Chapter 32: Conclusion

An explosion marked the start of their final clash, effectively knocking the two away from each other.

"Surtr" stabbed the blade of her sword deep in the ground, making magma erupt from within it. It covered almost half of the throne room, making this place more advantageous to her, or so she thinks.

Flames started appearing besides Shiro. They danced for a while before they formed an eastern flying dragon spiraling around him, blocking the flames momentarily.

"Flames that can negate mine."

"That's right."

Bam-!

The golden flowers finally reached "Surtr", but she was ready to counter it this time. It chose to dodge it first before making magma erupt from the floor. They created a shield for the golden flowers, blocking the most of them this time.

While it's dashing, she suddenly positioned her sword in her left.

Clang-!

Without waiting for her to react, Shiro quickly separated from her.

'Around 1,200 Physique attributes. Even when halved, it's still 600. Yikes.' Shiro thought as he found this battle quite surreal. 'Without my sword and my armor blocking the hits for me, I'll probably use the Time Card.'

After the Grand Knight is the Demigod Level. In this stage, it allows the control of elements to the semi-conceptual level. Their attributes would also break through past 500 just by stepping in this level.

If not for his mysterious armaments that negated the damage coming from such being, he would definitely be cornered. His black sword has unimaginable sharpness (when imbued with Aura) and endurance while his robe/armor can block against powerful shocks and attacks from her.

Suddenly, his entire body twitched as unknown experiences entered his mind. This caused a lapse of his guard in this important battle.

In a split second, "Surtr" caught Shiro off-guard with her sudden burst of speed that can only be achieved with 1,600 Physique and Agility attributes.

The still slightly dazed Shiro tried to move to his right as best as he could, but he could not entirely avoid the sword powered up with 1,600 Physique.

As a result, his armor was pierced and his stomach suffered from a huge would, making blood spurt out from it. Ironically, this wound closed up in an instant due to his skin being burned by the flames on its blade.

Magic circles appeared as he instantly disappeared on his spot. He only reappeared at the far opposite of her direction after the surrounding space rippled.

Shiro spitted out the blood from his internal damage before gulping, tasting the peculiar flavor that his blood had. It didn't taste like iron but sweet and mellow instead.

It's as if he ate the best candy from the world.

"My blood... doesn't taste like blood." He mumbled before shouting at "Surtr", "Thank you. Never had a treat this good before!"

"...What?"

This time, "Surtr" is truly dumbfounded. It just gave him a fatal wound, yet it thanked him instead???

'I should check the information network of these mortals later.' "Surtr" thought without knowing what kind of hell the Internet is.

It was about to launch another attack at him after sensing that it doesn't have much time left, but another shout interrupted it.

"Seeing that we're both almost wasted, how about we settle it in one strike?"

"One strike..?"

"Yes, one strike. We'll put everything that we have in one strike before deciding the outcome."

"Surtr" is dubious about this "one strike" until it sensed the power gathering in Shiro's blade. As it shone with black light, it became even more stronger.

Seeing this, it didn't hesitate further as it started charging the sword with all the semi-conceptual flames that it could muster as of the moment.

In Shiro's side, various intents of different weapons converged in black light. Be it sword, spear, gun, shield, dagger, rapier, and so on, it has it. Unlike his prior powers, this intents were drawn out from the depths of his soul, something that is only awakened now.

This power greatly surpassed what a Winged Knight can do; it's something only comparable to a 9th Rank Grand Knight's power.

This is also the main cause of his lapse before. In this moment, his mastery of various weapons are raised to Master level temporarily.

'Hm... This feels oddly familiar.' He thought as he started charging towards it. 'It feels like... a deja vu.'

"Receive this!"

"..!"

"Surtr" decided to charge to him too even though this is not its limit. Only this gathered power in its sword can counter the power in that black light.

Shiro shouted the name of this technique that came to his mind.

"Armament Convergence!"

"Laevatain..!"

Both of them swung down their respective swords and met, making sparks fly at their first contact. The powers within their blades clashed, with them fighting to the death of the other.

Cracks appeared beneath them and extended for more than a hundred meters, a sign of how powerful their clash is.

Their powers are still clashing when something surprising happened. The black light attached to the black sword-

"What?!"

-detached from it and easily passed through its blade before entering Surtr's body. "Surtr" instantly lost balance as the pain that it had experienced distracted it.

As a result, Shiro pushed his black sword with his full power. Surtr's sword flew to the throne hall's wall, embedding it deep within. He pointed his sword at her stomach before stabbing it as he knelt at her eye level.

"I'm sorry, but I'll make it up to you later."

Reconnecting with the black light, Shiro used it to directly fight against the will hidden in her soul. Now that his sword had "directly" contacted her soul, the black light became more stronger.

"Damn you!"

An angry shout resounded in Shiro's mind before it got sent to his shadows, returning the throne hall back to silence.

[Quest Complete! Reward settlement...]

[Hidden Quest Complete! Destroy the will hidden in Surtr's soul. Rewards settlement...]

[+...]

His vision started to get blurry as his fatigue caught up to him. Even though the fight only lasted for three minutes, his mind is greatly exhausted. Added to that fact is him devouring something so strong accidentally...

His mana reserves went to near zero as a result.

"Heh. There's so many good insults out there like 'f*ck you!' but you chose to do it the boring way."

Shiro's Reality Marble started crumbling due to his lack of mana. His sword is still embedded in her stomach, but he trusts that someone would definitely remove it.

As they returned back to reality, he saw someone jumping down from the huge hole in the ceiling. Seeing this, he relaxed before falling unconscious on top of Surtr.

*****

Pulling out Shiro's sword from Surtr's stomach, Kal'tsit then injected more than six green vials in the latter's thigh. After a dozen seconds, the wound stopped bleeding and started to close up.

After Surtr's vitals became more stable, she turned her attention towards Shiro. He's still wearing his robes after the marble crumbled, but there's a noticeable cut on the left side of his waist.

She pulled his robes up, revealing his "perfect" physique. His smooth skin hidden by his clothing surprised her for a bit until her eyes turned towards the cut, no, the burns that he sustained.

"...The box."

Kal'tsit was about to open the box that she brought when she saw his body heal by itself. Albeit slow, she is sure that the burns are disappearing.

With this, she settled by injecting three red fluids on his veins, making him look less exhausted. Her body relaxed after she finished administering first aid to the two.

"...He really is strange." She spoke before she briefly thought, 'I'm relieved that he didn't die.'

She thought so because he could be a huge help to realizing her ideals, not because of his good food! Definitely not!