Raon narrowed his eyes while looking at the list of matches after the round ended.
‘Nothing unexpected has happened so far.’
Borini Kitten the Azure Razor Sword, Garona the Dragon Slaying Beast Garona, Cadis the Blade of Shattering Wave, and Ron the Magician of Annihilating Strike—who was the ninth rank of the Twelve Stars of the Continent—had all won their matches. The rounds went exactly as he thought they would when he first saw the list.
‘It will be interesting.’
He got excited thinking about fighting Borini Kitten, Garona the Dragon Slaying Beast after that, and even Cadis Robert in the finals.
Don’t forget your plan before then.
Wrath crawled up on the ice flower bracelet.
‘Indeed.’
Raon licked his lips while looking at Martio standing under the list of matches. He was Derus’s direct subordinate.
‘I need to take care of him and the Fallen’s ambush at the same time.’
How are you even planning to achieve that? The King of Essence is really curious.
‘With skills.’
Ugh…
Wrath ground his teeth violently, a creaking sound following it while he glared at Raon.
P-people with many secrets don’t get to live for a long time. You have the glory of the King of Essence listening to you. Just say it right now!
He must’ve been really curious since he kept asking while suppressing his wrath.
‘I’d rather have many secrets and have a short life.’
How dare you insist, you damn bastard!
Wrath couldn’t hold himself back anymore and started attacking him while spreading his coldness.
‘I’ll play with you later since I have the quarterfinals waiting for me.’
Raon tapped on Wrath’s face to push him away.
‘Ah! Wrath.’
Raon grabbed him from the back of his neck instead of pushing him. He wanted to make sure of his prediction.
What do you want?!
He briskly turned his head. He seemed to be sulking.
‘You remember the purple magic that the Fallen used last time, don’t you?’
Of course. That halfling’s magic suited a halfling like him.
Wrath slowly nodded.
It’s a harmony of light and darkness. The power is called Chaos.
‘I see.’
Raon nodded with a faint smile on his face.
‘Do you know how to stop that?’
Hmm… It’s impossible with your skills! So you were planning to borrow the King of Essence’s power in the end! The King of Essence has no intention of helping an arrogant bastard like you!
Wrath clicked his tongue and grinned, finally getting the chance to make fun of him.
‘You are right. It’s impossible for me to stop Chaos. However, I can just deal with it before it gets mixed up—when it’s still separated as light and darkness, can’t I?’
If Chaos was too powerful for him to stop, he just needed to deal with it before the light and darkness combined.
Uhh…
Wrath’s jaw dropped in the middle of clicking his tongue.
That’s actually true.
He started nodding with a vacant expression on his face before he stopped himself.
N-no, that won’t be enoug—
‘Alright, that’s it.’
Y-you idiot! You missed an important detail! What if that halfling has Chaos from the start—
‘That’s not going to happen.’
Chaos was extremely powerful. The heads of the Six Kings were bound to come out immediately if he used that as it was, so the Fallen was definitely going to send the light and darkness separately and mix them in the arena.
‘Thank you. It’s all thanks to you that I’m sure about my plan now.’
Raon patted Wrath’s head, which was protruding like a small bundle of cotton candy.
Y-you are definitely going to receive divine punishment! If the gods don’t punish you, the King of Essence will—
‘You really love to talk about gods when you are a demon king, huh?’
That again! You are being prejudiced again!
‘But it’s true that you aren’t even a human.’
Demon Kings also have rights!
While Wrath was shouting at him, the master of ceremonies entered the stage.
“The quarterfinals for the Master division are going to start now!”
“Woaaah!”
“The quarterfinals are finally happening!”
“It was such a long wait that I thought I was going to die!”
“Please start already! This is suffocating!”
The master of ceremonies waved his hand at the spectators to answer their cheers and pointed at the first slot of the list of matches.
“The first match of the quarterfinals is Raon Zieghart, the Frostfire Sword of Valor, versus Borini Kitten, the Azure Razor Sword, who is ranked seventh amongst the Twelve Stars of the Continent!”
He announced the match, and the entire arena started shaking from people’s cheers.
“Raon! Raon!”
“Frostfire Sword of Valor!”
“Azure Razor Sword! Azure Razor Sword! Azure Razor Sword!”
“The Frostfire Sword of Valor was a lot more amazing than I thought, but he can’t hold a candle against the Azure Razor Sword.”
“Did you even watch his match? He literally destroyed the Black Armor.”
Most people still expected Borini Kitten’s victory, but the number of people rooting for Raon had increased drastically compared to during his match.
“Haa.”
Raon entered the stage while listening to the spectators’ cheers, which felt like they were pushing against his back.
Borini Kitten entered the arena from the opposite side with steady steps, with his blue hair fluttering in the air, eyes as sharp as a spearhead, and a proud pressure surrounding him. He almost looked like a humanized version of an old pine tree.
‘He’s on a whole different dimension compared to Matisse.’
Unlike Matisse Kiselm, who was an intermediate Master, Borini Kitten was clearly an advanced Master. Raon would be defeated in an instant if he underestimated him.
“This is our first time personally talking to each other. I’m looking forward to a great match.”
Borini Kitten nodded at him while walking towards him. His quiet voice was brimming with righteous spirit and politeness.
“It looks like the others are underestimating you, Swordsman Raon, but I have a different opinion from them.”
He slowly spread his pressure. The energy wave emerging from the bottom of his feet felt as sharp as an awl piercing into the skin.
“I consider the swordsman Raon to be the most dangerous favorite to win among all of the participants.”
He must’ve been serious about it, as his pressure didn’t decrease at all. That must’ve been his declaration about going all-out from the start.
“Thank you for having high expectations for me, but I should be clearly weaker than the Dragon Slaying Beast or the Blade of Shattering Wave.”
“No, I believe you are on the same level as them.”
“That’s a slightly excessive amount of expectations.”
Raon confronted Borini Kitten’s pressure with a faint smile on his face.
Whir!
Although the match hadn’t even started yet, the clash between Raon and Borini Kitten’s energy waves made the rubble and sand float on the arena.
“I-it’s already getting so heated up.”
The master of ceremonies broke out into a cold sweat and swallowed nervously upon facing their pressures.
“Two more layers of protective magic will be added from the quarterfinals onward! You can show your skills without reserve!”
He left the stage and raised his hand.
“The first match of the quarterfinals is starting now!”
The moment the master of ceremonies pointed his hand at the sky, Raon and Borini Kitten disappeared from the stage.
Claang!
They had unsheathed their swords in a blink of an eye and clashed at the center of the arena. Their sword draws had connected in an attack in an instant.
Whir!
Ferocious and sharp sword resonances were bursting from the two swords pressing against each other.
“I knew you would be able to react.”
Borini Kitten nodded, saying that he expected it to happen.
“I shall meet your expectations for me.”
Raon nodded and unleashed the Fangs of Insanity. The diagonal slash falling down upon Borini Kitten seemed capable of severing the atmosphere itself.
“Hmph!”
Borini Kitten didn’t panic, raising his sword. The astral energy surrounding his blade became even sharper as it clashed against the Fangs of Insanity.
Claang!
The second clash was also equal. It was such a close match, one where neither of them was getting pushed back at all.
Rumble!
Raon strained his left ankle to push Heavenly Drive forward. Even though Borini Kitten’s aura was sharper and more powerful than his, he was confident he could overpower him because his physical abilities were way better than Borini Kitten’s.
Cring!
Borini Kitten realized he was losing in terms of strength and deflected his blade to withdraw.
“You have this much strength despite your build. Isn’t this pretty much cheating at this point?”
He frowned while turning his wrist. He looked like he had taken some damage.
“I haven’t even started yet.”
Raon smiled coldly and kicked the ground. He slashed upwards with the Fangs of Insanity while advancing towards him.
He looked like a viper on the ground that was baring its poisonous fangs against a falling bird. It was the Fangs of Insanity’s Viper’s Flow.
Clang!
Borini Kitten took one step back with his left foot to create a space to work with before smacking the center of the Viper’s Flow.
“Hmm!”
Raon narrowed his eyes and quietly groaned. The powerful impact was reverberating throughout the bones of his arm.
‘He hit the right spot. I was rather confident with Fangs of Insanity.’
He managed to strike the extremely small opening of his swordsmanship, which was even harder to find than a person’s opening. The Azure Razor Sword’s reputation as one of the Twelve Stars of the Continent wasn’t exaggerated at all.
Whoosh!
It was time for Borini Kitten’s counterattack. His sword was raised to the left after parrying the Viper’s Flow, and he slashed downwards with it. The strike falling on Raon’s head was fast and sharp at the same time.
Thud!
Raon twisted his ankle. He thrust with the physical strength he mustered from the gastrocnemius muscles and the Ten Thousand Flames Cultivation’s heat that he gathered from his energy center.
Whaam!
The raging flame erupted like a volcano around his blade to clash against Borini Kitten’s strike, falling down like lightning.
Zap!
The competition between the two astral energies created crimson sparks and spread throughout the arena.
‘Did he really manage to target my opening in that short time?’
Borini Kitten managed to decrease his output by hitting the opening of the rising strike. It was an absurd amount of observation and sharpness.
“Haa.”
Raon licked his lips.
‘I need to get those.’
Raon decided what he was going to learn from the match against Borini Kitten. His instantaneous decision-making, ability to precisely target his opening, and his proficient Sharp Sword and Straight Sword that was capable of piercing into that opening. Those three aspects were what he decided to get.
Aren’t you being too greedy?
‘It’s better than not being greedy at all.’
Greed will want to be friends with you once he meets you.
‘I like more doormats.’
Raon fixed the grip on Heavenly Drive and smiled.
“You have a different atmosphere around you.”
Borini Kitten narrowed his eyes and wielded his sword around the height of his stomach.
“I still won’t be careless against you. I’ll attack with everything I have.”
He pushed the ground to close the distance to scatter his strikes. The frightening sensation of the blade piercing towards his neck sent chills running down his spine. It was Borini Kitten’s Razor Blood Sword Art, which was a martial art of the highest tier.
Whir!
Raon made the Rings of Fire resonate. The consecutive resonance between the seven rings made the world around him slow down.
Whoosh!
The tip of Borini Kitten’s sword could be seen. It was advancing straight towards the opening he found without the slightest sign of wavering.
‘For now, I don’t see any…’
He couldn’t see any openings in Borini Kitten’s attack even though he was using the Ring of Fire. However, that didn’t really matter.
‘I just need to create one if he has no opening.’
He lowered his center of gravity and clenched his grip. The coldness bursting from the ground was signaling the Blizzard Sword Art and Glacier’s energy.
Claang!
The Blizzard Sword Art’s Azure Cloud Torrent became distorted as it clashed against the Razor Blood Sword Art.
Raon and Borini Kitten brushed past each other and their eyes met.
Swoosh!
Borini Kitten quickly turned his ankle to unleash the second strike.
Raon simply stretched his left foot instead of taking immediate retaliation.
‘Three openings.’
The Blizzard Sword Art’s distortion had created three openings from Borini Kitten. However, not all three of them were real. It was necessary to filter out the fakes and find the real one.
‘Right side of the waist.’
The wavering in his neck and heart were too straightforward. It almost felt like they were asking to be stabbed, and they had to be fake openings, as there was no way Borini Kitten would expose those vital spots.
Raon quickly decided and thrust Heavenly Drive at Borini Kitten’s waist. He mixed the Straight Sword with the Sharp Sword in order to perfectly hit the opening.
“Hmm…”
Borini Kitten redirected his attack into defense to block the blade from his waist.
Cring!
Borini Kitten was pushed back, then straightened his back with a frown.
“It feels like your nature has completely changed from before.”
He narrowed his eyes while clenching his sword.
“It almost feels like I’m fighting against my own reflection.”
“I just happened to enjoy targeting my opponent’s openings.”
“In that case, we need to find out who is better at it.”
Borini Kitten gritted his teeth and dashed at him. Even his footwork was sharp. He was moving like a blade to pierce into him from behind.
“Bring it on.”
Raon smiled coldly and thrust the Blizzard Sword Art. Borini Kitten also charged at him by unleashing the Razor Blood Sword to the best of his abilities.
Crack!
The red and blue aura blades severed the setting sun.
* * *
* * *
The waves were gently rolling on the sandy beach.
Under the orange light of the sun setting towards the horizon, two masked men were sitting in front of a wooden table.
“Are you really doing it?”
The man who asked the question while watching the setting sun was wearing a red snake helmet with two horns attached to it.
“Of course I am.”
The Fallen was wearing a handsome young man’s mask, which looked even younger than when he fought against Glenn. He smiled gently and tapped on the map placed on the table.
He was pointing at the central area of Owen Castle on the map—the arena.
“I can’t possibly leave him alone, since he might reach Glenn’s level in the future—no, I should say that he could become even stronger than him. Moreover, I can remove the other futures of the Six Kings. This is truly a golden opportunity.”
“Raon Zieghart…”
“Ah, that reminds me. He’s defeated you before, Red Demonic Snake.”
“That wasn’t me.”
“Oh, I misspoke.”
The Fallen smiled faintly. He said it was a mistake, but he didn’t seem apologetic at all.
“And that doesn’t matter.”
The Red Demonic Snake slowly shook his hand.
“I’m glad to hear that.”
The Fallen nodded his head before he looked away. The Soul Severing Sword was staring far into the ocean with his feet immersed in the shallow water.
“Huhu.”
He briefly smiled while watching the Soul Severing Sword’s back before he raised his index and middle fingers.
Whir!
Sparkling white and black lights emerged from his fingers.
“Although the Six Kings are in the conference room, there should be powerful people in the arena.”
“People tend to miss other things when they are focused on something. That is human nature.”
The Fallen smiled while looking at the white and black lights floating above his finger.
“Once their battle reaches its peak, they won’t even notice the light and darkness descending high up into the sky. It’s even more true since the evening glow will be overshadowing them.”
“Hmm…”
“It’s time to say goodbye.”
The Fallen lowered his hand, and the two lights on his finger rotated in a semi-circle to seep into the map.
“Since today will be the last day for the Twelve Stars of the Continent and Raon Zieghart.”
Along with an innocent, child-like laugh, a magnificent light spread out from the map.
* * *
Cring!
The resonance spreading from the red storm of astral energy sounded like a saw blade scratching a lump of metal.
The earsplitting sound was the result of the barrages that Raon Zieghart and Borini Kitten were unleashing at each other.
The astral energies bursting from their blades were as sharp as an awl. Their astral blades were polished to the extreme in order to pierce their opponents’ weaknesses with the highest precision and sharpness.
Clang! Clang!
The clashes between the astral energies created powerful shockwaves, but neither Raon nor Borini Kitten took a single step back. Even though they should’ve been feeling a huge amount of pain from the astral energies scorching their lacerated wounds, they were solely focused on unleashing their sword arts with the intention of ending their opponent’s life.
Crimson light sparked from Raon’s eyes.
‘Right shoulder and left knee. The knee is the real one.’
He could tell which one was real as soon as he saw the opening. He hacked the Blizzard Sword Art towards his left knee.
“Kuh…”
Borini Kitten couldn’t perfectly cancel out the cold strike and had to take two steps back.
Thud!
Raon stretched his right foot to stomp the ground. He added a powerful heat to the power surging from his femoral muscles and made them rotate.
It was the Ten Thousand Flames Cultivation’s Revolving Sky. A tremendous amount of power was dwelling in that flaming saw blade that snapped down toward his opponent.
Whaam!
Borini Kitten was unable to handle that power and had to step back towards the edge of the arena. The powerful attack even managed to leave footprints on the arena despite the protective magic.
Whoosh!
Once the astral storm subsided, the two warriors could be seen in the arena. Multiple parts of Raon’s clothes were torn apart and smeared with red, while Borini Kitten’s armor was also crushed and shattered, blood flowing down from it.
“Erm…”
“Wh-who the hell said that it would be a one-sided match?! This is so close!”
“No, Raon even seems to have the upper hand now!”
“Is that the true power of the Frostfire Sword of Valor…?”
“Now that I think about it, the kidnapping couldn’t be helped! He had to deal with the tenth apostle and Merlin!”
“Yes, we shouldn’t have been concerned about the kidnapping. It didn’t mean a thing.”
“If you think about it, the Frostfire Sword of Valor has already defeated two apostles!”
The spectators dropped their jaws as they watched the equal fight Raon put up against Borini Kitten. Lots of them were even drooling from their mouths from surprise.
“I haven’t had such a fun fight in a long time.”
Borini Kitten’s hands were trembling slightly as he fixed his grip on his sword. He said it was a fight instead of a match or a spar. That meant that he was taking it seriously, like a real battle.
“Indeed.”
Raon nodded with a smile.
‘It was a really educational spar.’
Raon learned a lot from the close-quarter fight against him. How to discern between real and fake openings, how to decide which opening to prioritize, and he even gained proficiency with the Sharp Sword and Straight Sword. Borini Kitten was pretty much teaching him everything by showing him his techniques.
“I heard there are monsters in the world who get better while fighting, but it’s truly frightening to see one right in front of my eyes.”
“I’ve learned a lot thanks to you.”
Borini Kitten’s personality was also perfect as a knight. Raon thanked him from the bottom of his heart instead of being sarcastic.
“It’s regrettable, but we should put an end to this fight now.”
Borini Kitten smiled. He raised his sword above his head and pulled his left foot backward. He mustered every last bit of his aura with the posture of a spearman dealing with an enemy from medium range.
Whir!
The astral energy engulfing him decreased as his aura got stronger. He was literally turning into a single spear by polishing his astral energy over and over. Raon’s heart tightened from the pressure that seemed capable of tearing apart any kind of shield.
Raon bit his lips and smiled. He mustered the Ten Thousand Flames Cultivation and Glacier at the same time. Using them in such a way was bound to create a huge burden on his mana circuits, but he couldn’t afford to care about that.
Whap!
He ignited the Ten Thousand Flames Cultivation on Heavenly Drive from his right hand to point it at Borini Kitten and clenched the Blade of Requiem’s hilt with his left hand behind his back.
Rumble!
The entire arena started to tremble as if an earthquake was occurring from the clash between their all-out energy waves.
“Huff.”
Raon licked his lips while inhaling.
‘It’s so hot.’
He could feel Borini Kitten’s intense gaze. He could also feel that Martio was watching him with widened eyes, the master of ceremonies was swallowing nervously, and all of the spectators were extremely focused on their fight.
‘It should be coming soon.’
Since everyone’s gazes and minds were focused on the fight, it should’ve been the moment the Fallen was looking for.
Cring!
He increased the Ring of Fire and the Perception of the Snow Flower’s outputs to the maximum. Time slowed down even further. His senses became detailed enough to even notice the weight of a speck of dust on his finger, and he used that to observe the sky.
‘It’s here…’
The extremely polished perception managed to pinpoint the light and darkness secretly falling down from high up in the sky. His prediction was correct, and the Fallen was sending the light and darkness separately to mix them later on.
‘I need to do it right now.’
Raon clenched his teeth. He’d already gathered his power to fight Borini Kitten, and he compressed it even further.
Thud!
The heat surrounding Heavenly Drive was compressed in an instant, and Borini Kitten charged at him at the same time. He must’ve been attacking because he thought Raon finished getting ready.
‘I can’t block this.’
He wouldn’t be able to stop the Fallen’s energies falling from the sky if he tried to defend. They would get mixed up to complete the chaos.
‘I’ll endure.’
He twisted his body while using the Supreme Harmony Steps. Borini Kitten widened his eyes. He tried to withdraw his sword upon realizing something was going wrong, but it was already too late.
Pssh!
A long laceration was created on the right side of his waist and red blood gushed from it.
“Why…?”
Borini Kitten’s chin was trembling violently. He must’ve been asking why Raon suddenly stopped fighting.
“I’ll deal with the intruder first.”
Raon smiled weakly and kicked the ground to soar into the sky by unleashing the power he’d been gathering.
Whoosh!
As he advanced towards the light and darkness that were getting closer to each other, Rimmer came out from the stand on the right side.
‘Has the squad leader also been waiting for this?’
Raon thought he was just gambling, but he must’ve been standing by in case of an incident.
Rimmer asked a question with his eyes with a smile on his face. He seemed to be asking whether Raon could do it by himself.
Raon nodded and his smile deepened.
“Come back safely!”
Rimmer unsheathed his sword to put it under Raon’s feet before hitting him up. Raon managed to reach the sky even faster than his full power thanks to him.
Zap!
In the midst of the evening glow signaling the border of day and night, the light and darkness were approaching each other like magnets. Purple sparks of chaos started to flare up between the two powers.
However, the sparks spreading in Raon’s red eyes were even more powerful than them. He unleashed the flame bursting from Heavenly Drive and the frost emerging from the Blade of Requiem towards the two lights.
Whaam!
