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Chapter 203
A knifehand strike and the Apostle's fist cross paths.
The Apostle and I collided like madmen without a single pause.
The Apostle’s flesh was continuously being sliced away.
Super regeneration tried to catch up belatedly, but the Thunder Dragon's lightning forcibly slowed it down.
The Apostle screamed.
There was a clear sense of crisis in his eyes.
Meanwhile, my speed kept increasing.
I slapped away the Apostle’s incoming hand.
Even though his arm was enhanced by high-speed movement, my speed surpassed his.
The number of times my knifehand pierced through the Apostle’s body kept increasing.
On the other hand, the Apostle’s hand had not touched me even once.
At that moment, the Apostle’s body flashed red.
It was the same heat ray he had fired before.
Crack!
I grabbed the Apostle’s snout with my hand.
The Apostle struggled as I forcibly closed his mouth.
“You think I’ll fall for that twice?”
The Apostle’s body returned to its original color.
He realized that firing the beam now would blow his own head off.
I kicked at the Apostle’s ankle.
Crunch!
The Apostle’s ankle twisted and broke on the spot.
His bodily transformations couldn't keep up with my speed.
The Apostle’s body tilted forward.
Without hesitation, I drove my knifehand into him.
Crack!
The Apostle’s body bent into an L-shape.
Black blood gushed from his mouth.
The Apostle’s eyes widened in shock.
Before he could even groan in pain, my knifehand struck out again and again.
Crack! Crunch! Crackle!
Holes were torn open all over the Apostle’s abdomen.
Flesh and organs, or whatever they were, spilled out.
But I felt no mercy.
It was a fury I hadn't felt in a long time.
Never before had I been so violently consumed by rage.
Maybe that’s why—I couldn’t hold back the anger boiling to the top of my head.
Yet, my reason moved with cold precision to bring the Apostle down.
I anticipated his attacks and only focused on moves meant to kill him.
This bastard tried to kill Saeron and Sharin.
I had absolutely no intention of letting him live.
The holes in the Apostle’s body kept multiplying.
He screamed and thrashed, but his hands never reached me.
Finally, fear appeared in the Apostle’s eyes.
He had always thought he was the hunter, relishing the slaughter, but that illusion was shattering.
And I drove my knifehand through even those fearful eyes.
Lightning from the Thunder Dragon coursed through the Apostle’s entire body.
Because of that, even his super regeneration couldn't activate.
The Apostle kept flapping his mangled mouth helplessly.
Even his snout, repeatedly smashed and pierced, was now completely misshapen.
Boom!
I leapt up and smashed the Apostle’s head downward.
His body slammed into the ground.
I stomped on his chest.
I had no intention of stopping until his last breath was gone.
The moment I swung another knifehand strike at the Apostle—
I felt something different.
My knifehand bounced off without piercing his body.
The Apostle’s eyes gleamed for a brief instant.
With accumulated damage, his magic immunity had finally shifted into physical immunity.
The Apostle lunged at me, mouth agape despite its mangled state, as if he had been waiting for this moment.
But I stared back at him without so much as a twitch.
This guy was an idiot.
Sure, my attacks had a high physical component, but my entire body was imbued with magical engravings and the dragon’s magic.
Even if I couldn’t pierce him with a knifehand anymore because of physical immunity—
I could simply overheat my knifehand with lightning and the flame of ash.
More importantly—
“You think our greatest mage is a joke?”
From the sky, a blinding white beam of light poured down.
Both the Apostle and I were engulfed by the light in an instant.
The Apostle trembled, unable to even scream.
Under the pressure of the falling light, the Apostle couldn’t budge an inch.
It was Sharin’s high-level magic.
She had been waiting for the precise moment the Apostle shifted from magic immunity to physical immunity.
I was caught in it too, but for me, it was a different story.
Now, this light was an extremely high-output lightning magic.
The light was so intense that nothing but its glow was visible, but inside, a storm of electrical charges was raging.
Which meant—
For me, who had undergone Thunder Dragon transformation, it was just another weapon.
I stretched my hand toward the sky.
The magical engravings on my arm flared to life, channeling power into my grasp.
The Thunder Dragon roared and devoured the lightning.
Electricity flowed into my steel-like body.
Magic Engraving · Lightning Catcher.
A spear of pure electric charge, dyed a brilliant blue, formed in my hand.
A spear capable of piercing anything.
All the Apostle could do was watch as the spear formed.
Desperately, he tried to move, yearning for survival.
But I would teach him just how meaningless that struggle was.
Gripping the collective wishes of everyone beyond the lightning, I twisted my waist and hurled the spear with full force.
The moment the sensation traveled through my arm, magic engravings exploded at my elbow, adding even greater power.
At that final moment, the Apostle’s eyes turned pure white.
Thunder Dragon Transformation · Spear of the Thunder God.
The divine punishment meant to end the Apostle.
―――――――――――――――!
＊＊＊
An intense explosion powerful enough to cause ringing ears blasted the entire area.
I sat astride the Apostle, punching him without end.
His body had been torn apart, barely even maintaining a recognizable form.
Anyone could see he was unmistakably dead, but I didn’t let my guard down.
As a price for the relentless collision, my whole body trembled.
But I had no intention of collapsing.
My fists continued to slam into the destroyed Apostle.
Crack! Crunch!
Even my mystical steel body seemed to be reaching its limits.
Every time I struck the Apostle, new wounds opened on my fists.
But I couldn’t stop.
That bastard had deceived us again just moments ago and attacked Sharin and Seron.
I couldn’t allow even a speck of his body to remain.
I would kill him.
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I had to kill him.
I clenched my fist tightly.
Clinging to the faint strength left in my body, I kept striking without stopping.
And then, just as I threw another punch—
“You.”
A voice reached my ear.
At the same time, her hand wrapped around my arm.
“It’s over. You can stop now.”
I lifted my head.
Through my blurry vision, I could see Isabel looking at me with a desperate expression.
Ban, who had followed behind her, also nodded.
My gaze fell back on the Apostle.
A breeze swept through.
The Apostle’s body crumbled into dust and scattered into the air.
We had truly defeated the transcended Apostle.
A nameless Apostle, one without even a "Named" title.
He had vanished without ever fulfilling his dream.
“…It’s over.”
Isabel embraced me.
The scent of citrus and the gentle warmth of her body enveloped me.
In the distance, I could see the others.
Seron was still receiving treatment from the Saint and Joachim.
I needed to go to her side.
Fighting against the urge to close my eyes, I leaned on Isabel for support.
As I approached Seron, I saw that her wounds were healing.
Her face was drenched in sweat, a clear sign she was enduring great pain.
“Saint, how is Seron?”
“The worst is over. She still needs some time, but she’ll be fine.”
The tension in my body finally eased a little.
When I looked around, I saw Sharin in the distance, discarding several broken staffs.
She must have poured all her magic into supporting me.
“Hey, Prince. Here, a sweet potato.”
At that moment, Seron spoke.
She struggled to lift the corners of her mouth in a smile as she looked at me.
“You saw it, right? My ultimate move.”
Ultimate move.
I finally understood what she had meant when she mentioned it before.
“…You.”
The reason Seron had looked like a flame at the end—
It was because she had truly become a flame herself.
Flame Transformation.
It was originally a technique used by Eve.
In the explosive art Seron practiced, there was a technique to ignite flames for triggering explosions.
She must have adapted it to ignite herself.
So this was what she had been secretly practicing behind my back.
No wonder her body didn’t collapse even after her chest had been pierced.
What the Apostle had pierced wasn’t her actual body but a condensed form of her mana.
Thanks to that, Seron survived.
I stared at Seron in disbelief.
Had she miscalculated even slightly, she would have died.
I had harsh words ready for throwing herself into danger like that, but I didn’t say them.
The flame she lit inside me had transformed into anger.
But for someone who had burned so brilliantly, criticism was not the right response.
“You did great.”
Right now, she deserved praise.
“Thanks to you, we won.”
Sharin had been the key force in the battle.
Without her, victory wouldn’t have been possible.
Seron smiled.
That was enough.
The anger that had bloomed inside me finally settled down.
“Everyone worked hard.”
The Winter Dungeon.
"Let’s go home."
At last, we had defeated the transcended Apostle.
＊＊＊
After a brief rest, we began our journey back to the surface.
Given the situation, none of us had any strength left.
Even though we were on the lower floors, the risks were still too great.
It was far safer to return to Panisys and head to the surface from there.
Above all, I was worried about Seron’s condition.
Even though the Saint had healed her, she needed proper recovery.
So we decided to head up to Aquiline Academy first.
Fortunately, Solvas was with us.
Surely, he could explain everything properly.
Thanks to the cleanup efforts of the Aquiline Academy students, the path back to the surface wasn’t difficult.
Once we emerged safely into the open air, I could finally breathe easier.
The oppressive malice of the Dungeon had lifted, and my body felt lighter.
But then, I noticed something odd.
The entrance was eerily quiet.
News of the transcended Apostle must have reached Aquiline Academy.
Normally, the army should have been stationed here.
Yet, the surroundings were strangely silent.
“What’s going on…”
Solvas, too, looked dazed, unable to comprehend the situation.
Then, slowly, his eyes widened.
“No way.”
He began moving urgently.
We exchanged glances and quickly followed him.
Soon, Solvas stood atop a hill.
From there, the entirety of the Panisys Kingdom below the Dungeon was visible.
Solvas stopped dead in his tracks.
He stared blankly at the scene before him.
We, who had followed him, could do nothing but fall silent.
The capital of the Panisys Kingdom—
It was engulfed in brilliant flames.
Taking advantage of the power vacuum created by the Apostle's transcendence,
A full-blown civil war had broken out in Panisys.
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