### Chapter: 395
In a torrential downpour of magic that seemed ready to change the very rules of the world,
Abella caught sight of a flash erupting from Kraush, who had become a target of this overwhelming magic.
And that flash existed within Abella’s memories as well.
The moment when the world could no longer withstand the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,
Arthur had played his last card.
The Awakening of the Holy Sword.
Abella’s eyes widened in realization.
She knew all too well that Kraush was wielding the Holy Sword.
And she also knew he was up to something devious.
Kraush had always been a significant variable for Abella.
With his unique skill known as the Black Hood, he shared the memories of reincarnation just like Abella did.
So it was only natural for Abella to keep various possibilities in mind regarding him.
Above all, she understood that Kraush’s unique and extreme personality could lead him to make drastic choices.
“Ah, so this is what it was.”
Abella watched, exasperated, as Kraush activated the Awakening of the Holy Sword while burning through his sacred energy.
The Awakening consumed divine power irreversibly, granting immense strength for a fleeting moment, allowing users to surpass their limitations.
This maneuver was bound to backfire on Abella, who intended to use Kraush as a vessel.
The sacred energy Kraush was incinerating was none other than the very power of world erosion—the last thing Abella needed.
Yet, in this moment,
Abella gazed at Kraush with a blank stare, devoid of any emotion.
“But why?”
She understood Kraush’s intentions,
to fully awaken the Holy Sword by burning away his sacred energy,
and in that moment, kill her.
From binding his immortal power to prevent losing strength to the complete incineration of that power during the Awakening—it was certainly a well-crafted plan.
Only Kraush could concoct such a ruthless scheme.
If the Holy Sword were to awaken, Kraush would lose most of his power.
He must have been prepared to part with it altogether.
This was an extreme choice that only Kraush could dare to make.
But that plan had already gone awry.
“The Awakening of the Holy Sword is a powerful technique, but…”
Abella remarked, her expression tinged with regret.
“The power the Holy Sword can absorb ultimately has its limits.”
In the midst of the raging magic,
Kraush’s face contorted in frustration as the brilliance of the Holy Sword struggled against the magic.
It was clear his expectations were dashed—he needed to put everything into the sword, but it wasn’t meeting his hopes.
Abella melted away the memories of Arthur’s reincarnation, viewing various aspects in the process.
Among them was information regarding the sword’s performance.
The sword, crafted from a star that fell from the heavens, was optimized for absorbing sacred energy and could unleash a powerful Awakening.
However, it was still just a sword.
It couldn’t absorb and burn an infinite amount of sacred energy.
Even the Holy Sword had its limits in what it could accept.
If it were able to do so, Arthur would have defeated the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse by trapping all the deities within the sword.
But Arthur couldn’t do that.
All that would happen is that the sword would shatter under the pressure.
And Kraush, well, he was wholly unaware of this.
He had never wielded the Holy Sword himself, nor experienced the Awakening.
Here, the disparity between experience and knowledge became crystal clear.
Kraush’s expression hardened amid the flash.
The brilliance erupting from the Holy Sword, igniting his sacred energy, finally pushed back against Abella’s magic.
But that was all it accomplished.
Kraush was unable to burn away all the power of world erosion still lingering within him.
Moreover, the Awakening itself was taking time.
Kugugugu!
Magic that had been pushed back by the brilliance of the Holy Sword surged even more fiercely around Kraush.
Bam!
Abella’s staff slammed into the ground.
Regardless, Kraush’s plan succeeded halfway.
He was indeed burning away the power of world erosion through the Holy Sword’s Awakening.
Thus, Abella was no longer willing to let him consume that power unhindered.
“Can’t let you waste it.”
A gigantic magic circle was drawn beneath Abella.
And the light emanating from it was on a completely different scale from the previous magic.
This was the ancient spell of annihilation.
Adam.
A pinnacle of magic capable of obliterating even the continent.
As the preparations for the spell began, Kraush reacted.
He, who had been gritting his teeth to awaken the Holy Sword, widened his eyes in alarm.
He had also realized:
The moment Adam activated, everything would be over.
The light spilling forth from Adam’s magic circle began to engulf even the brilliance emitted by Kraush’s Holy Sword.
Gradually, the surroundings turned a blinding white, resonating with vibrations.
The power of magic surged within Abella.
Her crimson eyes emitted fierce light from the magic coursing through her.
In that light,
the corners of Abella’s mouth turned upwards.
Thus, Kraush would perish, and the power of world erosion within him would be swallowed whole by the Transcendence Stone.
If she managed to create a god of world erosion and even a puppet of reincarnation from the Transcendence Stone,
she’d see just how far magic could go.
The Red Witch smiled brightly, filling both her curiosity and zeal for knowledge.
That smile, devoid of any malevolence, resembled the innocent smile of a child at a glance.
However, once someone understood the underlying truth,
they’d know just how horrifying that smile of madness could be.
“See you next time, Kraush.”
They would meet again after the reincarnation.
Leaving behind her farewell, Abella’s staff struck the magic circle one last time.
“Hah.”
In that moment, Kraush, dyed in the light of magic, burst into incredulous laughter.
Before Abella could even ponder his laughter,
the world was completely engulfed in white.
*
In the serene white space,
Abella stood alone.
Her eyes reflected a swirl of emotions.
This was because the last laughter she had heard from Kraush unsettled her.
‘What was that?’
A strange sense of discomfort.
She had never felt anything like it in her life.
This indescribable unease began to tangle her instincts, gripping her tightly.
The obstinate Kraush accepting death without a single fight, and letting out a hollow laugh?
No, that couldn’t be it.
Kraush, just like she had observed him all along, wouldn’t meekly accept his demise.
Even if he fought tooth and nail,
there was no way Kraush would calmly embrace death.
‘So that laugh means…’
Could it be a laugh that signifies some scheme?
But in this white space,
there was no one else but herself.
Kraush had completely perished, nowhere to be found.
Abella fell silent.
Only tranquility surrounded her.
But the discomfort tugging at the edges of her instincts showed no signs of fading.
At that moment, as Abella was about to weave magic into her staff to uncover the source of her discomfort,
she blinked, observing the flow of magical power near her staff.
The current of magic flowing from the staff felt… off.
The spell refused to activate properly.
It felt like the entire magical current was being suppressed by another force, unable to escape.
Could it be due to the usage of Adam’s magic, filling this space with too much power?
Or might it be because the power of world erosion that had dwelled within Kraush mixed with Adam, creating an overwhelming force?
The entire space teetered on the brink of bursting with power.
This area was the realm of souls.
In essence, it was akin to the interior of the Transcendence Stone.
If that were the case, activating magic here would be perilous.
There was a chance that the concentrated forces would clash violently.
‘It would be better to cancel Adam.’
After all, Kraush had completely perished due to Adam.
There was no need to worry about him any longer.
Abella’s hand, infused with magical essence, naturally swept through the surroundings.
And as she withdrew Adam,
her eyes gradually began to widen.
The more she erased Adam’s influence, the stronger the oddity felt.
This was because the power surrounding her showed no signs of diminishing.
To be precise,
her Adam had never truly exerted its force in this space from the start.
Discomfort registered on Abella’s face for the first time.
Then what was this power filling the space?
The white world was an effect unique to Adam.
It was a result of the excessively strong magical power exploding at once, blanketing the world in white due to the residual force.
So it made perfect sense to attribute this state to Adam’s impact.
Yet, what Abella saw with her own eyes in this white world was not a result of her Adam.
Soon enough, Abella’s gaze began to rise slowly.
The conditions for a white world require an overwhelming amount of magic or power to fill it.
If this were true…
‘Don’t tell me.’
Crack!
The sound of something shattering reached Abella’s ears.
Realizing this, she turned her attention to the center of the white world, where the space was beginning to distort.
Abella felt stunned as the distorted area started ringing out.
Crack-crack-crack!
The next sound sent chills down her spine.
It was too late for her to sense that something was amiss in her life.
Clang!
Amidst the fragments of the shattering space,
a man emerged.
His hair had turned completely white, and he bore white eyes; slowly, he lifted his head.
With a fierce flame of white emanating from his body,
Abella saw him as a perilous entity.
He exhaled a long breath and slowly opened his mouth.
“I’ve waited so long.”
Waited?
Who was waiting?
Abella’s eyes brimmed with confusion.
It made perfect sense.
She had just harvested this man to use as a vessel for the god of world erosion, yet he stood there in perfectly fine shape.
“How is this even possible… Kraush?”
Abella turned her gaze to Kraush.
How on earth was he alive right now?
Kraush had awakened the Holy Sword.
Yet, due to the limitations of the sword, he hadn’t fully burned through his power.
This was something Abella had witnessed firsthand.
So there was no way she could comprehend why Kraush was standing there unscathed.
In her sight, the Holy Sword had awakened.
As she stared at it blankly, her eyes began to widen slowly.
The force emanating from the Awakening of the Holy Sword had burned away the power of world erosion Kraush possessed.
It was clear that the limits of the Holy Sword had prevented Kraush from fully incinerating his power.
Yet, Kraush had one possible solution.
‘Black Hood.’
A skill that allowed one to steal anything.
Abella’s eyes began to widen with realization.
“…Are you out of your mind?”
Abella fully grasped what Kraush had done.
He infused power into the sword for its Awakening, then incinerated that power completely,
before activating the Black Hood to siphon that power away.
And that power burned fiercely—far beyond what Kraush had handled until now.
The issue was, Kraush didn’t stop there.
He had moved the power imbued in the Awakening into his own body, thus emptying the sword once more.
Kraush then unhesitatingly poured the remaining power of world erosion within him, burning it once more.
And every time, he siphoned that power through Black Hood, replenishing the void in the Holy Sword.
Kraush repeated this infinitely,
filling the Holy Sword with the power consumed by the Awakening until his own body began to ignite from it.
This was something no normal person could manage.
It was a mad act that transcended the very notion of obstinacy.
Doing such a thing was sure to lead to death.
The issue wasn’t simply the power eroding away; the vessel and body could melt away completely, causing his demise.
Yet, Kraush had received immortality from Crimson Garden.
From start to finish,
he had gathered everything from his experiences, honing himself beyond his limits,
and arrived at this moment.
To obliterate the obliteration itself.
The moment he transcended his half-god form to reach the realm of complete divinity.
That sight left even Abella, who was labeled as the epitome of mania, momentarily speechless.
Then, Kraush, who had been gazing at Abella, exhaled slowly and gripped his sword.
“Uh, no.”
He clearly wasn’t sane; that’s how he made it this far.
You little brat!
