Chapter 185: The Strength to Interfere

The cut had been clean.

Asterion's entire arm was gone, leaving behind only a short stump attached to his shoulder, blood gushing violently from the wound.

His lava-like blood boiled against the ground while the Uncrowned Emperor staggered backward, struggling to steady himself.

And the severed arm was far from the only damage he had suffered.

His entire body was covered in deep wounds that had left horrific scars behind, even after the old hunter had forcibly closed them.

The pain was excruciating.

Yet Asterion didn't even blink.

His bloodshot eyes instead reflected a strange calm, almost as though he had expected something like this to happen from the very beginning.

'Ah… how pathetic.'

Asterion looked at what remained of his arm.

'I claimed that human logic didn't apply to me, but in the end, I'm still just a human whose strength faded with age…'

From the very beginning, the battle between the strongest had never been fair.

No matter how powerful Asterion appeared, he was still an old man who had spent far too many years away from the battlefield, wasting most of his days drinking himself senseless.

He had remained incredibly powerful despite that.

But there was no doubt that he was far from his prime.

The Curse of Darkness, on the other hand, had preserved the Golden Dawn Knight's body at the height of its strength.

If anything, it had made him even better.

Had the knight been fighting with his true consciousness rather than instinct alone…

Asterion might have found himself in an even worse position.

At that very moment, the Red Demon could almost see the specter of death curling around him.

Yet he didn't look afraid.

He didn't look sad either.

Instead, his expression held nothing but quiet satisfaction.

'That's fine…'

The old man smiled.

'I'm grateful.'

'Grateful that I was given the chance to die against someone stronger than me instead of simply falling to old age.'

To Asterion, dying in a battle where he could give everything he had against an opponent of this caliber was a far better fate than slowly rotting away while hiding inside Ashvarn until death eventually came for him.

He had wanted at least one battle like this before life slipped away from him.

And fate had granted him one.

That realization made him grin like a madman once again, bringing back the image of the title that had once made him infamous.

The Red Demon.

Despite the horrific damage he had suffered, Asterion didn't falter.

He stepped forward and kicked his severed arm toward the Golden Dawn Knight.

"Take it!"

The old man burst into laughter.

"I don't need it anymore!!"

After forcibly stopping the bleeding, Asterion charged toward his opponent once again.

The Golden Dawn Knight met him without hesitation.

The two collided and resumed their savage battle.

But it didn't take long for the scales to begin tipping decisively toward one side.

It was true that Asterion hadn't lost the dominant hand holding his sword.

But the damage he had suffered was anything but minor.

His defeat had become only a matter of time.

And when he fell…

Every hope the hunters had left would fall with him.

His final struggle was reflected in a pair of crimson eyes watching the battle.

Eyes belonging to someone who had come running from afar.

...

...

...

—Ethan's POV—

I could barely force my legs to keep carrying me toward that place.

I already knew those two existed on a completely different level, but imagining something and actually witnessing it with your own eyes were two entirely different things.

The echoes of their swords and the violent collisions between their auras made my body tremble even while I was still far away.

The walls around me shook continuously.

Windows exploded from the pressure, and cracks spread across the ground as though the earth might open up and swallow everything above it at any moment.

The moment I felt that horrifying flow of aura, I started questioning my decision.

Questioning what I was about to do.

'What the hell can I possibly do to affect a battle like this?'

My teeth clenched.

'They're both monsters. Forget helping… I don't think I can even get close to them.'

The residual aura spilling from their swords alone could erase me from existence, even if I reinforced myself with aura and pushed my Demonic Body to its absolute limit.

I had the Night Armor I obtained after defeating Aldebaran.

But I doubted it could withstand even a single strike from the Golden Dawn Knight.

The waves of aura only grew more violent and powerful.

Their intensity multiplied with every step I took toward the battlefield.

It took every ounce of courage I could gather just to keep running toward them.

Several times along the way, I almost stopped.

I kept trying to convince myself that Asterion was strong.

The Uncrowned Emperor was a genuine monster.

He could defeat the Golden Dawn Knight.

I repeated those words inside my head over and over, trying to force the unease inside me to quiet down and die.

But I couldn't ignore my instincts.

Nor could I ignore my experience as a Player.

I knew all too well that battles at this level could be decided by the smallest detail.

The instant one of them revealed even the slightest weakness, the other would exploit it immediately.

Asterion was still a savage monster.

But he had grown old and spent far too long away from battle, unlike his opponent, whose body had remained at its peak because of the Curse.

That alone gave the Golden Dawn Knight a much greater chance of winning.

Even so…

I desperately hoped I was wrong.

I hoped that by the time I arrived, I would find that drunken old man standing victorious.

Reality threw those hopes straight into the trash.

And showed me something far more bitter instead.

When I finally arrived…

I found hell.

The entire side of the cathedral where their battle had taken place had been completely destroyed and swallowed by flames.

Walls had collapsed.

Pillars had been shattered.

Even the entire ceiling was gone, having fallen over their heads and exposed the dark sky of Old Ashvarn above.

Standing before that ruined battlefield, my body trembled violently.

Sweat formed across my face and back.

And then I saw it.

The Uncrowned Emperor's arm fell from his body.

Asterion staggered backward.

He looked different.

His skin had turned a deep crimson, giving him the appearance of a wounded monster that had just endured a battle brutal enough to destroy him completely.

On the other side stood the Golden Dawn Knight.

For the first time, I was seeing his real body with my own eyes.

Until now, he had only ever appeared before me in his spiritual form.

He wasn't in perfect condition either.

His armor looked as though it might shatter at any moment.

But compared to Asterion…

He was in far better shape.

It didn't take a genius to understand what was happening.

One look was enough.

At this rate, Asterion was going to lose.

And yet the old man continued fighting ferociously, completely ignoring his wounds.

'Think, Ethan…'

My head felt hotter with every passing second.

'Think.'

I desperately tried to find some way to help.

But how the hell was I supposed to help when I couldn't even approach them in the first place?!

All I could do was watch from a distance.

Getting any closer would put me directly within range of the collateral damage spilling from their swords.

I felt helpless.

Weak in a way I had never felt before.

I had always believed my experience as a Player would allow me to deal with anything this world threw at me.

But experience couldn't compensate for such an overwhelming difference in power.

The gap was simply too vast for any of my tricks to fill.

"Is watching him die in front of me really all I can do?"

My fists clenched.

"Then why the hell did I bother running all the way here?"

Despair began creeping in.

For the first time, I truly understood that weakness itself was a sin in this world.

I was about to surrender to that reality.

Then I heard his voice.

"My cursed hunter descendant."

It was a familiar voice.

A voice no one else could hear.

I turned toward its source.

A golden apparition emerged from the darkness and slowly approached me.

"Do not despair."

The voice remained calm.

"You already possess the power necessary to influence this battle."

The spirit of the Golden Dawn Knight appeared before me.

For a moment, it looked as though two Golden Dawn Knights existed in the same place.

The knight hadn't appeared merely to offer empty words.

There was no time for that.

The power necessary to influence a battle like this…

"What do I have to do?"

I asked without hesitation.

I was prepared to do anything.

If I truly possessed that kind of power…

Then I would gladly use it.

As long as we walked out of this place victorious today.