…!”
The first fatal wound of his life.
Raven, impaled on the trident, trembled as he held his broken sword.
To him, who did not have much real combat experience, the extreme pain and the shadow of death he was feeling for the first time were too unfamiliar.
“You’re not used to pain. You don’t seem to have experienced much real combat, you’re like Robern in that regard.”
Evan whispered coldly and swung his sword, cutting off Raven’s hand.
The broken sword fell to the ground along with his hand, and the subsequent blow cut off his head.
—Tuduk!
Blood spurted out as his head rolled away.
It was the moment when the last of Robern’s Five Swords, the First Sword Raven, had fallen.
“Huu…”
“Damn it, it hurts like hell!”
Ron gritted his teeth as he pulled out his spear, and Evan took a short breath and glanced to the side.
“This is the second time, right? Our teamwork is better than I thought.”
“What? You just used me!”
“Same goes for you. Did you already forget about the Kraken?”
“…Khm!”
Ron cleared his throat unnecessarily and turned his spear around.
The fact that their teamwork had clicked was undeniable.
After all Five Swords had fallen, looking at the battlefield, the allied forces were definitely regaining their morale.
The soldiers’ eyes had come alive, and the battlefield seemed to be tilting in favor of the allied forces.
“Let’s go.”
“Yeah, let’s go.”
So he was uneasy.
Because it was clear that they would not let the battle end like this.
“…”
At that moment, a giant magic circle appeared on one side.
An imperial mage was frantically chanting a spell and distorting space.
“That bastard?”
Ron raised his spear to break the magic circle, but Evan grabbed his arm.
“Why?”
“We have to meet him someday anyway. Now is better.”
Now that all the variables have been revealed, it was obvious who would come through that magic circle, so it was Evan’s idea to choose this place as the battlefield.
Thus, the magic circle was completed, and a dazzling light burst forth.
And from within, a man walked out.
‘Iron mask…’
The man in the iron mask who was said to have killed Karin of the Seven Stars with a single strike.
He slowly scanned the battlefield and then raised his hand and threw off the mask covering his face.
As if there was no need to hide it anymore.
“!”
Evan’s pupils shook when he saw the face hidden behind the iron mask.
He repeated a name in his mind as if his breath was caught.
‘Robern!’
The existence whose identity he had been sure of all along.
But seeing that face in person was a completely different story.
Moreover.
‘What is this. Why hasn’t he aged?’
As if time had not passed, the face of the Sword Saint Robern in his prime was looking down on everyone with dignity.