Chapter 255
Chapter 255
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 255
Chapter Title: Kratos Awakens
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Seo Woojin raced across the frozen wasteland.
Unlike when they had been traveling slowly with the group, his speed was so blistering that his form was barely visible.
“Who could it be?”
Seo Woojin suddenly asked.
“It’s not an Apostle.”
Ban Slaine replied firmly.
“The demonic energy is too potent for that.”
He was right.
Seo Woojin had crossed paths with Apostles multiple times.
He had even clashed with the strongest among them, Xenonia and Ardethos.
But the master of this demonic energy eclipsed them by a vast margin.
It was enough to put even Seo Woojin and Ban Slaine on high alert.
“If it’s someone like that…”
“There’s one in this northern frontier, isn’t there?”
“It has to be that bastard Kratos.”
Seo Woojin nodded.
No one else could harbor demonic energy of this magnitude.
“The rumors weren’t exaggerated.”
“If anything, they fell short. I never imagined it’d be like this.”
Ban Slaine’s expression refused to soften as he spoke.
No, the closer they drew to it, the more it hardened.
‘Can’t blame him.’
Seo Woojin let out an inward sigh.
Kratos’s demonic energy was truly beyond imagination in its immensity.
Even for Seo Woojin now, the thought of facing it head-on was daunting.
‘Demon King Transformation might make it feasible… but damn.’
Just entertaining the idea was proof of Kratos’s overwhelming power.
‘Could the two of us take it?’
Seo Woojin gauged the demonic energy prickling his skin.
‘It’d be a razor’s edge.’
A wry chuckle escaped him.
Incredibly, Kratos’s presence rivaled the combined auras of himself and Ban Slaine.
That realization sobered Seo Woojin.
It wasn’t merely Kratos’s strength.
‘If a single demonic beast is this much, what horrors will emerge when the Descent War truly erupts?’
A chill crept up his spine.
Naturally, freaks like Kratos wouldn’t be everywhere.
But it was certain that swarms of monsters and demonic beasts dwarfing anything he’d hunted before would appear.
And that was without even factoring in the Demon Kings…
‘I need to grow stronger.’
He couldn’t afford complacency after breaking past level 100 into the transcendent realm.
A true Demon King wasn’t someone he could claim victory over, even with Demon King Transformation.
Seo Woojin pulled taut the tension he’d slightly relaxed.
Rumble—!
The ground beneath Seo Woojin’s feet crumbled.
The ice and snow blanketing the crevasse collapsed, opening a massive fissure.
But Seo Woojin and Ban Slaine moved like lightning.
The instant the crack formed, they had already vaulted the crevasse, shrinking to distant specks.
“But why would it suddenly awaken?”
Seo Woojin asked.
“Too many possibilities to single one out.”
The most probable was the impending Demon King descent.
A mere two or three years away.
The northern climate had already shifted dramatically, so Kratos stirring wasn’t surprising.
“Or it could be because of you all.”
“Us?”
Seo Woojin started to ask what he meant but hesitated.
“…Yeah, could be.”
Their last hunt had been in the ice worm habitat right beside Kratos’s domain.
The disturbance might have roused it from slumber.
“And there might be other causes.”
“Like what?”
Ban Slaine answered Seo Woojin’s question.
“Someone deliberately woke it.”
That sparked a flash in Seo Woojin’s mind.
The nagging unease he’d felt nonstop.
‘Those guys?’
Seo Woojin, who’d been convinced Apostles had infiltrated the north, nodded.
He’d wondered why they’d come here, and now it seemed it was to awaken Kratos.
“You’ve got a hunch.”
“Nothing certain, but something’s been gnawing at me since we arrived north. Thinking back, that must be it.”
Regret stung.
If he’d pushed to uncover that unease’s source, Kratos might still be dormant.
But regrets were always late.
The priority now was reaching its domain fast as possible.
‘If it starts moving, it’ll unleash hellish catastrophe.’
They had to end it here in this unforgiving north.
“Hurry.”
Ban Slaine shared the sentiment and picked up speed.
And so the two charged toward Kratos’s domain.
* * *
“…Incredible.”
The Lion let out a hollow mutter.
He had unleashed his most devastating attack.
Baek Siwoo at his side had done the same.
He was sure that even Kratos would have taken heavy damage from that.
And yet…
“Not a single drop of blood.”
Baek Siwoo gave an incredulous laugh.
Whooooosh—
Kratos soon rose to its feet.
A frame just five meters tall.
But Baek Siwoo felt an illusion of its head scraping the heavens.
Its presence was that crushing.
Scraaaaaape—!
White scales grazed the icy ground, ringing out beautifully.
“Looks like a brutal fight ahead.”
The twelve heads turned their gaze, and unprecedented demonic energy bore down.
“The plan stands.”
The Lion refused to waver.
“How, against something untouched?”
Baek Siwoo jabbed at the Lion.
“Its defenses are mighty, but not infinite. Together, we’ve got a shot.”
The failed opener had been a shock, but retreat wasn’t an option.
‘That’d ruin everything.’
His scheme to crown Baek Siwoo the new king—and rule over him—would collapse.
‘No way in hell.’
They had to slay it, limits be damned.
“…Yeah, real promising.”
Baek Siwoo nodded toward Kratos.
Dark crimson demonic energy began coalescing in its twelve heads.
“Shit! Get clear!”
Spotting it, the Lion yelled desperately, and they flung themselves aside.
Screeeeeam—BOOOOM—!
Demonic energy lanced out like a laser, slicing the air.
A colossal blast erupted simultaneously.
“Damn it!”
They evaded the beam, but the shockwave’s aftermath was vicious.
Baek Siwoo clenched his jaw against the onslaught, swinging his sword.
“Myriad Thunderbolts!”
Thousands upon thousands of slashes exploded forth.
BOOOOM—!
“Guh!”
Baek Siwoo’s face contorted.
Despite timely defensive skill, his body groaned in protest.
‘Can we actually win this?’
One strike made it clear.
Just how monstrous Kratos was.
“Shredding Moon Gale!”
The Lion’s shout whipped up eerie winds.
Shhhhwick—!
Ash-gray gales shredding all in their path hurtled toward Kratos.
“Hit it!”
Baek Siwoo instinctively raised his sword at the Lion’s command.
‘Heavenly Thunder.’
Now at level 100, Heavenly Thunder crashed down with unmatched fury.
KRAKABOOM—RUMBLE—
Light plummeted, thunder roaring like a beast shaking the skies.
But…
Claaaaaaang—!
Kratos’s scales deflected it all.
Defense defying belief.
“Ha, this is nuts.”
‘Earth’s Mightiest Demonic Beast’ was no empty title.
Baek Siwoo grinned at his sword’s futility.
A mad, feral grin.
The bloodlust he’d bottled since arriving north detonated.
Fwoooooosh—!
Viscous, repulsive black demonic energy swathed the Nameless Sword, birthing an ill omen aura.
“Let’s see who drops first.”
Baek Siwoo’s blade rent space.
Black lightning trailed.
Thousands of strikes per second hammered the scales.
BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM—!
The Lion didn’t stand idle.
He threw every trick to aid Baek Siwoo.
But that was all.
Kratos endured bare-handed, peering down with abyssal eyes.
[Traitor.]
Then Kratos’s voice resounded in their minds.
“Urgh!”
The Lion reeled.
The sheer force rattled his brain.
“…It talks?”
Baek Siwoo halted his sword, stunned.
First he’d heard of a demonic beast speaking.
None of the thousands he’d felled conversed.
Demonic beasts were beasts warped by demonic energy, after all.
Smarter, maybe, but no true intellect.
Kratos was different.
Its twenty-four eyes across twelve heads fixed on the Lion as it continued.
[Your greed summons chaos.]
The Lion startled.
“…Chaos?”
Not the word’s face value—something else surfaced.
Seo Woojin, the King of Chaos.
Eyes widening in suspicion, Kratos proclaimed to him.
[Death claims you this day. The chaos you invoked devours you, and that toy you forged shatters in ruin. Thus ends my centuries-long vigil.]
Its largest head tilted skyward.
[An eternal lament.]
Kratos’s tone dripped profound sorrow.
As if doomsaying its own end, brimming with anguish.
“…Bullshit!”
The Lion bellowed at it.
“I don’t die! Only one meets death here! You!”
Whhhhoooom—!
Rending winds coiled his arms.
“For the new king’s rise, yield your head!”
Combat reignited.
Baek Siwoo and the Lion’s barrages never ceased.
Kratos, however, launched no counters—merely withstood.
Ten minutes, twenty, an hour.
Sustained assault finally etched cracks into its unbreakable scales.
“Not invincible!”
Baek Siwoo redoubled, exhilarated.
Crack—CRACK—!
Fissures widened.
A little more, and they’d pierce to flesh.
That’s when it happened.
They sensed Kratos glancing behind them.
The Lion gulped instinctively.
‘Someone’s coming!’
Not one—two.
Instinct pinpointed them.
Kratos’s earlier words replayed.
‘Chaos.’
‘Death.’
One soul bore both.
“Seo Woojin!”
Baek Siwoo shrieked beside him.
Turning, two figures filled their sight.
‘Ban Slaine, and…’
As Baek Siwoo cried, it was Seo Woojin.