The Seven Ascenders (3)

"What the hell are you doing here?"

João's face twisted like a demon's the moment he laid eyes on Ivan.

"That's my line. What business do you have here?"

Ivan shot back at João, stepping squarely in front of me as if to shield me with his own body.

What is even happening right now?

I could only stare, dumbfounded, at Ivan Petrov radiating a will that plainly said he was going to protect me.

"Out of my way while I'm still asking nicely."

"Nope. Not gonna. And I'm going to make sure you can't."

Ivan fired back instantly at João's threat.

"Then I'll take that as your answer. Let's do this now."

"Oh please. Who's supposed to be scared of that? Be my guest."

The tension between the two men stretched taut as a drawn wire.

Ivan sneered openly, doing everything he could to provoke João.

And João, his face flushed a furious crimson, trained his bow on Ivan.

"Heh heh. I've always wanted to settle this between us once and for all."

Ivan slammed the gauntlets on both his fists together with a resounding clang.

He looked like a kid on Christmas morning.

Holy crap. Is this real? Am I actually witnessing the Seven Ascenders go at each other with my own eyes?

It had come out of nowhere, sure — but this was a spectacle a mountain of gold couldn't buy.

It had been well over five years since the last time the Seven Ascenders had clashed with one another.

"You're kidding. Ivan and João are actually fighting!"

"No way!"

"Wow... I never thought I'd see something like this in my lifetime."

I could hear the ascenders who had gathered to watch my battle with erupting into commotion all around us.

"I'll punch a hole straight through your skull."

The moment João snarled those words,

the battle between João and Ivan began in earnest.

BOOM!!

It opened with a pitch-black arrow loosed from João's bowstring.

Before anyone could so much as blink, the arrow was already streaking toward Ivan.

Charged with dark mana, it was the same arrow that had come from the hidden quiver that had sniped at me earlier.

An attack that sacrificed everything for raw speed.

And yet its destructive power was staggering all the same.

KRA-KA-KA-KOOM!!

"Gh—ghuhk!"

"Uwah!"

When Ivan thrust out his gauntlet and deflected the arrow, the air exploded with a sound like thunder cracking on all sides.

The roar was so immense that some of the watching ascenders collapsed right where they stood, scrambling backward in shock.

And that was only the beginning.

KABOOM! KRA-KA-KOOM! KA-KA-KA-KOOM!

Black lines of light came pouring down at a terrifying pace.

Dozens of arrows at once rained from the sky.

Wow. Honestly, you could call that a spell and nobody would argue.

What truly amazed me was that Ivan wasn't giving up a single step of ground, batting away every one of João's arrows with nothing but his two fists.

Are these two seriously restricted to Level 20 right now? Yeah — there's a reason they call them the Seven Ascenders.

They really are on another level.

I clicked my tongue as I watched the two of them display a brand of combat I had never seen before.

"BUHAHAHA! Down here on the lower floors, your arrows might as well be slugs crawling on the ground!"

With that roar, Ivan launched himself straight at João.

Charging through that torrential downpour of arrows like a single streak of lightning, he looked for all the world like a bulldozer that nothing could stop.

By any glance, it seemed João was being pushed onto the back foot.

And then —

João's lips curled into a crooked grin.

His eyes shifted — and locked onto me.

……!

In that instant, I realized: this entire situation was a setup João had engineered from the start.

Sreeeer.

With Ivan right in front of him, João scattered apart like a mirage.

"No you don't!"

Along with Ivan's roar of alarm,

a subtle ripple of presence appeared right beside me.

I had no idea what technique he'd used, but João ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had torn through empty air and materialized at my side.

"Little brat, you're coming with me."

His arm shot out toward me as he said it.

"Get away from him, Hahoe Mask!"

Ivan screamed in desperation, but to any observer it was obvious there was no way I could slip out of João's grasp in time.

And there, in that heart-stopping moment —

I reached out and met João's hand with my own.

"……?"

João's face twisted in confusion as I closed the distance instead of fleeing it.

GRAB!

He and I seized hold of each other.

"Damn it——!"

Ivan came sprinting back, his eyes wild with panic.

But in that very moment,

I was already curling my lips into a grin of my own.

Mana Drain—!

The instant I called Mana Drain to mind,

KWAAAAAAAH!!

an enormous torrent of mana particles began ripping free from João's body and pouring into me.

"Ghhk!"

Startled, João tried to wrench himself free.

Nope~ Not happening. You're stunned.

"N… nom!"

Astonishingly, João actually managed to force words out through the stun — but that was all he could do.

The effects of Mana Drain rolled in one after another!

KA-JEEEEENG—!!

I had no idea how he did it, but João shook off the in mere seconds and tore himself out of my grip.

By then, however, it was far too late — not only , but had already latched onto him.

And that was utterly crippling. Devastating enough to make continuing the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠fight all but impossible.

Because while was active, any skill he cast came with a punishing extra mana cost or a delay before activation.

And against an opponent at ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠your own level, a delay of even that fraction of a second is the difference between heaven and earth.

Psssssh.

Maybe that was why.

João's figure melted away into the air like snow.

The moment he'd escaped my grasp, he had turned tail and bolted.

"Ah!"

"L-Lord João!"

"Oh, for crying out loud."

The Toad-faced Executive and the rest of Tiamut's ascenders called out João's name with hollow, defeated expressions, but there was no chance of the fleeing man showing his face again.

Aw... damn. So close.

In that moment, I couldn't help mourning what might have been.

Double Casting!!

If only I'd had that, I could have landed one massive hit on João right then.

Ah! Which ascender flipped the script on one of the Seven Ascenders? That's right — me! I, the Hahoe Mask, of course!

That was the once-in-a-lifetime chance I'd just watched slip through my fingers — a moment I could have made into a life's achievement.

Tsk.

I was still smacking my lips over the missed opportunity when Ivan finally made it to my side, a beat too late.

"Whew... incredible. How in the world did you do that?"

He was staring at me with eyes full of disbelief.

The look of a man who had never in his wildest dreams imagined this outcome.

"I just got lucky."

"KHAHAHA! Lucky, he says. João's not a man luck alone can get the better of. Either way — well done. Now I understand why James has been hunting all over for you."

"James?"

No way.

Did he mean that James — the one universally acknowledged as the strongest ascender alive?

"The one and only. Oh — and look who's just arrived."

"Uh…"

At Ivan's words,

I turned my head — and there, parting the crowd like Moses splitting the sea, a single blond-haired man was walking toward us.

James Smith.

The strongest ascender in America.

A man whose power was so overwhelming ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠they called him America's ultimate weapon — and he had appeared right in front of me.

"A pleasure. I've been hoping to meet you for quite some time, and now here we are."

James bared his brilliant white teeth and extended his hand toward me.

Wait. What is this? Is James — THE James — really asking me for a handshake?

What is going on today.

My heart trembling harder than it ever had facing the President himself, I reached out and clasped James's hand.

"The... the pleasure's mine."

And the very instant my awkward hand met his —

that image began spreading across the entire world at lightning speed.

The Ascender Community and every media outlet on the planet descended into absolute chaos.

The uproar had started with the battle between João and Ivan.

Watching the two of them unleash monstrous, inhuman combat power, the witnesses couldn't close their gaping mouths.

From just a few fleeting seconds of footage, everyone understood at once why the Seven Ascenders were called the strongest. It was the kind of spectacle that made the answer self-evident.

And then —

João suddenly turned his sights on Hajun, and a whole new chapter of the chaos began.

The moment João went for Hajun, everyone assumed Hajun was done for.

Instead, Hajun had chased João off.

Confronted with an outcome that defied all logic, the entire community sat frozen, mouths agape.

The single blow Hajun had landed on João shook everyone to their core.

Because the Seven Ascenders had seemed like beings beyond humanity — an unclimbable wall. And now the first god to leap over that wall had finally appeared.

And just as the whole world was about to erupt in fervor over Hajun,

another piece of news flipped everything on its head once more.

For everyone who had witnessed Hajun in the Forest Garden that day, it was a day spent drowning in one colossal tsunami of shock after another.

And in that very moment —

Standing face to face with James,

I too was struck senseless by Aleon's completely unforeseen words.

What? He's not human?

— Indeed. Thou art…….