Chapter 279

However, the seal wasn’t completely broken—if the Fallen Ruin were fully unleashed, even the Demon Lord of Cheongryu wouldn’t be able to handle it.

Beside him, Kashmir’s eyes were filled with fear as she asked,
“How do we deal with that thing?”

“We have to get through it,” Chris replied calmly.

“I don’t think it will just let us pass.”

The massive face attached to the colossal body shifted toward them.

The Fallen Ruin’s face was nothing like a human’s—it was a swirling mist of chaotic shadows, featureless and terrifying, with a sinister black glow that seemed to pierce their very souls.

If it weren’t for the sealing array, their spiritual pressure alone would have shattered their sanity.

Suddenly, a voice echoed.

“Trying something reckless again, huh?”

It was the Demon Lord of Cheongryu!

She was closing the distance, projecting her will toward them.

“You’ve been rampaging all this time. Good. I’ll take this chance to deal with you.”

Rumble.

The seal inscribed on the Fallen Ruin’s body began to tremble violently.

The Demon Lord of Cheongryu was starting to manipulate it.

“Wooooooah!”

The Fallen Ruin let out a howl that seemed to shake their very souls.

Kashmir’s face turned pale.

If Chris hadn’t quickly cast a protective black magic to shield their minds, they wouldn’t have held on.

“Your Highness! We need to retreat now!”

But Chris surprised her with his response.

“I’m fine. Could you use ‘Expel Spirit’—the black magic that forcibly banishes spirits—to send me toward the Fallen Ruin?”

“Your Highness?”

“Hurry! We have to give it everything we’ve got!”

Kashmir gritted her teeth.

Snap!

Expel Spirit was a black magic designed to forcibly expel ghosts, evil spirits, and other spiritual entities.

Kashmir adjusted the direction and pushed the spiritual form of Chris toward the Fallen Ruin.

Whoosh!

In an instant, Chris closed the distance, and the horrifying spiritual pressure crushed down on his soul.

But instead of faltering, a twisted smile crept across Chris’s lips.

Here’s a question: Did he not expect the Demon Lord of Cheongryu to intervene like this?

Not at all.

He had it all calculated.

“This is an opportunity.”

Chris drew a sword.

Andril.

The Star-Slaying Sword.

“Normally, even with Andril, damaging the Fallen Ruin was impossible.”

Because of the seal.

The seal inscribed by the Demon Lord of Jeokcheon acted like armor protecting the Fallen Ruin, making it impervious to Andril’s blade.

But now was different.

Thanks to the Demon Lord of Cheongryu, the seal’s cracks had faintly opened.

Meanwhile, the Fallen Ruin hadn’t yet regained its full strength.

“I can’t miss this moment.”

Without hesitation, Chris plunged Andril precisely into the crack in the seal.

“Gooooaaah!”

The Fallen Ruin screamed in agony.

As mentioned before, the Demon Lord of Cheongryu had only weakened the seal partially—just a fraction.

Most of the Fallen Ruin’s power was still bound by the seal, so being struck by Andril was like prey bitten by a wild beast.

“No, more accurately, it’s a sacrifice.”

Suddenly, a chilling wave of energy surged from Andril.

At the same time,

Ki ki ki ki ki ki ki ki ki ki ki!

Andril’s laughter echoed, twisting souls.

It was the joy of devouring.

“The constellation is Andril’s prey.”

The Fallen Ruin thrashed and screamed, but bound by the seal, it was powerless.

Like a demon devouring a victim tied to the execution block, Andril began to consume the Fallen Ruin’s soul.

A horrifying sight.

Chris shook his head, released Andril from his grip, and stepped back.

It would take some time for Andril to finish devouring the Fallen Ruin, so Chris planned to leave it be and head toward the Infernal Flame expedition.

Once the devouring was complete, Andril’s form would change even further.

“By the way.”

Chris turned his gaze toward the direction where he had sensed the Demon Lord of Cheongryu’s presence earlier.

She was surely still watching.

“Next time, Demon Lord of Cheongryu, it’ll be your turn.”

“!!”

“Prepare yourself to fall into Gehenna.”

Her rage surged across the distance.

But Chris just scoffed.

“It’s coming soon.”

At that moment, the Fallen Ruin screamed again.

“Gooooaaah!”

Simultaneously, the lava began to churn wildly.

With the Fallen Ruin—the lockkeeper—collapsing, the rampage of the Infernal Flame accelerated.

“Let’s hurry.”

Chris unleashed a sharp black magic and moved swiftly, finally catching sight of his destination.

“That’s the Infernal Flame expedition.”

He swallowed hard.

A sphere of pure white flame burned brightly.

The White Flame.

A crystallization of pure destructive energy.

“Terrifying.”

If the Poisoned Essence was dark and abyssal, and the Holy Black held infinite depth, the Infernal Flame carried a violence that seemed to annihilate everything it touched.

“I have to extract the core of this destructive energy.”

Of course, he wouldn’t absorb all of it.

The key was to take the core—the source.

“The problem is, it’s incredibly difficult and dangerous.”

He had to control the overflowing destructive energy around him as magical energy while extracting the core.

One slip, and it would mean death.

What made it worse was that the core had grown excessively large over countless years.

If the amount of energy absorbed by previous destructive mages was 100, now he had to absorb more than twice that.

“Even absorbing 60 to 70 percent of the original energy was considered a remarkable achievement in that generation.”

Absorbing the Infernal Flame was somewhat similar to absorbing the Holy Black.

Just as absorbing 60 to 70 percent of the Holy Black was a top accomplishment, the same applied here.

“The Demon Lord of Jeokcheon, ranked fourth, absorbed just over 90 percent of the Infernal Flame, right?”

But now, the core’s energy was twice as concentrated as before.

To put it simply:

If the Demon Lord of Jeokcheon absorbed 90 out of 100 units, Chris now had to absorb over 200 units of this concentrated core energy.

“No matter who I am, that’s impossible.”

Chris shook his head.

He was mortal, after all.

Regardless of talent, there was a limit to his capacity.

So what would he do?

“I have to use this energy differently.”

Becoming stronger wasn’t just about absorbing energy.

Right now, Chris needed a different kind of leap.

He thought of a more specific plan.

“I’ll use the Infernal Flame’s energy to transform my soul into the perfect form of a transcendent being.”

An astonishing idea.

His soul had already surpassed the half-demon stage after absorbing the Poisoned Essence.

But now, he aimed to go beyond that—to attain the true form of a transcendent being, like a demon or a constellation.

“Of course, it won’t be easy.”

No, it was far from easy.

Achieving the transcendent form was an unfathomably greater feat than becoming a half-demon.

“But it’s possible.”

Chris recalled what the Demon Lord of Cheongryu had said before:

“Black is the origin, Poison is the refinement, and Destruction is the void.”

The Demon Lord of Cheongryu sought to master the Three Origins to break free from mortal limitations.

In other words, her words described a path to transcendence through the Three Origins.

“Absorb the Holy Black to establish the origin, refine the soul with the Poisoned Essence, and return to the void through the Infernal Flame to be reborn.”

In other words, he would use the Infernal Flame to return his soul to nothingness.

“It’s a method that could erase my very existence if I’m careless. But I have to do it.”

If Chris’s ultimate opponent were just the Four Demon Kings and the mysterious mages, he might not have needed to go this far.

Reaching the half-demon stage and ascending to nine stars would have sufficed.

But the situation had changed.

“I have to prepare for a confrontation with the Central Authority.”

Chris’s eyes darkened.

He recalled the Mage Chancellor he had seen recently.

A feeling of falling into endless despair.

If the Mage Chancellor was like that, what about the Demon King?

“I have to gain the transcendent form now if I want to stand against them in the future.”

Gaining the transcendent form wouldn’t make an immediate huge difference.

His capacity wasn’t yet enough to fully embody it.

But as he grew, and his capacity began to reflect the transcendent form little by little…

The gap would widen so much that it would be incomparable, eventually surpassing even the Mage Chancellor and possibly the Demon King.

“Let’s begin.”

Flash!

He unleashed dark magical energy.

Dark magic was the power of dominion that trumped all other energies.

The destructive energy of the Infernal Flame recoiled, curling away, exposing the core energy.

Vwooom.

The core energy began to flow into his body.

First, he planned to absorb the Infernal Flame’s core in the usual way.

“Once I’ve fully made the Infernal Flame mine, I’ll transform my soul.”

Step by step, the core’s energy began to fill his core.

Unlike when he absorbed the Holy Black, this process wasn’t difficult.

That was because Chris had already absorbed 100 percent of the Holy Black.

The Holy Black’s dominion forced the incoming Infernal Flame energy to submit, preventing backlash.

Eventually, he absorbed an amount of Infernal Flame energy equivalent to 100 units.

The limit of a mortal’s capacity.

Fwoooosh!!

Chris’s dark energy, now infused with destruction, transformed.

In the depths of an unfathomable darkness, a blade-like sharpness began to ripple and surge.

He had come to embody the very essence of destruction more powerfully than any other destruction mage.

“This is just the beginning.”

Chris drew a steady breath.

Though he had already absorbed a considerable amount of energy, an immense force still pulsed within the core.

He had to use that energy to rebirth his soul.

“Void of Emptiness.”

Chris’s thoughts sank into the darkness of the Mirror of Creation.

Within the infinite possibilities painted by the shadows, he reflected on the ultimate truth of the destruction mage’s lineage.

“The Void of Emptiness is the technique of artificially creating the concept of emptiness through willpower, then turning that emptiness into a force of destruction to annihilate the target.”

Now, he had to cast it upon his own soul.

A method so terrifying that even Chris couldn’t help but feel fear.

But it was necessary.

Flare!!

Through the Mirror of Creation, he materialized his soul as the target and applied the true essence of the Void of Emptiness.

Crackling flames engulfed his soul.

“Grand Duke Christian!!”

Kashmir’s distant voice echoed faintly.

Chris gritted his teeth through the agony of his soul unraveling.

“I must let it perish to be reborn anew.”

An end is just another word for a beginning.

Only through destruction could he be born again.

The question was whether he could find the answer to transcendence.

“If I fail to find it, I’ll die a meaningless death.”

Amid the flickering fragments of consciousness, countless memories flashed by in a torrent.

His past life, scarred by an age of ruin, and his current experiences merged with Chris’s talent, sparking countless revelations that came and went like fleeting shadows.