“The power of bonds conquer supremacy. Don't you know?”

For Viers, it was common sense.

After seeing so many supreme villains get defeated by a ragtag bunch of misfit hero groups, how could Viers not draw such a conclusion?

“Bonds? You talk nonsense. How can you rely on something so intangible? Those who rely on others are weak! Your so-called power of bonds, I will surpass them with my wealth!”

Is this guy serious? Doesn't he realize his wealth is not even his? It is given to him by the Duke? Ahh, how twisted a child can grow up when surrounded by a toxic environment. He’s so pitiful and he doesn't even know it.

Viers’ expression of pity made Marvin angry.

“You think you’re so much better than me? I’m a Prince of Latias, favored by the gods! Perish!”

Marvin destroyed a big tree with the air pressure of his mace alone. Viers’ attacks of electricity were repelled easily.

“Do you forget? Lightning can't defeat oil!”

While it was not entirely accurate, the reality was Futon’s lightning wielded by Viers was indeed ineffective at piercing Marvin’s defenses.

But that was just fine.

“We’ll see who laughs at the end,” Viers’ lightning punch was blocked and he moved back before Marvin hit him back.

Viers wondered why Marvin didn't use his Imaginary Domain. As a Level 4, he should have had one. Viers had prepared Alfred’s mini Domain that he got from the man after bringing Croix to Stormberg safely against that. He had other countermeasures and Marvin deploying his Imaginary Domain would not mean assured victory but it would certainly give him an advantage.

Viers had two theories: Marvin’s domain was not a battle-type and thus not useful in this circumstance, or that he wasn't proficient enough and unable to use his Domain because Viers kept attacking and interfering with him.

Either way, the answer would have to wait until he soul searched him.

After a stalemate, Marvin started to feel something was odd.

“You should be consuming Victa at an alarming rate. Fighting a great Level 4 like me even more so. What did you do?”

“You think I’ll answer that?” Viers did a backflip because Marvin sent spikes of oil from the ground.

Marvin said that because he was starting to feel the strain on his Victa expenditure while his weaker opponent didn't seem burdened, magically speaking.

“...Could it be? Is it possible you don't spend Victa at all!?” Marvin roared.

“Maybe yes, maybe no.”

Marvin guessed correctly. With Stand By Me Arte Viers accessed Futon’s powers. Unlike humans who used Victa to fuel their Artes, elementals used their elements as easily as someone turning their hands. Viers was planning on exhausting Marvin. If they ran out of Victa, even Level 5s were vulnerable.

Viers didn't know how much Marvin’s Victa reserve was, but there was a limit to his body’s stamina. Level 5 and below Pathseekers still needed to eat and sleep. By using various methods and items they might be able to lessen their bodily needs but it couldn't go on forever.

Marvin was now in Dia’s Biome: Viers’ home ground. He also had allies while Marvin was alone and isolated. He had the resources to slowly grind Marvin to total defeat. That was why his way of fighting so far was to minimize any potential risk.

“Do you know how I can match you in battle?” Viers said while exchanging blows in the air.

“You might be a Level 4 at seventeen, an astonishing feat, really, but you neglected many things by rising so quickly. Do you think being a Pathseeker is only about how high you are in the Path of Power? This is proof of otherwise.”

Viers axe-kicked him to the ground.

“You’re a trash Level 4, princeling. Against ordinary Level 3’s you would have won, but not me. Have you begun to realize how grave is the situation you’re in?”

Viers sent a blast of lightning to the ground, pushing Marvin even deeper into the earth. His injury might be close to zero but the damage to his pride of being made to kiss dirt was incredibly high.

“Being born with talent and privileges, you extolled wealth instead of honing your own abilities.”

Viers landed on the edge of the crater, looking down on Marvin.

“Wealth,” Viers pointed at him.

“Power,” Viers pointed at himself.

The sounds of another battle in the distance trailed here as the two were silently facing each other.

“...Power? Power? Ahhahahahaha! Such a thing had no meaning before me!”

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Maniacally laughing, with madness in his eyes, Marvin manifested the armillary sphere once more.

“Ruler’s Globe, maximum output!”

Viers suddenly felt weakened.

“Zuaah!!”

Marvin did a front kick. An ordinary front kick. It did damage to Viers.

Viers looked into his palm, closing and opening it two times.

“Not only does that thing impede Victa, it now disables all abilities.”

Inside him, Futon was confused why his lightning wouldn't come out. Viers was familiar with the sensation. This felt similar to when all his abilities were unavailable during his Profound Practice.

“Just so! But it affects me too. However-”

Four flying arrows hovered around Marvin. Enchanted items that Viers recognized as trouble in his normal state. In his ability-less state, certain death.

“My ‘wealth’ is unaffected. I sense the disdain in your voice when talking about wealth. Oh poor Fatty, can't buy luxurious animal feed? Can't stay in a first-class pigsty? Too bad. The reason you die is because you're not rich enough. Cry that to your mommy and daddy in HELL!”

Four arrows of death’s deliverance were sent at Viers. One to the brain, the other three to the heart and other vital spots. Marvin looked forward to seeing the horror on Viers’ face. Perhaps he would even try a last ditch effort. That was fine, when the Arrows of Tristav destroyed his last hope, the despair he felt before his death would be all the sweeter.

What he saw instead was Viers’ devilishly confident smile.

Sparks of fire blossomed in the air.

Marvin recalled his arrows to his side, hovering like attack drones beside him.

Viers was still alive. He had a single arrow circling around him like a protector. His left a trail of blue light as it moved, like a ribbon.

Marvin almost didn't believe his eyes. His Arrows of Tristav were on par with the weapons Level 5 used. A weapon so prized by him that he rarely showed it to others. Only a Divine Weapon stood above it. Starfang was obviously stronger but he liked the arrows more. Those same arrows were repelled by just a single arrow. Didn't it mean that the arrow was of a higher quality?

“Ufufufuh,” Viers snickered in the most condescending way possible. “Surprised?”

“It's a fluke! It has to be!”

Marvin willed his four arrows anew. Viers sent forth his arrow in response.

The dance of the arrows as they repelled each other was uniquely magnificent.

Marvin’s Arrows of Tristav were equally matched with Viers’ Doyun Arrow.

Snarling and gritting his teeth, Marvin wore two bracelets this time. As he swung his hands, two whips of fire emerged. He lashed them both at Viers.

“Kheheheh…”

Those blazing heat would have reduced limbs to bones to ash, but Viers grabbed them, with gloved hands.

Viers equipped Dragonweave Gloves. The glove was heat-resistant. Actually, it was most-everything resistant.

Marvin was shocked. His mouth made an O.

“Pssst, can I tell you a secret?” Viers whispered like he was a drug dealer in a dark alley. “I’m actually wealthy too.”

“No… NO! I refuse to believe it!!!”

And so began the battle of wealth. Thanks to the Ruler’s Globe, both sides had their powers sealed, forcing them to rely on items. What would determine the winner would be how deep their pockets were, how many quality items that money could buy, and how many they own.

Marvin opened a pot lid. The poisonous cloud that seemed sentient was coming straight at Viers. He trapped the gas in a silver trumpet, after which it changed color to black.

Marvin put a blue candy into his mouth and exhaled frost. Those frost formed sharp icicles. Viers took out a long cape and waved the cloth like a matador. The icicles vanished before they reached him.

Marvin put on glasses that shot laser beams. As deadly as Cyclops' his sight became. Viers opened a book and a spectral knight appeared. As the knight continually blocked the beam of light, the pages of the book burned one by one. By the time all the pages were gone, Marvin’s glasses also broke.

Viers matched the extensively wealthy prince item by item, coin by coin. He was rich. How could he not be? He had been accruing wealth and inventory from the enemies he defeated and how many enemies had he killed thus far? Thanks to his soul search, whether lock-protected or secret savings, none were safe from Viers’ grubby hands. Viers wasn't blind about the importance of wealth so he extracted every value he could from his enemies. Viers being Viers, few of his enemies survived an encounter with him. He hated the idea of old enemies coming back to bother him in the future.

Viers did indeed look down on those relying on their wealth like Marvin, especially when unearned. On the other hand, Viers certainly earned his wealth through hard work. Hard work of killing, stealing, and looting. Some would call it dishonest means but in a world which encouraged killing your way to the top of the food chain, Viers had no problems whatsoever doing all that, not even an iota.

If there were people who had an issue with that, not his problem.

“Impossible… Impossible…”

With each attack being intercepted, Marvin grew more and more unnerved. The shadow of defeat began creeping in from the back of his mind. As he was not someone who was tempered in the heat of real battles his mental state deteriorated and he began to show openings.

Viers grabbed the Doyun Arrow from the air and jammed it into the prince's heart. The sound and sensation of the arrow piercing the flesh were satisfying.

He got hit by two of Marvin’s arrows as a result but he protected his head and heart so he was fine.

Marvin looked at his chest with an empty look. Half confusion, half disbelief.

“...It hurts.”

His knees gave out.

Viers was moving with a purpose, like a lion going for the jugular. He wasn't speaking a single word of gloating. He only had the focus to achieve complete victory.

Marvin’s body intensely emitted a dark-red aura. A shockwave of power knocked Viers back the next instant.

“Brat, you-”

The man, a phantom of Duke Lucan, Viers assumed, was radiating power greater than his or Marvin's. Viers wasn't surprised, it was an easily foreseen situation that Viers had read multiple times in xianxia novels. The duke invested heavily on Marvin; betrothing his daughter to him and giving him a Divine Weapon as dowry. Some manner of assurance was expected.

That assurance was what Dia was waiting for.

A woman clad in a regal dress wearing a golden wreath on her brows immediately appeared and assaulted the phantom without a word. Dia was not her normal 10-year-old appearance, but an adult. When she invoked her full might in the Biome her form changed into this.

Dia, who called upon nature’s fury, extracted the Level 5’s phantom away from her kin.

The phantom’s appearance should be a major twist but would it still be a twist if the audience saw it coming yesterday?

Viers acted as if nothing happened and attacked Marvin once again. Cold as ice, efficient as a falling blade.

“No Deus Ex Machina for you!!”