'My wrist is tingling.'
Raon twisted his lips as he swung the Heavenly Drive sword that had struck the red wolf.
'The recoil is no joke.'
Though the red wolf wasn't skilled in combat, its sheer energy rivaled Raon's own as an upper-level Transcendent.
'And it recovers quickly too.'
Despite taking a hit from Revolving Sky to its front paw, the beast shook it off lightly and stood up. It seemed to have taken no damage at all.
"Grrrrrr!"
The red wolf bared its incongruously white teeth, exuding an even deeper killing intent and bloody energy.
"You need a sharper leash, don't you?"
Raon drew out the Heavenly Drive and Blade of Requiem swords, plunging them into the red-burning sea. Sword Domain. Divine-Demonic Harmony. Half the sea erupted in golden flames, while the other half froze solid white. Under the sun and moon rising brilliantly to erase the darkness, Raon raised his divine and demonic swords.
"These two swords will be your leash."
He jerked his chin at the red wolf, beckoning it to attack. With a roar, the red wolf slashed down diagonally with its claws wreathed in crimson energy. The speed and power in its claws had more than doubled from before.
"Meaningless."
Raon smiled coldly as he drew a golden line connecting sea and sky with the divine sword's flames. Ten Thousand Flames Cultivation - Crimson Slash. The simple yet powerful and swift sword strike clashed with the red wolf's claws. With a thunderous crash, the red wolf was sent flying backwards, its claws bent as if about to break.
"Kwahhhhh...."
The beast exhaled white steam, seemingly in great pain.
"You're not getting scared already, are you?"
Raon curled his lips as he looked at the red wolf glaring at him. With a splash, the red wolf dove into the sea instead of charging at him. Despite its mountain-like bulk submerging, the sea didn't ripple at all. It felt as if the beast itself had transformed into water.
'Its presence has completely vanished.'
Even with the Perception of the Snow Flower at full power, the overwhelming bloody energy and scent of blood throughout the sea made it impossible to locate the red wolf.
'Where...'
As he held his breath and tried to focus on external presences, he felt a chilling breath behind him. The moment he turned around, the red wolf's claws were falling towards his head.
'How can its movements be so natural?'
Seeing it disappear and reappear without a sound or trace, the Nine Apostles' claim that this wolf was a sea spirit seemed to be true.
"Suppressing your presence is impressive, but..."
Raon slashed upwards with his divine and demonic swords, scraping the crimson sea. With a roar, red and blue waves rose as the divine and demonic swords spread symmetrically. Ten Thousand Flames Cultivation - Flame and Ice Unification. The sword technique of the Ten Thousand Flames Cultivation that simultaneously attacked and defended blocked the red wolf's path.
The red wolf was pushed back by the waves of flame and frost from Flame and Ice Unification, sinking into the sea against its will. The crimson sea seemed to churn more darkly, as if it had sustained deep wounds.
With a splash, the red wolf burst out of the sea and leapt into the air. With its massive body blocking out the sun and moon of the Divine-Demonic Harmony, it opened its blood-dripping maw.
Bloody energy surged from the red wolf's pitch-black throat, raining down as crimson lightning. It was a massive shockwave that seemed capable of erasing not just Raon, but this entire sea.
'It's even using a breath attack?'
The beast seemed intent on erasing Raon's very existence by breathing out bloody energy like a dragon's breath.
"I'll take it."
Raon thrust his divine and demonic swords forward to meet the storm of bloody energy the red wolf had unleashed. He instantly exploded the vast aura condensed in the red and blue sword energy. Flame Dragon Strike - Twin. Two dragons of flame and frost erased the breath of bloody energy in an instant, then fiercely struck the red wolf's body. With a thunderous crash!
The red wolf was violently sent flying, its flesh torn, and fell into the sea, unable to regain its senses. With a hiss, Raon lowered his steaming divine and demonic swords and observed the red wolf submerged in the sea.
'Its wounds are healing.'
Not just its previously injured front paw, but even the wounds on its chest and neck where flesh had been torn off by the Flame Dragon Strike were naturally healing.
'This goes beyond regenerative abilities.'
While the apostles possessed troll-like regeneration, this wolf's healing seemed to erase wounds perfectly and rapidly, as if turning back time itself.
-That mutt...
Wrath frowned as he looked at the red wolf, which had returned unscathed and was once again exuding killing intent.
-Though it's become a monster, it seems to have retained the characteristics of a spirit.
He clicked his tongue, saying it appeared to have the ability to restore its spiritual body like a spirit, rather than strictly regenerating.
-As long as the bloody energy in this sea doesn't disappear, it will keep reviving no matter how many times you kill it.
Wrath wrinkled his nose, saying it didn't seem like it would be easy to deal with.
'Actually...'
Raon shook his head as he looked at the red wolf emanating an even deeper killing intent.
'I had no intention of killing it.'
-You didn't intend to kill it?
Wrath asked calmly, seemingly already aware of his intent.
'That's right. This spirit was just being used by the White Blood Religion.'
The Ninth Apostles had said this wolf was originally a spirit that protected the sea.
Though he didn't know how they had captured it, they had used it as they pleased, so Raon wanted to remove the bloody energy and return it to its original form.
-A choice befitting you.
Wrath smiled faintly, expecting as much.
-Do as you wish.
'Well, I still want to save it, but it doesn't look like it'll be easy.'
Raon clicked his tongue briefly as he raised his divine and demonic swords.
'At least it's fortunate that this beast isn't skilled in combat.'
Because it was a sea spirit, the wolf wasn't accustomed to battle or handling bloody energy. It would take some time, but Raon was confident he could eventually subdue it.
"Now then..."
Just as Raon lowered his stance, wary of the red wolf's impending attack, the red wolf slowly lowered its gaze while standing up. The beast scattered a chilling bloody energy as it stared at its own reflection in the water's surface.
'What is it doing?'
The red wolf seemed to have forgotten Raon was even there, blankly staring down at the water's surface.
'I have a bad feeling about this. I should attack first...'
Just as Raon bit his lip thinly and tried to approach the red wolf, a strange phenomenon occurred. The red wolf's reflection in the water began moving differently from the actual wolf above.
"Huh?"
As Raon's eyes widened in surprise, another red wolf burst out of the sea.
"What is this..."
In the moment Raon exhaled and raised his swords, two wolves became four, and by the time he swung down at the sea reflecting the beasts, four had become eight that rose up. Raon frowned as he looked at the eight red wolves that had emerged above the violently churning water's surface.
'They've shrunk in size, but...'
Their bloody energy hasn't decreased much. Though the wolves that were once large enough to blot out the moon had shrunk to merely the size of houses, the energy they emanated wasn't much different from before. All eight wolves were exuding Transcendent-level energy.
'Is this even possible?'
-It's using the sea spirit's abilities to create doppelgangers.
Wrath lowered his eyebrows as he looked at the sea boiling like lava.
'Doppelgangers?'
Raon furrowed his brow as he looked at the growling wolves.
'They all seem real.'
-There's only one real body. Dealing with the doppelgangers is meaningless.
Wrath shook his head, saying that though they all looked the same, there was a separate main body.
'Where...'
Raon pushed the Perception of the Snow Flower to its limits and opened the Evil Eye of Wrath. But even with these two traits unleashed, he couldn't sense any difference between the wolves.
'I'll have to fight to find out.'
As he gripped his divine and demonic swords tighter and licked his lips, his eyes narrowed.
'Three are missing!'
Only five wolves remained before him, with three having vanished.
'Don't tell me...'
He turned at the small ripple behind him. Three red wolves leapt up simultaneously from different directions, baring their fangs as they charged at him.
Raon raised a Fire Wall with his divine sword and drew the Dance of the Golden Flame with his demonic sword to deflect the bloody energy unleashed by two of the wolves. But the wolf in the center avoided the Fire Wall and Dance of the Golden Flame, ramming its body into him.
'It's too late to block with my swords.'
The third wolf's movement was too fast, so Raon raised a wall of aura by unleashing the energy of the Ten Thousand Flames Cultivation. With a thunderous crash! Despite raising a thick wall of aura, the wolf's bloody energy was so strong that Raon's entire body shook. Though he hadn't sustained internal injuries, the impact made his arms and legs tremble, leaving his wrists difficult to move.
'A direct hit would be dangerous.'
He had thought he could withstand it since it was a body slam rather than a claw attack, but it was extremely dangerous. He would have to either dodge completely or block with his swords.
'However...'
There's no time for reflection. Not just the three wolves that had attacked first, but the remaining five wolves were now charging at him while spewing dense bloody energy.
Raon thrust the Thirty-Six Crimson Flash Techniques at the two wolves charging from the front to push them back, then struck down the two wolves diving in from the left with the blade of Frost Snap.
But one wolf still remained.
'I'll dodge this with footwork...'
He stepped through the fluid Supreme Harmony's Third Step to avoid the final wolf's bloody claw strike.
"Kyaoo!"
Just as he tried to catch his breath, the three wolves he had pushed back initially came charging again with bared fangs.
'No choice.'
Raon drew the Wooden Ring Sword sheathed at his right hip using Sword Control to block the fangs of the three charging wolves. With a screech! Sparks flew in the air as the cold energy blooming from the Wooden Ring Sword clashed with the wolves' bloody energy.
Raon had no time to even catch his ragged breath before swinging his divine and demonic swords again to deflect the wolves' claws.
"Grrrr."
The red wolves glared at him with crazed eyes as they healed their sword wounds with bloody energy. Their malice suggested they would not back down even in death.
"You've got a lot of tricks for mutts that can't even sit. But you'll end up bowing in the end."
Raon twisted his lips as he continuously struck down the increasingly fierce wolf charges.
***
Raon briefly inhaled after repelling the eight red wolves charging from all directions with the Azure Sky Sword and Celestial Thunder Arts techniques.
'I don't even have time to breathe now.'
How much time has passed?
Facing eight Transcendent-level monsters, each second felt like a minute, and each minute like ten. There was no leisure to even count the time.
With a screech! The red wolves restored their flesh torn by the Azure Sky Sword and Celestial Thunder Arts with bloody energy, then stood before him again, breathing out bloody energy. Raon gritted his teeth as he erased the wolves' bloody breath with the Heavy Sky Cannon.
'It's getting harder and harder to deal with them.'
Despite their berserk state, the wolves were analyzing his movements and swordsmanship, showing increasingly fast and sharp movements. They weren't mindless spirits, but learning monsters.
'I'm grasping their movements too, but...'
It's not easy with their numbers. The eight red wolves moved in perfect unison like gears meshing together, befitting a main body and its doppelgangers. Even reading their movements, it was extremely difficult to handle them. Raon bit his bleeding lips as he was pushed back by the wolves' combined assault.
'Have I even sustained internal injuries now?'
A nauseating pain arose in his core from continuously clashing in an unfavorable state. It wasn't serious yet, but he had clearly suffered some internal damage.
'How annoying.'
His chest felt tight at the beast's violent rampage despite his efforts to save it.
'Should I just erase them all?'
He was confident he could kill those wolves without a trace if he unleashed techniques starting with the Invincible Azure-Red Sword.
'Haa.'
Raon calmly shook his head, setting aside his rising emotions.
'Let's think of this as training too.'
Though it was a battle with beasts, if he could produce results in this fight, he would be able to grow a bit more. Raon opened the realm of his soul, signifying his resolve to accept everything, as he blocked four wolves charging from the left and right.
As he relaxed his mind and blocked the wolves, a scene he didn't recognize flashed through his mind.
'The leader of the White Blood Religion?'
It showed a woman who seemed to be the White Blood Religion's leader holding the leash of a small, young wolf while chanting an eerie spell.
'This isn't my memory.'
Raon swallowed dryly as he looked at the wolf baring its fangs with crazed eyes.
'It's this creature's memory.'
Perhaps because he had opened his soul, the wolf's memories were appearing involuntarily.
'So it really was captured unwillingly by the White Blood Religion leader.'
As the Ninth Apostles had said, this wolf seemed to have been forcibly captured by the White Blood Religion leader and made to consume bloody energy and blood against its will.
As he blocked a wolf charging head-on, another scene flashed before him.
This time, he saw the Ninth Apostles gathering other sea spirits before the wolf and threatening them. It seemed the White Blood Religion was using not just this wolf, but other spirits as well.
Afterwards, he saw scenes of the wolf forcibly consuming blood and bloody energy for the sake of other spirits and sea creatures.
'You've suffered.'
Raon bit his lip as he looked into the eyes of the wolf spewing streams of bloody energy and howling.
'Truly.'
This spirit had endured far more pain than he had imagined, and was still suffering terrible wounds even now.
-Those filthy blood demons!
Wrath clenched his fists, seemingly having seen the same things.
-This king will beat them all to death next time we meet!
He revealed his killing intent towards the White Blood Religion, genuinely angered by the spirit's past.
'Let's save this wolf first.'
Raon exhaled deeply as he observed the red wolves endlessly exploding with bloody energy.
'This isn't the time to think of it as my training.'
He had to save this creature first. He wanted to give this wolf the peace of freedom, not death, as quickly as possible.
'But the method...'
Just as he bit his lip and shook his head:
[The level of the trait has increased.]
[The level of the trait has increased.]
[The traits and are evolving in conjunction.]
[A new trait has been created.]
A cool sensation spread over his tired eyes, and among the eight wolves, he began to see one with a blue core in his perception and vision. But that wasn't all. He could also see the transparent bloody energy oppressing the main body's soul. It was clearly the bloody energy the White Blood Religion leader had initially implanted.
The red wolf let out a fierce roar, seemingly realizing its main body had been exposed through Raon's gaze. It exploded with killing intent and charged at him along with its doppelgangers.
Raon Zieghart's style. 6th Form Divine-Demonic Harmony Linked Technique: Invincible Azure-Red Sword.
He unleashed the Invincible Azure-Red Sword with his fading divine and demonic swords, repelling all eight charging wolves at once. The wolves didn't lose consciousness even after being hit by the Invincible Azure-Red Sword, immediately regenerating their broken bodies and surging towards him again.
The real wolf visible through the Azure Clear Eye wasn't in the back, but baring its fangs at him from the very front. It fit the personality he had seen in the memories.
Raon lowered the Heavenly Drive and Wooden Ring Sword and raised the Blade of Requiem.
"Please. Lend me your strength."
He raised the Blade of Requiem, requesting help from the wailing spirits within the bloody energy. With a humming sound, the spirits in the Blade of Requiem seemed to agree to his request, raising a clear sword cry and stirring up a green wind.
Raon recalled all his realizations so far and the blue wolf's past lingering in his mind as he unleashed the Soul Sword formed by the Blade of Requiem towards the red bloody energy eating away at the wolf's soul.
The Soul Sword cut through space-time and pierced into the pure white bloody energy oppressing the red wolf's mind.
'This, this is...'
But due to the insufficient level of his Soul Sword, it couldn't push back the bloody energy crushing the red wolf's soul and remained stuck in place. The remaining seven wolves besides the main body didn't miss this opening and charged at him with bared fangs.
Though he raised the Heavenly Drive and Wooden Ring Sword to defend, his focus was on the divine sword, allowing the wolves to push back his swords and begin tearing at his flesh with bloody energy.
"Kuhak..."
Even as his flesh was torn and he coughed blood, Raon didn't retreat from that spot, focusing solely on maintaining the Soul Sword.
'I absolutely cannot back down.'
He could not lose to the bloody energy of the White Blood Religion, which had turned an innocent spirit into this evil demon and viewed people as mere food.
'Moreover...'
If he couldn't even save this wolf, he would never be able to revive Martha's mother. He opened all the realms he had built up until now to erase the past and change the future.
"I will save you. From that hell."
Even in this life-threatening moment, Raon focused solely on maintaining the flow of the Soul Sword. Just as he took one more step forward, believing in the path of the sword he had built up, a golden radiance rose up over the Soul Sword imbued with his soul.
[The level of the trait has increased.]
As the realm of the Soul Sword rose, the blade of the Soul Sword formed by the Blade of Requiem sharpened keenly and began to mercilessly tear apart the White Blood Religion leader's bloody energy surrounding the red wolf's soul.