World's Strongest

“Why can’t you move the palace guards!”

Phillena shouted from the throne.

Palace Guard Commander Medas answered while pouring cold sweat.

“We’re concerned about the possibility that His Highness Pernok’s army might turn toward the royal capital.”

“Right now he’s conquering other castles while heading for Owen! Don’t you know the palace guards have the role of mediating internal strife!”

“However, we cannot exclude the possibility that the royal army might change direction…”

“Don’t speak such frustrating words! Pernok moved even the royal army with the intention of killing Owen! They’re traitors! Treason!”

Medas forcibly suppressed his frustrated feelings.

‘Doesn’t she know this happened because of Vans?’

The border garrison and Owen collaborated to let Rakis Empire’s nobles inside Illumina.

If Phillena knew this fact, she committed corruption by exercising power in the competition, and if she didn’t know, she should rather hold Vans responsible.

But judging from her attitude, Phillena didn’t know, yet even if she had known, she didn’t seem like she would have particularly stopped the Rakis Empire nobles.

She especially cherished Vans among her children.

How lovely his innate talent and boldness in even joining hands with Rakis must have seemed.

She probably expected that Vans would persuade even other royals and peacefully receive the throne.

“Right now my son is about to die!”

Even when Porla committed a crime, Phillena flew into a rage like now while sheltering him.

For the sole reason of being her child, she turned away from laws and order that should be upheld.

Though she should be more neutral than anyone, she was abusing power and beyond that, defiling the competition.

Medas suddenly missed the previous king.

Though he was a playboy full of sinister air, he didn’t disturb the kingdom.

‘I think I understand why the duke made such a choice.’

Flemyr’s uprising didn’t feel like someone else’s business.

Medas wasn’t neutral. If pressed, he supported Yuliana.

In his heart, he wanted to strike down the border garrison to help Yuliana seize the throne.

But no matter how much he followed factions, there existed minimum roles that must be upheld.

The more urgent the situation became, the more he was forced to choose.

‘Not only Tyr, but words will come from Rezhen and the association as well. Sigh, turning Duke Flemyr into an enemy was a huge mistake.’

At the very least, if Flemyr had led the royal palace guards, it would have helped calm the unsettled nation, but he turned into an enemy.

He could also guess why the royal army followed Pernok.

The border garrison couldn’t move rashly while concerned about Yuliana either.

‘Whether it’s His Highness Pernok or Commander Owen. Whoever it is, I can only pray they quickly end the internal strife.’

In this situation, the royal palace guards turning their forces was insanity.

“Say something! At this rate my son is going to die!”

At that moment, seeing Phillena favor one side, Medas cried out in despair.

“Your Majesty is in the position of neutral observer.”

“Are you lecturing me now?”

“Your Majesty must be a king, not a mother.”

“Ugh! Are you telling me to leave Vans to die now? No, come to think of it, you. You often followed Yuliana, didn’t you? Don’t tell me you’re refusing my order to put Yuliana on the throne!”

“I certainly support Her Highness Yuliana. But more than that, I regard and fulfill the responsibility given to me as weighty.”

Medas’s expression hardened rigidly.

“The palace guards’ role is to protect the royal capital. Other than that, I have no answer to give.”

“You dare defy my words now!?”

“Your Majesty, I apologize. Your Majesty merely remains in that seat for a while.”

“What?”

Medas raised his head and looked indifferently at the flustered Phillena.

“If someone who stands tall after passing through this internal strife appears, he will become king. Your Majesty, please realize you are only in the position of observing.”

Bang!

Unable to contain her fury, Phillena struck the armrest hard and shouted.

“You will surely regret today’s events!”

“I will now withdraw.”

A sigh leaked from the mouth of the turning Medas.

But Phillena couldn’t hear the loyal retainer’s frustration.

“Why do these royals make the nation so unsettled! They should just quietly hold the competition, but why! Why on earth!”

The cry he let out like a scream echoed through the throne room.

The one with the answer to that fury was now striking down Vans.

* * *

The moment he faced Pernok, he felt no particular sensation.

Slight puzzlement and response to the confrontation.

And he was mechanically counting the forces on the hill and the number of mages.

“When cornered, ordinary people panic and grow impatient. That’s the moment when weaknesses are most clearly revealed. Put differently, when you overcome that moment, the ordeal facing you rather becomes an opportunity.”

Chris’s teaching suddenly filled his head.

After removing all flustered thoughts, he examined the situation that struck in an instant.

In the roughly three seconds that passed facing and conversing with Pernok, Vans reached a conclusion.

‘He predicted I’d come here and was waiting. He judges that with just those forces, utilizing the terrain’s advantage, he can strike down sufficiently. Then rather than fleeing, this side will also strike back.’

Thousands of forces were positioned on the hill. Even if he forcibly broke through, he had to accept considerable damage.

Pernok showed no intention of moving aside either.

The cold smile that conveyed his resolve to kill Vans transmitted his determination.

‘The battlefield’s outcome depends on the Magus. If I block Pernok, the only Magus there, our army can sweep away all those forces.’

With resolute determination, he drew his sword and faced Pernok.

This was the first time he’d faced him so sincerely.

He suddenly felt a strange sensation.

‘That bastard…’

Pernok raised his sword.

The sun gathering at the sword tip was dazzling, making Vans furrow his brow.

‘…Did he look this large?’

Since facing Pernok in the royal palace, he’d continuously had dreams.

The days of going around killing bastards.

The eyes he’d last faced.

The hatred and rage contained within them.

All were fragments of a past that became a handful of ash and disappeared.

But at this moment, Vans desperately wishes.

If he could return to the past once more, he would burn Pernok’s body without leaving even ashes.

Whoosh!

Sun-like vivid flames blazed on the sword blade.

At the signal of Vans’s Magus Arts Flame Sword, adjutants moved in perfect order.

“Pierce through the hill and head for the border!”

Shield bearers stepped forward, spearmen positioned behind, and from the very rear, archers aimed arrows up the hill.

Then Pernok gripped his hands as if scoffing.

Rummmble!

The First contained Circulation Link and spewed light brighter than the sun.

“Die and kneel to those you killed and apologize.”

The dry voice carried on the sword and swept the hillside.

BANG!

The shield bearers burst out first.

Spears twisted, formations collapsed, and the archers’ arrows were blocked by Pernok’s soldiers positioned on the hill.

They too erected shields to block surging arrows and conversely shot their own arrows for a counterattack.

At this, Vans laid his sword horizontally.

A single strike drawn smoothly like drawing a boundary turned the fiercely surging arrow rain to ash.

“Break through!”

Vans had no leisure to feel and analyze Pernok’s Over Impact.

No matter how strong the opponent, finding and accomplishing his task.

That was Vans’s strength.

Trampling forces swept away by Over Impact, Vans charged.

Pernok struck down at him surging up the hill in an instant.

Boom!

As soon as Vans fell below the hill, Pernok leaped.

Only briefly surprised by the terrifying speed following instantly.

Vans examined Pernok’s mana and spat as if chewing.

“Double, is it.”

The shockwave that swept away soldiers and the strength when swords clashed.

As a Magus using both Unique and enhancement types, he judged him stronger than rumors.

However.

“Pierce through!”

“If we occupy the hill, we win!”

As soldiers began entangling on the hill, the battlefield’s clamor pounded Vans’s heart.

His Flame Sword was a Magus Arts containing the characteristics of Nature and unique types affected by emotions. The more elevated, the deeper and more brilliantly the flames blazed.

In Rakis, they called this the Phoenix’s Sword.

Clang!

Three exchanges passed in an instant.

Even at the sight of Vans striking back against The First, Pernok showed no signs of wavering. Rather, the one surprised was Buckingham heading up the hill.

Surely he’d severed the mana circuits, yet he was squeezing out his last strength to flow mana.

It was a brutish method using life as collateral.

Buckingham expected that if he sacrificed himself to break through the hill and send Vans to the border, they’d achieve complete victory.

But Pernok’s Observation Eye saw through all his judgments.

Bang!

Vans’s Flame Sword blocked the mana flowed backward.

As if mocking the warning not to look away, Pernok rotated his wrist.

Repulsive force formed on the attached sword and Vans bounced away.

And before poison could spread, he pierced Buckingham’s back once more.

“Ra… Rakis… glory…!”

When he twisted the sword just like that, Buckingham’s body burst.

As flesh and blood scattered conspicuously to spread chaos nearby, surging flames aimed at Pernok’s neck.

Pernok gripped the sword in reverse and placed it on Vans’s sword like a hook, then pulled toward his body.

It was weapon technique using Vans’s strength as is to make the trajectory go awry.

Having never met an opponent who utilized Flame Sword in this manner until now, Vans couldn’t establish a clear countermeasure.

And before making any judgment, Pernok’s knee struck Vans’s face hard.

“Krgh!”

Vans jerked his head back and staggered. Before regaining his stance, Pernok’s sword rose diagonally.

Slash!

A sword wound starting from the lower right abdomen continued to the upper left shoulder.

Thanks to Vans stepping back, it didn’t lead to a deep wound.

But the fact that he showed clear weakness to Pernok made Vans’s head dizzy.

‘He easily shook off weapon technique taught by the duke?’

Chris created and transmitted weapon techniques suited to Magus Arts.

Until now, there were cases of being crushed by strong mana, but he’d never been pushed in weapon technique duels.

Even if the great Flemyr came, he was confident enough.

But Pernok overwhelmed him with only pure swordsmanship, without using the initial shockwave.

Though they hadn’t even clashed several times, his breath rose to below his chin.

This level of pressure was the first since Chris.

“Pitiful indeed.”

Pernok showed a cold smile to Vans burning flames.

“Having your chest pierced by a bastard who only plays with kindling, how resentful and wronged you must feel.”

He had no time to understand what he was saying.

As Pernok stepped forward and alternately swung sword strikes diagonally and horizontally, Vans was unilaterally pushed back.

‘What on earth is this bastard’s Magus Arts?’

Magus Arts also had two types.

Expanding space widely to dominate the realm, or the concentration method of focusing mana on the body for single-point breakthrough.

But Pernok showed no particular characteristics except the initial shockwave.

Rather, as if matching the concentration-method Vans, he simply led with physical abilities and concentrated mana on the sword.

“You dare humiliate me after coming this far! Give your all, Pernok!”

“Do you have the skill for that?”

At the teeth-gnashing Vans, Pernok sneered.

“The client’s request. He asked me to kill you while trampling what you’re most confident in.”

And when sparks flew from the clashing swords, rather Vans was pushed back.

“Everything started from you. But now your neck alone isn’t enough.”

“Pernooook!”

“The pain of the sword stabbed into my chest will strike down Illumina’s wicked nobles and royals.”

As he stepped hard on the ground and swung his sword with elasticity rising to his waist, Vans bounced easily. He slashed swords in all directions at the wavering body.

BANG!

An impact so intense that Vans’s flames momentarily extinguished struck hard.

His body floated in the air, and Pernok sharply captured several gaps revealed in an instant.

Slash!

Sixteen sword strikes poured in one breath.

Limbs, neck, and heart were pierced at once, yet Vans’s eyes didn’t die.

Amazingly, the flames that should have vanished connected sword and body and began healing the body close to instant death.

Phoenix.

Pernok recalling Vans’s epithet smiled coldly.

“Very good.”

Though healing could reattach limbs, it couldn’t hide the pain of falling off.

How far must he cut away before Vans would die.

In that process, what pain would Vans flounder in.

Long ago, the chest pierced by Vans squirmed.

As if shouting to strike down more thoroughly, Pernok activated his Magus Arts.

The liquefaction Magus Arts of one of Rakis’s 13 Lords.

Searing and melting where the sword cut, making him repeat healing and regeneration again to flounder in pain where being alive didn’t feel like being alive, he struck down more thoroughly and viciously.

Though normally he should have died long ago, Vans forcibly healed wounds because of the flames.

Striking away feeble counterattacks, Pernok sent a cold gaze.

“Don’t even dream of dying comfortably.”

The sword containing liquefaction slashed Vans’s neck.