The Last Place Hero’s Return - Chapter 220

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

Chapter 220. Seven Star Cultural Festival (6)
Whoooosh!
Ash-white flames engulfed my entire body, burning with fierce intensity.
As my flesh sizzled and charred, gray smoke erupted from every pore, spreading like a suffocating mist.
“You’re not even going to search for the bomb…?”
Seto’s eyes narrowed in incomprehension.
The complex emotions swirling in those blood-red irises could be summed up in a single question: ‘Is this bastard really a Candidate?’
“Ah, ah! So that’s it!”
Still squinting, Seto clapped his hands together and erupted into a shrill, cackling laugh.
Those blood-red eyes, gleaming with madness, fixed upon me.
“I wondered why the ‘Spider’ wasn’t showing herself… You’re counting on her to find the bomb, aren’t you?”
“….”
“Hahaha! How unfortunate for you!”
Seto’s lips stretched impossibly wide as he spread both arms.
“The ‘Spider’s’ Blessing of Insight alone cannot reveal where I’ve hidden the bombs!”
“Is that so?”
I shrugged and took a step toward the Archbishop of Madness.
“…What? You can’t find them, you say?”
“You’ve misunderstood something.”
Another step forward.
“Elisha isn’t even in the Central Plaza right now.”
“…What?”
The moment shock widened Seto’s eyes.
Boom!
I kicked off and sprinted forward.
Against an Archbishop—and specifically the Archbishop of Madness, second only to the Archbishop of Ruin in pure combat strength among the Six Archbishops—I couldn’t afford to be careless.
“Ignite.”
Screeeech!
Primordial fire erupted across my body, burning with savage ferocity.
From ignition to escalation in an instant.
I drew upon the full power of primordial fire at once, letting it consume me.
“Hah.”
Mana surged and boiled throughout my entire frame.
I channeled the roaring ash-white flames into my blade and swung.
Whoooosh!
The savage flames lunged toward Seto.
“Tsk…!”
Seto gnashed his teeth and thrust his hand toward the descending inferno.
Crash-crash-crash-crash!
Blood-red thorns erupted from the ground, colliding violently with the ash-white flames.
Crunch!
Crimson thorns and ashen flames collided, unleashing a deafening roar.
Under normal circumstances, the sound would have carried hundreds of meters away to the Central Plaza, but Seto’s hastily erected Barrier prevented the noise from leaking outside.
“You….”
Ashen flames locked in a tense standoff against crimson thorns.
No—watching the ashen flames burn through the crimson thorns and gradually expand their mass, Seto’s pupils trembled violently.
Impossible. Pushing back his demonic energy through sheer ‘force’ alone.
“What exactly are you?”
Power so overwhelming that it made him question whether this was the same person he’d faced before.
And ‘before’ was only a few months ago.
What could have happened in that time to transform a mere fledgling into someone capable of gaining the upper hand against the Archbishop of Madness?
“Haven’t we already exchanged introductions?”
Slash!
I close in on Seto, severing the crimson thorns.
From below to above.
I raise my sword, wreathed in ashen flames, and strike.
“Hah!”
Seto barely pulls his body back, narrowly evading the attack.
He grinds his teeth and stamps his feet roughly.
Crimson energy flowing from the stigma.
As if a single drop of crimson ink had fallen into a bottle of transparent water, the space around Seto becomes stained with viscous blood.
“No matter how strong you’ve become!”
Crimson thorns erupt from the blood-stained space.
Hundreds, thousands of thorns pour forth like a tidal wave from the entire blood-drenched area.
“You think you can defeat me?!”
Crackle, crackle, crackle!
A torrent of crimson thorns.
I create a wall of ashen flames to block them.
The ashen flames incinerate most of the crimson thorns.
Thud!
But one crimson thorn pierces through the wall, embedding itself deep into my left forearm.
“…!”
Excruciating pain spreads along my forearm where the thorn is lodged.
Blood vessels swell grotesquely around the wound.
I look down at my left forearm and grimace.
“Why? My arm won’t move?”
Seto grins with a bright smile, his shoulders trembling with laughter.
“That’s the power of my Blessing—the ‘Blessing of Blood’!”
He points to my forearm where the crimson thorn is embedded and continues.
“I can control the area where the blood thorn is lodged! Like… this!”
Snap.
As Seto flicked his fingers, the blood vessels in his left arm—embedded with crimson thorns—erupted in a violent explosion.
Crunch, crackle!
Bone shattered, flesh tore, and blood gushed forth.
“Ahahaha! How is it? Does it hurt? Does it hurt? Does it hurt?”
He stuck his tongue out long and bounced up and down like a playful child.
“Once you’re afflicted, there’s no escape! My blessing flows through the veins of your left arm, gradually consuming your entire body….”
“Flows through the veins, you say.”
Whoosh.
I drew my blade and severed my left arm from the shoulder—the one embedded with crimson thorns.
“Then I’ll simply cut it off before that happens.”
“….”
Seto stared down at the arm lying on the ground, his lips pressed firmly shut.
“Ha.”
Seto let out a quiet laugh, his shoulders trembling with amusement.
Just as I’d said, his blessing spreads through the blood like poison, so severing the affected area before it fully spreads prevents the body from being consumed.
But.
How many people would actually hesitate to cut off their own arm?
Especially a swordsman whose primary weapon is the blade itself?
“Heh.”
Seto looked at me, his mouth twisting into a grin that seemed ready to split his face.
“Yes, yes, yes! That’s exactly it!”
Seto burst into a laugh brimming with ecstasy.
“I’ve been waiting for someone like you!”
It wasn’t merely my strength that excited him so.
If I were simply a hero who was “strong and nothing more,” it would have been better to face the current top-ranked hero, the Empress.
But I was not merely strong.
“You’re… truly insane, aren’t you?”
Perhaps even more so than he was.
“Now then, shall we continue playing?”
Seto spread both arms wide and stomped his feet.
Crimson energy erupted explosively, and crimson thorns shot out viciously.
“Hup!”
I crouched low, evading the cascading crimson thorns.
Dashing through the gaps between the thorns that barely grazed my body, I drew my sword arm back.
Like hurling a spear, I stomped hard and swung my pulled-back arm with full force.
Whoooosh!
My blade, wreathed in ash-white energy, pierced through Seto’s flank and flew far beyond.
“Ow! That hurts!”
Seto cried out, staring down at the fist-sized hole torn through his side.
“It hurts! It hurts! I’m telling you it hurts!!!”
Seto trembled like a child who’d scraped his knees falling, whimpering pathetically.
For a moment, he clutched at his bleeding flank, tears streaming down his face as blood poured freely.
Then he stopped.
Seto suddenly ceased his movements and stared at my right hand.
“But wait… where’d your sword go?”
Seto’s tongue extended and he burst into a cackling laugh.
Watching him like that.
“Who knows?”
I spread my right hand wide open.
As my palm split with a sharp sound, a crimson blade emerged—blood-red in color.
It was the Demonic Sword, drawn after so long.
“Huh?! What? You had something like that too?”
Seto pouted his lips in disappointment.
Seto, who had been calmly observing the crimson blade in my grip, smirked.
“But that sword… do you even know what it is?”
“At least better than you do.”
Though I rarely used it recently, Beskal had been my primary weapon in my past life.
“Hoo.”
As I drew in a deep breath and channeled the Demonic Sword’s power, a sudden vertigo washed over me as if my blood were being drained from my body.
But that passed quickly.
Vitality surged through my entire being, and explosive strength erupted within me.
“Hahaha! Do you think you have nine lives or something?”
Seto burst into wild laughter and charged forward.
Crimson thorns erupted from the ground in the wake of his footsteps.
Clang clang clang clang!
Blade and thorns collided.
Crimson thorns surged endlessly from all directions, pressing in relentlessly.
One hit from those thorns would inflict a fatal wound through the Blood Blessing.
“Ha.”
One step closer.
I swung my blade toward Seto.
I paid no mind to life.
I gave no thought to death.
Like sprinting across a tightrope suspended between cliffs.
I swung my blade with reckless abandon.
“Ahhh!”
Seto flew backward, slashed by the blade wreathed in ash.
His crimson eyes trembled as he gnashed his teeth.
“You bastard…!”
Despite having experienced the power of Blood’s Blessing firsthand, he refused to back down.
“Let’s see you block this!!!”
Seto crossed both arms and stomped the ground roughly.
Gurrrrrrrgh!
Viscous blood engulfed the entire surrounding space.
A massive Barrier made of blood.
It was that crimson Barrier I’d witnessed when I first encountered him.
“Rise up!!!”
Up, down, forward, backward, right, left.
Thousands upon thousands of crimson thorns erupted from every conceivable direction.
An attack so dense that not even a fist could slip through.
Faced with an assault that could only be described as hopeless.
“Ha.”
I let out a soft chuckle.
“I never thought Challenge Mode would actually be this useful.”
Grin.
Twisting my lips into a smile, I kicked toward the crimson thorns pouring down from all sides.
The moment the crimson thorns drew close enough to pierce through my entire body.
Boom!
My vision flashed black and my entire body exploded into fragments.
“What the—!”
Seto’s mouth fell open in shock.
How could anyone not be astonished upon witnessing a human suddenly detonate their own body before their eyes?
“What, what is this?”
As he stared at the scattered flesh fragments.
“…Huh?”
A thick gray smoke brushed past his cheek.
And then.
Whoosh!
In an instant, I ‘revived’ and drove my demonic blade straight into the stunned Seto’s abdomen.
“Cough, hack!”
Seto collapsed, clutching at his pierced belly.
He looked up at me with wide, shocked eyes.
“You asked earlier if I had multiple lives, didn’t you?”
I looked down at Seto, twisting my lips into a grin.
“That’s right. I do.”

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