Chapter 150: Endless

Five hundred meters away from the battlefield stood two figures. Sebastian and Ramiel had been watching the battle between Sila and Montra for a while. Neither showed hostility toward the other.

“Your master is quite skilled, Ramiel.” Sebastian was the first to speak.

“This is merely a half of his ability. Master Montra is the most skilled human I have ever seen.”

“Um... He also possesses our master’s left arm. Is this the reason you have been following him?”

Ramiel didn’t answer. “Won’t you fight me?”

Sebastian shrugged. “It can’t be helped. The current me is no match for you. I realized that much when I saw you use a barrier. There was no incantation nor activation; that meant you have gotten yourself a genuine form. Well, that’s unexpected. I didn’t imagine that your current master could manage to get you your genuine form.” Sebastian emphasized the words ‘The current me’.

“Me too. I never imagined that you still hadn’t gotten yours back. It seems I was better than you at choosing a master.”

“I’d say that Mister Sila just isn’t interested in this kind of thing. Well, nor am I. Power isn’t something I seek.”

“Are you still searching for our original master, Sebastian? He abandoned us. Didn’t you feel betrayed?”

“There must have been a reason for him to do that. I still won’t give up. At the very least, I need to hear the reason from his own mouth.”

“Whatever. Anyway, do you really plan to just converse with me? It’s not that I’m against this or anything because Master Montra didn’t give me any orders, but what about you? Didn’t you tell your master that you would take care of me?” asked Ramiel.

“Well, I’m keeping you with me by talking with you. I’m doing my best to prevent you from helping out your master.”

“Master Montra doesn’t need my help. He can handle anything himself. Everything is still going according to his plan.”

Sebastian looked at Ramiel. “It seems you don’t care about your master that much.”

“I will follow his commands, but other than that I don’t care.”

“Sounds loyal, but not that loyal. It sounds like you will be fine with letting your master die before your eyes.”

Ramiel laughed. “Hahaha. Am I really being taught about loyalty by Sebastian? That’s funny. What about you? You plan to kill your current master once you find our original master, don’t you?”

“I guess so. That’s my plan.”

Ramiel nodded as if he had predicted Sebastian’s reply. “Anyway, I will inform Master Montra that I fought against you furiously.”

“Can an angel lie?”

“Even the grim reaper could teach me how to be loyal. How could I not teach you how to lie? Hahaha. This time, Master Montra didn’t order me to kill you. But if he does next time, I will surely kill you.”

“That will be a matter in the future. Can we just talk this time? There are many things I would like to ask you.”

Both Montra and Sila didn’t know that those two didn’t fight at all. Sebastian and Ramiel continued to talk until the very end.

***

Sila quit giving the grim reaper on the roof his attention. With the ability of the Black Grim Reaper Card, his death was delayed for fifteen minutes. In these fifteen minutes, it was his chance to fix the mistakes he took in the previous battle. And if he couldn’t do it, the result of his death would turn grimmer. With that in mind, Sila immediately activated Divine Raiment to heighten his concentration.

‘I was too impatient. Provoking the opponent to make them attack used to be my method. Montra just used the situation instead of speech to make me feel like I need to end the fight as soon as possible. Now that I calmly think about it, Tiger and Lookhin seem to be fine, and Kawin is being fended off by Yardpirun. Even though I don’t know who she is, I will trust her for now. As for Mister Sebastian, I don’t need to worry about him; I have no doubt that he can take care of himself. That man named Revin also seems to be busy using Dragon Domain and I heard him say that he wouldn’t be able to move for a while. That barrier is the proof.

‘At first glance, Montra seemed to be in control of everything. However, he must have been impatient as well. Otherwise, he wouldn’t attack me in a hurry when his ankle was still injured.’

He only had fifteen minutes, so there was no point in reserving energy. Sila unleashed his full power without delay. The radius of his qi sphere was greater than before as the power he unleashed was higher than usual.

Montra’s lips were moving up and down. It seemed he was trying to say something to Sila, but it was no use; his Divine Raiment could block off everything, including sound. It made his head clearer, and he could come up with ideas. Without hesitation, Sila jumped to the right toward where Revin was standing, and Montra quickly followed him.

‘I finally get it. The reason Montra charged at Bow wasn’t just to use her as a hostage, he was also trying to move Revin out of my sight.’

Sila depended on Cloud Stepping to hover next to Revin. Meanwhile, Montra was yelling something at him that he couldn’t hear. Sometimes it was good to be able to completely ignore other’s words; it made yourself calmer.

Accumulating the power of Genesis Punch into his metal arm, Sila struck his fist at the circular barrier surrounding Revin. Just one punch resulted in an obvious crack on the barrier. Witnessing the crack, Montra became more impatient and rushed at Sila.

‘My level of skill regarding martial arts is far inferior to Montra’s. I need to close the gap with raw power. Although it isn’t my preferred way of fighting, I will have to mimic Mister Poluk’s style.’

Sila descended down on the roof and infused the power of Genesis Punch into his left fist, preparing to use it with a technique from Nine Sun-Melting-Fists. At the same time, he decided to rely on the fact that the Right Arm of the Sealed One could block any attack without taking damage. He prepared his right arm for using Six Moon-Grabbing-Claws without cladding it in qi reinforcement. Lastly, his feet were strengthened and moved with the movements of Twelve Celestial-Travelling-Steps.

Under normal circumstances, he wouldn’t be able to pull this off; utilizing profound arts simultaneously was something that was currently beyond him. However, with Divine Raiment, he felt like there was nothing that he couldn’t do. The entire world was completely silent and waited for him to make a move. There was no sound nor pressure. The only thing left in the vast silence was his mind, which was as calm as an undisturbed lake with no ripples to be seen.

The Heavenly Dragon Spear was thrusted three times in an instant, aiming at Sila’s neck, heart, and thigh. It seemed Montra had long since realized that he couldn’t penetrate Sila’s bones, so every one of his attacks aimed at vital points in areas where the bones wouldn’t help Sila survive.

Strangely, despite the fact that the spear was moving at the same speed as before, Sila could follow its movements this time; he could even tell the sequence of the attack.

Both his feet moved at high speed, evading the first strike at his thigh. His right hand parried the second strike while he tilted his head. As a result, the tip of the spear grazed his cheek, though there was no wound with the help of Divine Raiment. As for the last attack aimed at his heart, it was the attack that had killed him last time so he was very wary of it.

He bumped the middle of the spear hilt using the back of his right hand before forcefully pulling it down with his maximum pulling power. He then infused Genesis Punch into his left fist and struck the hilt.

The spear shook violently, though there was no damage done to the spear, which Sila thought might be due to the fact that the spear was made of Orichalcum.

However, Montra’s hand wasn’t made of Orichalcum. The power of Genesis Punch ran through the spear to his hand, which started to bleed severely. Many of his fingers had broken but Montra still refused to let the spear go.

Sila pulled the spear toward himself, but Montra resisted. Sila unleashed the might of Genesis Punch using his foot for the first time by stomping on the roof. Even though the power wasn’t as formidable as when he used it with his fist, it was enough to completely annihilate the existence of the roof below his feet.

While Sila could stay in the air using Cloud Stepping, Montra’s body fell, and he began to lift himself up using a levitation spell. It was at this moment that Sila pulled the spear toward himself again. This time, Montra didn’t have a foothold so he was dragged by the force. Sila used Genesis Punch for the fourth time, striking Montra’s chest. Instantly, Montra’s body turned into dust while the spear was left in Sila’s hand.

The grim reaper disappeared from the roof, along with the hourglass in its hand. Sila released a sigh of relief. Just now, he had totally depended on in-game abilities rather than his own; relying on the Black Grim Reaper Card to use Genesis Punch without reserving the number of times, utilizing Cloud Stepping to stay in the air, making use of the Right Arm of the Sealed One that can block any physical attacks, and having Strengthened Bones limit Montra’s choices of where to attack. Moreover, he even baited Montra into attacking him first by threatening Revin. With this, how was he different from Montra, who used Bow as a hostage? Sila couldn’t help but question himself.

Montra re-emerged and stared at Sila with expressionless eyes, to which Sila stared back. His lips were moving; it seemed he was telling Sila to go down and fight fair and square. Too bad for him, Sila looked back at him with hostility.

Jumping toward Revin, Sila threw another Genesis Punch at the barrier yet again, causing the crack to widen. It seemed Revin wasn’t aware of the situation, or the protective sphere blocked his senses from everything outside. Otherwise, he would have realized that he was going to be the cause of Montra’s demise.

Gritting his teeth, Montra rushed at Sila while exerting the full power of Martial Radiance Art. He was able to stay in the air thanks to a levitation spell. He grabbed a hold of the Heavenly Dragon Spear and violently twisted it to release it from Sila’s hand. Then, he thrust it at Sila’s throat.

The spear precisely stabbed the target. Montra was quite surprised as it was too easy. As it turned out, Sila didn’t try to block his attack at all.

The blood gushed out as Montra retraced the spear. It was in that instant that he noticed the wound on Sila’s neck suddenly disappearing and Sila’s power returning to full again.

Sila was playing with death. He had read the description of the Black Grim Reaper Card and found that its ability had no cooldown time. Thus, he didn’t hesitate to spend all his power killing Montra and allowed himself to be killed after so that his power was replenished.

Then, Sila continued to use the same tactic; fighting in mid-air. The difference between Montra’s levitation and Sila’s firm foothold in the air was significant; Sila could use stepping techniques while Montra couldn’t. Without a firm foothold, The power of the Heavenly Dragon Spear was decreased because he could only depend on the arm muscles. Moreover, the revived Montra possessed only half of his power, so Sila had an easier time killing Montra as time passed.

Sila no longer dragged the battle on and instead used all of his power in every move, pressuring Montra greatly. Once he killed Montra, he would allow himself to be killed again. And if Montra chose to ignore him, he would attack the sphere surrounding Revin so Montra would be forced to attack him.

Consequently, the battle continued like this, as if it was an endless cycle.

***

Meanwhile, Kawin, who was still fighting against Yardpirun below, shot a glance at the fight between Montra and Sila, and began to feel restless. The fact that Sila could revive was new to them, and the longer the fight went on, the worse Montra became. The more Montra used Martial Radiance Art, the more it strained his body.

‘Montra, you have maintained that state for far too long...’ Kawin thought while looking at Montra with great concern.

In the end, when Montra died for the fourth time, Kawin decided to stop his fight against Yardpirun and jumped toward Montra, while Yardpirun chose to stay behind.

A giant stone plate was summoned and used as a foothold. Kawin grabbed Montra’s collar and dragged him in the direction of Revin and Sila. He summoned another stone plate to block Sila’s sight, took a detour and touched the protective barrier around Revin, which caused it to vanish. Then, he grabbed Revin’s shirt and dragged both of his friends toward where Ramiel and Sebastian had gone to fight.

Snapped out of his concentration, Revin yelled, “Oi! Kawin! What the heck are you doing?”

Slamming Genesis Punch into the stone plate, Sila turned the stone into dust, causing the three of them to fall.

Kawin couldn’t help but slightly fear Sila. The last time he fought against Sila, he could only put a dent into Kawin’s stone walls created from magic power. Now, however, he turned them into dust with a single punch.

Sila’s eyes shone with malice. He charged at the three of them with superior speed. At the same time, Montra snatched the Black Dragon Sword hanging on Revin’s back and used all of his remaining strength to throw it at Sila.

“Hey! Montra!! That’s my sword! What did you do?!”

Utilizing Six Moon-Grabbing-Claws, Sila slapped the Black Dragon Sword down to the ground. Unfortunately, the time he lost from doing that was enough to allow the three of them to reach Ramiel. Realizing it was counterproductive to follow further, as he was no match for all four of them at once, Sila descended to the Black Dragon Sword. Soon, the bodies of the four glowed with white light and disappeared from the Town of Beginnings.

The system informed him about the result of his match against Montra.

[You have killed Player Montra four times and gained a total of 1,200,000,000 experience points.]

[Your level has risen to 230.]

[You have achieved a certain condition. The skill Universe Reversal has fused and become one with your body.]

[You have achieved a certain condition. The skill Unblemished Cool Breeze has fused and become one with your body.]

[You have achieved a certain condition. The skill Galaxy Eclipse has fused and become one with your body.]

[Your body has fused with the main eight qi techniques. As a result, you obtained a special skill: Way of the Hermit.]

[You have achieved a certain condition. The level of Tiger Dragon Qi has risen to 90.]

[You have achieved a certain condition. The level of Shapeless Qi has risen to 90.]

Sila didn’t pay attention to the system notifications as he was immersing himself in the previous battle. He had exerted all of his power without holding back and had continued to do so. As a result, his mastery over his skills increased exponentially. Tiger Dragon Qi was getting stronger every time he exhausted all of it and let it regenerate. He himself didn’t imagine that he could manage to break Kawin’s stone plate in a single blow. Even his understanding and mastery of martial arts seemed to be undergoing enlightenment; he started to get a clear picture of what he wanted his Weapon Subduing Fist to be.

All in all, this result was thanks to his Black Grim Reaper Card and Montra’s Dragon’s Heart. Without any of the two, he would have needed to spend many more months to achieve this level of power.

Sebastian landed himself next to Sila. “Ramiel is too strong, so I couldn’t break his barrier. I’m truly sorry for that, sir.”

“I don’t blame you, Mister Sebastian. I know that you already did your best. Anyway, let’s go meet up with Mister Tiger and his friends.”

Sebastian felt a strange feeling. He felt guilty for his lies, which had never happened before.

‘Well, I will just compensate him later.’ With this thought, Sebastian rushed back to the group of the remaining players ahead of Sila.

Taking a look at the Black Dragon Sword on the ground, Sila took it with him and kept it inside his system window, before rushing after Sebastian.