Chapter 394
### Chapter: 394
Time stood still for Kraush and Abella.
Kugugugu!
In the sky, the Sarion was coming down, its massive body leading the charge.
Meanwhile, the imperial forces, along with Icarus, were in complete disarray as they faced the onslaught.
Just moments ago, they had been battling in the Giant’s Forest.
Now the Sarion appeared, not just breathing fire but aiming to slam its body down on them.
Exhausted from their fights against the giants, the soldiers had almost no means left to deal with the Sarion.
“Everyone, calm down!”
At that moment, it was the Emperor, Darling Danphelion Junon, who brought them some composure.
He had been trying to stop a giant targeting Icarus but ended up with his right arm nearly shattered.
The priests had jumped in to patch him up, but he was far from being operational.
“Wizards, take care of the injured first. This monster is immune to magic. Everyone, including Icarus, needs to evacuate right now.”
Since the Sarion was immune to magic, the wizards should focus on escaping instead of fighting.
Darling Danphelion was also the commander of this assault on the Giant’s Forest.
His command spread immediately to everyone around him.
“Hmm, is it really okay to escape like this?”
At that moment, the Empress, Glacius Lactea, loosened her stiffened body and questioned him.
Upon hearing her, Darling Danphelion looked up at the sky.
“It’s just a hindrance if we stay here.”
“You seem to have heard something.”
“There’s a certain intelligent princess in this world, you know. She mentioned that the corpse of the evil dragon has vanished from the dragon’s grave in the west.”
Glacius raised an eyebrow, incredulous.
Did the renowned genius princess predict something like this?
“I hear there’s someone who has a plan for when the evil dragon returns as the Sarion.”
“That beast? It must be at least giant-sized!”
Both of them had just dealt with giants and fully understood the danger the Sarion posed.
“Everyone has something they excel at, don’t they?”
He chuckled bitterly.
“I guess we’ve done all we can.”
Everyone has their golden days, and there comes a time when those days come to an end.
For a long time, Darling Danphelion and Glacius had lived as part of the Sanctuary of Stars.
Just as Glacius often joked about retiring.
Darling Danphelion felt it intuitively.
The time they had lived was waning, and a new era was rising.
In this new age, those suited for the time would step forward.
It also meant some had to step aside.
“I’m getting old. I suppose it’s about time for retirement.”
“Hah, who do you think you are, little brat? You’ve got plenty more to give!”
Glacius scoffed at Darling Danphelion’s aging talk.
Hearing this, he forced out a laugh as he looked up.
Up in the sky, a girl was flying high on a frozen bird.
It was Bianca Hardenhartz.
And behind her, Haring Lagrain was holding her up.
And there was one more.
A figure with long black hair mixed with crimson hues danced in the wind.
Darling Danphelion lowered his gaze.
These were the next generations stepping up.
Heroes were being born with bright lights emerging fiercely.
‘The Fourth Princess is quite impressive.’
He wondered just how much she could see, but Darling Danphelion led his people, wanting nothing more than to escape the Freya Mountains.
At that moment, Crimson Garden glanced over at Icarus as they were evacuating and slowly turned her head.
This was because three individuals flew up on ice dragons beside her.
“Boobs!”
Crimson Garden called out to one of the women atop the ice dragon with a cheeky grin.
“Don’t call me that!” the woman yelled back, her body flinching at the comment.
It was none other than the world’s only necromancer, Ebelasque Benapochi.
She specialized in spirits and corpses and was a total expert.
“Krim.”
As the Sarion approached, Bianca spoke to Crimson Garden.
Her eyes sparkled with excitement.
“It’s a dragon!”
Perhaps because she’s spent time with the crow since childhood, Bianca regarded Crimson Garden with delight.
“It’s grown big, yet it’s still just a white chick, isn’t it?”
Crimson Garden commented as she noticed how unchanged Bianca remained since their younger days.
Ebelasque looked tense as she stared at the coming Sarion.
“This scale is… something else!”
“Quit whining. You said you wanted to help, didn’t you?”
As Crimson Garden reminded her, Ebelasque was indeed there to assist Kraush.
So, she was determined to give it all she had.
In that moment, Crimson Garden asked again.
“So, how do we catch that thing?”
The Sarion was too powerful for Crimson Garden’s magic.
Taking a deep breath, Ebelasque said, “No matter how evil it is, it’s ultimately just a dead body. Once my necromancy touches it, I can control it. The problem is getting close.”
Despite biting her lip, she spoke with certainty regarding her specialty.
“I’ll help you.”
Bianca stepped up to aid her.
She was the one who had brought Ebelasque all the way to this point.
She was confident she could get them to the Sarion in no time.
“Me too.”
Haring chimed in from behind her.
With Haring’s invisibility, they could slip through without the Sarion noticing.
This left Crimson Garden with the mission of holding the Sarion back from the mountains.
“That should be the easiest job I’ve ever had.”
Crimson Garden’s hands moved effortlessly, drawing multiple magic circles simultaneously.
The sight dazzled Bianca and the others with immense magical power.
“I’ll buy you all the time you need.”
Bianca’s ice dragon unfurled its wings ferociously.
At the same time, the three of them vanished, thanks to Haring’s invisibility spell.
“Go ahead and do your thing.”
Time for the old fella to get his revenge.
* * *
Flash!
In the pitch-black space, a bright flare streaked past.
In the center of that flare stood a small girl with red hair.
She appeared so childlike that one would think she had yet to come of age.
But witnessing the magical spectacle erupting from her would make even a grand wizard bow in respect.
And amidst such a crisis, Kraush Balheim’s eyes shone white.
Kaaang!
As his sword intercepted the beam of light, he struck against Abella’s defense spells.
However, he only managed to disrupt her barrier a little.
There was no way to pierce through her defenses.
Abella gazed at Kraush through the thin shroud of magic, her eyes cold as steel.
This was the soul prison created by the Transcendence Stone.
And right now, she had it wide open.
She aimed to absorb all the power that surged through his being.
Yet, the white flame pouring from Kraush’s body seemed far from cooperative.
To be precise, it flowed out from him only to rush right back again.
With her hazy eyes open wide, Abella grasped one truth.
‘Crimson Garden’s immortality.’
Crimson Garden’s immortality tied her soul in chains to prevent it from drifting away.
Though this came at a cost of eternal slumber for her body.
The shackles binding the soul were immensely strong.
‘But this is the world of the soul.’
Abella dragged Kraush into this realm of souls.
What flowed from Kraush’s body as white flames was akin to his soul.
Consequently, the shackle of immortality was reclaiming all the white flames Kraush expended.
In this domain, the chains of immortality proved to be far more potent than expected.
‘Was this what she aimed for from the beginning?’
Abella assumed that even if Kraush gained immortality, she could easily erase it with her white flames.
Being put to sleep was just the beginning; immortality came with many limitations.
It’s no wonder Abella chose reincarnation over immortality herself.
But Kraush didn’t seem to care about such restrictions; he was absorbing immortality and unleashing its power freely.
It made him appear like a strongly burning candle.
The end would eventually leave nothing behind, but for now, it burned brightly.
“Interesting.”
Whether she anticipated this soul prison or guessed he meant to use her as a vessel.
Either way, Kraush had come prepared for how to deal with it.
Yet, that alone was vastly insufficient.
No matter how tightly she bound him with his soul, if he poured out enough strength, it wouldn’t matter.
Besides…
“Kraush, you must know.”
Abella’s staff slowly began to trace a circle.
With each stroke she made, countless magical symbols emerged, tracing around her.
The sight was absurd enough to take any aspiring mage’s breath away.
“That’s not enough to affect me.”
Abella understood well that Kraush couldn’t break her defenses with sheer force alone.
Apart from using all his energy, he had no way to overcome her.
Seeing through this, Abella decided to push him further.
The ground shattered.
Lightning struck from above.
Lava from hell erupted.
The atmosphere quaked.
A storm of ice and snow surged forth.
All kinds of magic unleashed by Abella showcased their magnificent power.
The spectacle felt as if all the world’s natural disasters had come together.
Each one had sufficient strength to change the nature of the land itself.
Even the Kingdom of Jeblam seemed like it would crumble under her magic.
Amidst this rampage of power, Kraush quietly observed Abella.
She looked at him with emotionless eyes amidst the cataclysm she had summoned.
If he didn’t expend his energy, she could kill him and crush his body like she did with Aria’s.
Surveying the blackened space filled with Abella’s magic, Kraush took a deep breath.
“Yeah, you know me too well.”
Abella was at the peak of magic.
Before their previous life, she had stood alone at the summit of magic, never revealing her full strength.
She simply watched the situation unfold patiently, unleashing her spells precisely at the right moment.
She might have seemed like a timid girl to those who only saw her around Aria.
But when it came to magic, her gaze penetrated far beyond the mundane.
It’s likely that Kraush kept labeling Abella as dangerous because he sensed the unsettling vibe she masked.
He was just that keen.
He had subconsciously picked up on the anomaly she hid within.
So now, he could finally say it.
That wretched woman who had lived through countless reincarnations from ancient times to now was…
The pinnacle of the world.
And so Kraush decided to give that apex a little surprise.
Finally, the fierce light began to pour into Kraush’s Holy Sword.
It was the grand finale.