Chapter 458
Chapter 458
Chapter 458
The Sultan, taking on the third trial herself, looked down at Zeke with a noble expression while seated atop the golden fox.
The black lion and white tiger at her feet shot sharp glares at Zeke.
Though they had shown affection to Zeke as spirit beasts before, now they displayed strong hostility following their master Shahrazad's will.
Looking at Shahrazad who entered the duel with three spirit beasts, Zeke said.
"Would it truly be acceptable for me to raise my sword against Your Majesty?"
"Are you afraid you might kill me with your sword? If you can kill me, I'll hand over the Sultan's throne of this empire."
Her voice was filled with overwhelming confidence.
The golden fox landed on the ground, and Shahrazad slid down its tail gracefully.
She looked at Saladin, who still held his greatsword, and said.
"Executioner. I have witnessed your loyalty well. You have atoned enough for your crimes, so how about returning to your position as commander?"
Even at Shahrazad's words of pardoning his crimes, Saladin remained silent with his head bowed.
Shahrazad quietly looked down at Saladin before speaking.
"How shall I break that stubbornness? Very well, go down for now. And watch carefully the duel between myself and that knight."
Following Shahrazad's command, Saladin went down from the dueling ground.
He set down his greatsword and knelt while staring at the dueling ground.
His appearance was the very model of an upright warrior.
Though the nobles sitting near Saladin were trembling and sweating in fear, Shahrazad seemed completely unconcerned.
Looking around at the damaged dueling ground instead of the nobles, Shahrazad shook her head.
"Hmm, we cannot have a proper match like this."
As she spoke and extended her hand, the ornament on her wrist emitted a bright light.
Amazingly, the broken ground of the arena filled itself in and returned to its original state.
Seeing this, Zeke realized that Shahrazad's bracelet was a spirit weapon with powerful spirits sealed within.
'If all those ornaments are spirit weapons...'
Assuming each weapon contained spirits with different abilities, it meant Shahrazad could display abilities as diverse as Zeke's skills.
'With the spirit beasts' power as well, this won't be easy.'
While knights in the Central Continent were ranked by colors and mages by circles, warriors of the Eastern Continent had different standards of ability, making it difficult to predict their attack range and power.
As Zeke stood still holding his sword, Shahrazad smiled and said.
"You cannot form a sacred covenant without defeating me."
At Shahrazad's provocation to attack, Zeke changed his stance. As she said, he needed to fulfill the conditions to form the sacred covenant.
Taking the basic stance of the Dragon Slaying Technique, he stepped forward and launched a crescent strike.
WHOOSH!
The crescent-shaped aura blade shot from Zeke's sword flew toward Shahrazad.
Seeing this, Shahrazad showed a bored expression.
"Caplan."
At her words, the white tiger bared its fangs and rushed forward.
ROAR!
Fierce winds burst from the white tiger's body and completely enveloped the crescent aura blade Zeke had launched.
Then it tore apart Zeke's aura blade with its sharp claws and fangs.
GROWL!
This was possible because it was a spirit beast, not an ordinary tiger.
Shahrazad looked at Zeke and said.
"Probing attacks are meaningless against me. I want to see your true ability."
Zeke nodded while gripping his sword at Shahrazad's words.
"Understood, Your Majesty. Then I shall fight seriously."
His stance changed.
He raised one hand toward the white tiger.
CRACKLE!
Suddenly, a hell lightning unfolded as chain magic struck the white tiger.
GROWL!
The white tiger stepped back in surprise at the sudden magic.
Zeke didn't miss this opening and rushed forward using the Wind Storm technique.
Then he stepped on the white tiger's back and charged toward where Shahrazad was.
"Kara!"
At Shahrazad's call, this time the waiting black lion rushed at Zeke.
ROAR!
The black lion roared and spewed intense flames from its mouth.
WHOOSH!
Zeke blocked the black lion's flames with Leviathan.
BUZZ!
Amazingly, Leviathan absorbed the black lion's flames into its blade.
Soon, as light flickered from Leviathan's blade that had consumed all the black lion's flames, white flames erupted.
CRASH! CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
The white flames erupting from the sword enveloped the black lion's body.
ROAR!
The black lion responded to the returned flames by spewing black flames again.
Zeke dodged past the black lion and charged toward Shahrazad who was riding the golden fox.
Despite this, Shahrazad maintained a composed expression.
But then Zeke leaped into the air and shouted.
"Bucephalus!"
The dragon horse king Bucephalus was summoned in the air and took Zeke on its back.
The Muruk Empire nobles murmured in surprise at seeing Bucephalus.
"That's a spirit beast I've never seen before!"
"It looks extraordinary. As expected of the Spirit Guide."
Even Shahrazad's expression changed as she realized Zeke's summoned Bucephalus was no ordinary spirit beast.
"Tilki, fly up."
The golden fox followed Shahrazad's command and flew up to where Bucephalus was.
At that moment, electricity flowed from Bucephalus's two horns.
Zeke pointed at Shahrazad riding the golden fox and shouted.
"Bucephalus! Now!"
CRACKLE!
Lightning from Bucephalus's horns shot toward Shahrazad and the golden fox.
The ascending golden fox puffed up its nine tails and wrapped them around itself and Shahrazad.
CRACKLE!
The lightning Bucephalus generated was neutralized, unable to penetrate the defensive wall made by the golden fox's tails.
Then Shahrazad extended her arm through the gaps between the tails.
One of the rings on her fingers emitted a mystical light.
HISS!
Orange smoke flowed from the ring and gathered, forming a muscular spirit with orange skin.
The spirit, dressed like an ancient eastern warrior, held a massive club studded with iron spikes.
"Attack that knight."
At Shahrazad's command, the spirit immediately flew at Zeke with its club.
The powerful iron-studded club flew toward Zeke's head.
WHOOSH!
Seeing this, Zeke immediately equipped Theia Goddess's Hersion.
Hersion, with all seals released through authentication, was linked to the system.
As external attacks flew toward Zeke, Hersion automatically detected them and activated defensive magic.
RUMBLE!
A plasma barrier stronger than shield magic spread before Zeke, and the spirit's club collided with it.
CRACKLE!
As the barrier deflected the spirit's attack, it released a plasma wave in return.
ARGH!
The spirit exposed to the plasma wave cried out in pain, unable to maintain its form and dispersed back into orange smoke.
Shahrazad showed an interested expression as Zeke not only blocked the spirit's attack but counter-attacked and forced its summoning to dispel.
'So he's not just a knight who swings a sword.'
In her view, while Central Continent knights were strong, they were too rigid and inflexible.
Yet they were undeniably powerful.
Blue-ranked knights could match Eastern warriors easily.
But beyond Blue to Red and Black ranks, things changed.
She wanted to understand the difference through Zeke.
Her eyes turned golden as she said:
"Spirit Guide. Show me more of your power."
RUMBLE!
Golden energy from the fox enveloped Shahrazad's body, concentrating in her bracelets as she raised both hands.
TSSSSSS!
An unusual energy arose from the bracelet.
Hades, who was watching this from the VIP seats, suddenly jumped up in surprise.
"This energy...?"
Zeke's eyes also wavered as he felt the energy flowing from Shahrazad's bracelet.
'Is this dragon energy?'
Although it felt somewhat different from the dragon energy he was familiar with, the essence was the same.
Shahrazad's eyes began to change.
And moments later, her eyes had transformed into dragon eyes with a golden glow.
CRACKKKK!
Not just her eyes, but dragon-like scales began appearing on her skin as well.
Zeke wore an expression of disbelief as he watched Shahrazad transform into a dragonoid form.
'Is it possible to become a dragonoid without making a contract with a dragon?'
While he was momentarily dazed, Shahrazad raised her sharp claws and swung them toward Zeke.
SWOOSHHHH!
The dragon claws flew toward Zeke as if seizing the opening.
Zeke raised Leviathan to block the dragon claws Shahrazad had launched.
CLANG!
Though the dragon claws were blocked by Leviathan, the force was so great that the shockwave penetrated the Hersion.
'Ugh.'
He hadn't noticed when using dragon skills himself, but experiencing it directly made it quite tricky to handle.
Shahrazad, now transformed into a dragonoid, spoke to Zeke.
"How is it, descendant of the Dragon Slayer? Here stands the dragon your ancestors hated."
Zeke dismounted from Bucephalus and pointed his sword at Shahrazad while floating in the air.
He acknowledged that he had underestimated the Sultan's abilities.
And at that moment, Zeke's presence changed dramatically.
WOOOONG!
Zeke unleashed his Black Knight stance and raised his Astral Sword.
RUMBLEEEEE!
A completely different energy from before enveloped not just the dueling ground but the entire banquet hall.
Shahrazad smiled with satisfaction at Zeke's presence that penetrated through her dragon scale-covered skin.
'Yes, this is it. Transcendent strength beyond human limits. This is what I was curious about.'
Shahrazad also amplified her dragon energy further.
CRACKKKKK!
Her hands completely transformed into dragon-like appendages with even sharper protruding claws.
Zeke felt the spiritual energy concentrate in Shahrazad's body as he charged forward with his sword.
Simultaneously, Shahrazad also sprang toward Zeke.
BOOM! BOOM!
Zeke's Astral Sword and Shahrazad's dragon claws collided, creating powerful shockwaves.
BOOM! BOOM!
CRASH!
The collision between transcendents who had surpassed human limits created an enormous explosion.
RUMBLEEEEE!
The shockwave that arose from Zeke and Shahrazad's mid-air collision spread throughout the entire banquet hall.
"UGHHHHH!"
The nobles' viewing stands couldn't withstand the shockwave and collapsed, with people being blown back as if caught in a storm.
ZINGGGGG!
Fortunately, the VIP seats were able to escape the shockwave's influence thanks to Hades' barrier.
Yelin gaped in shock at the collision between Zeke and Shahrazad. She barely collected herself and spoke to Hades who was maintaining the barrier.
"Lord Hades. Is Sir Zeke... really human?"
Hades shook his head in response to Yelin's question.
"I'm not sure these days either. Well, Zeke was always like that so I'm used to it, but the Sultan's power is truly amazing. For a human to draw out dragon power by borrowing a spirit king's power. Is this also part of her bloodline ability? Hmm, she's completely research material."
RUMBLEEEEE!
As Hades spoke, the shockwave subsided and the dueling ground came back into view.
The two people who had been floating in the air were now standing on the dueling ground facing each other.
Zeke holding Leviathan and Shahrazad who had returned to human form.
She suddenly shook her head and approached Zeke.
"This won't do."
Shahrazad spoke while looking at Zeke.
"Sir Zeke Draker, I propose marriage to you once again."
Her eyes were filled with intense desire.
"It seems I have fallen for you."