Whaam!
The swordsman in the blue dragon helmet stretched out his arm, unleashing hundreds of rays of light from the energy of death engulfing his blade.
"How shabby."
Glenn didn't withdraw as he watched the energy of death rushing toward him. Instead, he advanced as he swung Heavenly Tremor.
Spark!
The lightning blazing from the white blade completely devoured the energy of death. All that remained after Heavenly Tremor passed was a faint wind that couldn't even move a hair.
"Were you really trying to face me with such pathetic skills?" Glenn narrowed his eyes, lowering the spotless Heavenly Tremor. The energy of death trampled by lightning scattered like a fog under his feet.
"It's a bit too soon to judge." The swordsman in the blue dragon helmet shook his finger with a grin. "Save the evaluation for after the battle!"
He flipped his wrist, and a sphere of light made of condensed energy of death surged into the air.
Whaaam!
The pitch-dark sphere of light shattered the space as it rushed toward Glenn's heart.
"I already told you, it's too shabby."
Glenn lowered his left hand, which wasn't holding Heavenly Tremor, and the sphere of light rushing towards him suddenly fell like a marionette with broken strings, got slammed onto the ground.
Whaaaam!
The energy of death exploded underground, turning the entire riverside and the river upside down.
"If I were to borrow your grandson's words..."
The man in the blue dragon helmet pulled his sword behind his shoulder, smiling in joy. His entire body started to blaze in the energy of death instead of just his blade.
"We're only getting started!"
Alongside a roaring shout, the man in the blue dragon helmet flew at Glenn with the black sword. The pressure weighing upon Glenn's body was multiple times stronger than when he was simply attacking with his sword.
"The weight in his words..." Glenn's gaze froze0. He thrust Heavenly Tremor forward and furious lightning emanated from the blade. "...is different from someone like you."
The blade of lightning that seemed to be soaked in blood blocked the charge of the swordsman in the blue dragon helmet.
Whaaam!
A huge shockwave erupted from the clash between the swords, creating a fissure that looked like the space itself was torn apart, but Glenn didn't take a single step back. He single-handedly crushed the swordsman in the dragon helmet while keeping his ground.
Crack!
Along with the frightening sound of cracking bones, the swordsman in the blue dragon helmet was forced to bend his knees.
"You are so strong for an old man. However..." The swordsman in the blue dragon helmet smiled calmly even though Heavenly Tremor's pressure was weighing down upon his shoulders. "This isn't your full strength, is it?"
He casually shrugged his shoulders as if it wasn't enough to kill him.
"..."
Glenn furrowed his brow upon seeing the gaze of the man in the blue dragon helmet.
'He is saving his strength.'
Even though Glenn was showing as much power as when he fought the White Blood Religion's leader, the man in the blue dragon helmet still had room to spare. It implied that he wasn't going all out either.
'He deserves to be called dangerous by that idiot.'
Ogram had mentioned that he couldn't guarantee his victory even if he fought the man in the dragon helmet in a one-on-one fight. Glenn thought at first that it was because of how dangerous the energy of death was, but that wasn't the issue.
The man in the blue dragon helmet was just powerful, regardless of the energy of death. Even among the leaders of the Six Kings and the Five Demons, there weren't many people who could face him.
'I should force him to reveal the skills he's hiding.'
There was no way such a powerful warrior would suddenly just appear. Glenn figured he should force him to show his skills to determine the origin of his martial arts.
Whaam!
The moment Glenn twisted his wrist, the man in the dragon helmet was violently pushed back.
"That attack just now..." The man in the dragon helmet widened his eyes. It looked like he couldn't understand what had just happened.
"I'll let you feel the difference in power."
Glenn lifted Heavenly Tremor, pointing at the glowing eyes inside the blue dragon helmet. The mere act of the swordsman who'd reached heaven getting in the posture for an attack made the entire world rumble.
The noble pressure spread in all directions as the man himself seemed to have become a sword.
"Many unexpected things are happening today." The man in the blue dragon helmet's shoulders trembled, frightened by Glenn's pressure. "But I still need to do my job."
He shook off the remaining impact from his right hand and rushed at Glenn from the right. He thrust the black sword like a ray of light, filled with the energy of death.
Clatter!
As Heavenly Tremor and the black sword clashed against each other, their auras wavered as if they were trying to devour the other party.
Clang!
Glenn and the swordsman in the dragon helmet crossed blades at a short distance their other's breaths were flowing next to them. It was a pure battle of martial arts rather than the power of their auras.
Rumble!
After dozens of clashes, the man in the dragon helmet was pushed back, almost getting sent flying. Each time he took a step back, the ground caved in deeply. It was because he couldn't completely disperse Glenn's power.
"Hah..." The man in the dragon helmet spat the blood onto the ground and exhaled roughly. "I can't win against you in any aspect."
He bit his lip, admitting that Glenn was superior in terms of swordsmanship, aura, and even patience.
"Are you satisfied now?" The South-North Union's leader chuckled, coming up next to him.
"I can't win yet." The swordsman in the blue dragon helmet shook his hands, gesturing that he was done. "But I got a taste of it, at least."
"Then let's get started with the real fight." The South-North Union's leader extended his hand and the river surged upwards like a waterspout, converging in his grasp to take the form of a blue spear.
It was one of the ancient weapons that chose its own master, the Ocean Spirit Spear.
Whir!
The man in the blue dragon helmet removed his relaxed attitude and lifted his black sword above his head. The energy of death blazing from his blade gradually intensified and eventually turned into dark lightning. It looked like he was trying to imitate Glenn.
"What a shabby display, from beginning to end."
Glenn raised Heavenly Tremor to mid-height, revealing his deadly bloodlust. The lightning energy surging from his blade covered the sky and the land, a red radiance emanating from it.
"Sword Field Creation."
His quiet voice twisted the world.
"Seamless Perfection."
"Whoa..." Dorian breathed out a sigh of relief, holding the helm. "We managed to survive somehow." He continued to retch despite saying that he was relieved, implying that he was still feeling tense.
"It's all thanks to our division leader. It looks like he didn't even consider his defeat at all," Krein gasped while looking at Raon, who was lying down with his eyes closed.
"Of course he wouldn't. Raon must've been confident about his victory from the moment he asked for the duel to the death." Burren shook his head, murmuring that he was such a frightening person.
"He never broke his promise. All we need to do is to believe in him." Martha smiled faintly, applying the medicine to Raon's abdomen.
"That line isn't suitable for Miss Rakshasha." Runaan shook her head while looking at Martha.
"You little..."
"Raon is super damn handsome today." She ignored Martha, who was trying to attack her, and carefully stroked Raon's hair.
"Don't let your guard down, everyone." Rimmer loudly clapped his hands from next to Raon. "It's not over yet."
He observed the surroundings with unusually serious eyes. "We need to be especially careful about the part that is different from Raon's prediction."
"The different part...?"
"Eden." Rimmer furrowed his brow while looking at Dorian. "Raon expected the Black Tower's arrival instead of Eden's. Something rather important must've happened, altering his predictions." He tapped his fingers, saying that he had a bad feeling about it.
"Hmm..." Mark Goetten nodded his head, then went to the bow to spread his aura perception.
"By the way, I wonder who the spy from Eden is. The one that our division leader brought over to our side?" Burren narrowed his eyes while looking at Rimmer. "It seemed to be an executive, considering the Fallen's words..."
"It must be Merlin." Rimmer lowered his gaze while stroking his chin.
"M-Merlin?"
"That madwoman?"
"Yes, Merlin had been stopping the interference from the Five Demons while pretending that she was trying to capture Raon. I overlooked it back then because of the urgent matter at hand, but it's rather strange when you think about it now."
Whenever Raon was in a crisis, Merlin appeared to fight against the other Five Demons. Back then, Rimmer thought that she was just insane, but he could ascertain that she was the spy who conspired with Raon after hearing the Fallen's words.
"I-I saw it too!" Dorian raised his hand with widened eyes. "When we almost died back then, Merlin suddenly appeared and looked for our division leader!" He swallowed nervously, talking about when the entire Light Wind Division was almost annihilated by the Demonic Monarch of the Azure Flame.
"I understand that Merlin is on Raon's side. But..." Martha bit her lip while looking backward. "The fact that he couldn't predict Eden's ambush despite having Merlin as the spy imply..."
"That they must've found out that Merlin was acting as a spy." Burren nodded while looking at Raon.
"Wh-which means, Merlin..."
"Is probably defeated already or is in an extremely dangerous situation." Rimmer rubbed the back of his neck, saying that she must've been in an urgent situation where she couldn't even tell Raon about it.
"Ah..."
"Oh no..."
"Focus on escaping for now. We can figure out the rest late—"
Rimmer interrupted himself and turned his head. Countless presences were moving from behind them.
"Prepare for battle." Rimmer turned around, putting his hand on the hilt of his sword.
"Prepare for battle!"
Burren repeated Rimmer's order, and the entire Light Wind Division spread around the deck and unsheathed their swords. They unleashed the Light Wind Style's wind in order to maintain the Large Light Wind Formation on the shaking deck.
About a minute has passed.
Small, fast vessels appeared alongside the sound of something cutting through the river with a blade. There were two warships among them, and the powerful waves of energy wavering on the decks were implying that the party bosses were present.
"We found them! Over here!"
"I can see Raon Zieghart and the Light Wind Division! Increase the speed!"
People who seemed to be assassins and the White Blood Religion's believers were following up from the land. They couldn't be ignored either, because some of them seemed to be as strong as an archbishop.
Rimmer furrowed his brow while watching the South-North Union chasing them from the river and the assassins chasing from the land.
'They'll catch up to us at this rate.'
Dorian's ship was fast, but it couldn't ride the current properly, and the enemies were going to catch up soon enough. In that case, it was necessary to make the enemy ship the battlefield instead of their own.
Shring!
Rimmer unsheathed his sword, engulfed in Garunua's wind.
"Protect Raon from here. I'll be back soon."
He jumped onto the river after issuing order to the three team leaders.
Whaaam!
He advanced by riding the wind and the current, jumping onto the closest fast vessel.
"Th-the Sword of Light!"
"Attack him!"
The pirates and bandits dashed at him, holding swords and sabers in their hands with wide eyes.
"I don't have any time to play with you."
Rimmer unleashed his astral energy toward the fast vessel's deck instead of the pirates wielding their weapons.
Crack!
The central deck of the fast vessel exploded, making the pirates and the bandits fall into the river.
Thud!
Rimmer kicked off the bow of the sinking ship, leaping onto the fast vessel beside it, and raised his sword once more.
"St-stop him!"
"He is trying to destroy the ship!"
The pirates tried to attack him in astonishment, but Rimmer simply destroyed the ship without paying any attention to them.
Whaaam!
Rimmer made all the fast vessels sink before he moved toward the warships.
'We should be able to escape without difficulty as long as I destroy these warships.'
Since they were getting further away from the White Blood Religion, he could guess that he just needed to destroy the warships to safely return to Zieghart.
"Haa..."
Rimmer caught his breath and boarded the warship.
"Kill him!"
"Get close to him and stop him from destroying the ship!"
The pirates immediately rushed at him from all directions, as if they'd been waiting for his arrival.
"I'm sorry, but I don't have much time today." Rimmer gritted his back teeth and unleashed the wind. The green aura emanating from his blade brushed past the pirates' chests.
Swoosh!
The attacking pirates were split in half, their bodies tilting toward the ground. They flailed their arms, unable to even realize what had killed them.
"Are you the boss?"
Rimmer was about to approach the party boss, who seemed to be the warship's captain.
Kieeeeh!
A sinister roar spread around from high up in the sky.
"Th-that's..."
Rimmer's lips trembled as he raised his gaze. A huge body with white bones blazing with the mana of darkness was moving. A bone dragon, a dead dragon revived into an undead, was flying toward him.
Rumble!
An army of undead composed of gargoyles, wraiths, and specters were approaching from behind the bone dragon.
Whaap!
The villain riding on the bone dragon's back took off his robe, and the white skull mask with its eyes shining in gold was revealed.
"The Specter?"
Rimmer bit his lip while looking at the white skull mask. Only one existence in the world wore that mask. It was the Specter, who had been slain by Raon at House Arianne.
'Did he revive?'
Befitting a demon wearing the mask of an archlich, the Specter was capable of revival. Rimmer could guess that he'd used that ability to return to existence.
'It had to be him out of all people...'
The Specter was a magician who thrived the most in a chaotic battle with many people rather than a duel. He was pretty much the worst possible enemy in the given situation.
'Moreover... He got even stronger.'
The mana of darkness emanating from the Specter and his undead had become more powerful than before. The Specter had become even stronger than before instead of just reviving.
"Let's start with the greetings."
The Specter lifted his finger with a frightening glow from his eyes, and the bone dragon opened its jaw wide. The breath of darkness erupting from its dark mouth was rushing toward Dorian's ship.
Whaaam!
The Light Wind Division blocked the bone dragon's breath, maintaining the Large Light Wind Formation in a defensive shape. However, the ship's speed was drastically reduced, implying that a large amount of damage was delivered to the ship.
"Kill them all!" The Specter shouted, and the undead army guarding the bone dragon rapidly descended toward Dorian's ship.
"Dorian! Increase the speed!" Rimmer left the warship and jumped onto the river, shooting blades of wind toward their enemies.
However, he couldn't stop them all because the undead were far too numerous.
"We need to stop them somehow and... Huh?" He gasped while lowering his gaze to the surface of the water while running.
'Are they coming from below at the same time?!'
He could sense a violent movement from below. The Specter's undead army wasn't simply coming from the sky, it was also trying to destroy Dorian's ship from the river.
'Damn it.'
It looked like Dorian's ship was going to inevitably sink at the rate it was progressing.
"Come out here! Come out right now!"
The Specter attacked Dorian's ship from all directions. It looked like he was trying to call Raon out.
The undead army swooped down upon the Light Wind Formation, which was shaken by the bone dragon's breath, and the swordsmen's movements grew erratic.
Whaam!
In the end, the Light Wind Division got separated in all directions in order to protect Raon and the ship, and the Light Wind Formation collapsed as a result.
"If you aren't going to come out..." The Specter raised his hand while grinding his teeth, and the mana of darkness gathered above his head, forming a huge sphere. "I'll destroy you all completely!"
The pitch-dark sphere of light made of the mana of darkness descended toward Dorian's ship. The Light Wind Division tried to form the Light Wind Formation once again, but it didn't look like they had enough time for it.
'It's too late!'
Rimmer bit his lip to the point of bleeding. The sphere was moving too quickly. Neither the Light Wind Division nor himself was able to fend it off.
Cring!
He was trying to shoot an astral sphere to reduce the damage somehow, but a translucent light sparked from below Dorian's ship and Merlin appeared, wearing the mask of an old woman.
Zap!
White Flame was unleashed from the magic circle created by Merlin, blocking the dark sphere fired by the Specter.
Whaaam!
A huge explosion occurred, shaking Dorian's ship as if it was about to capsize.
"Thank you! You saved us... Ah?"
Rimmer interrupted himself with trembling lips. Merlin's mask was half destroyed, and her blood-soaked robe was torn in several places.
"You finally came out!" The Specter nodded with a frightening laugh. "Yes, I knew you were going to appear right away the moment I attacked Raon Zieghart."
He clenched his fist, saying that he could finally take his revenge.
"I don't really like an obsessed man," Merlin sneered, her voice breaking intermittently.
"While I was locked into the Fish Tank of Imprisonment, I was thinking about how to kill you. How shall I kill you? How shall I make you suffer? How? How? How?!" A frightening madness blazed from the Specter's eyes. "I would've lost my sanity there if the Fallen didn't rescue me."
"It looks like you already lost your sanity, though." Merlin shook her hand, saying that it already seemed to be too late for him.
"Yes, let's see how long you can keep that composure with you." The Specter snapped his fingers, and an endless army of undead emerged from his subspace.
Rimmer returned to Dorian's ship and caught his breath while Merlin and the Specter were talking to each other.
"Merlin, let's stop him here. If you help us..."
"No." Merlin shook her head while shifting her gaze. "We can't stop him here."
She stared at Raon, who Federick was holding in his arms, and her lips curved into a faint smile.
"What? What do you mean...?"
"I'm going to stop him here, so you should focus on saving Raon." Merlin casually shook her hand, and Dorian's ship floated into the air, then started to advance at a tremendous speed—as if it were being pushed by a storm.
"Merlin!" Rimmer shouted at Merlin, who became a dot in no time, but she didn't react.
"..."
Merlin's gaze was solely fixated on Raon as the ship advanced like a ray of light.
'This is good enough.'
The duel to the death was going to allow Raon to advance into an even higher realm. She had no regrets as she imagined Raon walking the broad road brimming with light, unlike herself, whose path was smeared in darkness.
"You barely managed to escape after getting beaten up to the brink of death, yet you dared to reappear when I attacked Raon. You truly are insane," the Specter sneered at her ridiculous behavior. "What an idiot. Do you truly believe that Raon Zieghart is going to accept you? You are nothing but a tool to be used and discarded." He shook his head, calling her pathetic.
"You're right. Raon is never going to look at me. We are never going to be together either," Merlin nodded calmly.
"Are you still doing something this foolish, despite knowing that fact...?"
"It still doesn't matter."
Majestic wings made of magic circles sprouted from Merlin's back. Her lips twisted into a smile even though she was coughing up blood in the mask.
"Because my love has always been one-sided."