Chapter 280
Chapter 280
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 280
Chapter Title: Long-Awaited Level Up
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Chapter 280.
How long had it been since his last level up?
Woojin wore a pleased smile, savoring the fullness he hadn’t felt in ages.
‘The black space isn’t showing up anymore.’
When had that started?
It seemed to be after he read that massive tome called the *Otherworldly Demon King Chronicle*.
He’d held out some hope for another secret, but just like before, no black space appeared this time either.
All it did was emit a bright light that restored Woojin and Freya.
“Kraaaah!”
Baron, on the other hand, took a direct hit.
He suffered burns as if engulfed in flames, smoke billowing from his body.
He recovered almost instantly, of course, but his face twisted in agony from that brief moment of intense pain.
‘At this rate, isn’t it more lethal to demonic energy than divine power?’
The light from a level up scorched the flesh of anything infused with demonic energy while healing allies’ wounds.
It seemed far more effective than the divine power boasted by Alair’s priests.
Until now, he’d taken it as just another game-like mechanic, but seeing Baron’s reaction made him think it deserved a closer look.
‘After I wrap up the backlog.’
For now, dealing with Baron came first.
Woojin glanced at his ‘status window’ before fixing his gaze on Baron.
His depleted chaos energy had fully recovered with that one level up.
Thanks to it, he could sustain the ‘Chaos World’ for much longer.
But that didn’t guarantee he could kill Baron.
Just like with Kratosh—no matter if he slashed, stabbed, burned, or shredded him.
The bastard could use his own power to recover completely again.
‘Though it’s probably not infinite.’
If it were, Baron would have conquered this world long ago, not him as the Demon King.
“Now it’s your turn.”
Woojin’s cold gaze fell on Baron.
“…You can’t kill me.”
“We’ll find out starting now. I don’t buy that you’re truly immortal.”
Twitch—
Baron’s expression crumpled at Woojin’s casual remark.
“I admit I’m no match for you. But you can’t kill me here today either.”
He repeated the same line.
It didn’t seem like empty bravado.
‘Is he really unkillable?’
It might be true.
But that didn’t matter.
He couldn’t just let him go like this.
“You can’t kill me…”
Woojin continued with a sinister smile toward Baron.
“Then keep coming back to life. Let’s see you try.”
‘Kara Niel,’ infused with ‘Berserk’ and ‘Swift,’ shot forward.
“Futile!”
Unlike Mardetain, Baron didn’t fall easily.
The gap between them was as vast as heaven and earth, to exaggerate a bit.
His reaction was a touch slow, but he barely dodged ‘Kara Niel.’
Slashes!
A few strands of hair were severed, floating into the air before vanishing into the flow of chaotic time.
Woojin’s attacks were fast.
Incredibly so—Freya couldn’t even track what was happening, and she had reached the transcendent realm herself.
But Woojin wasn’t the only impressive one.
Baron was evading his assaults with astonishing speed too.
Occasionally, his skin would tear and blood spray, but that was it.
Baron’s all-out movements rivaled Woojin’s even with ‘Celestial Wing’ active.
‘Movements like that are possible?’
Free and unbound by forms or patterns.
They resembled those of a beast.
Woojin marveled inwardly.
This foe was unlike any he’d fought before.
‘Unpredictable.’
Impossible to anticipate.
Attacks he was certain would land missed emptily several times.
And he shrugged off minor strikes to counterattack.
Woojin couldn’t help but admire it.
‘Still, I’ll win.’
No matter how erratic, everyone had limits.
Whoosh!
Woojin manipulated the ‘Chaos World,’ seizing Baron’s body.
He fixed space in place and rewound time.
Gravity pulled from all directions, disorienting up, down, left, and right until Baron had no choice but to halt in place.
‘Now!’
Pinned in an inescapable bind, urgency flashed in Baron’s eyes.
Vast demonic energy erupted like an explosion, shattering the phenomena restraining him.
Less than a second.
Woojin didn’t miss the opening and swung ‘Kara Niel.’
Just like the first strike on Baron, it was a simple yet fluid sword path.
Once, twice, three times.
Sword marks began etching onto Baron’s body.
Soon, they spiderwebbed across him.
Countless wounds, too many to number.
Spluuurt!
Blood gushed out.
A fatal injury no ordinary person—or even one in the transcendent realm—could survive.
But Baron writhed again, reversing time once more.
“Not this time!”
Woojin had no intention of giving him recovery time.
He stomped the ground with a thud and activated a skill.
‘Yomra.’
A massive rift tore open in the ‘Chaos World,’ black iron chains bursting forth.
“Seize him. Tear him apart.”
The chains obeyed Woojin’s will, coiling around Baron.
“Kraaaah! Release me!”
He thrashed, but ‘Yomra’s’ chains refused to yield easily.
Claaang!
A tug-of-war began between Baron and the chains.
They were tough enough that even a transcendent being couldn’t snap them in one go—and dozens assailed him.
Baron summoned every ounce of strength to resist.
One chain finally broke.
Powerful as ‘Yomra’ was, bolstered by ‘Celestial Wing’s’ buffs, fully binding Baron was still beyond him.
Clang! Craaack!
Once one snapped, the others followed in a chain reaction.
“Grrrrr!”
Eyes bloodshot as he poured demonic energy into the effort, he severed the rest.
And at that moment.
Woojin struck.
Fresh slashes rained on his unhealed wounds.
Craaack!
His body shattered into hundreds of pieces.
A dismemberment beyond mere bisection.
Baron’s demonic energy struggled to reform his flesh but ultimately collapsed.
“Whew—”
His second death already.
Or at least, wounds that should prove fatal.
But Baron didn’t die this time either.
No level up for Woojin.
“Persistent bastard.”
Woojin sighed, a mix of admiration and irritation, then snapped his fingers.
Snap!
‘Oblivion Flame’ ignited.
Flames that could incinerate existence itself.
Before, they’d only cauterized the wounds’ edges, but now he aimed to burn the flesh entirely.
“What if the smoke clumps back together or something?”
Recalling an old Japanese manga, Woojin hurled ‘Oblivion Flame’ at the chunks.
Roooar!
Gray flames devoured Baron’s remains.
‘Yeah, that’s the limit.’
Had he overdone it with so many skills at once?
Woojin felt his chaos energy severely depleted.
Too much to keep ‘Chaos World’ going.
‘Wanted to confirm he was truly dead before releasing it.’
No time for that luxury.
He deactivated ‘Chaos World.’
Swoooosh—
The landscape shifted back at once.
The jumbled earth realigned, chaotic time resuming its normal flow.
“Huff—!”
“What in the world…”
The holy knights and priests, caught up unintentionally, gasped ragged breaths and collapsed in place.
In the ‘Chaos World,’ only transcendent beings could move freely.
Anyone lesser simply exhausted their stamina and mana by existing inside.
Endlessly wandering a topsy-turvy realm left them drained, as expected.
Hundreds lay sprawled in exhaustion, staring at Woojin.
No one understood what had happened, but one thing was clear.
Woojin was behind it all.
Gazes filled with awe and fear washed over him.
Woojin ignored them deliberately and released ‘Celestial Wing.’
With ‘Chaos World’ gone, distorted time normalized, ending its duration.
“Hm?”
No particular pain followed.
He’d braced for excruciating agony, but it was just a tingle.
‘Thanks to the level up?’
‘Celestial Wing’ overloaded the body to unleash several times its normal power.
When time ran out, the backlash hit.
But Woojin had leveled up during its duration.
His body had recovered once, dulling the pain considerably.
Unaware of this, Woojin shrugged it off.
“Hey, good’s good.”
Must be the level up’s doing, he figured, and stepped forward.
Baron’s body burned fiercely there.
“…This guy’s something else.”
Incredibly, Baron still lived.
Despite being hacked into hundreds of pieces and burned by ‘Oblivion Flame.’
He was still trying to clump back together.
The damage slowed him, but left alone, he’d reform fully in minutes.
“Can’t have that.”
Woojin extended a hand.
Boom!
An explosion carved a massive pit.
“Let’s see if you can regenerate from this.”
With icy words, Woojin shoved a portion of Baron’s flesh into it.
He gathered the rest himself.
Revolting as the wriggling chunks were, better than letting him revive.
“Freya. Can you handle this?”
He indicated the pieces in his hand.
“…Handle?”
Having watched from start to finish, she guessed his intent.
“Seal them far apart so they can’t rejoin?”
Woojin nodded.
“Please.”
Won’t die?
Whether Baron retained consciousness was unknown, but if so…
‘I’ll make him wish for death.’
Buried eternally underground.
No experience points was a shame, but this seemed solid.
Woojin looked up.
Above the star annex’s ruins, too crumbled to recognize, stretched the darkened night sky.
‘Time to head back?’
The promised week was nearly up.
Time to return as Massive Guardian.