As soon as Raon opened his eyes, he realized his world had changed. Grandmaster. He could feel through his skin that he’d set foot into the extremely advanced realm that was rare even among the Six Kings.
His body felt heavy, as if he were drowning in an abyss. It was difficult to move his limbs—like boulders were attached to them.
However, the flow of the world was even slower and heavier. It must’ve been the realm faced by a Grandmaster when they fully unleashed their will.
<strong>Have you lost your mind?</strong>
Wrath jumped out of the bracelet and red at him.
<strong>What kind of goofball falls into a trance in the middle of a battlefield? Just how strong are your nerves?!</strong>
He shook his head, shouting that it was such a ridiculous thing to do.
<strong>How the hell does someone like this manage to break through the wall?! This is so unfair!</strong>
<em>‘I’ll y with youter, so be quiet for now.’</em>Raon left Wrath alone as he kept yelling and met the Master of the Wise Dragon Sword’s distorted eyes.
<em>‘He is powerful.’</em>
The Master of the Wise Dragon Sword, the demonic sword Kriatus in hand, seemed to have transcended the very concept of being powerful.
However, Raon could see a path to victory thanks to Rimmer having decreased his demonic energy and aura by holding him back until the very end.
<em>‘I need to finish him off right now.’</em>
Raon could feel that his current prowess couldn’t be maintained. It was necessary to y the Master of the Wise Dragon Sword before his awakened state ended.
<strong>Whap!</strong>
He murmured the <em>Ten Thousand mes Cultivation</em>’s lines engraved in his head and raised Heavenly Drive. The me pir connecting heaven and earth divided into eighteen, surrounding the Master of the Wise Dragon Sword.
It was a me prison possessing the power of the astral sphere in every single pir.
“It’s just some mes!”
The Master of the Wise Dragon Sword swung the demonic sword Kriatus to escape from the <em>Golden Void Infusion</em>’s heat, but the eighteen pirs of mes devoured the demonic energy and intensified even further.
“What the…?!”
He shed downwards violently, unable to understand how the mes were devouring the demonic energy. Kriatus unleashed an explosive amount of demonic energy, but the mes didn’t extinguish.
Raon reduced the range of the prison through his will and watched calmly.
<em>‘This is the </em>Golden Void Infusion<em>.’</em>
The <em>Golden Void Infusion</em> wasn’t a simple attack or defense. It was a peculiar technique that consisted of creating a prison with high resistance to demonic energy.
It was a technique used by the Zieghart ancestor during his battle against the mysterious man with the white iris and ck sclera, and Raon hadn’t expected to use it so quickly.
<strong>Whaaam!</strong>
The Master of the Wise Dragon Sword realized that the<em> Golden Void Infusion</em> was resistant to demonic energy. He unleashed arge amount of his own aura over the demonic energy to cut through the prison bars of fire. A violent explosion urred from the concentrated aura, and the <em>Golden Void Infusion</em> trembled intensely.
“Damn it!”
He jumped at the small area where a child could barely pass through. He seemed to be trying to escape from the <em>Golden Void Infusion</em> even if he ended up being burned in the process.
“Pay the rent before you go.”
Raon narrowed the bars as the Master of the Wise Dragon Sword tried to escape.
<strong>Whaaap!</strong>
The mes rapidly narrowed and left a deep burn on the Master of the Wise Dragon Sword’s leg and waist.
“Kuh…”
The Master of the Wise Dragon Sword ground his teeth violently while looking at the crimson burn engraved on him like a ve brand. His furrowed brow was showing no sign of easing under the intense pain.
“Wh-what have you done?!”
“You don’t need to know.”
Raon pointed Heavenly Drive at the Master of the Wise Dragon Sword’s eyes and shook his head.
“Huh! What arrogance from just a scratch! The fight is only getting started!”
The Master of the Wise Dragon Sword felt humiliated by the fact that he lost the contest of spirit, unleashing a wave of energy powerful enough to distort the atmosphere.
“There were two scratches. Can’t you even count?”
Raon deflected the Master of the Wise Dragon Sword’s fighting spirit and raised his finger to point at his burns on his waist and leg.
“Shut up!”
The Master of the Wise Dragon Sword raised his demonic sword, his frightening eyes ring at Raon.
“You are just a rookie at the starting line!”
The demonic energy and aura burst from his dark de at the same time, scattering the frightening darkness around him.
“I’m not at the starting line. I’m at the finishing line, where your head is going to roll.”
Raon curled his lips into a smile and lifted Heavenly Drive. The mes flowing along the de concentrated at the tip, creating a sphere of light as brilliant as the sun.
It was the astral sphere, the technique reserved for Grandmasters was finally in his grasp.
“I told you to shut up.”
“Then stop talking to me.”
“Shut your mouth already!”
The Master of the Wise Dragon Sword couldn’t withstand his anger anymore and thrust the demonic sword Kriatus. The astral sphere of demonic energy rotated at a shocking speed and twisted the space.
<strong>Cliaaag!</strong>
Raon shoved Heavenly Drive into the whirling demonic energy rushing towards him. The astral sphere engulfed in crimson light pushed itself into the darkness.
<strong>Whaaam!</strong>
Thend between them turned upside down, and the dark sky was split apart from the sh between the astral spheres of the <em>Ten Thousand mes Cultivation</em> and demonic energy.
Behind the descending surface of thend, Raon pierced into the Master of the Wise Dragon Sword’s space. The me engulfing his silver de cut through the demonic energy and advanced even further, incorporating his will to never be defeated.
“Hmh!”
The Master of the Wise Dragon Sword bit his lip to the point of bleeding while being pushed back from the sh.
“How is this happening…?”
He red at Raon with wide eyes, unable to believe the fact that he was losing a contest of sheer power.
Raon used the <em>Supreme Harmony Steps</em> to catch up to him. He advanced through the wind as if Rimmer were pushing his back and unleashed the <em>me Spirit</em>.
<strong>Whaaap!</strong>
A red-stained tree blossomed from the tip of his de. Branches stretched towards the sky as if they had experienced all emotions of life in a split second, and countless petals descended from them.
There were hundreds, no, thousands of pieces of mes. They incorporated Raon’s will and carved a crimson path. The beautiful me petals became a scorching heat that engulfed the Master of the Wise Dragon Sword.
“This much is nothing!”
The Master of the Wise Dragon Sword roared and raised the demonic sword’s de.
Kriatus revealed its thick branch as if it had returned to being the Life-Sapping Tree of Devildom before bing a sword, scattering its darkened leaves.
<strong>Whaaam!</strong>
The ck leaves unleashed by Kriatus’s de started to crush the red petals of the <em>me Spirit</em>.
If it had been the <em>me Spirit</em> of the past, the flower petals would’ve subsided. However, that wasn’t the case anymore. The divided petals gathered once again and formed a second storm.
“Th-this is…”
The Master of the Wise Dragon Sword’s eyes became twisted. He tried to thrust the demonic sword once again as the gathered petals advanced while dancing with each other.
The red petals incinerated the ck leaves and fell upon the branch created by the demonic sword Kriatus.
<strong>Whaaam!</strong>
The red petals decorated the dark tree to create a frightening beauty, and then a tremendous amount of heat exploded to violently tear through the Master of the Wise Dragon Sword’s demonic energy and aura.
“Kuh!”
The Master of the Wise Dragon Sword wasn’t in good condition once he managed to break out of the red heat. His cloak was tattered and severe burns were marring his face and his left arm.
“Damn it…”
He bit his lip while looking down at his arm, which was severely burned.
“H-how?! Who the hell are you, that you can bring forth so much power right after you surpassed the wall?!”
The Master of the Wise Dragon Sword dashed, yelling at the iprehensible situation. It almost looked like a devil was possessing his elegant face.
“It’s not just my power.”
Raon calmly responded and shed upwards with a sparkling me. The space touched by the de was connected into one, and a single wall surged from the ground.
<strong>Whaaam!</strong>
The rampart created by the <em>Firewall</em> perfectly blocked the Master of the Wise Dragon Sword’s astral sphere.
“A-a wall of the astral sphere?”
Raon pierced into the Master of the Wise Dragon Sword’s space in the midst of his panic. He shed deep into him, Heavenly Drive surrounded by the <em>Firewall</em>’s me like a scabbard.
“How dare you!”
As expected of a warrior at the Grandmaster’s realm, the Master of the Wise Dragon Sword immediately reacted, creating a shield of astral sphere with his demonic sword.
Raon finished the sh with a line of heat reflected on Heavenly Drive as if he didn’t care about his defense.
<em>Ten Thousand mes Cultivation, Thousand mes.</em>
<em>Crimson sh</em>
* * *
The line of heat dwelling on the de narrowed to a thickness even thinner than a thread, twisting the space as it passed.
<strong>aash!</strong>
The Master of the Wise Dragon Sword’s shield of astral sphere was cut apart slightly. It wasn’t because of his mistake. The <em>Crimson sh</em>, incorporating the principles of the space sword, had cut apart the astral sphere.
“No!”
The Master of the Wise Dragon Sword hurriedly tried to consolidate the astral sphere, but Raon’s strike had already passed by his chest.
<strong>Psssh!</strong>
The red blood evaporated from the heat before evening out into the world, and an excruciating burn was etched on the Master of the Wise Dragon Sword’s chest.
“H-how…”
The Master of the Wise Dragon Sword stepped backward, his trembling hand clutching his chest.
<strong>Wham!</strong>
Raon stomped the ground with his left foot, thrusting Heavenly Drive, which he’d pulled backward. The me at the tip of the de swirled, forming the shape of a me dragon.
A breath of fire was released from the jaw, opened widely enough to devour the world.
<strong>Whaaam!</strong>
The <em>me Dragon Art</em>. The fire dragon’s roar erupted, melting the ground where the Master of the Wise Dragon Sword was standing into ava field. ck smoke rose from it.
“Haa…”
Raon swallowed nervously while looking at the faint golden me emerging from Heavenly Drive’s de.
<em>‘Is this the true power of the </em>Ten Thousand mes Cultivation<em>?’</em>
The <em>Ten Thousand mes Cultivation</em> was already powerful when it was just at the Hundred mes level, but the power was on a whole different level at a Thousand mes.
He could guess that the Zieghart ancestor had created the technique based on Grandmaster’s realm.
<em>‘I want to maintain this feeling.’</em>
He wouldn’t be able to return to that realm for a while once it came to an end.
It was necessary to make his body learn the sensation in order to elerate the process.
<strong>Hey!</strong>
Wrath briskly shoved his face onto him.
<strong>The King of Essence’s techniques are the same! You couldn’t use them properly so far because you were too weak! You should be able to somewhat copy them now!</strong>
He imed that his techniques were better and even taught him how to use them.
“Huuh…”
The Master of the Wise Dragon Sword exhaled roughly while escaping from thend scorched in ck. His cloak waspletely incinerated without even a single piece left, and his body was covered with orange burns that looked like crawling worms.
“It’s hot, isn’t it?”
Raon sneered and extended his hand towards the Master of the Wise Dragon Sword. He opened his hand as if he were going to grasp his head and unleashed <em>cier</em>.
The Monarch of Wrath’s ultimate technique.
<em>Silver-White Aurora</em>.
Blue radiance sparkled from his hand, spreading out like a deer’s horn. By the time the Master of the Wise Dragon Sword witnessed that light, the blue coldness was already engulfing him.
<strong>Psssh!</strong>
The des of frost pierced into the burns, and the Master of the Wise Dragon Sword’s injuries turned deathly ck.
<strong>Whaaam!</strong>
The Master of the Wise Dragon Sword used his footwork to the best of his ability, but the <em>Silver-White Aurora</em> followed him like a leech, causing a tremendous pressure to his legs.
“Get off me already!”
The Master of the Wise Dragon Sword couldn’t withstand it anymore and unleashed a storm of demonic energy by mming the demonic sword into the ground.
However, even the demonic energy froze under the onught of ice, limiting his movement to the extreme.
Raon’s legs surged with immense power. He dashed forward, causing the ground to burst, and reached the Master of the Wise Dragon Sword’s right side. His left hand was extended without hesitation, a blue radiance gathered around it.
The Monarch of Wrath’s ultimate technique.
<em>Silver Moon Demonic Veil.</em>
The sphere floating between his hand and the Master of the Wise Dragon Sword’s right shoulder was shattered, causing a wave of extreme coldness spread around it.
<strong>Whaaam!</strong>
An ultimate technique unique to Raon was unleashed, different from Wrath’s <em>Silver Moon Demonic Veil</em>, and the right side of the Master of the Wise Dragon Sword’s upper body waspletely frozen.
“Cough!”
The Master of the Wise Dragon Sword stepped back while coughing up blood and tried to remove the <em>Silver Moon Demonic Veil</em>’s ice with the demonic energy’s fire, but the frost never faded away.
<strong>Uhehehehe!</strong>
Wrath grinned while shaking his round fist.
<strong>See? That is the King of Essence’s technique! Your meager me is no match for it!</strong>
He stretched his lips, saying that <em>cier</em> was better than the <em>Ten Thousand mes Cultivation</em>.
<em>‘You are so simple…’</em>
He used to criticize him for copying in the past, but he wasplimenting instead for copying better. Raon couldn’t understand what he even wanted anymore.
“I-impossible. You just became a Grandmaster, so how…?”
The Master of the Wise Dragon Sword removed the ice shards from his body along with strips of flesh, his trembling lips turning blue.
“You still don’t understand.”
Raon looked at the Master of the Wise Dragon Sword with a gaze of disdain.
“It’s more like you’ve grown weaker rather than I’m growing stronger.”
“What do you mean…?”
“Did you feel anything during your fight against our division leader?”
Raon confidently turned around with the Master of the Wise Dragon Sword in front of him. He bit his lip while looking at Rimmer, who could be dead or alive.
“Our division leader let you spread the demonic energy on purpose to waste the power of your demonic sword and your aura. He even confined the demonic energy in his body at the end while he copsed.”
“Ah…”
The Master of the Wise Dragon Sword’splexion turned pale. His eyes trembled as he looked at Rimmer.
“He never fights without reason. He calcted everything and created this path.”
Raon licked his lips while looking at the Master of the Wise Dragon Sword’s face, which was turning darker and darker.
<em>‘There should be no reason to tell him the most important part.’</em>
He raised Heavenly Drive. Golden radiance burst from the silver-gray de. Auspicious energy, like the dawn’s light opening the sky, spread out in all directions.
“We are the only ones who are allowed to make fun of our division leader. He isn’t someone that you canugh at or look down upon.”
He grasped the small amount of awakening remaining in him and advanced toward the Master of the Wise Dragon Sword.
“Rimmer! You disgusting bastard!”
The Master of the Wise Dragon Sword dashed while screaming. The world itself was quaking, implying that he must’ve mustered all his energy in addition to the demonic sword Kriatus.
Raon drew out his aura while walking into the rampaging demonic energy.
The sturdiness of his middle energy center was added to the aura surging from his lower energy center, and the will of his upper energy center surrounded it. Once the aura passed through the three energy centers, it became a golden me that soaked the de of Heavenly Drive.
Before anyone could speak a word, Raon and the Master of the Wise Dragon Sword shoved their crimson strike and dark strike toward each other.
<strong>Whaaam!</strong>
The frontal sh between Heavenly Drive and the demonic sword created a fissure in the space, connecting the sky and thend.
Immeasurable shockwaves urred one after the other from the sh between powers and advanced martial arts. The surface of thend was overturned, and the trees were rooted out.
They seemed to be equally matched, but the winner was quickly revealed.
<strong>Crack!</strong>
The demonic sword Kriatus’s hilt crumbled along with all of the Master of the Wise Dragon Sword’s power, and the de of demonic energy scattered around.
“Wh-why is the demonic sword…”
He looked at the crumbling hilt of the demonic sword with trembling eyes.
“It’s because of the seed nted by our division leader, the one you called stupid.”
The Master of the Wise Dragon Sword shouldn’t have noticed because he was mentally driven into a corner, but Rimmer had inserted wind into the demonic sword’s de to create a small twist.
The seed that he’d left behind had carved the path to cut off the Master of the Wise Dragon Sword’s head.
“W-wait!”
Raon ignored his desperate shout and pushed Heavenly Drive towards him. The golden me devoured the demonic energy and zed even more powerfully. The small sun rising from the tip of his de spread its majestic light towards the center of the scattering demonic energy.
<strong>Whaaam!</strong>
Along with a tremendous impact, the buildings in House Lakion copsed like dominoes and ck smoke rose all the way to the sky.
<strong>Whoosh!</strong>
Raon lowered Heavenly Drive, and the Master of the Wise Dragon Sword could be seen with his upper bodypletely separated from his lower body. He was barely alive thanks to the demonic sword, which was about to break.
“H-how could a rookie like him…”
“You lost. No…”
Raon pointed at Rimmer with his chin while looking down on the Master of the Wise Dragon Sword, who was about to die.
“It’s our victory.”