As a barrage of illusionary clones— all of them resembling the silver-haired boy— rushed at Nero, the Swordsman of End smirked and slightly bent his knees.
He pulled his sword back and took a single step forward.
As if responding to his will, shimmering snowflake-like particles of radiant white light appeared in the air and started to swirl around his blade.
Nero let out a soft breath and brought his radiantly glowing sword forward. Almost instantly, a pillar of incandescent, white light burst forth from it.
[12-Movement Saint Style: Longsword Of Light]
[Third Form: Heaven Splitting Sword]
The collision of the pillar of light with Lucas' illusionary clones shattered them instantly. Those silver-haired young men created by Lucas' Mirage Step wavered and disappeared.
Under the intense pressure of Nero's spell, the ground was obliterated, the pillar of light leaving behind nothing but flying chunks of shattered ground, rising dust, and smoldering concrete in its wake.
Although the pillar stopped when it touched the barrier meant to protect the audience from any stray spell, it wasn't dismissed.
Nero willed strength into his arms and traced his sword horizontally, and the pillar of immolating light moved in order to follow its source, sweeping over dozens of illusionary clones of Lucas.
One after another, Lucas' clones and everything in its path were destroyed by the incandescent pillar of light.
Yet, Lucas' remaining clones didn't stop their charge.
Seeing this, Nero's smirk widened and he quickly finished his trace.
The pillar of light made an arc in front of him, obliterating practically everything that dared to stand in his way.
A huge cloud of cement shards and dust blew up, but in the nick of time, a single silver-haired boy jumped up to avoid sharing the same fate as his clones.
It was the real Lucas.
He landed and momentarily disappeared behind the cover of rising dust and flying debris.
However, his figure soon emerged and stepped into sight, still rushing to cover the distance between him and his opponent.
The pillar of light diminished as Nero stopped feeding his sword mana. Yet, the blinding glow around his sword remained as it continued to emit light.
"Just how much mana does that bastard have?!" Lucas mumbled under his breath and shuddered, but didn't stop rushing forward at the bastard in question.
In fact, Lucas gripped his spear tighter, and suddenly, immolating yellowish-orange flames engulfed his body and weapon in a warm embrace.
This was his natural element— Fire. Being surrounded by it, Lucas could feel a sense of safety and a feeling of rejuvenation, not to mention the explosive strength coursing through his veins.
Nero shot forward at the incoming silver-haired boy like a loose bullet and swung his sword at him.
Lucas sidestepped, deflected Nero's glowing blade, and continued his charge until he rammed into him with his shoulder.
At the very last moment, Lucas activated his Gift and an explosion occurred. It felt like Nero was hit by a speeding train. The sheer impact of Lucas' tackle and the huge explosion sent him flying back a few meters.
But Nero soon regained his balance and landed on his two feet before lodging his blade in the ground to stop himself from sliding back.
He looked at Lucas with a bit of surprise, whips of smoke rising from his combat attire. He already knew that the young Morningstar could create mana explosions, but this was his first time seeing him create a fiery explosion.
"So his Gift could also be used like that?" Nero silently noted and then brandished his sword once again.
Lucas was already onto him. This time, however, instead of closing the distance, he made a few quick hand signs.
The fire around him started to change color, turning into the darkest shade of blue as he pointed at Nero with his right hand.
Instantly, the flames started to crackle with intensity, turning into tendrils of plasma, quickly bearing the semblance of electricity.
Before Nero had the chance to react, a huge, bright bolt of lightning burst from the aura surrounding Lucas and shot in an arc at Nero.
The protagonist widened his eyes and crossed his arms, bracing for the incoming pain. The bolt of lightning struck him with a thunderous roar. The shock of electricity wasn't as severe as the burning feeling he felt in his skin.
Yet, despite the pain, Nero held and gritted his teeth, not allowing even a single yelp to escape from his tightly shut mouth.
The bolt of lightning was dismissed soon and allowed Nero to catch his breath. A lot more whips of smoke rose from him and residual electricity crackled around his figure.
He was momentarily disoriented but at least the pain wasn't there. However, a moment was all Lucas needed to quickly follow up with another attack.
The Fallen Angel used his speed to circle around the Swordsman of End, using the distorted state Nero was left in because of him to its fullest.
After arriving behind him, Lucas weaved a few more hand signs and once again faced the open palm of his free hand at Nero.
Suddenly, a huge orb of searing blue flames manifested itself in front of Lucas' palm. At that moment, the orb burst forth and unleashed a torrent of fire at the silver-haired boy's target.
As the river of immolating blue flames neared him, Nero instinctively turned around and faced the incoming spell.
It was too late to cast a spell of his own, so Nero didn't even entertain the idea of doing that. Instead, he raised his own sword and struck its blade down on the ground.
As if a small meteor had struck the ground, the shards of concrete broke and flew up in the air in front of Nero, shielding him from the incoming attack.
As soon as the torrent of destructive blue flames collided with the concrete shards, an explosion occurred again and sent Nero a few meters back once more.
This time, Nero gracelessly landed on his back and rolled a few times before plunging his sword into the ground and coming to a halt.
Stunned, Nero blinked his eyes a few times and raised his head to spot the silver-haired boy.
Lucas was already rushing at him again, hoping to follow up with another attack. Unfortunately, this time, Nero was not going to give him a chance.
Lucas had already turned out to be far more cunning and dangerous than he had given him credit for.
At first, Nero respected his intelligence and insights as a strategist. But the mere fact that he managed to arrive in the finals of the King's Tournament, albeit by using a few underhanded measures, was proof enough that Lucas was not weak.
In fact, the few exchanges of blows he had with him had already told Nero that Lucas was just as dangerous, if not more, than him.
The grin on Nero's face turned deep as he said, "Let's do this."
