Chapter 35

Chapter 35

CRAAAAASH!

Akaruk’s swordsmanship was truly terrifying.

Each time he swung his sword, tremendous energy rose and attacked Deioden.

Deioden felt his blood boiling.

He had fought countless monsters and Awakened until now, but Akaruk was the first opponent who made him feel this much tension.

He had become undead now, but from this single strike alone, Deioden could tell just how extraordinary a knight he had been in life.

He cut through space and the earth at once.

Deioden did not dodge and swung Crayon to meet him.

BAAANG!

Sword clashed against sword, yet with the sound of an explosion, the aftershock swept out in every direction.

“Grrgh!”

The storm struck Zeon.

It was fortunate he had raised a sand barrier to protect himself. If his reaction had been even a little late, he would have rolled across the ground in an ugly manner.

Deioden and Akaruk were moving so quickly that even Zeon’s eyesight could not keep up.

BAAANG! BAAANG! BAAANG!

Zeon watched without blinking as they clashed while crossing the open space of the ancient castle.

Zeon instinctively realized that this was an opportunity that would never come again.

Deioden, the strongest human Zeon knew.

A death knight who had cast off the body of a human and been reborn as undead.

Just watching the battle between the two made Zeon feel as if his vision were opening wide.

Sometimes, simply watching could become study and lead to enlightenment.

This was exactly such a case.

Watching the fight between the two, Zeon trembled.

Compared to Deioden and Akaruk, he still had far to go.

The slight arrogance he had felt after gaining Exion and Sand Soldiers sank heavily.

“Good!”

Madness streamed from Deioden’s eyes as he faced Akaruk.

Between the corners of his mouth, which were lifted toward the sky, his white teeth were visible.

It was Deioden’s smile, one that appeared only when he was truly enjoying himself.

That mad monster seemed unable to endure how much he enjoyed fighting Akaruk.

“Phew! He really is properly insane.”

Zeon shook his head, yet he could not take his eyes away.

One of Deioden’s strikes missed Akaruk and slammed into a gigantic spire.

CRUMBLE!

The impact made the spire collapse completely.

At this rate, the debris of the spire would fall over Deioden and Zeon.

When Zeon swung his hand, countless Sand Missiles flew toward the spire’s debris.

BOBOBOBOOM!

With explosive roars, the debris of the spire struck by the Sand Missiles shattered. But something even more astonishing happened next.

The shattered debris of the spire, reduced to powder, returned to its original form as if time had been turned backward. Not only that, it returned to its original place.

It had become a perfect spire again, just as it had been at first.

Zeon’s mouth fell open.

“How can that be?”

It was impossible through physical force.

No, it was impossible even with Magic.

It was as if time had been reversed.

At that instant, Zeon felt as if he had been struck on the back of the head with a hammer.

“Time was reversed? No, what if time is stopped?”

If that was the case, it also explained why the fatal wounds suffered by the undead recovered in an instant.

It was clear that the entire ocher region, including the ancient castle, had stopped in time.

“Who in the world did this?”

Countless Awakened existed in Neo Seoul, but none of them could dare interfere with time.

Even the immensely powerful Deioden could not manipulate time.

It was a domain not permitted to humans.

‘Then what remains is a god?’

Zeon knew very well how absurd his own thought was. But at present, there was no being other than a “god.”

In the past, he had not believed in gods. But he had seen Deioden kill a god with his own eyes, so he had no choice but to believe.

“Phew!”

Zeon let out a sigh.

The more he thought about it, the more the scale became too large.

It was an imagination too difficult for someone who had only just become a Grade D Awakened to bear.

Zeon shook his head, scattering his thoughts, then watched the fight between Deioden and Akaruk.

BAAANG!

With an explosive roar, Akaruk’s shoulder fell away.

Deioden’s slash had cut off his shoulder. But Akaruk did not falter or retreat.

He was already dead.

Losing an arm caused him no pain. Rather, the severed arm flew back on its own and was attached in an instant.

Deioden was not surprised even after seeing that sight.

“Heh-heh!”

That was because he had already seen the undead knights revive again.

Naturally, Akaruk, who stood at the peak of the undead knights, was certain to have regeneration even greater than theirs.

BOOM!

Akaruk’s side was blown away. But this time as well, his body regenerated together with his armor.

The fiery light in Akaruk’s eyes grew even deeper.

“He who cannot kill me...... has no right...... to move forward.”

WHOOSH!

Suddenly, gray flames rose from Akaruk’s sword.

The gray aura was being released in the form of flames.

BAAANG! BAAANG!

Crayon and the gray aura clashed, and explosive roars burst out.

Each time, the ancient castle shook as if it might collapse at any moment. But as if nothing had happened, it soon recovered to its original state.

SLASH!

A long wound appeared in Deioden’s side.

Akaruk’s sword had left the scar.

Even with a fatal wound, Deioden did not so much as frown. Rather, he enjoyed the pain he felt for the first time in so long.

“Heh-heh!”

At some point, he had stopped feeling pain.

It was not that he truly could not feel pain, but that there was no longer anyone capable of causing him pain.

Whether Grade A monsters or Grade S monsters, none were his match.

To him, who had surpassed the limits of humanity and even killed a god, there had been no being capable of wounding him.

Akaruk was the first being in decades to wound him.

In pure swordsmanship alone, Akaruk was by no means inferior to Deioden. On top of that, he possessed regenerative power that allowed him to recover quickly no matter what wound he suffered.

Akaruk knew how to use these two weapons properly.

Deioden sincerely admired the death knight.

The regenerative power was not even in his consideration.

What he admired was Akaruk’s swordsmanship.

Just from his swordsmanship, he could tell how lofty a level Akaruk had reached as a knight in life.

There was no wasted motion in each sword technique, and every movement was full of dignity.

It was domineering, yet not cruel.

That alone was enough to guess what kind of man Akaruk had been in life.

Akaruk attacked Deioden using the swordsmanship he had mastered while alive.

BAAANG! BAAANG!

Explosions burst out one after another.

Because of their duel, the air in the area heated fiercely.

They poured everything they had learned toward each other.

The sight was like master swordsmen who had reached the highest realm conversing through their swords.

Zeon watched the scene without even taking a deep breath.

That was when it happened.

Suddenly, pitch-black energy gathered around Crayon.

It was energy that gave off an ominousness in no way inferior to Akaruk’s gray energy.

“Ghk!”

The moment the pitch-black energy was released, Zeon felt pain in his heart.

He was not even facing it directly. Merely seeing it made his heart cry out in pain.

“Insane!”

Zeon hurriedly retreated and escaped its range of influence. But unlike him, the undead surrounding the area stood blankly and were affected by the pitch-black energy.

CRUMBLE!

The flesh of the undead exposed directly to it suddenly turned to dust and broke apart.

Even as their rotten flesh and blackened bones turned to powder, the undead stood there blankly.

Woooooo!

A strange sound burst out from among the undead.

It was a strange sound that seemed like weeping, yet also like joy.

Zeon instinctively understood that it was closer to joy.

The energy Deioden was releasing in earnest was returning the undead to nothingness.

Even so, the undead were rejoicing.

—At last!

—Now, rest......

It was as if Zeon could hear their voices.

Deioden’s voice rang through the ancient castle.

“I shall give you rest, death knight!”

SHAAAK!

Crayon, streaming pitch-black energy, struck Akaruk.

SLASH!

Akaruk’s body was cut in two.

Divided into upper and lower halves, Akaruk rolled across the floor.

Until just moments ago, Akaruk had boasted tremendous regenerative power. But this time, his regeneration did not work.

The severed cross sections slowly turned to powder and crumbled.

The intense fiery light flowing out from between the helmet also slowly vanished.

THUD!

Deioden stabbed Crayon into the earth and looked at Akaruk.

Then Akaruk’s voice flowed out.

“Death! Your authority is death.”

Unlike before, his voice was clear.

The curse that had turned him into undead had been neutralized by Deioden’s authority. As the price, he would face death, but there was not the slightest regret in Akaruk’s voice.

Rather, a clear sense of relief could be felt.

Akaruk took off the helmet he had been wearing until now. Then a face that seemed to belong to a man in his early fifties was revealed.

Although half the flesh of his face had rotted away, his distinct facial lines still remained.

In life, he would likely have been called quite a handsome man.

Akaruk said,

“The authority of death. The authority that was permitted only to Crasias in Kurayan has been passed on to you.”

“Crasias? You mean that......?”

“The Dragon of Destruction who made this world this way. We called him Crasias.”

“Crasias! So that was the bastard’s name.”

Deioden ground his teeth.

For the first time in a hundred years since the world had been ruined like this, he had learned that bastard’s name.

A hundred years ago, Deioden had been in New York.

New York, the capital of the world and the culmination of civilization.

At the time, Deioden had been traveling through New York with his wife, his daughter, and his one and only friend.

They had lived in a rural town even within Montana, and they had spent a joyful time savoring the brilliance of New York. But the happiness given to them did not last long.

Something gigantic tore through the sky above New York and revealed itself.

From head to tail, its length exceeded three kilometers, and with no fewer than ten wings, it had the form of a dragon one might only see in legends or films.

But everyone who witnessed it knew it was not a dragon.

Something in the shape of a dragon.

A god in the shape of a beast.

Everyone who saw it thought that. And most of those who had seen the dragon directly could not withstand the divinity it faintly emitted and died on the spot.

With one beat of its wings, half of New York was destroyed, and more than five million people died.

It was truly the arrival of disaster.

That was when Deioden’s wife and daughter died.

Even though they had been right beside him.

Unable to do a single thing and losing his wife and daughter, Deioden vowed revenge.

That had been a full hundred years ago. But Deioden had never forgotten the memory of that time for even a single moment.

Deioden asked Akaruk,

“Where is Crasias?”

“Do you not already know? He returned to nothingness.”

“He died? After ruining the world like this?”

“The price of attempting to terraform another world is very great. Too great for even the Dragon of Destruction, who had devoured every miracle and supernatural ability since the beginning, to endure.”

“Grrgh!”

The whites of Deioden’s eyes became bloodshot.

Akaruk looked at Deioden with pity.

“I understand your heart.”

“Shut up! What would an undead like you know, to run your mouth so carelessly?”

“It was Crasias who made me this undead. Because I alone opposed his decision and resisted......”