A vast land was unfolding to the horizon, as nobody would know where it was.

There was nothing surrounded it, as the moonlight bashed the wavy field brightly with its radiance. Even though the sky was a bit cloudy. The land seemed empty at these hours. No activities or villages could be found in this land. However, below the highest hill of that land, from afar there could be seen a gigantic tree as it utterly surpassed the sky.

Stories told that once upon a time, that tree used to be a bustling and prosperous society of the unfathomable eternal mages. Nonetheless, it was likely reduced to emptiness due to the thunder’s conquest. Even so, the gigantic tree was now utterly occupied as a ritual site as if it was a house with a size of the Outer Space.

Inside it, spiraling stairs were emanating some blue lights, as below the stairs (the first floor), there was an altar. Above it was a single man laid in the middle of it. Surrounding him were countless mages that were equipped with baton-like staffs as another man also tried to approach it (the altar). The figure of the approaching man was still obscure because he was wrapped in dark garments.

Hours has passed. Ignatius, who had turned back conscious, opened his eyelids slowly, as suddenly a shining blue light enveloped the very entirety of his naked body. As he opened his eyes, he got up from the altar below him, as he asked the female mage —likely the altar keeper — beside him.

“Ughh...Where are my clothes?”

“?!”

The woman garb in black robes grunted, as behind her was a blue fabric. Ignatius noticed that, and:

“Give that thing to me.”

“Here, sir.”

“Thank you.”

Ignatius momentarily donned the blue fabric around his body —as seen more thoroughly, it was his clothes —afterwards, he made an iron chainmail out of his hand. Now he was done, he paced around his surroundings. Still, some countless mages aligned on his right and left, he noticed someone nearby.

“Mizuki?”

“Endou. Looks like a long time before we meet again, huh?”

All of sudden, Mizuki made her beautiful appearance behind him. Her hair was now untied, and she also wore a white robe. She rose from the rock as she spoke to Ignatius, sarcastically laughed. As he heard so, anybody could tell that he was frowning by now.

“No, not really. This ascension just took a few moments, though. Oh well, Hiruko had just done his ascension, so, he should’ve been nearby.”

“Now, where is he?” Ignatius continued muttering to himself without being noticed by Mizuki, as his fingers touched his chin. However, he remembered about something as he continued: “Fufufufufufufu, I see you came to visit me just a moments ago. Don’t you try to fool me.”

Mizuki also noticed out of the blue, as the soothing breeze had stopped singing. She realized if that person —Hiruko—was utterly walking towards them.

“Ah! There you are!”

The black robed man yelled before the two as he appeared behind them out of the blue. Without any doubt, that was Hiruko —formerly known as Herbert the Immortal Flame —who was before garb in a dark unkempt cloth. In contrast, his hair was still straight as ever —as same as when he was at the café before.

“Hm. Didn’t surprised.”

As Ignatius said so, Mizuki didn’t show any response. Perhaps, she thought that she had no business with them, as if a reunion between brothers. Furthermore, her knowledge had told her about the two’s former names —Ignatius and Herbert —however, she would like to call them with their current nicknames, for the sake of convenience. That time when the two men had a random conversation, Mizuki kept silent until Ignatius’ face went serious. He uttered:

“...Mizuki. Come here.”

The three now stood in a horizontal line, as together from a distance, they saw an intense wind pressure. That was most likely that they have got a company.

The three witnessed the phenomena of an “invisible whirlwind” in front of them. Alas, it only lasted for a split second and from it formed a massive-sized magic circle that momentarily summoned four people on that spot. On it were a man and the rest were young women who encircled him. Without doubt, those were people — Rea, Nami, Dandelion and Myu— that just came back from the Demon King castle before. Rea, as she saw the figure of Ignatius, she spontaneously ran to him and...

“Sir!”

“————”

“What is this...all of sudden?”

Ignatius asked. That girl buried her face in front of his chest, embraced the very flesh of a man that taught him since her childhood.

“Finally, we meet. Thanks to Mr. Dandelion there who guided me here to find you.”

Rea said as she pointed her finger to Dandelion who stood far behind her. Dandelion noticed, as he pretended to listen them.

“Ah! What was that again?”

He asked in a deep and manly voice, that sounded loud and clear to the two. But Ignatius didn’t concern that and he asked:

“Dandelion? Third? I see you want to pay a visit here.”

“No, no. Just a whim.”

Dandelion replied as he put a wry smile on his face.

And then, the two beside Ignatius came to approach the others that were just came here.

“You guys!” Mizuki yelled to them as she walked faster than Hiruko.

“Oh, you are here?”

Nami gave a response to her.

Now, there were seven people in the spot in front of the tree. At first, they sat for a moment until each of them suddenly stood, and narrowed their eyes—

“...Wait...” Nami mumbled to herself.

“...He finally came. Tis’ is dangerous...” Ignatius continued, as he took an object behind his cloak. It was a small magic wand that had a shape like those from movies. He handed it over to Mizuki. “Mizuki, prepare yourselves. Here. Take it.”

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“Eh—”

As the blue wizard gave her, Mizuki was confused in expression, but now she realized that she had no time for that. She accepted it as she grasped it on her left hand. Even though at this chaotic moment she had no room to think, in fact, she thought about one thing...

‘What was actually happening? Who was that?’

————————————————————————————————————————————

From the clouds, a particular object was falling as if it thrusted the air below them.

Without any second passed, it eventually arrived on the ground. That arrival made the surrounding shattered, as some speck of dust covered the shape of that very being behind it. As the surrounding air became clear, an infamous sight of a man —Marquise stepped his foot on that land.

He walked with all of his might to the tree less than a kilometer before him alone. A tremendous excitement could be hinted out from his expression right now. Maybe, at that moment, he just wanted to face The Blue Wizard, as said before that he wanted to challenge him. No matter who is him. No matter what kind of person he was.

“Let’s do this,”

He muttered as he gradually came closer to the tree. His field of view expanded to the horizon, so it made Endou and his friends visible from a likely small distance. Not even 200 meters between them, Marquise abruptly stopped.

“——————.”

“Finally, we have meet each other directly.”

A voice of a charismatic burst. It was how they met directly, not by their last night’s dream. Marquise dreamt to challenge one of the strongest beings in the entire existence —The Ten Pantheons — and now, it had come to reality. Finally, the time when he challenged Ignatius, one of those ten, or the seventh had come. Marquise spoke again.

“You remember what I said before, don’t you?”

Back at Ignatius, he referred that as the scene where he had his unconscious dreams. He answered Marquise’s voice that filled with great determination, without wavering.”

“Of course. But I had waken up when I wanted to ask for the requirements. But well, I guess no need to do such things.”

“Oh, then, it won’t be fun! I have an idea instead. How about we fight without our abilities. We will do a hand-to-hand combat. Oh yeah, also magic is not allowed in this challenge. What do you think? Do you accept?”

“I do.”

“Ahaha, that’s a good thing to hear! But before that, why did your friends disappear all of sudden?”

“?”

Ignatius swiftly turned his head behind him, and what Marquise told him was right; no one was behind, or surrounding them. The land now left the two that faced each other in front of the tree.

“Don’t ask me,”

Ignatius continued as he readied his guard up. He lowered his body and made his own stance. Marquise, on the other hand, put both of his hands in front of his chest. He also made a lower stance than Ignatius, but it seemed that Marquise’s stance was more abstract-looking than Ignatius. Without any wavering, they gazed at each other, as Marquise’s eyes sparkled bloodshot red and spoke—

“In that case, let’s begin.”

“Aye, this might be the most entertaining challenge —final battle —that you’ve ever made.”

Their resolve was now clear. As they had engraved determination, Marquise leapt his leg and stroke towards the Blue Wizard as if that movement was the movement that of a medieval horse knight—that thrust his lance throughout his enemies. It was because of his lightning speed and his complicated martial arts skill.

In a split second, his fist reached had reached the front of Ignatius' breasts that seemed to be the place where his heart was. Marquise in an instant spun his fists towards it, however,

Ignatius stretched his hand quickly as he repelled the punch onto his right. Took the advantage of that wide-opened position Marquise, Ignatius performed a spinning kick which eventually hit Marquise’s neck. The impact moved his body for a little, but a crack was visible on his neck. As he tilted his head, he said:

“Hoho, you can see my movements after all. Even though your eyes were covered with that long-ass hair.”

Ignatius didn’t show any response. Instead, now he was more focused on offensive. Not yet reaching the vital parts of Marquise’s body, a rain of fists attack had befallen on him

Ignatius greeted by relentless attacks which were sent by Marquise’s fists. As it gradually befell on him, he swept those attacks by his hand, putting all of his might and effort to make it miss. Raining attacks and repellence fought intensely on this field, as it deleted and recreate each other’s speed with a same flow of power. Each of their punches itself could destroy the story itself and left no seed of it, however, their bodies had surpassed it. So, there seen the two fighting as if an ordinary wrestling battle.

The story itself was a type of abstraction, the part of cosmology that utterly detached, fully disconnected from infinite boxes below it. Any notion below it couldn’t catch its’ true nature or even the shadow of that story.

...As if this world was those infinite boxes and its fate were the story.

Back to the two fighting, countless forms of attack had been unleashed onto each other. Ignatius’ style of fighting now had went cleaner. Even though it was all a punch and a kick, those normal attacks could bypass any concepts, such as defense, evasion, and durability. As for the example was Marquise, who had an invincible armor which had a thickness of countless and endless barriers. Yet, it didn’t work against Ignatius’ kinds of barehanded attacks, instead, Marquise’s body still took the damage from it.

Now was Marquise’s leg that went for Ignatius’ head. Ignatius momentarily reacted to that movement and he blocked it with his arm. For a slight moment, Marquise’s position had become unbalanced and wide-open. So, Ignatius took that chance to deliver a high kick as if the speed tore the air. In the end, it had already hit the area around Marquise’s nose accurately.

“——Gah!”

He let out a scream as multiple drip of blood were bursting out. That also send his tooth flying. As it fell to the ground, Marquise spontaneously punched Ignatius’ cheek. Earlier, his pair of eyes peered to the guard downed Ignatius, so he had a hegemony chance to attack on the face.

Ignatius said nothing, as his head turned back 135 degrees left after being punched by Marquise. Marquise couldn’t see his face right now, but he saw his hair were fluttered by his punch’s shockwave. Only that. And, what was he trying to hide from his face?

Marquise didn’t concern about that at all. He then marked the end of the first round, by having a little talk with Ignatius.

“How’s that? Tell me what do you feel after we fight in the middle of the night, surrounded by a large field and a gigantic tree.”

“Hmph, it’s fun.”

“Oho? That’s your answer? Well, we could fly, no? Since it was counted as our physical power, why don’t we fight on the air?”

“You’ve got the point. Then, let’s do this!”

“Indeed.”

Marquise replied as his eyes sparkled a bright ruby red again. His determination was clear. He must eliminate Ignatius before him quickly to fulfill his dream. To complete it.

He kicked the ground, shattered the surrounding land as he thought about an uppercut to that blue wizard, and it sent him flying. He relentlessly rained down some punches to that man. Ignatius blocked those attacks with his arms, however,

“Hohohoho...you did take a damage while tanking yourself, as such myself. Even so, we didn’t feel any pain from this, after all.”

“Ahaha, you were right! So, when will we put the end to this farce?”

“Oh. That will be happened if one of us had a fatal bleeding...or else, if your body was pulverized.”

“Fine.”

Ignatius answered as he landed a heavy blow to Marquise. It made Marquise lost his balance, and he pushed far until he hit the clouds behind him. Not yet stopped there, Marquise did a counterattack to Ignatius. Right here and now, that was the moment when he put his very might and his tremendous willpower —to end this challenge with his final, heavy strike directed through Ignatius’ chest.

Marquise, at this current state his hair became untidy, and his mouth was having a leakage of blood, as dirt now covered his face. As such, Ignatius’ state wasn’t much different. Both of them have their faces covered by dirt, nonetheless, there was no blood coming out from Ignatius.

Marquise had noticed it. Hence, he said:

“My state is now more broken than you are. But that didn’t mean that I lose. On the contrary, its’ my chance! Now, get lost!”

He flew to the higher skies above Ignatius, and he abruptly dove down as on his eyes were Ignatius that merely faced upwards. He didn’t show any reactions as that threat was coming before his sight...

...Marquise’s fist now spun, created a turmoil right in front of Ignatius’ chest. It also gave a hard pressure that —

—made Ignatius’ body fall hardly.