Chapter 348: A Land That Lost Its Romance (6)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 348: A Land That Lost Its Romance (6)
One day ago.
The top rankers, Alvarez included, had already received their mobilization orders. Instructed to enter the capital in advance to prepare for war, they were already on standby when Count Gomez issued his summons.
Ranks two through nine.
The absolute peak of Valhalla’s warriors gathered in one place.
Alvarez scanned the familiar faces, a sour expression twisting his features. "To think this is all we have left. Valhalla isn't what it used to be."
Only five rankers had answered the call.
Even accounting for the 10th ranker, Valderas, and the 3rd ranker, Ares, ignoring the summons, two seats remained glaringly vacant. The root of this absence traced back to the absolute uproar caused by Roman Dmitry. A significant number of Valhalla's top rankers had lost their lives in that clash. With the deaths of Barbosa (6th), Rodriguez (7th), and Morales (12th), the Valhalla Imperial Court had announced a temporary freeze on the rankings.
Three dead. Two who had turned their backs on the Imperial Court. Five total vacancies.
The Valhalla Imperial Court had decided a major overhaul was necessary. To replace the missing with the Emperor's loyalists, they announced a grand ranking match to be held in the near future. Whether it took a week or a fortnight, their goal was to stoke fierce competition among the rankers and restructure the hierarchy with the Emperor's people.
Tron, ranked 5th in Valhalla, spoke up. "This is all because of Roman Dmitry. Because of that bastard, Morales bit the dust, Barbosa died, and even Rodriguez crossed over to the afterlife. On top of that, Ares left Valhalla to follow him, and Duke Vieto conspired with Dmitry to launch this rebellion. Which means even the absence of Valderas, the last remaining spot, cannot be unrelated to Roman Dmitry."
"What a ridiculous situation," Alvarez chuckled hollowly.
Valhalla.
How on earth had the legendary nation of warriors fallen to this state?
People called the events of the Valhalla festival a tragedy, but because of that single day, the Imperial Court had lost half of its top rankers. It was an unmitigated disaster. There was a time when it was said no one dared challenge the continental rankings except for Kronos and Valhalla. But a single anomaly named Roman Dmitry had completely overturned the board.
His laughter lacked mirth. His insides boiled with rage.
As the second-in-command of Valhalla, Alvarez spoke. "Valhalla is currently facing a period of great upheaval. As always, if we trust and follow His Majesty the Emperor, we will be rewarded accordingly. Count Gomez will summon us soon. Let's move out ahead of time and prepare for war."
"Yes."
"Let's do that."
Everyone nodded and began to walk away.
But just then...
An unexpected face blocked their path.
"It's been a while, everyone."
A silver-haired man.
At the sight of Ares, Alvarez's face violently contorted.
* * *
Ares.
He was Valhalla's sore spot—its reverse scale. Born in Valhalla and hailed as its greatest genius, he had now sworn allegiance to the Dmitry Family.
Alvarez glared at him with fierce hostility. "You traitorous bastard. What gives you the confidence to show your face here?"
"Traitor? As far as I know, I haven't been expelled from the Valhalla rankings yet." Ares smirked.
He was right.
Ares had clearly abandoned Valhalla, but the Imperial Court had yet to officially expel him. Doing so would damage the Emperor's authority. If they formally expelled Ares on top of the chaos Roman Dmitry had already caused, the public would realize that Valhalla's greatest genius had forsaken the Emperor to follow the Dmitry Family. Thus, the court had avoided taking administrative action. Since they planned to hold a grand ranking match later anyway, they had temporarily buried the sensitive truth.
And now, that very man had waltzed right back into Valhalla.
He had even strolled boldly through the Warp Gate. Ares looked at Alvarez and drew his sword.
"Ares, ranked 3rd in Valhalla. I challenge Alvarez, ranked 2nd, to a ranking match."
"You son of a..."
In an instant, every ranker's face twisted in sheer outrage.
Schneider, ranked 9th, flared up, his face flushing crimson. "A ranking match for a bastard who abandoned Valhalla?! I will absolutely not allow this!"
Schneider.
He was a relic of the past. When Ares first rose to the ranks of the Twelve Swords of the Continent, he had built his fame by stepping on Schneider, who had once held one of those coveted spots. The shock of that defeat had been immense. Schneider had been severely shaken, wandering in despair to the point of being called a washed-up has-been, eventually plummeting to 9th in the rankings.
Ares spoke. "A ranking match is the exclusive right of a top ranker. Which means it is not a matter for a bastard like you to meddle in."
Slick.
He tilted his blade. Pointing it straight at Schneider, his lips curled upward.
"If you want, I'll take you all on one by one. If you don't like what I'm doing, you're welcome to drag me down from the 3rd spot and cancel this match. What will it be, Schneider? If you have the confidence to face me like you did in the past, draw your sword."
The atmosphere froze icy cold.
No one uttered a word about accepting the challenge.
Ares's strength was the real deal.
Though doubts had constantly hounded him when he was merely a 5-Star Aura Swordsman, he had carved a bloody path of proof to reach the 3rd rank. Everyone present had tasted defeat at his hands at least once. Facing the towering wall of his overwhelming talent, none could easily bring themselves to step forward.
Except for one man.
Alvarez was different.
He drew his swords on behalf of everyone. "Arrogant bastard. Fine, I accept your challenge."
* * *
They relocated to the Temple of Valhalla.
Alvarez sneered as he faced his opponent. "People often make a mistake. They make the grand assumption that Valhalla's greatest talent must be an undefeated warrior."
Ares, ranked 3rd.
He had remained in that position for quite some time. The public assumed Ares had simply never challenged Alvarez, but in reality, they had fought unofficially no less than three times. The result of every match had been Ares's defeat.
Ares's flashy swordsmanship simply did not work against Alvarez. He could not overcome the absolute difference in Aura, and thus, Ares had spent a long time stagnating in the 3rd rank.
"History only repeats itself, Ares."
Slick.
Alvarez extended a sword to either side.
Dual swords—his trademark.
As the priest of Valhalla presiding over the duel gave the signal, Alvarez and Ares lunged at each other.
Flutter!
Boom!
Rumble!
They were unbelievably fast.
In an instant, the two men became a blur of motion, fiercely attacking each other without giving an inch.
Clang!
Clash-clash-clash-clash!
It was a violently explosive clash.
They exchanged dozens of blows in a brief window, moving so fast that even the watching Valhalla rankers could barely keep up. The one holding the upper hand in this chaotic sequence was Alvarez. He pressured Ares by relentlessly swinging his dual swords, while Ares calmly deflected the onslaught, waiting for a momentary opening.
Flash.
Ares's sword sliced through the air.
It whipped past at incredible speed, stopping right before Alvarez's nose, but Alvarez dodged the lethal strike with a slight tilt of his head.
"Don't play cheap tricks with me!"
Boom!
Rumble!
Alvarez brought his sword down from above.
Ares pulled back his blade to block the strike, but Alvarez's relentless follow-up attacks—as if he had anticipated the parry—were already cutting off Ares's escape routes.
Crash! Crash! Crash!
Memories resurfaced.
Ares and Alvarez. What had their past duels been like?
While Ares might have been superior in pure swordsmanship, Alvarez possessed a powerful advantage that utterly overwhelmed him: the explosive power of his dual swords. Normally, wielding two weapons dispersed a warrior's explosive force, but Alvarez had mastered the ability to unleash a devastating burst of Aura through both of his blades simultaneously.
He was truly Ares's natural enemy.
6-Star and 5-Star.
The difference in Aura was absolute.
Ares had proven he could bridge the gap against others with mere swordsmanship, but there was no way for him to withstand a 6-Star Aura unleashed through dual swords. Alvarez was on a completely different level from the previous 3rd ranker Ares had defeated. His Aura itself was pure destruction. Because he pressured Ares relentlessly, Ares had tasted the bitter ash of defeat in all three of their past matches.
Boom!
Rumble!
Ares was pushed back.
As Alvarez immediately closed the distance to press his advantage, Ares's Aura scattered into bright, shimmering fragments.
"You're still relying on those cheap tricks."
Aura fragments. It was a technique designed to scatter an opponent's Aura.
As Alvarez whipped up a gale of his own Aura to blow the fragments away, Ares suddenly lunged from below. A surprise attack.
Alvarez's reaction was incredibly fast. He calmly parried Ares's strike, and instead of retreating, he lunged forward to close the distance. In a space so tight they could hear each other's breathing, they exchanged dozens of blows once more. Amidst the violent clashes, Ares demonstrated precise and flawlessly clean swordsmanship, but Alvarez's dual-sword onslaught inevitably seized the upper hand.
Boom!
A downward strike from above.
Boom!
A sweeping slash from the side.
Whenever Ares was pushed back, Alvarez pursued him instantly, recovering his downward-striking sword in a flash to aim for Ares's neck.
Whoosh!
Rumble!
It was a hair's breadth away. A razor-thin margin.
The tense standoff persisted.
Just holding out this long was proof enough that Ares's skills had improved.
But that was all.
Victory still belonged to Alvarez.
Like a charging bull that knew no retreat, Alvarez pressed on fiercely, determined to slaughter the traitor.
However...
Clang!
Clash-clash-clash-clash!
Something was off.
The more he attacked his opponent...
The more blows they exchanged...
The more Alvarez felt as if his feet were sinking into a bottomless swamp.
Something, somehow, was going terribly wrong.
* * *
The first time.
The second time.
And the third time.
The cause of Ares's defeat had always been the absolute difference in Aura. Under the continuous, heavy clashes, Ares's Aura would weaken, eventually forcing him to concede defeat.
But now was different.
It was strange.
Ares possessed only a 5-Star Aura, yet no matter how many times their blades met, his Aura did not weaken.
Then, it happened.
Clang—!
"?!"
Alvarez's arm was violently deflected.
For the first time, Alvarez had been pushed back.
Ares did not miss the opportunity. He pressed his attack, his lips curling into a mocking smirk. "You're at the exact same level as you were back then."
Then and now.
Ares had changed.
The reason he had sworn allegiance to Roman Dmitry was to bridge this exact gap in Aura. He had wanted to tear down the towering wall of the 6-Star realm, a height he could never reach no matter how hard he struggled. The paths of Chris and Kevin had provided him with the clue he desperately needed. Both of them had defeated higher-ranked Aura Swordsmen despite wielding lower-tier Aura. The moment it was proven that the distinction of Stars was not absolute, Ares had abandoned Valhalla for Dmitry without a single shred of hesitation.
So, he endured the attacks.
Just like in the past.
After perfectly replicating the exact conditions of his previous defeats, Ares reached a single, undeniable conclusion.
"This is doable."
The recoil was far less.
Once he applied Roman Dmitry's methods, Alvarez's dual-sword onslaught no longer felt overwhelming.
Whoosh!
Clang!
From that moment on, Ares's swordsmanship truly began to shine.
The rising doubt in Alvarez's mind made him hesitate, and Ares unleashed the very swordsmanship that had elevated him to the Twelve Swords of the Continent. It was a breathtakingly clean style. If Alvarez blocked the right, Ares targeted the left; if he blocked the left, Ares went for the lower body; and if he blocked the lower body, Ares aimed for the upper body again.
The relentless combination of attacks made Alvarez's head spin.
Tap.
One more step.
Ares penetrated his guard.
The moment Ares executed an exquisite thrust, Alvarez's eyes flashed with lethal intent.
'Now!'
Whoosh!
Rumble!
Aura surged explosively.
Alvarez crossed his dual swords, which he had recovered in the blink of an eye, and unleashed a devastating burst of energy meant to tear Ares's body apart.
It was Alvarez's secret technique.
Even if Ares could bridge the gap in Aura, the 2nd rank of Valhalla was by no means an easy position to hold. Alvarez had reached that spot after hundreds, thousands of bloody battles. The top rankers of Valhalla were battle-hardened, veteran warriors. Seeing his opponent gain momentum, Alvarez had intentionally baited him, concentrating his Aura into a single point before detonating it all at once.
It was an unavoidable trap.
Focusing the destructive power of a 6-Star Aura was a realm that Ares's current 5-Star strength could not possibly handle.
Yet, by a hair's breadth, the attack merely grazed Ares.
The moment Ares reacted to and effortlessly evaded what should have been a flawless, lethal strike, Alvarez felt a horrific, searing pain in his right arm.
Flash!
Splurt!
His arm was severed.
Alvarez grit his teeth. With trembling eyes, he frantically swung the sword in his left hand, only for his left arm to be sent flying into the air as well.
"Aaargh!"
He stumbled.
Losing his balance, he collapsed heavily to the ground.
As Alvarez looked up with eyes full of sheer, unadulterated horror, Ares slowly approached him.
"Alvarez. Before I left for Dmitry, I was stagnating."
Dmitry.
It wasn't just his Aura that had developed there. The swordsmanship he had just displayed was his own personal adaptation of Chris's Fast Sword Technique, the very style that had once threatened his life.
It was ironic.
Ares had never once kept an eye on swordsmen of a lower realm than himself, but his perspective had completely shifted after facing Chris. Dmitry was overflowing with dangerous swordsmen. He realized that to protect his position there, he couldn't just look up—he had to watch his back as well.
That was why, even in victory, he had relentlessly whipped himself to do better. Reflecting on the opponents he had defeated, he constantly pondered if there was something he could learn from them.
Tap.
He stopped walking.
Looking down at Alvarez, who could finally sense his impending death, Ares raised his sword.
"This is the reason I left for Dmitry."
Boom!
Rumble!
Aura flared into existence.
At the sight of the violently swirling energy, Alvarez's eyes widened in absolute shock.
"...N-No way?!"
It was, without a doubt, a 6-Star Aura.
Goosebumps erupted all over Alvarez's body.
Ares had reached the 6-Star realm.
Even though he could have easily overwhelmed Alvarez from the very beginning, he had intentionally handicapped himself by using only a 5-Star Aura. All for the sake of a single duel that would perfectly erase his three past defeats. He had dared to impose a restriction on himself against the second-in-command of Valhalla, just to test his new foundation.
Alvarez finally realized the truth.
Ares was, without a doubt, Valhalla's greatest talent.
Splurt!
Blood sprayed into the air.
His body torn to shreds, Alvarez collapsed, the light fading from his unfocused eyes.
Thud.
Behind him...
Schneider stood frozen, his eyes wide and trembling.
And Count Gomez stood rooted to the spot, his face deathly pale with shock.