Chapter: 206


    With a mane made of blue mes and a body of bones, Number 2 was quite the sight.


    But Number 2 had a unique feature.


    <strong>Whoosh!</strong>


    With the manifestation of this feature, Number 2’s mane burst into ck mes!


    <strong>Heeheehee!</strong>


    As the ck mes roared, an entirely different aura emanated from Number 2.


    This wasn’t just any ck me; it was none other than Kraush’s own ck me.


    Number 2’s unique ability?


    It shared the power of its rider as if it was its own.


    In other words…


    <strong>“Excel.”</strong>


    Both Number 2 and Kraush’s figures flickered simultaneously.


    At that moment, a beam of starlight fired from the direction of the Shadow Demon.


    The searing starlight was a destructive beam that erased anything it touched.


    But thanks to Kraush’s skill,<strong>Excel</strong>, Number 2 easily dodged it.


    <strong>Clop-clop!</strong>


    The sound of hooves rang out.


    Number 2, sharing Kraush’s power, appeared to be having a grand old time prancing about.


    “Number 2, from now on, all dodging is on you.”


    “Brughh!”


    Number 2 replied with a little hop.


    With Kraush’s Excel and the Annihtion Erosion at its disposal, Number 2 could adeptly evade the Shadow Demon’s attacks.


    So, Kraush entrusted his lifepletely to Number 2.


    In exchange, Kraush slowly closed his eyes.


    He was entering a focused state.


    <strong>‘Just using Annihtion Erosion alone won’t cut it against the Shadow Demon.’</strong>


    During the first ambush,


    Using the Annihtion Erosion, Kraush had knocked off three of the Shadow Demon’s wings.


    It was undoubtedly a stroke of luck.


    However, because of that, Kraush was certain.


    <strong>Using Annihtion Erosion alone couldn’t bring down the Shadow Demon.</strong>


    To extract the Essence from the Shadow Demon, it had to be defeated for good.


    Once again, Annihtion Erosion simply wouldn’t suffice.


    Especially since the Shadow Demon, now shining like starlight, possessed a strong immunity to physical attacks.


    Naturally, the damage would be halved.


    <strong>‘So, I need to ramp it up.’</strong>n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    White smoke began to waft from Kraush’s mouth.


    Thanks to Nox’s influence, his hair color turned back to inky ck.


    Annihtion Erosion,bined with a momentary enhancement elixir, allowed him to forcibly break through his limits.


    So, he needed to push those limits once more.


    <strong>Whoosh—</strong>


    Deep within Kraush, Ignis burned intensely, incinerating World Erosion as it erupted into Annihtion Erosion.


    The raging mes filled Kraush’s body, sparking fires here and there.


    Those fierce mes were now very much familiar to Kraush.


    Under the eternally dark night sky, which was already gloomy, Kraush’s darkness thickened even further.


    The night was so dark that nothing was visible.


    Yet, stars began to twinkle suddenly in that pitch-ck sky.


    It was the Celestial Seven.


    Soon, the seven stars hung in the sky, and they each began to pour down their light.


    <strong>Thud!</strong>


    As a result, Kraush’s output surged once more.


    Thanks to the innate power of the Celestial Seven, the strength of World Erosion was enhanced even further.


    A cold sweat beaded on Kraush’s brow.


    The scorching heat radiated outward, causing the surrounding temperature to rise sharply.


    The space around Kraush began to twist dramatically.


    But that much was still not enough.


    With smoke spilling from his mouth, Kraush ground his teeth together.


    Simultaneously, another force began to swell within Kraush’s body.


    <strong>Excel.</strong>


    A skill that elerates anything.


    And this skill was now merging with the searing Annihtion Erosion within Kraush’s very being.


    The mes kindled by the Celestial Seven and World Erosion roared fiercely.


    When eleration was added to such mes, absurd results began to emerge.


    <strong>Crack!</strong>


    Kraush gritted his teeth hard.


    And why wouldn’t he? The heat battering his insides was intensifying by the second.


    The mes of Annihtion Erosion were already circting rapidly within Kraush’s body, meant to ignite him everywhere.


    With Excel enhancing that cirction,


    The mes began to move at an entirely different level of speed through his body.


    As a result, the fire’s power surged, heating Kraush’s body even more.


    It was like hammering iron into a sword de, over and over again.


    Kraush’s body was being hammered incessantly to ramp up his output even more.


    The surrounding airflow began to shift.


    The night began to warp.


    And at that moment, the Shadow Demon sensed something was off.


    It was firing beams of starlight to take down Number 2 and Kraush.


    But the Shadow Demon felt something strange about its own starlight.


    The light that had been steadily leaking from its grasp was beginning to get sucked in somewhere.


    It felt as if a storm was raging, pulling everything towards its center.


    The starlight from the Shadow Demon was slowly flowing away.


    The Shadow Demon felt an unfamiliar sense of dread.


    This was a feeling it had never experienced before.


    As if all the starlight making up its being was fading away, threatening its existence.


    This bizarre feeling began to instill a sense of crisis within the Shadow Demon.


    Sparks of starlight erupted forth.


    The Shadow Demon’s gaze fell upon the boy sitting calmly atop Number 2 with his eyes closed.


    The intense heat around them warped the space itself.


    That heat intensified, slowly transforming into a single beam of light.


    As the Shadow Demon recalled why it had scattered starlight, it felt bewildered.


    Within the unending night sky, something it had never seen before stirred in its heart.


    To illuminate the night sky, it had spread starlight.


    It sought the dawn.


    The morning that awakens the night.


    The Shadow Demon longed to see that morning.


    And now, someone was awakening that kind of night sky.


    Someone radiating a brightness it could never produce.


    <strong>Shiver!</strong>


    The Shadow Demon’s starlight flickered ominously.


    At that precise moment, sensing a bad omen, the Shadow Demon’s starlight radiated even more fiercely.


    <strong>“―――――――――――!”</strong>


    A silent roar erupted from the Shadow Demon, echoing into the void as the starlight soared towards Number 2.


    That starlight was like bombs.


    Thousands of beams of light split and annihted everything in their path.


    The ferocious bombardment was enough to tint the night sky with starlight.


    However, what the Shadow Demon did not know was this:


    The more Kraush’s output increased, the stronger Number 2 became as well.


    With a much fiercer ck me surfacing, Number 2 danced with<strong>Excel</strong>like a graceful acrobat.


    Amidst the cascade of light, it effortlessly weaved through all the beams.


    It was nothing short of miraculous movement.


    <strong>“――――――――!”</strong>


    As the Shadow Demon grew increasingly furious, it unleashed a torrent of light towards Number 2.


    Yet, the more it shot, the more daring Number 2 became, quickening its escape.


    The dance of the Shadow Demon’s onught and Number 2’s evasion continued in a never-ending cycle.


    And atop this spectacle,


    Kraush’s body continued to leap over its limits.


    The heat of Annihtion Erosion was beginning to intoxicate Kraush’s mind.


    In this moment of overwhelming heat, he felt he could lose his senses at any moment.


    <strong>“More!”</strong>


    Kraush pushed his output to even greater heights.


    <strong>“More!”</strong>


    Surpassing limits upon limits.


    That was the only thing filling Kraush’s mind.


    And to go beyond those limits, he had to employ the best methods avable.


    At that moment, a chilling aura enveloped Kraush.


    It was the curse of the Hanseol Auri.


    To forcibly stretch the limits of his body.


    He had borrowed the power of the Hanseol Auri to withstand the heat.


    Thanks to that, he could draw out even more intense heat within his now slightly cooled body.


    Before he knew it, the night sky was filled with ck mes.


    In that storm of ck mes,


    It was like he waspleting thest seal.


    <strong>Crack!</strong>


    At that moment, the enhancement elixir shattered within Kraush’s mouth.


    <strong>Whoosh!</strong>


    The roaring mes covered Kraush’s entire body in an instant.


    Finally, Kraush’s body broke through another barrier.


    Surpassing Annihtion Erosion to reach a new realm.


    In the midst of those zing ck mes,


    His red eyes glimmered brightly.


    —


    <strong>Demon of Absolute Destruction!</strong>


    This was the new realm Kraush had reached, having vigorously breached his limits!


    At the sight, the Shadow Demon felt an unprecedented sense of crisis.


    The realm Kraush had reached was something that could instill fear even in a 9-star Erosion creature.


    However, the Shadow Demon was not about to back down.


    With the might of a 9-star Erosion creature, its arms spread wide.


    If it couldn’t run away, it would simply kill its foe.


    To embody that simple truth, the starlight body of the Shadow Demon began to disintegrate bit by bit.


    The disintegrated fragments began coalescing into a single beam of light.


    Before the Shadow Demon, a small sphere of starlight formed.


    But this starlight sphere possessed power infinitely beyond its predecessors.


    It was absorbing light endlessly as if to devour the very space around it.


    However, unbeknownst to the Shadow Demon,


    A sword sheath made of lightning formed in Kraush’s grasp.


    Inside that sheath resided the power of ck mes like never before.


    The ck mes within the sheath were speeding up, picking up pace due to the power of<strong>Excel</strong>.


    Kraush was unsure if he could reach the Shadow Demon with that state.


    He couldn’t even take a step forward in his current condition.


    “Number 2.”


    However, he had someone to take the reins for him.


    Number 2, undeterred by the Shadow Demon’s starlight sphere, began to run alongside Kraush.


    Its speed gradually increased, as it swirled the wind, closing the distance to the Shadow Demon.


    As a result, Kraush tightly gripped<strong>Rain Thunder Prime</strong>.


    His muscles all tensed as he held on.


    The weight of the ck mes contained within the lightning sheath was heavier than ever, threatening to slip from his grip.


    Kraush’s hand was determined, refusing to let go of<strong>Rain Thunder Prime</strong>.


    <strong>“Give it your all!”</strong>


    With abored breath, he barely managed to exim these words as more strength flooded into Number 2.


    With the gleaming ck mes trailing behind, Number 2 surged forward at impossible speed.


    In that elerated world,


    The starlight sphere of the Shadow Demon was finallyplete.


    In an instant, all the surrounding light converged upon the Shadow Demon.


    And the condensing light was akin to the explosive finale of a star’s life.


    Number 2 dashed forward, unhesitatingly towards that starlight explosion.


    Kraush had entrusted everything to him.


    For Ebsque had faith in Kraush.


    There would be no doubt from the servant, having received the master’s validation.


    In front of the exploding starlight,


    Kraush felt, for some reason, all sounds had vanished, and even the light appeared to move in slow motion.


    The scene around was painted in pure white.


    This was the effect of Excel, which had been pushing his thoughts to hyper-speed.


    Amidst these elerated thoughts, on the calmke of his mind,


    A single droplet, poised to deliver the finishing blow, slowly descended.


    The moment that droplet touched theke of Kraush’s heart,


    The ripples spread throughout, cascading into waves.


    As the boiling water at the center surged upwards,


    When the whirlpool that touched the edge of Kraush’s consciousness manifested,


    <strong>Crack!</strong>


    The sheath imprisoning Kraush’s ck mes shattered!


    <strong>Whoosh!</strong>


    The bted sound of the ck mes filled the surroundings.


    Before the Shadow Demon’s eyes, Kraush observed the lunar red moon rising atop his head.


    That crimson moon glowed so bright that, in an instant, it reminded the Shadow Demon of the dawn that had long illuminated the night sky.


    <strong>“――――!”</strong>


    A silent thunderp reverberated from the Shadow Demon.


    And amidst that ground-shaking roar, the ck mes surged forth, enveloping the explosion of starlight.


    The spreading ck mes ripped through the explosion of starlight, reaching the Shadow Demon.


    —


    As the lethargy of the Shadow Demon collided with Kraush’s fervent will to win, they intersected in a startling moment.


    <strong>“Take a breather.”</strong>


    And with that singlemand, Kraush swung his sword, which erupted like a volcanic explosion.


    <strong>Annihtion Erosion!</strong>


    <strong>Six-Patterned Strike!</strong>


    <strong>Demon-Consuming mes!</strong>


    The ck mes suffocated the Shadow Demon.