Chapter 280: There Won't Be a Third Time
Now that it was clear none of them could even scratch him, Steven had officially lost all interest in humoring this crowd.
For all their vicious appearances and snarling aggression, these Sarkaz knights were, at the core, just pitiful beings.
Turned into little more than tools—stripped of identity, consumed by the torment of Originium festering in their bodies, their minds likely reduced to barely functional echoes.
If anything, putting them down might be the kindest thing left to offer.
Steven sighed softly.
He really didn't like seeing people suffer like this.
With a casual flick of his hand, he sent the frenzied, suicidal Sarkaz charging toward him flying back as if they were nothing more than leaves in the wind.
Then, his gaze shifted—not to the enemies before him, but to the silent watchers hovering in the air: the drones.
Just one glance—cold and piercing—was enough to send a shiver down the circuits of those emotionless machines.
Then he turned his eyes toward the observation room in the distance—toward where Czarny was watching.
Even from a hundred meters away, Czarny felt the weight of that gaze.
A chill swept through him, his temples throbbing painfully like they might burst.
In the next second, he barked out an order with no hesitation:
"Detonate the Originium! Immediately—do it now!"
He didn't even dare to look at where the Black Hole Knight stood.
That gaze had been enough to make him feel like his heart had stopped.
That pressure—crushing, suffocating—it was like standing face-to-face with death itself.
"Bu– but if we do that," his assistant protested, eyes wide, "the residual Originium fallout will make this area uninhabitable. Worse—it might contaminate the surrounding land, possibly the entire district!"
The hesitation was real.
This wasn't the kind of decision you could make lightly.
Doing this would mean becoming the eternal villain in the eyes of every local resident—someone they'd curse with their dying breath.
And the financial cost... utterly incalculable.
The detonation would render the entire Roar Arena and everything within a kilometer around it into a toxic zone.
Czarny only chuckled.
"That's exactly why the Council sent us here. Spokesmen exist for this kind of thing."
His tone was dry, hollow—as if all the emotion had been drained from it long ago.
From the moment he became a 'spokesman,' he had known this would be his fate. He just hadn't expected it to come this soon.
He tapped the table with a pointed finger, voice casual yet chilling.
"You should get back to your job. I'm sure they wouldn't mind lending a hand if you can't. You just got married recently, didn't you? And wasn't there something about a little daughter at home?"
The reminder was subtle, almost gentle. But it cut like a blade.
The assistant froze, just for a moment. Then, his face went blank, and he gave a short, stiff nod before leaving to carry out the final preparations. No more hesitation. No more objections.
Down below, the Sarkaz knights were deep in their frenzy, lost in unrelenting madness. Steven's blows might have knocked them back, but they weren't giving up. They had no such luxury.
They weren't people anymore.
Just weapons. Puppets. Monsters created to serve, and to die.
Steven felt a pang of sorrow for the fate of these knights. But sympathy wasn't reason enough to stand still and wait to be overrun.
With yet another effortless sweep, he sent the charging Sarkaz knights tumbling backward once more.
Then, his hand moved to the joystick mounted on his belt.
"Another day in Kazimierz… and still, no answers," he murmured, his voice drifting like an echo through the entire arena. "You're disappointing me more and more."
Though spoken softly, those words sent a chill through every living soul still within the arena.
A creeping dread tightened around their hearts—instinct kicked in.
No one had to shout an order. No alarm needed sounding.
Anyone still clinging to their consciousness turned and ran, driven by nothing more than primal fear.
Even Czarny, who had originally stayed to witness the Black Hole Knight be obliterated, couldn't bear it anymore.
That invisible fear—the pressure emanating from the Black Hole Knight—was simply too much.
Panic consumed the arena. One after another, they fled like animals before a natural disaster.
Only the assistant remained, hesitating at the console.
His jaw clenched.
Then, with a resigned breath and trembling fingers, he pushed the button to detonate the unstable Originium.
Surrounded by glowing, volatile crystals, Steven noticed the shift instantly—but all he did was shake his head, the motion almost casual. As if he didn't even consider the detonation a threat.
Instead, he slowly began rotating the joystick at his side.
"Well, so be it. They say things shouldn't happen in threes… Let's hope next time we meet, it isn't our final farewell."
Smiling faintly beneath his mask, Steven released the joystick and glanced toward one of the drones still broadcasting overhead.
He raised a hand in a mock salute.
In that instant, a dazzling burst of light shimmered across the surface of his helmet—just as the world around him prepared to explode.
Only the unconscious Sarkaz knights remained nearby, still futilely trying to attack. But none of that mattered anymore.
"Ciao~"
With a light gesture, Steven raised his palm toward the sky.
Then—detonation.
The unstable Originium erupted, and what should have been an apocalyptic blaze to consume the arena instead gave rise to something far stranger.
The violent energy, instead of expanding outward in a destructive wave, was drawn upward—slowly, deliberately—into the sky, as if pulled by an unseen force.
Not just the explosion.
The entire arena began to unravel. Walls disassembled, foundations split. Even the Sarkaz knights, still caught in their berserk frenzy, began to lift off the ground—floating helplessly like puppets with severed strings.
And above Steven's outstretched hand, in a sky that had moments ago been empty…
A massive black hole tore reality apart.
It was colossal, inescapable, impossible to ignore. Every Kazimierz citizen watching the broadcast would remember this sight until the day they died.
That void began to draw in everything—every scrap of debris, every twisted knight, every shattered stone from the collapsing arena. It consumed with perfect silence. It didn't explode—it erased.
The Roar Arena, once a grand symbol of Kazimierz's strength, vanished into the vortex. All that remained was a circular crater, clean and precise, as though the entire structure had never existed.
And just like that, the black hole blinked out of existence—silent, complete.
Gone with it was the bizarre knight in strange armor, the Black Hole Knight himself.
The councilmen watching from their hidden rooms should have been relieved. After all, the threat was gone.
Instead, they found their hands trembling. A chill coiled through their veins, rooting them to the spot.
The Black Hole Knight's last words hadn't been shouted. But each and every one of them had heard it—every syllable—like it had been spoken directly into their ears.
A warning.
A final message.
There won't be a third time.
Next time, the thing consumed by that abyss… would be more than just a stadium.
"Damn it all…" Czarny growled, unable to keep up the polished composure he so meticulously maintained. His mask of elegance cracked into pure frustration. "Who the hell was stupid enough to provoke that kind of monster?"
Before taking on this operation, the K.G.C.C had sworn up and down that they had triple-layered insurance in place. Even if the old warhorse of the Lumen family had come back from the grave, he would've had no choice but to surrender.
And yet—this was the result.
What were they supposed to say now?
And seriously— could someone please explain how exactly they'd managed to provoke that guy?
He had just shown up demanding "answers" like some divine judge, but who was supposed to know what he was even talking about?
Clutching his hair in exasperation, Czarny spiraled into an endless well of anxiety. He racked his brain until it ached, trying to figure out where the K.G.C.C had gone wrong—what sin had summoned this walking disaster to their doorstep.
And more importantly, how the hell was one person this powerful?
With a head full of unanswered questions, Czarny could only stumble along with the rest of the K.G.C.C survivors, heading back toward the K.G.C.C's headquarters in complete disgrace.
But this wouldn't be something they could just bury and forget.
This wasn't the Flame Edge Arena. Back then, they'd been able to twist the narrative with careful editing and spin. Not this time.
The black hole the Black Hole Knight had unleashed—it had been visible across half the Grand Knight Territory. That phenomenon, combined with their panicked retreat, was more damning than any press leak.
By tomorrow? No—by this afternoon, the whole damn nation would know exactly what had gone down at the Roar Arena.
And with that, the reputations of the K.G.C.C and the Knights' Association would be left in tatters.
All flattened under the boots of one single, mysterious knight.
There was no longer any chance of patching things up. The conflict between the Black Hole Knight and the K.G.C.C… had passed the point of no return.
For the first time in a very long time, Czarny felt genuinely unsure about his future. Staring at the approaching tower of the K.G.C.C's headquarters, a strange thought crept into his mind—maybe it was time to retire.
It wasn't that he'd lost faith in the K.G.C.C's power. Logically speaking, no matter how strong a person was, they shouldn't be a match for a structured organization like theirs.
And yet… something deep in his instincts screamed that trying to defeat that knight would be impossible.
That unbearable pressure—that black hole—Czarny never wanted to witness it again.
"Spokesmen Czarny, sir," a sweaty voice said behind him. It was the assistant who had pushed the detonation button. His face was a mess of relief and anxiety. "How should we explain this to the higher-ups? If we've truly failed here, they're not going to let this go…"
The assistant's tone was careful. He understood that while the black hole had consumed everything, it had also done them one small mercy: there was no lingering Originium contamination. In that sense, he wouldn't be the one blamed.
But it also meant the K.G.C.C's entire plan was in shambles.
"Just report the truth. Exactly as it happened," Czarny said wearily, letting out a long sigh. "Leave the rest to me."
Still, his gaze hardened.
He knew the failure was his to bear. But there was another piece to this puzzle—someone else who had meddled, someone who needed to be held accountable.
The Armorless Union.
They had interfered with this operation. Twisted its outcome.
And for that, they would be seeing him again, very soon.
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Note: Character Illustration is in this Google Drive:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1iuyfwNVFHzIi9H4rWNT_lAm7jTSiah_M
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