SWNOVELXO Chapter 347
Episode 348. Who’s the Crazier One? (1)
Dust realized something as he watched Keter casually offering him a drink. The strange sense of discomfort he had been feeling—its true nature.
‘This bastard Keter doesn’t consider us as equals.’
At first, he thought it was just the fear of Keter’s overwhelming power or the heat of war. But no. Now he was certain. Keter wasn’t the least bit tense, even when facing four Primes, including himself, and the elite soldiers of the family alliance.
“…Answer me one question.”
Dust felt the strength drain from his body. An overwhelming sense of lethargy washed over him.
Keter gestured for him to speak while sipping his whiskey.
“Have you reached the 8th Star?”
The reason Keter could be so relaxed—it was because he had reached the 8th Star.
Of course, it was absurd. A guy not even twenty years old becoming a Prime was ridiculous enough, but the 8th Star? Beyond that?
Yet, Keter’s current composure could only be explained by this.
Keter shook his head.
“Not yet.”
“Not… yet?”
Keter’s words carried the nuance that he would soon surpass it.
Dust reached out his hand.
“I feel like drinking now.”
“I don’t feel like giving it to you.”
Keter finished the whiskey by himself and yawned.
“Were these ten minutes that long? I’ll keep that in mind next time.”
“……”
Keter’s composure, as if the Primes before him were nothing.
Dust’s mind went blank. What should he do in this situation? Should he get angry? Apologize? Fight? Run? Nothing was clear.
Dust realized something else. The emotion he was feeling wasn’t fear.
It was helplessness. The realization that no action would work against Keter, that Keter could kill him anytime he wished.
Drip.
Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. Not a physical wound, but a wound to his heart.
Decades. He had trained his body every single day without fail. While others enjoyed parties, indulged in all the pleasures of the world, he swung his sword. He lived solely with the thought of ‘becoming stronger.’
Decades of swinging his sword, decades of meditation. He fought on battlefields with death by his side, all for enlightenment.
The power he gained from this was Authority. The realm of a Prime. Not something easily or accidentally obtained.
He thought he had become one of the top ten strongest in the world. But looking at Keter now, he realized something new.
‘Was I still a frog in a well?’
The other three Primes, who had just finished a ten-minute meeting, also realized. They were no match for Keter. All this time, Keter had been ‘playing’ with them!
“Ten minutes, it’s over.”
Keter’s words felt like a death sentence.
Rajis stepped forward as the representative of the Primes. Not because he was the strongest, but because he could communicate with Keter.
“Keter. You’ve truly grown stronger day by day. To an unreasonable extent.”
“That’s just how life is. At first, I thought my life was a cursed one, but as I lived, I realized it wasn’t.”
“We understand that you alone can take on the four of us. But you must also acknowledge that it’s because we’ve only been targeting you.”
The Primes of the family alliance had only targeted Keter, not Sephira’s army.
What Rajis was saying now was that if they ignored Keter and attacked Sephira, Sephira wouldn’t remain unscathed.
Of course, Keter couldn’t possibly not know this. The logical move here would be to concede and acknowledge, but Keter just gave a look as if to say, ‘So what?’
“Consideration in war? If someone saw this, they’d think you were declaring war and mobilizing troops. Rajis, you’re getting bolder by the day. It seems like you’re about to shed the mask of hypocrisy.”
“If two of us hold you down, and the other two attack Sephira, do you think Sephira can handle it?”
“Tsk tsk. Kid, that’s not how you make a threat. Let me show you how it’s done.”
As Keter acted as if to say, ‘Go ahead and try,’ the Primes’ expressions hardened. This wasn’t the scenario they had anticipated.
But they couldn’t back down now. They had to show Keter that it was possible. Only then would there be room for negotiation.
What they wanted was a draw. To retreat without annihilating each other.
‘To force a draw, there’s only one way.’
‘Then, as agreed beforehand…’
Whoosh!
Rajis and Jerpy charged at Keter. Meanwhile, the remaining two, Dust and Magon, leaped toward Sephira.
It was already known that Sephira had no Primes. Though they had external forces, they weren’t at the Prime level.
So, the two Primes skilled in mass destruction headed for Sephira. If they went all out, they could kill tens of thousands in a minute.
Of course, killing tens of thousands would make negotiation impossible, so they planned to kill about a thousand in the blink of an eye. They thought this would change Keter’s mind.
The archers of Sephira, proving they weren’t just standing idly by, remained calm even as the Primes approached. They calmly did what archers should do.
They nocked arrows, drew, and released. Individually, their arrows were insignificant. But when hundreds, thousands of arrows gathered, the result could be different.
Soon, countless arrows rained down on the Primes.
The power varied. The arrows shot by soldiers could pierce iron plates, while those shot by knights could pierce steel shields.
But the common point was that none of these arrows had the power to harm the Primes.
They didn’t even need to block or dodge. Even with Aura Armor, they could ignore the arrows if they wished.
That’s how it should have been.
“Something’s off.”
Dust and Magon, feeling an inexplicable chill, used their swords to deflect the arrows. Hundreds of arrows concentrated their fire, but deflecting them wasn’t a problem.
Of course, they weren’t putting in much effort either. The aura in the arrows was faint, so it just felt eerie.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Then, by chance, one arrow grazed their bodies—
Splat!
Blood flowed from the grazed area.
“……?!”
“……!”
The two couldn’t believe it.
It was clearly an arrow of insignificant power. Just an ordinary arrow shot by some knight.
Moreover, they were clad in Aura Armor. Even if they were hit, the arrow should have bounced off or broken. So why were they wounded?
Naturally, the two had to halt their charge. Realizing they could be wounded by Sephira’s archers’ relentless arrows, they couldn’t recklessly charge forward.
“Common sense doesn’t apply in Sephira.”
“Let’s use our Authority.”
A bit premature, but the two activated their Authority.
The Tempest Summoning Wind Demon.
The Thousand Swords of All Creation.
Arrows are greatly affected by wind. Especially over long distances, even a slight breeze can drastically alter their trajectory.
And with a tempest, shooting arrows becomes impossible. Keter’s arrows were ‘Ain,’ so they weren’t affected, but Sephira’s archers, who merely used aura, would inevitably be influenced.
Whoooooosh!
The Wind Demon’s tempest swept through Sephira.
Sephira’s archers struggled to maintain their stance. But, they stubbornly nocked their arrows.
Seeing this, Dust was dumbfounded.
‘You’re shooting arrows in a tempest? Are you all Keter or something?’
Keter was special, so it was understandable, but seeing Sephira’s archers all preparing to shoot arrows felt ridiculous to Dust.
But for some reason, Sephira’s archers fired their arrows. Just as Dust was about to dismiss them as utterly foolish—the arrows flew through the tempest.
“What?!”
“This is absurd…!”
Magon was equally stunned. Arrows unaffected by the tempest?
This was thanks to the Wind God, Al’Akir.
Though not intended, Keter had kidnapped the forgotten god Al’Akir and forced him to become Sephira’s guardian deity to protect Sephira from divine interference.
Thus, Sephira’s archers, who now served Al’Akir, naturally gained one advantage. They were unaffected by adverse wind conditions.
That’s why they could shoot arrows straight even in a tempest that uprooted trees.
“I’ll take care of this myself.”
Magon wielded the Thousand Swords he had created. He could control each sword meticulously.
He planned to block thousands of arrows with thousands of swords and counterattack, but it didn’t go smoothly.
Crash!
With the sound of shattering glass, his swords broke as they blocked the arrows. Just like when they were hit by Keter’s arrows.
“What, what?! How?!”
Keter’s arrows had the power of ‘Ain,’ so it made sense they broke, but Sephira’s archers had no such power. So why were the swords breaking?
Struggling against Sephira’s archers even after using their Authority, the two couldn’t help but panic.
But they couldn’t retreat now, so they drew out more of their Authority’s power.
The tempest wasn’t just to hinder the arrows but to blow people away with its wind speed—the Thousand Swords weren’t to shoot down arrows but to launch at Sephira’s archers.
“Haven’t you realized yet? You have no chance of winning.”
A voice echoed across the battlefield. A lone archer floating above the city walls.
A noble appearance. Long ears… An elf and Sephira’s guardian, Endymion, had revealed himself.
*
Recognizing Endymion, Dust and Magon immediately knew he was a Prime.
“Sephira had… a Prime?”
“They’ve been hiding him all this time…!”
To be precise, he wasn’t hidden, but he had been in hiding. Endymion wasn’t one for small talk. He got straight to the point.
“Your Authority doesn’t work because of my Authority. Area-Type Authority. You understand what that means.”
Area-Type Authority.
An Authority that only works within a limited space, but its power is far stronger than free-range Authority.
“Area-Type Authority…!”
“It’s been active from the start.”
The two fully understood. Why Keter’s arrows were so powerful, and why Sephira’s archers’ arrows were so strong.
It was all because of the elf before them. He had clearly enhanced the ‘grade’ of the arrows themselves with his Authority.
“My name is Endymion. Sephira’s guardian. Will you retreat now, or will you continue?”
Endymion’s threat made the two grit their teeth. They hadn’t expected Sephira to have a Prime.
“Do you think we’ll understand if you say it like that?”
At that moment, Keter stood beside Endymion.
Dust and Magon turned to look behind them. What were Rajis and Jerpy, who were supposed to be dealing with Keter, doing?
The two were panting, barely standing. The marks of Keter’s blows were clear all over their bodies.
“Heh, even two of us couldn’t buy time.”
Keter rose high into the sky. So high that everyone had to look up to see him.
“Let me tell you something good. When you want to negotiate with an opponent, you don’t threaten. You inform.”
“……?”
The four Primes and the family alliance’s army swallowed hard.
“Look behind you. While you were distracted, Kundelain’s ghost cavalry has cut off your retreat.”
“What?!”
“It’s true!”
The family alliance was well aware of Sephira’s external forces. They thought those forces hadn’t been active, but they were wrong.
And the informing was just beginning.
“Your main base has already been captured. By Baen’s airship. Now do you understand? You’re completely surrounded. No home to return to, no reinforcements.”
“……!”
Murmurs.
Chaos.
The Primes’ faces turned pale, and the soldiers were even worse. The commanders didn’t know what to do, only watching Daul, the supreme commander.
Daul, who had been watching the Primes’ battle, gritted his teeth.
Everything Keter said was true. Their retreat was cut off. Their main base was captured. A complete, undeniable defeat.
Daul took a deep breath. It was his turn to step forward now.
But before he could, Keter’s voice echoed across the battlefield once more.
“This isn’t a negotiation. It’s a notice. Drop your weapons and kneel now. If you do, I’ll spare your lives and treat you as humans. You have one minute. Anyone still standing after that will be considered as wanting to fight to the end.”
Whoosh.
Having informed everyone, Keter descended to the ground. Right in front of the family alliance’s Primes.