REAPER SCANS
Swordmaster’s Youngest Son
[Translator – Junseo]
[Proofreader – Valirius]
Volume 10 Chapter 370 - The Reason They Seek Temar’s Tomb (2)
The blood of Rick and his men spread out in long, snake-like streams across the ground. This only transpired after Rick’s death.
Jin shook his head.
“Transforming the body? You mean like a Living Golem?”
“Similar, but a little different. The ancient dark mages called it demonification.”
“I always think so, but you really do know all sorts of things.”
Jin said, shrugging his shoulders.
‘Although she never taught it to me, she was definitely capable of using quite powerful dark magic. Though, I don’t know if she can use it at present.’
The Valeria in his previous life learned dark magic through the Hister succession temples.
However, because it was so dangerous and required a hideous catalyst to use, she never bothered with it herself and never taught it to her only disciple.
She believed that dark magic should go extinct.
“Now it’s demons after Living Golems. Annoying. I’m getting involved with these types of people too often. Rick Helter, I thought you were honorable, but to think you’d stab me in the back like this.”
Showing mercy by allowing him to say his farewell to his emperor now seemed laughable.
Jin assumed that they were obviously warriors with pride and self-respect. Anyone else would’ve thought the same thing, seeing how they were able to maintain their will and loyalty even in the face of an overwhelming enemy.
‘The honor of serving even after death, huh…? Rick Helter knew this would happen.’
Looking back, the first time he encountered an enemy that transformed suddenly was when he was a cadet.
Starting with the guards who transformed into Living Golems during his mission in Kollon, Jin had often dealt with victims of magic experiments.
“The magic circle isn’t perfect.”
Jin nodded at Valeria’s words.
“I agree. It’s slow to activate, and even from a glance, I can tell it's unnecessarily complicated.”
“That usually happens when one tries to force a magic that doesn’t work to actually work.”
As the two said, the magic circle drawn with the blood of the guards was unfinished.
In other words, it was magic that was still in the experimental stage.
‘The fact that they used the imperial guard as test subjects means that the Vermont royal family is pretty confident in this magic circle.’
Putting aside the ethical concerns, the imperial guard was definitely ranked the highest among the armed forces Vermont had.
They can’t have used them as mere test subjects. Jin judged that Vermont had perfected the magic called ‘demonification’.
And, unlike with the Living Golems, Rick and his men weren’t unwilling victims. They were just disgusting human beings who participated in experiments under the pretense of loyalty to the royal family.
While his anger rose, he also felt that this was actually a good thing.
‘I gained some unexpected information. Kinzelo is in the process of creating a Living Golem, the ‘Master’, and since Zipfel is continuing with their Living Golem experiments, I figured Vermont was doing something similar. To think I’d see such definitive evidence, though.’
Suddenly, something crossed Jin’s mind.
‘Vermont is looking for Temar’s body…’
The body of Temar, the reason the imperial guard came to Wantaramo Forest.
‘I was wondering what they planned to do with it… Demonification, huh? So they plan to use Temar’s body to create a demon?’
Crack…
He clenched his teeth. If that were true, then as a Runcandel, he couldn’t ignore it.
It wasn’t enough to destroy the royal family.
But of course, it wasn’t certain. After all, he wasn’t aware of any magic that used the ‘body of the dead’ as an ingredient.
But because ancient dark magic was something completely unknown to him, it was certainly possible.
‘Does the clan know about Vermont’s demons?’
Either way, it didn’t matter.
Even if the clan knew, they wouldn’t have told him.
It was obvious that Rosa, Joshua, and their underlings would continue to ostracize him whenever they wanted and in whatever way best benefited them.
So it didn’t matter if the clan knew about the demons or not.
‘I’ll use this information before the clan does.’
Jin already had an idea as to how to use the information about Vermont’s demons.
‘Whether they plan to use Temar’s body to perfect their demonification, or for another reason. From the moment they started secretly searching for it, they already committed a grave sin against Runcandel. I’ll make them pay the price.’
Boom—!
Jin slammed his fist onto the ground. The dirt was mercilessly blown apart by his aura-clad fist.
He was breaking the magic circle.
“…Why would a mage think to break apart a magic circle with their fist?”
He didn’t use his fist intending to dispel the magic circle. But because it was magic neither Jin nor Valeria had ever seen before, he tried it just in case.
“Well, it’s an unstable magic circle, so I was thinking just in case… But as expected, it didn’t work.”
Even though the ground was completely torn apart, the blood continued to form an ominous magic circle. The blood wriggling around looked like a swarm of red bugs.
“We can’t destroy the evidence, Aria Owlheart.”
“Then why would you try and destroy the magic circle?”
“I figured I could just stop the magic and take their corpses. If I left them to you, or some other brilliant mage, they could’ve easily found out that the imperial guard was using transformative dark magic… Oh, dear.”
Jin turned his head, cutting off his words.
Spasm.
Crack!
It was because he heard the strange sound of flesh and bone twisting.
“…It seems like taking their corpses is going to be difficult.”
Jin spoke, stepping in front of Valeria.
The corpses were swelling and shrinking at a rapid rate.
A horrifying sight that would make anyone with a weak stomach shudder with nausea just from looking at the sight.
On top of that, the corpses with their heads cut off were picking up their heads and reattaching them. They were swollen so hideously that it made even Jin and Valeria feel sick.
There was no need for them to keep looking at that sight.
Swing!
Jin ran toward them and again beheaded the corpse that had been reattaching it. The corpse fell forward, losing its head and hands once again, but now that his opponent was no longer human, Jin confirmed the kill.
Before the body could even touch the ground, he swung Bradamante. As if ink had been spilled, black aura engulfed the body.
Flesh and bones discolored red poured out. Even a high-rank monster with super-fast regeneration wouldn’t be able to even dream of breathing again once it was turned into mince meat like that.
But as if he had no intention of stopping, Jin used his mana to form flames and set what was left of the corpse on fire.
The meat that had started burning brightly turned into ash in the blink of an eye. Valeria used her magic to remove them alongside Jin.
In an instant, three corpses that were about to come back to life were disposed of.
However, the remaining three were already completing their transformation. The corpse that had finished transforming first even pointed its sword at Jin.
Clang—!
Jin turned his body and blocked the sword.
The shock transmitted to his wrist was quite heavy. It was definitely a strength that was superior to the guards he’d faced just before.
Now that their transformation was complete, it was natural that they would be stronger. Even though their attacks had gotten stronger, Jin didn’t think it was anything to be nervous about. Unless they were holding back…
The characteristic scimitar of Vermont caught his eye before the transformed corpse did. Jin immediately recognized it as Division Leader Rick Helter’s sword, but upon looking at Rick’s face…
Jin couldn’t help but momentarily flinch.
‘He has no face? And this appearance…’
When the magic circle was completed and Jin saw the corpses swelling and shrinking repeatedly, he naturally assumed that their appearances would be ghastly. Similar to the Living Golems and the incomplete ‘Master’.
But that wasn’t the case.
The corpses that had completed their transformation looked like human figures carved from marble. Though, because of their smooth texture, as well as the lack of hair and facial features, their faces looked eerie.
Like a doll stuffed with cotton, with only the armature complete.
“Surely you aren’t intelligent, right?”
Rick Helter, who had undergone the demonification, didn’t reply. He had no mouth, so he obviously had no way of speaking.
Though he had no eyes, whether he moved by feel or had some other way, it appeared he could observe his surroundings.
Rick calmly created distance between them. Meanwhile, the other two also finished their transformations and began to take up positions near Rick.
‘I don’t know about intelligence, but it doesn’t look like he’s acting solely on instinct like a wild animal.’
The imperial guards actually looked more composed now than they did before they were demonified.
Completely different from the other victims of the biological experiments that Jin had seen so far.
Like how they could use weapons. Though it was incomplete, Vermont’s demonification was miles ahead of Zipfel’s Living Golems and Kinzelo’s ‘Master’ golem.
Whoosh…!
Bradamante’s shadow energy got thicker.
“Jin.”
“Yeah?”
“The three demons you killed just now burned up too quickly. I think they’ve been designed so that if they’re damaged beyond a certain point, their bodies are broken down so no evidence remains.”
“So you’re saying to capture one alive?”
“If possible. I think it’s best to get some evidence, like you said. If you can’t capture them, then give me a signal before you kill them. I’ll preserve them using mana…”
Jin nodded. It was possible with Valeria’s magic.
The demons rushed toward Jin, releasing their sword aura.
It seemed that the command ‘the forest must not be damaged’ was deeply ingrained into their minds. They were only using sword aura that was condensed so as to not damage the forest.
Slice!
With a single stroke of the sword, the first demon’s waist was cut.
The demon had definitely blocked Jin’s strike. They weren’t so weak that they couldn’t block his sword swinging straight at them.
That’s why the demon couldn’t understand why his torso was falling to the ground.
It was because in their initial battle, Jin hadn’t used Shadow Blade at all.
The strike that cleaved through the demon’s waist was Shadow Blade 2nd Form, Shear. The moment Bradamante was blocked, a blade of shadow energy extended from behind like a mirror reflection and cut through his waist.
Just as he was about to attack the second demon…
Whoosh—!
From across the forest, a few beams of light flew in out of nowhere, targeting Jin, Valeria, and the demons.
While Jin struck the beam aiming at Valeria’s neck and counterattacked with his sword aura, the demons were only able to barely avoid the beam by rolling on the ground.
“Zipfel, the second uninvited guest has arrived.”
Again, he couldn’t help but think that this was actually for the best.
Since he planned to take care of all the pursuers before entering the tomb.
“It looks like you might have to fight while protecting those demons. If Zipfel kills the demons without signaling to me, we might not be able to preserve the evidence.”
“I saved my strength just for that. So show me your skills as well, Aria.”
Reaper Scans
Translator – Junseo
Proofreader – Valirius
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Read the webtoon on https://reaperscans.com/comics/4050-swordmasters-youngest-son/
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