Retreating with his hands stretched behind his head, he grabbed Asia’s hand before he walked away without turning back.

“I like you. We’ll continue our talk when I’m done.”

With those words, he retreated into the house with Asia following silently. When the duo disappeared, Cleria let out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding.

“Aurelia. I’m so sor…ry?”

Cleria couldn’t quite believe her eyes. Aurelia stood ramrod straight with her face maintaining its black visage. But when she strained her eyes, she could make out something she thought she would never see on the straight-laced woman.

[Is…is that a blush?!]

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|DxD|

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A few kilometres away from the house, Igor and Aurelia stood apart from each other in a face off. With trees surrounding them at every point, there was barely ten metres of distance between each trunk. The sun was high but its rays barely managed to penetrate to the forest floor. Apart from a few insects, other wildlife was scarce in the forest due to Igor’s aura having driven most of the animals away.

The blonde stood while he stretched his arms, his eyes locked on to Aurelia’s form. With black pants and his long-sleeved black shirt, he was ready for battle, and his energetic aura certainly showed that. With a full-stomach, the recharge-rate of his ki had boosted by a considerable margin and with all that excess energy, he needed to let out some of it. Aurelia’s previous display had certainly served to stroke his battle-starved appetite. It was to the point that the moment he finished eating, he dragged the woman here, with her permission of course.

In front of Igor’s enthusiastic grin, Aurelia maintained her impassive gaze. But she couldn’t hide the feeling of atleast wanting to spar a bit with her soon-to-be husband. It was unladylike and she blamed her ancestry for inheriting this subtle desire for a good fight.

Knowing that her current attire was less than fit for fighting a certified speed-demon, she snapped her fingers and a white light covered her body. When it dissipated, it revealed her to be now clad in an elegeant miko dress that had long slits on the side to not restrain leg movement. The dress was red in colour but upon closer inspection, one could notice the tell-tale sign of metal plating by the edges, indicating that underneath the fabric was laced with metal armour for protection. A magnificent black coat was draped over her form with a katana strapped to her side. Opposed to the blonde’s shinobi sandals, she wore calf-length strapped sandals that had quite a thick heel on them. Tying her hair in a ponytail, her current state was vastly different from her subservient maid-like appearance. Despite being a western beauty, she seemed more like a samurai, a likely influence of having stayed in Japan for most of her life.

Placing a hand on her sword, she got into a stance.

“Benefactor. Though this one may not be on par with you, please do not underestimate her.”

Igor similarly raised his fists and got into a stance.

“And lose an arm? I’m definitely not underestimating you, Sister Aurelia.”

There was a lull of silence between them, the leaves scattering as the pressure of their gradually rising aura affected the wind around them. Those with keen ears would be able to hear the muscles of each individual tense as they reinforced them with either magic power or ki. Aurelia further channeled mana into her sword, allowing it to gain a faint blue luminescence.

As for Igor, he had undone his Kaioken in order to get the most authentic pleasure from this fight. Without it, his power stabilised at the peak of mid-god class. This was currently his maximum power-level without the technique. But he figured with a month of solid training, stepping into high-god class would be a non-issue.

While Aurelia was in low-god class, her decades of experience combined with the knowledge from her ancestors had the potential to close, or even surpass the gap between her and the blonde. And with her repertoire of magic spells and swordsmanship styles, she wasn’t necessarily outmatched. But that was only theory on paper. The real test would begin when the two clashed.

Gripping her sword tightly, she vanished.

Su!

Being the first to move, Aurelia appeared instantly in front of the blonde, her sword ready for a quickdraw-slash. As soon as she drew her sword, she immediately slashed behind her.

SLASH!

Nearly caught by surprise, Igor trapped the blade between his palms, the tip dangerously close to his nose. The afterimage he left to fool her dissipated while he locked eyes with her.

“You really want to cleave me in half, don’t you.”

“Rest assured, Benefactor. This one is confident she can heal you before you lose your breath.”

Mustering a strained grin, he quipped back.

“Your services won’t be needed, sister. Besides, you still haven’t told me who you really are.”

Issuing a daring manoeuvre, he used his palm to push the sword to the side. At the same time, he spun like a corkscrew to avoid having his shoulder slashed and aimed a kick towards her head.

Feeling the power behind the kick, Aurelia deflected the kick with her shoulder before retreating, just in time to avoid an impromptu horsekick that would’ve landed on her chin.

Quickly righting himself from his handstand, Igor stood up again.

“I’m no good with a sword, but…”

Zuuuuu

White aura blades formed in his hands.

“...I’m pretty good with these.”

The blades were barely ten centimetres long if measured from the tips of his fingers, but they were his specialty that he mastered. Having gotten used to fighting more than one opponent, short blades were the best fit for him in a confined space like a battlefield.

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The lull of silence between them didn’t last long before they lunged at each other again.

Su! Su!…CLASH!

The exchanges between them were fast. They barely appeared for even a second before they suddenly appeared a dozen metres away. Whether it be on the ground, atop a branch, or even vertically on the tree trunks, they fought, their senses entirely focused on each other.

All anyone would be able to see were brief flashes of Igor redirecting a blade or Aurelia blocking a stab before the duo suddenly vanished. As for the mundane, they wouldn’t be able to see more than brief flashes of light.

So far, no sort of energy techniques were used besides reinforcing their bodies for maximum physical capabilities. Both displayed superb energy control with absolutely no leakage of aura from their bodies.

Aurelia was also especially impressed with how he handled her blows. His spectral blades were able to parry her katana with relative ease. From what she’d seen so far, Igor seemed to be the sort of person who’d be brash in this fight and not fear her blade. But he was cautious, his eyes serious.

She was learning more about him in this fight than she could’ve possibly learnt from another source, alleviating to his words during breakfast.

‘I don’t know you, Sister Aurelia. You seem to know me and you want something from me. But I don’t trust you. Let’s have a good fight first. Only then, will I answer anything you want to know.’

Although she had agreed hesitantly, she couldn’t lie and say she wasn’t enjoying the scuffle between them. It was certainly a nice variation from sparring with Yasaka and the other odd yokai.

Though neither of their lives were at stake, she would do her best to win…

“Let’s turn it up a notch, Sister Aurelia!”

“Yes, Benefactor.”

…because from their exchange right now, she knew he would want nothing less than her one-hundred percent.

GRUUU!

Igor was the first to step things up. With his power rising, he pointed his arms towards Aurelia before golden orbs formed in them.

“Ha!”

Du! Du! Du! Du! Du! Du! Du! Du! Du!

Ki blasts began raining at Aurelia from all directions. When the blonde released them, some of them would divert their paths and strike at her from the sides or behind her like homing missiles. It was a superb display of ki control, with none of them hitting the trees at all. One could only marvel just how much one had to practice to continuously calculate the trajectories of ki blasts for an ever-moving target.

While Aurelia could marvel at his ki control, she had much bigger things to worry about.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

These supercharged ki blasts were like miniature bombs that she had to constantly dodge or risk suffering considerable injuries. On their own, these blasts weren’t powerful. But if one hit, then just the impact would slow her down enough for other subsequent blasts to hit her.

But in a display of agility, Aurelia darted from tree branch to tree branch without issue. Instead of her, all these attacks managed to hit were the trees or the ground. In that time, Aurelia was already focusing her magic power, not content so simply be on the receiving end. Gripping her sword, she channeled mana into her feet before jumping into the sky.

Having the blonde in her sights, she quietly muttered.

“[One Slash]”

KACHA!

Like the sound of glass breaking, a menacing sword slash that spread dozens of metres wide instantly soared towards the blonde. Even though it was wide, the height/width was very thin, so thin that one would barely be able to see the attack coming even if they squinted.

But as someone who’s used [Instant Transmission] for years, Igor was very sensitive to spatial fluctuations, nevermind that his normal senses were extremely heightened. Feeling the looming threat so close to him, he knew that it was far too late to even use [Instant Vanish] to escape.

Knowing this attack would cleave right through him if he tried to block it in his current state, he bent backwards.

Doof!

Moving right over his forehead, Aurelia’s sword slash cut straight into the ground, leaving a very fine gash that extended deep into the ground with no end in sight.

But there was no time to admire that because in less than the time it took to blink, Aurelia appeared above him with her sword poised to pierce his stomach.

“?!”

Widening his eyes, he quickly rolled to the side but was unable to escape damage.

Puchi!

Her sword managed to cut through his side, leaving him with a rather sizeable gash that immediately started to bleed.

Ignoring the stinging pain, he got on all three before stretching out his left hand.

“[Sunset Flash!]”

Immediately, golden energy formed in his palm before a powerful blast wave shot from it.

Druuuu!

The blast wave barreled straight towards Aurelia who immediately reacted by conjuring a barrier.

GU!

His attack and her barrier met head on, the clash causing a powerful shockwave to spread out. Immediately, all the trees around them were uprooted, a radius of a few metres clearing around them.

Aurelia’s barrier cracked, but she quickly channeled her mana into fixing it. In this situation, she could only bide her time. From the power of the blast, she knew he couldn’t keep up such a high-volume discharge of energy for a long time without damaging or even crippling his arm.

While she was right, she still underestimated Igor. It was true that he couldn’t keep it up for long, but this much energy discharge was far from his maximum.

“HAAAA!”

KaaDRUUUUUUUU!

Knowing his attack had found purchase, Igor no longer had any qualms in channeling more ki into the attack and the results, were massive.

BOOOOM!

The power behind the attack was so astonishing that the power from the [Galick Gun] he launched on Baraquiel all those years ago seem like nothing in comparison. The radius of the blast wave was so humongous that it appeared as if a giant snake of golden light was slithering through the forest.

For over a kilometre, this blast extended before gradually, it dimmed and disappeared. As soon as it vanished, all that was left behind was a smoldering mess of leaf litter and burnt wood. The ground itself was hollowed out like a trench that bled to a straight passage through the forest. The sun that couldn’t penetrate to the forest floor now could, except there was nothing alive for it to nourish with its sunlight besides the blonde who was clutching his bleeding side.

The whole region was quiet, the only sound coming from Igor burning his wound shut with his ki. Despite his rather grievous injury, the blonde was all smiles. He didn’t know whether Aurelia could survive the blast without needing intensive care, but he was sure she was alive.

And his assumption came true when a few-hundred-metres away, Aurelia walked out of the plume of dust with a menacing aura around her. Her clothes were damaged greatly, her arms singed from blocking the blast. But her eyes, eyes that were previously uncaring oozed the desire for combat.

Igor couldn’t help but get lost in them, his heartbeat quickening. He simply couldn’t look away from them for some reason he couldn’t understand. He had seen the same eyes in Atid when they fought, but they never made him forget to breathe.

If before she was some random woman he would easily forget, she was now…

[Beautiful…]

She looked like a warrior. Smelled like a warrior. Felt like a warrior. With her sword at her side, a blue aura covered her form like a translucent curtain. All this time, her eyes never once left his. Aurelia cared not for decency at this moment. Despite her clothes being torn and subtly revealing rather compromising body parts, she paid no attention to that. Her armour had been completely destroyed and revealed the black undershirt that was massively torn in several places. But she cared not for that.

Rather, it seemed like a fire had awakened within her. That Aryan instinct to fight, the desire for battle that had been suppressed for so many years had awakened when she was so close to death. If she enjoyed the previous fight between them, now…

…she wanted to RELISH it.

Su!

Closing the distance between them in an instant, she stood a few metres away from the blonde.

“You have won the first bout. But I will win the second. If I do not win the second, I will win the third. We Will Not Stop.”

She said those words with conviction and was straight to the point. She was so determined that she even forgoed her usual subservient speech pattern.

On the opposite sound, Igor couldn’t help but grin, his aura fluctuating with excitement he felt.

“Aurelia…”

Gruuu!

A burst of aura covered his form like a gentle white flame.

“...I wouldn’t want it any other way.”

His fire had been stoked and his battle lust soared to its peak. His impression of Aurelia had rose to new heights to the point that he genuinely respected this woman as if he had known her for years. In this fight alone, he verified his gut-feeling that this woman was a warrior, and…that she was kin.

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AN

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I know the rules. Since two days have passed, here’s two chapters. Hope you enjoy them.

If you’re interested in reading ahead, here’s the link: patreon.com/HolyGambler