Those Who Live Without the Law

Chapter 206

The Man Who Stood Still (1)Denver Hudson aimed the tip of the stake at Kairus. Kairus raised Veil of Plumed Mist and straightened his stance.

“What you desire lies behind me. But you cannot reach it. Half-finished Featherwing.”

Kairus smiled as he answered.

“Featherwing is gone. Philip, hiding under your ass, already blabbed about it.”

He did not even call him Emperor anymore. Denver let out a small sigh.

“Blasphemy against the sun of the Empire is punishable by immediate execution.”

“If there’s anyone capable of that, sure.”

It was a declaration that Denver could not kill him. The stake came flying forward.

The size of the incoming stake had not changed, yet to Kairus, it looked so massive that it seemed capable of blotting out the entire world.

The turbine whine sharply rose, and Veil of Plumed Mist knocked aside the tip of the incoming stake.

A single collision unleashed a shockwave powerful enough to affect dozens of meters around them. It was enough to turn the already devastated Imperial Palace into even more of a wreck.

As if that previous strike had merely been a greeting, dozens, hundreds of attacks poured toward Kairus.

‘How is that even possible?’

From Kairus’s perspective, it was absurd. This was not a weary man forcing out fighting spirit.

Denver Hudson was simply in perfect condition right now. He was not exhausted, nor hungry, nor tormented by thirst.

“You crazy bastard.”

Kairus hurled himself into the countless attacks. As he redirected the stake flying toward his chest and raised his sword, a fierce Peerless Wind moving at dozens of meters per second swept over Denver’s body.

At the same time, Kairus’s body broke through the sound barrier. Alongside the thunderous boom of shattered walls, the sword Kairus swung collided with the stake.

The delayed impact exploded outward and slammed into Denver Hudson.

“Hah, already?”

Denver let out a small note of admiration. Kairus was using Swift Blade and Moonwalk simultaneously. He probably could have done it even back when they met in the Jade Palace.

It seemed he had truly skipped over Cloud Seizing Art entirely. That was not what the Emperor desired.

“You should have completed Cloud Seizing Art.”

“Why don’t you go fuck yourself.”

As Kairus swept at Denver’s legs, a slash spread outward, sweeping through the spot where Denver had been standing before surging upward into a dragon spout.

Avoiding the attack was no issue. Kairus vanished once more with an explosive boom, then descended from above, smashing down toward the crown of Denver’s head.

“You’ve got spirit.”

Facing the raging Kairus, Denver endured the onslaught like an enormous mountain range standing unmoved.

He deflected what needed deflecting and avoided what needed avoiding. Within those direct and rapid movements, there was not the slightest trace of flamboyance or technique.

If one had to compare it to clothing, it felt like a suit worn to a funeral.

“You boring bastard.”

And Kairus was like a rampaging wind. The path of his sword transformed endlessly, scattering and gathering again before extending outward as though bending itself.

Flashing dark-green sword light accompanied movements that crossed the speed of sound, linking together one rapid motion after another.

At the end of every movement that surpassed sound came crazed winds and erupting shockwaves.

No matter where one moved, Kairus’s sword approached. No matter where one looked, his sword intent writhed there.

“You sure are fidgety.”

Denver said that while continuing to meet Kairus’s attacks with the same direct and solid movements, slowly advancing forward.

Heavy and solid did not mean slow. Denver was continuously responding to attacks pouring in from every direction without pause.

He only appeared slow; he was not actually slow. Like how a great mountain moving would seem ponderous no matter how fast it truly was.

Denver’s movements merely created the same illusion for others.

“You sure talk big.”

Denver looked slow but was fast. Kairus also looked light but was heavy. His movements were so light that it felt as though he would shatter instantly upon colliding with the stake Denver swung.

Yet whenever the two weapons actually clashed, Kairus’s sword was never pushed back.

“....”

As the exchange continued, suddenly a rushing sound filled the air and the atmosphere rapidly thinned. It became difficult for an ordinary person to even breathe properly.

Even the thunderous shockwaves created by the collisions of their weapons became faint.

“You’re doing something interesting.”

Even so, Denver Hudson continued exchanging blows with Kairus without the slightest concern. The battle continued for over thirty minutes like that.

“No, fuck, what the hell is this bastard?”

The one growing flustered was actually Kairus. It was enough to leave him dumbfounded. Even Kairus himself was becoming exhausted from the rapidly thinning air, yet Denver, who had not even undergone any procedure, remained perfectly fine.

Kairus immediately withdrew Swift Blade. Air began filling the surroundings once more.

“Finished with your tricks?”

At the same time as he spoke, a haze rose from the sharpened end of the wooden stake Denver held. It blackened and split apart with cracking sounds.

From within those cracks, crimson flames flicked their tongues. It resembled burning charcoal.

Tap.

The blackened part of the stake struck the ground, scattering bright red sparks before they faded away.

The surrounding temperature soared in an instant. The blood soaking the floor could not withstand the heat and began boiling, leaving stains behind, while the skin of the piled corpses cooked, releasing smoke mixed with a disgusting stench.

Kairus clicked his tongue as he used the output of Veil of Plumed Mist to regulate the temperature around himself.

“A stake and flames? I’m not a witch.”

Denver answered Kairus’s remark. The faint crackling of a bonfire echoed out.

“When people call someone a witch, that’s what they become. From now on, you’re a witch.”

The term witch hunt did not exist for nothing. The pointed end of the charcoal-like stake aimed at Kairus.

The moment they collided, the tip of the charcoal exploded with sparks and horrifying heat. Wind swept forth, scattering the heat and sparks away.

‘He’s really advertising it openly.’

Extremely dry and scorching air. In this situation, the easiest way to keep fighting was obvious.

He simply needed to bring forth cold, humid wind. Then this infernal heat would subside, replaced instead by an enormous amount of water vapor.

He was being told to use Cloud Seizing Art. The countermeasure itself was simple, but it was clearly a countermeasure that dragged him along according to the opponent’s intentions. Like in chess, being forced to move a piece simply because there was nowhere else to move it.

“Fuck off.”

Without sufficient skill, one could only be dragged around by the opponent’s intentions. But Kairus was not that weak.

Adjusting only the temperature around himself so his body would not suffer damage, Kairus continued fighting. Every time sparks scattered, the temperature sharply rose before falling again.

The corpses that had been sizzling and roasting had now burned completely black, becoming like soot. The heat was suffocating, yet it still could not turn Kairus into something like those corpses.

“What stubbornness.”

Denver frowned slightly as he blocked Kairus’s attack. The wind sent his entire body flying away.

Denver’s body smashed through a wall, yet apparently still had force left over, continuing to fly farther away.

Then, a moment later, Denver burst back from the direction he had flown and swung the stake at Kairus once more. Heat brushed past him. There were no wounds on Denver’s body.

‘Does he simply never tire? Or does he not die at all?’

Kairus still did not know. If he could injure him, that meant he could kill him….

And if that was the case, then there was no reason for Kairus to retreat here. It was not as though there was no way to win.

Rumble—

With a thunderous sound, the Imperial Palace groaned as a whole before completely collapsing.

Kairus immediately soared into the sky while simultaneously crushing Denver downward with wind. A violent gale powerful enough to utterly shatter the ground beneath Denver erupted with grinding noises.

Denver looked up at Kairus rising into the sky.

“....”

There was one thing Kairus had realized while fighting Denver.

‘His movements become strange at regular intervals.’

Once every three to four seconds. Denver’s movements became odd. It was only for a brief instant, but in a battle like this, such an instant decided fate.

Continuing to accelerate, Kairus unleashed Swift Blade at Denver. Dozens of sharply honed streams of wind rushed toward the standing Denver as though they would mince him apart.

“Now!”

At the same time, Kairus descended. Above Denver, who was blocking the blade-like winds, Kairus came crashing down.

Veil of Plumed Mist split Denver cleanly in half.

Denver’s body, split apart like firewood, collapsed to either side.

“Huh?”

Kairus was bewildered. That strike had not been launched with the expectation that things would turn out like this. It had not been a decisive finishing blow struck after seizing victory, nor was it a desperate attack thrown out while accepting damage to himself.

He had merely noticed the moments when Denver periodically became strange and driven a strike into that opening.

Yet that attack had worked so perfectly that Denver split apart with a crack.

But soon enough, Kairus managed to regain his composure.

“You fucking bastard.”

The blood spilled across the ground floated into the air before being sucked back into the bisected corpse.

Then Denver Hudson, who had collapsed in two halves, snapped back together.

“Finished?”

As though nothing had happened, Denver Hudson looked at Kairus. He had been split in half, yet he had not died.

Kairus decided to stop questioning whether a person could even do such a thing. By that logic, people flying through the sky should also have been impossible.

“What are you? What kind of monster are you?”

Instead of answering, Denver took a step forward. The moment Kairus moved his sword, hundreds of blade-like winds shredded Denver’s body.

It seemed he had not even bothered trying to defend himself.

Blood sprayed in every direction before once more being sucked back into Denver’s body, and the wounds vanished as though they had never existed in the first place.

“My time is stopped at a specific point. Thanks to the royal treasure passed down through generations by the sun of the Empire.”

His expression said that he did not mind explaining it.

He felt neither hunger nor thirst. Because his time was stopped.

Naturally, he also felt no fatigue. The only thing experiencing the flow of time was his soul. Denver’s flesh was fixed to a specific point in time, restoring itself every few seconds to the body state of that designated moment.

That was why he was immortal. In the end, the rumors had been true.

“So that’s why you were fine even after the air disappeared….”

That was also why Denver Hudson had no need to breathe.

“And the reason your movements periodically become strange?”

At Kairus’s question, Denver let out a low chuckle.

“There are not many skilled enough to notice that. And you are the first to realize it this quickly. You truly are exceptional.”

Denver’s flesh was fixed to a specific point in time, periodically restoring itself to the body he possessed back then.

In other words, every few seconds, even his sensory organs, including his eyes, were periodically reset.

At that moment, an opening to attack Denver appeared. But even if one successfully struck him then, it was meaningless.

Because his body state would simply return to that predetermined point anyway.

“With a body like that, I’m surprised you haven’t gone insane.”

“Because there’s something I must do.”

Everyone had their own circumstances. Kairus decided he did not particularly care.

There was no need to wonder about such things. Was there even any way to kill that thing?

What about Moon Sand?

The dagger that killed the past, and the Guardian of the Nation who had fixed himself to a specific moment.

“Then I just need to kill the Emperor.”

Denver smiled at Kairus’s words.

“My time is stopped thanks to the royal treasure. But if the sun of the Empire dies, then I shall die as well.”

He had not obtained immortality. Denver had merely linked his life to someone else’s life.

Kairus could now understand why the Emperor had not fixed his own time instead.

Because that bastard would never bind his own life together with another person’s life as a shared fate. Instead, he had linked the life of the Guardian of the Nation, whose duty was to protect him, to his own.

If Denver did not wish to die, then he had to protect the Emperor. And if someone wished to kill the Emperor, they first had to get past the immortal Denver Hudson.

It was like placing the only key capable of opening a vault inside the vault itself.