Chapter 87 - Duel

First, there was one genuinely impressive sight that had caught Aiden's eye the moment he entered the Central Spire. Something he had never expected to find was sitting there.

'... A rocket?'

Aiden let out an incredulous laugh at the object occupying the entire center of the spire. It was unmistakably a missile fitted with a propulsion system. Judging by its size, they had clearly hollowed out and converted the whole building.

Preparations on this scale couldn't be completed in a day or two. This must have been planned for quite some time.

While the prince lay embedded in the wall amid rising clouds of dust, Aiden examined the middle of the rocket. Something resembling a pitch-black clod of earth sat inside. That was how he would describe its appearance, at least.

But the moment he looked at it—

-Item Info

[Fragment of Ą̷̦̘͉̹͓̝́̾͂͂̂͂̅͡͝ø̵̧̡̜̲̗̳̟̀̒̽̊͆̃͒̎̚͟͟ͅ Î̶̻̙͓͓͎̫͛́͌̀̆͊͒͆̚] [???]

[ ̴̢̥̱̝̘̟͎͊͐͌̿̎̋̕͜͟͝͞Ą̷̦̘͉̹͓̝́̾͂͂̂͂̅͡͝ø̵̧̡̜̲̗̳̟̀̒̽̊͆̃͒̎̚͟͟ͅ Ç̳͈̟̯̻̾̿̔͆̃̋́͌͘̕Ḁ̷͉̞͎̯̥̫̳̻́͆͊̉̀̾͘͞·̴̢̥̱̝̘̟͎͊͐͌̿̎̋̕͜͟͝͞Î̶̻̙͓͓͎̫͛́͌̀̆͊͒͆̚±̦͖̺̗͎͍̰͊̏͒̉̍̉̚͟͠×̵̢̯̥̟͖̞̔̈́̃̚͘͞·̶̛͈̪͚̹̺͖͉̪̇̎̃̏̃̎̚͡ͅ¡̴̹͉̤̭̥̒̇̎̅͘͝ͅ¹̖̯̰̰̦̝͐͆̿̌̃͂͟͠Ö̵̩̭͇̹̭̤͌͆̔̀̆̚Ą̷̦̘͉̹͓̝́̾͂͂̂͂̅͡͝ø̧̜̲̗̀̒̽̊͆̃͒̎̚͟͟ͅ ̵̡̳̟ Ç̳͈̟̯̻̾̿̔͆̃̋́͌͘̕Ḁ̷͉̞͎̯̥̫̳̻́͆͊̉̀̾͘͞·̴̢̥̱̝̘̟͎͊͐͌̿̎̋̕͜͟͝͞Ą̷̦̘͉̹͓̝́̾͂͂̂͂̅͡͝ø̵̧̡̜̲̗̳̟̀̒̽̊͆̃͒̎̚͟͟ͅ Ç̳͈̟̯̻̾̿̔͆̃̋́͌͘̕Ḁ̷͉̞͎̯̥̫̳̻́͆͊̉̀̾͘͞·̴̴̢̢̥̱̝̘̟͎̥̱̝̘̟͎͊͐͌̿̎̋͊͐͌̿̎̋̕̕͜͟͜͟͝͞͝͞Ą̷̦̘͉̹͓̝́̾͂͂̂͂̅͡͝ø̵̧̡̜̲̗̳̟̀̒̽̊͆̃͒̎̚͟͟ͅ Ç̳͈̟̯̻̾̿̔͆̃̋́͌͘̕Ḁ̷͉̞͎̯̥̫̳̻́͆͊̉̀̾͘͞·̴̢̥̱̝̘̟͎͊͐͌̿̎̋̕͜͟͝͞Î̶̻̙͓͓͎̫͛́͌̀̆͊͒͆̚±̦͖̺̗͎͍̰͊̏͒̉̍̉̚͟͠×̵̢̯̥̟͖̞̔̈́̃̚͘͞·̶̛͈̪͚̹̺͖͉̪̇̎̃̏̃̎̚͡ͅ¡̴̹͉̤̭̥̒̇̎̅͘͝ͅ¹̖̯̰̰̦̝͐͆̿̌̃͂͟͠Ö̵̩̭͇̹̭̤͌͆̔̀̆̚Ą̷̦̘͉̹͓̝́̾͂͂̂͂̅͡͝ø̵̧̡̜̲̗̳̟̀̒̽̊͆̃͒̎̚͟͟ͅ Ç̳͈̟̯̻̾̿̔͆̃̋́͌͘̕Ḁ̷͉̞͎̯̥̫̳̻́͆͊̉̀̾͘͞·̴̢̥̱̝̘̟͎͊͐͌̿̎̋̕͜͟͝͞Ą̷̦̘͉̹͓̝́̾͂͂̂͂̅͡͝ø̵̧̡̜̲̗̳̟̀̒̽̊͆̃͒̎̚͟͟ͅ Ç̳͈̟̯̻̾̿̔͆̃̋́͌͘̕Ḁ̷͉̞͎̯̥̫̳̻́͆͊̉̀̾͘͞·̴̢̥̱̝̘̟͎͊͐͌̿̎̋̕͜͟͝͞ ]

"..."

... Just looking at it felt like it was frying his brain. His optic nerves seemed to be festering. A revolting sensation prickled through his entire nervous system, as though someone had poured tar into every blood vessel.

As far as Aiden could guess, only one thing could make him feel this way.

"Hey."

If the prince really had prepared something like that, he didn't deserve even the slightest courtesy. Aiden gave an incredulous laugh.

"Isn't that a fragment of the demon god?"

"..."

The prince, coughing as he climbed down from the wall, silently confirmed it. Aiden swept his hair back in disbelief.

A fragment of Wornil, the God of Devouring who had vanished after being sealed by the pantheon.

With something like that strapped to a rocket, it was immediately clear why the prince hadn't cared about the people in the capital.

"Strap that thing to a rocket and scatter it in the air, and this whole area will turn into another void region."

"..."

"It'll become a place where nothing but demons and magical beasts can survive. Do you even know what you're doing?"

In other words, he intended to kill every last person in the capital.

Even that question earned nothing but continued silence. The prince pulled free of the wall without a word and drew the sword at his waist.

A quick look suggested he wasn't particularly injured. Aiden had crushed Lord Damian with a single punch before. This proved the prince was a warrior whose abilities far surpassed his.

'He might be weaker than Noel or Katya...'

But he was absolutely not an opponent Aiden could handle.

Under normal circumstances, that is.

Aiden heaved a sigh and raised his fists. The prince's expression crumpled at the sight.

"... What do you think you're doing?"

He was probably asking why Aiden wasn't drawing a weapon. But Aiden had no need for a sword or a gun.

No, he actually shouldn't use one. It would end things too quickly.

"You grew up pampered, didn't you?"

Naturally. He was royalty. He would have grown up with everyone indulging him.

Which meant...

"Nobody was there to give you a beating when you did something wrong, were they?"

"..."

"You've never been beaten until you blurted out an apology without even realizing it, have you?"

"..."

Aiden summoned Aether. The liquid metal obeyed his will, wrapping around both hands and solidifying into gauntlets over his fists. He banged them together and stared expressionlessly at the prince.

"Let's give you that experience today."

Whatever else might be going on, judging by what the prince was doing, this beating needed to last a while.

▣

The prince almost always felt the same thing when he looked at Aiden Kellermain.

What an unfathomable man.

He had felt it keenly from their first clash, and the impression persisted to this day.

This was a perfect example.

CLANG!

Sparks flew as his sword struck the gauntlet made from an unknown substance, and the prince hastily withdrew his blade.

"..."

His fine sword, crafted by one of the continent's foremost weapons workshops, was rapidly being battered to pieces in those clashes.

He ranked among the Empire's top three when it came to wielding weapons through supernatural power. Yet his equipment accumulated damage every time it struck that man's gauntlets, which hadn't even been imbued with any power yet.

As though there were an overwhelming difference in the quality of their equipment.

'... In such a short time.'

Until their last encounter, there had certainly been no intelligence anywhere suggesting he wielded anything like this. He must have acquired it in the mere handful of days since.

This man displayed an absurd ability to find the most efficient shortcut to resolving a situation and take it faster than anyone else.

Efficiency incarnate, perhaps.

'... But!'

Even so, there were barriers of talent that could never be overcome.

—Five Forms: Opening the Gate

When it came to shaping supernatural power into usable weapons, the prince's talent placed him in the very first rank, even across the entire continent.

He sculpted the qi he drew forth into five different weapons and fired them along separate trajectories. It was a feat akin to forming five thoughts simultaneously in a single instant, yet as a peerless genius in his field, he accomplished that impossible feat in a flash.

"—!"

Sure enough, Aiden's expression instantly twisted as he met the attack. He unwound the Aether around his fists and erected it as a barrier, then raised Brilliant Radiance—a blend of qi and dharmic power—over it, barely managing to deflect the weapons.

But the follow-up attacks gave him no room to breathe. It was as though the prince had anticipated his defense and laid out two, three, or more moves ahead.

'... This is ridiculous.'

Aiden grimaced as he somehow fended them off. Meyer's skill, Analysis, was assisting him in combat in real time, and he had recently made enormous strides in his Combat Styles. Yet the gulf between their fighting techniques was as vast as heaven and earth.

Aiden had the superior supernatural power. He had the superior equipment. And yet the prince overcame every one of those disadvantages through innate talent alone. With his natural eye for combat, he seized control of the battle's flow at every moment.

His relentless pressure continued. Qi sculpted into all manner of bizarre shapes rained down on Aiden. His defenses were breached. Wounds accumulated across his body. It didn't take long for him to be covered in blood.

"..."

Yet the prince's eyes remained grave as he pressed his attack.

'This man—'

Was nothing but surprises. Nobody could predict what he might do. Now that the prince had the upper hand, he had to press hard and finish him.

'A decisive finish is the answer.'

Reaching that conclusion, the prince gripped his sword again. All he needed to do was keep piling on wounds, then deliver a fatal strike—

"... Hmm."

—Or so it should have been.

The moment he met the eyes of the increasingly bloodied Aiden, a chill ran down his spine.

"This is a problem."

"Are you going to surrender, Mr. Aiden?"

"No. I just think I overprepared."

"... What?"

The prince's question was incredulous, but Aiden was entirely serious.

He had been preparing like mad all this time, hadn't he? With no way to know how the original game's difficulty might have been distorted, he had resolved to do everything he could.

But, frankly, the prince's current level was rather bewildering.

Because compared to this, what Aiden had prepared was...

-System Message

▶ Activating Skill: Primordial Strength.

▶ Activating Skill: Magical-Beast Transformation.

▶ Activating Skill: Purifier.

▶ Activating Skill: Guardian’s Flame.

▶ Activating Skill: Brilliant Radiance.

▶ Equipment: Aether is imbued with supernatural power. Weapon power increases.

▶ Equipment: Aether amplifies the imbued supernatural power.

▶ Equipment: Aether amplifies the strength of released supernatural power—

... Not merely a butcher's cleaver brought to slaughter a chicken.

He might as well have brought a cannon.

▣

"Do me one favor."

The man spoke in an even voice, flexing his fists with a slight frown. He looked almost unfamiliar with his own body, as though he had never drawn out his full strength like this before.

"Don't die right away. I've got a lot of questions."

At the sight, the prince instinctively realized something.

Something about this man had definitely changed.

The pressure he exuded was so different from before that he felt like another person entirely. As though he hadn't been using even half his strength until now.

'... Impossible.'

It was absurd to think he had held his own against the prince with that fraction of his strength. He was simply imagining—

"Here we go."

"...!"

The prince's eyes flew wide as Aiden appeared before him in an instant. He hadn't even properly seen him move...!

Aiden casually threw a punch straight into his jaw. It was little more than a light tap of his fist, so halfhearted was the motion.

Yet even that was enough.

"...!"

The layers of supernatural power he had instinctively stacked into a barrier were pierced like paper. Before he could even cry out in shock, the prince staggered backward, breath escaping him in an empty gasp.

The concussion made it difficult to keep his balance, but another attack was already coming.

This time it was an equally halfhearted kick. It almost felt as though Aiden was deliberately trying his hardest to kick gently.

And yet...

"Ghurk—!"

With a cracking sound that scarcely seemed possible from two bodies colliding, the prince flew like a ball. As he rolled disgracefully across the floor, the blood he spewed left a long trail behind him.

Even that laughable motion had broken through all his protections again and shattered his ribs. The broken bones pierced his lungs, tainting his breath with the smell of blood.

'... What...!'

Even as he vomited black clots of blood, the prince remained a capable warrior. He immediately circulated his supernatural power, somehow knitting the bones inside his body back together, realigning organs displaced by the impacts, and numbing his senses as he rose. Strength coursed through him.

Then he condensed every bit of supernatural power in his body into a single Shaping. Blades of power, split into hundreds of sharp spirals, shot toward Aiden.

It was an attack Aiden himself had used before—a troublesome power that pierced every form of protection to burrow into its target.

That was what the prince believed.

Until Aiden simply charged through, taking every last hit with his bare body.

Through Magical-Beast Transformation and Primordial Strength, he had acquired the full physical capabilities of a Top-Tier Magical Beast. With a body that could deflect even a direct hit from Katya's divinity, attacks of this level were little more than a tickle!

"What in the world are you—!"

He cried out in horror at his casually speaking opponent, but another fist struck his jaw before he could finish. Once again, every layer of supernatural power was breached, and his consciousness grew hazy.

"Ghk...!"

Several more attacks struck his airborne body.

One blow to his exposed stomach. As he folded at the waist, a knee slammed into his lowered face. Then a straight punch struck his snapping-back head like a hammer.

"Gah, hhk...!"

All he could do was take every blow and scream in pain.

He couldn't counter. He couldn't even react.

He had long since diverted all his supernatural power into restoring his body, allowing him to recover from even fatal injuries. Yet the rate at which he was injured far outstripped the rate of healing, even though his opponent was only tossing out light, casual attacks.

The gap in their strength was that overwhelming!

"I'm asking you again."

Aiden cracked his neck as he addressed the staggering prince.

"Don't die right away. I've got a lot of questions."

THUD!

CRACK!!

Then another fist slammed into the prince's jaw as though to split it apart.