Mushoku Tensei: Reincarnated as a Beast Race Chapter 380: 379 - Master and Disciple

Meanwhile, in the Ever-White Desert, an enormous crater had formed across a vast stretch of sand.

Not because of an attack launched directly for that purpose, but because the Labyrinth that had once existed there had suddenly been destroyed.

And, after the pillar of light that erased it, everyone who had been inside the Labyrinth was thrown out, hurled across the desert as if they had been ejected.

That included even the monsters.

Because of that, most of the battles not only did not end, they intensified several times over. In truth, in many places, it made the Iron Legion's extermination work several times easier.

Without the protection of the Labyrinth's floors, corridors, and traps, all the monsters were exposed in the open desert.

But of course, such a random scattering also caused more than a few unfavorable situations.

Ghislaine was sprinting across the desert.

As a Beast Emperor, and with senses far above the ordinary, she should have been one of the first to reunite with her allies after the Labyrinth's destruction.

Or, at least, that was what should have happened.

Suddenly, in the middle of her run, Ghislaine stopped.

Her feet sank into the sand for an instant, and the momentum of her body was interrupted. Her Eye of Magical Power was already active when she raised her face to observe the person standing before her.

It was someone very familiar.

Gall Farion.

The former Sword God.

His armor and body were covered in blood.

But even with so much blood, he did not seem gravely injured. In fact, his overall condition seemed good.

His posture was still firm, and his breathing was steady.

Even so, there was a gash on his face that ran from his mouth to his left eye, blinding him in that eye. Although it did not seem fatal, the wound was still bleeding.

Instead of moving or preparing some kind of strike, Gall was simply sitting on a rock, observing the white desert around him.

He turned his face when Ghislaine arrived.

Even after finding her former master there, Ghislaine's face remained as serious as ever. Still, it would have been a lie to say she did not feel strange seeing him.

Not because she had found him as her enemy, but because the swordsman before her had already lost something before even meeting her.

She rested her hand on Hiramune, but did not draw.

Battles were still taking place all across the desert. Distant roars, lightning, explosions, and occasional tremors continued spreading along the horizon.

Even though she found her master's current state unsettling, she still needed to settle this. After all, Gall Farion was publicly one of Hitogami's apostles.

Before she made any move, Gall spoke, laughing:

"Still not much of a talker, huh?"

Ghislaine did not answer and continued staring at him in silence.

He looked at her for a moment, then grimaced.

"What's with everyone lately? Are all my disciples going to come to me one by one just to surpass me?"

He stood up.

Although his movements seemed distracted, Gall was still Gall.

Even while speaking like that, his entire body was ready to attack. He wiped his hand across his face, removing the excess blood from the cut, then jumped down from the rock onto the sand, landing in front of Ghislaine.

Ghislaine held her position.

She observed him mostly through her senses. His expression, his posture, his intent, the way he held his sword, the way he breathed.

Everything told her that Gall Farion was still going to fight.

He casually swung his sword and laughed.

"You were there, Ghislaine... maybe you're one of the few who would still believe this, but twenty years ago, there was no one who could challenge me..."

A particularly hot gust of wind blew across the desert, probably the consequence of another battle happening not too far away. The white sand rose in small waves and passed between them, but neither of them looked away.

Gall continued, looking straight into her eyes:

"That threatening look in your eyes..."

He laughed sarcastically.

"Who would have dared give me that look twenty years ago? Hahaha! Maybe only two or three people in the entire world..."

He tightened his grip around the sword hilt.

"How is it that twenty years later, every one of you suddenly found courage...?"

He shrugged, still laughing in a way that was half-irritated, half-mocking.

"I mean, you understand me, right? I can accept Rygar, that monster, surpassing me. He's simply too far outside the norm, right?"

He looked at his former student, waiting for some reaction.

But Ghislaine's face remained impassive.

She was truly paying attention to what he was saying. But from Gall Farion's point of view, it did not look like attention.

It looked like contempt.

Receiving no answer, Gall let out a short sigh.

"Do you know who gave me this cut on my face...?"

He ran his hand over the wound.

"It was just a little while ago. I was guarding the entrance to the final floor, you see? And Jino came there, probably to stop the guy from resurrecting..."

He paused.

"Do you know what he said to me?"

Silence.

Gall then answered his own question:

"He said nothing."

His gaze became more indifferent as he spoke.

"Jino simply ignored what I was saying and walked past me as if I were nothing, leaving me this single strike as a gift."

Once again, he touched the cut on his face.

"He didn't even bother killing me... I'm sure he could have done it if he wanted."

Another distant explosion sounded.

Gall looked toward the horizon and continued:

"When he and I fought a few days ago, he told me Eris was faster than me. And I think you heard about it, but when I confronted Nina... I was also unable to win."

Ghislaine raised an eyebrow slightly.

She knew that was not the whole truth. The only reason he had not defeated Nina was because he had hesitated since she was his daughter, while Nina had not hesitated to kill her own father.

Even so, Ghislaine said nothing. Gall seemed to be so deep inside his own logic that he probably knew that and, even so, considered it a failure belonging only to himself.

Gall smiled.

The smile was not exactly cheerful.

Then, slowly, he sheathed his sword. At the same time, his Battle Aura began to flow without restraint.

Even without drawing his weapon, Gall Farion seemed more dangerous with every passing second.

Then he spoke:

"Now... even you, Ghislaine?"

He tilted his head slightly.

"You also think you can beat me...?"

His smile widened.

"What is this now, the lamppost pissing on the dog? Hahaha!"

That was when Ghislaine, who until that point had only been observing him impassively, smiled from the corner of her mouth.

It was a simple smile, without deliberate provocation or any great intention behind it.

But a bad feeling was born in Gall Farion's chest the instant he saw that smile.

"Hehe... then let's put your mastery of the brat's style to the test, girl..."

Gall finally adopted the same stance as Ghislaine.

The drawing stance.

Both of them stood motionless, face-to-face, atop the white sand. The drawing stance was made to attack an opponent who had already been completely read.

Ghislaine especially liked that stance because of her senses. She truly was a master at reading her opponent.

And Gall Farion, by assuming the same stance, was sending a clear message.

I trained you.

I know your technique better than you do.

Seeing that her master was finally going to fight seriously, Ghislaine activated her Eye of Magical Power once again.

The silent confrontation, which had already begun from the instant the two of them met, became sharper in the silence.

Neither of them moved.

The wind blew between the dunes.

The sand slid around their feet.

In the distance, the sky continued to be carved by lightning and tremors from other battles.

But there, for one brief instant, there was only the two of them.

Master and disciple.

Ghislaine would never underestimate her master.

As he himself had said, she might have been one of the only people alive who still clearly remembered Gall Farion's strength.

When she was only a young woman, he had been the absolute pinnacle of the art of the sword. The previous Sword God was simply weak before him.

The most powerful Water God of the last few centuries had been defeated. The fastest blade, the strongest, the most inevitable. That was Gall Farion.

And after training with the Technique God, he had to be even more powerful.

But Ghislaine had not remained stagnant over the past few years either.

Her training had been with the Beast God. And unlike Gall, she had had many people to fight, many people to rival, many walls to keep climbing without ever stopping.

Each of them had been, in their own way, an incentive and a constant pressure to continue improving, to continue growing, to not fall behind even for an instant.

She was already one of the most powerful people in the Kingdom of Gaia.

One of the four swordswomen who had mastered the supreme offensive technique, Wild Light.

A Sword Emperor and a Beast Emperor.

The two stared at each other.

Contrary to what many would expect, that confrontation did not last long.

Sometimes, a clash between swordsmen of the Sword God Style could last quite a while.

Not in the sense of a long exchange of blows, but in the sense that the reading, the pressure, the contest of intent and posture could drag on until one of them finally found the exact line of the cut.

But Ghislaine did not practice only the Sword God Style.

She also practiced the Beast God Style.

And, as a Beast Emperor, she possessed a weapon that could only be described as supernatural.

The Sixth Sense.

It was as if she could sense the fatal opportunity before it had even taken shape.

So, when purple lightning crossed the clear sky and illuminated the white desert for a single instant, Ghislaine and Gall Farion advanced.

It was instantaneous.

Too fast for ordinary eyes to follow.

The two simply vanished from their positions and crossed past one another in the desert like two flashes of light.

When they returned to the world's sight, they had already passed each other.

Ghislaine was still serious.

Her posture remained firm, but on her neck, a thin red line appeared.

Then blood began to flow rapidly.

Gall Farion had been faster in the final instant.

Ghislaine could feel that clearly.

But from the very beginning, this had never been a contest to decide who was faster.

The Beast God Style was not a style made for the purest possible confrontation between swordsmen. It was a style designed to kill.

To attack the enemy's vulnerabilities. To find the exact opening, no matter how small, and pierce through it.

Gall Farion was missing an eye, and that vulnerability became his downfall.

From the beginning, reading the flow of her master's touki, Ghislaine had already known what he would do. And her senses told her exactly when her best opportunity appeared.

She brought a hand to her own neck, feeling the blood, and began to recite:

"Divine power is rich and nourishing. Grant strength to those who have lost their strength. Heal..."

Green light gently lit up in the palm of her hand.

The superficial cut on her neck healed quickly, while the blood stopped flowing.

Farther behind her, Gall Farion remained standing for an instant.

Without warning, he fell forward.

His torso had been split diagonally in two.

The cut ran from his lower ribs to his shoulder. Dark blood began spreading across the white sand, painting the desert.

The body of the former Sword God collapsed without any grandeur.

Ghislaine looked at him.

Who knew what the result would have been if Gall Farion had been in his prime? What if he had not had that wound in his eye?

That question passed through her mind, but soon drifted away. There was no point thinking about that now. The man fallen before her was not the Gall Farion of twenty years ago.

And she was no longer the rude, bestial girl he had once dragged around, by force and shouting, into the discipline of the sword.

She turned fully toward him.

And then gave a short bow.

In the same style he had stubbornly taught her since she was ten years old.

After that, Ghislaine did not waste another second.

She launched herself across the desert once more, heading in the direction where her senses told her Gaia's most difficult battle was likely taking place at that moment.

----

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