Chapter 234: I Am Going to Kill You (1)

Daat and Krona were inside a tent, located in a secluded corner of Sefira’s party grounds. This tent was built for private conversation and discreet deeds.

“Where have you been hiding until now, you genius?”

Krona was so tall that her head nearly brushed the tent ceiling. She was stroking Daat’s hair, but something was wrong with him. He stood frozen like a statue. He was still alive, but his time had stopped.

“If you truly understand space-time, you’ll be able to escape my Eternity.”

Eternity was a seven-circle space-time magic spell. Those struck by it were trapped inside endlessly overlapping moments. The only escape was to reverse-engineer Eternity’s structure and pull oneself out.

“Since I told you how to do it and you’re a genius, you should be able to do it, right? Ahh!”

Krona stretched and smiled in satisfaction.

“I don’t remember the last time I concentrated so much that I lost track of time. Sefira’s an interesting place. I didn’t expect us to run over our promised hour. Anyway, I guess he’s still not here.”

Krona didn’t need magic to know that Keter still hadn’t arrived; she could tell from the noise outside.

“Hmph. How dare he waste my time? Keter, just wait until you show up. You’re headed for Eternity too. Until then, shall I amuse myself with the princess?”

Krona stepped out of the tent and noticed Taragon and Vector in combat. The nobles’ attention briefly drifted to Krona, then returned to the fight.

“

Yawn

, boring.”

To her, the duel between Taragon and Vector looked like the fight of snails and grubs. Folding her arms in bored amusement and scanning the scene for anything interesting, she suddenly looked up.

“Huh?”

She alone had felt a change that the others did not notice. The night sky above was calm and starry. There was nothing in the air, and yet a smile crept across her lips.

“So you’re Keter?”

She spoke into thin air as if she were mad, but she could actually see Keter and Six, tearing through the void and arriving in Sefira. Krona was the only one who perceived their transparency magic, presence-erasing magic, and covert teleportation.

Keter, who was walking down from the sky, met Krona’s gaze.

Calmly, he put a finger to his lips and whispered, “

Shh.

”

“Oh my!”

Krona could barely hold back laughter at Keter’s reaction.

“L... Lord Krona is laughing at the sky.”

“Does that mean she’s finding their duel entertaining?”

The nobles misinterpreted what they couldn’t see, while Vector and Taragon’s duel neared its end.

“If you want to die, fine. Die with honor.”

The moment Vector and Taragon were about to kill each other, Keter dropped like a stone from the sky and cut between them.

Pretty fast. Not bad.

As a Space-Time Wizard in her eight-circle, Krona had gained a peculiar skill that was both a blessing and a curse: the ability for time to appear slower to her. Time became slower for her depending on her mood. When she was emotionless, time could slow as much as four times than normal—what others experienced as one second would feel like four to her. If she judged Keter as fast, then to ordinary people, he was abnormally quick.

Of the many nobles present, the only person who noticed where Keter came from was the deputy commander of the Royal Dragon Knight Order.

Was he looking down from the sky? Since when?

He perceived that Keter had fallen from the sky, though he didn’t realize Keter had used teleportation.

Krona, who knew everything that was going on, watched Keter’s movements with interest. His arrival was noteworthy, but what he did next was what intrigued her.

His opponent is from the Browning house. If Sefira hopes for revival, it’s politically sound to bend a knee first.

But Keter ignored expectations.

Smack! Crash!

He struck Vector down, stamped on his chest, and pinned him.

“Hm?”

To most, it happened in a blink, but to Krona, it was clear as day. Keter swung, but Vector reacted with his wrist sword to counter and stab. However, Keter’s punch accelerated three times.

Distance-wise, Vector should have been faster to defend, but Keter’s triple-accelerated strike reached and smashed straight into Vector’s face. Vector slammed into a table, scrambled up, and was immediately stomped back down by Keter. Of course, Vector reacted this time as well. Having already taken one hit, he tried a different form of defense this time: he covered himself in multiple layers of thick Aura Armor.

Crack!

But Keter’s kick shattered those stacked layers like a brittle cookie. Seeing that, Krona’s gaze sharpened.

Is that... Ein?

It wasn’t perfect, but the power in Keter’s kick unmistakably carried Ein.

Eslow taught Keter Ein’s fusion method? You really mean business, don’t you?

Krona naturally jumped to that conclusion. Very few Transcendentals know how to fuse Ein. Sefira couldn’t possibly know Ein’s fusion, and the only Transcendental Keter had contact with was Eslow. So logically, Krona thought Keter learned the fusion of Ein from Eslow.

So Eslow intends to make Keter the next Lord of the South. That’s why he wanted me to cooperate.

Krona’s heart fluttered. Her irises shifted from a dull gray to a brilliant sky-blue. At the same time, her broken inner clock began working properly again—the world sped back to normal, and her world was no longer boring. It looked like she had lost an ability, but she hadn’t: she could adjust time at will, not four times slower, but up to one hundred times slower.

Now, the power that only opened when she felt true interest awakened: Blue Eternal Eye. She opened those blinding blue eyes and stepped out of spectator range into the duel.

“Ugh, get this foot off!”

“Watch your manners. Say ‘please,’ and politely, okay?”

“Graaah!”

Cruuunch!!

Keter put more weight on his foot, and a sickening sound of bone breaking echoed from Vector’s chest. That was when Krona suddenly appeared in front of Keter without any sound. The nobles who were watching jumped back in surprise; none had any idea how she had moved that far so fast. It wasn’t that she moved incredibly quickly, as that would have still caused a slight breeze.

Krona looked down at Keter, who was wearing a mask, partly covered by his silver hair.

“Keter, right?” she asked.

“And you are?”

𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

“Hehe, are you really asking because you don’t know?”

“Well, you’re not actually asking because you don’t know either.”

Keter’s cranky retort to Krona horrified the nobles of the west, who were even pulling their hair out in shock.

“Crazy bastard! How dare he to the Lord of the West!”

“Wait, Lord Krona... just called that person Keter, right...?”

“That’s Keter?”

“He subdued Vector, who uses the Four-Sword Style, with just his fists...?”

The most influential of the kingdom murmured amongst themselves like some common spectators.

“Now you know, right? I am the Lord of the West. Call me Big Sister.”

“I see. I’m Keter, Big Sis.”

“Hahaha, I’ve never been called that two times in one day.”

“I’m grateful that someone like you—the Lord of the West—came to my party, but hold on a moment, Big Sis. Let me deal with this guy first.”

“Deal with him?”

Vector flinched under Krona’s stare. His face was flushed with humiliation from being crushed underneath Keter’s foot, completely unable to get up.

“This has gone on long enough!”

Having been shamed before so many nobles and even the lord herself, Vector snapped.

Vooom!!!

A strange aura streamed from Vector. It was Overdrive, Browning’s forbidden art. But Keter didn’t stand by.

“Who says I’m going to wait for you?”

As Keter raised his foot to kick Vector in the face, dozens of layers of magic circles floated on Krona’s fingers, and Vector was frozen solid. Like Daat, he became a living statue. Krona smiled.

“That’s Eternity, my spell. I set it to lift in a week, so he’s not dead.”

“I haven’t finished my business with him, Big Sis. You can’t just deal with him however you like.”

Keter tried to kick Vector again, but Vector was unaffected.

“It’s useless. Once Eternity has been cast, external interference is impossible... huh?”

Thud!

“You think you can make my big brother’s face look like ground meat and come back looking neat and tidy?”

Smack! Thud! Thud!

Keter unleashed a continual assault on Vector, who was frozen in time. Krona only frowned but didn’t stop him. She appeared angry, but her mind raced with other thoughts.

How is this possible? Even with Ein, you can’t ignore my Eternity’s boundary. How can he strike through Eternity like that?

She grew serious. In all her life, she had never seen anyone so blatantly bypass Eternity until now. Keter was the first person to ever do so.

It would be impossible unless he miraculously gained Authority. But Keter’s not Prime yet. I can’t feel any kind of Authority from him...

[1]

Krona stared at Keter. All she could see was his mouth, but something strange stirred in her.

He’s not just entertaining. Eslow would have every reason to be interested in him.

Though Eslow had no idea, Krona suspected he knew everything and had summoned her here on purpose to show her. That was why she didn’t bother bringing up Keter’s extraordinariness.

“Keter, don’t make me waste my time on trash like him anymore. I’ll fix Taragon for you.”

Like she did with Vector, Krona pointed at Taragon. Then, his time rewound and returned to the moment before the fight. Even his torn clothing and broken crossbows were restored as if the duel had never happened. Taragon, however, still could not wake up.

“Don’t worry about him not waking up. The soul doesn’t obey time, so that’s why he can’t get up yet. Now will you focus on me?”

Keter, who was punching Vector relentlessly, paused his beating and glanced at Taragon, who was completely uninjured now.

“Big Sis, when Eternity is lifted, will all the accumulated pain hit him at once?” he asked.

“You have a vivid imagination. Yes. He’ll feel everything when it comes off. Satisfied?”

At that, Keter kicked. He drove his foot right in between Vector’s legs with all his strength.

1. Previously ‘authority.’ ☜