Chapter 255: It’s Over
What is the one thing one needed the most in a battle? Hot-bloodedness? The courage to charge forth without hesitation? An unyielding spirit?
No, it isn’t any of those.
Roel believed that what transcendents needed the most in a battle was composure.
The timings to make an attack, the force of each attack, the possible trump cards that the enemy could have in possession, the price that one might have to pay for the attack,.. There were many factors one had to take into consideration in order to determine the optimal move in any given situation.
From such a perspective, Ro Ascart could be said to be the greatest enemy Roel had faced to date.
Ever since the awakening of his bloodline, Roel had never thought that he would be outclassed by anyone in the same power level as him, but Ro shattered his complacency. The two of them had a different set of strengths that allowed them to stand their ground in this intense battle.
Unlike Roel, who relied on external means to raise his power level, Ro was a bona fide Origin Level 3 transcendent. His deeper comprehension of this power level allowed him to draw greater utility from his spells and bloodline, as evidenced by how he was able to strengthen the ancient gods on his side using the golden fragments of the Crown, a spell which Roel had yet to grasp.
Fortunately, Roel had his own advantage in this battle too, namely Grandar and Peytra. It was clear that both the Giant King and Primordial Earth Goddess were superior to the ancient gods they were facing off with, such that Ro’s enhancement had only barely placed them on the same playing field.
Grandar and Peytra would have long clinched the victory if not for Ro’s interference.
Roel stared at his ancestor deeply. The latter was getting increasingly bewitching under the fiery luminescence of his flames, his delicate beauty making it hard to differentiate whether he was male or female. It was an androgynous charm that was fatal to both men and women alike.
It was just a pity that Roel was in no mood to admire his ancestor’s enchanting countenance. Instead, he turned his attention toward the flames burning on his shoulder.
The nature of the mana is different.
This minor detail made him realize that his ancestor had three ancient gods on his side instead of two, just that the third one ‘chose’ to lend its ability to Ro instead of fully manifesting.
This was clearly abnormal.
It went without saying that the prowess of a fully manifested ancient god was different from a half-assed lending of ability, and the truth was that the flames conjured weren’t strong enough to fully neutralize Glacier Creator’s frost aura. In fact, Roel had managed to freeze Ro Ascart several times, just that the latter would suddenly dissipate before reforming in mid-air, reviving in the same manner as the phantom wolf.
An undying opponent.
There was a moment there that Roel despaired, thinking that there was no way he could defeat such an enemy in a life-and-death battle. However, he soon regained his rationality.
There was no such thing as true invulnerability in this world. Such a natural law defying ability was bound to come with a hefty price and severe limitations. This was simply how things worked on the Sia Continent.
I must have neglected something. I have to find out what it is, for that’ll be my key to victory.
So, Roel began boldly trying all sorts of things out to test various conjectures. After ‘killing’ Ro Ascart several more times, he finally gathered sufficient evidence to come to a conclusion.
Why would Ro Ascart rather get defeated time and time again than to manifest the flame ancient god? That would have been a far more efficient method of curbing my frost aura. It doesn’t seem likely that he’s unable to manifest the flame ancient god, which means that he’s doing it on purpose. Going by that line of thought, we can deduce that the flame serves some kind of special purpose.
The continuous revival was definitely an ability derived from the phantom wolf... What could the ability of the flame be?
Roel raised his palm to release a wave of frost aura so as to fend off a blazing punch from Ro Ascart. He looked at the long-haired young man standing beneath him as a thought suddenly struck him.
It’s his shadow.
The flame was just a byproduct. What Ro Ascart needed was a source of light to cast a clear shadow of himself. That was the condition he needed for his unlimited revivals, and thus, he couldn’t allow the flame ancient god to manifest and leave his side.
【Spell Countdown: 19, 18, 17...】
“I only have enough time for a single strike,” murmured Roel to himself as he felt his life force beginning to drop to the bottom.
At the end of this countdown, he would fall back down to Origin Level 4 and enter a phase of extreme feebleness. By then, he would be a goner even with the protection of the two ancient gods.
I have to win this battle if I wish to survive!
Roel’s golden eyes glowed brilliantly as if flames had ignited within them as he delivered the greatest and most powerful attack in the dungeon thus far.
The moment he raised his hands, it was as if space had come under the control of a higher being. The interaction of the frost aura and the surrounding air produced white fog that overlaid the surroundings, swirling furiously around the two mortals on the battlefield.
The white fog tornado that abruptly appeared on the hilly terrain had such terrifying mana pulsation that it immediately caught the attention of the ancient gods. The angel in the sky halted his spell, the phantom wolf descended back onto the land, the Primordial Earth Goddess straightened up her body and gazed over anxiously, and the skeleton giant turned his head over. All of them instinctively realized that it was time for the victor of this clash to be determined.
As frost swiftly piled up layer after layer in the surroundings, Roel placed his palms together and compressed the converging frost between his hands into a heart of ice.
Glacier Heart.
This was the derivative produced when Roel drove the power of the Glacier Creator to the very extremity. The ice heart looked so delicate and exquisite that it could have been an art piece, but every bit of it harnessed the potential to unleash the calamity of eternal frost.
The fireclad Ro Ascart recoiled at the sudden emergence of this terrifying force as he stiffly lowered his head to gaze upon the ice heart. At the same time, Roel grasped onto the ice heart between his hands and proceeded to squeeze it tightly.
Crk! Psh!
The Glacier Heart exploded.
Before he knew it, Ro Ascart found himself struck by a cold wave that looked almost as if it had come out of nowhere, extinguishing his flames and swiftly devouring his body. It took only a blink of an eye for him to be sealed in eternal frost, permanently encasing the shocked expression arising from his moment of realization.
At the same time, the white fog closed in around them to block off all external light sources. From the outside, it looked like the two of them had been locked off in a prison of glacial white fog. Only the area around Roel was still barely hospitable to any lifeform.
“It’s over,” murmured Roel as he gazed at the absolute darkness before him.
While killing off Ro Ascart, he made sure to destroy and block off all light sources simultaneously too. This was the method he had devised to overcome his undying enemy, and his assault successfully took the other party down.
【Spell Countdown: ... 2, 1, 0.】
As the countdown finally came to an end, Roel felt his body swiftly losing energy. The white fog lingering around him and Ro Ascart gradually dissipated, granting him a bit of visibility. However, this peaceful scene was shattered by Peytra’s anxious warning.
“Roel, don’t release them yet! They aren’t gone yet!”
“Ah?”
Puchi!
Before Roel could process the significance of what Peytra had just said, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his abdomen. The bare hints of light in his surroundings allowed him to make out an indistinct figure in front of him and the blurred hand stabbing into his stomach.
His eyes widened a little as fresh blood spurted out from his mouth. The combo of extreme feebleness and an unexpected assault made his body slump over as he was brought down to his knees. The white fog dissipated at a far greater rate than before, finally revealing the chilly face of the revived Ro Ascart.
I see. A distinct shadow serves to quicken his revival, but it isn’t a necessary condition for it.
Roel’s consciousness began to fuzz under the crippling pain, but he finally understood Ro Ascart’s ability, as well as where his plan had gone awry. The presence of a clear shadow only allowed him to significantly speed up his revival, but the ability would still work even if his shadow was melded amidst darkness.
Rather than killing his shadow in total darkness, he should have killed it in total brilliance instead.
Is this the prowess possessed by an ancestor of the Ascart House? Would anyone have been able to kill him at his peak?
Roel sighed softly, but the next moment, a smile emerged on his lips. It was a composed, exultant smile.
“Didn’t I tell you that it’s over?”
Roel grabbed onto his enemy’s arm and thrust the glowing Ascendwing forward with his remaining strength. Under the stimulation of his mana, the holy dagger released a burst of divine light that exploded into the surroundings, producing a shockwave that completely jolted off the lingering white fog.
The final card he had prepared was finally revealed.
Over a hundred faces of ice mirrors surrounded the two mortals, be it on the ground, in the sky, or around them. They had simply been in the concealment of the white fog all this while.
The divine light scattering from Ascendwing struck the ice mirrors and formed thousands of rays of light that bounced from one mirror to another at differing angles. They converged together at a single point, flooding the long-haired young man in an ocean of light.
Under the overwhelming brilliance of light, there was no room for darkness and shadows to exist anymore. The impassive face of Ro Ascart also finally revealed true shock.
Puchi!
With the sound of a dagger plunging into a heart, a victorious smile emerged on Roel’s face before two bodies collapsed to the ground in unison.
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