Chapter 296: Ten Platinum Knights and a Mysterious Stranger! [POWER STONE BONUS - ]

"Hahaha!"

Ivar broke into a sadistic laugh, already certain that Luke was about to die. Once that happened, he could turn his attention back to Isaria, devour her life force along with her ability, and use the stolen power to replenish the lifespan he had sacrificed.

At least, that was the future he had already envisioned.

Unfortunately for him, a mocking voice cut through his laughter.

"You... call this... a star?"

Luke looked at the black sphere above Ivar’s palm with a mocking smile before slowly shaking his head.

"Let me show you what a real star is."

As soon as those words fell, Luke casually raised one hand.

The empty space high above and diagonally behind him suddenly trembled.

Then, without any warning, a gigantic red sphere materialized.

Its diameter reached an astonishing one kilometer.

The moment it appeared, brilliant light flooded the entire pathway, banishing the darkness that had filled the ancient maze for who knew how long. The sudden radiance was so intense that even cracks created earlier in the dark walls became clearly visible.

The monsters and beasts hiding throughout the surrounding pathways reacted immediately.

They fled.

Some scrambled deeper into the darkness, while others desperately moved away from the terrifying light. After spending countless years in an environment where darkness was the norm, this sudden brightness was something they had never experienced before.

"This is called a star." Luke spoke casually, seemingly oblivious to the expression on Ivar’s face.

Ivar could only stare at the enormous red sphere with his mouth hanging open.

"It’s not... a fireball."

His voice trembled slightly as the realization sank in.

"It’s a star."

Earlier, in the plaza, Luke had deliberately kept the sphere’s heat and gravitational force suppressed, so Ivar hadn’t been able to truly sense what stood before him.

Now, however, even a small portion of that power had been released.

The heat alone was terrifying.

It was nothing like the heat produced by an ordinary fireball.

The difference was so enormous that calling Luke’s creation a fireball almost felt insulting.

’Sir Luke is so strong...’

Isaria stared at the enormous red sphere with shining eyes, her earlier fear momentarily forgotten as admiration filled her heart.

Beside her, Kiki tilted its coffin-shaped body upward and nodded repeatedly.

"Kiki."

The little coffin seemed completely proud of its master, as though agreeing wholeheartedly with Isaria.

’My master really is amazing.’

Meanwhile, with the red star suspended behind him, Luke turned his gaze toward the front-right side of the pathway, where a distant junction could be seen connecting several dark passages.

"I thought my red star would make you afraid, but it seems I was wrong."

His voice carried through the maze and reached the distant junction.

Nothing happened.

Only an eerie silence remained.

Ivar and Isaria became confused, before immediately using their respective abilities to search the area. Their enhanced owl eyes swept across the distant pathways, walls, and every possible hiding place, yet neither could detect a single presence.

Luke noticed their confusion but didn’t bother explaining.

His eyes remained fixed on that junction.

The distance between them was 1.5 kilometers.

Yes, a full 1.5 kilometers.

Normally, even that distance would have made detecting someone extremely difficult.

But Luke’s perception had changed considerably after obtaining the Crown of Void.

When he had first acquired the Void halo, it had granted him a passive ability that prevented anything within a fifty-meter radius from concealing itself from him. In other words, anything within a total diameter of one hundred meters couldn’t escape his perception unless it possessed a way to hide from the Void itself.

That limitation, however, disappeared after he became a Real Titan.

The ability merged with Luke’s basic energy-control range, which had continued expanding alongside his cultivation.

At the Bronze Knight realm, his energy-control area had only covered a diameter of one hundred meters.

Now, it had reached an entire one-kilometer diameter.

With the Crown of Void active, nothing within that range could remain hidden from him.

As for why Ivar and Isaria hadn’t been able to detect them, Luke already had a possible explanation.

Maybe because of distance.

Or maybe, their abilities probably aren’t strong enough to see through whatever method those guys are using to conceal themselves.

His guess wasn’t without reason.

After the fusion, the range of his Void halo had also increased, causing his previous one-kilometer detection diameter to expand to two kilometers.

And Luke was right.

Isaria possessed an ability that allowed her to perceive almost anything hidden from ordinary senses. However, even that ability had a range limit. More importantly, she was only at the C-Rank, while the beings hiding ahead were stronger than her.

That difference alone, combined with their concealment method, was enough to keep them beyond her perception.

Before Ivar and Isaria could think any further about the situation, a slow clapping sound suddenly echoed from the very junction Luke had been watching.

Clap. Clap. Clap.

"Impressive, Hero of Light."

The voice praised Luke.

But he remained silent.

Ivar and Isaria, however, were left stunned.

Both possessed abilities capable of detecting things that ordinary senses couldn’t even perceive, yet neither had noticed the hidden presence.

Luke had.

And what made it even more surprising was that they had never known him to possess such terrifying perception.

As the realization settled in, a black-robed figure finally stepped out from the distant junction.

His entire body was concealed beneath the robe, leaving his appearance completely hidden.

But he wasn’t alone.

Ten more people emerged behind him.

Unlike the black-robed man, however, these ten were dressed in the uniforms of the Sunborn Royal Palace.

Ivar and Isaria immediately recognized them.

They were among the hundred B-Rank warriors who had entered the ruins alongside them.

Ten Platinum Knights.

"Seems like some rats have entered the Eldric Kingdom."

Luke said it playfully, without even bothering to take the ten Platinum Knights seriously.

His attention remained fixed entirely on the black-robed man standing behind them.

That was the only one who caught Luke’s interest.

He couldn’t sense his true strength at all.

The black-robed man didn’t seem offended by the remark. Instead, he calmly replied with a faint smile.

"You’re wrong, Hero of Light."

His gaze then shifted toward the massive red star hovering behind Luke.

For a moment, a trace of approval appeared in his eyes as he examined it. But that expression quickly turned strange when something else caught his attention.

In the distance, Kiki was happily chewing on a long bone.

What made the sight bizarre wasn’t the bone itself, but the way the little coffin was eating it.

Its coffin lid was opening and closing as it gnawed away, rather than using the mouth on the front of its coffin.

The black-robed man’s expression twitched slightly.

He stared for another moment before finally deciding it was better to ignore whatever that thing was and returned his attention to Luke.

"We aren’t rats."

His voice became colder.

"Our god’s companion, once entered this place and slaughtered every fake god who lived here."

Luke was slightly stunned.

He hadn’t expected such a revelation to come so suddenly.

Yet the black-robed man continued as though Luke’s reaction didn’t matter.

"We intended to deal with you later, because a Hero is always an anomaly."

His expression twitched faintly as an unpleasant memory surfaced in his mind.

Whatever had happened in the past clearly wasn’t something he remembered fondly.

"Thanks, I guess."

Luke’s playful reply instantly pulled him out of those memories.

The black-robed man’s expression twitched again.

He gave Luke a slightly irritated look-one that hadn’t been there before.

The black-robed man then turned his attention toward Ivar.

The Dead Star continued pulsing above his palm, but its price was now impossible to ignore. The young prince who had appeared moments ago had already aged dramatically, his skin withered and his body reduced to the appearance of a two-hundred-year-old mummy.

"But Sir Ivar is an important member of our organization. For his protection, I had to reveal myself."

With that, he finally disclosed the real reason he had stepped forward.

Luke raised a brow at the revelation before giving a small nod.

"Well, Ivar is a prince. Having two or three memberships in secret organizations is pretty normal."

He nodded as though that conclusion made perfect sense.

However, the moment the black-robed man spoke again, he took his words back.

"Our Demon Whisper organization."

"The Infernal Choir!"

The man’s declaration echoed through the dark pathway.

Luke’s mouth twitched.

Because, he had encountered three princes so far if the human prince was included, and now he had learned that two of them belonged to this very same Demon Whisper organization.

Thinking this, he felt that even the human prince was also part of this, it was just he didn’t get any chance to show his entry.

’Concentrate, Luke.’

He quickly pushed the useless thought aside and looked toward Ivar instead.

Ivar’s expression had turned extremely ugly.

Clearly, he had never intended for this secret to be exposed.

The black-robed man noticed his reaction and let out a faint, amused smile.

"Sir Ivar, what are you afraid of?"

His gaze shifted toward Luke.

"Soon, this Hero will be dead. And everyone else inside these ruins will die with him."

His smile widened.

"So don’t worry. Your secret will remain safe."