novelraw Chapter 213 : Darkness Splits Under the Light (3)
Chapter 213 : Darkness Splits Under the Light (3)
Chapter 213: Darkness Splits Under the Light (3)
While the notification window had grown quiet.
I crossed the sky and arrived at a point where the Imperial Palace came into view.
The Imperial Capital was visible.
“Why is it this quiet?”
From the castle gates through the plaza and all the way to the Imperial Palace, only silence flowed along the wide road.
Even without deliberately using Perception, I could tell there was not the slightest presence to be felt.
“Did it swallow everything?”
The procession of apostates I had confirmed earlier through Perception was nowhere to be seen.
There was not even the smallest trace of the pitch-black liquid that had been squirming before.
At that moment, I felt a needle-like, densely packed aura pouring down from the direction of the Imperial Palace.
“Over there?”
Holding my sword, I sprinted forward.
Papak! Pak—! Papapak!
My movements flowed like the wind from the ground to building walls and rooftops, and in an instant I arrived before the Imperial Palace.
Just like the streets, no life presence could be felt from the Imperial Palace itself.
I continued forward, following that sharp aura whose depth was difficult to discern.
The withered gardens of the Imperial Palace, the buildings that felt desolate despite having no dust piled upon them…….
Passing through a long corridor, I stopped before a massive door.
Kukung…….
With a thunderous sound, the door opened.
As the dark great hall revealed itself, a figure seated upon a lofty dais entered my sight.
[Target Information]
Name : Luseo Dicanderon
Age : ???
Race : Demon Race
Occupation : Demon King
Life : ???
Stamina : ???
Mana : ???
Only the name, race, and occupation were identifiable…….
At this unprecedented phenomenon, my brow furrowed slightly.
‘Could it be that he’s beyond defeating?’
Step, step, step.
As I walked forward, I swung the sword in my hand.
Shiaaaaak!
An Aura Slashing Strike imbued with transparent energy flew toward him.
He showed not even the slightest sign of blocking it.
Yet, as if slicing through empty air, it passed straight through his form and only split the wall behind the dais.
Kwaaang! Kwang!
“Did he disappear?”
The briefly distorted figure soon returned to its original state.
Everything was shrouded in darkness, making it impossible to clearly see what he looked like.
Then, for the first time, his mouth opened, and a voice as cold as ice yet heavy resounded.
“I thought the Goddess herself would descend, but it seems my expectations were excessive.”
Moonlight streamed in through the gap where the rear wall had collapsed.
The figure of Demon King Luseo Dicanderon, seated upon the Emperor’s throne, was revealed.
A pale face, and hair of a strange hue where blond and black intermingled. His attire was an elegant dark-red color, filled with flame-like intertwined patterns.
Swoosh—.
Demon King Luseo slowly rose from his seat.
His long hair, flowing down to his waist, swayed softly.
Ding!
[Tip : You sense 162,152 extinguished lives from Demon King Luseo Dicanderon.]
[Tip : A world crisis has been detected.]
[Tip : A moment of crisis has arrived.]
[Tip : The Goddess’s help will be required.]
[Tip : You may request the descent of the Goddess. Execute?]
[Yes]
[No]
Only the first two windows differed in content; the rest were identical.
Just as the notification window indicated, I could sense an ominous aura from the Demon King.
Moreover, the 162,152 extinguished lives were clearly the number of sacrificed humans.
‘What is this, really?’
The foreboding feeling emanating from the notification window.
Despite sensing something deeply wrong, I pressed [No] and closed the notification window.
“Were you hearing the Goddess’s call?”
“What are you talking about?”
“I cannot hear it. However, after obtaining power, I can sense it from you. The Goddess is shouting something at you.”
“The Goddess? To me?”
Having never heard a voice, only one thing came to mind.
‘Could it be……, the notification window?’
Ding!
[Tip : The world crisis is escalating.]
[Tip : The Goddess’s help will be required.]
[Tip : You may request the descent of the Goddess. Execute?]
[Yes]
[No]
The contents of the notification window felt as though they were coercing me.
For now, the Demon King Luseo Dicanderon advancing before my eyes was the real problem.
The moment I chose to refuse the notification window, I charged toward the Demon King.
The transparent energy gathered upon my sword blazed and burst forth like flames.
Shwaaaaak!
“The power of one who has received the Goddess’s blessing……, is useless against me, who has stepped into the realm of gods.”
With a gesture, Demon King Luseo sliced through the air.
The sword energy I had unleashed with full force bent as if struck by a headwind and pierced elsewhere.
Kwaaang!
True Martial Art Absolute Step Cloud Stealth
True Martial Art Sword Form One Point
Without stopping my movements, I continued to unleash attacks upon Demon King Luseo.
True Martial Art Absolute Step Cloud Stealth
True Martial Art White Strike Fist Bow
True Martial Art Tremor Step Thousand Falls
Papak—! Papapak—! Papak!
My lightning-fast movements connected like streaks of light and drove straight toward Demon King Luseo.
My sword, fists, and feet flew in as if entwining around one another.
It was a ferocious onslaught.
“To think a human possesses this level of skill. You make me realize how lacking my children were.”
Even so, Demon King Luseo continued to block or twist aside the attacks with nothing but movements of his hands.
The aftermath of the deflected strikes left the surroundings in ruins.
Kwaaang! Kwakakakwaaang! Kwaaang!
‘I have no choice but to go all out from the start.’
I developed the Aura of White Lightning and completed the Aura Circle, and now I had made the once semi-transparent energy fully transparent.
If I concentrated that power throughout my entire body and released it……?
Shwaaaaaaak! Kwaaang!
“Keugh—! As expected……, is full power a bit too much?”
It was the first time, since accumulating and refining my strength, that I had unleashed my maximum output.
Perhaps it was starting to take its toll, because my arms and legs trembled faintly.
“To try to wield the Goddess’s power with a human body……. Do you not know what the result will be?”
Contrary to his words, I knew very well.
The price of power that exceeded one’s limits. That was why, until now, I had relied on various methods without releasing my full strength.
Yet the more I trained my power, the more enormous it became.
As if someone were deliberately forcing it into me against my will.
“Do you intend to keep ignoring the Goddess’s cry?”
“Why should I listen to that?”
“If you do not listen……, then you will have no chance of victory.”
As Demon King Luseo’s hand moved, pitch-black energy rose with the wind and spread out like waves.
Shwaaaaaak! Kwakakakwaaang!
In an instant, a storm raged across the area and engulfed me.
Along with the pillars of the great hall, even the ceiling collapsed.
Kwarurur—! Kwakakwaaang!
“One who has received the Goddess’s blessing would not fall so easily.”
At some point, Demon King Luseo floated in midair and descended onto the remnants of the collapsed great hall.
With his muttering, the rubble shifted, and I rose to my feet.
“You don’t go down easily.”
“You take me lightly.”
Should I call it the authority of nature? Of course, the Demon Realm and the Middle Realm were fundamentally different.
Naturally, interference with nature was a power impossible for otherworldly beings like the Demon Race.
Yet now, at Demon King Luseo’s touch, the wind and the earth moved.
Kugrrrrrrrr! Kwang! Kwaaang!
Pitch-black land surged up from the ground.
At first it was only the floor, but it gradually rose higher and higher.
Even as the phenomenon spread widely around us, I could not take my eyes off Demon King Luseo.
‘Is he trying to connect the Demon Realm to this place?’
As if answering my thoughts, his mouth opened.
“I will offer this world as a sacrifice and open all the gates!”
The voice of Demon King Luseo was filled with rapture…….
Each time his trembling fingertips moved, the land of the Demon Realm that had swallowed the Imperial Palace expanded further.
The problem was not just the land revealing itself like that.
Kraaaagh!
Kaaagh! Kaagh—!
Monsters born and raised in the Demon Realm appeared together with that land.
Bodies several times larger than ordinary ogres, pitch-black wolves or bears with two heads, and more.
Only their forms were similar; their size and ferocity were on an entirely different level.
‘He’s really letting them loose properly.’
With the Demon King right before me, I could not go off to stop them.
Even now, his dark aura was pressing down over the entire area.
Ding!
[Tip : A world crisis has arrived.]
[Tip : The Goddess’s help is required.]
The contents of the notification window were firmer than before.
As always, the choices followed without fail.
[Tip : You may request the descent of the Goddess. Execute?]
[Yes]
[No]
I had only one choice.
‘……This feels unpleasant.’
The sense of coercion was growing stronger by the moment.
In response, I focused the energy I was emitting from my entire body while holding my sword.
“You’re trying to waste your strength.”
Luseo’s hand moved again.
The wind over the land transformed into the Demon Realm churned violently, then surged together with the ground to engulf me.
“Puhaak!”
With no time to dodge, I took it head-on and was pushed backward.
Chwaaaaaak!
I hurriedly braced my foot behind me and split the wave of earth.
The soil that was split to both sides by sacred energy did not rise again.
The armor I had already been wearing over my entire body was in tatters from the prolonged battle. I tore off the first thing that was already in rags—the cloak.
Chwaaaaaak—!
“I didn’t expect to be pushed like this at the very end.”
The Demon Race I had faced until now had simply been easy opponents. In contrast, Demon King Luseo Dicanderon was on a different level.
While converting the Middle Realm into their Demon Realm, he had even acquired authority.
“Is it impossible to stop this?”
It was at that moment of hesitation.
Kwaaang! Kwakakwaaang!
As a distant explosion rang out, my head turned.
A massive airship hovered in the sky, continuously dropping something.
The explosions were coming from there.
“……An airship?”
There were no flying devices on the continent, so I could not help but be shocked.
Then, opening Perception, I was able to identify one of the passengers.
“Dike and Fordman?”
Dike, the half-dwarf, had been left behind in the kingdom.
It had been a long time since I had last seen his face due to the long journey.
And now that very Dike had suddenly appeared aboard an airship.
“He built that himself?”
When I was in Kanas Territory, I had taught him the principle of hot-air balloons along with black powder.
Like gunpowder, it was a technology with high danger as a weapon, so I had postponed its production.
Yet not only had he completed it, he had even brought it out in a form befitting a true weapon.
“I don’t know whether to call this impressive…….”
The black powder bombs thrown from the massive airship fell onto the heads of the monsters that were spreading out in all directions.
Kwaaang! Kwakakakwaaang!
Perhaps something had been packed into the gunpowder, as shards of metal scattered everywhere.
“It really is impressive.”
A sigh escaped me without realizing it.
Then, from behind, where my attention had slipped for just a moment, a pitch-black storm surged in.