In the 3rd arena in the Land of Proof, golden light filled it entirely.
Irene Pareira's great sword was reborn right after that.
Everyone who saw that had no choice but to have blank expressions on their faces.
Some of them were normal audiences, and the others were King level gladiators, and even the Sword Masters like Joseph and Carissa were shocked.
It was strange because this was a sight which not a single person in the arena had witnessed in their lives till then.
'What the hell…'
'What happened?'
'Did the golden light from a while back go into the sword?'
'The shape of the sword changed.'
It wasn't just the shape.
The air around it had completely changed.
The mysterious energy which caught every eye was coming from the sword of Irene Pareira.
And people felt like they were possessed by something.
Lulu, the cat sorcerer who saw it, recalled the past.
'I remember the first time we met.'
Her first meeting with Irene wasn't impressive.
At that time, Lulu was looking for an attractive person to be made into her disciple, and Irene seemed to be a person as common as a pebble from hundreds of thousands in a valley.
But then she talked to him.
And little by little, got to know his heart.
How he overcame the efforts of the man who was inside his heart.
From then on, Irene was her best friend and most precious disciple.
'It's like back then. When he asked me to teach him sorcery.'
Looking at her handsome disciple on stage, Lulu nodded.
It was similar; 6 years ago, when he overcame the man of his dreams with a passionate heart for his family, and now.
But there was one difference, at that time, Irene was trying to shake off the man in his dreams.
But not now. Now he was trying to overcome the will of the man, but instead of shaking him off, he was learning to embrace it.
And that stimulated Lulu's curiosity.
'Of course, the reason that the will of the man in his dreams exists is because Irene's heart is that great… and that is impossible for anyone else.'
Right. Water and oil never mix, so this too had to be something impossible.
In the end, the will of the man is similar to the heart of Irene, but from what Lulu noticed, she couldn't understand why this happened, so it grew her interest.
Of course, she knew that such things couldn't be answered right away.
And finding the answer wasn't important right now.
Lulu shook off her thoughts and concentrated on the stage again.
Taking her eyes away from Ilya Lindsay, she looked at Irene wielding the sword.
Wheik!
Lightly lowering the sword.
It was a simple movement. And this sword was his sword.
No, it wasn't like a sword.
It was another part of Irene's body.
At the strange yet familiar feeling, Irene smiled.
And began to check his sword.
Whong!
A great unique swordsmanship that occupied the space and was powerful but without being stuffy.
And it didn't end there.
The steel blade wasn't too hard, but sometimes it embraced fire, sometimes water, and moved in a volatile manner.
An outrageous Sword Dance.
However, none of the people in the audience were dissatisfied with it.
They couldn't even think about anything else.
All of a sudden, they were all looking at the swordsman Irene Pareira and not his golden sword.
Even Ilya Lindsay was the same.
Everything turned clear for her.
The opponent in front of her was using the swordsmanship of Judith and Bratt Lloyd.
But even more shocking was.
"…!"
The Sky Sword.
The great Swordsmanship created by Dion Lindsay, the founder of the Lindsay family.
The moment she saw it unfold naturally on Irene's sword, she felt a radiating light fall on her.
And that fact ignited the flame in her heart.
Feeling a burning pain in every corner of her body, the champion raised her sword.
Her expression distorted as never before.
"…"
Irene, who felt the change in her energy, gave up on the sword dance and prepared to fight.
It wasn't Sky Sword. This time he had a firm posture and the Krono style swordsmanship.
Naturally, the swordsmanship of Krono wasn't meant to be heavy just because Irene had a great sword.
Just as Ilya's Sky sword was elegant but didn't scatter in vain, Irene's sword was heavy but not blunt.
Rather, his sword was sharp.
And Ilya Lindsay noticed that.
And so, the champion was forced to use more of her power to crush him.
Phat!
Kwang!
Rush and clash!
After that, a fierce storm of blades poured out!
Each of them strong enough to crush rocks, Ilya's attacks much stronger than before.
However, just because it was strong didn't mean it was powerful.
The unique sophistication of the Sky Sword, which swims through the sky and sharply cuts the neck off, wasn't the same.
Therefore, Irene felt relaxed.
The challenger's defense was getting stronger and was consuming more and more space from the champion.
As time passed, the audience too realized the flow of the match had changed.
Irene Pareira was the one pushing now.
Ilya Lindsay, the current champion.
Against the Sword Master, who had reached a great height, he finally gained an upper hand!
And that itself was a huge shock to everyone; seeing the champion wielding the sword was widening the distance.
And looked at the challenger with a burning gaze.
"Pant, pant pant…"
"Phew, phew…"
Both of them were out of breath.
However, it was Ilya Lindsay who was more distressed.
She was breathing heavily, so it wouldn't be strange if she just collapsed.
And even Ilya knew that this was her limit.
But she couldn't acknowledge it.
The figure of Irene was more brilliant than ever, and the figure of herself falling was also being felt.
It reminded her of the time with Ignet and her brother, and what happened after that.
In the moment of panic, she looked at the audience.
The eyes of people and the voices of theirs.
And the moment she felt that, Ilya knew that she should never give up on the match.
… even if it ends up killing her.
Phew!
A more intense aura emanated from Ilya's sword.
A very different one from before.
The blade, which was smooth and sharp, turned rough, and the silver light looked murky.
However, in terms of size, it had grown larger than before. To the extent where the eyes of Sword Masters twinkled.
However, Irene appeared focused on the opponent and not the Aura Sword.
Seeing his precious friend try to give her all, he thought.
'… this had to happen.'
It looked painful.
It must have been painful for her.
As if there was no future, she was using all her powers, and her beautiful face was distorted.
But thanks to that, the dark energy in the corner of her heart was out in the open.
The reason the color of the aura turned cloudy was because of this.
If only he could get rid of it…
Irene Pareira who thought that immersed himself in his sword like Ilya.
"Phew."
He had tried it tens of thousands of times and always failed.
The current attempt was like a meaningless act of trying to add another stone on top of a mountain pile of stones expecting something to change.
No.
It wasn't that.
This could be the last stone to complete a stone tower.
The moment he convinced himself of that, Irene's concentration reached the peak.
Wooong….
Accumulating, strengthening, hardening, blooming, concentration and manifestation.
The 6 elements which were the basics of the Aura operation.
The moment he did all that, Irene was ready with his sword.
He saw the figure of Ilya Lindsay ready to smash him with her murky-looking aura.
He, too, didn't back down and swung his sword.
A diagonal cut from top right to bottom left.
The moment when the strikes unfolded at the same time, the swords clashed.
The blade of Irene Pareira was radiating gold light which flickered occasionally.
It was only for a moment, but it was… a clear aura sword.
The sword of pure will had shattered the sword of Ilya, which mercilessly wanted to cut down everything.
Clash!
Clank!
A piece of the sword which was cut, fell to the floor.
And the champion took a couple steps back as she coughed up blood, and eventually fell down, unable to stand.
No, not now.
The referee who was watching the match was bewildered, and then came to his sense belatedly as he announced.
“W-Winner is, Irene! Irene Pareira!”
And a beat later, cheers broke out.
"Woah! Woooow!"
“Irene Pareira! Irene Pareira! It is Irene Pareira!”
"New Champion!"
"Champion!"
"Champion!"
"Irene Pareiraaa!"
"Wow! Wooow!"
Irene's name was being called out without a break, screams, and sobbing of some people.
Irene didn't even look at the crowd which was cheering for him.
The one he was looking at, was the one in front of him.
Ilya Lindsay.
Looking at his precious friend on the stage, he thought.
'… she will be fine.'
Ilya's eyes looked empty.
She was trying to block him, but now she knew better than anyone where she was.
However, Irene was confident.
Thanks to embracing the will of the man, the evil emotions inside Ilya couldn't be felt.
If there was a problem, it was that all her energy was exhausted.
Fortunately, it was something that could be fixed.
To lift his friend up, he walked towards her.
"…"
Seeing Irene Pareira like that, Ilya Lindsay recalled the past.
Ignet Crescentia who came to her home with a dignified appearance and vanished after defeating her brother.
Looking at Ignet's back, Ilya felt rage burn in her.
But now that she thought about it…
That wasn't the only emotion she felt.
Seeing Irene shine brightly as he fought, she knew.
It wasn't the fire that drove her into pain, but the image of Ignet, which shone brightly like the sun…
"Ilya."
Ilya couldn't think much.
Irene was already in front of her and reached out to her.
With the way she acted, she thought maybe they weren't friends anymore.
Because she knew that she was a bad friend for the past month or so.
And from today, she was nothing more than a loser who was brought down in front of thousands of people.
There was no way she could hold the hand of someone who was shining so brightly.
Of course, that was just her opinion.
Grab
"…?"
Irene took one step closer and took Ilya's hand.
And made sure that she stood up but held her hand tight in his.
And it wasn't just that.
A warmth she had never felt before, gently caressing her body.
"…!"
Ilya, who got up, looked at her opponent.
Irene's face right in front of her.
With a much brighter smile than before.
And he said, not with intense heat like the sun, but with the warmth of a bonfire.
"This is embarrassing to say right after a match, but I want to reconcile…"
"…"
Seeing a mischievous smile on his face, Ilya struggled to hold back her smile.
At that time.
The priest, who was mixed in the audience, muttered something with a cold expression.
