KLINK!!! KLINK!!! KLINK!!!

Sonorous metallic clanks of blades echoed throughout the Blue Payirci, even beating the noise that was booming out from Shin and Ao’s bloody fight. A silver-haired man chased a fully armoured knight, ignoring the legions of sword light that flew out of the knight’s claymore.

In order to close in the distance, astral warriors would block the disgustingly strong claymore that the Sword Baron held, giving Isadore a chance to display his astonishingly acute martial arts. The Sword Baron wildly swung his sword, using all of his overbearing strength and deep mana pool to power his strikes. One swing was capable of splitting a mountain in two and slicing an ocean in half. However, Isadore knew that going into the battle.

Swinging his spear like a seasoned dancer, the silver-haired prince dodged all of the Sword Baron’s attacks like a fish swimming with the current. Once the sword strike had passed his body, Isadore would fluidly use the momentum to execute a counterattack, one that was unavoidable. Thrown off a loop, the Sword Baron would coarsely call his claymore back, blocking the silver spear that was aimed at his vital parts.

However, that only worked nine out of ten times. Due to his superior physical attributes and unfathomable mana strengthening skills, the Sword Baron was able to block most of the strikes. Alas, there was always that one moment where everything fails...

“Bleurgh!!!” The Sword Baron hurled out a mouthful of blood, emptying his guts as a spear hit the centre of his abdomen. When boosted by Elrin, Isadore’s strength and mana strengthening were equivalent to that of a peak Spirit Emperor. A direct strike with his spear was certain to do damage, even if the Sword Baron was all armoured up and protected by his Spirit Venerate energies.

Typically, one would be delighted that his enemy was showing signs of weakness during their battle. However, Isadore’s face was starting to sweat, both with frustration and impatience.

‘He’s still standing after all that?! What a fucking monster!’ Isadore cursed out in his mind.

The duo had been fighting for quite some time now, and while Isadore held the advantage through landing blow after blow… He was fighting on borrowed time. Elrin’s boost couldn’t last forever, and his muscles were starting to strain from all the clean hits that he’d executed. As more time passed, it was more and more likely that Elrin’s boost would wear off and Isadore’s high intensity of attacks would start to slow. Once that happens, all the Sword Baron needed was one clean hit to end the silver prince’s life.

Fortunately, Seymour was bleeding and fatigued as well. Thus, he wasn’t able to see the beads of sweat dripping down Isadore’s face or the puffing that Elrin was trying to hide. His eyes were blurry and knees, heavy. The Brahmin felt like he had been running for days with an open wound, unable to treat it, only to slowly bleed his lifeforce away.

‘Annoying brat...’ The Sword Baron spat in his mind. He raised his trusted claymore up, sending a wave of energy bursting from its inner blade. A mixture of light and darkness wreathed the massive claymore, creating a harmony of white and black particles. ‘I’m not dying to a fucking child! Allfather, give me power!’

The Darkness-Elements, the power that represented the Allfather, moved up the claymore at rapid speeds, entering the opened bloodstream of the wounded knight. His gorgeous iron armour, a representative of all the good that the Sword Baron had given to the world, was now tainted black, corrupted by the essence of the Allfather.

The Sword Baron had taken the final step… The plunge into the abyss that he had held off from taking. In his own naive way, Seymour Fielder didn’t want to completely rely on the Allfather. He wanted to have an escape route should things go sour with the Black Masks, a plan B of sorts. However, with his life fading away, there was no need to hold back anymore. Devoting his everything to the Allfather, the Sword Baron turned into an Umbral Knight, a being whose soul solely belongs to the Tree of Darkness.

“Another power up? How many of those are the Black Masks hiding?!” Isadore screamed in annoyance. Still, the seasoned warrior in him picked up his spear, ready to fight for yet another day. “Elrin? How are you holding up?!”

“... Not long! Maybe three minutes!” Elrin tried her best to keep a neutral face, but the strain was starting to pile up. “You have to defeat him quickly! Or else, we’ll all die!”

“Easy for you to say...” Isadore’s eyelids twitched. He tried everything. His martial arts, his Immortal Astral Army, a mixture of deception and speed… Everything! However, the Sword Baron’s toughness wasn’t one to be scoffed at.

‘The only thing left is that forbidden move… But I can’t use it when a fucking Spirit Venerate is charging at me! What should I...’

“Isadore!” Just as the silver-haired prince was about to lose all hope, a divine voice descended from the heavens like an angel’s aria. A hybrid between a Kumiho fox and a human bolted past Isadore’s vision, all while raising one of her hands to the sky.

“LUNAR BEAM!!!”

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHH!!!

A beautiful torrent of light sliced through the air, targetting the knight clouded in darkness. Unlike before, the Sword Baron was well aware of the imminent danger. He quickly made a huge evasive maneuver to increase the distance between himself and the enemies.

“You guys alright?” Kanari asked worriedly.

“Barely hanging on,” Elrin replied in place of Isadore. “You came in the nick of time. Isadore was about to go out of options.”

“Out of options? Oh, I hardly think so...” Kanari flashed a mischievous grin. She pinched her index finger and thumb together, playfully gesturing for Isadore. “All for one, one for all?”

“... You even know about that?”

“Don’t underestimate the power of the Highgarden Duchy. We’ve known about the Imperial Ancestor’s special move from day one. As his inheritor, I’m sure that he had imparted it onto you.”

“...” Isadore rolled his eyes. From their childhood years, Kanari was the elder sister that knew all of his secrets. And as it turns out… That trait had carried on to their adult years. Alas, it was no time to interrogate Kanari about everything. “Buy me fifteen seconds.”

“Got it!” The black-haired beauty happily obliged. She was a Spirit Emperor and monster that could control three-element with ease. Not to mention, before Shin burst into the scene, Kanari was wildly considered to be the best talent of her generation. Defeating the Sword Baron in his enhanced state may be a stretch, but delaying him for fifteen seconds? Easy.

A dozen pale blue rotating balls of flame orbited around Kanari forming a solar system with the Kumiho lady as their sun. The Fire, Wind and Mind-Elements danced with the utmost of joy, turning the Blue Payirci into a gorgeous array of colours and energies. At the same time, twenty ‘moons’ appeared overhead, all of them charged up with lunar energy.

“Cataclysm!!!” There was no need for any wind-up. With a ferocious roar, Kanari allowed all of her abilities to let loose, turning the already barren sandy fields into a further wasteland. The Sword Baron, unwilling to spend too much of his energy, evaded all of the lunar beams with his superior speed and aerial movements. The balls of flame, however, were quite unavoidable.

“STOP ANNOYING ME!!!” Seymour screamed, swinging his claymore wildly once more. Black and white sword light flowed out from its tip and sliced the fireballs as if they were butter cakes.

Watching her first attack fail, Kanari charged up yet another round of lunar beams. Also, to add insult to injury, Kanari’s nine tails glowed with pale blue flames, all while her ruby eyes channelled the power of the Mind-Element.

“Kanari is strong as ever...” Elrin said in wonder. “But that Isadore… When did he learn that fearsome move? I can’t even breathe just by looking at him!”

Kanari was impressive, yes. But the pressure that Isadore was putting out… It far surpassed anything that Kanari could do. The Sword Baron was preoccupied with the woman that was attacking him, so he hadn’t noticed yet. All of the astral warriors that the Spirit of Himmel had summoned… They had all disappeared.

However, that didn’t mean that their power had dissipated away… All of their energies, their techniques and power… It was all being concentrated in Isadore’s one spear.

All of Isadore’s muscles tightened up as he did his best to hold onto the power that was sealed in that one spear. To the man, it felt as if he was carrying a mountain on his shoulders. No, a mountain was too light. He felt as if the entire ocean had been concentrated into one point.

“Kanari, make space!” Once his preparations were complete, Isadore barked at the woman wreathed in flames.

“I’ll open a path!” There was no need for Kanari to look back. Kanari rushed fearlessly towards the Sword Baron, not caring that he was juiced up and ready to slice her apart like fruit. Once she was mere metres away, Kanari swung her tails rapidly, sending flames out to confuse the Brahmin. However, Seymour was much too experienced to fall for her trap. Dodging the fire, the Sword Baron concentrated his might on the one woman that mattered.

“I’ll kill you!!!”

“No, you won’t!”

Before his claymore could taste Kanari’s tender flesh, her ruby eyes sparkled and sent a wave of Mind-Elements flying his wave. It was weak, but it could disrupt the Sword Baron for a good millisecond…

A millisecond. That was all it took. Seymour watched in stasis as Kanari’s visage twinkled away and in her place… there was a blinding silver flash. And then...

“W-what...”

Seymour held his sword low. He was the King of Swords, the man that held the title of Sword Baron and the man who slain thousands of enemies with his claymore. He knew more than anyone how dangerous it was to hold his sword down. However, Seymour couldn’t help it. The Sword Baron could feel all of his mana gushing out of his body as strength left his fingers.

The might of ten thousand warriors came crashing down in one single point, the open wound that Isadore had exploited just moment’s prior. However, with Isadore’s all-out attack, that small wound had expanded into a vast hole, one the size of an oversized watermelon. The Sword Baron had lost all of his stomach, intestines, and even bits of his lungs from that one blow.

“...” Seymour was unable to breathe his last in peace. Isadore, tired of the battle, beheaded the man with one clean stroke, ending the tale of the Sword Baron once and for all.

“Hah… I did it...” Now that his foe had been slain, Isadore could finally take a quick break. Losing all energy in his legs, the man fell to his bum and laid flat on the floor.

“Isadore! You alright?” Kanari flew over quickly and asked the crucial question.

“No, I’m not!” Isadore scoffed. “That ability is forbidden for a reason… All of my strength is gone now. I probably won’t recover for days...”

“Haha, but you killed a Spirit Venerate! You should be glad that you escaped with your head still intact!”

“You ass...” Isadore cursed the woman who seemed to know everything about him, but deep down, he knew how crucial of a role Kanari played. “Thanks.”

“Your welcome!” The beauty beamed. “Now… We’ve either killed or captured all the Black Masks… All that’s left is...”

HHHHHHHHHHHSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!

A surge of cold energy pulsated out from the centre of the Blue Payirci, forcing all of Guardian Sword to fall down to the floor in evasion. That overwhelming presence… That Water-Elemental energy that seemed to continue on for ages… It was frighteningly foreign. Tsunamis, hurricanes and even complete monsoon winds returned to the sandy dunes of the Blue Payirci, but that wasn’t all… There was one other… more destructive power hanging above all of the Water-Elements. One that was completely alien yet at the same time… familiar.

“That power...”

“... Shin?”