Chapter 65
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 65
Chapter Title: After Catching the Lawless One (4)
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Surtr.
A flame-wreathed giant from Norse mythology, a being whose name means "the black one."
A being that existed even before the world, born solely to bring about its end.
That was the true identity of the Burning Left Hand.
Of course, the myth itself now carried almost no influence, so its power had weakened considerably.
Nevertheless, Surtr continued to threaten me, unleashing its still formidable might.
"How dare you call my name! That coal is trouble enough, but you're the real problem!"
"You sure don't hold back with your master."
"Master? What master! What's the point of wielding me without my will!"
"Then from now on, I'll just have to infuse that will into the body."
"Insolent fool!"
Roarrrrr!
Surtr's voice began echoing from my left hand before shifting to ring out right in front of me.
One method to draw out a divine weapon's true power after learning its true name was subjugation.
It involved battling the materialized weapon and forcing it into literal submission.
"I am the flame that burns all creation! The entity tasked with cataclysmic destruction! And you dare speak to me like that?!"
The angrier it got, the more Surtr shifted from a formless blaze into a humanoid shape.
Its massive frame and roaring inferno suited the term "flame giant" perfectly.
It was like the fire itself had been sculpted into a colossal figure.
Its power had indeed waned, leaving it about the size of the diminutive giant Femv.
"I'll never forgive you! I'll kill you!"
"Then go ahead and try."
"What?"
Perhaps my reaction was too nonchalant.
Surtr, who had been on the verge of a rampage, now wore a puzzled expression.
The confusion was plain on its face: 'Normally, they'd be terrified by now. Why is this guy so calm?'
"We're about to throw down, right? Winner makes the loser behave. That's how this goes, yeah?"
"...I-Is that how it works?"
It must have been Surtr's first descent into the mortal realm.
In moments like this, it was no different from a neighborhood kid.
"Exactly. Clean loss means total submission. No hard feelings?"
"Sounds fair enough..."
Clank!
The moment Surtr agreed, chains burst forth, linking us together.
These were the Chains of Covenant, imbuing divine weapons and their wielders with unbreakable compulsion.
Empathy usually manifested them as threads, but subjugation always brought chains.
"Huuu... Hah!"
The instant the chains formed, I drew in a deep breath and charged straight at Surtr.
Subduing a living flame with raw physical force alone was impossible.
'It's not even really a lifeform.'
It was merely a blaze infused with will, perceived as alive.
In truth, it was something else entirely.
'The flame itself is a mass of pure power.'
Using Ferocious Tiger to snuff it out would only diminish the power I stood to gain.
Which was why I had to devour Surtr in its entirety.
"Jumping right into my maw! What an utter fool!"
Roarrrrr!
The moment I hurled myself into the flames, Surtr cranked its output to maximum, as if it had been waiting.
Pure white fire—the same that had scorched the Hungry Mouth—loomed, threatening to consume everything.
"Burn to cinders and serve as kindling! Fuel for me to unleash my full might in this world... Huh?"
But it was all bark, no bite.
It couldn't turn me into firewood as intended.
"H-How?!"
Thump! Thump! Thump!
"Because there's still something you can't burn."
Surtr's flames should have reduced me to ash.
I had no arts, gear, or wisdom to shield myself from them.
But the Coal Heart made it possible.
The Coal Heart activates as fuel under specific conditions.
And that condition? Endless conflagration—fulfilled by Surtr's very existence.
In turn, it generated infinite fuel.
'And I make use of it.'
No matter how much it burned, the power sustained its form without end.
Using Surtr to first awaken the Coal Heart's true name.
That was my strategy to conquer it.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Surtr had awakened from fury at failing to incinerate the Coal Heart.
Thus, it unconsciously focused its power on the heart rather than me.
To erase that humiliation.
And the more power it poured in, the better I withstood the blaze.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
-I want to run! Run like mad! Roam this entire world! Taste it all! Devour everything!
The Coal Heart's impulses echoed in my mind.
'Stick with me, and I'll satisfy that hunger.'
A heart brimming with the primal urge to propel life forward.
The moment I promised to indulge its desires, the Coal Heart surged with more impulses.
-You! You might actually do it! Call my name! My name! My name is...!!!
"Nameless One."
Empathy achieved.
The Coal Heart's true power.
"Wh-What is this...?! What have you done, human?!"
Revealed itself.
As a divine entity tasked with cataclysmic destruction, Surtr had descended into the mortal world intent on annihilating everything.
But.
'This human...!'
One mere human was about to turn all those plans to ash.
The fool who should have burned alive was now commandeering the flames, funneling them into the Coal Heart.
And using it to amplify his own power.
It was theoretical madness—possible only in the abstract.
'He actually did it?!'
Even if you controlled the flames, the heat didn't vanish.
No matter how perfectly you harnessed the power, it was still just control.
Not annihilation. One slip, and you'd truly become firewood.
It went beyond dancing on the edge of death—it was shoving your neck straight into the noose.
Yet the human's face remained eerily serene.
Even if it was his only path, executing it was another realm entirely.
'I can't stop it.'
Surtr was already outputting maximum with its diminished strength.
It couldn't push further.
Maintaining this state was its best shot. Which meant if the human avoided mistakes...
He really could subjugate it.
'Impossible!'
A human wielding a divine being? Even a fragment—it couldn't be.
Yet the human advanced without a hint of doubt, treating it as inevitable.
"Nameless One."
The Coal Heart's true name: Nameless One.
The one who aids the forsaken.
That power now dwelled within the human. No—within Kim Geon-ho.
Veins that should have run red darkened to a pitch black, edged with crimson.
A poncho materialized, cloaking his form and warding off the flames.
"What have you dooooone!!!"
Surtr raged.
New power birthing within its own vessel of destruction?
It denied its very fate—an abomination that should never be.
Roarrr!
Output rivaling a threat to itself.
Surtr felt it must slay the human, even at the cost of its own end.
"You can see it, can't you? I'm subjugating you."
Black veins crept into the left hand, turning it pitch black like coal.
The ebony limb began devouring the flames at a ferocious pace.
Fizzle... Roarrr...
The inferno grew tame.
Crack... Craaaack.
The black hand fissured like splitting coal, imprisoning the flames within the cracks.
A fate forced upon it: contain what it could not burn.
Surtr writhed desperately, sensing its doom.
"I will neverrr...!"
"Behave."
Even that was blocked by Kim Geon-ho.
To him, now wielding the Coal Heart at will, Surtr's blaze was no more than a matchstick flicker.
Snatch!
He seized the chain linking them with his black hand and yanked.
"Aaaargh!"
All its prior fury proved futile as Surtr's power drained away in an instant.
The colossal blaze it had unleashed upon descent stemmed from the Coal Heart.
With control now fully in Kim Geon-ho's grasp...
Nothing remained for Surtr to burn.
Unquenchable flames could only gutter out. To evade that doom, it had no choice but to lunge toward what it could burn.
And right now, that was solely Kim Geon-ho's black left hand.
"...I submit."
Realizing this, Surtr slipped meekly into the black hand before things grew any uglier.
Its tone betrayed the dawning truth: resistance would only harm itself.
"Should've done that from the start."
Roarrr!
Fresh cracks spiderwebbed across the black hand as flames erupted once more.
Like magma bursting from the earth's depths.
Kim Geon-ho briefly tested his enhanced power before reverting his left hand to normal.
"Now, time to tie up loose ends."
Claiming victory in the Academy survival event.
And holding the engagement ceremony with Heila.
Kim Geon-ho's steps were light as he set off to accomplish both.