Chapter 99: "Date"

"Muria, Miss Mikaela invites you to gather in Cloud City and to bring your weapons."

Inside the ancient stone temple, a huge stone bed cut from mountain rock was placed, and on the stone bed, books protected by spells like "Dustless" and "Eternal" were piled up like a mountain.

Resting casually on the books, a boy with black hair and golden eyes leaned against a stack of books, a spellbook about half his size floating in front of him, flipping pages on its own.

Beside the boy were three slightly older girls with red hair and red eyes, each holding a spellbook and reading, although compared to the spirited Muria, these three girls seemed sleepy.

Next to the boy, there was also a girl with white hair and eyes, her body radiating a chilling coldness, engrossed in reading a book, seemingly undistracted by anything else.

The scene was rather charming; a small kid, barely over a meter tall, flipping through a book almost as big as himself.

"Mikaela's invitation!" The boy with black hair and golden eyes heard the report from his spirit, shifted his gaze from the book, and looked towards Cassio with a knowing smile on his face.

"Cassio, the last time I sought Mikaela, she said she could grant me spatial access rights within Cloud City. Can you now construct a teleportation array directly to the inside of Cloud City?"

"Yes, Miss Mikaela sent me coordinates. By building the array according to these coordinates, you can directly teleport inside Cloud City."

"What are we waiting for? Start constructing the teleportation array." Muria threw the floating book aside, his small body leaped down from the high pile of books, reverting to his most commonly used Titan form.

"Aren't you studying the array anymore?" Cassio asked emotionlessly, staring at Muria.

"Not today. The knowledge of arrays is too profound, and learning isn't a matter of one or two days," Muria said, looking at the slowly forming teleportation array on the ground with a smile.

"Buzz! Buzz!" Cassio extended his hand, summoning a majestic spear and a fierce-looking greatsword from the wall, both trembling as they floated towards Muria.

Muria grabbed the greatsword, golden lightning bursting from his back, condensing into a tangible chain of thunder. He hung the greatsword on the chain and then took the spear, stepping onto the now-complete teleportation array.

After a slight dizziness, a sense of imminent danger surged, and before he could see clearly what was in front of him, Muria didn't hesitate to swing the spear. In an instant, with the keen perception honed from countless battles, he thrust out dozens of spear shadows, forming a spectacular burst of spear flowers.

"Snap!" "Snap!"... With each spear shadow thrust, a faint cracking sound followed. Muria's spear struck true. As he wielded the spear, Muria also saw clearly what was attacking him.

They were feather-like arrows of light. Muria looked up to see not far away, a stunningly beautiful girl wielding a dragon spear, her back alight with ten burning wings of celestial fire. The arrows of light were shooting from her wings.

"Mikaela, attacking me before I even emerge, you're really sneaky!" Muria swung his spear across, creating a circular sweep of spear light that shattered all surrounding arrows of light.

"It's just a reminder, not a sneak attack," Mikaela retorted, her celestial wings fluttering as she turned into a white rainbow rushing towards Muria, her spear aiming directly at him.

"Hey!" Muria chuckled, swinging the spear in his left hand to parry the incoming spear, deflecting the fierce thrust. Then, grabbing the hilt of the greatsword on his back with his right hand, the chain of thunder broke and wrapped around the greatsword.

As golden dragon flames ignited on the greatsword, Muria swung the blade, wrapped in dragon flame and golden thunder, mercilessly down towards Mikaela's head.

Fighting the strongest prodigy of the Celestial tribe, there was no room for holding back.

"Clang!" Sparks and shattered flames flew everywhere as Muria's forceful sword struck Mikaela's wrist, blocked by her legendary armguard. Yet, she bore the full brunt of Muria's strike.

Suspended in mid-air, the celestial girl had nowhere to dissipate the force. Consequently, Muria's sword strike forced Mikaela to the ground, creating a radiant pattern of light where she fell.

Seeing Mikaela struck to the ground by his sword, Muria did not relax; his left hand raised the spear and hurled it towards the crater he had created.

"Boom!" As the spear left his hand, the air burst like thunder, sonic booms sweeping across the grand arena, stirring the hair of many spectator angels.

"Wow!" "Your Highness"... Muria's relentless assault drew a wave of noise from the angels in the arena, with murmurs of curses aimed at Muria also heard.

At the highest seat in the spectator stands, the lord of Cloud City, Mikaela's brother, Sylvester, a peak eight-winged celestial prodigy, sat watching the battle below between Muria and his sister.

As Sylvester saw Muria unhesitatingly throw his spear, his flawless celestial wings emitted a subtle glow, his eyes narrowed with a fiery shimmer, his palm inadvertently sinking into the armrest.

"Sylvester, at this level, Muria couldn't possibly harm Mikaela." At Sylvester's side, several six-winged celestial prodigies noticed his concern, one even spoke up to reassure him.

"I know," Sylvester rubbed his temples, smoothing over the imprint in the armrest with a faint flicker of celestial fire as he raised his hand, "I'm her brother, I understand her the best."

"What's there to worry about then?" A celestial prodigy laughed, "But this Titan named Muria is really clueless. A year ago, Mikaela took off her legendary armor and fought him without using any legendary weapons, and that guy didn't hold back at all, directly..."

"Enough," Sylvester glanced at the celestial prodigy defending Mikaela, "That battle was pre-arranged by my sister, the outcome was fair, there was nothing unjust about it."

"But, I heard he's a half-blood Titan." A celestial prodigy whispered, "His grandfather is said to be a newly ascended Dragon King who even gave him a drop of primal blood."

"In that case, that battle was very unfair for Mikaela."

"Humph, what's unfair about it? Mikaela was born with five pairs of celestial wings, she's not weaker than anyone in terms of bloodline. If she lost, she lost, there's no excuse."

...

As the celestial prodigies debated and the angels nervously watched in the stands, down in the arena, Muria, with dragon wings, fiercely clashed with Mikaela, who wielded a long spear.

Ever since their match a year ago, which Muria narrowly won, the proud celestial girl regularly invited Muria to duel, with Cloud City's arena as the venue.

Every "date", Muria arrived energetic and well-armed, fully committed in his battles with Mikaela. According to information from Cass

io and others, Muria concluded that showing any weakness or deliberately losing would not only fail to impress her but might even result in disdain. Therefore, fighting Mikaela required his utmost effort, ideally winning each time.

However, defeating Mikaela was exceedingly challenging. After their battle a year ago, she had removed her self-imposed restraints and advanced to Golden Rank Five, one rank above Muria.

Still, Mikaela, now engaging Muria in battle, controlled part of her strength, maintaining herself at Golden Rank Four and used only a pair of armguards aside from her legendary weapons.

This was Mikaela's pride; in battle, she matched Muria on equal grounds, taking no advantage.

"Clang!" "Clang!"... Each clash of their mighty weapons sent shockwaves sweeping across the area, the spectacle resounding.

"I won't win against her this time," Muria thought, as he blocked Mikaela's flame-engulfed spear with his dragon flame and thunder-wrapped greatsword.

Most of their battles now ended in draws, neither able to overpower the other, concluding only when both were drained of strength.

Just as Muria was momentarily distracted, his movements slowed imperceptibly. Mikaela, with her innate combat skills, seized this slight opening. With a swift thrust, she flicked Muria's greatsword aside and kicked him in the face with her long leg.

"Ptui!" Light golden blood splattered from Muria's face as his nose broke under Mikaela's merciless kick. His body spun in the air, exposing an opening, and then Mikaela's spear struck his chest.

"Crack!" Accompanied by a harsh sound of bones breaking, "Boom!" Muria was smashed to the ground by Mikaela's spear. Then, seeing Muria on the ground, Mikaela flipped her spear, the blade shimmering with cold light aimed at the somewhat disheveled Muria.

"Thunderous!" As before, Mikaela threw her spear, wrapped in celestial fire, easily breaking the sound barrier, the sonic booms sweeping the arena.

"Good!" Seeing this, Sylvester, seated in the principal spot, couldn't help but clap loudly, a smile breaking on his face.