The Sword Emperor Transmigrates-Chapter 290

The battle between the Outer God Balor, who had lost his Evil Eye, and the Demigods who stood against him began with a slash.

The single slash, repeated a thousand times, was layered with the power of infinite parallel reflections. If a single strike from a Demigod could carve through a mountain range, then a thousand strikes stacked together could carve an entirely new canyon into a rocky plain.

Parallel Infinite Fatal Strike

One of Thousand

The devastating slash from Demian’s blade tore diagonally across Balor’s upper body, sending forth a massive spray of blood.

Yet, the expressions of the other Demigods stiffened upon seeing the wound. Even after Balor was struck by One of Thousand, only a thin layer of muscle had been cut away. It wasn’t a fatal wound and wasn’t even a serious injury.

They immediately realized that, even though Balor had been battered countless times by Adam Kadmon and had his durability reduced significantly, his body still remained quite resistant to damage. Had he been at full strength, a Demigod’s attacks would have been almost meaningless against him.

“Don’t think about defeating him! Just stall for time!” Cruella shouted urgently, forming a series of hand seals and summoning hordes of Undead from her subspace.

Each and every Undead was at least at the Transcendence Tier or Class 7, yet before Balor, they were nothing more than toys.

Even if they could buy just a few seconds—no, even fractions of a second—it would be a miracle. But Cruella did not stop summoning her Undead.

“There’s plenty more where that came from...! I’ll burn through everything I’ve collected right here and now!”

A necromancer’s greatest strength lay in preparation. Unlike other mages who hoarded mana, artifacts, and scrolls, necromancers amassed and stored their Undead to bolster their combat abilities.

After centuries of meticulous accumulation, the sheer quantity of Cruella’s forces was five to six times greater than that of other mages at her level. Even if her strongest Undead were nothing more than ants before an Outer God of Balor’s caliber, a swarm of thousands of ants could still bite and tear at flesh, making it impossible to ignore.

Even for Balor, that held true.

“—Damn! Fall back!”

Wade was the first to sense the incoming danger. At his shout, waves of blood-red flames erupted from Balor. The power of flames was the second-most infamous of his authorities, after his Evil Eye.

Ancient records claimed that when Balor attacked the young Lugh Lamhfhata, the one prophesied to one day defeat him, he burned the sea itself to cinders, cutting off any hope of escape.

Though this power was of a slightly lower rank than his Evil Eye, its sheer range and destructive force were more than enough to qualify as a True God’s authority.

Extermination

Audrey’s glaive flared with an aura so deep it darkened the very air, forming a boundary that blocked the advancing flames. It was the activation of her unique trait known as Extermination—a force that erased all matter and phenomena.

Even Balor’s flames struggled to penetrate it, but something was off. Unlike before, her unique trait wavered. The difference in rank was simply too overwhelming. Even an ability focused entirely on one specific aspect was beginning to falter before such power.

Audrey blinked a few times, her eyes stinging from the heat.

“If this much is happening with just a wide-area attack and not even a direct attack... then even if I use every ounce of my strength, I still can’t take him head-on.”

“So if we take a direct hit, we die instantly. Got it.”

This was no ordinary fire. It wasn’t combustion as it existed in nature.

The flames created by Balor’s authority carried a toxic property. Even the slightest burn would cause flesh to rot and decay, ignoring physical durability altogether.

For a True God being of a similar level, such effects could be ignored. But for Demigods, it was a fatal injury.

“If we show hesitation, he’ll decide we aren’t even worth considering a threat. Instead, he might avoid fighting us and focus entirely on stopping Leonard.”

“...So we’re already being forced into a losing battle? Well, no choice but to fight to the death, then.”

“If we want to deal any real damage, we need either my Extermination or Wade’s ultimate skill. Sorry, but Demian, Cruella—your attacks alone aren’t enough to make him wary.”

Unlike Cruella, who remained expressionless, Demian let out a dry chuckle.

“Can’t say I’ve ever been told my attacks were weak before. But when the opponent’s a monster like this, I guess I can’t argue.”

Audrey turned to him, her usual blank expression unchanged. “Use the uniqueness of Mirror Blade to manipulate the battlefield. That’s an area where you surpass the rest of us.”

"You don’t need to try and flatter me, Sister Audrey. I already know.”

“...Hmph. How arrogant.”

That brief exchange was the last moment of respite they would have. Realizing that his flames hadn’t been enough to wipe out the nuisances swarming around him, Balor shifted his power once more. The fire that had been draped around his body like a cloak now surged outward, consuming everything in its vicinity.

Though its density had decreased enough that Audrey’s power could counter it, the sheer heat had turned the surrounding air into a vacuum. Breathing had become impossible.

The Demigods swiftly used their own techniques to shield themselves, trying to block the heat that was seeping into their flesh.

The heat continued to spread despite the lack of a medium for transmission, a phenomenon governed by the laws of another dimension.

Sizzle...!

The protective auras surrounding their bodies sizzled, burning away. Even Cruella, who had been redirecting the damage to her Undead, went pale.

With each passing second, dozens of her Undead were incinerated. Even the ones at mid-tier were wiped out the moment they made contact with the flames.

This was nothing less than a scorching hell. And in the heart of this inferno, only two figures pressed forward. Wade and Audrey. The only warriors capable of dealing a meaningful blow to Balor.

Bayard

Wade, now wielding a pair of radiant wings, accelerated and wove through the waves of fire. Audrey, her glaive shimmering with the full-moon-like glow of her unique trait, used the energy of Extermination as a shield to advance.

Demian once again used One of Thousand to carve a path, but though the flames split momentarily, they regenerated within seconds. It was clear that an ability relying on the conceptual realm alone was no match for divine authority.

Barely escaping the radius of the scorching heat, Cruella gritted her teeth, blood vessels bursting in her eyes.

“Damn it...! It’s not even fully complete yet! I was planning to refine it for a hundred, no, a thousand more years...! Damn it all!”

She raised her staff like a key and wrenched open the gate to her final trump card—a being crafted with the permission of Ancestor Cardenas and the previous Emperor himself. It was the remnants of a species that once usurped the thrones of the gods. A Bone Dragon.

Even for a Class 9 necromancer like Cruella, this was an Undead she could not fully control.

Groooooarrrr!!!

Though long dead and reduced to mere bones, its lingering hatred toward outer-dimensional beings ignited as it fired a ray of death-infused energy at Balor.

Dragon Breath

A force that even a True God would struggle to ignore. Balor raised his palm, stopping the beam of violet radiance in its tracks.

“Now!”

Cruella’s voice should not have been able to reach them in the vacuum, where no sound could travel.

And yet, the Cardenas Demigods raised their swords as if responding to the signal.

Mirror Blade

Infinite Refraction Cage

Kaleidoscope

A beam of sword light shot forth from Demian, cutting across the two who had advanced ahead of him. The light sliced through space itself, stitching it back together to forge a new path where none should exist.

Originally, this technique was meant to restrain enemies, but it could also build paths through space. It was rare for warriors of the Demigod Tier to engage in coordinated assaults, making this the first time the technique had ever been deployed in real combat for a coordinated attack.

Yet, the two knight commanders did not hesitate. They leaped into Kaleidoscope, seizing the initiative before Balor could react after being caught off guard by the mysterious phenomenon.

Catastrophe

Audrey’s glaive cracked apart with a sharp snap, unleashing an aura as black as the abyss. Unlike Extermination, this was an unrestrained release of power—one that not only damaged weapons but also harmed the wielder.

Blood dripped from Audrey’s ruined hands as her weapon shattered. Still, the unleashed aura surged forward like a black dragon, lunging straight toward its target.

Even Balor would not be able to endure a direct hit. He caught the Bone Dragon’s breath with one hand and pressed down on the aura of Catastrophe with the other, suppressing it.

Areadbhar

Wade launched himself forward in a supersonic charge, having gained enough acceleration through Bayard. He was charging fast enough to rival even True Gods.

Coincidentally, the name of the ultimate technique Areadbhar was the same as the legendary spear once wielded by Lugh Lamhfhata, the divine hero who had slain the Outer God Balor in ages past. Perhaps it was mere chance. But names held power. To wield Lugh Lamhfhata’s weapon against Balor was to invoke a fate most lethal to him, just as Balor had once perished with a spear through his Evil Eye.

The ultimate move, now even more powerful than during the demoniac conquest, instantly struck near Balor’s heart.

Wade shuddered at the sheer presence he felt beyond the clash of blades, but Balor experienced something far worse—a sickening sense of déjà vu. A deeply buried humiliation was dragged back to the surface, and he recalled the moment he had been utterly crushed by the divine spear of the God of Light Lugh Lamhfhata.

As the shameful defeat that had cast doubt upon his authority as the ruler of the Fomorians flashed through his mind, the thought of interfering with Leonard vanished.

—■■■.

Balor, who had nullified both the breath attack and Audrey’s Catastrophe, turned his gaze toward Wade, the man who had dredged up his disgraceful past. His glare seemed to be declaring that he would make Wade’s death the most agonizing one imaginable.

The murderous intent of a transcendental being seeped into Wade’s very soul, freezing him in place. The blade, already pressed against Balor’s heart, refused to budge even a fraction further.

“——! ———.”

“—————!”

The other three moved to assist, but they were a beat too late. If Balor brought down his now-freed fist, Wade would be obliterated in an instant.

Having expended his strength with Areadbhar, Wade needed at least two breaths to recover. He had no means of escaping on his own. There was only one way to overturn this dire situation.

“All Golden Dragon knights, protect Commander Wade!”

A third force suddenly burst onto the battlefield. The strongest, most elite knightly order of the Cardenas family had arrived, having fought their way through the outer-dimensional forces. At the vanguard, Una charged forward with unrelenting valor.

“The Order of the Golden Dragon?! How?!”

“Haha! Did they really break through that army?! Incredible!”

Even Audrey, normally unshakable, widened her eyes in sheer shock. Demian, on the other hand, marveled at their resilience and praised their audacity. The commanders immediately grasped the significance of what was happening.

“That sheer level of power! Even an Outer God can’t ignore this!”

Cruella sensed the energy through her mastery of her Circle and was left speechless at the sheer scale of their strength.

Thirty-six Dragonians. They were united by the Eighteen Arhats Formation and had relinquished their human forms for the sake of the battle. Though they lacked refined divinity, their sheer raw power and output exceeded even the Demigod Tier.

For Balor, whose presence had already been significantly diminished by this relentless battle, they were nothing short of a grave threat.

—■■■■, ■■■■■!!

The moment his attack swung uselessly through the air and he missed the chance to finish Wade, Balor let out a furious, guttural roar. The authority of infernal fire erupted like torrential rain, drowning the battlefield in searing destruction.

His summoning ritual had been interrupted midway by Simon Magus. He had lost half his head and his Evil Eye to Adam Kadmon. His heart had been gouged out by Areadbhar.

Compared to his full strength when he was first summoned, his current power had been reduced to less than a tenth.

“After all this effort... this is still barely enough to be taken seriously...?”

Even with Balor weakened to a mere fraction of his true power, the Demigods could not deny the overwhelming disparity between them. Areadbhar had provoked him, yes, but it had not truly tipped the scales in their favor. At best, with the Golden Dragon knights now involved, they had only bought themselves a few more minutes of survival.

—————Thump.

However, a deep, ominous tremor reverberated from the distance. The end was near. Crom Dubh’s rebirth was nearly complete.

Balor, who had regained his composure and viciousness and had been preparing to sneer at the knights’ futile resistance, suddenly hesitated.

—————Shiiiing.

A radiant pulse flared from around Leonard, and the smirk vanished from Balor’s lips. He tightened his grip, summoning every last ounce of his might.

“Just a little longer... Just hold out a little longer...!”

The desperate allied forces, seeing this, squeezed out the last of their strength as well. Hope and despair collided in a single moment.

There was no room for error. Time stretched unbearably thin—each second dragging out into minutes, hours.

Balor wrapped both fists in the infernal flames of his authority, forging them into gauntlets of destruction. Yet the Golden Dragon knights, still relatively unscathed, charged forth without a shred of fear.

A battle of pure attrition. A testament to humanity’s tenacity. And possibly the final stroke of this grand confrontation.

* * *

———What...?

Meanwhile, having surpassed his mortal limits through the deification of the Yellow Dragon’s Qi, Leonard had caught a glimpse of the next domain. But only now did he realize that his consciousness had been pulled into an unknown place.

It was a place beyond even the vision of his Dragon Eyes. A place where the laws of the world flowed in ways beyond comprehension.

“This place...”

He had never seen it before. Never read it in any record. Never heard of it in any firsthand account. But he knew that it was the source of all world laws. It was the origin of annihilation—lost to time after the God-Slaying War had ended—and the only path remaining for salvation.

“...The Divine Throne, huh.”

The moment he recognized it, a single throne, ornate and grand, descended before his eyes. It fell from above as if it had always been waiting for him.

It seemed to say, “This is the seat you must take.”