Mir’s emergence changed the mood of the battlefield.

“Mir!” The frustrated yangbans regained their vitality.

Grid sympathized with them. Grid had met numerous yangbans, including Garam, and he knew the essence of the yangbans. They seemed to believe that Mir would save them, but they would die. They had humiliated the Hwan Kingdom, and they were a disgrace to the yangbans. The charges that Mir could place on them were overflowing. If it was Garam, then he would’ve killed them while swearing.

Grid sent a whisper, -There will be a commotion soon. Run away in that gap.

The purpose of Grid’s visit to Kaya was to check his skills. Even if he knew he was going to die, he stepped back on this land to challenge Mir. Defeat was natural in the showdown, but it would be too much if he received Kraugel’s help and both of them died.

“......” Kraugel didn’t answer.

There also wasn’t the commotion that Grid had mentioned. Mir didn’t harm the yangbans. Rather, he defended them. “Overgeared God. God, as you know, we were made to act as angels. Unlike angels, we won’t be reincarnated if we die. Our souls are trapped in hell and will suffer forever. Our god has lost the power to make hell tremble and the demons of hell don’t respect us. Can’t you take pity and spare them?”

“...Do you really need to ask this? Can’t you stop it by killing us?”

“God, it is because if you decide to hurt my colleagues, I know I can’t protect them.” Mir had seen through Grid from the first day they met. His discerning eyes were truly outstanding. He could precisely see through Grid’s current skills, who had grown rapidly in hell.

Grid got goosebumps, but he spoke firmly without showing it, “I want to stop the seeds of the yangbans.”

It wasn’t a bluff or a provocation. He was serious. The people who had a stronger power than humans, but despised humans. There was nothing to be gained by keeping them alive.

“I’m going to kill them and then I will die,” Grid’s eyes were cold as he declared.

The yangbans gulped and Mir looked sorry. “Is that so? I honestly want to change God’s mind with a better offer, but... I’m afraid I don’t have the authority. I will have to do my best to protect them while fighting.”

Mir’s right arm lost its shape and became blurred. He swung the Blue Dragon Dao. Grid’s transcendence was triggered. The moment Mir appeared, the God Hands that appeared and took out their shields blocked the lightning. They didn’t intend to block it. The lightning just luckily fell onto the path of the God Hands. It was fortunate that the trajectory of the God Hands was irregular.

Grid lifted his sword and blocked Mir, who was flying toward him. Noe, Randy, and the Overgeared Skeletons appeared like they had been waiting and struck Mir from the left and right sides. The Formless Sword that was interlocked with the Blue Dragon Dao twisted its joints. It climbed up the Blue Dragon Dao like a vine and grabbed the blade.

Just then, a rain of battle gear fell from the sky. Perhaps they were glad to receive the call after so long. The number of battle gears that responded to the summons was higher than usual. Nevertheless, it was all futile. The attacks of Noe, Randy, and the Overgeared Skeletons failed to penetrate the shroud of energy surrounding Mir and all their efforts were in vain.

The Blue Dragon Dao easily shook off the Formless Sword and the thousands of weapons that poured from the sky were either blocked by the thick barrier of earth created by Mir or swept away by waves of lightning. Most of the unique and higher rated weapons penetrated the earth wall and some even penetrated the waves of lightning, but they couldn’t hurt Mir’s body which was solid due to the White Tiger’s Posture.

‘The more I see him perfectly use the power of the four gods, the more fraudulent it seems.’

Mir had long acquired the power of the four gods and he wasn’t influenced by the release of the red phoenix and black tortoise. Additionally, the growth rate of the named NPCs transcended that of high rankers. Mir was a super named NPC who was dreaming of becoming a god. As Grid grew, he naturally grew as well. Of course, Grid’s growth rate was much more dominant.

“......!”

Mir released the White Tiger’s Posture and was wielding the Blue Dragon Dao when his eyes widened. It was because Grid was holding a new sword in his left hand. He seemed to want to swing the two swords in an unnatural movement, but he lowered his waist. It was 300,000 Army Stealth Sword. The top dirty trick exerted its power.

‘I can’t believe I missed the sword for a moment. It is an amazing sword technique.’ Mir was purely impressed.

Grid smacked his lips together with regret. ‘It is shallow.’

Double wielding swords wouldn’t exert proper power unless Dual Wielding Mastery was learned to a high level. The weapon itself was treated as a secondary tool and the power was halved. The skill’s power also received a penalty. Thus, the stealth sword failed to exert its power. Even so, Grid knew that without the use of the double swords to create a disturbance, the stealth sword wouldn’t have reached Mir. The target of the stealth sword was limited to ‘targets below a certain level.’

“Ugh!” Grid swallowed down a scream. It was because the Blue Dragon Dao dug into his chest armor before changing its trajectory and drawing a diagonal line, cutting deeply at his thigh. In addition to suffering over 20,000 damage, the wound was frozen and he received a physical abnormal condition. His movements slowed down.

Mir, who had overpowered Grid with just the power of the four gods when they fought the other day, was now thoroughly using the weapon effect of the Blue Dragon Dao.

‘It is a harvest, a harvest.’

Mir acted sincerely to him from the beginning, yet Grid hurt him a little bit. It proved that he had grown tremendously compared to when they first met. However, Grid still wasn’t satisfied. ‘I will risk my life.’

He had to take one arm in order to earn something from this. Grid retrieved the Formless Sword and drew out a new sword. Cold moonlight rose from his fingertips. It was the appearance of the Falling Moon Sword.

“Drop.” It wasn’t a fancy skill with a high coefficient. Sometimes the simpler the skill, the greater the power.

It happened at this moment...

It was an instant use sword dance used at a super close distance. It was even a sword dance used with a ‘must cut’ sword. Grid was confident that this was a blow that not even the martial god could avoid, let alone Mir. In fact, Mir’s expression changed for the first time. An arm fell off. It was Mir’s arm. The unfortunate thing was that Grid’s arm was also cut off.

‘A XX counter...’

The situation was worse than he thought. Mir had fought back by giving up his left arm instead of his right arm that held the Blue Dragon Dao, while Grid was hit by the counterattack and lost his right arm holding the sword. Due to this, the Falling Moon Sword fell to the ground.

Grid had no weapon right now. Fortunately, the Fire Dragon Sword played an active role. The Fire Dragon Sword assisted Grid by moving itself along with the God Hands holding the shield. It quickly judged and blocked Mir’s follow up attack on Grid. Then it used the rebound of the collision and settled into Grid’s left hand.

Mir told him, “You have many amazing new things.”

“Gasp, gasp... Don’t you want to make losing your arm a medal?” Grid mocked Mir who was running the energy of the red phoenix to regenerate his arm. Mir’s face still had the scar from where it had been cut by Grid a few months earlier.

“Please understand,” Mir answered while lightly fending off Kraugel’s surprise attack. “It is impossible to realize my wish with one arm, so I can’t help it.”

Grid yelled with surprise, “No, Kraugel! Why haven’t you run away?!”

He tried his best and was about to come to terms with death. Then dammit, Kraugel entered the battle instead of fleeing. It meant they were both going to die. It didn’t fit his purpose.

Kraugel stood at the forefront to buy time for Grid to recover and spoke nonchalantly, “I don’t know retreat.”

In fact, he had run away hundreds of times when he was alone here in Kaya, but... he didn’t want to run away in front of Grid. Leave Grid behind and run away alone? He would rather die. This was more a matter of pride than efficiency or loyalty. Kraugel swallowed down his innermost thoughts and became determined to fight while Grid shouted at him.

Mir was intrigued by the comedy. “I felt it before, but your relationship is unusual. God, are you thinking of letting the Sword Saint become your messenger?”

“No, that isn’t it.” Grid and Kraugel answered at the same time.

“We are friends.”

“We are competitors.”

“......?”

They were different answers.

Mir kept smiling as he cocked his head.

“And.”

Grid and Kraugel continued at the same time.

“We are rivals.”

“We are friends.”

“...Haha, I see.”

‘They are a good pair,’ Mir thought before feeling regret. If only Garam had less greed or if Pagma wasn’t so soft. Then wouldn’t they have been saying this to him right now by his side?

“As a courtesy, I’ll let the two of you go together.”

Mir unleashed a lightning attack. An unprecedented powerful energy was unleashed and vibrated the frozen desert.

-Shouldn’t you run away quickly now?

-Do you think I will leave the enemy in front of you and turn my back?

-No, we can’t win anyway, so at least one person should live.

-Yes, we can’t win.

Kraugel nodded and put his hand into his inventory. The thing he took out was an old booklet. It was a booklet that contained the ‘Matchless Swordsmanship’ studied by the previous Sword Saint.

-However, it isn’t me who will survive. It is you, Grid.

He thought he had helped Grid a lot, but it was true that he received a greater grace. The White Tiger Sword in his hand was the proof.

“Kraugel?”

“If my sword skills didn’t match the name of Sword Saint, I wondered what it would mean to be the Sword Saint.”

[Overgeared God Grid is writing the 12th epic.]

“I was thinking about letting go of the position of Sword Saint.”

[The beginning of the epic begins in the desert overlooking a city covered by perpetual snow.]

“Now that I have proven my qualifications, I can accept the teachings of the former generation.”

[He witnessed a noble belief.]