In an instant, Seira transforms from a beautiful girl to an alluring beauty, speaking in a chilling voice that surprises even herself.
“So, have you spilled all your last words, Ivan?”
Seira momentarily regains her prime form, her blood-red eyes heavy with intensity.
Her voluptuous figure sways as the true White Empress descends.
Where do you think you’re running off to?
Ivan’s eyebrows twitch.
His gaze is fixed on Seira before him.
“How surprising. Who would have thought I’d see that form again?”
Ivan’s body tightens.
His muscles tense.
The reason Ivan ridiculed Seira was because she was merely a half-baked EX rank.
Five Crowns.
Thirty years ago, five heroes who saved humanity from a great disaster.
The fact that their fame wasn’t just a myth is something Ivan, a student of the Red Star, knows better than anyone.
And now, one of those Five Crowns stands right before him.
Not some halfwit, but the prime version of the White Empress.
At the moment when the wave of otherworldly creatures arrives and humanity is on the brink of extinction.
There stands the absolute being who killed countless otherworldly creatures to finally save the world, leading humanity.
“But… your magic core is leaking energy. You can maintain that form for at most 15 minutes… But since you’ll have to go all out against me, that time will decrease significantly.”
However, every action comes with a price.
Ivan sees through Seira’s penalty.
“Hah, how absurd. You think you can fight me in that condition?”
He mocks Seira.
“To execute you will take but a moment…”
In response to Ivan’s question, Seira coldly laughs.
“You don’t need to worry about me, you cheeky thing.”
Snap.
The moment Seira opens her white parasol.
[Did you call for me, Master?]
A translucent white woman appears behind her.
The spirit Amaterasu, embedded in Seira’s transcendent armor.
As she manifests, a white domain unfurls around Seira.
The chant of world creation inscribes itself upon reality.
[The White World that Calls for the End]
【World End White】
Ziiiing!
A wave of magic energy spreads from Seira.
In a flash.
A brilliant white light fills the surroundings.
Ivan’s mental construct, the Crystal Land that was freezing the deserted island, is swiftly overwhelmed by the newly emerged realm of white light.
The white light realm suddenly overwhelms the land like a blinding snowstorm.
“Ugh!”
Ivan’s face contorts as he watches the eternal frost melt helplessly under the radiant white light.
Veins bulge on Ivan’s forehead.
Wuuuuuuuuuum.
Tsar Knuckle whirls, spewing out magic power.
The duel between EX-rank powerhouses quickly becomes a battle of territory.
The moment your domain is taken by your opponent, you lose.
“Graaaah!”
Ivan roars in determination.
Veins pop out on his face.
Thump, thump.
His magic core relentlessly extracts power, and Tsar Knuckle spins.
This time, it’s a genuine defense, fueled by his full might.
But he couldn’t prevent the thawing of the frozen ground.
Just for a brief moment.
A mere few seconds of halt in the thawing process.
“Ivan.”
Zap.
A flash erupts around Seira.
In an instant, her body moves to the boundary between the eternal frost and the white world.
Whosh.
As her foot touches the border, the frozen ground is instantly dyed in dazzling warmth and white.
Seira’s cold eyes lock onto Ivan’s bloodshot gaze.
“Did you mistakenly think that you and I, as equal EX-ranks, were on the same level?”
Sparkle, sparkle.
Like twinkling bulbs, white orbs begin to illuminate behind Seira.
“How dare a washed-up has-been! How dare a specter of the past… block the path of the great Soviet! Are you trying to go against the times?”
Ivan’s composure vanishes.
He instinctively realizes.
Seira was right.
Even among the same EX-rank, a gap in level exists.
And that monster, who occupies a seat among the five heroes who saved humanity.
He couldn’t win in a direct confrontation.
No, even fighting didn’t seem possible.
‘I have to retreat.’
There was only one choice left.
To retreat.
Ivan was no proud warrior.
He was merely a soldier obeying orders from above.
He preferred to avoid dying foolishly under the guise of bravado.
Loyalty to the Soviet.
Moreover, he couldn’t die here for his true desire of world domination.
And to retreat, he needed to deceive the monster before him.
There was no need for much time.
1 second.
Just one second is all he needed.
Wiiiiing!
Tsar Knuckle twirls.
Ivan squeezes his magic core.
“Sputnik──”
Wuuuuuuuuuum!
A horrific amount of magic gathers in both fists, raising a violent wind.
An imperfect technique.
A skill he hadn’t fully mastered.
However, he had to give it his all to deceive the monster, the White Empress.
Only then could he buy even a second.
“Nova!!”
In an instant, the vision turns white.
A tremendous shockwave rushes towards Seira.
Amidst it, the white orb begins to bloom.
Sputnik Nova.
A finishing move from ‘Red Star’ Nikolai Kasatkin, a member of Five Crowns and the strongest hero of the Soviet.
With a horrifying windstorm slicing through the air, the white star, imperfectly manifested through Ivan’s maximum output of magic, hurtles toward Seira.
“It’s been a while.”
Seira smiles.
Swish.
She unfolds her fan.
“However, compared to Nikolai’s star, your starlight is but a firefly.”
“However, compared to Nikolai’s star, your starlight is nothing more than a lightning bug.”
Thud.
Seira stepped forward.
The spirit, Amaterasu, elegantly waved her hand behind her.
In that moment.
Ka-kwak-kwak-kwak-kwak!
An explosive beam shot out from the orb standing behind Seira.
The white star, fired with all the strength of Ivan, cut through the air with a terrifying momentum, vanishing in an instant without a trace.
It wasn’t even a skill; Seira’s basic magical explosion technique had effortlessly wiped out Ivan’s ultimate move.
In the midst of this, Seira felt it.
The presence of Ivan had disappeared.
“You fled like a defeated dog, Ivan.”
A smile crept across Seira’s lips.
“You’ll regret this.”
Whoosh.
Seira’s mockery echoed in Ivan’s ears.
He bit his lip.
What do you mean fled?
This is a retreat.
Fighting against an opponent you can’t handle isn’t bravery; it’s recklessness.
Ivan thought this as he sprinted across the frozen sea with all his might.
But something felt off.
“Why isn’t she chasing me?”
Seira.
She could chase him.
Yet, she didn’t.
That fact weighed heavily on his mind.
“Has she already given up?”
Devoting thought to an unanswered question was futile.
Instead, Ivan began to ponder his escape route.
If he could get out of that monster’s sensing range and confirm his safety, then he would use the emergency return device.
Just as he was formulating his escape plan.
“Where are you rushing off to?”
A cold voice echoed in his ear.
With it came a suffocating sense of pressure that bore down on him.
Ivan’s hands trembled.
He shifted his gaze skyward.
There, he found:
“Ivan Antonov.”
A middle-aged man with murky green hair and gloomy green eyes, impressive yet intimidating.
The President of the Japan Hero Association, an EX-rank hero, a monster rivaling the top at New Crowns.
The sword saint’s successor, the strongest active hero in Japan.
The Black Beast, Shinozaki Ichiro, hovered above in a dark green bodysuit, wielding a Japanese sword with murky green magical energy igniting around it.
“!!”
Disappointment flickered across Ivan’s face.
The White Empress.
To shake off that monster, he had squeezed out most of his mana.
Against Ichiro, who maintained his true liberation without breaking a sweat, Ivan was an impossible opponent.
It was like trying to avoid a fox only to meet a tiger.
If Seira was the monster of the past, then Ichiro was the active monster.
“How dare a Soviet hunting dog… how dare you…”
Veins throbbed on Ichiro’s forehead.
“To lay a hand on my beloved daughter and my future son-in-law in my land of Japan…”
Cold anger dripped from Ichiro’s restrained voice.
Ichiro’s brows twitched.
He was seething with cold rage.
Shinozaki Rin.
Having finally begun to be a proper father now.
After countless years of a strained relationship, it was finally coming together.
Yet, right before him stood someone trying to snatch away that happiness.
The one who nearly took the life of the boy, Kim Deok-Sung, who rescued his twisted mind buried in the shadow of the sword saint and restored his relationship with his daughter was standing right there.
“…There’s no worth in exchanging words or even calling your name. Die here.”
“There’s no value in exchanging words with you, and I have no reason to call your name. Just die here.”
Ichiro raises the Japanese sword-shaped firearm, Ookanihira, to the sky.
[Wilde Jagd]
Ichiro’s mental projection mantra engraves itself upon the world.
Rumbling!
Thunder echoes from the storm clouds gathering in the sky.
Murky green fog quickly blankets the battlefield.
From beyond it, a black shadow emerges.
Wilde Jagd
It reveals Ichiro’s manifestation, unleashing the souls of the otherworldly beings and villains he has hunted and subdued to ravage his enemies.
[Uuuuuuuuuuu…]
The chilling wails of the souls disturb Ivan’s hearing.
Despair crosses Ivan’s face.
“Didn’t I tell you, I would regret this? Ivan.”
In one corner of the dark green fog, a brilliant white light shines.
A beam of light, like a thread of hope in the dark.
But for Ivan, it was a light of despair.
Through the white light, a stunning beauty with white hair down to her waist approaches, riding an umbrella.
Yoshizaki Seira.
She wears a mocking smile all over her face.
“You’ve come, Principal.”
As Ichiro greets Seira with a bow, blood drips from her mouth.
“Are you alright? Can you keep that up?”
Seira struggles to hide the trembling of her lips and shakes her head.
“I’m fine. Ichiro-kun. You’re worrying for nothing; I still have a hundred years left. And…”
Swish.
Seira points at Ivan with the tip of her folded fan.
“This guy is my prey, Ichiro-kun. Don’t you know the saying ‘ladies first’?”
“Hahaha. It’s not ‘ladies first,’ but rather ‘age before beauty,’ isn’t it, Principal? You can stand back; I’ll handle everything.”
“How rude to tease a woman’s age. Tsk.”
Seira clicks her tongue.
“Fine. Then I will generously grant you half of this bastard’s share. Consider it my magnanimity as an elder.”
“I’ll accept it gratefully.”
Even being treated like a neighborhood mutt and insulted, Ivan could not move.
He finally realized.
The reason Seira let him go was because of Ichiro.
It had been a trap from the start.
With a last-ditch effort, Ivan injects mana into the emergency return device.
“Where do you think you’re running to?”
Flash.
With a green flash, the emergency return device around his neck shatters.
Despair fills Ivan’s eyes as his escape route is blocked.
He cannot win.
But he cannot die here in such an embarrassing way.
“I am Colonel Ivan Antonov of the Soviet Spetsnaz 3rd Division.”
Bang.
Ivan clenches his fist.
Even if he dies, he will die as a great soldier of the Soviet Union.
It was his resolve.
“In the name of the great Soviet and its people, I shall face you…”
Just as Ivan was about to declare his final resolve in a solemn voice.
Flash!
A white light and a green whirlwind fly towards Ivan.
Seira and Ichiro.
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