The Sword Emperor Transmigrates

Chapter 205

“Really?” Leonard asked, sensing the presence behind him.

“Yeah! Most of the Green Dragon Knights probably know about it,” she replied.

“Then I’d like to hear it. If the creatures possessed by the Spriggans can’t even reproduce, how are there still so many of them? Even if the Spriggan itself is unharmed, once the vessel is destroyed, the Spriggan shouldn’t be able to use it again, right?”

It was a reasonable question.

Spriggans, beings distorted by the venom of Nidhogg, were ancient spirits detached from the hierarchy of the Spirit Realm. Due to their nature, the Spriggans required a living host to inhabit. Since they were neither fully alive nor dead, they weren’t even classified as undead.

They were a paradox—both part of the natural order and yet rejected by it. They couldn’t exist for even a moment if they ventured outside Yggdrasil’s territory. These grotesque creatures, the Spriggans, were true anomalies.

From humanity’s perspective, the only way to neutralize them was to either shrink the territory of the World Tree Yggdrasil or destroy their vessels.

“You’re right. The Spriggans’ regenerative ability is like patching up an old rag, again and again, barely keeping the body functional. If that becomes impossible, they abandon the body and escape.”

“So, if it’s just a missing limb or two, the Spriggans can replace them, but if most of the body is destroyed, they can’t sustain it anymore?”

“You’re close. The rank of the Spriggan determines how much of the body they can replace. For higher-ranked ones, it is said that they can replace the entire body as long as the head remains.”

Ultimately, if they reached the Demigod Tier like the Wraith Kings, they could exist without a physical vessel altogether.

However, this point was about the Spriggans’ ecosystem and didn’t answer Leonard’s original question. Even though high-ranking Spriggans could possess a wider range of hosts, that didn’t explain how their numbers remained constant.

Heather, picking up on Leonard’s unspoken question, smiled. “Why doesn’t the Spriggans’ population decrease? The answer is surprisingly simple! Those creatures are living while dead, so they can still mate and reproduce! I also thought it was a joke at first.”

“...What did you say?”

Leonard, who was rarely taken aback by something, widened his eyes and unwittingly stared into the distance.

His Dragon Eyes expanded his field of view, allowing him to spot some writhing corpses in the twisted plains. A herd of deer, their bodies half-rotted with exposed bones and sloughing flesh, drank from a stream.

The sight perfectly embodied the concept of living while dead. Despite their rotting forms, they moved just as they had when they were alive, oblivious to the approaching Barricade Train. The water from the stream, which seemed highly toxic, flowed down their throats, only to pour out through the gaping holes in their sides.

Quite literally, they were dead yet alive.

They’re breathing with no lungs, moving their diaphragms like they’re alive, but their hearts have stopped, and the blood, unable to circulate, has dried up inside them. They can still mate and reproduce in that state?

Even without Dragon Eyes, anyone could tell that such creatures, whose vital organs had long failed, shouldn’t be able to reproduce. However, if the impossible had been made possible, there could be only one being responsible for that.

“It’s Yggdrasil, right?”

“Yeah,” Heather confirmed.

“Yggdrasil is generally known as the World Tree, but it has other names too. Ancient humans revered the life force flowing through its roots and branches, calling it the Tree of Life. According to some ancient records, Yggdrasil even brought about Life Creation at one point.”

The reason a mere immobile tree was worshiped as a god, and why even the Great Gods of various pantheons could not look down on it, stemmed from its boundless life force and divine powers.

The Outer God Nidhogg was only able to invade Yggdrasil after the God-Slaying War, which weakened the World Tree. Had the three goddesses serving Yggdrasil not been wiped out, it might never have happened.

Despite being poisoned and rotting away from the Outer God’s poison, Yggdrasil’s lingering will still triggered incomprehensible phenomena.

Heather, recalling an explanation, muttered, “The authority unfolding in this domain is probably... something like the ability to blur the lines between life and death?”

Yggdrasil was also known as the Cosmic Tree, stretching between the realms of life and death—a colossal tree that linked those two forces together.

If Yggdrasil possessed powers befitting such a title, then it would be feasible for rotting creatures to keep living while dead and even reproduce. Having studied ancient records before, Leonard easily pieced together the cause and effect.

It soon became clear that the meaning behind this endless war of attrition had vanished.

So that’s why the Spriggans’ numbers haven’t decreased despite the Barricade Train destroying their vessels for centuries...

If the corpses within the domain multiplied on their own, it meant that destroying the possessed vessels over and over again held no real value.

Now Leonard understood why Uluka, the Green Dragon Commander, was so determined to end the war. Uluka couldn’t bear the thought that his battles, the bloodshed of his ancestors over centuries, had simply amounted to a waste of resources and people.

Uluka was desperate to bring closure to this battlefield and prove the worth of the Order of the Green Dragon before his life ended.

He thinks more like a military officer than a martial artist. He’s a better man than I expected.

While Leonard had always admired lone wolves like Demian and Grace as a martial artist, Uluka had managed to earn his respect as a fellow Cardenas. He was a man who carried the history and lives of his knights on his shoulders, burning through his life to prove their honor.

Uluka was a different kind of knight compared to the commanders Leonard had encountered before.

“Thanks for explaining, Heather.”

“It’s nothing. Anyone else would’ve told you.” Heather, embarrassed by Leonard’s gratitude, shyly crossed her arms behind her back and giggled.

Leonard gazed at her, his eyes gleaming.

Come to think of it, Heather has improved greatly. At this point, she’s probably a level or two above William. @@novelbin@@

Given his advanced level, Leonard could immediately tell why that was.

Her natural disposition and martial flow are well-suited to the formless swordsmanship of the Cardenas family, but the internal energy flow from the spirits within her is quite remarkable.

The power generated from Circling, the rotation of her six rings, stabilized her energy flow, pushing her past the limits of her conception and governing vessels. Not even the most advanced martial arts cultivation skill could achieve something like that.

Additionally, the way the mid-rank spirits of water and wind moved like internal energy within her was extraordinary. No matter how much someone refined their internal energy through cultivation, it couldn’t compare to the purity of a spirit freshly summoned from the Spirit Realm.

In terms of quantity or density, there might be some individuals with stronger internal energy, but in terms of sheer purity, few Transcendence Tier knights could match Heather.

Initially, Leonard had thought William or Belita would be the most talented among the trainees, but now he had changed his mind.

“Why... Why are you staring at me like that?” Heather, feeling uneasy under Leonard’s constant gaze, leaned down and buried her face in the back of her wolf.

Realizing he had unintentionally been rude, Leonard gave an awkward smile. “Sorry about that. I was just thinking about how impressive you were recently, and it brought me back to that moment.”

“Uh, huh!? What moment are you talking about!?”

Without even noticing that he had made Heather more flustered, Leonard got lost in his own thoughts.

This day was no different. The moment he saw Heather again before they were deployed to the Barricade Train, a certain realization swept over him. It was as if something was teasing his rationality, much like Mara[1], the demon who tempted Buddha under the Bodhi tree, had done.

Is it not time yet?

However, instead of succumbing to that temptation, Leonard immediately withdrew from his Mindscape, sensing that the timing wasn’t right. Even though it felt like he could reach out and touch it with just an outstretched hand, he knew that chasing that precarious feeling might well lead him to depravation.

In his past life, he had wandered for decades in such a state, only to meet his end at the hands of the Heavenly Demon. If he had focused on returning to the basics rather than chasing grand teachings and fights to the death, he might have found a path he hadn’t seen before.

“Leonard? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, just a bit tired.”

Heather, now looking concerned, examined him from head to toe, even glancing around before asking, “You don’t look unwell, but have you been pushing yourself too hard with all that teaching on formation arts?"

“Perhaps so. I’m better at using my body than my brain.”

“Hehe, that’s typical for a Cardenas.”

Though Heather joked about it, teaching the Four Sword Mirage Origin Return Formation took a heavy mental toll, as it was a very advanced formation.

If it were something simple like the Three-Man Formation or the Six Harmonies Formation, even street thugs could learn it in a few days. However, a proper formation required meticulous calculations, even for the slightest alteration, and trying to adapt that to a magic formation would be incomprehensibly difficult to a martial artist.

Fortunately, they still had time. By today, Leonard would be able to overlay the magical formation on top of the barricade itself.

Tomorrow’s going to be even tougher.

The world laws of the area appeared grotesquely distorted to his Dragon Eye. It was a clear sign that the Wraith Kings would no longer just probe the barrier. They were now fully committed, and the groups of Spriggans were launching attacks sporadically.

The expedition team, needing to save their strength for the subjugation of Yggdrasil, were bound to struggle from here on out. Leonard put himself in Uluka’s shoes for a moment and quickly realized the likely outcome.

“...The commanders will probably retreat.”

And as expected, his prediction was correct.

* * *

“It’s the Spriggans! Target the medium and large-sized ones first and take them down!”

“Don’t let the flying ones get past the barricade! If they do, we’ll have to fight while watching our backs too!”

“Damn it! We’re losing ground across the whole sector and can’t call for reinforcements! At this rate, even recovering the wounded is impossible!”

With Audrey and Wade on standby in Sector C-7, discord rippled through the battlefield. It was only natural.

Even if they weren’t like Grace, who specialized in wide-area annihilation, the Demigod Tier knights that could wipe out dozens or even hundreds with a single swing of their swords had withdrawn. The two areas that were now facing more Spriggans than they could handle were faltering, and the situation in neighboring sectors was worsening as casualties piled up.

The Titan’s cannons, which had been firing several times faster than the day before, began to melt. The gunners inside were feeling the effects of heat exhaustion, their skin blistering from the intense heat.

“...This is harder than before, but surprisingly manageable.”

“I can feel the effects of their absence, but it's not critical! At this rate, we can hold out!”

However, the commanding knights of each sector, keenly aware of the gap left by the two Demigod Tier knights, noticed something strange. The casualties were far below their initial estimations.

While not as frequent as before, the troops still found moments to catch their breath.

A faint hum resonated through the area.

The reason for the Barricade Train’s unexpected resilience was simple. The imitation magic of the Four Sword Mirage Origin Return Formation that Leonard had passed on was working. Every time its faint light glowed, the Spriggans were briefly slowed down or had their combat prowess sapped.

Although this simplified version of the original formation had its limits against formidable creatures, most of the Spriggans were low or mid-rank spirits that had mutated. Higher-rank spirits rarely roamed the physical realm, and only a handful had settled into forms like ancient spirits.

Then, something happened.

“It’s a drake—!”

“There's more than one! A cyclops is coming too!”

It seemed the high-rank Spriggans, possessing large demonic beasts, had assessed Leonard as an easier target than the area where the other commanders were.

Both creatures were classified as beyond Rank S in terms of danger. Even without being possessed by Spriggans, these Disaster-level monsters could obliterate entire large-scale fiefdoms. Now, they appeared on the battlefield.

■■■■■■■—!!!

The drake, with the flesh of its neck peeled off to reveal protruding windpipe bones, let out a distorted roar. The creature was at least fifty meters long. Its wings, tattered in places, were reinforced by a red spiritual energy, allowing it to maintain flight—a sign that a high-rank fire-type Spriggan was controlling it.

Beneath this massive flying creature, a similarly sized giant rushed toward the train. It was a cyclops, one Leonard had encountered once before in Nastrond, a Corroded Realm.

Now that I think about it, I don’t believe I’ve ever seen one alive.

As that thought crossed Leonard’s mind, he leaped into the air, intending to slay the monsters before they could get too close to the barricade.

The cyclops was barreling forward with terrifying momentum, and at that moment, its single eye lit up. It was an ability the one in Nastrond hadn’t displayed.

A destruction beam, matching the power of a Class 8 attack spell, shot out.

“Damn it!”

Leonard, switching from an offensive stance to a defensive one, extended his sword just as the cyclops fired its beam of destruction.

Shringgggg——!!!

A massive beam of light, five meters in diameter, surged toward him.

1. Mara, in Buddhism, is an Asura malignant celestial king who tried to stop Prince Siddhartha from achieving Enlightenment by trying to seduce him with his celestial Army and the vision of beautiful women who, in various legends, are often said to be Mara’s daughters. ☜