CHAPTER 198
Rapha Hastel had reached the end of his lifespan.
Asheria Eve took in the sight and curled up the corners of her mouth.
"No matter how strong you are, you're ultimately devoured by time. See, why didn't you cling to life more? You should have survived using any means necessary. Look at the state of you."
At Asheria Eve's mockery, Rapha Hastel looked down at his hand.
A hand that was already thoroughly cracked.
It was proof that he couldn't overcome the passage of time.
But there was no regret on Rapha Hastel's face.
"No. This is how a human should be."
He tightly clenched his cracked hand.
"Life has value because it is finite, and I have not a single regret in my life."
Those who wish to return to the past.
Those who regret their lives.
These are the ones who haven't lived their lives to the absolute fullest.
To one who has poured everything into living, regret is nothing but a fleeting illusion.
Rapha Hastel had no regrets in life.
"What I must do now is muster whatever strength I have left for those who will live on after me."
Rapha Hastel took his stance.
His attack could absolutely not be dodged.
The finale.
It was the final strike, containing the entirety of Rapha Hastel's life.
The moment Rapha Hastel pushed his acceleration to the limit once more, instead of the world slowing down, his own time began to burn away.
The final sparks scattered from Rapha Hastel's entire body.
The last embers of the strongest flame in the world.
Asheria Eve's eyes were filled with those mighty embers.
And by the time Asheria Eve regained her senses...
Rapha Hastel's body was already shattered into pieces.
Her eyes slowly began to widen.
Accordingly, she lowered her head to look down at herself.
A gaping, empty hole in her chest.
Her lower body was disintegrating, and that disintegration was spreading to her upper body.
Rapha Hastel's final strike, leaving behind no lingering attachments to life.
That single strike transcended everything, landing a direct hit before Asheria Eve could even perceive it.
It was not within the realm of reaction.
Because by the time she thought he had attacked, she had already been hit.
Her hollowed-out flesh twitched as she belatedly realized her own condition.
"Th-this monster..."
Blood regurgitated and poured from Asheria Eve's mouth as her body tilted.
Thud—
As she collapsed onto the ground, Rapha Hastel's body began to scatter like dust.
Anyone could see that Asheria Eve was on death's door.
But her body tenaciously clung to life, refusing to die as her flesh tangled together.
She slowly began to return to her original form.
However, her body couldn't fully reconstruct, and the areas with holes kept collapsing.
Rapha Hastel's strike, which was practically a curse.
Asheria Eve's body couldn't register his acceleration, failing to even recognize that it had been punctured.
Faced with that final strike, there was nothing Asheria Eve could do.
She could only collapse while clutching her crumbling body.
"Asheria Eve."
From amidst the scattering dust, Rapha Hastel spoke.
"The children of the next generation are not weak enough to be devoured by the likes of you."
Starting from the Regular Army he had built, to the countless bonds forged from it. Rapha Hastel had seen with his own two eyes the miracles created by those bonds.
A brilliant future is not created in a short period of time.
Humans build civilization by passing it down through countless generations, over and over again.
A civilization born from a single person is ultimately just a civilization that will collapse because of a single person.
That was why Rapha Hastel didn't doubt that all of this would continue even without him.
"And the same goes for you."
Rapha Hastel's thick finger pointed directly at Asheria Eve.
"The old must fade into the back rooms of history. It's unseemly to throw a tantrum and overstay your welcome."
His final curse bound Asheria Eve.
Faced with that curse, all Asheria Eve could do was scream miserably.
The hero fades away.
But his will does not disappear.
Having demonstrated that fact once more, Rapha Hastel burned away all of his remaining embers.
The ashes left behind by the flame would surely carry on to the next life.

The Sword Lord, Soun.
He had been searching all over the world to catch Sohan, but today he heard some unexpected information.
The Sky Castle built by Black Dawn.
The news that Sohan was there.
The moment he heard that news, Soun turned around and immediately headed for Gladion.
Every time he took a step, storms erupted and devastated the surroundings, but this was no time to care about that.

It was his disciple, Sohan.
He would absolutely end the wrongs committed by his disciple with this very sword.
Running like a madman with that single thought, Soun eventually arrived at Gladion.
He slowly began preparing to leap.
The Sky Castle was located high up in the distant sky.
To reach it, he would need an incredible amount of leaping power.
Crack.
As he prepared to leap, a massive fissure formed beneath his feet.
He had packed so much power into it that the very atmosphere seemed to howl.
Right before he leaped toward the Sky Castle...
Halt—
His gaze locked onto a certain spot.
In the sky above Gladion.
Someone was standing there.
Soun narrowed his eyes to get a closer look, and the moment he realized who it was, his eyes widened.
Sohan.
He was standing in the sky above Gladion.
The Sinner of Lust.
Recalling the horrific moniker attached to his disciple, Soun violently distorted his face.
The person reflected in his eyes was definitely Sohan.
Even though he hadn't fully entered Gladion yet, it was an absurd level of eyesight, but Soun recognized him perfectly.
As soon as he recognized him, he changed the direction of his leap.
His goal was not the Sky Castle.
It was only Sohan, who had walked down the wrong path.
He had come all this way to personally end his disciple with his own sword.
Rumble, crack.
The earth warped and shattered.
The air was compressed, and all that explosive power was concentrated into Soun's single leg.
Soon after, with the condensed power, Soun's body explosively launched into the air.
Belated sonic booms chased after him as he fiercely sprinted through the sky.
In the wake of Soun's path, the clouds split apart and the sky shook violently.
Even amidst that sprint, Soun pulled his hand to his waist.
A single slash.
He would end it with this.
Sohan wouldn't even realize he had been cut, nor would he know that death had come.
He would simply end his life just like that.
Cutting down his own disciple.
He knew very well what that meant, but Soun didn't stop.
His disciple had gone down the wrong path.
It was the duty of a master to put an end to it.
Just as his master had done long ago.
Soun gripped his sword to cut down his disciple in the exact same way.
Soun's resolve burned brightly.
Right before Soun reached Sohan and finally drew his sword...
Soun saw Sohan's utterly terrified face.
For just a brief moment.
Soun's shoulders stiffened.
The terrified face of the disciple he had raised himself had the power to make even Soun freeze.
But there was another reason Soun hesitated.
The Sohan he knew would never make such an expression.
He was not a man who would fear being cut by Soun's sword.
If he had been that kind of man in the first place, Soun would never have taken him in as a disciple.
Soun knew the age-old fighting spirit that resided in Sohan's eyes.
If that fighting spirit had not gone down the wrong path and had instead proceeded correctly, Sohan would have undoubtedly achieved greatness as the next Sword Lord.
He had taken him in as a disciple because he knew that, but in the end, that fighting spirit burned in the wrong direction.
He had come to put an end to it, but to see a face like that...
'That's not Sohan?'
That momentary hesitation stopped him from drawing his sword.
The moment he realized this, Soun stopped dead in midair.
Belatedly, 'Sohan' looked this way and made a startled expression.
Soun frowned as he looked at him.
"Who are you?"
The moment Soun asked, someone who had barely witnessed this opened his mouth wide.
"Soun-nim!"
A voice he had heard before.
It was Aranseol's boyfriend, Harua, the one called a Saint who used Resurrection magic.
He was frantically waving his hands from below and shouting.
"Sohan is dead!"
Sohan was dead.
As soon as he heard that, Soun's eyes distorted.
Sohan was dead? By whose hands?
Before he could even feel the emptiness of failing to put an end to his disciple himself, Harua answered first.
"It was Aranseol!"
Aranseol. The moment he heard that name, Soun slowly lowered his sword.
Then he looked at the woman who was undoing her disguise as Sohan.
She was Belmora, who had once made a name for herself as a No-Named serial killer.
She had managed to deceive even Soun through her ability.
At least in outward appearance, it was a perfect transformation.
Furthermore, because of the distance, Soun hadn't been able to recognize the deception.
'Aranseol did...'
Soun's face became complicated.
It was only natural, considering another disciple of his had finished the job he was supposed to do.
I see.
Sohan is dead.

An unknown emptiness quietly enveloped Soun.
"Asheria Eve is here!"
But before that emptiness could fully settle in, there was something more important.
The Sinner of Wrath.
Asheria Eve.
She was the very culprit who had lured his disciple, Sohan, down the wrong path.
Aside from his own teachings, it was definitely that woman who had poisoned his mind with sweet talk.
Setting aside the thought that Harua had tricked him, Soun gripped his sword once again.
It was not yet time for his sword to rest.
If only for the sake of the disciple who had gone down the wrong path, he had to finish things properly.
It was still time for his sword to move.

The spot where Rapha Hastel had scattered and disappeared.
What kind of relieved expression was she making?
Asheria Eve shuddered in anger.
"F-fuck..."
Asheria Eve moved her throat, crying out in pain.
Then, a bright red talisman popped out from inside her throat.
She forcefully shoved it into the gaping hole in her stomach.
Every time she did, her body collapsed, but she somehow managed to attach it.
Finally, upon attaching the talisman, her body stopped crumbling.
At the same time, her body began to move somewhat normally again.
The talisman from just now was practically Asheria Eve's last resort.
For her, it was no different from using up her final life.
Because of that, one person crossed her mind.
The one man who could restore her to perfect condition right now.
Harua.
'I have to find him.'
She had exhausted too much in her battle against Rapha Hastel.
She had always planned everything out and acted laid-back, but Rapha Hastel's final embers had left behind massive damage.
To move forward, she needed Harua.
It was when she reached out to summon the Dimension Eater with that thought in mind.
Thud—
The sound of someone landing reached her ears.
Black hair, just like Asheria Eve's, fluttered in the wind.
Beneath that black hair.
A pair of incomparably vicious eyes quietly flashed.
The single sword fastened to his waist.
It was the fang of a beast, ready to end Asheria Eve.
The Sword Lord, Soun.
Soun, who had entered the battlefield right after Rapha Hastel.
It was effectively the appearance of the next strongest fighter right after the absolute strongest.
And on top of that, up in the sky...
Ririran was visible.
It meant she was going to block any spatial teleportation.
Asheria Eve felt like she could hear Harua laughing in her ear.
But what could she do?
It was an inescapable fate.
'Whatever. I've already achieved my minor goal anyway.'
Swallowing a hollow laugh, Asheria Eve raised both hands.
"Will you go easy on me?"
It was an act of charm that absolutely wasn't going to work.