Alus the Star Runner was alive.
A single wyvern, deep down in the blackness of the Mali Wastes, which had now frozen into rock-solid soil.
He's dead, Toroa thought.
Down in the crevice, there was no water, no food, no heat, and not the slightest strand of light. It was a veritable realm of death.
If there was anyone who had fallen down to those farthest depths and was still capable of speech and movement, they couldn't be anything other than dead, and they merely appeared to be living.
Alus the Star Runner tried to take flight with his wings, which had gone rigid from the subzero temperatures. His left wing was an inorganic metal one—an intermingling of flesh and machine.
So the Star Runner's practically become the living dead… Like me…
Faster than Toroa's mind could even register the motion, he had drawn his enchanted swords.
In his left hand, Mushain the Howling Blade. In his right, Wicked Sword Selfesk.
"Don't even try it," Alus murmured.
His similarly metallic arm grabbed the enchanted sword right in front of him
—Hillensingen the Luminous Blade.
For Toroa, this was the blade that had started it all. "You've stolen too much, Star Runner."
He needed to be defeated.
Similarly to how the mere existence of the True Demon King had become too great a threat, Alus the Star Runner had to be defeated at all costs.
When Toroa's father died, he forsook self-preservation and vowed to reclaim the Luminous Blade. For as long as he could remember, Toroa had been single- mindedly devoted to defeating the enemy before him. Now he would do exactly that.
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"I—"
He saw the moment that Alus the Star Runner kicked off the ground and took to the sky.
Toroa twisted and thrust the Howling Blade skyward in an attempt to strike his aerial opponent. The violent wind sliced into the rock wall of the ravine. This was the enchanted sword's secret technique to deny the wyvern's flight and simultaneously crush him to death. It went by the name—
"Hrk!"
However, right when he attempted to use Mushain's technique, Migration, Toroa jerked his body and dodged a red light speeding toward him.
A gout of flame had been shot from the eye of the violent gale.
Though he had only been grazed by the fire attack, the edges of his black clothing had been scorched, and thin wisps of smoke now trailed from them.
The flames traveled along the cliff walls as if they had a mind of their own, swallowing up large amounts of oxygen as they went. They were headed for the spot where Toroa was standing.
Alus murmured a single phrase. "…Ground Runner."
This was a magic item that Alus hadn't gotten a chance to show off during his battle with Lucnoca.
A superhot flame that raced along the terrain, autonomously pursuing its targets in accordance with its owner's will.
The violent tempest abated, allowing Alus to fly.
The musket had been trained on Toroa. The flames were quite literally in hot pursuit.
Alus the Star Runner… Back when you fought Dad, the Howling Blade was always the one you were the most cautious of. And now I see why…
Toroa the Awful widely swung the enchanted sword in his right hand.
It had no blade. To the untrained eye, it appeared to be nothing more than a hilt.
"Reverse Wing."
Alus was utterly shaken.
He collided with the soil as if being dragged down from the heavens.
Tiny metal shards became wedged in the gaps in the mechanical parts of the wyvern's body. This was the ability of the Wicked Sword Selfesk, a weapon with a blade consisting of numerous metal shards controlled with magnetism.
The violent gale from Migration hadn't managed to hinder Alus's flight.
However, by making use of his enchanted swords' techniques simultaneously, Toroa the Awful was able to manipulate the shards of Wicked Sword Selfesk like a scatter shot along the tempest winds to reach Alus.
It was a means of dragging the wyvern, rushing through the sky at ultrahigh speeds, into the range of Toroa's blades. Only Toroa the Awful, using the combined powers of his enchanted blades simultaneously, could devise a technique so perfectly suited to taking down the Star Runner.
"I see…," said Alus.
"You like that?! You're not getting away this time!" Toroa yelled. "It was you, was it…?"
Facedown on the ground, Alus was next gripped by a force rapidly drawing him toward Toroa. Using one of the wedges he had sunk into the wyvern's flesh, Toroa was able to reel Alus in with magnetism.
In the very next moment, the Ground Runner's flame would engulf Toroa from behind.
However, the distance between the two of them would rapidly shrink. This was drawing Alus himself into its trajectory, too. As long as Toroa had the Howling Blade in his left hand, he didn't have to worry about gunfire, even at point-blank range. In which case—
You drew your sword, did you?
The short-bladed weapon Alus the Star Runner had unsheathed was a thrusting sword with a perpendicular cross guard. At that moment, robbed of his freedom of movement and hurtling toward Toroa at high speed, he sought to cross blades with the enchanted swordsman head-on.
Meanwhile Toroa the Awful had ropes, chains, hinge mechanisms, and more. He was ready for anything, and he had an enchanted sword to respond to any tactic an enemy employed.
No!
He couldn't switch to a different magic sword. With this snap judgment, Toroa used only the Howling Blade to smack down Alus's sword as it swooped in with a shriek.
It wasn't that Alus had resolved to fight at close range. This blade was an enchanted sword that could fly at will.
"Trembling Bird."
The distance between them had shrunk.
In that moment, when Toroa was forced to spare one hand for defense, Alus closed the gap.
"Nhn…!"
"Hillensingen the Luminous Blade—" "Mi…gration!"
His movements to defend against Trembling Bird were themselves a secret technique. The violent gale raged as it was released from the Howling Blade's downward stroke. As he staved off the flaming pursuit of the Ground Runner, Toroa sent the hilt of Selfesk flying. Alus's flight trajectory was thrown off, and he collided into the rock wall along with the Luminous Blade. The destructive beam of light it released sliced through the dark abyss.
The magnetic blade drew its opponent in. A mysterious blade cut unseen. The Luminous Blade delivered instant death. The special ability of the Howling Blade allowed the wielder to defend themselves, and then the magnetic blade drew the foe in once more.
This back-and-forth happened in the blink of an eye. And in an instant, the tables turned.
"It's…mine now."
Alus the Star Runner, embedded into the cliff face, had the enchanted sword's hilt gripped with his third arm.
The apex adventurer had overcome his perfect counter, the Wicked Sword Selfesk, which had so drastically hindered his flight.
"Not quite. I'm lending it to you. Just like the Luminous Blade." Toroa brandished an enchanted sword in each of his hands.
On the left, Mushain the Howling Blade. On the right… "I'm going to take everything back from you." Trembling Bird.
In the blink of an eye, Toroa had similarly taken the enchanted sword that swooped down at him.
He was a monster of legend. Toroa the Awful could master the secret technique of every enchanted blade ever forged.
On the surface of the Mali Wastes.
Alone in the vast, white expanse was an ooze, looking like a water droplet fallen from a colossal glacier, yet to freeze over.
Psianop the Inexhaustible Stagnation was quietly surveying the landscape before him.
This destruction, violently changing the very weather itself, had been engraved into the land by Psianop's round two opponent—a godlike dragon, Lucnoca the Winter, the living legend who had defeated the legend slayer, Alus the Star Runner.
A single breath was unleashed upon the valley. Lucnoca had built it up in midair.
The ravaged land spoke intricate details of her raw power, the trajectory of her attacks, her positioning, and more. Though Psianop hadn't been present to witness the battle himself, the scene before him painted a vivid picture.
Was it truly necessary for her to suspend her massive body in midair, all for her dragon breath, which barely needs a single word to release…? Impossible. There must've been a separate reason that Lucnoca stopped moving.
This stretch of earth was riddled with massive fissures. They were geographical evidence of the numerous, now-dry canals that once had nourished the land.
Here…Alus the Star Runner hid himself in this fissure, so Lucnoca's sights would've been pointing downward. Not only that, but with the way this crevice is positioned…
It had been said that Alus the Star Runner was the fastest flyer in the world, his aerial speed surpassing that of even dragons.
…he could've maneuvered behind Lucnoca.
In which case, he must have pulled off the extremely dangerous feat of flying freely through these deep, dark, labyrinthine fissures and used them to sneak around underground.
Alus's magic item restricted Lucnoca from behind. She launched her breath out in front of her, without looking back at it whatsoever. Everything froze. The extreme gap in atmospheric pressure dragged Alus into Lucnoca's range of attack. She swiped with her claws. He used a defensive magic item, or perhaps evaded it by coincidence… Whatever the case, it led to Alus being quite literally grounded.
Psianop the Inexhaustible Stagnation didn't possess any supernatural senses like Soujirou the Willow-Sword or Kuuro the Cautious. He merely speculated on the actions in the battle by using an extensive amount of battle theory, based on his knowledge and experiences.
By studying the end result, he could find the most logical course of events
that led them to the battle's conclusion.
From there, the breath attack aimed straight downward.
Psianop looked down at the ground he stood upon. Likely owing to the abnormal condensation nearly bringing it to its physical limits, this spot on the ground had collapsed into a cone shape. It resembled the crater left behind by a meteor strike, about four kilometers in diameter.
Far too massive.
The battle continued even after this. The reactive capabilities of someone who had faced a great many legends…and had grown after each fight. Even after being ravaged by a violent tempest, Alus the Star Runner had survived.
Currently, Alus the Star Runner's body was half machine.
A magic item of immortality, multiplying within the body, imitating an organism, and maintaining constant functionality without even requiring biological activity. It was called Chiklorakk the Eternity Machine.
However, even when its original owner, Vikeon the Smoldering, had been heavily wounded by Alus the Star Runner's assault, rendered unable to fight, the dragon hadn't made use of the magic item himself.
"It's mine. Mine… Mine…"
Alus's present state was the result of this item's influence.
It would replace lost sections of the physical body with machinery and maintain the same functionality as before these sections had been lost, but anyone who underwent this change was certainly not the same living creature they had once been. Though they lived, they would rapidly begin to lose their will. Before long, they would lose everything that made them an organic being and soon be reduced to a mindless machine.
This was true even for the strongest of all wyverns. Though the injuries he had sustained in the second match had been completely healed by the power of the magic item, Alus hadn't been able to budge deep in the abyss.
Before encountering Toroa, he had been unable to remember anything. He was Alus the Star Runner, and yet he wasn't.
For Toroa, who had only ever dreamed of defeating him, this was a cruel sight.
Though he may be in this sorry state, one thing that hasn't changed.
A lot of space had opened up between himself and Alus. Their last clash had
decimated the land itself. There had been a drastic shift in momentum, and the enchanted swordsman Toroa had no means of closing the gap.
Alus the Star Runner had a musket in one hand. In another, he held Hillensingen the Luminous Blade. Finally, in his third hand, he had Wicked Sword Selfesk, stolen from Toroa moments ago.
All of the wyvern's hands were occupied.
Alus never lets go of any treasure he gets his hands on!
Toroa took a giant step forward. He thrust Trembling Bird sharply out in front of him, far out of range for his attack to reach—he rotated his torso. Hinges worked together, traveling along the steel wires, and then—
Faster than Alus could swing Wicked Sword Selfesk, the base of his wing was completely run through—the attack had come from over twenty meters away.
"Peck!"
The enchanted sword in Toroa's right hand had been swapped out for a different sword. Deceiving Alus by feinting a thrust with Trembling Bird, he used the steel wire and hinges to exchange it for another.
The Divine Blade Ketelk. A secret technique that utilized the enchanted swords extending slashes to send out a long-range thrust at the opponent.
Since Alus the Star Runner was already familiar with this technique, Toroa had fired it at him without revealing his intentions.
Despite his wing being shot through, Alus sent the wedges of Wicked Sword Selfesk flying. Toroa saw several of them become embedded into the rock wall. What was terrifying was Alus's level of aptitude with the blade. There wasn't anyone else who could control an enchanted sword they had just held for the first time with such finesse—other than Toroa the Awful, that is.
"You were testing that brand-new enchanted sword, huh?" "Wicked Sword Selfesk. M-my…my treasure…" "Migration!"
Stepping forward and then turning, Toroa slashed wide. The Howling Blade swallowed the air and whipped the Ground Runner's flames into its violent gale. He then rerouted the attack, and the flames, destructive enough to burn down an entire nation, toward Alus.
"You can handle that much just fine, I bet… So have this, too."
If it was possible to control the wind, it was possible to control flames. Mid-rotation, Toroa the Awful drew Nel Tseu the Burning Blade.
Ground Runner.
Rising heat. Tempest winds. "Gathering Clouds."
An explosive flame erupted from the Mali Wastes fissure, high enough to reach the clouds.
The ice on the ground evaporated. Jet-black smoke formed a deathly domain that swallowed even the darkness of the earthen abyss.
The impact was intense enough to shatter bones and rupture organs.
This was the ultimate ability of Nel Tseu the Burning Blade, a technique he had held back during the first match out of worry for the town around him.
The furious updraft generated by the temperature difference between earth and sky cleared away the black smoke.
A wyvern silhouette. This adventurer possessed a magic item of absolute defense.
"Greatshield of the Dead…"
Alus brandished the Greatshield of the Dead and moved to counterattack. The figure of the grim reaper was right before his eyes.
"Not good enough."
Just as he had done once before, in the eye of the Particle Storm…
…Toroa the Awful plunged headfirst into the hellish fireball.
But how could he grasp Alus's position while his vision was obscured by the black smoke?
The answer came when a blade, connected by a chain, was plunged into Alus's arm, the one that held Wicked Sword Selfesk.
It was an enchanted sword that would automatically respond to moving objects and then counterattack.
Toroa murmured its name. "Lance of Faima."
The next slash rushed in from the opposite direction.
The arm holding the Greatshield of the Dead had been completely severed. The instant Alus's attention had shifted to the Lance of Faima, Toroa the
Awful slashed at him with the enchanted sword in his left hand. Vajgir the Frostvenom Blade infected its target with corrosive ice crystals.
In a close-quarters battle of enchanted swords, there was no warrior who could surpass Toroa the Awful.
"There is no shield that will protect you from Vajgir."
Toroa had constantly, even in his dreams, thought only of one day killing the strongest of all wyverns. He would need the perfect strategy to seize this
impressive enemy, flying at ultrahigh speeds, wielding magic items innumerable, and capable of withstanding even the most lethal attack against him.
He sought out a means from the voices of the enchanted swords, to defeat a foe even his father hadn't been able to beat.
Unable to save his father, Toroa believed this was the last thing he had to do
—his sovereign duty.
"Ahh… The Greatshield…of the Dead's…" murmured Alus. "That's right. You've lost that, too," said Toroa.
This wasn't the first time Toroa the Awful had fought against Alus the Star Runner.
However, this was the first time Alus the Star Runner was fighting against
this Toroa the Awful. "You're going to die." And then…