Sat on top of the great Big Gruff’s snout was a man, an intimidating figure. Long, haggard hair; small cuts apparent on his face; drably dressed, with his left side under a dirty cloak, and right hand carrying a ghastly white blade.

The shadow of Roa’s death, his shade; in its grasp, Jack, the cursed blade of the One-armed king.

Breaking the silence, the shade ordered with a gravelly voice, “Jack, eat!” And in a scene identical to one from earlier, Roa witnessed Jack start to devour what seemed to be Big Gruff’s spirit emerging from its lifeless body.

“Do you think I’d sit still and watch!?” Roa charged ferociously. —Questions were set aside for later, eradicating the shade came first and foremost.

Roa’s blade fell high with an unreserved swing. Sparks of mana flew. The crisp sound of a bell rang out as blades met. He glared at his doppelganger, and then took a quick glance at the ghastly blade, Jack.

White, ghostly plumes flickered threateningly from it, as if snarling at him for interrupting its meal. Though the plumes did nothing but caress his face like a brush of wind that just blew past.

Roa jumped back in fright, quickly assessing any changes to his body. He had never been at the receiving end of Jack’s teeth, so he was taken by surprise. It seemed they didn’t have much of an effect on him, a red-tier spirit flunky. Roa might have been thankful for that, but he felt a bit insulted at the same time.

“What? Your stomach can’t handle eating something undercooked?” he clicked his tongue as he called himself so, however, inside he cursed at how things had become more troublesome.

The situation was bad. The shade was in an environment where it could thrive. Adding to that, it looked like he hadn’t seen wrong when Luveris Academy’s mana curtain was sliced open. The dull blade in the shade’s hand back at the test was indeed the cursed Jack.

The event that had led up to being eaten by the Spirit Domain—the shade cutting open the Academy arena’s mana curtain—Roa chalked it up as an isolated incident where the shade would disappear by itself soon enough. The possibility in front of him never crossed his mind.

“I did try but… I really should’ve gotten rid of you when I got the chance.” Roa whipped his arm, sending a sharp thrust forward. The tip of his blade pierced through the air, aiming to extinguish the malicious entity opposite him.

The next second, however, his right arm was flung upwards and his blade was deflected towards the sky.

Roa kicked the ground and leapt back, but the shade wouldn’t allow his retreat. “Void Strike!” the shade uttered, swiftly crossing the distance and making the space that Roa acquired null.

He was quickly placed under siege. A cacophony of bells began to ring as he blocked strike after strike, faced with the reality that the shade was nothing like it was back at the academy’s test.

A rapid, unrelenting flurry of attacks to avoid giving the opponent time to think—it was a tactic that only worked against an opponent that was slower than he was. Roa would never have thought to be at the mercy of his own speed.

“Ugh!” he groaned in pain. A loud crack resounded after taking a heavy drop heel to his shoulder. His knees scraped the ground, and he was forced to bow down with his face pressed against the dirt.

If anyone were to chance upon this scene, they would think that Roa was prostrating to a violent beggar.

Under the disadvantageous situation, a wry laugh escaped from his mouth. “This is what it feels like to go up against ‘the’ Roa Fariche?” Roa asked. The shade paused at his question, seemingly taken aback.

Roa continued, “Guess what? He’s since learned a new trick.”

White mist suddenly exploded out from his stomach, rather, from the blade he held with his right hand.

The shade waved Jack down at Roa’s neck like an executioner’s axe, but before it could reach, Roa’s body retreated and engulfed itself into the mist, leaving the shade completely dazed as it swung Jack through empty air.

Behind it, Roa emerged and took advantage of its surprise—shoving a blade into its back and piercing a hole wide enough to see through to the other side.

—Gruff’s disappearing act, it was a wonder how the monster goat’s innate magic was stuck to the blade. With his newfound connection to his weapon, Roa managed to activate the magic, and was able to deal a grave injury to the shade.

Now, this injury might’ve been fatal to any normal person, but Roa knew it wasn’t enough to vanquish a shade.

“I’m not too used to it yet, had I been, I would’ve taken your head off.” He'd only managed Gruff's disappearing magic in the heat of the moment, so sadly, he couldn't have done better.

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Roa stepped back as the shade began to violently flail. Bright cyan coursed through his mana paths, rushing to his right hand and towards his weapon. Soon after, the clear edged blade again manifested thick mist which engulfed his entire body.

Roa’s body blended into the mist and turned almost intangible. He darted through the surrounding area faster than when he moved with his own two feet, a state that most would deem seemingly invincible. —The only flaw being, Roa’s red-tier spirit. Having just acquired Gruff’s magic, using it had been too taxing.

“As much as it pisses me off to be using the goat’s magic, I’d say killing you would more than make up for it!” Roa yelled, leaping out from the white fog with a red line of aura trailing behind him. This was his final strike.

The shade’s neck was in his sights. He swept his blade with relief knowing that this nauseating opponent would finally be gone, but at the last second, the shade spoke chilling words that completely unraveled Roa’s composure.

“Hah!” It scoffed. “You see… I’m quite familiar with these… annoying methods!”

‘What the hell!?’ Instead of meeting with the shade’s nape, Roa’s blade struck against Jack’s posterior, its hilt. His last strike was blocked.

Roa furrowed his brow. Against a shade with his own face, he didn’t want to admit that he was outmatched. “If that’s the case, then…”

He had to throw an extra variable into the fight, else he would surely lose. This was the first instance of the Spirit Domain, there was no way in hell he was going to lose here.

“I didn’t want to have to resort to this—” Roa yelled after gritting his teeth, “—Solitaria, come out! Surprise me!”

The shade didn’t flinch at his sudden remark. It no longer intended to allow Roa even the smallest time to think. The shade quickly disengaged from him and spun around to deliver a wide kick to his temple. Roa managed to block with his arm but was sent flying back.

After rolling on the ground for a few meters, Roa was trying to stand when he felt Jack’s teeth approaching from his side. He raised his blade to intercept and was sent flying once more after a deafening clash between his blade and Jack.

“Where’s that lizard when you need it!?” Roa said, spitting out some dirt that got in his mouth. He had forgotten that he had left Solitaria with the chalk pygmy, and that they both went off doing who knows what.

What else could he do then? Was it his fate to be kicked around in the dirt by the embodiment of his own failed past? Fortunately, that wasn’t going to be the case. Help had come to surprise him, just not in the form of a pale blue lizard.

“Volt!” “Burn—Seed of Fire!” Orange and purple pierced through the otherwise white surroundings, assaulting Roa’s shade and blocking its path. It was unexpected for sure that people came to his aid at this time, but instead of showing his thanks, Roa let out a chuckle.

“How’d they manage to wake you up?” Looking at the two people who were chewing luminous crowns, Roa directed his question towards the young noble, Novis, before turning an exaggeratedly painful gaze towards Ariene. He said, “Did you!? No way—did you chew the mushrooms for him?”

‘Kiss-feeding’—it was a way of allowing an unconscious person to ingest food. Roa was merely implying it as a joke, yet Ariene instantly shot him a threatening glare. “It wasn’t me!” She retorted.

‘Which is to say that someone else did?’ Roa silently pondered, failing to hide his change of expression from envy to schadenfreude.

“S-Silence! Your impertinence is showing on your face, commoner!” Novis yelled, unwilling to bring up the topic. “Now’s not the time—” he continued, but words hadn’t fully left Novis’ mouth when he was struck by a kick to his stomach and sent flying away. Meanwhile, Ariene quickly raised her black ruler, blocking the cursed blade Jack from piercing into her shoulder.

There was no time to warn her of the danger of Jack’s teeth, “Ariene, stay back!!” Roa shouted, his voice full of concern. In his eyes, white ghastly plumes flickered towards Ariene, eager to make a meal of her yellow-tier spirit.

Ariene couldn’t see what it was that alarmed Roa. The only thing in front of her was the shade with a gaping hole in its chest. The amount of corrupt mana rising to the air like black smoke, leaking out from its wounds, showed that it was on its last legs.

‘It shouldn’t be a problem taking down this monster,’ Ariene thought. She pushed the black ruler forward and exerted more strength.

Ariene was confident, that is until she felt her skin prickle and her instincts suddenly shouted at her to retreat. However, it was too late, she couldn’t move out of the way. Jack’s invisible teeth were like snakes that went around her guard and penetrated through her body.

She wasn’t physically harmed, but a cold chill raced down the nape of her neck as she felt her strength dwindle back to the helpless state she was in before—wasting the amount of effort she put in to recover mana by binging on copious amounts of luminous crowns. Immediately, her grip on the black ruler had loosed, and the shade took this chance to drive her back.

Cuts started to appear on her slender arms as she managed to avoid fatal attacks. Being forced into full defense, she furrowed her brow deeply while strands of her vermillion hair flickered pitiful embers.

“I—I didn’t come here to add to that beast’s burden!” she roared.

Unwittingly, she fired an arrow of words that cut straight to the heart of one person.

Barely able to move due to the advent of the pain of the earlier beating, Roa turned in shock towards Ariene’s shout. Although not the exact words, hearing her say them once more struck a chord within him, and an intense feeling of grief welled up, but only for a split moment. He didn’t let it fester.

She could smile, she could laugh, be angered—she could look deadly serious while a string of cheese hung unwittingly to her rosy chin. Here and now—at this point in time, Ariene fought.

Roa shook his head and snapped himself out of the sudden shock. It was then that he turned his attention back to the shade.

The Roa Fariche who had died in the past—the malicious shade stood frozen, the fierceness and glow of its eyes dying down to the blaze of a small candle. Curiously, it seemed that it had suffered a similar shock.

—End of Chapter 16