Mutual Destruction
Do-yun had not crossed paths with El Sion all that many times.
Yet he remembered the man's face with absolute clarity.
After all, he was someone who had climbed onto the Hall of Fame a full three times.
Not a prodigy gifted with any single outstanding talent, but a well-rounded powerhouse whose stats formed a perfect hexagon without a single weak point. Saying he had no standout trait did not mean he was weak. The mere fact that he consistently appeared in the Hall of Fame was proof enough of his strength.
"Rank 1. There is a great deal I wish to ask you."
And he was showing a rather intense fixation on Do-yun. Do-yun could not understand what drove the man, until the next words made everything click.
"Just how are you able to ignore the System's restrictions?"
Their first meeting had been on the 6th floor, atop the walls of the old Empire. Back then, Do-yun had casually vaulted over a castle gate that the System had sealed shut. Ever since, El Sion had sought only one chance: to meet Do-yun again and demand the method for transcending the System. And now, at last, that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity had arrived.
"Am I obligated to tell you?"
"No. In that case, I will simply kill you and extract the memories myself."
El Sion raised a demonic greatsword that poured black energy in thick streams. Watching him, Do-yun broke out in a cold sweat. He had assumed that since the other side needed information, there would at least be room for dialogue. Yet it seemed negotiation had never even entered the man's mind.
Wait—he can read a dead man's memories?
For El Sion, it was a deal with no downside. If conversation yielded the information, good. If not, he would simply kill Do-yun. No need to leave the opponent alive, so no need to hold back. For Do-yun, it was the worst possible situation.
Even if I spill everything right now, I doubt he would let me go.
El Sion was one of the three who had stood out most on the 0th floor, alongside Kaya and Jin Cheon-woo. Even when every stat had been sealed, he had displayed unmatched martial power. A thoroughly burdensome opponent to face head-on.
I'll have to use Sun Swordsmanship.
He still had not applied the Rune of Evolution to the sheath. Using it carelessly risked the overheated sheath melting outright, but there was no other way. It was the only method to subdue El Sion in a single stroke. Yet one problem remained.
To get enough speed, I need time.
The sheath required a warm-up period to reach full performance. El Sion was hardly going to stand still and wait. He needed something to pin the man down—and fortunately, he had just the tool.
If he used this, he might buy himself some time somehow. El Sion was already blocking the exit he needed to leave through. There was no choice but to bring down the man who had been trying to get outside.
And if things get truly dangerous, I can just return straight to the Sanctuary Room.
A few rewards he had yet to claim still remained on the 9th floor, but they were not important enough to die for.
Clear Crystal acquired!
Return to the Sanctuary Room?
The familiar system message floated up the instant he fidgeted with the crystal tucked carefully into his clothes. Having confirmed the existence of his final insurance, Do-yun tightened his grip on his sword.
"All right. Let's try this."
Sensing the shift in Do-yun's aura, El Sion readjusted his greatsword.
Do-yun scanned El Sion from head to toe as the man raised the massive blade. Full-body armor sealed every inch of him except the face. There was no obvious gap for the nano machines to infiltrate. They might burrow in on their own even if he simply tossed them, but with only one chance, he had to be careful.
I'll have to aim for the face after all.
Throwing them openly risked El Sion dodging, so it would be better to time the throw for the moment their blades locked.
El Sion was the first to charge. The speed far exceeded Do-yun's expectations and left him no choice but to be startled—it was comparable even to Do-yun himself, who had copied stats through Tower of Trials rewards.
What kind of trick did he pull?
Come to think of it, it had been the same when El Sion ambushed Angelina from behind earlier. Do-yun had not sensed so much as a presence until the man was right in front of him. He had been somewhat distracted talking with Angelina, but that did not mean he had let his guard down. He had been fully prepared to react to any system alert Absolute Sight might throw up.
He didn't enhance his body with a skill beforehand either.
Absolute Sight could catch even residual mana signatures like that. Which meant El Sion was producing this speed with no doping of any kind.
Their blades crashed together with a sharp, ringing impact. In the taut contest of strength, El Sion's expression steadily hardened. Even wielding a heavy greatsword, he was gradually being pushed back by Do-yun's longsword.
I have a slight edge in raw power.
But it was only the slightest of margins—something that any minor variable could overturn.
El Sion suddenly twisted the greatsword. Do-yun's blade slid. The massive weapon began to drop toward his head. Instead of correcting the slipping edge, Do-yun chose to activate a skill.
Shadow Step (F)
In an instant, Do-yun's body relocated behind El Sion. With the resistance he had been pressing against gone, the greatsword cut empty air, and El Sion's center of gravity lurched violently forward. Do-yun swung at the now-defenseless man—
El Sion uses Alignment (F)
—but the system alert flashed, and El Sion's disrupted stance snapped back into perfect balance as if time itself had rewound. A spark of interest lit Do-yun's eyes.
Look at that.
A skill that perfectly compensated for a greatsword's weakness of wide, telegraphed movements. Even after confirming it, Do-yun did not stop his swing. El Sion calmly extended the greatsword as if to receive the blade, only for his eyes to fly wide the moment the weapons met.
Bash (F)
An impact beyond imagination raced up El Sion's arms. For all its massive bulk, the greatsword was driven back helplessly and tore free of his grip. In that same instant, El Sion's movements slowed dramatically.
"Aha. So the greatsword is the main body."
Grinning, Do-yun swung in rapid succession. Blow after blow dented and crumpled the armor of the now-disarmed El Sion. Watching it, Do-yun entertained a rather cocky thought.
If this goes well, I might actually win this cleanly.
It did not take long to realize that thought had been pure arrogance.
A shockwave suddenly erupted from El Sion, who until then had been doing nothing but taking hits. Do-yun staggered backward. When he lifted his head, he saw the black demonic greatsword being drawn into El Sion's hand as if by a magnet.
El Sion uses Execution (F)
A skill name that seemed taken straight from his moniker, the Executor. From the moment he activated it, an aura beyond any comparison to before poured from El Sion's body.
"I acknowledge it. Rank 1 does not appear to be an empty title."
At some point, El Sion's golden hair had been dyed ash-gray. It looked for all the world like the start of a second phase—yet faced with that ominous transformation, Do-yun did something unexpected: he sheathed his sword.
"What are you doing?"
El Sion's brow furrowed at the appearance of someone who had simply given up. But Do-yun had never once considered surrendering from the start.
"Don't you notice something strange?"
He spoke while pouring mana into the sheath. El Sion, who had been advancing without concern, finally registered the wrongness and his expression hardened. His body was no longer moving as he willed.
It was the power of the microscopic machines already riding his bloodstream. The nano machines Do-yun had thrown the moment El Sion lost his greatsword were still remodeling the man's body even now.
"Kh—!"
El Sion's face twisted in dismay as he began a belated response. He forced his mana into reverse flow to burn out the machines that had already burrowed inside him, and to keep from losing consciousness he drove his own greatsword into his thigh.
Meanwhile Do-yun poured mana with all his might while El Sion tried every method he could. The sword shuddered as if ready to leap free at any moment; the resistance against the hand forcibly restraining it grew fiercer by the second. Near-overload levels of mana made the entire sheath blaze hot.
Pale smoke rose, and damage alerts from the minor burns flickered across his vision. Do-yun ignored them and poured in even more. This was a hard-won opportunity. He had to finish El Sion with this single strike.
Scorching Sword (C)
Far from easing the sheath's burden, he layered on Scorching Sword to drive the heat even higher. Surging red flames licked all the way to the hilt.
Not yet.
Do-yun never took his eyes off El Sion until the last moment. By some means Do-yun could not identify, El Sion had escaped the nano machines' influence; bloodshot eyes locked onto him. Just as the man, having barely recovered his senses, was about to charge with the massive greatsword—
Do-yun released every ounce of power he had been compressing.
The sheath, already trembling on the edge of collapse, shattered into flying fragments. At the same instant, the flames sealed within erupted with a howl.
First Form—Dawn.
This time the crimson trajectory was a slash rather than a thrust, flooding the armory with light.
El Sion, still staggering free of the nano machines' hold, could not respond. A fine red line traced across his body; the flames that bloomed along that line swallowed him whole.
Do-yun dropped to his knees at the sight. With the extreme tension gone, his limbs shook so badly he could not support himself. Yet a smile spread across his face.
I did it.
He had succeeded in recreating Sun Swordsmanship without anyone else's help. The sheath was destroyed, so he would need a new substitute, but even that fact could not dilute the sense of achievement.
"Th-that's amazing!"
Do-yun turned toward Ciel, ready to flash a grin—only for a system alert he had never once imagined to bloom before his eyes.
El Sion uses Mutual Destruction (S)
The skill's owner is already deceased.
You have suffered fatal damage!
Remaining HP — 0
You have died.