Chapter 265: Chapter 265

Chapter 265: Era of Dragons (7)

Unlike the appearance in the painting, where he vomited blood and had aged rapidly.

The current Dragon Lord had completely rejuvenated.

'The problem is he rejuvenated too much.'

To think that he now had the appearance of a ten-year-old child was unimaginable.

"Hmm. Did you get caught by Dad too? Just like that red pig."

The Dragon Lord sneered as he looked at Elaudia.

Her reaction, however, was chillingly cold.

She completely ignored the monster wearing the mask of a child and focused solely on forming the portal.

Cold sweat ran down her back, but her fingertips tuning the mana did not waver in the slightest.

Because the only thing she could do right now was secure a retreat path.

He grumbled while standing crookedly.

It sounded like the complaint of an innocent child, but the killing intent contained within was ferocious enough to freeze the entire city.

“But what should I do? You guys can’t go. Dad said so. Not to let you go.”

If an entity at the level of a Dragon Lord called someone Dad, it was probably the Outer God.

He felt he could realize just how crazy that dragon was.

Soon, blue drool trickled down the corner of the child's mouth.

"Besides, I'm hungry too."

The atmosphere screamed.

With a single stomp, the solid ground of the Golden City caved in deeply, and a shockwave swept in all directions.

Half-collapsed buildings toppled backward with deafening noise.

It wasn't a simple charge.

It was transcendent speed, folding space itself as he entered it.

The target was the neck of the defenseless Elaudia.

Park Siwoo's jaw dropped.

Before his brain could even form a judgment, he instinctively understood it.

That Elaudia would die.

By the time he reacted with a flinch, a cool sword intent was already encroaching on the surroundings.

Before anyone realized it, the Sword Saint was standing in front of Elaudia with his eyes closed.

There was no preliminary movement, nor any eruption of fighting spirit.

He simply placed his hand on the sword hilt, as gently as flowing water.

A clear and beautiful rupture sound rang through the battlefield.

A heavy tearing sound burst through the air, as if adamantite had been struck.

A small shadow bounced into the air and landed lightly on the ground.

A thin red line appeared on Archaia’s white forearm, acrid smoke rising from it.

It was the sound produced by the clash between the flesh trying to regenerate and the sword energy rejecting it.

The Dragon Lord looked down at the wound, his eyes sparkling with curiosity.

His gaze soon shifted, gleaming as he analyzed the Sword Saint.

The sword energy resisted for only a brief moment.

Monster-like recovery power healed his wound before anyone could even properly perceive it.

Seeing that, the Sword Saint's face hardened stiffly.

The speed from that casual kick alone surpassed the material realm.

Even so, he had to fully utilize the Heart Sword just to block a single strike.

And yet, all he had left behind was a faint scratch.

One thing became certain.

That this monster was stronger than any opponent he had encountered in his entire life.

“You are also interesting.”

It stimulated the Sword Saint’s interest just as much.

Seo Jinchul’s gaze sharpened.

The Heart Sword he reached by dedicating his whole life.

That absolute blade, which could cut even formless will, could not pierce the skin of a mere child.

No, he had pierced it.

But the result was no different from not piercing at all.

The gap vanished before it could even be recognized.

'The density is completely different.'

It wasn't simply hard.

Inside that small body was a mass capable of crushing mountain ranges, forcibly compressed into form.

Was this the knowledge of the Outer God?

The result of reducing the volume of an existence and cramming the essence to the limit.

Then there was only one answer.

Not the Heart Sword that spreads wide to dominate space, but extreme condensation as if the universe itself were compressed into the tip of a needle.

Perhaps this monster was the hammer that could shatter the wall blocking his path.

A faint smile appeared on the Sword Saint’s lips.

“Fun. You… you smell good.”

Archaia smiled brightly and took a step forward.

At that light footstep, space screamed as it crunched.

Just as the Sword Saint was about to readjust his grip…

A holy beam of light slammed into the Dragon Lord’s flank.

Piercing through the dust cloud, Park Siwoo popped out gripping the Holy Sword.

"Don't touch Master, you monster bastard!"

Behind him, Han Siah landed silently, wrapped in pitch-black darkness.

At some point, the others who had regained their senses were already forming a line, blocking the absolute predator one by one.

Kim Minwoo was no exception.

The atmosphere screamed.

The signal flare of battle was fired by the four giants who supported Korea.

The Fist King's fist rushed in, crushing space.

The Fist King’s punch crushed space.

The Divine Spear pierced causality itself.

The Poison Demon’s toxin corroded even the mana flowing through blood vessels.

Seo Jinchul’s Heart Sword filled every opening, striking the Dragon Lord’s vital points.

This was not mere physical force.

It was a ‘Mind Strike’, something they had polished over decades.

A combined assault that struck existence itself rather than the body.

The Dragon Lord's small body staggered.

In that instant, pitch-black darkness swallowed the battlefield.

"In front of death, even recovery is a luxury."

The aura of death stretching from the tip of Han Siah's scythe dug into the Dragon Lord's wound.

The hyper-regeneration ability, which was close to infinite, rotted black and faltered.

It was the authority of absolute 'Death' forcibly suppressing life force.

"Move! I'll pierce through!"

Above that rotted wound, Park Siwoo fell.

The Holy Sword Arphesia roared, harboring compressed light.

The heavy mass, as if forcibly crumpling space, tore apart the Dragon Lord's hard scales like a sheet of paper.

Scales burst and flesh splattered.

The Sword Demon also did not stay still.

True to his alias Ghost Sword, his sword strike had no form.

The blade soaring silently from within Archaia's shadow snatched the nape of his neck without a sound.

It was a surprise attack like a formless ghost, where a chilling cold rose belatedly in the spot it slashed past.

And at the peak of all that destruction was Kim Minwoo.

The Mythical rank sword 'Hell Rhapsody', shrieked.

That was closer to a scream than a sword strike.

The dissonance of ruin played by the instrument of a Demon Realm’s Great Demon Lord.

The terrible sound sawing the soul beyond the body tore the Dragon Lord's eardrums and shook his brain matter.

[Item Effect, 'Scream-mixed Performance' activates!]

[Strikes the target's soul!]

Cedric and Merhen unleashed their ultimate techniques.

All attacks converged on a single point.

The aftermath swept through the Golden City like a nuclear explosion.

Park Siwoo stared into the dust cloud, gasping.

The four old men, Han Siah, and Kim Minwoo did not let go of the string of tension.

It was a sure-kill combo where no one spared their full power.

Even if he was a Dragon Lord, he couldn't be unharmed.

And at the revealed figure, the pupils of everyone on the battlefield shook as if an earthquake had occurred.

As if the Mind Strike, death erosion, and soul destruction had never happened, the boy stood there.

If there was one thing that had changed...

It was only that the corners of his mouth were torn as if hanging on his ears.

Archaia smiled brightly and dusted off the dust on his shoulder, tuk tuk.

"I get why Dad said to kill everyone. Letting you go would be annoying."

Kim Minwoo's spine went cold.

That attack just now was no different from the pinnacle of this world’s firepower.

But to think it was merely ticklish.

At that moment, the boy tilted his head.

As if pressing pause and then play.

The world skipped a frame.

Screams erupted simultaneously.

Kim Minwoo couldn’t even perceive the blow.

His vision spun round and round, and only the pain of bones all over his body shattering struck his brain.

By the time he came to his senses, he was already flying through the empty air.

[Merhen is reverse summoned...]

[Cedric is reverse summoned...]

[Dolsoe is reverse summoned...]

All summons being reverse summoned was a bonus.

Kim Minwoo, slammed into the floor, vomited a mouthful of blood.

As he raised his head, a wretched scene caught his eye.

The Fist King was embedded in the debris of the fortress wall with his arm bent, and the Sword Saint was barely holding on using his sword as a cane, covered in blood.

Park Siwoo and Han Siah were sprawled out, completely unconscious.

With a single simple stomp, the most elite forces were swept away like fallen leaves.

From far away, Archaia was walking over while yawning.

Overwhelming despair.

The difference in status was absolute.

"Now, hide-and-seek is over."

The boy's shadow was cast long, as if swallowing the fallen heroes.

Along with the roar of space being torn apart, a blue dimensional gate opened its mouth.

It was the result of Elaudia pouring out her mana with bloodshot eyes.

The moment the portal opened, the heavy pressure dominating the battlefield disappeared as if it were a lie.

No, it didn't disappear.

It was just watching.

Archaia was clicking his tongue, tsk, and smacking his lips.

"Opening only now. As expected of that idiot's daughter."

His gaze was not on Elaudia, but on the portal she had desperately opened.

He didn't seem to have any intention of blocking it.

Rather, the eyes of a child who found an interesting toy.

"So about that... Do you all want to go? Inside there?"

He giggled and pointed at the portal with his finger.

"Then entertain me much more. Then who knows? If I feel good, I might let you go."

It was obvious mockery and deception.

Kim Minwoo, raising his body while vomiting blood, shouted.

"Everyone go! Quickly!"

At that shout, the elders supporting the unconscious Park Siwoo and Han Siah hesitated.

"We don't have time, hurry!"

Kim Minwoo growled, readjusting his grip on Hell Rhapsody.

He looked ready to rush at the bastard at any moment.

Sword Saint Seo Jinchul's gaze wavered as he looked at his back.

His bloodied disciple was pushing his master's back toward safety to protect him.

"...Will you be alright?"

But the weight contained within it was heavier than a thousand pieces of gold.

Kim Minwoo nodded without looking back.

Archaia drew an arc on his lips as if finding it amusing.

"Thief. And, my meal."

The boy's eyes curved like half-moons.

"You think I’ll let you leave? You dare to leave without my permission?"

[Using Guidance of Fate (SSS)!]

[Selecting target, Park Siwoo!]

[Current Affection: 95]

[Future point of '95'.]

[Possession rate of '95' is applied!]

[Your sword strike reverses causality, preempting the 'result'!]

The moment he used Guidance.

He realized it instinctively.

If the last Guidance used when affection was 85 was a stage of transcendence shedding the shackles of the body...

'Now that affection has risen to 95...'

It was the realm of myth that cuts even the logic where the sword touches.

It is already cut before swinging, and the result arrives the moment one decides to cut.

A state where he’s become the sword itself, where only the absolute proposition of 'cutting' exists, ignoring even the laws of space-time.

'This is still far from enough.'

[Using Skill, Descent (EX)!]

[Your divinity descends to the lower world.]

[It is the form of Death.]

[Item, 'Death Emperor's Crown' adds power!]

—I will help a little this time. Since I also have an ill-fated relationship with that mad dragon...

Along with the Death Lord’s faint voice...

[The power of the Absolute who governs death dwells in your body!]

[Sharing the burden of divinity!]

Pitch-black darkness exploded from Kim Minwoo's body.

It was more than mere magical power.

It was the manifestation of Death itself, something that all living beings instinctively revered and feared.

The world unfolded like a flattened blueprint.

A frozen world where even a fleeting moment had congealed like thick resin.

Even within that, the Dragon Lord’s overwhelming pressure was palpable.

If other lifeforms were mere candles, this bastard was…

The kind of sun that would blind you if you looked straight at it.

"Huh? Haha! No wonder Dad said to kill you for sure, eh?"

As if realizing something.

The Lord, looking at Kim Minwoo, let out a grotesque mad laugh.

Death soon became the sword.

With a bizarre realization, Hell Rhapsody turned pitch black.

Time slowed down, and slowed down.

The threads of causality were forcibly aligned at the tip of Kim Minwoo's sword.

A 'confirmed future' where the enemy's neck is already cut before even swinging was embedded in his retina.

In the world that played again, the Lord's head was flying away.

The severed head moved its lips.

Like rewinding, the flying head returned to the neck in an instant and reattached.

Emotion drained like the ebb tide from the boy's face, who was smiling brightly just a moment ago.

Like a child seeing a broken toy, a cool expressionless face covered his visage in an instant.

"That hurt. Not fun."

The moment the bastard tried to move.

[Demon Eye (EX) activated.]

[Entering 'Time of Insight'!]

[Now you can 'see' everything.]

Before he knew it, he blocked the bastard trying to extend his fist toward the party with his sword.

"I told you. You will have to let them go."

Blocking the bastard's gaze, which was trying to follow the traces of his fleeing companions, Kim Minwoo gripped Hell Rhapsody tighter.

A battle that was more than difficult, almost impossible.

Even in front of such an overwhelming disaster...

"But, why are you laughing?"

"Because I'm used to it."

It was Kim Minwoo who had always fought.

"Haha! You think you can catch me?"

"So... don't look away. Because your opponent is me."