Chapter 117
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 117
Chapter Title: The Mad King's Demise
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The clash between the two, moving at speeds where their forms were barely visible, appeared to those not particularly attuned to inner energy like thin beams of light splitting into dozens per second and colliding.
Leon wielded the Heavenly Demon Divine Sword and Nameless Sword in tandem, boosting his speed while simultaneously slowing his opponent. Sullivan, meanwhile, unleashed his signature velocity.
"In the world... what kind of human moves at that speed...?"
Leon’s swordplay was sharp and swift, as if mocking the childish skirmish against the severely weakened Kraken from before.
It was true that he had grown even stronger since then, but Kraken and Sullivan differed entirely in build and combat style.
Clang!!!
After several clashes, Leon let out a short breath.
He glanced at his slightly torn sleeve and chuckled softly.
"Nice."
Sullivan, on the other hand, was visibly covered in wounds at a glance.
"Hup... haa...".
His armor was shattered in places, blood flowing from the exposed skin.
He staggered for a moment, then stomped the ground hard.
The shockwave from his massive frame swept away Leon’s slow magic entirely—but for every spell dispelled, Leon’s follow-up magic came flying in.
"Impossible. He’s just a young specimen... how can he contain such power in his body?"
"Tell me about it. I’m curious myself."
To be realistic, the aura and death mana Leon harbored shouldn’t have been possible for him to contain.
It wasn’t a matter of realm or experience—it was a physical limitation.
It was like trying to pour an ocean into a tiny vessel; physically impossible.
And there was one more thing Sullivan couldn’t comprehend.
At first, Leon’s attacks had been cautious.
As if probing him.
In truth, early on, Sullivan held the edge in both power and speed.
But with each clash of swords, things began to shift subtly.
Once the exchanges surpassed fifty in a frenzy of blows, everything changed completely.
Leon had completely dissected Sullivan’s swordsmanship down to its roots.
"What is this?!"
Clang!!
The moment Sullivan assumed an attack stance, Leon was already reacting.
His blade slipped in instantly, parrying and deflecting Sullivan’s path.
It was a level of combat impossible without foresight.
Krunch!!!
And the speed was the same.
It accelerated further, the power as well.
It felt uncanny, as if Leon’s body was gradually adapting with every clash.
Real-time evolution in a living being was an impossibility.
Even for Sullivan’s inherently powerful race, it was unattainable.
But Leon...
Was that thing even the same kind of lifeform as the rest?
Sullivan shook off the confusion.
No—he forcibly did.
The horrific madness crawling through his mind began to drive him insane once more.
At the same time, explosive power enveloped his entire body.
This should overwhelm him.
Sullivan thought as he moved.
Cclang!!!!
But his attack was deflected again.
Krrunch!!
As punishment for his carelessness, his shoulder pauldron shattered and fell away, blood pouring out.
This was realm. Not mere physical specs.
The opponent knew everything.
Even in his madness-driven frenzy, a chill pierced Sullivan’s mind.
"How dare you... how dare you!!!"
Sullivan pulled back from Leon and extended his hand.
The space around him warped, and brain spears materialized like structures, all aimed at Leon.
Weapons forged from the souls of a perished kingdom’s ghosts.
But as if he’d been waiting, Leon spun his sword and stabbed it into the ground, then clapped his hands together hard.
Clap!!
With the sound of palms meeting, a black magic circle shimmered beneath Leon and his feet.
For a brief instant, it disrupted control over Sullivan’s sub-dimensional space.
And that fleeting gap produced something astonishing.
"I’m an expert on sub-spaces, too."
A pink-haired girl had appeared out of nowhere, forcing her hand into his sub-space.
Krunch-crunch!!!
The sub-space existed only by Sullivan’s permission.
But the unknown power emanating from the girl crushed his resistance, colliding sub-spaces and eroding it.
Naturally, with the sub-space corroded, he couldn’t control it—the brain spears forged from his fallen kingdom’s souls began vanishing against his will.
Fine, then he’d cut her down himself. The moment he shifted focus to Luna...
"Sullivan."
Sullivan’s body froze.
"Have you lost your mind?"
Damn! What a stupid mistake!
Leon was already right in his face, those eerie sky-blue eyes fixed solely on him.
This being called Leon.
Strong. So strong that taking one’s eyes off him was suicidal.
Yet in this situation, he hadn’t focused fully on Leon—he’d let his mind wander to Luna for a moment.
The price wouldn’t be light.
Too late for full defense. It could even be fatal.
Me, a king? To this young-looking heteroclite? No.
The opponent was a force he had to acknowledge, whether he liked it or not.
Not about realm superiority. Their very worlds were built on utterly different foundations.
At worst, he’d trade flesh for bone.
With resolve for mutual destruction, he swung his sword.
The overwhelmingly massive blade arced toward Leon’s neck.
A desperate trajectory. With countless variables, countering would be hard.
But.
In that split-second gap, Leon simply twisted his body, evading the blade as if sidestepping it.
As if he’d known the path all along.
How did he know?!
And his already accelerating body surged even faster.
Even quicker here?
In a world where everything seemed frozen as if time had stopped, only he moved.
Time hadn’t stopped. Sullivan’s perception just couldn’t keep up with Leon’s speed.
Krunch!!
Leon’s sword mercilessly slashed across his heart.
It carved a massive wound, shredding armor fragments.
He reflexively countered, grazing Leon’s right upper arm—but a trivial scratch.
The funny part? It was the first wound Sullivan had inflicted on Leon.
That confirmed it.
He’d grown incomparably stronger than at the fight’s start.
As if his body was adapting to something.
Like a creature exposed to cold adapting to endure it, or to heat.
An explosive change bordering on evolution, beyond mere physical exertion.
Leon snatched the fragment of the heart guard embedded with the mana core as it flew off, then said coldly,
"Wraithen."
At his command, Sullivan wore a puzzled expression.
The aura spreading around him was a common spell he knew.
Turning the dead into undead.
Was he trying to turn him into an undead?
While he was still alive? There were limits to mockery.
Enraged, he tried to move again.
But he couldn’t. His body wouldn’t respond.
And then he realized.
His body was already dead.
With his true body in another dimension, it wasn’t full death.
But even his true body—he wasn’t sure it could win.
Why, then, did his mind feel so clear?
Only then did he realize.
The madness that had driven him insane—the insanity etched into his mind by the terror of the colossal disaster that crushed his kingdom, a mere glimpse of which drove people mad—had vanished as if washed away.
Was it the small creature before him?
Or the girl who’d forcibly eroded his sub-space and pulled out an unfamiliar box from it?
Whatever the truth, one thing was certain.
"The noise... is gone."
The chaos that had cluttered his mind for so long faded, replaced by serenity.
Sullivan silently gazed down at Leon, then his body crumbled to dust.
"If there’s a chance, I’ll come find you again."
He couldn’t even leave those words properly.
"Damn. Doesn’t wraithen since it’s not the real body, huh?"
Of course, he didn’t hear Leon’s irritated mutter either.
Librarian.
Calling out to the Librarian as Sullivan crumbled to dust.
[Confirmed.]
What’s the baseline for enemies I met in Labyrinthos?
I hadn’t asked with high expectations.
But for the first time, the Librarian gave a meaningful response.
[A branch of possibility. The entity you encountered in Labyrinthos was one completely consumed by madness.]
So, meaning it was even madder and stronger than now?
No wonder. He was way weaker than the Sullivan I knew. So, the Labyrinthos I was in—was it some twisted future where everything’s warped?
[Slightly different, but the possibility exists.]
Then it’s all an illusion?
Something that might not happen?
The Librarian didn’t answer my question.
[Unable to answer at this time. Insufficient information access.]
The red moon in the sky.
Grotesque monsters.
A place teeming with things I never wanted to see in reality.
The Sullivan I met there differed greatly from this one.
If it were a game raid boss, it’d be like one with all instant-kill patterns removed.
I calmed my overheating death mana circles and settled my aura.
My whole body felt parched and tense, like after a marathon.
Sullivan was pushed back for now, and I had the mana core—my original goal.
But something concerned me more than those two objectives.
"Ah... aaa..."
The small jewelry box Luna clutched preciously to her chest.
Its existence.
Fate Load.
A plain ring with no special powers, yet the one the fallen angel had desperately sought.
Honestly, I hadn’t expected to find it here so easily.
But finding it was good. Though the vibe felt a bit off.
I didn’t know why Sullivan had it, but per Luna, it was thrown beyond space, so it probably ended up there somehow.
Ignoring those staring blankly at me, I slowly approached Luna.
That’s when it happened.
As she opened the box to check the ring, her eyes widened.
"Ah... n-no!"
The ring on Luna’s hand began to glow and lift.
That’s...
A spatial transfer.