Chapter 149
Chapter 149
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 149
Chapter Title: The Colony Lord That Swallowed an Entire Moon
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The Colony Lord that had swallowed an entire moon whole.
Endless crimson tendrils sprouted from the Colony Lord without cease.
Its target: the two boys.
Before the crimson tendrils extending to kill them both.
Havel wildly swung his sword infused with Dawn light.
The slashing arcs of Dawn light shot out, tearing through the crimson tendrils indiscriminately.
Each time, the slashes continued to batter the Colony Lord.
Yet it seemed the Colony Lord had no ordinary endurance, as they failed to inflict any significant damage.
Havel, racing through the vacuum of space, unleashed slashes while furrowing his brow.
'It's not that there's no impact.'
But this went beyond simply calling the Colony Lord's endurance impressive.
'Are those crimson tendrils and that eye not the true body?'
Otherwise, this level of toughness couldn't be explained.
That meant the tendrils and eye were mere replicas, like some dimensional spawn.
The real Colony Lord was somewhere else.
'It's here, though.'
Havel gazed at the Colony Lord after cleaving another tendril.
It was definitely the same one embedded underground in Sector 1 of the city.
'In that case.'
There was a high chance it was inside the moon again this time.
'Should I just slice it open?'
Havel momentarily considered cleaving the moon in two.
But he soon abandoned the idea.
The moment he cut the moon, the fragments would be pulled straight into the city planet's gravity.
There would be disasters from the moon's destruction as well.
'If I think "it's the Tower, it'll be fine" and shrug it off, only for everything to get wiped out...'
He'd have to restart the conquest of this floor from the beginning—a disaster he couldn't afford.
Knowing that, Havel refrained from shattering the moon.
"Kaal."
And there was a way to enter without destroying it.
Kaal, barely keeping up behind him, looked his way.
"Can you teleport me inside the moon?"
Kaal froze at the question.
Then he quickly realized why Havel was saying this.
"The Colony Lord's inside the moon?"
As he dodged a crimson tendril and asked, Havel nodded.
Kaal's eyes turned toward the moon.
The Colony Lord, filled with crimson tendrils and bearing a single solitary eye, sent chills down the spine just looking at it.
The real body of the Colony Lord was hidden within.
"...Havel, you sure about this?"
This was walking right into the Colony Lord's front yard.
No one knew what was happening inside there.
"Who are you worrying about?"
But Havel found Kaal's concern oddly touching.
Kaal finally stopped hesitating and gritted his teeth.
"Got it. I'll pinpoint the Colony Lord's location and send you there."
But he had a condition of his own.
"I need time to figure out its position."
The moon was enormous.
The Colony Lord was lurking somewhere in that massive moon.
It was like searching for a single grain of sand in a desert.
But to avoid sending Havel to the wrong spot, he had to locate it.
"I'll need to get close to the moon, of course, and I won't be able to move until I do."
He'd set up minimal defenses.
But immobility was a fatal flaw.
Spreading spatial awareness over the entire moon demanded tremendous focus.
"How long?"
"At least three minutes."
Even now, crimson tentacles were swarming as they fought while fleeing.
Buying three minutes was absurd.
"Get ready."
But Havel was the kind of guy who pulled off the impossible.
Kaal let out a hollow chuckle.
"I'll close in."
"I'll carve the path."
Havel kicked off through space once more.
Crimson tendrils immediately blocked Havel and Kaal's path.
But they couldn't stop Havel.
Every time Havel swung his sword, the tendrils were severed.
Unlike before, though, they weren't fleeing—they were charging straight ahead.
Perhaps because of that, the tendrils began slowly converging on a single point.
The pressure from the tendrils intensified accordingly.
Havel's sword moved even faster.
Dawn light filled the surroundings.
Dawn light shot out in all directions.
The closer they got to the moon, the more tendrils there were.
Unlike when it had to extend tendrils all the way from the distant moon, depleting others in the process.
Now that they were near, it could deploy far more.
The tendril assault grew fiercer.
Havel's sword sped up in response.
In the midst of that.
Kaal, behind Havel, closed his eyes.
It was something he could only do because he trusted Havel.
His spatial awareness extended from his body and began to expand.
The spatial awareness pierced past the crimson tendrils and soon reached the moon.
The instant even one tendril touched him, his awareness would snap, and he'd black out from the shock.
But he believed not a single one would reach him.
His mind rapidly entered a state of utmost concentration.
The expanded spatial awareness burrowed into the moon's interior.
And like ripples spreading, the sensation permeated the entire moon.
Waiting for just one thing.
To catch on that ripple.
Kaal poured every ounce of his focus into it.
Already, one minute had passed.
Regardless of Kaal's serene mind.
The surroundings were now filled with crimson tendrils.
As if the entire space was being devoured by them.
Tendrils poured down endlessly from every direction.
And standing against that onslaught was Havel alone.
The Colony Lord was beginning to feel threatened by the situation.
The intensity of the crimson tendrils steadily increased.
Before long, the tendrils' color shifted from red to black.
The result of the crimson tendrils intertwining and merging.
―――!
A vibration jolted through as a tendril bounced off Havel's sword without being cut.
Proof that its strength had risen sharply.
In response, afterimages of Dawn began trailing Havel's sword.
The afterimages of the Dawn sword trailing the blade cleaved through the tendrils.
If one blade wasn't enough, he would wield several.
Havel didn't stop there—he began manifesting swords of Dawn light.
Banpellyon-style Dawn SwordsmanshipDawn Meteor Sword
Countless blades swarm the black tendrils
The launched Dawn Meteor Swords clashed against the black tendrils.
As many Dawn Meteor Swords as there were black tendrils flew through space.
It truly evoked the image of a meteor shower.
The freely maneuvering Dawn Meteor Swords collided with the black tendrils.
The Colony Lord unleashed an endless barrage of black tendrils.
Havel endlessly cleaved them apart.
The moment fragments of severed black tendrils filled space.
The Colony Lord made its move.
Its exposed eye.
A swirl of light began gathering there.
It had noticed they couldn't move and was preparing a bombardment.
Havel glanced at Kaal.
Kaal, still deeply focused, was drenched in sweat like it was pouring rain.
Proof of his desperate search for the Colony Lord.
He couldn't afford to break that concentration.
'Then.'
Havel kicked off through space again.
Dawn Meteor Swords weaved protectively around Kaal.
They would surely guard him.
He left the black tendrils to the Dawn Meteor Swords.
Instead, Havel began gathering Dawn directly into his own sword.
The condensed Dawn light grew ever more intense.
At the same time, the light swirl amassed by the Colony Lord intensified further.
The pitch-black light swirl looked dangerous at a glance.
'It must have crammed in a ridiculous amount of Calamity.'
Fine, then he'd respond in kind with full seriousness.
Black tendrils surged toward the charging Havel.
But Dawn Meteor Swords filled the gaps, blocking the tendrils.
Instead, Dawn Sky gathered in Havel's sword.
The Dawn Sky, which normally blanketed the heavens.
But now, it manifested solely in his sword.
Compressed to its utmost, no less.
Drdrdrdrdrdrdrdr―.
The sword containing Dawn Sky began trembling violently.
To the point where cracks formed in the blade.
Havel's Dawn Sky light was too intense.
Yet even those cracks were filled by the Dawn Sky.
The blade gradually took on a near-white hue.
Its brilliance was so overwhelming it could blind onlookers.
But Havel suppressed the Dawn Sky, compressing it further.
―――――――――!
In that instant, a beam of black light erupted from the Colony Lord.
Havel's Dawn Meteor Swords flew toward the beam that tore through even its own tendrils.
Yet not even Havel's Dawn Meteor Swords could slice the beam.
The beam, a mass of Calamity energy, devoured the Dawn Meteor Swords.
And the moment it reached for Havel himself.
In the silent vacuum, Havel slowly raised his white sword.
With a long exhale, he slowly swung it down toward the beam.
When the silently drawn sword reached its mark.
The black beam advancing in a straight line suddenly began vanishing from the tip.
The Colony Lord's eyes widened hugely at the sight.
It had been a beam that seemed capable of erasing the world itself until just moments ago.
A beam perfected by pouring in and compressing vast amounts of Calamity.
Yet it was dissipating so easily.
It was unbelievable, even seeing it with its own eyes.
And that wasn't all.
Even the tendrils that had surrounded it until now were being erased.
As if everything along the path of his swing was being wiped from existence.
Gazing at the scene of everything vanishing, the Colony Lord couldn't hide its shock.
At that moment.
"Havel, found it!"
Kaal shouted, his eyes half-glassy and nose bleeding profusely.
He had promised three minutes.
Yet only two minutes and thirty-five seconds had passed.
Through supreme concentration, he had shaved off the time he'd set.
"Send me express."
As Havel spoke, still gripping his sword swirling with Dawn Sky.
Kaal poured every last drop of his power into teleporting him.
Havel's view shifted in an instant.
What appeared was a space filled with black tendrils.
In the dark void.
Dawn light spilling from Havel's sword illuminated the surroundings.
At the same time, a certain existence came into Havel's view.
A grotesque, naked figure with its body fused to black tentacles.
Bald, with no hair at all. Its form suggested it was female.
It had inhumanly pale skin.
And Havel knew intuitively.
The Calamity aura pouring from that monster was more than enough to deem it the Colony Lord.
"Nice to meet you."
With a curt greeting, Havel was already swinging his sword.
"And I've had enough."
With those words, Havel's sword tore into the creature's belly.
"Gieeeek!"
The Colony Lord's tearing scream filled the moon.