Chapter 27: Snow-Buried Hero II

The Hero scanned the surroundings, his eyes falling upon the panting group.

His brow furrowed slightly, looking as though the flames of his interest had been extinguished just as they were sparked.

He wore an expression of blatant displeasure.

“In that case, it’s time to end this battle.”

He raised his hand, white Magic Power flowing slowly through his fingertips.

“First, I shall excuse the weak from the field.”

“[Domain: Frozen World]!”

The surrounding temperature plummeted as a biting frost exploded outward from the Hero!

“Not good! This is the specific Domain power of a King-level Powerhouse! Everyone, get out of here!”

Lockes shouted a warning, but he was one step late.

The extreme cold of the Domain expanded with such speed and scale that even Lockes, positioned at the edge of the battlefield, was affected.

A layer of frost instantly condensed over his body.

Powerful ice magic began to penetrate his skin, slowing not just his blood, but the very flow of his magic.

‘Such a powerful frost aura! It’s even stronger than a Frost Dragon’s!’

Amidst his shock, Lockes turned his head and saw Aurora on the verge of becoming an ice sculpture.

The young girl was only at the Four-Crown rank; she had no way to withstand this frigid frost wind!

Lockes quickly bit his fingertip, allowing hot blood mixed with Magic Power to drip onto Aurora, burning away the frost.

“Hah… hah! So cold!”

The white mist the girl exhaled turned into ice crystals instantly.

“Concentrate! Use your Magic Power to resist the cold!”

“Whoosh —”

As the howling wind subsided, several new ice sculptures appeared on the field.

They were frozen in various poses of escape, caught in an instant.

“The ones remaining should all be Five-Crown powerhouses. Come, play with me for a bit.”

The Hero exhaled a cloud of white vapor.

He faced the remaining members of the Demon Race, all of whom possessed Five-Crown strength.

However, after the impact of the Domain expansion, their power was greatly diminished.

With large-scale frostbite covering their bodies, they were essentially in a near-death state.

“Fwoosh!”

Not far away, a ball of red flames burned fiercely.

It stood out prominently amidst the frost, naturally drawing the Hero’s attention.

“Oh?”

Lockes tore off his damaged coat, which was covered in ice shards.

The flames swirling around him became the best protection against the extreme cold.

Blood seeped from the wound on his palm, condensing into a crimson longsword wreathed in blazing fire.

“Hot blood is hard to cool.”

“[Blood-Entwined Blazing Sword].”

“A combination of Vampire magic and fire magic… you truly resemble that Crimson Empress of yours.”

Lockes swung his longsword, causing the frost on the ground to melt and evaporate.

In the next heartbeat, he lunged at the Hero.

“Clang!”

The Hero summoned a blue ice sword out of nowhere, parrying Lockes’s strike.

“I see. It’s a pity you lack a certain purity. The Vampire combat style is meant to replenish oneself by consuming the enemy’s blood and energy through contact. Your magic seems to have lost that trait for now, and the explosive power of your flames has diminished as well. I take back what I said… you are utterly foolish.”

Facing the Hero’s provocation, Lockes’s gaze narrowed.

He suddenly exerted force with his arm, parrying the Hero’s blade away before performing a spinning strike.

“[Crimson Cyclone]!”

A blood-red aura swept across the Hero’s body, instantly sapping his Magic Power and vitality. The arm holding his sword withered and shriveled at a visible rate!

“[Blood Wave Slash]!”

Harnessing the stolen power, Lockes unleashed an even stronger strike. The blood-red sword energy tore through the ground, surging toward the Hero.

“Boom —”

“A direct hit!”

“Is it over?” someone couldn’t help but ask.

“Yes, is it over?” a flippant voice echoed from his side.

Lockes whipped his head around, realizing the Hero was sitting leisurely right next to him.

Upon seeing that he had been noticed, the Hero smiled and waved.

Lockes realized the Hero had escaped the range of the attack, even though he was certain he had hit him just a moment ago.

“[Transposition]. It’s a magic I use that allows me to swap places with any inanimate object in my field of vision. It’s quite a fun spell, though it can’t be used repeatedly in a short amount of time.”

“Then you definitely won’t be able to dodge this!”

Loki summoned her Magic Mirror, and Lockes’s shadow appeared within the glass.

“[Enhanced Forgery: Blood Wave Slash]!”

“Uh?”

Seeing this, the Hero immediately grabbed a nearby member of the Demon Race, frantically injecting his own Magic Power into the victim’s body.

“[Sacrificial Grafting]!”

“Boom!”

The Hero had originally intended to use the magic to cancel out the slash, but he hadn’t expected the sword energy erupting from the mirror to be even more powerful than the one the Vampire had used.

It exceeded the limit of what the Five-Crown demon in the Hero’s hand could endure.

The exploding demon slammed the Hero into the ground.

“What are you doing, Loki? Our companion was right next to him!”

Lockes shouted at the black-haired girl floating in the sky, showing no joy at the sight.

“His magic was almost exhausted anyway, and his body was heavily injured. Leaving him would have just made him a burden,” Loki said indifferently.

Lockes grit his teeth but said nothing more.

The Hero was still not dead.

“A decent trick. If I continue to play around with you, it would be quite disrespectful on my part.”

White Magic Power transformed into a frigid mist.

With every step the Hero took, the ground was covered in a layer of frost.

Lockes held his high-temperature longsword; it was the only power capable of contending with this extreme cold.

As the two locked eyes, a single breath passed before their blades collided, sending sparks flying.

The Hero gripped his sword with both hands, his Magic Power surging.

“[Sword Style: Ice Blast].”

With a swing of his sword, countless tiny ice crystals flew from the blade and exploded in mid-air.

The violent ice-element Magic Power momentarily produced an effect similar to fire, and the resulting explosion leveled the surrounding area.

After the blast, the ground was littered with ice spikes.

Lockes’s body had been pierced by sharp frost, and his Magic Power was frozen solid.

“Argh —”

Lockes had almost forgotten that the Hero possessed the talent for All-element Magic.

The spells he cast could simultaneously possess the speed of wind, the explosiveness of fire, and the sharpness of ice.

The Hero raised his longsword high, preparing to take Lockes’s head.

“Spirit of Flame, lend me your strength — Fireball!”

“Bang!”

Just as the Hero sensed the incantation behind him, he was struck by a fireball.

He turned around to see a red-haired girl.

Because she had approached too closely, she was being eroded by the surrounding cold, her body covered in frost.

“This girl… she truly inspires pity…”

The Hero’s gaze was like that of a hawk looking at a young animal.

Lockes desperately shouted, “Aurora, run!”

“Ugh!”

Aurora’s neck was seized by the Hero, who lifted her off the ground.

He leaned in, sniffing the fragrance at the girl’s neck and reaching out to toy with her hair.

“Golden highlights… your hair is quite beautiful,” the Hero spoke gently, and the icy aura around him seemed to warm slightly.

“Huh? Th-Thank you for the compliment.”

Aurora’s face flushed red, only to find herself being placed back on the ground.

“Don’t be afraid. I never personally kill women, especially not a cute little girl like you.”

“Eh?”

Aurora blinked her eyes in confusion as the Hero waved her away.

“Go on. I still have to finish my fight with that Vampire.”

“Then… alright.”

Aurora turned to leave.

A sinister smile crossed the Hero’s lips.

The girl didn’t notice the ice crystal clusters slowly growing near her feet.

“Aurora, get out of the way!”

Lockes shattered the ice spikes restraining him and dashed to Aurora’s side.

The suddenly elongated ice spikes pierced straight through his body.

“Senior Lockes!”

“Damn you, Hero!”

The demons who had previously left the battlefield and been healed by Aurora from the sidelines returned.

Although they hadn’t recovered their full strength, they could no longer afford to rest!

Every single one of them was a Five-Crown demon.

Working together, they should have been able to suppress the Hero for a moment.

“However —”

Frigid slashes erupted from the void.

“[Frost Scar Continuous Slashes]!”

The Hero merely swung his sword once.

The resulting multiple strikes instantly decapitated the surrounding demons.

“What?!”

Seeing this, Lockes’s heart sank into an abyss.

The Hero himself possessed King-level power, and even among those of the same rank, he was an elite.

These Five-Crown demons had no way to win through conventional means.

‘It seems… I can only use this move.’

Lockes gave Aurora a deep look.

The girl nodded in understanding and offered her fair wrist, allowing the Vampire youth to bite down.

As the magic-infused blood flowed into his throat, Lockes’s aura surged violently.

A wild, crimson power swept away the surrounding frost.

“Hmm? This power is…”

The Hero noticed the Vampire youth’s power climbing rapidly, pushing against the threshold of the King Rank.

It wouldn’t be long before he reached the same level.

“But so what?”

Although the Hero didn’t care much, it would be foolish to just stand there and do nothing.

“It looks like this is your final trump card. I’ll get a bit more serious then.”

The Hero’s body began to float into the air.

At the same time, the surrounding cold gathered to form a white tornado, covering the entire area in a blizzard.

A Magic Power far exceeding any previous spell brewed in the center of that vortex.

Lockes was secretly alarmed; he hadn’t fully finished gathering his magic, yet the opponent’s killing move was already prepared.

“Argh!”

Lockes bit down harder on Aurora’s wrist.

The girl let out a cry of pain as more blood flowed in, and a blood-red energy as bright and hot as fire erupted from his body.

“[Blood God’s Fury]!”

“Roar!”

The suddenly erupting crimson energy dispersed the surrounding snow.

Kross’s aura climbed to the King Rank.

“[Blood-Entwined Blazing Sword]!”

“[Blood Wave Slash]!”

Kross gathered all his power and unleashed a crimson slash toward the Hero in the sky, tearing through the storm and frost!

The white tornado suddenly vanished — not because Kross’s sword energy had cut through it, but because it had collapsed of its own accord.

A massive white sword, large enough to span the heavens, appeared before Kross’s eyes.

“[Snow Burial Anthem]!”

The Hero brought the giant sword down.

An overwhelming curtain of wind and snow, carrying a cold that could freeze all things, rushed toward him.

Kross’s full-power crimson slash appeared insignificant before it…

‘Is this… the true… Celestial Hero?’

The desperate curtain of snow covered Kross’s eyes.

This was the last thing he saw.

“Gasp!”

The blonde Vampire youth suddenly snapped his eyes open.

“Ugh?!”

“[Heavenly Hero: Snow Burial — Mock Trial Ended. Difficulty: King Rank (Early Stage). Time: 10:16.]”

As the lines of text appeared on the screen projected by the crystal ball, Kross instinctively touched his neck.

“Yes, he was still alive.”

Even though it was just a Mock Trial, the experience inside felt as real as meeting the actual person.

“Lockes, you’re out too?”

A red-haired girl with golden highlights sat by the boy’s bedside, asking with concern.

“Yeah. I’m really sorry, Aurora. Even after absorbing your blood and energy to temporarily activate Blood God’s Fury, I was still insta-killed by that guy,” Kross said with a bitter smile.

“He was someone capable of defeating the Four Heavenly Kings back when he was only at the early stage of the King Rank. We haven’t even touched the threshold of the King Rank yet.”

Aurora rubbed her wrist, a look of dissatisfaction suddenly crossing her face.

“You bit me really hard in the hidden realm earlier.”

“Ah? Sorry, sorry. I was just trying to speed things up and accidentally…”

Lockes hurriedly checked the girl’s wrist.

Fortunately, injuries sustained in the simulation did not carry over to reality.

“Alright, alright, it’s fine.”

Seeing the boy’s flustered state, Aurora smiled and said, “I just heard that the Demon King has returned from training. Master Demigula wants us to gather at the Demon King’s Palace.”

“Master Demigula’s orders? Then we’d better get moving!”

Lockes hurriedly packed up, eager to leave the training room with Aurora.

“Wait, hasn’t Loki come out yet?”

“I don’t know. Should we wait for her?”

“Forget it. She’ll be done soon anyway. Let’s head out first.”

***

Inside the hidden realm.

The Hero looked up at the black-haired girl gazing down at him.

Her hair, as dark as the night sky, blocked out the sun, and her deep purple eyes flickered with a hint of playfulness.

“I sense an… extraordinary aura coming from you,” the Hero said.

“Oh? And what does that mean?”

“A repulsive aura. Die!”

“The one who’s going to die is you…”

Loki opened her palm, and the Magic Mirror beside her suddenly manifested a violent blizzard.

The Hero’s pupils shrank slightly. He recognized it as his own ultimate move.

“Heh…”

His laughter was completely swallowed by the Snow Burial.

“[Heavenly Hero: Snow Burial — Mock Trial Cleared. Difficulty: King Rank (Early Stage). Time: 11:03.]”