Book 1 Chapter 872

872. Chen Xia caught her breath at the power of the aura swirling from her whole body.

Looking at Chen Xia's back like that, Leo thought.

'Like the sea.'

As if it were a vast, unfathomably deep ocean.

The water aura, rippling like an angry sea, gathered at Chen Xia's fingertips in an instant.

Whoosh-!

Chen Xia closed the distance with Sigaas at an incredible speed.

"Ugh!"

Sigaas let out a groan as if troubled, then began to clink the jewels held in his right hand.

And soon, he gripped one of them in his left hand.

Woong-!

Then, a circular barrier appeared, centered around Sigaas.

Nevertheless, Chen Xia unleashed a fist imbued with water aura without hesitation.

Kwaaaang-!

An enormous impact sound filled the surroundings.

Chen Xia makes aura flow through her body.

And she gathers the flowing aura at her feet or fingertips, like a dam holding back water.

Eventually, when the accumulated amount of aura reaches its peak, she unleashes it all at once as if bursting a dam, creating immense destructive power.

Therefore, the longer Chen Xia gathered aura, the stronger an attack she could make.

'In terms of instantaneous explosive power, Celia or Duran are superior to Chen Xia.'

If only she were given time, Chen Xia could unleash a more powerful attack than those two people.

Of course, her continuity is lacking, so ultimately, in terms of pure firepower, she cannot match Celia and Duran.

'Still, when that one blow lands, it's lethal, isn't it.'

That attack landed squarely on Sigaas.

Indeed, as a result, the barrier Sigaas had erected was distorted as if it would tear.

"How terrifying! My force field was almost destroyed!"

Sigaas was astonished.

But the barrier was not ultimately destroyed, and if it wasn't, now it was his turn.

Sigaas's barrier, distorted by Chen Xia's attack, began to return to its original state.

At that moment, the attack Chen Xia had unleashed entirely returned to Chen Xia.

As immense destructive power surged over her, Chen Xia's eyes momentarily widened.

Pwoong-!

Chen Xia's body, directly hit by the attack, floated in the air.

At that moment…

Woong-!

The water aura that had bounced back enveloped Chen Xia.

Seeing that, Sigaas's eyes widened.

"What is this…?"

"Water is…"

Chen Xia, with her eyes closed, controlled the water aura enveloping her body.

"More than any other element, it is also a gentle power."

A faint smile spread across Chen Xia's lips.

"Fiercely flowing water, if you make it flow gently again, that's all there is to it."

The water aura flowing around Chen Xia added to the bounced back water aura, and this time, it began to flow even more fiercely.

Watching that scene, Leo's eyes widened.

'A completely unthought-of way of utilizing it, isn't it?'

Just as Chelsea did.

Chen Xia too was showing a way to utilize water aura that Leo hadn't imagined.

Ku-ga-ga-ga-ga-gang-!

Like a giant tsunami, Chen Xia's fist struck Sigaas once again.

Kwa-ga-ga-ga-ga-gang-!

Sigaas, unable to even scream, was swept away by Chen Xia's attack.

Ku-gu-gu-gu-gung-!

Sigaas's body burrowed into the ground.

Physical force transcending imagination.

Softly-

Despite unleashing an attack akin to a natural disaster, Chen Xia landed lightly on the ground.

Thump-!

At that moment, Sigaas burst out from inside the pit.

The tightly wrapped robe became rags, revealing his gaunt and unseemly body.

Though a demon of Legion Commander rank, his appearance showed no trace of a Legion Commander's dignity.

It was enough to understand why he had been covering his entire body.

"As for me,"

Sigaas said, with a flash of red light in his eyes.

"I was born with such an unseemly appearance."

Sigaas, who staggered to his feet, looked at Chen Xia.

"That's why I coveted everything about other beings."

"For someone like that, you seem quite modest."

Chen Xia tilted her head.

"I merely realized. Even if I were steeped in desire and took everything I wanted, this shabby appearance of mine would not change."

Even if I changed my appearance with an illusion and adorned myself with all the precious things in the world.

The fundamental shabby appearance would not change.

Demons are such beings.

Beings whose essence does not change.

Because they were born solely to destroy the world, change is unnecessary.

They merely destroy.

Sigaas smiled.

His appearance somehow resembled a sage who had realized the truth of the world.

"So I abandoned them. The desire to adorn myself, and the desire as a demon to fundamentally destroy the world. Except for just one desire."

"Just one?"

"That's right. Because I realized something."

Clink- Clink-

Sigaas took out one transparent jewel from among those held in his right hand.

"When drawn by deep desire, others become ugly like me."

Chen Xia's image formed in Sigaas's transparent jewel.

"I have instigated the desires of countless beings. So many I ruined."

A being that fulfills desires.

That was the reason he received the name 'King of Desire'.

"And the great God bestowed upon me the power I desired as a divine authority!"

Until now, by granting what they desired, he had brought ruin to people.

But now, such bothersome processes were no longer necessary.

He called his own divine authority a paltry power.

But it was a very powerful divine authority.

Because merely by instigating desire, one could destroy the mind.

When considering that desire is the intrinsic need of existence.

If one did not possess strong mental power, resisting that power was almost impossible.

"Though your strength may have grown, you are still just a young human girl! It didn't work well on the King of the World, but… it won't be the same for you!"

In order to instigate the opponent's desire, one must observe the opponent.

Because of that, Sigaas knew well the fact that humans… especially younger humans, are vulnerable to desire.

And how fatal his divine authority was to them.

Sigaas shouted.

"Show me what your desire is!"

"……"

Chen Xia was ensnared by Sigaas's divine authority.

A situation where, if things went wrong, she could become incapacitated for battle.

But Leo was nonchalant.

"You're not nervous at all, King of the World."

"I believe. In our little one."

Leo chuckled.

"By the way, what does it mean that the divine authority didn't work? It's quite troublesome, you know."

"Normally, within this illusion, your existence would have been erased. Because you would be unable to control the desire to endlessly long for the past."

"In such a situation, even existence itself can be erased? That's quite a troublesome ability."

"It's not just troublesome, it's dangerous, young master Leo."

Chen Xia let out a deep sigh.

"Honestly, sometimes it seems young master Leo has no sense of crisis at all."

"The worst situation didn't happen. That means I can deal with it anytime."

Leo said calmly.

Sigaas's eyes glared.

"……How can you resist my divine authority?"

Although he had just received the divine authority, he also knew how powerful it was.

It was not a divine authority that could be resisted with the mental strength of a young human.

"Hmm…"

Chen Xia thought for a moment, then smiled.

"Isn't it because my desire is already fulfilled?"

"What?"

Sigaas's face was colored with bewilderment.

"Don't you have anything you want to possess? Like an object you desire! Or a person! For your happiness, there must be something you desire, surely?!"

"There is."

"As for me. I wanted to be a hero. A hero I could never become normally."

That was Chen Xia's strongest desire.

But she knew.

That she could never become a hero.

"But there was someone who acknowledged my own denied dream for me."

Closing her eyes and placing a hand on her chest, Chen Xia gently smiled and thought of that person.

"The person who pulled me out of the darkness… No. I mean, the person who taught me how to shine even in darkness."

Chen Xia's eyes opened.

"And that person became my benefactor and my everything."

Looking at Sigaas, Chen Xia spoke with emphasis.

"Being by that person's side is my greatest happiness."

Her desire was fulfilled.

Because of that, she was not greatly affected by Sigaas's divine authority.

"Madness…"

Sigaas muttered with a look of disbelief.

"You are mad. How could you dedicate everything about yourself to one person?"

"It's my heart."

Sticking out her tongue, Chen Xia clenched her fist.

"Alright then, so that you can no longer harm young master Leo, I will thoroughly destroy you."

The expression disappeared from Chen Xia's face.

"Right now, I am enveloped in a strong desire. To kill you, a being threatening my precious person, as painfully as possible."

At Chen Xia's words, Sigaas shook his head.

"It seems you and I have a bad compatibility."

Sigaas, who left those words, clinked the jewels held in his hand, then deployed magic.

Flash-!

Looking at Sigaas, who had quickly fled, Leo clicked his tongue.

"This is why those who use their heads are tricky, I tell you."

From the start, he fought assuming escape.

That also meant he had left reserves to that extent.

'That guy called the Legion Commander of Pain, and… this guy too…'

Leo's eyes narrowed.

'They are indeed crazy bastards.'

That was an unwelcome sign.

The Legion Commanders Leo knew were fundamentally crazy bastards swept up in madness.

Those were aspects not found among the Legion Commanders born after the Age of Calamity.

'Gradually, guys approaching the Legion Commanders of that time are being born.'

The Legion Commander of Pain and the King of Desire are still rookies.

But if they gained experience, he couldn't know what kind of monsters they would turn into.

Sabak- Sabak-

Chen Xia approached Leo and stared down at him.

"Good job. Amazing…"

Swiftly-

Before Leo could even finish his sentence, Chen Xia put her hands under Leo's armpits and lifted him up.

"Why?"

Looking at Leo, who asked with an unexpressive face, Chen Xia hugged Leo tightly.

And she buried her face into Leo's nape and inhaled.

"You know you're acting super perverted right now?"

"Indeed. If young master Leo were just a little bigger…"

Chen Xia lightly bit Leo's nape and giggled.

"I would definitely have devoured him."

"Do you think I would have meekly succumbed?"

"Does that mean, rather, inversely, I would have been devoured?"

"Stop talking nonsense and put me down."

At those words, Chen Xia, as if regretting it, clicked her tongue and put Leo down.

"Didn't you say that bastard's divine authority didn't work?"

"It's not that it didn't work. That's why I'm acting so impulsive."

Saying that, Chen Xia squatted down next to Leo.

As Leo subtly put some distance, Chen Xia clung close to him and said.

"Young master Leo."

"Why."

"Kal and Eliza have a whopping seven children in this era."

Saying that, Chen Xia looked towards Leo and made eye contact.

"Why is that?"

"That's just how it is."

Looking at Chen Xia, who was smiling bashfully with an innocent-looking expression, Leo let out a hollow laugh.