Chapter 262
Chapter 262
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 262
Chapter Title: Mad King (1)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
A black silhouette of ordinary build and a white giant the size of a fifteen-story building.
Even the expression David and Goliath fell woefully short of describing them.
From the start, the sheer scale difference made the fight itself seem impossible, to the point where anyone would predict the giant's dominance...
But anyone witnessing the two up close would naturally change their mind.
Whooooosh—
And how could they not?
The black aura pouring from that small figure was pushing back the giant's presence, engulfing the world.
It was inevitable to think:
This was overwhelming violence that the living couldn't resist.
The very embodiment of the world's death.
'Ahh, this feels amazing.'
At the center of the black energy spreading in all directions, Hans stood tall, head held high, reveling in a power more abundant than ever.
In truth, ever since becoming the complete Immortal King, he hadn't had many satisfying fights.
The clash with the Bancheonhoeju in Japan was the closest he'd come to going all out, but even then, various constraints had prevented him from unleashing his full strength.
Moreover, battles in Outerica were mostly part of scenarios, and even when his mind was utterly lost, a sliver of reason had remained—the minimum needed to avoid killing Heinrich.
In reality, he'd never truly gone all out in Outerica.
'But now's different.'
The boundary between the surface and the abyss.
A realm of chaos where everything twisted and mingled.
The revolutionary had said his authority's power was maximized here.
But the same went for Hans.
Crunchhh—
A violent momentum charged forward relentlessly.
The aftermath warped the surrounding space, and death mingled with the abyss bared its fangs in all directions.
It mercilessly tore into the spot where the giant stood.
"Pukukuk! Ahh—yes, this is the Immortal King! A being ordained for the world's end must possess arrogance befitting that power!"
Yet facing this overwhelming display, the giant showed no sign of intimidation.
He repelled the death with his crimson-black energy and twisted his lips into a smile.
Then, taking a step back and crouching low,
he vanished from the spot in an instant.
Boooom!
Right after, a shockwave exploded in front of Hans, twisting space.
Two alien energies clashed, baring sharp claws at each other.
[Ho? Not bad.]
"Kuhuhut, this is just the beginning!"
Crackkk—!
The giant's claws pierced the barrier enveloping Hans in an instant.
Crimson-black madness gathered at the five tips tore through the black death, while his other hand swung again.
Kuuung!
A fierce shockwave spread with a deafening boom.
That single attack tangled the surrounding flows, flipping everything within hundreds of meters upside down.
And then.
From a spot now far removed, Hans nodded as he watched.
His size does him justice, he thought.
[Puhe—yeah, this'll be fun.]
But he felt no real sense of crisis.
Just that, as a fellow abyss native, this much was expected.
He'd have been more disappointed if the guy underperformed.
'Of course...'
He had to live up to his words about showing the difference in their levels.
Hans spread his arms wide to the sides, feeling his energy permeating everywhere.
His origin—his heart—resonated with the abyss at the bottom of this world, drawing out an even greater response than usual.
The result?
-Kiyaaaaak—!
-Kwaaaa!
-Krrruk—grrrk—
With eerie wails of lament,
every 'death' within the energy's domain reacted at once and began to rise.
Frozen to death, burned alive, drowned, burst apart, torn by beasts, crushed, died of illness, starved...
All forms of death existing in the world burst through space, taking form and manifesting in reality.
Not undead, not ghosts, not demons—something abstract.
In the flood of the concept of death made manifest.
[Then—let's decide it together.]
Their ruler, the Immortal King, declared.
[Your death.]
The execution of a fool.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ When the second door to the abyss opened and madness was pulled forth,
most of it failed to emerge fully due to the incomplete summoning, scattering across the entire world.
And of that, a single fragment—the core shard—burrowed into the body of the one conducting the ritual.
That became the seed of madness forming the basis of the revolutionary's flesh.
"Pukikakak! I half-expected it, but as expected of the Immortal King. This won't do at all? Prkukuk!"
Thus, the madness was perfectly suited for sowing chaos in the world but inevitably lacked destructive power as a single entity.
They'd supplemented it by using the abyss giants, but even that apparently fell short against the Immortal King.
'Madness is a notch below death in stature, after all.'
Booom—
Black energy clashed with crimson-black once more, shattering the surrounding space.
But no gains.
The revolutionary sneered, eyeing the Immortal King retreating leisurely amid the inky aura.
His eyes could grasp the flow of energy from his foe at a glance, his ears catch the intent in the hostility, and his words could twist part of space's flow to his advantage...
Crackkk—fwoosh!
But then, something twisted bit into his left shoulder and burned to ash in an instant.
Along with the chunk of his body in its maw.
Simultaneously, his right side was shredded, and his left toes crushed as if squeezed by something.
This had been happening nonstop since earlier...
Even reading and dodging the attacks, even anticipating and countering the intent.
The deaths blanketing everything and the phenomena spawning from them struck unnoticed, tearing at his body before vanishing.
As if it were inescapable fate.
Of course, he wasn't just taking it.
He amplified his flesh with madness, boosted his regeneration, twisted the world's flow to rip space apart.
'None of it mattered. Ahh—O God! Forgive this body's incompetence!'
And repairing his body wasn't easy amid this barrage—not just once or twice.
Even now, he clung to reason only by His grace.
Without it, the overpulled madness would have reduced him to a instinct-driven monster already.
In simple terms,
he had no options left.
Wuuung—
To make matters worse, the Immortal King's attacks didn't end there.
Grand magic circles now encircled him.
Rumble—!
Composed of strokes and shapes of dense abyss, they activated, twisting the vast space around him inescapably.
Just like before.
If this weren't the boundary world, it would've been enough to wreck an entire kingdom.
[Impressive. Tough beyond measure.]
Yet the giant didn't fall amid it all.
Battered and ragged with serious damage, but given time, he could recover.
And as things reached that point, the revolutionary gleaned one unexpected piece of information.
"Puhehe, so that's how it was? No wonder my sense of smell wouldn't return..."
The white giant flicked his tongue into the air, smacked his lips, and muttered.
A strange smile formed on his lips.
"You've got him with you."
He'd realized it while focusing his senses through their exchanges.
A deep bond connected the Immortal King and that one.
No ordinary link—profoundly thick.
'If not for this space amplifying authority, it'd have been hard. If it were smell I had, I'd have known sooner. Ah! O God!'
Anyway, he'd gained the intel—a stroke of luck.
Now, somehow reach the surface, reclaim smell, fully unseal everything.
If he could, even the Immortal King would be...
Booom—!
But his thoughts shattered in the ensuing energy torrent.
[I can hear your brain churning from here.]
Whatever he'd figured out, nothing changed.
Unlike the giant's regenerating body falling apart, the Immortal King still dominated space with overwhelming momentum.
[Doesn't matter what tricks you pull.]
Vast energy wove destruction's mystery anew.
Deaths permeating everywhere continued gnawing the giant.
[You'll die here anyway, unable to escape me.]
At the declaration, the giant's lips twisted.
Escaping this space to his goal wasn't quick.
The Immortal King wouldn't wait.
With the bastard here, he couldn't unseal.
The battle resumed...
But despite his calm facade, Hans's mind grew complicated.
The word "smell" evoked someone.
'Diana.'
The girl with the uncanny sense of smell for souls.
Her ability was useful, and he'd kept her close to probe its origins...
'Related to the revolutionary? No—more precisely, to the imprisoned god.'
A god was a god, even sealed in the abyss.
No need to say how potent her power was.
'Then the authority he mentioned is that too. His senses excluding smell? In that case...'
The fight neared its end.
Hans pressed the giant while calmly sorting new intel in his mind.
Just as he optimistically foresaw closure,
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ 《The [XX] [XXX] gazes upon you.》 An unforeseen anomaly struck.
Thump—
The alert appeared, and a fierce pulse echoed through space.
Just once, but enough to twist the world's flow entirely—pure destruction.
Naturally, the deaths blanketing everywhere scattered, and preparing magic circles shattered.
[Kuh? What the...!]
It was like a natural disaster.
Hans hurriedly gathered his energy, swiftly checking the giant...
Thump—
His efforts for naught as pulses continued, scrambling all coordinates and phases around.
A ferocious wave threatening to sweep him despite anchoring his body with abyss.
Hans instantly pinpointed its source.
Deep below this world.
In the abyss's deepest underground—a someone's heartbeat.
Insane...! To intervene like this?'
Even if this boundary leaned toward the abyss over the surface, for a long-sealed being to wield such influence!
And it didn't end there.
Feeling his body slowly pulled downward, Hans gritted his teeth.
As he barely held on, pondering countermeasures,
"Ahh—my Lord! Thy will be done!"
The revolutionary clasped hands in rapture, praying, then turned toward somewhere.
[Where do you think you're going!]
Ignoring the downward pull, Hans hurled honed death at him.
'Damn it! What bullshit is this!'
His attack merely grazed through the ceaselessly warping space like an illusion.
His body dropped a step lower as penalty.
"Puhehe—the Immortal King. Dimension's wanderer adrift without path. Heretic graced by Him yet defying His will."
As Hans focused to anchor his body against the pull,
the fully prepared giant, ragged as he was, turned to face him.
"His will is with me. Looks like you're not my death after all. Kehkeh!"
With that, twisting his face and coughing a raspy laugh, he slipped into a rift tearing through the world's flow and vanished.
His destination was obvious.
[Kuh, you arrogant bastard...!]
As Hans focused for pursuit, he irritably glanced down at his still-pulling body.
'Damn, I've got enough on my plate without this hassle!'
Staying here just drained mental power pointlessly.
No time for a tug-of-war now, with so much to do.
'You wait 'til next time.'
His body sinking like quicksand
vanished cleanly from the spot in an instant.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Near Tulke Kingdom's northern border, adjacent to the Northern Mountains: the vicinity of the Steel Citadel.
Zzzzzzt—
Something ominous was unfolding.
"Huh? What's that?"
"Wait... no way?"
"Alert! Alert! Report to the top now!"
Despite the distance from the citadel, soldiers atop the walls spotted it clearly: a massive rift.
No, the anomaly went beyond mere rifts.
Riiippp—!
Like fabric torn side to side, the rift ripped open with violent noise.
Thud!
And from within emerged a colossal giant with a pure white body.
"Kuhuhu—ahh, found it!"
The Mad King set foot on the surface for the first time.