The reason why the Five Miracles won the t.i.tle of miracle was because they surpa.s.sed Morpheus’ predictions. On the other hand, ranking was an intuitive number that rose in proportion to the level, i.e. it was a measure of strength.
“Agnuuuuus!!”
In Kraugel’s era, he had been third in the unified rankings. In Grid’s era, he was either first or second in the unified rankings. From Satisty’s opening to the present day, Chris had never missed the top ranking. Kraugel, who wasn’t interested in others due to his unique excellence, and Grid, who couldn’t distinguish between confidence and arrogance in the past, both acknowledged Chris’ strength.
Kurururung!
‘The greatest strength stat’ was combined with the ferocity of the second cla.s.s ‘Tyrant’ and showed great power.
Every time Chris wielded his sword, the blizzard was split in half and the snow was swept away. Agnus was a bit surprised by Chris’ ability to knock down the skeleton soldiers with simple air pressure. He summoned Lich Mumud and flew into the air.
“I was wondering why you wanted a fight. Was it because you are so confident in your skills?”
Agnus laughed at Chris’ growth and tapped his fingers. Then rainbow-colored magic gathered in both of Lich Mumud’s hands. Then at this point, Chris’ eyes shone red-brown. “Control of the Sky.”
“...?!”
Lich Mumud lost his ability to fly. He was unable to resist the effects of gravity and struggled in the air, causing the trajectory of his magic to s.h.i.+ft. Chris used the explosion of the magic that missed to gain acceleration and he pursued Agnus who fell on the snowy fields.
‘Is this the power of the Rune of Supplementation? It is tricky.’
Agnus was pushed to the edge of a cliff and stretched out the nails gained with the power of his third cla.s.s, Demon World n.o.ble, barely able to stop. He raised his body and summoned Death Knight Cao. Cao roared the moment he appeared. The roar of the strongest orc warrior in his lifetime contained a pressure that caused living creatures around him to shrink back.
However, it didn’t have any influence on Chris. This was the power of the Rune of Supplementation that evolved every time he raided a boss monster. After obtaining the Rune of Supplementation, Chris had been obsessed with raids for almost nine years and he raided hundreds of boss monsters, raising the potential of the Rune of Supplementation to the extreme. Making the target’s flight impossible or being immune to fear was just the tip of the power of the Rune of Supplementation.
Aura that was like a saw blade shot toward him. The collision between Cao’s violet aura and Chris’ sword that could cut through rock and steel caused a ma.s.sive shockwave. The land where Chris and Cao stood broke like a cobweb. The seemingly immortal, huge snow mountain screamed and started to gradually tilt.
However, Chris and Cao were unconcerned and kept confronting each other. As the collision between swords increased, the cracks on the ground grew larger. The larger the cracks in the ground, the more the mountain tilted. Just then, Cao’s skull also started cracking.
On the other hand, Chris’ greatsword was undamaged when it should’ve been in two pieces. The White Tiger’s Greatsword created by Grid was as firm as always.
“...Tsk.”
Agnus clicked his tongue and recalled Cao when he saw that Cao’s body was unable to withstand the continuing shock and showed signs of collapse. Chris looked disbelieving as Agnus summoned new death knights and skeleton archers to stop Chris from charging.
‘He is using tactics?’
The reason Agnus summoned Cao back was to buy time for Cao’s recovery. It would take a long time to recover from a big wound, but Agnus distributed his power so he could take Cao out again during this battle. Moreover, the death knight that Agnus newly summoned was a type that fired auras. It was possible for medium and long range attacks. It was a great choice to summon him along with the skeleton archers.
Of course, it wasn’t a special tactic. It was just the basics. It was just surprising that Agnus followed the basics. Wasn’t Agnus called a mad dog for a reason? He was like a beast who lost his head when fighting. He didn’t consider the consequences at all and just did his best to annihilate the opponent in front of him. At least, that was the Agnus that Chris knew.
‘Then what is this normal decision making?’
Chris was perplexed by Agnus’ new behaviour and lifted his greatsword to block the bombardment of arrows. His swordsmans.h.i.+p was so excellent that his low agility wasn’t a shortcoming. He used the minimal movements to block the arrows. However, it wasn’t easy for him to move forward. It was because the death knight’s aura had the ‘charging’ effect when shot from a distance. It was possible for Chris to break through by linking several charges with Tyrant’s Strength and evasive maneuvers, but he decided to first watch the situation silently.
The snow mountain was on the verge of collapse due to the fight. Soon, the terrain would change and the battle formation would change. There was a great possibility that it would be meaningless to shorten the distance hastily before that. It was better to deal with it after the change started.
It happened when Chris was checking the duration of all his buff potions again...
The snow mountain started to collapse faster than expected. As the death knights and skeleton archers were pushed back, their bodies started floating.
‘Now!’
Chris saw it and launched Tyrant’s Advance. It was an immediate judgment with not even a 0.1 second delay. Chris burst forward and pa.s.sed underneath the death knights and skeleton archers floating in the air. His gaze was on the 90 degree cliff where Agnus’ figure was hanging from the edge of the cliff. It was the moment when Chris finally reached the man hanging from the stone cliff and stabbed his sword...
There was a huge explosion at Chris’ feet and the brilliant, iridescent magic, split into hundred or thousands of branches, and struck Chris from head to toe. It was a bombardment of Mumud’s magic—Shot Mine.
Chris got holes all over his body. He fell back and vomited dark red blood as the subsequent landslide covered his body. Chris was swept away by the landslide and fell down the deep cliff. Agnus thought Chris was naturally going to die and stopped his unsightly acting to float in the air. The demonic energy wings that symbolized a demon n.o.ble splendidly spread out behind his back.
“This bull-like guy.”
Chris was someone who fought ignorantly from beginning to end. It wasn’t enough to cause a landslide, he even ran without worrying about the landslide. Was Chris dominated by some type of madness like the previous Agnus? There were doubts.
‘Why did he suddenly become angry?’
Agnus questioned the emotional changes that Chris showed when the skeleton soldiers were summoned. Then it happened as he reversed the deaths of the death knight who died in the landslide...
“Control of the...”
“......!”
“...Sky.”
Agnus’ wings stopped working. Mumud, who was floating alongside Agnus, also stiffened like a statue. Their bodies were crushed by gravity and started to fall to the ground.
‘That b.a.s.t.a.r.d...!’
Agnus saw it as he fell rapidly. The red-brown eyes s.h.i.+ning in the cracks between the s...o...b..a.l.l.s and stones piled up by the landslide.
Mumud’s Shot Mine lacked the traditional premise that the target must step on the mine, but it still possessed the highest level of human killing ability. Chris’ tenacity to survive this and the landslide to grab onto Agnus’ ankle caused a chill to shoot down Agnus’ spine.
“You dare... Overgeared... Kingdom... soldiers...” Chris barely spoke and his voice that was like the crawling dead had a hard time reaching Agnus. It was just that Chris’ sword that protruded through the pile of stones and pointed at Agnus expressed his deep hostility and killing intent toward Agnus. Agnus frowned at the sight of Chris’ greatsword pointing tall where he fell and used magic.
“Dark s.h.i.+eld.”
Demonic power wriggled and expanded to wrap around Agnus’ body. The deep energy was reminiscent of Baal’s s.h.i.+eld.
Flas.h.!.+
Mumud’s magic s.h.i.+eld also covered him. Chris’ sword soon collided with Agnus’ body that was wrapped in a s.h.i.+eld.
“Cough!”
Blood gushed from the rocks. It was Chris’ blood as he was crushed by the weight of the fallen Agnus. Agnus pulled out his sword and inserted it into the pile of stones. Click. Chris’ body finally stopped moving. Agnus confirmed that Chris’ body was turning to gray ash and raised himself with heavy breathing.
‘Everyone had changed except for me.’
In Agnus’ memories, Chris wasn’t such an outstanding warrior. Chris might’ve always boasted a high ranking, but his skill and tenacity weren’t a match for Agnus. On the other hand, the Chris of today made Agnus nervous several times. He wondered if he should take out the power of the Rune of Death, or if he should summon a demon or deceased. Even after growing the strongest cla.s.s, Baal’s Contractor, to the legendary level, he suffered such an insult from a normal cla.s.s...
He realized how weak he had become over the past few years by clinging to a ghost.
‘It shouldn’t be like this...’
Agnus was filled with a burning desire. It was a desire for more power.
Grid—Agnus had a duty to deny the man who rose to the highest level after walking a completely different path from himself. Only then would he be able to affirm himself and move forward.
Agnus sat his weary body on a rock and pulled out a potion. He planned to recover his resources and climb the high mountains. However, his plan wasn’t fulfilled. The gla.s.s bottle containing the red potion shattered. A black shadow was projected onto the scattering gla.s.s and red liquid.
“Greed.”
A dark shadow completely enveloped Agnus. Agnus was perplexed by the sudden situation and struggled, but the shadow that surrounded him was unstoppable and gradually imprisoned him.
New figures appeared all over the place. They were Zednos and Laella. The best magicians of the Overgeared Guild fired magic and bombarded Agnus, while Katz took control of Chris’ blood.
“It isn’t enough to hurt the soldiers of our kingdom, but you also killed Chris? You f.u.c.ker, you won’t leave here alive.”
Katz’ face twisted like a demon as he stabbed at Agnus, trapped in Greed, with a knife made from Chris’ blood. In fact, Chris had asked his colleagues for help the moment he confronted Agnus. It was natural. The only person who could fight Agnus one-on-one was Grid. The reason why Chris fought Agnus before reinforcements arrived was because he saw the armor worn by the skeleton soldiers.
It wasn’t to mourn the dead soldiers or to get revenge on behalf of them. Chris just wanted to protect the honor of the Overgeared Kingdom. To be honest, he was confident that he could hold on until reinforcements arrived. The problem was that Agnus’ firepower was better than expected.
“Kukuk...! Kuahahahat!” Agnus was trapped in Greed and let out a crazy laugh. His voice flowed through the hole pierced in Greed by the b.l.o.o.d.y sword. “Was that it? You were so upset just before the soldiers died?”
The death knight Lantier appeared in the rear and cut at Zednos and Laella in turn. The fl.u.s.tered Katz used his ultimate technique to cut at Agnus, but Agnus survived by becoming an undead without his immortality being consumed. Regardless of his left arm and collarbone that was damaged by Greed, Agnus used Bentao’s power and exchanged his health with Katz.
Agnus was called a ‘disaster’ from beginning to end, as opposed to Grid being reborn as the lantern of humanity. He wandered without any desires for a long time and was about to start a blood festival.
“Agnus!” Euphemina arrived at the scene late and called out to Agnus.
Agnus turned his gaze to her and frowned. “You... don’t look at me like that.”
All types of conflicts intersected in Agnus’ mind. The relations.h.i.+p that Euphemina forcibly created became an annoying memory and made him hesitate. Agnus realized that in order to not repeat the same mistakes, he had to completely cut off this small relations.h.i.+p. “Lich Summon, Mumud.”
“......!”
“......!”
The faces of the Overgeared members on the defensive stiffened. The best genius magician whom Braham acknowledged. The fact that his lich self stood by Agnus caused the Overgeared members to shrink back. Agnus ignored them as they withdrew little by little. His gaze was only directed at Euphemina. “Consume and fall.”
Stagger.
Mumud collapsed in place like a broken doll. Then a clear blue soul escaped and shone in the air.
“A-Agnus?” Euphemina made a disbelieving expression that soon changed to joy. She smiled as she was filled with all sorts of hopeful thoughts, only for Agnus to pierce her with his words.
“Our cheap relations.h.i.+p ends with this. If you block my path for any reason in the future... I will kill you.”
A victim who had been subjected to malice throughout his life—he chose to exploit others and to be alone. He cut off the last ties and hopes in order to walk the path alone, as always. The Overgeared members couldn’t bear to stop him. However, Vantner who appeared one step later was different. He wasn’t particularly good at reading the atmosphere. He had no obligation to act according to the mood.
“Don’t run away, you x.x.xX!” Vantner’s two-handed axe slashed Agnus’ throat. Agnus entered the immortal state and barely stood up, but he was pierced by Pon’s spear that appeared one step later and flew away, unable to seize the opportunity to counterattack.
“Hahahat! I killed him!”
“You killed him?”
The members of the Overgeared Guild stared blankly at the two men competing in front of Agnus’ corpse that was turning into gray ash.
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