*Rumble!*
A deafening explosion swept across the wilderness!
The earth shook violently as dust and debris, mingled with berserk mana, surged into the sky to form a massive mushroom cloud.
The blinding light gradually faded.
In the giant crater, a swirling plume of dust now occupied the spot where Aura had once stood.
But at this moment, Luo Han had no time to worry about anything else.
“I did it…
haha…” The adrenaline from the rapid descent and the joy of success had just touched the corners of his mouth when his expression froze.
He couldn’t stop!
He waved his staff frantically, trying to reboot his flight magic or levitation spell.
Mana surged forth, but his falling speed only slowed for a heartbeat before gravity violently reclaimed its hold!
“No…
this isn’t right!” Luo Han panicked.
This wasn’t how it happened in the original story!
When Frieren’s party was snatched up by flying monsters, didn’t they just use a levitation spell to stop right before they hit the ground?
Even the horse was fine.
Shouldn’t he be making a graceful landing, grabbing Aura’s loot box, and feasting like a king?
How did it turn into this?!
The wind pressure almost flattened him, and the ground enlarged rapidly in his vision.
A sense of despair washed over him like ice water.
*Am I going to be the first person to die from a fall in the Collision World?
If I die in such a stupid way, what the hell will my evaluation look like when I get out?!*
*THOOM—!!!*
A massive impact followed, but it wasn’t the bone-shattering agony he expected.
A soft but resilient mesh of mana caught him like a net, stripping away the layers of momentum.
Even so, the remaining force slammed him hard into the scorched crater, embedding him in a deep, human-shaped depression.
“Cough…
*hack!*” Luo Han’s vision went black.
His bones felt like they had been pulverized, and his mouth tasted of rusted iron.
He tried to move, but piercing pain flared from multiple sites, making it impossible to even crawl.
Amidst the settling dust, a calm voice drifted down from the edge of the pit.
“Luo Han, you idiot.”
Luo Han shifted his eyes with great difficulty and looked up.
Frieren was leaning on her staff, crouching at the edge of the crater, looking down at him with an expression of utter disbelief.
*So this is the perspective of Frieren looking down on you…*
“You’re badly injured.
Don’t move,” Frieren said, her tone devoid of obvious emotion.
“If I hadn’t used levitation magic in time, you’d be Mimic mincemeat by now.
“Oh, wait,” she corrected herself.
“You would have just vanished into mana ash.”
Luo Han twitched his lips but couldn’t manage a smile.
He forced his mana to activate the dark red crystal hidden in his inner shirt—[Sanguine Mending].
A warm flow of energy, pulsing with the rhythm of life, instantly enveloped his body and seeped into his wounds.
He could feel his broken bones being guided back into place by the strange pull of his blood; his torn muscles began to knit together, and the agonizing pain was replaced by a tingling, burning heat.
“I was going to say you’d have to hold on until I found a priest,” Frieren said softly, still crouching there and watching the dark red energy wrap around him.
“But it seems that won’t be necessary.
“That’s the blood magic from that demon earlier, isn’t it?
This method of yours…
gaining power from other demons…”
She paused for a moment.
“It’s quite unreasonable, really.”
“You killed Aura just for this, didn’t you?”
Luo Han’s heart skipped a beat.
Frieren’s tone was off.
He answered cautiously, “…Yeah.
That’s right.” This chapter is updated first at g.com.
Silence spread through the scent of scorched earth and gunpowder, broken only by the faint sound of blood flowing within Luo Han.
After a long silence, Frieren slowly stood up.
She raised her staff, its tip pointing steadily at the immobile Luo Han at the bottom of the pit.
“Luo Han.”
Her voice was soft, yet it pierced the air like an icicle.
“Give me a reason not to kill you.”
Luo Han’s entire body went rigid.
It felt as if he had been dragged back to the conversation they had when they first met—the same sensation of being pointed at by that very staff.
His blood nearly turned to ice.
Frieren didn’t wait for his answer.
She continued as if talking to herself, her eyes drifting toward the spot where Aura had vanished, where dust was still settling.
“Just now, Aura asked me…
why I didn’t destroy those headless armors since Himmel is gone, and why I wasted mana on dispelling magic instead.”
“I was thinking then…
demons really are beyond redemption.”
She pulled her gaze back and let it fall on Luo Han again.
Deep within her pupils, there seemed to be a violent, silent struggle.
“But I also thought…
you were an exception.”
“However, just now…” Her voice dropped, carrying a rare hint of something bordering on exhaustion.
“I realized that after you killed Aura, your mana would become incredibly strong.
You might even master ‘Submission Magic.’
“When that time comes…”
She stared into Luo Han’s eyes, asking word by word:
“Will those memories of your past life as a human…
still be enough to restrain you?”
Rationality and emotion—the vigilance born of a thousand years of experience and the trust accumulated during this journey—battled fiercely in her eyes.
Looking at the struggle in her gaze, Luo Han’s monster heart, which shouldn’t have been capable of such fluctuations, felt inexplicably stifled.
He didn’t want to look at her like this anymore.
So, he shifted his gaze toward the system notifications that had appeared after killing Aura, feeling a sense of stability return to his heart.
Then, as if making a decision, he took a soft breath, looked up, and met Frieren’s eyes.
He put all his effort into making his voice sound as calm as usual.
“In that case…”
“Wouldn’t it be fine if I just left this world?”
The wind of the wilderness blew past, kicking up ash from the edge of the crater, fluttering through Frieren’s stationary white hair and catching the sudden contraction of her pupils.
***
The wind on the plains had somehow become gentler, swirling particles of scorched earth that shimmered with a golden-red light under the slant of the setting sun.
Frieren lowered her staff to her side, its tip lightly tapping the blackened ground.
She looked at Luo Han, her thousand-year-old eyes churning with extremely complex emotions.
Surprise, relief, a trace of imperceptible loss, and a sense of lightened burden.
“Leave this world?” she repeated softly, as if seeking confirmation.
“Yeah.” Luo Han forced himself into a sitting position.
The [Sanguine Mending] was still in effect; he could feel his ribs snapping into place, and the burning pain in his lungs was fading.
His consciousness connected with the Collision World.
A notification appeared: [You have unlocked a special extraction point: Hero’s Tomb.
Current status: Awaiting activation.]
As the place where Aura of the Seven Sages of Destruction fell, countless heroic spirits sang here, offering a hymn to the bravery of the revenger.
Luo Han’s consciousness returned, and he looked seriously at Frieren.
“Thanks for the journey you’ve taken me on.
I’ve learned a lot, and I won’t forget you.
“I’ll be able to turn back into a human later, but not in this world.
Just wait a bit longer, and I should be able to leave.”
Luo Han spoke very calmly, just as he would usually talk about what to cook for dinner at camp.
Frieren remained silent.
She thought back on everything that had happened along the way.
Their first meeting and the contract as a Mimic; the sneak attack during the battle with the Qual, the Corrupt Elder; his clumsy practice of levitation magic on the beach; the delicious meals he cooked; his desperate distraction of the Great Solar Dragon before the dragon’s nest; and his madness just now, falling from the sky.
This peculiar existence, possessing the body of a monster yet insisting he was once human.
“You know,” Frieren suddenly spoke, her gaze turning toward the sun as it gradually dipped below the horizon. Follow the newest chapters on g.com.
“I used to think that demons would never change.
That they were like falling stars, destined only to descend into darkness.”
She paused.
“But you’re different.
You learn, you grow, you stand in front of others when there’s danger…
and when you think you might become a threat, you choose to leave on your own.”
Luo Han chuckled, feeling a bit helpless.
“Don’t go getting your hopes up for other monsters and demons in the future.
My situation is pretty special.
“I don’t really want to go, either.
Traveling with you guys is fun, and I’ve learned so much magic.
But this body…
and my ability to take power from demons…
If this keeps up, it’ll make things difficult for you, won’t it?”
Frieren didn’t deny it.
She only gave a soft “Mm.”
The atmosphere grew quiet again, but it was no longer the sword-drawn tension from before.
It was…
a peaceful farewell.
Luo Han suddenly remembered something and checked his data panel.
As expected, [Ordinary Offensive Magic] had jumped from Lv.4 to Lv.5.
That final strike had nearly drained all his mana, but it had also given him a brand-new understanding of mana condensation and eruption.
Right, the loot!
He forced himself to use the [Flight Magic] he had just mastered—real flight magic this time, not that levitation spell Frieren had teased him with for so long—and wobbled into the air.
Directly above the deep pit where Aura had dissipated, a soul-stirring red light floated quietly.
Red!
Luo Han’s heart gave a violent thump.
In the Collision World, item quality went from low to high: White, Green, Blue, Purple, Gold.
And Red…
This was a tier he had never seen mentioned in any guides.
He realized that perhaps items of this quality weren’t things one could learn about on the regular network.
He floated to the red light, reached out to touch it, and then landed.
the loot box opened silently, and the red light flowed out like a living thing, condensing in the twilight into a black-covered tome with dark red veins flowing along its edges.
[Aura’s Submission Magic (Source)] [Quality: Red] [Description: The complete source imprint of the magic held by Aura of the Seven Sages of Destruction.
It contains not only the ‘Scales of Obedience’ form but also touches upon concepts such as ‘Compulsion’ and ‘The Soul.’ Upon use, the user can obtain and convert levels related to Submission Magic.] [Origin: Collision World H-07]
“Haha, a Red drop!
I knew it—hit the jackpot.” Luo Han was elated.
He chose to use it immediately; things were only truly valuable once applied to oneself.
The tome flipped open automatically.
Countless laws, principles, and applications regarding “Submission” flooded into Luo Han’s consciousness like a deluge.
The red light gradually dimmed as the tome transformed into a mark branded deep within Luo Han’s soul.
He opened his eyes and let out a long breath.
[Submission Magic Lv.9] [Effect: Weighs the target’s soul against your own on a scale.
The one with the higher soul weight gains control over the other.] [Note: Can control entities with a lower Intelligence stat than your own.
During Intelligence checks, you gain an attribute advantage check equal to the skill level.
Current: +9.
Can control enemies with 23 Intelligence or lower.] [Max Capacity: Intelligence + Skill Level.
Currently 14+9.
Maximum controlled quantity: 23.]
“What did you learn?
Submission Magic?” Frieren’s voice came from the side.
She had walked over and was sizing him up.
Luo Han nodded.
“Yeah.
Want to learn it?
I can teach you.”