In the Silver Palace of the Kingdom of Asura, Reida was completely bewildered.
Her entire body was tense, her nerves on edge, her heart pounding too hard. A moment ago, she had felt that this was the moment of her death.
Dying in battle against the fearsome Dragon God would even have been a good outcome.
But everything fell apart when Rygar, her former disciple — the most talented she had ever had — arrived and threw the whole situation into chaos.
Reida felt control slip through her fingers.
Rygar was about to attack the Dragon God without warning.
"Wait, wait, wait! Move and I'll attack you too, you brat!"
She shouted hurriedly. The attempt was somewhat pathetic, but it was all she could do at that moment.
To her surprise, Rygar actually stopped and looked at her — and only then was Reida finally able to properly observe the Armor he wore.
That was no ordinary armor.
Even a casual glance was like staring directly into the Sun.
The eyes of anyone who tried to stare were instantly burned — and many Asuran nobles fell to the ground screaming, clutching their faces, blind or near it.
Even Ariel and Rudeus Greyrat were affected.
Reida quickly deduced that this effect hit those with low proficiency in touki more strongly.
But what made Reida shiver was the silvery glow surrounding the black armor; she had a bad feeling about that glow. Moreover, from within the slit where the eyes should be, blue flames shot out in uncontrolled jets.
She had no idea how he was even alive inside that.
Before she could ask anything, Rygar's stance changed abruptly — and in that same instant, Reida felt her own domain completely subjugated.
A cold sensation ran down her spine.
She reacted with a quick attack — but the blade was parried by a strike so fast it seemed to have happened at the speed of light.
Shock plastered across her face.
The realization came immediately. Rygar had already perfectly blended the Water God Style and the Sword God Style into a single technique.
And she wasn't the only one who noticed it.
Sándor, Timothy, and Orsted also wore serious expressions. They were all within his reach — and they knew it.
The blue flames continued to spread through the hall, stirred by the presence of the Doomsday blade, but the Armor itself absorbed those flames insatiably, as if being fed by them.
But there was a swordsman there who did not notice the overlapping styles. All he felt was the Water God's domain retreat for an instant.
And that was enough.
He charged at Ariel in an instant. In his view, once she was dead, there would be no more dispute.
The North King, Wii Taa, a small, short-statured halfling, crossed the room with surprising speed.
But before completing his third step, his body was cut in half horizontally.
The upper and lower halves separated, falling to the ground as he gurgled to death. A trail of blue flames followed the strike, scorching the air.
"Reida, what are you doi—?!"
Grabell's, the First Prince of Asura's, sentence never finished. His neck flew off at the same instant.
His body tumbled to the floor while the head rolled down the stairs. A second trail of blue flames marked the cut.
Despite all this intimidating posture, Rygar was extremely cautious with Orsted. He did not plan to attack now — his goal was to buy time, as much as possible.
This would benefit Aisha and the rest of the group enormously, who needed to complete their mission without interruptions.
Additionally, he wanted to try to recruit his master at that critical moment.
But, to everyone present, Rygar seemed like a beast about to pounce on anyone. The blue flames around him still burned fiercely.
Even overpowered, Reida reacted immediately:
"What are you doing here, brat?! Want to die?! This isn't your territory, and the Dragon God isn't your opponent! Do you think you can kill a prince and walk away unpunished?!"
Her voice was harsh and scolding, but what she most wanted was for Rygar to back down.
He was the only one who had fully inherited her techniques. She did not want to see him die from recklessness.
Rygar replied coldly:
"A mere prince is not important, master. Many more nobles will die today, and in the end he'll be just another of them. I'm also not interested in the political games of this rotten kingdom..."
His words were enough to shock the court of the kingdom present, but he continued.
"As for whether the Dragon God is my opponent... that remains to be seen. I'm quite confident, actually. Why don't you join me? I even have a method to make you younger. And I want you to teach swordsmanship to Aisha. She is quite talented."
Reida was paralyzed. In fact, almost everyone in the room was.
Invading the Kingdom of Asura. Killing several nobles and threatening to kill more. And even trying to recruit the Water God amid the chaos.
Rygar seemed completely insane.
Sándor sighed, but did not dare to comment.
Timothy looked at Jino with an inscrutable expression.
Rudeus trembled slightly, restraining himself from attacking at that moment. Sylphy was much worse — seething with rage.
Perugius watched everything with watchful eyes; his calm expression was nowhere to be found.
Reida analyzed the whole situation in an instant before speaking hesitantly:
"Do you really have confidence to defeat the Dragon God...? If so, then I hope you can spare Darius..."
"Impossible, that pig will die without a shadow of a doubt, in truth—"
Rygar began to respond, but was interrupted by an alert on his communicator, which was merged with the Sköllvindr Armor.
He knew exactly whose alert it was.
The Technique God.
Rygar's expression lost its composure for a moment. That alert was a call for help.
They had warned the Technique God about Hitogami, and even knowing his power, had given him this communicator to call for help if he found himself in difficulty.
What would constitute a difficult situation for one of the most powerful beings in the world? The timing could not have been worse.
He spoke to the three who stood by his side:
"Change of plans, we are out of time. You know what to do."
Without further explanation, Rygar struck Reida with the Longsword of Light.
She didn't even have time to react, for he used his maximum speed — but struck with the blunt side of the blue blade, and with greatly reduced force.
Even so, Reida was hurled away like a projectile, slamming into the wall and losing consciousness instantly.
In the very next instant, the entire ground cracked as the Beast God lunged at the Dragon God with an overwhelming murderous intent.
Simultaneously, Jino, Eris, and Ghislaine also attacked.
The hall was taken by absolute chaos.
---
The Dragon God was extremely cautious.
Not only because of the strange Armor Rygar wore, but also because the blow that the Beast God had struck against him had more than enough power to penetrate his Dragon Touki, his greatest advantage against other opponents.
This caused Orsted to prepare himself mentally.
He first wanted to fully understand Rygar's limits before truly fighting him; it was an old habit he had developed after living through many Loops.
However, against this opponent, he also had to worry about not being killed in the next instant, so he was serious from the start.
Rygar gave him no room to breathe.
He pursued Orsted relentlessly; his speed was unlike anything the Dragon God had ever seen.
He moved like lightning, as if physics did not apply to him. His movements were instantaneous, impossible curves, attacks that appeared out of nowhere.
It was as if Rygar were a being from another plane, mastering space and time with his devastating speed.
Orsted continued to retreat and observe each of Rygar's attacks.
It had been many years since he had fought him, and he would never have imagined Rygar had grown so much in so little time.
The blows were strong, fast, fluid, perfectly executed — a true perfection in swordsmanship.
It was like fighting the Fighter God, whose techniques were elevated to perfection by his armor. Orsted even wondered if Rygar's Armor might have a similar effect.
But before he could think further, his sense of danger spiked, alerting him to an imminent threat.
The Beast God advanced once more; he flashed with instant lightning, and with a sword strike, a white-blue bolt leapt toward Orsted with the intent to turn him to ashes.
Orsted had no choice. With a swift movement, he drew his sword. He knew that if he did not summon it at that moment, he would have no chance to withstand it.
He cut the bolt in half.
The bolt's energy dissipated into several smaller lightning strikes, and the explosion destroyed the ground around, cracking the earth and sending sparks everywhere.
The Dragon God watched cautiously.
The fight between them had gotten out of control, and, at the same time, he noticed that Rygar, intentionally or not, was avoiding collateral damage, directing his battle through parts of the palace where there were fewer civilians.
Their chase and flight took them beyond the Silver Palace and beyond the walls of the Capital. They had already left the city.
Meanwhile, the Beast God looked at his Godsword, clearly interested in the sword.
He approached Orsted slowly while the blue flames still dominated the surroundings.
"Is that the famous Godsword?" he asked with a malicious smile. "I didn't think you'd draw it so quickly."
Orsted's expression grew even more intimidating.
"How do you know the name of that sword, Beast God?" he asked, his voice deep and cold.
Rygar gave a calculated smile and replied, with an ironic tone:
"I have my ways. But that won't be of much help to a dead man."
Orsted, with his penetrating eyes, observed Rygar from head to toe, even more serious.
"Is that armor and sword your confidence in killing me?" he inquired.
"That will not be enough, Rygar Adoldia. I know you are not affected by my Curse. I believe you can think for yourself. The true enemy between us is Hitogami, and I have a method to reach him."
He looked directly at the Beast God with a somber expression.
"Moreover, if it matters, I ask forgiveness for killing your long-time companion, Reidar. At the time, I thought you two were both apostles of Hitogami."
Orsted could not see Rygar's expression behind the armor, but he imagined that the Beast God was either surprised or pondering what he had said.
The truth was that the best scenario for Orsted would be to earn Rygar's forgiveness and ally with him to kill Hitogami.
This was because, according to Hitogami himself, Rygar was somehow responsible for bringing forward his death by several decades — a fact Orsted was extremely curious to understand.
Orsted, even though he knew Rygar wanted him dead, would not kill him so easily. He could not afford to lose this opportunity to reach Hitogami.
Rygar replied with his voice muffled by the helm:
"You are more naive than I expected, Dragon God… perhaps it's because of your Curse that you cannot keep an open mind?"
Orsted did not show surprise. That was what he had expected — a direct refusal.
But Rygar did not stop there.
He continued speaking, and it was not difficult for him to act that way, because each word represented his true thoughts.
"You still don't even say his real name… you still call him Reidar, as if he were a clown. I can see how, at that time, you saw him — and still see him — only as a number. Your view hasn't changed since then."
The blue flames over his armor intensified.
"Everything in this world… all beings… in your view are just pieces that can help or hinder the quest to kill Hitogami."
Rygar began calmly, but his tone gradually rose.
"Even your apology to me must be because you believe I will be useful in killing your enemy… make no mistake. Hitogami is certainly my enemy. He is despicable. He must be killed, yes… but I don't care about your spiritual journey to reach that guy."
The air around grew heavier.
"All I care about is how your actions affect me… and those I care about. The personal grudge I hold against you is certainly strong, after all, it's kind of obvious, but an apology won't bring Eidar back to life."
The flames surged, spreading ripples of heat.
"But there is another reason… what if, one day, my children become an obstacle to your goal? Or other friends of mine? Or… even my wives, as was the case once before?"
He was not speaking idly. In Oldgar's Future Guide, one of his children died at Orsted's hands. The current Rygar did not know the reason — but could deduce.
Inside the helm, only flames came out, but Orsted was absolutely certain that Rygar was looking directly into his eyes when he said:
"You are certainly powerful, Dragon God. So strong that you can view everything from an external perspective… you can kill whoever you want dead… and spare whoever you want alive. And you know what? That's a consequence of strength. But, unfortunately for you… I was born with some talent. That is the weakness of using strength to solve your problems, Orsted: all your plans will be useless if someone proves to be more powerful than you at some point..."
A storm began to form on the horizon.
Rygar looked at it impatiently — his instincts told him that the Technique God's signal was a bad omen for himself. But the timing was too precise, and that made him certain that Hitogami had a hand in it.
Meanwhile, Orsted wore a horrible expression, even by his standards. At first, he thought Rygar was rejecting him out of pure hatred and vengeance; he could understand that and deal with it in the best way. But Rygar's words were cutting.
The Dragon God spoke gravely:
"You do not understand the danger of the God Man. Killing him is the priority above all else."
"What? He killed your family? Killed your girlfriend? Massacred your tribe? Or did he do all that and more?" Rygar laughed under the armor. "Don't be mistaken, Orsted, I'm not denying the validity of your little revenge against him. It's simpler than that, if you want to know..."
Rygar assumed the stance to execute the Longsword of Light.
"You want to kill Hitogami, and I want to kill both of you! If you resist, you win. If you die, you lose!"
Rygar vanished again while a blue sun rose on his sword. Orsted, still with a grim expression, advanced at the same time with the Godsword.
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