I Don’t Have the Confidence.
Johanna had no confidence that she could advance any further than she was now. Simply maintaining the core of the Spatial Blade was already pushing her limits. Knowing that failure of the technique would lead to her own destruction, Johanna hesitated and rose to her feet.
A confrontation within the Obelisk’s interior was not an option.
As Johanna accelerated her body and escaped outside the Obelisk, Speira, who had been effortlessly overpowering the Royal Guard, revealed a look of irritation and approached her.
BOOM!!!
The clash between two fully realized Swordmasters allowed for no external interference.
Blows as sharp as if they had sliced through flashes of light barely grazed each other’s skin.
In the prison created by the trajectories of their swords, where there were no gaps.
Speira took another step forward.
CRACK!!!
The slight superiority in power due to perfection made a decisive difference in the head-on clash.
Speira, who had forcefully twisted the trajectory of Johanna’s sword, swung her blade upward from below.
SHRED!!!
“…!!”
Johanna, unable to dissipate the counterforce from blocking Speira’s sword strike, was launched into the air.
As Johanna quickly distanced herself from the ground, Speira swiftly caught up and moved her lips.
“Planning to stop me?”
Speira, muttering a provocation, pressed down on Johanna this time from above.
Behind Johanna loomed the sharply pointed spire at the top of the Obelisk.
Johanna distorted her expression and tightened her grip.
‘No openings…!’
Speira was flawless to the point of inspiring jealousy.
Everything was so perfect, so elegant and dignified, that it was impossible to find even the tiniest flaw.
Johanna felt incapable of facing Speira directly while trying to protect something.
CRUNCH!!!!!
Johanna’s body was slammed into the Obelisk’s spire.
Speira descended upon Johanna and pushed her towards the ground from the top of the Obelisk.
With the collision, the Obelisk began to collapse from its summit, sinking like it was falling.
Amidst the collapsing debris of the Obelisk, Johanna locked eyes with Speira.
“…”
Her adversary was terrifyingly strong.
Still, Johanna couldn’t retreat.
For Ray, to face his legacy and malevolence left behind, and also to save Speira from her cursed obsession—Johanna was willing to stake her life.
BOOM!!!!!
The ground floor of the Obelisk collapsed entirely, exposing its core facilities to the outside world.
Before touching the ground, Johanna discarded the sword in her left hand and gripped Moros tightly with both hands.
“…”
To reverse the current disadvantageous situation, a decisive move was needed.
The technique Resina had requested be recreated… “that technique” was necessary.
Johanna only understood the rough principle of the technique.
Only the creator of the Spatial Blade, Harshia, and Ray, who inherited his fragments, truly grasped its essence.
Ultimately, despite not fully understanding its nature, Johanna had to rely on her own genius to recreate the miracle from myth.
“…”
Johanna knew that even with countless coincidences aligning, a perfect recreation was impossible.
Nevertheless, she lifted Moros with both hands.
Suddenly,
An eerie silence enveloped the battlefield.
Johanna had placed her bet, and Resina’s will concentrated all the functions of the exposed Obelisk core to protect Johanna’s mind and body.
“…!”
Speira also detected the change.
Johanna had risked her life to overturn the disadvantageous situation, and due to the reckless gamble that accepted self-destruction, a brief opening appeared.
As Speira attempted to exploit this gap, she instead re-gripped her Sacred Sword.
Instead of exploiting the gap, she chose to break through head-on.
That was Speira’s decision.
Rather than diving into Johanna’s gap to halt the gambit and continue the chaotic battle, this approach was much faster and cleaner.
GRR-!
Speira’s Absolute Domain compressed into a narrow range.
Simultaneously, the infinitely rippling dark radiance began to concentrate on the blade of the Sacred Sword, darkening the surroundings.
Within the Absolute Domain, refined through minute processes to its extreme limit, the dark radiance formed a single blade.
This ultimate blade, detached from the original world and forming its own independent realm, was granted to Speira.
Unlike Johanna, who couldn’t control her own power, the blade refined by Speira was perfect in every way.
TSZT-!
Speira moved her Sacred Sword.
The energy flowing through the world followed the trajectory of the Sacred Sword and faded away.
Facing this incomprehensible blow, Johanna also moved Moros.
A chain reaction of dimensional collapse began.
CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH!!!
The tip of Johanna’s sword wavered.
She couldn’t fully control the swirling fragments of dimensions.
As the sword tip wavered, the distortion of dimensions supposed to be contained in one trajectory began to spread chaotically.
However, it was too late to stop the sword now, so Johanna silently screamed and let the blade fall.
Speira saw the trajectory of the sword Johanna had drawn split into several paths.
While attempting an overly ambitious technique in hope of a miracle, Johanna ultimately failed to perfectly recreate the trajectory originally drawn by Harshia.
For a moment, Speira revealed a disappointed expression and extended her Sacred Sword.
And in the next instant.
Speira noticed tiny cracks forming on the blade of the Sacred Sword.
She slowly narrowed her eyes.
Moments later, a colossal flash of light filled the sky.
!!!!
The collapsing Obelisk was swallowed by the flash, instantly losing its shadow and evaporating.
Matter that came into contact with the boundary of the flash was pulverized as if cut off, leaving only half of it rolling across the ground.
From the center of this fearsome destruction,
Two figures tore through the flash and plummeted onto the ground.
CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH!!!
Speira slid across what remained of the massive crater where nothing was left and forcibly stopped her body.
“…”
An unpleasant vibration emanated from the cracked blade of the Sacred Sword into her grip.
After catching her breath momentarily, Speira looked up at the sky.
As if scratched by a giant claw, blue streaks were etched into the red sky, twinkling.
“Hmph…”
Damn it.
Even though Johanna failed to properly recreate the myth, her sword strike defeated Speira’s impeccable blow.
Speira, whose upper right torso was almost torn off, distorted her mouth as she stood up.
On the opposite side of the crater, Johanna, who had crashed down, was also battered and bruised.
Having narrowly avoided self-destruction, Johanna retched.
“Ugh, huff…”
Johanna suffered an immense shock throughout her entire body.
Compared to Speira, however, the damage she sustained was relatively minimal.
Now possessing advantageous conditions for the first time, Johanna stepped forward, leading her wounded body.
Watching this, Speira’s fingers trembled slightly.
“…”
Something new was transmitted through the Sacred Sword.
What Speira received was a contract offered by a transcendent being beyond the stars, along with blessings and curses.
Speira instinctively realized that this was the same kind of contract given to Ray.
After a brief silence,
She chuckled softly.
“What nonsense.”
Speira plunged the cracked Sacred Sword into the ground and brushed off the dust on her clothes as she continued.
“To have my chest pierced? That doesn’t suit me. It wouldn’t be beautiful. Neither elegant nor noble.”
The thought of thrashing about with a hole in her chest and a ruptured heart was repulsive.
No matter how great the power she might gain, she didn’t want such a disgraceful appearance.
Most importantly,
“I won’t die for you. Why should I?”
What Speira desired was not to be crushed while fleeing in an ugly state.
It was the sole pride and dignity left to her after losing everything.
Thus, Speira had no intention of committing suicide by becoming a disheveled mess for El-Lam or any evil deities.
WHOOSH-!
“Ha…!”
Rejecting the contract, Speira sensed El-Lam’s intense emotions transmitted through the Sacred Sword and smirked.
“What are you going to do now, getting angry at this point?”
El-Lam hadn’t completely consumed Speira because she faithfully executed his will, but also to utilize her talents fully.
If apostles like Anthonyus had their personalities completely erased and turned into puppets, their original potential couldn’t be maximally utilized.
The compromise they had made couldn’t be reversed just because Speira rejected one contract now.
Smiling joyfully, Speira advanced toward Johanna.
“You idiots up there. You seem pretty desperate, so kneel down and pray like humans. Pray that I win.”
Using words she learned from a diverted fate, calling them “idiots” and “panting,” Speira clashed swords with Johanna.
!!!
At the pinnacle of swordsmanship, distractions were shed.
The skill level achieved by the two Swordmasters was equal.
Thus, the deciding factors were minor elements.
Speira, who had suffered significantly more severe injuries compared to Johanna, began to lose balance gradually.
As the exchange continued, Speira found herself on the defensive, forced to buy time.
Johanna’s reconstructed core of the Spatial Blade was temporary and would likely reach its limit soon.
Speira tenaciously held out, waiting for Johanna to reach that endpoint.
But then, without warning,
Johanna’s movements abruptly broke apart.
“…!!”
The position exchange performed in a higher dimension tore through the process, projecting only the result into this world.
Speira, having attained the second enlightenment, could perceive the trajectory of the sword Johanna was drawing in the higher dimension.
Speira was clearly equipped with most of the conditions to counter Johanna’s sword.
But…
Speira couldn’t keep up with Johanna’s speed.
Her severely damaged body wouldn’t move as fast and sharp as Speira desired.
After several exchanges,
Eventually, Speira, unable to catch up with the trajectory Johanna drew, felt the Empire’s Divine Sword pierce through her chest.
“…”
“…”
The atmosphere went wild.
Yet, within the absolute domain established by the two Swordmasters, there was only silence.
In the stillness, Speira dropped the cracked Sacred Sword and calmly whispered to Johanna.
“Peasant girl, you’re quite something.”
Speira muttered complaints as she touched the Moros that had pierced through her chest.
“Don’t think you’ve won.”
“…!”
When Johanna briefly showed signs of tension, Speira burst into laughter and sat down.
“You saw it yourself, right? In the original fate, I won. So it’s still tied. Even score. Got it?”
“…”
Staring blankly at Speira’s stubbornness, Johanna eventually shed a tear and smiled faintly.
“…Alright, got it.”
“Since it’s a tie… Let’s settle it next time. If… we can become friends, that’d be nice, but our fates always end up like this, don’t they?”
Slowly drawing breath, Speira gazed at Johanna with a mixture of love and hate before slowly closing her eyes.
“Farewell, Johanna. And… thank you.”
As the accumulated malice overflowed from her severed chest,
Speira, finally freed from the malice that had filled her heart, passed away peacefully without continuing her vulgar resistance.
Though bearing many wounds, Speira maintained an elegant and noble appearance until her last moment.
“…”
Johanna, who quietly witnessed Speira’s final moments, sat down.
Exhausted by the erosion of the dark radiance and the backlash of the Spatial Blade, Johanna was also severely drained.
Her soul, body, and mental strength had all reached their limits.
“…”
The Obelisk had completely collapsed.
Its core facilities had entirely vaporized, making reconstruction impossible.
Johanna had won the battle but lost the war.
The collapse of the Obelisk signified the impending collapse of the front line the Empire had barely managed to maintain.
It also meant the Demon King would be released from his seal.
“…”
Johanna felt the Demon King’s malevolence beginning to spread again far away.
The powers of the demon gods mediated by the Demon King heavily descended upon the world, and crimson lightning began to fall to the ground.
Sensing the approach of the world’s end, Johanna muttered helplessly.
“Is everything… ending now…?”
Drip!
The magic circle that had protected Johanna, maintained by Resina, also began to crumble, reaching its limit.
Resina’s apparition sat down beside Johanna and nodded.
“Yes, it’s the end…”
Resina’s apparition gazed at the sky beyond in the final moments.
“The long-lasting… end of the Mythic Age is approaching.”
Standing at the turning point that her beloved one had so desired, Resina let go of all hatred and whispered to Johanna with longing.
“Look up.”
“…”
Following Resina’s guidance, Johanna lifted her head to look at the sky in the direction where the Imperial Capital existed.
Eventually, Johanna slowly rose to her feet.
