Chapter 48: Supremacy

Chapter 48: Chapter 48: Supremacy

Krono did not even bother to look up. He kept his eyes focused completely on the rusted metal ring resting in his green, scaly palm.

​"Are you completely deaf, you filthy green lizard?

I am Malakor Arklong! The future Lord of this city! I ordered you to drop that piece of rusted garbage and get on your knees!"

​The terrified shopkeeper scrambled out from behind the counter, waving his hands frantically.

​"Please, Young Master Arklong! Do not dirty your noble hands! He is just a foolish scavenger picking through the trash bin! That ring is completely useless!"

​"Hmph, a scavenger, so what? Malakor sneered disdainfully, "Look at him. A pathetic, low-tier dragonoot holding a worthless, rusted iron ring. You two belong together."

​Krono finally turned his head.

​"Trash? Your eyes are exactly as weak as your combat skills, Malakor." he said mockingly.

​The young lord froze by the audacity. His face immediately contorted with boiling rage.

​"How dare you speak my name, you peasant scum! Die!"

​He violently swung his newly regenerated claw directly at Krono’s head, aiming to decapitate the arrogant commoner in a single strike.

​But, Krono did not even attempt to dodge. With his Strength now sitting at an apocalyptic 2,500 points, he casually raised his left hand and caught Malakor’s wrist mid-air.

Crack!

​The loud, sickening crack of snapping bones echoed through the armory.

​"Ahhhhh!" Malakor shrieked in absolute agony. His incredibly expensive, newly healed arm bent at a horrifying angle.

​Before the arrogant noble could even pull away, Krono raised his right hand and delivered a devastating slap directly across Malakor’s face.

SLAP!

​The physical impact sounded exactly like a cannon firing inside the small shop.

Malakor’s jaw dislocated instantly.

Woosh!

His body then flew backward across the room, violently crashing into a heavy weapon rack and burying himself under a massive pile of steel shields.

​"Young Master!" the shopkeeper screamed in sheer horror.

He looked at Krono as if he were staring at a demon.

"Are you completely insane? You just struck a noble!"

​Krono completely ignored the crying shopkeeper. He looked down at the rusted ring in his hand with a playful gaze.

​"You threw this in the bargain bin because it had no magical signature. But that is only because a supreme spatial artifact requires a supreme amount of energy to awaken."

​Krono instantly channeled ten thousand points of his pitch-black Miasma directly into the rusted metal.

​The dull iron instantly shattered like glass.

Then Krono’s palm erupted with a radiant silver light, instantly illuminating the entire armory.

The rusted exterior fell away entirely, revealing a flawless, glowing ring forged from pure starlight and etched with ancient, divine runes.

​The raw spatial pressure radiating from the tiny artifact was suffocating. The surrounding swords and shields rattled chaotically on their racks.

Also, the gravity inside the room became incredibly heavy.

​The shopkeeper dropped to his knees, his eyes bulging out of his skull.

​"A Divine-Tier Spatial Ring... I sold a treasure worth an entire kingdom for a handful of copper coins." he cried.

​Malakor struggled to lift his bleeding head from the pile of weapons. His yellow eyes widened in pure shock as he stared at the blinding silver artifact.

​"Who are you?" Malakor choked out, spitting blood onto the floor.

​Krono just slipped the divine ring onto his finger, saying:

​"Just a scavenger. Picking up the trash your noble family leaves behind."

"Hey, what’s going on there?"

"Rrr, don’t know. But thr Baron’s son is there. Let’s take a look."

The loud commotion and the blinding silver light had already attracted a massive crowd.

Wealthy nobles, elite merchants, and armored guards from the upper district were now peering frantically through the giant hole in the armory wall.

They looked in disbelief, pointing their trembling fingers at the glowing divine ring and the bleeding young lord on the floor.

Blurgh!

​Malakor coughed up another heavy mouthful of dark blood.

The public humiliation was entirely too much for his fragile, arrogant ego to handle.

He stared at the green dragonoot standing above him, eyes burning with hatred and pathetic desperation.

​"You think you have won?" Malakor spat, gripping a shattered steel shield to violently pull himself up.

"Nah. You are still just a filthy, lowborn peasant! I know exactly what you are! You are nothing but the dirty bastard child of a cheap, alleyway whore!"

​As soon he saud this, the entire weapon shop went completely silent.

Even, the whispering crowd outside froze in place.

​Because Krono stopped smiling.

​The playful amusement vanished from his crimson eyes. It was instantly replaced by a cold, suffocating, and absolute abyss.

Coldness radiated from his very bones.

​His mother was the only pure, untainted memory he had left in this rotting world.

​Krono did not say a single word in response. He did not yell in anger. He did not boast about his supreme power.

​He simply took a single step forward.

​Malakor opened his bloody mouth to scream for his royal guards, but it was far too late.

Krono reached down and grabbed the young noble directly by his scaly throat, lifting his heavy, armored body completely off the floor with a single hand.

​"Wait! My father is the Baron! He will..." Malakor warned, his legs kicking wildly in the air as pure terror finally pierced right through his blinding arrogance.

​Crunch.

​Suddenly, with a casual flick of his wrist, Krono squeezed his fingers together.

The sickening sound of Malakor’s thick neck snapping echoed loudly through the dead silence of the upper district street.

​The young lord’s yellow eyes rolled to the back of his head. His arms dropped lifelessly to his sides.

​Krono let go, allowing the dead, heavy corpse to drop onto the bloody floorboards with a loud thud.

"Waahhhh!"

Gasps echoed. Eyes rolled back in disbelief.

​A mere commoner had just murdered the sole heir of the Arklong Barony in broad daylight.

​But the absolute nightmare was only just beginning.

​Krono looked down at the lifeless body, his crimson eyes glowed with a ravenous hunger.

​"Omni Devourer," Krono whispered into the dead silence.

Buzz!

​Instantly, a massive, swirling vortex of pitch black mist erupted directly from Krono’s shadow. The dark fog violently wrapped around Malakor’s bleeding corpse like a starving, formless beast.

The horrifying sound of flesh being dissolved, bones being crushed, and blood being violently slurped echoed through the terrified street.

​Ding!

​[ Target Devoured: Young Noble Dragonoot ]

​[ Strength increased! ]

​[ Vitality increased! ]

​[ Target possessed a diluted Vermilion Dragon Bloodline. ]

​[ Integrating extracted bloodline properties... ]

​[ Vermilion Dragon Scales passive proficiency increased! ]

​In less than three seconds, the black mist completely vanished back into Krono’s body.

​The floor was entirely empty. There was no blood left behind. There was no shattered armor. There was absolutely no trace of Malakor Arklong left in the physical world.

​"H-he ate him!"

​"The black mist... Isn’t it tbe same like the monster from the lower districts? He is the Dragon Devourer!"

​"Oh Lord! We’re dead!"