The Evil Dragon and Intetsu clashed, the scrape of armor plates and blade producing a shrill, grating sound.
On the surface, the Puppet King's control over a person seemed to rely on his Device, the Hell Spider Silk, but silk alone could never achieve this degree of dominance.
It wasn't just that Ikki Kurogane could wield all of his own secret sword techniques freely—he could also use the swordsmanship he'd learned from Edelweiss.
That was the style of the world's strongest, Twin Wings. Even if she had taught him hand-to-hand, someone like the Puppet King could never master it himself.
Charles's arms blurred into afterimages, as if he had sprouted a dozen limbs from his shoulders.
Ikki's sword was no slower, the clash of metal nearly becoming a continuous metallic roar.
Ikki's secret swords came one after another, letting Charles truly feel the extent of his growth. It was clear that even after awakening as a Demon, Ikki had not let up on his sword training.
Even under the Puppet King's control, Ikki retained all of his combat precision—his cunning, too, was as sharp as ever.
In the middle of ordinary strikes, he slipped in secret sword techniques like Mad Sakura and Death Moth's Blade, catching even Charles off guard at times.
Charles chopped through Ikki with a hand blade, then turned to cut down another Ikki at his side.
Before, Ikki's Fourth Secret Sword, Mirage Wolf, could only produce one phantom; now he could create more.
The real danger was that these illusions could turn solid at any moment—but to Charles, finding the real body wasn't difficult.
After tearing through two phantoms, he saw the real Ikki closing in with raised blade.
Charles had to admit—in terms of combat finesse, he wasn't Ikki's equal. His own fighting style had always been bold and sweeping, the best way to unleash his raw power.
So he didn't back off or evade—he slammed forward with a Fire Dragon's Iron Fist.
Ikki caught the punch on his blade, but he had underestimated Charles's strength. The strike bent Intetsu's blade slightly, the point of impact glowing faintly red.
A Device's durability couldn't be matched by any ordinary metal—Ikki's slender katana wouldn't bend even under the weight of a small mountain.
Still, the Puppet-controlled Ikki showed no change in expression—though even free, he wouldn't have flinched.
"Third Secret Sword—En!"
Back in the final match of the Seven Stars Sword Art Festival, this move had evolved—from requiring a full-body spin to return an enemy's force, to now reflecting attacks directly.
Charles's own strength hurled him back, but Ikki spat a mouthful of blood—reflecting that kind of force clearly tore into him.
After all, Ikki didn't have Todoroki Yui's reflection-type ability—when he bounced back Charles's attack, he still had to take that force himself.
Yet he pressed forward, ignoring his battered body, unleashing the Seventh Secret Sword—Raikou.
The strike was like lightning, aiming straight for Charles's throat, but Charles raised his palm to catch it.
With a clink, the blade tip lodged between the layered plates of Dragonslayer, unable to advance. The two separated again.
It was because Charles's body suddenly burst with searing flames—the explosion of heat forced Ikki back.
Charles shook his hand—blocking a swordsman of Ikki's caliber head-on left his palm feeling as if it had been cut, even through his Device.
Looking at Ikki's blood-smeared face, Charles frowned. He wanted to subdue him quickly, but holding back in a fight with Ikki was proving difficult.
Then he noticed Ikki's lips moving ever so slightly.
"From… the front… attack… me!"
Charles read the words and raised a brow, but in the end, he chose to trust the man who carried the aura of a protagonist.
He released his magical field, pouring all of his aura directly onto Ikki.
A sudden gale whipped into existence, Charles at its center, blowing away sand and dust—sending even the helicopters filming overhead tumbling away.
Ikki lowered his body—not from being crushed by the pressure, but to place his hand on his sword hilt, taking the stance for an iai strike.
This was the same move Ikki had used at the Sword Festival to defeat Stella—a strike that had drawn admiration from every strong fighter present, Charles included.
"Final Secret Sword—Oikage!"
This was a blow that had truly stepped into the realm of the Demons—the ultimate form of the concept of "cut," a strike that fixed the cause and effect of killing the moment it was drawn.
It was this technique, along with his talent, that made Charles willing to call Ikki a rival despite his own rapid growth.
Ikki's ability was merely minimal physical enhancement, yet he had mastered a sword art with both conceptual and causal interference—something even Charles had to face seriously.
Flames roared as Charles charged in, while sparks burst where Ikki's tsuba met the mouth of his scabbard.
"Flame Dragon King's… Crushing Fist!"
Charles's fist shot forward—just as a blinding blade-light came to meet it.
Experiencing this blow firsthand was nothing like watching it; Charles truly felt there was no avoiding it.
Causal interference was among the rarest and most mysterious abilities—until now, Charles had only seen it in Misaka Bubble and Shinomiya Amane.
But while theirs were strange, Ikki's cut was sheer dominance.
Charles judged that it could likely pierce his defenses and seriously wound him.
Yet even so, victory in a real fight would still be his—this one strike wasn't enough to kill him, and Ikki would be utterly spent after using it.
And this move could be broken; it was an iai strike, after all—deny him the draw or the charge-up, and it couldn't be executed.
But this time was different—their attacks seemed to pass through each other entirely.
Charles's fist punched through the air, a fan of flames exploding behind Ikki, carving a massive cone-shaped crater in the ground.
Ikki's blade fell past Charles's side, a slash hundreds of meters long gouging the earth cleanly through everything in its path.
Ikki's face was pale, on the verge of collapse—but the puppet-like blankness was gone.
"I knew you'd understand."
Charles caught him as he fell. "If you'd been off by a hair, you'd be dead."
That's right—it had been intentional. Ikki had told Charles to attack head-on so that the Puppet King would believe he needed to use his strongest move.
At the very last moment of Oikage, Ikki had seized back control of his body, and turned the strike not on Charles, but on the Puppet King's hold over him.
With that, he severed every method the Puppet King had embedded in his body—at the level of cause and effect.
It was sheer luck he had thought of it at all—if Charles hadn't caught his meaning, or had hesitated, the outcome would have been entirely different.
But the result was good. Charles handed Ikki over to Shinomiya Kurono—now only the true culprit remained.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Enjoying the story? Support the author and get early access to chapters by joining my Patre@n!Find me at: patre@n*com/Mutter
You can read each novel for $5 or get them all for just $15.
I Am Zeus, KING OF GODS (Chapter 79)
Fairy Tail: Igneel's Eldest Son (Chapter 391)
I Am Thalos, Odin's Older Brother (Chapter 471)
Reborn in America's Anti-Terror Unit (Chapter 677)
Solomon in Marvel (Chapter 1059)
Becoming the Wealthiest Tycoon on the Planet (Chapter 1418)
Surgical Fruit in the American Comics Universe (Chapter 1422)
American Detective: From TV Rookie to Seasoned Cop (Chapter 1452)
American TV Writer (Chapter 1504)
I Am Hades, The Supreme GOD of the Underworld!(Chapter 570)
Reborn as Humanity's Emperor Across the Multiverse (Chapter 703)
[+50 Power Stones = +1 Extra Chapter][+5 Reviews = +1 Extra Chapter]