Chapter 171
Chapter 171
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 171
Chapter Title: How to Break the Divine Spear
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Krash's attained realm.
On that day, Mary witnessed Krash's Annihilating Heaven Asura with her own two eyes.
At that moment, as she gazed upon Krash, Mary realized she could never win against him in her current state.
That was why she had entered secluded training, constantly honing herself while recalling Krash's Annihilating Heaven Asura, all the way up to today.
And she ran simulations of battles against Krash in her mind over and over again.
I can win.
I can definitely win.
Ignoring the anxiety gnawing at her heart as best she could, she relentlessly reminded herself that she was the Divine Spear.
Her opponent was Krash Valheim.
The man who had always lingered in her mind as half-baked.
No matter how strong he became, the reality of him defeating her simply could not exist.
'I'm the Divine Spear, Mary Diana!'
With that conviction, she had emerged from seclusion.
Yet the Krash standing before her now was far stronger than he had been back then.
The heat from the black flames emanating from his body was intense enough to scorch her skin, and his ferocious killing intent squeezed her mind into a haze of confusion.
It had only been a few weeks at most.
But the man before her had grown far beyond her expectations.
Of course, that was only natural.
As Mary grew stronger, Krash had been growing endlessly stronger as well.
Refining potent enhancement elixirs for bursts of power.
Honing his Flame Extinction Erosion even more precisely through poison blood battles than before, and ceaselessly practicing alongside Crimson Garden to weave the Thousand Kills Star into Knox's Night.
While Mary had paused her time.
Krash had never once stopped, charging forward with eyes only on the path ahead.
Even if that path led to him being drenched in blood, Krash's feet never halted.
That was why Mary could not keep up with him.
No matter that she possessed the past Divine Spear's memories—having already crumbled once, she was steadily falling further and further behind Krash.
'How on earth...'
Her knees buckled under the overwhelming pressure, tearing open as blood spread across the floor.
The red eyes of Krash gleaming beyond her spear drove her to the brink of madness.
In the instant of defeat, every conceivable consequence flashed through her mind.
Even she, whose mind wasn't particularly sharp, could grasp it.
The reality of being utterly discarded by Sigrin, never again able to see Arthur—the man she loved so dearly.
Arthur Gramalte.
The man she loved and cherished so deeply.
Yet the Arthur who had once whispered words of love no longer appeared before her.
That uncertainty, that endless anxiety, continued to eat away at her.
Mary was undoubtedly the Divine Spear.
But that truth only held as long as Arthur was by her side.
She was human, after all.
The spear that should have stood at the forefront had been chipped away, again and again, before the ultimate malice.
Her unstable mind needed something to lean on.
Someone she could be absolutely certain would never crumble, even if it meant giving everything she had.
And the one she had chosen was Arthur.
With Arthur always at the vanguard, pushing forward ahead of her, she had endured up to now.
Because she was loved by such an Arthur, she had held on.
But the Arthur she longed for so desperately no longer appeared, no matter how she cried out.
Just once.
Just this one moment.
If only she could have seen Arthur now, she wouldn't have collapsed so pathetically.
Yet even before her cries, Arthur never showed himself.
Mary's eyes turned toward Krash, who was pinning her down.
Those vividly glowing red eyes resembled those of a malevolent ghost.
It terrified her.
The consequences those eyes heralded were utterly terrifying.
And for some reason, Krash shone so blindingly bright it hurt her eyes.
Unlike herself, who had faded long ago, seeing him radiate like this stirred an indescribable emotion within Mary.
'No...'
I don't want this.
'I hate it!'
I hate it.
'I hate it...'
I am the Divine Spear.
The Empire's unbreakable lance.
And the Hero King's lover...
"Mary Diana."
From within the blazing black flames, Krash's voice echoed.
"Don't run from reality."
His words pierced deep into the heart of the woman who had been turning away from reality.
Reality.
She had failed to protect the world.
She was no longer the Divine Spear, but the Princess Slayer.
Abandoned by the Diana family.
No longer even Arthur's lover.
Mary Diana.
That was the reality she had so desperately ignored.
The reality trapping the woman who lived only in her past regressions.
A criminal now, stripped of past glories.
"No!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
With her scream, a brilliant yellow light poured forth from her spear all at once.
That light was intense enough to pierce through the black flames cloaking Krash's Annihilating Heaven Asura in an instant.
The realm reached by accelerating her body's full operational speed to its limit with Excel.
The moment she attained that realm, the world froze in an instant.
Transcending time with speed beyond time itself, she slipped out from under Krash's pressure in a flash.
At the same time, her eyes flashed with fierce light as she leveled her spear and exhaled a long breath.
The instant she used Instant Light World Dominion, her body would soon overload, plunging her into excruciating pain.
But she was certain.
In this world, she was the strongest.
Within the halted time.
Krash too was frozen, trapped by the constraints of time.
The lights gathered in Mary's spear began compressing into it all at once.
Pressing, pressing again—the compressed lights warped the air around her with every surge.
An absurd current flowed solely around Mary in the halted world.
The lights were all swallowed into her spear.
Within the pitch-black void of darkness.
At last, Mary's spear cried out before the frozen world.
Ultimate Intent
Instant Light Annihilation Flash
Her spear of light, devastating everything around it, thrust toward Krash.
Frozen in halted time, Krash seemed as if he would be torn to shreds before Mary's Instant Light Annihilation Flash.
As she watched the scene with her own eyes, a fleeting afterthought crossed Mary's mind.
If she killed Krash here, there would be no one left in the world to bear her curse.
She knew that, yet she couldn't stop.
Her mind was filled with the conviction that if she didn't erase Krash right here and now, she wouldn't survive.
So she would kill him.
Pour everything she had into killing him.
In that instant when Mary's mind unified as one.
Drip—
The sound of a water droplet falling echoed from somewhere.
It was so clear that even as she thrust her spear, it rang sharply in her ears.
She quickly realized where the sound came from.
Krash.
The sound of a water droplet was unmistakably coming from him.
How?
No one could move beneath Instant Light World Dominion.
And soon, she realized the sound emanated from the ripples in Krash's mind.
Certainly, before her Instant Light World Dominion, the world appeared to freeze instantly.
But that was merely because she had become too fast.
The world was still flowing, albeit excruciatingly slowly.
Within that world.
The Knox's Night within Krash's body shone more vividly than ever.
Krash's night was a night world independent of the world itself.
Above that night sky, the seven stars of the Thousand Kills Star blossomed.
Those stars each emitted their light, connecting it together.
And the connected light converged on none other than Krash's body.
The Thousand Kills Star with its seven stars.
The moment the light of the seven stars fully infused Krash's body.
The power of World Erosion rampaged all at once.
That rampaging power finally met Ignis once more and blazed anew.
His blazing body surpassed its limits, reaching a new world.
The instant he reached that world.
Twitch—
Within the world of Instant Light World Dominion, which she thought frozen.
Krash's body moved.
Crack!
In that moment, Mary felt her Instant Light World Dominion crack around Krash.
And the cracks soon spread across the entirety of Instant Light World Dominion.
Shatter!
Before long, it collapsed completely.
Above Krash's head.
A crimson moon rose.
Beneath the red moon reflecting the imagery of his life.
Krash's black flames burned with an unprecedentedly vicious inferno.
Before those flames, Mary felt her own light pitifully small for some reason.
A light racing through the vast world of myriad phenomena could only briefly illuminate its surroundings.
It could not light up the entirety of the myriad phenomena.
When the black flames pouring from Krash's raised sword toward the sky met the red moon and gleamed.
That was when she realized her end.
Fifth Form
Heaven-Annihilating Moon Fire
The black flames entwining the red moon devoured the light, annihilating everything.
The sight of even the forest being utterly consumed defied description beyond "overwhelming."
Thanks to that, the control room watching the scene erupted in chaos.
The monitoring spells couldn't withstand Krash's Heaven-Annihilating Moon Fire and malfunctioned entirely.
Beneath the swirling black smoke.
Krash gazed ahead.
Upon a space not even leaving a blade of grass.
Before him stood Mary, her clothes and body charred pitch-black, barely clutching her spear as she somehow remained upright.
Her chest heaved up and down as she gasped for breath.
Her blurred vision no longer functioned properly.
The only reason she could still stand like this was purely due to her innate divine martial body.
In her hazy eyes, Krash reflected.
His eyes, shifting from red back to blue, stood unwavering in place.
The gap.
For the first time, she truly understood what it meant.
She had been utterly defeated by Krash.
Crack!
Before Krash's eyes, Mary's second dial shattered.
At the same time, the third dial appeared.
Isolation.
The moment she saw those words, Mary's body slowly pitched forward.
Thud!
Her black hair scattered as her body hit the ground, stirring the air.
And Mary was repatriated.
The Divine Spear.
The sight of that supposedly unbreakable lance crumbling.
Gazing upon it, Krash quietly exhaled toward the sky.
"I won."
Krash roared his victory.