The dust of the 1km crater hadn't even begun to settle when a voice pierced through the ringing silence of the ruins.
"Maaam! We found one!" a knight shouted, his voice echoing across the jagged remains of a storefront.
In a blinding flash of violet light, Merlin Salper moved.
She didn't just run; she struck through the standing remains of buildings like a kinetic bolt, her purple-to-pink hair streaming behind her.
She skidded to a halt in front of the scouting party.
The other knights scrambled to catch up, breathless.
"Ma'am," the lead knight gasped, pointing to a pile of rubble.
"He is alive... but injured."
They pulled back a heavy timber to reveal a girl, barely nineteen, her face masked in blood and her breathing shallow.
Merlin stepped forward, her eyes scanning the soldiers.
"Hey, let me pick her up," Merlin said, her voice dropping into a playful but sharp tone.
"You guys don't look innocent."
The knights froze, their faces turning beet-red as their hearts collectively broke in a comedic wave of rejection.
They stumbled back, mumbling apologies.
Merlin ignored them, kneeling beside the girl.
"Hey, are you alive?" she asked softly.
Suddenly, Merlin's eyes flared with an intense purple radiance.
A soft, humming light began to swirl around her hands, weaving into the girl's open wounds.
The gashes began to knit together instantly.
The girl's eyes snapped open in a panic.
"What... who are you?" the girl stammered, trembling.
Merlin stood up, her expression turning dead serious.
"Excuse me, but before you say anything, I have to say something. Move fast. Because I'm the Vice Captain of the strongest Knights team in Zephyros. Our SS-rank, Gerzan Phermer, is out of the kingdom for a dungeon raid, so I'm hearing... so I just want you to teleport me to the Kingdom of Velmora. And I have to brought two persons, so don't ask any questions."
The girl blinked, her voice small.
"But ma'am..."
Merlin didn't wait.
She grabbed the girl's head, her purple mana surging.
"TELEPORT US!!!"
The girl's entire body trembled under the command, and in a violent distortion of space, they vanished.
The King of the Crater
Back in the heart of the wasteland, the air grew cold.
Markil stood amidst the devastation, looking at the broken Amano Tetsu.
A small, chilling smile played on Markil's lips.
"Fine then," he whispered.
He let go.
The Chaos Aura didn't just leak out; it exploded.
It was a physical weight that flattened the remaining stones within the crater.
Amano, an SSS-rank warrior who had survived thousands of battles, felt his skeleton groan.
He dropped to his knees, blood beginning to seep from his pores as the pressure of Markil's presence crushed his internal organs.
Amano looked up, his one good eye filled with primitive terror.
"Who... who are you?"
Markil didn't answer with words.
His "insane strongness" had returned, the raw, unfiltered power of the Void.
He casually unsummoned Asler and Warfer, the daggers dissolving into purple mist.
He began to walk toward Amano, but the weapons didn't stay gone—the black-and-silver daggers began to rotate slowly around his body like orbiting moons, guided by his gravity.
Markil leaned in, giving a creepy, wide smile that didn't reach his glowing red eyes.
"Now tell me," Markil whispered,
"in which way you want to be dead? By which weapon? Dagger? Sword? Or by your own?"
Amano's throat locked.
He couldn't even speak.
He watched in horror as Markil reached out and grabbed the head of the Ruin-Bringer hammer—the weapon that was supposed to vibrate atoms apart.
How did he... Amano's thoughts scrambled.
How was he able to push my hammer?!
Markil stepped closer.
Closer.
Closer.
Amano tried to scramble back, his boots sliding in the dirt, but his limbs wouldn't obey.
What is this creature? Amano thought, his mind breaking.
So terrifying...
Markil suddenly lunged into Amano's personal space.
The sheer proximity of that much Chaos mana was too much for a human heart to handle.
Amano's chest seized—a massive, fatal heart attack triggered by pure, unadulterated fear.
As his heart stopped, his body couldn't hold its molecular form against the aura.
He vanished into grey ash, his hammer dissolving with him.
Markil stopped.
He pulled back his aura, the suffocating pressure lifting.
My aura... I don't know why and how, Markil thought, looking at his vibrating hands.
But whenever I release my aura, I become insanely strong and really untouchable.
But I don't know how to compress it properly so I could also use it.
He flexed his fingers, feeling the density of his muscles.
This body is really insane.
He looked around at the 1km wasteland he stood in.
Did I do this?
No, it wasn't me. It was him. I just defensed myself.
Suddenly, his face shifted into a panicked, funny expression.
By the way... here was our hotel, right?
His eyes bugged out as he looked at the empty space where the building had stood.
"THAT PERVERT IS DEAD IN THESE DESTRUCTIVE EXPLOSIONS!" he shouted, thinking of Maren.
Markil began to walk through the ruins, checking the edges of the sector.
He saw the injured being tended to by the few surviving knights.
He looked back at the center of the crater.
Oh yeah... I just also made those bodies into gas or something in the soil, he thought grimly.
His mind flashed back to the beggar he had seen earlier.
The world is really the same everywhere.
He paused, looking up at the smoke-filled sky.
Mother... it's been a while since I have thought about you.
Before the memory could take root, a new light emerged from the clouds.
It wasn't purple or red.
It was a piercing, majestic Golden Light.
"Wooow," Markil said, shielding his eyes.
"What is that?"
The light vanished as quickly as it appeared, but it had covered a radius of 500 meters.
Then, another spark of gold ignited in the air right in front of him.
Markil gave a funny, confused reaction.
Is this a light show?
Then, the world slowed down.
In a heartbeat, the "light show" turned into a death trap.
Markil felt the cold bite of a steel blade touching the skin of his neck.
Simultaneously, a fist glowing with a sun-like intensity was aimed directly at his solar plexus.
Markil froze.
His eyes shifted to the left, then the right.
Standing there were the two legends the knights had been screaming for.
Roric, holding the sword to his throat, and Sasha, her fist cocked and ready to pulverize him.
Oh... Markil thought, his heart sinking into his stomach.
I'm fucked up.
(Chapter 50 Finished)