The Lord Who Levels Up by Devouring - Chapter 319

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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 319. Death vs Immortality (1)
The position of knight that Kai had chosen.
Kai tightened his grip on the sword in his hand.
Crack—!
The veil of death tore asunder.
Yet from that fissure, darkness erupted.
Shrieeeeeek—!!
The darkness stretched forth as if to devour Kai whole.
Kai scattered his blade through it.
The darkness split apart.
But it did not disperse.
From each severed gap, death bloomed anew and struck toward Kai once more.
A deathly chill creeping up from the spine.
It was overwhelming in itself.
Kai retreated sharply, abandoning all thought of counterattack.
And he could discern it.
‘Formidable.’
Strong enough to rival the Immortal Queen herself.
Then a figure emerged from the darkness.
Hades, the King of Death.
That was the name Kai had heard from the soldiers.
Hades walked forth from the darkness.
His gaze was not directed at Kai.
Adrian.
From the start, Hades had been gazing only toward the Count’s Castle where Adrian resided.
It was clear Kai was not his true opponent.
Not a threat, but a delay.
Hades regarded Kai as merely an obstruction.
…It was not an inaccurate assessment.
The Immortal Queen.
Hades stood on equal footing with her.
Even with the complete, unrestricted Immortal Queen unbound by the world’s laws.
Therefore, I must not think of the Immortal Queen.
I must not harbor the thought of enduring as I did then.
I must not entertain the arrogance of breaking through as I did then.
Above all else.
‘Psychic Manifestation cannot be activated.’
Broombar’s Delusion Manifestation had already been triggered.
That was the reason.
Aura and ether.
Reality and delusion.
Opposing forces and beliefs do not interlock.
They collide.
Just as one cannot manipulate aura while channeling mana, delusion cannot coexist with reality when deployed.
Therefore, exclusive aura and exclusive ether.
These two cannot coexist.
When deployed simultaneously, only one remains—determined by whose reality and delusion prove stronger.
I cannot say who holds the advantage.
I have never actually clashed them before.
But regardless of who prevails.
Ultimately, one vanishes.
And in the current situation, Broombar’s delusion manifestation—the Arcano Engine—proves far more useful.
As long as the Arcano Engine operates.
Death cannot corrode reality.
Yet the inverse held equally true.
Delusion engulfs reality.
Reality warps the laws themselves.
It is the “Deus Mendax”—the deceptive god that distorts even absolute law.
Therefore, the moment delusion seized reality.
Both death and Kai’s reality were sealed.
Yet Kai’s immortality alone remained unsealed.
Now, no longer.
Kai’s existence transcended every law, manipulation, and delusion.
Crack! Crunch!
Kai’s body contorted grotesquely.
Joints fractured as the permitted range of motion expanded.
Nerves tore, yet pain held no dominion.
Thus muscle fibers stretched abnormally, bones realigned anew, and the pathways of force redistributed.
And so, this was.
Swordplay that disregarded death itself.
Transcending even the limits of existence—.
Immortal swordplay.
Form One.
Twisted Dance of Flesh.
…The immortal blade, transcendent of existence, surged toward Hades.
* * *
In an instant, Kai suddenly bent his spine.
Crunch!
His posture twisted grotesquely, and from that contorted stance, the blade swept forth.
Slash—!
It was an absurd trajectory that no human body could possibly execute.
No—not humans alone.
It was an abnormal blade path that no living creature in nature could achieve.
Slash, slash, slash, slash!!
Hades’s eyes wavered.
…There was no opening.
No gap to slip through.
The emotion gleaming in his shaken eyes was astonishment.
Kai’s blade exceeded even Hades’s imagination.
The exceptional knight Kai had transcended his species.
He had shed his mortal flesh.
And now, he had even transcended existence itself.
It wasn’t that he had abandoned his humanity.
He remained human, yet was no longer bound by the definition of humanity.
And so.
Kai had become an impossible monster.
Astonishment was not Hades’s alone.
The soldiers of Whitewolf Territory, the Elves, the Dwarves—even Broombar.
“Good… heavens…!!”
“What just… happened?”
“That’s the wolf aura…?”
The immortal swordsmanship Kai had achieved by transcending existence was devastatingly powerful.
Boom!
The ground beneath Kai’s feet erupted violently.
Hades scattered darkness and unfurled a veil.
And that darkness was pierced.
Crack, crack, crack!
Kai’s blade tore through the barrier and drove forward.
Defense failed.
The power of death was ineffective.
Absolute darkness erupted from Hades’s eyes.
A terrible death infused with murderous intent crashed down upon Kai.
Boom!
Immortality and death collided.
Crack, crack, crack, crack!!
With the sound of grinding, Kai’s arm holding the blade was severed.
Momentarily disarmed, Kai lost his footing and was driven backward.
Hades did not miss the opening.
He gathered darkness once more.
As if forcing death upon the immortal, a vortex of death’s power swirled forth.
In that instant.
Kai’s severed arm moved through the air.
Gripping the sword, it unleashed an aura blade.
[What…!]
Hades’ eyes blazed with shock.
The arm had not been reattached.
It remained severed.
In other words, it was separated from the body.
Yet the aura did not sever.
Moreover, the arm moved of its own accord, as if possessed by consciousness.
The will of immortality lived on, independent of flesh, no longer bound by its constraints.
Even with a pierced heart, a severed neck.
No matter what injury befell it, Kai’s blade would not cease.
Thus.
Immortality imposed its existence upon death itself.
The immortal’s swordsmanship.
Second Form.
Eternal Blade Waltz—the dance that knows no death.
Slash, slash, slash, slash, slash!
Hades was torn asunder.
A trajectory that even death could not touch carved through him.
Yet Hades did not perish.
He already existed beyond death itself.
Still, Kai continued to swing his blade.
One step, another step.
Once, then again.
…It felt strange.
This sensation now.
Was this what they called enlightenment?
I had experienced enlightenment a few times before.
But never like this.
My body felt weightless.
My mind felt weightless too.
I sensed a peculiar force filling my entire being.
I did not know what it was.
And now.
It no longer mattered what it was.
Headache-inducing debates, philosophy—such things were not a knight’s domain.
Those pursuits suited clever mages far better.
Layering question upon question to find answers was not fitting for a knight.
As it had always been.
Not words, but deeds.
A knight answers not with a quill, but with a blade.
Kai held his breath, then released it.
The severed arm, thrashing moments before, was whole once more.
And then.
My senses expanded.
As if I had transcended mere perception—as though sensation itself had become my very being.
But sensation can be manipulated endlessly.
All that the eyes see, the ears hear, the hands touch.
In the end, it is nothing but signals transmitted to the brain.
So I cast it aside.
No longer bound by sensation.
I release the grasp of the five senses.
As the phantom sensations faded, nothing remained in their place.
[Why—.]
Hades’ question cut short.
Because he had vanished.
Kai, who had stood before his eyes mere moments ago, suddenly disappeared.
Not even a trace remained.
Sight, sound, touch—the natural senses perceived nothing.
…Where?
Hades spun around.
His instinct was right.
There stood Kai’s blade.
Hades froze for an instant.
The moment his body stiffened was infinitesimally brief.
Yet it was time enough for Kai’s blade to pierce through.
A strike that tore through the blind spot of sensation itself.
Kai’s sword, concealed within silence, transfixed Hades.
Immortal Swordsmanship.
Third Form.
Silent Fang.
* * *
The battle between Hades and Kai.
Rielin, watching from a distance, widened her eyes in astonishment.
…It was magnificent.
No—it was impossible.
Rielin was The Spirit Summoner, one who communed with nature itself.
Therefore, she understood what death truly was.
What other powers did it possess?
Rielin knew better than anyone.
Yet how could a mere mortal like Kai push Death itself to such extremes?
Of course, she was aware of Kai’s abilities.
Immortality.
But that alone didn’t explain it.
Immortality wasn’t an ability that erased the very concept of death.
It merely allowed survival even in situations that should be fatal.
One could never be completely free from death.
Therefore, death could never be completely overcome—or so she thought.
“Good heavens…!!”
But Kai was different now.
Before Rielin’s very eyes, he was unmistakably driving Hades back.
And as he did.
The aura of death that had been suffocating Adrian weakened considerably.
With that, Seraphia could finally catch her breath.
“Haaa…aaa…aaa…”
Seraphia collapsed to the ground with a heavy thud.
Beads of perspiration dotted her forehead.
Her silver hair, luminous as moonlight, clung damply to her cheeks.
As the tension that had sustained her body released, her delicate shoulders trembled.
The power of death had been that overwhelming.
In truth, Seraphia’s feat was even more miraculous than Kai’s.
The bitter cold that seized death itself and annihilated it.
She had witnessed it during her battle with the Immortal Queen.
But now Rielin could viscerally feel the true terror of Seraphia’s power once more.
“Is my brother going to be all right…?”
Seraphia asked.
Rielin gazed at the cocoon.
Thump—! Thump—!
The cocoon pulsed with vigorous rhythm.
As the aura of death vanished, life began to surge once more within.
“Yes. He’s fine. There’s nothing to worry about.”
“Thank goodness…”
Seraphia exhaled a long breath of relief.
* * *
Within the cocoon, the ultimate evolution continued.
My body twisted ceaselessly.
Every cell was transforming.
Countless genetic information of life flooded through like a tempest.
The beast’s essence, the human’s essence.
The ancient, the extinct.
And the primordial.
Every form of life overlapped and intertwined, transcending me entirely.
Within it, I was defenseless.
I could only watch the ongoing calamity Quest unfold: [Feeling Death in the Darkness].
Still.
‘It seems manageable.’
There appeared to be no critical problems.
Though I could do nothing and see nothing, my consciousness remained intact.
Through the various functions of 「Management Mode」, I could monitor Whitewolf Territory’s situation in real time.
‘Thank goodness.’
It truly was a blessing.
Of course, the current Whitewolf Territory could handle even a Lord-tier threat.
‘But a Lord is still a Lord, after all.’
Six beings whom The Emperor acknowledged not through breeding and slaughter, but through genuine recognition.
Another level entirely—one that even the Allied Forces’ heroes could never reach, yet only Ian could stand against.
‘Whitewolf Territory cannot escape unscathed.’
Catastrophic damage would occur.
It had been the same with The Immortal Lord.
We nearly perished.
Even though The Immortal Lord had been suppressed.
The Beast Lord was no different.
In the end, Feractrum vanished from the map.
Had T-Rex not fallen prey to arrogance and carelessness, no one could have guaranteed what would have happened.
‘Perhaps I would have been the one to die.’
It was at that very moment.
Something.
A faint sense of discord corrupted my consciousness.

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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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