Chapter 250
"Because of various circumstances, I wasn’t able to give you a proper fight last time. For that, I apologize."
Karna spoke words of apology, yet the pressure radiating from his body continued to rise with every passing second.
"To make amends, this time I will hold nothing back."
His calm gaze settled upon Kiriya.
"Master of Black, come and defeat me."
"Hahahaha! Of course."
Kiriya’s eyes widened, and even his voice rose with excitement.
He tightened his grip around his sword and assumed an attacking stance.
Then the violent chakra inside his body erupted like a volcano.
"Eight Gates. Seventh Gate, the Gate of Wonder—open!"
BOOM!
A scorching wave of air exploded around him.
The tremendous heat evaporated the sweat pouring from his body, turning it into billowing blue vapor that wrapped around Kiriya like roaring flames.
Bathed in that blue aura, his figure no longer looked entirely human.
He resembled a wrathful war god who had stepped directly out of myth.
"So this is the technique you used in your previous battles?"
A trace of admiration flashed through Karna’s eyes.
But after observing Kiriya for a moment, he still shook his head.
"However... it is not enough."
His voice remained calm and matter-of-fact.
"If you intend to defeat me, this level of power is still insufficient."
"I’m not finished yet."
The corner of Kiriya’s mouth rose.
Somewhere far away, one of the Shadow Clones he had previously hidden away was released.
The instant it disappeared—
An enormous reserve of gathered natural energy returned to the original body.
Kiriya’s aura surged once more.
Nature energy blended perfectly with his chakra.
His physical senses sharpened.
His perception expanded dramatically.
And the already violent power of the Seventh Gate climbed to an even more frightening level.
Sage Mode.
Combined with—Eight Gates: Seventh Gate, the Gate of Wonder.
Kiriya lifted his eyes toward Karna.
"Karna."
His grin sharpened.
"You’d better take this seriously."
"Otherwise..."
"You really might die."
The moment those words left his mouth—
Kiriya disappeared.
"...!"
Karna’s pupils contracted sharply.
His body reacted almost entirely on instinct, raising his golden spear toward his right side.
CLANG!
The collision produced a deafening metallic roar.
Along with it came a force so overwhelming that even Karna found it difficult to describe.
Pain exploded through both of his arms.
His bones groaned beneath the impact, feeling as though they might fracture outright.
For one instant, Karna had the bizarre impression that the thing attacking him was not a human at all.
It felt more like one of the great Dragon Species of mythology had hurled itself at him with all its strength.
BOOM!
Karna was launched backward like a missile.
His body slammed violently into the solid wall behind him.
His organs seemed to roll inside his chest, and blood spilled from the corner of his mouth.
Yet Karna had no attention to spare for the pain.
Kiriya’s sword had already arrived again.
CLANG! CLANG!
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
Karna swung his spear repeatedly, desperately intercepting the ferocious barrage of slashes descending upon him.
Every single strike carried the weight of a falling meteor.
Sword energy tore wildly through the air, crossing and overlapping until the surrounding walls of the Hanging Gardens were carved apart as though they were made of soft clay.
The tremendous kinetic force transmitted through the structure with every collision.
Even though the Hanging Gardens floated independently in the sky, nearly half of the enormous fortress began to shake visibly beneath the violence of their battle.
And no defense could remain flawless forever.
Under Kiriya’s relentless assault, Karna’s guard finally opened for the briefest instant.
That tiny flaw was enough.
Kiriya’s attacks immediately poured through like floodwaters bursting through a broken dam.
Shhk! Shhk! Shhk! Shhk!
Razor-sharp sword energy cut through the golden armor and tore one gruesome wound after another across Karna’s body.
Had it not been for the golden armor reducing incoming damage to a mere fraction of its original force—
Had that armor not also possessed extraordinary restorative properties—
Those few slashes alone would already have been enough to kill Karna and end the battle.
But there were no ifs on a battlefield.
The golden armor was not some external tool Karna had borrowed.
It was part of his very life.
An indispensable foundation of his strength.
Its name was—Kavacha and Kundala.
The armor itself possessed a legendary origin.
Karna’s mother, Kunti, had feared the consequences of becoming an unmarried mother.
In order to protect the son she would be forced to abandon, she prayed to the sun god Surya and received from him the divine golden armor and earrings.
They were formed from light itself.
Even the gods would find them extraordinarily difficult to destroy.
More importantly, Kavacha and Kundala reduced virtually every form of hostile interference directed at Karna—physical attacks, magecraft, curses, and even conceptual effects—until only one-tenth of the original damage remained.
Even after enduring Kiriya’s terrifying barrage, Karna still retained enough strength to counterattack.
"Brahmastra."
He silently invoked the Noble Phantasm’s True Name.
A crimson light appeared within his eyes.
Then—
A scorching beam of energy erupted outward, shooting directly toward Kiriya’s head.
With Sage Mode active, however, Kiriya’s sensory abilities had already been magnified to an extraordinary degree.
The attack was sudden, fast, and viciously precise, but Kiriya still detected it in time.
He tilted away from the beam and immediately countered.
Bang!
His foot slammed into Karna’s abdomen.
The son of the sun god was launched away like an artillery shell, smashing through layer after layer of wall and countless chunks of stone before finally bursting out onto an open section near the upper surface of the Hanging Gardens.
"Biu—!"
Karna sensed Kiriya’s presence approaching at terrifying speed.
He locked firmly onto that aura.
Another beam erupted.
Kiriya’s feet tapped rapidly against the ground.
His figure split into countless afterimages as he changed direction again and again, while the beam pursued him relentlessly from behind.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Every place the energy beam touched erupted in a devastating explosion.
Solid stone and elaborate structures shattered like children’s blocks before being swallowed by flames hot enough to burn the debris away.
In only a few seconds—
Nearly one-fifth of the buildings covering the upper surface of the Hanging Gardens had been destroyed.
"As expected of one of the absolute top-tier Heroic Spirits."
Kiriya became a streak of light as he narrowly evaded another beam.
"That output is completely ridiculous."
He immediately manipulated the surrounding airflow with Wind Release, using the wind itself as additional propulsion.
His already astonishing speed climbed another level.
CLANG!
Karna was struck and launched into the air.
The dense network of fractures running through the bones of his arms had already healed substantially.
While suspended in midair, he raised his golden spear.
White flames ignited across its surface.
"Brahmastra Kundala."
The endless flames gathered together.
They condensed around the spear until the weapon itself seemed to transform into a blazing projectile of divine fire.
Then Karna hurled it.
The burning spear shot toward Kiriya at a speed approaching light itself.
But from the instant Karna had first begun raising his arm, Kiriya had already noticed the movement.
He immediately stopped his forward charge.
Rather than continuing his attack, he began preparing a finishing technique of his own.
Every ounce of power within his body was gathered into the sword in his hands.
Buzz...
Buzz...
The blade trembled violently.
Power was concentrated on it.
Compressed.
Then compressed again.
Until what had originally been an enormous torrent of force was refined into an unbelievably sharp edge.
A sword strike condensed to its absolute limit.
"Afterglow!"
Kiriya roared and swung.
The brilliant sword light crossed the incoming divine spear.
And cut it cleanly in half.
BOOOOOOM!
The two halves of the severed spear crashed into the earth on either side of him.
Two enormous trenches were instantly carved into the Hanging Gardens, each so deep that their bottoms could not be seen and so long that they stretched all the way toward the distant edge of the visible fortress.
The sheer scale of the destruction demonstrated just how terrifying Brahmastra Kundala truly was.
Had that attack struck Kiriya directly—
A man who possessed neither an immortal body nor divine golden armor—
He probably would have died on the spot.
"Remarkable swordsmanship."
Karna spoke with sincere admiration.
"To think even that attack was unable to defeat you."
The power contained within Kiriya’s swordsmanship had already reached a level comparable to an A-rank Noble Phantasm.
For a human to reach such heights through technique and physical ability—
It was nothing short of miraculous.
"Save the compliments and take another one!" Kiriya shouted.
He leapt high into the air.
Both hands gripped the sword as he brought it down with tremendous force.
"Mountain-Splitting Strike!"
Despite the grandiose name, the underlying technique was still fundamentally another application of Afterglow.
Karna’s expression became solemn.
He did not dare underestimate it.
Two golden circular shields immediately moved in front of him.
Kiriya’s sword crashed directly into them.
DOOOONG!
The impact sounded like some colossal damaru from ancient legend being struck across the heavens.
The ground beneath Karna shattered layer by layer.
A vast shock wave spread outward from the point of impact, and every structure within several hundred meters collapsed beneath the resulting vibration.
Kiriya remained locked against the shields for a moment before clicking his tongue.
"That defensive Noble Phantasm of yours really is obnoxious."
He drew back slightly and looked at Karna.
"Looks like this form still isn’t enough to beat you."
"Hm?"
Karna’s eyes widened slightly.
"This technique of yours..."
His expression became genuinely surprised.
"You still possess a higher state?"
"Of course."
Kiriya gave him a faint smile.
"Normally, I don’t like using it."
"Because the next step is a technique where I’m genuinely putting my life on the line."
The light within his eyes sharpened.
There was no fear there, only an unwavering determination to win.
"But against an opponent like you..."
Kiriya slowly tightened his fist.
"Wouldn’t it be disrespectful if I refused to risk everything?"
Karna’s expression changed.
Kiriya raised his head.
"Watch carefully, Karna."
His voice rang across the ruined surface of the Hanging Gardens.
"I’ll show you the kind of power that proves even a mortal—"
"Can slaughter a god."
"What?"
For the first time since their battle began, Karna was genuinely stunned by the sheer audacity of Kiriya’s declaration.