Second Enlightenment.
The divine technique that allows one to read the distortions of space.
In front of Speira, who had achieved the second enlightenment, the element of surprise held by the Spatial Blade’s leaping sword aura was rendered meaningless.
Speira could already read and intercept perfectly the trajectory of the leaping sword aura before it even tore through the air and descended.
As Speira blocked the leaping sword aura, she moved the Chain of Erosion.
The condensed dark radiance, intricately processed into a hexagonal honeycomb structure, boasted an incredible level of strength.
Even the sword energy manifested by a high-ranking knight would struggle to leave a scratch on the Chain of Erosion.
However, the sword energy manifested by Johanna, who had replicated the core of the Spatial Blade, pressed down on the Chain of Erosion instead.
Despite dozens of Chains of Erosion rushing toward Johanna, her sword energy twisted, shattered, and tore them all apart.
Speira attempted to erode Johanna’s Absolute Domain using the energy spreading from the broken Chains of Erosion.
But it was impossible.
Crack!!!
The cold energy emanating from Johanna repelled the dark radiance upon contact, resisting the erosion.
All impure energies that had infringed upon Johanna’s Absolute Domain were stripped away by the swirling cold.
Understanding the absoluteness inherent in the dark radiance better than anyone else, Speira also grasped how far this scene deviated from logic.
In the fleeting moment of astonishment, Speira isolated the power of the malevolent deity from the blessings flowing within her body and condensed it into the form of a weapon.
Severance, distortion, corrosion, division…
The epitome of the deceptive powers that had deceived the continent thus far headed toward Johanna.
And at the moment the epitome of these deceptive powers met the cold energy emitted by Johanna.
The strange nature of the deceptive powers rapidly diminished, crumbling away.
Witnessing the failure of her test attack, Speira once again gripped her sword.
Johanna’s Absolute Domain, infused with the mana of the Spatial Blade, had now become impenetrable.
The forces and powers possessed by both parties demanded an honest struggle of strength against each other.
Johanna and Speira advanced toward each other.
As the distance closed, the Absolute Domains of the two Swordmasters generated immense resistance.
Finally, when their distance narrowed to within five steps.
The swords swung.
!!!!
The aftermath of the collision between the two Swordmasters pushed the atmosphere of the area to the horizon.
Within the pressure that could easily crumple thick steel.
Johanna and Speira began to accelerate their physical forms.
!!!!
A flash of light erupted.
Dozens of sword strikes exchanged in an instant emitted dazzling flashes.
Each time the trajectories of the swords created by Johanna and Speira overlapped, the ground shook violently.
While clashing swords with Speira, Johanna spun Moros around in one swift motion.
The element of ‘surprise’ held by the leaping sword aura is meaningless before Speira.
However, even if the trajectory of the leaping sword aura is read by the opponent, the ability to drop the sword energy at the desired time and place remains a significant advantage.
Johanna inscribed dozens, hundreds of leaping sword auras into the air.
Even if one reads their trajectories, dodging all of them is impossible.
Clang!!! Clang!!!
The falling leaping sword auras began to press Speira.
Dozens, hundreds of leaping sword auras guided Speira’s movements in a specific direction and forced her into an unfavorable stance.
In the past, Ray could not use the leaping sword aura like Johanna.
Predicting the opponent’s movements and inscribing dozens, hundreds of leaping sword auras into the air to lead the battle was an extremely difficult feat for Ray’s sense.
However, Johanna pressured Speira, who had achieved the second enlightenment, with her genius intuition and judgment.
Speira glanced back at the dense lines filling the sky.
Johanna’s sword was always unpredictable and dazzling.
Speira’s choice to counter that brilliance was always straightforward – a direct breakthrough.
Just as the dazzling sword strikes woven by Johanna tightened around her neck.
A single slash from Speira pierced through the storm and honestly approached Johanna.
As the storm subsided and a brief silence settled.
Johanna crossed her two swords toward Speira’s incoming slash.
!!!!!
The shockwave generated at the center of the two Swordmasters caused the ground to ripple and flip like waves.
In that massive collision, the side whose posture faltered was Johanna.
“…!”
The intended trajectory of Johanna’s sword was distorted.
Feeling the distortion in the crossed sword paths, Johanna tensed her jaw.
Both the dark radiance and the Spatial Blade possessed an absoluteness beyond comprehension.
But Johanna’s replication of the Spatial Blade was incomplete.
It clearly lacked refinement compared to what Harshia had achieved.
On the other hand, Speira’s dark radiance was refined to perfection, reaching the pinnacle of power.
This difference in refinement caused a fissure during their head-on collision.
Ultimately, Johanna lost her posture and threw herself backward.
Simultaneously, she crossed her swords in mid-air.
Clang!!!
The backlash of the Spatial Blade’s mana erupted into a torrential force, chaotically tearing apart the space where Speira stood.
Though indiscriminate bombardments covered the sky above, Speira elegantly split through the gaps of the bombardment while accelerating and muttered lowly.
“You and I have long passed the stage of being startled by such chaotic attacks, haven’t we?”
Clang!!!
Speira exerted her full strength to press down on Johanna, and Johanna countered with her full strength.
After the collision, Johanna was pushed back, regaining her unsteady posture.
Their swordsmanship was evenly matched.
The uniqueness of their powers cancels out on both sides.
With sufficient parity in conditions, Johanna felt the difficulty of closing the small gap.
“Huff…!”
Regulating her breathing, Johanna once again inscribed leaping sword auras into the air and clashed with Speira.
Using the leaping sword auras to block unwanted possibilities, she confined Speira within a limited space.
A feat possible only because of Johanna’s genius intuition and judgment in combat.
But once again—
Crack!!!
She failed to counter Speira’s all-out slash and was forced to scrape against the ground.
Her attempt to forcibly keep Speira in place revealed a vulnerability in Johanna.
Speira immediately pursued the retreating Johanna to decide the battle.
However, just before Speira caught up to Johanna, a flash erupted from the Obelisk.
“?!”
Speira momentarily felt perplexed.
The distance, which was clearly only ten-odd meters between her and Johanna, suddenly felt much farther.
Simultaneously, the beams of light blazing from the Obelisk poured toward Speira.
Attempting to ignore the Obelisk’s bombardment and move, Speira found that the bombing, which was clearly quite distant, reached right before her eyes the next moment.
“!”
Kuuuuaaaang!!!
Struck by the bombardment, Speira smirked.
Distances are distorted.
The Obelisk was causing such bizarre phenomena.
“The power of the Dragonheart, huh.”
It wasn’t surprising.
Speira also knew well that several Dragonhearts existed in the Empire’s capital and the Obelisk.
One of the key assets that allowed the Obelisk to complete the star map seemed to be the Dragonheart, which causes the distortion of distances.
“Hmph…”
When a dragon dies with strong longing, part of that longing remains in the Dragonheart in the form of power.
The entity that led dragons to leave valuable legacies to the empire was Primus, the ancestral dragon who founded the empire.
Primus followed its fate imposed by El-Lam without resistance.
And until the end, it breathed its last while wishing to protect humanity and the continent.
Primus’s Nonagram became the shield that guarded the empire for a thousand years, and ultimately, it now obstructed another proxy of El-Lam.
“Comical sight.”
Though the power left behind by the dragon might be called a half-power diluted over time, it couldn’t properly affect Speira, wrapped in dark radiance anymore.
Still, thanks to the brief respite provided by the Obelisk, Johanna regained her composure.
Clang!!!
Speira continued pressing Johanna, matching swords, and pushing her further back.
Trying desperately to stop Speira, Johanna struggled but couldn’t manage.
As Johanna recklessly narrowed the gap,
Speira instantly overlaid the accumulated Chains of Erosion and struck Johanna.
Clang!!!
Blocking the Chains of Erosion, Johanna couldn’t withstand the tremendous recoil and flew back, crashing into a building.
The building Johanna crashed into was none other than the Obelisk.
Given Johanna’s position to protect the Obelisk, she had to absolutely prevent Speira from reaching it.
Thus, her reckless attempt to block Speira made her situation even worse.
In the end, Johanna failed to stop Speira and ended up trapped inside the Obelisk herself.
As Speira moved to pursue Johanna,
She suddenly turned her head sideways.
Ding!!
It was a sudden assault by Royal Guard Paula.
Without moving a finger, Speira used the Chain of Erosion to block Paula’s assault.
Recognizing Paula, Speira furrowed her brow and then calmly muttered.
“So this is the Crown Prince’s choice…”
An unexpected situation.
Speira didn’t think the Royal Guard and the Crown Prince could reach deep into the heart of the Imperial Capital, and even if they did, she didn’t expect them to make such a decision.
That young Crown Prince abandoned revenge, gave up his life, and chose the greater cause.
Unlike Speira, that is.
“…”
Gazing silently at Paula, who had come seeking death, Speira clicked her tongue briefly.
“Your ambition goes too far, Royal Guard. Coming this far and still hoping for an honorable death?”
Clang!!!
Speira slammed Paula’s face into the ground.
*
“You’re strong. Surpassing even the first hybrid.”
Resina whispered with a smile in Johanna’s ear.
The so-called first hybrid was nothing more than a hastily created monster born out of fear by some transcendent being beyond the stars.
In contrast, Speira had fully blossomed her talents and attained true mastery of force.
“But you’re alone. This isn’t the Demonic Realm either.”
Speira dispersed most of her controllable forces across strategic points of the continent to restrain Luna while attempting to assault the Obelisk alone.
Resina pointed this out and continued.
“Give up on the Obelisk. You can’t oppose someone who thinks about such things. Don’t entertain idle thoughts; give it your all.”
“…I’m doing that right now.”
“Ah… Of course, I know. If this continues, you’ll die.”
The Spatial Blade and the support from the Obelisk are all temporary.
Even if this results in a temporarily even fight, Johanna will eventually kneel.
So.
“Recreate it, child.”
Resina prepared to activate all functions of the damaged Obelisk to assist Johanna while whispering.
“The trajectory drawn by Harshia in the illusion I showed you.”
