Chapter 266: Catch This II: Beheaded with a Smiley Face

The white glow in Riven’s eyes dimmed when his reflection in the blades of the Hi-no-Kami caught his gaze. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

His heart heaved when Leon locked a burning gaze onto him.

Riven looked down at his own spear, then shifted sharp, rage-filled eyes to Leon. "Finish it then!"

He spat, while a trail of blood slid down his chin. "I am not returning to Seol-Mujin until you are dead."

Sparks flashed in the air when he swung his spear upward and clashed it against Leon’s Hi-no-Kami. Sweat dripped down his face when he dashed forward, breaking the time boundary just to finish Leon.

Leon side-stepped and slammed his elbow into Riven’s back. The impact sent Riven crashing to the ground and bouncing up once. "I don’t know you or have a grudge with the people of Seol-Mujin."

Riven pushed himself off the floor and hurled concussive, burning waves at Leon, but none of them flickered on Leon’s skin or his hair. He moved through them like a leaf in a storm.

The moment he dashed through the waves, Leon slammed his left palm onto Riven’s shoulder and sent him to his knees without a struggle. "Just give me one reason to fight or kill you!"

The remnants of the solflare blazed in all directions and caused the skeletal throne to shatter into ash. Through the burning fire, Riven stood on his knees without even his white robe getting burned.

He lifted a tearful gaze at Leon, then smiled. "I am not returning to that place to crawl at their feet like a defeated dog. I would rather die here in this pile of trash than face them as a failure."

The burning air around Leon calmed while his dual heart pounded like a silent storm inside his chest. The golden blaze in his eyes softened when he shifted his gaze to the crumbling ceiling and back to Riven.

"You are throwing your life away for pride. There is no shame in retreating when you are already defeated in advance."

A bone-crackling sound echoed around Riven as he clenched his left arm and slammed it hard onto the ground.

Rootlike cracks lingered beneath him as he forced himself upward, while pain rattled through his shoulder bones. "I do not want your pity, Storm, son of the Destroyer and Wielder of the Solflare. I want a warrior’s death."

Leon jumped backward, exhaling in a dissatisfied manner.

Riven lunged forward for one last time in a desperate, broken stance. ’I have used all the strength and will use this last one even if I burn in return.’

All his muscles tore out in jagged white crystal essence as he sliced his fist through the air.

Leon stood still and watched as the air hammered around him. ’I don’t want to fight him or kill him. But...’

He let out an unwanted sigh and locked his eyes with Riven’s. Leon shifted to his left and watched as the earth he stood on plummeted when Riven’s fist slammed into it.

Stone hidden beneath the ground and inner fire erupted into Riven’s face, but they did no harm to him.

The jagged crystal veins absorbed all the essence in the lava and glowed like the sun in its prime. "IF YOU WON’T ADHERE TO MY WISH, THEN I HAVE NO CHOICE. LEON STORM!"

His fingers gleamed as he swung them through Leon’s left side where his human heart was. Blood gushed out of Leon’s mouth and splashed on Riven’s smiling face.

Leon gritted his bloodied teeth, wrapped his left fingers on Riven’s arm, then locked eyes with him. "I wanted to spare you, Riven. But you have left me no choice!"

His second heart pounded heavily as if about to blast him apart when he drew one of the Hi-no-Kami.

The blade sang through the air with Li Mei’s humming tone and Lily’s laughter when Leon swung it toward Riven’s neck. It sieved through Riven’s neck like passing through water, and appeared with no blood on it. "You did not deserve this death."

Pain rattled through Leon’s body as he pushed himself backward, while Riven stood there, still as if frozen in time.

Two drops of tears trailed down Riven’s eyes and dropped from his chin. His neck remained intact until the tears bounced on the dusty floor like a nuclear explosion.

A clean, cut line appeared on his skin. The moment he moved his hands upward, his head fell off his body as if it was not even his and danced in the air with a smiling face. A mixture of blood and water sprayed out of the reddened inner skin, showing how the veins pump blood.

The body swung side-by-side until it slammed onto the ground and shook the foundational pillars of the Umbarkar Realm.

Leon stood still with his right arm pressed hard against his throbbing, wounded heart, while watching the sweet display the head was portraying.

Riven’s lips remained wide, cheeks reddened as the head rolled on smooth surfaces and bounced on rocky ground until it stopped by the front of the stairs leading to where the skeletal throne was.

Leon sheathed his sword, while the red-gold cloth sputtered out the remains of the fiery halo, then wrapped itself around his neck like a stubborn child.

The Opal stone walls outside the Umbarkar King’s chamber lost their blue glow when Leon walked past them as he exited.

When he stopped beneath the Ziggurat and removed his palm from his chest, his eyes glowed with shock when he saw the wound healed. In his chest, he could feel as if a new heart had been formed and pounded even in a stronger hum, unlike his lost human one.

The burnt silver skeletal Serakel’s hollow socket looked back at Leon when he lifted his gaze toward it.

A loud crumpling sound echoed as dust ploughed into the atmosphere like a fog as the Umbarkar King’s mountain chamber collapsed into itself.

Leon coughed twice and waved his right palm, pushing the dust out of his face. He moved the red-gold cloth around his mouth and nose, then took in a deep, silent breath. "It is about time I finish Aurelian and go home to check if what Riven said is true or not."

The shield flew out of Leon’s back and transformed into its drift mode while the tips of the red-gold cloth flared behind Leon like flames.

"I am coming, Aurelian."

The ground beneath the hovering drift shield burned when it lunged toward the dead cloud like angry lightning.

...

The tip of the Castle of Souls glowed when a bright golden light appeared in the sky at its front.

Inside the top room, where a circular window with three triangles carved inward was, black and white feathers danced at its front.

Behind the window, a water-waving sound echoed as Aurelian sat in his throne that he had carved from the remains of the Opal scorpion, smiling.