Chapter 134: "You Are Luke Voidheart!"
’Seems like there is no more any choice.’ Luke decided to use that move, though before he could do that, Aldaric’s another angry voice came, but this time he seemed really pissed off.
After getting struck by the two moons, Aldaric’s body was bleeding from several places.
Many shards of ice and metal were still embedded inside his body, which brought pain with each movement.
’I will kill him!’ Aldaric, with bloodshot eyes and a bleeding bear face, looked toward the elongated wall and summoned his ultimate Origin Skill.
"C-RANK ORIGIN SKILL VOLCANO BEAR: ULTIMATE ABILITY!"
Aldaric’s loud voice echoed, which chilled Luke’s whole body and his Titan instinct started screaming at him. Even Nyx and Caelith, seeing the situation, got worried and told Luke to move away from the location.
Luke nodded and, with a hurried face, tried to make distance from the giant bear.
But the next moment, his eyes turned to horror and his face became pale. ’I can’t move.’
So with horror-filled eyes, he moved them and looked sideways. There, Aldaric’s volcano mouth was fully opened, along with the whole 100m area getting filled with red magma aether.
’This!’ His expression turned worse, because a ball of red magma was starting to gather at Aldaric’s mouth, which was coming from his volcano.
’I have to move.’ Luke repeated those words, and tried to use the strength of the whole cosmic system, but couldn’t move his body at all.
"Luke, this is Aura Lock!" Then Nyx’s voice came inside his mind, and he said. "He is using his aether to surround your body, which is often done by higher realm beings when they use their ultimate."
Inside, Nyx shook his head and added. "Though, if you were a higher realm, or had my armour, you could escape from this situation, but sadly he is using his Origin Skill ultimate ability, which seems to increase his control over aether to the Early Late-stage Golden Knight for a moment."
On this, Luke’s face became even paler and he tried to return back into his normal form, but found his aether was locked and was not returning to his core.
’Damn it.’ But the moment he cursed, Aldaric also released his ultimate.
"VOLCANO’S BREATH!!!"
A colossal beam of molten lava and volcanic energy erupted from his jaws.
Seeing this, he let out a sigh and calmed down. The horror he had felt earlier also faded away.
After all, his actions had been meant to force Aldaric to reveal all of his trump cards, such as the explosive magic scrolls Rowan had carried during their previous encounter.
While Luke was thinking all this, the beam tore across the battlefield, carving a trench through the earth. It struck the wall where Luke was with the intention not of killing him, but of annihilation.
Fortunately, at the last moment, the three rings which were on his fingers flared with intense light, and all three of them covered Luke’s body completely with a golden barrier, which attached closely to his body, rather than a spherical shape.
"Nice save, Queen’s Ward." He smiled inside the barrier, while looking at the incoming lava beam.
Still, he complained about the need for 3 rings for his single body. On this, the system’s speechless voice came.
[Luke, that’s an Arcane grade, which is Bronze Knight level. So it’s already crazy that it could withstand Golden Knight level attacks. That’s why don’t be greedy.]
Hearing the system’s reply, Luke smiled sheepishly, and tried to calm down the system, who was about to start his sage mode. After that, he focused on the destruction.
Then the ground beneath Luke shattered with a catastrophic explosion. Resulting in the surrounding rocks melting into lava, while ash and smoke rose like a second sun from its place.
And where Luke had stood—only a crater of molten rock remained.
’Wow... that’s some insane destructive power.’ He tried to look beyond the crater, but to no avail.
His gaze then shifted to his fingers, where the three rings had been completely destroyed, leaving no chance of repair. ’I’ll miss you, Queen’s Ward.’
Outside...
"Huff... Huff..."
Aldaric’s breathing turned ragged as his massive chest rose and fell heavily.
The volcano on his back had dimmed considerably, its once-blazing glow now reduced to a faint crimson ember.
The attack had consumed nearly everything he had.
"I... don’t have any energy left."
His exhausted voice rumbled from within the giant bear’s body.
Every muscle ached.
Even standing had become difficult.
Slowly, he lifted his gaze toward the enormous crater left behind by the final collision.
Dust still filled the air, concealing everything within.
A faint smile appeared on his weary face.
In his mind...
The battle was already over.
Luke couldn’t have survived an attack of that magnitude.
So, without waiting for the dust to settle, Aldaric silently accepted that his opponent had already been reduced to nothing beneath the devastating impact.
But he failed to notice one thing in his accomplishment, which was the gravity.
The celestial bodies were still rotating in the sky, showing the clear sign that the controller was fully alive. Though the next second, he found out after hearing a carefree voice.
"Yo! That was something."
Luke’s casual voice suddenly echoed from within the dust-filled crater.
Aldaric’s exhausted smile froze.
The next instant—
WHOOSH!!
A figure shot out of the crater like a cannonball before descending onto the battlefield.
THUD!!
Luke landed firmly on the ground, sending a small cloud of dust rippling outward.
He casually rolled one shoulder before dusting off the dirt clinging to his armor.
Aside from a few scratches and a slightly disheveled appearance, he looked remarkably unharmed.
A faint grin rested on his face as he looked directly at Aldaric.
"That attack almost got me."
His relaxed tone contrasted sharply with the devastation surrounding them.
Meanwhile, Aldaric could only stare with widened eyes.
The disbelief on his face was impossible to hide.
"Y-You’re still alive...?!"
Even that was not all. ’He is not even injured.’ which made him somewhat afraid of him now.
Luke nodded after seeing Aldaric’s frozen expression, then he muttered something in a low voice. "I have to return to my wife, so let’s finish this now."
But Aldaric belonged to the Golden Knight realm, so he heard every word clearly, which brought another shock to him. ’Wife? Return?’ So he thought about everything happening from the start and thought about how his army had gone to deal with Blackstone Highlands.
"You are Luke Voidheart, the Hero." So with a loud voice and a wide-eyed expression, he shouted.
Luke smiled and shook his head. "Took you long enough."