### Chapter 381
The Demon Emperor, Argol.
Just as his name suggests, he wore a black crown atop his head.
With a total of nine flames lit on the crown.
Kraush knew what those flames represented.
‘Every time one flame goes out, Argol regenerates and restores everything.’
The flames on Argol’s crown are a sort of life count.
Every time one goes out, Argol sheds a shell and becomes another being.
The problem is, with each shedding, Argol grows even stronger.
‘No one has succeeded in peeling back Argol’s shells until now.’
No one in history has ever entered the Demon Bastion through the Magic Region.
The Golden Region, the Magic Region, doesn’t simply disappear even when trying to capture the demon king.
So, it was enough to deal with the demon erosion creatures coming out.
There was no particular reason to hunt down the demon king.
As such, Argol currently had all nine flames and his shells intact.
Until all those flames were extinguished, the demon king wouldn’t die.
‘Once he enters the cocoon state, no attack will work on him.’
However, we also had our tricks up our sleeves.
Sorry, but Kraush had seen the battle with Argol himself up close.
It was Arthur who had defeated Argol when he was unleashed in his most monstrous form.
The Purifying Light held by Arthur.
Kraush had a similar power within himself.
And he shared all of this with everyone before arriving at the Demon Bastion.
“We just need to keep it down to the fifth flame.”
Kraush had no intention of letting Argol show his final form.
So, just the fifth flame.
Once they reached the fifth flame, they could finish Argol off immediately.
“Sounds easy when you say it again.”
Just then, Charlotte stepped up alongside Kraush, radiating blue energy.
Having grown even stronger from her previous battle with Kraush, Charlotte’s presence was fiercer than ever.
‘A monster, huh.’
Kraush couldn’t exactly throw stones in a glass house here, but he couldn’t help but think that the way Charlotte kept getting stronger was simply frustrating.
“Sis!”
“Yeah.”
As Charlotte called out to Lilish, her figure zipped ahead.
Connected by points of light, Charlotte reached Argol before anyone even noticed.
Argol’s arms, hidden beneath his formal attire, began to move.
Clang!
With a flash of blue light springing from Charlotte’s sword, she opened her eyes wide with a grin.
And then, her sword began to move indiscriminately.
At the same time, Argol’s hand endlessly caught the incoming strikes of Charlotte’s sword.
Haring, standing next to Kraush, held her breath.
Charlotte’s sword and Argol’s hand moved at a speed that made it difficult for Haring to follow.
“We shall…”
As the Guardian Sword spoke, Balok raised a hand to halt everyone.
“We wait.”
Under Balok’s command, the Guardian Sword silently checked their blade while staring down Argol.
Argol possessed a unique curse.
The ultimate curse known as ‘Sacrifice.’
His special ability allows him to vaporize the auras of those whose flames he extinguishes for a brief period.
This is a kind of self-detonation.
A self-sacrifice attack that costs him one of his lives.
It’s a curse that anyone dealing with aura cannot avoid.
Of course, that didn’t concern Kraush.
For Kraush, even the ultimate curse could just be swallowed whole.
But others were not the same.
Even Balok, who managed aura, couldn’t completely escape the Sacrifice curse.
Let alone Kraush, who had to conserve his power to overcome all of the Demon Emperor’s phases in one go.
To incinerate all five of his shells at once, he had to take up the role of a glass cannon.
So others needed to form groups to extinguish the other four flames.
There were four groups in total.
First group: Lilish Balheim and Charlotte Balheim.
Second group: Guardian Sword, Severed Sword, and Majus.
Third group: Balok Balheim.
Fourth group: Former King.
Thus, these four groups needed to extinguish the flames of the crown.
So now, the first group—Charlotte and Lilish—had to extinguish Argol’s first flame.
Kraush’s gaze turned back to Charlotte.
She was relentlessly swinging her sword.
However, true to his title as the Demon Emperor, Argol continuously deflected Charlotte’s strikes.
But Charlotte was a once-in-a-lifetime genius.
Even Argol, known as the Demon Emperor, was no match for her.
As Argol’s arm grazed against her sword, it nicked his skin.
Argol’s skin was made of a material even harder than steel.
Yet, as it was sliced open, a few drops of dark blood splattered.
Argol’s eyes darted around, seemingly confused by why he was cut.
To Argol, Charlotte’s aura didn’t seem strong enough to harm him.
But as soon as he reacted with disbelief—
Swish!
Once more, Charlotte’s sword found a strange path and left another wound on his skin.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Argol tried to block all of Charlotte’s strikes.
But time and again, Charlotte’s sword slipped past Argol’s hands and cut into his body.
As this repeated, Argol began to respond more to Charlotte’s presence.
Charlotte’s method of scoring hits on Argol was simple.
She just needed to swing her sword once more in the spots she hit before.
If it weren’t for Kraush, Charlotte would have already placed herself in the conversation of the youngest Ten Great Lords, but her extraordinary talent had not fully matured yet.
So she forced her swordsmanship to rise to the occasion with the lacking aura.
Employing techniques far superior to Argol, the battle-hardened Demon Emperor, she was relentlessly finding openings.
Charlotte was proving she could overpower Argol using her sword alone.
Her strained arm was proof of her pushing her swordsmanship beyond her limits.
Crunch!
But she silenced even the cries of her own muscles, letting her blue eyes shine like stars.
“Just follow me, as I’m having fun.”
Charlotte maintained that aloofness even towards her own body.
“…Lady Charlotte, you’ve grown even more since we last met.”
Witnessing the scene, the Guardian Sword widened his eyes.
Even the Guardian Sword, who had spent a lifetime protecting Balheim, was awestruck by Charlotte’s skills.
At least in terms of swordsmanship, he had realized he was currently being surpassed by Charlotte.
“Wow.”
The vice-captain of the White Dragon Knights, Severed Sword, was equally in awe.
It looked reckless, but everything about Charlotte’s swordsmanship was legendary.
“I knew our young captain was a monster, but it seems there’s another one.”
Within a year’s time, both of them realized they would be completely overshadowed.
“Grrr!”
In that moment, Argol, toyed with by Charlotte’s swordsmanship, expressed his fury.
His gaze, fixated on Charlotte’s sword, finally broke.
Clang!
Instead, a sword shot up from Argol’s grasp.
Simultaneously, his chest gaped wide, and a dark vortex formed in his torso.
The black vortex began rapidly pulling everything in its vicinity.
The first to be absorbed was none other than Charlotte herself.
In the very stance where she was swinging her sword, the moment she was sucked in…
Argol unleashed a massive blade hurtling toward Charlotte.
Just before Charlotte could be engulfed by Argol’s blade,
she stomped the ground, propelling herself up while defying gravity.
She made a quick twist to elegantly dodge Argol’s blade.
Then, riding on the swirling air that Argol created, she aimed to bury her sword in his head.
But Argol wasn’t going to let that happen without a fight.
As his neck stretched, blades protruded from it, aiming right for Charlotte.
Clash!
When Charlotte intercepted the blade…
At the same moment, Lilish, who had been completely focused on Charlotte, arrived in front of Argol with her blade aloft.
A massive surge of aura exploded from her sword.
Wielding the incapacitating technique known as the Ten Great Swords’ Extermination, Lilish swung at Argol.
Thud!
The Extermination lodged itself deep into Argol’s exposed chest, trembling as if it were being pushed back.
The reaction seemed surprisingly light for a hit from such a mighty attack.
Yet soon, its true effect revealed itself.
Shatter Break Sword!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Argol’s flesh and bone burst apart as the shockwaves erupted.
Injecting aura inside and causing it to resonate to smash the opponent… this technique was crafted solely to obliterate foes.
And now serving with even more power than before.
That wasn’t all.
Previously, during the Agares incident, Kraush’s Flame Sword Draw had inspired her to find a way to enhance her own sword.
Thus, she decided to resonate and store her aura within her sword.
Typically, swords would shatter during this process.
However, the most stubborn sword of all, the Extermination, renowned for its simple but sturdy construction, was up to the task.
Extermination, with its unmatched robustness, has managed to withstand her Shatter Break Sword’s resonance.
So, Lilish had cleverly combined her Shatter Break and Extermination into a new technique.
Shatter Extermination!
A technique as terrifying as its name.
She almost took half of Argol’s chest with her strike.
[Why do all those Balheims have to be influenced by you?]
Kraush found himself speechless.
But in that moment, he was glad this influence was helping everyone, so it wasn’t all bad.
At that moment, Charlotte’s dance with her sword began anew.
Charlotte drew Argol’s attention while Lilish landed a decisive blow.
It was a perfect harmony.
However, Argol was not known as the Demon Emperor for nothing.
“Here it comes.”
As Kraush whispered briefly, the corridor beneath Argol collapsed, casting him skyward.
The very roots of darkness erupted.
Those black tendrils drained the life force of everything they touched.
If they ever connected, it would be lights out.
Lilish and Charlotte quickly backed off.
Argol, instead of his lower body, spun countless black tendrils, obliterating the area around him.
In the midst of these tendrils, Charlotte propelled herself into the air with a blast of aura, flying swiftly.
Her extraordinary movements allowed her to dodge every black tendril.
The moment Argol saw Charlotte avoiding his tendrils and coming at him at speed…
He unleashed his trick.
The black tendrils, once swinging wide, began to surging back to ensnare Charlotte.
Simultaneously, Argol’s chest, earlier damaged by Lilish, gaped wide again.
Emerging from there, myriad black hands surged toward Charlotte.
With tendrils behind her and hands in front, both possessed the power to erase all life they touched.
In that life-or-death moment,
Charlotte spun in the air, synchronizing her body and blade.
As she did, her spinning sword left countless glimpses of afterimages behind.
But those afterimage blades were no illusions.
They were consolidated by her aura, giving them form.
The moment an endless array of afterimages filled the space around her—
Boom!
The black tendril that fell to Lilish’s Shatter Extermination was overwhelmed and exploded.
Now, only the black hands stood between Charlotte and her goal.
Upon clashing with the black hands, Charlotte’s afterimages collided, forcing them into oblivion.
Even so, it lacked in reaching Argol.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
At that moment, Lilish, still grasping Extermination in her hand, began to spin.
As she spun, creating a whirlwind, she let go of Extermination.
The Extermination, now imbued with an incredible momentum, spiraled toward Argol.
Upon impact, it met Argol’s black hands, shattering them to pieces.
As Charlotte had her path cleared, she concentrated all the aura in her body into her sword at once.
Her blue eyes glimmered as the aura residing within her blade devoured all light around it.
In that moment, the sword that absorbed all light pierced the ominous clouds above.
Charlotte’s sword shot towards Argol.
The Heavenly One!
The Genuine Line of Heaven!
An endless river of Charlotte’s aura consumed everything around.
And just when the light began to fade—
Inside that illuminating light, Argol, with one flame extinguished, had solidified into a cocoon form.
Lilish and Charlotte had extinguished Argol’s first flame.
With the highest curse, Sacrifice, causing Charlotte’s aura to fade, she landed on the ground.
Casually brushing back her bluish hair, she turned around.
Her relaxed posture spoke volumes that it was hard to believe she had just been through a fierce battle moments ago.
‘Consistent indeed.’
That demeanor, never losing its delight regardless of the battle…
It was indeed what made countless eyes admire the star that is Charlotte.
But there was no time to let one’s guard down.
“Severed Sword, Majus, Guardian Sword!”
With Balok’s call, those three stepped forward.
Clang!
Before them stood the second Argol, having shed its cocoon.
There was still a long way to go before they could take him down.
So there was no time to sit back and relax.
“Take him down!”
With Balok’s shout, the second group’s battle began.
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