Chapter 245
A roar split the air as several tentacle-like limbs slammed into the ground, exploding with an earth-shattering shockwave. It was the kind of force that felt like a thunderbolt had been driven straight into the earth. Blocking it sloppily or trying to redirect it was out of the question.
Leon caught the shock with Icarus Wing, then shot forward like an arrow loosed from a bow, tearing through the air. In just fractions of a second, he broke the sound barrier.
Morse’s cognitive speed was beyond extraordinary. Having fused with the Death King, he had long surpassed human limits. He read Leon’s trajectory a beat ahead and began chanting a complex spell.
—ɯʗʘʙʚɯʗʘʙʚɣɖɢŭɕɕɱʊɕ!
Humans needed mouths and voices to speak, but ectoplasmic beings did not. Their
“will” was all they needed to express themselves. And of course, thoughts were faster than words.
A thunderous roar followed as four Asura arms surged toward Leon. Unlike Nekator, who had nearly reached the level of a Grandmaster through sheer physical mastery alone, Morse was not a physical fighter. So, the only way he could draw out the full potential of the Asura arms was by controlling them with spells.
A fist dropped from above. Another punched horizontally. Two more swept in from either side like hand-blades.
Leon read all four attacks within a tenth of a second and dove straight in without hesitation.
“Sun Sword, Crimson Lotus, First Form.”
Dodging all four strikes was impossible. However, compared to Nekator, who had reached the pinnacle of killing technique, Morse’s chain of attacks was crude.
If Leon broke through even one of the four routes, the remaining three would miss entirely. Having realized that, Leon met the descending fist head-on.
A deafening crack rang out as the Asura arm shattered, scattering into fragments. After a handful of battles, Leon had finally learned how to condense Prominence tightly around his blade. Even so, the recoil that rang through his hand was far from negligible.
He was more than twice as strong now compared to when he’d fought Nekator, yet cutting off a single arm produced this much resistance. Perhaps because Morse was using exolaw through the body of the Death King, the raw physical power of each limb was far stronger than Nekator’s.
Still, if this is all, then I can handle it...!
It was winnable. That conviction ignited his Aura even more fiercely, and the brilliance pouring from the Holy Sword blazed brighter. Even Morse was forced to take several steps back, unable to face the radiance head-on.
The Death King’s body still contained tens of thousands of trapped souls, yet even with that countless fuel, they were evenly matched? As expected, a Hero was naturally the mortal enemy of beings like him.
Infuriated, Morse’s eyes twisted with hate.
—Until the very end, you stand in my way, Goddess!
His “will” erupted again into an enchantment. This time, the incantation was three or four times longer, and exponentially more powerful.
His chanting was too fast. Suspended in midair, Leon tried to interrupt him, but he realized it was already too late. Instead, he calmed his Aura.
However, the one who actually lost composure wasn’t Leon—it was El-Cid.
—That’s...!
For once, El-Cid’s voice carried shock. Battles against the Evil Order were common even in his era. The individuals were different from the present-day Nine Hell Bishops, but Rodrick had slain more than a few of their exolaw wielders, including some capable of threatening even a Master. The being that Morse was invoking now was on that very level.
The moment Morse’s chant finished, the transformation began with an eerie gurgle.
Bubbles formed across the surface of his ectoplasmic body, then rapidly swelled into opaque, foul-colored foam. Leon felt instinctive disgust. Just looking at it made his skin crawl, as if he were grazing against some kind of mental pollutant.
—Just as I thought. That’s the Foam of Corrosion.
Foam of... Corrosion?
El-Cid continued his explanation.
—It contaminates anything it touches and uses that contamination to grow. Worse, it warps the surrounding space into something akin to another realm. Leave it alone for a single day, and an entire city can become its breeding ground.
That sounds dangerous. What about its combat ability?
—The foam itself has no intelligence. How dangerous it becomes depends entirely on how its controller uses it.
Almost as if to prove his point, Morse made his move. The foam swelling from his body had expanded enough to blanket the entire area. When it touched the ground, it stained the earth a dark, murky color. When it hovered in the air, it turned the atmosphere into a toxic haze.
Using exolaw in this world meant letting forces from outside reality corrode the ecosystem. There was a reason its mere existence was marked as an absolute taboo by the Holy Church.
Morse muttered, —Die...!
The foam—which until now had only floated—surged all at once, rushing in to swallow Leon whole. The Holy Sword flared in answer, unleashing a radiant light.
“Heavenly Jade, Second Form: Merak.”
The horizontal slash of the Grand Chariot cut the foam clean in half, but it didn’t vanish. Even the sliced portions merely split apart into two, continuing to multiply.
A “line” wouldn’t work. The moment Leon realized that, he shifted the shape of his Aura.
“Sun Sword.”
The Aura that had been gathered around his blade rushed back into his body, then erupted outward in a spiraling storm around him. The approaching foam shrank back, unable to advance any farther.
Even the Foam of Corrosion didn’t possess much durability, much like actual bubbles. Touch the scorching heat of an Aura storm of the Sun attribute, and it would evaporate instantly. A cutting technique like the Grand Chariot didn’t inflict much damage on it, but exposing it to heat meant losing a massive amount of volume.
But of course, Morse knew its weakness.
—Pointless resistance...!
Summoning the Foam wasn’t enough. He immediately began another exolaw spell with blistering speed. His ectoplasmic form warped, molding itself into a massive stork-like beak. Then, the beak opened, releasing a faint, pallid mist.
Poison? No. Otherworldly toxins were useless against Leon, who bore the Stigma of the Purifier. Even if such poison entered his body, it would be erased before it contaminated even a few cells.
But then, a chill shot down Leon’s spine.
What is this feeling...?
It wasn’t danger his sixth sense had detected. It was an actual chill—cold.
But that should have been impossible. An Aura Master’s body had already surpassed biological limits, reaching a realm where neither cold nor heat could do meaningful harm. They could register temperature, but it wouldn’t affect their body.
Yet Leon’s muscle fibers had become noticeably stiffer within seconds, and every breath sent icy needles through his lungs.
El-Cid explained while staring at the source of the cold.
—That’s the Cocytus Bird. It feeds on carrion. It exhales a chill that can freeze even souls and feeds on the dead. Its power is rooted in a plane above physical laws, so temperature resistance means nothing.
How do I deal with it?
—If you use Aura Blade, you can neutralize it.
Got it!
Leon focused on the Sun Sword. He concentrated heat within a five-meter radius, and shimmering heatwaves rose, pushing back the frost.
But even freed from the cold, he couldn’t advance. The Foam of Corrosion that Morse had summoned earlier had frozen solid into a wall, blocking every path. As a test, Leon threw a rock at the wall, but the moment it touched the frozen foam, it was instantly corroded and absorbed into the wall.
“Even frozen, it still keeps its properties.”
—A stalling tactic. In that case, the next step is...
Before El-Cid could finish, Morse made his next move.
—ɨɩɬɭɮɯʗʘɨɩɬɭɮɯʗʘɕɕɱʊɣɖɢŭɧɧɨɩɩɬɭɮ...
It was long. The moment Leon heard the incantation, his expression hardened. After taking the Death King’s body, Morse’s chanting speed would be dozens of times faster than an ordinary exolaw wielder. If even he needed several dozen seconds for this spell, the consequence was likely going to be catastrophic, at the very least.
“Sun Sword, Crimson Lotus, Second Form: Flare.”
Leon reached the conclusion the same instant he raised his blade. A final all-or-nothing strike was coming—a colossal exolaw attack so overwhelming that not even the Holy Sword could block it.
This was why Morse had stalled for time. The Foam of Corrosion and the bird from Cocytus chill had all been preparations for this moment.
“Get lost!”
With a shout, Leon slashed down. Flare traced a blazing golden trajectory across the air, and the wall of frozen foam shattered like thin ice.
Once, twice, three times. A fourth slash finally cleared every last piece of the obstructing wall.
However, Morse’s exolaw was seconds away from completion.
—Too late! This is where your journey ends, Hero!
From the dimensional rift opened behind him, an unfathomable presence surged outward. Even the Stigma of the Observer partially blocked Leon’s vision and forcibly dulled his senses, bracing itself so its master wouldn’t collapse under the pressure.
It had known that if it didn’t, he would cease to breathe. That was how Leon instinctively understood the terror pressing against him.
El-Cid was shaken as he identified the source.
—Drom Dubh...? No—it can’t be a full summoning. Something of that caliber is several tiers above the Goddess. At most, he’s releasing a fragment of its power for a brief moment.
So it’s nothing to be worried about?
—To me, yes. But for you—treat this as life-or-death. To break through it with your own strength, you’ll have to risk everything.
So basically the same thing as always.
Leon immediately fired Icarus Wing in reverse, blasting himself hundreds of meters backward.
“This should be far enough to keep them out of this.”
His comrades were already battered, exhausted, and had nothing left in reserve. If they were caught between Leon and Morse’s full-strength clash, they could be gravely injured or outright killed. So, Leon rose into the sky, choosing a position where Morse had no choice but to focus solely on him.
“Sun Sword.”
He would end it here. At the same time, the space around Leon’s body turned gold. Then, it blazed white-hot. His Aura density spiked instantly, transforming into plasmatic light—a brilliant white light that no ordinary person could even look at directly.
It was the third secret technique of the Sun Sword, a transcendental enhancement of Aura and physical ability. The same power that had pulverized the Imperial Guardian in only a few blows.
Good. I can do this! It feels way lighter than last time—even while using Corona!
Whether it was thanks to the light of Divine Punishment or not, Leon wasn’t just at full power—he was far beyond it. Earlier, he’d barely managed to deploy North Star Cross, but now, he could unleash everything. Icarus Wing, now glowing white like his body, supported him in the air, keeping his form perfectly steady even without any foothold.
“Grand Chariot.”
With his legs braced against the air as though it were solid ground, Leon naturally shifted into the stance for the Grand Chariot.
Aura swelled inside him and erupted from the tip of his blade. The blade extended over twenty meters—despite the Aura being compressed to the extreme. Corona’s boost, combined with the divine light, had multiplied its amplification.
Morse realized it too, and his gestures and voice grew frantic.
—ʗʘʙʚʗʘʙʚɮɖɢŭɕɕɯʗʘ...!
With a hiss like molten metal boiling, the exolaw activated. Space behind Morse twisted, and from the rift poured darkness—or rather, something one could only describe as darkness—eating away at reality.
Leon understood it the moment he laid eyes on it. It was the apocalypse.
It wasn’t just darkness. It simply couldn’t be perceived at all. Even light that entered it turned to nothingness, leaving no visual information behind.
Matter or immaterial—it made no difference. Anything that touched it would be annihilated in an instant.
Normally, not even the Holy Sword could resist such a power, but the laws of the world themselves were protecting Leon. That was the only reason he could stand against it.
Finally shaking off the last of his fear, Leon raised his blade. Then, he stepped forward and thrust the Holy Sword.
“Wavering Light, Seventh Form: Alkaid.”
He began by piercing a single point, creating a convergence between Aura and blade. A platinum beam shot straight into the maw of Apocalypse.
The following triple strike was nothing short of instantaneous. Dubhe, Merak, and Megrez interwove in a raging storm of sword-light, ripping the night sky apart.
“Keuugaaagh!”
Leon’s hands split under the force he couldn’t fully withstand. Blood-slick fingers kept slipping from the hilt, but he gripped it with such force his forearm felt like it would tear apart.
He could do it. No. He had to do it.
If I lose here, every drop of blood the others shed becomes meaningless!
If he closed his eyes, he could see them clearly: Dominic’s back, still unbroken even at the very end. Irexana, who never once showed weakness despite being torn to shreds.
He bore the title of Hero, and with it, the weight of their sacrifices. Losing here was unacceptable.
“AAAAAAAH!”
His wrist buckled under the recoil of the blade. His shoulder cracked under the pressure as he swung with every ounce of strength he had left.
Just one swing needed to hold. Just once was enough. This was the moment the fate of the battle would be decided!
“Chained Secret Technique: Four Stars in Vast Heavens.”
Three streams of sword-light surged out, forming a plane around Alkaid’s leading strike, then fused into a destructive wave that obliterated everything in its path. A platinum tetrahedron shot toward Apocalypse.
Would it be enough?
Leon answered his own doubt with a harsh “no.”
Forward!
If Four Stars in Heaven’s Jar formed a horn, then the way to maximize its power was obvious. It was the same way horned beasts fought-by charging head-on.
A thunderous blast rang out as platinum wings exploded from Leon’s back. In an instant, he broke the sound barrier and closed the gap, catching up to the tetrahedron.
He slammed his entire body into the base of the construct, driving it forward. The tetrahedron rampaged forward with multiplied momentum as if it understood his resolve.
Only Morse watched the miracle and laughed.
—Before Drom Dubh’s Apocalypse, all creation returns to nothing. You dare face the darkness even the gods feared with nothing but light borrowed from your little goddess? Know your powerlessness!
Leon ignored him. Ahead, Apocalypse had twisted into the shape of a gigantic serpent, jaws yawning wide to swallow the tetrahedron whole.
This... is scary.
Any living thing—or even an unliving one—would feel terror before that darkness. Even as an Aura Master, he felt every cell in his body freeze, too afraid even to scream. And yet he accelerated further.
I want to run. I’m scared out of my mind, but...!
With only fractions of a second left before the collision between Apocalypse and Four Stars in Heaven’s Jar, Leon’s eyes snapped open with lethal resolve.
Letting down the people who believed in me—that’s a hundred times scarier!
And then, at supersonic speed, the falling platinum tetrahedron crashed into the wide-open maw of the serpent of Apocalypse.
