Chapter 294
“That would be a bit problematic. The duel with the Ghost Sword King was decided in the name of Her Majesty, the Holy Emperor. It would be troublesome to get into a scuffle before the duel.”
“So you're saying you'll avoid it?”
“No, let’s do this. Since the duel with the Ghost Sword King is to be a pure swordsmanship battle without using mana.”
Chris beckoned with his finger.
“It should be fine if you and I have a ‘betting duel’ of mana.”
“!!”
The venue stirred.
It was a duel where they would press their hands together and compete to see whose energy was more powerful, a far more dangerous contest.
“Are you serious?”
The look in William’s eyes changed.
Unlike the duels of the magi, the duels of the people of the Alliance rarely went to extremes.
This was because they avoided killing blows and maintained a certain line.
But a mana duel was different.
One wrong move could not only damage one's core but also leave them a cripple.
“If you're worried about me, don't be. Because I won't lose.”
“!!”
“Ah, if you're the one who’s scared and wants to avoid it, then fine. I'll understand.”
William’s expression hardened completely.
“Don't regret this.”
“Ah, a duel with nothing on the line is dull, so how about we make a bet?”
“…What?”
“If you lose, you will follow one of my commands. If I lose… well, it doesn't matter. That won't happen.”
“You bastard!!”
They pressed their hands together.
Fwaaaaaak!!
William drew up his energy.
A powerful and fierce energy, befitting his epithet, ‘The Shield’.
‘Oh?’
Chris raised the corners of his mouth in a smirk.
‘You’re holding back in a mana duel?’
William was not drawing up his energy with all his might.
It was only about half?
He must be underestimating Chris.
‘How can you act as The Shield with a mentality like this.’
Fwaaaaaat!
Chris drew up his own energy in response.
“!!”
At the sight of the surging Mana of Radiance, William’s face hardened.
It was an energy that far surpassed his expectations.
“Keuk!”
He let out a groan, and Chris scoffed.
“Is this all you’ve got? They called you the Fierce Tiger, but I’m disappointed. Just like the head of a house with nothing but a grand-sounding name, are you also just a bluff?”
“You bastard…!!”
William’s face turned bright red.
“I was deliberately showing you mercy so as not to leave you a cripple, but prepare yourself!!”
Finally, he unleashed an attack with his full power.
‘It's certainly an immense energy.’
Chris nodded as he watched William’s energy surge toward him.
It was like a tidal wave was crashing down.
‘His energy has always been among the best in the Alliance.’
William was a knight raised by the War King noble house, a relatively minor house within the Round Table, with the family’s very fate on the line.
They had poured all the family's resources into him, feeding him all sorts of elixirs, and thanks to that, William came to possess a massive amount of energy.
This was the reason William was able to gain the epithet, ‘The Shield’.
However.
‘What's the use of having a brutishly large amount of energy if you don't even know how to control it properly?’
He dismissed him curtly.
An ignorant brute with only strength.
That was the current William in Chris’s eyes.
‘He was the same during the Age of Ruin.’
Although he had achieved many things, if you asked whether William’s actual skills were that great, the answer was no.
William only began to grow into someone worthy of the Hero’s party after he met Chris and fixed his chronic problem.
‘He was so damn stubborn about listening back then, too.’
-Who do you think you are? To say such things to me?
He remembered how William had burst into anger after hearing his advice.
Of course, it soon changed to this.
-Y-you are my savior. I'm alive thanks to you.
Remembering William's 180-degree change in attitude, a smile came to Chris’s face.
In fact, at the time, if William hadn't awakened thanks to Chris’s advice, he would have died in the subsequent battle against the demons, so it was no different from having been granted the grace of life.
He was a prideful man, but he was the type who never forgot a debt of gratitude, so after that, William treated Chris extremely well.
It was time to bestow the same ‘grace’ upon him again.
‘Though it will be a bit rougher this time.’
Whoosh.
Chris drew up his energy.
In truth, Chris was invincible in this kind of contest of energy. This was because his Dark Demonic Energy possessed the property of dominance.
If he were to subtly mix the properties of his Dark Demonic Energy into his Mana of Radiance, William would be defeated without being able to do a thing.
But Chris deliberately did not use such a trick.
Instead, he used an ‘orthodox’ method.
Kwaaang!
Their energies clashed in the center.
In terms of the pure amount of energy, William had an overwhelming victory.
Chris’s own energy had always been on the lacking side compared to others of the same achievement level.
This was because he accumulated magi and mana separately.
‘If you were to combine my mana and magi, I wouldn't be lacking either, but right now, I have to use only mana.’
Therefore, the amount of Chris's 'mana' was embarrassingly small compared to William's.
At least two times over.
Perhaps a difference of nearly three times.
“It’s not too late, even now. If you admit your rudeness and apologize, I will let you off without injury.”
William said with a menacing glare.
However.
“It's hard to hear what a dense oaf is saying.”
“You bastard…!”
It was in that moment.
Suddenly, an upset occurred.
Slice.
Chris’s energy began to cut through William’s.
Like a sharp sword cutting through rock.
“!!”
Chris raised the corners of his mouth.
“What are you so surprised about? I just focused my mana to a single point to make it sharp. You can't do something like this?”
William had a look of disbelief on his face.
To make the mana moving inside one’s body as sharp as a blade?
That was absolutely impossible.
“Don’t tell me you thought a mana duel was just about pushing with brute force? Is this the level of the War King noble house?”
“Shut up!!”
A vein popped on William’s forehead.
He no longer had the leeway to even open his mouth.
But he was pushed back helplessly.
Despite a difference in quantity of nearly three times, William’s energy was continuously driven back.
Like a disorderly mob being defeated in a battle against an elite army.
Chris didn't stop at simply making his energy sharp.
He displayed all sorts of dazzling skills.
“I'm teaching you kindly, so feel it for yourself. This is how you handle mana.”
The Gyeong method of channeling a shockwave.
The Hwa method of flowing with the opponent's energy to deflect it.
The Yu method of using softness to envelop and neutralize the opponent’s energy.
As if toying with him, all sorts of feats were performed using mana.
William’s mana was continuously pushed back without being able to put up a decent fight, and finally.
“Keoheok!!”
“Sir William!!!”
He coughed up a mouthful of blood and fell to his knees.
His core had been damaged.
Astonishment spread through the venue.
‘Impossible.’
‘To win against Sir William in a mana duel?’
Chris dusted off his hands, then spoke to the kneeling William.
“I believe this is my victory.”
“…You, you bastard.”
“You lost, so as we bet, you have to do as I say, right?”
For reference, William had never agreed to that bet, but Chris didn't care.
“Strive harder.”
“…What? What?”
Chris put on a thoroughly pathetic expression.
“Because your mana control methods were so dull, they were yawn-inducing. I’m telling you to put in some effort.”
“!!”
“I gave you a personal demonstration today, so you can do it, right?”
“You bastard!! Keoooheok!!”
Unable to contain his rage, William burst out in anger, then coughed up another mouthful of clotted blood before fainting and collapsing.
The venue fell silent, and Chris shrugged his shoulders.
‘Well, I’ve stimulated him this much, so he’ll train hard. He’s the type to get stronger when he has a goal.’
He had injured his core, but it was nothing to worry too much about.
‘It’s not like I dealt a fatal wound, and if you want to learn how to control mana properly from the very basics, the experience of recovering your core is the best.’
In other words, the reason Chris was so mean to William today wasn't because he had a bad personality, but because he was playing the villain for William's sake.
Really. Truly.
People carried William away, and everyone looked at Chris with shocked gazes.
As he shrugged, he made eye contact with a few figures.
The first was a person he had met before, Asran, the Sword of Light from the Karn Empire.
‘It seems she came to recruit me, the Hero, to the Crown Prince’s side.’
When their eyes met, Asran placed a hand on her sword and gave Chris a knight's salute.
For reference, during the time Chris was the Emperor of the Karn Empire, Asran was a loyal retainer who had protected him with her life.
He felt a sense of warmth.
‘I’ll have to talk to her separately later. I had to go to the Karn Empire after finishing things with the Tri-Alliance anyway.’
Another figure was also looking at him.
‘A High Elf. From the Mirror Ice Palace?’
It was an elf girl with white-silver hair.
She seemed to not be fully grown yet, with a youthful appearance of roughly fifteen years old in human terms.
A jewel embedded in her forehead, containing the energy of a spirit, showed that the girl was a High Elf.
‘With that appearance, she seems to be Yvonne, the Young Mistress of the Palace.’
After the Demon King of Azure Flow, the former Fairy Queen, had become corrupted, the High Elves had fallen into decline, and the number of surviving High Elves was not large.
‘No matter how surprising the appearance of a Hero is, for a High Elf, and the Young Mistress of the Palace at that, to come in person is unusual.’
He wondered if the Mirror Ice Palace also had some business with the Hero, like Asran, but it didn't seem to be anything special.
She was simply sending him a searching gaze.
‘No, it's not just observing.’
Chris frowned.
‘Hostility?’
He wondered if he had seen it wrong, but he hadn't.
The elf girl had a doll-like face and was showing a strange smile toward Chris, but he felt an eerie sense of foreboding.
His intuition, enhanced by his risen soul-rank, was sounding an alarm.
That elf girl was hostile toward him.
‘She's no ordinary person.’
Chris felt a sense of vigilance.
‘Moreover, that gaze. It's not simple hostility.’
What was it?
It was a feeling like a predator looking at its prey.
Of course, it wasn't outwardly obvious.
The elf girl, with her pretty and lovely appearance, was simply smiling.
But Chris felt a sensation similar to when he had faced the gaze of the mad killer, Sherad.
‘What is this?’
Before he could react, the young elf mistress turned her back with a flick and disappeared.
‘…What the.’
He had an unsettling feeling, but he couldn't chase after her.
Kiiiiiaaaaaaaaaak!!
A demonic shriek began to be heard from far away.
Everyone’s face hardened.
It was the appearance of the Ghost Sword Demonic House.
* * *
A deathly silence descended upon the venue.
The magi of the Ghost Sword Demonic House had tattoos in the shape of ghosts on their faces.
Combined with the sinister demonic energy flowing from their entire bodies, they looked like demons that had descended upon the earth.
The most overwhelming of all was the magus riding in a palanquin at the center.
An old man was holding a single sword in his arms.
His physique was not large.
His forehead was full of wrinkles, clearly showing the traces of time. His gaunt body looked as if it would have difficulty even swinging the sword he held.
But that was only his appearance.
The energy emanating from the old man's body was like Mount Tai.
More than enough to overwhelm everyone in this place.
That old man was the Ghost Sword King.
‘He's as formidable as they say.’
Chris raised the corners of his mouth.
The feeling was almost identical to when he had first seen Nordian.
The overwhelming presence befitting one of the strongest heads among the 12 prestigious houses of the Magus Empire.
Finally, the palanquin stopped, and the Ghost Sword King’s eyes flashed open.
Ignoring the Holy Emperor completely, he looked directly at Christian.
“Are you the Hero?”