The Lord Who Levels Up by Devouring - Chapter 348

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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 348. The Immortal Predator (1)
The Immortal Lord.
She was, in the truest sense of the word, an immortal being.
Yet one could not simply say she was merely unkillable.
The Immortal Lord was, to be precise, an existence for which ‘annihilation was impossible.’
Ian had spoken of this.
It was the same content that Iliana was now explaining.
“The Immortal Queen has completely fused with the Other Dimension’s fabric, becoming an integral part of it herself.”
“….”
“Now the Immortal Queen is one and the same as the Other Dimension itself.”
Her very existence is the dimension.
That is why she does not die.
She does not perish either.
Yet Ian had said there was one single method to annihilate the Immortal Lord.
It was the same content that Iliana was now explaining.
“You would need to erase the entire Other Dimension.”
To incinerate the Other Dimension where the Immortal Lord dwells.
I already knew of this method.
And so doubt inevitably arose.
“Is such a thing even possible?”
First, incinerating an entire dimension would require power that transcends imagination.
A gravitational collapse on the scale of a black hole?
Hardly.
Since we would be literally incinerating an entire dimension, we would need power sufficient to obliterate this entire universe.
But could such a thing even be feasible?
It is a power that cannot exist even in imagination.
Even supposing it were possible.
Still, the greatest obstacle remained.
“To incinerate a dimension, one would have to enter the Other Dimension directly, would they not?”
“That’s right.”
“But within the Other Dimension’s fabric, the Immortal Lord… or rather, Arcanis is no different from an absolute god.”
Even Ian could not muster the courage to enter.
Ian himself could not defeat the Immortal Lord within the Other Dimension.
However one might manage to strike her down, without incinerating the dimension itself, the Immortal Lord would never truly die.
That is why Ian had said it.
-I cannot kill the Immortal Lord.
If Ian cannot do it?
Then it is an impossible task.
I am no different from where I stand now.
Perfect Organism [UL].
I could design and create every inherited ability in the world, yet I could not create the ability to kill the Immortal Lord.
“Banishing it back to the Other Dimension is the only option.”
Just as we did in the Whitewolf Territory before.
But Iliana was resolute.
“No.”
Her blue eyes held not a trace of hesitation.
“Even if we banish it, it will return. Just as it has now.”
“….”
“So we must end this forever. We must eliminate it completely so it can never return.”
She was not wrong.
Arcanis was no mere threat.
The pinnacle of magic, existing across thousands of years.
An entity that had contemplated truth for eons within the sealed Other Dimension.
With each passing moment, Arcanis does not grow weaker.
Rather, it grows stronger.
Its knowledge deepens, and through infinite contemplation, it may even surpass the Emperor.
“Banishment is not a solution.”
It was merely postponing the timer of a time bomb indefinitely.
And that finite time flows ever onward, until one day it inevitably arrives.
“When that moment comes… our future generations will not be able to bear it.”
I agreed with her assessment.
But reality and ideals are different things.
If we acted recklessly, we would die.
I spoke coldly.
“Do you believe it possible?”
“I will make it possible. Here and now.”
Iliana was unwavering.
She had no certainty, but her resolve was clear.
Seeing her like that.
Ian’s words suddenly came to mind.
-I cannot kill the Immortal Lord.
That was how it sounded to me.
Killing the Immortal Lord is impossible.
But was that truly what he meant?
Ian had deliberately added the word ‘I’.
Ian did not say ‘the Immortal Lord cannot be killed’.
That meant.
Wasn’t there a possibility after all?
Simply that Ian’s abilities could not reach it.
‘A place Ian’s abilities cannot reach.’
Could such a thing even exist?
It was difficult to believe.
But I had witnessed it.
That realm beyond what Ian could reach.
One ten-quintillionth of a second.
A fleeting moment.
There are things even Ian cannot do.
Turning those words over in my mind, I pondered.
Perhaps…
Had I been unconsciously relying solely on Ian all this time?
-I cannot kill the Immortal Lord.
If the hidden meaning behind those words was ‘someone else can’…
If that someone was Iliana…
Then what I must do now is not doubt.
“What should I do?”
At my words, Iliana’s eyes wavered for a moment.
But soon she steadied herself and nodded.
“I need… time.”
I swallowed hard.
I didn’t bother asking how much time was needed.
No matter how much time was required…
I would find a way to secure it.
* * *
Gwendolyn couldn’t understand what was happening.
The situation itself made no sense to her.
But what she understood least was the being flying in the sky above.
‘That person… is Arcanis Rilsein?’
What kind of nonsensical claim was this?
Someone who died thousands of years ago was now alive and flying through that sky??
Gwendolyn felt her mind freezing over.
That’s why she hadn’t heard a word of what Adrian and Iliana were saying.
She’d caught nothing of their conversation.
All her senses and consciousness were fixed upward.
On Arcanis Rilsein.
Right then.
“I need… time.”
Iliana’s desperate voice reached her ears.
Only then did Gwendolyn begin to hear the sounds around her again…
Crunch, crunch-crunch!
An eerie sound suddenly echoed forth.
I reflexively lowered my gaze, and black wings were sprouting from Adrian’s back?
“Huh?”
“Wha—?”
Both Gwendolyn and Iliana gasped in shock.
Regardless of their reaction.
Adrian fluttered his wings a few times, as if adapting to them.
And whoosh!
He took flight like a bird.
The speed was so swift there was no time to be surprised.
It was truly the blink of an eye.
“….”
“….”
Gwendolyn and Iliana stood dazed, staring up at the sky.
Iliana was the first to regain her composure.
“…Will you give me the Book of Truth?”
“Uh, what? The Book of Truth?”
“That book you’re holding in your arms.”
Gwendolyn lowered her gaze with a bewildered expression.
The book in her arms.
It was the very book Adrian had asked her to keep, mentioning something about his inventory.
“You mean this one?”
“Yes.”
So it truly was the Book of Truth.
Yet nothing was written on the cover.
“Here.”
“Thank you.”
The moment Iliana received the book, her expression grew subtly rigid.
“I will now delve through the pages of this book in order.”
“Uh, okay…?”
“So please don’t wake me, no matter what happens.”
“Don’t wake you?”
“Yes, I’m asking you.”
Iliana offered no further explanation, as if pressed for time.
She placed the book on her lap.
The moment Iliana’s hand touched the book’s surface—
Fwoooosh!
The air currents shifted.
The book opened of its own accord, and luminous letters floated into the air.
Iliana remained motionless, as if possessed by something.
Truly….
“What—what is happening?!”
Gwendolyn couldn’t comprehend the situation unfolding before her.
* * *
Arcanis Rilsein steadied herself in midair.
In that fleeting moment as she regenerated her body and composed her mind.
An eerie force spreading like a fracture caused her brow to twitch involuntarily.
Sss—
A foreign energy burrowing beneath her skin.
This power, familiar yet utterly alien.
“Impossible…?”
Arcanis Rilsein’s gaze dropped downward.
And indeed.
The blue-haired girl, Iliana, was reading from an open book.
The azure magical force enveloping her surroundings…?
No, it wasn’t magical force.
It appeared like magical force, but it was distinctly different.
That is Mana.
Arcanis Rilsein recognized the distinction instantly.
“You wench!!”
Arcanis Rilsein reached out her hand.
She had to stop it.
By any means necessary, she absolutely had to.
A blood magic circle materialized in the void, and within it, a sharp crimson flash erupted.
But then—CRASH!!
An overwhelming force obliterated the crimson flash.
Adrian.
He was there.
Arcanis Rilsein felt confusion before shock.
They were at a great height in the sky.
Dozens of meters up—reaching this altitude required advanced flight magic.
‘But how did he ascend?’
She narrowed her eyes.
Looking closer, behind Adrian’s back.
A pair of black wings had sprouted forth.
‘He possesses flight capabilities…?’
Arcanis Rilsein’s pupils dilated sharply.
But there was no time to dwell on her bewilderment.
A fist came crashing down immediately after, completely tearing through even the magic circle.
BOOM!!
The fist that shattered the magic circle struck directly into Arcanis Rilsein’s abdomen.
“…!!!”
Blood gushed from my mouth in a torrent.
I clenched my teeth.
Pain was familiar.
I forced down the blood rising through my throat and wiped my mouth clean.
“Ner Ishilak!!”
Crimson mana surged forth.
The surroundings dyed themselves in scarlet light.
And it detonated.
Paaaaang!!
Mana rippling outward ignited in a chain reaction of explosions.
Boom! Boom-boom! Boom-boom-boom!!
Space itself was torn asunder.
Whoosh!
Something pierced through the explosions.
In the instant I instinctively tilted my head back, one edge of my vision flashed white.
A sharp sting grazed my ear.
My left temple had been lacerated.
The torn flesh regenerated.
Yet my eyes remained twisted in shock.
‘How did that just─!’
…It made no sense. None of it made sense.
That something emerged through that explosion defied all logic.
Had it been caught in the blast.
It should have been shredded at the molecular level.
No matter how superior one’s physical durability, no body could withstand mana currents collapsing at the molecular scale.
‘Yet somehow….’
Crack!
Adrian burst forward, unleashing lightning.
I immediately spread my wings.
I twisted into a steep dive, executing evasive maneuvers.
Adrian shifted his angle as though he’d predicted it.
Crack! Crackle!
Adrian’s joints dislocated.
His articulations bent backward.
‘What in the─!!’
My widened eyes analyzed the phenomenon.
And I understood.
‘He converted his joints and cartilage into springs??’
Adrian had hyperelasticized his joints and cartilage, rebounding them like springs.
Thus, landing, evasion, transition—all became possible.
Every movement could flow into trajectories that defied reason itself.
“What absolute nonsense—!!”
Before Arcanis Rilsein could even cry out, Adrian’s fist struck from the front with devastating force.
CRAAAAAASH!!
Arcanis Rilsein’s body erupted in blood as it plummeted to the earth.
The flesh that impacted the ground shattered into fragments.
* * *
Arcanis Rilsein’s body, crushed beyond recognition.
Bones were pulverized.
Flesh was pulped, blood spreading like mud across the ground.
But soon it began to gather.
The body that transcended death sought its original form and reassembled itself.
Thus it was.
The Immortal Lord, Arcanis Rilsein, does not die.
Even if the brain is destroyed.
Even if all internal organs melt away.
And even if I hold Arcanis Rilsein’s heart in my hand, Arcanis Rilsein does not die.
Long ago, Arcanis Rilsein had already transcended the need for vital organs necessary to sustain life.
Thump-thump!
The heart I had torn from Arcanis Rilsein.
Still pulsed as though alive.
It gave the sensation of remaining connected to Arcanis Rilsein.
I bit down hard on the heart.
CRUNCH!
Perhaps because of the Immortal Lord’s nature.
The heart was remarkably tough.
‘It’s almost like chewing rubber.’
But it could not withstand the bite force of an attribute approaching 20,000.
I continued driving my teeth into the heart.
And then, gulp.
As I swallowed the final fragment of the heart.
◆You have devoured the individual: Arcanis Rilsein!!
A message materialized before my eyes.
Unfortunately, there was no experience gained.
In other words, it meant Arcanis Rilsein was not dead.
I had hoped otherwise, but it was as expected.
Devour cannot kill Arcanis Rilsein.
There was no Sanity value either.
Arcanis Rilsein had not become the Immortal Lord through madness factors.
I gained no experience points, nor any Sanity stat.
‘I couldn’t acquire any skills either.’
Arcanis’s abilities were magic.
Since I couldn’t manipulate Mana, I couldn’t obtain them.
‘In that case….’
It was worse than not eating at all.
It was just unnecessarily tough, leaving my jaw aching.
…I was thinking exactly that when it happened.
◆The Stat Absorption Factor [EX] has activated.
A message flashed brilliantly before my eyes in an instant.
The special skill that absorbs the physical stats of consumed targets had activated.
There was nothing to expect.
I had only absorbed a minuscule amount.
It was essentially a meaningless quantity….
◆You have absorbed 1,456 Mana stat.
…But Arcanis was different.
The first and pinnacle Mage who had contemplated truth across eons.
The sheer volume of accumulated Mana she possessed was on the dimensional scale of the Other Dimension itself, making even the tiniest fraction an astronomical figure.
And that wasn’t even the end of it.
“You…!!”
Arcanis screamed.
Her destroyed body had regenerated completely.
And so within her chest cavity beat free Mana.
…No, a new heart was pounding vigorously.

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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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