I'm the Crazy One in the Family-Chapter 333: And It Was Winter (9)

Eslow was also aware that Keter hadn’t shown his Authority until now. In other words, what Keter was aiming for was an extreme counterattack using his Authority.

Shallow.

A scheme only worked when the opponent was unaware of it. The moment the opponent found out about it, it turned into poison instead.

Show me your Authority.

Eslow could retreat at any moment. Just as Keter had predicted, Eslow’s Authority allowed him to teleport to different weapons. Him appearing right in front of Keter had also been through the sword embedded in Keter’s abdomen. Because it was an instant teleport that required no time, reacting by speed alone was impossible. Although there was a restriction that prevented him from moving to the same weapon twice, there was no way Keter noticed that.

It’s over.

The feeling at Eslow’s fingertips told him everything. It was unmistakably the feeling of slicing a neck. The sword dug into Keter’s throat. Slowly, but certainly. Keter showed no sign of feeling it, and Eslow thought that was only natural.

I was fast, and you were slow.

The match was decided. Even so, Eslow didn’t lower his guard. Keter always played petty tricks, after all. But this time, there was no twist. Eslow’s sword had already cut more than halfway through Keter’s neck. Victory was certain. As a human, Keter could never survive having his neck severed. Eslow saw the relaxed smile Keter always wore slowly disappear. Watching that expression, Eslow smiled.

It’s been centuries since I’ve had a fight this entertaining.

Certain of his victory, Eslow stopped the sword that was about to finish cutting through Keter’s neck and pressed his left palm against Keter’s chest. Eslow’s Authority, Living Reflection Activation, could transform living beings into powerful weapons. However, it required two activation conditions. First, the opponent had to be incapacitated. Second, the opponent had to acknowledge defeat.

Eslow felt it was a waste to simply kill Keter. He believed turning Keter into a weapon would produce something extraordinarily useful. The conditions to do so were even met. Meeting one would have sufficed, yet in this case, both seemed to be fulfilled.

But for some reason, Keter didn’t transform into a weapon. The transformation shouldn’t have taken even a tenth of a second. Eslow felt something was wrong.

He’s neither incapacitated nor acknowledging defeat?

Both arms were essential to use a bow. While someone of Keter’s level could shoot arrows with sheer willpower, the power would be far less than using his arms. Moreover, his neck was half severed. It was safe to say he was pretty much dead, so how was he neither incapacitated nor admitting defeat?

Though Eslow was no longer human, he had once been one, so he understood how absurd that was. By logic, the correct move was to continue severing Keter’s neck immediately. But faced with this impossible situation, Eslow looked at Keter’s eyes. He was too curious to see what expression Keter would be wearing.

Keter was smiling.

With the sword lodged in his throat, he said, “Preparations for victory are complete. I may die, but I won’t be defeated.”

The moment Eslow sensed danger, he immediately tried to teleport to a distant weapon, but he couldn’t do so. Keter had grabbed his arm. Moving to a weapon couldn’t occur while in physical contact with another person.

He noticed that in such a brief moment?

At that moment, Eslow focused not on the Keter before him, but on his surroundings. He believed it was absolutely impossible for Keter to inflict a fatal blow on him. There was no one around. Henya was there, but she wasn’t in the state for combat.

Then what is he...

Countless possibilities flashed through Eslow’s mind, but none matched this situation.

Then, Keter vanished, and a white arrow, White Cloud, appeared. The instant Eslow realized Keter vanished, he immediately used his Authority to teleport. It was his pure instinct to avoid first, and figure it out later.

Eslow then reappeared above an axe dozens of meters away, but this time with White Cloud embedded in his abdomen.

No matter how instant the teleport was, deciding to move still took time. White Cloud had appeared right in front of him. The arrow’s effect caused cognitive dissonance. And he had never expected Keter would vanish and have an arrow appear instead.

For those reasons, Eslow failed to dodge White Cloud. However, it was just a single arrow. Not even a wound that was penetrated, just lodged in place. It would have been fatal for an ordinary human, but Eslow was a demigod. One arrow embedded in him posed no threat to his life.

But there was no way Keter would have given up half his neck just to shoot a single arrow.

The immense energy inside White Cloud surged. Its appearance resembled Milky Way. The arrow was packed with explosive force, yet its density was thousands of times greater than anything shown before. It shone so brightly that the white arrow appeared black.

Limitless Archery, Second Form: Milky Way, Good Night.

For a moment, the world went dark.

***

The largest explosion recorded in history had been from a meteorite that destroyed the Arcane Empire thousands of years ago. A dragon’s ultimate spell, Meteor, fell upon the empire’s capital, and records said that the shockwave and mushroom cloud were seen and felt by the entire world.

The big city where Meteor struck had turned into a massive crater across its entire radius, and the surrounding area became flatland. Roads, buildings, forests, everything was blown away, leaving only barren land. All that remained after Meteor fell was boiling lava. Nothing else survived.

Keter’s Milky Way, Good Night didn’t contain that much power, but it was still observable by everyone. The battle that took place in the south became known throughout the entire Lillian Kingdom. Even neighboring nations, and as far away as the empire, felt the tremor and witnessed the towering blue pillar rising into the sky.

Keter’s Milky Way explosion was immense, so immense that more than half the world noticed it. There was no mushroom cloud, but the resonance warped and twisted the air. However, it soon returned to normal, as the world’s restorative force wasn’t so fragile.

As the displaced air rushed back inward, it felt like a storm was raging. What had once been a vast forest became a desert, and not the slightest trace of life could be sensed anywhere. Eslow, Keter, Henya, nor Wid. No one was there.

At that moment, an arm suddenly burst out of the sand, and someone began crawling out as they coughed. It was Henya. She had previously forced an enormous amount of mana into her body, and after being swept up in Milky Way, her body was far from normal. Even so, she looked around. But there was nothing to see, leaving her staring blankly.

The last thing she remembered was light and darkness. The moment the world seemed to brighten, it went dark, then her senses vanished. When she opened her eyes, all she felt was that she was lying on her stomach. She scrambled around and eventually reached the surface, but all she saw was sand.

“Did everyone die...?”

Eslow, Keter, Wid, Ryse, and all the others who had stepped in to help her were nowhere to be seen. Henya’s eyes filled with tears. She had never cried once in her life. There had been many times she wanted to, but she held them back. She was one of the Four Lords’ daughter. If she cried, they would look down on her and say that she couldn’t help it because she was a woman. But at this moment, she couldn’t hold back her tears. She didn’t cry aloud, but tears fell. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

“Help...”

Now she was even hearing things. She thought she heard Keter’s voice.

“Help me...”

More tears streamed down Henya’s face. “Keter would never say something so weak.”

He was probably dead, but even if he weren’t, Keter wasn’t someone who would beg to be saved. So this had to be a hallucination.

Then a hand suddenly burst from the ground and grabbed Henya’s ankle.

“Help me!”

Startled, Henya grabbed the hand holding her ankle and pulled it out. Keter popped out like a radish.

“K-Keter?”

Covered in blood, Keter looked extremely exhausted, but he was clearly alive. His eyes were wide open. His neck, which had been half severed, was now sealed. A large scar remained, but it didn’t seem life-threatening.

It was the regenerative power of the Creation Tome he had obtained before. On top of that, Keter had taken a gamble, believing Eslow would try to turn him into a weapon rather than kill him. Because of that, Keter survived and managed to land a counter on Eslow.

“Keter!”

“Kugh!”

Henya was grateful that Keter was alive. She wrapped her arms around his neck.

“Sorry to ruin the mood, but it’s not over yet,” Keter grumbled.

“What do you mean?”

“Good news or bad news. Pick one.”

“G-good news?”

“Other people besides me are also alive.”

Henya felt like tears were gonna fall again from relief and joy. However, the bad news remained.

“What’s the bad news?”

“Other people besides me are also alive,” Keter said.

“That’s the same thing. How is that bad news—”

Henya couldn’t finish her sentence as she finally realized what Keter meant. She felt someone’s presence behind her, and she didn’t need to turn around to know who it was.

“As expected, although not complete, an Irregular is still an Irregular. Urgh.”

Keter pushed himself to his feet using Henya’s head like a cane. His severed arm was still gone, and his body was covered in wounds, but he stood up because Eslow was still alive.

Of course, he wasn’t in any normal condition. He stood there in a rather grotesque state. His bones were burnt black, with no organs or muscles, yet it was unmistakably Eslow. Looking closer, he was even recovering. Dust like particles gathered little by little, rebuilding his body.

Keter limped toward Eslow. Unexpectedly, it was Eslow who spoke first.

Without a mouth, Eslow spoke through thought.

—Switching places with an arrow. Is that your Authority?”

Keter nodded. “Reversal. That’s my authority.”

—A fitting name. I’m conflicted. You made me remember the fear of death I had forgotten. How should I repay you for that?

“I would appreciate it if you would just die.”

—A difficult request. As you can see, even my death belongs to Lillian... Without her permission, I can not die.

“Since when did you swear loyalty? You’ve been waiting for a chance to betray her this whole time.”

—Hehehe. I remember now. You oppose Lillian. Consider this your reward. Now that I’ve experienced death, I can feel it. She no longer needs to play king. The only reason she maintains contracts with us is that she needs pieces on her board.

Eslow was saying things that seemed important, but Keter couldn’t analyze them. Outwardly, he acted like he still had strength left, but in truth, he had already exceeded his limits six times over. Simply standing and pretending to be calm was already everything he had.

Well, if I’ve gone past it six times, there’s no rule saying I can’t go past it a seventh time.

And even if he had to fight, there was no harm in extracting as much information as possible. Even if he couldn’t analyze it now, he could at least keep it in mind.

“Can you sense where Lillian is?”

—Only the direction she’s in, but yes. Ah, I see. So that is her will.

For some reason, Eslow seemed disappointed. In the meantime, nearly half his body had been restored.

—Keter. In this battle, I declare you the victor. But my body cannot die. You may have won this fight, but you cannot win the war.

“You were just as confident about winning earlier and still got hit. You want to go through that again?”

—Hehe. Perhaps that was the case. But let me make a proposal. Run. I won’t go after you. I swear I won’t bother Sefira either. Consider it my reward for your victory. Isn’t this what you wanted?

Eslow already knew Keter was trying to kill him not because of Henya, but because Eslow’s very existence was an annoyance to him. In other words, the moment he swore not to interfere with Sefira or Keter, Keter’s goal would be achieved. There would be no need to risk his life fighting here.

Henya knew this as well, and a chill ran through her.

However, Keter picked at his ear and said, “To me, that doesn’t sound like a proposal. It sounds like you're begging to be spared.”

—I don’t understand. Why insist on fighting me to the end? Your goal is already fulfilled. Are you in love with Henya or something?

“Not anything as grand as love.”

Keter rolled his neck side to side as he prepared for battle.

Then he casually added, “She’s just a friend I know.”