Chapter 1086
Chapter 1086
—Your assessment is accurate.
Wrath bobbed his head in agreement while scanning the terrain spreading beneath the mountain base.
—That energy displays extraordinary refinement. Those aren’t typical mortals.
He squinted his eyes, remarking that their prowess placed them far beyond the standard rank of Transcendents.
‘Hold on.’
Raon balled his hands into tight fists as he observed the blazing inferno and biting ice clashing in an apparent attempt to obliterate each other.
‘The foundational earth energy anchoring that blaze and frost…’
Why did it seem so strikingly familiar? Woven deep within the savage struggle between frost and fire was the weight of terrestrial aura, bearing an uncanny resemblance to the swordsmanship passed down from the Sword Saint.
‘Could it really be…?’
—Do you truly have leisure to daydream right now?
Wrath flicked his tail against Raon’s shoulder, prodding him to descend and get a closer look.
‘You have a point.’
Raon gave a firm nod and bolted down the slopes. With sharp snaps and pops, the dual energies wrapped in ice and fire clawed at each other’s nature, flaring up like sworn nemeses seeking absolute annihilation.
Yet neither force yielded an inch; precisely counterbalancing one another, they burned through the entirety of their power without leaving behind even a stray ember, finally melting away into faint gray vapors.
“Damn it!”
By the time Raon reached the midsection of Mount Sterling, he was already too late—the dual energies of frost and fire had dissipated completely, and the spatial fracture that had channeled them into this realm was shut tight.
—See? That is precisely why I urged you to sprint!
Wrath shook his head in sheer exasperation.
‘Even had I bolted the exact second it manifested, I couldn’t have overtaken them at this pace.’
While his thoughts had momentarily lingered on that familiar earth energy, it was only for a heartbeat. Even rushing straight down the instant it sparked, the result would have remained identical.
“A-are you unhurt?”
Dorian’s voice drifted down faintly from the summit.
“I’m fine, stay where you are!”
Raon threw an arm up toward Dorian, who looked no larger than an insect from this distance.
“B-but I’m terrified! What if that slumbering demon king stirs awake!”
Dorian paced in place with visible agitation, begging to scramble down.
“He won’t awaken. Most likely…”
After shouting reassuring words to calm Dorian down, Raon knelt to inspect the scorched and frozen earth where the two forces had collided.
‘A Transcendent. Someone walking on equal ground with me, or perhaps standing even higher.’
A martial display of this magnitude wasn’t something ordinary Transcendents could pull off; it was unmistakably the handiwork of titans whose names were etched into legendary records.
‘Yet this signature…’
Raon narrowed his gaze while scrutinizing the remnants lingering in the soil.
‘I’ve never encountered anything like it.’
This distinct sword style and inner force were entirely foreign to him. None among the Six Kings, the Five Demons, or even the grand Five Divine Orders possessed a signature like this.
‘Could they be hermits living outside worldly affairs?’
Across the vast span and lengthy chronicle of the Continent, the emergence of hidden grandmasters outside common knowledge was hardly an impossibility.
‘The real puzzle is…’
Raon clicked his tongue, casting his gaze back toward the trembling slopes of Mount Sturin as the ground gradually settled.
‘Why engage in such a brawl? And through severed dimensions, no less.’
He couldn’t fathom why they would project their violent clash into the heart of Mount Sturin at the risk of disturbing Sloth, instead of settling their duel where they actually stood.
‘Do they harbor a vendetta against Sloth?’
Raon furrowed his brow while peering up at the highest ridge where Sloth remained asleep.
—That creature is hardly one to court hostility. His forbearance is so immense that calling him a demon king feels outright improper.
Wrath dismissed the thought with a flick of his head, ruling out that possibility.
“Hearing you say that only thickens the riddle.”
Raon let out an uneasy sigh, but in that very instant, twin rifts tore open right before his face as crimson and azure radiances flared violently outward. Fire and frost surged forth once more, discharging ferocious pressure waves in an all-out bid for mutual destruction. A deafening crash shook the atmosphere.
As the blazing mantle slammed violently into the arctic gale, concussive ripples erupted across the terrain. Mount Sturin, which had only just settled its tremors, contorted violently as though ready to cave in on itself.
“Ugh…!”
Raon found himself hurled backward like a stray leaf caught in a gale.
‘Just as I suspected.’
Confirmed up close, the violent dance of ice and fire was unquestionably the execution of sword arts belonging to Transcendents.
‘Both the inferno and the frost are being channeled strictly through swordsmanship.’
Yet each current held an opposing tactical essence. The flame embodied calculated precision aimed ruthlessly at vital pressure points, whereas the frost unfolded as a devastating, cleaving momentum designed to slice an adversary straight through. With sharp, crackling blasts, the opposing forces generated violent shockwaves as each sought to consume the other, only to burn out together once their momentum ran dry.
“Phew…”
Raon caught his breath, slowly regaining his composure.
‘I think I’m starting to piece it together.’
—Huh? What do you grasp?
Wrath arched a brow, looking utterly baffled.
—All we’ve confirmed is that two lunatics are running loose out there.
‘Nothing is confirmed yet. I’ll explain later.’
Raon lowered his blade, deciding to reserve his words until he had firm proof.
—Fine, but can you put an end to this racket?
Wrath moistened his lips, plainly itching to wrap this ordeal up and head toward the Frost Branch for a feast.
‘That…’
Raon blinked slowly, his eyes narrowing thoughtfully.
‘I don’t believe that’s possible right now.’
—What? Didn’t you just claim to understand what’s happening?
‘Grasping the situation doesn’t mean I can halt it. I have no way to step into that disjointed space.’
Even if he could deduce who might be orchestrating this clash, he remained entirely in the dark regarding their location or their underlying motives.
“Still, I can’t just stand here parrying these stray strikes indefinitely.”
Using his inner strength, he could theoretically scatter the impacts or nullify them to keep Sloth undisturbed. However, that was merely a stopgap, and eventually Sloth would fly into a rage once again.
“How am I supposed to handle this…”
As Raon exhaled a heavy breath across the landscape of melted permafrost, a lighthearted voice drifted into his ear.
“Would you like me to take care of that for you?”
Out from his inner coat popped a small squirrel plushie. With a sudden burst of light, the plushie expanded and took the form of Evelyn, draped gracefully in a rich purple mantle.
“H-how in the world…?”
Raon stared in utter bewilderment at the beaming Merlin.
“I could have sworn I left that squirrel plushie safe inside the detached quarters?”
Even though Evelyn had insisted he keep it by his side at all times, he had deliberately abandoned the creepy doll in the side building out of sheer unease. He couldn’t fathom how it had ended up tucked in his garments.
“I placed a blessing of union upon both you and the squirrel doll. That way, you’ll never truly be apart.”
Evelyn brought her palms together like a pious maiden, clarifying that it would return to his person regardless of where he discarded it.
“A-a blessing of union…?”
Raon’s fingertips twitched nervously at the mention of a spell whose sinister nature was painfully clear from its name alone.
—Th-that is no blessing, it’s an abominable curse! A completely wicked hex!
Wrath wailed in pure horror.
“Setting that aside…”
Evelyn leaned forward with a radiant, piercing grin, her fair skin looking starkly pale in the cold air.
“This hardly aligns with the place or the schedule we agreed upon, does it?”
Her eyes burned with intense scrutiny as she pressed him on why he had slipped away ahead of time.
“W-well, you see…”
Raon gulped dryly, cautiously taking a step back.
“No matter, really. I observed everything.”
Evelyn remarked that his martial prowess had matured significantly, lightly brushing the dust from his shoulder.
“Ugh…”
Raon’s eyelids fluttered frantically at the intimate gesture.
—N-now is hardly the hour to stress over Sloth!
Wrath whipped his head back and forth, hollering at Raon to regain his senses.
—You must flee from that crazed woman this instant! Run!
Yet despite the frantic cries, Raon’s boots remained rooted to the earth.
‘It’s already far too late to flee…’
“So then…”
Evelyn parted her lips, casting her eyes over the mountainside where sheets of ice and packed snow had completely liquefied.
“You are asserting that these marks and this concussive disturbance stem entirely from martial masters?”
“That is correct. Furthermore…”
Raon leaned against the edge of a cracked boulder as he answered.
“Those fighters are Transcendents. Worse yet, they rank among the absolute monsters inhabiting the highest echelon.”
He scowled, noting that their capabilities were likely on par with—or perhaps even superior to—his own.
“Then the solution is simply to hunt down those troublemakers, yes?”
Evelyn gave a carefree smile, as if tracking them down were child’s play.
“Yes. However, pinning down their whereabouts won’t be straightforward. Judging by their manipulation of spatial rifts, they must be situated an immense distance away.”
Raon clicked his tongue while scanning the residual aura scarred into the earth.
“Set your worries aside. Spatial and dimensional enchantments happen to be my greatest strength.”
“Your strength?”
“Indeed. I received guidance from exceptional seniors.”
Evelyn lightly tapped her knuckles together, stating that on top of her own mastery, she had inherited advanced spatial principles from Chamber and Larian.
“There is, however, a slight catch.”
She gently twitched her finger, taking another step into Raon’s personal space.
“I must witness the manifestation directly with my own eyes to lock onto their coordinates.”
Evelyn shook her head, explaining that the ferocious aura collisions had completely shredded any clean mana residue she could have analyzed.
“You needn’t worry about that part.”
Raon offered a faint smirk as he dropped his arm.
“If we wait just a moment, they will inevitably strike again.”
Seeing that the disturbance had erupted twice the moment Sloth drifted into slumber, another surge was almost guaranteed to burst through before long.
“Is that so? Then let us wait.”
Evelyn wove her hands together and channeled her energy, casting a shimmering cerulean shroud that blanketed the entirety of Mount Sturin. It was clearly a tracking array intended to pinpoint the source whenever the spatial rifts ripped open next. Yet even after she held the barrier aloft for two continuous hours, the air remained completely still.
“Are you entirely certain we only needed a brief wait?”
Evelyn cast a skeptical side-glance toward Raon.
“They burst forth almost instantly when I stood here earlier…”
Raon scratched the nape of his neck, visibly embarrassed.
“You can drop the ward if it’s too taxing. Let’s take a breather and try again afterward.”
Because this wasn’t an autonomous formation but an active barrier draining Evelyn’s direct focus, he felt too guilty to insist on keeping it up.
“That hardly troubles me…”
Evelyn stepped even closer, moistening her lips. He could distinctly feel the radiating heat where their shoulders brushed.
“The air is quite chilly out here; shall we converse from a closer distance?”
She pressed nearer until the rhythm of her breath brushed his neck, gently proposing they stay side by side.
“W-we can communicate just as clearly from an arm’s length, can’t we?”
Raon let out an awkward chuckle, shuffling back a pace.
“My ears happen to be somewhat dull today.”
Evelyn’s smile widened as she closed the newly formed gap without hesitation.
“In that case, we must treat your condition. I shall summon the Saint the moment we return.”
Raon’s jaw tightened as he hastily retreated another step.
“There’s no need. Staying close to you works far better as a remedy.”
Evelyn whispered a soft refusal while leaning right back into his space.
“I-I’m actually growing quite warm here…”
“That is fine. My skin runs cool.”
“You don’t feel cool in the slightest…”
“This qualifies as cool in my book.”
Like the blades of an endless windmill, Raon and Evelyn circled tirelessly over the flattened mountain plateau.
—I-is this what they call natural suppression? To witness the realm’s fiercest lunatic utterly helpless before someone else…
Wrath let out a breathless scoff, noting that even Raon met his match against a truly deranged woman. As the pair—accompanied by the silent demon king—spent the entire night locked in their bizarre skirmish, the dawn broke. Right on cue, twin spatial rifts tore open at once, disgorging a deafening explosion of fiery aura and frosty gale.
“Evelyn!”
Raon halted his sideways shuffle instantly and barked her name.
“I must capture the dimensional trajectory! Suppress those energy surges before they detonate!”
Evelyn clenched her teeth, warning that the turbulence was far too violent for her to isolate the coordinates cleanly.
“Leave it to me.”
Raon gave a resolute nod, unsheathing Heavenly Drive and the Wooden Ring Sword in a single motion. Circulating Ten Thousand Flames Cultivation and Glacier simultaneously through his blades, he hurled himself directly into the nexus of raging fire and frost. He matched the flames using Ten Thousand Flames Cultivation while engulfing the encroaching frost with Glacier, choking off the shockwave before it could ripple outward. A tremendous blast thundered through the peaks.
Raon clamped his jaw tight, his fingers gripping Heavenly Drive and the Wooden Ring Sword with bone-crushing intensity.
‘The weight behind this aura exceeds my estimates.’
The onslaught packed such devastating momentum that maintaining stability pushed his limits, even without fully engaging Divine-Demonic Harmony. The mere act of containing the blast soaked his back in cold sweat.
‘Since Divine-Demonic Harmony cannot be deployed repeatedly…’
He had no choice but to unleash his Willpower. Though he had expended a vast portion of his Willpower and demon king Authority earlier, holding back was no longer an option. Accompanied by a resonant shock, Raon drove his stance forward, pushing both Ten Thousand Flames Cultivation and Glacier to their absolute pinnacle. With an earth-shattering bellow, he poured unyielding Willpower and Authority into the writhing arcs of crimson and pale light, slamming them violently into the dimensional currents.
Finally establishing dominance, the wild tongues of fire and shards of ice began to crumble beneath the overwhelming mantle of Ten Thousand Flames Cultivation and Glacier. With a sweeping roar, Raon forcefully snuffed out both spatial anomalies through sheer strength, before sinking down onto the ground.
“Haaah…”
The second the rift sealed shut, a ragged gasp tore from his chest. Coming right off his duel against Sloth, expending so much strength to neutralize the clash of two Transcendents left his muscles seized with sharp cramps.
“Evelyn. Did you manage to track them?”
Raon turned toward Evelyn’s silhouette, his breath still ragged.
“Thanks to your effort, I locked onto it.”
Evelyn spun around, her expression bright and triumphant.
“The source isn’t particularly distant.”
She gave a satisfied nod, explaining that while traversing the distance on foot would be grueling, weaving a spatial transfer matrix would bridge the gap instantly.
“Where are they?”
Raon forced his aching limbs to obey, pushing himself back onto his feet.
“Just past that horizon…”
Evelyn pointed her chin toward the northern expanse stretching beyond Mount Sturin.
“Right above the waters of the North Sea.”
“C-could I come along as well?”
Dorian pleaded with his hands tightly clasped, casting an anxious side-eye toward Sloth, who remained plunged in heavy slumber.
“I’ve packed absolutely everything imaginable, except for the things I truly lack!”
He dropped straight to his knees, practically begging not to be abandoned.
“That place will be fraught with peril. Right here is your safest bet.”
Raon placed a steadying hand on Dorian’s trembling shoulder, instructing him to remain alongside Sloth.
“B-but that creature is a demon king!”
“He’s harmless for now. Just treat him like you would Runaan.”
He shook his head dismissively, stating that Sloth and Runaan merely had distinct preferences in life.
“Pardon…?”
Dorian stared forward with a completely blank face.
—How in the world does that comparison hold up! You absolute lunatic!
Wrath threw his head back in utter disbelief.
‘Regardless, our destination poses a far greater threat.’
Raon maintained a cold, composed expression.
‘An armed clash could detonate the moment we arrive.’
Since hostilities might spark the second they stepped through the threshold, dragging Dorian into the fray was entirely out of the question.
“Still, why hasn’t another rift appeared?”
Evelyn knit her brows while studying the patch of terrain where the previous fracture had torn open.
“Because I forcibly suppressed their technique.”
Raon slowly closed his open palm into a fist.
“They must have realized their strikes were being intercepted.”
An entire day had slipped by without a single rift since he snuffed out that clash of ice and flame. The combatants had clearly caught wind of an outside presence interfering and paused their exchange.
“Should we just initiate the transfer right away then?”
Evelyn wetted her lips, stating that the dimensional formula was already fully prepped.
“No, let us hold our ground just a bit longer. Catching them mid-action is the ideal approach…”
Before Raon could finish his sentence, a violent rumble tore through the sky as a colossal wave of aura erupted from a dimensional tear across the opposite ridge. Having detected the blockade on this side, they had simply shifted their battlefield’s focal point.
“Evelyn. Strike now!”
Raon called out sharply, his hands already resting firmly against Heavenly Drive and the Wooden Ring Sword.
“Consider it done!”
Evelyn snapped her hands together without missing a beat. Frigid, concentrated mana swirled atop her palms before blooming into a radiant blue spatial threshold.
“Step straight through!”
“Much obliged.”
Raon threw himself into the dimensional gate before his words of gratitude could fully register. The moment he crossed the boundary, a sudden wave of balmy air washed across his skin. Though Evelyn had stated the coordinates lay over the North Sea, the baffling presence of such tropical warmth caught him off guard. Shifting his weight through swift strides, he burst out of the portal as a thunderous roar blasted his ears.
As the blinding flash subsided, his vision cleared to reveal a sharp, stern man wielding a weapon coated in frost, locked in combat with a gentle-featured woman brandishing a blade wrapped in roaring flames.
And floating directly behind them, lounging leisurely in the North Sea waters, was a Gold Dragon.
[Will you two cease this madness already!]
The Dragon roared in exasperation at the sword-wielding duo.
[Just how long do you intend to drag out this petty marital spat!]
“Excuse me…?”
Raon’s gaze, which had been honed for life-or-death slaughter, went entirely blank.
‘A marital spat?’
—…Are these lunatics out of their minds as well?
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