Chapter 233
Chapter 233
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 233
Chapter Title: Meiri
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A fire ignited deep within Krash's body.
With that, his pupils began to gradually take on a crimson hue.
The Heavenly Killing Star and Annihilating Flame Erosion surged simultaneously, beginning to push his body to extreme heights of reinforcement.
The air scorched and blazed hot.
The afterimage shards flying toward him shattered with a sharp clang.
Annihilating Flame Erosion - Third Stage
Flame Asura
Felray felt his face burning hot before long.
It was because an even greater wave of heat was pouring out from Krash.
And amid that inferno, Felray was laughing right along with Krash.
He had realized just how much stronger he had become, to force Krash to unleash this much power.
But Krash didn't stop there.
As if responding in kind to Felray's strength.
An even fiercer blaze erupted from deep within his body, dominating his entire form.
The heat, drawn out once more through the chill of the Cursed Cold Snow Fang, seized control of the surroundings.
Clang!
The afterimage shards Felray had conjured shattered, unable to withstand Krash's heat.
In that scene, the seven stars of Krash's Heavenly Killing Star all spat forth light at once.
Annihilating Flame Erosion - Fourth Stage
Heaven-Slaying Asura
The fourth realm Krash had attained.
A domain he could now reach purely with his own power, without relying on momentary enhancement elixirs.
The instant he arrived there, Krash's blazing red eyes met Felray's.
Felray knew instinctively.
That he could not defeat Krash.
Yet without the slightest hesitation, he raised his sword.
The shattering afterimage shards gathered atop Felray's blade.
With a whirlwind of afterimage shards swirling around him, Felray pulled his rear foot back.
Intent on clashing his ultimate technique against Krash.
The aura infused with his full power and spirit unfurled, whipping up the air around them.
"Thanks for always having my back."
With words of gratitude, Felray unleashed a fierce burst of light.
In that instant, the air around him reversed its flow.
The afterimage shards collided with the light pouring from Felray's sword, resonating as they unleashed their power in harmony.
At the same time, the energy of the red Heavenly Killing Star gathered on Krash's blade.
Within the crimson currents mingled with Black Flame, a blood-red moon slowly rose above Krash's head.
When that vivid crimson moon was swallowed by the Black Flame and lightning crackled skyward.
Felray smiled, sword still in hand.
And soon, their blades clashed simultaneously.
"Sunny Rain Ki" "Five Forms" "Clear Rain"
⟨ Felray's Technique ⟩
Felray's blue sword, capable of parting storm clouds, sliced through the air.
"Annihilating Flame Erosion" "Five Forms" "Heaven-Slaying Moonfire"
⟨ Krash's Technique ⟩
The black sword of Black Flame, having devoured the crimson moon, descended upon the world.
The moment the two blades collided.
They devoured even sound itself as they erupted in light simultaneously.
And as that light faded, the building's outer wall crumbled, filling the air with smoke.
From within that smoke, someone kicked off the floor and leaped out.
It was Felray, his clothes torn to shreds, his body a battered mess.
One arm and one leg were covered in burns, his muscles and bones screaming in agony.
Yet his blue eyes still gleamed with unyielding spirit as he charged forward.
Felray's Clear Rain had clearly been overpowered by Krash's Heaven-Slaying Moonfire.
Krash's technique operated on an entirely different level.
But Felray's Clear Rain, infused with his full power, had pushed back the Heaven-Slaying Moonfire just a little.
That alone kept him from losing consciousness.
It was enough.
He could still stand.
Without hesitation, Felray cleaved through the smoke, his sword drawing forth one final surge of aura.
At the same moment, parting the smoke ahead, Krash's figure came into view.
Krash, facing him, held his sword low at his waist, poised in stance.
He too had believed Felray wouldn't fall—and had waited.
Felray's eyes lit up brilliantly.
"Krash!"
Crying out his name, Felray's sword cut through the air toward Krash.
In response, Krash thrust his own blade toward Felray.
Clang!
The resonant clash of their swords echoed out.
Felray's blade slid down along Krash's, committing to a final exchange of blows.
Krash countered without yielding, shoving forward with his guard to block Felray's sword's path.
Kagagagang—
In their test of strength.
Felray heaved ragged breaths repeatedly.
His sword arm had almost no strength left.
Yet Felray gripped his blade with desperate tenacity.
"Felray."
Amid Felray's final act of will.
Krash's voice reached him.
"Come at me again next time."
Next time.
Felray looked at Krash over their blades upon hearing those words.
Grow even stronger and clash with me once more.
I'll give it everything again, just like now.
That was what Krash was saying.
Hearing it, Felray let out a short laugh as if he couldn't win against him, then collapsed along with his sword.
Thud!
Felray dropped to his knees on the floor, then laid his head down flat.
Even in that state, he refused to release his sword.
Krash, who had sheathed the blade of Thunderclap, turned his head to look at Felray.
Krash too had expended considerable power, his breaths coming in heavy repeats.
Felray sprawled on the ground wore an expression of refreshing relief, as if he had poured out everything he had.
Krash flicked the bracelet from Felray's hand into his pocket.
Gazing at him, Krash let out a chuckle before resuming his walk down the corridor.
Cooling his slightly creaking body—strained from Heaven-Slaying Asura—with Cold Snow Fang.
Now, only Meiri remained.
And she was right around the corner.
Boom!
At that moment, a commotion erupted from outside.
Krash glanced out the window to see a black void there.
'Zodiac Gloria.'
Sigrin's preparation to take down Charlotte, no doubt.
And judging by the erupting light of the white dragon, Sigrin was going all out as well.
But Sigrin was unaware of one key fact.
The reason Krash had left Charlotte to face her alone, even though he could have teamed up to smash through everything.
'Today, we deepen Sigrin's doubts.'
The suspicions Sigrin had long harbored toward Krash and Charlotte.
One of them clearly knew the past.
Lately, Sigrin had started sensing it was Krash, not Charlotte.
But she could never accept that truth.
To her, Krash had always been the cursed one, dying while calling out to them right before regression.
'With pre-regression knowledge, you can't shake your preconceptions about me, Sigrin.'
Krash had noticed the anxiety shadowing Sigrin's heart.
As time passed, she was undoubtedly breaking down.
Arthur, who still hadn't appeared before her.
The anomaly that was Krash, the cursed one from before regression.
Charlotte's excessive involvement.
Mary's betrayal.
Abella's disappearance.
In this present so vastly different from before regression.
Facing the despair of having to handle it all alone.
Sigrin was under constant extreme stress, and those facts were steadily gnawing away at her.
She saw herself as the center of the world.
But the world denied her that position.
'So today.'
Krash recalled what he had given Charlotte, his expression turning cold.
'We shake Sigrin to her core.'
Watching what she had done to Glenn today convinced Krash.
Sigrin would inevitably obstruct stopping the world's destruction.
Krash looked up.
Before him stood a single door.
Layered with magic seals, it screamed top-tier security.
Krash drew Thunderclap without a moment's pause, summoning Annihilating Flame Erosion.
Then he swung it straight through the door as if slicing tofu.
Slash!
Krash lifted his leg.
Thud!
He kicked the door flying backward.
"Gwahk!"
"Agh!"
Screams erupted from inside.
Those who had been waiting by the door, sensing his approach, got crushed under it.
But Krash ignored them and leaped over the door.
Cling!
The moment he landed, he parried a flying sword.
Then he smashed his fist into the gut of the one swinging at him and kicked him away.
"Kuhak!"
Leaving the tumbling foe behind, Krash looked up.
A fair number of White Yang Unit members remained, positioned to guard Meiri.
They all eyed him warily.
'Meiri.'
Krash noticed she wasn't in sight.
'She's hiding.'
His Sixth Sense didn't pick up on her in any specific spot either.
"If you're gonna hide her, why didn't you all clear out and run too?"
A chilling smile crept across Krash's lips.
The White Yang members who grasped his meaning shivered.
And soon, their screams rang out deafeningly.
White Yang Unit affiliated Detection Specialist.
Meiri.
Her specialty was overwhelmingly vast detection range and multitasking prowess.
She could handle dozens of situations at once.
As the head of the White Yang Unit, she commanded with ironclad precision, pinpointing enemy positions and strategies.
She was the one who could issue perfect responses to any scenario.
Her honed detection bordered on prophecy.
From the moment enemies faced her, their retreats, movements, and plans were rendered powerless before her.
In truth, if Meiri had been unharmed, even the White Yang Unit couldn't have been breached head-on.
After falling to Charlotte.
She regained consciousness right as Krash clashed with Felray.
Feeling dazed and nursing a headache, she hurriedly activated her detection.
Having been shattered once by Charlotte, it took considerable time to get it fully operational again.
But true to her status as a Detection Specialist.
Even in that state, she managed to activate her ability.
In the lower sector, Lion Unit first-years were battling key White Yang members.
It was a razor-thin exchange of blows.
Elsewhere, Inma Unit Leader from the Magic Department clashed with first-year top student Barkram Arias and second-year top Magic Department student Aslan Egret.
Students loyal to Aslan fought desperately as well.
The White Yang building was in ruins.
Finally.
'He's close.'
Second-year Martial Department top student Krash Valheim had finally beaten Felray and was heading this way.
The fastest among the Lion Unit members.
He'd arrive in mere minutes.
She had few options.
She ordered half her remaining forces to hold him off while she hid in a tool cabinet warded with detection immunity magic, just in case.
Boom!
And sure enough, the moment she hid, Krash appeared.
Huddled inside the cabinet on both knees, Meiri swallowed silently.
Krash demolished the White Yang members the instant he arrived.
The sight was so merciless it terrified even Meiri watching.
Without hesitation, he sat the kids down and interrogated them.
"Where's Meiri?"
"W-We don't know."
"Right."
The moment they claimed ignorance, Krash drove his fist into the face of a nearby White Yang member.
A die-hard imperialist who always praised the Empire and ranted that other kingdoms deserved annihilation.
"Gehk, kuh."
As the surprised man coughed up blood, Krash raised his fist again.
"Where's Meiri?"
"I-I really don't know!"
"Right."
Krash's fist slammed into the imperialist again.
His strikes looked agonizing even to onlookers, who winced and shut their eyes.
"S-Stop."
"Where's Meiri?"
Krash's eyes grew icy cold.
Meeting his gaze, the White Yang members trembled violently.
He was utterly ruthless.
Could a so-called hero truly be this brutal?
His demeanor instilled pure terror.
And a single fact flashed through their minds uniformly.
Devil's Den Valheim.
What kind of person Charlotte, born there, had been.
All those assigned to guard Meiri were White Yang first-years.
The fear of Valheim, etched into their bodies from various defeats at Charlotte's hands, resurfaced.
"Where's Meiri?"
From start to finish, Krash asked the same question.
As if there were no escape without an answer.
Like an emotionless robot, he repeated it.
With no response, Krash raised his fist once more.
"P-Please... m-mercy..."
The imperialist was now tearfully trying to flee.
But Krash mercilessly stomped his back.
"St-stop... p-please... have mercy! I'll show mercy!"
His teeth seemed knocked loose from Krash's punches as he screamed.
But Krash hadn't asked him.
He fixed his gaze straight on the first one he'd questioned.
"Where's Meiri?"
Terror twisted the man's face.
The imperialist looked at him pleadingly too.
Meeting those eyes, he could hide no longer.
Boom!
At that instant, the door to Meiri's tool cabinet flew open.
Krash turned to the opened door, where Meiri emerged, biting her lip hard.
"......Stop it. I'm right here."
In the end, unable to watch any longer, Meiri had come out on her own.
She stared at Krash in disbelief.
This wasn't war—it was just an inter-unit skirmish.
Even if politics had tangled it up.
No matter the justification, Krash's actions just now were beyond anything acceptable in a skirmish.
"You're hailed as a hero, yet you do this to regular students?"
Krash blinked at her words for a moment.
Then he let out an incredulous scoff.
"When have I ever asked to be called a hero even once?"
Meiri's eyes widened at his retort.
She had heard endless tales of his fame.
For him to be this kind of person.
Meiri showed undisguised disappointment.
"Listen up, Meiri."
Krash stepped toward her, lifting his foot off the imperialist.
"This rotten world is covered in filth everywhere you look."
"What about it?"
"And that's the reality you'll confront most as someone with detection abilities."
Meiri froze.
For some reason, it felt like Krash's eyes pierced right through her.
A chill ran down her spine.
She couldn't tell what this man saw in her.
"After witnessing that filth endlessly, one day you might want to blind and deafen yourself."
"......What are you even talking about?"
"No matter how hard you clean a room, dust always builds up again."
Meiri reflected in Krash's eyes.
As a Generation of the Sky member excelling in detection, she had warned of crises faster than anyone.
She had repeatedly issued alerts to save lives.
But despite her warnings, some crises claimed lives.
Decisions driven by greed for money and more.
Through those who ignored her alerts, countless died.
Mostly commoners.
Not nobility, but commoners.
She knew well how commoners lived, far better than nobles, and gazed at that truth in vain despair.
Soon after, she tore out her own ears and gouged her eyes.
Realizing that warning after seeing and hearing changed nothing in this world.
"So remember one thing."
The blade of Thunderclap extended from Krash's sword.
The intimidating pressure from the Black Flame rising along it was enough to make Meiri step back.
"That there's one ruthless arsonist out there determined to burn every last speck of that dust."
"Eek!"
Still unable to grasp Krash's words, Meiri bolted for escape.
Her evasion, powered by detection, surpassed others.
She figured she could make a run for it somehow.
But she soon realized that was a fool's hope.
Krash's presence filled her entire detection field.
She knew exactly what that meant.
Not a single path of escape left to her.
Crack!
She heard a sound from behind her neck and felt her consciousness fading.
In her dimming awareness, her eyes met Krash's briefly.
She didn't know what he saw through her.
But sensing it wasn't mere enmity, she lost consciousness.