Chapter 373. Inheritance War (3)

“It seems the situation isn’t quite right for a picnic, huh?”

-Rumble-

Kiriel mumbled as she looked at the three auras exploding out from the giant plane.

It was a joke, but nobody laughed.

Those bursts of energy continued increasing in strength.

Oaaaaaaarrr!

The Nelkipa also seemed to have felt the energy as it cried out.

Enbi Arin gritted her teeth as she listened.

“… Insane bastards. They really did it.”

“Do you know something?”

Enbi Arin nodded.

She had climbed up here and had fought countless battles over multiple floors.

She had been here.

She had seen the crystal below.

She was just surprised because it was her first time seeing the blue armor and the corpses. She had also found out that the crystal existed in Aokan as well.

The main crystal that controlled the movements of Nelkipa and controlled the flow of energy.

The two sub-crystals that controlled the subsystems and soldiers in Nelkipa.

One would only have complete control over Nelkipa if they had all three of these crystals.

‘It seems they divided it between themselves. Even if they’re dislikable, this isn’t bad.’

Enbi Arin clenched her teeth as she felt the three distinct auras around them.

If the Valentine siblings, Clementine’s underlings, or Melchizedek had complete control over Nelkipa, then this giant ray wouldn’t be flying around in such a calm manner.

It was lucky for them.

But the situation still wasn’t that great.

The two sides seemed to have taken extreme measures to reach a conclusion.

“… Do you know what their plans are?”

Enbi Arin nodded at Kiriel’s question.

“I know about one, but not the other.”

She knew what the Valentine siblings had chosen.

Self-destruction.

‘They probably decided that gaining control over the Nelkipa was a bit too much.’

Enbi Arin gritted her teeth.

If they succeeded in destroying the crystals, this place would become a sea of flames.

The worse case scenario would be the death of this giant creature.

The people arriving after them wouldn’t even have a single plot of land they could step on before being killed.

Even if this giant creature didn’t die, those people would die from Angkara’s attacks.

They had to take control of Nelkipa before it died and then take it far away from Angkara.

‘In the end, we have to deal with all three places.’

The issue was Melchizedek; she didn’t know what that thing was planning.

This was probably the reason why the twins had started up the self-destruction sequences as well.

They couldn’t charge in, and they didn’t know what Melchizedek was planning.

It would’ve been nice if they could charge in there, sweep everything clean and then go up.

‘The best situation would be to deal with them one at a time.’

Enbi Arin thought to herself.

Looking at it, Melchizedek and the siblings were all separated.

It would be best if the three of them dealt with Melchizedek and the twins one at a time.

But of course, there wasn’t enough time.

Even if they got to Melchizedek, it would have no meaning if one of the siblings succeeded. But it was too much of a risk to leave Melchizedek alone.

‘… That thing wouldn’t plan something useless.’

Enbi Arin asked Hansoo,

“What shall we do?”

Hansoo, in his blue armor, spoke with a heavy expression.

***

-Rumble-

‘Mmm… This is quite exhausting.’

Elis Valentine made a tired expression as she held onto the crystal.

She wasn’t really doing much.

She was just stimulating the energy within the crystal to make it go haywire.

But because of the energy within it, it was hard work.

‘Tsk. We can’t do anything.’

Elis looked at the spike by her waist that she’d used to stab her skin before.

Stabbing herself with the spike was the best thing to do when things got boring, but she had to hold herself back.

She had to finish this up quickly and then go up.

In a situation like this where they didn’t know what Melchizedek was planning, the easier they dealt with it, the better.

‘Let’s just finish this up fast and go up. I’ll ask for a holiday after I go up.’

Others wouldn’t know about what went on above, but she and Ares Valentine had the Soul Fragments, so they knew a few things.

According to what they heard, the two people in the Indigo Zone above were having the time of their lives.

They had performed well to a certain degree up until now, but hard work deserves a short holiday, right?

As Elis Valentine thought of climbing up and leisurely eating crystals and playing around..

-Chiiiiiik-

… She felt a faint aura in the distance.

It was a bit too far for her to feel in detail, but that aura was sharp beyond reason.

And as she felt this…

Elis Valentine was shocked.

‘… 3-Star? There are 3-Stars?’

She couldn’t ignore that aura.

It was a similar aura to hers.

‘… There are still people who can become 3-Stars?’

Elis Valentine was truly shocked.

They had taken everyone with the slightest bit of potential and recruited them to their side. All the others had been turned into artificial Transcendents by Melchizedek.

She’d never thought that someone else would be able to rise to the level of a 3-Star Transcendent.

‘Is it him?’

She had heard about it before from Taehee, the owner of the Soul Fragments.

That the man called Kang Hansoo had risen up to become a Transcendent, so be careful and deal with him quickly if possible.

Of course, Taehee chuckled at this too.

A man who had become a 1-Star in the Green Zone below.

He had somehow managed to deal with a brat who was Jang Oh’s successor and had risen to a 2-Star, but that wasn’t much for them to worry about.

The difference between a 2-Star and a 3-Star was actually tremendous.

If they were truly wary of him, then they would’ve long gone down and dealt with him while in the middle of their fight against Melchizedek.

They wouldn’t want to overlook an unknown variable in such a tense situation.

But of course, they hadn’t gone down.

They’d only focused on Melchizedek before them.

It was for one reason.

He was weak.

Someone who’d recently risen to a 2-Star level could not rise to become a 3-Star Transcendent in such a short time.

Even if he did rise, he would be much weaker than them.

But this aura was truly overbearing.

‘I see. You’ve arrived.’

She had been shocked.

At how he’d actually risen up to the level of a 3-Star Transcendent.

He really lived up to being the person who’d wrecked apart the lower floors.

But that was it.

Elis Valentine realized that defending her position was the right choice instead of going down and dealing with him.

She realized that there was no point in showing her back to Melchizedek just to deal with Hansoo.

‘Come.’

-Chwaaaaak!-

Elis Valentine stopped pouring energy into the crystal and grasped the 50-cm-long spike by her waist.

-Tremble-

Elis Valentine couldn’t prevent her own cravings after holding onto the spike and started to stab herself again.

‘Ahhh…’

At first, she started on her arm, a location which wouldn’t cause much trouble in a fight.

But the location of the stabs started slowly rising up.

Towards her heart.

-Pushuk, Pushuk-

As the stabs slowly approached her heart, the previous wounds healed.

-Tatatak!-

The owner of that aura had already appeared before her eyes.

And as he appeared…

“…?”

… Elis put the spike away, stopping short of stabbing it into her heart, and frowned.

“… I didn’t know that Kang Hansoo was a female. Did you have plastic surgery or something?”

The woman who had flown across the air, Kiriel, smiled.

“Hansoo is a bit too busy to deal with trash like you, so as his fan, I’ve come in his stead. As a fan, it’s my duty to let him focus on his duties, right?”

Elis frowned as she spat out a reply.

“… Not bad. So you’re one of his slaves, huh?”

The compliment was not directed to Kiriel, but to Hansoo.

Kiriel giggled as she replied,

“What do you mean a slave? I’m just a fan. It seems you have some issues with your mouth. Or maybe your ears.”

Although she was smiling, the bloodthirsty aura that was radiating from her body kept rising.

An extremely tense situation.

Elis Valentine chuckled as she looked at Kiriel and the Dragon God Armor.

“You have a fun toy equipped. Anyway… Doesn’t he care about his own fans? To let them die in a place like this?”

Kiriel looked at Elis who had spoken with a smile and replied with a smile as well.

“Don’t worry. You’ll be the one getting f***ed.”

“Woah. Language. Anyway… Are you sure you should be here? What about my brother?”

Kiriel shrugged her shoulders.

“Someone else went there.”

Kiriel said, pointing towards the other crystal in the far distance.

***

“Woah. It’s been a while. Have you been well?”

Enbi Arin clenched her fists at Ares Valentine’s words.

“Yup. I’ve slept very well, thanks to some bastards.”

“Hahaha! It seems you had a good dream. Was it about me?”

Enbi Arin frowned at Ares’s sleek words which resembled something a lover would say and then said,

“The issue was that you appeared a bit too much. A real nightmare.”

Enbi Arin glared at Ares and spat out,

“You… You were my husband.”

“Oh my. Melchizedek really did put in some effort. He fulfilled one of my small wishes.”

Ares Valentine chuckled at the word ‘husband’.