The Lord Who Levels Up by Devouring - Chapter 359

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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 359. Choice
Parched footsteps grinding against stone.
Between them, the friction of a cane being planted mixed into the sound.
Darkness within the alley.
A man in a black uniform approached, dragging his shadow behind him.
Lucas reflexively placed his hand on his sword hilt.
I opened my eyes to narrow slits.
Neatly arranged silver-white hair.
A white mask.
A dull half-mask obscured half of his face.
I could not discern his features with the naked eye.
But the gait, the posture.
And the blackwood cane, the aura that seeped from him.
I could recognize him.
==【Character Information】==
Name: Aurec Ordan
Classification: Animalia, Mammalia, Hominidae, Human
Gender: Male
Age: 51
Characteristic: Extreme [M]
Aurec Ordan, Director of the Imperial Secret Service.
The man who orchestrated countless conspiracies and deaths in my previous life had revealed himself.
Beyond the white mask.
Aurec’s gaze turned toward Lucas.
“Commander of the Royal Guard. Unremarkable, yet the most decisive orchestrator in the current situation.”
And then again.
Aurec’s gaze shifted to me.
“To think there was another who played the same hand as I.”
The eyes beyond the white mask pierced through me.
There was no surprise in that gaze, no anger.
Only a hint of admiration.
But the emotion soon vanished.
“Was it you? The loach that muddied the entire pond?”
Aurec beyond the white mask.
He regarded me in silence, then clicked his tongue.
“I thought you were a loach… tsk. To think you were a dragon.”
It was not a mere metaphor.
My current face was Adrian Whitewolf.
And I was known as the Dragon Slayer.
In other words, Aurec had recognized my identity at a glance.
Thus, as if facing a mirror that reflected myself.
“It’s been quite some time since I felt my plans leaking out like this.”
A shallow shock at having my moves read.
But I was in the same position.
…My moves had been read just as clearly.
Lucas, commander of the Royal Guard.
He was a man who could overturn the current situation.
Conversely.
He was also a man who could solidify it.
Depending on what Lucas said, everything would change completely.
If he spoke the truth, Leon would become a traitor.
If he spoke falsehood, Walter would become a traitor.
And so I chose the lie.
Aurec chose the truth.
Our moves intertwined and crossed at this very moment.
“How amusing.”
Aurec laughed.
His eyes behind the white mask turned toward Lucas.
“The evidence discovered in the Royal Court records—the relationship between Walter and the Baron, signs of collusion, the reason the Capital has become like this.”
The tip of Aurec’s staff tapped against the stone floor.
A short, sharp sound.
The atmosphere sank as if crushed.
“All of it has been proven to be fabricated.”
“…!”
“I’ve secured the forensic documents, and traces of forgery on the Royal seal have been detected.”
“…!”
“As for the Royal stamp used in that fabrication… you don’t need to tell me where it came from, do you?”
Aurec’s gaze turned toward me.
Lucas’s gaze followed.
There were no words.
But his eyes were questioning.
-Did you really go so far as to do such a thing?
I kept my mouth shut.
There was no point in denying it.
There was nothing to deny.
Walter and Baron Segretus.
Even if the relationship between them were true, all the evidence proving it had been fabricated.
But to read the situation so quickly and expose the fabrication… I hadn’t anticipated that.
Aurec Ordan, head of the Imperial Secret Service.
He was no easy opponent.
And now.
Aurec Ordan’s gaze fixed upon Lucas.
Then, with a flick.
“Take it, Commander.”
Aurec Ordan withdrew something from his robes and cast it forth.
Parchment bound with leather cord.
The seal bearing the Royal Court’s insignia remained unmistakably clear.
“Evidence that Prince Leon murdered The King. It includes testimonies from court officials, attendants, and even the final records of the King’s duties.”
“….”
“Rest assured, I haven’t fabricated anything like someone else would.”
Lucas remained motionless where he stood.
“Go now, Commander.”
“….”
“A shield that protects the throne must cut down a traitor who leans upon falsehood, must it not?”
Lucas said nothing.
His lips pressed firmly shut.
Yet his gaze never left the parchment.
Presently, Lucas placed the parchment within his robes.
And then.
Lucas lifted his head and looked toward me.
His eyes brimmed with countless emotions.
But Lucas turned without a word and departed.
I did not reach out to stop him.
No—I could not have stopped him.
The tingling sensation piercing my skin in this moment.
“I shall handle the conspirators of treason myself.”
Aurec Ordan slowly rotated his staff.
* * *
The staff spinning in Aurec Ordan’s hand.
Presently, the staff’s tip aimed toward me and halted.
The sensation was not that of a mere staff.
A keen blade.
Or perhaps closer to an awl that would pierce through the heart.
Rumble!!
Tremendous power began to surge from the staff’s tip.
“One loach may muddy an entire pond, yet once the murky waters are cleared, all is well. But a raging dragon…”
Aurec Ordan slowly raised his staff.
“Its wings must be torn asunder.”
Crack!
The staff’s tip shimmered like heat haze before tearing open.
“Only then will the clear skies return.”
Crack!
Space warped with a deafening boom.
An empty void.
Tremendous gravity surged into it.
Everything around me—matter, sound, even light itself—was pulled in.
‘A black hole?’
That was the extent of it.
Gravity so immense it dragged even light itself.
There was no other way to describe it.
And artificially recreating a black hole required celestial-scale mass and energy.
Antimatter annihilation reactions.
Even that had only created a ‘pseudo black hole.’
It had never produced a true black hole.
That was how I could tell.
‘It’s not a black hole.’
And I knew what this was.
This was one of Aurec Ordan’s abilities.
◆Terminal Convergence
: Forces all surrounding objects and entities to approach an infinitely closer distance toward a designated coordinate point.
My body lifted off the ground.
Pulled from my feet as if by some invisible force.
A power that allowed no resistance wrapped around my entire being.
Even my stats exceeding 20,000 were useless.
Truly like a black hole.
Even a Perfect Organism could not escape a universal-scale catastrophe.
But as I said, it wasn’t a true black hole.
Therefore, a countermeasure existed.
‘I need to collapse the designated coordinate.’
Terminal Convergence manifests around a pre-set designated coordinate.
In other words, if I eliminate the coordinate, the power collapses with it.
‘Tear through space entirely.’
I clenched my fist.
I refined and concentrated Rilselenium’s energy.
Then I hesitated.
‘…The damage would be too great.’
I had the power to tear through space itself.
But if I did, this entire area could be obliterated.
‘More precision. Thinner. Only the exact coordinate point.’
I adjusted Rilselenium’s energy with meticulous control.
I reduced the surging power.
One coordinate.
Concentrating my hypersensitivity on the converging focal point.
◆Merging the Concept Skill, Limit[M]!
I condensed the energy into a single point.
──Boom!
Space collapsed.
The central axis of the extreme point convergence crumbled.
Gravity returned.
I landed on the ground as it was.
And Aurec Ordan’s eyes wavered.
“Just now… surely not….”
The voice coming from beyond the white mask had stiffened.
It seemed he had recognized it.
In a way, it was inevitable.
Because they were the same.
The Limit[M] I had just used.
And Aurec Ordan’s extreme point convergence.
More precisely, Aurec Ordan’s ability that made it possible.
◆Limit[M]
: A state where any concept approaches a specific value infinitely. The user can attempt to merge with a specific concept based on [Understanding of Limits].
At this time, the state of the merged concept is converted to Limit.
They were identical.
My Limit[M] and Aurec Ordan’s Limit[M] were completely the same.
So I could understand once more.
I obtained the Limit[M] skill from Memoria.
In other words, it was an ability gained by devouring the Dark Legion Commander.
And the Legion Commander was one bestowed with the authority of a Lord.
Therefore, the fact that Aurec Ordan possessed the same Limit[M] authority as me meant.
‘…The Dark Legion Commander.’
It meant he was the Dark Legion Commander.
‘Aurec Ordan was the Dark Legion Commander?’
This was information I was hearing for the first time.
Of course, almost nothing had been revealed about the Darkness Lord.
The authority of oblivion.
All records and memories had been erased by it.
The Darkness Lord wielded the authority of oblivion.
And he commanded the power of Limit[M].
Based on that, Blake had only a near-certain conjecture that he was the Darkness Lord.
Everything else was darkness itself, in the truest sense of the word.
Information hidden from knowledge.
But Aurec Ordan being the commander of the Dark Legion.
‘Could the Imperial Secret Service have been connected to the Darkness Lord?’
My thoughts began to organize themselves piece by piece.
The Darkness Lord erases all records and memories, preventing recognition of his existence.
The Darkness Lord is the Emperor’s greatest and worst variable.
An overwhelming force.
An entity no one could control.
Therefore, something was absolutely necessary.
A command system connected to the Darkness Lord.
In other words.
An intermediary system that wouldn’t forget the Darkness Lord and could convey the Emperor’s will.
And the Imperial Secret Service.
An organization that became the Emperor’s hands and feet, directly realizing his intentions.
‘…The Secret Service was operating alongside the Darkness Lord.’
Now I understood.
All the pieces fit together.
The Emperor, confined within the Imperial Palace.
How he could devour the entire Continent in one fell swoop.
Why it took only one year for all the kingdoms and cities of the Continent to vanish from the map.
‘It wasn’t one year.’
Decades ago.
Until this very moment.
The Darkness Lord and the Secret Service had been moving continuously.
Simply, they were never remembered.
Simply, they were never recorded.
While the Emperor’s body remained confined in the Imperial Palace, his hands and feet stretched across the entire Continent.
“How did you grasp his power…?”
Aurec Ordan’s eyes wavered.
His expression was hidden behind the mask.
But the emotion visible through weakness hunting.
Aurec Ordan was shaken.
And I took a step back.
Aurec Ordan is the commander of the Dark Legion, granted power by the Darkness Lord.
And the Darkness Lord is the mightiest lord.
Surpassing the Frost Lord—another level of another entirely.
In other words, not all legion commanders are equal.
Aurec Ordan is in a different tier.
At minimum, Hades level.
Perhaps, even beyond that.
“How did you…!”
Aurec Ordan’s gaze sharpened to a cutting edge.
I assessed the situation swiftly.
‘Lucas is….’
I stopped deliberating.
Further persuasion held no meaning.
There was no time for it anyway.
Now I had to entrust everything to Lucas’s judgment.
Commander of the Royal Guard.
Yet Lucas—the field officer of the Allied Forces who had followed Leon after his fall in my past life.
He was a knight who drew his blade for what he believed was right, not for ideology.
What would Lucas draw his sword for?
That was not my decision to make.
It was his choice alone.
Therefore, there was only one thing I could do.
Prevent anyone from interfering with Lucas’s choice.
“Do you think that will happen?”
Aurec Ordan spoke immediately.
He had read my intention.
Soon, power condensed once more at the tip of his staff.
Kwaaaaaaah─!!
The torrent of Extremity warped the space around us.
I extended my hand forward and spoke.
“You seem to be under a grave misunderstanding.”
Crackle!
The erupting Semi-Infinity consumed everything nearby.
Aurec Ordan’s Extremity lost its power.
I lowered my outstretched hand.
“You alone won’t be enough.”
Aurec Ordan narrowed his eyes and asked back.
“…What do you mean?”
“Bring every single agent under your command.”
I said.
“Even then, you still won’t defeat me.”
This was the absolute truth, without a shred of deception.

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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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