"Did you see the message that just popped up?"
"Four Fiends Baal? What the... Why is the Four Fiends suddenly showing up?"
The player chat became noisy due to the sudden announcement.
"Who the hell revived the Four Fiends Baal?"
"What are the Four Fiends?"
"It's a name that always comes up in the ancient quest. The Four Fiends are the four beasts that existed at the dawn of time."
"The Four Fiends were the ones who destroyed half of the old empire."
"Was the old empire stronger than the current one?"
"Of course not;; Back then, the entire continent existed, and now more than half of the continent has sunk into the abyss. How can you compare them?"
"So, where did it revive?"
"It's the Mountain of Practitioners. All the cities connected to it are in chaos."
"Why did Baal revive at the Mountain of Practitioners?"
"Don't know... But if it's destroying the surrounding cities, it must be talking about the cities connected by warp."
There are five cities connected to the Mountain of Practitioners, including the mercenary city Cartel, all of which are neutral cities.
With the news of the Four Fiends Baal's revival, all the neutral cities connected to the Mountain of Practitioners were put on high alert.
"Then, it's not far from the player cities, right?"
"For now, it's fortunate."
"Fortunate? Does the Four Fiends look like a joke... If the empire or the goddess church doesn't step in, we can't stop it."
"But isn't the Mountain of Practitioners where Phantom is? Thinking about it, he might have gone in to do the main quest 7."
"He must have already completed it and come down."
"Right, he probably just hit level 15 and came down."
"Even if Phantom did revive the Four Fiends Baal, why lol lol lol"
"Even if Phantom is incredibly unpredictable, he wouldn't revive the Four Fiends, right?"
"Still, he was called the King of Knights. Would he do such a thing?"
"Our Lord Phantom is honorable!"
"I believe in Lord Phantom!"
Rakutsha, who had been pinned to the ground, got back up.
At the same time, he spat out blood.
Rakutsha smiled, baring his teeth.
Indeed, a being called the Four Fiends.
The rumor that it was a more powerful beast than the White King or the Black King didn't seem unfounded.
He deflected the sword energy and plunged a curse deep into his vital organs.
If he hadn't used the rebound energy in that instant, he would have been killed instantly.
'A mere insect cannot be stronger than Lord Black King.'
A deeper black energy flowed from Rakutsha's entire body.
He couldn't kill him. Then, the Four Fiends would die by his hand.
Rakutsha concentrated his sword energy even more.
His muscles stretched as if about to explode, and his body began to swell.
Thanks to the grace of the Black King, Rakutsha had transcended the limits of an orc.
Rakutsha, now with the body of a giant, slowly relaxed.
'Sure enough, this grace is remarkable.'
With the body of a giant and resistance to magic, the curse of the Four Fiends was no longer a threat.
The curse of a mere insect could have no effect on him.
All thanks to the grace of the Black King, which grants the power of a great upheaval, transcending species.
The eyes of the fearsome Four Fiends Baal turned towards Rakutsha.
Exiting the temple, I found myself connected to the summit of the Mountain of Practitioners.
I looked around and was momentarily speechless.
It was a scene of utter chaos.
Everywhere, practitioners lay fallen, and the mountain was desolate and destroyed.
In the distance, a giant monster, presumably the Four Fiends Baal, was fighting a giant.
Wait. Why is a giant here?
And I'm not sure if you can even call it a fight.
"......A punching bag, it seems."
It seemed more like a punching bag with good endurance.
Because of its size, it was getting pummeled by the Four Fiends.
I rubbed my forehead, feeling a bit dizzy.
The giant's level was 13.
A level that, if all the people on this mountain attacked together, they still couldn't handle.
It was getting hit, but it was a real monster, stronger than Kramdel's assassination force.
Even such a giant was struggling against the Four Fiends.
The Four Fiends' level was a question mark.
'Is this an incomplete resurrection?'
......This being an incompletely resurrected Four Fiends was even more terrifying.
How strong would a fully resurrected Four Fiends be?
'This is beyond what I can handle.'
There was no immediate solution.
For now......let's get out of here.
As I moved my feet, a familiar figure came into view.
A human wearing leather similar to the White King's.
'Is this the White King's offspring?'
That was my first thought.
No one else but the White King had such clean white tiger leather.
Moreover, there were signs of practitioners who had tried to protect it and fallen around it.
It was definitely a special existence.
Then, my gaze turned to the Qi Thousand Stone not far away.
It was clearly made of the same material as the one in the temple.
Though it was rough and had many sword marks, it seemed subtly different, but it was worth checking.
I slowly raised my sword and cut it.
The stone, presumed to be a Qi Thousand Stone, cleanly split and crumbled.
"Hmm. It's not the same, I guess."
It wasn't the same Qi Thousand Stone as in the temple.
I clicked my tongue and moved a bit further, where I saw a man lying with a spear.
The shape of the spear was the same as the one I faced in the darkness.
After lifting the spearman, I started to descend the mountain.
Rakutsha spat out a mouthful of black blood.
It seemed he couldn't handle the Four Fiends alone.
Even with the grace that transcended species, his opponent was the Four Fiends.
To kill that beast, at least two more people with the same level of martial prowess as himself were needed.
After reporting to the Black King, he would have to think about how to deal with the Four Fiends.
Rakutsha looked at the summit of the mountain.
He couldn't retreat empty-handed.
At the very least, he needed to bring the White King's daughter to save face.
Rakutsha quickly ascended the mountain but soon frowned.
"......Where did she go?"
And the spearman was nowhere to be seen.
Did they regain consciousness and escape in the meantime?
However, his subordinates were scattered at the base of the mountain.
It wouldn't be easy for them to escape.
Then, Rakutsha's eyes caught a split stele.
If it were an ordinary stone, he would have ignored it.
But this stele was clearly the one he had engraved with sword marks.
Why was it split and broken?
'Did the Four Fiends break it?'
He immediately shook his head.
If the Four Fiends had broken it, the marks wouldn't be so clean.
Rakutsha's expression hardened as he examined the cut marks on the stele.
"......With one strike, with a sword, it was cut."
And it was done in one strike.
Someone had cut the stele that he could only engrave with sword marks.
Someone who had surpassed his sword skills, which had already surpassed the Sword Line?
Rakutsha's eyes shook violently.
More bewildered than when he faced the Four Fiends.
The method to control the Four Fiends
Rakutsha, the greatest orc warrior and revered as a Sword Master.
He was already famous as the next orc lord before he even reached adulthood.
He had never lost to anyone who wielded a sword.
A once-in-a-lifetime genius?
That was an understatement.
Unprecedented and unparalleled.
The only unique swordsman, before and after.
Everyone who saw Rakutsha's sword skills praised him.
Rakutsha himself, if asked who the 'greatest swordsman' was, would have said no one but himself.
......He thought there was none.
But the sword mark on the stele wouldn't leave his mind.
If it existed, it would be a being called the God of Swords.
But it was strange for such a being to appear at the Mountain of Practitioners, cut the stele, and disappear.
Or, was it someone sent by the White King?
'There is no one among the White King's subordinates who deeply handles swords.'
The assassination force was the same.
The Great Earth Dragon, the Four Kings, the Archer, and Medusa, none of them wielded weapons.
If not someone sent by the White King.
Who saved the White King's daughter and cut the stele in one strike?
'The White King's daughter, Aria, would know.'
He had to resolve this curiosity.
Rakutsha's pride as a swordsman, honed over a lifetime, was crushed.
To restore this crushed pride, he had to uncover the identity of the Sword God.
A cursed tail instantly wrapped around Rakutsha.
It wouldn't let him escape easily.
The intense curse from the three tails began to penetrate the giant's resistance to magic.
Rakutsha used the Black King's grace to its maximum.
Aria felt like she was in a dream.
After being subdued by Rakutsha, she was suddenly enveloped in a curse due to the appearance of the Four Fiends Baal.
She couldn't understand why the giant beast, one of the four beasts from the dawn of time, suddenly appeared at the Mountain of Practitioners.
The curse had the power to devastate everything around it.
For Aria, who was still on the path of a practitioner, it was an overwhelmingly fearsome force.
But what plunged her into despair even more was Rakutsha.
Sword Master Rakutsha toyed with her as if she were a child.
It wasn't just the overwhelming difference in abilities.
Rakutsha deliberately lowered his skills, adjusted to her level, and faced her purely with sword skills.
Moreover, he left deeper marks than the Sword Line, showing the overwhelming difference in skill.
Rakutsha was truly a genius.
'Clearly......the stele, was cut......'
But she saw a Sword God who surpassed even Rakutsha.
The stele, which only reacted to sword proficiency levels, was cleanly cut in half with a single strike.
'The human I saw in the Chaos Practitioner realm.'
The human who defeated the spearman and scattered brilliant sword energy.
She tried to chase him but lost him at the bottom of a cliff.
That human suddenly appeared, saved her, and cut the stele.
Cutting the stele meant he was at a much higher level of ascension than the Sword Line or Rakutsha.
- 'The one who cuts the Practitioner's Stele is the Master of the Sword.'
A tradition passed down in the Mountain of Practitioners.
It was written in the manual left by the Sword Line.
Aria, who had once been the master of the Mountain of Practitioners, had access to books related to the Sword Line.
There was definitely a mention of 'the one who cuts the stele.'
- The most powerful and fearsome 'sword' is buried in this mountain, and only 'the one who cuts the stele' can wield it.
At first, she couldn't understand what this meant.
Was there an incredible sword buried somewhere in this mountain?
But perhaps the Sword Line knew.
The most powerful and fearsome sword.
It might be that beast, the Four Fiends Baal.
The Sword Line said that only the one who cuts the Practitioner's Stele can handle the Four Fiends Baal.
Of course, just cutting the stele wouldn't mean one could handle the Four Fiends.
- When the armor, helmet, and essence to block the 'sword' are complete, one can become the true 'Master of the Sword.'
The Master of the Sword was clearly referring to the man who saved her.
Just before fainting again, Aria took out a book left by the Sword Line from her bosom and handed it to the man.
Distributed by Ajit Novel (formerly Ajitoon Novel).