Eugene could no longer spare any thought about the corpse-ridden battlefield and the man present in it. That man had already disappeared, and another existence had suddenly appeared in front of Eugene.
The first thought that came to mind was that the newcomer was an amalgamation of his past and present. The man standing in front of Eugene was Hamel from 300 years ago, but at the same time, he was also Eugene.
Eugene stared at the man as he stood still, and indeed, the man did not feel like an apparition at all. Although there was some distance between him and the man, Eugene felt his senses becoming alert and sharp due to the man’s presence.
Both of them were breathing in the same way — slowly and deeply. Neither of them was consumed by excitement and tension, and both of them were objectively observing the situation as if they were simply bystanders watching from a few steps away. Both men were holding their swords, but their grip was loose. In fact, their entire bodies were relaxed.
Eugene didn’t know if the man had an ego — but if the man truly was a projection of Eugene, then he would be assessing Eugene, just like Eugene was assessing him right now.
‘Looks like Hamel has been melted into Eugene Lionheart,’ Eugene thought.
At least, that’s what it looked like to Eugene. Although the man’s hair was cut short, the gray color of the hair was symbolic of the Lionheart family. Moreover, his golden eyes were sharp like that of a beast. In terms of physique… he looked slightly bigger than Eugene.
‘Am I going to grow more…? No, that’s not it. That’s not my future. It’s simply a projection of my ideal self.’
Eugene had no complaints about his current body. Rather, it was incomparably better than his body from his previous life. However, he had lived a longer, more eventful life as Hamel than as Eugene. As such, Eugene still clearly remembered his previous body. Furthermore, Eugene Lionheart had yet to surpass Hamel Dynas. Yes, it was true that he was capable of outputting a greater power for an instant if various conditions were met, but his previous self was still ahead in terms of overall balance.
Hamel was a little taller than Eugene as well. It wasn’t a huge difference, but… Eugene felt both longing and ridicule when he saw the phantom’s appearance and the scars on his face.
“I never imagined my ideal self as having those dirty scars,” said Eugene. He wondered if the phantom could talk but received no answer to his soliloquy. Well, he hadn’t been expecting a response in the first place. “On the contrary, those scars are proof of my immaturity.”
Crack.
Eugene’s fingers tightened around the handle of his sword. Although it was a subtle motion, the atmosphere surrounding Eugene completely transformed in an instant. He lowered his gaze to the weapons jutting out of the ground. All of them looked familiar. They were just ordinary weapons with no special abilities, unlike the ones Vermouth had used…. Eugene’s heart was pounding with excitement.
Boom.
Eugene instantly evoked the Ring Flame Formula and aroused the Lightning Flame. In an instant, his body blurred, and he accelerated over space. He was moving so fast that it appeared as if he were using Blink. In the blink of an eye, Eugene arrived in front of the phantom and swung the sword from his waist.
However, there was no contact. In fact, Eugene’s blade had not even grazed anything. The phantom had evaded Eugene’s blow cleanly and perfectly. Even Eugene felt awe at the phantom’s flawless movement. It was almost as if Eugene had intentionally missed his strike.
The phantom’s body flickered. His presence, which was intense in the beginning, was thin when they were closer together. In other words, Eugene was having difficulty reading his opponent’s intent and actions. Feeling a chill run down his spine, Eugene hastily jumped backward. However, the phantom’s sword was slightly faster than Eugene.
The phantom’s strike never dug into Eugene’s flesh. Instead, Eugene’s Aura Shield stopped the attack. However, that wasn’t the end. The phantom’s left arm had been hidden behind his body during the previous attack. With one swift motion, the phantom raised his free hand, and in his grasp was another sword.
“Huh,” Eugene let out a surprised gasp. Cuts were made in space one after another, but the phantom remained eerily silent while attacking. Each of his strikes gave the illusion of the blades moving as if they were alive. At least, that’s how it looked to Eugene.
Eugene couldn't create an adequate distance between himself and the phantom. In fact, he wasn’t even given a chance to think as the strikes came pouring down like heavy rain. Eugene felt himself being pushed back little by little as he defended and deflected the attacks.
Eugene knew how to use many different weapons from his previous life. To be more precise, he handled all sorts of weapons with incredible proficiency. Then what about the sword? Well, among the many weapons he had mastered, Eugene was particularly confident in his skills with the sword.
However, wielding one sword was completely different from wielding two swords simultaneously. Even in his previous life, Eugene was skilled with using dual swords, and during the revolt of the Black Lion Castle, he had overpowered Hector Lionheart using dual swords. However, Eugene held very high standards for himself, and he had always considered himself lacking when it came to wielding dual swords. As such, he had rarely resorted to using dual swords in his previous life, and the same held true after his reincarnation.
‘How is this just slightly stronger?’ Eugene wondered.
The phantom definitely didn’t feel only slightly stronger. In fact, Eugene found it impossible to find any gaps in the phantom’s defense, at least not with a single sword. So what if he matched the phantom and started wielding dual swords instead? It was clear that he would be completely slaughtered due to the difference in proficiency between him and the phantom.
Crack!
Cracks began to appear and spread on Eugene’s blade as the two continued to exchange blows, even though Eugene’s sword was coated with sword-force. Eugene took a step back, and the phantom advanced forward while swinging his dual swords. The two people clashed once more, and Eugene pushed his sword forward as if he had been waiting. But instead of allowing the sword-force surrounding the blade to explode, Eugene condensed it even further.
Boom!
The sword-force caused the blade of the sword to explode, and hundreds of sharp fragments were launched toward the phantom. Without waiting to check the results of the explosion, Eugene released the pommel of his sword and jumped backward.
He had confirmed the locations of the other weapons in advance. The moment he grabbed a metal whip, the mana he allowed to flow freely into the weapon caused it to thrash. The thong of the whip transformed into a strip of fire once it was imbued with mana from the White Flame Formula.
The dust from the explosion fluttered silently, and the thong of the whip was suddenly stopped while seeking to penetrate deeper within the veil.
It was a spear. The phantom was holding a long spear, and he thrust silently, forcibly wrapping the whip around the spear like a thread. Eugene found that the mana he injected was at a deadlock. Just as Eugene could freely wield mana, the phantom was also capable of doing the same.
It was a struggle of strength.
Booom!
The streams of mana collided right in the middle and caused the ground beneath to collapse. Eugene pulled the whip back as he felt a numbness in his hand. He knew that in a struggle of pure strength, the phantom was likely to win. Knowing this, Eugene had planned to play tug-of-war while checking if he could over power the phantom with strength….
His plan never came to fruition. Instead of meeting Eugene in a battle of strength, the phantom kicked off the ground and charged toward Eugene. The distance between the two narrowed in an instant. Eugene immediately discarded the whip and jumped back, but the phantom’s spear hit the ground beneath Eugene just slightly faster.
There was an explosion, and Eugene’s body was thrown higher into the air than he had anticipated. Fortunately, he had not suffered any damage, and he allowed the explosion to push him without putting up any resistance.
Eugene stared at the ground. There was a large hole, and the phantom stood within it with the spear in his hand, looking up at Eugene.
He stared at Eugene with his golden eyes that lacked any luster or life. Although the phantom’s face was completely different, the color of the eyes and their vacant expression reminded Eugene of Vermouth. The moment he came to this realization, Eugene felt a shiver run down his spine. But at the same time, an eerie, destructive will to kill was aroused from deep within his heart. He allowed the six Stars of the White Flame Formula to rotate, and Eugene’s flame soared high into the sky of the Dark Room.
The phantom did not jump to intercept Eugene. Instead, the remaining mana from the explosion that swept the ground returned to the phantom at once. Soon, a huge, overwhelming flame bloomed.
Eugene compared his own flame with the flame fluttering around the phantom. He felt something strange.
‘Is that so?’
His conjenctures felt pretty spot-on and there was no need for any more confirmation. By now, Eugene was fully convinced and had no doubts. Therefore, Eugene dropped straight down with the flame wrapped around him.
The two flames became intertwined, and the unrestricted mana encroached on the space of the Dark Room. Even then, the Dark Room, which was created from a power unlike mana, withstood the creation and collision of such an enormous force.
Boom!
The two wielded no weapons and only used simple punches and kicks instead. However, complemented with an absurd output of mana, even simple kicks were destroying space itself. So Eugene was thrown backward by an attack heavy enough to nullify his defenses.
Was his arm crushed? Perhaps he could have attempted to recover if he had brought Agaroth’s ring. But unfortunately, that wasn’t an available option at the moment.
‘Left arm….’
It was crushed, but he could still use it if he wanted to. Eugene fixed his limp arm with mana while falling to the ground. He raised his head, only to see that the phantom was already very close. Eugene was confident in fighting with his bare hands but could not gain the upper hand against the phantom. He punched, kicked, tackled, and tried many different things, but all of his attacks were blocked or nullified at the beginning itself.
‘Now I’m starting to get it.’
But in the process, he took four attacks. As a result, Eugene had a limp in one of his legs, blood regurgitated from the inside of his throat every time he breathed, and his left arm was completely broken downwards from his forearm.
‘He’s adjusting to me.’
Eugene understood why it was said to be like a mirror. Although Eugene deliberately chose to fight with his bare hands, there was no reason for the phantom to do the same. Even so, the phantom fought with his bare hands, just like Eugene. The same had been true at the beginning as well. When Eugene attacked with a sword in hand, the phantom had responded in kind.
‘The difference… is just a little bit.’
The phantom was just slightly faster and stronger than Eugene. The same was true of his mana as well. His flame was just a little stronger than Eugene’s, so it was impossible to defeat the phantom using normal methods. What then? Should he mix in unexpected attacks and aim for a break? No, that didn’t seem to work either. He had already tried similar things a few times but was humiliated on every attempt.
‘If I want to overcome this barrier….’
Eugene came to understand this place, the Dark Room, even more clearly. It was due to his conviction that he had torn off his arm without hesitation. Would magic make a difference? No, it wouldn’t. Eugene had to quickly give up on this idea. If the phantom really was slightly better than Eugene in every way, then the same would also be true for magic. Moreover, it was incredibly difficult to overcome power differences in magic. If the phantom’s level of magic was slightly greater than Eugene’s, then it would be near impossible for Eugene to win, regardless of how well he handled magic.
He had to make a choice, a direction he wanted to pursue. What about his techniques in wielding weapons? To be honest, Eugene wasn’t confident in breaking through his limits when it came to his techniques. However, he didn’t have to best the phantom in technique, or rather, he couldn’t. After all, the phantom was a better version of himself. In order to thoroughly best the phantom, he would have to….
‘Create something that I don’t have right now.’
Rather than blindly aiming to surpass his own limits, it made sense for him to obtain something new. And such was the purpose of the Dark Room. If you were faced with an opponent who was slightly better than you in every way, and if your opponent was, in fact, an improved version of yourself, then the only solution to best the opponent was to grasp something new.
“That’s easier said than done,” grumbled Eugene while glancing at what was left of his left arm. It hurt. It had been quite a while since he had been pushed back this far, but even though it had been a long time, he was familiar with the pain. As such, the pain didn’t adversely affect him.
The tattered arm was only an obstruction, so Eugene tore off his ragged, useless arm. A blinding pain immediately followed, but he held back a groan by biting his lips. Then, he ignited his flame and seared the bleeding mess of his left arm.
‘Am I supposed to create a special move or something?’ Eugene continued his line of thought.
Eugene spat out the blood pooling in his mouth. Although he felt reluctant to call upon this particular memory… he thought of the Hamel-Style Technique. It was an embarrassing memory, but it was the closest thing he ever had to a special move.
‘Parrying, Lightning Counter, Poltergeist Aegis…. I used these every time I fought….’
He had used Thousand Thunderclaps, Dragon Burst, and Cyclone quite often as well. But above all else, there were a few techniques that were quite powerful in his repertoire, those he deemed suitable as his special moves, including — Hamel-Style Secret Technique, Ignition, Seventh Hamel-Style Technique, Dead End, and Ninth Hamel-Style Technique, Infinite Purgatory.
‘I’m always using Lightning Flash, so that’s not really a secret, special technique…. So I guess the only new addition would be the Empty Sword.’
It couldn’t hurt to try. Eugene thought it fortunate that he didn’t have the Cloak of Darkness with him right now and that Mer wasn’t here so she could snicker at him later.
He placed his right hand on his chest. He was full of openings, but the phantom did not attack. As his fingers dug into his chest, he felt the palpitations of his heart accelerating. It activated Ignition, causing the dying flames to burn with even greater intensity than before. With a sigh, Eugene kicked a sword upwards off the ground into his hand. He lowered his posture while tightening his grasp on the sword with his remaining hand. The phantom followed suit and grabbed a sword. Although it didn’t look like the phantom was using Ignition, if it truly was a phantom, then it wouldn’t need to activate Ignition like Eugene.
Eugene concentrated on condensing the sword-force and started coating his blade… one layer, two layers, then three layers. This was Eugene’s current limit. Black spots began to appear on the dark blue flame. Simply maintaining three superimposed layers of the Empty Sword was suffocating and made him feel as if his heart was about to explode. Therefore, Eugene no longer attempted to maintain it but instead took a step forward and swung his sword.
A dark blue flame split the world, and at the center stood Eugene’s phantom. He raised his own blade before being swept away by Eugene’s blow. His movement appeared very simple. In fact, it wasn’t very difficult or esoteric. Just as Eugene used the Empty Sword, the phantom also used the Empty Sword. He raised his sword high, then cut straight down.
Eugene’s attack disappeared — a truly disheartening and astounding sight. However, Eugene wasn’t surprised. Instead, the result convinced Eugene regarding his inference about the Dark Room and the phantom. He understood why Carmen, Gilead, and Gion had not explained anything in detail. Knowing in advance could have caused him to approach the challenge with less determination, which could have taken away from the meaning of the trial.
‘Doesn’t really apply to me, though.’ Eugene gave a mental shrug.
Simply wielding his triple-coated sword once placed an enormous strain on his body. Eugene forced his creaking body forward, and the phantom charged at Eugene in response. Eugene’s sword practically skimmed the ground as it advanced, and the condensed Empty Sword exploded as he slashed upwards. This was Dragon Burst, but it wasn’t very effective. The phantom had suppressed the blow by slashing downwards just moments before the explosion. Eugene reacted immediately. He pulled out his sword to the side to avoid being crushed by the phantom’s blow, and even though his shoulders and arms screamed in unbearable pain, he allowed his sword to follow a path he had created in his mind.
Asura Rampage caused lines of devastation to wreck through the space. The phantom took a few steps back, then began carving up Eugene’s attack from the outer edge without being caught up.
Craaaack!
Metal clashed against metal, and the Empty Sword was broken. Bright embers bloomed into existence, and Eugene’s eyes flashed just behind the flare.
He followed up with Dead End.
The lines of devastation created by Asura Rampage were thinly unraveled threads of the Empty Sword. Once Eugene pulled his blade back, the threads of the Empty Sword moved in unison and bound the phantom. Initially, simple contact with the threads would have resulted in the opponent’s body being cut like morsels of meat, but the phantom’s Aura Shield, or rather — Poltergeist Aegis, was restraining Dead End. Even so, Eugene did not hesitate to link more techniques. It was a pattern he favored in his previous life; he would drive the enemy to the edge using Asura Rampage, confine them using Dead End, and finally, he would pull back his sword with his steps before driving it forward. But it wasn’t a simple stab.
A small bead of the Empty Sword condensed to its limit was formed at the end of the blade. The moment he stabbed, the condensed bead started to swell — and exploded upon making contact. This was the finale, Infinite Purgatory, a devastating bomb formed from fine-tuning the Empty Sword to its limit. All of Eugene’s energy was gathered at a single point, exploded, gathered again, and exploded over and over again. Eugene had been quite unsatisfied with it when he had shown it to Genos at the Black Lion Castle, but the Infinite Purgatory performed using the six Stars of the White Flame Formula, and Ignition literally wiped out anything within its radius, or at least, he hoped.
“Ha,” Eugene scoffed while drawing his sword back. He had seen how the phantom destroyed Infinite Purgatory by using Hamel-Style Parrying and Lightning Counter. The phantom had cleared the space of all the indiscriminate attacks. However, he wasn’t unscathed since an attack of that scale was too powerful for someone who was only slightly stronger and faster than Eugene’s current self to perfectly nullify.
However, even though the phantom was covered in blood, he fared much better than Eugene. Eugene couldn’t muster the strength to lift a single finger. His left arm was gone, and he was limping. The pain that accompanied every breath was now out of control, and it was getting harder and harder to breathe.
“Good,” said Eugene while throwing away his sword without hesitation. The bloody phantom walked up to Eugene with large strides.
“I’ll come back soon,” Eugene promised as the phantom cut off Eugene’s head with a swift strike.
