Chapter 1018
Chapter 1018
Chapter 1018
“Hmm…”
Raon gently rolled his wrist as his gaze swept across the vast sparring grounds belonging to the Thespian Emperor.
‘Quite impressive.’
The dirt beneath his boots was firmly packed, and the various training implements appeared immaculate, as though completely untouched by wear. In stark contrast to her personal residence—which appeared far humbler than the estate of an average lord—the standard of this drill field was exceptional, standing on par with the facilities back in Zieghart. It was obvious that the Thespian Emperor had poured meticulous effort into safeguarding every outward display associated with the prestige of the Five Divine Orders.
‘Everything here was arranged purely to satisfy external judgment and public whispers. Still…’
Raon’s brow furrowed slightly as his attention shifted toward the Thespian Emperor, who stood nearby gnawing anxiously on her fingertips.
‘She has completely deteriorated.’
The woman he previously encountered had been shrewd and calculating, always maintaining an icy composure to extract the greatest possible advantage from any situation. Yet, having been stripped of her power to perceive heaven’s flow, she had entirely lost touch with her sharpest asset. At present, she seemed thoroughly incapable of discerning what actions she could take, or even what responsibilities she ought to shoulder.
Calling her a shell whose very essence had been devoured by the reliance on heaven’s flow would hardly be an exaggeration.
-Indeed.
Wrath offered a slow nod while staring toward the ruler of the Thespian territory.
-Gazing into what lies ahead grants staggering dominance and sway. It is hardly surprising to see such a female shatter when it vanishes.
He let out a derisive snort, noting that within the depths of Devildom, countless devils had met their ruin through an identical fixation on glimpsing heaven’s flow.
-Yet to find comfort in a path already set in stone is pathetic beyond measure. Destiny only carries weight when one shapes it through sheer tenacity!
Wrath clicked his tongue, his tone dripping with utter scorn.
‘Hmm…’
Raon watched with a quiet squint as Wrath expressed genuine fury toward the sovereign’s feeble state.
‘Could his presence be the true reason heaven’s flow holds no sway over my existence?’
In his prior lifetime, altering the currents of fate was far beyond his grasp. Given the birth of the title, it stood to reason that gaining the capacity to bend destiny stemmed either from the harmony of the Ring of Fire or from the demon king nestled beside him.
-Only an absolute sovereign such as myself, having shattered the chains of providence with raw might to seize a monarch’s Throne…
While Wrath droned on with his grandiose bragging, the heavy entrance of the training arena parted, admitting the Queen of Swords, Brigitte. Her gaze carried a distinct edge of vexation, signaling her clear displeasure with the unfolding circumstances.
‘Now that I observe her, she also seems off.’
In the past, would she ever have permitted her inner turmoil to leak out so plainly? It seemed plausible that being in close proximity to the unraveled Thespian Emperor had begun to skew the swordmaster’s temperament as well.
-Absolute drivel! You are by far the most unhinged creature present!
Wrath flailed his small limb dismissively, urging him to look inward.
-Your conduct has been far more insolent and hasty than customary!
‘That was entirely intentional.’
Raon offered a faint, knowing smirk while waving Wrath’s complaint aside.
-Intentional, you claim?
‘I sought to drag out the dormant strength concealed within the Queen of Swords.’
During their past encounter, the swordmaster had been reserved and held little tolerance for crude conduct. He had deliberately adopted a condescending, cornering manner to get under her skin.
-And to accomplish that, you masked your impudence behind formal honorifics?
‘Delivering disrespect wrapped in polite phrasing always stings far deeper.’
-Tch, you planned that entire charade?
Wrath blew out a breath in sheer disbelief.
-You truly never let an angle pass you by, do you?
He shook his head weary of such relentless scheming.
“It appears preparations are complete.”
Brigitte settled her fingers upon the grip resting at her hip, effectively declaring the duel underway. Raon narrowed his eyes into thin crescents, smoothly drawing the Heavenly Drive free of its sheath.
‘Her aura remains entirely unchanged.’
Despite shifting into an offensive stance, the presence rolling off the Queen of Swords differed little from when she stood in the council hall. The caliber she projected still hovered around the boundary of the Demon Slaying Spear.
‘The clash itself will reveal the truth.’
Understanding could only be forged through the language of crossed steel, so he leveled the Heavenly Drive before him.
“Step forward.”
Raon issued the invitation, his fingers twitching faintly along the hilt. Without wasting a single syllable, the Queen of Swords tore across the ground, the force of her dash gouging the dirt. A blinding flash of silver streaked toward his sight as her hand moved like an arc of sudden lightning. It was a draw of the highest refinement, resembling a blade cleaving straight through the fabric of space itself.
‘Rapid and razor-sharp. A stroke worthy of an absolute master. Even so…’
It was clear to his sight. The technique she unleashed carried the unmistakable weight of a transcendent, yet it failed to exceed the boundary he had already envisioned. Raon brought the nine Rings of Fire into harmony. As if the passage of moments had ground to a halt, the drifting atmosphere and the pulse of energy decelerated, rendering the incoming silver arc as vivid as though it were already grazing his flesh.
Wielding the Heavenly Drive, Raon carved two sweeping circles, driving the Ten Thousand Flames Cultivation to its absolute crest. The radiant blaze surging along the steel formed a rolling wave of flame, rising to meet the thrust of the Queen of Swords. Ten Thousand Flames Cultivation, Flame and Ice Unification. The form, weaving offense and defense into seamless unity, pulverized her incoming thrust without meeting meaningful resistance.
Brigitte was driven backward ten full paces, her blade trailing with her retreat. The deep gashes left by her boots in the earth proved that she had failed to dissipate the concussive force of the Flame and Ice Unification. The gap between their martial depths was unmistakable.
‘Her genuine capability aligns with what meets the eye.’
While the Queen of Swords was undeniably a transcendent who had refined countless methods to their utmost heights, she posed little danger to someone who had grasped the essence of the Ten Thousand Swords. By comparison, the Thespian Emperor represented a far greater threat; her blended sorcerous maneuvers would undoubtedly demand his full caution.
“Shall we proceed?”
“Without question!!”
Roused by his provocation, she barked that their engagement had barely commenced, instantly discharging a strike from where she planted her feet. From that single movement, a minute vortex unfurled. Bound within a focus narrower than a thread of silk rested the concentrated resolution she had forged across a lifetime of swordplay.
‘A path belonging to a distinct realm. And yet…’
This, too, registered clearly within his perception. Though the thrust unleashed by Brigitte tore toward his vitals beyond the speed of a shockwave, its momentum was already fully charted by his heightened senses. Raon snapped his wrist outward, answering with an identical piercing trajectory.
A strike hammered out through countless repetitions since his youth, the blade etched a flawless crimson trajectory through the air, reminiscent of a master painter’s definitive brushstroke.
Celestial Thunder Arts, Red Ink. The instant point met point, a scarlet tear manifested as though carving a wound into the atmosphere. The deadlock fractured almost immediately. Red Ink, surging like an unyielding thunderbolt, obliterated her forward thrust despite launching an instant later, neatly opening a burn along her side as the momentum carried it past.
“Ugh…”
Brigitte pressed her lips together in disbelief, staring down at the charred fabric and singed flesh at her flank.
“Didn’t you caution me that I might lose my life?”
Raon let out a soft chuckle, glancing toward the unblemished earth under his feet.
“This is becoming tedious. Why not display some genuine effort?”
“Restrain your tongue. My limbs have barely loosened.”
Her jaw tightened as she adjusted her grip toward the pommel. Lunging forward with her arm drawn deep into her flank like a mounted lancer driving forward, she surged ahead. A deep, cosmic gloom enveloped the length of her blade—a specialized pattern derived from the Supreme Swordsmanship, meant to capture the boundless void within a single stroke.
“Hmph.”
Raon drew in a steady breath, elevating the fires of the Ten Thousand Flames Cultivation to their absolute zenith. The radiance dancing upon the edge shifted into an intense gold, coalescing into the shape of a phantom blade. Raon Zieghart style swordsmanship.
Seventh Form, Void Slash.
Like a stellar detonation, the radiant golden fire swallowed the miniature cosmos her blade sought to manifest, descending directly toward her throat. Proving her status as an upper transcendent, the Queen of Swords attempted to decipher the trajectory of the Void Slash mid-motion, seeking to parry while falling back. Yet Raon’s perception and hands had already calculated her retreat.
Closing the distance with the fluid grace of the Supreme Harmony’s Third Step, he dismantled her guard with the savage precision of the Fangs of Insanity.
“Kuh!”
Lowering her center of gravity, Brigitte twisted to deflect the vicious fang aiming for her torso, instantly leveraging that motion to launch a desperate thrust toward his heart. This strike also belonged to the Supreme Swordsmanship, cloaked in rippling, dark luminescence.
Raon stepped forward with his left leg. Entering a perimeter where their breaths mingled, he unleashed Frost Snap with unreserved power.
Twin edges brimming with glacial demonic chill cleaved through the dark expanse, settling motionlessly just a hair’s breadth from her neck. Exactly five exchanges. That was all it took for Raon to thoroughly neutralize the Queen of Swords, Brigitte.
“What…?”
The Thespian Emperor’s gaze widened in absolute shock, clearly unprepared to witness the swordmaster subdued within five brief clashes.
“Wait, the Queen of Swords was…”
“Unbelievable! Done in five moves?!”
“The… the chasm between them is absurd…”
“Heavens!”
The warriors of the Unyielding Blade and the fighters representing the White Whale felt their jaws slacken, completely overwhelmed by the conclusion.
“Subduing the Queen of Swords in five exchanges?”
“Calling it five is being polite. Had he chosen to, the first blow would have finished it.”
“A breathtaking aberration…”
Burren, Martha, and Runaan each swallowed hard, completely stunned that the confrontation with such a renowned figure had terminated so abruptly.
“Is this…”
Raon’s brow dipped as he lifted the point of the Heavenly Drive, nudging her jaw upward.
“The entirety of what you possess?”
“Of course it isn’t!”
Brigitte gnawed on her lower lip, shaking her head defiantly.
“Allow me to be candid. In your current condition, no path exists for you to overcome me.”
Raon’s tone was entirely unyielding. Regardless of whether she held back further secret arts, her present caliber could never bridge the divide.
“For someone who boldly claimed I stood on the brink of death, what you have shown is remarkably meager.”
He was not indulging in petty ridicule; he genuinely wished to understand the basis of her earlier declaration.
‘Could Grandfather have miscalculated?’
While Glenn’s discernment in combat was something he held in absolute reverence, in this specific instance, he could only deduce that the old master had overestimated Brigitte.
“I desperately wish to unveil it, yet it refuses to answer…”
Her words tumbled out in a fragmented, bewildered murmur as her gaze dropped.
“At this hour, this represents the ceiling of my strength.”
Her teeth ground audibly together, consumed by sheer self-directed wrath.
“Hmm…”
Raon’s eyes widened slightly as he took in her unmasked humiliation and torment.
‘What on earth is happening here…’
“Cease this.”
The Thespian Emperor released a heavy breath, stepping into the space between them.
“Stand down, Brigitte. Looking closely at the matter, that is not your true capability, is it?”
She shook her head, signaling that the engagement should conclude immediately.
“Ugh…”
A faint sound of misery slipped past Brigitte’s lips as she raised her face. The tension across her forehead showed that while she obeyed her sovereign’s command to disengage, she remained entirely dissatisfied with the outcome.
“Commander of the Light Wind. I concede. The Five Divine Orders shall walk alongside the Five Kings…”
The Thespian Emperor offered a formal inclination of her head, accepting their alignment under the Five Kings.
“Not quite.”
Raon cut across her declaration, elevating the Heavenly Drive once more.
“The next engagement belongs to you.”
“What are you saying…”
“Do you truly intend to affix your pledge without verifying the true nature and magnitude of the partner you are joining?”
His brow arched, questioning the wisdom of such an indifferent surrender.
“…Testing your person was never my design.”
After a prolonged hesitation, the ruler finally gave voice to her thoughts.
“In truth, my resolution should have been forged the moment the Demonblade fell and the Black Tower collapsed.”
She turned her face away, mourning the loss of the decisive moment simply because her vision of heaven’s flow had been extinguished.
“A fallen figure such as myself holds no standing to measure your worth…”
“Tell me, how long has it been since you set foot in this arena?”
Raon extended his hand downward, gesturing toward the cleared soil.
“What?”
“When was the last occasion you crossed arts or engaged an adversary?”
“…”
Her lips quivered silently as she stared at the well-groomed earth beneath them.
“You have neglected not just combat, but basic training for quite some time, haven’t you?”
“Ugh…”
The suffocating silence confirmed his deduction.
“You exist as both a mystic and a martial artist. Allowing your body to rot while hiding behind a desk relying solely on intellect is what broke you.”
Raon let out a sharp, dismissive scoff.
“Watch your tongue when addressing her!”
Brigitte bared her teeth, refusing to let him demean the sovereign. It was abundantly clear that an uncommon bond tied the two together.
“Step forward.”
Ignoring the swordmaster entirely, Raon beckoned toward the Thespian Emperor with a curl of his finger.
“I will shatter the boulder crushing your spirit.”
“Are these words in earnest?”
“I never jest about martial matters.”
Lifting his chin with cold confidence, he framed this as her final opportunity to tear through her internal stagnation.
-For what reason do you wish to clash with that woman?
Wrath eyed him suspiciously, demanding to understand his motive.
‘What serves our purpose is a cunning vixen, not a broken hound.’
Accepting the allegiance of a crippled sovereign held zero strategic value. In her current despair, she offered nothing as a fighter or as an architect of schemes. With the Five Divine Orders formally entering the fold of the Five Kings, shocking her back to life was mandatory so she could reclaim her former brilliance.
“Very well. The truth is, I…”
The Thespian Emperor pressed down on her lip until crimson welled upon the surface.
“I desperately needed an outlet for this suffocating venom as well.”
She slammed her boot into the earth, adopting an unmistakable fighting posture.
“Take the initial strike.”
Leveling the Heavenly Drive toward her throat, Raon invited her to unleash everything she had harbored.
“Haaah…”
Forming intricate mudras with both hands while chanting a rapid incantation, her physical form became wrapped in an uncolored, shimmering radiance. Tearing across the field, she unleashed an overwhelming tidal wave of energy that threatened to swallow him entirely.
She threw forward a raw punch burning with translucent power. It was an unrefined, brutal strike, entirely divorced from her typical dignified demeanor.
Yet the sheer devastation behind it was terrifying. Her fist ripped past the defensive perimeter of the Heavenly Drive, grazing past his cheek with scorching momentum.
“Come then.”
A fierce grin spread across Raon’s face as he met her charge with an unyielding blade. As the absolute strike collided with the hardened fist, an incandescent red divide split the space between heaven and earth.
The Thespian Emperor gnashed her teeth, unleashing an unbroken tempest of fists saturated with sorcery and martial aura.
‘He is parrying every single blow?’
Raon endured her desperate onslaught—an offensive representing her peak capability—without yielding an inch of ground. He was clearly committed to matching her blow for blow until the bitter end.
‘Could this truly be the same youth from that time?’
The fledgling warrior who once traded verbal barbs with her had grown into a titan standing shoulder-to-shoulder with her—no, towering above her entirely.
‘During our initial meeting, he was merely at the Master stage.’
A mere fraction of time had slipped past since, yet he now stood firmly as her superior.
‘A prodigy? No, this exceeds the label of a monster; he is a veritable demon king.’
Her breath caught as she watched Raon cleave her mystical power with surging flames while crushing her aura beneath suffocating frost.
‘While this youth climbed the heights toward transcendence, what was I accomplishing?’
She had once resolved to erect a sovereign domain capable of defying both the Six Kings and the Five Demons, carving out prosperity between their clashing borders, yet she had achieved virtually nothing. She had merely observed like a timid rodent, unable to secure even the scraps that tumbled to the floor.
‘And following that…’
Once her sight of heaven’s flow was severed, she had done nothing beyond drawing breath in motionless confinement. Day after day, she had fed herself the illusion: ‘I am merely biding my time. Silently awaiting an advantageous juncture.’ She had shuttered herself away in her study like a frightened recluse.
Meanwhile, the young warrior before her had walked the razor’s edge of death, conquering countless perils to forge an unshakeable foundation that outmatched her own. Experiencing that profound disparity directly against her flesh stirred a wave of revulsion, as though she were staring directly into her own pathetic reflection.
“Aaaaaagh!”
Surrendering to a raw howl of anguish rather than a disciplined battle cry, she drove every fragment of her remaining power into a wild punch. It was a strike drenched in unvarnished despair—a movement she would never have conceived in her right mind. Though dodging or turning such an untamed assault would have been effortless, Raon absorbed the impact directly, even as a line of crimson slipped past his teeth.
“Is that all? Hit me harder.”
Raon offered a bright, fearless grin, tilting his head as though her efforts remained vastly insufficient.
‘Heaven’s flow…’
Observing his towering composure, the memory of the day she attempted to read his heaven’s flow surfaced unbidden. The sight of that blood—meant to delineate his destined path—defying the Celestial Scriptures to escape of its own accord had terrified her to her core. Yet staring into his piercing, unclouded gaze, that former terror transmuted into pure awe for a soul resolved to carve out his own destiny.
‘Could it be that heaven’s flow… that an unalterable tomorrow is entirely meaningless?’
The realization that heaven’s flow was merely one possible thread, and that what truly dictated reality was the unyielding will of an individual, tore violently through the haze of her mind.
‘Indeed. That is the truth.’
She had surrendered herself wholly to the comfort of foresight. Prioritizing an inevitable destiny over personal conviction had been no different than tossing her own existence into a stagnant sewer. With every reckless punch she unleashed, the blinding migraine that had plagued her thoughts began to dissipate, leaving behind sheer clarity.
The erratic surges of her fists and mystical aura gradually smoothed out, returning to the vast, steady rhythm of an unfathomable ocean.
Raon let out a long exhalation as he observed the sovereign, who had brought her wild assault to a halt, standing motionless like a carved monument.
‘A sudden awakening?’
It appeared that while battering him with everything she possessed, she had stumbled upon an internal breakthrough.
‘My goal was merely to give her an avenue to purge her despair, not to grant her enlightenment…’
He had only intended to haul her out of the mud, yet the moment she found footing, she had essentially sprinted into an emporium to drape herself in fine garments, adornments, and footwear. The absurdity of it left him speechless. Still, the outcome was favorable. She was a woman who understood the sanctity of a debt, which meant her utility in future maneuvers would only expand.
‘I will need to claim substantial compensation for this service.’
Just as Raon offered a satisfied smile and began stepping away from the motionless monarch, his gaze crossed with the Queen of Swords, who stood leaning quietly against the arena wall.
“What…?”
Raon swallowed dryly, his senses locking onto her suddenly sharpened demeanor.
‘What has occurred here?’
The visage, the frame, and the circulating energy were identical, yet the presence before him was entirely alien to the warrior he had traded blows with moments prior. An entirely distinct, unfathomable essence rolled off her figure.
“You…”
Positioning himself defensively before the meditating Thespian Emperor to safeguard her breakthrough, Raon drew his blade and leveled it directly toward the swordmaster.
“Who are you really?”
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