I Became the Youngest Prince in the Novel

TL/Editor: raei

Status: ongoing

Illustrations: none

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Episode 170, Chapter 45: The Tower of Causality (10)

In front of a massive temple at the center of the Eternal Tower's third floor:

"The left flank is collapsing! We need to send reinforcements there!"

"We're already on it!"

Boom!

"Just focus on breaking their front line and push forward!"

Hundreds of participants had gathered there, battling against guardian knights pouring out of the temple.

Crash!

Though the participants trying to enter the temple were incredibly powerful, the guardians defending it were equally formidable. The battle was intense.

The reason participants were so desperate to enter the temple was simple.

This temple was the largest ruin in the third floor's trial.

Suddenly,

"Lance Charge! A Lance Charge is coming!"

A large warrior wielding an axe at the front line shouted urgently, looking towards the temple.

About a hundred guardians mounted on stone horses glowing with bright light were simultaneously lowering their long spears.

Then, boom!

The guardians charged as one, their speed increasing until they blurred.

A thin membrane formed around the charging guardians, causing the surrounding air to ignite.

"We can't block that!!"

The participants at the front line cried out in panic, their formation wavering.

Just as the guardians' charge was about to shatter the unstable formation,

Thud!

Someone dropped between the warriors and the charging guardians.

'...A back?'

A giant with a body at least twice the size of a human warrior, covered in steel-like muscles.

As the warrior noticed the giant's back muscles twitching, boom!

The giant collided head-on with the guardians' Lance Charge, creating a terrifying explosion and thunderous noise.

What would happen if a single stationary person clashed with a full-power Lance Charge by a hundred knights?

Even if that person was a giant, anyone could guess the outcome.

But, rumble!

The scene that appeared after the explosion cleared completely overturned those expectations.

The giant, who had received the guardians' charge with a shield large enough to cover his entire upper body, hadn't been pushed back even an inch.

Instead,

"Hup!"

With a light intake of breath, the giant's arm muscles holding the shield twitched, and boom!

The guardians were sent flying in all directions, their formation shattering.

"Whoa..."

The participants exhaled in shock, unable to believe what they'd just witnessed.

However, if they knew the giant's identity, this scene would have been perfectly understandable.

Turzan.

He was the third among the 'Seven Heavens', known as the 'Steel Mountain' and the strongest giant.

Just then,

"Why are you all just standing there?"

A rough voice reached the ears of those staring at Turzan, followed by crackle!

This time, dozens of lightning bolts rained down from the sky, striking the scattered guardians and turning the surroundings pure white.

Slightly later, a woman appeared in the center of the lightning, her spear plunging into the ground.

It was Rain.

"Are you going to waste this opening we've created??"

After vaporizing a dozen guardians with a single strike, she turned to the participants behind her and spoke.

"Ch-Charge!"

Finally snapping out of it, the participants began to pour through the gap Turzan and Rain had created.

The tide of battle started to turn.

'We'll break through soon.'

The silver-haired woman watching from behind nodded quietly.

The temple they were trying to conquer with the participants was called the 'Temple of the Jungle God', the central ruin that held the most Life Jades in the third floor's trial.

Its extreme difficulty had made it impossible to attempt in her previous life, but now it was possible.

Far more people had survived this time.

The reason was obvious.

'It must be because the Murder Legion was wiped out.'

Thanks to the annihilation of the Murder Legion, the main source of chaos, she had been able to rally people easily and gather enough forces to attack the central ruin.

'This way, we can bring more people up to the next trial.'

Things were going better than expected, but the woman's expression wasn't particularly bright.

It was because of the man who had annihilated the Murder Legion.

Another massive variable that had newly appeared.

'Zion Harness, was it?'

It was the name of the man she had learned by chance while talking to Rain earlier.

She was certain because the appearance of 'Zion Harness' that Rain had described matched perfectly with that man's.

'Then that connection has existed since the Black Forest subjugation...'

Was it just a coincidence?

She couldn't be sure.

And then there was his use of the Heaven Destroyer's power and his preparation of the Frost Queen's authority fragment, knowing about the secret trial in advance.

He was truly a man shrouded in mystery.

'As if I didn't have enough to worry about with the other variables, now another one appears.'

The woman sighed softly and shook her head to clear those thoughts.

Though she was intensely curious about his identity, there was nothing she could do about it now.

Perhaps they would meet again as they climbed the Eternal Tower.

'For now, I'll focus on clearing this trial.'

With that thought, the woman's sword began to emit a transparent light as she looked ahead.

* * *

If the end were to take form, it might look like this.

The 'Breath of Destruction' that started from Apocalypsia's mouth tore through the world, shooting straight towards Zion.

It was a strike containing such an immense aura that mortals bound by the cycle of reincarnation couldn't even properly perceive it.

'I can't block that.'

That was the thought that flashed through Zion's mind the moment he saw it.

Though he had entered Nadir Chrosicle's body and reached a slightly higher level of Black Star Force, the power emanating from that breath was terrifying enough to make him feel inadequate.

He couldn't dodge it either.

From the moment the 'cause' of that breath being completed and fired existed, the 'result' of it hitting Zion himself was created.

It was truly a strike that interfered even with the laws of the world.

But,

'I can slightly twist that result, though.'

Tap tap!

With that thought, Zion's eyes flashed coldly as he began to run diagonally upward, stepping on thin air.

At the same time, he pulled back the sword he was now holding with both hands to its maximum behind his right shoulder.

Whoosh!

As if the surrounding world itself was being sucked in, space contracted around Zion's drawn sword, and all energy began to condense.

The blade vibrated as if it would shatter at any moment.

An alien darkness quietly settled around the vibrating blade.

Finally, when the condensation and vibration reached their peak, swish-

The knight's sword slashed diagonally towards the Breath of Destruction that had approached right in front of him.

A knight's sword can cut even the sky.

There was no need to cut through the entire incoming breath.

The result of it hitting Zion himself.

It was enough to cut just a tiny portion of the components making up that result.

Crack!

For a moment, a massive friction spark large enough to cover the sky appeared, and the space containing the Dragon of the End's breath warped and bent.

And where that bent space headed was, crunch?

Right into the middle of the monster army.

Along with a questioning sound from one of the monsters came the collision.

At that moment,

--------------------!

The entire field of vision turned ashen gray.

The sound was so massive it couldn't be heard, as the world turned incandescent white and was engulfed in silence.

How much time passed like this?

As vision gradually returned,

"!!!!!!"

The knights and soldiers following Zion gaped with blank expressions at the scene that followed.

From the enormous crater whose end couldn't be seen, to the demonic army that had lost about a third of its forces.

If a god's hammer were to strike the earth, it might look like this.

-You bastard!!!!!

Seeing this sight and Zion who had suddenly appeared right in front of him, Apocalypsia let out a furious roar.

He had poured all his strength into unleashing his authority technique, yet not only had he failed to kill his target, but he had also sacrificed his own army for nothing.

"You're pretty dumb for a dragon, aren't you?"

Zion grinned at the Dragon of the End as his sword began to turn completely black, just like Eclaxia.

Feeling the familiar yet chilling energy emanating from it, Apocalypsia involuntarily shuddered. He summoned thousands of sparks infused with the authority of the end around him and fired them at Zion.

A knight's sword cuts through countless nights.

But with Nadir's swordsmanship perfectly fused with the Black Star Force's 'Night Cutter', slash!

Zion cut down all the incoming sparks.

As the Dragon of the End's eyes twitched at this sight, swish!

Zion's form appeared right in front of him, having cut through even the space between them.

Almost simultaneously, Zion's sword, condensed with Black Star Force to the extreme, shot towards the dragon's head.

In response, Apocalypsia created a sphere of demonic energy right in front of his eyes.

With the ensuing clash, crack!

The space around them shattered.

The entire earth split and shook from the aftermath of this collision, on a completely different level from before.

As if oblivious to this,

-May your heart burst.

The Dragon of the End immediately poured his End (終焉) imbued with his authority towards Zion.

Though the dragon's End was beyond imagination, enough to affect even beings who had reached 'Heaven', it couldn't reach Zion.

Dark Domain.

Whoosh!

The Black Star Force's exclusive spatial domination technique, which Zion had used against Dran, the leader of the Murder Legion, unfolded in an even more advanced form, completely devouring the incoming End.

Zion dove through the gap this created and thrust his sword towards one of the Dragon of the End's eyes.

Simultaneously, the darkened space around them vibrated, beginning to change so that Zion's sword could reach the eye by the fastest route possible.

This was the effect of the Dark Domain.

-......!

Boom!

Apocalypsia barely blocked Zion's strike by creating hundreds of layers of protective barriers right in front of his eye. He immediately began to scatter his authority around, trying to reverse-dominate the space Zion had corrupted.

The dragon knew all too well how crucial it was to make the surrounding space one's own in a battle between beings who had reached a certain level.

At the same time, countless authority shackles formed from the melting air around them, all targeting only Zion.

Bang! Bang! Boom!

Zion knocked away all the shackles, which would disable the use of authority itself upon contact, and dove in once again.

With this, a terrifying exchange of attacks began.

How long did they trade blows like this?

'This guy...'

A strange light flickered in Apocalypsia's eyes as he fended off Zion's sword.

The darkness the knight before him was using.

That darkness was indeed the power used by Eternal Emperor Aurelion, who had driven them into a corner.

But,

'It's still weak.'

To be more precise, it would be correct to say it wasn't complete yet.

The endless despair and suffocating pressure he had felt when facing the Eternal Emperor in the past.

Was it because the user was different?

There was none of that, and moreover, the level of power the knight was using was incomparably weaker than back then.

Additionally,

'As I thought...'

The knight's movements looked somewhat awkward.

It seemed he had suffered some internal injury when deflecting Apocalypsia's 'Breath' earlier.

'Right, there's no way he could be unscathed after receiving my breath.'

A gleam of joy began to appear in the Dragon of the End's eyes.

In contrast, wounds began to appear one by one on Zion's body.

-Why don't you just give up?

Soon, as Apocalypsia continued the exchange of attacks while looking at Zion, a low voice flowed from his mouth.

-You probably already know, but the difference in power between you and me is clear. Moreover, your body's condition isn't good either.

The dragon's eyes curved as if smiling.

-Your defeat is already decided. If you give up right now, I'll kill you without pain.

At that moment, crash!

"I know that too."

Zion's eyes also began to curve like crescent moons as he met the Dragon of the End's gaze while their swords clashed.

Zion was fully aware.

That he couldn't defeat Apocalypsia alone, and that his body wasn't in a normal state.

In fact, he had been swallowing the blood rising in his throat for a while now.

But that didn't change anything.

Already,

"Even so, I think I'm going to win this battle."

He had arrived here.

-...What?

Feeling something ominous in Zion's smile, the Dragon of the End asked back with a questioning voice.

"Because you're not just facing me alone."

As Zion replied with an even deeper smile and a cold voice, it happened.

There was no light, no sound.

And no warning.

Boom!

Apocalypsia's massive body, struck by something that came down diagonally from the sky, was sent flying and crashed into the ground.

The dragon's body continued to burrow deep into the earth.

Then, with a delayed secondary shockwave, whoosh!

Flames hotter than the sun began to blaze across the fallen Dragon of the End's entire body.

-Argh!

And, step.

Amidst those flames and the dragon's scream, a figure slowly revealed itself.

A man exuding an overwhelming presence in all directions, clad in armor blazing with ultra-high temperature flames, as if all the fires of hell had been gathered and contained within.

Though the man's face was hidden by the flames, Zion knew who he was.

"You came earlier than I expected."

Magnus Flare.

The first hero, and the man called the strongest throughout all recorded history.

This was the moment he finally arrived at the 'Gorge of the End' with reinforcements.

---

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