The Lord Who Levels Up by Devouring - Chapter 363

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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 363. Each in Their Own Justice (2)
The Outer City of Battenberg, the Capital.
Beneath a sky shrouded in ashen mist.
A terrible power converged upon Blake’s entire being.
Kwaaaaaaah─!!
The ashen mana erupted in a violent explosion.
Sssssaaaah-!
Within that detonating mana dwelt a sinister force.
Blake’s dark eyes deepened into an even more profound darkness.
As if devouring light itself.
The whites of his eyes turned pitch black, inverting into reverse eyes.
A sword-shaped tattoo was carved from his forehead to his chin, piercing through his left eye. Blake’s entire form became entwined with a pitch-black aura.
“Witness it clearly—the new order of humanity that shall arrive─.”
A world where only the strong breathe.
A realm where those who prove their worth may claim their rights.
“A radiant paradise kingdom where the weak are rightfully culled!!”
Kwurrrrrung!!
The earth split asunder.
The sky twisted and warped.
An ashen mist darker than pitch consumed all directions.
The Outer City, the metropolis, the Castle Wall.
And the entire Capital began to be consumed by the mist.
Terror and despair.
Resentment and oblivion.
All of it coalesced to form Blake.
Lucas’s body trembled involuntarily.
Without thinking, he took a step backward.
That… was not Blake.
The Evil Overlord.
An existence that had shed the shell of humanity.
A living apocalypse that would bring ruin to this world.
Justice, order, conviction.
All of it became meaningless before that power.
Blake’s words had been right.
Might triumphs over justice.
Only those who possess power can speak of justice.
Lucas understood instinctively.
…It cannot be stopped.
Not even if every army and soldier of the Battenberg Kingdom were gathered.
It was an existence that could not be surpassed.
…It had always been this way.
Even in fairy tales, the Demon Lord never knelt before an army.
No matter how vast the forces arrayed against him.
No matter what tactics or stratagems were employed.
The Demon Lord invariably brought ruin upon the world.
Always.
In the end of every tale, it was never countless armies that vanquished the Demon Lord—
“That’s enough, Blake.”
It was always a single hero.
* * *
A movement that exploited the blind spots of perception.
Though the speed was extraordinary, Blake could perceive it.
Black hair.
Crimson eyes.
…It was him. Adrian.
Emotion surged within me.
Killing intent rose sharp and keen.
Blake extended his left hand.
Ashen mana erupted from his fingertips in a violent burst.
Adrian countered in kind.
Krraaaashhh!!
The field of vision trembled.
Debris scattered everywhere.
The surroundings were reduced to devastation.
Yet there were no fatal wounds.
Perhaps this was merely a probing exchange.
Adrian’s movements shifted.
Lowering his stance, he watched Blake’s every motion with unwavering focus.
Adrian’s eyes had taken on a crimson hue, as though stained with blood.
Blake met that gaze head-on.
‘As expected, this will not be simple.’
Adrian is a formidable warrior.
And this clash is a confrontation between masters.
The slightest carelessness.
A momentary opening.
Even the most trivial of oversights could lead to death in such a battle.
Darkness coalesced above Blake’s hand.
A blade of absolute black.
Ahimsayuda materialized in my grasp.
Possessing a nature that rejects contact with all else, it perpetuates an invincible state that can never be touched.
The killing intent intensifies.
…Yet, why?
Blake could not bring Ahimsayuda to bear against Adrian.
Openings were visible.
Of course, they could be deliberately exposed gaps.
But they were not so wide that he could not exploit them.
…Yet certainty eluded him.
The certainty that Adrian was weaker than himself.
‘Why is this?’
Blake’s perception of Adrian wavered ceaselessly.
From the approaching Adrian emanated an indescribable pressure.
As though he would devour the entire world itself.
An aura that suffocated all around it through mere existence.
The overwhelming presence of a sovereign reigning supreme over all things in this realm.
Though Blake felt it only for a fleeting moment, he was overwhelmed.
‘He has grown stronger…?’
It was not merely that.
His very existence had transformed entirely.
Blake poured his strength into Ahimsayuda.
That I was overwhelmed… is fact.
But it does not mean I surrender.
I too am a powerhouse.
One who rises from humiliation.
A possessor of obsession—trampled by defeat, yet clawing back to crush it anew.
Just as Adrian had transformed entirely.
I too had changed to a different dimension of power.
“At last, I am chosen!”
Ashen mana surged violently forth.
The surrounding air warped, and the earth trembled.
Blake stepped forward.
Ahimsayuda traced a black flash.
In the same instant, it collided with Adrian.
Clang!
A sound that tore at the eardrums.
Yet something was wrong.
The sensation was entirely different from expectation.
‘It pierced through?’
Ahimsayuda had been pierced through.
That is, the infinite property had been reduced to the finite.
Thus, Ahimsayuda’s invincible state had been rendered powerless.
Blake was driven backward by the impact.
Adrian pressed forward relentlessly.
With each step closer, the threat intensified exponentially.
And Blake drew his sword.
Swordsmanship was the foundation of his combat prowess.
To unleash the full power of his blade technique, he needed distance—yet Adrian refused to grant him even a sliver of space.
Blake mounted the most formidable defense he could muster at close quarters.
Clang! Crash!
A ferocious clash.
Lucas could only watch in stunned disbelief.
“Good heavens….”
Adrian and Blake.
Their battle transcended mortal combat.
Demon Lord and Hero.
Destruction and salvation colliding in a cataclysmic convergence.
Perhaps that was why.
The mere fact of their collision.
It obliterated everything in the surrounding area completely.
Boom! Crash! Crash! Crash!
The debris of the devastated landscape erupted into a thick cloud of dust.
From its center, their exchanges detonated without pause.
Bang, crash-bang!
Each strike annihilated the landscape, destruction spreading in all directions.
Lucas could not follow their movements with his eyes.
Not even afterimages remained visible.
Speed that defied prediction itself.
Despite such violent collisions, it seemed merely a probing exchange—each testing the other’s limits.
Then, in that instant.
Blake’s dark eyes flashed with sudden intent.
A surge of killing intent.
His obsidian blade plunged toward Adrian’s heart.
And Adrian’s movement twisted.
No—”bent” was the more accurate word.
Blake could not react.
Or rather, “could not respond” was the precise description.
Boom!!
With a tremendous roar, Blake’s body was hurled backward.
* * *
In my past life, I had never fought Blake.
Therefore, Blake.
In other words, information about The Darkness Lord was virtually nonexistent.
However, I had obtained information from my previous life.
One of those was Ahimsa Yudia.
A weapon that perpetuated an invincible state by exploiting the nature of extremes.
Through it, it was the most troublesome power capable of defending against and cutting through everything.
But not anymore.
The power of semi-infinity.
I could terminate the nature of extremes into the finite, and I could neutralize the properties of Ahimsa Yudia.
And the title I wore—Dragon Slayer.
The effect of this title was simple.
It denies ontological hierarchy.
By subduing even nature itself, it imprints upon any apex predator that they ‘can be hunted.’
Thus, removing all buff effects from the opponent.
Conversely, I gain complete immunity to all debuff effects applied to me.
That is, Blake’s Weak Annihilation.
I escape perfectly from the authority that reduces the ability stats of targets recognized as weak by [-75%].
Therefore, Blake.
An incomplete Darkness Lord.
He could not stand as my opponent, now that I had become a perfect organism.
“Kha-hak…!”
Blake coughed blood and fell to his knees.
Ahimsa Yudia was torn.
His black eyes twisted.
The mist of his left arm scattered dimly.
Blake looked at me in disbelief.
“How is this possible…!”
I did not rush forward carelessly.
Spreading my hypersenses widely, I blocked every possible escape route Blake could take, one by one.
‘This time, I won’t let him slip away.’
I predicted and sealed off every escape technique Blake could employ.
Blake felt it too, gritting his teeth.
At that moment.
Leon, who had been standing back, stepped forward.
“Did it really have to come to this?”
It was not directed at me.
At Blake, who had created this terrible calamity.
A question directed at him, and asking again of the responsibility he would soon bear.
“Is this truly the ending you desired?”
“That couldn’t possibly… *cough*! be the case, brother.”
Blake lifted his head, coughing blood.
Leon didn’t avert his gaze.
“Then why—”
“When a lion devours a deer, do you question its reasons?”
“We are neither lions nor deer.”
“I know. We’re human. But humans are also creatures of nature—beings bound by instinct, compelled to follow the laws of the natural world.”
“Yet we possess reason. We have the power to resist instinct. And still, you—”
“Hah…! So I’m evil, then?”
Blake wiped the blood from his lips and continued.
“All humans are demons. They simply refuse to acknowledge it, or choose to look away.”
“….”
“Look around you.”
Blake’s gaze swept across the surroundings.
People fleeing in blind panic.
Pushing others aside to survive.
Some even abandoning their own families, rushing ahead without hesitation.
“That is humanity. A contemptible species that cares nothing for others when their own survival is at stake.”
“Fleeing to survive is a natural instinct.”
“Exactly my point, brother.”
Blake staggered to his feet.
“Humans are ultimately beasts enslaved by instinct! We must live under the laws of nature!”
“….”
“And nature knows neither mercy nor compassion.”
“….”
“Only the strong survive, and the weak are culled.”
“….”
“I have simply accepted that order. Is that a sin? Is that evil?”
Blake laughed, blood staining his teeth, his body swaying.
“True sin belongs to those like you—those who deny nature’s law and shelter the weak who should be eliminated.”
“….”
“True evil is the masses who believe themselves righteous simply because they are many.”
Wielding empathy to manipulate justice.
Using emotion to distort law.
Claiming themselves to be heaven’s will.
“The towering will of the weak masses!!”
“Yet judging by strength alone is no less wrong.”
“Don’t just talk—cough!”
Blake spat blood and pressed on.
“Prove it yourself, brother.”
“….”
“Don’t wait for help from behind! Step forward yourself!”
“….”
“This justice you speak of, brother—who achieves it?”
Blake’s gaze fixed upon me.
“In the end, Adrian. Without that man, you’re powerless to do anything at all.”
“….”
“What meaning does justice and conviction hold when you yourself cannot protect anything?”
“….”
“You’re nothing but a weakling destined for extinction, yet you dare speak of justice.”
Blake’s expression twisted as he spoke.
“It’s nauseating.”
“That’s enough.”
I could no longer hold my tongue and interjected.
More precisely, it was after I’d completely severed Blake’s every avenue of escape.
I stepped forward and spoke.
“It seems Marceline never taught you morality and ethics when you were young.”
“…Kekeke.”
Blake laughed, his face drenched in blood.
“The weaker one is, the more morality and ethics are imposed upon them.”
“….”
“Because they’re powerless themselves, they bind the strong with the chains of morality and ethics.”
“Do you truly believe that?”
“Can you refute it?”
Blake countered.
“If we remove the norms of morality and ethics, what reason remains for protecting the weak?”
“I doubt you’ll understand even if I explain, but I’ll tell you anyway.”
I answered firmly.
“The strength of the powerful exists not to dominate others, but to protect them.”
“Ahahahahaha!”
Blake burst into raucous laughter.
“What kind of… what kind of nonsense is that?! Something you’d hear from children playing pretend!”
“….”
“The strong protect the weak? Power exists for that purpose?”
Kahahahahaha!!
Blake threw his head back, gasping for breath between fits of laughter.
“Are you planning to play righteous hero?!”
“See? I told you that you wouldn’t understand.”
“It’s not me who fails to understand—it’s you, Adrian!”
Blake cried out.
“Stop spouting drivel and look at nature! The strong have the right to crush the weak. There is no responsibility in the survival of the fittest!”
“No. That’s absolutely wrong.”
“Fine then… prove yourself to me.”
Blake’s momentum shifted entirely.
A darkness deeper than shadow itself.
Blake had become darkness incarnate.
“This is war. Not a debate over whose justice is right between you and me.”
Tendrils of pitch-black energy coalesced across Blake’s entire form, rising into the air.
A killing intent that pierced my very skin.
It became death itself, bearing down upon me.
“A struggle where you and I each impose our own justice upon the other.”
It was but an instant.
Yet it felt like eternity.
A standoff that seemed destined to stretch on forever.
In that single moment.
A black flash erupted.
A slash darker than thought itself, moving beyond the speed of comprehension.
Kwaaang!!
My vision lurched violently.
Not so much that I couldn’t react.
…But the power was different.
Splurt!
Blood erupted from below my left shoulder.
My eyes widened involuntarily.
‘That just now…!’
…There was no doubt.
This was no illusion.
The technique Blake had just unleashed.
‘Ultima Veritas!’
In other words, Ian’s swordsmanship.

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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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