Chapter 316
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 316
Chapter Title: Everything's Fucked
The Last Ark.
Krash was racing through an environment that had formed about a million years ago.
Clinging tightly to his back was Haring, pressing her body as close as she could.
At first, Haring had been embarrassed about riding on Krash's back.
But that feeling didn't last long.
Krash's full-speed sprint was so fast that Haring had to use her aura just to protect herself.
Thanks to that, she could barely keep her eyes open while huddled behind him.
'Krash... you've gotten this strong.'
Lately, Haring had seen Krash injured far more often than fighting.
So she was genuinely surprised to realize just how powerful he had become.
Haring herself had grown tremendously through training, far beyond her peers.
But the reality was, she still fell far short of Krash.
A slight tension rippled through Haring's body.
How much more did she have to push herself to stand by his side?
She sensed that the path ahead would be incredibly arduous.
At the same time, images of Krash at the wedding kept flickering in her mind.
The way he gazed lovingly at Bianca was something Haring had never seen in his eyes before.
When he looked at her, Krash always wore a gentle smile.
But there was no love there like what he had for Bianca.
That fact kept stabbing painfully at Haring's heart.
'I wish I hadn't realized it.'
Now that she had become aware of these feelings, it was getting harder and harder for Haring to suppress them.
She didn't want to feel jealous.
She didn't want Krash to hate her.
She just wanted to be content with being by his side.
But the desire buried deep in her heart kept growing.
It wasn't just about not being hated anymore.
She wanted to be loved, too.
With those thoughts swirling inside her.
Haring bit her lip hard.
She knew she was greedy, but as that greed sharpened day by day, it became harder to bear.
Even if she could never take Bianca's place, she wished affection would light up in Krash's eyes when he looked at her.
Maybe that's why she'd thrown herself even more into training.
In hopes that, one day, standing by his side might earn her even a single glance.
But Haring knew better than anyone that Krash wasn't the type to be swayed that way.
'What should I do...'
The emotions poking relentlessly at the depths of her chest filled Haring with longing and pain.
"Haring."
Krash called out to her in that moment.
"Ah, yeah!"
Caught off guard by her own guilty feelings, Haring replied louder than intended.
Krash, still facing forward, asked,
"Does that look like Waste Lord Mushrooms over there?"
Sure enough, right where Krash pointed, Waste Lord Mushrooms grew.
"Yeah, that's them."
Hearing her confirmation, Krash leaped forward and came to a stop right in front of them.
He set Haring down, and she quickly began harvesting.
With this, they had fulfilled the final condition for extracting the inner core.
Once she finished harvesting, Haring straightened up and lifted her head.
There stood Krash, silently staring off in one direction.
"...Crimson Garden."
The moment Krash murmured the short name,
Boom!
An explosion echoed from somewhere.
Startled, Haring looked toward the source.
And she sensed something horrific gathering there.
This was bad.
Whatever it was, it felt very bad.
"K-Krash."
Haring instinctively grabbed his collar as she called his name.
Krash immediately wrapped his arms around her.
"It's okay. No problem."
Just those words melted away her anxiety in an instant.
"We're heading straight to the entrance now. Can you guide me?"
Once again, Krash turned his back to her, offering a ride.
Sensing the urgency, Haring climbed on without hesitation this time.
"Yeah, I've memorized the whole path."
"Even if the route changes midway, stay calm and keep directing me."
The path might change.
Haring's face hardened at his words.
A shifting forbidden zone meant something irreversible was happening inside.
Haring realized a dire situation had erupted.
With Haring on his back, Krash activated acceleration and shot forward.
Haring hugged him tightly, enduring the recoil as best she could.
His speed was even faster than before.
Haring forced her wind-tearing eyes open.
She had to guide him.
That was when it happened.
Kaboom!
The earlier rumble returned, but far louder.
The ground shook violently around them.
The moment Haring looked that way, her eyes widened in a daze.
Jet-black smoke billowed from the mountaintop.
Lava erupted from the peak, overflowing and scorching everything nearby.
A natural disaster beyond human endurance was unfolding.
Kaboom!
But the calamity didn't stop there.
Lightning cracked from the sky above, unleashing a torrent of storms.
The endless downpour swelled rivers into floods in moments.
In another spot, a waterspout formed.
It sucked up everything from the ground with wind force, shredding it all.
Natural disasters erupted simultaneously everywhere visible.
It was a sight Haring had never witnessed in her life.
Had the world ended in that instant?
The chaos felt utterly uncontrollable.
"The worst seed planted in the Last Ark has begun rampaging."
Krash explained to Haring as they watched the disasters.
She turned to him with bewildered eyes.
He seemed to have anticipated this catastrophe.
Sometimes, Krash knew things others couldn't fathom.
Even now, his eyes showed no confusion, as if this were familiar.
But for some reason, Haring felt she shouldn't voice her questions.
Asking might drive him away forever.
As Haring gazed at him, lost in that unease,
Krash grimaced fiercely while charging ahead.
He had expected the worst seed to rampage ever since hearing from Crimson Garden.
Both he and Crimson Garden had foreseen it and passed information to Sizly to prevent it.
'And Sizly was chasing spies based on that intel.'
Yet the Last Ark had rampaged anyway.
What did that imply?
'Something irreversible has happened.'
In Lagren, of all places, where the Poison King resided.
Krash kept it to himself for Haring's sake, but he was certain.
Lagren was in danger.
Crimson Garden was frustrated, unable to properly scout Lagren.
Evelask was hastily sending corpses to investigate,
but navigating Lagren's treacherous terrain took time regardless.
In the end, Krash had to see it with his own eyes.
Boom!
In that instant, Krash plunged into the natural disasters.
The distant storm had reached him.
Rainwater began pooling at his ankles.
Rumble...
A swollen flood surged from afar.
Kaboom!
Lightning exploded from the heavens.
The Last Ark was recreating every natural disaster the world had ever known.
Still manageable for now.
But soon, Krash heard a sharp crack as something froze.
The moment he snapped his head up, he saw falling rain turning to ice midair.
The ankle-deep water around him froze solid too.
Temperatures plummeted in an instant, ushering in an ice age.
The glacial grip tightened around Krash.
Alone, he might handle it, but he was carrying Haring.
"Haring, hold on tighter!"
Krash shouted, channeling the power of Erosion Annihilation.
Confirming her grip, he sprinted at full throttle.
Kaboom!
Laying waste to everything around, Krash vanished from the spot in a flash.
Even the ice age couldn't catch him fully.
As it stalled, city walls came into Krash's view.
The sudden disasters had thrown the walls into chaos.
But Krash sensed an even darker presence atop them.
He identified it instantly.
World Eroder.
Definitely Ixion spawn.
"They saw their chance, huh."
They must have struck the moment his group entered the Last Ark.
But underestimating him was a grave mistake.
Krash always accounted for such risks.
Hiding away from every danger meant he couldn't protect the world.
And they had a bomb necklace the Ixion didn't know about.
A bomb to blast those bastards to oblivion.
'The ultimate insurance.'
But it was a last resort.
To be used only when certain of wiping them out.
So he had to fight with his own power as much as possible.
"Haring, can you cast Invisible?"
One of Krash's tactics.
He'd synced it with Haring long ago.
Her hair whipping wildly, Haring clung to his back and yelled,
"I caaan dooo iiit!"
Krash nearly burst out laughing despite the situation but held it in.
Her determined voice fueled his strength.
"Watch the recoil."
Krash released one arm from her lower body and drew Thunderclap.
Then he ignited Erosion Annihilation across his entire form in a blaze of glory.
He didn't know which bastard had sneaked in.
But he'd make it crystal clear.
Mess with them, and you're fucked.
Krash leaped, his form blurring.
He reached the walls in an instant and stomped toward the ground.
Boom!
The force in his foot shook the earth violently.
Yet thanks to Haring's Invisible, no one noticed him.
The moment Krash vaulted over the walls,
a pitch-black silhouette appeared atop them.
It sat there, arms outstretched toward the sky.
From its appearance, it seemed invisible to others.
'Distorting space with World Erosion power.'
Like Haring's Invisible, it hid itself.
But that was meaningless against Krash.
Invisible to those without World Erosion, but plain as day to him.
"Foolish humans, stumbling blindly without a clue. Pathetic."
As he closed in, its voice reached him.
Krash pierced its identity at once.
Ghost Gate, Adon.
A Drad tribesman, resembling a chameleon.
Known for extreme human hatred.
In his past regression,
hundreds of skeletons found in its lair alone, linked to most local kidnappings.
Among World Eroders, the worst of the worst.
Adon still had a bounty on its head.
Krash's eyes blazed fiercely.
Merciless flames roared along his sword.
Lucky break, actually.
Adon excelled at escape despite its power, even evading Lactea specialists.
So Krash unleashed everything, thrusting his White Flame sword with full might.
Splat!
"Gah?!"
In a flash, Krash's blade pierced Adon's heart.
Its eyes turned to him in disbelief.
It hadn't imagined anyone could see through it.
Nor sensed Krash approaching from behind.
An invisibility user slain by another.
Its pitiful fate sealed, Krash's gaze turned ice cold.
"Mocking others while blind to your own doom."
"A mere... human..."
Adon spat blood, eyes bulging.
Krash just sneered back.
"Too bad, you've drifted too far from humanity."
Before it finished, flames from the sword engulfed Adon entirely.
The criminal who crossed worlds and survived to this point met a hollow end.