Display of power-1

The Magic Knights have been busy since they received news of the war.

Every week, batches of Clover mages go to the Heart Kingdom to train in mana methods and solidify the connection with the Heart Kingdom.

Since the trade routes were opened, the Clover Kingdom has received a huge supply of natural resources in return for sharing its technologies with the Heart Kingdom.

In difficult times, even a foolish king is forced to act wisely and has been keeping the noble and royal houses in check to prevent accidents.

Unlike other Wizard Kings, Julian doesn't care about his reputation and doesn't fear that the royal family strips who could strip him away from his position.

The Wizard King before Julius, Conrad enforced some rules too, but his family was killed, and he was framed as a traitor by the royals and nobles.

Julian was different; he was like a dictator whose word was the law and would get rid of everyone who opposed him.

For example, some of the noble houses that actively participated in the country's politics mysteriously went quiet and completely removed themselves from politics.

Aside from his monstrous strength, he had the first prince and leader of Elves by his side, which was equivalent to having the entire Elf population and the people's support.

Even all the captains followed his orders without question.

Julian's reputation has already surpassed that of every Wizard King in history.

It feels like Julian is the true king of the country, while the real king is just a puppet.

Sometimes the king is grateful that his son has a very good relationship with Julian.

**************

A few weeks later, in the Forsaken Realm:

Yuno waved his hands, summoning multiple towering tornadoes.

Magic circles made of natural mana formed inside the tornadoes, making them spin faster and the wind currents deadlier.

Julian's Sharingan rotated as reverse-spin tornadoes formed inside the ones Yuno created, neutralizing them instantly.

Hundreds of blades of wind shot towards Julian, but a magic circle formed above Julian, releasing wind pressure similar to gravity, and destroying Yuno's spells.

With his hands in his pockets, Julian moved effortlessly as Yuno swung different weapons made of wind spirit magic.

Yuno's speed became faster with each passing second, but Julian's future vision, Magekyou Sharingan, and Mana zone allowed him to dodge every attack effortlessly.

Boom!

Yuno made a slight mistake in his assault, which got him kicked in the chest with a wind-changed kick from Julian.

As soon as Yuno balanced himself, multiple orbs of condensed wind blades appeared around him.

Julian slowly danced around the battlefield, dodging every single anti-magic slash sent by Asta.

Asta's Demon Slayer sword expanded in size as he tried to bring it down on Julian, but Julian kicked the sword back with a loud sound.

Julian brought down his leg, sending a shockwave of Dark Magic, forcing Asta to defend with the Demon Slayer and Demon Destroyer swords.

Absorbing the Dark magic, Asta shot it back towards Julian, but he teleported behind Asta and kicked him with light magic, sending him towards Yuno.

A black hole of dark magic formed behind Julian, absorbing Noelle's water attack.

Multiple images of Noelle formed around the battlefield as large dragons of water shot toward Julian.

Magic circles formed around the dragons, making them larger in size.

But the next second, different magic circles formed around them, transforming them into dragons of lightning, which reversed their direction and shot towards Noelle.

Noelle's speed increased as a Drill weapon appeared in her hand, with which she destroyed all the dragons.

Magic circles formed around her body, allowing her to maneuver in the air as she dodged lightning projectiles. But strong wind pressure hit Noelle from the top like a mountain, causing her to crash on top of Asta and Yuno.

Before they could move, multiple lances of lightning struck the three of them, causing large explosions.

As the explosion cleared, all three of them were panting on the ground, barely conscious, with their clothes tattered.

Julian snapped his fingers as time reversed around their clothes, returning them to normal.

This was one of the powers of time magic. Julian could accelerate time around him, slow it down, or stop time for a few seconds. The power he used now was reverse time, although it only worked on nonliving things.

Time magic may appear overpowered, but in the end, it was still magic. Powers like Spatial Magic, Sealing Magic, Dark Magic, World Tree Magic, Light Magic, and Anti-Magic could oppose it.

Dante's Gravity magic was so strong that time magic had no effect on him. This is why Julian has been training every day to prepare to face the Dark Triad again or the Will in the future. At the same time, he trained Asta, Noelle, and Yuno to prepare them for the future.

Asta's increased control over Anti-magic, Yuno's, and Noelle's mana methods made them more robust, but not enough to put a scratch on Julian yet.

"That's enough training for today; we will continue tomorrow," Julian said.

Yuno stood up on his own while Asta helped Noelle stand up.

"Return to your bases and wait for a broadcast; there will be something special today."

**********

Asta and Noelle returned to the base, confused about what Julian said.

The battlefield where the Royal Knight selection exam was taking place was being broadcast to every base, so it was the same for the Black Bulls too.

Asta noticed that everyone in the base had gathered to watch the broadcast except for Yami.

Nacht was not there since Julian forbade Asta from talking about him to anyone yet.

"What is happening?" Noelle asked Vanessa, who was in the front.

"Didn't you hear? All the captains and Julian will be doing an exhibition match," Vanessa said.

"The news of the potential war in the future has been hard on Magic Knights, so it's supposed to boost morale," Finral added.

"I heard it would be broadcast to all the cities too," Luck said.

***********

The sky was filled with dark clouds as a strong wind blew across the battlefield.

Julian stood on one side with a large crystal behind him.

Opposite him, all the captains gathered, including William Vengeance.

Although William was no longer a captain, his strength was needed in the upcoming war.

All of them had received training from the Heart Kingdom in using runes and received defensive artifacts from the magic research department that enhanced their strength and defense.

All of them would be working together to break Julian's crystal.

This kind of match was very exciting for the Magic Knights to witness, as they rarely got to see all the captains together.

"Let's begin," Julian announced.

Langris was the first one to make a move and waved his hands, releasing a spatial magic slash.

[Spatial Magic: Spatial Slash]

The slash disappeared and came from behind, directly attacking the crystal, but Julian's own spatial magic completely negated the spell.

[Flame x Vortex Combination Magic: Swirl of Destruction]

Salamander opened his mouth and released an ocean of flames at Julian, while Kaiser summoned multiple vortexes of winds, which sucked the flames, turning them into a vortex of flames.

[Abyssal Magic: Black Sword of Conviction]

But Julian was no longer there as he teleported away from the

range of their spell and waved his hand, shooting numerous swords of black light.

[Slicing Magic: All Cutting Blade]

Jack's body turned into a blur as he slashed through every single sword of light, but he felt a sharp pain in his body as he saw a sword of dark magic striking his abdomen.

Dorothy teleported near Julian and tried to drag Julian into her Dream World, but Julian's spatial magic destroyed her magic as he punched her in the face, throwing her across the field.

Fuegoleon dived into Spirit Assimilation and attacked Julian alongside Jack, whose wound was healed by William but was utterly destroyed as Julian spammed swords of abyssal magic.

[World Tree x Briar Combination Magic: The Will of the Forest]

The ground shook as large vines erupted from the ground as William Vengeance and Charlotte manipulated nature.

Those vines acted as blades and cannons, shooting an endless number of beams at Julian.

[Abyssal Magic: Amaterasu]

Julian spread his arms as the entire forest, including the captains, was enveloped in black flames.

Langris manipulated spatial magic to shield every single captain, while Dorothy snapped her fingers to make the entire forest of black flames disappear.

Magic circles formed in the air, sending waves and waves of bullets made of Mercury magic, creating holes in the ground but not touching Julian.

Fuegoleon and Kaiser manipulated nature to turn the battlefield into a furnace of flames, but Julian took control of their flames to attack them back.

[Painting Magic: Celestial Garden] Rill waved his paintbrush, painting the universe: a painting with pure destruction.

[Abyssal Magic: Orbs of Utter Chaos]

An orb of black flames created by Julian shot from his fingers and clashed against Rill's creation, creating an enormous explosion of mana.

Langris created barriers of spatial magic as every captain found themselves in the sky.

[Dream x Painting Combination Magic: Creation of Life]

Dorothy and Rill employed their magic together, sending down countless monsters from their dream world and imaginations at Julian.

[Abyssal Magic: Great Eruption]

Like a furnace, the ground erupted with black flames, eating away every single monster sent at him.

Kaiser manipulated the wind and sent slashes of wind toward Julian nonstop, while Fuegoleon punched the air in front of him, releasing shockwaves of flames toward Julian.

Nozel's eyes locked onto thousands of bullets made of mercury magic shot at him.

Orbs of Spatial magic that erased everything in their path rushed toward Julian.

[Abyssal Magic: Time Stop]

All the spells that were shot at Julian halted mid-air and disappeared as if they never existed.

[Yami Magic: Dimensional Slash: Equinox]

Yami brought down his sword, releasing a slash that sliced apart everything in its path, including Julian's time magic spell and his limitless drawing blood from his hand.

Yami was the first person amongst the captains who drew blood from Julian.

This brought a smile to Julian's face as red and black Susanoo formed around him, taking his height to about five hundred meters.

"Oi Oi seriously...." Yami muttered, seeing the enormous size of Julian.

"Let's start round two, shall we!" Julian said loudly as Aquila Favonia appeared in his right hand, wrapped in black flames.