Not far from the encampment, little Kanna landed. With a gentle sway of her dragon form, she shifted back into a little girl, raising both hands to catch Purr steadily and settle the cat onto her head.
"Sister Purr, why are they fighting?"
"It's the same reason animal cubs like to bite and wrestle each other for play."
"Oh?"
"To outsiders, it looks like a vicious brawl, but to the animals themselves, it's just how they express and deepen their bond."
"Oh, so that's it." Kanna nodded half-comprehendingly. "Human emotions really are complicated."
After landing, Karen and Neo maintained some distance, each making their final preparations.
Neo was clearly under greater pressure, but he had a knack for converting stress into excitement. He sank slightly, lowering his center of gravity, and drew his arms behind him. Ten long claws sprouted from his fingertips, glistening with a dark, eerie sheen—an offensive posture.
Holding the Sword of Diamans, Karen didn't deliberately act arrogant. Instead, as he always had, he adopted a defensive stance first.
At the sight, Neo couldn't help rolling his eyes. He had seen cautious men before, but never anyone this cautious.
Still, Neo said nothing. He knew all too well that this was simply Karen's temperament. The greater his advantage, the more Karen favored playing it safe, thoroughly relishing the process of converting an advantage step by step into certain victory without finding it dull in the slightest.
Without a word, both instantly knew it was time.
Neo vanished from the spot. An instant later, he reappeared right before Karen, his ten claws tracing ten harrowing arcs of light that sliced and shredded Karen to pieces.
Yet only an afterimage remained where Karen had stood. Thirty meters away, the real Karen emerged.
Purr remarked, "A high-speed displacement spell combined with an illusion projection spell. The thrill-seeker failed to sense it ahead of time, which means Karen pulled off a high-quality instantaneous cast."
The display couldn't help but remind Purr of Diss. Back then, Diss had been capable of instantaneously casting forbidden curses.
Now, Karen was taking steady strides in that very direction.
In a military formation, spellcasters were typically a group requiring strict protection. Their casting had to be shielded from disruption, and their physical conditioning was usually weak, hardly different from ordinary people.
Yet Karen exhibited none of those vulnerabilities.
A bloody glow surged around Neo and split apart, turning into five identical Neos. Their expressions, movements, and auras were entirely indistinguishable.
Before Neo could make his next move, his nose twitched sharply, detecting that the moisture in the surrounding air had grown heavier than before.
Only an "old hound" could be so perceptive. Then, he raised a hand and gave Karen the finger by way of praise and affirmation.
While Neo had been using the innate spell of a bloodthirsty aberrant demon to create clones, Karen hadn't been idle either. Using Progenitor Allen's power, he had blanketed the surroundings with water-attribute power over a broad area, effectively weaving an artificial spiderweb.
Any move Neo or his clones made next, any subtle shift in power levels, or any swap between the true body and the duplicates would immediately be picked up by Karen at the center of the web.
This not only demanded a heavy consumption of spiritual power, but also an extraordinary soul strength to maintain such fine-grained perception.
It was a completely unpretentious countermeasure, the ultimate demonstration of being wealthy enough to be willfully extravagant.
Neo snapped his fingers, and the newly formed clones dispersed at once. Now that the tactic was busted, there was no point in forcing another round just to ask in mock shock afterward:
"Damn it, how did you tell them apart?"
Though Karen's standing within the Church of Order was rising higher and higher by the day, Neo had no reason to flatter him or boost his ego. After all, in the Church of Order's official records, Neo was already "killed in the line of duty."
Two successive offensives had fizzled out with nothing to show for them, making the fight seem disjointed.
Yet that wasn't because Neo wasn't putting his heart into it. Facing Karen, his viable combat options were exceedingly limited: close-quarters combat.
Otherwise, what else was he supposed to do—trade spells against Karen? That would be true madness!
He launched his third offensive, choosing to attack once again. Mid-charge, his body dispersed into a swarm of bats.
Perhaps realizing that dodging any further might drive Neo mad enough to stop humoring him, Karen didn't evade this time. Instead, he opened his palm, conjuring a miniature square of the Order Cage.
The swarm of bats circled Karen, shrieking. Everything around them dimmed, and threads of blood crept into his vision.
Yet just as Neo readied his next move, the Order Cage enclosed Karen completely. Karen began to turn, and wherever his gaze swept, a dense sea of Order Fire erupted outside.
Every corner within his field of vision was swallowed by the flames of Order.
At first, the bats could endure within the blaze for a short while, but as time dragged on, they withered. Eventually, they burst one after another, their bloody mist rapidly eradicated in the Order Fire.
Right at that moment, a starburst appeared beneath Karen's feet, while a pillar of light descended rapidly from above.
A figure clad in sacred armor, wielding a greatsword of light, cleaved down from midair!
The dense Order Fire around them was driven back by the radiant edge. The Order Cage that had been shielding Karen began cracking and shattering the instant the blade made contact, as a domineering aura of light fought wildly to pour in.
Karen did not panic. He merely murmured:
"Thousand Phantoms."
Behind Karen, a pair of black wings formed entirely of Chains of Order materialized. The moment the Order Cage shattered, the wings snapped shut, enclosing Karen's body.
*Bang!*
The greatsword of light slammed into the wings, its radiant blade flickering wildly. The corner of Neo's mouth twitched.
Though both the wings and the greatsword were condensations of intangible power, Neo felt like a reckless fool slamming a sledgehammer into a slab of armor plate, the recoil rattling his entire body into spasms.
And that was not all. Having completed the defense, the wings wrapped around Karen flapped outward.
The tremendous force finally proved too much for the greatsword of light in Neo's hands, causing it to shatter into fragments. Neo himself was hurled backward, skidding a fair distance through the air before barely sticking the landing.
Karen remained where he was, facing Neo, the black wings behind him swaying slowly.
Neo licked his lips.
In the distance, little Kanna spoke up: "He's getting crushed."
Purr swatted Kanna's head. "Mind your manners."
Kanna immediately changed her expression, exclaiming, "Wow, so exciting!"
From beginning to end, Karen hadn't launched a single offensive move, merely passively defending against Neo's onslaught. Years ago on Snake Island near Dark Moon Island, Neo had relentlessly hacked away with his greatsword of light to drive Princess Ophelia to despair. Now, however, he couldn't replicate that scene against Karen.
Unlike warfare, which Karen had only recently been studying, he had never once slacked off when it came to personal combat techniques and fighting styles.
For many clerical priests, out of ten parts potential, they could perhaps tap into two or three. Karen, by contrast, almost always operated at maximum—no, at overflowing capacity.
Against an opponent like this, unexpected upsets rarely occurred because he almost never made mistakes, performing with rock-solid consistency. As long as one lacked an absolute advantage in raw strength, it was practically impossible to defeat him.
Neo pushed himself up, resting his hands on his hips, and yelled, "Your turn! You attack!"
Karen nodded. "Very well."
In the next instant, the Sword of Diamans floated into the air, its tip swiftly carving patterns into the ground around Karen. The Key to the Rubik's Cube materialized before him, turning rapidly.
At the same time, Karen began chanting an incantation, his hands forming various spell seals in unison.
"Hey, hey, hey!"
Seeing this, Neo couldn't help shouting:
"That's crossing the line! That's going too far! When I told you to attack, I meant draw your sword and come hack at me, not this! Look at you—do you have even half a shred of hot-blooded youth left in you?!"
"All right," Karen said as he paused. Not because he stopped, but because he was already done.
In a flash, the entire area where Karen and Neo stood sank at once. Massive, razor-sharp spikes jutted out, dividing and sealing off the perimeter.
Neo felt his body weight multiply by more than twenty times in an instant, nearly driving him face-first into the dirt.
He immediately rallied the power within him to overcome the restriction, swiftly adapting to the formation's environment.
Yet ferocious astral winds surged from all directions, howling as they swept toward him.
Neo dodged continuously, putting his remarkable agility on full display—and that was under oppressive conditions.
However, the astral winds converged at the very center of the formation, condensing into a gigantic black tornado that abruptly expanded, constricting Neo's room to maneuver.
These were two temporary formations Karen had laid out earlier, meant to pin down this agile bat as much as possible.
At the same time, three spells unfolded simultaneously.
Overhead, dark clouds rolled in. From within them, the tips of numerous Spears of Judgment poked through. Faint rumbles of thunder resonated inside, poised to unleash a torrential rain of judgment spears.
In the desert ahead, a deep pit appeared, and an enormous spider crawled out, residual traces of a summoning starburst beneath it. A summoning spell.
As the spider spun its silk, the outer perimeter was sealed off even further.
Neo's gaze darted upward repeatedly, watching for the rain of spears to fall. He took that to be Karen's main offensive thrust, given that the other formations and spells were meant to trap him.
Soon, however, Neo realized he was mistaken.
For the sand beneath Karen began cascading away, and a black castle rose from beneath the dunes. Karen himself stood at the highest point of the roof.
[Black Prison Castle!]
This was a group spell designed for squad-level units, yet back when Karen had first learned it, he could already summon it on his own. Now, he could do so without making a sound.
In any case, heavily encumbered by the formation, Neo hadn't noticed a castle rising from the earth before him at all.
However, the mark left by the Scythe of War was no longer on the back of Karen's hand, so maintaining this Black Prison Castle could not draw on the support of an artifact's power; Karen had to shoulder the burden entirely himself. Yet at this point, such an expenditure was truly negligible.
The highest point of Karen's custom Black Prison Castle was an artillery embrasure. As a temporary teleportation formation activated, a magic crystal cannon was warped over from the encampment not far away.
All of this had been set up back at the encampment as part of the daily maintenance conducted by Mr. Aisen's team, meant for scouting squads to draw upon in emergencies. Still, not many cannons were prepped in the teleportation formations—only five in total.
A Chain of Order extended downward from Karen's palm, snaking into the castle's interior straight to the control chamber.
As Karen tugged the chain, the muzzle of the magic crystal cannon pivoted in sync, locking onto Neo, who was trapped in the formation.
It turned out the rain of spears above wasn't the main attack either; it was just another deterrent hovering overhead to pin him down.
Neo: "#$%@!!"
Curses of every Wien variety—those Karen had heard before and those he hadn't—erupted frantically from Neo's mouth.
Had Daina been here, she would have profited greatly and upgraded her quarreling repertoire for the next comms meeting.
You couldn't blame Neo for losing his mind. We agreed on a duel, and you fucking brought out a cannon!
Purr pressed a paw to her forehead. "Oh dear, that really is a bit much, meow."
Little Kanna, on the other hand, was getting thrilled. Clenching her little fists, she muttered under her breath, "Fire the cannon! Fire the cannon!"
In the end, Karen didn't fire.
Perhaps he was worried the cannon showed no mercy. Even though Neo possessed an exceptionally pure bloodthirsty aberrant demon bloodline, all beings were equal before a magic crystal cannon. If he vaporized Neo—flesh, bone, blood, and all—Neo would truly be gone.
Or perhaps he simply knew how precious magic crystal cannon shells were. The army had been fighting continuous battles without receiving resupply; though shells weren't strictly scarce yet, they weren't abundant either, and what could be saved had to be saved.
Nevertheless, Karen used this opportunity to retest the synergy between his current strength and the Black Prison Castle.
Back when he was merely a squad captain in the Whip of Order, he had fretted endlessly over equipping all manner of war engines. After every mission settlement, he would recalculate how long it would take before he could afford the armaments for the Black Prison Castle so that it wouldn't end up reduced to nothing more than a "shelter" or a "jail cell."
Now, ordnance was no longer an issue, and the power of the Black Prison Castle could be drawn out at full capacity in his hands.
Once the war was over, he would have to find Mavaglio to imprint the mark of the Scythe of War back onto him. Though that scythe was somewhat perverse and always seemed eager to chop him down, with its blessing, he would basically be "invincible" in the Yorktown Region going forward.
Setting aside the coffin that could be teleported over at any time, setting aside the Dragon God Armor little Kanna formed for him, and setting aside his own current personal strength...
He had the full means to station a complete arsenal of war materiel permanently inside a teleportation formation within some facility in his region. Whenever needed, he could summon the castle and warp in the weaponry to equip it instantaneously...
He was, all on his own, a miniature military combat unit.
Karen couldn't even imagine what caliber of formidable assassin someone wanting him dead would have to deploy to pose a threat against a loadout like this.
Neo grew hoarse from cursing.
Karen gave the chain a tug, and the muzzle dipped up and down twice, as if offering its deepest respects.
This gesture successfully provoked Neo into another stream of profanity.
Karen waved his hand, dismissing the formations, dismissing the spells, and dissolving the Black Prison Castle.
Landing on the ground, Karen exhaled, feeling a slight tightness in his chest, and began to cough:
"Cough, cough..."
After coughing, Karen suddenly remembered that night back in Luojia City. After Grandfather had taken him along to kill those people, Grandfather had started coughing. At the time, Karen had thought Grandfather was severely overtaxed and near exhaustion, and he had been worried to death.
So, as it turned out, that was the state Grandfather had been in... Just a little worn out.
Freed at last, Neo hollered, "Come on, come on! Fix bayonets! Let's cross blades! If you don't give me a damn good brawl today, I'm packing my bags and leaving tonight!"
As he spoke, the bloody glow around Neo erupted rapidly. He raised his right hand, conjuring the foundation of a Tower of Light. Leaping into the air, the tower condensed around him, its spire aimed straight at Karen on the ground below.
Meanwhile, tendrils of crimson mist billowed swiftly, heavy with the scent of blood, like a cauldron on the verge of boiling over.
All brilliance retracted at that moment, producing an eerie absolute stillness before erupting into a frenzy that set souls trembling.
"Decent—Burial!"
Only this spell could vent the frustration pent up in Neo's chest; all his words and fury were channeled into it.
Karen had once asked Neo if this spell had been designed for a specific target—for instance, to counter someone in particular.
Neo had answered no, claiming he had conceived it when the stock market crashed.
Terrifying power converged upon Karen from every direction.
Karen chose neither defense nor evasion this time. He knew that if he didn't give Neo some satisfaction, their friendship might very well reach its end.
So Karen raised his hand.
*Hum!*
A black circular aperture opened in midair, swirling with vortexes within.
After God's Revelation had concluded, Karen had told Neo that the next time a Regional Guardian stepped out of line to obstruct them, there would be no need for Grandmother to take action.
That had been no mere figure of speech. Following God's Revelation, Karen had mastered the exact same extraordinary power wielded by Regional Guardians.
As Karen moved his hand, a colossal hand reached out from the black hole.
Its fingers were long and slender, its skin pale, and the nails were filed and polished smooth and neat. It was Karen's hand, though the nails hadn't been trimmed by Karen himself—whenever Purr had free time, she liked cradling his hand and grooming his nails for him.
Looking up at the giant version of her masterpiece in the sky, Purr mused, "It seems they really do look better left a bit longer. They're a little short right now."
Little Kanna measured the giant hand with her fingers, wondering if it could snatch up her dragon form in a single grasp. The answer was... it probably could.
Before absolute power, all resistance melted into fleeting smoke.
Karen closed his fingers gently, not daring to exert too much force.
The giant hand clamped around Neo, instantly severing every connection between him and the outside world. The Decent Burial he had just conjured ground to a dead halt before it could unleash its cataclysmic destructive power.
At this, Neo wasn't angry anymore. Far from cursing, a smile broke across his face. He glanced left and right, even reaching out to stroke and tap the colossal hand grasping him.
Karen smiled as well.
Yet right then, a plume of smoke billowed from the Neo held within the giant hand. The original Neo transformed into a stuffed doll—a doll draped in a warm, freshly peeled human skin.
Karen froze. Immediately after, he felt a distinct chill against his neck.
A claw was already pressed against his throat. Beside him stood a skinless, blood-drenched man.
Neo had used his own skin to forge a far more realistic decoy, while using the moment of molting to fool Karen's senses and slip into melee range.
You could never underestimate the tenacity and ruthlessness of an old hound.
One could even say that from Neo's initial probing to his subsequent reactions—including his furious cursing and his final hysterical roar—everything had been an act, a disguise, all laid out as groundwork for this single strike.
He had succeeded.
Karen raised both hands and said:
"I yield."
There were no excuses about whether he had held back. To make such a claim would be naive; his opponent had known he would hold back and exploited that very condition. If Karen tried to argue that, his old captain would scold him mercilessly.
Neo spoke:
"One last lesson for you:
The next time you clash with someone, no matter the purpose, you're only allowed one thought in your head: kill him!
Do you hear me, rookie?!"
"Understood, Boss."
Chapter 803