Read Novel Full Chapter 661: What Is Left After Victory?
Chapter 661: What Is Left After Victory?
The two fought on a grand scale, unleashing humongous attacks and fighting without regard for their surroundings. They were unrelenting with their attacks.
Reph zoomed through the air, attacking the giant colossus with all his might. He used his overwhelming speed and small size to unleash numerous attacks. From complex spells to simple beam attacks, and complex light constructs to using the sheathed weapons strapped to him, Reph fought with all he had available.
But unfortunately, he paled in comparison to Albrecht when it came to an arsenal of abilities.
By utilising all three elements—wind, earth, and electricity—Albrecht was akin to a walking natural disaster as his destructive spells decimated the surroundings.
So while Reph fought to overwhelm Albrecht with his rapid attacks and speed, Albrecht fought to overwhelm Reph with size and power.
Speed versus Strength.
[16:55 PM]
BOOM!
Within a lapse of judgement, Reph was struck out of the air by a bolt of lightning, and the weapons he had used to block it instantly shattered. Like a bird stripped of its wings, he plummeted to the ground, smoke rising from the surface of his skin.
Thud!
Once Reph gathered enough strength to get back up, he was quickly met with an encirclement of predicaments heading his way. From great earth spikes to towering tornadoes and lethal thunderbolts, Reph was left no way out.
No way except…
“Take another five years!”
Sacrificing more of his lifespan.
The radiance surrounding him exploded outwards once more, brighter and fiercer than before. And at the same time, Reph felt another piece of himself vanish.
Ignoring the uncomfortable sensation, Reph pulled his hands together and condensed a massive sphere of light between his palms.
After crushing it in between his palms, Reph roared:
“[GREATER BRILLIANCE]!”
The light beam that erupted from his palms was five times its original size and brightness.
Piercing through the encircling calamities, it struck Albrecht and punctured a humongous hole through the colossal golem.
Reph then forced himself to turn, destroying all the other calamities surrounding him—expending a great deal of mana. After he did that, Reph glanced at the surrounding buildings before flying back into the air.
[17:00 PM]
The two continued their battle, crossing over a significant amount of distance from their initial spot. By now, they had reached the borders of the middle ring.
SHATTER!
Watching his next weapon shatter, Reph turned to find a new one, while splitting his mind to focus on bombarding Albrecht with as many light attacks as possible. The only reason he hadn’t completely exhausted his mana was because of two reasons: one, because he had a large capacity, and two, because he had mana potions.
Downing another potion from his spatial ring, Reph prepared another attack. But before he could, he was interrupted by a streak of lightning, followed by a large swing from the colossal golem.
Reph quickly vanished into light, reappearing somewhere else.
When he did, he was met with a rude strike of thunder from above.
And like he was struck with a red-hot hammer, Reph was smashed into the ground—the area underneath him cratering from the impact.
From such a hit, a normal, frail person would’ve been killed instantly.
Fortunately, Reph wasn’t normal. And neither was he frail.
After coughing blood and even throwing up the crimson liquid, Reph managed to turn to his side and push himself onto all fours. His body was seriously burned, his skin close to the colour of char.
His breathing was heavy, like he was suffocating.
His body felt difficult to move, like it was shutting down.
‘My left arm feels weird…’
Reph’s vision blurred and darkened for a split second, the lids of his eyes growing heavier by the second. He couldn’t even feel pain at this very moment, only tiredness…
“Is…”
‘Is this where I’ll die…?’
The muscles on Reph’s face twitched as a faint smile could be seen on his face. When he came to this event, he couldn’t have imagined he would be brought to such a state. Neither would he expect to experience so much.
‘I…’
“I can’t die now…”
Shakingly pushing himself back up to his feet, Reph looked around, finding the crown that had fallen off his head just a few metres away from him. He gritted his teeth and moved forward, stumbling as pain relentlessly shocked him.
He couldn’t die now; he was still needed elsewhere.
He also…
‘There’s still people here…’
Haven’t distracted Albrecht long enough yet.
When Reph arrived to fight Albrecht, he never intended to win.
In actuality, his goal had always been to buy time for Millis to evacuate as many people as possible.
Yes…
All this time, Reph came with the intention to save people.
Throughout the entire battle, the seemingly reckless attacks he launched at Albrecht were anything but mindless desperation to win.
Every action he made was within reason.
He had deliberately led Albrecht away from areas that may still be populated. He also actively intercepted attacks that would’ve said areas—constantly redirecting the battle whenever it drifted close to where he believed there would be civilians.
Reph was like a lone shepherd holding an oil lamp in the dead of night, luring a monstrous wolf away from a flock of helpless sheep as he waited for help to arrive.
Leaning down, Reph picked up his crown and placed it on his head. He then looked around, looking at the buildings that caught on fire due to the lightning strike. Because they were in the middle ring, the buildings here were more susceptible to catching on fire.
Reph breathed heavily, his consciousness fading in and out, but he managed to force himself to fly back into the air.
Before he returned to fight Albrecht, he made one final sweep of the area. And when he did, he realised that there were no signs of human life.
Reph widened his eyes.
‘There’s no one here? Could it be…’
BOOM!
Startling him out of his stupor, Reph turned towards the loud sound.
In the distance, Albrecht’s towering form collapsed to its knees as gargantuan earth chains erupted from the ground, binding its limbs and dragging it to a halt. These earth chains soon transitioned to a metallic material.
And the cause for all of this was…
“REPH, EVERYONE IS DEEP UNDERGROUND! KILL HIM NOW!”
Was Millis, who was struggling to keep the colossal golem bound.
Radiating intensely from the Millis’s armoured body was a dense aura of mana; something that Lillian would’ve recognised instantly as excess mana—excess caused from something like an Affinity Pill.
“I CAN’T HOLD HIM FOR LONG, SO DO SOMETHING QUICK!”
Reph’s eyes glimmered.
With a nod, Reph moved into a stance, but felt something off.
Taking a look at his left arm, he only now realised the condition it was in. It was crooked and didn’t look even the slightest bit healthy. It was broken…
‘Without two arms… I won’t be able to form a stable spell…’
Light element, similar to the Darkness or Fire element, was easily dissipable. To stop that, Reph needed to condense his element to a highly concentrated and destructive point before releasing it. Unfortunately, a task like this was extremely difficult to do with your mind, thus usually requiring some form of guidance using your arms or even an item.
“Damn it…”
‘Is this it…? Are we going to miss out on this opportunity because I was useless?’ Reph gritted his teeth. ‘I refuse!’
Using the intense light emitted from his body, Reph concentrated it around his entire body.
Millis, who was struggling to keep Albrecht still, watched as one of the chains holding down his arm snapped. She frowned deeply at this.
Splitting half of her mind, she used the excess mana around her to reduce the integrity of the stone golem’s form, leading it to soften and weaken a little.
“LET ME GO DAMNIT!” Albrech roared from within the golem.
Millis grinned deviously under her helmet, which was half-filled with her blood, “NO CHANCE!”
As she was about to look back to call for Reph again, she witnessed a blinding blur of light pass by her at an astonishing speed.
Albrecht, who was just about to snap another chain, sensed a tremendous force crash into the golem. Following that was the sound of tremors, but also… heat?
Before Albrecht could even process what was going on, he suddenly found himself outside of his golem, having been ripped straight out of it by Reph, who flew them straight towards the sky.
The two climbed higher and higher in the air, crossing hundreds of metres in seconds.
Reph, with his hand pressed against Albrecht’s chest, allowed a small gap to open between his palm and Albrecht. By doing that, he began to build up a tremendous amount of light inside the gap.
If he wasn’t going to be able to condense a light orb by himself, then he was going to use Albrecht to do it!
BAM!
“Ugh…!” Reph let out a groan as a fist made contact with his side, breaking one or two of his ribs.
“LET GO!” Albrecht roared savagely, being burned repeatedly by the light around Reph.
Reph chuckled with a hoarse voice, “Not… a chance…”
Soon enough, the two of them entered the clouds, piercing through them.
BAM! BAM! BAM!
“Let go, let go, LET GO!” Albrecht repeated in desperation, no longer able to see the ground. The human-like trait he once exhibited was no longer, replaced with a savage and instinctual need to survive.
Reph vomited another litre of blood, but there was no pain or fear in his eyes.
Instead…
“If that’s what you want, we’ll part ways here.”
There was a look of unkillable resolve and determination.
Albrecht paused, raising an eyebrow before glancing back. That was when he saw a floating black lamp hovering within the clouds.
And before he could do anything, Reph had already pushed him away; now carried by momentum, which brought him several meters away from the prince.
He stared down at the prince, who had a dense palm-sized orb in his hand.
In the next moment, the orb shattered into a pillar of blinding light, instantly swallowing Albrecht and the lamp that had employed its purple flame barrier.
Albrecht quickly deployed defences of his in the form of the metallic shell, along with his Compass Eyes. In the next moment, the light pillar that was only ascending upwards was now descending as well, attacking Reph.
The prince, who still had enough mana to defend himself, watched as the metallic shell wrapped around Albrecht began to melt and disappear from his body.
‘No… This can’t be!’ Albrecht thought, seeing his regeneration factor unable to heal him fast enough. His eyes were also unable to completely reflect most of the light coming at him. ‘DAMN, DAMN, DAMN!’
As Albrecht was going through this suffering, he was able to pick up the sound of Reph’s voice, echoing through the light pillar.
Reph, who was staring directly at Albrecht, had a sorrowful, pitying look in his eyes.
“My earlier anger was misplaced… It wasn’t your fault this happened to you, but Damien’s… I’m so sorry this happened to you… As a victim of my rage, please forgive me…”
None of this was originally Albrecht’s fault, although he did indeed take countless lives; it wouldn’t have happened if not for Damien.
“And in exchange for your forgiveness, please allow me the honour of putting you to rest; unable to cause any more harm and allow the families you’ve harmed peace of mind…”
With gritted teeth and a strained voice, Reph muttered:
“Take… TAKE FIVE MORE YEARS!”
A burst of light exploded out of Reph again.
Albrecht, who sensed this, felt the light penetrate through his body, piercing through him and the purple flame barrier of the lamp, leading to the item’s destruction and also the Spatial Disruption Field.
[17:15 PM]
‘No… NO, NO, NO!’ Albrecht, whose body was about to go through complete annihilation, used the last shred of his mana—not for self-preservation—but to locate Damien with his eyes. Then, once he achieved that, he used them one last time before perishing.
[You have slain a Prime Dire, Human?]
[You have gained a Shard.]
After hearing the kill confirmation, Reph smiled as he stopped his attack and fell back, plummeting.
He had run out of mana, and by now, the item he used to keep afloat was already destroyed.
“Hahaha…”
Although he was seriously injured, the prince couldn’t help but chuckle:
“That move… I have to come up with a name for it…”
‘But for now…’
Reph’s eyes grew heavy, the radiant light in his eyes dissipating.
‘I hope no one minds if this prince takes a nap…’
…
Before Reph hit the ground, Millis managed to swiftly swoop in and save him. After administering a health potion, she tried to wake up, but to no avail.
“Haaah… Welp, can’t blame ya for sleeping.” Millis snickered, flying him over to where all the nobles were—finding that only half of them now remained.
“PRINCE REPH!”
Once she arrived, every noble quickly gathered around Reph, wanting to inquire about his condition. But they all soon dispersed when Silvia walked through and took him away, thanking Millis before doing so.
As Millis watched Reph get taken away, she felt a hand land on her pauldron.
Turning around, Millis quickly found herself questioned by an extremely worried Crystal.
“Millis where on earth were you!?”
“I, eh… Y-ya know how it is… Toilet not flushin’ because of a number two and all that… Hehe.”
While Millis was going through a round of scolding, a group of nobles quickly found themselves able to summon an escape portal.
“EVERYONE, WE CAN FINALLY LEAVE!”
As every single noble quickly rushed towards a portal with their servants, regardless of who the portal belonged to, the number of nobles here dropped drastically to around 15 nobles.
Millis watched as Reph was taken through the one Silvia brought out before nodding in satisfaction.
Afterwards, Millis turned to Crystal, who was looking for a portal to go through.
The Heroine snickered, “Pick fast! Or a big bad man might come over and kill us all~!”
“Don’t joke like that, Millis!” Crystal shouted, still deeply afraid.
“Bleh… Don’t ya have a portal of ya own?”
“H-huh O-oh, right!”
While Crystal rummaged to find the item…
[17:25 PM]
Two towering pillars of different elements erupted; one in the distance and another close to them. The one that was afar was made of pure darkness that threatened to devour existence, while the other was made of pure glistening water.
Millis smiled at the sight of the pillars, instantly recognising the cause of them.
“Seems like those two are doing fine, as expected.”
“Okay! I found it!” Crystal happily shouted, holding out the item and instantly using it. “… Huh? It doesn’t work?”
Discovering her item didn’t work, she tried to activate it again and was met with the same result. She then turned to the nobles around her, who also had the exact same issue.
“What the hell!?”
“Why can’t I make a portal?! Can someone let me borrow their’s?”
“None of our items work!”
“Even the activated portals are gone!”
Crystal’s eyes shook in fear, afraid of what this could entail. Turning to Millis, she looked for advice.
“M-millis, what do we—
“To think the lamp was destroyed… How lucky I came prepared.”
Much to her expectation, Crystal didn’t find Millis next to her. Instead, she found a dense mist, followed by a haunting voice.
“Now then… What to do with you nobles…”
⚬──────────✧──────────⚬
“Ugh…” Millis groaned as pain throbbed through the side of her head, her vision spinning violently.
‘Did I just get kicked in the head…?’
Holding the side of her face, Millis quickly realised her helmet was gone!
‘Did it get destroyed? Crap…’ Millis clicked her tongue as she pushed herself up, ‘At least it’ll come back later…’
Surveying her surroundings with a blood-stained face, the Heroine found herself in some kind of residential district, one that miraculously hadn’t been destroyed by Albrecht.
As she continued to look around, Millis eventually discovered a trail of human-shaped holes that she came through.
Millis smiled wryly, “What’s that guy’s problem?”
Sighing, Millis took a step towards where she came, hoping to get back in time before anything happened.
But before she could take another step—
FWIK!
—Her head violently snapped back.
“U-uugh…”
Millis’s eyes widened as more blood quickly dripped down her face.
Moving her gaze up, Millis shakingly saw a small knife protruding from the centre of her forehead.
For a brief moment, she continued to stare at it in confusion before slowly tilting back and collapsing.
Thud.
Her body laid on the cold, stone road—blood leaking out of her.
And before her body could go fully still, dozens of cultists emerged from the shadows, swiftly surrounding her.
Extra-long chapter today!