Chapter 154: BOOM~
The tide surged, and the sea carried the wind.
Rast looked directly at Noah, who had already ascended into the air and now stood level with him atop the tower. He gently placed his hand over his chest and leaned backward.
His figure was swallowed by the howling storm in the sky, falling straight down into the phantom ocean formed by the Nether Abyss.
...
What was he trying to do?
He knew well that his body had already been implanted with the Seed of Flesh. His life and death were now entirely within my grasp—yet he still struggled in vain...
Or perhaps, was he seeking death?
Noah’s Fertility Half-Body paused slightly.
But very soon, his gaze hardened.
Originally, Noah had intended to use the Seed of Flesh within the opponent’s body as leverage—after completely subduing Rast, he would then thoroughly investigate the many abnormalities that surrounded him.
For example, why had Cisel not instructed his successor to lay low with caution, but instead allowed him to contact me and infiltrate the Gravekeepers as a spy... placing that most important Fireseed right under the enemy’s nose?
This was undoubtedly an illogical decision—Cisel, being a Legendary figure, could not possibly have failed to understand such a basic principle.
However, watching the youth fall from the end of the high tower into the sea, Noah temporarily set aside his doubts.
No matter what—Rast had just used the power originating from that Fireseed stolen by the Shoreguards... this was unshakable, a fact he could not have misjudged.
Recovering the stolen Fireseed—that was Noah’s foremost objective on this mission...
Compared to that, everything else became secondary in priority.
“Denied the grace of the Divine Domain, and refused the Eternal Immortality bestowed upon you by us.”
“As the price for rejecting the blessing... your flesh shall become the nourishment for my creations, blooming into the most resplendent flower of this world—”
That aged hand lightly clenched in the air.
“So—”
“Your life shall end here.”
In the next moment.
Boom—
The skin across Rast’s entire body abruptly turned deathly pale.
Countless roots of plants suddenly burst forth along every meridian and blood vessel, draining every drop of blood that flowed through his limbs and bones.
Then, every drop of blood within his body converged at his heart.
Emerald green leaves pierced through his flesh, carrying a flower bud that broke through Rast’s pale skin and lightly trembled over his chest, reflecting the crimson hue of blood.
Immediately after.
A fraction of an instant later.
The bud blossomed.
Above his heart, a bewitching blood lotus bloomed.
Noah’s words were not empty... this truly was the most beautiful flower in the world.
Nourished by the flesh and life force of a living being, it bloomed like a poppy—seductive and decadent.
Every drop of blood had been drained. Every vein and meridian burst apart... Rast’s entire body lost all color.
Like a kite with its string cut, he plummeted headfirst into the dim sea beneath the tower.
“Another one...”
Gazing at that blood-colored flower blooming midair, Noah could not help but murmur in reflection.
“Another human who, despite Eternal Immortality being within reach, still refuses to compromise for mere illusions.”
In his mind, fragments of the past suddenly resurfaced.
Events from the Old Era, long buried within the river of history... known only to elders among the Gravekeepers like Noah.
Once, there had been an ordinary human of humble origins who rose from nothing, enduring tribulations, carving a path through thorns, struggling arduously...
In an age when extraordinary knowledge had nearly perished and the strongest individuals were no more than Third or Fourth Tier—he relied solely on his perseverance and innate talent, forging step by step a path to the Sky-Piercing Tower through the darkness of an era devoid of light.
At the wrong time, in the wrong place, he ascended to the seat of the Legendary Realm.
That person even managed to deduce the existence of the ancient and hidden Gravekeepers through mere fragmented clues in old tomes... and established contact with the organization, which at the time remained hidden in the shadows.
His talent and character were so extraordinary that even the Gravekeepers held him in special regard, inviting him to join their ranks.
And he did not disappoint—rising swiftly to become a high-ranking figure, second only to the top, and even earned the right to wield the Fireseed passed down since the Age of Gods.
However—no one could have foreseen it.
When the life cycle of that era neared its end, and the Gravekeepers prepared to follow the Order of the World to destroy and restart the current epoch... a massive internal rebellion erupted among the Gravekeepers—the largest since the organization’s founding.
The specific details of this rebellion had long been buried in time, beyond investigation.
The rebellion ended with the Gravekeepers suppressing the traitors, but at a terrible cost. Most members suffered incurable wounds and were forced into long-term slumber or self-sealing to avoid perishing with time, drastically weakening their influence over the Present World.
As for the rebel leader who had risen from obscurity—all were mercilessly slain in a gruesome manner. Yet, the Fireseed he had stolen vanished without a trace, eventually resurfacing in the Present World and becoming the foundation of the Shoreguards... an enduring shadow in the hearts of the Gravekeepers for millennia.
That human who rose from nothing was the thief of fire—the first Shoreguard.
Even now, Noah still remembered the final words of that despicable thief as he smiled in death:
“This time... we won.”
You... won?
What a pity.
The Shoreguards you built with your life and those of your followers... were ultimately nothing more than a fleeting dream.
After today—
The “Shoreguards” shall cease to exist.
Just as such emotions stirred—
In the next instant, Noah’s expression abruptly changed.
For the first time, that aged face showed a trace of astonishment.
...
Falling from the high tower, suspended in midair.
Beneath the sky, above the sea.
Rast was bathed in the roaring, howling storm winds.
He tore the blooming blood-colored flower from his chest. Crimson petals drifted in midair, like a shower of funeral blossoms.
At Rast’s ear, a crisp shattering sound echoed softly.
Every inch of his blood vessels had ruptured, and the last drop of his blood had flowed away with the blooming of that flower of flesh... "Flesh Blooming" was a trump card only usable by a Legendary of the Bounty Sequence. For any being of flesh and blood, unless also a Legendary, there was absolutely no chance of survival once the Blood Flower bloomed.
Yet Rast had not died.
A faint bluish glow lingered around him, preserving a final sliver of life within him, preventing it from vanishing entirely, and allowing him to retain the most basic capacity for movement.
【Desperate Plea】
【Type: Inherent Skill】
【A dream on the ruins, mottled fragments... the girl called herself an evil monster, denying her past, denying everything, eternally imprisoning herself within a dream of delusion and darkness, crying out in despair for light through starless, endless nights.】
【So, the one who answered the girl’s prayer and weeping, shattered the delusional dream, and pulled her out from the swamp of despair to walk again toward the future... was he truly from illusion, or was he real?】
【Skill Effect: When the wielder is in a dying state, deny death once.】
【This skill’s cooldown is one complete Nightworld Remnant, or 30 days of real-world time outside the Nightworld.】
【This skill has been activated. It cannot be used again during the current Nightworld Remnant cycle.】
【You are currently in "Death Denial" state. The death refusal effect will no longer apply. For your safety, please seek immediate medical attention.】
“Desperate Plea”
This was the Inherent Skill Rast received during the Nightworld Remnant in Frostwater Town when he first encountered Little Grey, as a Nightworld mission reward.
When in a dying state, it conceptually denies death once.
Only such a conceptual skill, which resisted death on the level of rules themselves, could allow Rast to survive the blooming of "Flesh Blooming."
However, at the root of it, this was not some ultimate trump card that could turn the tide of battle—it was merely a means to cling to life.
Even when triggered, it held no power to heal or restore injuries... it merely allowed Rast to briefly resist death, preserving a sliver of life, and just enough mobility.
If Noah were to strike again casually, he wouldn't even need to finish him off... Just waiting for Rast to fall from this height into the yellow sea formed by the Nether Abyss would be enough. The impact alone would erase the last shred of life from Rast and kill him completely.
However—
Even so, it was enough.
There wasn't a single patch of intact skin left on him; his entire body was a bloody mess, his flesh mangled, his skin peeled back, no different from a corpse.
Yet Rast still smiled. Even if that smile was no better than the stitched-up monster from a horror film.
His body bathed in the high-altitude sea wind, he brought his right thumb and index finger together slightly, then made a gesture of opening and closing—
“BOOM~”
In the next moment.
Drip—
Drip—
From atop the platform bearing the ice coffin, a dripping sound suddenly echoed.
As if some sort of countdown had begun.
Sensing something—
Atop the tower, Noah’s expression suddenly changed.
He abruptly extended his hand. Emerald green vines surged forward, attempting to throw away a round object from the platform floor.
It was the object that had fallen from Rast’s sleeve pocket, seemingly by accident, when he fell from the tower into the Nether Abyss.
Noah’s Fertility Domain had once completely enveloped that sphere, but he had detected no trace of life or hidden magical fluctuation from it.
Therefore, Noah had never paid it any mind, assuming it to be a harmless dead object.
But at this very moment—
That ticking countdown came from the sphere.
At the same time—
A terrifying fluctuation was brewing and gathering within that sphere.
A fluctuation beyond anything Noah had previously known...
No sign of life, no magic, no divinity or divine power. Untriggered, they were just piles of dead objects like ores...
But when activated, those dead objects formed a chain reaction through an inconceivable formula, and then brewed into a cataclysmic surge.
“Holy Grenade”
【Type: Extraordinary Item, Single-use Consumable】
【Rarity: Gold】
【Note: Has a special attack effect on targets possessing "Chaos", "Evil", "Contamination", or "Disorder" attributes】
This was the protective item Professor Barbalossa had gifted to Rast during his first descent into the final Nightworld of the Arcane Tower, fearing that he might become entangled in historical events beyond his ability to manage.
Its item description was merely a single sentence—
“Annihilate Everything”
Later, after mechanical modification by Professor Agatha, Dean of the Ashen Institute of Starfall University, a timed detonation function was added to the “Holy Grenade.”
This was a weapon beyond the understanding of all people in the Sixth Era... a power known as "Technology."
It transcended the current age and had never appeared in the Sixth Era or in even older recorded history...
Thus, even though in the future, any random child from the roadside would instantly recognize a beeping sphere as a timed bomb and flee—
In this era, even someone as ancient as Noah had no knowledge of the existence of the “Holy Grenade.”
Because he had never seen such a weapon, he could not possibly guard against it... he could not understand why such an inconspicuous little metal sphere triggered an instinctive warning of extreme danger.
Even so, the moment that sense of danger arose, Noah acted—
This was the intuition of a Legendary, the very instinct that had let him survive countless battles... even without understanding, he followed that instinct, expanding his domain to knock the sphere away.
However, at this very moment—
It was already too late.
In the next instant—
The chain reaction reached its critical point.
The casing of the Holy Grenade shattered, and infinite light and heat surged beyond the limits, erupting outward.
Immediately after, the blazing white light from the Holy Grenade engulfed everything on the platform—
Noah’s Fertility Incarnation, the ice coffin sealing Akxia and the Remnant of the Old Death God—all were consumed, vanishing into the void.