Chapter 218
Chapter 218
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 218
Chapter Title: Bait
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High above the Holy Kingdom of Freeman.
Thunder rumbled through the smoke that blanketed the sky like storm clouds.
BOOM!
The violent waves of power surging within the dark clouds of smoke sent chills down the spine of anyone who beheld them.
It was a testament to how much power Yeonma had poured into them.
Blavi's brow furrowed.
'His presence vanished.'
Though the dark clouds of smoke filled the skies overhead,
the presence of Yeonma, who had conjured them, could no longer be felt anywhere.
'Did he slip away?'
It seemed he had fled through the gap while the dark clouds surged and engulfed the surroundings.
Blavi gripped his sword with regret.
Blavi was ridiculously strong in a head-on fight.
But his tracking skills left much to be desired.
"There are too many interlopers. Until next time."
Those were his final words.
They clearly signaled his intent to end the battle and withdraw.
'He pulled back.'
Even in Blavi's eyes, Yeonma had no chance of winning.
This was the Holy Kingdom of Freeman.
Though the current chaos from the gods' festival and internal strife had made an immediate response impossible,
under normal circumstances, even an intruder like a World Eroder would never have been able to breach this place.
The holy royal palace was constantly protected by a sacred barrier that only allowed entry to those with permission.
But that barrier had been temporarily disabled by the opposition faction pushing for religious revolution.
Even ordinary priests and holy knights couldn't enter without permission,
so they had deliberately turned it off for the revolution.
Yeonma had exploited that perfect opening to infiltrate the holy royal palace.
'He has an inside man.'
A timing this precise meant there had to be a collaborator with the World Eroder somewhere.
'I'll interrogate or torture it out of them later.'
Blavi looked up at the sky.
BOOM!
The dark clouds crackling with lightning from within looked incredibly dangerous at a glance.
It seemed Yeonma had poured a massive amount of power just to keep him from pursuing.
At that moment, dozens of beams of light shot up from below the rooftops.
The dark clouds were struck by the beams, causing parts of them to crumble and fall.
Blavi focused his aura to expand his vision, revealing Tersada and members of the opposition faction rushing over.
Raw fury burned in their eyes.
They too had realized that a World Eroder had exploited their noble religious revolution.
'A storm of blood will rage for a while.'
That was none of his concern.
Which left only one thing to resolve.
Dealing with the dark clouds that had formed in the sky.
If he wasn't careful, the smoke could engulf not just the palace but the common citizens as well.
'Eliminate it.'
A crimson-black aura began surging from Blavi's body.
Each time the sticky, blood-like energy rose, his presence grew stronger.
RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE—
At that instant, amid the dark clouds,
a single hand of smoke, enormous enough to blanket the palace, emerged.
It was so massive that its shadow alone darkened the palace below.
A hand that would leave anyone's jaw on the floor.
Blavi clicked his tongue at the sight.
"He left behind one hell of a mess."
The hand that had swallowed the entire cloud of smoke began slamming down from the heavens toward the palace.
The palace—and all of Freeman—trembled.
The ground shook fully from the impact of the descending smoky hand.
Below it, Blavi's jet-black hair and clothes whipped upward.
Crimson-black energy surged, dyeing his eyes blood-red.
He intended to blow away the dark clouds in one go.
At that moment.
CRACK!
The smoky hand descending toward the ground split apart all at once.
The severed hand shattered into tens of thousands of strands, pouring toward a single direction in unison.
"What the—"
Blavi's eyes twisted in shock.
He realized the attack was targeted at an individual.
His gaze fell on Krash.
The dark clouds left by Yeonma weren't aimed at the holy palace or him—they targeted Krash.
'Not for escape?'
Realizing this, Blavi kicked off the rooftop without hesitation.
He didn't know why, but Yeonma had left the toxic smoke specifically to kill Krash.
Toxic smoke that would melt skin, muscle, and bone on contact.
So he planned to save Krash and shatter Yeonma's attack.
But what reflected in his eyes was Krash amid pitch-black flames reminiscent of stars burning fiercely.
What insane focus.
Even as the attack bore down on him, Krash suppressed everything, entering a state of utter concentration.
Black flames billowed, scattering his hair.
Smoke leaked from his mouth, conveying the scorching heat building within.
The wind from Krash's flames heated Blavi's face.
It was enough heat to make even Blavi falter for a moment.
Amid those pitch-black flames,
Krash's eyes, gradually turning red, met his gaze.
Blavi's eyes widened more and more.
'Heavenly Killing Star.'
The power dwelling in his eyes was unmistakably the Heavenly Killing Star.
The Heavenly Killing Star, which instilled murderous intent toward the world.
In exchange, it massively boosted physical abilities and aura output.
But its murderous aura was a headache even Blavi, with his long life, couldn't fully control.
Why else would he have become Sephira's escort, using their astrology to suppress it?
Yet now,
Krash wielded that Heavenly Killing Star perfectly.
'...How?'
He had passed the Heavenly Killing Star to him just a few years ago.
Blavi's assessment of Krash back then was this:
A brash boy.
Fast-growing, but nearing the limit of his talent.
Except for the venom in Krash's eyes, which even Blavi had noted as exceptional.
And now, in just a few years,
Krash had achieved absurd growth that stunned even Blavi.
The space around Krash began to warp.
His surging power was so immense it affected the atmosphere dramatically.
The problem was that the scale of the power he was gathering was far greater than expected.
'Why?'
To shatter Yeonma's incoming attack?
'No.'
No matter how he looked at it, that output suggested more than that.
Krash had another goal.
The venom in his eyes was always fixed on the next target, and the one after.
It had been the same that day.
Krash, who had finally defeated the 8-star Erosion Beast Agares, had his eyes only on what came next.
Amid the pitch-black flames, Krash's eyes met Blavi's.
Understanding the intent, Blavi changed course.
He leaped not toward Krash, but into the sky.
'As expected of the Heavenly Nine Stars.'
Seeing Blavi grasp his meaning, a savage smile tugged at Krash's lips.
At the same time, deep within Krash's inner darkness, seven stars hung.
The moment the starlight of the Heavenly Killing Star poured down and fully infused his body,
the power of World Erosion began rampaging inside Krash's body.
At this point, his aura had already been converted to World Erosion power thanks to the Four Seasons.
The World Erosion power blazing from Krash was on an entirely different level from before.
CRUNCH!
In the torrent of overwhelming power that could make even Krash lose consciousness,
he gritted his teeth fiercely and seized control of the World Erosion power with his own hands.
WHOOSH—
All that World Erosion power ignited into Ignis, becoming black flames.
Within the soaring inferno, Krash's red eyes blazed fiercely.
'Not yet.'
The black flames surged anew, accelerating further.
Boosted by Excel's effect, the black flames raced madly through Krash's body.
THUD—THUD—THUD—
Each pulse spewed fiercer flames, scorching his flesh.
Even Krash's body, forged through relentless training, trembled.
'Not yet.'
But Krash clamped down on his mind as pain threatened to cloud it.
His insides felt like they were melting in the flames, but he ignored it.
The flames intensified, soon exuding the power of a fire demon.
The heat haze rising around him warped space itself.
'Now.'
GRIT—
At that moment, a clicking sound echoed from Krash's mouth.
He felt the power of the enhancement elixir seeping into his body.
An elixir refined through repeated improvements, now on its fourth iteration.
Its effects accelerated his output far beyond before.
His body managed to withstand the massive flow of black flames.
'That Darling girl, as expected.'
She wasn't called a genius for nothing.
With his reinforced body enduring the black flames, Krash exhaled superheated smoke.
The pinnacle realm Krash could reach.
And in this final moment,
Krash drew his last card.
He touched the Four Seasons embedded within him.
The Four Seasons, diligently expelling World Erosion power, flinched.
It writhed, then instantly transmuted all of Krash's World Erosion power.
WHOOSH—
The blazing black flames began shifting color.
What rose was white flame.
The white flames devoured all surrounding light in an instant, blazing madly like the sun.
All the World Erosion ignited by Heaven-Annihilating Rakshasa had transformed into aura—the power that protected the world.
White flames rose silently from Krash's Thunderclap Roar.
White flames exhibited overwhelming power against World Erosion.
And they were no exception against World Eroders.
Before Krash, who had thrust his head skyward,
Blavi soared into the air.
The crimson-black energy condensed to pitch-black density in his twin crescent blades.
At that moment, Blavi swung both swords toward the smoky hands.
SLASH!
The crossed slashes obliterated the smoky hands entirely, reaching even the dark clouds.
The resulting storm shook the entire Holy Kingdom with whipping winds.
High in the sky,
sunlight pierced through the dissipating clouds from the crossed slashes.
He wasn't called a monster from ancient times for nothing.
Blavi had unleashed a strike of absurd power.
And below him,
the moment Krash's white flames, standing at the center of the beaming sunlight, reached their limit—
The blazing white flames of his Thunderclap Roar suddenly swung backward.
A choice that would baffle onlookers.
But Krash harbored no hesitation.
CLANG!
The resounding sound was metal on metal.
Behind Krash,
the old man's eyes widened in shock as he poised to strike down with his staff.
He was none other than Yeonma.
He had never intended to flee from the start, hiding his presence in the smoke to kill Krash.
But Krash had seen through the plan as if he knew it from the beginning.
He ignored the trap he had set and left it to Blavi.
Beneath his bowler hat, bewilderment filled Yeonma's eyes.
At that instant, white flames erupted from Krash's sword.
The power pouring from them contained a massive aura that even chilled Yeonma.
Beyond the white flames, Krash's red eyes had stared solely at Yeonma from start to finish.
Realizing this too late, Yeonma thought,
'I fell for it.'
With that final thought, Krash's white flames engulfed Yeonma.