Vol 6. Chapter 145: The Shattered Crown

“What do you mean by ‘an unsolvable choice’?”

Faced with Leon’s question, Carl no longer responded.

He merely raised the Five-Spirit Crown in his hand, gazing at Leon as he spoke in a deep voice:

“Since you’ve already chased me to this point, there’s no need to keep hiding anymore. But I won’t let things go your way, Leon. I believe that Carl wouldn’t hesitate to carry out my orders, even if it means... The cost of his life.”

As soon as the words fell, Carl’s body began to tremble violently once again.

But unlike before, this time, it wasn’t the kind of trembling that indicated Atos was forcibly controlling his body.

Rather, it was as if a powerful force was rampaging inside him, twisting his limbs and torso into shapes that no longer resembled a human. The scene was unbearably horrifying.

“Crack—crack!”

“Crack! Crack!”

Carl’s bones made a terrifying noise, and the muscles all over his body tensed and contracted violently.

“No—no! Master! — Don’t do this... to me—Ahhhhh!!”

Carl screamed, his body writhing in agony.

A foul-smelling fluid spurted from his face, nostrils, and eyes, his lips curling back as his tongue hung limply, as if he had completely lost consciousness.

The sight left Leon and the gathered Dragon Kings utterly shocked.

“What... what is he doing?” Rosvisser forced herself to suppress the overwhelming nausea.

Leon’s brows furrowed tightly as he stared at the gradually silent Carl. He didn’t know what was happening, but...

Carl’s body suddenly emitted a radiant light. Leon’s gaze locked onto the Five-Spirit Crown in Carl’s hands.

He seized the opportunity, lunging forward with all his might, reaching for the crown...

But just as Leon was less than a step away from Carl, a powerful energy began to surge and burst from Carl’s body.

Dark purple energy shot out from the numerous cracks that appeared on Carl’s skin, spreading like a spiderweb.

“Damn it... That madman!”

By the time Leon realized what was about to happen, it was already too late.

With a deafening boom, a blinding purple light exploded in front of Leon’s eyes.

In the next instant, a massive cloud of dark, demonic mist rose up from the Northern Lights Glacier, surging straight into the heavens.

The entire earth trembled violently from the intensity of the blast.

In the distance, several snow-capped mountains began to avalanche. Birds and beasts fled in panic, and glaciers shattered.

In that moment, it felt like the end of the world in the extreme north.

Wave after wave of searing heat spread outward, melting the surrounding snow and turning it into scalding steam that diffused rapidly.

Carl’s forced self-detonation lasted several minutes.

Rosvisser and Poseidon managed to retreat to a safe distance before the blast hit them.

Carl had been less than two meters away from Leon at the time, effectively placing him at the very center of the explosion.

If Poseidon and the other Dragon Kings hadn’t forcibly restrained Rosvisser, she would have already rushed into the blast.

“Leon!! Leon!!”

The aftermath of the explosion had not yet dissipated when Rosvisser rushed into the scorching heat and swirling dust.

Her voice cracked with tears as she shouted Leon’s name again and again.

Even though they had retreated to a safe distance, the sheer impact of the blast had inflicted minor injuries on everyone present. Those who were weaker were left dazed and disoriented.

It was important to remember that everyone here was at least at the level of a Dragon King, yet they still couldn’t withstand the force of that self-detonation.

Not to mention Leon, who had been almost in direct contact with Carl—the walking bomb.

“Leon! Where are you?! Don’t scare me!”

Rosvisser staggered through the smoke and dust, her voice growing more frantic and desperate as she searched for Leon.

Poseidon and the others also rushed in to help.

“Leon!!”

“Leon! Where are you?!”

...

Their shouts echoed in the air, only to be swallowed by the vast expanse of the glacier.

Just when Rosvisser was on the verge of breaking down in tears, she finally caught sight of a staggering, kneeling figure in the distance.

She rushed over without hesitation.

“Leon! Leon, are you okay?!”

Rosvisser held onto Leon’s arm, his wrist and face bearing burn marks. His expression was exhausted to the extreme.

But beyond the exhaustion, Rosvisser also noticed something else in his eyes...

Unyielding rage.

Leon shook his head, trying to regulate his breathing and regain his strength.

“That explosion just now wasn’t Carl’s own power. It was a force...”

“Don’t rush. Take your time,” Rosvisser gently patted his back.

Leon coughed a few times, then continued:

“It was a power transmitted by Atos. The sheer insanity of it—to have such a high-level transmission ability, yet not to save his own subordinate but instead to use his body as a bomb...”

Hearing this, Rosvisser was stunned speechless by Atos’s actions.

She clutched Leon’s arm tightly, feeling the strength slowly return to him.

“Did you use the Shadow of Sumeru to shield yourself from the blast?”

Leon nodded.

“Yeah, I poured what little magic power I had left into the Sumeru Shadow, just barely managing to shield ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) myself. But...”

Rosvisser raised an eyebrow. “But what?”

Leon silently reached into his robes and pulled out several shards of metal. The fragments were charred, bearing the grim marks of the explosion.

“But these are what’s left of the crown after the self-detonation... Atos never intended to let Carl leave with the crown. He was just waiting for the right moment to destroy it and, hopefully, kill me along the way.”

...

Rosvisser’s eyes remained fixed on the shattered Five-Spirit Crown in Leon’s hand.

The shine gradually faded from the fragments, and the power of Zeus that had been sealed within was completely gone.

“This was the outcome they anticipated from the start. Once those in the Void Realm obtain a divine relic, the most effective way to deal with it is to destroy it.”

Back then, Kaiser hadn’t destroyed the Wind Spirit Core only because he was still wavering internally.

But Carl was different.

He was Atos’s loyal dog, a mindless tool, a disposable pawn.

Using him to bait Leon and then detonate himself to destroy the crown—it was all planned perfectly.

“I was still a step too late, Rosvisser...”

If I had reached Carl before he detonated, none of this would have happened...

Rosvisser pursed her lips, holding onto Leon’s arm tightly. She said softly:

“Don’t blame yourself, Leon. They used the Thunder Spirit Core and the Golden Thunder Clan to distract you, to buy time. That was how they managed to seize the crown.”

Leon lowered his gaze, his eyes flashing with deep frustration.

“But no matter how you look at it, we’ve lost one of the divine relics that could suppress the Void Gate. What are we supposed to do now? And...”

“And?”

“And the last thing Atos said to me was that stopping the Void Realm’s descent was an ‘unsolvable choice’ for me.”

Leon’s expression darkened. “I have no idea what he meant by that. What kind of choice does he expect me to make?”

Rosvisser was equally puzzled.

As the couple discussed, a voice suddenly called out from a distance:

“Quick! There’s still a messenger dragon over here!”

Upon hearing this, the two of them supported each other as they hurried over.

“It looks like this messenger dragon was also affected by the explosion,” Poseidon said, cradling the dragon in his palm and feeling for its pulse.

“It’s still alive, just temporarily unconscious.”

Leon raised his eyes slightly and examined the dragon.

“This looks like a messenger dragon from Saint Heath Academy. When the academy sent us the assessment notices, I saw it a few times.”

“Quickly, see what message it’s carrying.”

Poseidon removed the scroll tube from the dragon’s back and shook out a letter.

The sender’s name was: Safina.

The recipients were “Leon Casmod & Rosvisser.”

Without opening it, Poseidon handed the letter directly to the couple.

Leon took the letter, and together with Rosvisser, they opened it and began to read.

Rustle...

Before they had even finished reading, Rosvisser’s hand trembled, crushing the letter in her grip.

Leon’s pupils quivered as he muttered in disbelief:

“So this... this is the ‘unsolvable choice’ that Atos meant...”