Chapter 197
Chapter 197
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 197
Chapter Title: White Flame
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Krash Valheim.
A figure shrouded in rampant rumors even before arriving at Raheln Academy.
From tales of him being a new star born in the Valheim family...
To whispers that it was all exaggerated gossip.
A dizzying array of rumors had spread far and wide.
But once he set foot in Raheln Academy, the truth behind those rumors began to surface.
From the entrance ceremony right up to this very day.
Every feat he had accomplished was enough to leave anyone stunned.
And so it was.
Before long, Raheln Academy itself had started to revolve around Krash.
His presence was so commanding that it overshadowed even the established first-generation students.
And right now.
Rona Imblize—the magic tool maker who had become the Black Witch's servant—was coming to grasp the true weight of those rumors.
In a quiet room.
Only faint sunlight seeped through the drawn curtains.
Catching sight of Krash on the bed, cast in shadow by the light, Rona felt a shiver run down her spine.
Something was off.
He was right there in front of her, yet his presence felt unnaturally faint.
Like staring at a tree in the depths of a forest.
If she walked past him like this, she might forget him entirely—his aura was that subdued.
Gulp—
And that very subtlety terrified her even more.
Dangerous.
The Krash standing before her was unmistakably dangerous.
"Rona Imblize."
In that instant, a voice slipped from Krash's lips.
It nearly made her collapse right there.
"Do you remember how you became the Black Witch's servant?"
The question came out of nowhere.
"What do you...?"
The moment she tried to respond.
Her lips parted, but no words came out.
It wasn't that she refused to answer.
Krash's question had involuntarily pulled the memory of that day to the forefront of her mind—the day she became the servant.
But something was wrong.
It felt like a chunk of her mind had been wiped clean.
No clear recollection surfaced.
Confusion clouded her face.
She couldn't summon the memory of becoming the Black Witch's servant at all.
"Uh... uh..."
A bewildered murmur escaped her lips.
This was utterly unforeseen.
"Looks like you don't remember."
She had no memory of the process that turned her into a servant.
The instant Rona realized this.
The Black Witch's voice echoed through her mind like a dagger thrust.
In that moment, the Jevilairon magic tools surrounding her shattered en masse and hurtled forward.
The fragments ravaged the room and lunged straight at Krash.
Krwaaang!
Rona burst out of the room, demolishing Krash's wall amid the carnage.
And just as she mindlessly tried to flee.
"You think I'll let you stir up this chaos and just run?"
She jolted at the voice.
It came from dead ahead.
She had clearly escaped Krash's room.
How was his voice coming from in front of her?
Before doubt could fully form, Krash appeared in her line of sight.
His hair swaying slightly—he had matched her pace exactly.
Accel.
Krash's supreme speed skill had overtaken her in a flash.
Simultaneously, Thunderclap gripped in his hand.
The sword flames erupting from Thunderclap were unlike any before.
Not the black flames Krash always wielded, but pristine white flames roared to life.
Flames radiating an entirely new level of power.
White Flame
It was aura—the raw power of the world itself—not the World Erosion force Krash had incinerated with Ignis up to now.
And that power filled Rona with utter dread.
Aura was the world's own might.
It naturally repelled World Erosion bearers, an instinctive revulsion.
The ultimate counter to World Erosionists.
Aura.
White Flame forged from that very aura.
Krash tightened his grip on Thunderclap, sheathed in the blaze.
Shudder!
The instant Rona's hair stood on end like needles.
Her vision drowned in white.
Roarrrrr!
Jevilairon tore apart on Thunderclap's blade amid the inferno.
The Jevilairon magic tool was forged from World Erosion power.
White Flame was its ultimate weakness.
And Ignis wielded purifying force.
"Kyaaaaah!"
Fatal to Rona, a World Erosion bearer.
It hurts.
It's hot.
Why was I doing this?
Rona stared at the white flames raking her chest, lost in thought.
That day had been ordinary—crafting magic tools as always.
To her, magic tools were her whole world.
But after one accident, they were dismissed as flawed weapons.
Rona couldn't stomach it.
She threw herself deeper into research.
To craft perfected magic tools.
Ones she could flaunt to the world.
Her efforts bore fruit.
Rona's creations steadily improved.
Greater destructive power. Enhanced safety.
But proof came only through use.
Eccentric and socially awkward, no one tested her work.
That was when it began.
A faint crack in her heart.
Resentment toward a world blind to her genius.
That seed took root.
And that day.
A black frog appeared before her.
Utterly repulsive, it stared at Rona and declared.
The words barely landed before the frog leaped into her embrace.
No time to react. When her eyes fluttered open.
The fears and doubts haunting her heart had vanished clean away.
An inexplicable liberation and euphoria surged within.
Confidence that she could conquer anything.
With that final summons, unwavering loyalty etched itself into her soul.
A profound, all-consuming devotion to the Black Witch.
Rona's eyes snapped wide amid the searing white flames.
Doubt flickered in her gaze.
She had never wished to become the Black Witch's servant.
The instant she encountered the black frog, it had happened without her realizing.
True, she had resented the world for ignoring her magic tools.
She couldn't abide a reality that dismissed her creations.
But it wasn't hatred for the entire world.
Just a fleeting stumble, like anyone experiences now and then.
As the purged memory resurfaced, panic gripped Rona.
Why had she served the Black Witch so faithfully?
The power granted was immense, but to raze the world over magic tools?
"Looks like you pieced it together."
Krash and Rona locked eyes once more.
Vitality returned to her gaze.
The Black Witch could enslave without consent.
Not just Mirei—Rona too.
But the white flame's strike had partially shattered the spell.
White Flame erased all traces of World Erosion.
'Brainwashing.'
Seizing the tiniest rift in one's heart.
The Black Witch wedged in and claimed it.
Krash recalled the countless victims of this innate power.
Even among the Generation of the Sky, some had fallen—her sorcery was devilishly insidious.
Yet with Ignis and aura.
Krash could dispel her brainwashing at will.
"W-what have I done...?"
Confusion twisted Rona's features.
The sins she had committed outweighed her burning flesh.
Irreversible atrocities beyond count.
"What now...?"
As bewildered words tumbled from Rona, the Black Witch's voice crackled like lightning in her skull.
With that, the magic tool at Rona's neck blazed to life.
The light spread instantly, voracious enough to devour every photon in the vicinity.
"Ah."
Amid the blinding glare, hair whipping wildly, Rona stared at the tool—and understood.
The deadly power she had crafted under brainwashing.
Self-destruct.
With the Black Witch's parting words, Rona slowly shut her eyes in the devouring light.
It's over.
She thought.
Crack!
Until the explosion—nearly simultaneous—Krash ripped the tool free.
Before tears could well in her eyes.
Black flames danced across Krash as he crushed the ground.
Not aura, but World Erosion's explosive black flames roared vividly.
An all-new acceleration surged through his frame.
His body felt feather-light.
Yet the force in his stride was worlds apart.
Accel's might.
Sound trailed far behind.
Amid black flames' savage blaze, Krash rocketed skyward.
The magic tool's erupting light intensified in his grasp.
His left arm, clutching it, bulged grotesquely.
Destruction Erosion concentrated to its zenith.
Krash flung it heavenward, muscles straining on the verge of rupture.
The glowing tool pierced dozens of clouds, ascending to the stratosphere.
When it kissed the sky's edge.
The light hit critical mass.
Flash—!
Kwaaaaaaaaaaang!
The delayed shockwave rattled Raheln Academy's trees and towers in unison.
As all gawked skyward, mouths agape at the impossible blast.
Krash touched down smoothly, expelling a long plume of smoke.
Drawing on Hanseol Agwi to chill his core at breakneck speed—unlike before—he turned.
There sat Rona, slumped and spent.
She had braced for death from her own tool.
No strength remained.
"Still wanna fight?"
Krash sheathed Thunderclap at his hip and asked.
Naturally, Rona just shook her head slowly.
"What... what happens to me now?"
The white flame had fully purged the Black Witch's hold; Rona muttered blankly.
Krash kindled white flame in his palm.
As he approached, she gazed up slowly.
Is he here to kill me?
Her dazed eyes fixed on the flames; Krash spoke.
"Open your mouth."
"Uh... y-yes?"
Such an abrupt command.
Still reeling from death's shadow, she froze—till Krash tapped white flame from his fingertip.
"Gonna erase your World Erosion servant mark. Open up."
Rona's eyes went wide.
She never imagined it possible.
"And 'what happens'? What, you think it'll be bad?"
He fed the flame into her mouth.
"Blame it all on World Erosionists. Problem solved."
"B-but Mirei..."
Cardinal Mirei Beakis.
From the Freemans' view, unforgivable once brainwashed.
Krash gave a short laugh at her name.
"Don't sweat that either."
Raheln Academy housed the Freemans' top brass, after all.
"Astria can bust her ass on it."
Time for the Saintess to clock in.