The Sword Emperor Transmigrates

Chapter 202

In less than one-hundredth of a second, blue lightning erupted from Leonard’s blade.

Temporarily achieving a Demigod Tier status, Leonard unleashed an ultimate technique. Accounting for the opposing forces of the Five Elements, he directed a surge of lightning toward the seemingly bottomless pit of mud, or rather, the swamp that was essentially part of Cybele herself.

The form worshiped in ancient times as the Goddess of Earth was nothing more than an illusion. The primal form of the Spirit King, the true form of the Wraith King, manifested as a symbol of its element. If it were the Water Spirit King, it would be water itself; if it were the Fire Spirit King, it would be fire.

Therefore, the bottomless swamp represented Cybele herself, embodying the attribute of decay. To land an effective blow against that form would require immense destructive power, either blowing up or burning the entire swamp. Neither option was feasible for Leonard, whose power, even at its peak, was barely approaching the Demigod Tier.

Crackle—!

However, right when Leonard’s sword, the Rightful Return, clashed with Cybele’s swamp, an unexpected phenomenon occurred.

Crackle, crackle, crackle!

It was something that neither Cybele, with her eyes gleaming in murderous anticipation, nor Leonard had foreseen. The blue lightning from Rightful Return spread deep into the swamp, scorching the bottomless pit of mud as it advanced.

Like a lightning strike hitting the center of a lake and electrifying the water, it spread at a speed that left no time for reaction.

Even with his perception accelerated a thousandfold, Leonard struggled to keep up with the unfolding events, his eyes wide with shock as he followed the lightning’s path.

What’s happening?!

He had expected the surrounding swamp to collapse or the power of Decay to weaken. But Rightful Return exhibited far greater destructive force than anyone could have anticipated.

Although Leonard couldn’t fully grasp what was happening, anyone with a deeper understanding of spirits would have realized the truth.

■■?! ■■■??!

Even Cybele, witnessing her power being so easily pierced, was thrown into disarray. It was an unnatural sight for a Demigod Tier being, whose existence was bound by her own unique laws, to be overwhelmed by an opponent of lesser status in a direct confrontation.

Spirits were manifestations of the overflowing power of nature, crystallized into forms imbued with spiritual energy. The Spirit Kings, the pinnacle of spirits, acted as representatives of the natural law, and they were transcendent entities that embodied the flow of the universe.

Normally, Leonard’s Rightful Return would not have been able to harm a Spirit King. Both Spirit Kings and the Azure Dragon possessed unique traits grounded in the laws of the world, rendering them immune to such attacks.

Crackle, crackle, crackle, crackle!

But Cybele, twisted and distorted by the poison of the Outer God Nidhogg, had broken away from her original form, placing her outside the protection of natural law. @@novelbin@@

Rightful Return didn’t just neutralize Cybele’s authority—it penetrated the swamp and tore apart the very essence hidden within, biting at the poison energy contaminating her from within.

At that moment—

“■■■■■——Ah, uh... aah?”

A trace of light suddenly returned to Cybele’s previously empty eyes.

A fragment of the original Spirit King Cybele, buried deep within the vessel that had become the Wraith King, surfaced, drawn out by the power of Rightful Return. Her ego, long lost beneath the weight of over a thousand years, slowly reawakened, and one of her eyes, previously burning with purple fury, turned into a topaz hue.

In the corner of the swamp, which had been filled with rotting mud, a patch of moist soil formed. From it, a sprout emerged, pulsing with new life.

“What...? How did... this...?”

The Spirit King Cybele, blinking her now topaz eye, looked down at herself and the swamp at her feet. As if in denial, she let out a shrill scream at the sight of her form, now twisted and grotesque, a far cry from her once beautiful self.

“No, no, no... NOOOOOO——■■■■!!”

The moment her topaz eye reignited into a blaze of purple, the single sprout that had emerged withered and sank back into the swamp.

The Wraith King once again suppressed the Spirit King’s consciousness. The recovery brought about by Rightful Return had reached its limit.

...At least I bought myself some time.

Leonard, who had instinctively retreated several hundred meters, looked down at the celestial energy surrounding him. After using an ultimate technique three times in a row, the energy had visibly waned. It was only because Rightful Return had proven unexpectedly effective that he hadn’t depleted his energy entirely.

Leonard steeled his resolve after grasping the true combat power of Cybele, the Demigod Tier Wraith King of the Spriggan Frontier. As expected, facing a Demigod Tier opponent head-on without being at the same level would inevitably result in disaster.

If I push the offensive, it’ll only backfire. Evading and stalling for time with hit-and-run tactics is a more reliable strategy.

Nonetheless, confirming the special phenomenon from the Eastern God Style was a significant gain. If the Wraith King could be neutralized and brought back to her Spirit King form, it would be like converting a formidable foe into an ally.

■■■■■■■■——!!

As if reading Leonard's thoughts, Cybele let out a monstrous scream and charged at him once more.

It seemed that capturing the Barricade Train no longer mattered to her. Focusing entirely on Leonard, she molded her swamp into a massive hand, which stretched out to snatch him. If Leonard was caught in her grip, he would be trapped in the prison of Decay—a death sentence from which there would be no escape.

The black claw of mud lunged at Leonard with frightening speed, seeking to devour him.

Sword Flight

Leonard had no intention of engaging her in a contest of strength. Realizing during their earlier exchange that a war of attrition would inevitably lead to defeat, Leonard leaped onto a spare sword and shot away at lightning speed. Cybele, left grasping at the air, froze for a moment before chasing after him again.

What should have been a simple chase to buy time was complicated by two factors.

“You’re slower than I expected. Is it because you’re bound to the earth?”

It wasn’t just that Leonard’s Sword Flight was fast—Cybele was unexpectedly slow. As the mutated Wraith King with the earth attribute, her mobility was the lowest among the four Wraith Kings. Even though she was chasing Leonard at full speed, the distance between them showed no sign of narrowing.

Frustrated by this slow progress, Cybele attempted a few attacks, but Leonard, reading the trajectory of her moves with his Dragon Eyes, dodged with little effort.

“Huh? Were you leading her to me?”

Focused solely on Leonard, Cybele failed to notice that their chase had led them toward another figure—the closest knight commander to them. It was Grace, the Blue Dragon Commander.

As Grace had already been on her way to support Leonard, she quickly crossed paths with them. Sensing Grace’s presence, Cybele hurriedly came to a halt, but it was too late. Grace, among the three strongest knight commanders in terms of range and firepower, was already poised to strike.

Inferno Blade

Dozens of fiery swords, each one a catastrophic force of destruction, fell simultaneously, detonating across the swamp and engulfing it in flames.

A radius of two hundred meters turned into a sea of flames, burning away the mud. Even a power capable of eroding adamantium was useless against the flames conjured by a Demigod Tier knight.

...■■■■, ■■■.

Grace’s ability, with its incredibly wide range, was an excellent counter for Cybele. Realizing this after a single hit, Cybele, with the surface of her swamp reduced nearly by half, retreated deep underground without pushing herself further.

The Wraith King vanished within seconds, disappearing completely from everyone’s range of perception.

Unlike when chasing Leonard through the sky, the speed at which she could burrow into the ground and escape was astounding. If Leonard had fled using a lightness art on the ground instead of Sword Flight, he likely would have been caught and killed in no time.

“Is that the fourth one? They sure are persistent, those Wraith Kings,” Grace said, hovering in the air as she approached Leonard.

“A Demigod Tier entity serving as a vanguard is something you’d never see on the Celestial Frontier,” she went on.

“Is that so?”

“Yeah. In the Celestial Realm, Demigod Tier beings are usually clan leaders or hold similar ranks. The idea of them risking their lives on reconnaissance missions? It’s absurd. They’re too valuable for that.”

The two continued to make some small talk, and Leonard was the one who eventually brought up the main topic.

“Their goal is clear. They want to figure out the positioning of the knight commanders. The fact that the four Wraith Kings have attacked in rotation over the past few days proves it.”

“Monsters acting like humans... It’s unsettling,” Grace muttered, pursing her lips in agreement.

“They’re a nuisance. Monsters that can use their brains.”

“The commanders’ positions have probably been fully exposed by now. And since I revealed my own weaknesses in this battle, their next assault might focus on my area of jurisdiction.”

Although Uluka, the Green Dragon Commander, hadn’t entered the battle yet, his location was easy to deduce by ruling out the positions of the other three commanders and Leonard. The Wraith Kings weren’t stupid. They had likely figured out which areas were strong and which were more vulnerable.

Some would probably suggest changing the positions of the four commanders, but the current deployment had been carefully decided based on their respective unique qualities. There was no better arrangement.

“Well, the only real option we have is to go back to the basics,” Grace said, not dismissing Leonard’s concerns. “We need to speed up our advance.”

“Sorry?”

“The reason the Demonic Spirit Kings can move around like this is because they don’t really die. Yggdrasil keeps reviving them over and over. But it’s not like resurrecting creatures of their caliber comes without a cost, and the process of revival takes time.”

Leonard quickly grasped her point and summarized, “I see. The fact that the Wraith Kings can engage in guerrilla tactics means the Barricade Train hasn’t yet gotten close enough to the World Tree to be a threat to it.”

“Exactly. The closer the train gets to Yggdrasil, the more cautious they’ll have to be. Of course, as we get closer, their strength will increase, and the Spriggans will also start appearing in full-scale.”

Grace sighed, a long, thin breath escaping her. The expedition team had no choice but to adapt to this situation.

The influence of Yggdrasil was growing stronger by the day. If not for the magic array etched into the Barricade Train, they would have already been in serious trouble. Outside the train, even Transcendence Tier knights wouldn’t last more than a few hours before succumbing to the hostile environment. This area had already become uninhabitable for any form of life.

It was a hell, different from a Corroded Realm.

“They’re coming. I’ll return to my position.”

“Alright. See you later.”

Both Leonard and Grace simultaneously sensed the incoming entity from afar and flew off in opposite directions. Their idle chatter ended there.

So, those monsters must be the Spriggans.

Leonard had nearly forgotten about them, the real enemies on this frontier, because of the four consecutive ambushes by the Wraith Kings.

Spriggans—rampaging spirit entities that took over the bodies of living creatures to sustain their existence. As soon as Leonard focused his internal energy into his eyes, the figures of those creatures, several kilometers away, became clear.

He frowned at what he saw.

“...Disgusting.”

The corpse of the wolf at the front of the pack, a direwolf, was missing nearly half of its skull and only had a front leg remaining. Yet, its speed was nearly supersonic, thanks to the dark green glow filling in the missing parts of its body. That glow was the Spriggan, controlling the dead direwolf like a parasite.

The Spriggan was writhing under the wolf’s skin, and green threads glowed beneath its surface akin to a circuit, likely replacing its nervous system.

Awoooooo!!

As though it were alive, the direwolf let out a blood-curdling howl, directed at the train.

Sensing the approaching enemy, the members of the expedition team scrambled to prepare for intercepting the attack, but it was already too late. The direwolf vanished, breaking through the sound barrier, and when it reappeared, it was already on the verge of tearing through the Barricade Train’s defensive line.

Groarrr!

With a thunderous roar, a sword wreathed in white augmented energy streaked down like lightning.

Five Elements Style, One Sword Style

White Tiger Extra Form: Mountain Deity Strike

Just before the direwolf could achieve its goal, Leonard unleashed his Mountain Deity Strike, sending the creature crashing to the ground below.

Back in his designated area, Leonard shouted, “Don’t let your guard down! It’s a Spriggan!”

After warning those around him to be vigilant, Leonard looked down at the direwolf, which was trying to rise despite having lost more than half its body. He clicked his tongue in frustration. The regenerative powers and strength the Spriggan granted its host was unimaginable.

Five Elements Style, One Sword Style

Azure Dragon Extra Form: Sky Dragon's Flight

Leonard unleashed another sword technique. The Sky Dragon’s Flight shattered the head of the stumbling Direwolf. Unlike with the previous attack, the creature was completely annihilated.

The Spriggan that had inhabited the direwolf’s body flickered as if in pain before dissipating into nothing. Normally, when a possessed host died, the Spriggan would simply seek out another vessel, but this one just vanished.

“Hm?”

Leonard’s eyes gleamed with curiosity.

Could the Azure Dragon Qi be their weakness, just like with Cybele? I should test this more.

While the Rightful Return couldn’t purge the corruption from the Wraith Kings, a little injection of the Azure Dragon Qi was enough to purify the low-rank Spriggans. However, unlike Cybele, the vessels of the Spriggans were too weak, so the purification caused them to disintegrate into mana.

It would take decades, maybe even centuries, for these Spriggans to reform as spirits. Low-rank spirits couldn’t withstand the same malevolent energy that had driven even the Spirit Kings to madness.

This experience will be useful for improving the Eastern God Style.

Nothing motivated Leonard more than improving his martial arts. As he faced the countless Spriggan-possessed creatures charging from the horizon—each one at least as dangerous as a Rank A threat—his fighting spirit surged like molten lava.

There was no need to resort to using celestial energy just yet. With the Azure Dragon Qi flowing through him, blue electrical currents sparked and crackled around Leonard, forming a protective qi.

“The Spriggans are coming!”

In response to someone’s shout from the Barricade Train, the Spriggan-possessed creatures that had survived the bombardment leapt toward the train. At this point, the train’s defenses would no longer hold.

Sensing the timing, the Green Dragon knights ignited their auras.

“Glory to Cardenas!”

“The indomitable will of the Green Dragon is eternal!”

“Fight with honor, so as not to shame our ancestors!”

A full-scale battle for survival began.