“W-What is this...?”

At the palace, which was being surrounded by supporters...

Royman and the knights got goosebumps as they ran toward the part of the palace Grid used as a smithy. It was because a huge sword that was at least five times larger than the tallest spire of the palace appeared in their vision. It had an overwhelming momentum like it would pierce the world.

It was an unreal sight. How could there be such a huge sword? It appeared without any warning.

“...Hurry!” For the senior knights of the Overgeared Kingdom, the mental world of a transcendent was an incomprehensible field. They stopped moving as they approached the unknown. Royman, who was temporarily out of her mind, woke up and gave orders to the knights. She realized that she had lost her lead to the assassins.

The assassins of the Overgeared Shadows were thoroughly educated by Faker and Kasim and hadn’t lost their composure in the world dominated by the nightmarish scene. Their feet were extremely fast. Just then—

“Ah...”

The distance between the knights and assassins was narrowed. This was due to the obvious reduction in the speed of the assassins. The knights finally reached them and became as stiff as stone statues. There were thousands of swords floating around the giant sword. The dizzying momentum of their repeated rise and fall was very fast and fierce.

“What... what type of monster...?”

Did the martial god come? A sinister imagination tormented the group. They were worried about King Grid’s safety. Their faces were pale and they struggled to move the legs that seemed to have stepped into a swamp. They gritted their teeth and started running again.

The moment they got closer to Grid’s smithy, the area pierced by the giant sword, the more extreme their tension became. However, their nerves were scattered. It was difficult to concentrate. The thousands of swords in flight—the closer they got to the shapes captured in their vision, the more blurry these shapes became. The flying speed was at the speed of sound and it exceeded their perception. The fact that they could be stabbed to death without even noticing spread fear. Their footsteps gradually slowed.

The screams of the God Hands echoed. They could be seen repeatedly colliding with the flying swords and stopping. The God Hands were relatively too slow. They accelerated every time they used the sword dance, but it wasn’t enough. The wave of Magic Missiles they fired didn’t do much good. The symbol of the Overgeared King was disastrously broken. They were too shabby.

“Keuk!” It wasn’t the time to hesitate. Royman held her sword and shield and rushed forward. She broke through the shroud of light created by the flying swords with a whining noise that was like a swarm of bees. Her armor was torn apart and blood splashed out. It was an act of not caring about her life. She was moving only with the idea that she should help Grid.

“Your... Majesty?”

A multi-purpose site right next to the smithy. It wasn’t that spacious and various stones and ores were piled up. It was on the level of a small training ground. It was too shabby to call it a king’s space, but Grid and the unknown swordsman were utilizing it like it was a wilderness. They freely exchanged blows between the sky and earth as if they were laughing at the concept of space. They were entangled together right next to the smithy before disappearing. Then they suddenly appeared in the middle of the open space and tangled together again.

At this time, there were traces of the sword lights next to the smithy and the sound of dozens of collisions echoed. Then the two people disappeared again and new sword lights were engraved in the center of the open space.

“......”

Royman couldn’t shut her mouth. Only two people were deaf to the explosive sounds spreading through the sky and the earth. She had a hunch. Right now, she was watching an unprecedented confrontation that wasn’t in the legends. It wasn’t the time for her to dare interfere.

“Gasp...” The reaction of the group who arrived one step later was exactly the same as Royman’s. They held their breath, covered in wounds from advancing through the flying swords, God Hands, and vampires. They came here to use their lives to help Grid, but they stood still like a wooden statue.

The God Hands which failed to use their strength turned into black giants. There were 30 magic machines. They weren’t large, but they filled up more than half the air space. They broke through the flying swords and pressed at the unknown swordsman.

The battlefield was further narrowed, but the swordsman moved like there were no restrictions. He avoided the bombardment and jumped so high that the moon was behind him. Blood magic grabbed at his ankle and Tiramet was clinging to his waist, but they couldn’t stop him.

Flinch.

No one could read the shaky eyes of the swordsman in the shade of the moonlight. Sword Saint Biban—as he was concentrating on the confrontation, he belatedly noticed the uninvited guests. Thus, the operation of ‘recognize objects’ of Heart Sword was modified. It wasn’t easy to alter the already expressed mental world, but he had to do so.

The reason why the tower members vowed to protect the world from the monsters called dragons was to protect their descendants. The tower members would never harm humans unless it was a fatal reason. This was even if they knew they would regret it. They weren’t the type of people who would be devoured by their convictions and sacrifice people as cattle for their beliefs. They were more sublime.

Red blood flowed from Biban’s mouth. His mental world was shaken in the aftermath of suppressing the Heart Sword and he suffered. Thus, he couldn’t respond properly. He had no choice but to watch as Grid danced while coming through the cut apart magic machines. Nevertheless, he didn’t regret it. It was a beautiful dance that made people smile. ‘It is wonderful.’

How young are you to surpass me? So far, no pioneer has ever been able to achieve the tower’s aspirations, but you...

“......?!”

It happened the moment that the Linked Kill Wave part of Linked Kill Wave Pinnacle was deployed...

Biban was lost in thought as he watched Grid happily, only for his expression to stiffen. It was because Grid took out a new sword during the sword dance and combined it with the existing sword.

‘Moon night iron!’

The terrible destructive energy sent chills down his spine. Grid’s subtle threat about cutting off his arm crossed his mind. The words and deeds that he felt were impolite became sincere worry and kindness.

‘This damn...’ Biban measured the power of the Falling Moon Sword and quickly built up a barrier. It was because he recognized that the power of 100,000 Army Massacre Sword, which was combined with the movements of the sword dance, transcended the original one used by the Undefeated King.

However, Biban wasn’t wary of the Undefeated King’s Swordsmanship, but the Falling Moon Sword itself. The Undefeated King’s Swordsmanship? He could crush it with stronger swordsmanship. Even the One Million Army Swordsmanship could be offset by the Heart Sword. His mental world would be shaken by the use of great willpower, but he would be able to deal with it somehow.

The moon night iron was different. Biban had seen many scenes of Radwolf’s magic machines breaking through the dragon’s absolute defense with the outer armor of moon night iron. In particular, this Falling Moon Sword was much sharper and firmer than the outer armor of the magic machines. It was somewhat reminiscent of the Dragon Killing Sword of the 1st Seat, Hayate.

In front of items, the mind barrier was broken. Unstoppable waves of power and sword lights forced Biban to act. Biban faced the sword light close up and took a step back. He rotated his upper body and moved his left shoulder back. Then he stretched forward the sword in his right hand. He reduced the area of his body that the Falling Moon Sword could touch as much as possible. In this case, it was induced to be limited to the ‘sword.’

The time it took to reach him was so short that it couldn’t even be split into 0.1 seconds. The sword filled with the willpower of the Sword Saint broke to pieces and scattered. Then his wrist was cut. The body of the Sword Saint that had been honed for countless years—the strong body of a transcendent that had endured a dragon’s Breath was severed in vain.

“Kuoock...!”

The world recovered its original landscape along with the scattered images. Grid’s divine color was spread out in the night sky embroidered with countless stars. The sword light that extended to the end of their field of view was reminiscent of the sun on the horizon.

Biban fell to the ground and looked at his cut wrist. He avoided one arm, but he had now lost one hand.

...It was fine. He was the Sword Saint who went beyond an excellent blade. He could use swordsmanship even without a sword. It wasn’t a big deal to lose one hand. No, there was no reason to live without a hand... big cities had a Rebecca Temple, so he could get it healed if he visited it soon.

Grid had mentioned it—he shouldn’t worry if a body part was cut off because it would somehow be restored. Biban just hadn’t expected it to become a reality. Biban wrapped a cloth around his cut wrist and smiled at Grid who descended to the ground. Grid’s appearance wasn’t unscathed either. His entire body was a wreck and he was trembling finely.

Biban told him, “I lost. I didn’t know you would grow to this point when I didn’t see you. I truly respect you.”

“Show me the wound.” Grid’s face was pale. It was true that he wanted to win by any means. He looked into Biban’s eyes and prepared Shunpo until the moment the barrier broke. It was to chase without missing anything. Yet when he saw Biban’s cut wrist, his heart sank. He wanted the reward, but the body of his benefactor was damaged. He felt uncomfortable. Biban’s favor throughout the duel made Grid’s heart ache even more. He wondered if this was the mood when his teacher was hurt.

Biban spoke to him while pulling out a bandage, “I’ve stopped bleeding. Look. There is no blood.”

The body of a transcendent didn’t fit common sense. Biban tightened his muscles and changed the flow of blood to prevent the bleeding. Biban was on the verge of controlling even all the veins in his body. Nevertheless, Grid beat him. It would’ve been much more difficult if it was a purely one-on-one confrontation, but Grid had the power of items. From his position, it was right to fight using all means. The Falling Moon Sword was along the same lines.

‘When will Sehee come?’ She couldn’t receive whispers in hell, so he asked Lauel to contact her in reality. However, it seemed a bit delayed seeing that there was still no news...

Biban patted Grid on the shoulder. “Don't worry. First, guide me to the Rebecca Temple.”

“It’s not there...”

“Uh? What isn’t there?”

“The Rebecca Temple. It was originally there, but not anymore.”

“...What? There isn’t a Rebecca Temple in this city?”

“I dismantled all of them...”

“T-This is crazy! Why are you only saying this now?” Biban was defeated in the duel and had one hand cut off. Even so, he never lost his kind smile and composure. Now he stared at Grid with wide eyes. He was about to grab Grid’s collar and shake him. “Why are you only saying now that there is no Rebecca Temple?!”

“I’m sorry...”

“Did you deceive me? How can you promise to restore my limb if there isn’t even a Rebecca Temple?”

“......”

It was different if there was no hope in the first place, but it was hard for anyone to not feel despair or anger when they were deprived of the hope they had gained.

Grid noticed that Biban was genuinely upset. He was half out of his mind and didn’t care that there were a lot of people present right now.

‘Try to maintain your composure.’

Still, who could stay calm if their hand was cut off?

“Tower... if I go back to the tower, there might be a way... Oof!”

Grid hurriedly blocked Biban’s mouth as he muttered these words. Biban actually mentioned the tower in front of so many people.

‘This X.’

Maybe he wouldn’t be able to see Biban again...

It happened as the worried Grid grabbed the struggling Biban with the God Hands...

“Oppa!”

The savior appeared. It was Saintess Ruby whom he had been waiting for. It was a bit late, but it was enough. It was such timing that if Biban’s waist had been cut instead of his wrist, it might not have been able to be reattached.

‘Of course, that wouldn’t happen.’

Biban having his waist cut? It was something that was impossible. Grid couldn’t have cut it even if he wanted to. Biban’s reaction speed was very fast.

“H-Handle it with care.”

“......”

Grid, who lost 10 years of his life, watched as Biban became a gentle sheep in front of Ruby. They were surrounded by a large crowd of people who had heard the commotion. Hundreds of eyes were focused on Biban. There were also murmurs about what the tower was. The names of the magic towers that existed on the continent were mentioned at least once.

Biban’s complexion became ashy as he belatedly realized the situation.