Battle Harem of the Heavenly Sword

Chapter 133 The Butcher's Masquerade 2

?If Spirit allowed for souls to reincarnate based on their lives. Then it made sense why there is a limit. Hiro surmised the limit must have been the soul's ability to endure hardship. It is impossible for anything to remain unbreakable.

Yet Rilu went twelves times that. Just how heartless is Ethan Dragonblood to force such a life on his heir? How could he force Rilu's soul to keep reviving with no help whatsoever?

Hiro then thought about his wives, how many lives have they already endured? They already suffered so much in this life. Burned, mutilated, cursed, abandoned, Isolated. How many times have they already repeated such a cycle? The hand of fate seems to not only go against him but also against his loved ones.

In guilt, Hiro threw himself into the fray. He wanted to suffer as much as he could if only to join Rilu and his wives. A man who knew not of pain had no business consoling those who live in it. The more Hiro compared his life to theirs the more he started to hate himself.

'If only I can carry your burdens with you. If only I could suffer in your stead. I am so sorry for I don't know how I can alleviate your sorrows.'

With a war brewing on the horizon, by taking Rilu and his wives, Hiro was in effect going to subject them to battle without end. This thought crushed him. How many more tears will they shed, and how many more injuries will they need to incur?

Yet, he could not separate from them. His greed and selfishness could not bear for them to live in peace away from his side. If he cannot allow them to leave, the best thing the man could do was ensure that they would not suffer. But how?

He didn't know. Even with his high INT, the answer eluded him. Afraid that his wives might no longer want to stay should they know what is to come, Hiro grew terrified.

The fear threatened to suffocate him. Like a noose on his neck, he felt it tightening. He then remembered the words of his father figure.

(Listen here Hiro, I don't give a crap if you are scared out of your wits. The problem is being frozen in place due to fear. You cannot stop moving forward.)

(So what if you are scared? Laugh at it till it becomes manageable! If you are scared to show your face, then wear a mask. Never settle. Never stay down. Staying done is how people die when they are still alive.)

Thus Hiro created a mask. If you cannot kill, run, or ignore suffering. The only thing left is to embrace it. The reincarnator felt his sanity slipping away as he made such declarations.

Yet, every time he thought of what he needed to endure, there was no other alternative. Failing to prepare for a known problem is a mark of a fool. Alter Hiro lost his wives due to his inability to brace for what was coming. The thing Hiro feared the most was the death of his wives.

So he continued to strengthen his will, bit by bit. His insistence on calling himself a monster is nothing more but a mask. And every time Hiro wore it, his fears disappeared. This would be bad for him in the future, but for now, if helped alleviate his fears.

'For now, this is enough.'

Back to the present. Hiro then shattered the blades on his neck with a fist covered in Aura. His remaining flesh and muscles had trouble supporting his frame due to being whittled down to almost nothing.

"Your 60 seconds are up. My turn. [Integrity of the Faithful] - Resolution."

Everyone started backing away after Hiro's words. The grave wounds on his body started to heal at a frightening pace. The weapons stabbed into his body all started getting pushed out and falling to the ground like coins on a slot machine.

His blood all flowed back to his veins like a red tsunami which happened as his flesh started to close up. In less than three minutes the once feeble-looking man on the verge of death regained his combat-ready body once more. They weren't able to see his face as a Hiro again used the inventory system to once again slip into his costume.

After a couple of seconds, the entire hall had chills crawling up their spines from the apparent immortality of the Wolfen Butcher. Hiro then called forth the bone swords that fell on the ground and armed himself.

Although some of the people tried to steal his weapons they soon abandoned them as most could not even lift the bone swords much less use them.

Silence pervaded the entire space, everyone knew what would happen next but they all wanted to deny it. Feeling like now was as good a time as any, Hiro then got into an attack stance and began the butcher's masquerade.

————

"[Straight Drive]!"

Sabacthani wielded a large greatsword and quickly skewered the people in the hall. Despite using their best defensive spells, skill, and equipment the butcher impaled close to five people without pause.

Due to the fierce momentum of his skill, the first ones struck by his charge got blasted into bags of blood and meat. The others by the sides tried to capitalize on the situation.

"He used a skill! Hit him during the window!"

Various STR-based Adepts lined up and formed a shield column. Numerous assassin build adepts followed Hiro like shadows aiming to again hit his vitals when his body got skill locked.

Unfortunately, they never fought anyone like Hiro. "Skill Cancel." Instead of charging toward the shield column, Hiro stopped midway and turned. The approaching assassins got startled at the butcher's sudden stop and froze up in fear. "[Psyche Illusio]."

Hundreds of Hiros floating in the air suddenly appeared. All drawing their bone katanas loaded to the brim with Mana. "[Mana Shotgun]." At their Iai draw, the fourteen sword slashes came from each copy. Their aim? The tens of assassins coming for Hiro.

Psyche Illusio meant Soul's illusion, the skill allows a system user to for a very brief moment, create 300 copies of himself that last four seconds. The original skill owner used it to evade attacks, but Hiro turned it into an AOE attack combined when with [Mana Shotgun].

[Mana Shotgun] allowed Hiro to overload a bone katana with Mana and turned the melee weapon into a projectile firing weapon that shoots sword slashes. Due to [Bloodline of Steel] the more Mana Hiro loaded into a sword, the more projectiles he could make.

The storm of mana sword slashes carved the assassins by the thousands. Numerous pieces of meat fell to the ground after the assault. Suddenly all sorts of mana spells and skills flew toward Hiro like fireworks in a carnival.

Tremors shook the hall as wave after wave of powerful magic landed on the butcher's last known position. A mage raised his staff as he bellowed. "Cease firing! Conserve your Mana."

Mages, normally just nuked the shit out of everything, thus even without any prior coordination, the ones here got into a position and just let loose. The large number of spells cause smoke and dust to be kicked up partially obscuring their vision.

The lead mage used his enhanced senses to scan for any indication of the butcher's death. Most were hoping that the earlier regeneration could not be used repeatedly. After a moment of silence, a white object flew out of the cloud and impaled the lead magician in the sternum.