Return of the Calamity-Class Death Knight

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Chapter 268: The Weapon Master (3)

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As soon as his body turned gray, the Weapon Master felt his whole body become heavy.

It was as if a giant snake was wrapping itself around his body. An unpleasant feeling of restraint squeezed his entire body.

Then, the Weapon Master’s whole body began to disappear. The mass of his body was rapidly decreasing.

-……!

At the same time, intense pain surged like a tidal wave.

It was like swimming through molten lava in a mountain range. Indescribable pain exploded in his head.

-Kyaaah!

The Weapon Master tried to protect himself by wrapping his body in dark mana.

But it was useless. No matter how much dark mana he drew up, he could not resist Erebos’s power.

-Aaaaah! Kyaaah!

I can’t die like this!

The Weapon Master desperately clung to his sanity and used his realm.

All Weapons Beloved.

The power to draw out the hidden power and potential of weapons.

Now the Weapon Master was both a human and Demonic sword. That’s why he could use ‘All Weapons Beloved’ to draw out his full potential.

The center of the Weapon Master’s chest began to glow red.

The red aura spread throughout the Weapon Master’s body.

He could feel his body becoming stronger. The output of his dark mana increased even further.

The speed at which his body was disappearing also slowed dramatically. The excruciating pain also disappeared.

-That’s it…… That’s it!

But there was no time to relax. He had to kill Damien as soon as possible and cancel Erebos’s power.

The Weapon Master brought his hands together in front of his chest. And he manifested the power ‘Distortion’ that he possessed as the Sword of Annihilation.

The Weapon Master distorted the space. Darkness began to appear between his hands.

It began to absorb the air, even its surrounding light, as the darkness deepened.

This was the secret technique ‘Abyss Mouth’ of the Sword of Annihilation.

Even though no one had told or teach him, the Weapon Master had instinctively mastered this technique.

-I’ll erase you from this world right now!

Just as the Weapon Master was about to swing the Abyss Mouth, Damien opened said something

“I guess I need to increase the output.”

No sooner had the words left his mouth than a second wave erupted.

The second wave hit the Weapon Master’s body. Immediately after, the Weapon Master’s ‘surface’ began to disappear again.

It was even faster than before. His whole body began to shrink rapidly.

-……!

The Weapon Master felt even more intense pain than before.

He couldn’t hold back his screams.

-Kyaaah!

It wasn’t just the Weapon Master. The Abyss Mouth that he had worked so hard to create also disappeared in an instant.

His ten fingers crumbled from the tips. His thin legs broke under the weight of his body.

The Weapon Master’s body fell to the ground. He fell face first on the floor and shouted.

-Stop! Stop! Please!

It didn’t matter how he pleaded. The Weapon Master’s body was shrinking in real time.

Damien approached the Weapon Master, holding Erebos in his hand.

-Keuk…… Heo-eok…….

The Weapon Master gasped for breath, with only his head and upper body remaining.

-Damien…… Haksen……!

The Weapon Master gritted his teeth. He shouted with hatred.

-To a bastard like you……! To suffer such humiliation……! I will never forgive you! I will never forgive you even in death!

Damien simply looked down at Weapon Master with a blank expression.

This touched the Weapon Master’s pride.

-What are you looking at me with those arrogant eyes! You don’t think you’ve won, do you? That sword! That sword! Without that sword, you would have died at my hands!

The Weapon Master shouted like a madman.

-Without that sword, you are nothing!

“Then why don’t you try it yourself?”

-……What?

The Weapon Master forgot about his pain for a moment, so absurd was the statement.

As if to prove that he wasn’t lying, Damien placed Erebos in front of the Weapon Master.

-Ugh, ugh-ak!

The Weapon Master hastily reached out for Erebos.

He tried to grab Erebos with his crumbling fingers that were barely left.

-You, you idiot! You really are giving this to me!

As long as he had ‘All Weapons Beloved’, there was no sword that the Weapon Master could not control.

-Now, it’s your turn! You too will suffer the same pain as me…….

The Weapon Master tried to control Erebos using ‘All Weapons Beloved’.

A red aura emanated from his hand and was poured into Erebos.

At that moment, the Weapon Master’s expression changed. But the red aura did not control Erebos and simply dissipated.

-This…… Why, why are you doing this……? Why, why are you rejecting…… rejecting me…… This, this can’t be…….

Suddenly, Erebos’s roar grew louder. The earsplitting roar shook the heavens and earth.

-Kaaah!

At the same time, the Weapon Master’s body was disappearing even faster.

Both of his arms were completely gone. His torso was shrinking rapidly. Only half of his face remained.

-S-save me…… Please…… I don’t want to die like this……!

The Weapon Master pleaded desperately to Damien.

-I’ll do anything! If you want, I can be your servant! I’ll give you all the power I have!

Damien simply watched the Weapon Master like that.

-P-please……!

The remaining fragments of the Weapon Master completely disappeared.

As his physical body disappeared, only the Weapon Master’s soul remained.

However, the Weapon Master’s soul did not have a chance to escape and quickly dissipated.

-Kyaaah!

The power of Erebos had devoured even the Weapon Master’s soul.

Only after seeing that did Damien pick up Erebos.

As soon as it was caught in Damien’s hand, Erebos transformed into a docile lamb.

It was a completely different appearance from how it had so vehemently rejected the Weapon Master.

Damien controlled the power of Erebos.

The world that had been dyed gray returned to normal. The constant screams were no longer heard.

Damien transformed Erebos back into a tattoo.

Damien stared silently at the spot where the Weapon Master had died.

“……Father.”

After a while, he muttered, looking up at the sky.

“You unworthy son has finally avenged you, albeit belatedly.”

His voice sounded very sad.

***

Damien returned to Kilo.

Kilo asked with a shocked expression.

“D-Damien…… What was that black thing just now? What kind of power is this…… Everything has disappeared, but why am I still fine?”

“I adjusted the target. I can control that much.”

Damien’s power and control on the Erebos grew as he collected more fragments of Erebos.

Now Damien could not only control the range of power but also select the target.

Kilo was not the only one Damien had excluded from Erebos’s power.

“This is ridiculous!

Achilles was screaming from the spot where the Weapon Master had died.

“The Sword of Annihilation! There’s no way my greatest masterpiece could be destroyed so futilely!”

Achilles slammed his fist on the floor and screamed.

Kilo pointed at Achilles and asked.

“Why did you save that trash?”

“Don’t you also want revenge? Go ahead.”

Kilo shut his mouth at Damien’s words. His eyes shook wildly.

“……Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it.”

“While I’m at it, can I ask for one more favor? Can you just break that hearth? I can’t do it in my current condition.”

Kilo’s abdomen was completely soaked in blood. It was because of he was pierced by the Demonic sword.

“…….”

Damien took out Dawn and swung it towards the hearth.

The aurablade split the hearth in half. The molten lava inside poured onto the floor.

Blood flowed from the cut surface. The pulsating hearth stopped instantly.

“Ahhhhh! No! My hearth!”

Achilles clutched his head with both hands. Achilles glared at Damien and shouted.

“You moron! Do you know how stupid you’ve just done!”

Achilles frothed at the mouth and rushed towards Damien.

At that moment, Kilo blocked Achilles’s path.

“Get out of my way…….”

Kilo swung his fist at Achilles.

The boulder-like fist smashed Achilles’s face and knocked him to the ground.

The moment he hit the ground, Achilles’s neck broke. He died like that.

“Ugh.”

Kilo spat on Achilles’s corpse.

At that moment, black smoke billowed out of the destroyed hearth.

On closer inspection, it was not smoke. The dwarves’ souls were being liberated.

-Ah…… Finally free!

-Ancestors! We are coming!

Unlike when they were bound to the hearth, the dwarves’ souls looked very happy.

Kilo watched them silently. Then he sank to the floor.

“Phew…… Whoof…….”

Kilo broke out in a cold sweat. His complexion looked pale like that of a sick person.

Damien opened a subspace and took out a potion. But Kilo shook his head from side to side.

“No, that’s fine.”

Kilo raised his head and looked at his brethren. It was as if he wanted to see them as soon as possible.

“Damien, thank you. We, the Hammerfell dwarves, owe you a great debt of gratitude. If it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t have avenged ourselves, let alone been used by Achilles.”

Kilo was right.

In his previous life, Achilles had a terrible reputation as a Lich.

The driving force behind this must have been the hearth he created using the Hammerfell dwarves.

“Can you feel it? They’re all telling you thank you. They…… all of them…….”

Kilo’s head bowed slowly.

After a while, Kilo’s soul flowed out of his body. Kilo’s soul flew towards his brethren without hesitation.

Even as a spirit, he could feel Damien. That’s how happy Kilo was.

Of course, not all the dwarves were happy.

-Euaaaaak! Leave me alone! Leave me alone I said!

The Achilles’s soul was surrounded by other dwarves and screaming.

The dwarves would never forgive the traitor. They swarmed around Achilles and destroyed his soul.

-Aaaaaaak!

Achilles’s scream echoed for a long time before it abruptly stopped.

Only then did the souls of the Hammerfell dwarves rise high into the sky.

***