Regressing as the Reincarnated Bastard of the Sword Clan

Chapter 237

Of all those interested in crossing swords with Theo, none was more eager than Kyle.

‘I want to see just how much your blade has grown.’

Kyle had always felt a quiet joy watching Theo’s relentless growth.

For Theo, life had always been a series of battles.

Colliding, struggling, and then somehow overcoming.

When faced with yet another obstacle, Theo never hesitated to clash with it head-on.

That unyielding journey reminded Kyle of his own past.

Perhaps that was why he found himself constantly drawn to Theo, why he couldn't help but keep an eye on him.

Every time they met like this, it felt as though Kyle was looking at a younger version of himself.

‘I hope this is enjoyable, too.’

Kyle genuinely meant it.

After all, the days he could still wield his sword were numbered.

***

‘Where is he?’

Theo tightly gripped the Dragon Fang Blade as his eyes scanned his surroundings with precision.

The Triple Core connected to his mana stream vibrated more fiercely than ever before.

And yet, finding even a trace of Kyle's presence was nearly impossible.

Even the Black Dragon, who prided himself on concealment, would leave behind the faintest clues. Kyle, however, left absolutely nothing.

It was as though his existence had been erased from this world.

‘No, it’s not erasure. He’s severed it. Both presence and trace.’

Theo began to wonder—was there anything Kyle couldn’t sever?

Swordsmanship that could cut through even the concept of presence... Surely, this was no longer in the realm of humans.

At that moment, a faint offensive pressure brushed against Theo’s senses.

‘Straight ahead!’

Theo slammed his foot into the ground and swung his greatsword downward.

Boom!

A heavy impact rocked the blade.

The shockwave was so powerful it felt as though his wrist might be torn off.

With Herculean strength exceeding 200 on the power scale, Theo managed to endure it.

Still, he had to put enormous force into his legs to maintain balance. Veins bulged on his calves as the effort took its toll.

But then—

Slash!

Blood suddenly spurted from his left shoulder.

‘What just happened...?’

The attack had clearly come from the front. So why was there a wound on his left?

The question barely had time to form in Theo’s mind before—

Shing!

This time, a sharp pain sliced across his left lower side.

Theo spun his body, striking upward from below.

The greatsword flashed brilliantly, carving a sharp arc through the air.

This time, he infused it with the essence of Celestial Circle, an advanced form of the Dragon’s Claw technique.

He wanted to show Kyle how far he had come, how much he had refined the dazzling strikes his father once demonstrated.

It was perfect.

Kyle would surely be impressed—or so Theo thought—

Even then, the chances of success were slim.

“I don’t know...”

The Maehwa Palace Lord trailed off, her lips pressing into a thin line.

Both Julius and the Black Dragon felt a sudden unease.

“You know something, don’t you?”

The Maehwa Palace Lord’s gaze wavered under their probing stares.

Meanwhile—

‘I can’t find a way out.’

Theo felt as though he had been trapped in a maze of razor-sharp winds.

No matter how many attacks he parried or deflected, the relentless storm of blades closed in on him.

The more he defended, the more wounds he accumulated.

The earlier injuries weren’t a fluke.

Kyle’s flashes were almost magical in nature—every strike seemed to inflict damage regardless of its trajectory.

Had Theo not awakened as a Draconian, he would already have collapsed from blood loss.

The path behind him was littered with blood, and his clothes were in tatters.

At first, Theo thought about retreating.

But he quickly dismissed the idea.

There was nowhere to go in this prison of blades.

Instead, he recalled Kyle’s words.

"It seems you’ve not yet grasped the concept of space."

Kyle had offered no further explanation, leaving Theo to uncover the truth on his own.

If there was a way out of this hellish storm, it had to lie within the meaning of those words.

‘If he’s trying to teach me something, the answer must lie within the knowledge I already possess. A path... I need to find the path!’

Theo knew that time was a circle.

Even if the world were to be destroyed by the Nameless Sovereign, the Pantheon would reset it to its beginning.

A vast, repeating cycle defined this world.

But what about space?

If time repeated, could the same be said of space?

Wouldn’t space be governed by entirely different laws, creating new civilizations and connections?

Time and space... Was Kyle telling him they weren’t separate?

‘No, something’s off. If space and time are one, they must both fit into the concept of the circle.’

Theo’s memories stretched back to his life as Yoo Tae-oh, when he had studied the White Tower’s secrets.

He had learned that time and space weren’t distinct entities.

Time accelerated in compressed space, and space could collapse entirely at the speed of light, enabling phenomena like teleportation or even time travel.

This unity of time and space—Spacetime (時空)—meant they could not be separated.

Kyle’s voice cut through his thoughts.

“Space is a prison.”

A prison?

“The laws are the bars, and the truths are the chains binding you. Unless you break free, you’ll never enter this realm.”

Kyle was pushing Theo to surpass transcendence, to break through into the realm of myth itself.

The storm of blades raged on, but Kyle’s voice remained clear and close, whispering in Theo’s ear.

“If you fail to grasp this, you’ll never stop Hilda or the Mad Dragon Emperor. Nor will you surpass the other Archdukes who might already be on equal footing with us.”

This entire domain—this battlefield—was Kyle’s spiritual realm.

Time, space, everything within Theo’s senses belonged to Kyle.