The Star of the Sun
Whizz!
Clang!
She naturally parried the thrusting blade aside.
Shiiing!
Even the sharp vibration racing up her arm, she had already forgotten.
“H-how is this even possible?”
“The rabbit girl is fighting the Emperor Penguin with her eyes closed!”
“Whoa, is she that confident she can beat someone of your level even blind?”
She could not hear them.
In her mind, there was only the sword.
“Oh-ho.”
Even Randolph’s admiring voice failed to reach her.
She simply continued to deflect and advance.
It was different from before.
Clearly different from that one-sided slaughter.
Back then she had not known.
She had been crushed one-sidedly by his vast desire and that unidentifiable swordsmanship.
But now she knew what Randolph’s swordsmanship truly was.
If she knew, she could win.
“··· Outstanding.”
It was praise—spoken from the heart.
This is the first person to read this since I became a player.
······ Because he was genuinely astonished.
Wilhelm’s swordsmanship.
The Heaven of Creation of Heaven and Earth.
Since becoming Randolph, Auryll was the first swordsman to properly grasp its true nature.
‘Heaven’ was not merely a technique that dominated space.
It was a high-level sword art that read the consciousness of everyone within that space.
Auryll had faced him only once and already seized the essence.
Genius.
In the realm of the sword, Auryll was a genius.
He had thought her inability to control her emotions and her hot temper were weaknesses, yet looking at her now, she seemed to have overcome even those to a degree.
Immovable. Unshaken.
She had shut out everything and become nothing but a single blade.
She still hasn’t reached Valte’s realm, though.
No one can defeat Valte in the domain of the unconscious.
Spearman Valte.
A berserker whose combat power rose several stages the moment he lost consciousness and entered the unconscious realm.
Perhaps the one most opposite to his own swordsmanship was precisely Valte.
······ She’s still growing.
Auryll’s unconsciousness grew denser by the second.
The more they clashed, the stronger she became.
A terrifying rate of growth.
He had never met a genius of this caliber.
There had been similar cases, of course.
Isera’s blood relative. The Seventh Lord of Hell, Basara.
Among the Lords of Hell he had faced as Wilhelm, the most troublesome and dreadful existence of all.
A monster among monsters he never wished to face again.
Basara was harder than the Demon King.
That was his honest assessment.
The Demon King had been difficult because of every dirty trick under the sun, but Basara was an absurd woman in terms of pure martial power alone.
She continuously grew stronger, shattered walls, and even had the gall to imitate his techniques.
If the fight had lasted even a little longer, the one who would have fallen was Wilhelm.
And right now, Auryll was making him recall that Basara.
······ Talent that could surpass Wilhelm.
If that were true, it was fair to say Auryll possessed the talent to surpass Wilhelm.
Of course, possessing talent was no guarantee she would actually surpass him.
However······.
BOOOOM!
I lifted my foot and slammed it into the ground with crushing force.
The earth rebounded at once, birthing a massive quake and shockwave.
“Ah······?!”
Auryll’s consciousness snapped back, if only for an instant.
She had not yet achieved perfect unconsciousness.
Auryll bit her lip.
She never would have imagined her unconscious state could be shattered so easily.
She could not even have conceived of such a variable.
Having trained only within the Forest of Beginning, Auryll was still far too straightforward.
“Did you think I would face you with the sword alone?”
There were many ways to break the unconscious.
Unless one stood in the same realm as Valte, the unconscious would inevitably shatter someday.
Especially for someone like Auryll who had only just stepped across the threshold.
Still, ending it immediately would be a waste.
Come at me harder.
I decided to keep testing Auryll’s limits.
The Champion’s eyes trembled violently.
The continuous exchange of blows.
He had not misseen it.
Creation of Heaven and Earth······ Wilhelm’s swordsmanship!
Because the memories engraved upon Wilhelm’s star resided within him, he was certain.
That one’s movements were far too familiar.
Ah.
The one wielding the swordsmanship of the vanished man.
The Knight King he had waited for with desperate longing this past year.
Wilhelm!
It was unmistakably Wilhelm’s swordsmanship.
Yet that one was not Wilhelm.
Could he be Wilhelm’s successor?
Or another heir who, like himself, had absorbed Wilhelm’s memories?
Perfect.
But it was far too perfect a swordsmanship to dismiss as mere stolen memory.
The path of the blade, the stance, even that unique composure—
Everything matched the memories so completely that one could believe Wilhelm himself had returned.
The trembling Champion snapped fully awake in that instant.
Sancha’s shadows!
In places unseen.
In domains that could not be perceived, Sancha’s shadows were monitoring the Emperor Penguin.
The Champion knew all too well what that meant.
He’s searching for weaknesses.
Sancha’s most terrifying authority.
Using the Tower Administrator’s privileges to command shadows, then using those shadows to uncover an opponent’s weaknesses—that was Sancha.
An authority absolute enough to drag even the Demigod Karas down from his throne.
If Sancha had never pulled Karas down, the current Champion would still be Karas, not him.
Yes······.
The reason he could become Champion was ultimately thanks to Sancha.
Everything that allowed a nobody to reign as the God of War.
And so that very fact had become his own weakness.
Yet now Sancha had begun taking interest in the Emperor Penguin.
Surely he intended to turn the Emperor Penguin into a puppet just as he had done with him and with Karas.
I must stop this.
One who might be Wilhelm’s disciple.
The existence he had waited for with desperate longing for an entire year had finally appeared as if answering his wish.
But if he left Sancha’s schemes alone······.
Everything about that one would be endangered.
Observed, dissected, countless things would surface as weaknesses.
All of this is fate.
Before him who possessed Wilhelm’s star, Wilhelm’s predecessor had appeared.
How could this not be called fate?
As long as he remained here, the Tower’s fate was not far off.
When that time came, Sancha’s desires would crumble along with it.
Thus the Champion began to move.
He could no longer allow Sancha to do as he pleased.
Incredible.
Watching the duel, Sancha quietly admired.
More than the duel itself, the sheer volume of information his shadows were feeding him.
To think there is so much even my authority cannot know.
The shadows grasped everything.
They observed movements, traced origins, and calculated all things.
They even possessed the authority to locate the warp traces the Emperor Penguin had used and read everything around them.
Yet this Emperor Penguin held far too many unknowns.
Every warp trace has been completely erased. This is similar to the Elevens of the Death God Religion.
The warps the Emperor Penguin had passed through left no traces whatsoever.
Similar to the Elevens of the Empire’s Death God Religion.
But even more sophisticated. Completely unreadable.
And that was not all.
Everything, including the status window, lay veiled.
Because he possessed a skill or tool that blocked observation?
Impossible unless it was a Unique-grade tool.
He possesses related Hidden Traits. Hidden Traits that block my authority. But even that is only a matter of time.
If not tools, the only things capable of obstructing his observation were Hidden Traits.
Only those truths could obstruct the Tower Administrator’s functions.
But if blocked, one simply broke through.
The bastard would not even know he was being watched.
Given more time to observe, everything would be laid bare.
Especially the data on those movements would soon be compiled.
Just estimate piece by piece from the unique movements and intonations.
Yet before long Sancha could not help but frown.
My shadows are being erased.
······ Because someone was actively removing his shadows.
Having identified who it was, Sancha’s expression twisted into something even more fiendish.
Champion. You?
The Champion was among the spectator seats.
Even going around erasing his shadows as he moved.
The Champion who had received the Tower’s blessing could see the Administrator’s shadows.
Why was the bastard suddenly doing this?
The dog he had raised was suddenly barking out of nowhere.
Coming down after a full year—was he protesting?
······ Has he taken an interest?
Absurd.
Had he perhaps developed an interest in the Emperor Penguin?
If so, Karas’s forfeit might have been the catalyst.
It meant he was finally ready to accept challenges.
A full year later.
Sancha continued pondering with a furrowed brow.
He could not easily guess why the Champion was erasing the shadows while ready to accept challenges.
Does he want to face him as is?
Ah.
Right now the Champion was speaking to him.
That he wanted to fight the Emperor Penguin without interference.
A silent protest that he wished to face him properly, unlike with Karas.
Sancha stroked his chin.
He weighed who would win between the Emperor Penguin and the Champion.
··· Fine. Just this once, I’ll let you have your way.
20th Floor.
After defeating Auryll and the gatekeeper of the 19th Floor, I finally reached the 20th Floor.
Directly into the Champion’s domain.
“The Champion has accepted the challenge!”
“It’s been a full year, hasn’t it?”
“Hah······ The secluded Champion finally shows himself!”
Even the hosts seemed unable to believe it.
The Champion who had refused every challenge had accepted the Emperor Penguin’s challenge after an entire year.
An impossible event had occurred.
After Auryll’s duel, everything had fallen into place.
He had captured both Sancha’s permission and the Champion’s interest.
And so he finally stood face to face with the Champion he had never met.
“······.”
Quietly.
They simply looked at each other.
The current Champion.
Messy hair covered his face so thoroughly that his expression could not be read. Even his eyes were hidden.
But.
Thump! Thump!
The moment I looked at the Champion, my heart pounded madly.
I soon understood why.
Named Star ‘Star of the Sun’ has been found.
······ Meaning one of Wilhelm’s stars—and a Named Star at that—the Star of the Sun stood right before my eyes.
The Star of the Sun was a Named star of an entirely different caliber from the three stars I had obtained so far.
But my heart was not pounding for that reason alone.
Hoooooo.
Because his aura and presence, materialized like an Azure Dragon, felt far too familiar.
Could it be······?
How am I supposed to beat something like that?
Auryll sat quietly watching the arena.
Yet inside her head the previous fight was still being replayed over and over.
I poured everything out without a single regret.
Though she had lost, it had been a fight without regret.
Rather, she had received teaching.
Randolph had deliberately accepted her sword all the way to the end.
In contrast, Auryll had never managed to draw out Randolph’s true sincerity.
······ There’s so much to learn from Lord Randolph.
She did not want to admit it, yet Auryll admitted it all the same.
The swordsmanship learned in the Forest of Beginning had been rigid and blocked.
Whereas Randolph was not blocked at all.
Every time she exchanged blades with him, she felt her own skill surging forward.
Like master and disciple, Randolph was a being who granted her enlightenment.
Because Lord Randolph is no ordinary human.
At first she had thought him a complete human.
But Randolph was simultaneously a High Druid.
Likely one who wore human skin while holding the qualifications of a High Druid.
Since the chieftain Aruwen had said so, it must be true.
As proof, whenever she stood beside him, laurel leaves grew at an astonishing speed.