Chapter 64 The First Hint of Fear

Aura moved first with a vertical slash. Rein slipped right in behind her, his blade thrusting for Arthur’s exposed chest. Their timing was flawless, Aura forcing Arthur’s guard high, Rein going for the opening—

But the king didn’t move. His hand flicked lazily, like brushing dust from his robe. The claymore was knocked aside with a ripple of force, Rein’s thrust caught between two fingers like a child’s toy.

“You need to do better, boy. Cheap tricks don't work on me."

A pulse of mana erupted from him—an invisible shockwave that hurled both Aura and Rein back through the air. Before they struck the ground, they spun, feet skidding through the rubble, already dashing back in.

Aura launched herself skyward, sword dragging a comet-tail of void fire. Rein blurred across the earth, his blade glowing bright with his lightning. They struck as one—her downward swing, his upward slash—meeting in a cross meant to cleave even mountains.

The crater itself lit up as their strikes converged.

Arthur caught both blades on his forearms, sparks and void flames tearing against his skin.

“Yes! Now you’re starting to sound like thunder, boy!”

With a flex, he blasted them away, and this time pursued. Rein barely had time to raise his sword before Arthur’s fist slammed into it, the impact sending a shockwave so vast the treeline miles away folded like wheat.

Aura flashed in, intercepting the follow-up strike with her claymore. Her blade locked with Arthur’s glowing hand, and Rein dove under, stabbing upward toward his grandfather’s chest again.

But Arthur dodged, the blade grazed air. His palm crashed into Rein’s chest instead, sending him streaking across the crater.

Aura slammed her claymore with both hands and with all the might of her void fire. The strike detonated against Arthur, carving half the crater deeper—

—but when the smoke cleared, Arthur was still standing, casually dusting his shoulder.

“You two… So full of fire. But still far from reaching me.”

Aura and Rein vanished from sight, their bodies streaks of fire and void shadow. Each step cracked the ground like thunderclaps, every swing of their blades so fast it left afterimages, lines of burning light across the battlefield.

Arthur didn’t flinch. His forearms glowed, skin hard as steel, catching blade after blade. Sparks showered as Rein’s sword screeched across his guard. Aura’s claymore slammed down, sending fissures racing through the crater floor.

Each strike hit harder, faster. The sound of steel and flesh colliding was like an endless drumroll.

The air itself couldn’t keep up—their velocity set it ablaze. Heat shimmered, oxygen igniting in streaks of plasma. Their weapons glowed white-hot, metal sizzling, leaving molten droplets each time they clashed.

Behind Arthur, the mountainside warped like clay under pressure, slices carved out of stone by shockwaves alone. Peaks collapsed, cliffs reshaped into ruins with every deflected blow.

And yet—Arthur blocked it all, arms moving in tight, brutal arcs, his body barely shifting an inch.

Rein skidded back, boots cutting deep trenches into the molten ground. He exhaled, steam rising from his shoulders, his eyes glowing with mana like twin suns.

“Grandfather… You leave me no choice. You’ll hate me for this—I know you will. You taught me this move yourself. But to stop you… I’ll use Aether Rend.”

Arthur’s chest shook once, then split into booming laughter.

"Ha—HAH—hahahaha! Oh, Rein, my boy… my dear boy. Do you even remember who first showed you that move? Who taught it to you? That technique—” he jabbed a finger at Rein’s glowing blade, “—took me sixty-four years to master. Sixty-four! And you think in a handful of years you’ve surpassed me? What you’re wielding is but a fraction of its power. I, on the other hand… I control it fully.”

“We’ll see about that, grandfather. Over those handful of years, I’ve added a few upgrades of my own.”

“Very well. If that’s what you wish. But at least allow me to fetch my sword… or do you truly expect me to extinguish your strike with my bare hands?”

He spread one arm back, palm open. His lips moved in a whisper.

“Hero Blade… Exterminator. To me.”

From the rubble of the ruined castle, stone and steel exploded outward. An ancient claymore, black as night with veins of molten silver, ripped free of the debris. It cut through the sky like a meteor, a sonic boom trailing in its wake, before slamming into Arthur’s waiting hand.

“Well then, grandson… Don’t you dare hold back. Give me your very best shot.”

Rein didn’t wait. The moment Arthur lifted the blade, he was already in motion. His sword howled with light, splitting the air as he swung down with Aether Rend.

Arthur raised Exterminator. The clash detonated like a nuke. A shockwave split the sky, the mountain range behind Arthur was blown apart in a smoking crater that stretched for miles.

And yet—Arthur held. His feet dug into the earth, forearms bulging, the Hero Blade glowing brighter with each passing heartbeat. Slowly, impossibly, he began to push back.

The runes on Exterminator flared white, then deepened—red, then pink, burning hotter than steel in a forge. Arthur leaned forward through continues stream of energy from Rein's attack.

“Not bad, my boy. Your strike has a bite… but now—it’s my turn. My Aether Rend!”

The sword erupted, raw force exploding outward like a collapsing star. Rein’s stance buckled, his body sliding back across molten rock, his hands trembling against his own blade. His knees nearly folded—until a sudden warmth locked around him.

Aura.

She appeared at his back, her arms wrapping his, her ample chest pressed firm against his back. Her void-touched mana surged into him.

“Rein, take my mana. Fuse it with yours. Amplify it. Now!”

Her dark energy spiraled into his blade, mixing with his radiant mana, black and white flames coiling and knotting together. The ground screamed, the sky cracked. Rein’s sword roared louder than ever before—fusion magic.

Arthur suddenly shifted his grip, releasing one hand from Exterminator. The blade remained steady, unwavering, as if the overwhelming clash of forces was nothing but a child’s push against him. He held Rein’s fusion-charged Aether Rend back with a single arm.

A laugh spilled from his chest with a twisted kind of joy.

 “Yes! This is it! You’ve grown strong, boy. Strong enough to make me feel alive again. This attack… this I can acknowledge!”

He leaned forward into the collision, face lit by the raging blaze between them. He let out a deep, satisfied sigh, almost as if savoring the thrill.

 “But now, I ask you—stop this foolishness. I can still forgive you, you know. Even consider compromising… with you, with Aura, even the demon plains, the war itself. If only you’d let this foolishness end. By now, surely, you’ve blown off your anger, let off your steam. Fighting like this… it’s fun, yes, but it’s not how we settle things.”

He extended his free hand toward Rein, cutting through the blazing aura, the swirling energies, the roaring light of their fused attacks. 

“So… how about it, my boy? Shake on it, and let’s pretend this never happened?”

Before Rein could even answer, a shimmer of light bent reality behind Arthur—teleportation magic. A silver dagger blinked into existence and buried itself deep into his shoulder.

“—ghh!” 

From the burst of warped space, Liora appeared, leaping onto his back, plunging the blade deeper. The king staggered, muscles tensing as if fire spread through his veins.

With a grunt, Arthur shoved Exterminator forward, unleashing a shockwave that blew Rein and Aura back. Their fused Aether Rend was snuffed out in an instant.

Arthur reached over his shoulder, ripped Liora free, and hurled her down.

“WHAT DID YOU DO?! You damn witch—what did you DO?! How did you hurt me with this pathetic knife?!”

He ripped the dagger from his flesh and flung it into the dirt, his chest heaving. But the wound bled freely, the edges blackened, and worse—it did not close.

 “What is this?! Why is my fast recovery blessing not working?! Why… is my wound not healing?! WHAT TRICKERY IS THIS?!”

Liora coughed, pushing herself up, and then… a bitter laughed that held no joy.

“Ha… ha… trickery? No. This isn’t my doing, Arthur. Not my invention. That dagger carried Hans’s poison—his true gift. It corrodes blessings. Blocks them. Even gods’ marks can’t resist it.”

Liora tilted her head, her scarred face twisting into a smirk.

 “After Rein was hurt by a weaker version, I decided to do a little… sneaking. You always underestimated illusion magic, Arthur. It can be a real bitch. Pretending to be Hans was laughably easy. And when I walked into his oh-so-‘secret’ facilities, I helped myself to a complete version of his poison. And if you’re too old and arrogant to understand it—Hans was never your loyal pet. He was just waiting. Waiting to rid himself of both you and Rein after you finished the Demon Lord. You were a pawn, Arthur. Just another steppingstone.”

The mighty king’s face twisted—not just in anger, but in something else. The first hint of fear.