Not far away from Salomon and Voidscard, another battle between swordsmen occurred. One of them wielded ice and fire swords, and each movement generated hundreds, if not thousands, of afterimages.
However, those powerful enough could realize they were not really mere afterimages. The Sword Sacred King's arms and swords moved so fast that they generated temporal replicas of themselves, allowing one attack to turn into a thousand!
Heinz had gained this ability thanks to the power of the World Clashing Swords.
The inheritance Heinz trained allowed the domain over two opposite forces, using the friction of that collision to enhance his brute strength, but the World Clashing Sword pushed that to the next level. As long as Heinz mastered channeling two forces in conflict inside the swords, every aspect of his existence, including his body, would grow stronger.
Anyone would think it would be nearly impossible to respond to thousands of sword strikes coming from hundreds of different directions at the same time, but that was not a problem for the Sword Sacred King's enemy.
There was a battle-hungry smile on the Knight's face as he faced those thousands of swords capable of freezing a sun and setting a world ablaze.
He resembled an infernal devil. A dozen branches-like arms emerged from his body, all equipped with a blade set ablaze by bright red soul force. A long tail emerged from his back, moving even faster than Heinz's swords!
"CLANK!" "CLANK!" "CLANK!" "CLANK!"
"CLANK!" "CLANK!" "CLANK!" "CLANK!"
"CLANK!" "CLANK!" "CLANK!" "CLANK!"
The sound of swords clashing hundred of thousands of times per second reverberated around the Sacred King and Knight.
"Hahaha. Who would have thought I would face a proper swordsman again so soon? Do you like what I did with the last one?"
Heinz clenched his teeth and attacked with even more strength as he saw how the Knight's sword had a soul trapped inside. Clearly, the enemy used a skill that allowed the formation of new sword arms using the soul of slayed swordsmen.
There was no way a warrior like Heinz would ever allow such a destiny to fall on him, and the fact the Knight used other swordsmen like that sickened him.
When the Knight saw the rage of Heinz and how the speed of this one's attack increased, his smile grew wider.
"Good, very good. I like your rage. You will become a good sword for I, Doomvex, the Blade of Despair."
Heinz did not find the need to respond to Doomvex with words, and he just set his swords ablaze, using soul force as fuel, unleashing storms of ice-fire.
"¡BOOOOMMMM!"
A massive explosion occurred when the phantom of a winged whale carrying a cataclysmic tsunami clashed with a maelstrom of howling faces.
The blast pushed the two figures back, showing the warriors' authentic appearances. One of them was covered in a colossal suit of armor from which emerged large wings, and they seemed capable of harmonizing with every particle around him.
En's eyes were sharp as he stared at his enemy before raising his fist again, and the mere motion of a punch incited a response from the world, making giant mountains flash toward the enemy.
The World Tree was a true Fourth Realm life form, and thanks to the Worldmelder Armor, his battle power rose to the Limit Initial Stage.
However, despite that monstrous strength, the enemy he faced could clash with him on equal ground.
The Knight resembled a giant snake made of fused skulls with the inverted mark of war engraved on its forehead. His eyes glowed with viciousness as they opened his maws, unleashing waves of viruses that infected space-time, eroding everything it touched, and that included the power of the world that enhanced En's attack.
Nearly half of the strength in those mountains was lost due to the viruses and diseases that affected space-time, and the Knight twisted his body to block what remained of the mountains' power.
"I can see that your nature is life and growth, but those forces will always erode under the power of sickness and disease. I, Ruinwhisper, the Emissary of Decay, will show it to you."
The Knight could speak while enduring the fall of dozens of mountains that could have severely damaged a super-universe.
En's eyes narrowed as he saw the power of the enemy. The abilities of the Knight were especially strong against someone like him who relied on the world's power, but he could not allow someone else to take his place.
He glanced at his hand and could see the small corrosion trying to spread into his body, burning him from the inside out, and it was only thanks to his bursting vitality and armor's defenses he could endure.
"A life form like you that only knows how to spread sickness and fails to understand the beauty of creation should not exist."
En's voice was cold and full of determination as he flashed toward Ruinwhisper, ready to kill this one at any cost.
Nero saw the massive explosion in the distance as he continued to clash with what could only be described as a hive of deformed small humanoid cockroaches. He wielded a white spear while the Voidmourn Wings enhanced every attack he unleashed and, at the same time, protected his body.
The Nihility Sacred King's attack had the power to break the energy defenses and neutralize the regeneration of the wounds left by them. Now that the Voidmourn Wing's power enhanced them, he could affect the enemy's mind.
Anyone wounded by Nero's energy would find themselves wondering what they were doing, and things would only escalate to the point that they would no longer care if they were wounded.
It was a terrifying ability but had little effect on the current enemy. After Nero's first clash with the Knight, this one understood the danger of the power of nihility and split its body into thousands of deformed insects.
"I admit that the force you control is dangerous, but my mind now is divided into thousands of tiny fragments. If you affect one, I will just cut the connection. You can do nothing against me, Ashenlash, the Swarm of Oblivion!"
Nero's eyes only grew colder as he kept hacking those deformed insects, but it was not easy. Not only were they extremely durable, but their maws were also extremely sharp.
He clenched his teeth as one of the deformed humanoid cockroaches managed to pierce his defenses and bite his legs. A burning rage emerged from his heart as he blasted the insect to pieces and continued fighting the swarm.
"BOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMM!"
It was like a cannon that could make a hole through a universe. The golden blast was immensely potent due to the amount of energy that nearly surpassed the limits of the Initial Stage.
The energy reaching the Middle Stage and destructive power at that level was not the same, just like Zatiel demonstrated when he fought against the Rank 10 Hive. Still, that did not diminish the power of the energy cannon and how much damage it could do to an Initial Stage life form.
That golden cannon emerged from the palms of the Endlessness Sacred King. Issac had made his energy revolve nearly one hundred times inside his Inner Universe, with each revolution increasing its power, before sending that attack.
"BOOOOMMMMM!"
An immense blast echoed across the battlefield as that energy cannon landed on the enemy, but there was no smile on the Sacred King of Endlessness as he saw how the Knight was devouring his attack.
Nearly two-thirds of the energy in the attack was consumed by the Knight, leaving only one-third that managed to land on his body and harm him truly.
The Knight facing the Sacred King of Endlessness resembled what could only be described as a humanoid black hole covered in a mantle of fog. It was a true cosmic monster in every sense of the word.
Despite having consumed so much energy, there was no happiness in Knight's soul. His gift allowed him to swallow the opponent's attack, neutralizing them before they could do any damage.
However, the Sacred King's spells had so much energy that he could not consume all of it.
"Who would have thought that I, Eclipshade, the Silence of Doom, would find such an exciting opponent? Let's see who falls first, little man."
Issac's eyes burned with murderous light as he flashed toward Eclipshade, making his energy revolve over and over again inside his Inner Universe.
The Knight showed no fear as he unleashed all his power, making reality collapse around him.
At the center of the battlefield with those incredible fights, an even more astonishing one was going on. It involved the Imperishable Body Sacred Kings, and he was not facing one but six enemies simultaneously.
Ivar, the second of the Sacred Kings that managed to evolve to the Fourth Realm before the war started, was using everything he had to face his enemies.
The battle had started one-on-one, but the Knight had split into six bodies, all with the Initial Stage's battle power!
