Regressing as the Reincarnated Bastard of the Sword Clan

Chapter 353

Splurch—.

Boom!

The massive palm of the colossal war machine split open with a sickening tear, spilling flesh and ichor.

And that wasn’t all.

The bisected torsos of the severed war machines collapsed toward the ground, crashing down with tremendous force. The sight was grotesque, almost repulsive—but paradoxically, there was an undeniable beauty in the devastation.

‘...’

Theo’s grip on Caliburn still tingled with the aftermath of the unleashed power. His gaze was fixed on the faint glow radiating from the tip of his blade, resembling the embers of a dying fire. Yet, nothing he had witnessed before compared to the brilliance of this light.

Entranced, Theo surveyed his surroundings.

The war machines that had once loomed before and behind him now lay scattered across the ground like discarded debris. Entire cliffsides had been obliterated, and the oncoming tidal wave had vanished, revealing the distant horizon.

‘Did I… do this?’

Theo was overwhelmed by the realization of his own power. The sheer force he had unleashed was beyond his comprehension, and even he found himself awestruck.

A surge of confidence coursed through him—confidence that he could cut down anything in his path.

But it wasn’t just that.

‘This feeling…’

There was something flowing within him, something beyond mana. A force that defied words, transcending human comprehension.

‘Divinity…’

The reverence he had felt upon first stepping onto this battlefield—that same sense of awe now resided in his blade.

This was no ordinary growth. It was a crucible, the repeated tempering of death itself. After countless reforgings, divinity had finally taken form and enveloped Theo in its gentle embrace.

Feeling the weight of this divine aura, Theo was certain.

‘Now it’s time to end this war.’

Theo turned his gaze toward the center of the battlefield, where the two supreme beings fixed their sights on him.

[Finally.]

The voice was not heard with his ears but resounded clearly within his mind.

It was a deep, resonant voice—eerie and spine-chilling, as though it were clawing at his very soul.

Theo instinctively shifted into a combat stance at the sound.

[Warning! Warning! Warning! Warning! Warning!]

[Unauthorized entity detected within the quest parameters.]

[Entity has been classified as a virus.]

[Initiating antivirus protocol...]

[Antivirus protocol failed.]

The sky was suddenly painted with crimson as countless warnings materialized in mid-air.

[Ha, hahahaha!]

The grating voice erupted into wild laughter, like the screech of metal being torn apart.

Theo recognized this all too well.

It wasn’t the first time an external force had interfered.

Just like when Ashin had first intruded on a quest, the same pattern was unfolding here.

Narrowing his eyes, Theo gripped Caliburn tightly. At that moment—

Crack! Crack! Crack!

The walls of messages that had filled the sky shattered into countless pieces, raining down in shards. Simultaneously, the world began to darken, turning pitch black.

The sacred power that had once filled the air vanished without a trace. The plants and flowers touched by the encroaching darkness withered almost instantly, turning to ash and scattering in the wind.

In their place, only the blackness remained.

Even the colossal war machines began to crumble upon contact with the dark miasma, their massive forms disintegrating without even a chance to cry out.

It was death incarnate.

Theo, too, felt an instinctive dread. The thought of confronting this darkness did not come easily.

The only glimmer of hope lay in the two beings still standing against the encroaching blackness. Yet, as Theo watched them, his heart sank at the sight before him.

‘Even they… are falling?’

Their resistance was fleeting.

Even those two beings, whose divine auras had seemed untouchable, met the same fate as the other war machines.

It wasn’t that their divinity was inferior to the darkness; it was simply a poison.

A poison so lethal that even the slightest scratch would allow it to infiltrate and destroy its target from within.

As the blackness rapidly consumed the battlefield, nothing remained untouched. The world was swallowed whole by the dark.

A chilling silence hung in the air.

It was a silence so tangible, so unnerving, that it felt like a physical entity crawling across Theo’s skin.

‘What is that?’

High above, a massive eye materialized in the sky.

Its crimson hue and long, snake-like pupil exuded a sinister presence, as though it was watching over the world with malevolent intent.

The eye floated imperiously, as if declaring itself the new sun.

When Theo locked eyes with the monstrous gaze—

Rumble!

The heavens and earth trembled, and an immense pressure bore down on him, contorting his face in agony.

The harder he struggled to break free, the tighter the invisible force constricted around him.

He pushed himself to his limit, expanding his aura to its fullest potential.

Crack! Crack!

But it was futile. The sound of his bones breaking echoed in his ears.

The sensation filled him with an ominous certainty—if he died here, it would truly be the end.

This was not merely a force seeking to crush his body; it felt as though it sought to obliterate his very soul.

His mind buzzed with a strange sensation, as if his brain was floating. Every nerve in his body felt as though it was being forcibly ripped from his soul.

Desperately, Theo inhaled deeply, trying to move his body. But his consciousness began to fade.

[At last.]

Through the haze of his dimming awareness, the voice spoke again, savoring the moment like a predator relishing its prey.

Flash! Boom!

Theo’s body was abruptly expelled, hurled out of the mysterious realm like a ragdoll. He landed roughly on the ground.

Waiting outside, Lodbrok immediately rushed to Theo’s side, her expression uncharacteristically worried.

Normally, she wouldn’t have been so concerned, but the fact that Theo had emerged from such a perilous place heightened her anxiety.

‘At least his pulse is steady.’

Feeling his pulse, she sighed in relief and placed a hand on his chest.

A soothing blue light spread through Theo’s body, her energy gently mending his battered form.

‘He’s merely unconscious. But what in the world happened in there?’

Lodbrok studied Theo’s face, a faint smile tugging at her lips.

‘What did you experience in that place?’

She quietly assessed his internal state and, for a fleeting moment, a name crossed her mind.

‘Sigurd.’

The face of her former companion, a being of unmatched strength, flashed before her.

Theo, as his descendant, had limitless potential. Yet, it felt premature to compare him to Sigurd’s legacy.

Though Lodbrok had always believed Theo would eventually surpass that monumental threshold, she hadn’t expected him to approach it so swiftly.

‘You never cease to amaze me, partner.’

Lodbrok chuckled softly and withdrew her hand from his chest. At that moment, Theo stirred, furrowing his brow as if struck by a sudden headache.

“You’ve awakened.”

“Was I sleeping?”

“Hmph.”

Realizing he hadn’t been aware of his own unconsciousness, Lodbrok tilted her head slightly, bemused.

“A portal suddenly opened, and you tumbled out. Didn’t you finish your business inside?”

“Finish, huh…”

At the mention of “finish,” Theo felt a sharp pain in his head.

He tried to recall what had happened in the mysterious realm.

‘Something’s strange about my memory.’

He could clearly remember how he fought and obtained his newfound power.

It almost felt like a sweet dream, but the conclusion of his time in the realm remained obscured.

A nagging unease lingered in his chest.

“What happened in there?” Lodbrok’s eyes gleamed with curiosity as she pressed for answers.

Theo knew Lodbrok must have already examined his body. If anything abnormal had been present, she would have noticed.

Closing his eyes briefly, Theo assessed his condition again.

‘There’s nothing wrong… or rather, everything feels unusual.’

The sheer amount of power now coiled within his body was overwhelming.

Additionally, he could sense a faint divinity firmly rooted within him.

‘I’ve truly gained divinity.’

A faint smile graced Theo’s lips.

While he couldn’t yet wield this power to its fullest extent, he knew it was only a matter of time. Mastering it was just another step in his training.

‘With this much power within me, fainting makes sense.’

The confidence that he could replicate the natural disasters caused by those two beings with his own hands surged through him.

Even so, a sense of unease remained in the corner of his mind.

‘Did Loddy not notice it?’

Lodbrok seemed to understand the magnitude of the power within him.

As a being sensitive to impure forces, she would have detected anything amiss.

Even so, Theo couldn’t shake the lingering doubts, though he eventually pushed them aside.

After all, he could find no trace of anything sinister.

“You’ll be surprised by what I tell you,” Theo said, turning to Lodbrok.

She had never seen a war machine before, after all.

“War machines? You actually saw them?”

For the first time in a while, Lodbrok’s eyes sparkled with curiosity at the mention of the unknown.

Theo recounted everything he had experienced in vivid detail.

From the towering forms of the war machines to their immense power, he described the awe-inspiring battles and how he had fought against them.

“So you died and resurrected countless times amidst that war, gaining such power?”

“Fortunately, yes.”

“Fortune? No, partner, it’s your determination that made it possible. Any ordinary person would have lost their mind. You’ve achieved a feat worthy of history. Be proud.”

At Lodbrok’s words of encouragement, Theo smiled faintly. She returned the gesture, her expression warm yet pensive.

‘It’s as if you were born to stop the Nameless Sovereign.’

Her thoughts lingered on the countless battles against that entity. No decisive blow had ever been dealt, even during Sigurd’s time.

Perhaps Theo Ragnar was the one destined to end this long-standing enmity.

“We’re almost there.”

Theo stood up and offered Lodbrok his hand.

She took it, rising gracefully as she cast him a questioning glance.

“The Ragnar forces. They’re nearing the capital.”

If their march had been as relentless as planned, they were likely waiting for his signal—or perhaps the Black Snow and Black Dragon had already infiltrated the capital.

If anyone could accomplish such a feat, it would undoubtedly be Black Dragon.

“Let’s find out.”

As they prepared to proceed, a servant approached from the far end of the corridor, holding an envelope.

‘How efficient. Black Dragon wastes no time.’

Grinning wryly at Black Dragon’s uncanny timing, Theo couldn’t help but smile.