Chapter 277

Chapter 277

GRRRRIND—!

The high-speed rotating sand scraped away at Bessie’s surface.

No matter how tremendous the Chimera’s regenerative power was, it could not instantly regenerate hide that was being shaved away in an instant.

Fsssh!

Bessie’s ground-away hide particles scattered through the air like dust.

Seeing that, Pantshi screamed.

“No! My Bessie......”

KIIIIII!

Bessie let out a high-frequency scream.

Bessie’s pain was transmitted vividly to Pantshi as well.

At the pain that felt as though his own flesh was being torn away, Pantshi shed tears.

Bessie was struggling to escape Sand Blender’s domain. But the more it struggled, the deeper its body sank under gravity.

The more of its body was buried in sand, the greater the pain became.

At Bessie’s pain, Pantshi shed tears of blood.

“I will never forgive you.”

Blood was flowing from his chest as well.

It was the wound Zeon had made. But his own wound did not hurt at all.

Pantshi gathered his mana and shouted,

“Wander forever in the endless prison of chaos. Prison of Chaos.”

In that instant, the space above Zeon’s head was dyed black.

The black energy covered Zeon before he could avoid it.

Zeon felt his vision black out in an instant.

A dizzying sense of floating, as though his body had risen into the air, assaulted him.

Because of that, Zeon lost his balance and staggered.

A short while later, when Zeon regained his balance and raised his head, the scenery around him had changed completely.

A perfect world of darkness with not a single point of light had unfolded before him.

The perfect world of darkness, where he could not even tell where the floor was or where the ceiling was, disturbed Zeon’s senses.

Zeon instinctively realized that he had been struck by Pantshi’s curse. But he was not greatly worried.

That was because he possessed an item that was especially effective against a Curse Caster’s curse.

Zeon tried to open his subspace and take out Reaper’s Scythe.

“Hm?”

Zeon made a puzzled expression.

That was because his subspace did not open.

Zeon looked at his right arm.

The Ultra-Heat Gauntlet that should have been on his right arm was not visible.

Not only the Ultra-Heat Gauntlet, but even Elura’s Tear and the robe made from Leviathan’s hide had all vanished from sight.

Even Zeon could not help being flustered before the unexpected situation. But he quickly recovered his reason.

‘There’s no way my items vanished without me noticing. In that case, this is a mental image space isolated from my body.’

Zeon admitted that he had been careless.

He had thought Pantshi would no longer be much of a threat after inflicting a serious wound on him.

On top of that, since he possessed Reaper’s Scythe, he had ignored Pantshi’s curse and focused only on eliminating Bessie, the Chimera.

This was the result.

‘I really can’t let my guard down.’

Zeon thought he had learned a great lesson.

This sort of looseness and complacency would eventually cost him his life.

Zeon glared into the pitch-black space.

Nothing was visible, and he could not feel the passage of time.

He could not tell how long he had been trapped in the dark space.

It might have been an instant, or several days might have passed.

Because of that, most people tended to panic when they faced such a situation. But Zeon was extremely familiar with situations like this.

So he did not panic, nor did he lose his reason.

‘One of the best ways to break a curse is to face reality.’

There were many kinds of curses.

There were curses that harmed the body, and curses that interfered only with the mind.

The curse Zeon was experiencing now was the latter.

It left the body alone and acted only upon the mind.

Everything he was seeing and experiencing now was not real.

It was nothing more than a hallucination created by the brain.

The only problem was that, for a hallucination, it was far too elaborate.

One wrong move, and a person could believe it was real and spend their whole life here.

The price for spending one’s whole life here was naturally death.

Zeon focused his mind and tried to grasp the true nature of the curse.

At that moment, the darkness before Zeon split apart, and someone walked out with heavy steps.

The moment he saw the figure dragging an enormous sword along the ground as he walked out, Zeon’s eyes widened.

The one who appeared by tearing through the space was an old man with a massive build and an overwhelming presence.

The moment Zeon saw the old man holding a sword larger than his own body, his pupils trembled.

That was because he was the one existence Zeon had missed from time to time.

“De......ioden?”

There were many Awakened in this world who used swords, but the only one who gave off an overwhelming presence that made the entire body shrink just from looking at him was Deioden.

The enormous sword held in his hand was unmistakably Crayon.

Seeing Deioden for the first time in eight years made Zeon’s body tremble slightly.

He knew it was not real.

He also knew that the curse had found and manifested an existence deeply engraved into his brain.

Even so, his body trembled, and his heart pounded violently.

They had not spent much time together, but Deioden was the existence who had influenced Zeon’s life the most.

Without Deioden, the current Zeon would not exist.

Naturally, he had been engraved that deeply.

Deioden raised Crayon and pointed it at Zeon as he said,

“You cripple!”

“Haha!”

Instead of answering, Zeon laughed.

He laughed because it was absurd, and he laughed because he was pleased. Finally, he laughed because he was displeased.

He was angry at the Curse Caster who had created this situation.

Killing intent surged toward Pantshi, who had summoned the only being Zeon could call a memory and smeared filth over it like this.

Before that, he had to escape this space.

To do that, he had to defeat that Deioden.

Deioden was clearly the key to breaking this space of chaos.

“You’ve become a little useful, have you? Cripple!”

“I should be quite useful now.”

“Anyone can run their mouth.”

“Haha!”

“Come at me, you cripple!”

“Gladly......”

He was an existence Zeon had to surpass at least once.

Even if that existence was not real, but merely an illusion drawn by his own heart.

The strongest man he knew.

The man with a back larger and stronger than any Awakened had Crayon pointed toward him.

He had imagined it once.

What would it have been like if he had fought Deioden not as a greenhorn like when they first met, but in his prime as he was now?

He had thought it was a dream that could never be achieved, but now it had been realized, even if only inside his mind.

“Cripple, who are you standing in front of while thinking about something else? That is why you get hit by curses.”

SCHLURP—!

With a mocking laugh, Deioden attacked Zeon.

By the time Zeon raised his head, Crayon had already reached his neck. But Zeon did not panic.

“Who said I was thinking about something else?”

CRASH—!

A wall of sand appeared in the empty space and blocked Crayon.

The sand wall that struck Crayon burst apart.

Thanks to the sand wall blocking it for a moment, Zeon was able to avoid Crayon safely.

Even though sand had appeared in the pitch-black space, Zeon was not surprised.

Even if it was a space isolated by a curse, in the end, it was inside his head, or perhaps inside his mental image.

If Deioden was the existence engraved most deeply within him, then sand was the existence connected to his DNA.

No matter how badly he was cursed, he could draw upon sand whenever he wished. Even if it was only inside his mental image.

“Let’s see what I can do.”

FWOOSH—!

Dozens of streams of sand tore through the darkness and flew toward Deioden.

Zeon had unfolded Sand Blaster. But before Sand Blaster could even reach Deioden, it was crushed by Crayon.

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM—!

Explosions rang out, and sand scattered in every direction.

A line of sword light split the darkness, and the space where Zeon had been standing was cut away. But by then, Zeon had already moved on the sand.

Deioden chased after Zeon at terrifying speed.

His hair flew wildly, and his eyes flashed like those of a lion hunting prey.

If this had been the past, Zeon would surely have felt fear. But Zeon was no longer the greenhorn he had been then.

Dozens of Sand Soldiers rose and blocked Deioden’s path. But stopping Deioden’s charge with Sand Soldiers was impossible from the beginning.

Zeon had not expected that either.

All he needed was a little time.

“Sand Storm!”

A sandstorm raged.

The enormous sandstorm wrapped around Deioden and surged high into the sky.

SLASH—!

But Deioden tore even that apart and charged at Zeon.

“Kahaha!”

Deioden’s wild laughter echoed through the darkness.

Zeon unfolded every Skill he had against that Deioden.

Viper, Claymore, and even Sand Blender—he used every Skill he could unfold. But no Skill could stop Deioden.

SQUELCH—!

Instead, Zeon’s flank was sliced open by Crayon, and blood sprayed everywhere.

The sight of Deioden crushing every Skill and charging in no matter what Zeon used was frightening enough to appear in nightmares.

He was the nightmare of all Awakened.

No Awakened could defeat Deioden in close combat.

Even if this was only a mental image.

“You really are sickening.”

He was an existence Zeon never wanted to meet as an enemy again.

Once this moment passed, he would probably never meet him again.

He had not wanted to meet him like this.

So......

So, for the final moment at least, he wanted to decorate it properly.

Sizzle! Sizzle!

The ground beneath Deioden’s feet melted.

Zeon had unfolded Sand Gehenna without the help of the Ultra-Heat Gauntlet.

The sand melted and became lava.

An enormous wave of lava covered Deioden.

SLASH—!

“I told you it’s useless, you cripple!”

Deioden cut apart the lava wave with Crayon and mocked him.

Zeon smiled too.

“I told you it is useful, old man!”

Another enormous lava wave rose.

First wave.

Second wave.

Third wave.

The overlapping lava waves became a gigantic tsunami.

The lava tsunami swallowed Deioden whole.

Under the terrifying heat, Deioden’s hair and beard burned, and his skin and muscles melted away.

“Kraaaah!”

But with a shout, Deioden deflected the entire lava tsunami and leapt into the air.

It was the moment he was about to swing Crayon toward Zeon.

SQUELCH—!

Suddenly, a gigantic sword shot out from within the lava and pierced his chest.

“What?”

Deioden looked down in midair at the sword that had pierced him.

It was a sword made from flawless pitch-black diamond.

A diamond dozens of meters long could not possibly exist in reality.

Deioden asked,

“What is this?”

“My goal.”

“Your goal?”

“The final weapon I can create through the authority of sand and flame.”

“Haha! You are going to melt sand with high heat and pressure to create a diamond sword? Do you think this can be made in reality?”

“That is why I called it a goal. For now, I can only use it in a dream like this......”

“You crippled bastard! You have only your imagination going for you......”

“Imagination is the driving force that advances humanity. What do you think? Do I still look like a useless cripple to you?”

“No!”

“......”

“You look like a cripple who has become somewhat useful.”

“You really are like this until the very end......”

As Zeon looked at him with an incredulous expression, Deioden bared his white teeth.

“How long are you going to keep sleeping so disgracefully?”

“I should wake up now.”

“Khehehe!”

“Goodbye, Deioden!”

The moment Zeon bade Deioden farewell, the darkness surrounding him shattered like glass.

CRACK, CRACK—!