Chapter 238
What unfolded before Maximus was unlike the usual hallucinations caused by a Dreamstone....
instead, a pitch-black darkness bloomed into his mind.
It was as if he had fallen straight into an abyss.
His surroundings dimmed entirely, his senses swallowed by a suffocating black void. He couldn’t feel anything, couldn’t even tell if he was standing or falling.
A trap…!!
Splat!
Blood sprayed into the air.
Chris had struck like lightning, slashing his sword from close range.
Simultaneously, he unleashed a dark illusion spell to cloud the vision of the escort knights, ensuring they couldn’t react in time.
“Your Majesty!!”
Only then did a guard shout out in alarm.
But it wasn’t over yet.
“How dare you!!”
Maximus staggered backward, clutching at the bleeding gash on his neck.
He may have been rotting with age, but a 7-Star was still a 7-Star.
Even caught off guard while under the influence of the Dreamstone, Maximus had managed to break through the hallucination just in time to narrowly avoid a fatal blow.
“You… are you that Christian of the Dark Demonic House?! How dare you sneak into my kingdom, I’ll have your head!”
Maximus grit his teeth furiously and drew his sword.
“And you, Ruina! So this is how you repay my generosity? Don’t think you’ll die painlessly.”
His escort knights drew their weapons as well.
Christian, having missed the killing strike, quickly assessed their strength.
“The escorts… they’re stronger than expected. Both of them are 6-Star?”
Though there were only two guards, as was customary for secret meetings, they were far from weak.
Both were 6-Star Knights.
A formidable defense.
“W-What are we going to do now?! He’s not dead!! Aaaaah, we’re so screwed!!”
Ruina flailed in panic, then suddenly flashed Maximus a sly, sugary smile.
“Oh dear, Your Majesty~ I don’t know these men. I’ve never seen them before in my life.”
“Silence, wench! I’ll kill you first!”
“Eeeek! Spare meee!!”
Chris turned to Evan.
“Can you handle the escorts? They’re tougher than I expected.”
Evan gave a short nod.
“I’ll do what I can. But what about you? That pig-king over there may look pathetic, but he’s still a 7-Star Dominant-class.”
But Chris shook his head and stepped forward.
“It’s enough. Not all 7-Stars are equal.”
Maximus was long past his prime. A lion with no teeth.
More importantly...
“This fight is already halfway over.”
“…What?”
As everyone around him looked on in confusion, Chris smirked, and snapped his fingers.
And then...
“Krrgh!”
Maximus suddenly spewed a mouthful of blood.
“Your Majesty?!”
The knights cried out, alarmed—but none of them dared to approach him.
Blood began to trickle from their own noses and mouths as well.
“Kh—!?”
“P-Poison?! When—?!”
They all wore expressions of utter disbelief.
If they were ordinary people, perhaps it could be explained—but these were all seasoned knights, warriors who had reached higher realms of power. Any foreign substance entering their bodies should’ve triggered an instinctive rejection. And yet none of them had even noticed it.
“That’s because… this wasn’t poison.”
“…What?”
“They’re all going to die here anyway, so I might as well explain. I used medical Energy techniques as if it were poison.”
Chris had modified the hidden techniques within the Medical Saint’s Scripture, the secret manual he’d recently obtained from the House of Medical Saint.
The scripture detailed diverse ways to wield medical Energy, and Chris had twisted those very methods to inflict internal damage instead of healing.
In short, while Maximus had let his guard down and indulged in the feast, the outcome had already been sealed.
“Shut up, you bastard!! Kill him, all of you!!”
Despite his severe internal injuries, Maximus roared and slashed his sword violently.
As expected of a 7-Star, his blade was charged with fierce aura—but Chris dodged the attack with ease.
“Too slow.”
Whoosh!
A black aura surged forward, and blood splattered.
“Guh!”
“Your Majesty!!”
Maximus was being completely overpowered.
“He hasn’t held a sword properly in years. Honestly, he doesn’t even qualify as a true 7-Star anymore. Looks like he hasn’t trained seriously in over a decade.”
On top of that, with his insides wrecked, Maximus was a pitiful shadow of his former self.
“The real threat is actually his escort knights. If Evan weren’t here, this would’ve been bad.”
Those knights were shockingly competent—far stronger than one would expect from mere subordinates of that pig.
Judging by their swordplay, both of them were nearly on par with Evan.
And yet Evan wasn’t being pushed back at all.
Because Evan, too, was an absurdly gifted genius.
Even when outmatched in terms of pure strength, he held his ground by seizing every opening with uncanny instincts.
“I need to finish off Maximus while Evan holds them off. It’s doable.”
Chris slashed again.
“I’ve grown a lot stronger recently. That toothless lion won’t be a problem.”
Having completed the foundation of the Thousand-Poison Body, his physical abilities were now far beyond normal. And with his Holy Aura and Poison Arts both at 6-Star, his overall understanding had also taken a leap, making him much stronger than before.
His Dark Demonic Arts were still at 5-Star, but against the average 6-Star, he could hold his own without issue now.
“I’ll reach 6-Star in Dark Arts soon too. I’ve nearly met the conditions to unlock the Blooming Realm.”
Whoosh!
His sword flashed again, and more blood followed.
In between attacks, Chris scattered toxins to build up cumulative damage on Maximus’ body.
Overwhelmed and utterly outmatched, Maximus suddenly let out a beastly roar.
“This bastard—how dare you!!! Your rampage ends now! Haaaaaah!!”
“!!”
For an instant, Chris’ movements faltered.
‘A 7-Star’s miracle ability… The Lion’s Roar!’
It was the very power that had earned Maximus the title of Lion King.
A miracle skill that incapacitated the opponent in a single moment—brief, yet overwhelmingly lethal.
But—
‘Such a feeble miracle is nothing.’
Chris surged his Dark Demonic Energy.
Maximus’s authority clashed head-on with the suppressive force of Chris’s dark aura—and to everyone’s astonishment, Chris won.
The overpowering domination of the Dark Demonic Energy swept away Maximus’s miracle before it could take hold.
Slash!
Blood sprayed once more, and Maximus, now completely soaked in crimson, turned pale.
“W-Wait! Stop—!”
“Stop? What’s there to stop?”
Chris tilted his head slightly, his voice laced with mockery.
“You started this war. You should’ve been prepared to die for it. I’m getting bored, so just stick your neck out already.”
Realizing he had no chance of winning, Maximus began to stumble backward.
The knights who were fending off Evan cried out desperately.
“Your Majesty! We’ll hold him off!”
“Please, if nothing else, you must survive!”
But it was impossible.
That bloated, untrained body—so long removed from the battlefield, dulled by years of gluttony—could only run so far.
Even Maximus himself knew this. He bit his lip hard—then suddenly did something none of them expected.
He turned his blade on one of his own escort knights.
Thud!
“Y-Your Majesty? Why…?”
And he didn’t stop there.
Maximus cut down every knight around him, blood spraying in every direction as he screamed:
“Oh mighty one! I offer their lives to you as a sacrifice! Grant me your power—descend into me!!”
A chilling voice echoed from the void.
[Very well… I shall grant your wish.]
At that moment, an ominous aura began to descend upon the room.
Evan’s expression turned grim.
“Don’t tell me… this is—”
“It is.”
Chris nodded solemnly.
“It’s demonic energy… from Gehenna.”
A shocking truth.
The so-called Lion King Maximus… was actually a devil contractor.
‘It figures. There’s no way someone like him would’ve reached 7-Star without a demon’s help. Pathetic, through and through.’
Devil contractors weren’t uncommon, even within the Crusade Union.
‘Whether it’s the Magus Empire or the Crusade Alliance, Devil Contractors are hiding everywhere like cockroaches.’
That analogy was spot-on.
Like cockroaches, they infested every corner, hiding in plain sight.
‘Especially this bastard Maximus—he’s the one who backstabbed the Alliance during the Great War. Because of him, the Gold Cross collapsed almost overnight.’
Alongside the former Pontiff, Maximus was one of the main culprits behind the fall of the Gold Cross.
That was why Chris had decided to use this opportunity to eliminate him once and for all.
“What are you going to do?”
“Obviously, I’m going to deal with him.”
“…Is that even possible?”
Evan’s voice trailed off uncertainly.
Now that Maximus had accepted the power of a Devil, the aura surrounding him was nothing short of terrifying.
His eyes, consumed by the evil energy, had turned pitch black—completely overtaken by the dark force.
It didn’t seem like he was someone who could still be fought… but Chris replied calmly.
“Of course. But you’ll need to buy me some time.”
“Time?”
“I need a little preparation.”
Evan shook his head in disbelief.
He didn’t know what Chris had in mind, but one thing he did know:
Chris never said things he didn’t mean.
If he said he could do it, then he had a plan.
“Fine. But I won’t be able to hold out for long.”
Fwoosh!
A pure white Aura Blade tore through the air.
As expected of a Hero, Evan possessed radiant mana that directly countered the evil energy of Gehenna’s Devils. He was able to push back against the demonic aura.
The only problem was the sheer gap in strength—it didn’t seem like he could hold out for very long.
In that brief window, Chris closed his eyes.
His consciousness detached from the surroundings, as though floating into the void.
He had intentionally severed his awareness from the outside world.
His mind sank deep into a darkness shaped by thoughts—pure, solemn darkness.
That abyss, as dark as sacred black, reached out as Chris extended his consciousness toward it.
‘I haven’t attained the Blooming Realm yet…’
Blooming Realm.
A state of transcendence that would elevate him to an entirely different dimension of power.
‘But I’ve already met the qualifications, so mimicking it should be possible.’
To challenge the Blooming Realm, one must fulfill the following criteria:
Achieve 6-Star mastery in three distinct disciplines—excluding Dark Magic.
As of now, Chris had fulfilled the requirements:
6-Star Radiant Flame
6-Star Toxic Arts
Medical Sage Energy Arts, which didn’t follow a star ranking system but were comparable to at least a 6-Star level.
‘If I include Dark Magic, that would make it four different fields where I’ve reached the 6-Star threshold… it’s a monstrous requirement.’
And the reason for such an absurdly harsh condition was simple.
‘The Blooming Realm is an infinite landscape of thought painted in darkness.’
Infinity.
The thoughts shaped within the Blooming Realm had no bounds—truly limitless.
The moment one attains it, they wield power incomparable even to other 6-Stars.
And the deeper one delves into that state, the stronger they grow—at an exponential rate.
Just like the Demon King of Annihilation once did.
It was a power Chris absolutely had to acquire.
‘Let’s do this.’
Fwoosh!
Radiant mana burst from Chris’s sword.
It was the Sword of Radiant Annihilation, the Will Construct he had acquired through his mastery of the Radiant Flame.
A sword capable of delivering fatal damage to beings of evil.
‘But this alone won’t be enough.’
Another power began to stir—
The Will to Save Life.
‘The noble will to save others is innately opposed to beings of evil—it can be wielded like a weapon.’
It was one of the true meanings written within the secret scroll of the Medical Sage’s Arts.
Like light dispelling shadow, the sacred intent behind the Will to Save Life would strike a blow against evil.
‘Of course, it’s hard to inflict real damage with it alone, so its actual effectiveness is limited…’
But in Chris’s case, it was different.
‘If I imbue the sacred will of the Will to Save Life into my Will Construct—the Sword of Evil Annihilation—it’ll work.’
It sounded impossible.
The two were completely separate forces—how could they ever be combined?
Yet with the Blooming Realm, it was possible.
As mentioned earlier, the Blooming Realm was a limitless thought-scape drawn in darkness.
So long as one stood at the edge of understanding, they could manifest infinite possibilities.
‘Granted, I haven’t fully obtained the Blooming Realm yet.’
Even so, it was still possible for Chris to imbue the noble intent of the Will to Save Life into the Sword of Evil Annihilation.
Fwaaah!
From the infinite potential of darkness, Chris triggered a miracle impossible in reality.
The sacred will to save life became embedded in the Sword of Evil Annihilation.
‘It worked!’
Chris’s eyes snapped open.
He could see Evan struggling at his limit.
Maximus, completely overtaken by the evil energy, had lost all reason—now nothing more than a rampaging monster, violently unleashing his power.
Chris stepped forward.
“Grrhhh…”
Perhaps sensing something ominous, Maximus slowly turned his head toward Chris.
At that moment, Evan struck like lightning—his Aura Blade slashing toward Maximus’s neck.
Maximus raised his sword just in time to deflect it, but for a brief moment, an opening appeared.
‘Nice, Evan.’
Chris’s sword sliced through the air.
Maximus tried to respond—too late.
Just like darkness receding before the light, the evil aura was swept away in a flash.