Chapter 376

Chapter 376

Whoooosh!

Gaia shot up into the air at terrifying speed.

Its target was Cullinan, looking down from far above.

There was not the slightest hesitation on Gaia’s face as it flew toward him.

Zeon had said he was an enemy, so Gaia considered him an enemy too.

Rooooar!

The sand vortex that formed right behind them doubled Gaia’s speed.

Zeon, riding on Gaia’s back, flicked his finger, and countless sand snakes burst from the sand vortex and flew toward Cullinan.

He had launched Sand Viper.

Dozens of Sand Vipers overtook Gaia and flew toward Cullinan.

The sight of the Sand Vipers opening their mouths wide looked like real snakes. But Cullinan was not startled by their appearance.

“Hmph! Their outer forms look fairly convincing, but in the end, they are nothing more than sand clumped together using mana.”

Wooooom!

A powerful vibration occurred around Cullinan’s body.

It was sonic vibration, one of his Skills.

Bang! Bang!

The heads of the Sand Vipers that collided with the vibrating wall of sound shattered to pieces.

Just as Zeon had created vibrations by colliding sand together, Cullinan had vibrated the air to generate sound waves.

The Sand Vipers he had painstakingly created were neutralized in an instant, but Zeon was not disappointed.

Because this had allowed him to clearly understand Cullinan’s ability.

‘He controls sound.’

Just as Zeon specialized in sand, Cullinan specialized in sound.

Every sound that existed in this world became Cullinan’s weapon.

As if proving Zeon’s guess, Cullinan shouted,

“Dead March, Chapter 1[The first chapter of dead march].”

Whoooom!

The atmosphere surrounding Cullinan let out a wail.

The cry of the atmosphere sounded exactly like a funeral march mourning the dead.

The moment this sound wave spread, every living creature in the area would fall into eternal sleep. That was why it was named Dead March, and this was its first chapter.

The sound waves created an illusion of death.

Closing one’s eyes did nothing, and even blocking one’s ears could not stop it from digging in.

If Zeon had been an ordinary Awakened, he would have seen an illusion of himself being torn apart and killed by Cullinan’s Dead March. But he was neither ordinary nor soft.

He possessed a strong heart that would not waver at most illusions, and above all, the Dragon’s Eye embedded in the Gauntlet of Extreme Heat nullified most magical attacks.

Because of that, an attack that used sound waves indirectly like this, rather than a direct blow, did not work on Zeon.

Beep!

Likewise, Gaia was not affected by Dead March either.

Now that Gaia had absorbed the Reaper’s Scythe, not only curses but attacks of this kind did not work on it at all.

“What?”

Cullinan frowned at Zeon and Gaia, who flew toward him while completely ignoring his attack.

He had never expected that his carefully prepared Skill would fail to work.

Cullinan hurriedly used a defensive Skill.

“Ice Barrier.”

Wooooom!

Sound waves vibrated, rapidly lowering the temperature of the atmosphere.

Crystal-like formations appeared in front of Cullinan in an instant, and soon became a large wall of ice.

After creating the Ice Barrier, Cullinan shot even higher into the air.

BOOM—!

At that moment, the Ice Barrier Cullinan had created shattered to pieces.

Zeon and Gaia had rammed straight into the Ice Barrier. But Cullinan was not flustered.

He also had not thought Ice Barrier could stop Zeon and Gaia. He had cast Ice Barrier to buy time to prepare his next Skill.

“Dead March, Chapter 2[The second chapter of dead march].”

Rooooar!

In that instant, the weather high in the sky changed.

It had clearly been cloudless and clear, but dark clouds gathered before anyone knew it, and heavy rain began pouring down.

He had manipulated the atmosphere using sound waves.

No matter how powerful a Grade S Awakened was, they could not manipulate the weather itself. Yet Cullinan had instantly manipulated the weather as he wanted.

The pouring rain swept away the sand rising with Zeon. For Zeon, who controlled sand, such pouring rain was an unfavorable match. But Zeon was neither surprised nor intimidated.

It did not matter even if there was no sand.

Because he had the Gauntlet of Extreme Heat.

A membrane made of flame appeared in front of Zeon and Gaia.

Hissss!

The pouring rain struck the flame membrane and evaporated in an instant.

Zeon and Gaia pierced through the steam and nearly reached Cullinan.

At that moment, Cullinan muttered,

“Dead March, Chapter 3[The third chapter of dead march].”

Unlike the first and second chapters, the third and fourth chapters of Dead March had separate epithets attached to them.

The third chapter’s epithet was One-Point Spallation.

Unlike Wide Area Spallation, it was a Skill that focused sound waves onto a single point.

“......”

In that instant, Zeon’s mind grew distant.

The sound waves vibrated and tore through Zeon’s brain at the molecular level.

Sound waves with destructive power great enough to destroy the entire Black Forest had been compressed into one tiny point.

The condensed destructive power was enough to cut off even a Grade S monster’s breath in a single blow.

No matter how strong Zeon was, he could not remain unharmed by sound waves that destroyed his eardrums and shook his brain.

Splurt!

The mucous membranes of his eyeballs, nose, and ears burst, and dark red blood flowed out.

In an instant, Zeon had become a blood-soaked figure.

His body swayed dangerously, as though he might fall from Gaia’s back at any moment.

Seeing Zeon like that, Cullinan smiled.

One-Point Spallation was a Skill whose power was immense, but it was not easy to make it succeed.

Not because it was difficult to cast, but because it was difficult to hit the opponent with it.

Accurately striking the ear of an opponent with excellent mobility like Zeon was not as easy as it sounded.

It was a task that required advanced calculation ability, prediction, and reflexes.

It was absolutely not easy, even for a Dark Elf accustomed to Magic.

To lure Zeon into carelessness, he had cast the first and second chapters of Dead March in succession. As powerful as those two Skills were, they consumed an enormous amount of mana. Because of that, even Cullinan’s vast mana was nearly showing its bottom.

Even so, Cullinan had no regrets. Thanks to that, he could hunt a major figure like Zeon.

Cullinan prepared his final Skill to cut off Zeon’s breath.

“Dead March, Chapter 4[The fourth chapter of dead march]. Bell of Twilight[Bell of twiligh].”

Dong!

At that moment, a bell rang out across the sky.

It was the sound of a bell that would guide Zeon to death.

Cullinan naturally thought this attack would end Zeon’s life. But soon, his eyes widened as if they were about to tear apart.

Because Zeon, who had been swaying left and right as if he were about to collapse, straightened his back upright.

Zeon straightened his back and lifted his head to look at Cullinan.

The blood that had been flowing from his seven orifices had all stopped.

Even his burst eyeballs had already returned to normal.

Cullinan’s startled image was reflected in Zeon’s coldly shining retinas.

“What?”

A sharp cry burst from Cullinan’s mouth without him realizing it.

It was impossible for a human to regenerate wounds at such speed.

Unless they had a super-regeneration Skill possessed by a few Grade S monsters.

“Don’t tell me he has a super-regeneration Skill?”

BOOM—!

Instead of answering, a huge fireball slammed into his entire body.

It was a fireball Zeon had launched.

It was not an ordinary fireball.

It was white phosphorus flame.

The hellish flame that never went out once it caught burned Cullinan’s entire body.

“Kgh!”

Cullinan hurriedly cast Magic and created a vacuum around his body.

It was a measure he took because if there was no air to burn, the flame could no longer blaze.

Just as Cullinan thought, once the air vanished for an instant, the white phosphorus flame was extinguished. But by then, Zeon had nearly reached him.

Zeon’s blood-soaked face entered his sight.

He must have suffered a tremendous shock, yet there was not the slightest sign of intimidation.

Instead, he was covered in a powerful fighting spirit and killing intent that said he would absolutely kill Cullinan.

Zeon was the first existence to express killing intent so openly against him.

At the terrifying killing intent he was feeling for the first time in his life, Cullinan bit his lip.

“Damn it!”

In that moment of crisis, the choice he made was to fly even higher into the sky.

Bang!

With a sonic boom, Cullinan moved into even higher air in an instant.

In the cloudless high sky, Cullinan was finally able to catch his breath.

Zeon, who had missed his target right before his nose, raised his head and looked at Cullinan.

Cullinan had already moved more than one kilometer away from him.

Cullinan let out a mocking laugh.

“Heh heh! No matter how strong you are, you can’t catch me.”

Flash!

At that moment, Zeon, who had been riding on Gaia’s back, disappeared.

Cullinan blinked.

Because he could not understand the situation before his eyes.

At that moment, one thought came to Cullinan’s mind.

‘Spatial movement?’

Wooooom!

As if proving Cullinan’s guess, Zeon suddenly appeared in the space above his head.

“How?”

His pupils shook wildly.

That was because spatial movement was a Skill not permitted to human Awakened.

Spatial movement required an enormous amount of mana, extreme concentration, and tremendous calculation ability.

Performing spatial movement in that brief moment when one’s life was on the line was impossible.

“Don’t tell me it’s an item?”

Cullinan’s eyes fell on Zeon’s belt.

Mushura’s Mirror.

It was an item once possessed by Hassim, the captain of the Helbrin Mercenary Corps.

Mushura’s Mirror, which randomly transported its wearer within a radius of one kilometer.

Because of that inaccuracy, Zeon had never used Mushura’s Mirror even once until now. But thinking that he might lose Cullinan at this rate, he took the risk.

As a result, he had moved above Cullinan’s head.

Below his feet, he could see Cullinan’s flustered face.

Fortunately, he had moved near Cullinan.

Zeon’s cold gaze and Cullinan’s anxious gaze collided in the air. Cullinan was overwhelmed by Zeon’s reaction, which surpassed his expectations.

At that moment, Zeon unleashed yet another unexpected Skill.

“Sand Soldier!”

The fine sand scattered through the atmosphere clumped together and became a Sand Soldier.

The Sand Soldier that appeared in midair immediately began falling at terrifying speed. And directly in the path of the falling Sand Soldier was Cullinan.

“What?”

Grab!

The Sand Soldier embraced Cullinan, who was frozen in shock.

The Sand Soldier fell toward the ground while holding Cullinan.

“Grrr!”

Cullinan struggled and tried to escape from the Sand Soldier’s embrace. But the more he struggled, the more tightly the Sand Soldier bound him.

Even at that moment, Cullinan and the Sand Soldier were falling at terrifying speed.

CRAAANG—!

In the end, Cullinan was only able to escape after crushing the Sand Soldier with a sonic attack. But he was not given even a moment to breathe.

“Sand Soldier!”

Because Zeon had summoned another Sand Soldier.

The sand that had shattered and scattered clumped together again and became a Sand Soldier.

Once again, Cullinan was caught by the Sand Soldier.

“Kuh!”

Cullinan’s face turned pale.

Because it was obvious what would happen if he kept falling like this.

They had already gained tremendous acceleration.

Their speed was like that of a falling meteor.

If he fell like this, even Cullinan, who had transcended the limits of the species called Dark Elf, would not be safe.

“You vicious......”

He shuddered at Zeon’s state of mind, using Sand Soldiers to launch a kamikaze-style attack in that brief instant.

CRAAANG—!

Cullinan broke the Sand Soldier with sound waves and attempted to escape. But as if waiting for that, Zeon summoned another Sand Soldier and seized him again.

The ground was drawing closer.

There were more sand grains floating in the air.

Zeon summoned Sand Soldiers one after another.

In an instant, ten Sand Soldiers appeared and bound Cullinan.

There was no space for Cullinan to escape.

The ground was rapidly approaching.

“Damn it!”

BOOM—!

With an explosion, Cullinan crashed into the earth.