Chapter 280
Chapter 280
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 280
Chapter Title: Black Dragon
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"Give him a good smack for me!"
Bioren's wailing voice rang crystal clear in Krash's ears.
His grip tightened even harder on the hilt of his sword.
"You stick to curses like a leech... You wanna end up like me?"
Before his regression, he'd instinctively kept his distance from Bioren because she felt so much like him.
One day, she casually tossed a barrier spell his way and said,
"Live like a human. Don't end up in some half-assed state like me."
That was the extent of their conversations.
Their relationship was too distant for those words to stick in his memory.
But precisely because they were so distant, he could now see it all the more clearly.
"D-Do you know... what pisses me off... the most right now?"
After throwing herself in front of Choiheung and blocking it with her barrier.
He'd ended up by her side as she lay dying.
The others had rushed off to finish off the Choiheung that Bioren had held back.
Krash, the sole non-combatant, was the only one left beside her fading form.
That was why, whether he wanted to or not, he'd heard her final words.
"That I... never got to vent... even once... at those damn... sons of bitches... my parents."
She said it with a face full of regretful laughter.
That regret was laced with raw resentment and a tangle of emotions that made her lament her entire life.
"F-Fuck... I should've... smacked 'em at least once. I should've..."
Tears streamed from her eyes as she finally spat out the words she'd bottled up inside.
"Too... damn late now..."
And with that, she died.
The hero who had endured against Choiheung with her barrier perished, spewing only resentment.
Krash couldn't bear to watch.
For some reason, it felt like his own end would be no different.
He, too, would go out without wailing like she had.
Maybe that's why.
Krash didn't want her to meet that same fate anymore.
Everyone dies someday.
No one escapes death.
But if it's inevitable.
Then at least, when looking back from death's door, couldn't you think that at least that one day made life worth living?
Better than a life riddled with regrets.
Wouldn't a life where you poured out everything at least once hold more value?
Krash raised his sword high toward the heavens.
Fine, they hadn't shared much before his regression.
But right now, Bioren was his friend and comrade.
If the girl who would one day join the Generation of the Sky could spread her wings.
Krash would gladly raise his sword for her.
After all, he'd decided to become the brightest star at the forefront, the Eternal Autumn Star.
The strain on his body intensified.
Black Flame roiled madly inside him.
The Black Flame began to choke his throat.
His entire body felt like it would burn away any second.
Yet it shifted into another phase.
The Black Flame accumulated within him began incinerating everything.
And that "everything" included the White Dragon King.
The White Dragon King, swallowed by the Four Seasons.
Even swallowed, it hadn't been fully absorbed by Krash.
Its will had been devoured, but its power was beyond what Krash could handle.
That was why he couldn't wield the White Dragon King's full strength.
To use it completely, he'd have to shatter the wall of complete transformation.
And now.
The White Dragon King, which should have been impossible to melt even under any circumstances, dormant inside the Four Seasons.
Was being forcibly liquefied by the endless Black Flame Krash had devoured.
The eternal glacier of the White Dragon King.
Was melting before an untimely scorching heatwave.
The melted White Dragon King became fuel for the Black Flame entirely.
The Black Flame that consumed it seared Krash's insides to a frenzy.
In effect, it was spreading the liquefied White Dragon King's power throughout Krash's body.
"Ha."
Black and white smoke mingled and poured from Krash's mouth.
At the same time, one of his pupils began morphing, resembling a lizard's.
Above Krash's head.
A single small horn sprouted on one side.
Scales emerged along his cheek, and his canines sharpened.
The result of forcibly absorbing the White Dragon King's power that had lain dormant, unintegrated within him.
Terasius's eyes widened slowly as he witnessed it all firsthand.
It was the sight of a human transcending into a new race.
For Terasius, who sought to create a magical race, it was a perfect new milestone.
And it was unfolding right before his eyes.
Krash met Terasius's bulging stare and once more hoisted his sword skyward.
Black Flame blazed wildly from his body.
Inside Krash's body.
The seven stars ignited crimson all at once.
His blue-glowing eyes now gleamed with red starlight.
Red starlight spread through the Black Flame, amplifying its power even further.
Kaduk-
The moment that power hit its limit.
Krash bit down and shattered the Instant Reinforcement Elixir he'd held in his mouth.
Flame Extinction ErosionSeven Implants
Heaven-Slaying Black Dragon
Roarrrrrrr!
The Black Flame surged toward the heavens, blazing ferociously.
It looked for all the world like a pitch-black dragon ascending into the sky.
Limit upon limit surpassed, Krash reached a new realm.
Terasius stared at the scene in a daze.
Krash looked down at him and let out a short laugh.
"Grow up a little."
With that, Krash swung his sword down.
The Black Dragon devoured everything.
At the site where the Black Dragon had crashed down.
The storm of Black Flame it had whipped up while devouring everything still raged around.
Villagers in the distance trembled in terror, as if a real dragon had plummeted from the sky.
Animals from the Freya Mountains fled in fright every which way.
Such was the overwhelming might of Krash's Heaven-Slaying Black Dragon.
At the spot where it had descended.
One man stood silently, swallowing hard.
The Demon Emperor, Terasius Jeblam.
The one who had donned the guise of Temarin Jeblam to infiltrate Raheln Academy.
He stared straight ahead.
To Terasius, Krash had been someone he could kill with a flick of magic.
No matter how prodigious Krash was, he couldn't match Terasius at the pinnacle of magic.
He still had a long way to grow.
That was why Terasius had deemed his 9th-circle spell Luminor more than sufficient.
The gap in their levels was too vast for Krash to pierce it.
But now.
Fragments of Luminor fluttered in the wind.
The unbreakable Luminor Terasius had proclaimed was shattered into pieces, scattering away.
It had broken from the impact of an unbearable force.
Terasius's gaze slowly drifted downward.
There stood a battered boy.
Krash Valheim.
The one who had discussed magic with him.
After the redheaded wandering mage died.
He had realized there was no one left in the world to debate magic with, drowning in bitter loneliness for decades—until this boy eased it.
And now, that Krash was staggering toward him.
"...Why go this far?"
Terasius still couldn't understand Krash.
He possessed knowledge enough to debate magic with him.
Of course, Terasius had glimpsed someone greater behind Krash.
Even so, Krash was qualified enough to speak for that existence.
If Krash wanted, Terasius could give him anything.
As long as he discussed the magic Terasius thought he'd never debate again, he would grant any wish.
Yet here Krash was, furious at him.
"I could give you anything you desire."
Why the rage? Terasius asked.
Krash, drawing closer, slowly lifted his head.
"What I want is something you can't give."
"There's almost nothing in this world I can't provide."
"No, there's a shit-ton. I've seen it with my own eyes."
Even someone as mighty as Terasius couldn't stop the world's end in the end.
At that point, to Krash, he wasn't omnipotent.
He was human too, with his limits.
"Terasius Jeblam."
Krash raised his clenched fist.
"If you're gonna live, live like a human."
Krash didn't consider someone who treated lives as lab rats, without a shred of guilt, to be human.
"You can't even do that. What the hell can you do?"
With those final words, Krash threw his fist at Terasius.
Thud-
Krash's fist met Terasius's chest.
But the punch held not a scrap of strength left.
He had squeezed out every last drop of power; this was his limit.
Crack-
Cracks spiderwebbed across Krash's skin, flakes peeling off.
The price of forcibly melting and absorbing the White Dragon King's power.
Krash's body pitched forward.
Terasius caught his unconscious form with a heavy thud.
Thud!
Footsteps echoed through the smoke, arriving late.
There stood a silver-haired girl who looked just like him.
The moment she thought the fight was over and rushed in, she spotted Krash slumped in Terasius's arms.
At the same time, she noticed the black smudge on Terasius's chest.
Krash's punch.
Realizing it, she glared at Krash with a surge of emotion, then spoke.
"...Krash is being hunted by those Ixion bastards right now."
Terasius's ears twitched.
"So he's trying to make a safety device. One that sends a danger signal, letting standby forces warp straight to him."
"...Hiding safely would be better."
"That guy's not the type. He's all about crushing Ixion."
She looked at Krash like she couldn't rein him in.
"There's a senior at the academy who's skilled in magic artifacts. I'll help however I can, so help him make it."
He was the father she despised.
The one whose mere presence denied her life, whom she hated even facing.
Yet now Bioren was asking him for help.
For the boy who had wailed for her sake.
"..."
Terasius looked down at Krash.
He glimpsed Krash's will to transcend races in his final moments.
Beyond the safety device, becoming a Dragon King race would require his cooperation too.
Seeing through that much, Terasius fell silent a moment before handing Krash to Bioren.
As she hurriedly took him, Terasius turned away.
"I'll head to Jeblam first. I'll open a gate back to Raheln Academy, so go there."
Bioren let out a deep sigh of relief.
She'd been inwardly anxious about what that madman might do.
"Live like a human."
Mulling Krash's words briefly, Terasius's expression took on a look of sudden enlightenment.
"That's definitely beyond me."
With that, Terasius vanished via spatial transfer magic.
"B-Bioren."
At that moment, hearing Krash's voice, Bioren startled and turned to him.
His battered face spoke up.
"Feels... a bit better now, huh."
What was he saying when he could barely speak?
It was absurd, but Bioren gripped his arm tighter.
"...Yeah, you damn fool."
It felt so relieved it cleansed her soul.
Hearing that, Krash gave a short laugh and closed his eyes.
Watching him, Bioren quietly resolved herself.
Even if her life had only value as a test subject.
For the guy who wailed in her stead.
She'd try living her best, just a little more.