Absolute Beings

In an instant, Chris’s thoughts stopped.

Even the war god who’d accumulated undefeated victories couldn’t understand the unrealistic sight of a castle devouring empty air.

“Such a thing…”

Pernok had received life-threatening situations countless times until now.

Among all those moments, he’d never once taken out the Floating Castle. Even that moment when he might have died to Chris.

Chris, who’d focused on the ground, hadn’t expected the Floating Castle’s bombardment at all.

No, could anyone here understand the fact that a castle flew through the sky?

Though Chris’s cold reasoning quickly returned, in that time from the border the forces’ rear had become a wasteland.

Intense mana was felt from the castle again.

‘The moment the second wave strikes, Rakis will be annihilated.’

Chris’s eyes widened.

“Master!”

Even if Magus who’d regained their senses blocked with their bodies, they’d melt into ash together.

The only person who could handle this situation was Mardo.

BANG!

The black armor shot toward the rear like a flash. Arisha, who’d momentarily gained leisure, tried to unfold Thought Conversion again, but Chris blocked before her.

The fired long needle grazed past Arisha’s veil.

The veil was cleanly cut, revealing a beautiful woman’s smiling face.

“Did you stall for such trivial time to bring that thing?”

“Stalling? We merely engaged in battle with full strength. And…”

Arisha was equally surprised.

Though she’d heard he’d bring something from Pernok, she’d never imagined it would be a castle floating in the sky.

“…You seem quite urgent.”

“That would be your side. Do you think that indiscriminate bombardment won’t turn toward the Holy Kingdom?”

“I wonder.”

Arisha wore a beautiful smile.

“I’ve never thought of you as someone who’d take out trump cards indiscriminately without distinguishing front and back.”

Three long needles instantly covered Arisha’s front.

The form of mana contained in each strike seemed like watching Thought Conversion.

‘Chris also has no intention of hiding anymore.’

Chris’s Magus Arts that had long remained the world’s mystery.

Arisha was also vaguely grasping threads.

Since Pernok had also grasped this, he must have immediately revealed his appearance.

“Advance!”

With a resounding voice, Mardo leaped into the bombardment’s center.

BOOOM!

Thousands of mana cannon shots fell like a meteor shower.

Mardo crossed both arms while the black light of his armor sparkled more luminously.

Then the mana cannons that should have scattered gathered together and were all sucked into Mardo’s armor.

It was mana absorption, one of the armor’s functions.

“Hup!”

Mardo, who’d changed the mana that filled in an instant into amplification, the armor’s other function, landed on the ground.

He threw a punch at the flashes rushing like the great sea.

BOOOM!

Mardo was pushed back three steps.

As he looked at his fist with rising smoke, from afar the perpetrator who’d caused these inexplicable things approached.

“Did the Holy Kingdom have another S3 Magus?”

Pernok, who’d entered Full Body Weaponization state, landed at 100 meters distance from Mardo.

Though they’d maintained some distance, the two people with sharpened senses seemed to feel each other’s breathing.

Both were sensing that the opponent was by no means easy.

“An elder… and if S3, then Mardo Forcage. Are you the black armor’s monster?”

“Even in Rakis, those who know my face are countable on hands, yet a youngster who hasn’t lived half my half-age remembers me, truly surprising.”

Mardo shook off his hand and flashed the radiance within his helmet.

“Should I say it’s an honor, King Pernok?”

The fact he’d faced the Floating Castle’s bombardment alone and blocked Arisha without a single scratch stimulated Pernok’s nerves.

‘That armor not only absorbs mana and changes it to his own power but even neutralizes magic.’

Pernok examined Mardo with Observation Eye.

Surprisingly, Mardo was perfectly handling absorbed mana as his own.

The mana and fighting spirit flowing through the armor were flawlessly perfect.

If that armor was composed of artifacts rather than Magus Arts, he might certainly have used even circulation linkage.

Talent that sublimated Magus Arts into a form close to divine artifacts.

Though that soul didn’t reach Chris, it at least possessed a form worth calling caliber.

‘Same grade as Arisha…’

Pernok glanced at Arisha contending with Chris and shook his head.

‘…No, Arisha still has something hidden. One step below her?’

A strong existence.

Therefore, he’d become a good testing ground to confirm how far the current Pernok had risen.

“You unfold absurd acts naturally. How can a nation’s king reveal himself at his homeland’s border, and create such weapons? Truly an eccentric existence without common sense.”

The moment Mardo took one step forward, high-density mana burst out circularly from his center. It was a level where mana intoxication would occur from mere grazing.

“I’m sensing a new era blowing in. I’m extremely pleased to share that era’s tail end.”

“Move aside.”

At the boiling hostility, Pernok smacked his lips.

“The one I must deal with isn’t the likes of you.”

“Kuhuk.”

A chilling laugh flowed from within the helmet.

And.

Booom!

Pernok and Mardo instantly clashed fists. High-density mana amplified through the armor and concentrated again in one point.

The black strike itself contained destructive power to shatter a castle, but Pernok’s Full Body Weaponization state also met it.

Rather, the strong power stimulated circulation and accelerated it.

Though taut power broke in an instant, a huge crater formed within 300 meters radius of the two people.

‘With 30 circulation cycles I can’t even scratch him. I need to bring more than that.’

‘Even with mana that devoured bombardment, I can’t press him down. This is insufficient.’

At the first exchange, they clearly felt each other’s skill.

And they judged.

The optimal means to behead each other.

“You weren’t S2! You surpassed the wall, King Pernok!”

Mardo, who’d judged a prolonged battle meaningless, was first to maximize Magus Arts.

Thinking Pernok had already entered S3, confirming his qualities and talent didn’t fall behind Chris.

And he transformed into the strongest form befitting that.

The blunt armor changed into a sleek form clinging tight to his body.

‘Did he abandon defense and concentrate on attack? The mana became sharp as a blade.’

But Pernok’s means didn’t change.

He’d convert the enemy’s strong shock into the artifact’s power.

‘No matter how much Full Body Weaponization, if I keep taking that much power head-on, cracks will form.’

A method to continue circulation linkage and use only enemy power without scratching Full Body Weaponization.

He’d predict Mardo’s movements with Observation Eye close to precognition and flow past them like grazing.

Though one mistake would cause irreversible results, Pernok also had no intention of continuing this battle long-term.

Arisha alone couldn’t block Chris.

It was a matter he’d thought from the start and decided to join and drive hard.

To neutralize Mardo in a short time required accepting some risk.

And that was the same for Mardo too.

From the moment the armor entered offensive state, his mana’s consumption speed accelerated.

If he didn’t pierce through, Mardo would die.

Licking his drying lips with his tongue, Mardo lowered his posture.

With the opponent who might be life’s end before his eyes, it felt like youthful vigor revived.

At the appearance that seemed like horns erected like a bull, Pernok smiled wryly while surpassing 35 circulation cycles.

“Good.”

The moment the third bombardment rained down from the sky, the black left not even afterimages.

He’d reached right before Pernok’s nose at speeds sound couldn’t follow.

When he predicted movements with Observation Eye and dodged, Mardo’s hand drew a graceful curve.

‘He can adjust direction even at this speed?’

Not yet.

Mardo hadn’t shown the maximum speed he couldn’t control himself.

The moment he judged so, Pernok rather stuck close to Mardo.

While coiling his back hand around the sharply striking hand blade to flow it away, he simultaneously threw a straight punch in reverse.

Mardo raised his knee to block the fist, then stepped on the ground again and used propulsion as a springboard to widen distance.

Meaning he absolutely wouldn’t respond to Pernok’s close-quarters combat.

And the armor’s maximum output to show Pernok who dealt with this degree of speed.

Boom!

Though he’d anticipated it, his body didn’t react.

The trajectory flying in a straight line transcended Pernok’s reflexes.

Godless Tune.

For one moment, it boasted speed to the degree one might think it erased appearance from this world.

It left no sound, when perceived had already pierced the nape, didn’t merely concentrate on speed, and mana gathered at fingertips became the strongest spear piercing all things in the world.

‘I’ve reached.’

There was no one who could counter Mardo’s speed.

Even Chris, if he hadn’t prepared work in advance, would be pierced by Godless Tune.

Throughout the entire world, Godless Tune was the fastest, sharpest, and strongest.

This Magus Arts itself called God’s Spear, close to authority, had torn apart countless enemies’ throats.

He’d been certain that Pernok, who stood still and couldn’t even follow with eyes, would also meet the same fate as other Magus.

But when his fingertips penetrated Pernok’s Full Body Weaponization, Mardo’s expression distorted.

“…?”

There was no sensation.

The sensation at fingertips that had felt like pounding until merely 1 second ago vanished.

It seemed like pounding empty air.

Whooong!

Mardo’s body passed by Pernok.

He hadn’t penetrated flesh.

Literally, he’d surpassed Pernok existing before his eyes.

“…!”

When Mardo pivoted on his right foot and looked back, Pernok was clenching his fist in that spot.

Though he couldn’t understand what had happened how, only Pernok’s smile was imprinted in his mind.

Etherealization.

The moment he judged there was no means to counter that speed, Pernok had utilized Full Body Weaponization as a sensor.

No matter how strong the spear, it couldn’t immediately pierce a firm shield.

When Mardo’s fingertips pounded Full Body Weaponization, the reacting body immediately entered etherealization.

The moment he shifted Mardo’s Godless Tune that concentrated all power in one point, Pernok completed 40 circulation cycles.

BOOOOOM!

Maximum Impact swept Mardo.

Light radiating beyond the battlefield seemed like it would fiercely shatter everything.

But something that suddenly intervened caused cracks in the lengthy light.

Clang!

Pernok reflexively entered etherealization and retreated.

A long needle was stuck in the spot where he’d been.

“…”

Pernok looked at the spot where light had vanished.

Chris was protecting Mardo who’d lost one arm.

‘Did he intervene in this fight while facing Arisha?’

Chris muttered with an expressionless appearance as usual.

“Are you alright?”

“To whom do you speak!”

Mardo grasped his shoulder with his remaining arm and stood.

“You should have dealt with the high priest.”

“It’s not easy. This place, that place too.”

“Did you see the method that fellow used to flow away my last attack?”

“It seems I must confirm again.”

“Extraordinary. I’m shocked that someone with talent like yours was born in the same era.”

Mardo ground his teeth and glared at Pernok.

“If we don’t kill him now, it’s dangerous. That fellow’s fangs are already approaching Rakis’s heart!”

“But now it seems difficult to separate.”

Before he knew it, Arisha was landing beside Pernok.

“Let’s match moves.”

“I’ll stake my life.”

“Nothing more to add.”

Chris drew out his long needle and deployed mana.

The mana covering the battlefield in an instant seemed to warn it wouldn’t let Pernok and Arisha escape.

Pernok glanced at Arisha and asked.

“Did you grasp Chris clearly?”

“It wasn’t simple imitation. It was closer to special constitution.”

Pernok smiled chillingly while feeling boiling momentum.

‘I can flow away Chris’s attacks, but it doesn’t seem like my attacks will work.’

It was a situation where he couldn’t simply pass it as a draw.

‘When I suggested we settle decisive battle here, you agreed. Even without knowing my current level.’

Arisha still not disheveled.

There must certainly be a reason for that confidence.

“Take out what you’ve hidden.”

Double Magus.

That alone can’t block Chris.

When he spoke with voice close to certainty, Arisha wore a faint smile.

“Please hold out just 10 more minutes.”

“Will that degree be enough?”

“Yes.”

At the confidence-filled voice, Pernok smiled wryly and stepped forward.

Arisha was reciting something from behind, Mardo clad himself in armor again, and Chris was seeing through all battlefield situations.

That moment when absolute beings’ gazes entangled with each other and mana tensely heated up.

Boom!

As if drawing a bowstring, Pernok and Chris and Mardo simultaneously charged out.

When one long needle shot riding Godless Tune, Pernok’s Divine Punishment struck down mana’s center.