Record of a Thousand Lives

Chapter 206

Swordsmanship was the main combat style of the Imperial Knights. Other forms of combat such as spearmanship, hand to hand combat, and archery were practiced by the Imperial Soldiers. That was due to the fact that most skills used by knights were related to swordsmanship and horseback riding.

Due to that, the knights were easy prey for Sharp while he was in his unsheathed form, as all of his enemies used swords.

‘I can certainly win against them,’?Sharp thought confidently. That confidence was the main reason why he had taunted Helkin to attack him with his sword.

The main goal of the Spirit of Swords was simple, and that was to absorb the God Breaker. The god-killing sword had to either be destroyed or stolen for Kang Yoon-Soo to retrieve his godly powers.

‘I might as?well as just?absorb it.’

Helkin was the natural enemy of a god, but Sharp was the natural enemy of a swordsman, which put him in a more advantageous position than Helkin.

‘I should be able to absorb the God Breaker as long as it’s a sword.’

A Spirit of Swords would grow stronger the more swords it absorbed. A normal sword would only temporarily increase Sharp’s health or life force, while a cursed or rusty sword would reduce his stats or make him fall sick. However, swords that were unique-grade or above would either change his personality or greatly boost his stats.

‘Of course, I can’t just randomly absorb any kind of sword.’

It would take Sharp between one and five minutes to fully absorb a sword, and he became vulnerable to being cut by swords during the process. That meant Sharp was not a hundred percent immune to swords; it was also the reason why he planned to absorb the god-killing sword and escape immediately afterward.=-

“What are you doing? I told you to stab me,” Sharp taunted the old knight once more. The two were separated by the lake between them, but it was not a distance Helkin could not cover.

The knights seemed to be enraged by the spirit’s provocations, and the ones who had managed to keep their swords pointed them at the spirit. They exclaimed, “Sir Helkin! We’ll be able to take care of a pathetic little spirit like that! Leave that thing to us!”

“Forget about it. I’m more worried that you guys will get done in by those guys,” Helkin replied.

“Huh? What do you mean, ‘those guys’?” the knights asked.

Seyra stopped the knights, interjecting, “Just let him be. You shouldn’t hastily try to get involved in one of Sir Helkin’s fights.”

Helkin slowly began warming up, but he did not draw his sword. He said, “I have a grandson around your age.”

“But I’m not even a year old,” Sharp replied.

“I meant based on your looks,” Helkin said. The old knight slowly walked, not toward Sharp, but toward the forest. He continued, “I always wanted to teach that boy how to use a sword, but he always refused my teachings.”

“Hmm… Why so?” Sharp asked, sounding genuinely curious.

“He did not want to hold a real sword because he was scared of getting cut by the edges. I cannot help but be reminded of my grandson whenever I see you, so I will not be using my sword against you,” Helkin said.

Sharp could not hide his surprise as he asked, “You won’t use your sword? Then what is that sword for? Is it just a fancy ornament?”

“This sword is not for cutting you,” Helkin replied.

Sharp was not surprised by the old knight’s response. In fact, that was something he had already expected, and he was certain that the old knight had already caught onto his intentions.

‘In that case, I’m certain he isn’t going to use his sword,’?Sharp thought before reading the dozens of swords floating around him. He could immediately command his swords to attack Helkin, but he had to lure the old knight to attack him if he were to have any chance of stealing the god-killing sword.

What weapon would Helkin use to attack? Sharp was on guard and alert, as the old knight could have hidden a dagger, or brought a mace or a spear along, for all he knew.

However, the weapon Helkin chose to use was something Sharp could never have imagined.

Creak… Crack… Crack…!

Helkin grabbed a large tree with one hand and he pulled it out of the ground. The tree he uprooted was much thicker than the other trees in the vicinity, but he effortlessly threw it with one hand.

Fwooooosh!

“H-Huh…?” Sharp muttered, taken aback for the first time. He fell backward while trying to avoid the tree, which grazed him on his cheek and left a bleeding cut on it.

Splash!

The tree narrowly missed the spirit and fell into the lake.

“Did the insects feast on that tree or something? Why is it so light?” Helkin grumbled. He dug his fingers into another large tree and easily uprooted it from the ground.

Even Sharp, whose timid demeanor had been replaced by boldness, was taken aback at the sight of the old knight easily pulling the large tree out of the ground. He stuttered, "W-What the hell are you? Are you really a knight?”

Knights, as a class, became weaker if they did not use swords. On top of that, the knight who was uprooting these large trees was an old man. It was only common sense that one’s physical prowess would diminish as they aged, and that their skills would start getting rusty. However, such common sense did not apply to Helkin.

The strongest knight on the continent threw ten large trees toward Sharp before replying calmly, “Is there a rule that says knights can only use swords?”

The barrage of trees flew toward Sharp, and the Spirit of Swords quickly controlled the swords around him to cut down or deflect the trees. However, the swords he had were nowhere near enough to block them all.

It was possible to incapacitate a creature by cutting or stabbing their critical points, but that did not apply to the flying trees, which were mere objects. They continued flying through the air no matter how many times Sharp stabbed them with his swords.

Splash! Splash! Splash!

Sharp rolled across the ground to evade the trees. However, he could not perfectly avoid them all, and one of the trees managed to catch his shoulder, injuring him. The spirit’s swords that had been floating in midair started to collide loudly against each other.

Clang!

Sharp called out with a hint of anger in his voice, “Alright, let’s have a go at it!”

It was Sharp’s turn to go on the offensive! His swords rushed toward Helkin before the old knight was able to uproot another tree.

However, Helkin nimbly grabbed the first sword that flew toward him, and when the sword tried to struggle against his grip, he easily subdued it. Then, he lowered his stance and swatted the second sword flying toward him.

Crack!

The second sword was smashed into pieces as it flew through the air, and its fragments scattered across the lakeshore. The sword Helkin had used to deflect it cracked from the impact, so he threw it aside and grabbed another sword just before it stabbed him. The old knight’s skills were the pinnacle of vision and swordsmanship.

The number of swords flying through the air started to dwindle, and Helkin swatted the second to last sword before grabbing the only one remaining. He said, “It looks like you have run out of the swords you have stolen.”

It was not an exaggeration to call Helkin the strongest knight on the continent.

Sharp started retreating backward while observing Helkin’s location, then shouted loudly, “Now’s your chance!”

Then, the ground Helkin was standing on suddenly shone brightly while letting out a sinister aura. The old knight immediately sensed that something was off and tried to jump onto a nearby tree, but bloody hands rose up from the ground and grabbed him by his ankles.

[Rick has used four liters of Life Essence to create a bloody swamp.]

[The bloody hands from the swamp will not let go of their target until it meets its demise.]

[The Puppeteer will slowly absorb the life force of any creature that falls into the swamp.]

Helkin swung the sword he had taken from Sharp and cut off the bloody hands. As he was dealing with them, however, blue threads suddenly shot out from the swamp and tied themselves to the god-killing sword on the old knight’s waist.

Helkin quickly took hold of the god-killing sword before landing on the ground away from the bloody swamp. He shouted, “Henrick!”

“It’s nice to see you again, Sir Helkin,” Henrick said before appearing with his doll, Rick. Rick’s right hand was wrapped around the blue threads that were connected to the God Breaker.

Henrick pointed at the god-killing sword wrapped in his mana threads and said, “I’ll be needing that sword.”

“I refuse to yield it to you,” Helkin replied.

“That’s why I was planning on stealing it,” Henrick said before taking control of Rick.

Rick pulled the mana threads with all her might, but Helkin remained steadfast, refusing to let the God Breaker budge an inch from his waist. It was a tug-of war-between a knight captain and a doll!

Helkin thought with a grimace, ‘They are no pushovers… This was unexpected…’

Rick had already completed her second class evolution, and she was much stronger than she looked. The little girl did not lose in a contest of strength against Helkin, the strongest knight on the continent.

Just as the mana threads were stretched to their limit from being caught in between two monsters, someone suddenly intervened.

“Wind, bless my sword!”

Shwiiik!

A fierce wind flew toward Rick’s face. Rick hurriedly pulled away from the mana threads; both of her hands would have been cut off if she had retreated a second later.

Lenox stood between the two and said, “I had to intervene after watching from the sidelines. Please forgive me, Sir Helkin.”

“No, that is alright. We should not look down on them. In fact, you can all join in now,” Helkin said.

The first, second, and third knight orders quickly emerged from the forest upon hearing their captain’s words. The knights who had lost their swords to Sharp equipped their battle gauntlets and joined the battle.

Hundreds of Imperial Knights formed a circle and surrounded Henrick and Rick, creating an impenetrable barrier. The two were completely trapped by the Imperial Knights!

Lenox pointed his sword at Henrick and said, “It’s been a long time since I last saw you, Henrick.”

“It’s unlike you to greet someone with your sword, Lenox,” Henrick replied.

“It’s a royal order,” Lenox lamented.

Henrick was unfazed even though he was surrounded. In fact, he asked with a smirk, “Hey, are you guys still not tired of living like dogs? Why don’t you enlighten me? What did my companions and I do that’s so deserving of death?”

None of the knights could respond to his question, and even Helkin seemed to grimace in response.

The smile on Henrick’s face disappeared as he shouted, “I swear that we haven’t done anything deserving of death! All we did was travel with a young, beautiful girl who happens to look like the empress! We’re not the criminals here. You are! You hunting dogs didn’t even question the orders given to you and set out to kill innocent people!”

A hint of hesitation flashed across Lenox’s face.

However, Seyra retorted coldly, “Shut up, Henrick. You’re a target to be neutralized regardless of our past ties, as long as the royal order has been given.”

“Your fiery temper hasn’t changed at all. Let’s have a drink later, Seyra,” Henrick said with a grin.

“Fire, bless my sword,” Seyra muttered, steeling her resolve. Her sword was instantly engulfed in flames.

Rick tugged on Henrick’s sleeve and asked, “Henrick, can I kill those knights?”

“Who knows? I don’t think you’ll have to stain your hands with their blood, though,” Henrick replied.

Seyra readied her flaming sword as she asked, “What do you mean by that?”

Henrick flashed her a chilling smile and replied, “You see… One of our companions controls fire much hotter than that.”

As soon as Henrick finished speaking, blistering heat erupted from the knights’ surroundings. They looked around and saw a wave of molten lava heading their way from the forest.

***

“It seems Shaneth has started,” Iris said as she focused her hearing and looked into the fog.

Kang Yoon-Soo quietly nodded.

The natural enemy of a god, the god-killing sword God Breaker, was a powerful weapon. Not only did it have the ability to seal godly powers, it was also able to kill a god with one clean cut. However, even such a powerful blade had a weakness.

‘The?God Breaker can only cut a god,’?Kang Yoon-Soo thought, recalling what he had clearly witnessed during the fight against Helkin.

Kang Yoon-Soo was certain that he had clearly seen his Immortal Sword and Shaneth’s sickle pass through the God Breaker, and it also seemed that Helkin was reluctant to use the sword against anyone else except for him.

‘That sword is the natural enemy of a god… but it can’t cut anything else aside from a god… I’m certain of it,’ he thought. Thus, he decided his strategy going forward would be very simple. ‘I’ll just leave the God Breaker to my companions.’

He had done everything alone in his multiple regressions, but he decided to believe in his comrades this time. No, rather, he had to believe in them this time; that was the main reason why he had let Sharp absorb a legendary sword without any hesitation.

After deciding to let his companions take care of the God Breaker, he went to a secluded place with Iris. He had chosen to go with that plan because he was certain that it would work.

‘He’ll definitely show up.’?

.

Rumier’s objective was to capture Iris alive. Kang Yoon-Soo was certain that he was pressed for time, judging by the fact that he had set up a barrier over the entire mountain. Undoubtedly, so many measures had been put in place for the sole purpose of capturing Iris.

Kang Yoon-Soo waited patiently. A cold breeze began glowing, and the fog grew thicker.

Iris looked up into the dark gray sky and muttered, “It seems as if it will be snowing soon.”

Quite a while passed before two shadows started to walk toward them from within the fog. The shadows soon emerged, revealing a gloomy-looking alchemist and a six-winged demon. The royal alchemist had come to them with the demon, Berbal, in tow.

Kang Yoon-Soo looked at the royal alchemist and muttered, “Rumier.”

“It has been a while, Kang Yoon-Soo,” Rumier said, greeting the regressor with the utmost respect.