"Shit! It's happening again!" - "Gora is at the Neutrality realm 5th stage. Those are 4 fucking stages difference! Why would the tournament continue like this?!" - "Arla was the last Broken Crystallization realm cultivator beside the little black monster. Who else is he supposed to face? Kilah wasn't chosen. You should just be glad, bro." - "Come on, Heian Ciemnosc! show them what you got!" - "Beat that little black monster's ass! Put his failure of cultivation down! Uncover the truth!" - "Hey! There's more than 1 ongoing fight, you know?" - "Shhh!" - "..."
“...” Heian Ciemnosc looked at his opponent as he reappeared in a swift and clean arena. This one was much different from the others, especially Kilah’s, which was still mostly broken, and only a couple hundred meters were left with the floor not entirely disordered. Gora smirked, grinning at the ‘good luck’ of him and Kilah meeting their destined opponents one after another. Gora looked at the sky with a slightly foolish, smiling face before looking down at Heian Ciemnosc with schadenfreude.
Spreading his arms, Gora looked at Heian Ciemnosc as if trying to say; that’s how things were sometimes. Looking at that snarky smirk, Heian Ciemnosc tilted his head slightly to the right and forward, leaning it before his right shoulder. His darkest eyes were looking at Gora without much emphasis, but somehow, his eyes seemed terribly attractive. Gora felt his mind sparkle as if some dead short was happening inside his mind, but it quickly went away.
“Hm,” Gora wasn’t being disdainful towards Heian Ciemnosc to the point he underestimated this person who might or might not have threatened him before. But he was still disdainful. Taking his long, wide saber from his Covert Space bag, he jolted his head to the left, cracking his bones as he spoke. “Take out your weapon, and you better take some protection. I won’t hesitate to go all-out, even to face those below me!”
Pshift! A crystallized armor surrounded Gora’s body as his right hand wielded his long, wide saber. The armor wasn’t striking but wasn’t as bland as the pure energy armor one gains in the First Step. It had some pure energy flow through and was made of one’s Neutral Energy color. If Gora were to wear Earth grade complete equipment, he would’ve been able to change its colors depending on the equipment.
“I don’t need them,” Heian Ciemnosc lightly said, barely audible. Gora understood these words well but still asked, “Huh?! What was that? Couldn’t hear it well…”
Pshift- click! Pshift- click! Instead of repeating his words, Heian Ciemnosc finally took his Claws out after hiding them for a little, ever since the 2nd phase was over. He felt liberated. After hiding his dark claws for so long, only letting his Vocón Link come to light and eat his enemies away, Heian Ciemnosc sucked air into his nostrils, pleasantly enjoying the fact he could now release it.
In fact, he was so calm that he didn’t even look bothered that his wife’s life was in danger just now, making the majority of the bleachers’ crowds feel somewhat weird. However, negative comments and doubters still maintained their firm foothold to want to humiliate Heian Ciemnosc, yelling their sets of words and profanities nonstop. Naturally, Heian Ciemnosc ignored them, but so did Gora, lest he believed them and thought for another second that his opponent was simple.
“As you wish, hm!” Gora stood with his back straight, ignoring the other fights as Teno fought in one of the other arenas. Kilah didn’t participate in this round, but neither did Sahnyr. There would only be 2 rounds this time, and the tension of its shorter duration heaved down upon each participant. But for people like Tene, Sahnyr, and Gora, this didn’t matter, much less for Heian Ciemnosc, whose goal was right before him.
“Woaaah…” The crowd marveled upon seeing Heian Ciemnosc’s Claws Out. They were clearly different from what they witnessed before. They were as long as a finger, were slightly sharper, even thicker, and had that sensation of drawing one’s eyes to them like moths to a flame. Heian Ciemnosc’s darkest eyes were already something, but his new Claws Out enchanted the spectators as they remembered he also had a tail and fangs!
Step! However, there was no time for those thoughts, as Gora dashed forwards with his right foot kicking the ground, fully extended as he folded the left leg, directly flying towards Heian Ciemnosc. The latter simply slid his right foot backwards, bringing his right claw to his face and slowly folding his left-handed dark claws. His darkest eyes were casual as Gora rapidly closed in without using the Consequential 3-Eye Supreme Art.
Wheesh- cuh, cuh- ponk! Whooooosh… Heian Ciemnosc saw Gora’s ordinary speed above his, but their nimbleness was on par. When Gora was just 3 kilometers away, Heian Ciemnosc silently ran forwards to meet him head-on. In under a couple tens of seconds, without using any dark Power Energy or Neutral Energy attacks, they rushed towards each other quietly. And with Gora’s maximum, ordinary speed, Heian Ciemnosc’s run for it shortened the time needed to meet.
A simple sound of whooshing figures rapidly flying through the air sounded just before Gora changed his saber’s position, holding it to his left side to prepare for a stabbing motion. Heian Ciemnosc, on the other hand, kept his dark claws up to his hips and lowered his stance, stomping the ground without making a sound before rapidly bringing both of them upwards, facing the sky.
Saber and dark claws collided. The mortal weapon, covered by Neutral Energy, didn’t stand a chance as it ricocheted upwards as the dark claws’ tips brushed its edge and side. Marks were left on the sides as it flew up, and sparks came off from the encounter as Heian Ciemnosc’s darkest eyes observed Gora’s. The latter’s eyes were surprised to see the outcome, but that didn’t leave him feeling hopeless or shocked.
Pshift, pshift, pshift… A gentle burst went off between them as Gora separated from going melee with Heian Ciemnosc any further. At the same time, going heads over hills backwards, he sent multiple slow, transparent Neutral Energy beams towards Heian Ciemnosc, attacking him while retreating. Heian Ciemnosc wasn’t stupid, and contrary to Gora’s thoughts, he didn’t surprise the pale young man with the sudden retreat with attacking motions.
Whoo- whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh… Heian Ciemnosc watched those transparent beams move towards him and simply swiped from the center, before him, and slightly looking upwards, to the left and right with his respective dark claws. Wind burst from the motion as it flew towards the Neutral Energy attacks, neutralizing them with the first encounter before aiming at Gora, who stood on the floor as the Wind bursts arched downwards.
His mouth was invaded by his left-handed index and middle fingers, but only with their tips. He bit on them, but instead of drawing blood into his mouth, they flew down his throat and immediately went to his nose. As they came out of his nostrils, they turned into ribbons, colored in a transparent hue with his Neutral Energy, that floated down and wrapped around his saber’s handle. Just then, the Wind bursts descended on his head, and Gora’s right hand slightly blurred!
Fwoosh- slassshh! Whoosh! Cuuuu~uuh! Pshift, pshift!
With speed came strength! Heian Ciemnosc watched Gora simply swing his right arm upwards. The tip of Gora’s saber broke the Wind bursts apart like they were nothing, his Neutral Energy tearing through the middle as it immediately dispersed them without any sequelae. Immediately after, however, as Gora’s feet gained an enigmatic glow with yellow, blue, and gray, he rushed into the air and towards Heian Ciemnosc.
Gora's speed increased, flying just a meter above the arena’s floor, and only then did Heian Ciemnosc understand he was using part of the Consequential 3-Eye Supreme Art. Gora rapidly approached, and with a small distance of short tens of meters after the sudden separation, Heian Ciemnosc wouldn’t be able to move even for a couple of meters if he wanted. Such a move was optimal when one was much faster than their opponent.
Gora’s saber came stabbing through the air towards Heian Ciemnosc just like before, but all of this happened in less than 10 seconds since the time they were close to each other for the first time, leaving the crowd wanting to gasp but their eyes were too focused, and their mouths didn’t matter. Heian Ciemnosc’s dark claws suddenly pulsated as layers of darkness covered his pale hands and jumped into the air immediately before his chest.
Two oval-shaped, as thin as one’s fingernail, dark barriers appeared, covering Heian Ciemnosc’s front while his arms slowly raised to the sides. Vocón Link came out of the back of his left shoulder, like a wanton anaconda splashing on the mud after holding underwater. It swept in the immediate surroundings of his back, where it traveled from his shoulder to his right hand and then to the left. His dark claws looked throbbing as the Vocón Link started tangling around Heian Ciemnosc’s arm while Gora rushed towards him.
In under less than a second, Gora was already swinging his saber at Heian Ciemnosc when suddenly, the dark whip wrapping around Heian Ciemnosc’s arms started unwrapping crazily! Tiny Wind blades came out from the gaps as the Vocón Link’s body left more and more gaps between its dark, opaque body and Heian Ciemnosc’s pale skin. Gora didn’t stop as he wore his crystallized armor, setting his eyes on Heian Ciemnosc’s sternum, not ‘protected’ by the barriers or the strange dark whip’s blasting Wind blades.
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Pfip pfip pfip pfip- WHOOOOSH- BAAAWWSSHHH~~ cuh cuh cuh cuh- Futomp! PSHIFT!
Some Wind blades touched Gora’s crystallized armor, barely touching or grazing it before ricocheting or deviating to the sides. He felt elated doing the same Heian Ciemnosc did to his opponent in the Neutrality realm 1st stage before, where Heian Ciemnosc didn’t even care about his then opponent’s Neutral Energy. However, as he motioned his saber to stab through the 2 thin, dark barriers to impale his sternum, the Vocón Link no longer unwrapped itself like crazy but directly separated itself from Heian Ciemnosc’s arms.
Seeing this, suddenly, Gora’s pupils shrunk as a vehemently enormous Wind burst from within. On the other hand, Heian Ciemnosc’s arms were still obstructing sight from anyone else, as if he was wearing an oversized sweater, but the Wind elemental particles hidden within, stained and corrupted by his dark Power Energy, had already turned his to command. When the Vocón Link ‘freed’ his arms, Heian Ciemnosc rushed this Wind attack outwards.
“!” Gora was immediately halted in midair. His flying speed was nulled, and he stagnated. His saber was slightly lowered, held between his hands, but its tip was still 20 cm from reaching the thin, dark barriers. Meanwhile, the tremendous Wind energy threatened to burst his body and blast it into the sky, but before he could even make any countermeasure, the dark whip’s body started… spitting dark Wind blades in his general direction!
‘What the!’ Gora’s eyes widened as he covered his head with his crystallized armor, just one moment before his face was struck by dozens and dozens of dark Wind blades. Gora watched his crystallized armor start cracking, and the ‘tick’ noises slamming his ears and through his skin into his body alarmed him dearly. This prompted him to employ his best capabilities as the Consequential 3-Eye Supreme Art was put to work, blurring his waist first as Heian Ciemnosc’s darkest eyes were waiting just to see this.
Gora suddenly emitted a Neutral Energy pulse, exploding outwards, but only from his front. The concentrated outburst led to Heian Ciemnosc’s body being pushed backwards, not by sliding or by stepping back, but his body simply jumped into the air as his pale body remained stiff. Even with the powerful outburst, Heian Ciemnosc didn’t move one bit, resisting it head-on. Gora avoided hitting the 2 dark barriers, further concentrating on destroying Heian Ciemnosc’s Wind attack.
However, although Heian Ciemnosc’s Wind burst might’ve stopped, his dark Wind blades continued raining towards Gora, who kept his foothold in midair and took a formidable stance for show. Heian Ciemnosc’s darkest eyes looked as the rest of Gora’s body turned blurry, as colors slowly started painting it into the iconic form of the Interchanging Dust Dynasty’s Supreme Art.
In this stalemate, sudden but solid, impossible to break as Neutral Energy and dark Wind blades faced each other. Heian Ciemnosc looked up, while Gora looked down and opened his mouth to speak, but the vibrations traveled through his Neutral Energy. “I don’t know what kind of trick you must know from that supposedly Supreme Art your Academy has recently created to conjure this… ‘Wind’! But none of that matters before a real Supreme Art like mine, like my Dynasty’s!”
Gora’s right hand slowly and elegantly moved upwards, with his fingers flicking and folding before extending gracefully. Gora’s voice turned lighter and much more snobbish as the Godly beings around the platform raised their eyebrows. On the other hand, Grand Elder Jolden’s eyes widened as his skin numbed. Yet, Gora was none the wiser as she said, “This is a real Supreme Art. A Supreme Art that has been in this world for millions of years, further trained and developed with every generation! One that can unleash chaos in a whole Existence if the right one is using them! This isn’t something a kid like you can understand or show!”
Heian Ciemnosc tilted his head to the left, feeling Gora getting real excited, but he felt bored of this nonsense instead. Just as Gora was reuniting Neutral Energy in his Dantian region and the blurry painting was finished, only his right hand showed as he lowered it, without his crystallized armor. That was when Heian Ciemnosc’s darkest eyes blinked. They exposed a peculiar light.
“Haha, see? Now I will sho- hu-?” Gora was in the middle of his explanation when he suddenly felt a noise ring inside his head. He barely turned his head to look back when he felt like morning lights had darkened, and several scintillating dark ‘somethings’ were abundant everywhere around him. At first, it looked like a ring of dark Wind blades surrounding his back and sides, but as he continued looking around, Gora quickly found 100 of those blades aiming at him, scintillating with elemental energy but covered by that darkness.
“!?” Just as Gora’s eyes widened in realization, suddenly, a similar image struck his brain. Each of those dark Wind blades exposed the thinnest dark string attached to them, each coming from the 2 dark barriers. But at the same time, something seemed to move within the ‘world’ of those barriers, making the dark strings flash with dark Power Energy. Crowds and Godly beings muttered as they were revealed the sight of nearly 1,000 dark Wind blades floating everywhere around Gora’s back, belonging to the tiny Wind blades and others that had deviated before!
They didn’t dissipate but simply stagnated in midair and were slowly covered by Heian Ciemnosc’s dark Power Energy and dark Soul, right behind Gora’s notice!
“This is impossible!” - “How can there be such an imitation? How can it be so accurate?!” - “Was this just from a look? That can’t be. This kid has to have seen the Milblades Storm before, even studied it!” - “It doesn’t have the nature belonging to the Supreme Art, it can… only be… ‘inspiration’ drawn from it… how?!” - “It looks like it has Category 1 prowess. This is incredible!”
“Grand Elder?” - “Grand Elder Jolden!” Jolden felt his shoulders tugged by Bajo and Bai Yue’er as he was unresponsive. While the others thought he was pensive, in truth, Jolden felt like his legs had grown cold and his face was chilly. When he woke up, he rapidly turned to face Diego, whose eyes were narrowed and who was already looking at him. Diego didn’t waste another second to ask as the scene below approximated its climax. “Did you teach him, Jolden? Did anyone give him access to your Sect’s Supreme Art?”
“No. And no, Little Fera has no insights into the Milblades Storm yet… this… It can’t be our fault, rather- GULP… This kid had just learned it on his own!” Jolden was honest as his eyes returned to below. Diego’s eyes also looked down, his hands on the end of his armchairs as they turned decisive.
… Back to Heian Ciemnosc’s arena. The other participants were also semi-affected by Heian Ciemnosc’s obscuring of the morning. It didn’t weaken or hurt them, of course. But it did draw their attention far too much to keep fighting seriously. Looking towards them, they saw an arena even more dark than their own, with a glowing figure flying above the floor, staring down at something or someone.
“Show me more,” were the last words Heian Ciemnosc’s said before his darkest eyes furrowed a little. Since this clown liked talking and boasting about his Dynasty’s Supreme Art, then Heian Ciemnosc will grant him a chance to unleash its might and precedented reputation. Immediately, his dark claws clenched, embedding into his pale skin but not stabbing through and drawing dark blood from within.
Pshiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiift~- pew, pew, pew, pew, pew, pew, pew, pew, pew, pew, pew, pew, pew, pew!...
“AAAHH!” The fight resumed in an overwhelming fashion under the frowning, confused eyes of the crowd. A dark Wind blade suddenly shot towards Gora’s left shoulder, followed by a second, a third, and dozens and dozens more. Gora felt the first one land on his blurred painting, barely managing to avoid it in the next second. He did the same with the second and third but couldn’t do the same with the dozens of dark Wind blades flying towards him.
Returning his face towards Heian Ciemnosc once more as hundreds of dark Wind blades were mobilized at the same time, he glanced at Heian Ciemnosc before resolving his mind. Gora’s blurred painting suddenly flashed as a golden hue came from it. Heian Ciemnosc’s eyes narrowed, but his darkest eyes kept looking as they shrunk when he noticed something. Gora roared. His Neutral Energy was suddenly consumed as if a hand had taken a large chunk of it outside his body.
“GRAAAAAAAALLL!” Gora shouted even more. But, this time, his body arched backwards as the hundreds of dark Wind blades rained on him. Yet, as they crashed against the blurred painting, some blades started flying outwards from within! Heian Ciemnosc’s eyebrows were slightly powered as some landed on his chest and left cheek while he tilted his head to the right. He suddenly felt Gora’s eyes land on him from the blurred painting, and his expression changed.
‘You… dare to try and wield my darkness?!’ Heian Ciemnosc’s was incensed as his mind echoed with fury. A tiny little sparkle flashed before his eyes, stunning Gora, but only he could see it. Not even the 4 hosts above them noticed anything as Heian Ciemnosc kept a calm and collected stance while his dark Wind blades seemed to not harm him in the slightest.
Besides thinking that Heian Ciemnosc’s moves were beyond practical, since his own techniques didn’t seem to harm himself, despite being a Supreme Art and not capable of wielding all its power in the ‘mere’ Second Step, they were also amazed that Gora could achieve cultivating the Interchanging Dust Dynasty’s Consequential 3-Eye Supreme Art to this point. However, one Godly being muttered as he saw the remaining dark Wind blades flying towards the blurred painting.
“He has no mastery of the Golden Era. Most likely, only this Kilah should be able to use the Golden Era with her cultivation base so low. Otherwise, even someone at the peak later stages of the Neutrality realm would’ve been felled against Biston’s suicidal, Elemental manmade disaster.” - “Mn.” - “Indeed.” - “However, why is this kid immune to his own power? That’s terrifying.”
…