Chapter 220

Chapter 220. Seven Stars Cultural Festival (6)

Whoosh!

The burning ash fire engulfed my entire body.

Along with the sound of flesh burning, gray smoke poured out from my pores, spreading like a thick fog.

“You’re not going to look for the bomb…?”

Seto frowned as if he couldn’t understand.

If the complex emotions mixed in his blood-red eyes were to be expressed in one sentence, it would be something like, “Is this guy really a hero candidate?”

“Ah, yes! That’s it!”

Seto, who had been frowning while continuing his thoughts, suddenly clapped his hands and burst into laughter.

His red eyes, gleaming with madness, stared at me.

“No wonder I couldn’t see the ‘spider’… You were expecting her to find the bomb, weren’t you?”

“……”

“Hahaha! This is so pitiful, what should I do?”

Seto spread his arms wide, his lips curling up as if they were about to tear.

“With just the ‘Insight’s Blessing’ that the spider possesses, there’s no way she could find where I hid the bomb!”

“Is that so?”

I shrugged and took a step toward the Grand Archbishop of Madness.

“…What do you mean, ‘is that so’? I said she can’t find it!”

“You seem to be under some misunderstanding.”

Another step.

“Professor Elisha isn’t even at the Central Plaza right now.”

“…What?”

The moment Seto’s eyes widened in shock.

Whoosh!

I kicked off and charged.

Facing a Grand Archbishop… and not just any Grand Archbishop, but the Grand Archbishop of Madness, who ranks second in pure combat power among the six Grand Archbishops, right after the Grand Archbishop of Destruction, there’s no room for complacency.

“Bloom.”

Sizzle!

The Primordial Flame burned through my body, raging fiercely.

From ignition to full combustion.

I drew out the full power of the Primordial Flame in an instant, burning my body.

“Haa.”

The magic power boiling through my entire body.

I channeled the burning ash fire into my sword and swung it.

Whoosh!

The fiercely burning ash fire aimed straight for Seto.

“Ugh…!”

Seto gritted his teeth and reached out toward the burning ash fire.

Crackle!

Blood-red thorns erupted from the ground, clashing with the ash fire.

Boom!

The collision between the blood-red thorns and the ash fire created a deafening roar.

Normally, the sound would have reached the Central Plaza hundreds of meters away, but thanks to the barrier Seto quickly erected, the sound didn’t leak outside.

“You…!”

The ash fire and the blood-red thorns were locked in a tense standoff.

No, as the ash fire burned through the thorns and gradually grew in size, Seto’s eyes trembled as he watched the ash-colored flames.

To think that pure ‘power’ could push back his demonic energy.

“Just what are you?”

The strength was so overwhelming that it made me wonder if he was the same person I had faced before.

Even though ‘before’ was only a few months ago.

What could have happened in that time for a mere rookie to grow strong enough to gain the upper hand against the ‘Grand Archbishop of Madness’?

“Haven’t we already introduced ourselves?”

Swipe!

I cut through the blood-red thorns and closed in on Seto.

From below to above.

I swung my sword, wrapped in ash fire, upward.

“Ugh!”

Seto barely managed to dodge by pulling his body back.

He gritted his teeth and roughly rolled his feet.

The blood-red energy flowing from the Holy Mark.

Like a drop of blood-red ink falling into a bottle of clear water, the space around Seto was dyed with a sticky, blood-like substance.

“No matter how much stronger you’ve become!”

The blood-red thorns erupted from the blood-drenched space.

Hundreds, thousands of thorns poured out like a tidal wave from the blood-drenched space.

“Do you think you can beat me?!”

Crackle!

The pouring blood-red thorns.

I created a wall of ash fire to block the thorns.

The ash-colored flames burned through most of the blood-red thorns, but.

Thud!

One of the thorns pierced deep into my left forearm.

“……!”

A terrible pain spread through my forearm where the thorn had pierced.

The blood vessels around the wound swelled grotesquely.

I frowned as I looked down at my left forearm.

“What? Can’t move your arm?”

Seto smiled brightly, his shoulders shaking with laughter.

“That’s the ability of my blessing, the ‘Blessing of Blood’!”

He pointed at my forearm, pierced by the blood-red thorn.

“Once the thorn of blood pierces, I can control that part! Like… this!”

Snap.

As Seto flicked his fingers, the blood vessels in my left forearm, pierced by the thorn, exploded.

Crunch!

Bones shattered, flesh tore, and blood gushed out.

“Ahahaha! How is it? Does it hurt? Does it hurt? Does it hurt?”

He stuck out his tongue and jumped around like a child playing a prank.

“Once you’re hit, there’s no escape! My blessing, flowing through your blood vessels, will gradually take over your body…”

“If it flows through the blood vessels.”

Swipe.

I raised my sword and cut off my left forearm at the shoulder.

“Then I’ll just cut it off before that happens.”

“……”

Seto looked down at the arm that had fallen to the ground, his mouth tightly shut.

“Ha.”

Seto let out a soft laugh, his shoulders shaking.

As Dale had said, his blessing was similar to poison, spreading through the blood, so cutting off the affected area before it fully spread could prevent the body from being taken over.

But.

How many people could actually bring themselves to cut off their own arm?

Especially a swordsman who uses a sword as their main weapon?

“Huu.”

Seto looked at Dale, his lips curling up as if they were about to tear.

“Yes, yes, yes! This is it!”

Seto burst into a joyous laugh.

“I’ve been waiting for someone like you!”

It wasn’t just Dale’s strength that excited him so much.

If it were just a ‘pure strength’ hero, it would have been better to face the current number one hero, the ‘Empress.’

But Dale wasn’t just strong.

“You… are really crazy, aren’t you?”

Perhaps even more than himself.

“Now, let’s keep playing!”

Seto spread his arms wide and rolled his feet.

The blood-red energy erupted like an explosion, and the blood-red thorns shot out fiercely.

“Huup!”

I lowered my body and dodged the pouring blood-red thorns.

Dashing through the thorns that narrowly missed me, I pulled back the arm holding the sword.

Like throwing a spear, I stepped back fiercely and swung the arm with all my might.

Whoosh!

The sword wrapped in ash fire pierced through Seto’s side and flew far away.

“Ah! That hurts!”

Seto screamed as he looked down at the hole the size of a fist in his side.

“It hurts! It hurts! It hurts!!!”

He flailed around like a child who had fallen and scraped his knee.

For a moment, he touched the side that was gushing blood and shed tears, but then.

Suddenly.

Seto suddenly stopped moving and looked at my right hand.

“But now you don’t even have a sword, huh?”

Seto stuck out his tongue and laughed.

Looking at him.

“Who knows?”

I opened my right hand wide.

A red sword, like blood, appeared as my palm split open.

It had been a while since I had taken out the demon sword.

“Eh?! What? You had something like that too?”

Seto pouted his lips in disappointment.

He calmly looked at the red sword in my hand, then curled his lips into a smirk.

“But do you even know what that sword is?”

“I probably know better than you.”

Although I hadn’t used it much recently, the Demon Sword Veskal was my main weapon in my past life.

“Huu.”

As I took a deep breath and drew out the power of the demon sword, I felt a momentary dizziness, as if the blood in my body was being sucked out.

But it was only for a moment.

Vitality surged through my body, and explosive power boiled up.

“Hahaha! Do you really think you have multiple lives or something?”

Seto burst into laughter and charged.

Blood-red thorns erupted in the wake of his footsteps.

Clang!

The sword and thorns clashed.

The blood-red thorns pouring from all directions seemed endless.

If even one of those thorns hit me, I would suffer a fatal wound due to the ‘Blessing of Blood.’

“Haa.”

One step closer.

I swung my sword at Seto.

I didn’t care about my life.

I didn’t consider death.

Like running across a tightrope over a cliff.

I swung my sword like a madman.

“Ah!”

Seto was sent flying, slashed by the sword wrapped in ash fire.

He gritted his teeth, his blood-red eyes trembling.

“You bastard…!”

Even after experiencing the power of the Blessing of Blood firsthand, he didn’t back down at all.

“Try blocking this too!!!”

Seto crossed his arms and roughly rolled his feet.

Rumble!

A sticky, blood-like substance covered the entire surrounding space.

A massive barrier made of blood.

It was the same blood-red barrier I had seen when I first encountered him.

“Erupt!!!”

Up, down, front, back, right, left.

Without any regard for direction, thousands, tens of thousands of blood-red thorns poured out.

An attack so dense that not even a fist could slip through.

Faced with an attack that could only be described as despair.

“Ha.”

I let out a soft laugh.

“I didn’t think the Challenge Mode would actually be helpful.”

Sneer.

I twisted my lips and stomped toward the blood-red thorns pouring from all directions.

Just as the thorns were about to pierce my entire body.

Boom!

My vision flashed black, and my entire body exploded into pieces.

“What…!”

Seto’s mouth fell open in shock.

How could he not be shocked when he saw a human suddenly explode their own body in front of him.

“What, what is this?”

He took a step back, looking at the scattered pieces of flesh.

“…Huh?”

A thick gray smoke brushed past his cheek.

And then.

Whoosh!

In an instant, I ‘revived’ and stabbed the demon sword into Seto’s stomach.

“Kuh, kuh!”

Seto grabbed his pierced stomach and collapsed.

He looked up at me with wide, shocked eyes.

“You asked if I had multiple lives, right?”

I looked down at Seto and curled my lips into a smirk.

“That’s right, I do.”