It wasn't Arthur doing the heavy lifting—it was the phantom power of Excalibur channeling through his iron blade. He pointed the tip of the sword directly at Gakeru.
"Ruin." The command word was absolute. Instantly, gravity multiplied tenfold. Akira, Gron, and Gakeru were violently slammed into the snow, pinned to the earth by an invisible, crushing weight. Only Arthur and Rina remained standing.
From deep within the earth, a terrifying surge of energy violently erupted upward.
BOOOOOOOM!
A twenty-meter radius of the forest floor simply vanished in a blinding explosion. Rina immediately deployed a magical barrier, compressing the blast so it wouldn't vaporize Akira and Gron. The pent-up kinetic energy, trapped by the barrier, had nowhere to go but up. It shot into the night sky as a colossal pillar of searing light, piercing the clouds.
The forest went dead silent. Ash and melted snow rained down from the sky.
"Is... is he dead?" Akira gasped, struggling to lift her head against the lingering gravity.
"No," Rina replied coldly. "Impossible. His armor possesses Tier-4 defense. An attack lacking true Tier-3 penetration cannot kill him in one strike. But... it will leave a mark."
From the smoking crater, a massive silhouette stirred. Gakeru stepped out. His heavy iron armor was cracked and glowing red-hot, and half of his mask was melted away, revealing a blistered, scorched face. He coughed up a wad of blackened blood.
"Ahhh... that actually hurt," Gakeru wheezed, forcing a twisted grin. "You're not weak at all. Magnificent."
He wiped his mouth, his arrogance replaced by a cautious cunning. "But excuse me... this isn't a fair fight. Before you arrived, I wasted a lot of mana playing with your little friends. This match doesn't count. Let's postpone it. If you truly are the 'Spirit Lord' Arthur Warhen, you should agree. You lords love your fair, honorable duels, don't you? What do you say? Do we have a deal?"
Arthur stared at him with dead eyes.
Honorable duel? Arthur thought. I don't care about honor. But I also have no intention of burning through my trump cards and exhausting my mana for a squad I met three days ago. I have my own goals.
"Fine," Arthur said, his voice devoid of emotion. "We have a deal. But on one condition."
"Name it."
"Give me your word. While I am not present, you and your organization will not lay a finger on Rina. If you, or anyone from your squad, attack her... I will hunt down every single one of you and erase you from this world. Understood?"
Gakeru swallowed hard, sensing the absolute certainty in Arthur's threat. "Understood. It's a deal. Until next time... Lord Arthur."
With a powerful leap, the battered Black Knight vanished into the dark woods.
Akira finally pushed herself up from the snow, trembling with rage and disbelief. "Why?! Why did you let him go?! You had him! You could have killed him for what he did to Prina!"
Arthur didn't even look at her. He sheathed his sword. "You want to know the reason? It's simple. Fighting him to the death yielded no benefit for me. I gain nothing from his corpse. Understand?"
Akira froze. The cold, calculating cruelty of his words hit her harder than Gakeru's fists. In that moment, staring at Arthur's back, she realized exactly how weak she was. She wondered, with a sinking heart, if she would ever be strong enough to face a monster like Gakeru alone.
The Hospital: One Week Later
Silence hung heavy in the hospital room after Gron finished his story.
Legend sat in his bed, his knuckles white as he gripped the sheets. His mind was racing.
Arthur Warhen... a Spirit Lord. The pieces fell into place. Spirit Lords governed souls and mana. They were the masters of life force. If he has the title of a Lord... that means he can use Necromancy. He can bring the dead back.
Legend's breathing hitched. The thought of Prina walking again, smiling again, made his heart ache. But a new, fierce resolve suddenly ignited in his chest.
No. He remembered Arthur's cold eyes. Arthur didn't care about Prina. If Arthur brought her back, she would just be another servant, another pawn like Rina.
"I won't let him do it," Legend whispered, his voice trembling before rising into a roar. "I won't let anyone else do it! I will resurrect her myself! I swear it! Magnus—no, Arthur—I will surpass you! Remember that!"
Gron and Akira exchanged worried glances.
"Well, you'll have to tell him that later," Gron sighed, adjusting his cast. "Rina said using that 'Excalibur' thing completely drained him. He's been unconscious for the past three days."