The blizzard over Brillda continued to rage, blanketing heaven and earth in a desolate, pure white.
Every snowflake was held at bay by the Saint Astri Crystal Canopy Barrier.
Like a transparent dome, the barrier enveloped several kilometers of territory, extending to the horizon to sever the sky from the earth.
In the center of this pale expanse, two figures stood tall, like two statues towering at the end of time.
"It seems a fleeting triumph born of petty tricks has left you all ecstatic."
Hyacinthus tilted his head nonchalantly, listening to the commotion outside the barrier.
"..."
Loren said nothing, merely fixing his foe with a frigid gaze. He could not be bothered to exchange a single word.
Reporters' lenses stationed two kilometers away beyond the barrier might not pick up their voices, but the combatants could clearly sense the world outside.
"Loren, you're nothing more than a fish on the chopping block—merely one that can thrash a bit more vigorously than the rest."
Hyacinthus finally turned his gaze back onto Loren. The casual way he held his sword made it clear he didn't even regard his opponent as human.
No sooner had the words left his mouth than both moved, moving with speed that the naked eye could scarcely track.
"Behold the sea of sword qi."
Hyacinthus held his blade before him. The ground split open, and intangible sword qi surged forth like a rising tide, rapidly sweeping across the entire battlefield.
Within the sea of sword qi, the primordial power of severing surged, intent on cutting down any living being that stood upon it.
Loren tracked the expanding wave of sword qi with his gaze, dodging the lethal currents, yet he could feel the invisible pressure. Death hounded him like a shadow.
Hyacinthus swung his blade, and a flash of silver light turned into a galaxy spanning heaven and earth, sending an invincible swath of sword qi roaring toward Loren's waist.
Loren extended his palm, and a sudden gale roared to life, surging forward to meet Hyacinthus's strike.
The wind shrieked shrilly, drawing everything into its vortex and grinding it to dust. Loren unleashed a tempestuous vortex of his own to counter Hyacinthus's tsunami of sword qi. God-era slashes and God-era gales intertwined, each fighting to claim a sovereign domain on the earth belonging solely to the sword or the wind.
To the reporters far beyond the barrier, the two Tier 9 combatants seemed to vanish in an instant, only to reappear simultaneously in another spot amid the earth's rumblings and the violent currents tearing through the sky.
The reporters stared wide-eyed at the battle raging within the Crystal Canopy Barrier, their commentary trailing off before the cameras. If not for the barrier's protection, the spreading shockwaves would have ground them to mince before they could even register the sensation of pain.
At this moment, beads of sweat covered the brow of Eleventh War God Simonro. He channeled every ounce of Brillda's energy into the Saint Astri Barrier, desperately preventing the catastrophic might from leaking outward.
Straining to keep one eye open, he watched the distant ground before Creti Memorial Square.
Loren and Hyacinthus were merely exchanging probing blows.
They appeared evenly matched.
Hyacinthus held the Heroic Spirit Sword of Cyros, the golden radiance etched into the blade burning like an eternal fire.
Opposite him, Loren's black robes snapped wildly in the wind, his features starkly visible against his cleric's vestments.
The entire square had become their dueling arena.
The earth cracked beneath their feet, and every sturdy barrier remaining within two kilometers began to crumble and shatter.
Shockwaves swept across the square, kicking up the snow into colossal tornadoes until a white maelstrom engulfed the entire battlefield.
"Impressive," Hyacinthus praised Loren, sword in hand, rings of silver luminescence swirling around his body.
Under the relentless impact, the Crystal Canopy Barrier groaned and screeched, sounding as if it might shatter at any moment.
The environments that Hyacinthus and Loren sought to manifest collided and intertwined.
"You haven't used your full strength yet, have you?"
Loren concentrated entirely on guiding the wind, neutralizing Hyacinthus's sword qi.
"Haaah... It's so boring I could yawn."
Hyacinthus's expression grew cold. The praise earlier had clearly been nothing more than empty politeness. His power swelled steadily, as though he hadn't even unleashed a tenth of his true might just now.
The strength of his enemy disappointed him deeply.
His sword qi cleaved Loren's tempest to ribbons.
Loren's expression remained unchanged. His tempest domain did not retreat; it reformed and surged forward relentlessly, striving to swallow Hyacinthus's sword qi. The raging wind roared and howled like an infuriated beast, eager to drag all things into its maw.
"Heh, why so serious?"
A dark-gold radiance erupted from the blade of Hyacinthus's sword. Once the Heroic Spirit Sword of Cyros was saturated with his aura, he unleashed a wave of destructive energy that rocked the entire battlefield.
He swung the heavy Heroic Spirit Sword of Cyros, tracing a linear slash akin to golden lightning.
Wherever the slash passed, the air tore apart with an ear-piercing shriek.
Loren dodged swiftly, the wind rendering his figure as elusive as a phantom, yet he could feel Death breathing down his neck.
Only by giving his all could he survive the destructive power of this linear strike.
Yet even as the pressure mounted, Loren knew such slashes could not be hurled about recklessly. As long as he evaded and maintained his footing, he would be fine.
"Let's do that again, then."
Seeing Loren treat his basic attack as a signature technique, Hyacinthus let the Heroic Spirit Sword of Cyros flare with dark gold once more, unleashing another linear slash.
Flaws began to surface in Loren's tempest domain.
The wind turned intermittent, waxing and waning, unable to completely ward off Hyacinthus's assault.
Loren's expression grew increasingly solemn, as if bearing an immense weight.
Finally, in the next clash—
Hyacinthus's sword qi breached Loren's storm barrier.
Loren's pupils shrank. A razor-sharp sliver of sword qi grazed his neck, leaving a deep wound.
Crimson blood welled out instantly, blooming in midair like a scarlet ribbon.
...
North Brillda.
In the bustling commercial district of the northern quarter, towering skyscrapers stood tall amid the lively streets, the beams atop them proclaiming the presence of media giants through the snowy haze.
This was the famous broadcast tower of the Brillda Empire—the birthplace of the Creti Voice of Truth Broadcasting Company's programming, and the most expansive media headquarters in the empire.
The exterior of the broadcast tower featured a stern facade of dark glass curtain walls that reflected the light of the sky. At the same time, it served as a colossal projection screen displaying the station's logo and its ongoing broadcast.
At this moment, the broadcast was undoubtedly covering the Tier 9 clash at the heart of Brillda.
Even though the ground-level entrance was no longer as bustling as usual today, it remained in disarray. The site had also suffered an attack earlier, but the elites of the Imperial Special Operations Division's Countermeasures Section—dispatched in reinforced numbers today—wore solemn expressions. They had quickly restored order to the broadcasting company's building and were escorting guests and personnel to safety.
"Thank goodness the Imperial Special Operations Division helped us drive off the bandits from the Silver Moon Restoration Society."
"Chief Nikolai, thank you."
Administrative staff leaving the building voiced their gratitude to the lead operative.
"Just doing my duty."
Dressed in a military overcoat, Kestrel Nikolai pressed down on the brim of his cap and nodded.
Looking at the massive screen between the buildings displaying Loren's disadvantage, a flicker of emotion crossed his eyes.
He then led his team into the broadcast tower.
Nikolai took the elevator straight to the top floor, rounded a circular corridor, and entered the central control room of the building.
Abigail sat inside, managing the live audiovisual feed transmitted across the Creti Empire by the Voice of Truth Broadcasting Company.
"This building has been taken over by the Imperial Special Operations Division, and the First Gendarme Brigade is stationed outside. You can operate freely,"
Nikolai told Abigail.
"I doubt they ever imagined the police and the bandits were on the same side."
Abigail had watched through surveillance cameras as the evacuated crowds looked on with relief upon seeing the Imperial Special Operations Division.
The Silver Moon Restoration Society's earlier feint had merely been staged so the Special Operations Division could smoothly seize control of the facility as quickly as possible.
"Abigail, we're counting on you for the rest,"
Lanqi's voice crackled through Abigail's headset.
"Looks like you got out of trouble over there too,"
Nikolai said to Lanqi from beside Abigail.
"Narrowly escaped death, but I made it out. Thanks for putting yourself on the line, Nikolai,"
Lanqi greeted Nikolai with a chuckle.
"I've bet everything anyway. Might as well throw caution to the wind today."
Kestrel Nikolai had pulled off every conceivable form of reverse operation today.
The Imperial Special Operations Division's contribution to the Creti Imperial Army could not be called zero—it was more accurate to say they had sabotaged them at every turn.
"Done."
With Abigail focusing her operations, a split screen appeared in the upper-right corner of all broadcasts aired by the Voice of Truth Broadcasting Company. It showed footage of their battle in Blood Moon City and records of their communication with Violet. With the White-Robed Pope front and center, the broadcast detailed the cause and effect of the vampire rebellion in the Creti Empire along with the numerous suspicious points surrounding Hyacinthus.
"I'll go downstairs to stall them,"
Nikolai said, already hearing commotion below. It seemed the military was ordering an immediate halt to the broadcast that disturbed public morale, realizing that members of the Silver Moon Restoration Society were still holed up inside running the central controls, and that the higher-level municipal controls in Brillda could not cut the Voice of Truth's feed.
"I leave it to you. I've set up an alternate dimensional space here. Even if they break in, they'll just enter an identical control room, making it look as if ghosts are operating the feed,"
Abigail said, leaning back in her chair and massaging her tired brow.
Negotiations required armed force as backing; otherwise, no matter how much evidence was shown, it would be useless and would simply be cut off by the empire.
Only in the current chaos could they seize control of the Creti Voice of Truth Group.
Furthermore, this was achieved with Abigail—a renowned Creti director—infiltrating ahead of time, coupled with inside help from the Imperial Special Operations Division.
"When it comes to top-tier broadcasting, you're truly peerless, Abigail,"
Lanqi said, sounding as though he were moving at high speed to regroup with their companions.
He could not help but worry for Loren, yet his task right now was not to fret over Loren, but to help their other companions conclude their battles.
Ever since the siege of Blood Moon City, Lanqi had realized that Abigail's inadvertent battlefield support had effectively served as a war broadcast director—not a single cut was poorly timed.
"Now that's the kind of praise that gets me fired up."
Abigail always felt exhausted when working as a magic engineer knocking together spatial barriers, but when working as a director, she had boundless energy.
This time, she was determined to deliver a masterclass in battlefield broadcasting to Brillda and the entire Southern Continent, taking control of split-screen feeds covering both the main battlefield and secondary fronts in Brillda.
...
On the frozen street, the massive screen between the buildings was coated in frost, yet it continued to project footage through the white mist.
The frost here was not caused by the blizzard, but by the artificial climate warped by battle.
The Ice Snow Witch and Fifth War God Lukayed were locked in a stalemate, their frigid gusts rattling the glass on flanking buildings.
On the screen—
Although Loren's neck had been cut by Hyacinthus's sword qi and blood welled continuously from the wound, there was not a trace of panic or fear in his eyes.
On the contrary, the God-era wind radiated brilliance from his body, illuminating his face.
Under the mantle of this wind of sacred healing, Loren's wound closed at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The bleeding ceased, his skin smoothed over flawlessly, and not even a faint scar remained.
Like time turning backward, everything was reset, and Loren returned to his peak state.
"Thank goodness,"
the Ice Snow Witch breathed a sigh of relief.
Blessed by the Wind God, Loren's reaction speed grew sharper and more agile, granting not only increased critical strike power and speed, but also substantial damage reduction.
Though Almis was reluctant to admit it, she knew that even before Loren advanced to Tier 9, his healing capability had surpassed her own.
Even as she battled Fifth War God Lukayed of the Mica Seat, she could not help worrying about Loren's fight.
The clash displayed on the frosted screen was almost synchronized with the battle on the street. Loren's wind blades, carrying the momentum of ten thousand tons, struck back toward Hyacinthus.
The moment the wind blades appeared, Hyacinthus dodged them and hurled another linear slash.
This time, Loren did not take the risk of evading. Black astral winds swirled around him, forming a protective vortex that blocked Hyacinthus's attack.
For a moment, the rhythm of the battlefield grew bizarre.
Loren no longer launched head-on assaults; instead, he adopted hit-and-run tactics.
He flickered in and out of sight, roaming the battlefield like a phantom. Whenever he struck, his blows carried destructive wind and thunder, yet he never lingered, retreating swiftly before Hyacinthus could retaliate.
Loren seemed to be biding his time, stalling until he could find a flaw in Hyacinthus's defense.
The Ice Snow Witch pulled her peripheral vision back from the screen. She clearly had no intention of holding back any longer.
In an instant, the swirling snow converged into a colossal frost beast that circled and roared in midair.
Then, it plunged downward, aiming to swallow Lukayed whole.
Lukayed tried to dodge, only to find the ground frozen solid, the iron-hard earth bristling with vicious ice spikes.
Wherever the frost beast passed, buildings crumbled to dust. Lukayed dared not be careless; with a wave of his left hand, an amber-orange potion shattered before the ice dragon.
In a flash, blazing golden flames erupted, incinerating the dragon.
A cacophony of explosions tore through the street as flames and ice shards scattered in all directions, blasting blackened craters into the adjacent structures.
Lukayed's brows were knit tight.
It was not that the Ice Snow Witch troubled him, but rather that numerous other factors were slowing his steps.
Lukayed had no heart to dwell on suspicions about his comrade.
What truly confounded him was the split-screen footage showing the battle in Blood Moon City.
"Miss Almis, what in the world is going on?"
In a lull between clashes, Lukayed realized the only way to resolve his inner turmoil was to ask his enemy.
"As you can see, Violet is our companion, and we were the ones who defeated the vampires. Yet someone stole the fruits of our victory and put on a grand performance,"
the Ice Snow Witch replied as the dust cleared, revealing that the ice dragon had dissolved into sparkling crystals in the air.
"Based on this, I shouldn't need to say more for you to piece together the truth."
"..."
Lukayed hovered unharmed in midair.
With a troubled expression, he stared at the screen showing the battle of Blood Moon City.
The Ice Snow Witch also lowered her hands, refraining from ambushing Lukayed while he was distracted.
"Still, the account Hyacinthus gave was equally plausible. This is merely your side of the story; I cannot determine its truth,"
Lukayed muttered, shaking his head.
The only person who could corroborate it, Sixth War God Violet, was now dead.
This could just as easily be an illusion forged by the enemy to shake their military morale, panic the public, and disrupt their strategy.
Both sides maintained their own accounts; it all came down to who one chose to believe.
Yet to the War Gods, the companions of High Prelate Loren were enemies on the battlefield, whereas Hyacinthus was a comrade they had known for years. By both emotion and reason, they had no cause to trust an enemy's words and betray Hyacinthus on the spot.
"Then let's keep fighting,"
the Ice Snow Witch said, preparing to continue holding Lukayed at bay.
During this brief pause, she also observed the main battlefield in Creti Memorial Square, where Loren faced Hyacinthus.
On the frosted screen, Hyacinthus seemed to quickly grasp Loren's strategy.
"Do you think you're the only one who can use the wind?"
Before the words faded, Hyacinthus vanished from his spot.
A tempestuous torrent surged in his wake.
That was Hyacinthus's true speed.
Hyacinthus summoned countless clones, which turned into storms ravaging the battlefield.
The clone whirlwinds followed fixed paths, while his true body pursued relentlessly.
Loren wove through the raging currents, dodging lethal strikes while searching for a chance to counter.
Immediately after, Hyacinthus unleashed a finishing move. His clones attacked simultaneously in diverse ways—horizontal slashes, vertical slashes, and planar slashes alternating rapidly, slicing the entire battlefield into a stage of death so dense that even the screen seemed on the verge of being carved apart.
Failing to dodge a single cut could mean Loren's defeat and death.
The clones flitted like ghosts across the field, their blades letting out piercing shrieks.
Guided by the wind, Loren gritted his teeth and evaded these deadly strikes.
In this instant, Hyacinthus and his clones flashed across the field like mirages, systematically dismantling Loren's defenses and delivering ever fiercer counterattacks.
His speed was so extreme that Loren could barely react, forced entirely onto the defensive.
Even with the protection of the God-era wind, Loren could not fully evade Hyacinthus's dividing slashes.
Clean cut lines appeared across Loren's body. Blood flowed once more, staining his black robes crimson.
His wounds were healing at full speed, but the rate was slowing down, and the scars on his body grew increasingly prominent.
Loren's expression grew haggard, his breathing ragged, his movements visibly sluggish, and even dodging became an ordeal.
"At the end, you shall be shattered to pieces—"
Hyacinthus erupted with sudden fury.
His speed reached an unprecedented peak as countless waves of sword qi converged on Loren from all directions.
Those sword beams severed the wind and snow beyond the screen, carving the entire scene into intersecting fragments centered on their clash.
Loren parried with great difficulty. With each defense, more sword qi breached his guard, leaving deep gashes across his body.
The God-era brilliance flickered incessantly as the healing wind strained to mend the wounds, but the rate of recovery could no longer keep pace with the damage.
Blood fell like rain, turning the stationary Loren into a man of blood and staining the white earth scarlet.
The Ice Snow Witch pressed her lips tight, unable to watch the sharply divided screen any longer, and focused all her attention on the duel before her.
*Loren, you must win. I haven't even apologized to you yet,*
she prayed in her heart, offering a plea to the Goddess of Fate.
...
In the sky above Saint Creti Monastery in southern Brillda.
The chaotic melee between the War Gods and the demons slowed its tempo midway through.
On one hand, the War Gods were questioning Goyate; on the other, their attention had been drawn to the Blood Moon City footage appearing alongside the clash between Hyacinthus and Loren.
They were in no hurry, for Loren's predicament was worsening by the second.
"It's over. There are disparities even among Tier 9s. Hyacinthus stagnated at the peak of Tier 8 for so long; he was already a terrifying existence capable of challenging Tier 9s. Now that he has broken through and had three days to adapt, not to mention wielding a red legendary divine sword, how could Loren—a synthetic god pushed to Tier 9 on the fly by Lanqi—possibly beat him?"
Antanas clutched her head, complaining to Pranay.
She looked at Pranay. The fact that Pranay hadn't fled practically proved that this version of him was a skeletal clone.
"..."
Pranay merely fixed his gaze upon the screen.
Loren's aura had indeed grown disordered. Every movement seemed to exhaust his strength, cold sweat drenched his forehead, and the light in his eyes was dimming.
Yet it was also the enlightened gaze of a seasoned elder.
Loren was gradually adapting to this hyper-intense rhythm.
"Loren's recovery speed is noticeably accelerating, and his wounds are growing shallower,"
Pranay remarked to himself.
"Are they?"
Antanas glanced at the screen, then back at Pranay.
She couldn't see it at all.
Perhaps this was the difference in their powers of observation; some details were only "noticeable" to Pranay.
She would probably only recognize it once the shift became blindingly obvious.
Sinnola remained vigilant, keeping watch on the three War Gods to prevent any surprise attacks.
Ninth War God Amethyst Ryan held his forehead.
The only thing Ryan was grateful for was that the three archdemons opposite them had very little will to fight. As long as the War Gods didn't press the attack, the demons paused immediately, slacking off even more than the three of them.
"Goyate, are you the traitor? Why aren't you answering?"
Jasper's furious inquiries continued to ring through the communication channel. After Loren was freed, the War Gods had quickly synchronized their updates, and the sudden broadcast of the Blood Moon City battle had left them deeply perplexed.
"..."
Unfortunately, Goyate's signal had cut out, leaving him unable to provide an answer.
Jasper refused to believe Goyate was a traitor. He had always been dedicated to the empire and was a comrade she had long considered dependable. Yet all tangible outcomes pointed toward him being the one who had betrayed them.
"Goyate isn't the traitor."
A voice suddenly rang out across the channel and over the monastery.
"?"
Both Ryan and Bianca turned toward Julius, who had spoken up out of nowhere.
They couldn't fathom why Julius had suddenly turned so calm, nor how he could make such an assertion.
"Julius, why do you say that? Do you know something?"
Jasper demanded immediately.
"Because the traitor among the Twelve War Gods is me,"
Julius replied placidly.
At this moment, even Ryan and Bianca beside him were so stunned that they failed to react, unable even to pull away.
"Julius, you're joking, right? This isn't funny."
Ryan and Bianca simply stared at him in disbelief.
They had suspected many people, but never Julius.
Even hearing him affirm it with his own lips, they refused to accept it.
What baffled them even more was that if Julius truly were the traitor, why would he confess openly instead of ambushing them?
"Ryan, Bianca, distance yourselves from Julius first,"
Jasper ordered, breaking the stunned silence across the rest of the channel.
Ryan and Bianca had no choice but to comply, though they kept their confused gazes pinned on Julius, waiting for an explanation.
By now, they had no choice but to believe his words.
For Julius had turned to face them, exposing his back completely to the three archdemons.
"I admit I am the traitor among the Twelve War Gods, but I have not betrayed the Creti Empire."
Julius looked at Ryan and Bianca, speaking to the other War Gods on the channel as well.
"Don't you find it strange? That man seemed to know all the answers. Everything was resolved so smoothly, as if the vampire uprising were merely a heroic fairy tale he scripted. I was Violet's comrade. We witnessed the siege against the vampires together. I can attest that they aren't lying."
Julius clutched his chest, his face contorted with fury as he spoke with venomous hatred.
At this moment, he no longer had to conceal the burning malice toward Hyacinthus that consumed him from within.
"Julius, even if you say that..."
Jasper's voice carried hesitation. She was startled by Julius's attitude, but she would not reverse her stance based on his word alone.
Ryan and Bianca wore the same troubled expressions.
Then, astonishment took over.
Julius dropped to his knees before Ryan and Bianca, lowering his head to beg for their trust.
"None of that matters most right now. What I want is your trust,"
Julius said, casting aside all pride as he knelt before them.
"I offer all the trust we have built working together as my collateral. If I am lying, I will accept whatever punishment you deem fit."
"This..."
Bianca looked helplessly between Julius and Ryan.
Julius, who had always been the most arrogant of all the War Gods, had discarded all dignity to kneel before them just to honor Violet and expose Hyacinthus's crimes.
A flicker of emotion appeared in both Bianca's and Ryan's eyes.
A traitor would never refuse to strike them in the back, for he still regarded them as comrades—or rather, he had never compromised his true self.
Yet this was treason. There was no excuse, no turning back.
"Julius, you..."
Ryan gripped his magic sword, torn between rage, shock, bitterness, and doubt.
Knowing Julius as he did, he was actually more inclined to trust him than Hyacinthus.
Yet staking everything and forsaking one's allegiance was no light matter.
Especially for the Twelve War Gods, who bore the duty of protecting the Creti Empire.
Just then, a slender figure ran out from the school building below.
She jumped and waved her arms, yelling at the top of her lungs to draw the War Gods' attention, completely ignoring the acting principal's campus-wide lockdown order. She sprinted to the ground closest to the combat zone, followed by another figure who chased and tugged at her, terrified she might do something rash.
Even the three demons and the War Gods in the sky outside the barrier looked down at the disturbance.
A second later, Ninth War God Ryan's eyes went wide.
It was his sister, Ursula.
Behind her was her good friend Elsa, trying frantically to pull Ursula back.
"Ursula? Get back inside!"
Ryan threw himself between the three archdemons and the barrier without hesitation, shouting down at Ursula beyond the ward.
"Brother, help Professor Landry and the others! They're the ones saving the empire! That white-robed pope is the one who stopped you when you were controlled by the vampires that day—he kept you from taking me away!"
Ursula continued to scream with all her might.
"Ryan, the barrier is safe, and the two of us can hold it. Don't worry about your sister being taken hostage, meow,"
Bianca said immediately, understanding Ryan's greatest fear.
At a time like this, they couldn't afford to hesitate out of fear of threats!
"..."
After a long silence, Ryan sheathed his magic sword. He bent down, grabbed Julius's arm, and hauled him to his feet.
"Then I'll believe in you one more time,"
Ryan said to Julius.
Thinking back carefully to the Moon God Festival when he encountered his sister, if she had been taken, her life would have been entirely in the vampires' hands. If Landry had been aligned with the vampires, there would have been no reason for him to stop Ryan from taking her.
Consider it a debt of gratitude owed to Landry—one he ought to repay now.
"Meow? Ryan? What are you doing?!"
Bianca's fur bristled so hard her tail stood on end. Ryan's sudden reversal caught her far more off guard than Julius's.
"Ryan, consider carefully. This is treason. From this moment on, you will be our enemy,"
Jasper's chilling warning came through the channel.
"This is my only chance to make amends. I've already hurt my sister once; if I don't trust her now, how could I ever make it up to her...?"
Ryan spoke without a trace of hesitation.
"Besides, I believe Ursula is definitely right. From the moment I was controlled by Third Progenitor Rasheal, Ursula was trying to bring me back. Now that I'm awake, I swear to only trust her for the rest of my life!"
Ryan was convinced: when unable to tell truth from falsehood, trusting Ursula unconditionally was the right choice.
Within the Saint Creti Monastery barrier.
"Brother, are you an idiot...?"
Hearing Ryan's public declaration of treason, Ursula—who had spent so long grieving over her brother's coldness—now felt a wave of embarrassment and shrank behind Elsa.
"..."
The War Gods' communication channel fell silent, save for static buzz.
"You two... You two!"
Bianca tugged anxiously at her sleeves.
She didn't know what to do.
These were her two best friends, and now both had turned traitor.
"Are both of you rebelling? Think about the consequences!"
Fifth War God Lukayed urged them frantically.
This was no longer about right or wrong; he couldn't tell who was telling the truth either, but this choice would determine the future fate of his comrades.
He had no desire to face his fellow War Gods in a fight to the death.
"I believe Julius."
A calm voice sounded.
Every War God was shaken to the core.
It was the voice of Second War God Saron of the Obsidian Seat.
"Saron, why you too?"
Jasper's voice was filled with disbelief.
Ryan's reason for defecting was exasperating yet surprisingly reasonable, but Saron had always been the most rational among them. There was no reason for him to take sides between Julius and Hyacinthus without hard evidence.
"Julius's love for Violet is genuine. I've seen it with my own eyes. He would never joke about her life and death,"
Saron stated his reasoning over the channel.
"Thank you, Saron,"
Julius whispered.
"Saron, since when were you a hopeless romantic?!"
Bianca held her head.
"It's over, meow! I can't take this anymore—I'll believe you guys too! Worst case scenario, I die with my tail pointing to the sky!"
After a flurry of agonizing indecision, Bianca gritted her teeth and yelled,
"I'll go with you and watch everything you do to witness who the real traitor is!"
She decided to bet on her friends.
Her instincts also told her that Julius wasn't a villain, and the Silver Moon Restoration Society led by the White-Robed Pope had done nothing to harm civilians. Their claims didn't sound fabricated; judging from what Julius said, this group seemed much more like Violet's true companions. Following her gut, she was more willing to believe them.
"..."
Fourth War God Jasper fell silent on the other end of the channel.
She had never imagined that Julius's candid confession would bring three War Gods over to his side in one fell swoop.
"Everyone, this is Professor Landry. I have acquired Third War God Goyate's communication device; he has been captured by my companion. I'd like to have a brief word with you,"
Lanqi's voice sounded across the War Gods' channel.
Julius understood the moment he heard it.
Lanqi had regrouped with Sigrid, Sigrid had knocked Goyate unconscious and taken him into custody, and Lanqi had retrieved Goyate's mechanical device.
Now that they held the advantage outside the main battlefield, Lanqi had room to negotiate.
"What do you want to say?"
Jasper asked.
Currently, Four, Five, Seven, Eight, and Eleven maintained their stance; Three was captured; and Two, Nine, Ten, and Twelve had defected.
If they truly wanted to fight, they could no longer pull it off.
"Regardless of where you stand, how about we all reinforce the barrier together?"
Lanqi proposed to Jasper, the leader among them.
"There is no need for us to keep fighting. The most important thing is protecting the citizens."
His voice carried a sincere plea to the War Gods.
"Simonro, do you trust them?"
Jasper asked Eleventh War God Simonro, who was struggling to maintain the barrier.
She was an engineer who drove legions with magic power and was fundamentally a caster, but if she had to keep fighting the opposition, she wouldn't have the capacity to reinforce the barrier even if she wanted to.
If the other side was willing to call a truce and help shore up the barrier, that was already the most ideal outcome for both parties.
"Whether you believe them or not, come help me reinforce the barrier, please!"
Eleventh War God Simonro was on the verge of collapse.
He, too, seemed to see a ray of hope.
If so many Tier 8s truly stepped in to aid him, this Saint Astri Barrier would become unprecedentedly formidable. Unless a Tier 9 struck it head-on with full force to break through, it would easily contain any radiating shockwaves!
...
Far away on the other side of the Southern Continent.
In Jera Memorial Square at Ikerite Academy in the Hutton Kingdom, the outdoor screen grew intensely chaotic.
Compared to the lively, expectant atmosphere when the White-Robed Pope had first appeared that morning, the mood had turned exceptionally heavy and suffocating, even as crowds of students gathered once more before the steps facing the screen.
The Spear of Evil Descent plunged from the heavens.
Hyacinthus generated three massive rings of sword qi across the battlefield, rotating slowly like clock dials.
Loren had to evade these rings while simultaneously dodging the intersecting slashes.
The rings resembled a countdown on Loren's life; no one knew whether they would contract or expand next, but the moment they moved, mortal peril was certain to follow.
Under such an onslaught, Loren looked as though he might collapse at any moment.
His mental focus was like a lone skiff tossed by turbulent waves, threatening to be swallowed whole at any second.
Defeat was imminent, and the shadow of death hung over Loren's head.
Around the square, every student's heart pounded furiously, dreading the impending collapse.
"Both sides are actually cooperating..."
Suddenly, a student noticed that the barrier was being reinforced, and all feeds from the secondary battlefields converged on the Saint Astri Barrier two kilometers away from the center.
All the powerhouses who had temporarily ceased fighting gathered near the secondary barrier—the Saint Astri Barrier with a two-kilometer radius.
When the Tier 8s from both factions began resonating their mana into the crystal barrier, the crystal canopy suddenly burst into a wondrous rainbow luminescence. As their resonance harmonized, every shockwave was sealed firmly within.
Reinforced by nearly ten Tier 8 casters working in harmony, the two-kilometer perimeter of the Saint Astri Barrier became nigh unbreakable.
"Those people are the truly bloodthirsty spectators."
Now, the White-Robed Pope's companions had all halted their attacks, remaining on the southern flank alongside the rebel War Gods, while the remaining War Gods stood on the northern flank with Eleventh War God Simonro, either reinforcing the barrier or watching the main battle two kilometers away at "close range."
"Well, they actually have the strength to watch from that distance. Besides, as things stand, whether they want to or not, they have to stand right at the front lines near the battlefield."
"Either way, protecting Brillda seems to be the best choice for everyone, and the most righteous choice from a benevolent standpoint."
This served as the only comforting factor outside Loren's duel.
No matter how dire Loren's situation became, the exterior would at least bring no further pressure to the main battlefield.
"At this point, right and wrong, truth and lies can no longer be disentangled. History is written by the victors."
Regarding the footage from Blood Moon City, the people of the kingdom naturally believed the White-Robed Pope and Loren were the righteous party, but they also understood that the Creti Empire saw things through a completely different lens.
The true outcome today could only be decided by the Tier 9 clash within the barrier.
The victor would be justice, while the defeated would simply be buried by history.
Within the Saint Astri Barrier, the battle between Loren and Hyacinthus raged on.
Loren gathered the power of the wind, executing a lethal, heavy strike.
If it connected, it would trigger a tempest that dealt multiple hits.
Using the wind's power, Loren dashed forward instantly, dealing damage and inflicting hitstun on Hyacinthus as he collided, and within a short window, he could chain into another dash with an additional cast.
This was Loren's most vital canceling spell, allowing him to forcibly interrupt an ongoing cast and instantly trigger a tempestuous dash.
Yet all of it was rebuffed by Hyacinthus's ring of sword qi, which combined both offense and defense.
Hyacinthus held the upper hand in attack, and he held the upper hand in defense just as well.
With fresh wounds constantly inflicted by Hyacinthus's slashes, Loren rationally abandoned the offensive.
"Very well. Let me give you a quick death."
After unleashing a planar slash, Hyacinthus flashed directly into the danger zone to execute a wide-area strike across the center.
Loren's instincts warned him that once the planar slash resolved, he had to dodge behind Hyacinthus immediately, or he would take the full brunt of the hit.
"Forward Causality."
The formed sword qi ring at Loren's position began to contract, as if misaligned with spacetime. Dodging in any direction was the wrong choice; in his desperation, Loren spent a massive amount of mana to blink hundreds of meters away, just as the ring shrank and detonated violently.
Before Loren could regain his spatial bearings—
Another fully formed ring of sword qi enveloped him.
Loren tried to evade once more.
"Reverse Causality."
Hyacinthus locked onto Loren and unleashed an annular attack—this time expanding outward.
The annular wave swept across the entire battlefield like a tidal wave, bearing boundless destructive might.
Taking the full hit, Loren was engulfed in mist and thunderous blasts.
Hyacinthus did not stay his hand; he drove his sword into the earth, detonating most of the safe zones across the ground, leaving only tiny patches untouched.
Loren was bound to be hit, or forced to dodge the detonations within the sea of sword qi.
Amid the howling gale, Loren strained through eyes nearly blinded by blood. In the very next instant, he saw Hyacinthus lunging right before his face.
Hyacinthus swung his blade three times in succession—the first two were linear slashes, while the third was a planar slash whose only safe pocket was right around Hyacinthus himself.
Loren had to stay close to Hyacinthus while evading the first two strikes to avoid being struck down by the third.
Loren judged every move flawlessly, flashing behind Hyacinthus drenched in blood, the wounds across his body already beginning to knit together at high speed.
All of this was thanks to the blessing of the Wind God guiding his evasions.
"Your healing spells are quite handy, aren't they?"
Hyacinthus tapped the hilt of his sword as if applauding, glancing back at Loren.
Without warning, he summoned clones to unleash horizontal slashes, while his true body and another primary clone leaped above and below to strike simultaneously.
The brilliance of the slashes cut through the darkness like lightning.
Given the distance and his experience from moments ago, Loren's optimal choice was to continue dodging at close range or block directly with a spell rather than retreating far away.
Yet Loren froze in the next heartbeat.
The defensive barrier he intended to cast—Whispers of the Wind God—was disrupted by an unknown resistance mid-cast. The next moment, he couldn't help coughing up a mouthful of blood.
"Collapse of Causality."
Hyacinthus's lips moved silently as he unleashed his most potent sword art. Combined with his counter magic, countless swords rained from the heavens.
Caught in the torrential rain of blades, Loren darted and leaped between the falling swords, dodging the impact rings they created upon landing.
Each blade that struck the earth rattled the Saint Astri Crystal Canopy Barrier.
Hyacinthus morphed into a tempest to hunt Loren down, unleashing an annular slash whenever he touched a sword on the ground.
Wherever the storm passed, dust billowed, paving stones were uprooted, and mana was torn to shreds; the entire primary barrier began collapsing under the sword storm.
Hyacinthus conjured a massive cluster of dark-gold sword qi rings, sending them chasing after Loren. The shockwaves of their detonations shook the entire battlefield like a sea of dark-gold fire, swallowing Loren in the blast.
In Jera Memorial Square, the dim reflections from the outdoor screen flickered across the students' faces, making them swallow hard.
Just imagining themselves in a battlefield where death lurked at every turn sent chills down their spines, making their hair stand on end.
Yet if Loren fell, their turn would come sooner or later.
South of Brillda.
Beyond the Saint Astri Barrier.
Lanqi and the others had gathered on this side of the ward.
Watching the duel inside the crystal barrier, their expressions grew grim.
In the preceding clash, Loren's recovery had steadily improved, and he had even begun finding opportunities to strike back. Yet Hyacinthus had saved his true killing stroke until just now—
[Collapse of Causality]
[Category: Active Spell]
[Rarity: Epic]
[Attributes: Counter / Regeneration]
[Tier: 7]
[Effect: Interferes with the target's spell, causing their mana to backlash, interrupting the cast and inflicting damage, while restoring a massive amount of health to the user. Cooldown: 60 seconds. Does not incur a cooldown upon successful interference.]
Hyacinthus's spell had been deciphered by Pranay's Eye of Truth and shared with the others.
Earlier, Hyacinthus had deliberately withheld his counter magic to make Loren misjudge his capabilities.
Only when he had driven Loren to the edge of a cliff did he unleash the counter spell, ruthlessly shoving Loren toward the abyss.
To everyone's relief, Loren reacted in time on the battlefield. Instead of casting another shield spell, he conjured a maximum-output tornado to suppress Hyacinthus.
Upon casting, he drew Hyacinthus into the vortex's center, shifting the detonation point of Hyacinthus's sword qi rings, then triggered a tempest that dealt damage to Hyacinthus while partially counteracting the sword ring's blast.
"Loren seems conservative in his style, but he sometimes resorts to mutually destructive plays like this,"
Julius noted, drawing this conclusion from reports when three War Gods had ambushed Loren previously.
Back then, Loren had been in dire straits; while pinned by Goyate and facing Philip's lethal finisher, he had opted for a self-destructive maneuver, severely wounding Philip at the cost of grievous injuries to himself.
That was also why Goyate had ultimately come to fear Loren.
"Because Loren's self-healing is formidable. As long as he has sufficient mana, trading health is completely acceptable to him. In fact, dragging out the fight works to his advantage,"
Migaya told Julius.
Migaya was also adept at self-healing, so he could employ a similar playstyle.
Unlike Loren, however, Migaya only traded health when he could come out ahead in either health or mana.
For Loren, even if he lost both health and mana in a trade, stalling the battle long enough held tactical value.
"But Loren clearly gained nothing from that exchange. If he keeps trading like this, defeat is inevitable,"
Second War God Saron said, arms crossed over his sword as he stared across the battlefield.
Watching combatants of such caliber caused his hands to tremble slightly. Even knowing he would die if he stepped in, he yearned to test his mettle against them.
Only through that could he grow stronger.
Saron understood Hyacinthus's prowess better than anyone; among the War Gods, he had sparred with Hyacinthus the most.
Even so, he had never seen Hyacinthus's true trump card—or rather, felt he had never truly forced it out of him.
In the center of the battlefield, before Loren could catch his breath, his wounds were knitting together slowly.
Hyacinthus's injuries, on the other hand, had already completely healed.
"Wounds that Cleave the Essence,"
Saron named Hyacinthus's passive ability.
Whenever Hyacinthus's attacks struck Loren, deep gashes opened across Loren's body, sending blood spurting forth.
These wounds not only caused excruciating pain, but also continuously regenerated Hyacinthus.
Loren had to mend these cuts swiftly, or he would be unable to withstand the persistent damage.
Facing Hyacinthus's endless clones, Loren summoned a hurricane that swept the ground clean of all foes, the vortex spinning rapidly to crush them.
Yet no sooner had he gained a sliver of an advantage than his spell was neutralized once again.
Beyond the Saint Astri Barrier, the gathered powerhouses could all see that compared to Hyacinthus's seamless offense and defense, the greatest threat to Loren was undoubtedly his counter magic.
"My counter magic relies primarily on reverse-engineering the target's principles. The higher the tier of the spell, the harder it is to dismantle the first time I see it. But as time goes on, if the opponent fails to defeat me, I will successfully reverse-engineer all their spells, and it becomes impossible for them to win,"
Sinnola explained. Even with her eyes closed, she could analyze the mechanics of the spells through mana perception.
This was precisely why Sinnola was hailed as the undisputed punisher of lesser foes among the demons of their era.
"Is Hyacinthus different from that, meow?"
Twelfth War God Bianca asked nervously, turning to the demon she had been trading blows with moments ago.
She knew this demon was an anti-mage possessing attributes akin to Hyacinthus's.
Although Bianca was Hyacinthus's comrade, she had never witnessed him fighting at absolute full power either.
"Hyacinthus is different. He dismantles them through brute force on the surface. So one might suffer a terrible loss upon encountering his counter magic for the first time, but after dealing with it repeatedly, one learns how to circumvent his interference,"
Sinnola answered, shaking her head.
Her counter magic was purer and relied more on innate talent—impossible to learn through study—yet it was not necessarily as practical as Hyacinthus's brute-force methods.
"Then by that logic, as the fight drags on, Loren will only grow stronger!"
Hearing Sinnola's conclusion, Talia and Iphatia, who stood nearby listening, felt a great weight lift from their shoulders.
Both princesses had suffered at Sinnola's hands in the past.
"Still, he must be wary of surprise one-shot kills,"
Lanqi murmured to himself.
The companions around him nodded in deep understanding.
"Old Sang sends his regards,"
Sigrid concurred from beside Lanqi.
"Why don't we all charge in together? We have the upper hand out here anyway. If we hold off the remaining War Gods, we can spare people to gang up on Hyacinthus,"
Antanas suggested in a hushed voice, waving her small fists as she watched the fight.
Though she was terrified of getting closer to the battlefield—trembling even two kilometers away outside the barrier—if Loren lost, they were all doomed anyway.
"Putting aside what would happen to the barrier if we did that, if we all charge in, merely getting clipped by the aftershocks could cripple us,"
Migaya explained patiently to Antanas.
She was a close friend of his wife, a dear companion of his daughter, and an employee of his fellow bishop; he naturally treated her with utmost courtesy, even if he still couldn't wrap his head around demon family hierarchies.
Moreover, in a critical moment, Hyacinthus would not care about civilian lives.
Loren, however, would.
That was the decisive difference between them.
Protecting the civilians for Loren so he could fight unhindered was the greatest and most proper assistance they could offer right now.
"Don't interfere with Loren. That isn't a battlefield Tier 8s can casually join. Rushing in blindly would only tie his hands, preventing him from using large-scale spells,"
Sigrid told Antanas as well.
Of those present, perhaps only she and Second War God Saron truly comprehended what tier of combat was unfolding two kilometers away at the epicenter.
The swords summoned by Hyacinthus tore endlessly at the fabric of space.
Meanwhile, the Heroic Spirit Sword of Cyros in his grip unleashed planar and annular slashes simultaneously, locking onto Loren with lunging horizontal strikes.
Loren wove through the slashes.
Three distinct blades plummeted from the heavens once more, and Loren dodged the circles formed upon their impact with absolute resolve.
Immediately after, Hyacinthus unleashed planar and linear slashes, detonating the ground.
Each blade landing generated colossal shockwaves, forcing Loren to desperately seek the shadows beneath the swords for cover, or face devastating strikes.
Yet Hyacinthus's interference magic succeeded again and again. Whenever Loren attempted to cast, Hyacinthus interrupted him with pinpoint accuracy, turning his crucial spells to vapor.
"If... if Loren loses, meow, what do you plan to do?"
Watching the worsening situation, Bianca shrank back in fear, her tail curling tight around her waist. Having defected, if the broadcast was true, Hyacinthus would never spare her. Just thinking about fleeing into exile among the allied nations made her scalp prickle.
"If Loren falls, I'm next,"
Sigrid said, crossing her arms and watching the duel with cold resolve.
To her, the Tier 9 domain was by no means unreachable. Had it not been for overall strategic victory, she would have long wanted to cross swords with a Tier 9 foe.
"He won't lose,"
Lanqi declared firmly.
At this moment, he was the one who believed in Loren the most.
"If only Loren had his signature weapon too,"
Antanas muttered, finally understanding what Pranay meant about Loren growing stronger.
From the looks of it, the most glaring disparity between Hyacinthus and Loren was that divine blade.
Hyperion understood Antanas's point. She couldn't help glancing down at Lanqi's shadow.
If Cat-Loren could successfully merge with Loren in this decisive battle, the rumored extra lives Loren supposedly possessed might truly come into play.
Even though Cat-Loren was at best a white common summon carrying an orange epic wind spell, a Tier 9 white common might genuinely match a Tier 1 red legendary.
"Don't count on it. Boss Cat used Whispering Gale of the Night Dew right at the start and fell into a deep coma from the backlash. It won't wake up until the one-hour cooldown ends,"
Lanqi shook his head helplessly.
When he met Loren earlier, if he could have slipped Boss Cat into Loren's shadow or buffed Loren with the Black Sun Tyrant's Everlasting Decree, he would have done so already.
A Tier 9 Loren would drain his mana dry in an instant; even Tata felt like a low-power appliance by comparison.
As for Boss Cat, barely fifty minutes had passed, and the duel between Loren and Hyacinthus could reach a deciding blow at any moment.
They were not sparring for points; they were fighting for their lives. Any given second could tilt the scales of victory drastically, sending the odds swinging like a bungee cord.
As they conversed, they turned their gazes back to the center of the barrier.
Loren conjured a headwind before him, drawing Hyacinthus toward himself—an effect that could even pull foes in an uncontrollable state.
The most notable property of this spell was its ability to forcibly cancel other spells and immediately chain into a new one.
Hyacinthus's counter failed this time; Loren canceled the cast himself before the counter could take hold.
The next instant, Loren manifested a zone of dark aura ahead. The darkness condensed into a sphere, pulling in surrounding enemies once more and slowing them down.
Finally, the sphere detonated, inflicting massive splash damage on Hyacinthus.
"Loren is suppressed by Hyacinthus in every aspect. Even without that red legendary Heroic Spirit Sword of Cyros, Loren was hard-pressed to match Hyacinthus moments ago,"
Torriador remarked with uncharacteristic solemnity, his eyes fixed on the distant center of the barrier.
"You mean 'moments ago'?"
The Ice Snow Witch caught the crucial nuance in his words.
As the sole general among the seven surviving archdemons and the most perceptive judge of strength, Torriador surely saw deeper than she did.
"Based on his growth curve, Loren has a path to victory, but right now... he's still a bit short,"
Pranay observed thoughtfully, his expression inscrutable.
Having crossed the threshold of life and death, Loren had undergone a qualitative leap.
Even so, a noticeable gap remained between him and First War God Hyacinthus, who wielded the Heroic Spirit Sword of Cyros.
Yet that gap was narrowing.
Amid the storm's fury—
Loren suddenly halted his steps, no longer evading.
He stood in place, facing Hyacinthus's severing slashes head-on.
The Heroic Spirit Sword of Cyros passed through his form, and his body dissolved into the wind.
"You dare gamble like this against me?"
The spell caught Hyacinthus off guard.
Had Loren failed to execute it just now, the outcome might have been sealed on the spot.
Beside the barrier—
"Wait, have you noticed? The frequency of Loren's casts being interrupted is dropping!"
Iphatia pointed into the crystal barrier, calling out in pleasant surprise.
The onlookers showed hesitant expressions.
Loren's wind was gentle as flowing water, violent as raging fire, heavy as a mountain, and brilliant as the stars.
Riding the gale, his ethereal silhouette resembled a deity, drawing gasps of wonder from all who witnessed his newfound casting methods.
Not only were Loren's offense and defense steadily escalating,
but he was even successfully executing spells despite Hyacinthus's blatant counter interference.
In their exchanges, Loren seemed to have found a way to bypass the counters, inflicting injuries upon Hyacinthus.
Storms and slashes collided, both combatants sustaining wounds that quickly healed.
For now, none could tell if it was mere coincidence.
This was merely the current success rate.
Any spell still carried a high probability of being disrupted by Hyacinthus.
"Could it be that Loren is well-versed in military strategy and loves psychological warfare? Feigning weakness, hiding his true strength and intent to make the enemy think they have won, letting them lower their guard and make poor judgments—only to strike when they least expect it and take them down with a single decisive blow!"
Antanas asked excitedly, throwing mock punches.
"..."
Silence fell over the group.
At a time like this, only a demon could be so utterly disconnected from reality.
Yet several of them glanced toward a certain someone among them, intentionally or otherwise.
"I'm certain Loren isn't that kind of person. His fighting style is very clean—he doesn't even conceal his casting,"
Lanqi clarified on Loren's behalf, looking rather awkward.
"Ahem!"
Antanas coughed twice.
She hadn't meant to point fingers.
In truth, Antanas's words reminded everyone of Loren's past battles.
The defining trait of watching Loren fight was that every battle looked excruciating, yet he won every single one.
To his enemies, it felt like every victory slipped through their fingers by a hair's breadth after exhausting all their efforts.
"Loren is using spells outside of wind magic now."
"You're right! He was fighting Hyacinthus almost exclusively with wind magic before!"
In the center of the battlefield, Loren discharged light-elemental lightning forward, inflicting multiple instances of electric damage to the phantom swords Hyacinthus had left on the ground.
As the lightning struck the sword hilts, it conducted randomly to adjacent blades before arcing back into Hyacinthus.
Before Hyacinthus could shake off the electrified state—
Gathered elemental auras converged in the sky, merging into a colossal elemental planet that plummeted vertically. Hyacinthus gritted his teeth as the impact staggered him, subjecting him to successive waves of composite elemental damage.
The elemental field that bloomed upon the planet's detonation continuously inflicted damage of all elemental affinities upon Hyacinthus while reducing his resistances.
The rings of sword qi blanketing the ground were transformed into an elemental domain.
"Loren's technical depth in mana manipulation, spell repertoire, spell analysis, and casting speed is simply too profound. Unless it's an uncounterable spell, he will adapt to brute-force dismantling like Hyacinthus's and develop new casting methods to resist it,"
Migaya said, his expression remarkably calm. It wasn't that he didn't worry for Loren; rather, he had witnessed Loren fight far more often than anyone else.
"This is Loren's problem-solving style of combat. Take the Silence spell Lanqi and Hyperion used on Examiner Ferrat during the entrance exam. If your opponent had been a young Loren, even if he didn't know Chantless Casting like Viscount Ferrat, he would have deciphered the fundamental principles on the spot and grown increasingly proficient with it."
Migaya used Lanqi and Hyperion as an analogy.
In the days following his rescue, he had heard many tales from Ikerite, which had left him chuckling heartily.
The moment Loren began using other elemental magics, Migaya knew Loren had essentially finished solving the puzzle. Next came the counteroffensive.
This style was rooted in Loren's problem-solving capability. To his opponents, Loren's hand was practically played face-up. Since rising to fame as the Southern Continent's rising star and making a name for himself against the Bishop of Destruction, he had always laid bare his trump cards to protect the populace.
Records of his habits, patterns, and routes over the years were documented everywhere for opponents to study.
Yet what his opponent's true tricks were, or how many trump cards they held, had to be researched by Loren in the middle of battle.
Watching Loren fight, his own heart could handle the strain, but the spectators' hearts certainly couldn't.
"You all always say I have good composure, but Loren's composure is a true monstrosity,"
Lanqi remarked to his companions.
Without entering an ethereal state of absolute mental clarity and enlightenment, most would have collapsed under the pressure, yet Loren held firm.
"Mediocre form, a poor start, locked in a bitter struggle, falling behind, blunders in succession, defeat sealed—and then delivering the acceptance speech,"
the Ice Snow Witch murmured, watching the center of the battlefield fall steadily under Loren's command.
She hadn't understood how Loren always managed miraculous comebacks in the past, but now she understood completely.
Formidable strength paired with unwavering composure, peerless psychological warfare, and problem-solving prowess allowed Loren to stage miraculous turnarounds against the grimmest odds.
This comprehensive package made Loren look like an honest, steady cleric on the surface, when he was in fact a god-given genius.
"Wait, Professor Almis... During the Tier 7 Shadow World last time, Dean Loren endured over a month of high pressure in the mortal realm entirely because of Lanqi! I can only say that if Loren didn't have such composure, he would have lost his mind long ago!"
Hyperion believed that Loren's great composure was sometimes forced upon him.
From the moment he met Lanqi, certain aspects of his life were no longer his to decide.
Suddenly, a bolt of lightning across the horizon drew everyone's attention.
Silence fell as everyone held their breath, gazing at the gathered mana potent enough to pierce through the barrier.
Loren hovered in midair, his black robes fluttering without wind.
His face was devoid of expression, his azure eyes reflecting Hyacinthus, who stood sword in hand, pinned by intersecting pillars of light.
Hyacinthus was no longer unscathed; the chaotic elemental energy was ravaging his body, and blood began trickling from his ears and eyes.
"Is this... elemental poisoning?"
Hyacinthus coughed up blood, muttering to himself.
An abundance of elemental energy was normally a boon, but if one's affinity for the ambient element was insufficient, the excessive concentration would cause bodily imbalance.
Throughout the battle, Loren had deduced Hyacinthus's affinity for every single element.
And Loren happened to possess affinity for all elements, allowing him to inflict stacked, multi-elemental poisoning upon Hyacinthus.
At the same time, a dazzling light erupted from Loren, illuminating the entire battlefield like the sun.
The light contained pure elemental power, as if intent on annihilating all creation.
Hyacinthus immediately felt an agony that transcended mere scorching heat—it felt simultaneously like extreme heat, extreme cold, severing, and corrosion.
At Loren's command, all elements converged, transforming into the rawest power of natural disaster, simultaneously creating, ravaging, and destroying all things. Light particle waves surged through the air; even from a distance, Hyacinthus's skin burned under the intense glare. Raging flames ignited beneath Loren's feet, dying the heavens red; frost covered the barrier, turning it into a realm of absolute zero; and dark buzzing condensed into a dense shield, interlocking into dark walls that completely sealed off Hyacinthus's attacks and escape routes.
Then, Loren's speed surged, fast as the wind. Wind-attributed mana formed cutting lines around him, turning the entire battlefield into a tempest-swept expanse.
Far beyond the battlefield, even across the barrier, all the Tier 8 powerhouses adopted defensive stances.
They knew this was Loren's ultimate move—one he had never unleashed before!
"Loren's greatest strength has always been all-elemental affinity. Perhaps the Goddess of Fate guided him toward the gentlest wind, the element that causes the least natural disaster, which led everyone to believe he specialized in wind magic,"
Migaya said, his dark hair whipping in the wind, a long-absent smile gracing his face.
"In reality, what Loren excels at most is triggering natural disasters. If he ever fought without regard for consequences, he would be the very avatar of catastrophe."
When the power of all elements gathered, it reverted to primordial nature, becoming divine calamity and retribution.
[Divine Heavenly Retribution]
[Category: Active Spell]
[Rarity: Epic]
[Attributes: Ice / Fire / Light / Darkness / Wind / Thunder / Earth / Water / Wood]
[Tier: 8]
[Effect: Consumes a massive amount of mana to inflict defense-piercing, attribute-countering damage within the target area, stacking the user's affinity for all elemental attributes. Cooldown: 120 seconds.]
Loren's raw power was still slightly inferior to Hyacinthus's, but he had successfully learned to bypass Hyacinthus's counter magic.
His expression showed an urgency to conclude the battle swiftly.
The disaster wrought by their clash would take an excruciatingly long time to dissipate; dragging it out further risked unimaginable consequences, potentially causing the land to fracture from this point outward.
If that happened, Botswana Province might become unlivable like the Sea of Calamity between the northern and southern continents, and the entire Southern Continent could face extreme climate shifts radiating from this epicenter.
The sheer might of this natural disaster drew a look of terror from Hyacinthus.
"This might be the only scenario where Loren dares to use Divine Heavenly Retribution,"
Lanqi remarked with relief, watching the Saint Astri Barrier.
Even an all-around magic tank of Holy Polant Pope's caliber would suffer severely taking this spell head-on.
"Meaning..."
Antanas asked tentatively, shielding her eyes from the white glare.
When all elements erupted simultaneously, converging into a beam of genesis, the light intersected with Hyacinthus in midair, bursting into an unprecedented brilliance.
In that instant, heaven and earth lost their color, and the sun and moon dimmed.
All hues were swallowed into this focal point, only to erupt outward the next second.
The shockwave generated by the blast rippled outward in all directions from the battlefield.
"As long as Loren's Divine Heavenly Retribution hits Hyacinthus, he wins,"
Migaya stated with certainty, already seeing the moment victory was sealed.
...
...
Blood dripped from Hyacinthus, his form dyed nearly dark red.
He leaned unsteadily on the Heroic Spirit Sword of Cyros, keeping his footing atop the rubble. Blood seeped from beneath his fingernails, pooling into a black puddle on the ground.
"How foolish, High Prelate Loren,"
Hyacinthus said, his head held high with the unrestrained smirk of a victor as he looked at the distant, motionless form of Loren lying on the ground, life or death uncertain.
"To make the wrong call at such a crucial moment just to protect those weaklings."
Hyacinthus's eyes held unmasked derision and triumph as he passed judgment on Loren.
Clutching the longsword with both hands, he drove the tip deep into the scorched earth to prop up his battered body.
Beyond the barrier, everyone's lips parted slightly.
For the first few moments, no one moved, and no one spoke.
Everyone was frozen, as if time had stopped.
Their eyes went wide, staring in disbelief at the distant battlefield.
They even forgot to breathe, mouths agape, their faces painted with shock and bewilderment.
"What happened...?"
Only now did they understand what Hyacinthus's true trump card was.
Even if the appraisal results were incomplete for everyone save Pranay, they grasped Hyacinthus's ultimate spell through its practical execution.
[Imbalance Devourer]
[Category: Active Spell]
[Rarity: Orange Epic]
[Attributes: Counter / Seal]
[Tier: 8]
[Effect: Engulfs and resists all attacks, traps, and items within range, temporarily storing them in the soul space, and allows them to be returned in full within thirty seconds. Cooldown: 1 minute.]
"No, that spell reflecting Divine Heavenly Retribution wasn't the root cause,"
Migaya was the first to shatter the silence.
In that split second just now—
Loren had anticipated that Hyacinthus might possess a counter spell. Believing that only Divine Heavenly Retribution could force out Hyacinthus's true trump card, he had prepared corresponding precautions.
What no one expected, however, was that Hyacinthus did not aim the absorbed Divine Heavenly Retribution back at Loren.
Instead, he had aimed it straight at the civilian district outside the Saint Astri Barrier and toward Loren's companions.
Ordinary onlookers might have missed that subtle gesture, but Loren had seen it clearly.
Hyacinthus had smiled at Loren.
It was as if forcing a choice on him—
Even with the barrier's protection, the Saint Astri Barrier could never withstand a direct hit from Loren's Divine Heavenly Retribution.
Lanqi and the others would suffer catastrophic casualties, and countless families in Brillda would perish.
Thus, the decision Loren made in that fraction of a second was to intercept Divine Heavenly Retribution himself, attempting to detonate it between himself and Hyacinthus to drag Hyacinthus into the blast as well.
Yet as the caster controlling the spell, Hyacinthus naturally took far less damage than Loren.
"Hyacinthus!"
Migaya's enraged roar shattered the stupor, snapping everyone back to reality.
Immediately after, fury spread like wildfire through the crowd.
"Despicable coward!"
Julius clenched his fists so tightly his knuckles turned white, a ferocious blaze of wrath burning in his eyes.
"He knew that if the fight continued, beating Loren would become nearly impossible. Loren was still growing stronger, so he needed a method to end the duel immediately."
If Loren had been allowed to keep fighting, even if he couldn't find a way to overcome Hyacinthus right away, Hyacinthus similarly lacked the means to put Loren down for good. The offensive pressure would have shifted entirely onto Hyacinthus.
Having felt assured of victory at first, Hyacinthus finally realized that Loren was the sole threat to him in this world, so he dropped all pretense and used this underhanded method to end the battle.
At this moment, no one noticed that two figures had vanished from their midst.
On the northern side of the barrier, the War Gods had clearly seen through Hyacinthus's maneuver as well.
"This..."
Even if Hyacinthus had won,
it was hardly a glorious victory.
They had never believed Hyacinthus was the kind of person who would resort to such tactics in a duel to the death.
The center of the barrier was a ruined wasteland.
Deep ravines scarred the scorched earth, looking as if torn open by the claws of a titan.
"Well then, once you're dead, no one can stand in my way,"
Hyacinthus chuckled heartily, a ruthless glint in his eyes.
Whether people believed him or doubted him mattered not.
Those enemies, those traitors—he would hunt them down one by one.
For now, wiping Loren from existence was the only thing that mattered.
Just as Hyacinthus recovered slightly, his wounds knitting enough for him to raise his sword and carve Loren to pieces—
A flaming arc of space buzzed open beside Loren, and Cardinal of Dimensions Torriador lunged out. Grabbing the half-dead Loren from the ground, he blinked straight toward the barrier's exterior.
"I'm going to be a hero this once!"
Torriador shouted, as if bolstering his own courage.
If Loren were given another chance, an even stronger Loren would never lose to this despicable wretch!
"You thieving rat, I've had enough of you!"
Seeing this, fury flared in Hyacinthus's eyes.
Without this dimensional clown's parlor tricks, the real Loren would never have been rescued in the first place.
Although Loren's life hung by a thread, Hyacinthus could never truly rest easy until the man was chopped to bits.
Hyacinthus swung his blade toward Torriador's fleeing back.
Before the sword qi could reach Torriador and Loren, it was shattered by a resounding metallic crash.
A figure plunged from the sky like a silver comet, slamming down right between the retreating Torriador and the pursuing Hyacinthus.
The colossal impact dismantled the sword qi instantly, dispersing it into countless motes of light that faded into the air.
When the dust settled, a figure radiating silver brilliance stood tall before Hyacinthus.
"Hyacinthus, it's been a long time since I met someone who needed their face bashed in as badly as you."
Sigrid shook her wrists, clenching her knuckles with an audible crack as she stepped toward Hyacinthus.
Before Loren returned from the depths of hell, Bishop of Domination Sigrid would turn the tide herself.
Chapter 851