Chapter 72 - Corrupted Face-Off

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" Draxus released a very cold voice filled with sheer temperature drop and frozen anger. It was a voice that made Axel twitch in reaction as he quickly fixed his belt and jumped off the bed to grab both his golden swords. "Finally... After you charm her like this! I can finally kill you for taking her from me!" Draxus simply stepped forward and kept his wide-eyed small pupil sharp gaze at Axel. He then took out multiple nails and instantly threw it towards him. Out of the six nails that was thrown, three were deflected away, two were blocked, and one was dodged which caused the nail to be stuck in the wall. Without any delay, Draxus took more nails as he gave reassurance to Gwen. "No need to worry Gwen, I'll take out the trash this instant." After finishing his sentence, he threw doubled the amount of nails he threw previously. Axel continued to dodge as he tried to escape the area and lure Draxus into a favorable area for a battle. As he left the room, Draxus moved in front of Gwen while maintaining the cold tone. "Everything will be alright..." Gwen noticed the danger level of Draxus's tone and immediately tried to stop him. "Y-You can't!!! You can't use magic here and you're fighting against the hero! You'll die!! I don't want that to happen!!" However, Draxus simply caressed her head gently while looking at her straight in the eyes. Aside from the glowy cerulean eyes, the light from his headset allowed Gwen to see black cracks forming on his skin from the eyes. "I'll be alright..." After Gwen saw that expression of Draxus which was showing a fake smile, she once again tried to stop Draxus but he ran off to chase Axel. Just as Draxus left the hallway, Axel was on one side of the hallway waiting for Draxus to appear. Multiple floating golden swords were then thrown towards Draxus aiming to pierce his body. But Draxus dispersed each one with a single nail, and returned three extra to Axel. Axel dodged by escaping through the halls which made Draxus follow him until they arrived to some wide area on top of the cathedral. "Welcome to my battlefield, I am quite impressed that you managed to follow me in here despite having no magic." Axel attempted to make some taunts to Draxus who had his black cracks spread further from his face. Draxus stopped minding his surroundings as the space on top of the cathedral was somewhat wider than its appearance. Making it a good enough arena as it has multiple crosses on the edge of the area. Draxus instantly dashed forward which got Axel to use his card. "[Hero's Card]! [God-Reflex Ascension]!" He then stopped Draxus's approach by blocking the katana on his right hand. But Draxus instantly moved his body to perform a swift follow-up which was also blocked instantly. It was as if Axel had god-like reflexes which far surpassed Draxus. Draxus immediately retracted his two swords and unleashed an endless flurry of strikes. After seeing that all his attacks were still blocked, it was at that point that the black crack reveals its effect. "[Corrupted Smile]" Hearing Draxus say something and suddenly increased his speed, Axel felt extreme shock as distance was already created before he knew it. "H-How can you use magic?! We're inside the disarrangement barrier!!!" Draxus didn't gave any response but instantly tried to close the position once more. After finally landing grazes and scratches, he attempted for a downward strike which was easily blocked. Just as Axel attempted to counterattack, Draxus let go both Heartseeker and Amenona blades and moved his hands down inside his jacket to collect nails. He then threw about twenty nails at Axel from point-blank range. After throwing the nails, he then took both of his swords and twisted his body to twirl and try to slash him, all of which happened in a single second. Draxus felt extreme excruciating pain coursing through his body but he didn't let out a single scream nor agony from it. He simply continued his movements as if his feelings and senses were corrupted. "W-Wha?!!" Without any time to react, Axel ended up receiving around fifteen nails into his body as five of which simply missed. "Guh!!!" The nails didn't pierce deeply into his body which was pretty much within acceptable range, but he was shocked at how capable Draxus was even without magic. He blocked the slashing strike but Draxus simply continued with his flow and dashed behind Axel from his left. Draxus then attempted another double slash which was barely blocked as Axel managed to react in the nick of time. But Draxus repeated the process for a second time which finally made Axel throw off his balance and trip. Draxus twirled for the third time and landed two slashes against him. 'Khh!!!" Draxus moved and twirled one last time to set a lot more damage into Axel. After landing two more hits, he returned to his original position while letting out a coldly corrupted voice. "[Kingfisher]... [Bladework]... [Fantasia]... [Dual Int]... [Blade Squared]..." The only reason why Draxus became capable of handling high amounts of physical power is due to a concept that far surpasses mana and disarrangement magic. Thus, Draxus was able to outperform his abilities through sheer corruption of emotion which was wrath. The black crack which started from his eyes began showing itself in his own hands and his legs. Which meant that his corruption had spread further than he should be able to handle. But Draxus simply smiled over it and dashed forward to begin slashing. "Tch!! [Blade Ascension]!" Axel barely dodged Draxus's attack and performed a counterattack. Draxus tried to block the attack but he saw the blade pass through his Heartseeker blade. In that instant, he snapped and awakened from his corruption as he received a deep cut to his side. "Ghh!!!" He distanced himself quickly and sheathed the two swords to throw nails without stopping. "My bad for fighting while half-conscious!" After finishing his sentence, he threw twenty nails at once. All nails were pretty much deflected away as Axel smiled and closed his distance. "Getting cold feet?!" Draxus dodged the lunging move and tried to make Axel trip down. He then threw five nails to the ground facing up as Axel falls down to it. With his left hand, he took five more nails and threw it towards him after taking some distance. "These nails, make you look like you're incapable of fighting melee against me!" Axel forced himself to make an awkward roll after barely avoiding the nails that he was about to land to. He then readied both golden swords as he dashed to Draxus once again. Draxus simply unsheathed Heartseeker and blocked the two swords which were given a strength bonus due to the gravity. "This is my win!!! Nu?!" Axel noticed Draxus trying to grab more nails with his right hand which made him raise his golden sword from the left hand. Just as he was about to slice off Draxus's right hand, Draxus swiped his legs and performed a spinning back kick straight to Axel's gut with perfect trajectory to land on the cross. "[Kingfisher Bladework Fantasia, Advanced Nail Art: Floating Crucifixion]!" Draxus threw two nails just as Axel spread out his arms forming a cross. Each nail pierced through the palms of his hands and into the wooden cross. "Guahhh!!!" Axel screamed out in pain as he ended up letting go of his two swords from the excruciating pain from the base of his palms. "You motherfucker! I will get out from this and kill you!!" Draxus simply smiled as he let out a mixture of a smug face and ultimate sadism. He threw multiple nails to forcefully hammer and stuck his hands into the wooden cross. But after making sure that Axel can't escape, Draxus gained a severe idea. "Aight, for your attempted rape on Gwen, which really pissed me off you know? I'll let you go. After I popped your balls with this mithril version of the eight-inch nail that is!" Draxus carefully aimed the nail which got Axel to began fearing for his life, but instead of throwing the nail to the crotch... "Guh!!!" A loud clashing sound was made as Draxus hurriedly unsheathed the katana and blocked an incoming attack from a large Zweihander. Draxus was blown away from the impact but he barely maintained his own footing. "Who are you?" Draxus saw the appearance of a person who had a somewhat tall body height while maintaining a great body shape to just equip a Zweihander with a single hand. "I'm impressed that you managed to block that, Kingfisher." Draxus narrowed his eyes after hearing the person speak his house name. "Iapetus! Perfect timing! Can you save me real quick?!" Draxus tried to make a move before Iapetus began activating an effect on the weapon. "[Minute Hand Rewind]" Draxus remained in place as he noticed that the black cracks and his injuries disappeared. He didn't understand whether the enemy decided to help him or maybe it was a discriminate ability. However, all the nails that Draxus had landed on Axel disappeared and disintegrated into particles. "Tch... A time-based concept magic, rewinding time of the area by minutes..." With a small mutter, Draxus let out a complaint regarding the ability the Zweihander had. "I'm impressed, you're quite studious for a plebian from another world." Draxus immediately unsheathed both Heartseeker and the Amenoma Kageuchi and formed a stance. "Good responses! Then, Axel, Boss is calling you." Axel narrowed his eyes in anger and frustration but he left the area and escaped down to the cathedral's underground. "You're an interesting fellow Kingfisher, or maybe I should call you, Heartbroken Prince of Despair." Draxus's eyes widened out of surprise from the sudden recollection of his painful past. "It seems that you're still incapable of moving on from that, we've been watching even before your entire group came to this world after all." Draxus narrowed his eyes and clicked his tongue. "Who are you,? Iapetus." Iapetus simply smiled as he brought out a dirk from his left hand. "Let's not fret over the matters of ourselves, but you shall know the truth sooner or later. Just call me Iapetus, one who was reborn here from Earth!" Draxus reformed his stance and prepared to strike. "Before we clash, I'll disable the barrier first, to make things more interesting. My weapon isn't remade yet, so I'll be borrowing Boss's two weapons for this fight." Draxus immediately felt his magic completely rearranged after Iapetus deactivated his badge. "So that badge is the barrier's source huh?" Iapetus simply smiled as he gave a clear response. "Yep, pretty sure you have detected us a few times already. But you will be the first one to see us!!!" Iapetus dashed in to Draxus which gradually increased in speed as the Zweihander began glowing.