### Chapter: 306
Boom! Bang!
The sound of white flames exploded like a fireworks show gone haywire.
The thick mist of the Sanctuary was momentarily scattered by the fiery blast.
Kraush was doggedly battling the divine envoys.
However, the situation wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows for Kraush.
The divine envoys had a sort of core that sustained their existence.
To obliterate them, he needed to smash that core, but the problem was their cores were all hidden in different spots like they’d played a cosmic game of hide-and-seek.
If he didn’t finish them off definitively, they could restore themselves in a flash, even if they were engulfed in flames or cut to bits.
This mist left behind by the gods provided an infinite power supply to these envious parasites, allowing them to recover without any restrictions.
If it were just a few at a time, it wouldn’t be a significant threat, and he could deal with them in no time, but…
It was the sheer number of these little pests that was the real headache.
Since Aria began awakening the Holy Sword, they’d been flocking en masse to this place.
What they needed for the sword’s awakening was, you guessed it, the fog saturated in the Sanctuary.
The moment the Holy Sword concluded its awakening, all that divine fog would vanish, and that would spell doom for the divine envoys because, spoiler alert, they were parasitic by nature.
Naturally, the envoys weren’t about to let that happen without a fight, so they relentlessly targeted Kraush and Aria.
Against the relentless army of divine envoys, Kraush swung his white flames all on his lonesome.
Not allowing even a single envoy to cross the threshold into the pedestal area, he was determined to buy Aria every second possible to complete the awakening of the Holy Sword.
Boom! Bam!
The explosive sounds of white flames continued to echo.
The sword that slashed through the divine envoys reached out for the next one.
With the sustained onslaught of divine envoys stretching out weapons toward Kraush, they were swinging wildly with renewed fervor, determined to take him down even at the cost of their own lives.
Even if he blocked one attack, dozens more came rushing in.
Kraush relied on his royal dragon bloodline’s tough physique to endure the hits again and again.
But no matter how tough he was, injuries were piling up, like bad debts you couldn’t shake off.
Slowly but surely, wounds began to seep and multiply on his form.
Even as he absorbed Aura, his body began inching closer to its limits.
Crack!
But Kraush pushed against the blows, grit teeth and determination guiding him as he soldiered on.
From the pedestal came an increasingly intense light radiating from the Holy Sword.
It signified Aria’s awakening was nearing completion.
White scales began sprouting across Kraush’s face.
Squeezing out the last of his strength, he slashed through the divine envoys while taking their hits in stride.
However, as the light intensified, the envoys grew increasingly frantic.
Death was looming overhead for them.
From a distance, Kraush noticed the envoys were behaving strangely.
They began pulling each other’s cores out and stuffing them into one envoy.
If only he could stop them, but there was no way he could reach them given the current circumstances.
So all he could do was watch, knowing they were brewing up something nasty.
Crackle! Crackle!
The envoy, having swallowed the cores of its kin, began to transform before Kraush’s eyes.
Once a white, ghostly figure, it erupted with bones forming and flesh sprouting.
Kraush could sense an overwhelming burst of divine energy emanating from this newly forged entity.
His eyes widened in shock.
The divine envoys combined their stored up divine power into a pseudo-god with their final desperate act.
This imitation wouldn’t last even a day.
But if it meant they could fight for just today, then it was more than enough.
“These lunatics!”
The pseudo-god’s crimson eyes locked onto Kraush.
The flesh on its bony frame was still melting away, suggesting its incomplete state.
Yet the energy flowing from the half-formed pseudo-god was overwhelming.
The pseudo-god reached out its hand towards Kraush.
At that moment, a gale of blades rushed toward the pedestal.
Kraush understood the envoy’s intentions. He shoved aside the divine envoys and leaped into action.
Kawh-zing!
The incoming wind blades tore apart the encroaching envoys like they were nothing.
Even allies were not spared from their fate as the wind blades approached the pedestal where Aria stood.
Just before they could reach, Kraush blocked them.
Kawh-bang!
His Rain Thunder Prime collided with the wind blades.
However, Kraush couldn’t entirely fend them off, his body getting shredded around the edges by the force.
Blood sprayed up like a burst water balloon.
Muscles ripped, bones peeked through his flesh.
With his battered arm, he fumbled through his pocket to pull something out.
He retrieved an emergency healing potion concocted by the alchemical genius, Darling.
Zzzzzz!
Smoke billowed from Kraush’s body.
The potion, a creation of Darling, was both painful yet extraordinarily effective for healing.
“Once a week, at most. After that, the effects diminish and side effects worsen,” the warnings echoed in his mind.
He knew it was a one-time deal; using it was a gamble he understood well.
But there wouldn’t be a better time to use it.
The pseudo-god was already preparing for its next assault.
With each attack, it seemed to be deteriorating even faster.
In just a few moments, he’d have to bear the brunt of another strike.
Kraush took a deep breath and readied his defensive stance.
“Bring it on; I can take as many hits as you throw at me.”
His eyes glowed with a fierce red light, powered by the essence of the Moon Erosion.
*
After arriving at the Sanctuary’s pedestal, Aria focused solely on awakening the Holy Sword.
Though he could hear Kraush fighting off in the distance, she had faith in him.
The quicker she finished awakening the sword, the fewer people the Conqueror’s White Knight would butcher.
Sure, the other three heavenly knights lurking in the wings would eventually bring about certain doom, but hey, one catastrophe at a time, right?
Aria lost herself in thought as she observed the Holy Sword awakening slowly but surely.
To hasten its enlightenment, she was even exhausting her own powers.
Once the sword was awakened, they would surely have the power to defeat the Conqueror’s White Knight.
But the truth was, the awakening resembled a one-shot deal.
How would they handle the rest of the Heavenly Knights after that?
“I won’t stand a chance, will I?”
Aria knew the truth deep down.
She understood that they couldn’t prevent the impending doom this world faced.
This world was destined for destruction.
Was there even a point in her frantic attempts to protect a world that was undeniably doomed?
That day was similar as countless threads unraveled, leading her world into catastrophe.
Aria contemplated.
This world was done for.
Reincarnation was the only answer.
This obsession had taken root in her through multiple rounds of repeated lives.
Once the end came rolling in, she’d automatically seek out reincarnation.
“Let’s reincarnate.”
That was her resolve just as she prepared to close the curtains on this world.
“Shove that rotten resolve down the drain!”
The voice jolted Aria’s attention as she looked up.
There stood Kraush, having come to bid her a final farewell.
He was a man of frayed edges at this point.
Born in the Holy Royal Family, he’d been cast out for being talentless.
That stigma gnawed at him relentlessly throughout his life.
Though he acted tough, he transformed after acquiring the Black Hood, fully embracing the challenges he faced.
As he journeyed deeper into the realm of World Erosion, he inevitably gained various curses.
He bore those curses with painful resilience as he embraced the gruesome knowledge he’d honed in the hidden library of his family.
Despite the madness and hell those curses inflicted upon him, Kraush stood tall at Aria’s side, fighting through the chaos.
Perhaps that was why Aria felt drawn to him from the start.
Watching him desperately struggle against annihilation, she saw fragments of herself and ultimately found solace in him.
But loving him and the world’s destruction were entirely different concepts.
Aria’s mental state had taken a toll over her iterations of reincarnation.
It was only natural in the face of her continuous failures to thwart destruction.
“What if you fail to save the world and just end up reincarnating instead?”
Kraush’s confrontation echoed in her memory.
Suppressing her feelings, she realized how crude she had been.
“So, what? Are you suggesting that I’m just meant to escape and leave this world to crumble? You’ve got it all wrong!”
Aria’s firm voice broke free, but doubts filled her mind.
She hadn’t prepared for Kraush to react this way.
His icy stare bore into her, unyielding.
“Aria, do you really love me?”
“Of course!”
The angry shout startled Kraush, prompting a dry laugh from him.
“Then have you ever thought about what happens to this world after you reincarnate?”
At his question, time seemed to freeze for Aria.
What indeed would happen to the world once she moved on?
In her haste to reincarnate, she had never pondered this.
For those at the center of reincarnation, such musings were trivial.
She couldn’t know what lay in wait for this world following her departure.
Only a rerun would await her, a world unrecognizable, scrubbed of all traces of the past.
But what about Kraush?
“Since the day you told me about reincarnation, I’ve considered the implications.”
Kraush’s thoughts spiraled into a simple conclusion:
If Aria went through with reincarnation, she might vanish, leaving behind an empty shell.
“What you’re saying is that you want me to carry on living in this world alone after you’re gone?”
To Kraush, it felt akin to a death sentence.
Because she would cease to exist within his current timeline.
He could only wish for Aria to fight until the very end without ever giving up.
If the day came that she finally failed and vanished, he’d gladly set her free.
However, as long as there was still hope amid a world that hadn’t crumbled fully, he couldn’t allow her to turn away from it all.
“Aria, this world is just one of many reincarnations to you, yet for me, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance.”
Kraush attempted to persuade her.
This wasn’t a bid to solve everything through reincarnation but a heartfelt plea for her to stand firm.
“Let’s safeguard this world together, with everyone still in it!”
Aria sat in stunned silence, processing his words.
Deep down, she’d probably already known these truths.
She had used noble ideals to shield herself from the guilt of her actions while pursuing her goal to save the world.
Even as she chased after the notion that she could make everything right again, she sensed the inherent one-time nature of all things.
Yet here she was, facing the uncomfortable unearthing of her selfish desires through Kraush’s challenge.
What consequences this unearthing would bring remained a mystery to Kraush.
