Chapter 100
Chapter 100
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 100
Chapter Title: Chapter 100
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 100
Chapter Title: Night Raven
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Night Raven.
Havel watched as the creature that had collapsed on the mountain hauled itself back up.
A familiar presence emanated from it.
Havel sensed none other than his own power surging within the Night Raven's body.
And there was only one reason it would emanate from the Night Raven.
'The God of Night.'
An energy mass amplified by his power channeled through the Sword of the Stars.
From the looks of it, the Night Raven seemed to be powered by the same force.
Then Havel detected a sharp presence deep within the Night Raven's body.
He realized what it was almost immediately.
'It's the Sword of the Stars. This thing.'
A Sword of the Stars that had existed for quite some time.
He'd assumed it was stashed away somewhere in the kingdom.
Who would've thought it would end up as the medium for the Night Raven after circling back around.
Havel let out a hollow chuckle.
"Truly a nasty bastard."
A being forged by blending the Calamity it had absorbed from Havel with the Tower's own Calamity.
Far superior to that chieftain from the lower floors who had styled himself the God of Night.
That was the Night Raven.
"No wonder my punches didn't hit right."
Thanks to absorbing Havel's Calamity, the impacts just felt wrong.
Caaaaaaw!
In that instant, the Night Raven lunged at Havel now that it had risen.
As Havel had suspected, it didn't look all that fazed by the blows.
The hands sprouting from its wings shot toward him in unison.
Havel stomped the ground and dodged the hands, drawing his sword in one fluid motion.
Pfshk!
The swung blade clashed with the hands.
Havel's brow furrowed.
It felt like slicing through clay rather than living flesh.
Sure enough, the severed hand splattered to the ground like wet clay.
And the spot where it landed turned pitch black.
It was the Night Raven's unique trait: Domain Declaration.
Everything it touched was erased from the Tower forever.
Devoured and obliterated by the night.
Meanwhile, the hand Havel's sword had shattered regenerated to its original form.
'Not exactly a welcome guest.'
Cut it, and the fragments ricocheted to wreck the surroundings. It even regenerated.
It had every annoying condition checked off the list.
The Night Raven's onslaught showed no signs of letting up.
Every slash across its body blackened the ground further.
Before long, there was no footing left—only night everywhere.
In a way, it was the inverse of a night sky.
The ground had been dyed utterly black.
Yet the Night Raven's body, which had spewed forth all that night, showed no signs of diminishing.
Was its mass infinite or something?
No matter how much he carved away, it regenerated endlessly.
"Havel!"
Baria's frantic voice echoed from the distance.
The entire mountain had already been devoured by the Night Raven's night.
If this kept up, the kingdom wouldn't be far behind.
Havel had no desire to see the kingdom reduced to a wasteland.
'Gotta wipe it out in one go.'
The instant even a speck survived...
It would no doubt regenerate to its original form.
Which meant he had to obliterate it completely.
'Recon's done here.'
It was right then that Havel began channeling Dawn into his sword.
Gurgle!
The night-mutated ground suddenly writhed, bubbles surging up.
Havel scowled at the sight.
An arm burst from one of the exploding bubbles.
And with it rose a crow-man.
A crow-man lacking even eye sockets—just a hollow form.
It seemed composed of liquid night, just like the Night Raven.
Splash.
No sooner had it emerged than it turned away from Havel, facing another direction.
Havel caught on to the Night Raven's scheme.
'This bastard realized I plan to erase it all at once, so it's taking out insurance.'
And the problem was, the freshly appeared crow-man wasn't alone.
Bubbles were rising along every path the Night Raven had traversed.
If those things scattered across the 75th floor...
The 75th floor would be an eternity of mopping up Night Ravens.
Caaaaaaw!
Thousands of crow heads screeched in unison.
Their laughter seemed to mock Havel.
As if a mere human could possibly stop them.
The Night Raven's nonstop jeers marked it as an intelligent entity.
Just as Havel had probed it during their skirmish.
The Night Raven had done the same to him.
And that was its verdict.
Rather than crush Havel outright...
It had devised a way to pin him down in the Tower.
Havel let out a hollow chuckle.
"Treating me like a fool, huh."
By all rights, the Night Raven was a swordsman's worst nightmare.
Slashes regenerated and spawned extra damage to boot.
And it was far too massive for any lone swordsman to vaporize in one shot.
Matchups considered, a mage was the ideal counter.
'So that's the play.'
Which let Havel figure out how to conquer the 7th tier's trial.
The Tower always left a path to clear for anyone, calibrated to a certain degree.
Just look at how it tailored difficulties to climbers.
The Tower always wanted its climbers to ascend.
So even saddling Havel with this trial...
It had prepared a clear path independent of his power.
'Normally, you'd recruit the Strike tribe's great mage Adoris from the prior floor.'
Great Mage Adoris wielded Calamity with effortless mastery.
He could've surely suppressed the Night Raven.
Then the trial's subject steps in to finish it off amid the opening.
That would've painted the perfect picture.
But Adoris didn't exist in this world.
Havel had crushed him back on the previous floor.
A world devoid of that mad great mage.
So the Night Raven rampaged like it was invincible.
But it didn't know.
This world harbored monsters eclipsing any great mage.
"No teeth? Use your gums."
The Dawn glow cloaking Havel's sword intensified.
A chilling smile crept across his lips.
"No mage? Then I'll just have to outdo one."
Havel hoisted the Dawn-infused sword skyward.
Thoom!
Space quaked with Havel at its epicenter.
The entire area shuddered violently.
The Night Raven sensed something amiss and rushed its assault—but it was too late.
Flash!
Dawn light erupted from the uplifted sword, lancing toward the heavens.
Caaaaaaw!
Was the Dawn light too overwhelming?
The Night Raven's startled heads shrieked and froze in place.
But it quickly realized it had taken no real damage.
Its thousands of heads blinked, scanning the surroundings.
Then it spotted it.
Thin Dawn threads spiderwebbed from a single point in the sky.
Slender yet impossibly dense.
They appeared to be mere strands of light.
Right on cue, one of the Night Raven's crow-men reached the threads.
Without an ounce of fear, it tried to cross.
Sizzle!
The crow-man erased outright by the Dawn threads.
Vaporized as if incinerated.
The Night Raven's heads panicked for a split second.
The crow-men shared its properties.
They regenerated no matter the attack.
Yet here one was, nullified by a mere light thread.
Havel grinned at the flustered Night Raven.
"Birds belong in cages."
Pure provocation.
Caaaaaaw!
The enraged heads bellowed as one.
Its body ballooned, black liquid erupting everywhere.
All of it night.
The night globs acted with eerie purpose.
They began erecting walls just shy of Havel's Dawn cage.
Havel stifled a scoff.
"Turning the tables to trap me? That the idea?"
The night globs surged at Havel too.
Dodging just played into the Night Raven's hands.
Filling the space with more night.
Soon Havel floated with nowhere to stand.
It wouldn't be long before the sky filled too.
Suddenly, black conical liquid spiked upward.
Havel ascended, but they pursued relentlessly.
Over half the Dawn cage now brimmed with Night Raven.
Its body had devolved from form into viscous goo.
Only the heads protruded, shrieking grotesquely.
Havel clung upside down to the cage's apex.
His near-silver hair drifted lazily.
The Night Raven's mass rocketed toward the top en masse.
Thousands of heads wailing at once—deafening.
Dead set on swallowing him whole.
But it missed Havel's sinister smile.
"What makes you think I can't shrink this cage?"
His words rang out.
Clink.
A faint sound echoed briefly.
The Dawn cage contracted violently.
Sizzle!
The Night Raven filling it began melting away.
Caaaaaaw!
Thousands of crows screamed in unison.
The Dawn threads dissolved its body entirely.
Its blunder.
Had it kept its form, maybe.
But swollen and exposed to Dawn now...
The Night Raven thrashed in agony, surging higher.
Desperate to snag Havel and break free.
Right in the path of its final spasm...
Havel's sword trained on it.
For an instant, the Night Raven felt time halt.
The Dawn on his blade blazed brighter.
Shrinking Dawn cage.
Dawn light dead ahead.
No escape either way.
A crow's options remained the same as ever.
Kill Havel.
Caaaaaaw!
Thousands of heads lunged one last time.
Jet-black darkness gathered in thousands of gaping beaks.
Darkness distilled from its own consumed night—inky void.
A body doomed anyway.
Amassing it for mutual destruction with Havel.
Rumble!
Space warped around the Night Raven.
Its night-drained body faded to white.
Even the embedded Sword of the Stars grew visible.
The Night Raven unleashed full power.
Night Raven Original
Endless Night
The night exploded outward, devouring everything within the cage.
Sound itself was consumed—utter silence.
Even colossal trees in distant forests were uprooted by the sheer force.
An ordinary soul would've had their bones pulverized before it even reached.
Beneath his whipping hair, Havel's eyes gleamed coldly.
The ceaseless Dawn pouring from his sword halted for a beat.
The world seemed to freeze, crawling at a snail's pace.
Havel's gaze locked onto the Night Raven.
It had emptied everything into this against him.
Even if it was midday's trial...
Full commitment from it warranted the same here.
'This is an isolated space crafted with the Dawn cage.'
Going all out wouldn't spill over.
Havel poured his power in without a second thought.
In the same thrusting pose aimed at the Night Raven, he plummeted.
The instant Havel met the endless night...
Banpellyon-style Dawn Swordsmanship
True Dawn Sky
The extending Dawn light collided with the endless night the Night Raven unleashed.
It unfurled like tens of thousands of arrows.
Shredding and pulverizing the massive night blob entirely.
Piercing the endless night, the Dawn light scattered every which way.
The Dawn light breached the endless night and struck the Night Raven at last.
And amid that Dawn light...
One ray carried Havel.
The Night Raven's thousands of eyes met his.
Its heads gaped wide in unison.
Intent on swallowing even him.
"If you want it..."
Yet Havel's descent didn't falter.
"...then eat up."
And Havel dove straight into the Night Raven's maw.
Gulp.
The Night Raven reflexively worked its throat.
A beat of silence followed.
Crack.
Suddenly, a fissure spidered across the Night Raven's body.
Crack. Crack. Craaack!
The cracks multiplied rapidly.
Spreading across its entire form.
Flash!
Light seeped from the fissures, one by one.
And the instant Dawn light gushed from every crack...
Shatter!
With the sound of shattering glass, the Night Raven's body exploded apart.
Its fragments scattered like broken shards.
And at the center stood Havel alone, sword plunged to the hilt.
The moment Dawn toppled the Night Raven.
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