Chapter 1120
Episode 258: The Predator of All Dimensions (10)
It was pathetic.
Even after gaining the power of the Sun God, all he could do was endlessly self-destruct. The very way he regenerated was sickening to witness.
The allied Changsung never once spared a glance at Joshua. No matter how agonizingly he endured the pain to trigger his self-destruction, they felt no gratitude—indeed, they barely even acknowledged his existence.
But Keliak couldn’t simply ignore Joshua. Even while focusing on the battle, he had to dedicate at least a li of his consciousness to counteracting the dark magic that kept erasing Joshua.
“Die! Just die, you monstrous freak!”
Orgal’s sword pierced through Keliak’s chest.
Though now bent with age and his eyes clouded white, the sword still carried the depth, pride, and unyielding resolve of its wielder.
In other words, he was still strong.
Hundreds of brutal defeats across all dimensions were etched into his mind, but those memories only made him shine brighter.
“Heh heh heh, it’s been a long time since a blade has sunk this deep into me.”
Instead of pulling Orgal’s sword free, Keliak first raised a half-moon shaped shield to block Malugia and the other Changsung from joining the fray.
Then, with a savage grip, he grasped the blade embedded in his chest.
“You’re rushing my end. Not that I have much time left anyway.”
Keliak’s magic poured into the blade. When Orgal finally yanked the sword free, blood gushed from every orifice on his face as he screamed.
“Ugh!”
The combined forces of light and dark magic had surged through the blade into Orgal’s body. Still, Orgal refused to let go of the sword, but Keliak sneered at his stubbornness. The wound in his chest had already fully healed.
Clang! The blade snapped. At the point where Orgal’s right arm held the sword, a spatial explosion erupted. Dozens of sharp magical shards shredded the right side of Orgal’s upper body to pieces.
“Orgal!”
The Changsung tore through the shield and surged forward.
“Don’t worry about me—just hit him!”
He was far from okay. Nearly half his upper body had been torn apart and blown away. His consciousness flickered on and off by the second.
Yet even in that state, he shouted for them to target Keliak.
Though Keliak’s chest wound had fully regenerated, Orgal’s fighting spirit was not meaningless.
‘Just a little, but Keliak’s reactions have slowed…!’
Like a section of an iron fortress crumbling, the frequency of the Changsung’s blades striking Keliak’s body sharply increased.
A lightning-fast stab—Siron’s secret technique, Runkandel—pierced Keliak’s knee. He tilted to the right, momentarily losing his balance.
He barely swatted away a Barisada blade aimed at his neck, but he couldn’t block Ban’s sword falling from the opposite side.
‘Damn!’
Grrrrk! The lightning-tinged blade sank halfway into Keliak’s neck before stopping. Ban hadn’t stopped—it was Keliak who had momentarily increased his body’s durability.
Even Ban was shocked. Since he first held a sword, this was the first time he’d pushed a blade to an opponent’s neck and failed to cut through.
“What’s so surprising, warrior? Did you really believe you could cut my neck this easily?”
Keliak pushed both of them away. Malugia and Heilin, unable to coordinate with them, adjusted their distance.
“Of course. But it seems even you have limits. I can tell by that shocked look on your face.”
At those words, Keliak touched the wound where Ban’s blade had entered. Magic filled the area, rapidly healing it, but an uncomfortable, unfamiliar sensation swept through his entire body.
After a moment, Keliak realized why.
‘…Am I… getting tired?’
The feeling of exhaustion.
Slowed reactions, heavy limbs, labored breathing. A sensation he thought he’d never feel again was now overwhelming him. The fatigue was far worse than when he’d taken a hit from Jin in the Empire.
“Hahaha, good. Keep pushing me like that. Make me realize that without the Demon God Stone, I could die at any moment. Make me scream that I am not an absolute being! But know this—I will only grow stronger.”
As he laughed madly and shouted, the ground began to tremble. The quake rapidly spread across the entire battlefield, shaking the entire Black Sea region with no end in sight.
The massive spheres of Keliak’s magic, pressing heavily on the sky, vibrated as well. Some cracked open, spilling thick, viscous magic onto the ground, which quickly formed into raging rivers.
Anyone caught in those rivers wouldn’t survive.
Siron, Ban, Malugia, and Heilin all adjusted their positions to avoid the flow. Orgal, unable to evade on his own, was carried by his comrades.
“Ugh… Luna… I can still fight. My consciousness just flickers a bit, that’s all…”
“…I know, Orgal.”
It wasn’t empty words. The Changsung still needed Orgal. Even if he became more pitiful than this, that would remain true.
The rivers of death intertwined like snakes in a jar, each collision sending towering tidal waves through the sky.
Siron struggled to counter some of them with his Crushing Stream technique, unable to close the distance to Keliak for a while. Each time a magic sphere’s shell burst, a new river formed. Fortunately, so far only Joshua had been swept away and suffered.
“Gwaaargh… grrgh…”
The area where the Changsung could stand was rapidly shrinking.
They couldn’t relocate the battlefield. Keliak wouldn’t follow them, and their allies would be slaughtered immediately if they tried. It was a ridiculous thought, incomprehensible to Keliak.
“You want to protect your people? But you’ll only be able to protect the Lokia Ganesto. This will be entertaining to watch.”
As Keliak spoke, everyone fighting felt the air grow hotter and hotter.
Suddenly, as if noon had arrived out of nowhere, the scenery brightened. Within seconds, the battlefield turned dazzlingly white.
“What is that?”
“Is that… the sun?”
Those guarding the central front and the Changsung all looked up. Light and heat poured down from the sky.
There it was—the sun.
So massive it couldn’t be taken in at a glance, the lower edge of the Flame Jade was emerging from the ruined domain of the Phoenixes.
It could only be called the sun. Those not especially strong were blinded just by reflexively looking at it. Their pupils burned, and the skin on their faces melted away.
The Annihilation Flame Jade—the Demon God.
One of Keliak Ziphl’s seasonal powers. It didn’t include the attributes of Amcheon or Solderet, but Keliak was someone who had witnessed the true end of magic.
His Annihilation Flame Jade required no spiritual energy. In fact, relying on spiritual energy would never have allowed him to reach this realm.
“This madman…! Gahhh!”
Even Murakan was suffering, his scales rising and wings melting in agony. He was protecting his allies from the highest altitude, so he was closest to the Annihilation Flame Jade.
Engulfed in flames and falling, Murakan barely held onto consciousness as he looked down at the rapidly approaching ground.
If he fell, no one standing there would survive. Vomiting black blood, Murakan unleashed the True Darkness Arrival once more.
Only the darkness of spiritual energy could save their allies. Naturally, Murakan trusted Laprarosa and cast darkness to shield the troops.
But in the next moment, Murakan realized the Annihilation Flame Jade wasn’t targeting the troops.
‘Not the troops… it’s aiming for Laprarosa!?’
Fwoosh!
Flames erupted across the front of Laprarosa’s shield. The concentrated heat of the Annihilation Flame Jade melted the entire front of the barrier.
The Demon God’s forces couldn’t break through the gap. The Annihilation Flame Jade burned indiscriminately, friend and foe alike. Though its primary target was Laprarosa, the mere spreading heat would likely kill most of the troops.
Within mere seconds, the shield began to melt, even the front armor slowly dissolving. Despite constantly reforming the barrier, it couldn’t block the heat pressing inward.
The Great Seal was in danger. Talaris, who was forming the Great Seal in front of the workshop, gritted his teeth against the sudden, unfamiliar heat.
It wasn’t just the heat. The Annihilation Flame Jade also contained small amounts of light and dark spiritual magic. Each time that magic flowed into Laprarosa, it targeted only Talaris.
If Talaris fell, the consciousness of Ameris and Lokia would irreversibly unravel.
Murakan was doing everything he could to hold the line, but Laprarosa had no choice but to reposition. That meant abandoning all the troops guarding the ground and retreating.
“Damn it. If only I had known from the start that La Prarosa was the real target, I might have bought us a little more time. What am I supposed to do now? Do I really have no choice but to give up on all of them…?”
Just as Murakan reached that thought—
Suddenly, a figure on the ground shot straight up, facing the sun head-on. It was Focal, the self of Yuji, standing alone as if ready to bear the full force of the annihilation flame jewel, arms spread wide.
“Focal, as expected, you are a fragile self clinging to this world. Did you choose oblivion because you couldn’t bear to watch mortals die? Foolish. Your choice will only hasten the destruction of your world.”
To that, Focal replied in a calm, steady voice:
“Who exactly is it that intends to vanish, Keliak? I have come only to welcome my darkest child—the part of me that resembles that child.”