CHAPTER 595: CHAPTER 400: EMBER KING, EXTERMINATION! (PART 2)

"Why does she have more dead relatives and friends than I do..."

"Roar—"

Accompanied by a roar from Elsa, both the phantom and the second pair of arms vanished in an instant, and her figure disappeared from where she stood.

When she appeared again, Leon only saw her back.

A crimson Fire Blade split Elderly’s avatar in two!

Outside the Sain Dungeon, in Bed City, at the Bed Family mansion.

Lying in bed, Stan suddenly opened his eyes and sat up with a "whoosh," gasping heavily. The commotion attracted Count Charon, who was passing by.

"What’s wrong? Another nightmare?" Charon frowned and asked, "Is that little girl really that scary? You’ve been like this since you came back that day."

"No, you don’t understand, you haven’t seen that scene..."

Beads of sweat poured down Stan’s forehead, and he couldn’t even maintain his human form, revealing his true appearance stacked with various Monster traits centered around the Minotaur. Seeing this, Charon quickly closed the doors and windows and asked, "So tell me, what’s so terrifying about the Hero?"

"Ten years ago, when I first infiltrated this land, I had the fortune of traveling with Lord Roboyadi, one of the Four Heavenly Kings."

"And then, he died."

Charon raised an eyebrow: "I’ve never heard of any of the Four Heavenly Kings falling in recent decades."

"But Lord Roboyadi did die, silently and without a sound, like weeds by the roadside, and no one knew!"

As Stan wiped his cold sweat, he exclaimed:

"The killer was a little girl dragging a greatsword!"

Before meeting Sali and coming to Bed City, how had Elsa lived?

"Boom!"

With a few swings, she severed a Giant Fist formed from decayed flesh, dozens of phantoms flashing past Elsa’s eyes.

She once had a happy and harmonious family, whose members were as warm and kind as people in fairy tales. She was showered with affection in this environment, feeling like happiness filled her entire being.

Armor was pierced through, an arrow shaving off flesh from her shoulder. She pounced forward, tearing at Elderly with the giant maw of her helmet, her greatsword deeply embedded in the avatar.

When she was seven, the Demon Clan appeared, and her happy family was destroyed. It was then that she became a Hero, channeling seven years of accumulated emotions into power to slay the Demon Clan. The dying demon seemed to mutter something about "Four Heavenly Kings" and "Demon King," but she didn’t pay attention.

A grotesque monster with hundreds of limbs and appendages formed from decayed flesh rushed at her. Elsa raised her sword to block, the force of impact causing blood to spurt from her mouth. But with a roar, she leaped into the sky, spinning, and as she thundered down, split the monster’s head in two.

Since then, she embarked on a journey of wandering. She never again unleashed the power she did at seven, those seven years’ worth of happiness seeming unreproducible. Her life brought many experiences and battles, and the emotions she gathered over time burned away in each battle.

The monster’s split head transformed into two giant arms in the blink of an eye, reaching for Elsa, while Elderly manipulated Gwendolin’s remains from above to shoot countless arrow-like decayed flesh, tentacles rising from the ground to entangle.

Even now, she remained in a burnt-out state, never having recovered from the events of ten years ago. Compared to other Heroes, she relied only on the powerful physique common to Heroes. Her Divine Artifact was truly unreliable.

Elsa prepared to charge through the Arrow Rain, exchanging injury for injury, but with a flash of light, Dal and Leon intercepted the two arms, Bara stood in front of her, using a heavily damaged Big Shield to block the Arrow Rain, and Fingerley and Alice teamed up to cut through the tentacles!

"Although I don’t know how you’ve become so strong, go for it!" shouted Fingerley, covered in bite marks and blood. "We’ll clear the way for you!"

Elsa let out a low growl in response, and with a flash from Hell’s March, phantoms appeared by everyone’s side to aid in battle.

Matilda’s eyes grew even more vacant, "How can she control the appearance and number of phantoms!?"

Bara leaped up, hurling the Big Shield at the Arrow Rain, forcing Elderly to switch to a long-handled blade for attack,

But as the Big Shield broke apart, an eye glowing with red light appeared in the gap.

Elsa broke through the Arrow Rain, stepped on the Big Shield, and leapt to a higher point. Flames coiled like a serpent around the greatsword, ten meters, twenty meters... In the blink of an eye, a hundred-meter-long Fire Blade slashed toward Elderly!

Hell’s March forcibly awakens the pain in its user’s heart, the more tragic the past, the stronger one becomes.

Engraining itself upon Elsa, it let her relive the emotions of her seven-year-old self, even unleashing the emotions accumulated over her whole seventeen years!

She was no longer a burnt-out ember but a blazing inferno!

A Hero qualified to stand against the Demon King!

"Go!" The people watching shouted aloud!

In a flash of firelight, Elderly let out his most furious roar of the battle.

Gwendolin’s remains were severed from Elderly by the Fire Blade, flames scorching the decayed flesh, preventing him from swiftly reclaiming them.

Elsa grabbed Gwendolin’s remains and tossed them into the arms of the nearest Luluwo.

"What, what, giving it to me?" said Luluwo, stunned, before starting to run for her life. There was no choice; the decayed flesh pursued her like mad.

In that brief moment, Elderly gathered a hundred arms to beat down on Hell’s March, the sturdy armor now showing great damage, with Elsa inside severely injured.

But as long as emotions remained, even if she was just a head, the flames would continue to form her body and carry on the fight!

She suddenly plunged her greatsword into Elderly’s bloated body, the flames covering it in an instant, gripping tightly even as he burrowed into the ground.

Other adventurers split up to aid Luluwo, while others risked their lives to relieve the pressure on Elsa.

Bara was crushed by a Giant Fist, his bones shattered.

Fingerley was impaled by several tentacles, delaying a mass of decayed flesh.

Leon’s head was heavily struck, leaving him unable to discern directions.

But with their help, Elsa could focus entirely on burning Elderly, and the blaze was now reaching its climax!

"Help me!"

She shouted, pulling the greatsword with force. From the endless decayed flesh emerged a skull, half shattered and giant-like, opening its bloody maw toward her.

Those still able to move threw every ounce of strength into attacking the skull!

Elsa recalled her past memories, and in a moment of change in her eyes, unleashed her strongest strike ever at Elderly—

The entire field went utterly silent for that instant.

No, it wasn’t truly silent; the battle’s explosion had caused everyone’s hearing to temporarily fail.

In the midst of tranquility, like a red lotus, flames bloomed atop the turbulent dark decayed flesh.

The shockwave blew everyone back, pinning them against the walls, the flying debris capable of shaving off flesh.

All of this happened in silence.

Heavily injured, Fingerley closed his eyes in a daze, but his eyelids were pierced by intense light.

When he opened his eyes again, the dark clouds cleared, and golden sunlight poured through the window, spreading generously throughout the hall.

There was no decayed flesh, no Elderly; this place was even more vibrant with Life Force than Yanor Londo within the Painting World, as if they had returned to the past.

He even saw Smough; in the light, even the Executioner seemed amiable, and at the center of the hall, Gwendolin slowly opened his hands, following everyone’s gaze.

"You all did it."

Smough and Gwendolin’s figures suddenly twisted and vanished, replaced by a battered Elsa.

Her gaze somewhat vacant, but in her hands she held a vast, profound soul.