Chapter 1004
Chapter 1004
“Ugh…”
Even after having his throat cleaved apart by the Heavenly Drive alongside the Wooden Ring Sword, and his inner core completely shattered, The Fallen emitted a low rasp while shifting his amber pupils. Far from accepting his demise, the creature was frantically attempting to fuse his decapitated head back onto his torso while pulling together the fragmented shards of his obliterated heart, striving to reconstitute his original vessel.
“Utterly mad…”
Raon let out a harsh, ragged breath as he witnessed The Fallen initiating an extreme degree of rapid cellular recovery.
‘He can still piece himself together after suffering fatal trauma like that?’
-He possesses greater stubbornness than any troll. It brings the Parmas tribe to mind.
Wrath’s expression twisted with sheer revulsion.
‘I must put an end to him once and for all.’
Just as Raon prepared to cleave The Fallen’s skull in two with the Heavenly Drive, supercharged by the searing blaze of the Ten Thousand Flames Cultivation, a powerful force shoved him backward. In spite of being rendered into pieces, the monster was exerting an unyielding, transcendent focus of intent to cast him aside.
“You repulsive bug!”
Evelyn scowled in deep disgust, her hands rapidly weaving arcane formations humming with concentrated energy.
“Actually, even insects look far more charming than you!”
The moment she finished uttering the final verse of her incantation, the regenerating flesh around The Fallen’s throat and core stiffened, turning solid like drying mortar.
“Mer… Merlin…”
“Hurry up and perish.”
As Evelyn pointed a finger charged with dense magical force, The Fallen’s revitalizing frame suddenly lost its momentum and plummeted toward the earth.
“Detonate.”
Refusing to stop at merely paralyzing The Fallen’s recuperation, Evelyn called forth a devastating volley of advanced pyromantic formulas. Colossal spheres of flame crashed downward like a meteor shower, enveloping The Fallen’s severed head and remaining body in an inferno. Even so, the fiend managed to invoke esoteric defensive wards and arcane barriers, shielding his physical form from being utterly disintegrated.
“Raon!”
“On it!”
Before Evelyn’s shout could even fade into the air, Raon was already surging toward The Fallen, thrusting the Heavenly Drive forward in a sweeping arc. Ten Thousand Flames Cultivation. Flame Dragon Strike. A roaring wyrm of pure conflagration surged from the tip of the gleaming silver steel, swallowing The Fallen’s head and mangled frame along with the defensive sorcery enveloping them. The wards and defensive constructs caught within the fiery maw were instantly shredded into oblivion.
Seizing the precise opening, Evelyn unleashed yet another wave of superior magic to smash what remained of The Fallen’s vulnerable exterior. The combined devastation of the Flame Dragon Strike and Evelyn’s arcane storm vaporized The Fallen down to the absolute atom, leaving not even a solitary grain of ash behind.
Staring down at the cratered earth that resembled a bottomless pit of shadows, it appeared as though not just his physical shell, but his very spiritual existence had been burned out of reality.
“Phew…”
Evelyn dropped directly to the earth, lacking even the strength to wipe away the cold perspiration dripping down her brow.
“Unbelievably stubborn.”
She tilted her head downward, murmuring that the nightmare had finally concluded.
“Are you holding up?”
Raon walked toward Evelyn, smoothly sheathing both the Heavenly Drive and the Wooden Ring Sword.
“Are you truly concerned about me? That makes me thrilled!”
Evelyn flashed a radiant grin, showing sheer delight at his attentive words.
“Good grief…”
Raon’s brow twitched in mild exasperation as he observed Evelyn. Hearing that peculiar, playful cadence, it was evident that the persona of Merlin had taken hold once more.
-The woman is undeniably unhinged. Even if one pities her circumstances, her sanity remains completely questionable.
Wrath shifted his head in disbelief, noting that despite having glimpsed the sorrowful depths of her history, it did nothing to excuse her bizarre behavior.
‘Can’t argue with that.’
Just as Raon offered a quiet, wry smirk in agreement, an unexpected tremor followed.
“Ah…”
A faint, hollow gasp slipped past Merlin’s lips, and her upper body suddenly leaned sideways before collapsing.
“Evelyn!”
Raon darted forward instantly, catching her before she struck the soil.
“I… suppose I pushed past my limits.”
Evelyn smeared away the trickle of crimson seeping past her lips, offering a fragile smile.
“Deconstructing those foreign magic arrays is far from a simple task, you know.”
She shook her head softly, explaining that The Fallen’s complex arrays were monstrously convoluted and demanded an agonizing amount of mental strain to unravel.
“Had I not crossed into transcendence and learned to perceive the intricate tides of luminance and void mana, things would have turned catastrophic.”
Evelyn drew a prolonged breath, admitting that her sudden elevation in awareness was the sole reason she managed to decipher The Fallen’s arcane craft.
“I have no doubt about that.”
Raon gave a solemn nod, softly brushing away the beads of sweat gathering along Evelyn’s brow.
‘She must have pushed herself to the brink of utter collapse.’
Even though Evelyn had reached an enlightened state and obtained greater power, she remained severely disadvantaged against The Fallen. He possessed vastly superior magical reserves, mana control, and countless eras of accumulated mastery. Yet, she had defied all those insurmountable odds to parse and neutralize his grand sorcery; her mind was undoubtedly burning from unimaginable psychic exhaustion right now.
“Ha…”
Larian stared down at Raon and Evelyn, letting out an incredulous, empty snicker.
“Did you two genuinely manage to finish him off?”
She shook her head, thoroughly stunned. Even so, clearly suspicious that The Fallen could be so easily extinguished, her gaze darted vigilantly across the surrounding area.
“Take a breather for a while.”
Raon motioned gently toward Evelyn, easing himself back onto his feet.
“We still have to sweep up the remaining trash.”
He unsheathed the Heavenly Drive once more, fixing his gaze upon the Ghosts of Eden brought forth by The Fallen.
‘Cleaning them out shouldn’t pose much trouble.’
Among Eden’s commanding ranks, there were Masters and Grandmasters present, yet against his current tier of might, none of them presented an insurmountable obstacle. The masked phantom who appeared to hover at the Transcendent stage was being comfortably held at bay by Larian, suggesting the remaining cleanup could be concluded swiftly.
“I’ll wrap this up in a moment…”
“Just leave the scraps to that ancient hag.”
Evelyn reached out, her fingers lightly tugging at the edge of Raon’s cuff.
“Give me a piggyback ride.”
Her lips formed a small pout as she protested that her limbs refused to support her.
“What?”
Raon stared down in bewilderment as Evelyn slumped her shoulders helplessly.
“I told you, carry me. My legs are completely useless.”
Evelyn raised both arms toward him, gesturing impatiently for him to hoist her up.
“Will you stop spouting nonsense! Annihilate those vermin before they manage to scatter! And furthermore…”
Larian’s face darkened with irritation as she drove a sharp blade into the soil directly between Raon and Evelyn.
“I am nowhere near old!”
She flashed her fangs menacingly in Evelyn’s direction.
“Good grief…”
Raon exhaled a heavy breath, shaking his head at the spectacle.
“If you truly cannot stand once we finish mopping up the battlefield, I will carry you then.”
Instructing her to stay put near Mark Goetun, he turned on his heel to face the Ghosts of Eden.
“Our time is running thin, so let us conclude this without delay.”
Raon channeled radiant boughs of blazing crimson and frigid rime along the edges of the Heavenly Drive and the Wooden Ring Sword. Fire Spirits carrying dual opposing natures. An endless cascade of scorching and freezing petals unfurled, sweeping outward to engulf the ranks of the Ghosts of Eden.
The Ghosts of Eden scrambled frantically to mount a defense or retreat into the distance, yet the Fire Spirits, having ascended into the domain of transcendence, infused every minute petal with devastating authority, either reducing the opposition to cinders or entombing them in absolute frost.
“This is madness…”
“H-He is beyond an ordinary Transcendent.”
“We cannot even break away from this…”
Confronted by the terrifying majesty of the dual-natured Fire Spirits, Eden’s commanders could do nothing but swallow hard, their steps faltering in terror.
“He truly is an extraordinary specimen.”
Larian moistened her lips, muttering to herself about how intensely she desired to dissect his secrets.
“Ugh…”
The Soul Devourer swiftly mended its pierced flesh the second it broke contact with Larian.
“Is perpetual recovery an innate trait shared by everyone from Eden?”
Larian let out a soft sneer, tilting her chin slightly.
“Then again, they are essentially monstrous chimeras cobbled together from random pieces.”
She prepared to thrust her dagger forward once more, deeming them unworthy of any real academic interest, when an abrupt instinct made her jerk her head around.
“Raon!”
Larian screamed, her eyes snapping toward the space directly behind Evelyn. Raon reacted instantly to Larian’s warning shout, his vision locking onto Evelyn rather than the speaker.
Just behind Evelyn, who was currently rubbing her sore calves in exhaustion, The Fallen was rising silently from her cast shadow, cloaked in a mantle of dull gray. His amber eyes gleamed intensely, his physical vessel entirely pristine and untouched by harm, looking as though he had rewound the very flow of time itself.
Raon’s reflexes engaged before a single thought could form. Leveraging the absolute peak of the Supreme Harmony Step, he threw his form into the path of The Fallen’s outstretched hand, which was plunging straight toward Evelyn’s throat.
Aided by Larian’s thrown dagger that had embedded itself in the earth, he managed to deflect the fatal blow aimed at Evelyn’s neck. However, because his intervention was born of sheer desperation without a moment to brace his posture, a sickening snap of pain surged through his right arm as if the bones were splintering under the shock.
The muscular fibers and deep veins along his limb felt as though they had burst from the violent strain.
“Urgh…”
Catching the startled Merlin, Raon shielded her behind him before stepping squarely in front of The Fallen.
“You…”
He clamped his teeth together, glaring at The Fallen, who stood there with an unnerving, tranquil poise as though untouched by battle.
“What manner of freak are you?”
From a logical perspective, the reality before him made zero sense; a being who suffered the simultaneous destruction of both his neck and his heart simply should not be standing alive.
“It appears…”
Evelyn breathed out weakly, struggling back onto her feet.
“He has devised an entirely distinct rite of rebirth?”
Her refined brows knit closely together as she realized the underlying principle differed from his previous techniques.
‘This bodes terribly.’
Both he and Evelyn had drained an immense portion of their physical energy and inner reserves just to bring The Fallen down the first time. Having never anticipated that he possessed an instantaneous resurrection method, facing his fully restored self seemed like an impossible deadlock.
“Do not lose heart.”
Larian gave a cold snort, casting a dismissive glance toward The Fallen.
“Reversing temporal continuity is not an incantation that even an existence like him can execute repeatedly. The wounds you carved into him were unmistakably real.”
She gave an affirmative nod, pointing out that The Fallen’s demeanor betrayed subtle signs of fatigue as well.
“If you find yourselves unable to continue, fall back. I shall handle the rest.”
Larian twirled a finger, keeping the Soul Devourer pinned beneath the relentless pressure of five floating daggers.
“I appreciate the gesture, but…”
Raon declined with a shake of his head, keeping his eyes locked onto The Fallen.
“I—no, the two of us will bring an end to this.”
He was determined to let Evelyn claim her retribution through her own strength, leading him to reject the offer and tighten his fingers around the hilt of his weapon.
“Do you have enough left in you?”
He threw the question toward Evelyn without shifting his focus away from the adversary.
“Without a doubt!”
Evelyn offered a spirited, bright grin as she brushed the dust from her palms.
“I was actually somewhat disappointed that it concluded so quickly earlier.”
She brought ten grand magical circles into full resonance, drawing an unbroken torrent of ambient mana directly from the natural world.
“Hmph…”
The Fallen released a frigid sigh, his gaze looking down upon Raon and Evelyn with deep disdain.
“It seems my assessment of you two was excessively dismissive.”
He gave a slight click of his tongue, casting a brief glance up toward Larian. It was evident his original intention was to wipe them out swiftly before turning his full might toward her.
“From this moment onward, I shall discard all restraint.”
The Fallen pressed his palms together, extending only his thumbs, pointer fingers, and pinkies outward. At the meeting point of those six digits, an ominous, corrupted arcane circle flared to life. The fractured mountain plateau, already carved hollow by previous clashes, rumbled violently on the verge of total collapse, while directly behind The Fallen’s silhouette, a colossal solar orb and a lunar sphere emerged into the sky.
The sun burned with a blinding, pristine radiance, while the moon hung bathed in profound, ink-like darkness.
‘That technique…’
Raon’s throat went dry as he recognized the celestial manifestations summoned by The Fallen.
‘The very phenomena I witnessed during the confrontation with Grandfather…’
These were the twin heavenly bodies that The Fallen had unveiled in his ultimate display of might when Glenn arrived to pull him from the brink of death. It meant the fiend was truly intent on wiping both him and Evelyn from existence right now. In accordance with the guidance of The Fallen’s fingertips, the brilliant sun and the dark moon began to converge like mirrored reflections.
The radiance of the sun and the pitch-black abyss of the moon fused into a unified orb, discharging violent, chaotic lightning in every direction.
The resulting luminescence took on a hollow, desolate hue of gray, giving birth to an inescapable gravitational vortex that devoured the surrounding reality like an abyssal tear. The sky fractured outward like a fragile spider’s web, molten stone burst upward from deep subterranean fractures, and the mountain’s structure rapidly disintegrated.
The supreme pressure exuded by The Fallen had thoroughly conquered this local domain. In truth, it was smothering the entire surrounding landscape.
‘This is beyond reason…’
Raon swallowed with difficulty as he observed the immense gray sphere drifting slowly across the expanse.
‘There is no way to deflect this.’
This manifestation of power transcended anything he could hope to parry with his current threshold of cultivation. The instant his steel made contact with that singularity, his very existence would be wiped clean from the fabric of the world.
“Do not despair.”
Evelyn stepped up to his side, lightly nudging his arm with her elbow.
“I will carve out a gap for you.”
Her eyes fluttered rapidly without pause, dissecting every minute current within The Fallen’s magical structure.
“A flaw must exist within it.”
A stream of dark crimson blood leaked from Evelyn’s nostril. The immense cognitive load required to analyze such high-tier sorcery was causing internal vessels within her cranium to rupture. Yet her focus remained entirely consumed by The Fallen’s invocation; she paid no heed to the fact that blood was now trickling freely from her eyes and ears alongside her nose.
‘Indeed.’
Raon swung his attention back toward The Fallen.
‘I have to stand my ground until the absolute conclusion.’
If Evelyn refused to surrender, he had no right to retreat either. Even if he were destined to perish before that abyssal gray light, he had to exhaust every drop of his resolve. Activating nine rings of internal fire, he dredged up the total reserves of both the Ten Thousand Flames Cultivation and Glacier.
Blistering heat and absolute permafrost coiled across the twins blades, bestowing upon him a resolute certainty that mirrored the days he wielded the Divine Sword and Demonic Sword together.
“To the upper right…”
Evelyn raised an unsteady arm, indicating the upper quadrant of the gray sphere, which had expanded to rival the bulk of a mountain.
“Pierce through at that coordinate. I shall tear the veil open for you.”
She gave his shoulder a gentle tap, signaling that the moment to move had arrived.
“Understood.”
Without needing to voice empty promises of faith, Raon drove his boots into the crumbling terrain and surged toward the colossal gray sphere.
‘Merely observing its mass suffocates the chest.’
The presence radiating from it was vastly more suffocating than the dimensional vortex he had braved before. Simply closing the distance made it feel as though his spiritual soul were being stripped away and dissolved.
‘Even so, forward is the only path.’
Though it appeared as futile as hurling an egg against an unyielding boulder, he pressed onward solely through his faith in Evelyn. The orb pulsating with the essence of nothingness loomed immediately before his eyes. The mere ripple of that dull gray radiance threatened to tear his heart asunder, yet his stride never faltered.
Right as he drew his blade back to strike against the seemingly impenetrable boundary of the void sphere, he sensed the warm, familiar surge of Evelyn’s mana sweeping past.
“Strike now!”
At Evelyn’s desperate cry, a crimson sigil manifested upon the upper right sector of the gray sphere, fracturing its surface into a thin crevice. Capitalizing on the exact millisecond the void orb developed a fissure, Raon directed the Blade of Requiem, which was already hovering at the ready. Guided by the principles of Sword Control, the Blade of Requiem accelerated with lethal precision, wrapped in howling gusts and crackling lightning.
‘This alone will fall short.’
Even with the fissure Evelyn had forced open, the raw output of the Blade of Requiem lacked the sheer potency required to bore entirely through that catastrophic mass.
‘Everything rests on this single roll of the dice.’
Raon clamped his jaws tight and unfurled his spiritual domain, summoning into reality every sword art he had ever comprehended or witnessed across this lifetime. Sword Domain. Heaven’s Rift. A golden trajectory carrying the furious wrath of the celestial firmament slammed directly into the expanse of the gray void.
Even though it represented a peerless strike that could be hailed as the absolute pinnacle of swordsmanship, the gray nothingness barely trembled, seeking to swallow and eradicate everything in its path.
Yet, the stressed fracture along the upper right—battered by Evelyn’s concentrated mana—could not endure the supreme impact of Heaven’s Rift. It fractured violently, leaving a narrow breach torn through the barrier.
‘Now!’
Raon slipped directly through the breach created along the upper right flank, descending upon The Fallen concealed behind the grand construct.
“You deranged maniac!”
Completely discarding his customary poise and formal rhetoric, The Fallen whipped his right hand around in a panic to manifest the chaotic power of the void once more.
‘I already see the trajectory.’
Anticipating the exact manifestation of the void energy The Fallen was gathering, Raon carved the Heavenly Drive through the air, moving counter to the flow of the mana. The blazing golden fire cleaved through the defensive barrier of void raised by The Fallen, ripping across his torso in a devastating, bloody gash.
“Gah!”
The Fallen clutched his ruptured chest, stumbling backward in agony.
“This is far from concluded.”
Raon pursued The Fallen’s retreating form relentlessly, sweeping the Wooden Ring Sword horizontally across his throat. Charged with the absolute freezing chill of Wrath’s definitive art, the Silver Aurora, the edge frosted The Fallen’s severed head into a stark, brittle white.
“Ugh…”
Raon desperately wished to grind what remained of The Fallen’s frame into nonexistence, but having pushed his spiritual world to the limit through Sword Domain alongside back-to-back supreme sword strikes, his muscles locked up, refusing to obey.
“Leave the finish to me.”
Hovering suspended in the sky, Evelyn pressed her palms firmly together. Arrayed behind her back, dozens upon dozens of radiant magic circles expanded, taking on the silhouette of shimmering butterfly wings.
“Be erased!”
Carrying the full weight of Evelyn’s unyielding command, a boundless tempest of arcane destruction descended upon The Fallen’s butchered flesh. Caught beneath a savage torrent of magic powerful enough to overwhelm even the concepts of the void, The Fallen could not muster a single counter-spell, dissolving entirely into drifting powder.
Having flattened the very topography of the final mountain crest in her assault, Evelyn lost her levitation and plunged downward, having exhausted every ounce of her vitality.
“Evelyn!”
Raon demanded strength from his quivering legs, dashing forward to intercept Evelyn’s falling body.
“Can you hear me?”
His hands shook as he looked upon her countenance, where crimson trails continued to spill from her eyes, nose, and lips.
“At last…”
Evelyn opened her heavy lids, offering him a faint, weary curve of her lips.
“You’re actually embracing me!”
She pressed her cheek contentedly against his chest, murmuring how delighted she felt.
“Ah…”
Raon squeezed his eyes shut in mild exasperation, gently lowering Evelyn down onto the earth.
-Sigh…
Wrath let out a weary shake of his head.
-That female is truly out of her mind. No other description fits her.
Seemingly taken aback by the sheer tenacity of the woman, the demon released an exhausted breath before sprawling out.
“……”
Larian bit down on her inner lip as she observed the pair.
“Take your romantic nonsense somewhere else!”
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