Chapter 172

Chapter 172
## Chapter 172

### The Champion’s Monstrous Fusion

—

It appeared as though his mental fortitude was being forged into something far more resilient with every passing moment.

By enduring sensations he had never encountered within the greenery of the forest and facing cravings he had never once grazed, Aoiril was forging a path ahead, mirroring the transformation of a youth into a mature soul.

Once he had quieted the turbulence of his mind, Aoiril redirected his attention toward the combat floor.

Both Randolph and the title-holder were beginning their stroll into the light from their respective tunnels.

‘……!’

The very second his eyes landed on the champion, a slight tremor ran through Aoiril.

He understood the reality of the situation the moment he saw him.

A crushing weight of authority radiated from the man, tangible against his very pores.

A shimmering cerulean mist spiraled around the champion, mimicking the coils of a great serpent.

……His power is immense.

Likely surpassing even that of Karas.

Furthermore, it wasn’t merely a calculation of brute force.

‘He is surely a man……’

He was a human being.

The champion was, without question, of the human race.

Yet, through the perceptive vision of an elf, the champion existed on a plane entirely detached from any common person.

‘Human…… stitched together?’

An array of different aromas was woven together.

It was not the singular essence of one man, but the collective scent of many.

Under normal circumstances, an individual could never possess several distinct life-scents.

For multiple human essences to be so thoroughly entwined meant they were physically integrated.

His frame.

His vital systems.

An untold number of components.

Substituted and welded with the remains of others to construct that physical form.

And these were no mere commoners.

‘Great figures who commanded their eras. And even……’

The remains of titans who had ascended to the very peak of their crafts.

Those who had strained against the ceiling of possibility until there was no room left to improve—they had been harvested to manufacture the champion.

But there was more.

‘A scent of incredible antiquity is bleeding through as well.’

A stale, ancient odor that felt as though it had lingered for millennia was also present.

How could such a thing be achieved?

If that flesh originated from thousands of years ago, it would date back to an era before the land rose into the firmament.

Yet, a man’s remains usually rot within a few sunrises.

He had never heard of a soul capable of obtaining a corpse that remained fresh after thousands of years, sewing it together with such seamless precision, and granting it a second life.

Not even a high-ranking lich capable of raising the fallen, nor the legendary Death King of Cramdel, could fashion a servant of this caliber.

What’s more, this was not a creature of undeath.

‘And it doesn’t stop there. He is incessantly swapping in even more powerful flesh……!’

Aoiril tightened his hand into a ball.

The champion was undergoing a process of perpetual refinement even as they watched.

There were at least a hundred different essences tangled within him.

It defied logic for a hundred separate bodies to occupy that single frame simultaneously.

The only explanation was that he was constantly rotating them out.

‘Ah……’

As the realization dawned, Aoiril shook.

If Randolph were to fall…… a piece of him might very well be incorporated into the champion’s anatomy.

Sensing the tidal waves of power, it seemed he didn’t just steal the flesh, but inherited the masteries and natural talents of those he replaced.

In other words, he could be stripped of his status as a high druid.

A titan among titans who had fully absorbed more than a hundred distinct arts, perfecting them until they were part of his very soul!

Then, a sudden detail struck Aoiril.

Despite the constant cycle of upgrading to more durable flesh, there was a single organ that had remained untouched for millennia.

As he focused on it, Aoiril’s eyes began to quiver uncontrollably.

‘How is it possible to defeat a being like that……?’

—

Thump! Thump!

His pulse was drumming.

How long had it been since his blood sang like this?

Certainly not within the last year.

Back then, he had been nothing more than an observer.

‘The one who carries Wilhelm’s flame!’

Standing before him now was the individual who had taken up the mantle of Wilhelm’s style.

He wasn’t the original master, but facing the one who held the inheritance was more than enough.

It would grant him the chance to burn away some of his lingering regrets.

No, it was more than just settling old scores.

‘……I can reach new heights.’

That person had achieved a flawless command of Wilhelm’s arts.

He was displaying a level of blade-work that he himself had fallen short of attaining.

With the physical vessel of the emperor penguin, he could more perfectly reconstruct the Wilhelm techniques burned into his psyche.

The pinnacle of the blade world that he could not replicate through thought alone.

The right to exist that he lacked a year prior!

He could finally climb to that summit.

—Take it. Hew it away with violence and graft it to yourself. Claim it all!

Then, a shadowy murmur vibrated in his skull.

“Urgh……”

The champion gave his head a sharp toss.

‘What was that fleeting thought?’

His skull throbbed as if a wedge were being driven through it.

Those unholy whispers surfaced every so often.

He wasn’t sure when the phenomenon began, but lately, the voices were becoming more persistent.

“The duel between Emperor Penguin and the Champion shall commence!”

“Wooooooaaah!”

“Waaaaaaaah!!!”

The contest began shortly after, and the stadium erupted into a frenzy.

He was deaf to the noise.

The champion’s sole focus was to crush the adversary standing in his path.

‘Azure Dragon Claw.’

Grooooar!

Krrrrrrsh!

A beast of blue energy let out a deafening cry as it pounced toward Emperor Penguin.

Now, he wondered just how long Wilhelm’s heir could withstand the pressure.

He possessed 108 unique arts that had reached the peak of mastery.

He could only wish that the man would endure through at least half of them.

—

It felt strangely familiar.

That immense reservoir of power and the crushing presence, reminiscent of the blue serpent itself.

When the champion planted his heel and fractured the stone, I knew for certain.

‘—Azure Dragon Claw.’

The sapphire dragon erupted from the floor, trapping me in its shadow within a heartbeat.

Azure Dragon Claw.

I was intimately acquainted with the creator of this move.

‘……Azure Dragon Legend. That’s a skill from my own alternate character.’

The realization hit me like a physical punch.

Azure Dragon Legend.

The persona I had meticulously developed with the rare ‘Legacy of the Azure Dragon’ class.

Azure Dragon Claw was the most devastating ultimate technique in that character’s arsenal.

Yet, the champion was most certainly not ‘Azure Dragon Legend.’

Because ‘Azure Dragon Legend’ was currently in a location that had no connection to the God of War’s Tower.

That persona was stranded on ‘Azure Dragon Mountain’ because it proved difficult to break free from the weight of its own ‘legacy.’

Grooooaaar!

I watched the manifested dragon charge toward me.

It was a far more polished iteration than the Heavenly Dragon Claw utilized by my alt, Azure Dragon Legend.

It took on the undeniable, perfect silhouette of the azure dragon.

‘……Hah.’

What kind of absurdity was this?

The champion was executing my own character’s skill with a higher degree of perfection than I had.

It defied belief, yet it was unfolding right before my eyes.

‘Earth of Heaven-Earth Transformation.’

Earth of Heaven-Earth Transformation.

A style of blade-work that synchronizes with all incoming strikes to pull them apart.

That dragon was born from my own alt’s power to begin with.

I drove my blade straight into the center of the energy, shredding the manifestation into nothingness.

“Ah, just as I anticipated!”

In that same moment, the champion let out a shout.

I felt a surge of annoyance.

To any bystander, that would have looked like a basic lunge.

He actually recognized it?

He had deciphered the core tenets of Heaven-Earth Transformation, the blade-art of Wilhelm?

‘The champion consumed Wilhelm’s star.’

Furthermore, he had devoured the sun star.

It was possible that fragments of Wilhelm’s consciousness had bled over into him.

‘Death Dragon Sword!’

A dark mist began to bleed from his left limb. The blade itself merged with the necrotic essence of a dragon of the grave.

This was a power my alt, Azure Dragon Legend, was incapable of using.

That, too, was a supreme and one-of-a-kind technique.

Just how many legendary skills was he wielding—skills so rare that having even one was considered a miracle?

‘……This is getting interesting.’

He certainly wasn’t an ordinary opponent.

But by trading blows directly, I was starting to form a theory.

‘An integrated being. That would explain how this is possible.’

Integrated.

The champion’s entire physical self was no longer a single entity.

It was a grotesque scenario where countless parts had been fused into a whole.

It was different from a typical chimera.

A manufactured chimera merely utilized the physical capabilities of grafted meat, but this champion appeared able to utilize both the physical traits and the internalized techniques of the original owners.

Clang! Shiiiing!

Kwaaaaang!

We met in a flurry of steel, dismantling each other’s momentum as the duel raged on.

The way his styles and maneuvers constantly morphed made him a nightmare to predict.

‘Divine Sword Unity!’

The brute was intentionally barking out the names of his skills, clearly relishing the fight.

He seemed to be testing the limits of my defense.

……However.

I felt a chill at the name of the technique he just shouted.

Divine Sword Unity?

‘……PollockRoeConan?’

PollockRoeConan.

The blade master I had built by pouring in 10,000 SP.

But that character had perished. A total reset, everything wiped away.

Yet, Divine Sword Unity was the ultimate technique of PollockRoeConan.

A feat only a true master who had achieved a state of oneness with their blade could perform.

The champion was employing a technique from a character that had been dead for a long time.

‘He definitely met his end in the Hellworm Pit Dungeon.’

Hellworm Pit Dungeon.

A hidden zone I had stumbled upon, a place known to no one else.

How had he managed to retrieve the remains from such a place?

Chiiiing!

There was no more room for contemplation.

The speed increased again.

The edge of his blade became even more precise.

Divine Sword Unity was something you couldn’t dodge or parry.

It also guaranteed a maximum critical hit rate for thirty seconds. Even if you blocked, the sheer impact would wear you down.

It was a unique art that belonged solely to PollockRoeConan.

The best strategy was to avoid any direct contact while the effect lasted.

That was the sheer power of unique skills.

‘Just how many of these legendary arts does he have?’

At this point, I was genuinely curious.

The total count of unique skills he held.

And the dark secret behind the bodies he had collected.

—

Exactly as he thought!

His intuition had been correct.

Aaaah.

The champion let out a soft sound of pure delight.

Emperor Penguin had already neutralized more than ten high-level techniques.

‘If he is truly the one to follow Wilhelm, this is the bare minimum!’

He met every expectation—no, he surpassed them entirely.

Furthermore, the foundational logic of the blade-work Emperor Penguin was showing was undeniably Wilhelm’s own.

The one discipline that he, who had mastered over a century of unique arts, could never grasp.

‘This cannot be the end of it!’

Heaven of Heaven-Earth Transformation.

Earth of Heaven-Earth Transformation.

He was holding his own using nothing but these two forms.

Seeing through every feint, breaking every strike.

Was it pure confidence? Or was that the extent of his repertoire?

But it couldn’t be everything.

Just as he had more to show, he knew Emperor Penguin was holding back as well.

‘At least thirty……!’

Karas had only managed to withstand seventy.

Even after his power was dampened by Shansa, no one had lasted through more in the previous five years.

‘Hold on longer, longer. Show me where your boundary lies! O heir of Wilhelm!’

Having fired off twenty techniques in a blur, the champion gave a satisfied nod.

If the man couldn’t even handle this much, it would have been a bitter disappointment.

Soon, after cycling through thirty different arts, the champion let out a quiet breath of wonder.

‘He still possesses the capacity to deflect my strikes!’

His breathing remained calm. His posture was rock solid.

He was far from overwhelmed.

As expected, Wilhelm’s blade-art was beyond human comprehension.

If he could claim that style as his own…… he might even have the power to slay the demon king.

‘……Impressive.’

The battle had reached its halfway point.

He had already cycled through sixty unique arts.

But the champion’s maneuvers only grew more devastating with every layer he added.

Surviving this long was a feat of legend, but surely he would hit a wall soon.

‘Ha.’

This man—what exactly was he?

Finally, as the count reached seventy techniques, the champion’s face began to lose its smile.

He had eclipsed the record set by Karas.

For someone simply labeled an “heir,” this level of skill was staggering.

‘He still has room to breathe?’

The most shocking part was the state of Emperor Penguin himself.

He was still answering every challenge using only those same two techniques.

Did such a thing even make sense?