I Obtained Sword God Level Talent

74 – 074. Eye (2)

“Why, why does it not open! Why!”

Thud!

Friedrich collapsed onto the ground, his voice a long wail.

It had been over a year, nearing two, since Frey had vanished into that barrier.

During that time, Ariel, Friedrich, and Chun Hwa-young, left on the outside, had been running around frantically trying to get inside.

Only those with a 6th-tier qualification or higher could pass through, so they first sought out mercenaries of recent renown.

The results were miserable. The 6th-tier mercenaries could not pass through the barrier. In the end, they could only stare blankly at their retreating backs, cheerfully taking their pay.

“Why… Why the hell…”

Following Friedrich, Ariel and Chun Hwa-young took the stage.

They contacted the Papal States and the Eastern Continent Martial Alliance, and it was after several months that good news finally arrived.

However, even the holy knights and martial artists of the alliance, who had dispatched reinforcements without delay, could not pass through the barrier.

“It’s as if… it’s saying we don’t have the ‘qualification’ to enter that place…”

Friedrich, his face dark, muttered as he roughly gripped the ground.

“No, no! This time… we’ve hired someone who’s been making waves recently!”

…But what if they failed to break through the barrier again this time?

Stress throbbed in his head. He was almost to the point of giving up everything, of returning to the Imperial capital.

“W-Wait a minute!”

“…What is it, Saintess?”

Friedrich looked at Ariel.

Time had changed a lot. Ariel, too, had long since shed her girlishness, a fully bloomed woman like a perfect flower.

“The barrier…!”

“The barrier?”

Friedrich quickly turned his head.

Then.

Tzzt, tzzt, tzzt…

“N-No way……!!”

His pupils widened, as if tearing apart.

The barrier, that goddamn barrier.

That shitty barrier that had been impossible to undo, to destroy, to even pass through…

“It’s… disappearing?!”

“M-My God!”

“……!”

Ariel, Friedrich, and Chun Hwa-young’s mouths hung agape. They were stunned by this sudden change, unable to collect their thoughts. And, a single ominous thought quickly filled their minds.

“S-Surely… something dangerous isn’t happening, right?”

*Gulp!*

Chun Hwa-young swallowed dryly, her voice filled with worry.

But, Ariel, who led this group of outsiders, shook her head.

With a brave expression, she stared into the ‘inside’ where the barrier had vanished.

“I don’t know. But, I have to go in there.”

“Saintess!”

Friedrich, deeply moved, looked at her with a face filled with admiration at her resolute voice.

Friedrich knew.

Between the Holy Knight Frey and Saintess Ariel… there was something indescribably tender, something heartfelt.

Was that why?

Ariel, biting her pink lip, soon took a forceful step. Inside the desolate area where the barrier had been, were strewn corpses of who knew who. But, her steps showed no signs of stopping.

“……I’m going.”

*Thud, thud!*

“To see Frey.”

Ariel murmured lowly, her eyes sparkling. Her pupils seemed to shine the most vibrant blue they had in recent memory.

But then.

“What’s this, woman?”

Someone’s voice echoed through the clearing in front of the hut, where the barrier had vanished.

“……Huh?”

* * *

“……Holy shit.”

Ismael’s head was shattered.

The scene of brain matter oozing out, considering the brute force the b*stard had always displayed, was unbelievably anticlimactic.

And then.

Thwack! Splat!

The bizarre phenomenon of heads exploding and instantly killing people didn’t stop with Ismael, the source of the barrier.

“……!!!”

The next victims were the priests, starting with Bishop Dubong.

Their heads were smashed to pieces like watermelons dropped on rocks!

“W-What in God’s name is going on……!”

Even the battle-hardened Sword Demon, his beard trembling, voiced his bewilderment at the events unfolding.

If he was this shaken, then Geum Harin’s state was even more dire. From the moment she gazed at that ‘eye,’ she’d been staring blankly at the sky, as if her soul had been yanked out.

With a trembling finger, I pushed for strength and recalled the past.

I’d experienced something similar before. The rift of hell, where I witnessed a Death Knight, desperately yearning for someone as he met his end.

[Goddess, I have fulfilled the mission you bestowed upon me.]

His voice, like scraping metal, still rang in my ears. I had seen the final moments of the former Holy Grail Knight, who roamed hell under the command of an unknown goddess, with my own two eyes.

“……Could it be.”

I pieced together my past experience with the given clues.

And from that, a monstrous conclusion arose. It was still in the stage of an unconfirmed suspicion, but if it were true, it would cause an immense shock.

Ssssk.

I tilted my head back.

I stared directly at the ‘eye.’

Crackk!

Immediately, I felt an invisible, immense pressure crushing my entire body.

“Kuh! You are.”

The massive eye looked down at me. It was certain. The eye, as huge as a border city, was only focused on ‘me’.

“……Could it be.”

Clench!

“Is this… ＜Keres＞……?”

Fwoooshhh───!!!

A bizarre scene flashed into my view in an instant.

It was Ishmael, and ‘I,’ whose head was crushed like the priests.

Ta-dat!

I scrambled back a few steps, feeling for my head, my neck. Thankfully, my head wasn’t smashed yet.

“I can’t tell if you’re refusing to answer, or if that’s a silent yes.”

I let out a hollow sigh, muttering to myself.

The moment I mentioned ＜Keres＞, I felt a powerful killing intent from the eye. Its meaning wasn’t clear.

‘But, there’s enough circumstantial evidence.’

Thrum!

I felt like I was getting closer to the world’s secrets, a hideous, terrible conspiracy.

After all, seeing that the ‘God’ who controlled this world was a manifestation of that grotesque, giant eye, anyone could come to that conclusion.

“Wa, was that just now…a killing ‘sal’…!!!”

“……Huh? A ‘sal’?”

The sword demon, his face aghast, shouted almost like a scream.

Badly wounded by Ishmael, he was slowly pulling himself up.

As expected of the Sword Father. A rank 8 martial artist, perhaps he was overcoming the damage to his body with willpower.

Anyway.

“A ‘sal’? What in the world is that?”

I asked him again, bewildered.

Sending out ‘sal’, a fantastical story like shamanic beliefs? No way. There were people all around me who had their heads smashed by that ‘sal’!

The good thing was.

After seeing that strange hallucination, the ‘eye’ didn’t seem hostile anymore. I guessed that the attack that killed Ishmael and the priests needed a lot of preparation time.

“It’s something you couldn’t possibly know. It’s a legendary tale only experienced by those who committed the first God-Slaying in human history.”

‘……Wait, God-Slaying?’

My mouth slightly gaped open.

I knew it. I knew the story of that God-Slaying, a passing story like an Easter egg in the ＜Demonic Cult＞ route…!

‘The first Heavenly Demon, he was the first and last God-Slayer in human history.’

He was just a record of the distant past, said to be a human who was aiming for rank 10, beyond rank 9. I never thought I would hear this one line of forgotten lore directly.

“His story has been passed down in the Cult like a myth. Among them, there is the story of the ‘sal’ 殺 used by the Gods in their attacks. Those struck by the God’s ‘sal’ die. It is, literally, the manifestation of will becoming reality.”

What kind of overpowered, broken skill was that?

I couldn’t hide my shock. That meant that entity was currently wishing for my death!

“But you just… dodged that *flesh*.”

“……Huh?”

I couldn’t help but wear a dumbfounded expression.

Wait, so that eyeball shot divine power, or ‘flesh,’ at me, and I instinctively dodged it? That’s what this means?

And then, it happened.

*Shhhaaak!*

Once more, a powerful, sticky malice shook heaven and earth.

And.

*Fwhoooaaash–!!!*

Again, I felt the phantom of my head being smashed. Experiencing that, I hurriedly moved my mana-filled legs.

*Tadatdak!*

“……!”

Yup, same deal this time too.

Only then did I realize that the Sword Demon’s words were true. In a situation that was about to make me lose my goddamn mind, I had no intention of spouting some dumb shit like, ‘No way.’

“By the way, Elder! Doesn’t that eye look bigger?!”

“……Indeed.”

Hearing my voice, the Sword Demon hastily pulled a small notebook from inside his robes.

The notebook was small and black, and I knew that thing very well too.

[Demonic God Record]

If I had to compare it, it was like the Bible on Earth.

It was more of a bogus document, exaggerating the stories and achievements of the First Heavenly Demon.

‘……So he actually carries that around.’

The setting was that most of the warriors of the Heavenly Demon Cult carried that notebook.

Of course, players would just toss that item, which took up an inventory slot, into the trash the instant they acquired it.

*Flip!*

“……It’s here!”

“It’s here? What is it?!”

I urged the Sword Demon with an anxious voice.

*Kugugugung*…

Just by looking.

The noise swelled, and the eye grew larger by degrees. On top of that, the navy blue energy visible beyond the crack was intensifying, making it seem like a horrific event would occur if just a little more time passed.

“The Ancestor… he slashed the crack where a ‘god’ descended. It’s just a matter of slashing the entire space! To think it was such an easy method!”

…What the fuck.