SFRW-Chapter 299

Ch. 299 Sword God From The Ruined World

“…Huh? Where’s Uncle?”  

Choi Kang-soo looked at Qua and Ver as he asked.  

“I didn’t see him.”  

“Maybe his head went thunk and got chopped off by Vipiens the moment he came out?”  

Qua made a slicing motion across her neck while giggling.  

“Are you out of your mind?! Who the hell spouts such nonsense?!”  

“D-did you just say ‘spout’?”  

Qua’s face flushed red at Choi Kang-soo’s vulgar language.  

“Yeah! Shut your mouth and stop spouting nonsense! Or I’ll really chop your damn head clean off!”  

Even though he knew Qua was joking, Choi Kang-soo glared at her with genuine anger.  

“…Wow. Am I supposed to just take this?”  

At first, she was taken aback, but as her anger rose, Qua’s eyes sharpened.  

“Let me make this clear—if anything happens to Uncle, it’s over! I’ll personally rip your heads off! So if you wanna die, keep running your mouth!”  

As Choi Kang-soo snarled at Qua and Ver, the rest of the group began crossing through the dimensional gate one by one.  

“Where’s the Guild Master?”  

Shinjo, also not seeing Seo Do-jun, looked at Choi Kang-soo questioningly.  

“He came through first and immediately went somewhere.”  

Worried that something might have happened to Seo Do-jun or that the situation was urgent, Shinjo spread his magic widely to scan the surroundings.  

Surprisingly, battles were raging in multiple directions.  

Before he could even guess their identities, Rahf sensed the overwhelming deathly aura first.  

“The stench of death is thick here.”  

At Rahf’s words, the Divine Sword immediately informed Choi Kang-soo that the area was swarming with undead monsters.  

Just as Choi Kang-soo was about to relay what he heard, Rahf figured it out first.  

“This entire forest is teeming with undead. And this familiar energy… It’s the same one we faced in the Khetalu Plains.”  

Rahf, who had joined the Khetalu Plains battle late, clearly remembered Luam—the true Undead Lord.  

It was the ideal state Rahf aspired to reach, so he could never forget it. (Though he had no desire to become a Lich himself.)  

“Let’s figure out what’s going on first.”  

Though worried about Seo Do-jun’s sudden disappearance, Choi Kang-soo’s anxiety and tension spiked when he realized the dimensional gate had opened right in the heart of enemy territory.  

Following his words, the group hurried toward the nearest battlefield.  

Hundreds of undead monsters—familiar ones from the Khetalu Plains—were attacking a single human. And shockingly—  

“Rakun?!”  

The one fighting the undead alone was Rakun, who was supposed to be protecting Earth.  

CRACK!  

Rakun, who had just crushed a Bone Ogre’s skull with his shield, wore a complicated expression upon seeing Choi Kang-soo and the others.  

“Why’s he making that face?”  

Sure, it was awkward, but shouldn’t he be happy to see them after so long?  

“Let’s deal with the undead first, then talk.”  

At Shinjo’s suggestion, Choi Kang-soo nodded and swung the Divine Sword, imbued with holy power, in a wide horizontal arc.  

SWOOSH—SLASH!  

A blinding light fanned out like a peacock’s tail, sweeping away the undead monsters.  

Rakun let out a hollow laugh at the sight of Choi Kang-soo annihilating every undead in sight with a single strike.  

“Don’t just laugh. What the hell is going on?”  

Instead of answering, Rakun glanced around and asked,  

“Where’s Kassal?”  

“Uncle is—!”  

Choi Kang-soo’s words were cut off.  

An overwhelming pressure of magic began crushing not just him, but everyone else.  

“Which one of you is the human called Seo Do-jun?”  

A red-haired handsome man—Vipiens—appeared in midair, looking down at Choi Kang-soo’s group.  

***

“Die—!”  

Though he screamed in fury, his target remained unharmed.  

Even after taking a direct hit from a dark magic blast, the enemy blocked it perfectly with just a single sword.  

Luam’s sudden attack had been unexpected, but Seo Do-jun wasn’t one to be wounded so easily.  

Shielding Gloria behind him, Seo Do-jun deflected the dark magic blast and smirked.  

“Were you in a hurry?”  

He taunted Luam, who stood in his skeletal form without even a robe. But Luam only replied coldly, unfazed by the provocation.  

“I told you before—I’ll kill you with my own hands. Today’s the day.”  

As he spoke, Luam gathered magic.  

Ratio is dead.  

The World Tree Root Bow still in Gloria’s grasp.  

The plan had failed.  

In fact, it had only deepened the rift between him and Vipiens. He had to admit it—he’d acted recklessly.  

‘Impatience led to this mess.’  

He’d been swayed by Ratio’s insistence that the bow was all they needed.  

If only he’d waited quietly for Seo Do-jun…  

At least Ratio wouldn’t have died so meaninglessly.  

‘Poor Barhaut. Trusting a half-baked Lich like you… No wonder he’s falling.’  

Vipiens’s earlier words kept echoing in Luam’s mind.  

Given the current situation, they weren’t wrong.  

If he’d forced the Six Seats to hunt Seo Do-jun together from the start—  

‘Then…’  

At least they wouldn’t have been picked off one by one.  

No matter how strong Seo Do-jun was, four of the Six Seats wouldn’t have died. Even if some had been sacrificed, Seo Do-jun wouldn’t have walked away unscathed.  

It was all due to complacency.  

Luam vowed not to repeat the same mistake this time.  

“Vipiens—!”  

Instead of foolishly trying to fight Seo Do-jun alone in a fit of rage, Luam roared Vipiens’s name.  

At the same time, he summoned all the undead monsters he’d spread throughout the forest.  

In an instant, thousands of undead emerged from the ground, surrounding Seo Do-jun and Gloria. Among them were Deathsparrows and Dragon Bone Knights—foes they’d faced in the Khetalu Plains.  

“Calling for your mommy now?”  

Seo Do-jun mocked Luam, but inwardly, he was tense.  

‘I need to finish this before Vipiens arrives!’  

When Seo Do-jun had exited the dimensional gate, he’d sensed a Transcendent’s murderous aura and rushed over immediately.  

It had been Ratio, and Gloria had been in danger—thankfully, he wasn’t too late.  

Earlier, there had only been one Transcendent’s aura—Ratio’s. But now, there was another.  

An overwhelmingly powerful presence.  

No need to ask—it was Vipiens.  

Luam, instead of fighting alone, had called for Vipiens to secure an advantage.  

Seo Do-jun couldn’t afford to let his guard down.  

He gathered magic at the tip of his sword.  

Vandeyan Family Swordsmanship  

Sixth Form: Esleshunepe Fluvia Trigono!  

-A Rain of Triangular Stars Like Falling Meteors-  

Just like in the Khetalu Plains—  

Triangular stars rained down upon the earth once more.  

BOOM! BOOM! CRASH!  

Luam, not about to be caught off guard twice, quickly chanted a spell.  

As his grating voice completed the incantation, he stretched his bony fingers toward the sky.  

SHWAAAAA—!  

A net of darkness spread across the air.  

Though it consumed an enormous amount of magic, its power was undeniable.  

The triangular stars, which seemed capable of smashing anything, were helplessly torn apart upon hitting the dark net.  

A few broke through and obliterated some undead, but their numbers had clearly dwindled, making Seo Do-jun frown.  

As he raised his sword for a second attack, he suddenly clicked his tongue and sheathed it.  

The commotion he’d caused was enough.  

He’d gone for the most certain strike, knowing Vipiens would sense it—and Luam had blocked it.  

He’d been about to strike again, but the presence he assumed was Vipiens was approaching at terrifying speed.  

The undead no longer mattered.  

Seo Do-jun decided to wait calmly for Vipiens.  

Luam, also sensing Vipiens’s approach, stepped back, as if conserving energy.  

“So you’re Seo Do-jun—the human called Kassal.”  

Vipiens appeared before him as if teleporting. Seo Do-jun studied him slowly.  

Though he took human form, Vipiens was an Ancient Dragon who had lived for nearly ten thousand years.  

And he was at the peak of a Dragon’s prime—overflowing with confidence.  

‘…He’s strong. Stronger than anything I’ve faced so far.’  

The longer Seo Do-jun looked at Vipiens, the more his entire body tensed on instinct.  

A primal urge for survival stirred within him.  

Honestly, the emotions Vipiens evoked in him were far more intense than what he’d felt with Barhaut.  

Facing Barhaut had left him crushed under a sense of powerlessness.  

But with Vipiens, just standing opposite him made his heart pound as if it would burst from his chest.  

It was proof of how much Seo Do-jun had grown—now standing shoulder-to-shoulder with such powerhouses.  

“Impressive.”  

Vipiens couldn’t help but marvel at Seo Do-jun as well.  

He’d never expected a human to reach such heights.  

There were humans across the planets who boasted about being Dragon Slayers, but at best, they’d only hunted dragons that had barely left infancy or those weakened after long slumbers.  

Even then, it took dozens or hundreds of humans working together to achieve such feats.  

But the man before him was different.  

He possessed power enough to slay most Dragons alone.  

Above all, Seo Do-jun was on a completely different level even compared to other Transcendents of human origin.  

Had he truly broken the limits of his species?  

That was why Vipiens’s admiration was genuine.  

“I only need to kill Barhaut.”  

Seo Do-jun implied there was no need for them to fight.  

If possible, he truly wanted to avoid battling Vipiens.  

Not just because the outcome was uncertain, but also because Vipiens had once shown him mercy.  

Even if it had been mere caprice, Seo Do-jun felt it warranted at least one attempt at negotiation.  

“Do as you wish.”  

Vipiens nodded indifferently, as if Barhaut’s death meant nothing to him.  

“Then you’ll let me and my group leave peacefully?”  

Vipiens scoffed at the question.  

“That’s not happening. Whether you kill Barhaut or not is up to you—it’s none of my concern. But I will kill you.”  

“So you’re standing in my way after all.”  

“Interpret it however you want. The result won’t change.”  

His oath as a Dragon Lord prevented him from allowing Seo Do-jun to liberate the Guardian Planets, but more than that—it was curiosity and competitiveness.  

Letting a human who’d reached his level just walk away?  

No Dragon, not just Vipiens, would ever allow it.  

“Our positions leave us no choice.”  

As Seo Do-jun raised his sword, Vipiens smiled faintly, as if approving his stance.  

Just as Vipiens was about to lose himself in the excitement—the first he’d felt in ages—the undead monsters behind Seo Do-jun suddenly charged.  

Vipiens’s face turned icy, his eyes blazing with fury.  

Space tore open above them, and twenty Golems crashed onto the ground with thunderous THUDs.  

CRUNCH! BOOM! SMASH!  

Some Golems trampled the undead charging at Seo Do-jun, while the rest began ruthlessly crushing the surrounding monsters.  

“Vipiens! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”  

Luam shouted in rage as his undead were annihilated without mercy.  

“If you interfere in my fight, I’ll do the same to you. Sit back and watch quietly.”  

A warning filled with deadly intent.  

Luam trembled with humiliation but didn’t back down.  

“Vipiens! YOU’LL REGRET THIS—!”  

BOOM!  

Luam’s body was sent flying, slamming into the ground.  

“Final warning. One more interruption, and I’ll go to Barhaut myself to rip out your Life-Force Vessel and shatter it.”  

Vipiens’s tone made it clear he meant every word. Luam could no longer speak.  

But his green eyes still burned with unyielding fury.  

With the surroundings now cleared, Vipiens spread his hands lightly and looked at Seo Do-jun.  

“No more interruptions. Shall we begin?”  

When no reply came, he added,  

“I’ll start lightly, then.”  

With a wave of his hand—  

GRRRRR—!  

A massive, flaming sphere began descending toward Seo Do-jun’s head.  

“Lightly? Of course… He’s on another level.”  

Seo Do-jun was stunned. A spell that would take even an Archmage tremendous time and effort was cast by Vipiens as easily as breathing.  

Gripping his sword tightly, Seo Do-jun raised it toward the meteor hurtling toward him.