SFRW-Chapter 277

Ch. 277 Sword God From The Ruined World

“…Ophel?”  

Allekuhi and Ratio, who had rushed over upon Luam’s urgent summons, couldn’t hide their shocked expressions at the unexpected name.  

“So… you’re telling me you actually asked for help from that Ophel I know?”  

For the third time.  

Despite Ratio’s repeated questioning, Luam didn’t show any irritation as he nodded.  

“Let me say this again… Lord Barhaut himself gave the order.”  

Luam’s voice was filled with bitterness.  

“Ophel… Hah! Ophel?!”  

Allekuhi’s face showed utter disbelief. And Ratio was no different.  

“So… did Ophel accept? No, of course he accepted. He must have accepted conditionally.”  

Ignoring Allekuhi’s muttering, Ratio asked Luam:  

“Do you know who Ophel sent?”  

“The Seven Apostles.”  

“…Who?”  

“Ophel’s Seven Apostles!”  

BANG!  

Luam slammed the table with uncharacteristic excitement.  

The table shattered, but no one cared.  

“Ophel’s serious about this.”  

Allekuhi shook his head as he spoke, and Ratio clicked her tongue as if the matter was already settled.  

After a brief silence, Luam cautiously continued:  

“We must capture them first. If the Seven Apostles get to them first…”  

Barhaut would have to pay Ophel a price.  

An enormous price at that.  

While Allekuhi and Ratio didn’t know as much as Luam, they understood the general situation.  

“So what? Are we supposed to interfere? Is that what Lord Barhaut wants?”  

Allekuhi spoke as if worried about making things worse, but his true thoughts were different.  

He didn’t care if the Seven Apostles succeeded and Barhaut had to pay the price.  

“I agree with Allekuhi. If the Seven Apostles are already moving, it’s over. If we interfere clumsily, we might just cause problems for ourselves.”  

As Ratio showed reluctance, Luam’s green eyes gleamed.  

“You two…”  

He barely swallowed the words asking if they had no pride at all regarding Barhaut.  

“Have you no pride? After all your big talk about capturing them, are you just going to sit back and watch someone else do the job in our own territory?”  

To be honest, it was Luam who had boasted the most. Allekuhi and Ratio were ready to ignore his words…  

Until Luam continued:  

“I can already see how much the Seven Apostles are looking down on us, Six Seats. Allekuhi, from now on, Felts will look down on you forever. Ratio, you won’t even be able to speak properly in front of Pio until the day you die.”  

Luam’s cold sneer made Allekuhi’s eyes burn as if spitting fire.  

“Bullshit! That bastard Felts looking down on me? Luam! Even if it’s you, one more word of that nonsense and I won’t let it slide!”  

“Luam, I know you’re trying to provoke us, but don’t overdo it.”  

Ratio glared coldly at Luam in warning.  

But Luam just snorted.  

“Bullshit? Provocation? Whatever my intentions, the fact remains—Felts and Pio will look down on you two. Don’t you think Lord Barhaut must really distrust you to have entrusted this matter to them?”  

Though furious, they couldn’t deny Luam’s point.  

Barhaut didn’t trust Allekuhi and Ratio, which was why he’d asked Ophel for help, resulting in the Seven Apostles’ involvement.  

“Hah! Isn’t it the same for you, Luam? You also…”  

Ratio tried to provoke Luam in return but soon shut her mouth.  

Whether out of loyalty to Barhaut or personal pride, Luam had at least declared he would stop the Seven Apostles.  

“Tch!”  

Knowing full well it was a trap, Ratio had no choice but to play along, sharply turning her head away.  

Allekuhi also hated following Luam’s lead, but what angered him more was imagining Felts looking down on him.  

“So what do we do?!”  

Allekuhi shouted, glaring at Luam.  

Though Luam wasn’t responsible for this situation, venting at him was all Allekuhi could do now.  

“We capture them before the Seven Apostles do.”  

“And how do you propose we do that? We don’t even know where they are now!”  

“We may not know their location, but we can track the Seven Apostles. We follow them and strike at the decisive moment.”  

In other words, let the Seven Apostles find and fight them, then steal the credit at the last moment.  

“Will the Seven Apostles just stand by? And what about Ophel? He’ll be furious enough to tear us apart!”  

While the Seven Apostles were concerning, Ophel was the real threat.  

Luam confidently replied to Ratio’s worry:  

“I’ll take full responsibility for that.”  

To be precise, Barhaut would take responsibility.  

Ophel might rage at the betrayal, but Barhaut still had the power to stop him.  

Luam judged that opposing Ophel was better than losing all hope.  

“Hmm.”  

Allekuhi looked at Ratio with a troubled expression.  

“Could we… get Vipiens help?”  

Ratio believed that with Vipiens help, neither the Seven Apostles nor Ophel would be a threat.  

“Vipiens? You think that lizard would side with us?”  

At Luam’s icy tone, Ratio sighed as if she’d expected as much.  

“Fine. Since things have come to this… we’ll have to fight dirty.”  

With Ratio’s agreement, Luam looked at Allekuhi.  

“Heh. Just so you know, I can’t be held responsible for what I’ll do to that bastard Felts when we meet. Remember that, Luam.”  

Seeing Allekuhi’s excitement, Luam nodded as if to say ‘Do as you please.’

It was decided.  

The Six Seats would betray the Seven Apostles.  

***

“Ahhh! Nooo!”  

Hyun Joo-yeon woke up screaming, her body drenched in cold sweat.  

“What’s wrong? Bad dream? Goodness… look at you.”  

Gloria, sleeping beside her, quickly took out a handkerchief to wipe Hyun Joo-yeon’s sweaty face.  

“I… I saw Seo Do-jun.”  

“Kassal? What about him?”  

Gloria frowned.  

If someone you missed so much appeared in your dream, it should be joyful—but screaming and sweating suggested otherwise.  

“Well…”  

Hyun Joo-yeon bit her lower lip.  

Should she say it?  

The dream was so ominous she hesitated to voice it.  

But as Gloria pressed her, Hyun Joo-yeon reluctantly explained.  

The dream started pleasantly.  

Under a sunny sky, Seo Do-jun stood alone—just as she always imagined.  

Seeing his healthy smile, Hyun Joo-yeon ran toward him, eager to embrace him with all her might…  

“But no matter how hard I ran, the distance between us never closed. I moved my legs desperately, but couldn’t get even a step closer.”  

She stretched out her arms and called his name, but he just stood there, watching silently.  

Then the sky darkened.  

Black clouds swallowed all light, and the beautiful flower-filled scenery transformed into a gloomy, enclosed passage.  

Ear-splitting screams and thunderous shouts echoed everywhere.  

“…Then countless arms reached from the darkness…”  

They seized Seo Do-jun.  

Grabbing his hair.  

Twisting his ears.  

Clutching his neck.  

Shoulders, arms, chest, stomach, legs—every part of him was entangled and dragged.  

As Seo Do-jun’s smiling face twisted in agony, he began screaming for help.  

Watching him being helplessly pulled into the darkness, Hyun Joo-yeon woke up screaming.  

“Wh-what kind of…”  

Gloria’s face stiffened upon hearing the dream.  

The image of Seo Do-jun—someone she knew as stronger than anyone—begging for help was unimaginable.  

“It… it was just a nonsense dream! Right? Just a stupid dream!”  

Gloria nodded emphatically.  

“Of course! Kassal would never be overpowered by mere arms! And dreams are supposed to be opposite, right?”  

“Right! Dreams are opposite! So Seo Do-jun must be perfectly fine.”  

Despite their words, neither could shake their grim expressions.  

No matter how much they called it nonsense, such an ominous dream couldn’t be a good sign.  

The heavy silence lingered until Hyun Joo-yeon, feeling guilty, spoke up:  

“Sorry for bringing this up, Gloria…”  

“Don’t be.”  

They exchanged awkward smiles before lying back down.  

But neither could sleep, remaining awake until dawn.  

***

CRACK!  

“Gah! Damn it!”  

Choi Kang-soo gritted his teeth as he swung the Divine Sword against the overwhelming force of Akada, the Orc Warlord Death Knight.  

『Don’t you learn? Stop falling for obvious feints and watch the hidden trajectories!』  

“If it were that easy, would I be struggling like this? Damn it!”  

Choi Kang-soo was miserable.  

He could accept Shinjo and Grichuk being prodigies, but now even an orc was overpowering him in swordsmanship.  

Of course, Akada was no ordinary orc—a chieftain who’d risen through sheer strength—but Choi Kang-soo couldn’t accept being outmatched.  

“I can’t lose to some orc!”  

Choi Kang-soo foolishly judged himself superior just for being human.  

THUD!  

As Akada’s massive sword grazed past, the orc followed with a brutal body slam, sending Choi Kang-soo tumbling.  

“Damn it! Stupid green bastard!”  

“A. Kada.”  

Though Akada corrected his name, Choi Kang-soo kept teasing him as ‘Curry’.  

“No matter what you say, you’re Curry. Disgusting green curry!”  

“A. Kada.”  

As Akada raised his greatsword again, Choi Kang-soo gripped the Divine Sword tightly.  

Curry or Akada, the orc was a monstrous swordsman with terrifying strength and durability.  

“Right now, Akada is your best swordsmanship teacher. Defeat him, and your skills will grow. So defeat him.”  

To Choi Kang-soo, Seo Do-jun’s words were absolute truth.  

Determined to win, he trained twice daily with Akada.  

Of course, his record was all losses.  

Not even close fights—most ended in humiliating defeats.  

Only recently had Choi Kang-soo started lasting longer.  

But honestly, he couldn’t predict how long it would take to surpass Akada.  

The gap was that vast.  

And worse—  

『Stay sharp. That orc is improving as fast as you are! No slacking off! No hoping for luck! Remember—unlike you, he grows with every match!』  

“I… know that!”  

Choi Kang-soo’s sword simultaneously targeted Akada’s head, chest, and abdomen.  

A single swing striking three points proved his growth.  

The problem?  

CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!  

It was utterly useless against Akada.  

“Damn it!”  

Shouldn’t death stop one’s growth?  

Why was this dead orc still improving?  

And an orc, of all things!  

Grinding his teeth, Choi Kang-soo shamelessly rolled on the ground to dodge Akada’s strikes.  

Watching from afar, Seo Do-jun smiled.  

“Finally starting to look decent.”  

Though born with ordinary talent, Choi Kang-soo was slowly improving.  

While it might seem insignificant now, combined with his true power (holy energy), even this swordsmanship growth would multiply his strength.  

“Guild Master, I’ve found a lead.”  

After three days, Shinjo returned with good news.