Return of the Sword God-Rank Civil Servant novel Chapter 674

“Ah.”

The moment he realized where the rune he had absorbed was, a low groan escaped his mouth.

His eyes also opened slightly.

Right.

You were the important one.

Completely absorbing the Rune of the Giant.

So that was why it had settled in his heart.

He closed his eyes again.

He focused.

He thought he had to match the one beating out of rhythm with his own pulse and bring it into a steady rhythm.

The pain was still there.

Even so, it was better than yesterday.

He focused and focused again, trying to absorb the rune inside his heart.

It felt strange.

It felt as though a seed had been planted.

It felt somewhat different from the runes he had used until now.

However, the Rune of the Giant, rampaging out of rhythm, did not easily calm down.

Like a newborn baby, the rune insisted only on its own desires.

It seemed to demand even greater pain.

It was as though the will of a giant was trying to overturn and rewrite Su-ho’s blood and bones.

Endure.

I have to endure.

At the very moment he held on to his consciousness by muttering those words to himself, a long shadow stretched across the desert.

He opened his eyes at the darkened surroundings and looked toward its source.

Surprisingly, they were wolves.

Wolves in the desert?

However, they were unmistakable predators called desert wolves, and whether they had smelled Su-ho’s blood or the scent of the sandworms, their gazes were already fixed on Su-ho.

Right.

More guests have arrived.

Su-ho slowly raised his body.

His legs trembled.

It was not because he was afraid, but because he was in pain.

However, after taking a long, deep breath, he raised both fists again.

He could not use a sword.

Because all his powers had been prohibited.

Once again, he felt grateful to Sword Demon.

If it had not been for Sword Demon’s teachings, now that he could not use a sword, he would have been, in the crude words from the conversation the two of them had shared, a ‘cripple.’

“Grrr.”

Had it sensed Su-ho’s fighting spirit?

The desert wolf that appeared to be the leader growled lowly, and starting with that, they all spread out widely and began approaching Su-ho.

Right.

Since you are coming, come at me all at once.

The excruciating pain throughout his entire body was still there, but he turned his attention toward the wolves.

He had no intention of dying after coming this far.

Much less to mere wolves.

Even though all my powers have been sealed right now, does that mean I cannot deal with even the likes of you?

Therefore, he did his best to ignore the surging excruciating pain and focused on the wolves as much as possible.

At that moment, one of the wolves leaped first.

He did not avoid it.

Instead, he waited until the very last possible moment, formed his hand into a blade, and sharply stabbed its torso.

Puk!

Something astonishing happened.

As though it had been stabbed by a spear or blade, Su-ho’s hand blade pierced through the wolf’s body.

It did not merely stab into it, but pierced straight through and came out the other side.

The other wolves, sensing that something was wrong, attacked all at once.

Su-ho held his position.

Without moving more than three steps away from that spot, he moved his hands without rest like the Thousand-Armed Avalokiteshvara and dealt with them.

If Sword Demon had seen it, he would have smiled in satisfaction.

Because every single wound on the wolves’ bodies looked as though it had been cut or pierced.

It was because he had dealt with them from the realm of Unity of Body and Sword, where he had become one with the sword.

Before long, when more than half of the wolves that had attacked were dead, the leader wolf gave the signal to retreat.

“Hoo.”

A short breath escaped.

The wolves had already piled up around the thoroughly dried sandworm corpses.

Su-ho dropped back down into his place with an indifferent expression.

He did not wipe away the blood smeared across his face and hands.

He considered pouring the wolves’ blood over his parched throat and face, but soon gave up on the idea.

Instead, he crossed his legs again and focused his mind.

It was the correct choice.

No more uninvited guests came afterward.

He focused on the rune and poured all his strength into becoming one with it.

The sun of the second day began to set.

The sun completely disappeared, and night arrived.

The cold came.

Strangely, it seemed colder than the cold that had come the previous day.

However, he did not react.

He tried to maintain his closed eyes and controlled breathing, and although only by a very small amount, little by little, gradually, he tried to narrow the gap between the uneven rhythm and the steady rhythm.

Fortunately, no more uninvited guests came.

Thanks to that, he was able to focus only on the rune, and at last, the third sun began to rise.

At dawn.

“Ah.”

A low groan escaped his mouth.

The sound of his heartbeat and the sound of the rune had finally become the same.

That was why he had made a sound without even realizing it.

It happened then.

The moment the two frequencies matched, an enormous resonance began.

The rune began to seep into him in earnest.

The peak of the pain began.

His heart rose to the very limit of the speed at which it could beat, regardless of Su-ho’s will.

A vibration like a lump of iron twisting arose inside his bones, and his blood boiled over and rolled through his body like stones rolling across the ground.

His vision spread and blurred, and only a pulsing sound like drumbeats rang in his ears.

“Ugh...... Ah.......”

He clenched his teeth so hard that they seemed ready to turn into powder.

He had to endure.

He had to endure and withstand it to absorb this completely.

The sun rose completely.

New light spread across the dark blue desert.

The world brightened.

The scorching sun rose, and his frozen body melted under the heat of the sun.

Around that time, the world became quiet.

The noisy dissonance occurring inside Su-ho’s body finally fell silent as well.

He slowly opened his eyes.

What he saw when he opened his eyes was thoroughly dried skin, heat haze that was slowly beginning to rise, and sand that had repeatedly frozen and thawed.

However, those things no longer bothered him.

He did not hate them.

Instead, he was glad to see them.

The pain that had pushed him into hell for three days disappeared as though it had been a lie, and the desert air no longer threatened him.