Chapter 308
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 308
Chapter Title: Arthur Regresses Once Again
Krash finally managed to pull himself together a few hours later.
'Arthur.'
The envoys of the gods had staked everything on survival as well.
They'd ended up using far more power than anticipated.
So Krash had only checked Arthur's direction before passing out cold.
Thanks to that, he had no idea what her current situation was.
"This isn't the time to be sitting around."
This was one of the timelines Aura had manifested.
But to reach the true heart of the demon realm, he had to escape this place first.
And to do that, he had to try anything and everything possible.
'I don't know why Aura's showing me all this.'
But ever since encountering Arthur, he couldn't deny some connection to her.
With that in mind, Krash hauled himself up and started running.
His legs creaked and groaned in protest, but he ignored it.
All along the path ahead,
he saw places engulfed in flames here and there.
Most were private homes.
No people in sight.
Just erosion beasts wandering sporadically.
Not even bodies—everything was eerily clean.
Did the people here survive, one wondered?
Or had they all been devoured by the erosion beasts?
He couldn't confirm with his own eyes, so there was no way to know.
But one thing he could say for sure.
This world could become the future at any moment.
Krash's own world was marching forward with countless potential dooms lurking.
If things went even slightly wrong, it'd end up just like this in no time.
'Who knew it'd be a chance to remind myself again.'
Even after regressing, Krash had let his resolve loosen a bit.
The human heart was truly insidious.
Living in a world that seemed decent enough without witnessing doom firsthand,
it was all too easy to think, I've done enough.
When in reality, he hadn't protected a single thing yet.
"Thanks for the lesson."
Krash swallowed a hollow laugh and poured on the speed.
It felt like the world itself was urging him: You're not done resting yet.
And Krash had no intention of resting anyway.
Not until he'd saved this damned world—he didn't know the meaning of stopping.
The surrounding fires grew fiercer by the minute.
Yet along Krash's path, nothing but erosion beast corpses came into view.
As if a storm had swept through.
The beasts lay slaughtered, rolling across the ground.
Gazing at those bodies, Krash pressed on, and on.
And before long,
Krash arrived at the entrance to the fallen empire.
The empire lay wrapped in ashes, its flames long extinguished.
As if all its former glory had been an illusion.
Not even embers remained in the Epania Empire.
Krash passed through the ruins.
The Epania Empire was deathly quiet, as if it had truly breathed its last.
The imperial palace had burned to the ground at dusk.
Krash briefly thought of Sizrly, then shook it off.
The Sizrly in his memories wasn't here.
Krash's steps gradually slowed to a halt.
He'd sensed a presence.
His gaze fixed on one spot.
There, slumped amid the soot, was someone with ash-covered blonde hair.
As if utterly spent.
She barely managed shallow, ragged breaths.
"Arthur."
Krash called her name.
Arthur faintly opened her closed eyes.
Blood dripped steadily from her abdomen, staining it red.
A piercing wound.
Seeing Krash, Arthur gave a weak smile.
"You're... late."
He really was.
After barely patching himself up, he hadn't expected to find her like this.
Krash hurried to her side and knelt.
He rummaged in his pouch and pulled out a potion.
A rapid healing one.
It wouldn't fully restore her, but it could stabilize.
"No... use. Can't... heal this."
"Don't be ridiculous."
"Not ridiculous. I... used the Holy Sword... awakened."
Krash bit his lip.
Just as she said—Arthur had awakened the Holy Sword.
The Holy Sword inherently repaired its user's body.
But aside from that symbolic trait, it held no special powers.
Except for one hidden ability no one knew about.
Awakening.
True to its name, awakening required special conditions.
The Holy Sword had to absorb divine energy.
Arthur had visited the sanctuary to inhale the fog of divine particles.
Yet even that wasn't enough for full awakening.
So she'd used her own divine energy.
Like the other transcendent demigods,
her sword had successfully awakened by devouring it.
But the cost was this.
Her body had lost all vitality.
Upon reaching demigod status, her life force had been sustained by divine energy.
Feeding it all to the sword had granted immense destructive power,
but turned her life into a candle flickering in the wind.
"Don't... worry. I took down... the White Knight of Conquest."
She caught her breath with effort, reassuring Krash.
Arthur had slain the White Knight of Conquest with the awakened Holy Sword.
An feat worthy of epic ballads to anyone else.
But Krash knew better.
The White Knight of Conquest was just the beginning.
The three knights to come would surpass it entirely.
And no one in this world remained to stop them.
Arthur's breathing slowed.
No potion could help when her body itself had lost its life force.
There was no recovery from that.
No fear in Arthur's eyes.
She'd regress anyway.
Death was distant for her.
No one left to grieve her passing.
While she'd been shocked and holed up,
countless others who'd protected the world had already departed.
Even if they lived,
the one person who'd truly cry for her—she'd betrayed and killed with her own hands.
He existed in no world now.
Not even after regression would the Krash she'd loved be there.
'Ah.'
Arthur let out a brief inward sigh.
The one she desperately longed to see now,
and she was leaving for a world without even his footprints.
'It was never the same.'
Arthur had always thought regressing meant returning to the past.
That rebuilding bonds would make everything the same.
But today, she finally realized.
Even returning to the past, she was different—so relationships never truly reformed.
She should have poured everything into protecting that one world.
Tears slowly traced down her eyes as she grasped her foolishness in taking regression lightly.
Why hadn't she realized sooner?
Why hadn't she fought desperately to save his world?
Filled with regrets, Arthur despaired.
"You did well."
That was when she heard a voice.
Her tear-filled eyes faintly lifted.
There stood someone gazing silently at her.
He'd introduced himself as Clad.
Blurred by tears, his face wouldn't focus.
But somehow, it felt like the face she longed for most.
Krash Valheim.
The lover she'd loved, cherished, and ultimately betrayed and killed herself.
"Kra... sh."
Arthur whispered his name with her fading voice.
"I'm... going."
She weakly raised her nearly limp hand.
Krash clasped it gently.
The warmth brought a faint smile to her lips.
"I'm... sorry."
The apology she'd never voiced slipped out,
as her last strength ebbed away.
Her arm fell downward.
Her raised head drooped, spent.
Silence enveloped the scene.
Buried in ashes like sleep, she moved no more.
Krash sat heavily beside her, still holding her hand.
Through endless regressions, Arthur had endured brutal loneliness.
No matter how she regressed to reunite with familiars,
they weren't the ones she truly loved and cherished.
Watching their deaths repeat had closed her heart to them.
He hadn't understood before.
But now, Krash grasped it a little.
"Don't be lonely in your next regression."
At least this path—he held her hand quietly till the end.
The sky slowly darkened.
Even in this ruined world, the moon rose, stars twinkled.
Yet despite the myriad stars, the world's light was fading.
Krash looked up at the quiet night sky.
If the day came when all left him after receiving Crimson Garden's immortality,
would he gaze at a sky like this?
Who knew.
It was a future even he hadn't reached.
Krash didn't find that future sad.
By then, it wouldn't be loss—it'd be him seeing them off.
Krash released her hand, stood, and draped his cloak over Arthur before slowly departing.
The White Knight of Conquest was dead.
Arthur had fallen battling it.
Aura's manifested world continued unabated.
Krash stood tall at the empire's former heart.
Far off, pitch-black clouds gathered.
A sign of new doom approaching this world.
"I won't let my world end like this."
Krash murmured, raising both hands to his chest.
Then slowly cupped them together.
"This damned world thrashing toward destruction—I won't let it fall. I'll protect it."
The world distorted, gathering into his grasp.
Krash began devouring the world Aura had created.
"So."
He declared to the surging Aura.
"World, help me."
Not relying on uncertain regressions.
Lend power to one truly fighting for the world—Krash smiled as he demanded.
"Though I'll steal it anyway if you don't."
Black Hood activated in his grasp.
What he'd take was Aura.
Time to show them what a thief's greed looks like.