Chapter 277

Kwagagagak!

The high-speed rotating sand scraped away at Bessie’s surface.

No matter how incredible a chimera’s regenerative ability was, it couldn’t instantly restore flesh that was being shredded away in moments.

Pusss!

Particles of Bessie’s ground-up hide scattered through the air like dust.

Seeing the sight, Pantsy screamed.

“No! My Bessie……!”

Kiiiih!

Bessie let out a high-pitched scream.

Bessie’s pain was vividly transmitted to Pantsy as well.

The pain felt as though his own flesh was being torn apart, and tears streamed from Pantsy’s eyes.

Bessie struggled desperately to escape the domain of the Sand Mixer. But the more it struggled, the deeper its body sank under the pull of gravity.

The more of its body became buried in sand, the greater the pain grew.

At Bessie’s suffering, Pantsy shed tears of blood.

“I will never forgive you.”

Blood was flowing from his chest as well.

It was a wound made by Zeon. But his own injury didn’t hurt in the slightest.

Gathering mana, Pantsy shouted,

“Wander forever within the prison of endless chaos. Prison of Chaos.”

In that instant, the space above Zeon’s head turned black.

Before he could evade it, the black energy engulfed him whole.

Zeon felt his vision suddenly go dark.

A dizzying sensation of floating as if his body had been lifted into empty space assaulted him.

Because of it, Zeon lost his balance and staggered.

When Zeon regained his footing and raised his head moments later, the surrounding scenery had completely changed.

A perfect world of darkness stretched before him, without even a single speck of light.

It was such absolute darkness that he couldn’t tell where the ground was or where the ceiling lay, and it disrupted all of Zeon’s senses.

Instinctively, Zeon realized he had fallen victim to Pantsy’s curse.

But he wasn’t overly worried.

He possessed an item that was practically a perfect counter to a curse sorcerer’s curses.

Zeon opened his subspace, intending to retrieve the Reaper’s Scythe.

“Hm?”

A puzzled expression appeared on Zeon’s face.

The subspace wouldn’t open.

Zeon looked at his right arm.

The Scorching Gauntlet that should have been equipped there was gone.

Not only the Scorching Gauntlet, but Elura’s Tears and even the robe made from Leviathan’s hide had all vanished as well.

Even Zeon couldn’t help but feel flustered by the unexpected situation.

But he quickly regained his composure.

‘There’s no way my items could disappear without me even noticing. That means this is a mental space separated from my physical body.’

Zeon admitted that he had let his guard down.

After heavily wounding Pantsy, the curse sorcerer no longer seemed like much of a threat.

And since he also possessed the Reaper’s Scythe, he ignored Pantsy’s curses entirely and focused only on eliminating the chimera, Bessie.

This was the result.

‘As expected, I can’t afford to let my guard down.’

Zeon felt he had learned an important lesson.

This kind of looseness and complacency was what ultimately got people killed.

Zeon stared into the pitch-black space.

Nothing could be seen, nor could the flow of time be felt.

There was no way of knowing how long he had been trapped within the darkness.

It could have been a mere instant, or perhaps several days had passed.

Most people would panic upon finding themselves in such a situation.

But Zeon was extremely familiar with circumstances like this.

That was why he neither panicked nor lost his reason.

‘One of the best ways to break a curse is to face reality directly.’

There were many different kinds of curses.

Some inflicted harm upon the body, while others affected only the mind.

The curse Zeon was experiencing now belonged to the latter category.

His body had been left untouched, while only his mind was under the influence of the curse.

Everything he was seeing and experiencing right now was not real.

It was nothing more than a hallucination created by his brain.

The problem was that it was far too elaborate for a mere hallucination.

If he made even the slightest mistake, he would believe it was real and spend the rest of his life trapped here.

And the price of spending a lifetime here was naturally death.

Zeon focused his mind, trying to discern the true nature of the curse.

At that moment, the darkness before him split apart, and someone slowly walked out.

The instant Zeon saw the figure dragging a gigantic sword across the ground, his eyes widened.

The one who emerged by tearing through space was an old man with a massive frame and an overwhelming presence.

The moment Zeon saw the old man gripping a sword larger than his own body, his eyes trembled.

Because he was the only person Zeon had occasionally longed for.

“Da… Deioden?”

There were many awakened ones in this world who used swords, but only Deioden possessed such an overwhelming presence that merely looking at him made one’s entire body shrink back in fear.

The massive sword in his hand was unmistakably Crayon.

Seeing Deioden again for the first time in eight years made Zeon tremble slightly.

He knew it wasn’t real.

He also knew the curse had manifested a being deeply engraved within his mind.

Even so, his body trembled, and his heart pounded violently.

Though they hadn’t spent that much time together, the one who had influenced Zeon’s life the most was Deioden.

Without Deioden, the current Zeon would never have existed.

It was only natural that he had been engraved so deeply into his memory.

Deioden raised Crayon and pointed it at Zeon as he spoke.

“You idiot!”

“Ha ha!”

Instead of answering, Zeon laughed.

He laughed because it was absurd.

He laughed because his mood had soured.

And finally, he laughed because he was furious.

He was enraged at the curse sorcerer who had created this situation.

Pantsy had summoned the only existence Zeon could truly call a memory and stained it with this mockery, causing murderous intent to surge within him.

Before anything else, he had to escape this place.

And to do that, he had to defeat that Deioden.

Deioden was undoubtedly the key to breaking this chaotic space.

“Have you become at least somewhat useful now, idiot?”

“I’m probably far more useful than that.”

“Anyone can flap their lips.”

“Ha ha!”

“Come at me, idiot!”

“Gladly…….”

He was a being he would have had to overcome someday anyway.

Even if this wasn’t the real man, but merely an illusion created by his own mind.

The strongest man he knew.

A man with a back broader and sturdier than any awakened one stood there, pointing Crayon at him.

He had imagined it once or twice.

Not fighting Deioden as the inexperienced brat he had been when they first met, but battling him in his current prime.

He had thought it was a dream that could never come true, yet now it had been realized, if only within his mind.

“Idiot, who do you think you’re standing in front of while daydreaming? That’s exactly why you end up falling for pathetic curses.”

Chwahak!

With a sneer, Deioden attacked Zeon.

By the time Zeon raised his head, Crayon had already reached his neck.

But Zeon did not panic.

“Who says I was daydreaming?”

Kwaang!

A wall of sand appeared in empty space and blocked Crayon.

The sand wall shattered apart the instant it collided with Crayon.

But thanks to the brief moment it bought him, Zeon managed to evade the strike safely.

Even though sand had appeared within this pitch-black space, Zeon was not surprised.

Even if this was a space isolated by a curse, it was ultimately still within his mind—his mental world.

If Deioden was the existence most deeply engraved into him, then sand was the existence connected directly to his DNA.

No matter how powerful the curse was, as long as he willed it, he could draw upon sand whenever he wanted.

Even if it was only within his mental realm.

“Let’s see what you’ve got.”

Puhwahaak!

Dozens of streams of sand tore through the darkness toward Deioden.

Zeon had unleashed Sand Blaster.

But before the Sand Blaster could even reach him, it was crushed apart by Crayon.

Kukwakwakwaang!

An explosive roar erupted, and sand scattered everywhere.

A streak of sword light split through the darkness, slicing apart the space where Zeon had been standing.

But by then, Zeon had already moved away by riding the sand.

Deioden immediately chased after him with terrifying speed.

His hair fluttered wildly, and his eyes gleamed like those of a lion hunting prey.

The old Zeon would certainly have felt fear.

But Zeon was no longer the brat he once was.

Dozens of Sand Soldiers rose up to block Deioden’s path.

But stopping Deioden’s charge with Sand Soldiers was impossible from the start.

Zeon never expected them to succeed.

All he needed was a little time.

“Sand Storm!”

A storm of sand raged forth.

The massive sandstorm wrapped around Deioden and spiraled high into the sky.

Chwahahaak!

But even that was torn apart as Deioden charged straight toward Zeon.

“Kuhahaha!”

Deioden’s wild laughter echoed throughout the darkness.

In response, Zeon unleashed every skill he had.

Viper, Claymore, even Sand Mixer—he mobilized every skill at his disposal.

But not a single one of them could stop Deioden.

Puhwaak!

Instead, Zeon’s side was ripped open by Crayon, sending blood spraying everywhere.

No matter what skill he used, Deioden crushed through them all and continued advancing.

It was a sight terrifying enough to haunt nightmares.

He was the nightmare of all awakened ones.

No awakened one could defeat Deioden in close combat.

Even if this was merely a mental projection.

“You really are unbelievably persistent.”

A being he never wanted to face again as an enemy.

Once this moment passed, they would probably never meet again.

And this was not how he wanted their reunion to happen.

So…….

At the very least, he wanted to make this final moment worthy.

Jiggle! Jiggle!

The ground beneath Deioden’s feet melted away.

Without the help of the Scorching Gauntlet, Zeon unleashed Sand Gehenna.

The sand melted into lava.

A massive tidal wave of lava crashed toward Deioden.

Chwahaak!

“Told you it’s useless, idiot!”

Deioden sneered while slicing apart the lava wave with Crayon.

Zeon smiled as well.

“It’s not useless, old man!”

Another enormous wave of lava rose.

First wave.

Second wave.

Third wave.

The overlapping lava waves combined into a gigantic tsunami.

The lava tsunami swallowed Deioden whole.

Under the horrifying heat, Deioden’s hair and beard burned away while his skin and muscles melted.

“Kraaaah!”

But with a roar, Deioden blasted apart the lava tsunami and leapt into the air.

Just as he was about to swing Crayon toward Zeon—

Puuk!

A gigantic sword suddenly burst out from the lava and pierced straight through his chest.

“What?”

Still suspended in midair, Deioden looked down at the sword impaling him.

It was a sword forged from flawless black diamond.

A diamond blade stretching dozens of meters long could never exist in reality.

Deioden asked,

“What is this?”

“My goal.”

“Goal?”

“The ultimate weapon that can be created through the authority of sand and flames.”

“Ha ha! Melting sand under extreme heat and pressure to create a diamond sword? Do you seriously think something like this could exist in reality?”

“That’s why I called it a goal. For now, I can only use it in dreams like this…….”

“You stupid bastard! Your imagination is pointlessly good…….”

“Imagination is precisely what drives humanity forward. So what do you think now? Do I still look like a useless idiot to you?”

“No!”

“You look like an idiot who’s become fairly useful.”

“You really just had to keep that up until the very end…….”

As Zeon made a dumbfounded expression, Deioden bared his white teeth in a grin.

“How long are you going to keep lying there like a loser?”

“I suppose it’s time to get up now.”

“Kheuheuheu!”

“Farewell, Deioden!”

The instant Zeon bid Deioden goodbye, the darkness surrounding him shattered like glass.

Pakakang!