RE: LORD OF TIME

The instant the Titan Ape killed Moru with a single punch, Roran felt as if someone had poured a bucket of cold water over his body, chilling his heart to the core.

Even though Moru wasn’t at the Star Warrior level, it did not mean he was weak.

His combat abilities were exceptional, and he knew exactly when to take advantage of an opportunity while fighting an enemy.

That could be seen from how he had seized the perfect opportunity to destroy one of the Titan Ape’s eyes.

But even then, he had been killed by the Titan Ape with a single punch.

Even Roran himself couldn’t have killed Moru with just one punch, proving that the Titan Ape’s current strength was far beyond his own.

Realizing this, he didn’t hesitate to turn around and run away.

After all, to him, his life was far more important than retrieving the Astral Rift’s core.

However, he had only taken a few steps when an oppressive aura suddenly engulfed his entire being.

ROOOAR!

The Titan Ape’s roar once again echoed through the mountains, and a massive shadow enveloped him.

Roran immediately raised his head and saw the Titan Ape descending from the sky, intending to crush him into a paste of flesh and blood.

His pupils contracted in fear, and he immediately leaped sideways.

BOOOOOOM!

The Titan Ape landed exactly where Roran had been standing a second earlier, sending a cloud of dust into the air and debris flying in every direction.

Woosh!

A golden fist tore through the rising dust cloud and attacked Roran without giving him even a moment to breathe.

”Damn it!” Roran could only grit his teeth and raise his shield to block the monster’s attack.

Bang!

Crack!

The force of the punch knocked the shield out of his grasp, and at the same time, the sound of bones breaking echoed as the arm he had been using to hold the shield snapped like a twig.

A look of horror appeared on Roran’s face as he hadn’t expected the Titan Ape’s strength to increase to such a terrifying degree.

For a moment, a trace of hesitation flashed across his face.

But when he saw the Titan Ape preparing to attack again, madness replaced the fear in his eyes.

”You lowly beast! Don’t think I have no way to deal with you!”

He roared with bloodshot eyes as a square-shaped box appeared in his hand.

In less than a second, the box drained every last drop of Aether Energy from his body, and a violent aura erupted from it.

Even in its berserk state, the Titan Ape immediately sensed the fatal danger coming from the box and instinctively tried to retreat.

”Die, you beast!”

But Roran had no intention of giving it the chance and he threw the box directly at the Titan Ape.

Alarm bells rang inside the monster’s mind, and it immediately tried to leap away.

However, the box was simply too fast and still struck the right side of its shoulder.

The instant the box made contact—

BOOOOOOM!

A gigantic explosion, as though dozens of grenades had detonated simultaneously resounded throughout the mountain range.

The Titan Ape’s enormous body was blasted away, its dark bronze fur charred black.

A large portion of its right shoulder and face was blown apart, turning into a mist of blood.

Bang!

The massive body of the Titan Ape crashed heavily onto the ground, and the monster groaned in pain as its entire body trembled violently.

Roran didn’t come out unscathed either.

Because the box had drained all of his Aether Energy, he had no means of protecting himself and was blasted away by the explosion as well.

Many of his bones were broken, and dizziness overwhelmed him as he hovered on the verge of losing consciousness.

But he knew this was his only chance to escape, so he desperately dragged his broken body away.

Although the Titan Ape was severely injured, he knew that with its monstrous vitality, it was impossible for it to die from an attack like that.

Not only that, but given enough time, it would eventually recover from its injuries.

Just as he was dragging himself away—

Swish!

A bronze-colored halo suddenly spread outward, enveloping an area twenty meters in diameter and trapping both the Titan Ape and Roran inside it.

Roran immediately felt a suppressive force invade his body, making his already weakened condition even worse.

The Titan Ape, which was lying on the ground groaning in pain experienced the same thing as its strength was also suppressed.

Feeling its power decrease, a look of panic finally crossed the Titan Ape’s face, and it struggled to stand up.

But before it could, a figure appeared beside it in an instant.

One hand rested on the hilt of a sheathed sword as the figure assumed a sword-drawing stance.

A sense of danger unlike anything it had ever experienced engulfed the Titan Ape, and its remaining eye widened in horror.

But the figure paid it no attention and slowly drew the sword.

Although the movement appeared slow, everything happened within a single instant.

As the blade left the sheath, pale blue Aether Energy coated it, making it look as though blue flames were dancing along its edge.

Swish!

A brilliant sword flash streaked before the Titan Ape’s eye.

Blood and flesh exploded into the air as its massive head was cleanly severed from its body.

Its gigantic corpse twitched for a few seconds before finally becoming completely still.

Even until the moment it died, the Titan Ape never understood who had killed it.

The figure didn’t stop after killing the Titan Ape and immediately dashed toward Roran, who had witnessed everything.

”You—”

Seeing the human who had just killed the Titan Ape rushing toward him, Roran raised a trembling finger.

But William gave him no chance to continue and the moment he arrived before him, he swung his sword.

”Thanks for using that Box of Madness to injure that big guy. If you hadn’t, I wouldn’t have been able to kill it.”

Those were the last words Roran heard before darkness completely swallowed his vision.

William looked at the dead Star Warrior-level Abyssal being before him and collapsed onto the ground, gasping for breath.

He examined his Aether Core and sighed in relief when he saw that there were no cracks in it this time.

When attacking the Titan Ape earlier, he had only used three-fourths of his Aether Energy, which was why his condition was much better than last time.

The main reason he had been able to kill the Titan Ape was because of the Box of Madness that Roran had used to severely injure it.

The Box of Madness was actually a Common-grade artifact that could be obtained from a Common Treasure Orb.

However, unlike ordinary artifacts, it was a one-time-use item.

Once activated, it would disappear forever.

Because of that, its actual power was far greater than that of normal Common-grade artifacts obtained from Treasure Orbs.

Taking a deep breath, William took the Restriction Bronze Bell out of his pocket and deactivated it, noticing that in such a short period of time, it had already consumed nearly sixty percent of its stored energy.

He wasn’t surprised by the consumption.

After all, one of the beings it had been suppressing was a Titan Ape, while the other was also a Star Warrior-level being.

Just as he put the bell away, he suddenly saw the Titan Ape’s body glow with a brilliant light, and something appeared beside it.

William was startled when he saw this and slowly walked toward the corpse.

And when he finally reached the Titan Ape’s body and saw what it had dropped, his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.