Chapter 140
Bang.
Michael slid back several feet, his sword raised as it blocked the incoming punch.
“He’s much stronger than before…” he thought, steadying the vibration running through his blade.
He lowered his stance slightly and pointed his sword toward Kei Y.
Behind him—
A fan of radiant swords materialized.
They hovered for only a moment before launching forward.
The pressure behind them was heavy, oppressive, far greater than the earlier volleys.
Kei Y moved.
His arms snapped outward as he swiped at the incoming blades, knocking several out of the air while weaving between the rest.
The ones that struck him failed to pierce his exoskeleton—
But the force behind them still traveled through.
His arms throbbed from the impact.
He continued weaving through the barrage, closing the distance with rapid, erratic steps as his Windblade Staff came alive in his hands.
A blade of wind formed at its tip.
Then—
They clashed.
Staff met sword.
Force collided against force as both of them immediately felt the difference.
Michael’s eyes narrowed.
He was no longer underestimating Kei Y.
No longer dismissing him as a slightly more talented Recruit.
With each exchange, he began drawing out more of his true strength—
And with it, the pressure on Kei Y increased.
But Kei Y was no longer the same either.
Having inherited the traits of the Godveil Ant, his physical strength had risen to an absurd degree.
For a body of his size—
The force he could produce was disproportionate.
Each strike carried far more weight than before, to a staggering degree.
Michael felt it with every clash.
At the same time, he struggled to properly utilize his own strength. The fear from earlier still lingered, his arms trembling slightly, making it difficult to maintain clean sword technique.
But he forced himself through it.
His experience refused to let him falter at a moment like this.
Kei Y, for his part, found it difficult to deal with everything at once.
Michael’s overwhelming strength.
His refined swordsmanship.
And the relentless barrage of swords constantly launching toward him.
Even when he dodged or knocked them aside, they didn’t stop.
They curved back.
Relentless.
Like seeking missiles that wouldn’t rest until they struck their target.
Kicking away a slash from Michael, Kei Y suppressed the sharp pain that shot up his leg and slammed his fist into the ground.
From the earth around him, massive clawed structures erupted upward, curving inward as they snapped shut around his body.
The incoming swords slammed into the claws, crashing against them in rapid succession, their impacts ringing out as the structure held firm.
Michael’s eyes sharpened.
He surged forward without hesitation, his sword driving straight toward the slightest opening.
The blade forced its way through.
For a brief moment—
He saw inside.
Empty.
“What—?”
Confusion flashed across his face.
Then—
Giant mandibles erupted from the ground, snapping shut around Michael and locking him in place.
Then—
The ground beneath him exploded.
Kei Y burst upward from below, his fist driving cleanly into Michael’s lower jaw.
The impact tore him free from the mandibles.
His head snapped back violently as his body was launched into the air.
His vision staggered.
Wanting to use his wings to lessen the impact, Michael tried to flap them to stabilize himself—
But something felt wrong.
One wing suddenly jerked upward, as if being pulled.
The other dragged downward.
Before he could understand what was happening, the push and pull between them shifted again, throwing his balance completely off.
His flight turned unstable.
The gravity intensified.
It multiplied severalfold in an instant, dragging him down and slamming him into the ground.
As he struggled against the crushing gravity, Michael failed to notice where he had landed.
Beneath the fractured ground—
Black rune strokes spread silently beneath the stone.
At this point, he was dealing with too much to even register it.
“I really can’t be this scared… can I?” he thought.
His nerves still trembled, making it harder to focus.
That moment earlier—
It had felt like his very existence was being threatened.
And although he didn’t understand what had caused it, a part of him couldn’t help but suspect—
It was the kid he was fighting.
As if that wasn’t enough—
He could no longer sense any ambient aether.
Nothing responded to him.
Nothing flowed.
He couldn’t draw from it to supplement his own reserves.
Which meant from this point onward—
Every action would drain only his own aether.
Faster.
And faster.
Again, his gaze flickered toward Kei Y.
“…It has to be him.”
His thoughts raced despite himself.
“What kind of force is that…?”
“It looks opaque…”
“For a moment, it almost reminds me of Dominion Force… like the Crown Prince’s…”
He tightened his grip on his sword.
“But this—this is on a completely different level.”
His wings twitched slightly.
Something felt off.
“Why do my wings feel like this…?”
“One side heavier… the other lighter…”
“And this gravity—”
His knees bent under the pressure.
“…it’s ridiculous.”
“I can barely stay standing…”
Across from him, Kei Y tilted his head slightly, observing.
“…He can still stay upright after that increase in gravity?”
“Strong chicken.”
“Stop calling me a chicken!” Michael growled.
His wings snapped open, flapping with force as radiant energy surged outward, dispersing the pressure around him.
He moved immediately.
As if expecting it—
He tilted his head to the side.
An opaque brick coated in cyan blue aether whirred past his face.
“...Tsk.”
Michael exhaled sharply.
He was starting to feel like he was cursed to be knocked around by a brick in this fight.
But just as that thought crossed his mind—
The air behind him shifted.
Kei Y appeared.
Mid-air.
He caught the flying brick in one smooth motion—
Spun—
And slammed it down onto Michael’s back.
Boom.
The ground cratered beneath the impact.
“What the—?!”
Michael’s voice broke in shock.
Above him, Kei Y hovered slightly, eyes wide and antennae twitching with excitement.
“I can’t believe I pulled that off!”
“That was so cool!”
He kicked off the air, diving down knees first—
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Only for Michael to flap his wings just enough to shift himself out of the way.
Kei Y’s knees slammed into the ground.
Michael moved immediately.
His shield, glowing with radiant force, struck upward and snapped Kei Y’s head back. In the same motion, he drove his knee into Kei Y’s stomach, launching him into the air.
Michael followed.
He appeared above Kei Y in an instant and drove the tip of his sword downward—
Blasting Kei Y straight into the ground.
“The kid is really durable…” Michael thought, his brows tightening as he failed to pierce through him.
But what unsettled him more—
There was no impact sound.
He looked down.
Kei Y lay within what looked like soft, drifting clouds.
Fluffy.
Yet something felt wrong.
For some reason, Michael could feel his own aether being drained faster.
“…What is this?”
Before he could process it—
Clang.
Clang.
Clang.
The sound of chains erupted around him.
They burst from the ground, rising rapidly and coiling around him, enclosing him like a living prison.
Chains lashed toward him from every direction.
Michael reacted instantly.
But his movements faltered.
The chains wouldn’t break.
His sword struck them, yet they held firm, their opaque surface resisting his force.
He could only deflect them.
Barely.
It didn’t help that his wings began acting up again.
Then—
The gravity returned.
It pressed down on him once more.
And this time—
Some of the chains were different.
Black.
They pulled at him with a violent gravitational force.
These ones he couldn’t avoid.
They moved unnaturally, twisting around his strikes, slipping past his guard, and slamming directly into him.
Each hit knocked the air from his lungs.
Again.
And again.
As Michael struggled against them—
Kei Y moved.
Silently.
He appeared above him.
Pristine aether gathered around his arm, condensing rapidly as he extended his hand forward.
His fingers curled—
Shaping into the form of a Fellhorn.
Above him, a massive visage began to form.
Wooloo.
But different.
Where it once bore onyx fur and white marble horns, its form shifted—
Rewritten by Creation Force.
Kei Y deliberately masked its true nature, suppressing any trace that might reveal it as an Ardent. There were people watching who might recognize what that meant.
Its form shifted—
Reshaped into that of a Fellhorn native to the dungeon.
At a glance, it looked no different from the others.
But the presence it gave off—
Was anything but.
Kei Y let out a sharp, screeching—
“Baaaaa!”
The massive figure leaned forward—
Then charged.
Barreling down toward Michael.
Michael reacted instantly.
He raised his shield, radiant light pulsing across its surface as an echo of the shield manifested above him, reinforcing his defense.
The air trembled from the incoming force.
Too focused on the immediate threat, he barely noticed the ground beneath him—
Glowing.
Glacial blue.
Burning red.
A faint hiss whispered beneath his feet.
Sensing something wrong at the last second, Michael tried to react.
A sword formed from below, attempting to cut through the forming runes—
But it stopped.
There was resistance.
Something he couldn’t sever.
Kei Y had already prepared for this.
The ground below had been coated in Creation Force, reinforcing it and anchoring the runes beyond normal interference.
Then—
It emerged.
Unlike before, where two vipers had formed from separate forces—
This one was different.
The two elements merged.
A single viper rose from the ground, its body flowing with both fire and ice intertwined. Flames burned along its length while frost crystallized across its scales, the two forces clashing and stabilizing at the same time.
A true hybrid.
“...With Creation Force, anything really is possible,” Auserre said, her voice carrying a hint of surprise.
Oceanna nodded slightly.
“Countless cultivators have tried to merge opposing forces like those… and failed.”
“We’re awesome,” the Vendor added, sticking his tongue out proudly.
But Michael didn’t share their sentiment.
The moment the viper surged upward.
He swung downward, his blade cutting toward the massive dual-element viper as it rose to meet him.
Holding off the two, Michael thought that would be it—
Then—
A small chirping sound came from the side.
A tiny Shima Enaga.
Kei Y’s Spark.
It shot toward him, spinning rapidly like a drill, and slammed into his abdomen.
Michael grunted, a radiant sheen flashing across his torso as a layer of armor formed to absorb the impact.
“Tch… how many creatures can you use?” he growled.
Above him, the Fellhorn bore down harder as the gravity continued to increase.
Below, the viper surged upward, its dual nature tearing at him—
Frost burned.
Heat froze.
He strained to keep its fangs from closing around him.
And despite its size—
The small bird struck with the greatest force of them all.
At that moment—
Kei Y appeared at a distance, hands extended in front of him, fingers interlocked.
He paused briefly, gathering Pristine Aether, noting the steady drain on his reserves.
Then—
His hands shifted.
Forming the outline of a Fangwolf.
Unlike the others, Hachi had no Force alignment.
So the projection took shape purely from raw aether.
Aether condensed.
Coalesced.
A wolf emerged.
It threw its head back—
And howled.
Wind gathered in its mouth, compressing into a dense gale before erupting forward in a violent blast.
From above.
From below.
From either side—
Michael was completely surrounded.
A perfect pincer.
His eyes widened.
Panic flickered.
He didn’t even have time to brace.
The gale slammed into him.
“You’ve got to be fu—”
“Language.”
The correction came instantly.
From both his opponent—
And the Crown Prince.
At the exact same time.
And to make matters even worse—
From behind his exposed back, a sharp bang rang out.
An atlatl dart slammed into him from behind.
The moment Michael so much as twitched to look—
His vision caught Kei Y rushing in from the front.
Windblade Staff forward.
A blade of crackling wind formed at its tip, thrusting straight toward his midsection.
Michael had no time to react.
He braced.
The strike landed.
It should have staggered him—
But with so many forces already bearing down on him from every direction, his body barely moved.
He held his ground.
His strained gaze dropped to Kei Y.
Kei Y looked back.
Cyan eyes glowing.
A strained smile pulling at his lips.
This time—
The exoskeleton around his head began to unravel, peeling back slowly and revealing more of his face beneath the Godveil Ant form.
“Seems like you’re running low on aether too…” Michael said through a strained cough.
“Good thing you are,” Kei Y replied, smiling despite the pressure. “You’re way too tough.”
He exhaled sharply, trying to reform the headpiece of his exoskeleton as it flickered back into place.
“I don’t think I can maintain it for long,” Michael said, smiling through the strain, a quiet, approving laugh escaping him.
“But… would you like the honor of experiencing my domain?”
“Oh please no—” Kei Y blurted out immediately, almost on the verge of tears.
He had thrown everything he had at him.
Everything.
And only just managed to push Michael this far.
Then—
The air around them changed.
It became still.
Serene.
Unnaturally so.
The chaos of the battlefield vanished in an instant, replaced by a suffocating calm that made Kei Y’s instincts flare.
“Cast away.”
Michael’s voice was quiet.
The moment the words left his lips—
Everything broke apart.
The attacks surrounding him dispersed all at once.
The pressure vanished.
At the same time, the domain collapsed.
Kei Y was pushed back several feet, his footing sliding across the fractured ground as he steadied himself.
He looked up.
The viper—
Gone.
The Fangwolf—
Gone.
The Fellhorn visage—
Gone.
All dispersed.
Only his Spark remained.
And the atlatl dart still lodged in place.
Michael stood there, gasping harshly.
His chest rose and fell unevenly.
Yet—
He smiled.
A proud, strained smile.
His gaze flickered briefly to his status screen.
0 Aether.
Completely drained.
Even so—
He remained standing, refusing to let fatigue be the reason he lost.
“Tsk… seems I judged you too early,” Michael said, his tone carrying quiet approval as he raised his sword toward Kei Y—an open invitation for one final exchange.
“I doubt I’ll win this fight,” he continued, steadying his breath, “but let’s see how much more you’re capable of before I fall.”
Kei Y exhaled, shoulders rising and falling.
“Man… that Cast Away skill of yours is really something,” he muttered. “You cast away your pride…”
He glanced up, expression tired but still sharp.
“…but I’d really appreciate it if you cast away your will to keep fighting.”
Michael let out a faint chuckle.
“How about this,” he said. “Let me use this final moment to teach you swordsmanship.”
His grip tightened slightly on his blade.
“If you last long enough, I guarantee you’ll leave with a deeper understanding of the sword.”
Kei Y stared at him.
“…Last long enough?” he repeated, brows knitting. “What are you, my girlfriend?”
He looked mildly disturbed.
“I’m a mino—”
His words cut off.
Kei Y snapped his head back just as he reformed his spark and swung his Gale Fang upward—
Intercepting the incoming strike.
Clang.
Flipping backward, Kei Y created distance as he steadied himself.
This Godveil Ant transformation is way too draining…
He exhaled sharply.
I need to undo it before my aether bottoms out.
His gaze flickered toward Michael.
I’ve only got enough left for one more bond.
The Fellhorns won’t do much here…
Verdant Volt Hare would boost my speed, but it doesn’t have the attack power I need.
His eyes narrowed slightly.
He’s already on his last dregs… I could just drag this out…
A brief pause.
Then—
No.
After everything it took to get him to this point…
I’m not letting him fall to exhaustion.
If he goes down, it’s because I put him there.
Michael stood where he was, watching quietly.
“…Oh, whatever,” Kei Y muttered under his breath.
“As long as I outlast him, I win.”
A small grin tugged at his lips.
“And this is a rare chance to see swordsmanship that can cut through Force itself…”
His grip tightened slightly.
“…I kinda want to see it.”
Across from him, Michael tilted his head slightly.
“Are you done?” he asked calmly.
As he spoke—
Kei Y’s form began to shift.
The Godveil Ant exoskeleton receded, breaking apart and fading as his body returned to its human state.
But before his form could fully settle—
The chains slammed down.
All at once.
They crashed into Michael from every direction, the impact shaking the arena before dispersing into nothing.
With a flick of his wrist, his blade moved—
Deflecting what remained.
Then—
He looked up.
And froze.
What he saw left him genuinely baffled.
In the stands, Siddhartha’s mouth fell open.
Nekthem’s eye twitched violently as he tried to steady himself.
“…To think he managed what his teammate couldn’t,” Siddhartha said, his tone filled with surprise.
“Forget enlightenment,” Nekthem snapped, shaking his head. “I refuse to believe he did this on his own.”
“You were doing so well, my friend…” Siddhartha sighed, glancing at him.
Back in the arena—
Michael exhaled slowly.
“…You’re very… glowy,” he said, staring at Kei Y.
Kei Y stood there, his body traced with glowing blue-silver lines, etched across his skin like flowing circuits of aether.
They pulsed faintly.
“Hehe…” Kei Y grinned, flexing his fingers slightly.
“Seth… let’s see what you can do.”
His eyes lit up with excitement.
“This feels amazing…”
He looked around, almost in awe.
“…like I can see the world in a completely different way. And here i thought transforming into a human would make me look weird with like extra limbs or maybe Seth's head appearing next to mines, this is cool”
“Well, chicken boy—” Kei Y paused, catching his breath, then corrected himself, “I mean… Michael.”
“Let’s see what you can teach me.”
And then—
They moved.
Both of them were exhausted.
Aether either nearly depleted, or depleted outright.
Bodies pushed far beyond their limits.
Yet neither of them allowed the fight to end in anything less than a proper victory.
Michael relied on nothing but his willpower—
And his sword.
Kei Y, for his part, focused on one thing.
Learning.
Every exchange.
Every movement.
Every subtle shift in Michael’s blade.
At first, it was overwhelming.
“You’re already this worn out and you can still fight like this?” Kei Y complained, barely managing to keep up.
“Be thankful for your little tricks,” Michael replied calmly. “Without them, you wouldn’t even have gotten this far.”
Their blades met again.
And again.
Gale Fang clashed against Michael’s sword in a relentless rhythm.
Then—
Michael noticed it.
The change.
With every exchange, Kei Y’s swordsmanship improved rapidly.
After several dozen blows—
Something clicked.
A skill formed.
[Sword Mastery] awakened.
But it didn’t stop there.
It skipped past Intermediate—
And surged straight into Advanced.
At first, Kei Y’s movements carried faint traces of Michael’s style.
But the moment the skill stabilized—
It diverged.
His strikes became…
Unpredictable.
Michael narrowed his eyes.
There were moments—
Brief, subtle—
Where Kei Y’s blade seemed to cut as though it wasn’t even there.
Barely perceptible.
Yet it was enough to unsettle him.
Then—
A hit landed.
Michael’s body tensed.
He looked down.
Kei Y’s blade had struck his stomach.
“…When did—?”
“Finally,” Kei Y grinned, breathing hard. “You were cutting through the wind itself. My Phantom Breeze couldn’t touch you…”
His grin widened.
“…until now.”
“Hm,” Michael glanced at the wound. “You seem pleased.”
He looked back up.
“Any more surprises?”
Kei Y tilted his head slightly.
“…Have you ever wondered what happens when all the wind suddenly disappears from a single point?”
Michael frowned.
The question didn’t make sense—
But his instincts screamed.
Danger.
At the point of contact—
Kei Y moved.
He didn’t fold himself into the wind this time.
He folded the wind itself.
Everything around the tip of his blade—
Collapsed.
The air vanished.
A perfect void formed at that single point.
For a split second—
Nothing existed there.
Then—
Reality corrected itself.
The surrounding air rushed in violently to fill the vacuum.
All at once.
The pressure snapped inward—
And detonated outward in the same instant.
A concussive blast erupted from the point of impact.
Kei Y had already moved away as Michael could only use his wings to brace himself
Boom
While Michael was occupied—
Kei Y moved.
With the last of his aether—
“Macro: Deconstruct.”
Talismans appeared around Michael.
The lingering forces from the Viper and the storm blade were torn apart, drawn into the floating papers as runes etched themselves rapidly across their surfaces.
Frost.
Heat.
Lightning.
All stripped.
All captured.
Then—
The wind Kei Y had previously folded away returned.
He controlled it.
The currents spiraled around the talismans, pulling everything together.
Heat burned through the flow.
Frost crystallized within it.
Lightning snapped between the rotating layers.
A storm vortex formed.
Powerful enough that even the surrounding fights faltered under its pull.
Kei Y didn’t hesitate.
Gale Fang shifted—
Reforming into the Windblade Staff.
He thrust it forward.
Blast after blast tore into the vortex, feeding it further as the storm intensified.
At its center—
Michael moved.
Or tried to.
He made an effort to break free.
Too late.
The pull had already taken hold.
Even so—
He steadied himself.
With what little strength he had left—
He raised his sword.
One final strike.
Kei Y’s eyes widened.
No.
He moved instantly.
Appearing in front of him, he swung.
Again.
And again.
Relentless.
Trying to stop him.
Trying to break his stance.
Michael didn’t retaliate.
Didn’t flinch.
He only spoke.
“…Good,” he said quietly.
“You stupid chicken—just fall already!” Kei Y snapped, frustration breaking through as he abandoned technique altogether.
He struck with fists.
Kicks.
Even grabbed onto Michael’s wings, trying to drag him down.
But Michael didn’t stop.
With the last of his strength—
He swung.
One final time.
Kei Y was still holding his wing.
He had no time.
He raised his other arm—
Windblade Staff braced.
Clang—
Kei Y was thrown backward.
His eyes widened—
As his Spark split cleanly in two.
A line followed.
From shoulder—
To waist.
His body tore open as the delayed force erupted through him.
He crashed into the ground, hard enough to shatter the stone beneath him.
His sleeve guards broke apart on impact.
Fragments scattering.
Yet even through the pain—
Through the ringing in his head—
He forced himself to look.
To remember.
Every detail.
That strike.
He refused to forget it.
Michael stood at the center of the storm.
Then—
The vortex collapsed inward.
His body hung limp.
The talismans surrounding him fell one by one, their runes flickering out as they struck the fractured ground.
The wind died.
Remnants of lightning crawled weakly across his skin.
Behind him, once-radiant wings were charred along the edges, feathers blackened and curling inward.
Across the arena—
Kei Y knelt.
One knee pressed into the ground.
His head hung low.
A deep sword wound ran from his shoulder to his waist, blood trailing steadily down his body.
In one hand—
He still held a few torn feathers.
At his feet—
The broken halves of his Windblade Staff.
His sleeve guards—
Barely holding together.
Yet even like that—
He had not fallen.