Chapter 204
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 204
Chapter Title: This Is My Duty
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Perhaps it was due to his rage at being interrupted.
Or maybe because of her utterly unexpected appearance.
Karl, who had stood frozen, staring at Rose for a long while, bellowed the moment he regained his senses.
"Why are you, who should be protecting London, in a place like this?"
Anyone else would have flinched at that shout, at a complete loss for words.
He was the Magic Lord. In the Great British Empire, he was an absolute authority whom no one but one single exception could challenge.
But Rose—that sole exception who could defy his authority—stared back at him with a stony expression and countered coldly.
"That's exactly what I want to ask you, Your Grace. What in the world are you doing in a place like this amid the current crisis?"
"I'm here to eliminate the witch responsible for this disaster. Now stand aside!"
"Regrettably, I cannot obey you for three reasons."
"What?"
Evidently, he hadn't expected her refusal.
She spoke to him in a calm voice as he failed to hide his fluster.
"First, the authority to maintain order in London belongs to House C-Serpent."
"Do you think this is the time to quibble over such matters?!"
"Second, she is not the culprit behind this incident. If you kill her, it would simply be an act of murder."
"What?!"
"Third, I am not your subordinate. So do not give me orders."
"......"
Rose, with her usual earnest expression.
But her response carried an unyielding pride and nobility that brooked no compromise. Karl's face darkened for a moment as he heard it.
Soon, however, he fixed her with a chilling glare and spoke.
"I see... So that's why you've opposed the destruction of the London Great Barrier so fiercely? You've been in league with the witches from the start?"
"It's true that House C-Serpent has a cooperative relationship with the 27 Magical Worlds."
"Colluding with witches to pull off something like this! Aren't you ashamed before the ancestors who protected the Empire?!"
"I made the best decision to protect London's citizens. I have no regrets that would shame our founder."
"Such brazen—!"
Karl exploded in fury at her unflinching reply, but Rose didn't so much as twitch an eyebrow.
She merely turned calmly to Syr, who had been watching the exchange from behind with an intrigued look.
"Go."
[Eh?!]
"You plan to take on that bastard by yourself? Here, of all places?"
"I'm simply doing what I must. So you do what you must."
Evidently caught off guard, Syr stared at Rose with wide eyes for a moment.
Then she let out a chuckle.
"Heh heh heh. The princesses of the Azure Dragon Clan have always been reckless... but you're every bit as bullheaded as your ancestors."
As Syr extended one hand, a tiny stick the size of a fingernail dropped from her palm, rapidly swelling into the shape of a broom.
She straddled the broom, floated into the air, and shot off in one direction.
"You think I'll let you go?!"
Karl fired a bolt of lightning from his staff to shoot her down, but it merely sliced through empty air.
Just before, Rose had extended her hand and unleashed Air-Reversing Spatial Flow, warping the space and bending the lightning's trajectory.
⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡
Air-Reversing Spatial Flow
"Countess Rose! Do you truly intend to side with that wicked witch? Pull yourself together and stand down while you still can!"
"I already told you."
Rose met Karl's blazing glare and instead raised her sword high.
As if to say that if he wanted to pass, he'd have to cut her down first, she boldly blocked his path head-on and declared.
"Don't give me orders."
"......Fine! If you're so eager to die, be my guest!"
In the end, Karl gave up trying to persuade her with words.
Instead, as if determined to brush her aside as quickly as possible, he swung his staff and activated Ultimate Magic Art.
⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡
Ultimate Magic Art
Ultimate Magic Art.
This absolute skill allowed him to wield not only the four primary elements of wind, water, fire, and earth, but also lightning, gravity, and more—elements that ordinary magic players could handle only one or two of at most.
It even let him comprehend and analyze the principles of all magic skills, deploying them with maximum efficiency.
The spell it formed instantly gathered ambient elements into crimson orbs.
Boom boom boooom!
⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡
Explosion Cannon - Class 6 Magic Skill
Six blazing orbs launched like arrows
The six fireballs born from the Class 6 magic skill Explosion Cannon hurtled toward Rose like arrows.
Rose did not retreat.
Standing her ground steadfastly, she simply slashed them down one by one as they came.
The fireballs, which should have detonated on contact with her blade, instead vanished pathetically the moment they were cut.
Karl, as if having anticipated that much, unleashed Stone Blade next.
⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡
Stone Blade
Stab!
The instant jagged rock blades erupted from right beneath her feet, skewering her like a kebab—or so it seemed.
The Rose impaled on the rock vanished like an illusion, and she reappeared three steps away as if rising from the ground, lightly snapping her fingers.
Snap!
A water droplet shot out like a bullet via Falling Star Finger Bullet Flow, only to be futilely blocked by the Wind Shield surrounding Karl.
But that was merely the beginning.
Snap, snap snap, snap snap snap snap!
As Rose opened her palm, the surrounding mist coalesced into water droplets, firing off like shooting stars with each snap of her fingers.
At first, they came in probing bursts of a few drops.
But the volume of water gathering in her hand grew, her snapping speed increased, and soon they pelted Karl's shield like relentless rain.
The shield, which began to crack under the chain of droplets that could pierce even steel, one by one.
From within, Karl coolly thrust out his staff.
"Photon Cannon."
⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡
Photon Cannon
Class 8 Magic Skill - Piercing light beam vaporizes all in its path
Fwaaash!
The moment light gathered at the tip of his staff, a thick beam of light incinerated the incoming droplets and shot forth.
It pierced everything it touched, melting the ground as it extended—a whip of the sun god itself.
Perhaps wary of the might of a Class 8 magic skill usable only by Level 90+ players.
Rose left afterimages in her wake to evade the Photon Cannon's light, drawing up her psychokinesis.
She dominated the surrounding space with Air-Reversing Spatial Flow's psychokinesis, gathered moisture from the air using Sea Dragon Water Jewel Flow, converted it to water, and manipulated it.
Then she unleashed it according to the essence of Falling Star Finger Bullet Flow.
⟨ Supreme Technique ⟩
Rumble roooar!
At Rose's gesture, the swirling streams of water around her merged into a massive waterfall, clashing head-on with Karl's Photon Cannon.
The light pillar tried to pierce through, vaporizing the water.
The waterfall surged backward, repelling the light.
For a moment, the two forces seemed evenly matched. But then the waterfall absorbed the surrounding mist, swelling enormously and tipping the balance in an instant.
Yet Karl showed no agitation at the waterfall surging toward him, having repelled his light pillar.
He merely opened his mouth coldly.
"Double Casting, Niflheim Wave."
⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡
Double Casting
Niflheim Wave - Class 9 Freeze Skill
Crack!
In that instant, the reversing waterfall froze solid.
Not just the waterfall. The circling mist, the ground, even the air itself.
The near-absolute zero chill spreading from Karl froze everything around him, surging toward Rose like a wave.
But even faced with a Class 9 ice magic skill of immense power, Rose did not falter.
Standing rigidly in place, she simply swung her sword vertically.
Seventy-Two Martial Streams – Fourth Ultimate Technique Heaven-Evasion Sword Art
⟨ Supreme Technique ⟩
It happened right after.
The wave of freezing cold that froze all it touched swept through where Rose had stood.
Her form, which had seemed to turn to ice shards in an instant, melted away like a mirage. In her place, she appeared on the ground directly beneath where Karl floated.
Ignoring the light frost covering her body, Rose leaped vertically toward Karl, swinging her sword down at him—
"Great Elemental Break."
⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡
Great Elemental Break
Class 9 Magic Skill - Advanced Element Decomposition
Explosive backlash
Kaboom!
Light exploded from Karl's staff.
Rose was hurled back by the aftershock of the Class 9 magic skill, plummeting from the air to the ground. A thin trickle of blood ran from the corner of her mouth.
Karl clicked his tongue at the sight.
"Don't be foolish. Spatial translocation isn't going to work properly in a place like this."
"......"
Rose remained silent.
In truth, her internal injuries weren't solely from the shock that pierced her Defensive Aura Flow.
She had slashed space open with Severing Space Sword Flow, then forcibly teleported through the gap using Position Exchange Flow.
Even as the Azure Dragon Princess, crossing space in this fog-shrouded realm required such measures.
The unstable leap had not only failed to strike Karl but had also shaken her psychokinesis, causing internal damage.
That single exchange had inflicted no small harm on her.
"I don't know what lies you've fallen for to side with the witch, but give it up."
Thus, Karl declared coldly.
"You might have a chance outside. But here, you can never stop me."
As a magic player at his core, he was inherently weak in close combat, making Rose a genuine threat.
Provided she could freely traverse space.
In this place, where the Twilight Mist halved not only spatial translocation but even the power of the Seventy-Two Martial Flows that manipulated space, Rose could never match him.
No matter that she was the Azure Dragon Princess. Against Karl, who boasted the strongest long-range firepower among the Ten Lords, fighting at a distance offered no chance of victory.
"Yes. I know full well I can't defeat you."
She knew that better than anyone, yet Rose did not withdraw.
She merely wiped the blood from her mouth and spoke calmly.
"But at the very least, I can hold you here."
"Buying time? Even now, what good would that—?!"
Karl froze.
He had sensed the thick fog blanketing the area begin to quiver strangely, the magical energy within it surging wildly.
"Why is the Twilight Mist...?"
The mist lingering in this mirror world was but a remnant of the London Great Barrier.
Like the faint afterglow of a sunset persisting after dusk, it was merely the debris of the barrier, soon to dissipate entirely.
Yet for some reason, the mist was now emanating clearer magical energy.
His shock was brief.
Karl's face hardened.
He finally understood why Rose had sent Syr away first, even knowing she couldn't handle him alone.
"Countess Rose, what in the world are you plotting with the witches?!"
For the first time, the man who had shown excitement but never panic now betrayed genuine anxiety.
Meeting his wavering gaze steadily, Rose replied softly.
"I told you. I'm simply doing what I must."