The Sword Emperor Transmigrates

Chapter 160

Even as Leonard felt the power beginning to brew within him, the concept of Draconic Words still seemed odd to him. They were certainly a quintessential power that belonged to dragons, but that ability had never appeared among the numerous dragon traits passed down through the Cardenas bloodline. It couldn’t be helped—they still didn’t fully understand the principles behind how it worked.

How could they possibly reclaim the power when they didn’t even know which organs it engaged? Based on what Leonard knew, he was the only person in the history of the Cardenas who awakened this ability.

The Commanders might go crazy again. He could already picture what would happen even though his eyes were open. A sudden laugh escaped his mouth. Then the tension of the battlefield returned to him, and he fixed his eyes on the tongue Demoniacs.

His instincts told him that he could only use up to three words. If he tried to say more, the words lost their power.

“Hoo.”

In a situation like this, there was only one command he should use.

It wasn’t “wake up” or “take heart.” He had to get rid of the root of the attack. Leonard faced his targets and took in a deep breath. n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Shut—Your—Mouth!”

Leonard shouted with all his strength, and the sound of his voice echoed all around.

In an underground cavern, for the first time in centuries, perhaps millennia, words of power were spoken in the Middle Realm.

It wasn’t like the roar of a tiger, or even of the Azure Dragon.

It was simply a superior being commanding inferior ones. In essence, Draconic Words were based on that hierarchical relationship.

“——!?”

“—!”

“———?!”

The tongues shut their mouths against their will, and they made muffled sounds that could not escape their lips. Not even noble-class Demoniacs could dare resist the effects of Draconic Words.

If there was one thing Leonard lacked, it was the ability to control who it affected. After all, it was his first time using this ability. It would have been even more puzzling if only some people heard his resonant voice and others didn’t.

The Demoniacs were temporarily blocked off from their powers, and even the Wickeline mages’ incantations were interrupted. Though the effect only lasted a few seconds, they were flustered because they didn’t know what had caused it.

Of course, the person who broke the universal silence was the same one who’d summoned it.

“Looks like I’m a pretty good matchup for you guys,” Leonard mocked, suddenly entering the monsters’ range. Now that they lost their words of power, they were already several times weaker.

Skanda’s Demon Felling Sword

First Form: Black-and-White Distinction

He swiftly closed the distance and cut down one tongue Demoniac in an instant, spraying tar-like blood everywhere.

It seemed unreal that a noble-class Demoniac was so easily killed, especially to those who knew a lot about them.

“Men.” Leonard didn’t even turn around to look at the knights behind him. He ordered, “Attack.”

“Yes, sir!” they shouted in unison.

The 330 Black Dragon Knights of the Seventh Division obeyed and charged at the 3 remaining tongues. Leonard was leading them to victory, and his power and determination inspired them to push forward.

The forced silence commanded by Draconic Words had already lifted, but now that the knights were confident in their triumph, they no longer wavered under psychic attacks.

Similarly, the loss of confidence in their weapon made the Demoniacs weaker.

If we continue like this, it won’t be long before the battle is over, Leonard thought.

As he pushed back the monsters with the other knights, he turned to look at the two Knight Commanders, who were farther away now.

He had to admit that he was a little disappointed that he wouldn’t be able to watch their earth-shattering fight.

* * *

Shamos, a brain Demoniac and a member of the Nine Hells’ royal family, had fallen into a crisis he did not understand.

“■■■? ■■■■...?”

His plan had been perfect. He had moved up the time of the invasion, took the Middle Realm’s troops by surprise, and released a large psychic shockwave when he stepped through the Hellgate, thus making his enemies collapse.

His strategy would have been flawless if the fight had unfolded in the same way it always did.

So how had he been cornered into a situation where he was the one trying to run away?

“■■■■■...!”

He didn’t understand how the inferior beings of the Middle Realm were standing their ground or who his two powerful enemies were.

Typically, there was only one opponent of his caliber, but this time, two of them had set a trap. Other than the brain, his body was mostly for show, but that didn’t mean the attack left him completely unscathed.

He had lost over half of his ectoplasm, so the effects of his psychic powers were slowly decreasing.

And his pursuers wouldn’t miss it.

Audrey noticed that the monster was growing weaker. “Looks like your attack wasn’t completely useless,” she said to Demian, who was running right beside her. “The intervals between its jumps are getting shorter, and the distances have also shortened a decent amount. We should be able to catch it after two more jumps.”

“Yeah. Just because it has supernatural powers doesn’t mean that it can use them an unlimited number of times. We’re pretty far from the battlefield now, so it won’t be able to Consume either. We should crush it before it tries to pull something.”

“Mm.”

Audrey’s killing intent sharpened even more.

In terms of battle prowess, the hearts are more powerful, but the brains are much more abhorrent, she thought.

High-ranking Demoniacs had the most bizarre powers, but the brains’ ability to “Consume” was especially heinous.

They drained the souls of intelligent beings to recover their strength and could simultaneously use the empty shells as puppets. She couldn’t even count the number of men she had put to rest after they were Consumed.

It was also common for the brains to use the Consumed’s memories to hurt the reputation of their friends and family or to trick others into thinking the victim was still alive and begging for help. There had been multiple times when the brains made even veteran Black Dragon Knights hesitate for a moment before ambushing them.

Extermination

The unique trait that allowed her to extinguish anything in existence manifested as darkness and spilled out from her glaive. She thrust her glaive forward in a fascinating move.

She banished space.

It should be physically impossible, but she could do it because her unique trait bent the laws of nature. Several kilometers of distance were erased with a single thrust of her weapon, bringing them closer to their opponent.

“Oh please, you’re pushing yourself! I’m taking this one!” Demian swung his sword diagonally.

This monster had dodged One of Thousand before. It was a bad idea for the commander to concentrate his power on an attack that might not be successful. The best thing to do for now was to cut off its escape routes. Mirror Blade would likely do the trick.

Mirror Blade

Infinite Refraction Cage

Kaleidoscope

A beam of light shot out from his sword like lightning, going around and blocking Shamos’s way forward.

No, it wasn’t just forward. The light shot around in all directions, creating hundreds of threads. Before Shamos could react, he was trapped in a circle of light created by Demian’s sword.

“■■■■?!”

He was shocked by what the commander had done, considering that the Demoniac possessed psychic powers that could crush time and space.

Demian had cut through space in such a way that the two of them were confined to something like a subspace.

The natural laws would resist, so the cage wouldn’t last long, but until then, it would be impossible for the monster to escape. If Shamos recklessly tried to break out, he would be caught in the spatial current of the boundaries and shredded into pieces.

“All right, that’s enough running away,” Demian said, grinning. He had drawn up a space around them to create a fighting ring about a hundred meters in diameter.

But Audrey took a few steps forward and beat him to it.

“What? You’re going to do this alone?” Demian complained.

“Your help is appreciated. From here on out, I can do this alone.”

Even though Shamos was a powerful Demoniac as a Corps Commander, he wasn’t so powerful that two Knight Commanders had to team up to fight him. Besides, Demian had only come as backup. If he used up too much energy, he wouldn’t be able to do much with what came next.

Audrey stood confidently before the monster and raised her glaive high.

“Because if it actually fights me instead of running away, there is no chance I will lose.”

“■■■■■...!”

No matter how powerful she was, Audrey was still a member of an inferior species, but Shamos realized he had underestimated her. He mustered up all the power he had left.

The brain floating inside the transparent skull let out a disgusting shine, amplifying its psychic powers by several times and making it overflow. Time and space contorted around him.

This technique did not accelerate his processing speed but made the world slow down.

A single use of this ultimate mind art would kill a Transcendence Tier knight. He unleashed his power on Audrey.

“You rely on brute strength instead of technique.” She stood her ground and gave a coy smile. “Sorry, but that’s my thing.”

The Black Dragon Commander activated her unique trait, and the power of Extermination covered her entire body in something resembling plate armor.

In principle, it was the same thing as an augmented energy shield: covering oneself in strong offensive power also meant covering oneself in strong defensive power.

The jet-black plate armor was created based on such a simple, unsophisticated idea, but it easily nullified the psychic power that could bend time and space.

Shamos’s eyes went wide with fear and shock. Even in the Demonic Realm, he had never encountered anyone who could break through his power.

“You can block. You can dodge. You can counter.” Audrey lazily raised her glaive into the air as if she were out on a walk. “If you can, that is.”

As she brought her glaive down, the darkness seeping from the blade consumed Shamos whole, leaving no trace behind. The attack even damaged part of the Class 9 defensive spell array he was standing on.

One hit. One kill.

The monster had been doomed from the moment it chose to have a head-to-head battle, attested by the annihilation of one brain Demoniac.

Demian found himself gulping as his mouth went dry. I still get chills from her sheer power. I don’t even think my Mirror will stand a chance against the old woman’s attacks.

She and Wade, the Red Dragon Commander, truly were the most powerful among them.

It had been a long time since Demian had witnessed her might.

“Wow! You sure are lively, ma’am! The bastard was stupid for making a full-frontal assault in the first place, but I didn’t know you would finish it off with just one hit,” Demian said lightly.

However, Audrey’s glaive was still resting on her shoulder instead of being put away. “Didn’t you call me ‘old woman’? Why is it ‘ma’am’ all of a sudden?”

“O-Oh please. I only said that because Leonard was there. Would I really call you an old woman, ma’am? I’ve been following you since the day I joined the Seven Orders.”

“Indeed, I remember. You had a foul mouth back then too, so I gave you several warnings. But I see you never fixed it in the end.”

The air turned ominous, and Demian felt cold sweat forming. “U-Um, ma’am? You’re kidding, right?”

“I recall seeing this technique before. Kaleidoscope, was it? If I recall correctly, it creates a confinement that cannot be destroyed for at least five minutes, not even by its creator. Is that true?”

Demian felt a chill at the back of his neck.

Audrey saw his face go white and smiled coldly. “I expect that the battle will be over by the time we return. Even the tongue Demoniacs would struggle to turn the tide. If my men are expedient, I expect that there will only be a little over ten casualties.”

Since the Black Dragon Knights were often tasked with absorbing the damage at the front lines, so few casualties would be considered a huge victory, which was rare at this base.

Even though her words were something to rejoice about, Audrey’s menacing aura did not back down. As he realized he had dug his own grave, Demian shrank back.

Decades-old traumatic memories from the time before he rose to be the White Dragon Commander began to resurface.

“Remember this. You are also a commander now, so the children will not lose their respect for you,” she said as she took a step forward.

She was saying that she would be merciful and pummel him without leaving a trace.

Demian raised his sword. This was do-or-die.

He finally dropped the act that he had only put up as a reflex. “Damn you, old woman! You’re too violent! This is why your men always have their heads bowed and can’t even speak to you!”

“...I’ll make you bow your head too.”

Her face was expressionless as she dashed forward. At the same moment, Demian swung his sword. With no entrances or exits, an untimely duel unfolded inside Kaleidoscope.

Just as Audrey had predicted, the battle was already over by the time she started fighting Demian. However, the Black Dragon Knights could never guess what was happening while they were waiting for the two commanders to return. If they knew that the two were dueling over something so petty and found out how disgraceful they were, nothing good would come out of it.

“They’re taking longer than I expected,” Leonard muttered. He was in the same boat as the other knights.