Chapter 251: Aestrea Against The World (XXVIII)

Freezee~

A chill burst out from beneath his boots, spreading like a curse.

The polished marble cracked, long veins of silver-blue ice crawling outward in sharp, jagged patterns.

Within seconds, the floor became a frozen battlefield, light reflecting off it like shattered mirrors.

He raised one hand lazily, and with a flick of his fingers…

FWOOSH.

Light bent.

A thin blade of silver energy burst from his palm, and it instantly ripped forward, too fast to dodge or block.

CLANG!

The sound was unnatural, like a bell being struck underwater.

But the blade hadn’t hit Kagetaro.

Two shadows had stepped in, just in time, seamless, like puppets reacting to a hidden string.

THOOM—!!

The impact slammed into them like divine punishment, sending cracks spiraling across the walls and floor.

The air howled as dust and pressure surged outward.

For a moment, the world held its breath.

And then, slowly, the smoke cleared.

Two tall figures stood at the epicenter.

Unharmed.

Belial and Beelzebub.

Their bodies, ashen pale, eyes dim and lifeless, moved with a smoothness that wasn’t natural

. And yet… Aestrea’s sharp gaze noticed something strange.

They were breathing, yes, but barely.

There was no heartbeat.

No flow of mana.

No aura.

Just… walking corpses with their souls wrung dry.

“…Tsk.”

Aestrea clicked his tongue and tilted his head slightly.

“It seems they’re a bit stronger than when I killed them.”

His voice was flat, almost disappointed.

And then, with a small breath, he narrowed his eyes.

“…But they’re broken.”

He pointed toward Belial’s right shoulder and Beelzebub’s bent leg. The movements were precise, yes, but mechanical.

Too perfect.

And most importantly…

“There’s no mana circulating,” Aestrea said, a small smile twitching at the corners of his lips.

“Hellheim’s source doesn’t let them use magic, does it? What a beautiful little drawback…”

Kagetaro stood still, not responding.

Not speaking.

His fingers twitched.

And the two corpses charged.

CRACK!

Beelzebub struck first, swinging a massive halberd with enough force to split the room in half.

But Aestrea twisted slightly, the weapon missing by inches, hitting nothing but ice.

SLICE!

Aestrea spun and slammed his elbow into Beelzebub’s jaw.

CRUNCH!

And in the same movement, he brought his knee up into the monster’s stomach.

BOOM!

The air exploded as Beelzebub was launched backward, crashing into the far wall like a cannonball.

Belial came next, his claws glowing faintly, but still, without magic, they were nothing more than sharpened bone.

Aestrea caught his wrist with one hand.

Paused.

Then, slowly crushed it.

CRACK.

Belial’s entire arm bent in the wrong direction.

And then…

THWACK!

A roundhouse kick to the side of his head sent him tumbling across the floor, limbs flailing like a ragdoll.

“…Pathetic.”

Aestrea exhaled.

Beelzebub groaned on the ground, a Belial twitched but didn’t rise.

But then…

Fwip!

Kagetaro moved.

He raised both hands, and from his fingers, slick, black threads shot outward like spider silk.

Splat!

They stabbed through the chests of both Beelzebub and Belial, piercing their dead hearts.

The puppets didn’t even scream.

And then…

Drip… drip… drip…

A thick, black liquid began to pulse through the strings.

It moved like blood. or poison. Traveling backwards, flowing from the corpses into Kagetaro’s arms, winding up his veins like living ink.

Aestrea’s smile vanished instantly.

“…What the hell are you—”

PSSHHH—

A sudden hiss came from Kagetaro’s body as steam rose off his skin.

PUFF—

Both Beelzebub and Belial melted.

Their bodies collapsed into pools of thick, black fluid, writhing for a moment before going still.

And then…

“Uhu~”

Kagetaro exhaled.

BOOM—

The aura that erupted from him made the walls shake.

The ceiling above groaned.

The air became so thick, so dense, it felt like standing underwater.

It was no longer just killing intent.

It was something far worse.

Corrupted divinity.

Stolen strength.

A fusion of stolen souls and Hellheim’s rotting breath.

Kagetaro’s smile returned, turning even wider than before, almost unnaturally stretched, like a mask stitched onto a corpse.

But something was wrong, really freaking wrong.

His pupils had turned grey, spiraling inwardly like whirlpools swallowing everything they looked at.

And his skin… it was no longer just pale.

It shifted, bubbled, crawled with black veins pulsing up his neck, twisting across his jaw like roots eating through stone.

“…Fucking hell…” Aestrea cursed directly.

Just from the aura Kagetaro emitted, Aestrea knew that he had stepped directly onto the SSS-rank.

So, he instantly increased his mana output to nine and slowly expelled his aura from his body.

And with that, the air around him… shivered.

The frozen marble beneath him cracked again, not from ice, but from sheer, rising aura.

A deep violet hue started spreading throughout the air.

CLINK.

A sound, faint like distant bells.

One sword appeared behind him.

Then two… then five.

Then hundreds.

Then… thousands.

Violet-colored flying swords floated behind Aestrea in the sky like a divine constellation.

Each blade had its own form, whether it was elegant, twisted, brutal, or curved….

All of them looked like they were pulled from a thousand different forgotten ages of war.

Then, his lunar eyes glowed slighly, the light of the hundreds of thousands of swords humming around him.

He stared deeply into Kagetaro’s twisted appearance…

And then, his lips parted slightly.

“Scatter.”

WHOOSH!

All at once, the swords shot forward.

A tsunami of violet death.

Each blade screamed through the air like a banshee, fast enough to tear through sound, slicing apart the battlefield in ribbons of purple light.

Kagetaro’s hand snapped forward…

“Bind—!!”

Black strings erupted from his back like tendrils, millions of them, dancing like living snakes, covering the sky like a dome.

CRACK!

Sword met string.

Aura met aura.

And then…

BOOM—!!!

The space around them tore open.

A clean rupture split through the air itself like glass.

Black lightning cracked through the sky as pressure exploded in all directions, flattening everything in a kilometer-wide radius.

The ground split.

The marble shattered.

Mountains in the distance began crumbling as wind pressure alone carved into them.

“YOU’RE NOT LUNTHERIS!!!”

Kagetaro roared as he yanked his arms upward.

FWIP!

The entire sky above them turned black.

A web of cursed threads took shape like a dome of nightmares.

They clashed again.

Aestrea flicked two fingers, and five blades flew.

Kagetaro weaved strings; two were deflected, three exploded into cursed fog.

And then…

They both moved.

FLASH—!!

They vanished high into the sky.

CLASH—!!

Their fists collided, shaking the clouds apart.

CLANG!

CLANG!

CLANG!

Blade met string, string wrapped around blade, blade snapped the string, string reattached, over and over again in a blur of pure carnage.

They clashed midair again.

BANG—!!

And this time, the impact knocked both of them miles in opposite directions.

Aestrea spun midair, thousands of swords forming a platform beneath his feet, catching him.

He stood on them like a god of the sky, his hair fluttering, eyes glowing like twin moons.

Kagetaro… didn’t land.

He hovered, held in place by countless strings stabbing into the ground like anchors.

But the earth wasn’t holding up.

CRACK…

The entire land beneath Kagetaro fractured.

And then, collapsed.

A full square kilometer of earth gave out, a chasm opening beneath him like the maw of a god.

“RAAAAAHHHHHHHHH—!!!”

He screamed.

His voice wasn’t human anymore.

Kagetaro pulled both arms back, and from behind him, giant tendrils of black string began to take shape.

Two. Four. Eight. Sixteen.

They expanded outward like monstrous wings, each one pulsating with madness, dripping black mist into the air.

Aestrea raised his hand.

All his swords returned to his back, orbiting like a swarm of stars.

“…Let’s carve the heavens,” he said quietly.

And then, they charged.

BOOOOOM—!!!

The collision sent shockwaves for miles.

Aestrea’s blades rained down like comets, each swing carving deep ravines into the land.

One slash dug a trench over a kilometer deep, slicing through canyons, hills, and layers of bedrock like they were made of sand.

Kagetaro answered, his strings stabbed forward like lightning, piercing the clouds, impaling the sun itself.

Every strand carried a twisted curse that infected the world around it, turning trees to ash and stone to dust.

CLASH!

CLASH!

CLASH!

The air was gone, almost breathless.

Their battle was no longer bound by gravity or reason.

It was raw destruction.

Aestrea shot upward, and the swords quickly followed into a perfect spiral.

“Moonlit Ice Lotus Sword Art…”

A cold breath escaped his lips.

『 Sixth Move! (✯ Moonlight Descent ✯) 』

He pointed down, and the swords obeyed.

WHOOSH—!!

Millions of violet swords fell like shooting stars.

Kagetaro raised both arms and summoned a cocoon of string, but this time, they weren’t just physical.

He burned the strings with his soul.

He screamed.

“YOU’RE MINE—!!”

However…

It wasn’t enough, after all, he was against Aestrea’s sixth sword art move.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

KAAABO0OM!

The swords ripped through.

They pierced his cocoon.

They dug through his limbs.

They sliced the canyon beneath him into four massive trenches, forming a cross that bled for kilometers.

Kagetaro fell to one knee, bleeding dark ichor.

“…You—filthy—vessel—” he growled, his voice distorted.

But Aestrea only stared down, his chest rising slightly, as his silver hair was wet with sweat.

“…You’re not strong enough to beat me,” Aestrea said softly.

And that’s what broke Kagetaro.

“AAAAAAAAAARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH—!!!”

The sky turned black.

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