Chapter 102: King of Signs (1)
TL/Editor: Rungir
Schedule: none
Illustrations: none
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"Damn these monsters! Kill them all!"
"Hehehe! Sounds like what we want to say!"
Roar!
Curses filled the air as the elite force led by Meylmae clashed with the troops Hanosral had summoned.
"Start by smashing their heads, then aim for their hearts! That's the only way they die!"
Boom! Crash! Sizzle!
A fierce battle erupted. Were they truly the elite of the elite?
The combat prowess of Meylmae's troops surpassed all expectations.
Their strength was undeniable, but more than that, they had experience from hundreds of battles. Their skills in fighting against monstrous entities already ranked among the best in the entire empire.
On top of that,
"These damned pests! Tear them apart until there's nothing left!"
A deep hatred in their eyes further boosted their combat performance. That hatred stemmed from the past – many among them had lost friends or family to these monsters.
Boom and crash!
In no time, the hall of Chimseong Palace turned into a battlefield from hell.
Hanosral murmured in disbelief amidst the chaos.
How was it possible for a key force of the boundary to be here?
'Although things seem dire now, as long as King Liam Rainer and Commander Girard are with us, the advantage should tilt to our side.'
First, he needed to intervene.
'To do that...'
With that thought, Hanosral glared at Zion, who was still smiling at him from afar.
'I need to finish off Zion Agnes quickly.'
No matter how fit Zion Agnes appeared to be, there was a vast difference in power between him and Hanosral. Even if the red-haired woman beside Zion intervened, the outcome wouldn’t change. The sacred blood could be sought after everything settled.
"I originally planned to slowly crush you, starting from your toes. But I’ve changed my mind. I'll end it quickly, so be grateful."
As he said this, the Sign King reached out a hand towards Zion. Just as he was about to grasp, Crunch!
Without any warning, the space around Zion and Liushina turned red and then crumpled in on itself.
Hanosral's most potent power was barrier magic derived from isolation and separation. With it, he could manipulate space itself.
"Can't even react?"
He gazed at the collapsed space briefly. Just as he was about to turn back to the battlefield,
"There’s no need to react."
An eerie voice of a woman echoed from thin air.
“……?”
Hanosral turned his head, and before his very eyes, ashes floating in the distorted space began to converge, taking on a human form.
A sight so surreal that even seeing it was hard to believe.
Soon after, Liushina, having resumed her original form, flashed a bright red grin.
“I hope you can endure for long. Unlike you, I wish to take my time killing.”
The space around Hanosral split open, and from within it, hundreds of sinister snake-like heads targeted him.
“What……!”
The unimaginable power emanating from each of those heads surpassed even his wildest assumptions about the witch's capabilities.
Caught off guard, Hanosral quickly erected a protective barrier around himself.
With a fierce roar, he invoked a high-tier isolation barrier, designed to ward off any incoming shock.
However, with a sharp tearing sound, the heads summoned by Liushina devoured even the protective barrier of the formidable Hanosral.
In the very moment Hanosral's barrier and Liushina's attack perfectly offset each other, stealthily and without warning, from the shadowy backdrop, Zion, with his sword Eclaxia surrounded by dark aura, made his strike.
Could he be another grand sorcerer?
With widened eyes, Hanosral extended his hand in response to Zion's sudden assault.
In mere moments, layers upon layers of magical barriers clustered around his fingertips.
Then, a colossal clash.
The resulting shockwave from their powers' collision obliterated everything in its vicinity, rippling throughout the entirety of Chimseong Palace.
The palace itself seemed on the brink of collapse.
But that wasn't the end of Zion's onslaught.
With a graceful spin, Zion, while lowering his body, charged at Hanosral, drawing his extinction sword horizontally once more.
With a thunderous sound, Zion's sword, accelerating dozens of times in a split second, breached even the speed of sound.
Hanosral, perhaps realizing evasion was futile, thought, 'Block first, then counter immediately.'
With the same barrier-infused hand, he tried to grasp the rapidly swinging sword of Zion.
But the outcome this time was different.
With a crisp sound, the moment his barriers made contact with Zion's dark-imbued blade, they shattered as if rendered non-existent.
“!!!!!”
Shock painted Hanosral's eyes.
It was due to the nullifying properties of the dark aura surrounding Zion's blade, but Hanosral had no way of knowing that.
After all, every opponent who had ever faced Zion's power had perished.
With a piercing sound, Eclaxia seemed ready to slice through the arm of Hanosral. But Hanosral, once again invoking layers of barriers within his arm, managed to stop the sword’s advance.
“Kruk!”
In a scream mixed with agony and rage, Hanosral lunged with a fist from his opposite hand toward Zion.
With a deafening crash, the space distorted as a massive wave of energy trailed behind Hanosral's fist.
---
---
It felt as if his body had been almost entirely restructured.
As a result, all his physical abilities had improved incomparably to before, and his Dark Star even reached the edge of the third rank.
'On top of that, the Demon King is caught up in it.'
He had thought his head could move, but he had been skeptical about whether he could move up to the level of the Demon King.
'Probably my stealing of the holy blood played a significant role.'
In the annals, the angel's blood was deeply associated with Hanosral.
'If I take this opportunity to eliminate Hanosral, I can completely erase some of the many incidents that will happen in the future.'
Of course, even if the Dark Star reached the edge of the third rank due to body improvements, facing one of the demon kings with just his innate abilities was still a stretch.
But now, Zion was with the witch called the thousand-year-old witch, a top-tier powerhouse of the world.
"Kyahahahaha!"
She alone might be able to face Hanosral.
It was only natural for Hanosral to be pushed back since she was assisting Zion.
'I'll draw out this guy's hidden barrier.'
Then,
"Uaaaah!"
Was he trying to overturn the increasingly leaning odds?
Amidst the endless offense and defense, Hanosral let out a massive scream.
With that,
Countless faces that appeared around him opened their mouths and let out the same scream.
Due to the powerful shockwave bursting out from that, everything within a certain radius vanished.
Whaaaak!
For a moment, the air seemed to disappear, and despite being indoors, a wind started blowing towards Hanosral.
Paang!
Dodging the shockwave and creating some distance, Zion rode that wind and charged back at the Demon King with mad speed.
"You persistent!"
Annoyed by that tenacity, Hanosral spread both of his hands wide.
From those hands, a burst of energy transformed into dozens of giant snakes in an instant, hissing!
Those snakes were launched towards the charging Zion and Liushina.
Both of them recognized the danger and tried to counter simultaneously.
But those snakes,
Were soon swallowed whole by the creatures Liushina summoned.
"......"
Even though the technique he displayed was obliterated in an instant, there was no sign of regret on Hanosral's face.
After all, that was just a distraction.
Kiiiiing!
'I need to kill one of them immediately to prevent a combined attack.'
The Demon King, taking advantage of that brief moment, unveiled a technique contained in his palm and directed it at Zion.
The power emanating from it was incredibly potent, unmatched by anything he had shown before.
"Master, you need to dodge that!"
Liushina, momentarily restrained by the faces Hanosral summoned, cried out to Zion for the first time.
However, Zion continued to charge straight towards the Demon King as if he hadn’t heard that shout.
"Foolish."
To anyone watching, his actions were sheer recklessness, prompting Hanosral to immediately release a fully-formed spell.
Demon Blood.
One of the top dark arts he had crafted using a portion of the life energy from the humans he'd consumed.
A red light capable of melting the very existence of its target pierces through the space, quickly engulfing Zion's entire body.
Without even a chance to react, Zion's figure disappears into the light.
"Now, just that woman left..."
In that moment, as if there was no need to verify anything further, Hanosral swiftly turned his gaze towards Liushina.
Swoosh!
Without any warning, a sharp slicing sound is heard, and his left arm is severed.
"What...?"
Only after the severed arm had completely hit the ground did the Demon King finally realize what happened, his eyes swelling in shock.
At that moment,
"You should've checked properly."
A chilling voice that shouldn't have been heard echoes.
Along with it, whoosh!
A black blade light starting right beside him filled his vision.
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