Chapter 55
Chapter 55
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 55
Chapter Title: Chaos Spirit
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The Primordial Spirit Summoner.
And the only one of his kind to have ever existed up to now.
This was the man who forged a contract with spirits, birthing an entirely new paradigm known as spirit magic.
He was a man of the Egrid family.
Together with his spirits, he accomplished feats worthy of being called a hero.
Yet spirit contracts became a complete taboo in the world.
The reason was simple.
After the Primordial Spirit Summoner died, the spirits left behind him twisted in their grief, having lost their master.
Unaware of the concept of death, they rampaged under the delusion that their master had abandoned them.
In the end, that rampage obliterated an entire city.
From that incident, the world came to a stark realization.
Spirits were beings of World Erosion, entities humanity must never associate with.
Those records endure to this day, and the Egrid family has shouldered the responsibility ever since, managing the Forest of the Spirit King.
Crimson Garden gazed up at the sky with a complicated look in her eyes.
"I gathered the spirits of that time and captured the rampaging one myself."
Witnessing the spirit's rampage, she had felt responsible and somehow subdued it to clean up after her kind.
"And returned it to the Forest of the Spirit King."
Believing that in the Forest of the Spirit King, the spirit might return to its original state.
But it had not.
Having lost its master, the spirit endlessly longed for him and knew no end to its rampage.
In the end, its mind shattered completely.
And thus, the Chaos Spirit was born.
"So it's coming here now because..."
"...Spirits judge people differently. The Primordial Spirit Summoner was one of my kind, so my presence clung to him. The spirit recognized it and sensed its master had returned, drawing it here."
Countless years had passed since the Primordial Spirit Summoner's death.
Yet the spirit, unable to forget him, was rushing toward them the moment it sensed Crimson Garden's presence.
"The Chaos Spirit has no reason left. It devoured too much malice destroying that city, and its own mind collapsed. It can't discern friend from foe. It'll sweep up my kind—and you too. So we get out before it arrives."
It was surely still chasing their presence even now.
So Crimson Garden tried once more to activate her magic circle and escape with Krash.
But Krash stabbed her in the side.
"Kyak!?"
A surprisingly cute scream escaped her.
As Crimson Garden stared at him in bewilderment, Krash clicked his tongue.
"Don't you remember what I said earlier? We have to take the egg."
"Didn't you hear me?"
"I did."
"You must really want to die."
Regardless, Krash had already checked his sword.
"...Wait, you don't mean..."
"I know exactly what the Chaos Spirit is."
Crimson Garden's eyes wavered.
She realized Krash intended to fight it.
"And I know leaving it like that won't bring back something that's already broken."
Krash said as he looked up at the sky.
At the edge of that sky, pitch-black darkness began gathering once more.
Even on a second glance, the speed was tremendous.
No, perhaps it was better called obsession.
"...Can you really do it? I can't fight in this form. I can't help you."
The Chaos Spirit was now nothing more than a mindless World Erosion beast rampaging without reason.
Crimson Garden knew that too.
She had simply released it into the Forest of the Spirit King out of old sentiment, but in truth, she had given up on it long ago.
So she asked Krash.
Could he put an end to the Chaos Spirit?
"Sorry."
At the same time, black flames erupted from Krash's body.
The power of World Erosion had met Ignis and begun to burn.
"I'm the one who finished it off in the first place."
Though not alone, like he was now.
＊ ＊ ＊
Krash recalled his previous visit to the Forest of the Spirit King.
If you named the most headache-inducing existence in the spirit forest, it was none other than the Chaos Spirit.
Spirits corrupted into chaos were immune to conventional attacks.
There was only one way to damage a Chaos Spirit.
'Skills.'
Nothing but skills infused with divine power would work.
But even skills weren't omnipotent.
There were offensive skills, but plenty of supportive ones too.
Asking someone to face a Chaos Spirit with just one skill, even among the Generation of the Sky, and few could manage it.
Gazing at the Chaos Spirit, Krash pondered.
Ironically, Krash was actually in the optimal state to confront it right now.
He currently possessed two skills.
One was Black Hood.
The other was Ignis.
Black Hood was far from offensive, but Ignis was different.
The divine black flames that burned all things.
Among countless skills, Ignis boasted the highest offensive power.
Moreover, Ignis's property allowed all normal attacks to pierce Chaos Spirits.
'So if we're going to take it down, now's the best time.'
The longer time passed, the more the Chaos Spirit absorbed World Erosion within the Forest of the Spirit King and grew stronger.
That was why, when the Generation of the Sky visited back then, the Chaos Spirit had become an uncontrollable monster.
'It was deep inside back then, so I figured we couldn't get it now.'
Thanks to Crimson Garden, it had come out to the entrance area. He couldn't be happier.
It solved a major headache, and as a bonus, the Spirit King's egg too.
Kugugugugu!
Pitch-black darkness swallowed the golden sky, surging toward them.
"It's here."
The moment Crimson Garden's quiet voice echoed.
Kuung!
A mass of inky blackness splattered down before Krash and her.
It seemed like a being condensed from pure darkness.
And that liquid stretched out, gradually forming a human shape.
Though its lower body remained a lump of black liquid, the upper body took on a proper human form, and it extended long arms.
In that instant, the Chaos Spirit's voice echoed in his mind.
Just hearing it induced a faint headache—it was a curse-like wail.
Gazing at the Chaos Spirit, Crimson Garden bitterly lowered her eyes.
To her, who saw the world through her kind, the Chaos Spirit had once been a comrade.
It wasn't pleasant to see a former ally reduced to this state.
'Always so sentimental.'
That must be why it couldn't endure watching its kin tortured by Arthur and even revealed her main body's location.
But this time would be different.
'You'll have to help me until I surpass Arthur and become the strongest.'
She had no intention of letting Crimson Garden meet her end like that.
And the first one to break those chains stood before her now.
Drip, drop—
Drooling black liquid, the Chaos Spirit began raising its hand.
The Chaos Spirit lashed out indiscriminately, without intent.
All that remained to it was the instinct to destroy.
The moment the voice rang out again, Krash drew up his aura and kicked off the ground.
At that instant, black liquid arrows poured from the Chaos Spirit's fingertips.
Pabababak!
Krash twisted his body to dodge, and the black arrows embedded in the ground, staining it pitch black.
Krash knew it was a type of curse.
Touch it, and your body would rot black instantly.
Meanwhile, the black arrows kept firing without limit.
The barrage from all directions resembled a downpour.
Yet Krash didn't retreat in the face of the arrow rain.
Instead, he began weaving through it with acrobatic precision.
His Sixth Sense had transcended ordinary perception.
The expanded senses mapped every object in the radius around him, charting the shortest escape routes.
Hwaruk!
Ignis, fueled by World Erosion, even incinerated the black arrows.
Curses of this level were mere fuel for Ignis's flames.
Krash's focus sharpened to its peak as he fully grasped and applied his arsenal.
'It'll work.'
He knew it while batting away the arrows.
The Chaos Spirit was far weaker now than back then.
'The world hasn't been fully overrun by World Erosion yet.'
Back then, the Forest of the Spirit King had breached even the walls guarded by the Egrids and proliferated massively.
As a result, the Chaos Spirit had grown stronger along with the expanded territory.
But now was perhaps the smallest extent the Forest of the Spirit King had ever reached.
The Chaos Spirit's absorption of World Erosion was limited.
Chaeng!
Krash clashed with the Chaos Spirit through the gaps in severed arrows.
As his blue eyes flashed, the Chaos Spirit felt intimidation.
The black arrows didn't work on Krash.
The moment it realized that, the Chaos Spirit changed tactics.
Kuung!
A ripple spread from beneath the Chaos Spirit's feet.
Ink-like darkness surged up like a wall.
The wall shot sky-high, blotting out the sun, then collapsed toward Krash.
If arrows failed, it would crush him with a wall.
Krash stomped the ground facing the massive dark tsunami.
World Erosion and aura clashed within his body, beginning to spiral.
His leg muscles bulged fiercely.
Kwaang!
Amid the smoke, Krash shot forward in a straight line.
Meanwhile, the black wall toppled over his head.
Beneath the crumbling wall, Krash—propelled by explosive leg power—sheathed his sword.
Aura flooded the sheath, clashing wildly before compressing.
Hwaruk!
World Erosion poured in, igniting Ignis.
When the explosive power threatened to burst the sheath.
Krash drew like lightning.
Kigigigigik, kwaaaang!
His extended blade sliced the base of the black wall.
The wall passed over Krash's head and crashed into the forest, kicking up smoke.
And right before Krash's nose was the Chaos Spirit.
Unprepared for even the wall to be severed, it pointed at Krash, and dozens of black arms erupted from beneath its feet.
But Krash's Sixth Sense registered every movement.
His sword danced along every path of the encroaching arms.
This was the realm of Blunt Sword.
Each touch of Krash's blade incinerated the arms with Ignis.
Blunt Sword dominated every space the Chaos Spirit controlled, guiding Krash right to its front.
Kung!
The moment Krash arrived before the Chaos Spirit.
His mind sank into perfect unity with all things.
His blade absorbed the surging aura rippling from his spirit.
As the Chaos Spirit thrashed in a final struggle, extending its arm.
Black flames surged atop Krash's blade.
A black line cleaved the air.
The moment black flames whirled through the rift.
The Chaos Spirit's voice, laced with a scream, rang out clearly one final time—before it split apart.