### Chapter: 233
Inside Kraush, a fire ignited.
As a result, his eyes began to gradually turn red.
The energies of ‘Heavenly Kill’ and ‘Annihilation Erosion’ surged simultaneously, giving Kraush’s body an extreme boost.
The atmosphere heated up dramatically.
Before anyone could realize it, the afterimages flying around began shattering with a clattering sound.
The third stage of Annihilation Erosion.
Fire-Eater Asura.
Felray felt his face flush with heat.
Kraush was radiating an overwhelming amount of warmth.
In that heat, Felray found himself laughing alongside Kraush, realizing he had grown strong enough to have to exert himself against him.
However, Kraush didn’t stop there.
In response to Felray’s power, an even greater wave of heat poured out from within him, enveloping his entire body.
The warmth raised even higher, amplified by the chilling touch of the curse that was the ‘Cold Nether Reaver.’
Clang!
The afterimages created by Felray couldn’t withstand Kraush’s heat and shattered into pieces.
Amidst that scene, the seven stars of Kraush’s Heavenly Kill all erupted in light.
Heaven-Destroying Asura.
Kraush had reached the fourth realm.
Now, he could access it purely with his own power, without any strengthening elixirs.
The moment they reached that state, Kraush’s burning red eyes met Felray’s gaze.
Felray sensed it instinctively.
He knew he couldn’t defeat Kraush.
Yet, without a moment’s hesitation, he raised his sword.
Shards of shattered afterimages accumulated atop Felray’s sword.
With the swirling afterimages, Felray pulled his weight back, eager to clash his strongest against Kraush.
His aura swirled around him with all his strength.
“Thanks for always being there for me.”
Felray said, delivering a heartfelt gratitude before expelling a blinding light.
In an instant, the air around Felray reversed its flow.
Shards of afterimages collided with the light pouring from his sword, resonating with power.
At the same time, red energies were also gathering around Kraush’s sword.
Within the black flames, a red moon rose slowly above Kraush’s head.
As the crimson moon was engulfed by the black flames and thunder surged forth, Felray smiled, holding onto his sword.
Finally, the two swords clashed at the same time.
Clear Rain Technique.
Fifth Form.
Clear Rain.
Felray’s azure blade cut across the air, enough to clear even the stormy clouds.
Annihilation Erosion.
Fifth Form.
Heaven-Destroying Moon Fire.
The black blades of flames devoured the red moon as they descended upon the world.
The moment the two swords collided, they unleashed a blinding light that seemed to consume sound itself.
And as that light faded, buildings crumbled and smoke filled the air.
From that smoke, someone burst forth, kicking off the ground.
It was Felray, his clothes torn and his body a complete mess.
One arm and both legs were burned, muscles and bones screaming in pain.
Yet, his azure eyes were still burning with defiance.
Felray’s Clear Rain had undoubtedly been overwhelmed by Kraush’s Heaven-Destroying Moon Fire.
The power of Kraush’s technique was on an entirely different dimension.
However, Felray’s full-powered Clear Rain was enough to push back a bit against Heaven-Destroying Moon Fire.
That alone was enough for him to stay conscious.
This was enough.
He knew he could still stand.
Without hesitation, Felray forced his way through the smoke, his sword raising a final surge of aura.
And just then, through the haze, the silhouette of Kraush came into view.
Kraush stood facing him, his sword relaxed at his waist, knowing that Felray wouldn’t have fallen easily.
Felray’s eyes suddenly lit up.
“Kraush!”
With that shout, Felray’s sword lunged toward Kraush.
In response, Kraush struck back at him, ready to clash.
Clang!
The sound of their swords echoed.
Felray’s sword slid down Kraush’s blade as he initiated a final struggle.
However, Kraush was equally strong, pressing his guard against Felray’s blade to block his path.
Ka-klang!
In the struggle, Felray panted heavily.
His sword-holding arm had nearly lost all strength.
Yet, he clung to his sword fiercely.
“Felray.”
Amidst all that, Kraush’s voice reached his ears.
“Come at me again next time.”
Next time.
Hearing that, Felray gazed at Kraush past his sword.
He was encouraged to grow even stronger and to clash once more.
Whenever they fought like this, Kraush would always match him with equal force.
Felray, feeling defeated, couldn’t help but chuckle slightly before succumbing to exhaustion, losing his stance.
Thud!
Kneeling on the ground, Felray laid his head down.
But even then, he clung to his sword.
Kraush, having diminished the power of his Thunder Blade, turned to look at Felray.
Kraush, too, was panting from the exertion.
On the ground, Felray lay sprawled, his expression one of relief, as if he had emptied himself out.
With a smirk, Kraush yanked off a bracelet Felray had dropped and pocketed it.
As he glanced back at Felray, Kraush chuckled again and continued down the corridor.
He cooled his weary body using the Cold Nether Reaver after using Heaven-Destroying Asura.
Now, only Meiri remained.
And she was right up ahead.
Bang!
Just then, an uproar erupted from outside.
When Kraush peeked through the window, a dark expanse greeted him.
Zodiac Cloria.
It must be Sigrid preparing to outmaneuver Charlotte.
Also, given the burst of light from the White Dragon, Sigrid seemed to be exerting her all as well.
However, there was one thing Sigrid did not realize.
Though Kraush could have combined forces with Charlotte to obliterate everything, he had intentionally left Charlotte to face Sigrid alone.
‘Today, I’ll escalate Sigrid’s doubts.’
Sigrid’s persistent questions about Charlotte and Kraush.
Both of them seemed to have known something from the past.
Recently, Sigrid might have begun to feel it was more Kraush than Charlotte.
Yet, she wouldn’t be able to accept that fact.
Kraush was someone who had always been cursed in her mind, one who had perished calling out for them just before the reincarnation.
‘Due to pre-reincarnation knowledge, Sigrid, you won’t be able to shake off your preconceived notions of me even more.’
Kraush sensed the unease lingering in Sigrid’s heart.
As time went on, Sigrid had been deteriorating.
The absence of Arthur, who hadn’t shown up yet.
The unpredictable variable of Kraush, who had been cursed before reincarnation.
Charlotte’s excessive involvement.
Mary’s betrayal.
Abella’s disappearance.
Everything had changed too drastically from before the reincarnation.
It was a daunting situation where she felt she had to figure it all out alone.
Sigrid had been under extreme stress, and such stress was gradually consuming her.
Despite believing herself the center of the world, the world was undeniably contradicting her stance.
‘So today…’
Kraush, remembering what he had given Charlotte, wore a cold expression.
‘I’ll shake Sigrid to her core.’
Today’s little scene he’d put on to Glen convinced him of this.
Sigrid was bound to become an obstacle to stopping their downfall.
Kraush lifted his head.
In front of him stood a door.
A magically reinforced door, evidently secured with utmost caution.
Drawing on his Rain Thunder Prime, Kraush raised Annihilation Erosion without a moment’s hesitation.
Then, he swung his blade through the door as it stood.
Crack!
Kraush smashed the door to pieces as if it were tofu.
Lifting one leg, he kicked the door aside.
Thud!
The door flew back and tumbled over.
“Waaaah!”
“Aaargh!”
A scream erupted from within.
Those positioned at the door were crushed beneath Kraush’s imposing entrance.
Nonetheless, he didn’t care, vaulting over the now-ruined door.
Clang!
As soon as he leaped, he deflected an incoming sword strike.
Then, he delivered a powerful punch to the gut of the one who swung the sword at him and kicked him back.
“Ugh!”
Amidst the chaos, Kraush raised his gaze.
He immediately noticed that there were still quite a few left behind to guard Meiri.
Each of them looked at Kraush with wary eyes.
‘Where’s Meiri?’
Kraush sensed the absence of Meiri around him.
‘They’ve hidden her.’
It seemed there was a certain place not even his sixth sense could detect.
“If you’re going to hide her, you all should have evacuated instead, right?”
A grim smile curled at the corners of Kraush’s lips.
The White Ghost members caught on to his implication and felt a chill run down their spines.
Soon after, their screams resonated throughout the room.
—
Belonging to the White Ghost, Special Ops Specialist.
Meiri.
Her specialty lay in her overwhelmingly wide range and multitasking capability.
She could handle dozens of situations simultaneously.
As the head of the White Ghosts, she provided meticulous command, pinpointing enemy locations and assessing strategies.
With almost prophetic detection instincts fine-tuned through extreme training.
From her vantage point, when the enemies’ escape routes, movements, and tactics were in view, all their plans became ineffective before her.
If Meiri had been well, even the White Ghosts would have found it challenging to push through headlong.
Yet, after Meiri faced Charlotte, she regained consciousness only when Kraush clashed with Felray.
Dazed and suffering from a headache, Meiri rushed to activate her sensory abilities.
Having been smashed by Charlotte, it took her a while to reestablish her sensory capabilities.
But even so, Meiri didn’t let herself linger unfocused.
In that moment, she activated her sensory abilities.
In the lower sector, the first members of the Lion’s Order and key White Ghosts were locked in a fierce clash.
On the flip side, the top student of the second division along with the first-year candidates Ario and Aslan were deeply involved in a struggle.
The second-year students following Aslan were battling for their lives.
The White Ghost building was a wreck.
And finally…
‘They’re getting closer.’
The second-year unnamed student and the top student, Kraush Balheim were gearing up after overcoming Felray and heading in her direction.
They were the fastest among the members of the Lion’s Order.
In just a few moments, they’d reach this place.
She had no real options left.
She could only ask the remaining members to guard half the area and find refuge in her sensory immunity toolbox she had prepared.
Bang!
Just as she intended to hide, Kraush appeared.
Standing on both legs, Meiri, who had concealed herself in a toolbox, held her breath quietly.
Instantly upon his emergence, Kraush annihilated every member of the White Ghosts surrounding him.
The ruthlessness of that display was enough to terrify even Meiri watching from safety.
Furthermore, without a hint of hesitation, Kraush interrogated the cadets he had seated.
“Meiri, where are you?”
“I-I don’t know!”
“Right.”
As soon as Meiri answered that she didn’t know, Kraush smashed his fist into the face of a White Ghost member nearby.
This member had often belittled other kingdoms while praising the Empire, an ardent imperialist.
“Ugh, cough.”
Caught off guard, he began to cough, and Kraush raised his fist once more.
“Meiri, where are you!?”
“I-I really don’t know!”
“Right.”
And again, Kraush’s fist found its target on the imperialist.
His powerful blows seemed painful enough to make onlookers wince.
“C-Cut it out!”
“Meiri, where are you!?”
Kraush’s eyes grew icy cold.
His relentless gaze made the White Ghost members tremble.
He was terrifyingly merciless.
Could someone hailed as a hero really be so brutal?
That thought crossed their minds causing sheer fear.
Furthermore, a single unified thought surfaced in their minds.
Maguell Balheim.
They recalled how Charlotte, who emerged from that place, was right now.
The stationed members assigned to protect Meiri were all first-year White Ghosts.
Each had broken by various means when faced with Charlotte, and their bodies carried the terror of Balheim anew.
“Meiri, where are you!?”
Kraush repeated the same question from start to finish.
As if there were no way out other than to answer.
He queried like an endlessly unemotional robot.
Then, with silence in response, Kraush raised his fist once more.
“W-When I’m asked like this… save me!”
Before long, the imperialist member shed tears and attempted to escape.
But Kraush mercilessly stomped down on his back.
“Y-You scoundrel! Don’t! Let me go! I promise I swear!!!”
As Kraush’s punched the member, he lost several teeth and screamed in panic.
However, Kraush didn’t care for his pleas.
He fixed his gaze on the one who first asked.
“Where is Meiri?”
The person questioned looked as if he was frozen in terror.
Additionally, the eyes of that imperialist member stared at him anxiously.
Upon locking eyes, he could no longer keep his secret hidden.
Bang!
In that instant, the toolbox door where Meiri was hiding swung open.
As Kraush observed the opened door, Meiri stepped out with her lips tightly pressed together.
“…Please stop. I’m here.”
Ultimately, Meiri had emerged of her own volition.
She looked at Kraush with eyes that betrayed her inability to trust him.
What he was doing felt more like a war than anything resembling a confrontation.
Of course, it was a politically tangled contest.
No matter how one looked at it, what Kraush had just exhibited was entirely beyond the bounds of a contest.
“You, a hero, shouldn’t be treating ordinary students like this, right?”
Upon hearing that, Kraush blinked a moment.
Then he burst into laughter as if dismissing her words.
“Have I ever asked to be called a hero even once?”
Meiri’s eyes widened at Kraush’s next question.
She had heard so much about his reputation.
It was quite the shock to realize he was such a person.
A hint of disappointment marred Meiri’s face.
“Meiri, listen well.”
Kraush stepped off the imperialist he had crushed and walked towards Meiri.
“This filthy world is nothing but a cesspool of tainted filth everywhere.”
“What are you saying?”
“And it’s a fact that, as someone with sensory abilities, you’ll come across that filth the most.”
Meiri hesitated.
The way Kraush’s eyes seemed to pierce through her made her feel uncomfortably vulnerable.
A shudder ran through her.
She couldn’t figure out what he was perceiving within her.
“As you witness that endlessly, there may come a day when you want to blind your own eyes and ears.”
“…What are you talking about right now?”
“No matter how hard you try to clean the room, dust will still accumulate.”
Meiri saw herself reflected in Kraush’s eyes.
As part of the Celestial Generation, her exceptional sensing abilities had allowed her to spot crises faster than anyone.
She had repeatedly issued warnings and tried to save people.
But there were those who chose to ignore her warnings and acted upon their greedy intentions — decisions that led to multiple deaths.
Most of those who died were commoners.
She was well aware of how the lives of commoners were intricately interconnected.
As she watched the futility of it all, she quietly wished for neglectful ears and blind eyes.
Though she may speak of her realizations, the world remained unchanged.
“So, keep this in mind.”
From Kraush’s Thunder Blade, a sword shape began to rise.
The oppressive energy from the black flames was enough to make Meiri step back.
“Just know there’s a ruthless arsonist who has decided to burn every last one of those dust particles.”
“Ugh!”
Still unable to comprehend Kraush’s words, Meiri attempted to escape.
Using her sensory abilities, she excelled in evasion compared to others.
She planned to run away at any cost.
However, she quickly realized that this thought was naive.
She felt Kraush’s presence through all her senses.
She knew what that meant.
There was no escape for her whatsoever.
Crack!
As the sound echoed from behind her, she felt her consciousness drifting away.
In that face of fading awareness, she met Kraush’s gaze.
Despite knowing he saw something within her, it wasn’t merely malevolence that filled her mind as she lost consciousness.
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