Chapter 130 - How tall are you? (3)

The knights surrounded the battlefield in a circle, each with their swords drawn.

Colin still couldn't overcome the pain of defeat, but he had no choice but to rise and raise his sword.

Because he had sworn to do so.

"The Sword Master's rules are truly absurd."

Joubert was always relaxed, but even he shook his head as if bewildered by the current situation.

Knights who raised their swords for the flowers that were about to bloom.

Although each person had a variety of emblems, now it was their turn to fulfill their duties under a set of rules.

"State your name. Boy!"

Those who want to uproot it and those who want to flourish.

The guardian and the ward are all in one world.

The image that the founding king, Frausen, so desired was now recreated in the dueling arena of Deirmar.

"...You forgot."

As someone murmured, Colin looked back.

Indeed, there was a faint light there that had barely begun to bloom.

A child walking with faltering steps as if about to fall at any moment.

Yet the child advances without stopping.

That guy was shining.

A child holding a world that had just been created with bloodied hands.

The boy's name was Vlad of Soara.

***

Crunch-

"…!"

As the crunch of the sword approached, Colin's eyes filled with surprise instead of anger.

The form of his aura wrapped around both arms like armor.

Now, Vlad was pushing Colin, who had the greatest dragon power in Pylos, with force.

"Is it worth it!"

Innate power is inevitable, but there are no limits to the world created.

Vlad was now surpassing the limits of the talent he was born with through Ramund's strong body technique.

'Where did you learn such a strange skill?'

Colin, bewildered by Vlad's abilities, quickly withdrew his sword and created distance.

I don't know what kind of magic he used, but it's still a trick.

Colin believed that mediocre talents would eventually crumble under true power.

"Braggart!"

Instead of adapting to the opponent, use your own strengths.

Colin brandished his sword in the direction he had lived and believed in.

A split flow of air rushed towards Vlad's head as if it were cleaving it.

Thump!

"…!"

But Colin's faith was never rewarded.

A sound he didn't want to hear even in his dreams.

In my memory, a one-eyed man smiles.

"You're used to it, aren't you? This sound."

"…Son of a bitch!"

Is that bright blue in front of me a sword or an eye?

The man who looked at himself was now creating a world incomparably more splendid than back then.

A white lightning flashed from his closed left eye, smiling at Colin.

'In just one year!'

They say little children grow up in the blink of an eye, but this is growth beyond imagination.

None of those present would have even imagined that the boy they were crossing swords with was the boy from back then.

"Now it's my turn!"

'...!'

Dawn shone in Vlad's open right eye.

Weakness detection learned from the Imperial Guard Commander August.

There was an empty spot above which even the panting boar could do nothing.

'Leg!'

A solid foundation is needed to support powerful forces.

Colin's strength comes from his two firmly planted legs.The flowing aura said it all.

'Shit!'

Colin, strong but not flexible, was extremely annoyed by Vlad's persistent attacks on the lower half of his body.

Because no one had ever attacked me like this before.

Kwagagagak-!

Sword clashed against sword.

Between the crossing glares, flames sprouted from the sword.

How good are you?'

Colin's leg tore apart in an agile sword movement, which stabbed the fastest dragon.

The cruelty that felled the sharpest dragon persistently aimed at the knight's knees.

All the worlds Vlad had seen, learned, and defeated were now condensed in the sword in the form of a star.

"Kaaak!"

"Answer me!"

Now I want to know.

Where do I stand in this vast world?

How much more do I have to do to reach the end of the sky?

Now is the time for someone to answer my question.

"You insolent bastard!"

Clang!

Vlad's world stopped and dark red blood spurted out.

Colin let out a roar when he saw Vlad daring to look beyond himself rather than straight ahead.

"Do you think I came this far just to be beaten by someone like you?"

Bright red blood droplets spurted onto the blackened skin, but Colin did not cease exerting his strength.

He too is a person with his own world.

Dreaming upwards was not just a child's privilege.

"Die! You damned brat!"

With Colin's roar, the delicate earth, melted into spring energy, began to crack open as if exploding.

Like Colin's veins bursting with his muscles bulging.

"Ugh!"

Colin's spirit was quite different from before, and Vlad realized he had missed the moment.

The flow is like a wave; if you can't ride the wave coming from you, it will go to someone else.

"Did you ask how much I'm worth?!"

The constant flow of attack and defense suddenly shifted toward Colin.

Everyone has a story and a world they've built.

Colin was also someone who built his own world.

"This is me, Colin of Pylos!"

With a mighty roar, an aura began to blaze from the tip of Colin's sword, burning everything in the world.

Colin's consciousness, which had sunk deeply into himself, no longer thought about tomorrow.

Colin, buried in past defeats, didn't have the confidence to face today's defeat.

"Die!"

"…!"

Kwaaaaaaaaa!

Vlad rolled away, avoiding the ground's explosion.

Piles of earth fell like rain over their heads.

"Ha."

The fight had already ended.

Only the duel remained.

The soldiers clinging to the gate and stabbing each other stopped like statues and only watched the current showdown.

Everyone realized that the fight between these two would be the beginning and end of the day.

"Heheh..."

A massive duel that a small village cannot contain.

While everyone watched with great anticipation, Vlad was smiling.

It was a smile that not even the mud rain could conceal.

"Why are you smiling!"

Colin shouted loudly upon seeing Vlad suddenly smiling as if he had lost his mind, but the smile emanating from his blue eyes did not stop.

"I think I can do it."

Vlad, who finally stopped laughing, brandished his sword.

The Star Sword, which had been dusted off, gleamed blue.

Unlike before, this is a battlefield without anyone's help or consideration.

But Vlad was sure.

"About you... I can handle it now."

"What?"

Vlad raised his sword with those words.

A sword made by spirits and delivered by the World Tree.

Vlad, who once again felt the sensation of holding a sword, wiped away his smile and returned to a serious expression.

"Thank you for answering me."

Vlad got today's answer by looking at the man in front of him.

Colin of Pylos.

A great knight who awakened the Aura and established his own world.

But I have surpassed this man.

"So let's end this now."

And now I'll prove it.

The worlds built by Vlad began to rotate on the path of the sword established by the first Sword Master.

"Alright, come on! Vlad of Soara!"

The staggering steps of the child to make a world bloom have not stopped yet.

The precarious footprints up to now have been accumulating one by one in the child's world, giving rise to the present knight.

"Yes, more than just a brat."

Vlad's eyes began to shine when he heard Colin's cry.

The blue eyes of the little dragon, who had finally discovered where he was and opened his eyes to his own potential, shone blue.

"Call me Vlad of Soara."

Today Vlad protected the wedding.

He protected someone's happiness with his sword and protected the daily lives of the people.

So now is the time to throw them one last red rose.

"…!"

In an instant, light shone.

They started facing each other, but before they knew it, Vlad and Colin's positions had changed in fleeting glances.

It was a light that you couldn't block even if you looked at it, and that you couldn't avoid even if you noticed it.

"Kueeoeook…"

Colin's eyes widened as if he couldn't believe it.

A sharp stake was driven into his heart that would not allow him to live any longer.

The beats of my heart are slowly fading.

A black figure that was slowly collapsing spilled dark red liquid and fell onto the small village.

Colin, knight of Pylos.

He ended up becoming one of the trials created by Vlad today.

"Because you came this far."

Winners and losers.

Vlad, who took Colin's life as a reward for a fair duel, felt the light touch his shoulder and slowly raised his head.

Before you know it, a moon floats in the sky.

"Just a little more and I'll be able to reach it."

Just like that day, the moon with its pitiful blue light looked at Vlad.

Vlad felt as if the moonlight shining on him had come a little closer than before.

***

A grand mansion illuminated by the moonlight.

The dust deposited on the ground is full of grains of sand.

The dry winds from arid lands have always plagued the Western towns.

"Count."

Grand vestibule.

In a space too large for just the two of them to exist, Count Gaidar looked at the knight who bowed before him.

"It's time, Count."

"…Tell me the details."

The highest point of the vestibule.

The knight of the blue moonlight was climbing the stairs that not even his biological son could ascend.

He was a man worthy of approaching the Count.

The blood and corpses he created were no different from those that laid the current stairs.

"The Lord of the Dragon's Blood has spoken."

Godin approached the Count and whispered lowly in his ear.

The grains of sand floating in the spacious vestibule obscured his voice.

"Really?"

Count Gaidar, upon hearing Godin's words, gripped the armrests of his chair tightly.

He was so delighted that his two eyes shone brightly on his furrowed face.

"The moment has finally arrived."

The cold-blooded ruler of the West.

A usurper who cared not for taking.

Count Sigmund Gaidar.

He had been waiting for this moment for a long time.

"I've waited too long. Godin. It was so boring it was painful."

"I fully understand, Count."

The fate of those born in the West was always to hunger no matter how much they swallowed.

Because this cursed land always made me yearn for a distant land, not where I was located.

This constant hunger was like a curse.

"Go, Godin. Go and retrieve my son's sword."

Though the thief was assailed, he endured for a long time.

But now the time had come, and the West would not have to endure any longer.

The fence that barely held its shape was knocked down today.

"Go to Deirmae. Go and bring before me the wench who calls herself the gateway to the North!"

"Understood, Count."

A knight receiving orders from his lord.

As always, Godin would not hesitate to carry out his orders.

Outside the window shining behind Gaidar, the blue moonlight shone upon Godin.

It was the same color as the moonlight that fell with the smile of a rose that day.

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