Hundreds of years ago, when thousands of demons invaded the Behen Archipelago, it was Biban who cut off one wing of Stone Dragon Gujel, who had tried to intervene. Pagma was speechless. It didn't enter in his mind that there was a greater disaster that approaches him at that time.
"Also the tower would stay away from you since you've signed a contract with Baal. Baal's Contractor isn't free from Baal's gaze which would lead for the tower's location to be exposed to him."
He explained but Biban's expression was bitter.
「 I understand. Thank you for explaining it to me. 」
Now that he received the answer, Pagma focused about his role again. The sword and shield for Lexus. The death knight's purpose of serving his master. Pagma pulled out a sword. A longsword which gave off a beautiful appearance. Sword energy swirled in it.
Linked Kill Wave.
Kukukukung!
A thunderous sound burst from Pagma's sword. It was one of his ultimate skill, which cast Kill eight times continuously and attached the features of Wave to it, Linked Kill Wave. The momentum and strength was legendary.
It was a targeted skill that dealt up to 15,000% damage. Depending on the number of targets, it could be used as a single or wide area skill. The three combination skill was several times stronger than the two combination skill, and the utilization was also high. It was truly a legendary skill.
Pepepepeng!
The fierce momentum of Linked Kill Wave shot towards Biban. Four golden red hands appeared behind Pagma's back. Since he is the creator of the base mineral, Pavranium, he can also control some of Lexus' god hands. They were armed with a dagger, a greatsword, spear, and a war hammer.
Pahat!
It was truly spectacular. Someone who could use five different weapons at the same time. It was a nonsensical fraudulent character from the point of view of an ordinary person.
Biban clicked his tongue.
"Hah! I have never seen such a shameless fellow! This old man is still in the middle of his explanation but you already attacked me. It is the first time in my life that I've met someone like you!"
As Lexus felt Biban's anger, he noticed that Braham is silent than usual. No, he's been very silent since he encountered Pagma back at Hell. As he notices about this, an idea suddenly lit up in my mind. The reason for Braham whose usually proud to be silent was because of the betrayal he experienced.
In the past, Pagma betrayed his friend, Braham, for the sake of world peace. Pagma killed Braham for being a demonkin and stole away his life force, despite being close enough to create the new mineral Pavranium together.
That's why his soul had wandered for hundreds of years, undergoing all types of hardships. Braham resented Pagma to the extreme but now, he was in great internal conflict. It was because he knew at the end, Pagma ended up being betrayed by the gods and fighting for the world alone.
Being with Lexus' body, Braham started to feel human emotions and is craving for affection. But Braham awakened emotions without knowing it. His personality changed drastically after losing eternal life and living as a human. As an imperfect existence, he feels a conflict before his instincts of obsession for knowledge and the humanity he acquired.
'Well, don't blame him too much. He is already paying for it.'
Knowing what was happening to Braham, Lexus at least tried to internally spoke to him.
'He became a torn soul that wanders through hell in eternal suffering. That is the fate of those who contract with Baal.'
Even if he didn't say this, Braham is already aware about it.
「 ...! 」
It was karma generated from signing a contract with Baal. Did Pagma not know this before signing the contract with Baal? No, he had to know. He knew and contracted with Baal out of his own beliefs.
「 Pagma was such a person… 」
From the moment he betrayed his only friend Braham, Pagma was determined to take on all his sins and fight alone, even in life and death. The more Braham knew, the more pitiful Pagma seemed so he felt conflicted if he should still resent Pagma or not.
As Braham was becoming unstable inside Lexus, the battle between Death Knight Pagma and Sword Saint Biban was still unfolding. Biban was busy blocking the strikes of the God Hands. Death Knight Pagma approached Biban while he was dealing with the God Hands and used Pagma's Swordsmanship, Transcended Link Flower!
The distance between Pagma and Biban narrowed as energy blades flew and petals fluttered. Hundreds of petals containing sword energy bloomed but Biban's sword was pulled up in a diagonal line. The dozens of energy blades and petals were scattered temporarily. Biban's sword energy destroyed Pagma's sword dance by separating the energy blades and petals.
"You are the legendary blacksmith yet according to the legends, you are the best swordsman after Muller and the Undefeated King."
Biban said and continued.
"But still, you contracted with Baal. It was because you knew there were limits to your skills."
「 I can't compare to them in swordsmanship. 」
Pagma could only say this and plainly admitted his shortcomings.
「 However even if you're a Sword Saint and I'm not as good as you, please don't forget that I'm not alone. 」
"Ku...ack!"
Finally, blood splattered from Biban's body. Biban's eyes shook. Blood flowed from the cheek that was slightly cut by the wind. It was the first time he had bled in decades. His gaze turned towards Igris who slashed at him with 100,000 Army Blockade Sword. The attack had reached him because Igris contained the concept of intangible will in his sword.
As he was grazed by Igris, he was affected by the blockade effect and was stiffened making him unable to move.
Of course, Ainz and Elder Lich Mumud didn't let the chance Pagma created to go into waste. This is dangerous! Biban's intuition told him this. Lexus also the same as magic power started to concentrate in his mouth. Seeing it, Biban was shock to his core. He was very familiar with it. The precursor of the breath of a dragon!
"Cough!"
Blood burst from Biban's eyes as he spewed out dark red blood. He felt the pain of all the muscles in his body tearing and the intense heat from his skin. Since any movements were sealed because of the effect of the 100,000 Army Blockade Sword of Igris, he wasn't able to do anything about the incoming Fire Dragon Breath and all attacks of the legendary undead familiars.
"Although you're all weaker than me, you bunch are my worthy opponents."
Biban's knees bent like he was going to jump straight away after regaining the ability to move his body. Biban leaped and flew up but the land was smashed by the jump and the storm that ensued devoured everything around it. The ground swirled roughly and disrupted Lexus' vision. The God Hands and all of the swords were swept away by the vortex.
Lexus instinctively sensed as he watched the incoming sword that was like a dragon's claws. In an instant, a storm of sword energy swallowed up Lexus. It was the strike that cut off one wing of the dragon Gujel.
[You have suffered a catastropic damage.]
[Your health has fallen to 5%.]
[Attack power will increase by 100% and attack speed will increase by 50%.]
"What?"
Lexus had maintained his maximum health as he rapidly recovers that health he lost. His current health had already surpassed half a million which should only be possible for boss monsters. In an instant, all of this was wiped out by the ultimate form of Matchless Swordsmanship and if not for 4% of his health that was left, his unique skill's immortal passive might have been activated already.
Although he now had 5% of his total health, the total health was still at 25,000 so it could be said that it were still plenty enough. Not to mention that he's invulnerable at this moment. Well if not for the effect of Undefeated King's Rage, he might do everything to evade it.
"You're really a durable one..."
As Biban was commenting about how Lexus was able to endure his slash, the situation earlier was rapidly reversed. Just like how Lexus wasn't able to notice his attack in the start of their clash, without him noticing immediately, Lexus appeared from his behind.
It was the effect of his speed increasing because of the effect of his Bloody Berserker that boosts his attack damage and attack speed based on missing health percentage. The bloody Biban swung his sword as he channels every strength in his arm and neutralized Lexus' attack.
'If I haven't activated my super sensitivity, that attack will definitely land on me. Also, his attack became...heavier?'
Just then, numerous corpses began to emerge from the ground. Even so, Biban was still calm. It was because he was aware of what was happening. He knew that it was the Elder Lich who was summoning the group of undead. Looking around, he saw that he was surrounded by more than 300,000 undead creatures.
(Undead Ranks or The Evolution Patterns of Ordinary Undead)
Skeleton → Skeleton Warrior → Skeleton Knight → Death Knight, Dark Knight or Reaper.
Skeleton → Skeleton Mage → Skeleton General → Lich.
The undead were never weak pets. They had the fundamental limits of low intelligence but they could perform any command unconditionally. Another advantage was that they had no emotion or common sense.
What about their low agility and durability which were relatively lower than those other species? This was a problem that could be overcome by evolving into a higher undead.
The skeleton warriors rushed towards at Biban with a simple command of Elder Lich Mumud. They were the soldiers from the recent war against the rebels that Mumud had turned into undead.
Even for a ranker, these undead were tricky to face. Third advancement necromancers were limited to summon two skeleton warriors at one time and yet, Mumud summoned more than 200,000 at the same time.
This was the benefit of being a high tier undead, an Elder Lich. Although they numbers more than 150,000– they were still low rank undead so they didn't pose any threat towards Biban. Numbers are meaningless against the transcendent power of a legend and Mumud was aware of this.
With one sweep of his sword energy, Biban singlehandedly annihilated the undead army. It was expected. Biban was someone who managed to cut a dragon who possesses absolute power so eliminating a huge numbers of skeleton warriors isn't that hard.
Seeing that the skeleton warriors disappeared in a blink of an eye, Mumud wasn't affected. He doesn't have expectations for them in the first place. He just summoned them again and then, he summoned more than 100,000 skeleton knights. They were the knights from Viscount Barn's forces when they were alive and were at least 3 times better than the skeleton warriors.
Looking at the undead army, Biban felt a chill in his scalp. It wasn't because of the undead army. Its because of who the master of this undead army was. For goodness sake, he was a Sword Saint and yet he had this undead army under his command, together with the four legendary undeads.
'A one-man army!'
Biban inwardly exclaimed in his mind. Lexus who personally possessed a transcendent power also has an overwhelming military might and it was his abilities alone! He might be young but the other person was still a legend. Someone that transcends everyone in this era.
« Confirmed. A small portion of Sword Saint Biban's experience and mastery over swordsmanship has been acquired. »
« All possible skills to obtain have been successfully acquired. »
« All knowledge gained has been optimized and successfully transferred. »
Lexus on the other hand, didn't miss the chance that Biban became agitated. He immediately used his unique skill, Plunderer to increase his chance of winning.
[Your comprehension and understanding of Sword Energy has drastically increased.]
[The level of Saint's Sword Energy has drastically risen.]
[Congratulations! You have almost achieved the complete mastery of your Sword Energy and Sword Mastery.]
[Sword Energy and Mana has been synergized.]
However, since there was a great disparity between their levels, Lexus wasn't able to obtain much but he was satisfied. In the next moment, he achieved something that he wasn't able to before. It was to perfectly mix both his sword energy and mana. As the two energies were fundamentally different, combining them hasn't been possible for him but not anymore.