Chapter 100
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 100
Chapter Title: The First Fork in Destiny (4)
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On the battlefield where red snowflakes and deep blue sword qi intertwined, four beings clashed against each other like beasts tearing into one another.
Kwaaaang—!!
Every time the clash of ice, destruction, the blades of comparison, and human sword light collided, shockwaves erupted outward that made it hard to even stand properly.
Raes leaped forward first.
Red mana gathered at his sword tip like a crumpled star.
"Ye-eun."
"Got it. I'll leave the front to you."
Yoon Seo-jun stepped forward.
Cheon-geuk half-drawn from his waist.
He inhaled as deeply as possible, calmed even the pounding of his heart—then put strength into his toes.
Battōjutsu - Azure Severance
Dozens of slashes chain in a single motion.
Shuuuuk—!
His body vanished from Raes's sight in an instant, only for sword light to pour down from the side and above the next moment.
Srraack—! Srraack!!
Dozens of slashes followed in one fluid motion.
Cracks spiderwebbed across Raes's crimson-black armor in multiple places, shards flying.
Along with blood.
"Now!"
Glacial Formation - Snowfield of No Glory
Wuuuung—!!
The world momentarily lost its sound.
Ice surged up from beneath Raes and Azator's feet, slowly freezing and sealing the space itself.
Temperature drop.
Mana distortion.
The sensation of the area being reconstituted into eternal glacial terrain.
Azator furrowed his brow for the first time.
At the same time, mana of destruction poured from his body.
Red cracks spread horizontally from his feet, shattering Seol Ye-eun's ice structure from within.
Kwajijijik—!!!
"Kuh…!"
A line of blood trickled from the corner of Seol Ye-eun's mouth.
The price of drawing on the eternal glacier's power.
Forced synchronization with an SS-rank sacred relic was a burden on the flesh, even for Seol clan blood that could always be chosen.
"Are you alright?"
Yoon Seo-jun asked in a worried voice.
"A bit… overdid it. But—I'm still okay."
Though she said she was fine, he noticed her hands trembling faintly.
Azator didn't miss it either.
He took one step forward.
With that single step, all the rigid ice pillars around shattered.
And he glanced at Raes.
Raes's pupils distorted.
Red energy exploded upward around him.
Comparison Authority - Stage of Silent Realm
"!!!"
In that instant, Yoon Seo-jun felt something being stripped from his body—an odd sensation.
Conversely, Raes's energy expanded slightly more.
Right now—I've just borrowed a bit of your power, human."
"…What a distasteful skill name."
Yoon Seo-jun gritted his teeth.
His power hadn't visibly decreased.
But his body felt subtly heavier.
Conversely, Raes's sword pressure had grown stickier.
Seol Ye-eun whispered lowly.
"Authority… Since focusing on two or more causes dissonance, it's probably only on the president."
"Then—we have no choice but to push through, even if it strains us."
Yoon Seo-jun raised his sword into ready stance again.
But as if refusing to give them an opening, Azator interjected.
He slowly moved between Yoon Seo-jun and Seol Ye-eun.
Red mana gathered at his fingertips.
"…Be careful."
"You too, President."
The moment Azator's fingertip slashed the air.
Kwaaaang—!!
An invisible explosion engulfed both simultaneously.
The impact hit their circles and dantians before their flesh.
"Kuhk!!"
Yoon Seo-jun's knee buckled halfway.
Seol Ye-eun staggered back several steps, deploying a barrier again.
No visible major damage, but fatigue piled up madly inside.
"Haa… haa…."
Seol Ye-eun's breathing grew ragged.
From continuously borrowing the eternal glacier's power, her skin was paling.
Another ice storm.
Another blizzard.
Another ice spear barrage.
All assaults flew at the two lords, but the damage they took dwindled.
Raes had grown accustomed to Yoon Seo-jun's sword.
Azator defied common sense from the start.
Conversely—Yoon Seo-jun's strikes were noticeably slowing.
"Haa… haa… haa…!"
It wasn't power loss.
Just concentration waning bit by bit.
Azator seized the gap.
But the moment he raised his hand again.
Pang—!!
An ice shard flying from afar struck his hand precisely.
Negligible physical damage, but his gaze shifted slightly aside.
Seol Ye-eun panted, looking around as she muttered.
"…What just flew in?"
And the answer came right away.
"It's me, Mom."
Amid the ice explosions and red mana, a very familiar voice pierced the battlefield.
The three beings' gazes snapped in unison.
Three silhouettes kicking through waist-deep snow.
Familiar silhouettes.
Unfamiliar, yet utterly welcome silhouettes.
I stood catching my breath, pistol aimed downward.
Beside me, Sophia raised her staff skyward, expanding a magic circle.
And ahead of us both, Seol Yu-bin forged an ice path, charging the vanguard.
"Yu-bin…!"
"Sophia and Kang Hyun-sol…?"
Seol Ye-eun's eyes shook briefly.
A faint smile tugged at Yoon Seo-jun's lips.
"A bit late."
I said.
"But—we arrived before things hit rock bottom."
Sophia added, brushing back her hair with one hand.
"As Britain's top mage, I can't miss a fight with lord-class demons!"
Seol Yu-bin already held an ice magic circle deployed.
Not a speck of her usual playfulness in her eyes.
"I evacuated all the Seol clan. So… Mom, President, hold on just a bit longer."
She raised her hand high.
"From now on, I'll cover the half of Seol power Mom missed."
In that instant, the eternal glacier's power surged once more from beneath.
The ice that had been dormant until now began exploding in response to its new master's call.
The battlefield's air changed.
The two lords felt it too.
As the battle between the two lords and five humans built to its climax.
The Lord of Indulgence, Pasara Nebrigos, who had fully descended, headed toward the ice cave where the Seol clan's sacred relic—the Eternal Glacier's ice crystal—slumbered, guided by Kaliaas.
"Seems that way. Humans have grown differently from the past."
The Lord of Indulgence, Pasara Nebrigos, shrugged and chuckled.
His voice was languid as always, with a perpetual undertone of boredom.
"…True enough. But that growth is why things got this annoying."
Kaliaas—or rather, Chae Yeon-hwa—replied flatly, eyes fixed ahead as she walked.
The path descended deeper.
Deep into the Seol clan's heart, a subterranean core none could enter without the family head's permission.
Thin frost flowers bloomed along ceiling and walls; the air itself felt like frozen crystals, rigidly cold.
Pasara brushed frost from the wall with a finger.
"Heard roughly. Who fills Ennui's vacancy, that sort of thing.
More than that, calling them 'apostle bastards'… Mind your words?"
But isn't Arkin Low's failure surprising? He was pegged as next Apostle of Craving."
"That's why we're doing the grunt work. Securing the Eternal Glacier's ice crystal to continue Pride Lord's scar… That's our role now."
Pasara sidled up beside her.
His dark-crimson eyes scanned her profile.
"Simple."
Kaliaas paused, raising a finger.
Faint purple mana bloomed from her fingertip.
"Eternal Glacier freezes anyone barehanded who touches it carelessly.
Even wrapped in mana, same thing."
"Yes. So I made a barrier that overlays its own power."
Purple mana scattered like petals from her finger, then regathered.
Seal of restraint.
Chains motif.
"Not sealing the power, but binding its form.
The Seven Purity Barriers keep Eternal Glacier functional without rampaging or bursting.
Add the top-grade circle I prepared—"
Her lips curved calmly upward.
"—and Eternal Glacier will come to us without resistance."
Pasara clapped twice, languidly.
"I'll take it as praise."
She brushed it off evenly.
No hesitation in her steps.
In her mind, the barrier structure simulated dozens of times.
Cold restraint of indulgence's red aura, utterly alien to destruction.
A mere swing of her arm would form it.
Thus, the two walked, trading trivial Demon Realm tales.
Paradise-like seas of blazing sin.
Pride's Apostle already popping top wines in anticipation of descent.
The gruesome end of a general who stole an Authority fragment.
Pasara spilled them casually, like bar bravado.
Kaliaas half-listened, confirming one thing.
At this path's end, everything would be decided.
Soon, the air shifted.
Dense frost thickened to ice sheets; inhaling stung the lungs with chill piercing deep into the chest.
Pasara's eyes sparkled.
True to the Lord of Indulgence, his gaze fixed on desire alone.
Greater power.
Deeper pleasure.
Extreme sensations.
His eyes now locked on one thing.
"We're here."
Kaliaas whispered descending the final stairs.
Cave's end.
Vast ice chamber.
In its center, a cold star floated.
"…Eternal Glacier's ice crystal."
A single point of ice.
Yet from that point poured chill of purity to blanket a continent.
Silence that could freeze time.
Pristine cold making even breathing feel sinful.
Pasara instinctively recoiled, then smirked vilely and stepped closer.
"It should be."
Kaliaas stood beside him, gazing at the crystal.
And as if waiting—Pasara turned his profile slightly.
His dark-crimson eyes narrowed amusedly.
"It?"
You'll never escape succubus-lord limits. But my power changes that."
He spread his arms wide.
Like a showman presenting the stage.
Some in Demon Realm already joke: Obsession Lord Kaliaas, first succubus Apostle."
"…Joke, you say."
Pasara giggled.
Though I'd have to bow to you then."
"Apostle seat—"
Kaliaas said quietly, eyes on the crystal.
"—is just a chair blindly executing the Demon King's orders from above.
I'm plenty entertained now."
A voice without the slightest tremor.
To the ear, indifferent refusal.
Pasara eyed her a moment, then shrugged.
If you change your mind someday—bringing the contract then wouldn't be bad."
His interest swiftly returned to the crystal.
To the Lord of Indulgence, unchosen desires were mere snacks.
The true feast was always the greater pleasure before him.
Now, the Eternal Glacier's ice crystal lay there.
"…Then, as promised, I'll wrap the barrier."
Kaliaas slowly raised her hand.
Purple mana wove like chains, extending toward Pasara.
Simultaneously, a intricate magic circle spread beneath her feet.
Restraint.
Fixation.
Form suspension.
"…Complete."
Chalak—!
As if an invisible lock clicked shut, a shimmering purple shield enveloped Pasara's body.
Without a shred of doubt.
Without a moment's hesitation.
He reached out one hand toward the Eternal Glacier's ice crystal.
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