Novel Full Chapter 379: Dread
Asmodeus walked toward him slowly.
“You are quite persistent,” he said.
Elion coughed blood onto the floor. “Thanks.” He managed to say with great difficulty, in between breaths.
“That was not praise.”
“I’ll take it anyway.”
He forced himself onto one knee. Shockingly, his armour had cracked across the chest. Solron’s work had saved his life again.
’My legendary grade armour!’ He almost cried out in agony. But at least it had done its job. Without it, that single strike would have crushed his torso.
Asmodeus lifted one hand, and a spatial cut began to form. Zenith, who had recovered a bit, reappeared behind him.
She wrapped both arms around his torso. Asmodeus looked down at her hands.
Zenith’s face was pale. Blood ran from her mouth and nose, one wrist was bent unnaturally, and her breathing came in ragged inhales and exhales, but she held on.
“Go!” she screamed.
Mana erupted from her body.
Ice exploded outward, wrapping around Asmodeus’ arms, chest, legs, and neck, freezing him in place layer by layer. The cold spread so violently that the floor beneath them turned white, frost climbing the altar and the surrounding walls.
Asmodeus’ eyes narrowed, “You still believe you can beat me?”
“No,” Zenith whispered through bloodied teeth. “But I believe in him.”
Elion looked toward the final two conduits. One ran behind the altar, and the other flowed directly beneath Asmodeus’ feet.
’Of course.’
He moved, ignoring the pain wracking his body, reaching the first of the remaining chains. Kurogoroshi severed the vein behind the altar in one clean slash.
Shk!
[Primary Conduits Remaining: 1/7]
The Philosopher’s Stone shook violently, and more golden light burst from it in waves. The entire domain screamed.
The sound rolled through the chamber, through the castle, and through the land itself. Far above them, every formation powered by the stone flickered at once.
The final conduit remained beneath Asmodeus.
Elion stared at it, and Asmodeus met his gaze. The ice around the Demon King began to crack.
Zenith’s eyes widened.
“Do it!”
Asmodeus flexed one time, and the ice shattered.
Boom!
The explosion threw Zenith aside like a rag doll. Her body crashed into the altar and collapsed beside it, unmoving for a long second.
Elion’s expression darkened. Asmodeus stepped forward, “Enough,” he said calmly. Dozens of spatial lines formed throughout the chamber, surrounding Elion from every angle and leaving him no escape.
Elion’s thoughts spiralled as he tried to think of a way out of this.
[Substitute] would not save him from this many.
Zenith pushed herself weakly onto one elbow, blood dripping from her lips.
“Elion…”
Asmodeus lowered his hand, and the spatial cuts moved.
Elion lunged forward, toward the Demon King. Asmodeus’ eyes widened faintly.
[Temporary Stat Conversion]
Speed.
Strength.
Everything.
Elion crossed the final distance in a blur, ignoring the spatial lines closing around him. One sliced across his shoulder guard, carving through the Legendary armour and opening the flesh beneath. Another cut across his thigh. A third grazed his side, drawing a spray of blood.
But he kept moving.
[Undying Will]
[Silent Heart]
Nothing mattered but the final conduit.
Asmodeus raised one hand to strike him.
Elion dropped low and slid beneath the incoming palm, twisted his body, and drove Kurogoroshi into the ground between Asmodeus’s feet.
The blade pierced stone, striking gold.
Shk!
For one heartbeat, nothing happened.
[Primary Conduits Remaining: 0/7]
The world erupted in a brilliant golden light that swallowed the chamber.
The final conduit shattered beneath Asmodeus’ feet, and the Philosopher’s Stone tore free from the altar with a deafening pulse. The force blasted Asmodeus backward, threw Elion across the floor, and sent fractures racing through the underground hollow in every direction.
The stone floated freely, suspended in the air by nothing but a seemingly invisible force. Elion struck the ground, rolled once, and forced himself back onto his feet despite the blood pouring from his wounds.
Asmodeus rose from the rubble at the other end of the chamber. His expression was no longer bored
“Elion!” Zenith shouted weakly.
The Philosopher’s Stone hovered between them, waiting to be claimed. Elion’s form flickered. When he reappeared, he was inches away from laying his hands on the floating stone.
“I believe it is time to end this.”
Asmodeus’ body flickered. In the next instant, he was already reaching for Elion’s throat.
He needed to kill him before he could lay claim to the stone, if such a thing was even possible.
Zenith’s face paled considerably as she moved as quickly as she could, but deep down, she already knew she would never make it in time.
Was Elion really about to die?
Even he could feel it.
Dread.
It crawled up his spine like the cold touch of a reaper. A cold, suffocating sense of death waiting for him on the other side as Asmodeus’ hand drew closer to his throat, his palm held flat like the edge of a blade.
For some reason, the length of that blue-skinned hand looked almost as sharp as Kurogoroshi itself.
Elion’s entire body went cold.
A deep feeling of unwillingness and resentment welled up inside him. He didn’t want to die here. Not after everything he had gone through. Not when the Philosopher’s Stone was right in front of him. Not when he was so close.
But it felt as though time itself had slowed down around him. He couldn’t possibly move fast enough.
He could barely move at all.
As the hand drew closer, he could already feel the skin around his neck beginning to tear from the pressure alone.
Perhaps the most aggrieved of them all was Zenith.
Veins bulged around her eyes as she pushed her body beyond its limits, desperately trying to reach him. Her eyes were bloodshot, and she stretched out her hand toward her father as though she could somehow stop him through sheer will alone.
’I won’t make it…’
The realisation came unwillingly.
She could see the shock on Elion’s face. He could barely perceive Asmodeus’ attack, let alone react to it.
Her eyes began to sting.
Was he really about to die?
What had she done to help him?
Nothing.
All her hopes and dreams of leaving this place with him, of living a long life together after everything they had endured, were about to be snuffed out before they could enjoy even a sliver of it.
A single tear slid from the corner of her eye.
The scene played out in her mind before it even happened.
Elion was about to die again.
And she was tired.
So tired.
Would she even make it into the next loop? Her father knew about her regressions now. What was stopping him from killing her the moment she awakened next time?
No.
This had to be her final chance.
She wasn’t going to let him die!
Boom!
The floating stone pulsed.