The Sword Emperor Transmigrates-Chapter 289

“This is it... my final move...! I, Drake, will not let my adventure end in defeat—!!”

The sound that echoed in Leonard’s mind was that of an adventurer’s roar.

“It is the role of a senior to protect those who come after him. The research and papers I’ve left in my personal quarters—I’ll leave them in your hands. But I’ll be taking the glory of this moment for myself. You’ll have to work hard if you want to live up to my name.”

The will of the Grand Magus, who was prepared to meet his end for the sake of his juniors.

“Do you think that boy Leonard saw my sword? It would be nice if I taught him just one more lesson before leaving.”

“He saw it. He has the eyes of a dragon, after all.”

The faith of the ancestors, who left with their thoughts on their descendants, worrying until the very end.

―A!

The will to continue existing, born from the wishes of the Grand Magus Simon Magus and upheld by a magical lifeform that chose to help not as a complete human but as an incomplete one.

In the blink of an eye, Leonard was able to understand it all.

What was a human?

The adventurer answered: Even if his own life ended, the journey would remain, and all will remember it.

The mage answered: It was a cycle of passing down the knowledge accumulated over a lifetime, from master to disciple, from senior to junior.

The two swordsmen answered: They were those who left, believing that even without them, the world would still prosper.

The ultimate sorcery, fallen into incomplete humanity, answered:

Yes, humans...! What are humans...?

Strangely, the answer resonated exactly with the thought Leonard had just had. Had he tried to realize it on his own, he could have struggled for a thousand years and still not come to this revelation.

The voice of Adam Kadmon intersected with Leonard’s realization.

Humans were...

―The future.

The future, indeed!

A species that sought for eternity but in a way completely different from immortal beings. That was the strength and inherent nature of humankind.

Adventurer Drake, Grand Magus Antonius, Archduke of Sword Declan, and Ancestor Cardenas were no different.

The adventurer’s passion, wanting to leave behind a name through their achievements in the Outer God’s subjugation, was the future. The mage’s sacrifice, passing down a lifetime of research to the next generation, was the future. The swordsmen’s belief that the world would be fine without them was the future.

As Leonard pondered this, his mind suddenly cleared.

Among the divine beasts that symbolized the five elements, the one that reigned supreme was the Yellow Dragon, but depending on the interpretation, it was often replaced with the Qilin or even humans.

Among the legends of ancient times, one of the sacred beings was called Qi if male and Lin if female. Collectively, it was known as the Qilin.

When a virtuous sage was born, it would appear as a sign, but when misfortune was about to strike, it would appear as a corpse.

In ancient times, when a hunter caught a Qilin, Confucius lamented that this could be a sign that the heavenly order was collapsing. The Qilin was a spiritual creature with great symbolic meaning.

Whether the Qilin truly existed or Confucius’s tale was true mattered little. What was important was that, just as Leonard and Adam Kadmon had realized that humanity’s essence was the future, the divine beast Qilin also symbolized the future.

Among the three central figures in the Yin-Yang and Five Elements, if two of them symbolized the future, then wouldn’t the Yellow Dragon also represent it?

The Five Elements Theory was an explanation for the cyclical nature of all things in this world, and cycles and stasis were not the same. Unlike a wheel, the world in motion always moved forward.

While the Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, and Black Tortoise guided the world’s movements, the Yellow Dragon was the one who determined the direction and purpose.

Upon this realization, Leonard finally awakened to the final deification.

That’s why only the Emperor of the Central Plains, who controls the future, can wear the Yellow Dragon Robe! To have the Mandate of Heaven means possessing the authority to lead the world as one pleases!

Groarrrr———!!!

A dragon’s roar resonated in his Mindscape, which was depleted of both internal energy and mental energy like a drought-ridden field.

The Yellow Dragon’s Qi was awakening. With all the Qi of the Four Symbols expended, no force remained to hinder or complicate the awakening. Though it was unintentional, it was a fortunate twist of fate.

The energy of the Yellow Dragon swept across all eight extraordinary meridians and twelve meridian channels and intensified, eventually piercing through the lower and middle dantian. It surged upward toward the upper dantian. If any resistance had occurred, a massive explosion would have surely torn Leonard apart, leaving nothing left.

...It’s coming!

This was different from the previous deifications of the Qi of the Four Symbols Leonard had witnessed.

The deification of the Yellow Dragon meant the completion of the One Origin Five Elements Cultivation Method, and with it, a path to the Divine Throne would open. Even with Leonard’s exceptional talents, this was not something that could be completed in mere minutes.

Crack.

Like eggshells cracking, cracks spread across Leonard’s skin, both large and small. The difference between the Demigod Tier and True God level and the state of the Transcendence Tier and Demigod Tier was even more staggering.

Even Leonard, who had reached the higher tier of the Demigod Tier, could not withstand this transformation. It was a complete rebirth, not just improving his muscles like metamorphosis did, but reconstructing his very soul. After the body and spirit became one, he would enter a conceptual realm where every movement would influence the laws of the world.

―Oh? Did you succeed!? Finally!

Hades, who had been bracing for a humiliating defeat, reversed his attitude upon seeing Leonard, who had entered a meditative trance.

Exhausting the last of its energy, Crom Dubh tried to slow Leonard’s rebirth and engaged in a desperate struggle to delay Leonard’s ascension to the Deification Tier by even a moment. The contest was not about victory or defeat but about buying time.

―This is a battle of time...! It’s been so long since I’ve felt this blood-chilling excitement!

Even during rebirth, there was no chance of interference from those in the Demigod Tier in the realm of the True Gods. Either Crom Dubh would become a true great Evil God and prevent Leonard’s ascension or Leonard would reach the Divine Throne first and strike down Crom Dubh.

A final contest, with the fate of the world hanging in the balance, would be determined by who could fully achieve divinity first. Just as everyone watching thought this, a final interruption occurred.

―■■■■■■■■!!!

Balor, who had lost half his head from Adam Kadmon’s final attack, intervened. He was the one variable that could halt Leonard’s breakthrough.

At the sight of Balor, Hades’s eyes trembled. Even though the summoning ritual was incomplete and he had lost over half his power and existence, Balor was an opponent that could not be stopped, even while delaying Crom Dubh’s rebirth.

“Could it be the Evil Eye of Balor? I have no idea where he got his eye, but he’s not someone to overlook.”

“Fighting a dying creature with no hope of victory... This is tarnishing our reputation as Cardenas Knight Commanders.”

“Still, at least only one other enemy remains. If more than two survived, they wouldn’t have lasted even a minute.”

“I know it’s tense, but enough with the chatter! He’s coming!”

The moment they sensed Balor’s approach, those who had withdrawn from the battlefield rushed back in—the Demigod Tier fighters stepped forward to block his path.

That didn’t mean they were unscathed. Even excluding the Outer Gods who had descended in their True God forms, these fighters had already fought their way through the apostles, cutting down more than a dozen Demigod Tier foes.

Among them stood the three knight commanders of Cardenas, as well as Cruella.

“Until Leonard opens his eyes, we must hold Balor back—!”

With unwavering resolve, the four Demigods summoned every last ounce of their strength.

* * *

The battlefield, relatively unnoticed, had already turned into a hellscape in the middle of the plains where the allied forces and the monstrous hordes from the outer dimension clashed head-on. Despite humanity’s overwhelming numerical advantage, the battle was starting to turn against them.

Every time a knight or wizard fell, dozens or even hundreds of monsters were destroyed, but it felt increasingly meaningless. Unlike humanity, whose numbers were finite, the monsters’ numbers seemed endless.

Outside of Crom Dubh, four other Outer Gods had invaded the Underworld. Even without Surtr summoning his subordinates, the three Outer Gods had likely mobilized all the servant races within the dimension they ruled, and they easily numbered in the millions. Even a million monsters seemed trivial in comparison.

“Don’t go past the Golden Dragon knights! You’ll only last a second!”

“Damn it! No matter how many we kill, there’s no end to them!”

“Check your condition thoroughly! If your aura has dropped to a quarter, pull back and switch out!”

Even the most skilled individuals who could face off against a hundred or a thousand would eventually wither away when fighting ten thousand or a hundred thousand foes. The elite strike force, composed of over a thousand Transcendence Tier fighters, still could not completely overwhelm the outer-dimensional forces.

“We’re pushing them back with a full-volley assault! Frontline, brace for impact!”

At the booming command from the rear, the knights lowered their center of gravity, planting their legs firmly to avoid being swept away by the impending shockwave.

The magic corps, carefully selected by the Arcane Society and the Mage Tower, had spent three years honing battlefield magic to perfection. Dozens, even hundreds, of mages each played their part in assembling fragments of a grand spell formation—until, at last, a Class 8 wide-area magic circle was completed.

Against the creatures of the outer dimension, the world’s native magic was significantly weakened. However, by incorporating the formula provided by Hades and drawing power from the Underworld itself, they were able to more than compensate for this loss.

They unleashed a war spell that could only be performed within the domain of the afterlife.

Orpheus’s Grief

A single wave surged forth from the formation of the magic corps, carrying the crushing force of a tidal wave.

Even those who weren’t directly in its path—mighty Transcendence Tier fighters in their own right—felt an involuntary shudder run down their spines at its sheer power.

Despite its name, “Grief,” the spell had little to do with mind-affecting magic. It was a devastating wide-area annihilation spell that weaponized pure resonance, harnessing destructive vibrations and sonic waves.

BOOOOOOM!!

Had they failed to precisely control the spell’s effective range, even their own forces could have been caught in it. The shockwave had the terrifying potential to bypass physical defenses entirely, pulverizing everything from the inside out.

The otherworldly creatures, with their bizarre anatomies—some with no discernible internal organs, others whose brain structure defied logic—were still powerless before the spell’s molecular-level destruction. Many of them convulsed violently, vomiting blood and fragments of their own innards from the gaping holes that had been carved through their bodies. Some creatures simply melted into formless puddles of flesh.

“Now! Even one step forward is enough—push with everything you’ve got!”

“Do you hear me!”

Seizing the moment, the knights pressed forward, their swords bursting with aura-blades that gleamed like a second sunrise. The concentrated essence of destruction was denser and sharper than even supreme magic.

The creatures that faced the radiant blades were shattered without exception.

At the forefront of this charge, the Golden Dragon knights carved a path with absurd momentum, clearing over a kilometer of the battlefield in mere moments. It was the devastating result of their Eighteen Arhats Formation, a combat formation composed of two interlocking gears made up of eighteen warriors.

“Hah... Ever since we mastered this formation, I haven’t once felt out of breath or exhausted during battle. But this... this feels like my lungs are on fire.”

The vice-commander of the Golden Dragon knights, Una, exhaled heavily, a wry smile playing on her lips. And with good reason.

Of all the knights in the formation, only one still had the strength to spare for conversation—and he nodded in weary agreement.

“Back in the southern seas, our attack power alone was enough to be threatening. But I never truly felt the limits of our endurance until now.”

“Even after we cut down over a hundred thousand enemies, their numbers don’t seem to have dwindled at all. Just as the commander warned us... we must accept the fact that their forces are infinite."

As long as they weren’t facing a Demigod Tier opponent, there was nothing the Eighteen Arhats Formation couldn’t cut down. Their formation remained unbroken, their strategy unstoppable. From the moment the battle had begun, the Golden Dragon knights had fought like unstoppable war machines, crushing the otherworldly army and holding the frontlines.

“To think that even the stamina and aura of the Golden Dragon knights could be worn down purely by numbers... It’s unbelievable.”

At this rate, the Golden Dragon knights wouldn’t last much longer. If they lost even the minimum amount of aura required to sustain their formation, they wouldn’t be able to hold off the endless horde any longer.

Which meant a decision had to be made. A power lingered within them, born from a failed ritual of awakening. Their failure to become vessels was a stain upon their legacy, and now they had to make a choice, regardless of whether it led to a blessing or a curse.

For the commanders fighting beyond, for their comrades, for the fate of the world.

For the one dream they had long abandoned.

“...I never thought I’d be able to make this choice without any regret.”

Una smiled. Her body began to change, a sign that she had already steeled herself. Her skin and eyes transformed, taking on reptilian traits as an overwhelming presence radiated from her.

A Dragonian. She had abandoned even the last remnants of her human form, drawing closer to that of a dragon, crossing a threshold from which there was no return.

She did not turn to convince or persuade her comrades—there was no need.

Rummmmmble.

One by one, all thirty-six Golden Dragon knights revealed their deepest, most hidden nature, the “stain” on their bloodline. They regained every last drop of their nearly depleted aura and stamina, ascending to a level perilously close to that of Demigods.

They activated their Dragon Blood’s ability, the power Leonard had known about but never forced them to use. Horns sprouted from their heads. Golden scales erupted across their bodies. Their armor and helmets—unable to contain the transformation—were torn apart, falling to the ground in shattered fragments.

To any observer, they no longer looked human. Some would call them monsters. Even if no one said it to their faces, there would be those who shunned them for what they had become.

But none of that mattered. For the Golden Dragon knights, forsaking their comrades and leaving them to die was a far greater betrayal than clinging to the hollow pursuit of an illusion.

To abandon their brothers for the sake of keeping their human appearances? That would have been far more unworthy of a knight. Far worse than turning into something that was no longer human—turning into dragons.

“Forward, Golden Dragons! No hesitation! No regrets!”

For their commanders, for their comrades, for the world, for the dream they had long since given up.

“For victory! For the glory of the Golden Dragons!”

The strongest knightly order in history charged forward like an unstoppable force.