Bloodbound Codex: I Grow Stronger in Secret

’How is he able to produce this much Killing Intent? It hasn’t even been that long, and he shouldn’t have killed enough people to produce something of this scale... What in the hell is he?’

More questions immediately piled up inside Azarion’s mind as he stared at Atlas. The amount of Killing Intent coming from him made no sense based on what Azarion knew about his past. Atlas had only come out of that Ruin and had been an Explorer for a short period of time, and even if he had somehow experienced enough battles to develop Killing Intent, the intensity currently surrounding him was far beyond what someone with such a short history should possess.

Azarion couldn’t understand it.

He also didn’t have enough time to think about it.

Rather than taking Atlas seriously and asking where such Killing Intent had come from, Azarion chose to mock him again. His expression twisted into a grin as he looked down at Atlas, and his monstrous voice carried the same arrogance that had remained throughout their confrontation and...all his life.

”Heh, you commoners really piss me off. I said I am Azarion, the King of the Human Conti—”

Before he could finish his sentence, Azarion’s eyes widened in horror.

A massive black scythe suddenly appeared in front of him, its enormous blade completely wrapped in that strange substance. The weapon was already moving toward his neck, and the attack had appeared so suddenly that Azarion didn’t even have enough time to properly understand when Atlas had attacked.

His body reacted before his thoughts could catch up.

Azarion immediately shifted his entire body toward the left with all the speed he could produce. The scythe passed directly beside his neck, missing him by only a small distance as the blade continued forward. The pressure generated by the attack still reached his body, causing the skin around his neck to split slightly despite the fact that the blade itself had never touched him.

Azarion’s eyes remained wide.

He had dodged it but...the attack hadn’t ended. Behind the initial slash came the familiar ’+’ Slash, the Active Vector — Rei-Kokuin.

The moment Azarion recognized it, every instinct inside his body began screaming.

His pupils contracted as his entire body reacted to the incoming attack before his mind could properly process what he was seeing. The sensation was completely different from the attacks he had endured moments earlier. His instincts weren’t simply warning him that the slash was powerful or dangerous.

They were telling him that if the attack reached him, he would die.

’I-I was about to die?!!’

The thought appeared inside his mind with genuine disbelief.

Azarion had already fought Velmira, someone whose strength had reached a level that he had previously believed he could barely survive against. He had endured her attacks, escaped from her, and even managed to begin the transformation he had prepared for over a century. After merging with Project X, he had believed that his power had already reached a level where very few beings in Eliomor could threaten him.

Yet Atlas had just made his body react as though death was directly in front of him.

That realization was difficult for Azarion to accept.

His disbelief immediately turned into anger.

”DON’T MAKE ME LAUGH—!”

Azarion shouted as he snapped his head upward and released a massive burst of energy from his body. The surrounding air violently distorted as the energy erupted from him, and the ground beneath his feet cracked from the pressure. He was prepared to force himself away from the slash and immediately counterattack Atlas before the young man could continue attacking him.

However, before he could complete the movement, something suddenly pierced through his chest from behind.

Azarion’s entire body froze.

His eyes widened as he slowly looked downward.

A blood-coated arm had emerged through his chest.

Atlas.

Somehow, Atlas had already moved behind him without Azarion sensing the movement at all. The speed was so extreme that Azarion hadn’t even noticed Atlas approaching from behind despite having his entire attention focused on the incoming slash. What Atlas had used was Mu-Ho, to directly shift the location, not just using speed had he reached there.

Azarion slowly lowered his eyes further, between Atlas’s fingers was the golden bead. The very same golden bead that had been embedded deep inside his chest.

Atlas’s hand had already reached it.

His expression remained completely indifferent.

There was no anger on his face, no excitement, and no satisfaction from successfully catching Azarion off guard. His eyes were simply focused on the golden bead, as though Azarion himself was nothing more than an obstacle standing between Atlas and the object he wanted.

That indifference made Azarion’s body tense even more.

”Let me first take your defenses, I will be killing you very slowly after that...”

Atlas’s voice was low and calm, there was no emotion behind it. That was precisely what made the words so frightening.

Azarion had heard threats before. Kings had threatened him, enemies had cursed him, and even Velmira had promised to make him suffer before killing him. But Atlas wasn’t speaking with the anger of someone trying to intimidate an opponent.

He was simply telling Azarion what he intended to do. For the first time since this battle had begun, genuine terror spread through Azarion’s body.

His eyes immediately shifted toward the front.

The ’+’ Slash was still moving toward them.

It had crossed almost the entire distance between Atlas, Azarion, and the location where Atlas had initially launched it. The black slash was now only an inch away from both of them, and the surrounding space had already begun distorting under the destructive force contained within it.

Azarion’s expression finally changed completely.

”Wait—!”

The word escaped his mouth instinctively.

Atlas didn’t stop.

His hand tightened around the golden bead.

The moment his fingers had touched it, that strange hunger inside his body had surged violently. The sensation he had been experiencing ever since arriving at the battlefield had suddenly become clearer, almost as though his body itself recognized what he had found.

This was the source, this was the thing that had been drawing him toward this battlefield.

Atlas didn’t know what the golden bead actually was yet, but he didn’t need to understand it before taking it. Everything inside him was telling him that he needed to possess it.

He pulled.

The golden bead resisted.

Azarion’s body immediately shook as he felt the object being dragged from its position. The strange substance surrounding the bead reacted violently, and enormous amounts of energy began spreading through his body as though something fundamental was being disturbed.

Atlas gritted his teeth.

He tightened his grip and pulled with all his strength.

”KHUUUUUGHHH!!”

”KHUUAAAHHHHHH!!!”

The connection between the bead and Azarion’s body finally broke as he screamed his lungs out.

The golden bead came free.

A powerful wave of energy erupted from the point where it had been embedded, causing the surrounding space to tremble. Azarion’s body staggered forward as he suddenly felt something disappear from inside him, while Atlas remained behind him with the bead firmly held in his hand.

For a brief moment, Atlas simply stared at it.

The strange golden surface of the bead continued radiating that same substance that had been attracting him from the moment he reached the battlefield. His hunger surged again, stronger than before, but he didn’t have time to examine it.

The attack had already arrived.

The ’+’ Slash reached them.

The black attack swallowed both Atlas and Azarion completely.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The explosion erupted across the battlefield.

A massive wave of destructive force spread outward from the point where the slash had landed, tearing through the already devastated landscape. The ground beneath them shattered instantly, while the remaining mountains in the surrounding area were ripped apart by the impact.

Dust and debris were thrown into the sky.

The shockwave continued spreading across the enormous chasm that Velmira’s earlier attack had created, destroying sections of the remaining terrain and sending countless pieces of stone flying through the air.