Chapter 192
The midterm evaluation had taken place, and quite some time had already passed.
Before anyone realized, the season of summer was right around the corner.
The World Tree, which had been scattering pink petals for a while, now displayed a fresh green hue.
Beneath such a World Tree was Rahelrn Academy.
"Aagh!"
"Kyaaaagh!"
"Stop whining and get up."
Amidst the echoing sounds of training coming from the Martial Arts Department without fail.
Kraush was currently sitting cross-legged in an absurd place, quietly closing his eyes.
The place he was at was none other than a branch of the World Tree.
A location vastly different in height from the surface below.
For the past few weeks, Kraush had been climbing this tree relentlessly.
The reason for this was none other than Durandal.
[The place to start training is atop the Divine Tree. Begin as soon as you climb up.]
As soon as Durandal said those words, he immediately climbed the World Tree.
The sight of him climbing the World Tree with his hands behind his back, taking large strides, made it look deceptively easy.
However, when Kraush himself began climbing, he realized just how absurd the task was.
The World Tree was far taller than it appeared to the eye.
At first, it sloped gently along the roots, but from the middle point onward, it was practically vertical.
Even using Aura to climb the vertical surface had its limits.
Thanks to that, Kraush drove Rain Thunder Prime into the World Tree midway and leaped using Excel.
He then climbed by repeatedly driving his sword into the tree.
'Damn it, I never thought I'd end up using Excel like this.'
With curses naturally spilling out, Kraush gritted his teeth and climbed the World Tree.
If he were an ordinary person, he would have cursed and given up long ago, but Kraush was no ordinary man.
Whenever his stamina reached its limit, he would drive the greatsword he had prepared into the Divine Tree, sit on it, and recover his strength by dozing off.
Repeating this process, he finally reached the branches of the World Tree.
"You've arrived."
As Kraush arrived with an utterly exhausted expression, Durandal greeted him in an extremely relaxed manner.
Then he abruptly spoke.
"Sit and cross your legs."
Without even a moment to rest, Kraush trudged over and sat cross-legged as instructed.
Although he was drenched in sweat and his face was a mess, the malice in Kraush's eyes remained unchanged.
Durandal approached Kraush from behind and abruptly slapped a piece of paper onto his back.
"The paper I just placed on your back contains a power that suppresses Aura."
Hearing those words, he indeed felt the Aura within his body cease to move.
Kraush belatedly realized that an intangible energy was emanating from the paper.
That power was undoubtedly the energy of Durandal's Secret Technique, Disaster Dragon Fall.
'I thought it only suppressed World Erosion.'
It seemed that, if he wished, it could even suppress Aura.
As Kraush was quite astonished, Durandal continued speaking.
"From now on, you will master the most basic power of Disaster Dragon Fall."
"The most basic power?"
"That's right. Once you master that power, the paper stuck to your back will naturally fall off."
The paper on his back carried that kind of meaning.
"So, it's a kind of test."
"That's correct. If you can't pass this, you'll never be able to learn Disaster Dragon Fall."
Leaving those words, Durandal walked forward and plopped down, sitting on the ground.
Then, he crossed his legs and silently stared at Kraush.
Receiving his gaze, Kraush awkwardly remained in his cross-legged position.
After all, Kraush was waiting, thinking Durandal might give him some advice.
However, Durandal simply stared quietly without saying a word.
And Kraush realized what that meant.
'Figure it out on your own, huh.'
Slapping a piece of paper imbued with the power of Disaster Dragon Fall on him and telling him to figure it out alone.
It was absurd, but if this was called training, he had no choice but to comply.
Kraush reluctantly closed his eyes and began to probe his own senses.
As Durandal intended, the Aura within Kraush's body remained completely still.
The sensation was incredibly strange.
It felt as if his Aura itself was being crushed under a massive weight.
Additionally, the power of World Erosion had also become dormant.
Just like his Aura, the power of World Erosion had also been subdued.
Perhaps because of that.
Kraush felt his inner self was extraordinarily quiet.
Every day, his Aura and World Erosion would stir up chaos within him.
But today, with both powers dormant, only stillness remained.
It was a sensation of his body being completely emptied.
Yet, surprisingly, Kraush didn't find this sensation entirely unfamiliar.
'This is that sensation.'
Among the curses he had once encountered.
There was one curse with a function similar to Disaster Dragon Fall.
That curse devoured the Aura possessed by a person.
For ordinary people, it wasn't particularly problematic.
But for someone as exceptional as the Skyborne Generation, this curse had immense destructive power.
After all, no matter how skilled one was, fighting barehanded without Aura was impossible.
Thus, Kraush absorbed this curse, which had afflicted one of the Skyborne Generation, as part of his role.
If he had been even slightly slower, he would have been at risk of having all his Aura drained and left completely empty.
The absorbed curse instantly devoured Kraush's Aura.
However, Kraush's innate Aura had always been insignificant.
He had long since given up mastering Martial Prowess.
His body, surrounded by curses, was better suited to utilizing curses, as it was far too late to handle Aura.
At that time, Kraush had felt this exact sensation.
The feeling of all his Aura being erased, leaving only curses filling his body.
While the curses were noisy in various ways, the inside of his emptied Aura was silent.
Perhaps because of that.
Kraush found the current sensation familiar rather than unsettling.
In a situation where others might have panicked, he began to look beyond his inner self and observe his surroundings.
With his inner self quieted, Kraush became more sensitive to external sounds.
High above in the Sky, the World Tree's leaves fluttered here and there, carried by the strong winds.
But the sound wasn't solely that of the World Tree.
The sky, the ground, and the sea each moved with their own sounds and forces.
Because Kraush's inner self was calm, he could feel the forces of nature more vividly.
Just as Kraush felt those forces, those forces also sensed Kraush's presence.
Perhaps because of that, the forces became curious about Kraush's inner self.
As if they wanted to settle in his strangely empty inner self.
Slowly and leisurely, they began to seep into his inner self.
Kraush was fully aware of this sensation.
It was none other than the sensation he felt when absorbing the power of World Erosion.
'The power is different, but the method is the same.'
Once he grasped the feeling, Kraush began absorbing the power at a rapid pace.
Then, before he knew it, that unknown power completely filled his inner self.
A power distinctly different from Aura or World Erosion.
The moment that power filled Kraush's inner self, he felt an intangible energy overlaying his body.
Eventually, the moment Kraush's eyes slowly opened.
A scenery different from what he had seen so far came into view.
Just as he had felt overwhelming power when absorbing the power of World Erosion.
The moment he absorbed the power within the world, he felt overwhelming power in a different sense.
"Ha."
A sound mixed with a sigh escaped from Kraush's lips.
Srrrk-
At the same time, the paper behind his back fell and fluttered away.
Right in front of him.
Durandal was staring at Kraush with wide eyes.
His eyes were filled with astonishment.
It was only natural.
Durandal had made Kraush sit by the World Tree without teaching him anything.
Because this power could only be handled by Kraush himself experiencing it directly.
Aura is the inherent power of living beings.
Aura, which grows through innate talent and effort, is a privilege unique to living beings.
On the other hand, the power of World Erosion is the power of another world.
As it eroded a world to turn it into its own, it was nothing but violent and rough.
The World Erosion Beings originally did not know about this power.
However, after crossing over to another world as World Erosion Beings, they realized what this power was.
Because they realized that the power of the world they eroded and the outside world were different.
Thus, the World Erosion Beings freely controlled the power of World Erosion.
Creating their species was also akin to integrating them as members of their world.
From there, Durandal noticed one fact.
If the power of World Erosion exists.
Perhaps our original world also possesses its own power?
The moment his thoughts reached that point, Durandal emptied the Aura inherent in life.
Repeatedly exhausting all his Aura throughout the day and collapsing into exhaustion until he finally emptied it all.
Only then did he feel the power of the world.
The inherent power of the world itself, which everyone lived in but never realized.
Durandal called this power the Aura of the World.
And through this Aura, Durandal created the Secret Technique called Disaster Dragon Fall and reached the pinnacle of the Celestial Four Strongest.
The reason Durandal made Kraush climb the World Tree was also to help him easily sense the Aura.
The World Tree allowed one to sense the Aura better than anywhere else.
Especially since climbing the World Tree consumed all of one's Aura, it was relatively easier to sense it.
Of course, he had expected some effect from this action.
'I didn't expect the effect to be this good, though.'
Durandal showed a dumbfounded reaction.
'Is this talent?'
Standing at the pinnacle of the realm of talent, Durandal looked at Kraush with immensely surprised eyes.
In truth, Kraush had no trace of talent, and it was merely thanks to his various experiences.
"Is this it?"
At some point, Kraush was freely handling the Aura.
Because he had dealt with the power of World Erosion, he could also handle the Aura with ease.
'It seems the star mentioned in Sephira's prophecy wasn't for nothing.'
Watching that scene, Durandal thought of Kraush as a genius of the era without Kraush even knowing it.
"Yes, as you said, that is the power called Aura. It is the inherent power of a world, different from Aura. And also the power of Curse that you are using."
Perhaps because he had mixed various Curses into his body recently.
Even in Durandal's eyes, Kraush's power of World Erosion appeared as a Curse.
Well, it wasn't entirely wrong, so Kraush nodded.
"And based on that Aura, you will now learn Disaster Dragon Fall."
"I see."
Kraush looked at the Aura swirling in his hand.
The Aura swirling in his hand was clearly a power different from World Erosion.
If World Erosion was a power for erosion, Aura was a power for protection.
Perhaps because of that.
Kraush tentatively clashed the power of World Erosion and Aura.
Crackle!
At that moment, black and white Sparks simultaneously erupted within Kraush's inner self, and his body froze momentarily.
For a brief moment, he felt as if his body was split in half.
If he had made a mistake, he might have screamed in front of Durandal.
'As expected, there's no way to use both simultaneously right now.'
But this was something he had somewhat anticipated beforehand.
Although the inherent power of the world was quite surprising, he had been thinking of a method from the beginning.
Even if it meant burning his body, Kraush was determined to master Disaster Dragon Fall.
'I'll use everything I can.'
This was Kraush's goal from beginning to end.
"Rest for the day. You must have had a hard time climbing up."
Leaving those words behind, Durandal leisurely turned away.
"I'll bring some food from below."
Durandal descended without a care after Kraush had spent weeks climbing to death.
Watching that, Kraush collapsed into his seat.
Kraush's eyes caught sight of Rahelrn Academy far below the clouds.
Kraush simply hoped for one thing.
That no incident would break out down there while he was here.
Even though he knew how futile that hope was.