Chapter 112: G.o.d-Slaying Blade
Zod was born into a family of swordsmen, with the fates of all the generation of his family deeply intertwined with swordsmanship, so it wasn’t a surprise to anyone when he started to become obsessed with the art ever since he was a child.
He was an unparalleled genius in swordsmanship, learning all the skills that his father who was the royal swordsmanship advisor had to teach at the young age of twelve and even surpa.s.sing him. Once he realized that he couldn’t improve himself anymore, he set out on a journey to learn more swordsmanship styles.
By the time he was fifteen years old, Zod had already obtained a grasp of over a thousand types of swordsmanship styles, and other than the legendary swordsman that had a ‘miracle’, it was difficult to find anyone that could beat him in swordsmanship.
After that, Zod suffered a tragic defeat at the hands of a magician, which made him realize that the number of styles he had a grasp over was no use if he couldn’t apply them properly in battle.
And so, he started to hone his skills through combat, and started to combine and refine his many swordsmanship styles in his battles, his techniques slowly becoming more and more simple.
By the time he was eighteen years old, he finally managed to converge and combine all of his skills into a mere five techniques—The Human-Slaying Blade, Sorcery-Slaying Blade, Object-Slaying Blade, Beast-Slaying Blade and the Apparition-Slaying Blade.
Everything in the world could be cut under these five blades!
He had thought that he still had a long life ahead of him, and had wanted to continue exploring the art of the sword in order to obtain his own ‘miracle’.
By the time he became nineteen years old, however, his chest started to hurt for no reason, and he started to cough up blood endlessly.
Along with these symptoms, his body started to become weaker by the day.
As a swordsman that had been travelling the continent for many years, he naturally had his own friends and ways to get help.
After he got the help of an experienced life priest to diagnose his situation, he was told that he had the incurable Heaven-Cursed Body.
This sort of const.i.tution was resistant to all sorts of healing sacred arts, and those that had this only had a maximum lifespan of twenty years.
This terrible news proved to be too much for this genius swordsman, and Zod locked himself in his home in despair, completely giving up on life and on furthering his skills any further.
He still had so many plans he hadn’t even put into action yet, and hadn’t even reached the level of legendary yet, and his life was just about to get exciting…
After that, he found a demonic sword that was sealed by his ancestors in the underground cellar of his family mansion, and the being that was attached to it told him that if he became a demon, he would be able to lengthen his lifespan, and if he could kill a deity and steal their divinity for his own, he would be able to completely cure the Heaven-Cursed Body!
And so, Zod stepped onto a path of no return after he plucked out the sword.
“You were definitely bewitched by the Demonic Roe! Even if you kill a deity, you won’t be able to cure your Heaven-Cursed Body. None of what it says can be trusted!”
After he dodged the attack from Zod, Aslan tried to convince him in a serious tone. “Other than the Trinity of Creation, no other deity can save you. This isn’t a sickness, but a const.i.tution that you were born with that is even harder to fix…”
“That doesn’t matter, I have never believed in its words since the beginning, all I needed was time!”
Zod pulled up his collar to cover his face again. “This thing continued to ramble on in my head, so I killed him and completed my sixth sword skill, the Demon-Slaying Blade…Now, I only have one final skill to perfect, and all the time I need is for this blade…”
He aimed his blade at Aslan again, and shouted, “G.o.d-Slaying Blade!”
“That’s no use, a mere mortal’s sword skill can’t….”
Before Aslan finished his sentence, a crimson flash shone, and the lion G.o.d’s body started to disappear, greatly surprising him. “What the…”
The next moment, Aslan’s body disappeared completely, leaving the silver lion sculpture clunking uselessly onto the floor, losing its l.u.s.ter.
“It worked! I finally…”
“No, you haven’t”
“Who is it!” Zod immediately reaction and slashed in the direction of the voice, but his blade was intercepted with a single hand.
“Unfortunately, that G.o.d-Slaying Blade of yours isn’t complete.” Xi Wei who had turned into a human form said as he held the blade in his hand. “Here’s a message from that lion, but what he did just now was just a way to descend to the mortal realm that was a mix of oracle and astral projection in order to prevent his divinity from being damaged too much. In short, what your blade cut was just the carrier he used to come down to the mortal realm and just caused him to be sent back by the natural laws of the world barrier. If anything, you only caused Aslan to not be able to come back down here for a short while.”
“Drat, are you a deity too?!”
Zod immediately retracted his blade, pulling away the distance from Xi Wei.
“You’re strong, and I commend you for it, but you will not be able to damage us without the power of miracles. This is the iron rule of this world, and unfortunately for you, you did not create a miracle.”
Xi Wei spread his arms and continued, “Using the words of that lion, it would probably be, “I recognize you as the strongest existence under a legendary warrior!”…Or something like that, anyway.”
“It’s fine, don’t I have another target right here? The night is long, so let me have some fun!”
Zod was not respectful in the slightest towards Xi Wei, and instead seemed to become even more excited.
Xi Wei only snapped his finger in response, and an invisible pulse of energy sent Zod flying into the wall, making him cough out blood upon impact.
As the hideout of the Temple of Justice, all of the walls of the tavern had been fortified beforehand, and couldn’t be damaged easily.
Zod stood up shakily, and his expression was void of any pain, but instead, the maniacal glint in his eyes became even brighter.
But as he stepped towards Xi Wei, his features became even more twisted.
“Ahhh!” Zod ripped off his trench coat and revealed his shirt that was drenched with blood, and even through the layer of cloth, the runes that were glowing bright crimson were still clearly visible, with their core being his heart.
It was clear that those crimson runes were strengthening his body, and converting him into a being that wasn’t human anymore.
Zod immediately raised his sword and used its hilt to hit his chest right over his heart with all his strength, and judging from the resounding thud, the heart of a regular person would probably burst from the impact.
“Don’t b.u.t.t in! I want to challenge these d.a.m.ned deities as a human! Aaarghhh!”
Even Xi Wei was taken off guard by these actions of Zod’s.
As the swordsman growled and shouted, the crimson runes on his body disappeared too.
Once this happened, however, Zod paled considerably as if he was weakened from what he did.
“Look, this is my final…” As if he used all of his strength, Zod gripped tightly on his sword and pointed it towards Xi Wei.
At this moment, Xi Wei knew that he could definitely kill Zod without sustaining any injuries, but upon seeing his current state, he sighed softly and fixed him with a serious gaze. “Come!”
“G.o.d-Slaying Blade!”
The figure of the human and the deity crossed over each other, and the two figures stood with their backs to each other.
A moment later, Zod’s body slumped weakly onto the floor.
“I still lost in the end… Can humans… Truly not come close to deities…?”
“No, you created a miracle in the end.” Xi Wei turned over to him and stretched his arm in Zod’s direction.
On his index finger was a wound so small it could be compared to a paper cut. “Congratulations, you are the first human that hurt a deity without stepping into the legendary stage.”
“What an honor, that is… What deity are you… Did you come to kill me for… Justice, too?”
“I am the G.o.d of Games. Also, I’m really not all that interested in all this riffraff about demons, and the only reason why I killed you was because you killed one of my believers in front of the lion… See, the guy right over there.” Xi Wei pointed at the player’s corpse that had started to disappear once the revival timer ran out.
“Hah…What an interesting deity…” Zod said slowly. “Ahh…I can’t see…Anything….Ahh…I want to swing my blade….One more time….”
“…” Xi Wei sighed softly, and reached down to tap at Zod’s forehead gently. “I can’t fulfil this wish of yours, but I can help to pa.s.s down your legacy…”
Zod didn’t reply, only dying in silence.