Chapter 131
Chapter 131
Chapter 131
Lena remembered how their relationship had broken down.
Arietta had received the church's selection and left the monastery.
Oz had left the monastery, abandoning everything by his own choice.
Alexios had left the monastery to prove himself to them.
Then what about Lena who was left behind?
What about the Mother Superior who was left behind in the monastery?
She could do nothing.
Her desire was earnest, but she lacked the ability. Neither fortuitous encounters, nor talent, nor connections, nor money, nor even the will to endure all of it.
She was a mediocre talent. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't reach them.
She was someone rolling in the mud, unable to see the sky, obscured by clouds.
“Why did you all leave?”
“To prove that we weren’t useless….”
“Ha…! Do you really think so?”
Lena snorted at Alexios’s reply and said,
“Why am I not in that ‘we’? Why wasn’t Mother Superior there? You abandoned me, you abandoned us.”
“No….”
“You also thought I was unnecessary, didn’t you?”
“No….”
“You don’t think so? Do you really think so? That I, who was young, that we, who were vulnerable. Haven’t you ever thought that we might not be able to follow you, that we might hold you back?”
Alexios was speechless in the face of Lena’s sharp gaze.
His heart was churning, but he shouldn't mistake what he needed to do now.
For now, bringing Lena back was the priority.
Misunderstandings could be resolved later.
Questions about the group [Parade] could also wait.
For now, it was simple.
“Let’s go back and talk, Lena.”
He would take Lena to where everyone was and make her talk.
Alexios had done so, and even if faintly, he had been able to resolve the ill-fated connection with Oz. So…
Just a little chance to talk.
“No. I’m not going back. I won’t stand on that stage. I don’t want to be a minor character in that damn stage anymore.”
But Lena refused.
She no longer wished to stand on the same stage as them.
Rather than standing with them, she preferred to remain a mere spectator.
“You were right. I was useless. Even now, after all this effort, I couldn't catch up. You were right, Janus.”
“See? What did I tell you? You’ll only get hurt. Incompetent humans only get hurt.”
Alexios opened his closed eyes and hurriedly turned around.
The one who wore an expressionless mask, the one who killed his family, was there.
“Well, that goes for you too. Incompetent, worthless, utterly useless Alexios. I’ve saved you countless times, yet you keep getting on my nerves.”
“You bastard….”
He hadn't changed. The opponent didn't even try to hide it. With the same mask, in the same posture as before.
He still possessed that terrible coldness he had displayed when he killed his master and looked down from the midst of the bloodbath.
“I’ve kept you alive until now at Lena’s request, but… perhaps I should make you a little more obedient? So you can understand your place.”
“Ha…! Right, it was a problem that could be solved by crushing you in the first place.”
“That’s not even a funny provocation.”
Fist King’s Ultimate Secret Art
[Unprecedented]
Alexios did not engage in pointless probing. There was no need. The opponent was an undeniable formidable foe. He would simply give his all.
If the opponent underestimated him, even better. Alexios would never underestimate his opponent. This was a battle he could not lose. He would not make such a misjudgment again.
“Haa…”
Alexios, in a state of complete status effect immunity, adjusted his stance, gauging his rapidly increased physical abilities.
It was at that moment, as Alexios posed, that Janus began to draw out a spell.
“You have too much leeway.”
The moment he took his stance, Alexios charged. Drawing a magic spell required time.
Alexios didn't have enough leeway to allow such time.
He would catch him here. And break him. After extracting information, he would offer his corpse before his master’s grave.
“……You’re too hasty, Alexios.”
Alexios, who had instantly closed the distance and thrown a punch, realized he had failed before his fist even connected.
His senses, which had reached the level of a sixth sense, could faintly foresee the future.
CRASH!
Sure enough, the moment Alexios’s fist connected, Janus’s form vanished as if glass had shattered.
An illusion, or a distortion.
It was an unknown technique that he couldn't even tell if it was magic or not, but Alexios calmly moved to the next.
He felt five presences.
He was twisting his senses. But he had no time to question such things.
“Hup…”
THUD!
Alexios lifted his leg high and stomped it down towards the ground, drawing a formation in the shape of the sun.
Both of his arms emitted light comparable to the sun, and clouds of flames flowed around him.
Fist King’s Secret Art
[Flame Cloud Thunder Fist]
Alexios's specialty, unleashed in his [Unprecedented] state.
CRACK!
With a single swing of his fist, the surrounding environment changed.
It looked as if a natural disaster itself had descended.
“Where is he….”
Alexios frowned like a demon, searching for Janus.
All five places where he had felt a presence were utterly destroyed.
But the opponent was not found. He was clearly hiding his presence.
‘But if it's only that much.’
Alexios clenched his fist with a ferocious smile.
‘You can’t deceive my senses!’
What he had learned from his battles with Oz and Tia.
A master-level mage completely controls even the mana flowing within their body.
Therefore, the basic tactic of a warrior, which judges presence based on mana, is effectively nullified.
Alexios found an alternative by directly experiencing it.
“You’d better not think you can hide… you’d better not think you can stab me in the back.”
CRACKLE!
Alexios clashed his sun-like glowing arms together, spreading intense heat in all directions.
Even if mana wasn't detected, existence didn't disappear.
If he hadn’t escaped, he must be watching Alexios from somewhere.
Then what if he saturated the space itself with heat?
And if he could detect the void within that heat created by Alexios’s mana.
Yes, just like Arietta's domain.
“Found you…!”
He could find him.
The location of the foolish one who dared to hide in front of him.
CRACK!
Alexios’s flurry of attacks began to pour down on the identified location.
He wasn't attacking indiscriminately. He was certain.
Alexios's attacks were definitely connecting. He couldn't tell if they were being blocked, but he knew at least that the opponent was being worn down.
“Ugh?!”
But the situation was reversed.
The opponent vanished in an instant.
Even in the midst of Alexios’s relentless onslaught, he disappeared in a flash. An incomprehensible situation.
“Still…!”
Alexios once again searched for the opponent's location within the spreading heat. Since it was a technique he wasn't yet accustomed to, it took some time.
Therefore, finding the trace as quickly as possible would be key.
“Tch!”
But just as he tried to detect the void in the heat, Alexios immediately found his opponent.
“That technique is threatening, but behind it is too unguarded.”
Right behind Alexios.
He aimed for the blind spot where Alexios couldn’t move his position because he had deployed his formation.
“Do you think I would have such a weakness…!”
Alexios sharply bent his waist and threw a punch backward.
It was a flexible and natural movement, as if he had practiced it countless times.
“A blind spot is a blind spot because it cannot be avoided; knowing about it doesn’t make it not a blind spot.”
“Tsk!”
The opponent wasn't flustered by Alexios’s sudden attack. From his calm demeanor, Alexios was reminded of Oz.
A blind spot is unavoidable because it's a blind spot.
Alexios’s countermeasure only revealed the fact that he could attack backward. It didn’t mean he could see that place.
Unless he could turn his body 180 degrees, there would inevitably be places his eyes couldn’t reach.
If the opponent moved just a little to the side instead of directly behind him, Alexios would lose sight of him.
“Look, Alexios. You are so powerless and worthless, aren’t you?”
Alexios instinctively felt that magic was being deployed from an unseen location.
No, not even instinct. It was an overtly violent energy.
He felt mana, chillingly blue, staining even Alexios’s domain, which was filled with heat and clouds.
“First, shall I take your arm?”
Alexios frowned at the blatant provocation.
In the first place, the technique prepared for such situations was [Great Collapse].
That technique, which scattered shockwaves in all directions, was sufficient to prepare for being caught from behind.
But would the opponent not know that?
Normally, he wouldn’t, but Alexios couldn't shake off the suspicion. The opponent knew.
If considered on that premise, the opponent's provocation led to the conclusion that he was trying to induce Alexios to use [Great Collapse].
“Ha…!”
Alexios let out a hollow laugh.
He couldn't precisely know the opponent's intention. Perhaps he intended to temporarily seal Alexios’s threatening technique, [Flame Cloud Thunder Fist]. That would be normal, but there could also be subsequent results.
There could be another weakness that even Alexios hadn't grasped.
“You are weaker than Oz.”
“What…?”
Alexios sneered at Janus’s coldly delivered voice. Finally, Janus’s indifferent and annoyed voice had crumbled.
Bringing up Oz had clearly touched his pride.
“If we only consider magical skill, deployment speed, and battle design, they might be similar. But….”
Alexios sprang his body, soaring into the sky.
‘You abandoned your technique in this situation? So easily?’
Janus was momentarily flustered by Alexios's sudden decision, then instinctively pointed his fingertip at Alexios, who was soaring into the sky like the sun.
“You lack fundamental preparation too much. You didn’t even consider the possibility of a messy fight.”
“What?!”
But then, Janus couldn't help but be flustered, seeing Alexios’s arms glowing like the sun even while airborne.
“Look at this. Your investigation into your opponent is so lacking.”
Janus, momentarily bewildered, shifted his gaze to where Alexios’s feet were.
“When plans go awry, all you can do is panic.”
“A magic tool…? You?”
The ground was attached.
No, the ground itself was caught by a spell and flying in the sky.
The formation did not crumble.
A greave-shaped magic tool made of the same metal used for magical levitation trains was making the earth float with magic.
“In the end, you and I both. We were played by Oz, weren't we?”
As if anticipating this, the magic tool Oz had given him instantly overturned Alexios’s current situation.
They had been played.
Oz hadn't thought much of it, but in this coincidental situation, that thought ran through both their minds.
Mobile fortress.
Alexios, who had gained mobility to move even with his formation deployed, began to move freely in the air, extending his fists.
[All Rivers Flow to the Sea] had led Alexios, who was ignorant of magic tools, to a state of mastery.
“Right, Oz dared to devise such a petty plan, did he?”
Janus, unfazed by the unexpected situation, narrowed his eyes and deployed his magic.
Alexios’s flurry of attacks was not something even he could take lightly.
The powerless and worthless Alexios had too clear weaknesses.
If he had overcome them so easily…
“Oz, because of you, I now have to kill Alexios.”
Now, the existence of Alexios had to be considered a threat.
Yes, if an opponent could become a stumbling block, they had to be killed.
Advanced-grade Magic
[Great Red Spot]
Janus unleashed the Advanced-grade magic he had prepared.
A massive vortex, as if devouring space itself, began to swallow all the heat Alexios was unleashing.
“Do you think you can stop me with just that?!”
Alexios seemed to vaguely understand why the opponent had induced him to use [Great Collapse].
Such a torrent would instantly swallow shockwaves of Alexios’s magnitude.
But now it was different.
Even as Advanced-grade magic, it couldn't possibly swallow all of [Flame Cloud Thunder Fist] unleashed in the [Unprecedented] state.
“That look of accomplishment, that ridiculous way of twisting plans, that blatant attitude of thinking you’re something just because you caught me off guard—all of it.”
Advanced-grade Magic
[Astrape]
“Truly petty and annoying.”
CRACKLE!
What was instantly drawn from Janus’s fingertips was another Advanced-grade magic.
Even Alexios, who was pouring down a relentless barrage of attacks without rest at an absurd deployment speed, couldn’t help but frown.
The storm-like magic he had unleashed could be countered. But it would take time to get there.
At this rate, it would be too late.
Janus’s magic didn’t engulf a wide area but felt like a spear piercing a single point.
“Hmph….”
In this perilous situation, Alexios actually smiled.
He was clearly cornered, but if he didn't escape such a predicament, the title of Fist King that he bore would be wasted.
“Hehehehe.”
Alexios flew.
And threw his body towards the magic Janus had deployed.
A storm? He would simply endure it with his body.
The condition for victory was to pierce through that lightning spear deployed by the opponent. And to scratch that pride.
“Block this. It’s my second secret art that you’ve been so eager to see!”
“You arrogant bastard….”
Fist King’s Secret Art
[Great Collapse]
Originally, Alexios’s crowd control technique emitted shockwaves in all directions to stun opponents.
He concentrated that shockwave into a single point.
The sun formation seeped into his toes, and the earth that supported him, allowing him to move even in the air, crumbled away and scattered into nothingness.
A kick that converged all his power was slammed down towards the advanced-grade magic Janus had unleashed.