I Became A Thief Who Steals Overpowered Skills - Chapter 63

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

Episode 63. Breaking Through the Limit

Ever since acquiring the Moonlight Divine Body, Krash had been maintaining Melting Fire Erosion at a certain level without penalty.

In the first place, it was precisely because he could sustain Melting Fire Erosion that he could stand directly against Adolf.

But Krash’s true reason for acquiring the Moonlight Divine Body lay elsewhere.

‘The breadth of my limit expands.’

Melting Fire Erosion was a secret art that burned away the power of World Erosion using Ignis, channeling that energy into the flesh.

The drawback was that the burning energy damaged Krash’s body as well.

For that reason, Krash could use Melting Fire Erosion for only three seconds.

But now that he possessed the Moonlight Divine Body, that window had widened considerably.

He had reached a level where he could maintain Melting Fire Erosion as freely as he wished during combat.

And that meant that if he compressed the duration back down to three seconds, he could break through an even higher limit than he could now.

‘I’ve never tried it before.’

But there was no reason he couldn’t.

Krash hurled away the Respirator he had been wearing.

It had only been hindering his breathing.

Then he sheathed his sword.

In the middle of combat, an essentially reckless act.

Yet Krash, unafraid, drew in a single deep breath and pulled his inner Aura upward.

In that instant, the power of World Erosion within his body met Ignis and began to burn.

Searing.

But he could endure it.

‘More. Push further.’

The power of World Erosion dwelling within his body began to burn with redoubled ferocity.

The heat, fierce enough to incinerate his entire frame, continued to intensify.

Krash bit down on his lower lip.

His mind threatened to grow hazy from the heat, but the Moonlight Divine Body barely held the inferno in check.

Smoke curled from between Krash’s lips.

Flames flickered within his eyes, and the air around him began to warp and shimmer from the intense heat.

And Adolf, too, sensed something amiss in him.

‘What’s he trying to do?’

The thought flickered across his mind as he wrestled with the difficulty of subduing Krash without drawing blood.

That was when Krash’s movements began to shift in a peculiar way.

It was because Krash, moving through the spaces between the fireballs, was radiating heat even fiercer than the flames themselves.

As if his flesh were straining to transcend its limits.

And Adolf’s intuition proved correct.

‘More!’

The instant Krash tempered his body once more, coughing blood as he pushed forward.

That immense heat burned away entirely, and the inferno surged through every fiber of Krash’s frame.

The searing sensation flooded into each muscle, each nerve ending without remainder.

At that same moment, the tips of Krash’s hair and fingers burst into black flame.

Having finally shattered through his ceiling, Krash’s domain expanded to an extreme.

His consciousness compressed to its absolute limit alongside the heat blazing across his body.

The Aura dwelling within him surged forth together with World Erosion, swelling his frame as it thrust forward into the next threshold.

Clang!

In that instant, Krash felt something shattering inside his mind.

It was a wall.

A wall he had struggled countless times to breach—and now, as Krash transcended his limits, it crumbled away, and he crossed into a new realm.

Expert Master Realm.

That place just before Master, where genius and mediocrity divide—Krash had finally reached it.

Krash’s eyes, flushed red from the heat, burned with unprecedented intensity.

Three seconds?

Don’t be ridiculous.

One second at most.

But even that one second was enough.

Boom!

The surging heat burst forth from Krash’s blade in an instant.

It met Ignis and erupted into a deep black flame, the sword extending from his grip.

Sword-Body Unity.

In this moment, Krash’s consciousness reached that realm faster than anyone.

The very ripple that stirred in the mental lake blazed fiercely in that instant, and the dragon’s ascent swallowed the flames.

A single downward strike.

One blade.

By Krash’s hand, it met the Sword Demon’s Iaijutsu and Melting Fire Erosion, reaching a new height altogether.

The single blade contained within the iaijutsu now shed the constraint of the downward strike entirely, being reborn as another secret technique.

Melting Fire Erosion.

Second Form.

Melting Fire Heavenly Sword.

When the black flames carved through the Spirit King’s Forest and passed beyond.

A brief silence filled that space.

Then, gradually, everything around began to warp as though bisected.

In the next instant, that space was filled with a tremendous explosion.

Boom—!

Within the raging black flames.

Adolf stood with wide eyes, looking down at Krash.

Blood trickled down his cheeks.

His hand, extended forward belatedly, had turned red as though burned.

It was not a grave wound.

For one who had risen to the Top Ten Strongest under Heaven, such injuries were routine when facing World Erosion.

But however highly one assessed it, these were not wounds to accept from a Late Ranker who had not yet reached his twenties.

Adolf’s gaze drifted downward.

Krash was gasping for breath, barely managing to remain standing in the very posture of his sword swing.

His fingertips, charred beyond recovery, had turned black, and the torrential sweat pouring from him made his exhaustion abundantly clear.

Moreover, Krash’s blade was completely fractured from the heat.

Clang—!

And unable to withstand that heat,

In the end, the sword shattered and fell away.

But those eyes fixed on Adolf never dimmed.

Adolf closed his burned hand slowly into a fist.

He hadn’t imagined his own protective magic could be pierced like that.

In that moment, his eyes changed.

“A direct line of Balheim.”

At Adolf’s words, Krash forced his wavering eyes open.

Pure, stubborn will.

Where did a boy that age pull such grit from?

To look at him, you’d think he’d rolled through a battlefield for decades.

“What’s your relation to Aslan?”

Krash couldn’t make sense of Adolf’s question.

But one thing was certain.

“Just some damned bastard I happen to know.”

A damned bastard who’d gotten the easy way out and died first, alone.

Adolf fell silent at those words.

Krash would grow stronger. He was certain of it.

One day, the world would know his name.

And those who stood beside him then would all face a new generation.

Adolf glimpsed that future now, in this very moment.

And if Aslan could stand at his side, the story might unfold differently.

The problem would be getting him there.

‘Arabella completed her adoption proceedings and then vanished, so he went out searching for her and came back, only to find this wretch in the meantime.’

Somehow they’d become acquainted.

“Krash!”

In that instant, a massive wall of ice erupted between Krash and Adolf.

It was Aslan’s magic.

Seeing Aslan, who had hidden Dorothy in water to keep Adolf from finding her, Krash let out a laugh.

Boom!

In that moment, a tremor echoed from the far reaches of the forest.

Krash and Adolf knew all too well what that tremor meant.

Hearing the commotion Krash had just caused, a higher-ranking spirit was heading their way.

If a higher-ranking spirit started rampaging, things would get ugly.

Worse, it could damage the city walls themselves.

The higher-ranking spirit had to be brought down, no exceptions.

“Both of you!”

That’s when Adolf moved to grab them both and throw them outside.

The magic circles beneath Krash and Aslan’s feet flared to life.

“Flame King, Adolf Igrit.”

Adolf’s eyes went wide when he saw it.

Krash met his gaze with a bitter smile playing at his lips.

“Why don’t you have some fun with that higher-ranking spirit?”

Adolf understood then—Krash had deliberately stirred up the trouble.

“You bastard!”

The moment Adolf roared, Krash’s vision flooded white.

In an instant, he found himself outside the Spirit King’s Forest, his body caught as it started to fall.

It was Crimson Garden who caught him.

“Why do you insist on destroying yourself like this?”

At Crimson Garden’s words, Krash forced himself to focus.

“You’re an old man who knows how to get under people’s skin. I had no choice.”
You wanted to see whether your strength could match someone from the Top Ten Strongest under Heaven, didn’t you?”

Krash turned his head away with a caught expression.

As Crimson Garden sighed, Krash spotted Aslan and Dorothy in the distance.

Aslan bowed deeply to Krash, holding Dorothy’s hand with a grip he refused to loosen again.

Dorothy, meanwhile, still seemed bewildered by it all.

“…I can’t thank you enough, Krash. I owe you a debt I can never repay.”
“Is that so.”

Krash spoke with casual indifference.

Without the Moonlight Divine Body, Aslan would continue growing stronger from here on out.

Perhaps even stronger than he’d been in the days Krash had known him.

“Aslan, what are you going to do from here?”

By now, Adolf no longer sought Aslan’s death.

And with the Moonlight Divine Body gone, Aslan could now learn the Igrit Family’s Flame Magic.

Whether he’d reveal that fact immediately was unclear, but at least he had no reason to remain under the Igrit Family’s thumb.

Still, that narrow-minded patriarch would never view Aslan favorably.

After all, Aslan had provoked Adolf by invoking the family name.

And then there was Dorothy.

The Igrit Family would never tolerate anyone being with a spirit.

None of these were problems that could be solved in a day or two.

“I’ll learn the Igrit Family’s Flame Magic.”

Aslan’s eyes burned with a vivid crimson light.

Having suffered at the Igrit Family’s hand his whole life, he was choosing to walk back into their halls.

That meant he was choosing to walk a harsh path of his own volition.

To protect Dorothy, he had resolved to grow stronger, no matter what ordeal lay ahead.

Watching him, Krash felt that stubborn streak of the Aslan he’d known before resurface.

‘This is how Aslan should be.’

Protecting Dorothy, toppling the Flame King—it all fell to him in the end.

“Aslan, come to Raheln Academy next year.”

So Krash made a proposal.

“You could defer the Igrit Family’s problems there, build your strength, and buy time to keep Dorothy safe.”

If during that time he could hone both the Igrit Family’s magic and himself.

Breaking free from the Igrit Family wouldn’t be so difficult then.

“You’re enrolling at Raheln Academy too, aren’t you, Krash.”
“I am.”

Hearing Krash’s answer, Aslan smiled slowly.

It was the first genuine smile Krash had seen from him.

His face had always been hidden beneath burns and bandages.

It struck Krash as a rather pleasant smile.

“I’ll enroll. Let’s make sure we meet again there.”

After exchanging that promise with Aslan, Krash let out a quiet laugh and turned, moving with strength that had begun to return.

“Now settle your own problems.”

Just as Aslan was about to call out to Krash, hoping to offer him something more in return, he stopped and turned his head.

There stood Dorothy, her face flushed with embarrassment.

Even in her crystalline state, Dorothy had heard the faint sounds from outside.

Realizing this, Aslan let out a dry cough—but Krash had already departed with Crimson Garden.

“Ahem, well, Aslan…”

Dorothy, the spirit returned from death, called to him with an awkward cough, her voice soft with shyness.

No matter how things stood, she too had something she needed to say before the end.

Their eyes met.

In that moment, both felt precisely the same thing.

It was something that need not be spoken, yet there were times when words had to carry what the heart could not.

“Dorothy, I think I hated magic.”

So Aslan spoke first.

“Because of the Moonlight Divine Body, I couldn’t wield Flame Magic—so magic was nothing but a chain for me. The Igrit Family was everything that made up my life.”

Within the Igrit Family, Aslan had died slowly.

So he understood it plainly.

If he had never met Dorothy, he would have broken entirely in the end.

“But meeting you changed me, little by little. You grew so happy over a single spell, you used magic to ease my pain, and because of you, I was able to use magic for someone else’s sake for the first time in my life—here in the academy dormitory.”

Aslan was no master of romantic or poetic speech.

He could only speak his thoughts with raw honesty.

Yet with each word, tears began to gather at the corners of Dorothy’s eyes.

“That’s all because of you.”

To Aslan, it mattered not whether she was a spirit or humanity’s enemy—nothing of that kind mattered at all.

What mattered to him was one thing, and one thing only: Dorothy.

“Dorothy, I love you.”

If the world denied Dorothy and he became the world’s enemy in consequence, so be it.

After all, it was Dorothy who had made his world whole.

The moment the words left his lips, Dorothy’s eyes trembled and closed, tears spilling down her cheeks.

“I’m a spirit.”
“I know.”
“My name is false, my appearance is false, and perhaps even my memories were born from World Erosion.”
“To me, you’re still Dorothy.”

That much would never change.

“Aslan, have you heard about the Primordial Spirit User?”

How could he not know?

The Primordial Spirit User had come from the Igrit Family, after all.

“Perhaps the end of spirits and humans can only ever come to such a conclusion.”

Aslan raised his hand and clasped Dorothy’s.

When Dorothy’s eyes trembled before that warmth, Aslan spoke.

“No matter what ending comes, I want to be by your side in the time before it arrives. Only by your side.”

Aslan’s crimson eyes and Dorothy’s blue eyes met.

That was enough.

Dorothy drew a bright smile through her fallen tears.

Perhaps spirits were always fated to love humans, she thought.

“…I love you too.”

Dorothy’s tear-streaked, brilliant smile was answer enough for all that Aslan had waited for — and then some.

＊ ＊ ＊

Having given way for Aslan and Dorothy, Krash was moving about with an expression bordering on death.

He longed for his bed.

“Open your eyes. You have to answer for what you’ve done.”

Then Crimson Garden, now transformed into a crow, spoke coldly from above.

Perhaps Crimson Garden really was a demon.

At the very least, Krash wished he’d refrain from perching on his shoulders in this condition.

“Krash!”
“Krash.”

In that moment, Krash heard two voices calling his name.

One carried surprise; the other spoke with the familiar calm he’d come to expect.

As Krash turned toward them, he found two figures there.

One was an older maid with hair of an exceedingly pale gold.

The other was a small girl with white hair, younger in appearance.

Seeing them, Krash tilted his head.

Lileena he could account for, but what was Bianca doing here?

“Krash is always watching over things.”

Bianca spoke as though she’d read Krash’s thoughts.

Her eyebrows drew together slightly—for some reason, she seemed annoyed.

“What are you doing here again, Lileena?”

Krash asked Lileena while deliberately avoiding Bianca’s eyes.

He’d thought she should have either returned to the manor or gone to Aslan by now.

“Well, the manor’s in chaos, so there’ll be plenty to do there.”

That was one reason—plain negligence of duty.

“And I’m not tactless enough to stand between Aslan and Dorothy.”

The second reason was simply that she’d sensed the awkwardness.

Krash couldn’t fault that logic, so he nodded.

In the meantime, Lileena glanced toward Bianca before speaking to Krash.

“Here you are with such an adorable fiancée, yet you were trying to seduce me so shamelessly.”

At her words, Krash’s expression turned bewildered.

What had he supposedly seduced her into?

She’d been his first love, yes, but that was ancient history—and he’d even suppressed his feelings with the eye doll.

Yet as Krash watched Lileena sneak glances at Bianca, he realized she was teasing.

That personality of hers was just the same as it had always been.

“You’re truly a dreadful person—toying with a young girl’s heart.”
“Krash isn’t a bad person.”

But Bianca’s rebuttal aimed at a different point entirely.

She turned to face Krash and looked up at Lileena with defiance in her gaze.

“Krash is a good person.”

Her eyes held nothing but sincerity.

Lileena’s eyes widened.

She glanced back at Krash, then quickly covered her mouth.

“My goodness, she’s absolutely precious. He’s far too good for you, really.”

Krash decided to simply accept it.

“I’d love to tuck her in my pocket and take her home. Fiancée, might you give her to me?”
“Don’t even think about it—don’t you dare get your saliva on her.”

As Krash pulled Bianca close, her eyes widened before she glanced around nervously.

Then, as if sneaking a glance, she wrapped both her arms around Krash’s.

Lileena, who watched this with a contented smile, exhaled softly.

“I suppose I was the only one getting ahead of myself.”

Having spoken words without meaning, she soon bowed formally to Krash.

“Thank you so much for helping both Aslan and me. I’ll never forget this debt for as long as I live.”

There was nothing that qualified as a debt, really.

Krash had benefited from what she gave him before the return—it had sustained him until now.

But his heart could not help but ease a little.

For him, saving someone he had once failed to save was something precious.

“Then I’m glad….”

As those words left his lips, Krash’s vision snapped dark.

Ah. This was the limit.

And Krash lost consciousness.

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