Chapter 252: Aestrea Against The World (XXIX)

The sky turned dark in a instant.

Aestrea’s brow furrowed hard as a strange, red-purple mist began leaking from Kagetaro’s body, curling into the air like smoke from a dying fire.

Then Kagetaro’s body jolted violently.

He twitched, spasmed, his muscles jerking out of sync.

Veins bulged under his skin,sick, pulsing bumps crawling across his arms and neck like something alive was moving beneath.

Aestrea narrowed his eyes.

“…The fuck are you trying to do?”

Seeing this, Aestrea didn’t waste any time, and flicked his wrist.

『 ✯ Winter Series ✯: Chains of Eternal Winter! (✯ 7th-level Spell ✯) 』

Fwip!

Within a second, he summoned over a hundred glacial chains, each one snapping through the air like a whip before slamming down on Kagetaro, binding his arms, legs, torso, even his throat.

Fsshh!

The magic hissed cold, biting into flesh, dragging the temperature around them below freezing.

But it wasn’t enough.

Despite the restraints, Kagetaro’s aura only seemed to grew stronger, and from the flow of his mana, it seems that he was going to explode his own body.

“Dammit!”

He slashed the air open with his hand, tearing a rift in space to escape. But just as he stepped through—

Something latched onto his ankle.

A wet, slithering grip.

“…You’re not going anywhere.”

Kagetaro’s voice came from behind.

Twisted flesh had burst from his body, some grotesque limb or parasite, coiling tight around Aestrea’s leg like a snake made of meat and bone.

“Scheiße…!!!”

Without thinking, he threw up his hand toward Kagetaro.

『 Ice Series: Frost Crash! (✦ 6th-level Spell ✦) 』

BOOOOM!

A sphere of frozen force detonated against Kagetaro’s chest, blasting ice shards in every direction, but it still wasn’t enough.

『 Ice Series: Frost Crash! (✦ 6th-level Spell ✦) 』

BOOOOOOOOM!

The second blast cracked the ground and split the walls of the dimension, but Kagetaro still didn’t go down.

『 Ice Series: Frost Crash! (✦ 6th-level Spell ✦) 』

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The third explosion tore through the battlefield like a collapsing blizzard, a blinding light, bone-deep cold, and an echoing roar that swallowed everything.

And yet, through the smoke and ice…

Kagetaro was still standing.

And above his head, a black crown began to form, descending slowly, glowing with ominous energy.

His lips curled into a twisted smile as he whispered words that made Aestrea’s blood run cold.

“Luntheris shall return.”

『 ✯ Forbidden Series ✯: Absolute Erasure! (✯ 10th-level Spell ✯) 』

Point-blank.

The spell activated.

Aestrea didn’t even have time to scream.

He felt it instantly…. his existence unraveling at the seams. Reality rejected him. His body flickered, his skin turned see-through like fading mist.

He looked toward Kagetaro, only to watch the man dissolve into wisps of mana, as if he had never existed to begin with.

Then Aestrea looked down at his hands…

They were vanishing.

Translucent.

As if he… was being erased from the world.

Panic hit him like a dagger to the heart.

His breath caught, his chest tightened, and his mind spiraled.

‘No. No. This can’t be how it ends…’

Images flashed through his mind, dozens, hundreds, his entire life flooding back in one sweeping current.

The past and present blurred into one.

And for the first time in a long time… tears spilled from his eyes.

Real tears.

‘Where did I go wrong…?’

Was it the arrogance? The moment he absorbed the dragon’s heart, something in him changed…

His pride increased, and he started craving for… more dominance.

He wanted destruction.

But now… all of that had led to this.

Erasure.

His existence traded for ambition.

And in that collapsing moment, faces flooded his thoughts, people he still hadn’t made peace with, promises left broken:

Christina…

He never found her after saying goodbye.

Vivian…

He still owed her a visit.

Lumi…

He hadn’t fulfilled his promise back when she was still in her serpent form.

Zeva…

He never got the chance to spar with her.

Violet…

She still wanted to repay him for saving her.

Yara…

He built her a portal to visit his home, because she wasn’t strong enough to make one herself, because she cared for him, and didn’t want the world to know they had a relationship.

Alaine…

His high-elf maid who tended his wounds, who stayed at his side longer than anyone.

Eleonora…

That persistent, infuriating woman who insisted on making him her disciple.

Chaerin…

The little girl he had adopted, the one he began to see as family, and cutely called him ‘Papa’…

The twins…

Mia and Maria…

Even Ella…

There were simply too many threads.

Too many lives he was tied to.

He couldn’t die. Not yet.

He had too much left to do.

And in that collapsing void, on the edge of nothingness, something clicked.

An epiphany.

His lunar-white eyes ignited with fierce light, pulsing with defiance towards his own fate.

Then—tick by tick—they began to spin. The pupils shifted into the shape of a clock, each second ticking backward.

『 ✯ Time Rewind ✯ (✯ 10th-level Spell ✯) 』

Time fractured.

Reality twisted.

And the world rewound…

All the way back, to the time the Elven Emperor wiped out the dark elves, just a hour ago.

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“If you ever decide to turn that blade of yours on me… I hope you’ll have the decency to tell me first.”

As he finished speaking, he glanced once more at Aestrea’s frozen figure, then sighed, the corners of his robe lifting gently as he vanished into a ripple of space that shimmered before collapsing in on itself.

And then…

“Hah—!!”

Aestrea finally gasped, his chest convulsing as if he’d been pulled up from drowning.

His hands clutched at his throat, his eyes wide and bloodshot, each breath scraping through his lungs like sandpaper.

The air around him shuddered with silver mist leaking from every pore of his body.

A single line of text blinked into view before him:

[…You have lost 1.000 years of lifespan.]

A system warning appeared in front of him.

But he didn’t care… after all, he truly could have died.

His mana spiraled outward uncontrollably, rising like steam from boiling water.

That spell…. that forbidden spell to reverse time… had torn into him, digging into his essence, devouring a thousand years of life in exchange for one impossible miracle.

For a single second, his rank had surged beyond the bounds of the world.

Beyond the SSS-rank.

And in that single second… he saw beyond the sky.

Floating far above, watching from a realm he couldn’t begin to understand, were figures.

…It was more accurate that to say that they were beings.

And they had been looking directly at him.

Not with fear.

Not even with amusement.

But with boredom.

As if he were a flickering candle trying to shine in the sun.

“…There’s still more beyond the SSS-rank?” Aestrea muttered, his voice gradually turning dry, almost empty.

The weight of his own insignificance pressed onto his shoulders, crushing his spine until he collapsed to his knees, eyes lost in the stormy sky above.

And strangely…

For the first time in a long while.

The system answered him, without prompt.

[Yes. SSS-rank is only the peak of this world. But beyond that, there are countless planets… galaxies… realms.]

Aestrea lowered his head, the sharp ends of his hair brushing the ground as his fingers curled into the dirt.

“Then…” he whispered, voice trembling slightly, “how strong are the beings I saw?”

[Stronger than you can comprehend. They can bend time, reshape space… and alter the fate of other living beings.]

[And that? That’s the weakest of them.]

[The ones considered powerful… you wouldn’t even understand what they are capable of.]

Silence.

A heavy, suffocating silence.

“…Then is my physique actually special…?” he asked quietly, barely audible.

[…In this world.]

And that was the moment he laughed.

A weak, pathetic chuckle, strangled and bitter.

“Ahaha… so that’s it…”

He had believed it.

Deep down, even if he didn’t say it aloud, he thought he was special.

That ascending to SSS-rank would mean that he had reached the summit. That he had something unique.

But the truth?

He was still inside the cage.

Just a bigger cage than before.

And far above it, there were things looking down through the bars.

His smile vanished.

The cold in his voice returned.

“…Then tell me,” he said, lifting his head slowly, eyes like cracked glass.

“What are the ranks beyond SSS?”

His voice changed entirely… as if pride had been erased from it. And… just a dead ambitions remained.

[…The peak of the SSS-rank is what some call a ‘half-god.’ Beyond that, you have Low-God, Mid-God, Late-God, and True God.]

[The ‘True God’… that’s the lowest of those you saw.]

“…And then?” he asked again.

[From there, it’s measured in stars.]

[One-star True God. Two-star. All the way to Nine-star.]

[And beyond that… is the Creation Stage.]

[The peak of existence. The supreme state. The final step.]

[The one who reaches it becomes the true sovereign of the universe.]

Aestrea stared blankly at the swirling sky above, and then spoke one final question.

“…And that rank… the one at the very bottom of that divine ladder… that’s where she is? The Goddess I’m a vessel of?”

[…Low-God.]

[Barely a Goddess.]

It was almost comical.

He laughed again, louder this time, but there was no light in his eyes.

He had thought he was exceptional.

That he had inherited something powerful enough to put him above the world.

But that ‘Goddess’?

She hadn’t even scratched the surface of the cosmos.

“And Elohim…?” he whispered, not expecting the answer.

[Nine-star True God.]

Of course.

Of course it was.

What else did he expect?

He wasn’t the Hero, he wasn’t the chosen one. He had almost forgotten that this entire world revolved around Lucas and not himself.

“…Fuck…”

Aestrea leaned back, letting his body fall gently into the shattered remains of the marble below.

The wind was cold.

The sky above vast and distant.

He had survived, but he had never felt so small.

However… that only meant that his journey trully wasn’t over. And that… had litten up a fire that Aestrea had lost.

A fire… that was what people called…

Hunger.

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