Chapter 345
Chapter 345
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 345
Chapter Title: Champion Azos
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Swish...
Azos offered no response, no reaction whatsoever.
He simply stared at Lee Hyuk-soo from within the pitch-black shadow armor and helmet, like a lifeless machine devoid of vitality.
A murderous intent poured from the massive shadow sword in his hand, as if it could cleave through all living things.
He was supposed to be a being bound to Park Chan-woo, so why was there not even a hint of hesitation or self-awareness in his gaze?
'What the hell is this Colosseum?'
Countless questions flashed through Lee Hyuk-soo's mind.
It wasn't a mere arena.
Perhaps it was a trial set by Park Chan-woo, or a gateway blocking the path to him.
If so, then defeating Azos was the only way to advance to the next stage.
The shadows in the spectator seats erupted into cheers of fervor beyond compare.
The champion and the final challenger.
This was the moment the Colosseum of Death had awaited most eagerly.
Fwoosh!
Lee Hyuk-soo's body melted into the shadows in an instant.
The next moment, he burst out from the shadows behind Azos without warning, unleashing a lightning-fast sword strike.
It was a surprise attack.
Shing...
But Azos blocked Lee Hyuk-soo's ambush with his shadow sword, as if he had eyes in the back of his head—or as if he was the shadows themselves—without even turning around.
Clang!
A bizarre explosive sound, unlike clashing metal, echoed through the Colosseum as shadow and sword ki collided.
'He's strong!'
Even after just one exchange, the pressure was on another level entirely from his previous opponents.
It didn't seem to be merely a matter of strength or speed.
Azos's sword carried the weight of a seasoned swordsman honed over countless years, fused with the alien power of shadows.
Moreover, his movements lacked the hesitation or predictable patterns unique to living beings.
He moved like a puppet designed solely for efficient killing.
Shrring...
As Lee Hyuk-soo pulled back, Azos seemed to pause for a moment before silently advancing once more.
The shadow at his feet writhed and spread wide, and in the next instant, his body dissolved into it and vanished.
'...!'
Lee Hyuk-soo tensed every nerve.
Shadow movement, just like his own.
But Azos's was far more fluid and unpredictable.
As if he had become the shadows themselves.
Flash!
Right behind him—Lee Hyuk-soo felt a chill pierce his spine and twisted reflexively, blocking with the Greatsword of the Lion King.
Kang!
This time, a duller impact rang out, sending Lee Hyuk-soo's body reeling backward.
Azos's shadow sword had already emerged from the shadows behind him, aiming for his nape.
'That was close.'
Lee Hyuk-soo broke out in cold sweat.
It was impossible to fully predict his attacks based on presence alone.
Lee Hyuk-soo tried to expand his own shadow beneath his feet, making it denser and wider to bring all surrounding shadows under his control.
To turn the enemy's shadow manipulation against him, or at least detect his movements in advance.
"Grrrk?"
For the first time, Azos made a sound.
As if displeased by an outsider's power interfering in his domain, the shadows enveloping his body thickened and rippled.
At the same time, his shadow sword bent like a serpent, striking at Lee Hyuk-soo from an impossible angle.
Clang! Clang-clang! Kang!
A fierce swordfight erupted.
True to his title of Sword King, Lee Hyuk-soo parried Azos's erratic attacks with precise swordsmanship or evaded via shadow movement.
But Azos neither tired nor hesitated.
Like a machine programmed solely to cut Lee Hyuk-soo down, he unleashed a relentless barrage.
The battle was turning against Lee Hyuk-soo.
Fatigue from consecutive fights had accumulated, while Azos seemed to heal any wounds instantly with shadows.
'Not like this!'
Lee Hyuk-soo gritted his teeth.
A head-on clash offered slim chances of victory.
He needed something else.
While deflecting Azos's attacks, he closely observed his movements and connection to the shadows.
The pattern: emerge from shadows to strike, then retreat back into them.
That fleeting instant.
'Now.'
Lee Hyuk-soo caught the moment Azos tried to vanish into the shadows again.
Without hesitation, he slammed the Greatsword of the Lion King into the ground.
Rumble!
His sword ki exploded outward, shaking the entire shadow across the Colosseum floor.
The shadow Azos was diving into convulsed violently, disrupting his movement.
"Kaaaak!"
Azos let out a startled cry and faltered mid-shadow shift, awkwardly revealing himself. Lee Hyuk-soo seized the opening.
He kicked off his shadow and plunged into Azos's guard like lightning.
Kang! Ka-gang-gang!
In an instant, their swords clashed dozens of times.
Close quarters—the domain where Sword King Lee Hyuk-soo shone brightest.
Forgetting his exhaustion, he unleashed a dazzling, flawless barrage of strikes.
The Greatsword of the Lion King pressed Azos's shadow sword with the ferocity of a beast's roar.
Azos showed signs of fluster, but his swordsmanship remained unrusty.
The guardian and master who had protected Khan's palace for ages.
He desperately deflected Lee Hyuk-soo's storm of attacks with his shadow sword.
But Lee Hyuk-soo's sharp strikes gradually pierced his shadow armor, inflicting shallow wounds.
'My swordsmanship has the edge.'
Lee Hyuk-soo sensed victory within reach.
By sealing off shadow movement, pure swordplay favored him.
He intensified his assault.
But then—
"Grrrh..."
The shadows cloaking Azos suddenly burst outward like an explosion.
It wasn't mere momentum.
Dark tentacles with physical force lashed out in all directions, whipping Lee Hyuk-soo.
He couldn't fully dodge and was sent flying back by several tendrils.
'Is this really Azos?'
Doubt crept in.
The Azos he'd seen in Khan's palace, revived as a shadow, still retained a proud warrior's dignity.
But this thing before him seemed like a monster craving only slaughter and destruction.
That bestial roar and instinctive tentacle strikes were utterly unlike the Azos of old.
It was hard to believe he was a shadow enslaved to the Prophet.
Moreover, where the tentacles touched, a biting chill ate at his flesh, accompanied by a vile sensation of life force being drained.
"Kraaaah!"
Ignoring Lee Hyuk-soo's doubts, Azos roared and charged again.
This time, dozens of shadow tentacles joined his sword strikes, assaulting from every angle.
An inescapable encirclement.
'If I can't evade...'
Lee Hyuk-soo decided he couldn't focus solely on dodging anymore.
He condensed his sword ki to its utmost into the Greatsword of the Lion King.
"Break!"
Boom!
With a short shout, blinding golden sword ki erupted like a storm, sweeping the surroundings.
Sizzle!
The encroaching shadow tentacles melted into black smoke upon contact with the golden ki.
Azos screamed in agony and retreated.
Lee Hyuk-soo was certain. Azos's corrupted power was mighty, but it was weak to his pure sword ki.
But Azos's retreat was brief.
The shadows around him writhed more fiercely, regenerating the melted tentacles—now thicker and more vicious.
Simultaneously, Azos's form began to warp.
Bone-like protrusions sprouted from his shadow armor, and crimson eyes blazed fiercer within the helmet.
No longer a shadow warrior, but a nightmare risen from the abyss.
A displeasing resonance of demonic power.
Then it clicked.
'Demons?'
Those spectators were demons.
Was this arena made for demons to amuse themselves?
Or was Valhalla itself such a place?
Even stranger was—
"Kraaaaaah!"
The demons' jeers were affecting Azos.
Their mocking boos spurred him further.
The shadows cloaking him ignited like black flames, expanding explosively.
The bone-like spikes grew longer and sharper; the shadow tentacles writhed like living serpents across the floor.
A massive clump of darkness and malice, defying any defined shape.
Only the crimson glow in the helmet burned with unquenched hatred.
'...It's different.'
This was no shadow warrior.
Far removed from the magic controlled by the Prophet—by Park Chan-woo.
Lee Hyuk-soo tightened his grip on his sword.
His opponent clearly surpassed him.
A fundamental gap in power beyond mere level difference.
'I can't die here.'
His mother's face came to mind.
Those who believed in him and waited.
And Park Chan-woo, yet to be found.
Lee Hyuk-soo didn't retreat.
No—he had nowhere to retreat to.
He gathered every last ounce of strength and willpower.
Qua-qua-qua-boom!
Azos's attacks raged like a tempest.
Lee Hyuk-soo desperately evaded and parried with shadow shifts and extreme swordsmanship, but wounds multiplied across his body, and his bones screamed.
Even the Greatsword of the Lion King trembled faintly before that overwhelming force.
'No weakness?'
That was when.
Amid Azos's frenzied onslaught, Lee Hyuk-soo caught a minute disruption in his movements—a split-second falter.
The shadows around him churned unstably, as if clashing wills warred within.
'...Now!'
Lee Hyuk-soo staked everything on that brief gap.
He abandoned defense.
He allowed some tentacles to pierce his shoulder.
In exchange, he thrust the Greatsword of the Lion King deep into Azos's core—the heart of the raging shadows—with his final strength.
"Extinguish!"
Rooooom!
Boooom!
The sword ki detonated inside Azos's shadow body.
A horrific scream echoed as the shadow form shattered from within.
Black fragments scattered; the composing shadows lost cohesion and melted.
But just before total annihilation—
From the fracturing shadow essence, Lee Hyuk-soo saw. Felt.
Not Azos's, not the shadows',
But an overwhelming draconic will—vast, arrogant, primordial.
"【Azos. Move according to my will.】" "【Kill all challengers.】"
⟨ Dragon God Sepiro ⟩
Dragon God Sepiro.
His ominous will flashed like lightning through Azos's dissolving remains.
Yet it did not vanish.
Sepiro's demonic power restored the shadow form.
Stronger, more twisted than before.
'I can't win.'
Lee Hyuk-soo realized the hopeless reality.
Azos wouldn't die.
Even if destroyed, Sepiro's will would revive him endlessly to hound Lee Hyuk-soo.
Just as all seemed lost—
Shaaaaaaa!
A blaze of light erupted from the sky above.
The intense radiance halted not only the demon spectators but even the regenerating Azos.
As the demons cried out in confusion, the light converged into a single point and plunged to the ground.
And from within that pillar of light, an utterly unexpected figure emerged.
"Lee Hyuk-soo? Is that you?"
"...Dagon?"
It was the demon merchant Dagon.
Dagon spoke urgently.
"We have to escape. This place is no longer under Lady 'Adora's domain."
"What are you talking about?"
"No time. Hurry!"
Dagon seized Lee Hyuk-soo's arm firmly and shoved him into the unstable, swirling warp gate he'd opened, nearly hurling him through.
Rumble!
Groooowl!
Within the warp, tangled with storm-like phenomena, Lee Hyuk-soo lost consciousness.
Thud—
Rooooom.
Lee Hyuk-soo opened his eyes to the sound of a foghorn.
"Urk!"
Motion sickness hit immediately, making him dry-heave.
"It'll take time to adjust."
Pat, pat.
A hand rubbed his back.
He turned his head. There was Demon Merchant Dagon's face.