Chapter 354: Chapter 353 - Fight between titans.
Meanwhile, as the people in Velmoria’s capital went about their lives as usual, the view above the clouds was different.
It was burning with madness.
Storms bled crimson. Clouds shredded into ribbons of silver and black.
And between them, two titans clashed, their blows loud enough to make the sky scream.
Crisaius soared in his dragon form—an endless coil of red scales streaked with white. But now, something new shimmered in his claws: two translucent swords of pure spirit light.
They hummed with an ancient resonance, the unmistakable mark of an Imperial-Ranked Knight who had climbed past the tenth level with his swordsmanship.
The demon—a winged mountain of obsidian and shadow—snarled as the blades carved streaks of silver across the blood-red horizon.
It could sense that Crisaius’s thunder was special. That thunder was a mark that proved that the old man had climbed past the tenth rank with magic as well.
"Spirit swords," The demon growled, its jagged fangs glinting. "A knight and a mage. Greedy old man."
"Greedy?" Crisaius’s booming laugh shook the clouds apart. "I prefer efficient!"
The demon lunged, claws tearing through space. But the old dragon’s shape blurred—
—And suddenly he wasn’t a dragon at all.
A flash of silver. A naked old man shot out of the clouds like a meteor, both spirit swords already descending.
"Surprise!" Crisaius cackled.
The demon’s eyes widened before instinct kicked in.
A crimson shield of warped mana flared around his chest. The swords struck, shrieking against the barrier as sparks of raw magic spat across the storm.
Then time stopped.
The demon’s world froze—clouds halted mid-swirl, sparks hanging like stars. His pupils dilated in silent fury as he realized Crisaius had invoked it again.
Only a fraction of a heartbeat, but enough.
Black lightning roared into being in Crisaius’s palm, a jagged lance of annihilation aimed straight for the demon’s chest.
’Not again,’ it growled inwardly.
But that didn’t mean it wasn’t prepared, as the demon forced his mana outward, detonating it in a crimson shockwave.
Even in frozen time, the energy obeyed his will.
A wall of molten force erupted, catching the lightning just as it fired, causing an explosion loud enough to shake the whole atmosphere and shatter the sky.
As a result, the clash between the titans became clear to the people below.
The pedestrians in the capital froze in shock and horror as they stared at the scene above, while people in the palace—ones who already knew what was going on—quickly moved to calm the situation.
Even Velric was in motion, ready to address the people in the capital while ordering the soldiers to keep order in the city.
Back above, the world lurched back into motion, and both titans were hurled apart—
—And Crisaius was laughing again, twirling his spirit swords with manic delight. "Oh, you’re learning! I like that!"
The demon’s molten eyes narrowed. His left arm—still scarred from the last black lightning strike—twitched sluggishly, the wound refusing to heal. The cursed lightning still lingered inside, eating away at him like acid.
"You’re annoying," he spat, wings beating storms into the clouds.
Crisaius grinned, dragon horns beginning to reform as scales rippled down his shoulders. "Annoying? Demon, I’ve spent a lifetime perfecting the art of annoyance."
His body elongated again, scales flooding across his skin until the white dragon burst back into existence, swords now fused to his clawed hands.
The demon hissed in frustration, but there was no denying it—he was adapting.
Every time Crisaius froze time, the demon would unleash a storm of his own magic before the freeze could take full hold. Crimson blasts hovered midair, ready to detonate the moment time resumed.
The old man’s favorite trick was losing its edge.
And without the time element, the truth became painfully clear.
Crisaius’s raw strength, his speed, and his durability—all of it was less than the demon’s.
The only reason he’d been winning was because of time itself.
But the demon had closed that gap.
The demon was learning how Crisaius moved and what kind of moves he made.
But of course, it wasn’t as easy as it sounded because one of the reasons the demon, despite being way stronger than Crisaius, wasn’t able to defeat him was because of how unpredictable the old man’s fighting style was.
Still, the demon was getting some hits in on Crisaius now.
But the old master’s eyes burned with untamed joy. "Getting tired yet, junior?"
The demon bared his fangs. "I don’t tire. I adapt."
Their next collision split the air like an axe through glass.
Claws met swords; scales raked against shadowed armor.
The clouds themselves were shredded into ribbons, lightning—both black and crimson—detonating with each impact.
Then came the moment.
Crisaius blurred again, his dragon body twisting through the boiling clouds.
He froze time—again.
The demon’s wings halted mid-beat, his crimson eyes locked in a snarl.
’Now!’
With that thought, Crisaius swept one sword downward, summoning black lightning with his free hand.
The bolt shrieked toward the demon’s chest.
As expected, a crimson shield flickered to life, blocking the strike—
’Perfect.’
In the same millisecond, Crisaius darted forward, bypassing the shield, spirit sword aimed for the demon’s exposed neck.
’Checkmate.’
With this, the demon’s Chapter would end.
’Will Raven think I was cool when I tell him all this?’ Crisaius grinned to himself, only to notice something—
The demon was grinning.
It was still frozen in time, but it had a feral, bloodthirsty grin on its face.
Crisaius’s heart lurched as he tried to pull away, but then he saw it.
Instead of defending himself, the frozen titan moved.
Not its body—but its magic.
The very attack meant to block the lightning turned, re-aiming—not at the bolt, but at Crisaius himself.
"What—?!"
Time resumed with a scream.
The redirected blast detonated point-blank against Crisaius’s chest.
But because it had used that attack on Crisaius, the demon itself was struck by Crisaius’s lightning attack.
Both titans howled as the sky exploded.
White dragon and crimson devil were hurled apart, their colliding forces collapsing the clouds into a deafening vacuum.
Crisaius’s body twisted violently as he fell.
The ground rushed up like a hungry beast.
BOOOOOOOOM!
The earth split open as the old master crashed through it, shockwaves tearing mountains into splinters.
Above, the demon staggered, smoke pouring from the fresh wound carved by black lightning.
His wings faltered—then folded inward—before gravity claimed him too.
Two comets of destruction plumated right next to Velmoria, trailing silver and crimson across the breaking dawn.
The citizens on the street yelled and prayed as they saw the scene, wishing for this to be over, but that was when the shockwave of the crash came.
BOOM!!
The ground beneath their feet trembled, their houses cracking, but before they collapsed, something happened.
The first shockwave hit like a god’s heartbeat.
Stone streets cracked open, tiles split, and every bell tower in the capital swayed like a drunkard.
People screamed as houses shuddered on their foundations—walls groaning, roofs tilting, timbers snapping under the invisible pressure of the crash miles beyond the clouds.
A child cried out, pointing upward.
The sky itself looked wounded, streaked with silver and crimson scars that bled across the breaking dawn.
"Earthquake!" a man shouted, grabbing his wife’s hand.
"No. It’s because of them!" another gasped, eyes wide with terror as another BOOM rolled through the city.
Roofs began to crumble. A three-story shopfront lurched sideways with a deafening crack.
But then—
Emerald light flared across the royal palace balcony, brighter than the morning sun.
From every crack in the cobblestone, vines erupted like living serpents.
Great roots punched through the soil, racing under streets in blurs of viridian.
They coiled around sinking pillars, wrapped themselves around trembling beams, and locked collapsing roofs into place.
Citizens gaped as branches as thick as warhorses rose beneath their feet, weaving into a living lattice.
A woman clutched her child as a root curved overhead like a shield, holding the sagging ceiling in midair.
"W-What is this?!" someone shouted.
"It’s her! Lady Lia!" another voice cried, trembling with awe.
On the highest balcony of the royal palace stood Lia, her pink hair whipping in the wind.
Her pink eyes glowed a fierce forest green, her arms raised as mana poured from her like a second sunrise.
The entire capital trembled under her command, and the trees obeyed.
But even Lia’s power couldn’t hold everything.
Across the market district, a row of old houses—already fractured—gave one final groan and began to topple despite the roots’ desperate grip.
The crowd screamed as the buildings broke free, but just then—
A sharp crack split the air, like space tearing.
A tall figure stepped out of nothing, black coat snapping in the violent wind.
Argon.
Before anyone could process his arrival, he simply raised one hand.
Gravity reversed.
Every collapsing house, every falling stone, every splinter of wood stopped mid-plunge and soared upward, weightless.
The entire city gasped as debris rose like startled birds, floating silently above the streets in a surreal dance.
Argon’s voice cut through the chaos, deep and absolute. "Move."
"The command wasn’t loud, but it carried through the capital like thunder.
Instantly, the same invisible force that lifted the wreckage swept through every home and alley.
Men, women, children—every citizen was pulled gently out of doorways and windows, lifted clear of danger, and set down in the open plazas as if the air itself carried them.
People landed on their feet, staring at one another in stunned disbelief.
Some knelt, shaking, while others gazed upward at the man who had defied gravity with a flick of his wrist.
"He... he saved the whole city..." a merchant whispered, voice cracking.
"Who is that?" a child asked, clutching her mother’s arm.
Argon didn’t answer.
He stood among the floating ruins, his dark eyes flicking once toward the distant plains where silver and crimson still burned.
He knew he was needed there, but before he went to them, he needed to check up on someone.
Without a word, he turned toward the palace.
One step.
A ripple of violet light.
In a blink, the man vanished from the plaza and reappeared inside the royal castle, the air humming in his wake.
The citizens remained frozen beneath the hovering wreckage, hearts pounding as they stared at the space he’d left behind—a city of survivors held aloft by roots and reversed gravity, waiting for the next godlike move.
Meanwhile, on the balcony, Lia finally relaxed, her body swaying as she took the support of the railing to stabilize herself.
That last move had taken a great toll on her mind, as her brain wasn’t strong enough to control so many trees.
That was when Argon appeared behind her, inside the chamber.
"Where’s Raven?" He asked, frowning, and Lia, still leaning on the railing, replied.
"Ashen Expanse."