TLed by NolepGuy
Chapter 76
Amid the blazing flames of the carriage.
Kraush was exhaling heavy breaths.
His breathing was a complete mess.
His bones and muscles were screaming for rest, and his mind felt like it would be consumed by the heat of the Annihilation Erosion.
Despite possessing a Lunar Body, the unrelenting heat pushed his body to its limits, urging him to stop.
“Hoo, hoo.”
With each exhaled breath, Kraush slowly lifted his head.
From the dark sword he held limply, a faint black flame now flickered, different from before.
In contrast, his opponent standing before him was unscathed.
The Armed Princess, having sustained no significant damage, was watching Kraush.
In fact, neither had dealt a fatal blow to the other.
First, Kraush’s attacks had not inflicted much damage on the Armed Princess.
The difference in their skill levels was too vast.
On the other hand, Kraush, aware of all the Armed Princess’s armaments, had desperately dodged her attacks to avoid being hit.
Thanks to his Sixth Sense, which granted him near-prescient power, he managed to evade all attacks he could.
But because of that, his body was in even worse shape.
To dodge all her attacks, he had to push his Annihilation Erosion to its limits, wearing himself down to the bone.
“You kept acting like you had some hidden trick up your sleeve…”
Observing Kraush, the Armed Princess swung her three swords with a fierce glint in her eyes.
“Kid, was it all just a bluff?”
So, she finally caught on.
“You bastard, you’re not a World Erosion Being, are you? You know all about my armaments. What the hell are you? You’re using the power of World Erosion. Whose paper are you?”
The Armed Princess wore an expression of annoyance, no longer willing to entertain him.
She was tired of dealing with Kraush, who dodged every attack she made.
Moreover, his behavior suggested he knew all about her armaments, which infuriated her beyond mere irritation.
Kraush stared blankly at her before catching his breath and straightening his posture.
Then, abruptly, he sheathed his dark sword at his waist.
As the Armed Princess frowned at this strange action, Kraush spoke.
“…Didn’t you hear what I said earlier?”
The Armed Princess’s eyebrows twitched.
“I told you to stop whining.”
The conversation ended there.
The Armed Princess, seemingly no longer interested in continuing, placed a hand over her chest.
“I kind of care about these kids, you know?”
In that moment, she thrust her hand into her own throat.
Then, she pulled out a dagger from inside her throat.
Wiping the saliva from her lips, the Armed Princess’s eyes glowed a bright yellow.
“But my instincts are telling me something strange. They’re telling me you must die here.”
She had been hesitant to kill Kraush out of fear of Balrok’s wrath.
But now, she decided to forget about that.
Kraush was not a World Erosion Being.
Yet, he knew all about her armaments.
That meant she had to kill him before he became an even greater threat.
Clink-
The moment she gripped the dagger adorned with a bell-shaped ornament, the atmosphere around them shifted dramatically.
The heat of the black flames that had enveloped the carriage suddenly cooled.
As if everything up to this point had been a mere game.
Her eyes, now like those of a tiger, revealed a different kind of hostility than before.
Kraush felt his breath catch in his throat.
There, a giant tiger stood.
A beast baring its fangs to kill its prey.
Just seeing that made it clear she hadn’t been serious in their fight until now.
‘Thirteen Armaments.’
One of the thirteen armaments, personally numbered by the Armed Princess.
The ninth armament, Hell Dragon Pearl.
Knowing its properties well, Kraush even chuckled in front of it.
“Laughing?”
Seeing that, the Armed Princess’s eyes narrowed sharply.
From his reaction, it seemed he knew about her Thirteen Armaments.
Yet, his relaxed demeanor was incomprehensible to her.
“Shua Delphia.”
Once again, Kraush called out her full name.
“What are you going to say now?”
As the Armed Princess expressed her irritation, Kraush shrugged lightly.
“Just calling out to you.”
“What?”
It meant nothing.
It was just a way to buy more time.
Crack!
Because the floor finally succumbed to the heat, turning to ash and beginning to collapse.
Boom!
The walls were torn away and flew out of the carriage.
Even though they were inside the Demonic Bastion, a strong wind from outside blew, ruffling the Armed Princess’s hair.
Realizing this too late, her eyes widened in shock.
As she hastily stepped back to avoid the crumbling floor, Kraush did the same.
“You, damn it, what have you done!”
“What have I done? It’s only natural for wood to burn when it touches fire.”
Kraush spoke nonchalantly, but the situation inside the carriage was anything but.
Everything in the carriage, unable to withstand the heat of the black flames, began to collapse.
Crackle! Crash!
The pillars, unable to endure the heat, broke apart, and the roof was ripped away by the wind from the moving carriage.
Clop, clop!
At the same time, the sound of horses seemingly running hard came from the front of the carriage.
However, no horses were visible, only the fields rushing past through the gaps in the torn walls.
The carriage, losing everything in an instant, was still being consumed by the black flames.
The Armed Princess quickly pressed herself against the wall to avoid the collapsing floor.
From the rapidly moving floor, she could feel how fast the carriage was going.
But even clinging to the wall offered no solution.
The black flames were devouring even the wall she was leaning against.
“Let me tell you one thing.”
At that moment, Kraush, like her, pressed against the wall, spoke up.
“Doors burned by Ignis, for some reason, can’t be repaired.”
“What?”
Upon hearing that, the Armed Princess’s head snapped up.
Her eyes quickly scanned her surroundings.
And soon, she realized.
Three out of the four doors had been completely burned away by Ignis.
The only door that hadn’t disappeared was the one.
The single door that Kraush was now leaning against.
“What, what!”
A tone of bewilderment flowed from the Armed Princess for the first time.
Her ears and tail stood upright as she realized the danger of the current situation.
The secret Belorkin had accidentally discovered through Ignis on the 8th floor was that a carriage burned by Ignis could not be restored.
This place was the Demonic Bastion, but outside it was connected to some field in the world.
Therefore, the moment the space of the carriage was destroyed, anyone inside would be flung out into the field.
Belorkin used this coincidence to defeat Nakcheon and ultimately obtain the Rain Thunder Prime.
“But now there’s only one door?”
With sweat dripping, Kraush drew a provocative smile.
Thud!
At that moment, Kraush pushed back with his back and opened the only remaining door.
All other doors that could be used to exit were completely burned away.
What did that mean then?
If the Armed Princess did not follow Kraush out through the door immediately, she would be sent flying somewhere, just like the roof had been moments before.
Inside the carriage that was entirely engulfed in flames, the Armed Princess felt a sensation of her top spinning out of control.
While desperately deflecting her attacks, what had he been doing?
This guy had been trying to burn down the carriage without her knowledge all this time.
And he did it while deliberately scratching at her nerves, preventing her from focusing on the carriage’s situation.
The caution used to discern the opponent’s moves had instantly turned into poison.
Boldness was precisely what was needed most at that moment.
The Armed Princess’s face turned bright red.
Realizing she had been played by Kraush, her face boiled with anger.
“You bastard! How dare you play with me!”
When Kraush stepped back through the door.
She gripped the Hell Dragon Pearl in reverse.
Thwack!
At that moment, the Hell Dragon Pearl deeply pierced her heart.
In that instant, the red and pitch-black colors of the Hell Dragon Pearl enveloped her body.
The moment a flower that only grows in hell bloomed from her chest.
Horns and a tail sprouted from her head.
At the same time, her legs and arms transformed into those of a dragon, imposingly revealed.
Crunch!
The moment her swollen thighs gathered strength to their limit.
Her body shot out as if it were compressed into a single point.
Krrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
With the belated sound of an explosion, the already burning carriage couldn’t withstand the impact and completely shattered.
However, this was of no concern to the Armed Princess.
She intended to break through the door Kraush had gone through and tear his throat out.
In the form of a demonic fiend, engulfed in rage, she reached the entrance in an instant.
Kraush appeared in her eyes.
As if he had been waiting for her to come all along.
Kraush, in the stance of the Ki-gathering technique, quietly inhaled, creating a storm within his scabbard.
The moment their eyes met briefly, the Armed Princess’s both eyes widened.
Because his spirit, which had been waiting for her arrival, had already reached the realm of Sword and Spirit Fusion.
Shiver!
All her fur stood on end as she felt the power of World Erosion emanating from Kraush, a dimension different from before.
“You bastard!”
At the same time, realizing it was already too late, she screamed out curses and extended her elongated nails.
They wouldn’t reach.
She knew they wouldn’t reach, yet.
She had to tear that damned face apart somehow.
However, as if to deny her the time to vent her anger.
Soon, the dragon surge that bloomed in Kraush’s spirit devoured all the flames.
And that soon.
Signaled the completion of a single sword.
Whoosh-
Annihilation Erosion
Second Form
Sky Annihilating Sword
Krrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
The unleashed storm of black flames swept through, devouring everything.
The entire 8th floor shook violently, the immense storm tearing the carriage apart and finally marking the end of the carriage section.
“Whew, whew.”
In front of the panting Kraush.
The wall torn apart by the Sky Annihilating Sword left no trace.
And there, the Armed Princess was nowhere to be seen.
Clop, clop-
Only the sound of horse hooves could be heard from beyond the field.
By now, the Armed Princess would be rolling around on some field on the surface, intricately connected to the Demonic Bastion, due to the impact of the carriage’s fall.
‘That woman won’t die from just that.’
The Sky Annihilating Sword was Kraush’s full power, but it couldn’t inflict a fatal wound on the Armed Princess who used the Thirteen Armaments.
So by now, she would be spewing all the curses she had, perfectly fine.
The next time they met, she would truly try to kill him.
Of course, the outcome then would be very different from now.
“…But I might die first.”
With that mutter, Kraush slumped to the floor.
The mental and physical strain from the fight with the Armed Princess and the use of Annihilation Erosion made his mind and body ache.
‘I shouldn’t walk on thin ice like this again.’
If it weren’t for the Rain Thunder Prime, he wouldn’t have done such a thing.
Flap-
[Did you finally do it?]
At that moment, the sound of wings flapping came from behind him.
When Kraush turned his head, there was a single black crow.
“Crim, Lakradiyon.”
The Armed Princess issue was resolved.
As she had disappeared from this space, her incarnations would have vanished by now.
So when Kraush asked, Crimson Garden clicked her tongue.
[You’ll have to see for yourself.]
It seemed like an unpleasant situation had arisen.