Chapter 167
Chapter 167
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 167
Chapter Title: Shar'kas
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"Shar'kas, was it?"
In the sticky, torrential downpour slanting through the air, green lightning flickered. A night whipped by a chillingly humid storm.
"A name so repulsive even thinking of it turns my stomach. Is that insufferably arrogant face of his still the same?"
The two absolute beings glared at each other for a moment in that world vibrating with the stench of the cosmos, then unleashed their transcendent powers in the next instant.
"No need to throw a fit—I'll bring you face-to-face with him myself. Arise."
The rune of quantity in the mental barrier lit up. Countless runes rose from the origin circle, pairing off into four groups each to form over a dozen formations.
"Rune engraving alteration."
The moment the runes of flow and authority blazed forth...
Runes like 'levitation' transformed into 'explosion,' 'incineration,' and others, becoming a flaming storm wreathed in intense light.
In the era when gods clashed over the fate of worlds, wielding myriad attributes of power beyond their limits—this was Karen-den's method of wielding power.
A modest, degraded version: preparing around a dozen spells in advance and reshaping them into fitting forms for the battle at hand.
"───?!"
An unceasing carpet of flames unfurled across the ground.
Countless pillars of explosive fire erupted skyward.
No gaps in time existed amid the bursts of that transcendent power.
'You alone.'
A scorching inferno blazed, a flash that reduced all to ash, an absolute storm charging through its epicenter.
'If only you weren't there.'
A clash of power beyond even the imagination of humans at the pinnacle of enlightenment.
'That pathetic one.'
Amid that transcendent fray, the young man darted busily through the rotting forest, evading vortices of poison while unleashing transcendent flames.
'Could have lived out his days several times happier before dying.'
Mortal emotions, the blaze infused with the soul's fervor, burned all the fiercer, scattering primordial heat across the heavens and earth.
No preparation time or power vacuums—inevitable when mortals wielded vast might—existed in that rampage.
It flustered the opposing absolute to the point of twitching his brow.
'Karen-den's priest? A clone? Remarkable proficiency. Even that troublesome wench couldn't wield Karen-den's power this convincingly.'
Countering it, feathers of decay flew in grotesquely unnatural arcs, spreading a storm of death.
'Potential is outstanding, but not enough to bury Shar'kas. What sorcery is this?'
The red-eyed youth suppressed the twitch at his lips, deftly parrying with his stone staff.
The next instant, he unleashed five 4-star fire spells simultaneously.
Just when it seemed the explosive blaze would incinerate him utterly, the lord of time swiftly regenerated his flesh within Juyeo Soge Daeban's ice.
"Hah, hahaha, hiding your power before me, Belhas? How pathetic! Unleash your full strength!"
The fiend laughed wickedly on that ancient boy's face, flapping his wings wide to dive at speeds beyond perception.
"Gh...!"
As mud and water erupted chaotically from the shockwave of his descent, the youth blocked the absolute's fan-like blow with his stone staff, deflecting the force aside before thrusting forward.
One exchange, five, ten.
The absolute's supernaturally typhoon-like movements targeted blind spots, propelling his small form with massive wings like arrows.
'This bastard's getting faster.'
In that moment, amid the clash's sparks, the stone staff that flicked away the iron fan pierced deep into his throat.
The absolute's wing talons simultaneously raked long, deep gashes across the youth's hand and back.
'Adapting to Lin's body... I have to end this quick.'
The youth instantly burned away the flesh where abyssal decay had begun, kicking off a rock to retreat far back. He formed seals upon landing.
"First Thunder."
At the caster's command, a horn of transcendent flame hovering in the sky was unleashed that instant.
A blade of flame descended from the heavens, stripping all color and sound from the yellowing, rotting mountains, incinerating the decay and corruption gnawing at the fiery peak in one stroke.
Everywhere but one spot—the place where the lightning had struck.
"Time...?"
Not even ten seconds had passed, yet the manipulation speed was accelerating. Beyond what Bell Quirius could interfere with.
By the time cold sweat poured from his brow like rain, Nariaduk was already at his back.
The gap a single step plus a fraction, his old finger joints grinding with ominous cracks as it lunged for his heart.
"This is the period at the end of your fate."
That cramped space of slaughter was cleaved heavily by a holy sword radiating blinding sacred light.
"Gaumris!"
The youth's forelocks whipped fiercely; the absolute's right hand was crushed under the weight and burned away in light by its special ability, holy pressure.
"A holy sword—genuine or not, what a nuisance..."
The absolute spread three pairs of wings and soared skyward, lightning bolts crashing down one after another above his head.
He veered his flight path wildly to dodge the first, translocating the second into the ground from above to block it.
But the third struck his head dead-on, its overwhelming thermal output slamming his body to the earth.
Of course, his ice-encased flesh began regenerating in an instant...
"Thanks to you, I survived."
Catching his breath on one knee, he expressed his gratitude. The famously curt FakeWarrior waved it off, skipping the chatter.
"Desperation, or do you have a plan?"
"Pure desperation."
He had one, but couldn't say it aloud.
Silently mouthing his true intent, Milone smirked, gripping Gaumris with both hands.
"Then let's despair together. Ever synced with a warrior before?"
Five years. Not just any warrior, but the hero you all revere as a true hero.
Rista Alter Shyrfang.
He couldn't say that, so he just shrugged as if to say don't worry.
"Alright then..."
Cutting himself off, Milone inhaled deeply, kicked off the ground, and closed in on Nariaduk at speeds beyond limits.
As Nariaduk swung his fan to manipulate providence and dominate the space with a poison storm, lightning struck slightly behind him.
A direct hit sparing Milone, scattering the foul winds harmlessly, shaking the earth to unbalance him.
Milone slipped into that fleeting opening.
"Hmph."
Blocking Gaumris's slash with his fan, Nariaduk took to the sky; lightning poured into his flight path.
His flight destabilized under the pressure, and the moment he used time deletion...
"Got you."
Cooldown on his authority.
Milone stomped forward, ascending; Gaumris plunged into his back.
"Urgh...!"
Simultaneously, Milone kicked off a mana platform and landed on the ground.
Faster than the falling absolute, several times over.
Even before landing, transcendent holy power concentrated in Gaumris, gripped firmly in both hands.
"Three Sparrow Bee Thorn, Form 14: Shattered Punishment Heaven Slash."
Sensing the crisis?
Mid-air posture control, flapping wings to escape Gaumris's range—but the final thunderbolt struck his body...
Just as he was about to crash into the ground, the peerless holy sword Gaumris arced a massive trail of light, shattering the abyssal flesh.
"Futile desperation."
Yet even as his upper body tore from the lower in that blow, Nariaduk grinned wickedly.
And... wait, what?
In that instant, the youth realized something was gravely wrong, his hair standing on end. Suddenly, something had changed in the blink of an eye.
"...Exhausted already? Unlike you, I, Nariaduk, am growing accustomed to this flesh—fitting to receive all my gifts."
Time flew. Completely different from before—the scale of deleted time...
The time to 'recover his body with Juyeo Soge Daeban,' and from 'escaping the ice to binding Milone's limbs with dark blue winds'—all erased.
He'd only blinked, thought he controlled the authority with Bell Quirius, but the situation had advanced that far.
'Insane...'
Impossible to compare from the start, but if Shar'kas had gone all-out initially, would it feel this impotent?
"Why hasn't that blasphemous glare faded... Belhas? In the vortex of karma set before creation, what do you see...?"
Milone tore free of the bonds with superhuman strength and charged, but it was meaningless.
Nariaduk effortlessly evaded by ascending.
The absolute, fan covering his eyes, his third eye on the forehead curving ominously as he pointed the fan at Milone.
"This counterfeit vessel? Or..."
Suddenly swinging the fan to rip space longwise, he yanked someone from another dimension in one pull.
This bastard...
The red-eyed youth's lips paled.
"The one scheming insolently while pretending to flail for time?"
Valensidis and Pipi.
Over the unfurled long scroll, five layers of magic circles spun above his palm, incantations spilling from his lips—Valensidis jerked his head up.
Even in that shock, he never disrupted his mana flow or incantation rhythm—truly impressive, but now Valensidis was...
'Completely defenseless.'
As good as naked before the enemy.
"Don't lift a finger. The moment you do, I'll scatter this heretic's flesh and blood across the mountains."
The creeping youth and Milone froze at the warning.
Even with Nariaduk at his back, Valensidis's audacity in not halting his power buildup was unbelievable...
The red-eyed youth steadied his ragged breath, pleading desperately.
"Don't move either, Pipi."
"Pipi, pipi, pipi."
"Please, just don't move."
In the suffocating silence, like the world balanced on a blade's edge, the absolute approached Valensidis with aristocratic poise.
He lifted Valensidis's chin with the fan, met his eyes, and flashed a chilling smile.
"You too are worthy of time's gifts... a be ses... Your momentary blasphemy shall be forgiven..."
Then, he seized Valensidis's throat, hoisting him into the air. Wing talons stabbed into his abdomen.
"V-Valensidis!"
The pierced spot, gleaming with grotesque poison, began warping—the flesh turning to异形 feathers.
"Damn it, Nariaduk, you son of a bitch!"
Blood frothed from Valensidis's mouth, yet he didn't stop gathering power... but like this, the outcome was obvious.
Resistant to the abyss, his mutation slower than others, but eventually Valensidis would become Nariaduk's servant, a monstrous bird.
Unable to watch longer, Pipi surged with flapping wings spewing flame—just as Nariaduk swung down dismissively with his fan.
"...?!"
Darkness flashed with iridescent demonic energy, sharply tearing space.
'What...'
Milone, most proficient in swordsmanship here, felt his eyes shudder.
That mana edge slicing the air, the power wave parting dimensions—it wasn't a mage's circle or archer's heart.
Only swordsmen wielding mana chains, upon reaching the pinnacle through true communion with their blade, attained this realm. Sword aura.
'Sword aura? How? No FakeWarrior wields sword aura yet.'
Unlike mages, reliant on catalysts—equipment—for power.
Legend said it could reverse waterfalls, but even half that pierced Nariaduk's guard.
The eerie, flashing sword aura sliced through the absolute's hand and wings—corrupting Valensidis—like parting silk.
"This is..."
All eyes but Valensidis's locked on the sword aura's source.
"What is it?"
The swordsman staring blankly at her blade in her own bewilderment... was Miria.
"No such being existed in the karmic storm the true king showed me personally."
The bandages still half-wrapped the blade, yet proving it a demon sword, the same eerie glow rippled across its surface as the sword aura.
"Abut-!"
The hatchling dragon on her back waved energetically and fondly at the youth.
But he had no leisure to wave back, forced to scream at the top of his lungs.
"Why are you here?!"
Deeming them no threat, perhaps—Nariaduk stirred a poison storm toward them.
'Run. A swordsman wielding sword aura. Beyond FakeWarrior, yet fleeing?'
Harboring doubts at her presence not matching sword aura mastery, Milone kicked off the ground just as...
Nariaduk deleted the 'time when Gaumris and funeral flame lightning attacked him,' reaching Miria in a blink.
"Ugh...!"
She hastily steadied and swung the demon sword, but inferior to the abyssal relic Kashasur, the blade shattered helplessly on impact.
"...No need for that."
Valensidis coughed blood, collapsed on the dirt.
Above his palm, the runes from his incantation and magic circles harmonized beautifully.
That fusion shattered with a clear burst.
"───!"
"───!"
"───!"
In that instant—everything exploded at once.
First, Valensidis's space-time dark magic teleported Miria here.
Then the mountains roared, vast radiance surging skyward from three peaks.
"Urgh...?!"
The beams burned away the sky-blanketing thunderclouds, opening a path to the starry night, converging overhead before plummeting.
Toward absolute Nariaduk.
The wondrously beautiful pure azure power blanketed heaven and earth, stealing sight—no telling what happened.
"R, R, R, RuuuuaaaaaaaaaaaaaKKKKKKKKKKKKKK─────!"
Only the absolute's scream hinted at it.
Milone, peering through the flash with draconic power in his flesh, saw.
Below a hole nearly twenty meters deep, Nariaduk writhed in agony, batting away endlessly encroaching frostbite no matter how he struck.
"What is this, exactly, NUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU─────!"