I Became A Thief Who Steals Overpowered Skills - Chapter 94

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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 94. The Single Move to Strike Them Down

The moment Krash collided with Agareth.

A figure emerged from the Sephirah-exclusive magical circle in the Demonic Realm.

The woman with her hair tossed about exhaled a small sigh the instant she appeared.

‘I’m going to catch hell for this.’

Her name was Mirbis.

She held a Rank Official position at Sephirah, third class.

That she had come here today was none other than a request from her master, Crimson Garden.

To her, Crimson Garden was a benefactor.

Back in the Slums, when she was on the verge of being sold into slavery, it was Crimson Garden who had saved her and taken care of her.

So if she asked, Mirbis could do anything.

Yet given the high probability she would be disciplined for this, a bitter smile escaped her.

Not just discipline—if she fell under suspicion, she might have to pack her bags and leave Sephirah altogether.

The matter of how she came to know about Krash’s fight in the Demonic Realm, where most magic is distorted.

If they questioned her about the circumstances—that would be the problem.

There was no way around it.

All she could do was claim she’d prepared as much as possible.

‘Since Crimson Garden made such a request of me.’

Originally, it would have been fine if she’d broached the subject when the Cheonghai Knights arrived.

But Crimson Garden had apologized to her and asked her to hurry.

Since her request took absolute priority over Sephirah matters, Mirbis moved without hesitation.

The place she sought was none other than the Tent Camp where Seirang, Sephirah’s princess, stayed.

When she arrived there, a figure who sensed her presence poked his head outside.

“What is it.”

He was none other than Blavi, the one bearing Cheongusung.

Born with Cheongsalseong, he was Seirang Sephirah’s guard.

Until recently, Mirbis had thought of him as merely Sephirah’s new guard.

Never did she imagine that the Cheongusung who had supposedly retired long ago would reappear looking so young.

Had it not been for Crimson Garden, Mirbis never would have known.

“There’s an urgent message for Seirang.”

As she spoke, Blavi caught a glimpse of the Sephirah rank insignia carved into the woman’s chest.

Without hesitation, he stepped aside.

Someone three ranks above him wouldn’t be here on a whim.

When Mirbis entered the Tent Camp, she saw Seirang sitting in a chair.

As always, she was absorbed in a book, utterly composed.

How could she possibly read through a veil?

With a long, slender finger, she turned a page, then soon lifted her head.

The moment she caught sight of Mirbis, her rosy lips curved upward beneath the veil.

“How delightful. Mirbis. It seems you’ve come on business.”

At the sound of her name, tension crept into Mirbis’s expression.

Throughout Sephirah’s long history,

only one bloodline in this world could ever become a First Rank Official of Sephirah.

The bloodline of Sephirah itself—the dynasty of astromancers who divine fate through the stars.

Until now, Sephirah had foreseen and responded to World Erosion through these astromancers.

And to make that response more efficient, they had gathered tremendous talent through support from various nations.

As a result, Sephirah had become the premier institution dedicated to investigating World Erosion itself.

Seirang Sephirah was the sole direct descendant of that illustrious house.

The title of Sephirah’s Princess was no mere courtesy.

“Did you foresee my arrival?”
“The stars don’t reveal everything. But if it concerns Sephirah’s affairs, I can hardly help but know.”

Beneath the veil, a soft, knowing laugh escaped her.

Even that was enough to tighten Mirbis’s nerves.

With Seirang, it seemed she knew everything—including the fact that Mirbis served Crimson Garden.

Before the enigmatic, mysterious aura that Seirang carried, Mirbis barely managed to part her lips.

“If you already knew of my coming, I’ll speak plainly. The members of Balheim who entered the Demonic Realm are now in grave danger.”
“Oh? Danger for the Balheim members, you say?”
“Yes. An Eighth-Tier Erosion Species—Agareth—has appeared.”

At those words, Seirang fell silent.

From her reaction, it seemed she had already divined this through a reading.

As Mirbis waited for her answer, Seirang slowly tapped the desk with her forefinger.

Mirbis was tense, but Seirang’s brow was already furrowed in distress.

For she had been casting divination readings toward the Valheim Knights ever since arriving in the Demonic Realm.

‘For some reason, no matter what I try, I can’t see anything.’

This had troubled her all along.

The astromancers of Sephirah had been constantly casting divination readings on the forbidden zones to verify the stability of World Erosion.

But in recent weeks, the readings from the Demonic Realm had grown murky—impossible to read clearly.

Learning of this, she had wondered what in heaven was happening and deliberately left Sephirah to investigate.

But then, by cruel timing, disturbance broke out in the Demonic Realm, and she hastily sent an urgent request for support to Valheim.

She had thought the commotion itself was why the readings wouldn’t come through.

But then—Agareth appeared.

A catastrophe unprecedented: Agareth had nearly reached the Fortress Wall before the divination readings cleared again.

‘Yet it’s strange that the readings won’t show because of an eight-star Erosion Species.’

Agareth’s emergence was certainly a dire emergency.

But separate from that, when she asked whether Agareth’s presence was why the readings didn’t show, something made her hesitate.

World Erosion always held many variables, and eight-star Erosion Species rampaging was hardly unheard of.

Each time, Sephirah had seen the readings and appropriately requested support from the families.

But this time, no such reading had appeared.

In that moment, a certain boy surfaced in Seirang’s mind.

A knight of Valheim—one who possessed three skills.

That bold boy who had even spoken of wanting to receive Cheongsalseong from Blavi.

‘Could it be.’

She raised her hand slightly.

That boy who had nagged at her thoughts all along.

She disliked reading people’s fates and had chosen not to divine his future.

Yet now, for some reason, she felt an urgent, overwhelming need to understand him.

In Seirang’s hand, an orb invisible to others materialized—the Celestial Orb.

A sphere through which a river of stars flowed as though it held an entire galaxy; her wide-open eyes traced its surface in silence.

And shortly after, Seirang’s body went rigid.

‘I can’t see it.’

Everything connected to that boy refuses to show itself in the readings.

She came to understand it only belatedly.

The reason she could not see the divination reading for this incursion into the Demonic Realm was none other than that the boy was meant to arrive there.

‘What on earth.’

Her face clouded with confusion.

He was a boy who spoke like a prophet, as though reading divinations just as she did.

She had been bewildered enough by his utterances.

And now she had learned that even the divination readings related to him refused to surface.

Beyond confusion, she was verging on complete befuddlement.

What in the world was that boy, that even divination readings would not reveal him?

‘This has only happened once before.’

Seirang’s eyes turned toward the sky beyond the tent’s ceiling.

A divination reading cast toward the gods themselves—born from a audacious impulse to glimpse the thoughts of the divine.

At that time, Seirang had seen nothing at all.

It was also the reason she had first taken interest in the boy.

An unspoken rule among the gods.

Save for the Saint, each person possessed exactly one skill.

That a boy had shattered this unwritten law left her deeply perplexed.

She sensed something profoundly suspicious about him.

Some vast current flowed, centered upon that boy.

Then she realized she had not yet answered Mirbis.

First, boy or no boy—she had to resolve this matter at hand.

“……Very well. I must request assistance immediately. Not just from Balheim, but I’ll send word everywhere we can reach.”

It was every noble house’s duty to aid in whatever variables arose from World Erosion.

If she spread the word as quickly as possible, she could assemble a rescue contingent within a day, one way or another.

The response was swift.

But Seirang sensed that Mirbis still had more to say.

Because her expression had not softened.

“Mirbis, there’s more you need to tell me, isn’t there?”

So Seirang asked.

True to her habitually suggestive manner of speaking, she asked as though she already knew her companion’s thoughts.

Her position as an Astromancer lent her a peculiar mystique, and she wielded it deftly—speaking in a manner that seemed to plant subtle wonder in her listener’s mind.

Seirang favored this approach.

“Yes, I suspect you already know, but I would also like to request the support of Cheongusung.”

So Mirbis knew about Blavi too.

She’d sensed some connection between the girl and that boy, but this was unexpected.

At this point, it felt as though the entire world had learned Blavi’s true identity.

“……Blavi is the young lady’s escort.”

She kept her composure and spoke, though her voice betrayed a hint of strain.

Normally she didn’t lose her composure this often—lately, though, it seemed to happen constantly.

“Yes, I’m simply relaying Lord Crad’s request as it was given to me. He asked to make a deal.”

So Mirbis was indeed connected to that boy in some way.

But another arrangement? Already?

She found herself dreading what else might come out.

Still, when she nodded as if to say go ahead, Mirbis leaned in close.

“Might I borrow your ear for a moment?”
“Of course.”

Seirang turned her ear to her, and Mirbis whispered something low.

A moment later, her frame stiffened with a small start, and then she fell silent.

Beneath her veil, her face had flushed crimson.

“Blavi!”

She called out to him at once.

“Yes, young lady?”
“Could you leave for the Demonic Realm right now and provide support to Balheim?”

At her question, Blavi’s eyes blinked once.

Then, from within eyes as black as pitch, he glanced toward Mirbis.

Under that gaze, Mirbis’s breath caught—a small creature facing a predator.

For someone who had devoted herself entirely to scholarship, Blavi’s pressure felt like glimpsing death itself.

In that instant, Seirang raised her hand before Mirbis.

That gesture alone was enough for Blavi to withdraw his pressure.

“Blavi, it’s a personal favor for the young lady. Would you help?”
“I am the young lady’s escort. I cannot abandon my duty and act on my own discretion.”
“It’s all right. Something more important has come up.”

Seirang rose from her seat and walked toward Blavi.

Then she spoke so that Mirbis wouldn’t hear.

“Crad of the Cheonghai Knights—you must bring him back safely. He may be another shadow waiting in the girl’s path ahead.”

Upon hearing this, Blavi bowed his head at once.

“Yes, I will return.”

Then he opened the tent flap and stepped outside.

Watching Blavi’s retreating figure, Seirang let out a short breath.

“Mirbis, there’s nothing more to discuss now.”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“The Sephirah has a tent camp nearby—go rest there. It will be better if you observe the outcome before you depart.”

Mirbis bowed at Seirang’s consideration and stepped out of the tent.

Gazing at the twilight-stained sky, Mirbis fell into quiet thought.

What in the world could be in that third drawer of her room that had provoked such a volatile reaction from Seirang?

＊ ＊ ＊

Crash!

The bone-white arm of Agareth, now fully transformed and freed from the Cloak, slammed down against the ground.

The power matched its size—devastating.

The earth convulsed, the impact enough to birth an earthquake.

Yet against what it should have been, this was nothing.

Agareth’s assault, clad in the Dark Armor, knew no distance.

Everywhere the Darkness spread was its domain.

Moreover, the Darkness carried curses of every conceivable kind.

Touch it, and one would be consumed by those curses.

But that was not all.

The Lord’s Dominion—a skill that strengthened Agareth with each Erosion Species corrupted by the Darkness.

The Lord’s Dominion rendered Agareth’s power endless, ever-growing.

Yet now, Agareth could not fully manifest that dominion’s effect.

The reason was simple: the Lord’s Dominion’s fundamental premise was corrupting Erosion Species into the Darkness.

Since losing its true eyes to Krash, Agareth could no longer wield the Darkness.

In other words, Agareth could no longer corrupt Erosion Species through the Darkness.

As a result of the Nok-hai Knights continuing to reduce the Erosion Species,

the effect of Lord’s Dominion kept diminishing without replenishment.

And that naturally meant Agareth was growing weaker.

Yet for all that,

Agareth remained an 8-Star Erosion Species.

With its head already pouring forth, Agareth’s skeletal body rose upon two massive legs.

The creature’s immense frame—easily several hundred meters in height—seized the hearts of all who beheld it with despair.

So vast was Agareth’s upper body that it vanished behind the dark clouds of the Demonic Realm.

Whoooosh—

Black rain poured down, drenching the Juucheon Knights.

In that instant, an arm stretched downward.

Its target was none other than Krash.

Agareth, who had its eyes torn out by Krash.

It harbored the most vicious hatred toward him.

“Krash!”
“I see it!”

Krash replied to Lilish’s warning and burst forward at full speed.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Agareth’s arms crashed down in succession, filling the space where Krash had stood moments before.

A moment’s delay and he would have been crushed flat.

Then the arm that had struck the ground cracked open with a sickening sound.

What poured forth were skeletal arms, each the size of a man.

Nearly thousands of them surged down upon Krash.

Each single hand carried a suffocating murderous intent, as if it could melt flesh itself.

Sparks erupted across Krash’s brow.

The Byeokryeok that erupted from the convergence of his Sixth Sense and Lionae heightened his reflexes to their absolute limit, carrying him through the deluge of bones.

Crash!

In that same moment, a deafening boom erupted behind him, and another arm came crashing down.

It was Lilish’s Destruction Reversal Sword.

Thanks to her strike, Agareth’s assault faltered for a moment.

“Haah!”

In that opening, Krash caught his breath quickly and clenched his left fist.

In Krash’s hand lay the Darkness he’d seized from Agareth.

And it was Darkness infused with the curse of Lord’s Dominion, no less.

But to use it, he had to reach the cloak wrapped around Agareth’s neck high above.

Climbing that high was difficult enough, and Agareth would never allow it.

So for now, he needed another’s strength.

“Lilish, can you sever Agareth’s legs!”
“The legs?”

Lilish, breathing heavily, heard Krash’s cry.

“You’ve thought of a way to bring it down.”
“Yes—if I can reach the neck, it’s possible.”

Lilish looked up at Agareth.

The upper body shrouded in dark clouds was barely visible.

Even the Juucheon Knights’ movements had visibly slowed.

They too were approaching the limit of their physical endurance.

Buy time until Ilgeom arrived?

That was already asking too much.

By the timing, the Cheonghai Knights had likely not even reached the Fortress Wall yet.

Holding out until Ilgeom arrived was practically impossible under these circumstances.

Then perhaps it was better to take a gamble while they still had some strength left.

“Understood.”

Krash was the one who’d already done dangerous things to bring them to this point.

If she wouldn’t trust Krash, whom could she trust?

“Juucheon Knights! Target Agareth’s left leg now!”

She would take the right herself.

“Krash, give it everything you have!”

With that cry, Lilish pushed off the ground and ran.

Her target was naturally Agareth’s leg.

A limb far thicker than an arm.

It moved ceaselessly as Agareth gave chase to Krash.

Because Agareth was a moving creature, not a fixed turret.

On top of that, as an Erosion Species, it possessed its own regenerative capacity.

Small wonder that even the arms Lilish had shattered were slowly mending themselves.

Whether it was even possible to destroy those limbs while evading Agareth’s attacks, Lilish couldn’t say for certain.

‘But.’

Her youngest sibling, so much younger than herself, was fighting with such desperation.

How could she, the strongest here, falter now?

‘I will break it.’

The thought of buying time had vanished from her mind entirely.

To answer her brother’s best effort, she would fell Agareth here—no matter what.

Lilish Balheim.

In that instant, her eyes blazed with brilliant blue light.

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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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