OLD-WORLD EXTRA

Chapter 249: Absolute Zero

Chapter 249: Absolute Zero

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"?????????????!"

As Emir and Ragnar charged forward, the chamber trembled with Zerathar's eerie laughter.

The darkness around them seemed to writhe with anticipation, morphing into twisted shapes that attacked them.

Emir constantly disappeared and reappeared within the ever-shifting throne room.

His Flash Step allowed him to evade sudden hazards that spawned before him.

'Shit.'

But he miscalculated and couldn't halt his advance into a hazard zone that suddenly appeared in his path.

Just as his feet reached the ground, his body sunk forward, as what replaced it was quicksand. Emir immediately spread his hands wide and pushed himself up.

'Hoh...'

Then he disappeared just before one of Zerathar's massive limbs fell upon him.

Meanwhile, Ragnar was stuck in an endless teleportation loop.

He encountered an ever-shifting gravity hazard.

This caused his perception to falter continuously as every time he teleported, the effort to cross that distance changed.

Which meant that he couldn't properly set his Aether at his wanted location.

His attempts to escape were all duds, but he never stopped trying.

After all, if he were to stay in the same place, a towering limb would squash him to his feet.

'I guess I gotta do it...'

Reluctantly, he fished out a Valora coin while inputting some of his Aether into it as he threw it away.

Then, with a quick internal edit, the spell's Aether Path changed, and he switched locations with the coin.

"Heh, easy-"

His words got stuck in his throat as another hazard zone appeared, yet he skillfully navigated the shifts...

Properly this time around.

The duo maneuvered through the terrain, closing the distance to the colossal Zerathar. On the left side, Emir unleashed a barrage of Aetheric constructs in the form of spears. Their forms cut through the air and found themselves embedded into the Tyrant's limbs.

A small wire connected to each appeared right after, and he was pulled towards them, flying up.

His twin swords flashed with a dark glow as he allowed the momentum of his flight to strengthen his attack.

With a front flip, he cleaved through a couple of the monster's limbs, and they dropped onto the ground, causing it to shake.

While it roared in pain, Ragnar's portals opened seamlessly, severing bits of the monster's appendages with each calculated attack.

He was helped by Morgiana a few times, as she maintained her position in the back.

She continuously launched ice arrows, each strike finding its mark and impeding the Tyrant's

movements.

The battle raged on; the trio were relentless in their assault, but the Zerathar proved resilient.

What they faced were nothing but illusions...

Yet they were powerful, extremely so.

Zerathar distorted reality to the point where everything before them became genuine.

They actually felt and experienced the environment around them as it continued to twist, to shift.

A result of those illusions' prowess.

'Tough luck...'

Emir's eyes narrowed as he activated his Temporal Perception ability.

Around ten limbs, about twenty meters long, snaked their way towards him, dancing through the air.

The prince was surrounded at that moment.

His right contained a ground filled with writing vines, his left a gas-like zone that would

knock him out.

While his front was limbs galore.

'Should I retreat?'

He shook his head.

'... No, if I get back, then I'll be wasting all this time I took to get closer.' With his next actions decided, he blinked forward, his Aerialis aspect activated. A step to the right had him dodge a limb that whizzed past.

Yet even after dodging it, the limb coiled itself around and chased after him.

But Emir didn't care for it and continued forward.

He jumped, avoiding one that came below him, and then landed atop it.

Four came right after, and they all crashed into the one spot he stood at.

They hit nothing; however, as the moment they reached him, he was already gone.

Each step crossed at least thirty meters as he jumped around the limbs that crashed around him from above.

His right foot faltered for a moment as the limb he now stood on was in the process of twisting itself upside down.

'What now?'

Emir was now only a few hundred meters away from the Zerathar so he needed to figure out

what to do next.

He activated his TP ability and paused in thought.

'Hm... should I rush in? I don't see the weakness yet.'

Though he acted like he didn't have a plan, he, in fact, did have something in mind.

But he didn't tell the other two for 'obvious' reasons.

His eyes continued to dart around Zerathar's frame like he was searching for something.

And he was indeed.

From what he figured out from the novel, this monster had its real body hidden beneath all its

illusions.

The Morgiana of the novel couldn't defeat it, so he didn't know how to kill it exactly, only

guesses.

'Well... a blast would clear up the place.'

Although risky, that method was the best he could come up with.

Emir raised his finger, aimed it towards the throne of limbs, and bellowed:

"AETHER BLAST!"

A raw torrent of power escaped his fingertip and tore through the darkness, cutting through

all the limbs in its path.

BANG!

As his attack reached the throne, a massive explosion of Aether resounded, bathing the place

in white.

In that moment of devastation, his nonexistent irises spasmed in their sockets.

They looked left, right, up, and down, again and again, all in that moment where everything

lit up.

And then...

He finally discovered Zerathar's true body.

Underneath one of the limbs that formed the throne, a very subtle but noticeable reaction

took place.

One of the limbs slightly trembled and absorbed a lot of Aether from the environment as it

formed new limbs.

It was a result he expected because of all the damage his Aether Blast had caused.

'Found you...'

Emir looked to his right and saw Ragnar.

He was advancing while cutting through every single thing around him.

'I need this bastard to get her up here.'

The prince couldn't waste any more of his Aether reserves, as he was already more than fifty

percent out.

So instead, he planned to use Morgiana to deal the crushing blow and allow him to fight with

the real monster.

[Bastard.]

[...Brother?]

[Get Morgiana up here, the target is under the throne.]

[Done.]

Ragnar paused and stepped back, with a portal appearing behind him.

He disappeared just before a limb reached him.

"Hey, mag!"

Morgiana flinched as a wild Ragnar appeared in front of her.

She immediately flung her ice spear away from him, as she was about to attack in the same

direction he showed up from.

"IT'S MORG! Morgiana, you idiot!"

"Got it, Mag!"

"Fuck you, man."

"Alright, listen, we need you up there."

An ice spear whizzed past his head, cutting through a limb that neared them.

"Emir's got a plan; charge up your strongest attack now, and I'll get you closer; just focus on

attacking below the throne."

"Whatever..."

Ragnar took her hand and carried her on his shoulder while stepping back into the portal.

They appeared just where Ragnar was a few seconds ago.

Many limbs came after the duo, threatening to crush them, but Emir wasn't about to allow

that to happen.

"Morgiana, Ragnar, go now!"

Emir's voice cut through the chaos as his twin swords cleaved through a limb.

He held on to it as it fell and jumped off, cutting another that came their way.

They nodded and followed his lead as they made their way nearer to the Zerathar.

And the closer they got, the more limbs attacked them.

But with Emir's constant movement, Aether constructs, and Ragnar's portals, none neared

Morgiana.

This allowed her to focus on conjuring the best spell she could, combining multiple abilities

into one.

And what a spell it was...

At first, their every breath caused white smoke to escape their lips, while frosty clouds formed

all around them.

Then, the darkness pulsated, twisted in itself, and froze, transforming into dark blue ice.

Their immediate surroundings began to turn into glacier-like structures.

The hazard zones they rushed past had also shattered.

"Absolute Zero."

At her whisper, an immense arrow of ice materialized before her staff, stretching at least

twenty meters in length.

An instant passed, and it shot towards the throne...

To the heart of darkness.

"You-"

Before it could hit, however, a few limbs managed to reach out in defense.

But they froze and broke into ice fragments a moment later.

Then, as it touched the throne of limbs, a quiet crack resounded.

A wave of frost came after, increasing the temperature of the room to way below zero.

"Fire."

"Mag, that's-"

Ragnar's words froze on the spot as a sharp flash blinded them.

Then an explosion of scorching wind pushed them away from the epicenter.

BOOM!

What came after was a deafening sound reverberating through the chamber, and its force continuously shook the chamber, rattling the very foundations of the space they stood in. RO000000AAAAAAAAAARRRRRR!