Chapter 346: The Beginning Of The End [VIII]

“Fuck…”

Clostro clenched his scythe, not knowing if Aestrea had a hidden card made him extremely nervous somehow.

‘Does he still have something hidden?’

That thought alone was enough to make his nerves scream.

Then, with a sharp inhale, he raised his hands and snarled:

“Fine. Let’s see who dies first!”

Fwip, fwosh!

His hands blurred, forming over a dozen complex signs in one heartbeat.

Each motion burned lines of blood-red light into the air, forming a massive triangle that glowed between them.

Aestrea’s reflection appeared within its center.

Clostro’s eyes turned completely crimson, his pupils vanishing in a storm of scarlet flame.

“『 ✯ Authority of Killing — DOMAIN OF SLAUGHTER! ✯ 』”

The world trembled.

A thick, dark-red liquid oozed from Clostro’s skin, dripping from his hands, his eyes, his mouth. It hissed as it touched the ground.

And then…

FWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!

The blood spread like wildfire, twisting the air, devouring the light, until the very space around Aestrea warped and bled.

In the blink of an eye, the battlefield was gone.

Now, Aestrea stood in a vast, endless world of red.

The sky was thick and heavy, painted with shades of blood.

A white moon hung above, glowing like bone in the darkness.

All around him, countless trees rose high, gnarled, red-marked, their bark pulsing faintly, as if veins ran through them.

Squish…

Each step he took squelched softly; the ground itself was wet.

He turned his head slightly, eyes narrowing as he saw them… millions of corpses hanging from the branches.

Gods, beasts, mortals, all impaled through the chest by blackened blades. Their faces were twisted in silent screams.

And high above them all…

Clostro stood.

He was balanced atop the tallest tree, framed perfectly under the pale moonlight.

The light poured over his scarlet armor and dripping scythe, making him look like some ancient god of war carved from blood.

His eyes glowed like twin stars of rage.

“Welcome,” Clostro said, his voice echoing through the endless crimson air.

“To my domain.”

The wind screamed, the moonlight pulsed, and all around, the corpses began to move.

He didn’t look surprised, not even slightly. But inside, behind that calm face, he finally felt a wave of relief.

‘…He finally fucking used his domain.’

He had been waiting for this, before he could think further…

“Let’s see how long that calm expression of yours lasts,” Clostro scoffed.

The god of killing raised one hand and clenched his fist.

The air shattered.

FWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!

Every corpse impaled on every tree suddenly ripped free.

Millions of bodies, twisted and broken, shot toward Aestrea like a tidal wave of blood and flesh. Their dead eyes glowed red, their weapons howling through the wind.

But instead of reaching for his sword…

Clack!

Aestrea sheathed [Midnight] at his waist.

He rolled his shoulders, cracked his neck, and murmured:

“Fine.”

And then, he finally made his move.

BOOM!

Aestrea vanished, his body cutting through the horde.

His fist met the first corpse’s face, crushing it into dust with one blow. The shockwave ripped through the air, sending others spinning backward.

Another swung a blade from behind.

Swish!

Aestrea ducked, twisting his body low, and swept his leg backward, snapping the corpse’s spine clean in two.

Bam!

Crack!

He kept the same pace, with brutal yet efficient moves, making sure that every movement flowed right into another, whether that was an elbow strike or a punch.

But for every ten he destroyed, a hundred more replaced them.

“Graaaaaaah!”

A thousand corpses screamed, diving at him all at once, their blades slashing in every direction.

Clang!

Clack!

CLANG!

Aestrea caught a sword mid-air with his bare hand, spun it, and used it to impale three others before tossing it through a fourth.

But a fifth corpse appeared behind him, stabbing forward.

“Ugh!”

He quickly spun on his heel, elbow striking backward into its skull. The corpse exploded into black dust.

Still, they just kept coming.

Every hit Aestrea took was instantly healed, flesh-tearing, bones cracking, only to knit back together before the next strike even landed.

But it was the same for the corpses.

Each one he shattered reformed from the mist of the domain, twisted anew, crawling back toward him.

THOOM!

Clostro appeared behind him in a blur of red light, swinging his scythe in a wide arc.

Aestrea raised his arm, blocking the shaft with his forearm.

KRRRSHHH!!

The impact sent him flying backward, his feet tearing deep marks across the blood-soaked ground.

“Hahahaha!” Clostro laughed, landing lightly on a floating branch made of solid crimson light.

“Your body moves well! But against my authority, even you will fall! Besides, you’re much weaker than before!”

Aestrea wiped a streak of blood from his lip, eyes narrowing as more corpses surged toward him.

‘Phew… just a little more so I can get the feeling…’

He dashed forward again,

BOOM!

His knee struck a corpse in the gut before his right palm slammed upward, breaking its jaw clean off.

Then he spun, his heel slicing through three more necks, the air screaming with every motion.

CRACK!

BAM!

FWOOOOSH!

He fought like a monster.

Bare hands against blades.

Blood spraying in the air.

His breath came heavy, but his expression remained cold.

“You’re entertaining, I’ll give you that!” Clostro kept laughing above him as he watched him struggle for his life.

He raised his hand again, and all at once, the corpses around Aestrea froze. Their red eyes flared, then exploded into a rain of blades.

WHIRRRRRRRRRRR!!!

Thousands of weapons spun in the air, flying toward Aestrea from every angle.

He crossed his arms, took a deep breath, and moved.

BOOOOOOOM!

He kicked off the ground, twisting his body through the rain of steel.

Each blade that came close, he deflected with a palm strike or broke apart with a punch.

A spear came at his throat; he caught it mid-flight, snapped it, and threw the broken end straight through another corpse’s skull.

And surprisingly…

[Ding!]

A faint purple-blue light appeared before his eyes.

[You’ve killed the corpse of a god!]

[You have absorbed a tiny part of his authority!]

Aestrea’s eyes widened slightly.

‘…Does that mean I didn’t exactly destroy the corpse of the others’ corpses?’ He looked through the crowd, trying to scan for any familiar faces.

But since there were millions of corpses, he didn’t actually find anyone remotely familiar to those he killed.

However… he simply smiled.

Every corpse he destroyed… gave him power.

And this world, this blood-soaked hell, was made of millions of corpses.

This was probably… the best leveling ground for Aestrea.

‘You fool, Clostro…’

He exhaled, and his aura began to shift. tiny motes of divine energy crawling over his skin like frost, feeding into his veins.

“What’s that grin for?” Clostro frowned from above.

‘Does he really have a trump card…?’ he bit his lip in agony.

Below him, Aestrea cracked his knuckles, blood dripping down his forearms.

“Just realizing…” he said quietly, stepping forward again. “Your domain might be the best gift I’ve received yet.”

“Huh? What do you mean by that?!”

Clostro was utterly confused, and under his eyes, Aestrea’s figure blurred as he vanished.

FWOOOOOSH!!

Aestrea’s body shot upward, breaking through a wall of corpses, his leg spinning like a blade as he kicked one in half and punched through another’s chest.

Divine energy crackled through his strikes, growing faster, harder, stronger with every kill.

Clostro’s eyes narrowed as he suddenly noticed that the aura inside of Aestrea’s body increased by a very insignificant amount.

“What—?”

But just as he kept watching, that very insignificant amount started increasing by a lot, to the point of becoming a significant amount.

Especially since he didn’t know if Aestrea could activate that Lunar Eyes thing again or whatever it was called.

So, he decided to try and end his amusement directly.

『 ✯ Authority of Killing: Crimson Ocean! ✯ 』

THRUUUUUM!

All around them, the rivers of blood that coated the ground began to tremble, then rise, slowly at first, then violently.

The red waves crashed and twisted like living beasts, pulled upward by Clostro’s will.

Aestrea looked around sharply as the air grew heavy, his silver aura clashing against the red storm.

In seconds, every drop of blood solidified into blades and spikes, hovering in midair.

“Die inside your own arrogance!” Clostro shouted, his hand snapping down.

KRRRSHHHHH!!

Thousands of crimson spikes rained down from above, tearing through the air toward Aestrea.

He didn’t flinch.

“Ah… this technique,” he muttered under his breath, eyes narrowing faintly.

His body lowered slightly, knees bending, aura swirling.

BOOM!

He leapt upward, spinning midair, his heel smashing into one of the descending spikes. The entire structure exploded under the kick, shards scattering like glass.

He landed lightly on another spike, using it as a foothold before flipping backward, dodging two more that sliced through where his chest had been a heartbeat earlier.

FWIP!

CRACK!

Another spike came from his right, which he caught midair with his bare hand, divine energy bursting from his palm, and crushed it into fragments.

Clostro snarled, raising both arms this time, forcing the entire ocean of blood to rise again in a spiraling maelstrom1 around him.

Aestrea straightened slowly amid the chaos, as his eyes locked onto Clostro’s.

“You think drowning me in your own filth will stop me?”

“It’s not drowning…. IT’S CLEANSING YOUR IMPURITIES, BRAT!”

Aestrea smiled faintly.

“Then you’ll be the first to drown in it.”

BOOOOOOOOOM!

A silver light burst from his body once more, colliding with the endless crimson sea. However, even as he did that, he frowned slighly.

Since the beginning of the battle, Aestrea has been pushing his physique to its limits, not to mention the countless uses of the Yggdrasil tree inside of his body.

Although his body could handle it, the mental energy to control everything was simply too much.

…He needed to end the battle, and as quickly as possible.

So, he simply decided… to go back to his origins.

Rustle~

The wind caused by the maelstrom reached his face, and suddenly, his eyes returned to their original glowing crimson blood color.

The vertical slits were completely gone.

Freezee…

He forged a sword made out of his Authority of Ice, before slowly, grabbing it lightly with both hands, reminiscent of the days he spent honing his sword skills.

There, he thought that one day, he would make the Royal Academy regret not recruiting him as a student.

His wish had come true.

And now…

If he wished to kill Clostro, the God of Killing.

That wish… would also come true.

“Moonlit Ice Lotus Sword Art…”

The words escaped his lips, causing a surge of power to echo throughout while whole existence, even causing Clostro to freeze slightly.

“W-wha…? T-the, THE FUCK ARE YOU D-DOING?! WHY CAN’T I MOVE?”

Strangely, there wasn’t some kind of otherworldly reaction, but somehow, the air felt Aestrea’s power.

It was as if… the whole universe was simply replying to his commands, causing Clostro to experience a huge wave of fear that made him breathless.

And then, after more than seven years, his blood eyes opened, as he uttered the last move, the forbidden move, of his sword art.

『 Seventh Move! (✹ Absolute Zero Eclipse ✹) 』

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