Chapter 693: Above the Ugliest Sin
"Moon Breathing·First Form·Dark Moon·Night Palace!"
The speed of the iaido slash was so swift that one could not even see the blade as it materialized in the sky, leaving a trajectory filled with fluctuating flames that instantly heightened the temperature on the black blade, making the constant high heat it radiated even more intense than usual.
Over the cursed atmosphere of Norwich, Reiger silently unleashed such a slash, turning the black blade into a beam of moonlight that cut towards the abruptly constricting pupils of Woodworth.
"Clang!"
In a moment of urgency, Woodworth could only lift his arms to protect his head, allowing the black blade aimed at his neck to strike his forearms, erupting with the intense sound of metal clashing against metal.
"Boom!"
Immediately afterward, Woodworth, without any hesitation, gathered Magic Power in his hands, summoning a thunderous pulse that turned into a sharp Thunder Strike, ruthlessly blasting towards Reiger.
A flash of transparent gleam in Reiger’s eyes, and a burst of flame flickered over him - in an instant, his speed surged, dodging the head-on Thunder Strike at an almost impossible angle and reaction speed at the very last second.
The Thunder Strike hit an adjacent building instead, exploding upon impact and reducing the building to a pile of rubble.
"Moon Breathing·Second Form·Moon Playing!"
In that moment, Reiger, following the momentum of his dodge, spun around and slashed towards Woodworth, sending out two blade winds infused with flames.
"Bang!" "Bang!"
The blade winds, irresistible in their power, struck Woodworth and sent the unprepared man flying.
"Moon Breathing·Third Form·Detestable Moon·Erosion!"
"Moon Breathing·Sixth Style·Long Night Solitary Moon·Abyss!"
Relentless, Reiger continued with two more sword techniques, unleashing a flurry of new moon-shaped blade winds and countless intersecting currents, instantly catching up to Woodworth.
"Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!"...
Blade winds bombarded Woodworth incessantly, sending him flying as if struck by Thunder Strike, explosions erupting in front of him as he flew backward, his form hastening, rubbing against the atmosphere to create sonic booms, colliding with building after building, shattering each into debris and sending them tumbling down in quakes.
"Roarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!"
Enduring Reiger’s thunderous attacks in quick succession and almost unable to counter, Woodworth’s roars sent countless fragments of stone and tile flying.
"Damned Child of Prophecy!"
Woodworth finally stabilized his form and burst from the ruins of a shattered building, his feet plowing through the ground like a whirlwind, furiously charging at Reiger, heading straight for a collision.
Alas, his assault was already seen through by Reiger’s transparent world.
"Moon Breathing·Five Forms·Moon Essence Disaster Vortex!"
Continuing to rotate, Reiger traced a circle with his black blade around him, instantly conjuring a massive Vortex-shaped blade wind that enveloped him.
"Bang!"
Woodworth, charging at Reiger, hit the swirling blade wind around Reiger’s body without losing momentum and was repelled by the wind.
"Useless." Reiger’s voice rose with unnatural calmness, "You can’t even get close to me."
As he spoke, Reiger raised his black blade high and once again brought it down towards Woodworth with force.
"Moon Breathing·Ten Forms·Face Piercing Slash·Luo Yue!"
Three circular moon-shaped Sword Qi discs swiftly spun forward, obliterating everything in their path and splitting the ground as if it were slashed into several pieces.
Such slashing, such power, was almost unimaginable as the handiwork of a small black blade.
But that was the greatest characteristic of Moon Breathing - quick attacks, wide range.
Essentially, besides the initial few techniques, among the sixteen forms of Moon Breathing, surely more than ten have an attack range that could match the AOE spells of range-type magic attacks, giving Kokushibou, who barely stepped into Lv.5, the ability to easily cause large-scale destruction.
Thus, when needing to clear a path or an area, Reiger would choose Moon Breathing—now, in his fight against Woodworth, he was similarly employing Moon Breathing, augmented by Sun Breathing, achieving an attacking speed and range far exceeding what he could do with Sun Breathing alone.
The result was that, despite Woodworth’s impressive display, he was constantly being suppressed by Reiger’s relentless assault.
This isn’t to say that Moon Breathing is stronger than Sun Breathing, but rather that against an opponent like Woodworth, Moon Breathing has its advantages.
The strength of Woodworth lay in the protection of a great fairy, nearly impervious to all attacks. While his power was indeed formidable, his defense and speed far outmatched his strength, making him a tough steel plate to bite into.
Faced with such a steel plate, one could only use superior speed for ceaseless attacks and a wider attack coverage area to suppress the opponent.
Therefore, instead of switching to the stronger Sun Breathing, Reiger continued to use the hybrid technique combining Sun and Moon Breathing to unilaterally dominate Woodworth.
Reiger’s choice proved correct.
Confronted with the extremely fast and wide-ranging slashes of Moon Breathing, Woodworth was almost powerless to respond.
But—
"Don’t! Underestimate! Me!"
Just as the giant moon-shaped Sword Qi was about to engulf him, Woodworth let out a rage-filled roar.
The roar was so intense that the engulfing Sword Qi was all blown away and quickly dispersed into nothing.
"Tch."
Seeing this, Reiger curled his lips in disdain.
"Still as tough as before, like a turtle shell, completely impenetrable, huh?"
This was the most troublesome aspect for Reiger.
Last time they clashed, Reiger had actually managed to suppress Woodworth a bit, his Sun Breathing sword techniques hacking at Woodworth so fiercely he cried out, but still, he hadn’t been able to take him down.
This time around, Reiger had undoubtedly become stronger than before and had additionally mastered the hybrid Breathing Method and the explosive speed techniques of Sun Breathing, putting even more pressure on Woodworth, yet he still couldn’t break through his defenses and wound him personally.
As a descendant of the ancient race, who could suppress even the great calamity from a thousand years ago, and had succeeded in subjugating the previous king of the Tusk Clan which even his predecessors failed to conquer, it was no wonder Woodworth’s fairy blessing was incredibly strong, that aged Hero of Britain.
Gawain had likewise undergone a regression after breaking off her own horn, becoming one of the ancient race, and yet she didn’t possess this troublesome blessing, which just goes to show how rare such a thing was even among their kind.
In such a situation, even if Reiger could suppress Woodworth, he had no way of actually dealing with him.
"Who do you think I am?"
"I’m the Hero most trusted by His Majesty, the strongest warrior defending Britain!"
"As long as I’m here, you can forget about overthrowing the Queen, overthrowing the rule of Britain!"
"I am the sharpest sword protecting Britain!"
Woodworth’s eyes were blood-red as he stepped out of the deep pit shattered by Sword Qi and roared at Reiger relentlessly.
"Is that so?"
Reiger looked at this version of Woodworth, his eyes exceptionally icy.
"To me, you’re nothing but a fool blinded by former glory."
"The Fairy Country of Britain is destined to face change, regardless of the Queen or the prophecy’s child."
"From the moment this island emerged, all fairies and everything on it were built upon the ugliest of sins."
"No matter how much Morgan and you, dog, try to protect it, it is doomed to be cleansed, to be rectified."
Reiger’s words made Woodworth’s chest heave violently.
He couldn’t understand the meaning behind those words, nor did he care about the earth-shattering secrets they might reveal.
He just knew that the person before him was an enemy, a villain who would threaten the Queen, threaten Britain.
So, no matter what Reiger wanted to do or say, his course of action would not change.
"You do not belong in Britain, you do not belong here!"
"The Majesty is too naive to think of making someone like you a prince consort, her husband, it’s sheer folly!"
"Only I... I’m the one fit to be the king of Britain...!"
"I will not let you live... cannot allow you to keep living...!"
"If Her Majesty is reluctant to issue a kill order, then let me do it!"
The heat emanating from Woodworth’s body became excessively terrifying, remarkably intense.
"I will definitely kill you!"
Woodworth channeled all his Magic Power into a storm of heated air, lifting the ground as he charged towards Reiger.
"Moon Breathing·Fourteenth Form·Fierce Transformation·Heavenly Faint Moon!"
With a fierce swing of his black blade, Reiger unleashed countless enormous crescent moon-shaped blade winds, forming another storm with the mighty momentum to flatten everything before him, shredding a vast area around him, including Woodworth.
"Boom!"
However, Woodworth managed to disperse the blade wind storm with the hot air storm he was engulfed in, breaking through the storm with a storm, and with bloodshot eyes, he crashed into Reiger.
"......!"
Reiger’s expression changed subtly, and he immediately thought of activating transport magic to teleport away.
"Don’t think about running!"
But Woodworth seemed to predict Reiger’s next move and suddenly stomped on the ground, shattering it entirely.
"Roar!"
Amidst the roaring, the ground seemed to explode, spewing out large amounts of mud and sand, shooting skywards.
Caught off guard by the surge of mud and sand, Reiger’s teleportation spell was interrupted, and he was blasted away.
"Roar!"
Woodworth broke through the torrent of mud and collided heavily with Reiger under his shocked gaze.
"Bang—Bang—Bang—Bang—Bang—"
In an instant, the storm of hot air, alongside a Swordsman with a sword, smashed through countless buildings, sweeping up numerous Mors in its wake, turning them to ash in a moment.
Norwich seemed to experience an earthquake, shaking for a long time without stopping.