Black Killer Whale Baby - Chapter 272

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 272
That was when it happened. The Crown Prince’s irises shifted to an otherworldly hue. Not a single color.
Red, then blue, then green, then gold.
Combined with his chiseled features, he looked like something not of this world—grotesque and alien.
But that wasn’t all.
Strange markings surfaced across the Crown Prince’s face. They resembled the scales of a reptile—a serpent or lizard.
And then something pierced through his forehead. Horns.
‘…A Dragon?’
I had seen paintings and statues depicting dragons in the Dragon’s Castle.
The horns matched those depictions exactly. The Crown Prince, as if suffocating, clawed at his own neck and tore at his buttons.
‘As if I’d wait for some transformation sequence!’
I had no intention of becoming some docile cartoon villain who politely waited for the protagonist to complete their metamorphosis.
Crash!
In the instant my fist flew toward the Crown Prince, he clenched his own.
The shockwave from their collision was powerful enough to send nearby people flying.
My eyes widened. The Crown Prince felt exhilaration at my expression.
“Ha, haha…! Did you think only you could grow stronger?”
Our fists locked in a tense standoff, each channeling different forces.
“No, that’s not it.”
The Crown Prince laughed like a madman, his expression vacant as if he’d taken some drug and lost his mind.
I responded flatly.
“You lost in this life too. This is just your death throes.”
“Ahahaha, yes, Calypso Aquasiadel. It looks that way, doesn’t it? But no. It’s not!”
“What?”
“When everyone here dies and I return, that’s my victory. Right?”
“Only an idiot would say something so stupid.”
A cold sneer crossed my face.
“Yes, keep deluding yourself until your son dies too.”
Power surged from my hand, water exploding outward and driving him back.
I glanced at his staggering chest.
Because he’d torn his clothes open so violently, his chest was fully exposed, and something was embedded there.
A stone? Or a jewel?
The crimson stone pulsed like a heart at his chest.
Veins bulged around it, discolored to a sickly black.
The moment I tried to focus on that ominous stone.
A sudden surge of power emanated from the Crown Prince.
‘Damn!’
My fist connected, and I flew backward, slamming into the wall.
Crash!
The throne that had stood there shattered to pieces from the impact.
Calypso surged to her feet and wiped the blood trickling from her lips.
‘Three times stronger than when our fists collided…. Is it even possible to unleash such power?’
It was undoubtedly from the moment that stone embedded in her chest began pulsing with greater intensity.
Moreover, the power emanating from that stone felt oddly familiar—it had to be Dragon power.
“Ah, so this is what you came up with? Thinking your own strength wouldn’t suffice, you embedded a fragment of a Dragon’s corpse instead?”
“Haha. Thanks to that, I even got to see you collapse—absolutely exhilarating!”
The Crown Prince clenched his fist.
“Dragon power can transcend time itself. Why didn’t I think of this in my previous life? That’s right…! The world chose me to return because I am great. This life had its mistakes, but.”
I won’t make mistakes in the next one! The Crown Prince’s face blazed with ecstasy.
Calypso spat out blood-tinged saliva and swept her hand through the air.
Water split into multiple streams, trapping the Crown Prince within a cage of liquid.
“Tch, pathetic wretch drowning in inferiority. You’ll never return to the past with that power.”
A fool who doesn’t even understand the weight of being a Returner, thinking he can go back in time?
Utterly absurd.
Yet Calypso felt a flicker of unease. As he said, Dragon power governs spacetime itself.
If he truly had discovered how to wield that power….
The Crown Prince grasped the bars of his cage. Electricity coursed through them, charring his hands black, but he paid no mind and laughed like a madman.
“Haha, Calypso Aquasiadel. Do you know how my father died?”
“….”
“He died experimenting with the power to manipulate spacetime.”
The Crown Prince spread both arms wide.
A torrent of crimson power and earthen walls burst forth, shattering Calypso’s cage.
Anticipating this, Calypso’s water stream transformed into a colossal pillar that crashed down upon him, yet still he laughed.
“Thanks to that noble sacrifice, I will return to the past. And I’ll slaughter every last one of them!”
Simultaneously, black veins bulged across the Crown Prince’s face.
He no longer resembled the lion Beastkin from before.
With his sclera stained black, he looked like a monster clawed up from the depths of hell itself.
“Hahaha, no one can stop me! I’ve prepared for ten years, longer than that. No one can stop me!”
Separately from this, his power had grown dozens of times stronger than what Calypso first felt.
Calypso did not remain idle.
“Enough of your drivel!”
A colossal whirlpool of water struck the Crown Prince, and she charged forward with her weapon, only to be blocked by some invisible barrier.
“Again-.”
Red sparks erupted across the Crown Prince’s entire body. Like an overloaded machine, he trembled violently.
“Let’s all die together, Calypso Aquasiadel!”
For the first time, Calypso froze.
Can I stop this alone?
‘I could stop it, but this place would be devastated.’
The moment she thought this, even greater power surged from the Crown Prince.
It’s growing even stronger than this?
She gasped in shock.
With Father alongside me?
I wanted to see Pierre clashing with Debana, but something told me that if I turned my head, disaster would strike.
‘I can’t stop it.’
But that hesitation lasted only a moment.
‘If I can’t prevent it, then I’ll make it happen anyway.’
One thing was certain. If that power burst outward unchecked, we would all die together again.
Or perhaps only the Imperial Palace personnel would perish.
If I couldn’t contain it here, we would all be destroyed once more.
In the third cycle, it was the Dragon Duke’s rampage. This time, it would be the rampage of this lion cub who had the Dragon’s power forcibly implanted within him.
Calypso clenched her teeth.
She closed her eyes tightly, then opened them. Her resolve was set.
‘Damn. You really never know what the world will throw at you.’
Calypso had never been one to dwell on decisions for long.
She had survived in an environment where hesitation meant death.
In this life, no matter what crisis arose, with my new comrades and family.
And with Ekion and Father, who was called a genius, I believed I could overcome anything.
‘Damn. This power is even greater than when Ekion went berserk.’
Calypso had not forgotten the third cycle, the moment the world was destroyed.
Because of that, she had noticed.
That madman had found a way to cram power several times greater than a Dragon’s rampage into his own body and conceal it.
But what could be done?
Perhaps the reason Calypso herself had grown stronger than in the third cycle lay here.
Yes, that must be it.
Everything in the world seemed to have a reason, as far as she could tell.
‘There’s no such thing as a free lunch, is there?’
Calypso clicked her tongue and quietly drew her power upward.
Pierre, who had been fighting, turned his head. A sense of foreboding washed over him.
He tried to leave immediately, but was blocked.
Debana, whom he had been fighting, seized him while covered in blood.
“No one… can leave.”
Her face bore the resolve of one prepared for death.
Debana believed in the Crown Prince’s promise that he would not touch Lili in the next life.
Though she had handled the dirty and abhorrent affairs of the Imperial Palace in his stead, even she possessed convictions.
As Debana held Pierre back with her final strength, Calypso exploded with all her power and rushed toward the Crown Prince.
-Calypso! Stop!
Would it have been different if Ekion were here? No, I don’t know. The fact that Ekion’s group was delayed surely meant something was happening there.
Even if they arrived, the chances they would be in perfect condition were low.
In the end, I could only rely on myself. Just like in the third cycle.
-Your life is in danger!
‘It’s fine.’
I know that much. I murmured to myself as I gripped Tus in one hand.
“I’m sorry. Thank you for helping me.”
Calypso hesitated before adding more.
“Let’s see each other again.”
Even Calypso herself couldn’t be certain what she meant by those words. Was it to finish him off and then meet?
Or perhaps….
With that, I threw Tus far away.
I used the power of water to send him flying toward my allies, so he would land safely.
And then I slammed my body directly into the reverse barrier that the Crown Prince had wrapped around himself.
Boom!
As I exerted all my strength, I was able to penetrate the reverse barrier the Crown Prince had deployed.
The Crown Prince was grinning wickedly. His face showed he had nearly lost all reason.
“What is it? Why did you chase me all the way here?”
“Yes. This is the first time in my life I’ve been this obsessed with something. Doesn’t it feel good?”
“….”
“So then, die.”
I gripped the weapon most familiar to my hand.
The moment the weapon touched the Crown Prince, it shattered with a clanging sound.
It was fine.
I knew this would happen.
I concentrated my strength into my fist. The punch I threw was caught directly in his hand.
“You should know this too? The Dragon’s power I possess has activated properly. Now, your strength won’t work.”
“Ah. Like how Ekion went berserk because of you?”
Even with my fist caught, I didn’t lose my composure at all.
“It’s not even funny.”
“…What?”
“Why do you think only you have a trump card? Are all the villains’ minds alike?”
“….”
“Selfish, base, and a lion cub who knows nothing but yourself.”
The Crown Prince noticed that my fist was excessively cold. But it was already too late.
“There are many things in this world that you don’t know.”
I tried everything to prevent the third Dragon’s rampage.
He met his death after a final, desperate struggle.
The power of water truly had endless applications. Any power related to water, the sea, and all things connected to them.
Like freezing his hand right now.
“I realized one thing—real Dragons are disgustingly durable.”
“…What, what is this!”
“So his body doesn’t freeze easily either. Not his heart, not his organs.”
The Crown Prince’s trump card always revealed itself when he was approaching death or when he threw himself at me in a mutual death struggle.
And Calypso’s trump card was no different from his.
“I’m actually grateful. I found out because you cried out so clumsily about becoming a half-baked dragon.”
“Aaah, let go, let go! Release me!”
“Your body still has blood flowing through it, and your skin is as soft as a lion’s, isn’t it?”
“Uaaah, aaaah!”
Why hadn’t I used this from the beginning?
It was obvious. In this life, I wanted to become happy together with everyone.
I wanted to see her live a life where there was a “next” for her too. Growing old and dying—that was my dream.
“You made me use something I never wanted to use under any circumstances.”
“My, my body, ah, aaah, aaaah!”
“The price for that is your death.”
As I spoke these words, my voice grew steadily slower. It couldn’t be helped.
As I froze the Crown Prince’s body, my own body was freezing alongside his.
In the third cycle, it was the same when I faced the Dragon Duke before death.
The reason I could see the Seoul Streets before my eyes but couldn’t move.
It was because my body had frozen.
“Regression? Don’t even dream of it.”
My ultimate ability consumed even me. It was an ability I had sworn never to use again.
But what could I do? I never wanted to see everyone die again.
“Even if you truly did regress.”
I had no choice but to step forward.
I smiled faintly.
“You would lose to me from that time period.”
It was unfortunate that things had come to this. But thinking about it, watching this creature’s final death throes end like this didn’t seem so bad.
“Ah, aaah. No, no…!”
I felt his heart freezing over.
Indeed, even if he succeeded in wielding the power, it seemed difficult for his body to fully become a dragon.
“You have no next life.”
I am the Returner, not you.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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