I Became A Thief Who Steals Overpowered Skills - Chapter 55

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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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Episode 55. Spirit of Chaos

The Primordial Spirit Contractor.

And until now, there had been only one such Spirit Contractor in existence.

The one who, through a pact with spirits, had created an entirely new paradigm: Spirit Magic.

He had been a man of the Igrit Family.

Together with his spirit, he had achieved deeds worthy of being called heroic.

But spirit contracts had become an absolute taboo in the world.

The reason was simple.

After the Primordial Spirit Contractor died, the spirit left behind without a master twisted into something monstrous.

They did not understand the concept of death, and tormented by the thought that their master had abandoned them, they spiraled into madness.

The result was devastation—an entire city reduced to nothing.

From that catastrophe, the world learned a bitter lesson.

Spirits were World-Eroding Species, creatures with whom humanity must never associate.

That record had persisted to the present day, and the Igrit Family, bearing responsibility for what had transpired, maintained the Spirit King’s Forest to this very hour.

Crimson Garden gazed up at the sky with haunted eyes.

“I captured that rampaging spirit by gathering retainers from that era.”

Witnessing the spirit’s rampage and feeling the weight of responsibility, she had done everything in her power to contain it.

“And sent it back into the Spirit King’s Forest.”

She had believed that within the Spirit King’s Forest, the spirit would be restored to its true nature.

But it never came to pass.

The spirit, bereft of its master, had yearned endlessly for him, unable to cease its frenzy.

And in the end, the spirit’s mind had shattered completely.

Thus was born the Spirit of Chaos.

“Then its approach now…”
“…A spirit’s way of perceiving humans differs from ours. The Primordial Spirit Contractor was my retainer, so my presence still carries his scent. The spirit recognized it and believed its master had returned—that’s why it comes.”

Countless years had passed since the Primordial Spirit Contractor’s death.

Yet the spirit had not forgotten him—the moment it sensed Crimson Garden’s presence, it began its approach.

“The Spirit of Chaos possesses no reason. It swallowed too much malice as it leveled the city, and its mind has collapsed entirely. So it makes no distinctions. My retainers and you alike will be caught in its wake. That’s why we leave—now.”

Even now, it was surely tracking that presence, drawing ever closer.

So Crimson Garden moved to take Krash with her, spreading another magic circle in desperation.

But Krash drove his fist hard into her ribs.

“Ow!?”

A cry escaped her—unexpectedly cute.

Crimson Garden stared at him in disbelief, and Krash clicked his tongue.

“Didn’t you hear what I said? We need to take the egg.”
“Did you not listen to me?”
“I heard you.”
“So you truly wish to die.”

Yet regardless, Krash had already begun checking his blade.

“Wait—you’re not seriously…”
“I know well enough what the Spirit of Chaos is.”

Crimson Garden’s eyes wavered.

She had grasped his intent—that Krash meant to fight the Spirit of Chaos himself.

“And if we leave it as it is, something that broken won’t even make it back.”

Krash spoke those words while gazing upward at the sky.

At the far edge of the heavens, that blackness was gathering once more.

Incredible speed, no matter how many times you looked at it.

Or was this obsession?

“…Can you truly do this? I cannot fight in this state. I cannot aid you.”

The Spirit of Chaos was now nothing but a World-Eroding Species raging without reason.

Crimson Garden would not be ignorant of that.

She had merely released the spirit into the Spirit King’s Forest out of sentiment; in truth, she had already accepted its loss long ago.

So she asked Krash.

Whether he could end the Spirit of Chaos.

“I’m sorry.”

In that same moment, black flames erupted from Krash’s body.

The power of World Erosion met Ignis and burst into flame.

“I was the one who finished that creature in the first place.”

Though, not alone as I am now.

* * *

Krash recalled his previous visit to the Spirit King’s Forest.

If one were to name the most troublesome entity in the Spirit’s Forest, it would be none other than the Spirit of Chaos.

A spirit corrupted into chaos cannot be harmed by conventional attacks.

There was only one form of attack that could be leveled against such a Spirit of Chaos.

‘A skill.’

Only a skill imbued with divine power would suffice.

But even skills were not omnipotent.

Some skills were offensive in nature, but many others were merely auxiliary.

To face the Spirit of Chaos with nothing but a single skill—even in the Starry Generation, few could stand against such a creature.

What thoughts ran through Krash’s mind as he gazed upon the Spirit of Chaos?

Ironically, it could be said that Krash was now in the optimal state to contend with the Spirit of Chaos.

He currently possessed two skills.

One was Black Hood.

The other was Ignis.

Black Hood had little to do with attack, but Ignis was different.

Divine flames that consumed all things.

Ignis was the most aggressive skill among countless others.

Moreover, the nature of Ignis granted all conventional attacks efficacy against the Spirit of Chaos.

‘So it’s better to capture it now while I can.’

The Spirit of Chaos grew stronger as time passed, absorbing World Erosion within the Spirit King’s Forest.

That was why, when the Starry Generation had visited the Spirit King’s Forest back then, the Spirit of Chaos had grown into an unstoppable monster.

‘I thought it would be impossible to capture it since it was deeper inside back then.’

Thanks to Crimson Garden bringing it to the outer edges, Krash could scarcely contain his delight.

Now a troublesome problem could finally be resolved.

And the Spirit King’s Egg as well, for that matter.

Shriek!

A suffocating darkness swept across the golden sky, surging toward them.

“It comes.”

The moment Crimson Garden’s voice rang out softly.

Boom!

A dark liquid mass dropped with a thud before Krash and her.

It was as though darkness itself had been condensed and given form.

The liquid stretched upward in a long, viscous thread, beginning to take the shape of a human figure.

Though its lower body remained a writhing mass of black liquid, its torso had assumed the semblance of a man, and it let its long arms dangle.

-Arg… niii.

At that moment, the voice of the Spirit of Chaos echoed in her mind.

The fact that merely hearing it brought on a dull headache suggested it was something close to a curse—a wailing that defied natural utterance.

Crimson Garden lowered her eyes upon witnessing the Spirit of Chaos.

For her, who perceived the world through her servants, the Spirit of Chaos had once been a comrade.

She found no pleasure in seeing such a comrade reduced to this state.

‘Soft-hearted creature, as always.’

That was why it couldn’t bear to watch its fellow servants tormented by Arthur—why it had ultimately revealed the location of its true form.

But this time would be different.

‘It must help me until I become the supreme power that surpasses Arthur.’

She had no intention of letting Crimson Garden meet her end this way.

And the first link in her chain that would break free was standing directly before her.

Thunk, thud—

The Spirit of Chaos raised its hand, black liquid dripping from it in thick, heavy drops.

The Spirit of Chaos attacked without will, without discretion.

All that remained of it was an impulse to destroy.

-Ah… giii.

As the voice pierced the air once more, Krash drew up his Aura and kicked off the ground.

In that instant, black liquid poured from the Spirit of Chaos’s fingertips like arrows.

Rat-a-tat-tat-tat!

Krash twisted his body to evade, and the black arrows embedded themselves in the floor, staining it with a pitch-black taint.

Krash recognized it for what it was—a curse.

The moment it touched flesh, the body would rot black and fester—such was its curse.

It seemed there was no limit to the arrows it could unleash, for they continued to rain down relentlessly.

The shower of black arrows pouring from all sides looked like a torrential downpour.

Yet Krash did not retreat in the face of that barrage.

He began evading the torrential rain of arrows with movements that bordered on acrobatics.

His sixth sense had far transcended the boundaries of ordinary perception.

The expanded awareness recognized every object within the radius around him, and from that knowledge, it charted the shortest escape route.

Whoosh!

And Ignis, burning with the power of World Erosion, incinerated even the black arrows.

A curse of this caliber would merely be consumed by Ignis’s flames instead.

Krash’s focus intensified as he grasped and wielded his tools with absolute precision.

‘I can do this.’

He understood it as he parried the black arrows.

The Spirit of Chaos was now far weaker than before.

‘Because the world hasn’t yet been consumed by World Erosion.’

Back then, the Spirit King’s Forest had destroyed even the ramparts that Igrit Family had defended, and proliferated with terrifying speed.

As a result, the larger the territory swallowed by the Spirit King’s Forest became, the stronger the Spirit of Chaos grew.

But now was perhaps the era when the Spirit King’s Forest was at its smallest.

The Spirit of Chaos could absorb only a limited amount of World Erosion’s power.

Clang!

Between the severed arrows, the Spirit of Chaos and Krash faced one another.

As Krash’s blue eyes flashed, the Spirit of Chaos felt the weight of his presence.

The black arrows were ineffective against Krash.

The moment it realized this truth, the Spirit of Chaos shifted its approach.

Boom!

Following that vibration, the ink-like darkness that had been falling below the Spirit of Chaos rose up like a wall.

The wall, surging skyward with such force that it eclipsed the sunlight, began to collapse down upon Krash.

If arrows would not work, it would crush and kill him instead—such was its intent.

Gazing at the titanic wall of darkness crashing down like a tidal wave, Krash stamped the ground with all his might.

In that moment, the World Erosion’s power and his Aura collided and began spinning within Krash’s body simultaneously.

The muscles of Krash’s legs swelled powerfully.

With a deafening crash and a plume of dust, Krash’s body shot forward in a straight line.

In that span, the black wall toppled down toward where his head had been.

Beneath the crumbling wall, Krash surged forward with tremendous force, his blade already sliding back into its sheath.

The Aura that poured into the sheath collided violently against its walls, the force compressing, coalescing.

A sharp metallic ring.

As the power of World Erosion flooded into the sheath, Ignis blazed to life.

The explosive force swelled until it threatened to burst the sheath itself.

Then Krash drew his blade like lightning.

A shriek of steel, then a deafening crack.

His blade cleaved through the base of the black wall.

The black wall collapsed past Krash’s head, sending smoke billowing across the forest.

Before Krash’s eyes materialized the Spirit of Chaos.

Unprepared for the wall itself to be severed, the Spirit of Chaos immediately pointed its hand at Krash—and dozens of black arms erupted from the ground beneath it.

Yet Krash’s instincts perceived every movement of those arms.

His blade moved to meet each attack from every direction.

It was nothing less than the Domain Control.

Each time Krash’s blade connected, the black arms burned away in flames of Ignis.

The Domain Control seized all the space the Spirit of Chaos commanded, drawing Krash inexorably toward the creature itself.

A dull thud.

The moment Krash reached the Spirit of Chaos.

His mind descended into the realm of Unity of Self and Object in an instant.

His blade drank in the Aura that surged forth, following the ripple that emanated from his consciousness.

-Agh…….

As the Spirit of Chaos threw all its remaining strength into one final gesture, extending its arms.

Black flames erupted above Krash’s blade.

One Strike.

A black line split the air.

Through the widening fissure, black flames rushed in a torrent.

-Agh, niii…….

With a voice caught between a scream and a wail, the Spirit of Chaos cried out one final time—and split asunder.

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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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