[Edge of ADA] discharged a gust so powerful it blasted dust cloud over the city.

For the resistance holding the wall, what awaited as the dust fade was the curtain call.

The second lighting of Horizon Dawn’s emblem was more than a decoration. It was a supercharge of morale. With Trimegal’s body destroyed and the Spiritium crystal vaporized, Orwell Mehest's hold on Venistalis’s vast Mana finally got dashed to the rock. Amalgam laying siege at the wall shut down one by one. Few versions with built in Mana storage held on, but alas the defender finally outnumbered the undead.

With morale higher than cloud nine, the resistance led by Vice-Captain Kruger marched forth to end the fight.

…

Inside the Central Palace, Rem reached the place he targeted from the beginning.

It was the Grand Empire’s restricted library. Behind that gate laid the secret library, hiding everything the Empire declared forbidden. Vast number of lost knowledges and dangerous artifacts rested behind its door, sealed from the public’s perception.

Rem stretched his recently healed hand. Za Wa nested on his shoulder as a witness to Horizon Dawn’s first liberation of knowledge.

[Tenshou]

The connection of the universe rattled. Countless seals and protections gripping the door for a millennium shutdown and unraveled under the command of the Primal Arcane. Rem undid the binding thread-by-thread, untying each seal and disabling the gate's ridiculous number of barriers.

In a minute, the gate to the library telekinetically crawl open.

Knowledge was the greatest treasures of humanity. Forget monetary resources, the classified informations of the Empire was a delicious material.

…

Princess Velnia’s gang plus Shyme Enma got knocked from their feet by [Edge of ADA]’s windstorm. As they struggle to stand, the Spiritium tower fell before their heads.

“What?!” Albert Starlight yelled in face of a mountain of obsidian rock crashing into his face.

[Air Palace: Gale Wall]

The nearly emptied Shyme shielded the group with her barricade of air. Dust and rocks slid around the barrier with loud noises.

“What happens?” Mercia asked nobody. “How is that tower falling?”

The answer arrived with Orwell Mehest crash-landing beside them. His spectral armor was intact, but his face painted an image of crumbling confidence. Orwell conjured a gigantic sword of purple energy and flung it at the dust cloud. A clang rose as something knocked the gigantic sword flying.

Then he stepped to grace their vision.

A throneless knight clad in black overall and trench-coat. The helmet shielding his identity glimmered under the heated battle. Its visor flickered with amber light. Fearless, the knight of Satholia strode to his opponent, speaking in a menacing voice enhanced with the modulator.

“And there goes your last lifeline. Anymore trick, Orwell?”

“Heh, we are outside your summer land.”

[Tundra Ice Create: Glacial]

Orwell’s pale blue energy surged, summoning an ice-coffin, and entombing the Chronicler inside the frozen grave the size of the house.

[Jotun]

Hikma’s [Conceptual Construct] responded, encasing Hikma inside his own ice before Orwell’s attack crushed him.

Crash!

The freezing coffin slammed Hikma shut. However, [Jotun] expanded, bursting the coffin and growing into a massive golem. Hikma had plenty of time to upgrade his conceptual construct with Primal Arcane. The current [Jotun] was a handiwork of [Cryo Lorde] and [Cryo Genesis]. Sadly, Hikma didn’t master [Cryo Gift] as the final touch. The golem was no longer a meat-shield but a robotic enabler of cold manipulation.

[Cryo Lorde]

Ice-covered the battlefield, stretching from the golem and creeping up Orwell’s Adamakles. Mehest’s Tundra abilities activated in response, struggling in an icy battle with Orwell.

[Blizzard]

[Entropy]

In that freezing match, Shyme witnessed the image of beauty. Orwell’s [Blizzard] failed to properly launched. Instead of an unforgiving hail, a gentle snow fell. Clear ice covered the ruin street and building, glittering like a crystalized lake. The air was chilling but celestial, like an image of winter. It was a moment of solace. An opening to a legendary duel she was lucky to witness.

Throughout her childhood, Shyme Enma’s life centered on fire. The passion for her family — the flames promising of progress. The engine called Enma Clan must push on regardless of the cost. Their triumphs wrote history. Like social media addict, the young mistress of Enma grew with belief in the flames of the ceaseless leap to the future, brushing aside any chance of self-reflection or risk assessment.

Now that her immense injury forced her to stop, she found herself in the fairyland foreign in her life. There were no rabid crashing weapons nor spells, but two men assessing the others with patience. Both held to solemn and calm, preserving their strength and building their tactic in the peaceful falling snow. A celestial silence for both sides to reflect on their decision.

Reflection… it was something alien to Shyme Enma until that icy day.

“What a power,” Velnia gaped with fright.

“It is beautiful,” Shyme whispered as Velnia gave her a look reserve for an asylum patient.

The two men’s gaze finally sharpened, and they moved.

[Pyro Gift]

Hikma cast a fiery protection, shielding himself from Orwell’s cold aura. Orwell charged; his Adamakles blazing for a strike. Hikma slipped past the vertical slash obliterating the ground, then intercepted a double stab with [Trinity] and slight cane flick. The trough in temperature transformed water into mist as the Adamakles’ forth limb swept its blade at Hikma’s ankle. Sadly, Orwell’s bulky armor was too unsubtle to feint against a person who trained against masters of misdirection and speed blitz. Hikma evaded Orwell’s final blow in a clean flip. The 2nd Ray might not boast many agile moves, but session with Luxinna taught him in spades.

Flipping into Orwell’s blind-spot in a crouch, the Chronicler’s waited for Mehest’s back swiped to fly overheard before counter-attacking.

[Interfere]

The Arcane rupture enough opening in Orwell Mehest’s vibrating defense for Hikma to follow with his true probing strike.

[Entropy]

Mehest watched Hikma palmed his armor. Forces of degradation eroded his spectral defenses at an alarming rate. This attack confirmed Orwell’s suspicion. His opponent wasn’t simply a wall. Chronicler is a tactical fighter under a guise of a wall. The type with patience to probe his opponent for a certain method to assure victory no matter how long it took.

Orwell supercharged his vibration armor to take out Hikma’s hand, but the Chronicler already expected that reaction.

[Holy Gift]

Light busted from Hikma’s palm, launching both fighters back by five meters each. Snow and ice dispersed from the blast. Both men wiped a line of broken ice as they blasted across the ground before coming to the stop without breaking eye contact.

However, a sight shocked the spectator.

The first sign of vulnerability appeared on Orwell’s Adamakles; a crack. There were no deflecting Hikma’s accomplishment. The boy, once beaten by a squad of thugs, now squared mano-to-mano against an elite who punted a demigod and drew first blood. No teammate. No outside help. The nobody orphan surpassed every royal force in Venistalis within months and now earned the qualification to threaten a 33 Stars only rivaled by Tai Hua Tianshang.

“Ridiculous,” Mercia watched enigmatic masked man accomplishing what she never dared. “Did he just damage that armor?”

“That impossible,” Shyme recalled how her best effort and forbidden technique failed. “Just how…”

Orwell quietly sealed that crack in his armor. He recalled every exchange of blows between him and this newest threat.

“You battle-style is rooted on defense — on stalling,” Orwell stated. “I see. You aren’t just defending. You are analyzing me. Every clash of weapons brings you closer to a goal. Is it to break my armor? No. Exemplar individual of your caliber would crack that in no time.”

Orwell’s face lighted up.

“Haaa, you are scouring for a method to seal my Adamakles. I see. That counter-attack is a test to see if your method worked.”

“You are sharp,” Hikma readied his cane.

Orwell clicked his finger.

[Shock Spector: Assault mode]

The hulking avatar protecting him faded away. Instead, smaller purple spectral guards lined Orwell’s body as an exoskeleton.

“What is he doing?” Albright asked.

“Shedding away extra armor,” Shyme almost face-palmed at these clueless idiots. “Orwell knows that man can break his avatar, so he reduced his blind-spot by dropping his excess mass and settled this skill-over-force.

Hikma responded by resizing his [Trinity] to suit a human-size opponent as Orwell resumed the match with a storming assault.

[Orwell’s Original: Spectral Frost Armament]

Two purple spectral javelin materialized into Orwell’s waiting hand. Each weapon radiated with frost energy. Orwell launched an upward strike, creating the wall of freezing mist barely stopped with [Trinity]. Not wasting any second, Mehest leapt over Hikma’s shield and threw his weapon. Again, [Trinity] blocked the attack, but Mehest strikes weren’t over. Using the physical enhancement from his Adamakles, Orwell shifted behind the rotating defence of [Trinity] and kick Chronicler with his superstrength.

Hikma raised PACFIST MK1 and braced the impact with both hands. The blow was deafening. Undeterred, Hikma tried to grab Orwell's leg with his left hand.

Mehest’s eyes widened, and he launched a shock-wave to blast both men back. The force of such close-quarter ripped Hikma’s sleeves, revealing what Mehest suspected.

A palm-size triangular construct built from four pyramid sigils.

“I see,” Orwell eyed the sigil warily. “That is your win-condition. I guess the battle is over, if that hand lands.”

Hikma’s silence was an answer.

…

[Nicholas]

Named after legendary alchemist Nicolas Flamel. It was Hikma’s ultimate EAPS. His greatest [Conceptual Construct]. The construct with ability to tailor an Arcane using [Conceptual Seals] and few primer, allowing Hikma to contest with [Arrival of Deam] and [Edge of ADA]. However, there were one problem. He hadn’t mastered it fully. He needed to set [Nicholas] on the target for it to operate.

This meant he must palm Orwell with his left hand.

“So, this is what the battle boils into,” Orwell’s spectral armor stretched to create a familiar wing. “Can I crack your defense before you hit me? Now, that I know your plan…”

Orwell flapped his wings and took flight.

“The most logical course of action is making this contest a range battle!”

[Nimbus]

Hikma flew after Orwell Mehest on his [Conceptual Construct]

The ultimate stage of this invasion had begun.

…

The two men contested the sky.

[Orwell’s Original: Spectral Frost Armament]

Hikma watched Orwell’s attempt at spearing him with Olympic-worthy javelin throw. A spherical [Surtr] slammed into the spear in response.

[Pyro Lorde]

Flames exploded while the two resumed their chase.

Hikma recalled his [Surtr] and cast another [Pyro Lorde]. Three columns of flames surged toward Mehest. Orwell conjured the spear and blew the flames away in seconds. However, Hikma seized this distraction to make an adjustment to his [Surtr] per Rem’s advice on the importance of foresight.

“Hey, that is your weakness isn’t it,” Orwell blasted Hikma with another slash of freezing energy, forcing Hikma to dodge. “You only crush complex energy process but not direct shaping. Must be damned inefficient to nullify something that forms out of pure energies manipulation.”

Orwell followed the attack with his improvise move.

“[Shock Spector: Frost Blaster]”

A massive Ice-beam barely missed Hikma’s back as it coated the entire street in Earth-quarter in ice. The battle left the confine of water-quarter as both combatants fought for supremacy.

…

The Adventurer guild’s receptionist barely comprehended the massive battle-transpiring. One moment the adventurers were keeping guard, the showered of icy attacks started raining on the building few beats later. Before the young woman could begin her prayers, a figure dressed in black and familiar symbol appeared and blocked the attacks.

“Hide!”

The figure yelled, pushing back the spectral hails with his magical circle.

The guide watched the aerial duel between the winged-demon and the masked man. It was a duke-out beyond any promotion exam she administered. Massive watery serpent cut to pieces with an icy blade. Javelin carrying hair-raising vibration dug a new hole in the street.

The receptionist watched what she believed to be two S-ranker spraying their craft in the skies. She couldn’t imagine the length Balperia resorted to recruit either of these monsters into the charter..

…

Hikma’s big break arrived when he successfully lured Orwell into flying above a particular [Surtr] he hid away from sight.

[Pyro Lorde]

Flames engulfed Orwell’s Mehest. Hikma tensed. The next step would either break the tie or kill him. But Rem did mention you needed to take a bankruptcy risk to be a billionaire.

Hikma dropped two of his [Trinity], created an [Aegis] and gambled his all into the [Conceptual Construct]. The [Aegis] turned into a weapon of blinding light.

[Holy Gift]

He charged at Orwell, betting the fires to act as pseudo smokescreen.

Let cut the chase, Orwell met enough fire-as-distraction trick he should blow his brain out if he fell for it again.

Slashes of ice enveloped Orwell before Hikma could reach him. Then a javelin flew from the bonfire, split into hundreds of pieces and rained frozen beam and spectral shards inside the circular area within 200 meters radius.

[Shock Spector: Frost Blitz]

Hikma threw the [Aegis] away and blocked the lethal rain with his remaining [Trinity]. However, Orwell extinguished the fire and took aim. He raised his hand and made crushing motion. Hikma’s eyes sharpened. Here it was. The gamble of destiny arrived.

Shard of spectral blades paused mid-fall and redirected themselves at Hikma, sailing at him from all directions, rendering [Trinity]’s protection non-viable. Orwell smiled at the victory within his reach.

Hikma deactivated [Nimbus] and created [Conceptual Seal] of [Force]. He hard-cast the first Arcane he ever learned.

[Increase Gravity]

Hikma sped up his fall, evading Mehest’s onslaught. Orwell noticed the Chronicler’s fingers flicking and realized the feint. Mehest reacted, cladding his hand with his Adamakles and reached out to catch the [Aegis] slicing from the sky like a saw blade of doom.

The explosion was blinding.

…

Hikma slumped on the white, frozen snow ground. He dodged the instant death by accelerating his fall, but he failed to soften the blow properly. The Chronicler grimaced at his broken ankle. He gestured to cast a healing Arcane.

But it is too late.

“Not going to lie; your effort was epic,” Orwell floated down. His shirt and trouser torn from the explosion that obviously failed to defeat him. “But you aren’t strong enough.”

Orwell slowly walked around [Trinity] and swung his spectral blade down on the disabled Hikma.

The blade impaled Hikma’s torso, but instead of blood, flames erupted as the pyro clone exploded at Orwell.

Orwell’s eyes widened in surprise. It was a trap. He beat his wings, but something invisible lashed to them.

The area blurred. Orwell founded himself inside a massive 400 meters wide [Surtr]. A column of ice, courtesy of [Jotun], locked his wings in place.

Orwell cursed, recalling who was the illusionist that hosted the meeting between Samadi and Wayward. Of course, the Chronicler could trick him with an illusion.

Mehest broke free from the ice with his shock-wave. He needed to escape the attack range.

The ground broke as Hikma burst upward, riding on his [Nimbus]. His left hand stretching at Orwell.

“Dammit,” Orwell realized he fell for it. The Chronicler worked out from those clashes his defensive shock wave has a delay window. Mehest calmed himself within a split-second. The window only existed for a moment. Chronicler wouldn’t reach him in time.

But Hikma got countermeasures for that.

“[Nimbus]! Battery released!”

The energy stored with [Nimbus]’s conceptual battery ignited, closing the gap between Orwell and Hikma at the price of destroying the [Conceptual Construct].

Despite that, Orwell refused to surrender. The win condition was on Hikma’s left hand. If he evaded that, he could counter and defeat the Chronicler at point blank.

Orwell’s Stats-check rolled a pass. He twisted himself away from Hikma’s left, but in the heat of battle the aggressive fighter forgot two things.

Hikma could be dropping the illusion on purpose. More importantly, he assumed [Nicolas] couldn’t relocate unlike every other Arcane.

Yes, [Nicholas] must activate at pointblank, but Hikma could always shift the Arcane.

Orwell witnessed the grand illusion shattered a second time. Hikma’s left was empty. Mehest registered the double-bluff via illusion too late. The mysterious magician outwitted him. Those sequences of attacks, mirages and sleight-of-hand lined to deliver a magic-trick that won Hikma and Horizon Dawn the war.

Hikma’s right, armed with [Nicholas], punched into Orwell’s chest and activated.