Chapter 538: Snow Lionheart vs Cosmos (2)

"If it were him, he wouldn’t have struggled for even a minute against an opponent like this..."

Surrounded on all sides, the Vermithor Sword blazed without pause, its glow like a cry for help, as its wielder found himself in a hopeless situation.

Snow, his face smeared with blood and his golden eyes dimmed, fixed his gaze far ahead—at the Cosmos, the creature weaving its web around him.

"If Frey Starlight were here... none of this would be happening."

Once, there had been a time when Frey was far beneath him. In the blink of an eye, he had caught up—becoming his equal. Snow had been content with that.

But without realizing it... Frey had advanced far ahead, leaving him behind.

Snow Lionheart had never slacked—not once—and had trained just as hard as Frey. Yet for some reason...

The one beloved by light could no longer advance, no matter how he tried, as if he had slammed into some invisible wall keeping him from catching up to his peers.

He had everything it took to become the strongest; his talent was the highest among all humans.

Every resource had been placed at his disposal, every path prepared and paved for him... he was the one beloved by the heavens.

And yet—

"I’m still powerless to do anything!!"

Snow roared, releasing every ounce of pent-up frustration he had carried until now.

"Since the start of this war—no, since the day I was born—I haven’t achieved a damn thing!!"

The chosen hero meant to lead all of humanity—the blessed, the chosen, the... the... the... The titles piled up, endless in number.

But...

What had this hero actually achieved?

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing..."

Whether it was in the distant past, when he was just a boy watching his home burn to the ground and everyone around him die...

Or now, when he had become the so-called hero.

He hadn’t defeated his enemies. He hadn’t saved his comrades. Every obstacle he met, he lost.

He lost to V.

He lost to Frey.

He lost in Londor; he couldn’t win his battle in the chase, and would have died if not for Lara’s intervention.

"Loss after loss... loss after loss!" Slash after slash, strike after strike, Snow tried to shatter the invisible chains wrapped around his body.

"Lose and lose... and here I am losing again!!!"

Burning with hatred for his situation and his weakness, the Church’s champion fought with reckless ferocity, caring nothing for what might happen to him.

"I don’t want to lose anymore! I don’t want to sit on the sidelines, powerless to change a damn thing!"

The chains around Snow tightened further, trying to crush him—but he kept pushing, kept straining, desperate to break free.

He bit his lip hard enough to spill blood down his chin, turning the pain and the heat of battle into something that jolted him awake from his illusions.

He didn’t know why he was still stuck, nor could he find any way to break his restraints.

But he refused to fall—even if it meant using only whatever he had at hand right now.

"My current strength is more than enough to deal with the likes of you."

Maintaining his War King form, the golden runes across Snow’s body flared brightly as he leapt high into the sky—away from the poisonous mists below.

"Focus!!"

Sweeping his gaze across the battlefield from above, Snow searched for any method to fight this untouchable creature.

Even after climbing that high, the fog never once allowed him to check on his allies. All he could see in the distance were dozens of lights of varying colors—auras and elements flashing, proof that the fighting still raged on.

But Snow paid no attention to the others now; his eyes were locked entirely on the Cosmos.

"There’s no such thing as a perfect ability in this world."

No matter how powerful or flawless an ability might seem, there had to be at least one weakness.

Snow bet everything he had on finding it.

The runes across his body shone even brighter, and his eyes burned as he forced them to their absolute limits.

For a moment, it was as though the world Snow saw through those eyes was completely different from what other humans could perceive.

His vision expanded greatly—until there was nothing left in his awareness but the auras around him.

His mind erased the existence of everything else; there was only him and the Cosmos upon this earth.

As his body fell from the sky, the Cosmos seized the opportunity, sending its long arms shooting upward, aiming to crush him before he could land.

Yet Snow showed no sign of moving—even when faced with such a direct, lethal attack.

He simply kept staring, as if possessed by some phantom, his gaze fixed in madness... to the point where a thin line of drool slipped unconsciously from the corner of his mouth.

That unblinking focus let him see what no one else could.

He saw... another world—one that revealed the truth of his opponent at last.

"So that’s your secret, you filthy creature."

A terrifying grin split Snow Lionheart’s face as he raised his sword high, his entire body blazing with light.

"Great Cosmos Formation!"

Obeying his command, twelve elements swirled around his body, fusing together into a single, cataclysmic detonation—a nuclear-scale explosion that struck the Cosmos and erased every nightmare creature from existence.

The colossal pillar of light his attack unleashed shook the entire battlefield to its foundations... yet even an assault of that magnitude failed to leave the Cosmos so much as scratched.

Even so, Snow did not flinch.

The moment his feet touched the ground, his body flashed faintly—and black lightning serpents coiled around him.

Using Void Step, he vanished from his position, surging away from the battlefield and leaving the Cosmos behind.

It looked like he was retreating... surrendering to his foe.

But the shrill, cursed cry that erupted from the Cosmos was all the proof anyone needed that this was not the case.

It charged after him at once, the ground quaking beneath the pounding of its countless legs.

But no matter how it tried, it could not match Snow’s speed—he had already crossed an immense distance in the blink of an eye.

With a grim smile, he drew every ounce of power his sword could muster, preparing to end their struggle once and for all.

"So that’s why you’ve been hiding in the fog all along, you damned beast."

Unlike the fog conjured by the Mist Stalkers, the Cosmos’ mist didn’t produce illusions—it dulled the senses.

The hallucinations Snow had suffered earlier had only been the result of numerous Mist Stalkers mixing their power with the Cosmos’ own.

In other words... the Cosmos itself did nothing more than numb its enemies’ perception.

It seemed like a useless ability at first—but Snow had finally uncovered the truth behind it.

"That fog is nothing but a cover to hide your real secret. That grotesque form of yours is nothing but a decoy. Your true body is somewhere else entirely!"

Snow had spotted it before—the thin thread of aura linking the Cosmos’ body to a distant location.

A location very far away.

But thanks to his enhanced vision, he had seen it clearly.

Just one glance had given him the answer to every question.

"That’s why I couldn’t land a hit on you no matter what I tried!"

The body he’d been fighting all this time was nothing but a substitute ..

A puppet controlled by the real one.

Using Void Step, Snow ripped through the distance, and in mere seconds found himself face-to-face with the true deal.

"So this is where you’ve been hiding all along, you cowardly nightmare!"