I Became A Thief Who Steals Overpowered Skills

The Spirit of Chaos, fiercely yearning for its master, was being consumed by the flames.

Kraush let out a small breath.

“It’s much weaker than I thought.”

Spirits of Chaos, impervious to anything but skills, had been a headache for the Skyborne Generation.

Their ability to destroy an entire city was largely due to the absence of such skills.

Therefore, Ignis, which turned aura itself into a skill, was without a doubt the most advantageous match against the Spirits of Chaos.

Yet, even so, Kraush was slightly puzzled by how easily he had subdued the Spirit of Chaos.

He’d expected to suffer a few holes in his body, at least.

“…Was the Spirit of Chaos, by some measure, being purified in the forest of the Spirit King?”

Releasing it into the forest of the Spirit King as Crimson Garden did, might have been quite a good choice.

“After all, if you think about it, the real reason the Spirit of Chaos became a monster was due to a number of overlapping incidents.”

There were a few reasons why the Spirit of Chaos had become uncontrollably powerful: a group of sorcerers who dabbled in spirit amplification magic, far more dangerous than spirit magic, and the world, which had burst into an array of wars and worst erosions, causing the forest of the Spirit King to proliferate beyond control, and the Spirit of Chaos to swallow up that disorder.

It had become an unbearable monster in a short time, even more so than when it was wandering the Spirit King’s forest after the death of the first Spirit Master.

“Lucky I can deal with it now.”

Having sorted out his thoughts, Kraush took a deep breath and raised his hand.

Although it couldn’t regenerate now because of the fire of Ignis, the real problem with the Spirit of Chaos was its regenerative power.

No matter how much it was attacked, it would eventually restore itself, centered around its core.

Therefore, to end the Spirit of Chaos, its core had to be destroyed without fail.

The problem was that ordinary attacks couldn’t remove that core.

‘Black Hood.’

With that, Kraush immediately activated the Black Hood.

A black, round orb coalesced in Kraush’s hand, seeming rather dull.

The moment Kraush gripped the core, the black liquid that made up the Spirit of Chaos started to sluggishly creep toward him.

Having used the same method to defeat the Spirit of Chaos before, destroying the core now meant it would die.

Kraush’s eyes landed on the core.

Within it, black darkness writhed as Kraush watched.

This core, having absorbed too much of the world’s erosion power, was an unusable lump of malice.

It had been destroyed immediately upon retrieval in the past.

However, Kraush had another option.

“The original source is the world’s erosion.”

It meant the core could be absorbed by the Extreme Blood Poison technique.

“Crimson Garden.”

Kraush called, and Crimson Garden walked out from the debris of the collapsed black wall.

“Get ready to say goodbye.”

Kraush immediately swallowed the world’s erosion enclosed in the core.

It was that moment.

With the sunlight felt above his head, Kraush raised his gaze.

Before his eyes unfolded a scene he had never witnessed.

On the peaceful plains.

A boy spent idyllic time under a large tree’s shade with a girl carrying emerald hues.

“Agni, what do you think? It’s cool, right?”

The girl was creating a breeze to cool off Agni, who was lying down.

Following the gentle wind, Agni’s hair fluttered slowly, and with it, Agni painted a smile.

“It tickles more than anything.”

“What? If it tickles, then take this!”

Then the girl began to tickle Agni’s body haphazardly.

Overpowered by the girl’s surprise attack, Agni burst into laughter and soon pulled the girl to tickle her back.

Apart from those tranquil times, the two had experienced numerous events.

Sometimes as heroes saving people, and at other times praised as the founders of spirit magic.

However, time cruelly flowed on, and the boy had become an old man.

Unlike the boy who aged into an old man, his companion girl remained the same.

Before the dying campfire.

Agni, now an old man, slowly closed his wrinkled eyes.

“Eri.”

“Yes, Agni, I’m here. Did you call me?”

“I’m sorry. It seems my time isn’t eternal like yours.”

A spirit living by the power of world erosion.

A human living by the lifespan of a physical body.

Their timelines could never align, no matter what.

“I wish I could show you more, Eri. My world has not grown as wide as yours.”

“Agni?”

“Eri.”

Struggling, Agni called out Eri’s name.

He could no longer open his eyes.

“My time was happy because you were there.”

The boy who dreamed of the world as a Spirit Master was now reaching the end of his lifespan as an old man.

So at the tail-end of his lifespan, the old man wished.

He hoped his happiness would reach her.

That she would not grieve after his departure.

At the end of that hope, Agni drew his last breath.

“Agni? Are you asleep?”

The girl called out to Agni innocently.

She could not comprehend the death of a living being.

So she thought Agni was merely sleeping as usual.

Following that day, she always stayed by Agni’s side.

Calling his name every day, wishing only for him to wake up.

“Agni, it’s getting cold today. You might catch a cold.”

Sometimes she blew a warm breeze and covered him with a blanket.

And then, waiting for him to smell the sweet cocoa she brewed, she placed it on his table, hoping he would open his eyes.

“Agni, it’s summer. You can hear the cicadas outside. Delon’s daughter from next door, who was just born not long ago, is getting married. Time flies.”

Sometimes she sent him a cool breeze to reduce the heat, placing a watermelon she’d found somewhere on Agni’s table.

It was watermelon season, a fruit he always enjoyed for its cool taste.

And then, spring, summer, fall, winter.

Time continuously moved forward once more.

The girl spent each day by Agni’s side, sharing various stories from the day he had been there, aiding him to sleep peacefully.

The girl endlessly waited for him.

Waited and waited.

But Agni’s body gradually turned to a skeleton, and he never opened his eyes again.

“Agni, I’m getting a little tired. I want to talk with Agni again.”

The girl missed their conversations from days gone by.

She longed for Agni’s smiling face, sometimes his sad face, and the days when he would occasionally be angry.

“Agni.”

She missed him dearly.

“I miss Agni so much.”

She didn’t want to believe it, but the girl realized.

Her master would never open his eyes again.

And that meant farewell.

The day Agni’s skeletal body crumbled, the girl’s heart shattered as well.

The first farewell a spirit who had never known parting encountered was an unbearable reality.

A world without the boy had no place for the girl.

“Agni…”

In her last moments, the girl was consumed in chaos as she yearned for the boy.

Flash-

Kraush’s eyes opened slowly.

Before him now was a sphere turned entirely white.

Viewing the orb, cleansed of any darkness, Kraush saw an image of a girl appear before him.

The emerald hues of her hair had all faded, leaving nothing behind, and her face had crumbled so much that her form was almost unrecognizable.

Yet, the emotion contained within that face was legible.

Resignation and acceptance, mixed emotions.

The girl looked at Kraush and Crimson Garden, who had approached by his side, and slowly smiled.

Crimson Garden removed the respirator from her face and walked forward.

“…I’m sorry. I thought it was best not to interfere with the two of you parting. Turns out, everyone needs comfort in times of farewell.”

And then she reached out and embraced the girl.

She believed the girl would surely realize the farewell and leave.

Once her kind died, Crimson Garden would no longer be able to see the world.

Yet the emotions Agni bore were stronger than imagined, and they led the girl to ruination.

Crimson Garden felt a biting sorrow for not having taken responsibility for her until the end.

It was her duty, after all, to look after her when Agni passed away.

Within that embrace, the girl slowly vanished.

Transformed into a quiet dust of light, she ascended high into the heavens from the arms of Crimson Garden, who bore an aura akin to Agni’s.

Kraush looked skyward, watching the light dust ascend.

At least, he hoped that these particles could reach the man she had missed so dearly.

***

After placing the sphere into his pocket, Kraush and Crimson Garden left the forest of the Spirit King.

The soldiers saluted her, commending her for her work, and Crimson Garden responded adequately.

As Kraush walked alongside the slightly distracted Crimson Garden, he glanced at her and asked.

“Are you alright?”

Kraush had only caught a glimpse of the spirit named Eri’s memories while absorbing world erosion.

However, Crimson Garden was different.

She would have seen and experienced the world directly through Agni’s eyes.

That’s likely why she couldn’t bring herself to end Eri, despite being able to.

“I’m alright.”

Crimson Garden replied and took a long breath.

“Such is the law of the Immortal.”

Crimson Garden had lived a life far longer than Eri.

Kraush could not fathom the length of that existence; he only knew it was too long.

She must have experienced a myriad of farewells.

Witnessed and lamented over the deaths of her cherished kin.

Nevertheless, she kept creating more of her kind.

It was the only way for her to see the world.

An eternal life constantly repeats endless farewells with those who live finite lives.

Perhaps that was why Crimson Garden so wanted to erase her immortality; she no longer wished to endure more farewells.

“Your immortality, I will strip it away.”

With that resolution, Kraush looked back at Crimson Garden and spoke.

Upon hearing this, Crimson Garden briefly wore a bemused smile before raising her hand.

A crow then flew over and perched on her hand.

“Well, I guess I have to make you strong for that too.”

To break the chains of immortality, Crimson Garden needed to make Kraush strong.

That was the only way to sever the immortality.

Mirsyis, who placed the crow on Kraush’s shoulder, bowed her head and departed.

[ Now go ahead and resurrect that spirit named Dorothy. ]

“Indeed.”

Kraush pulled the sphere from his pocket.

It was none other than the egg of the Spirit King.

A core that emerged from a spirit upon its destruction.

That was the egg of the Spirit King.

Thanks to Kraush absorbing all the world’s erosion power, the egg of the Spirit King remained pure.

All that was left was to find Dorothy’s core to resurrect her.

The problem was the location of that core.

“…Agatha.”

The mother of Aslan and the mistress of the Igrit family.

She surely had possession of Dorothy’s core.

So Kraush had to steal Dorothy’s core from her.

But Kraush alone could not pull off such a feat.

He would surely be caught before even infiltrating Amrita’s chamber.

‘I don’t necessarily have to be the one to steal it.’

This was a task for which you make an associate to steal the core for you.

And Kraush already had an acquaintance to introduce to that associate.

“I’m off to meet Lirina.”

It was time to be introduced to that fellow Aslan.

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