Skreee!

Only then did Syèl's ears pick up the tell-tale cry of Shokō's sword. Shit! Had she found a way to muffle the sound her blade made when she charged ki? How long had she been charging that thing.

"First Draw!" Shokō roared and then instantly drew her sword.

The stadium paled as a twenty foot tall ki-blade suddenly shot toward the halben. Syèl quickly drew out a short knife and cut his right palm. He quickly stamped his hand against the earth, and shouted, "[Stone Guardian!]"

Groooo!

The crowd watched with panicked breaths as a giant golem suddenly burst out from the ground. However, the golem barely had time to let out a roar before it was struck by Shokō's ki blade. A massive explosion ensued and the golem was shattered into several pieces.

"Wanna do this for real!?" Syèl roared as he was buffeted by the heavy winds, but he was greeted by Shokō's rapidly charging body. "Fine then!" The mage grasped the air and the flying debris froze in place. "Stay right there!" Syèl flicked his wrists and the debris suddenly accelerated toward Shokō.

The swordswoman stared at the incoming bombardment with an unwavering gaze. "It doesn't matter what you throw at me," Shokō said as she burst into a sprint, rushing right into the heart of the salvo. "I will cut through it all."

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The stadium had her hearts in their throats as they watched the small, petite figure weave through the bombardment, never stopping for even a second. Shokō drew her sword as she ran, slicing apart any boulder she could not dodge in time. She jumped and kicked off the rocks to increase her speed, never faltering in her desire to get even an inch closer to Syèl.

Syèl frowned as he looked at Shokō dust-covered form. Blood dripped from her cheeks from injuries caused by small, stray rocks she failed to track, and the band that tied up her hair had been cut, but her gaze remained on Syèl nonetheless, like there was nothing else in the world except for him.

Syèl's eyes shook. Those blue eyes that seemed to hold the depths of an ocean, and the gold hair that captured the sun's rays in the most beautiful light... "Hen— No! It's not her." Syèl's eyes hardened. Now he knew why he had been avoiding Shokō. She reminded him too much of Henri. He had thought it would be better after telling her about Henri, but that hug, and the way she leaned her head into his back. He had enjoyed it. Far too much.

There was only one thing Syèl was scared of in this world. And that was once again hurting someone close to him. The only way to avoid this was to ensure he kept everyone at arm's length. However, when did it start? When he began to look forward to hanging out with Shokō, whether in-game or the real world. Why did he need to differentiate her from Henri?

Syèl shuddered as he realized the truth. He wanted to separate Henri from Shokō so he could be around Shokō without hurting her. He wanted to spend time with Shokō. Did this mean?

Syèl took a step back, but found he could not take a second. What, did he not want to run away? Syèl once again glanced at Shokō. Did he unconsciously want her to make it to him?

The blood mage gritted his teeth. Fine, if he couldn't run away, he would make it so she never made it to him! Syèl clasped his hands and rapidly rattled off a number of spells.

The mages around the stadium shot to their feet in shock as hundreds of mandalas appeared around Syèl. What kind of casting speed was this!? This was impossible. However, their shock had yet to reach its Zenith as with a loud shout, two giant mandalas formed above Syèl. Even more shocking was the fact that these mandalas had two distinct properties to them. The runes on the left mandala were clearly fire-based mandala, whereas those on the right were wind-based.

Multi-Casting!? Casting two spells at the same time? That was something only in-game bosses were supposed to be capable of. After all multi-casting required one to chant or 'think' two different spells at the same time. Humans were not capable of such a feat, yet this man was doing just that in front of them.

However, things had only begun. Rock spires coated with fire and electricity shot out of the hundreds of mandalas. Like guided missiles, they shot toward Shokō with extreme prejudice. The audience tightly grasped their chairs. Was this still an exhibition match? No matter how anyone looked at it, this was grudge match to the death.

No, this was an execution! How could Shokō possibly survive this onslaught?

Rather than retreat, Shokō, upon seeing the missiles, actually doubled her speed. She burst through the field as the spires exploded around her. "[Dopple]" A pair of dopplegangers split out from Shokō's main body and ran either side of her. The duo then charged ahead and began slicing through the rock spires.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Explosions rocked the stadium as the spires exploded upon being struck by the ki blades. The speed of Shokō's draws were impossible to comprehend. The stadium could only stare slackjawed as thousands of bladelights blossomed in the sky, ripping apart the spires before they could reach the charging swordswomen.

Shokō weaved through the explosions, unperturbed by the monstrous escaping winds. She resembled a humanized sword, strong and true, stabbing through all obstacles to pierce through its target.

"Stay back!" Syèl roared as a pair of giant black winds sprung out of his back. With a heavy flap, he ascended into the skies, and then hid behind the two giant mandalas. With a clasp of his fingers, a massive gale burst out of one of the mandalas, while a torrent of flames gushed out of the other.

The gale fed in into the flames, causing it to explode with even more strength! The flames grew in size and ferocity until it took the shape of a 30 meter long phoenix.

From her perch above the stadium, Jade's eyes suddenly grew grim at the sight of the phoenix. Not only could she feel the burning heat emanating from that creature, but her HP was actually reducing! If she was like this, what about the regular people in the stands. Without a moment's hesitation, she immediately gave the order. "Reinforce the barriers!"

Dozens of mages seated at the closest seats to the walls suddenly rose to their feet and extended their hands toward the wall. They simultaneously chanted while feeding mana into the wall. For a moment, a translucent barrier glittered, as countless runes ran along it. Only now did the spectators realize while they had been spared from the aftereffects of the battle.

There was a mana shield surrounding the battlefield.

However, this mana shield which had been designed with Lv. 150-170 in mind, had failed to contain the effects of Syèl's full strength. Hence the standby mages were forced to reinforce the barrier to protect the civilians.

Unaware of the mayhem it had caused, the burning apparition glared at the woman on the ground. Skreeee! It issued a loud screech that threatened to burst the audience's eardrums and then immediately charged down at Shokō with stark killing intent.

"It doesn't matter where you go," Shokō said as she glared at the fire-bird. "I will chase you down." As she said that, blue ki erupted from her pores and charged down to her feet.

Boom!

Ki exploded beneath her feet, and the three Shokōs simultaneously launched into the sky like bullets shot from a gun. The Shokōs utilized the descending missiles as stepping stones to propel themselves even further in the air.

Shokō kept her sword sheathed, charging up her ki, while her doppelgangers cleared the path.

The sight of these three little silhouettes charging up the skies to meet the divine phoenix filled the audience with an emotion they could not describe. Was it excitement, worship, fear? It was hard to put the emotion into words. But one thing was for certain. After this day, thousands would seek out information on the Hopeful Maggots in hopes to join them.

Meawhile, the Shokō's had finally made it past the last of the rock spire bombardment. With no more footholds, one would have expected them to fall, but it was at this moment, that the main Shokō who had been quiet up till this point suddenly erupted with monstrous ki.

BOOM!
Ki exploded beneath Shokō as she unleashed all the charged up ki in one go, launching her past the doppelgangers and bringing her before the phoenix.

Shokō's gaze remained steadfast even when faced with the colossal monster. Even as her skin began to peel off, burned by the incredible heat, she drew her sword in a smooth arc. A brilliant light burst out of the sword, accompanied by the sound of dripping water. "Shokō Water Style: [Falling Rain]."

The phoenix cried out as thousands of tiny swordlights cut into it and began ripping it apart from the inside out. To the outside world, however, the swordlights glistened in the sun, resembling rain drops falling from the sky, hence the name Shokō had given it.

The sword technique Shokō was practicing had come in a set with the gemini (doppleganger) skill. It had no name, but could create countless skills based on its user's understanding and imagination. At lower levels, it could only create crude variations of sword ki, but Shokō had reached achieved Advanced Mastery, which allowed the technique to draw inspiration from different elements to create new techniques.

Shokō had practiced with water style because she knew that despite having access to almost all elements, Syèl loved using fire-related spells. Hence, she was his natural counter at the moment.

What happened when these water droplets tore apart a flame construct like the phoenix?

There was no need for explanations. The audience was gifted the extravagant sight of beautiful fireworks as the phoenix shattered into several stalks of flames, which then detonated in a final attempt to stall Shokō.

However, a sword ki-construct appeared around Shokō, protecting her from the explosions as she burst past unscathed.

Just like that, she appeared before a stunned Syèl with her blade trained at his neck. A hint of a smile appeared on her burned face as she looked at the halben and said, "I'm here."

Syèl paled when he took in her burnt appearance. It was the same as the burnt hand from hell that always dragged him back. Syèl shook his head to clear the image as he took a step back. "Don't come."

Shokō, however, 'walked' toward him with furrowed brows. "Stop running and look at me. What are you so scared of?"

"You don't understand. You can't," Syèl muttered as he shook his head. Letting out bitter laughter, he said, "I'm a Reaper. Everyone I care about, eventually dies to these hands. The same will happen to you if you get any closer."

"Is that all?" Shokō declared and paused in the air. She retracted her sword and placed it in its sheath. "Then as long as I'm stronger than you, you have nothing to fear."

Syèl trembled in shock as he looked up at the swordswoman. "...What?"

"I'm saying that be it this world, or the real one, you cannot beat me," Shokō stated, matter-of-factly. "I will prove my strength in the real world, after I prove it here. Then I will explain everything to you clearly, so you will never see Henri in me ever again."

Syèl shook his head. "You have no idea—"

"No need for too many words," Shokō interrupted as she jumped several meters away. "Prepare your strongest move. It's much faster than words."

"You'll die," Syèl adamantly refused.

"If you don't, you'll be the one to die here," Shokō said as he drew her sword. She crouched low and held the sword over her head, swordtip pointed at the halben.

Kreeeee!!!

A sharp screeching sound ten times louder than the one at the battle of Aygorzi suddenly screamed out from the swordwoman's katana. Monstrous levels of ki from Shokō and the surroundings fed into the sword at monstrous pace. The blade vibrated as it was saturated with enough ki to blow up a regular human. It was this vibration that unleased the sharp cry.

Seeing Shokō's preparation, Syèl knew she was staking everything on this one shot. Worse yet, he could feel a force locking him in place, preventing him from running away. Was this the warrior's [Ki-Lock]. This was a high-level skill that could momentarily lock a target in place. High-level warriors used it when facing high-agility opponents to temporarily keep them in a single position, to buy them time to unleash a single attack.

Of course, how long a person was locked down depended on the strength difference between the two parties.

Syèl could explode his mana to break out of this lock, but he eventually chose not to. Shokō definitely knew he was capable of breaking out, but she cast it nonetheless. Hence it was definitely a show of her resolve. It would be insulting if he ignored that resolve.

With gritted teeth, Syèl clapped his hands and began to issue a series of chants. When someone like Syèl began to chant, it often meant impending doom for his enemies, because the only spells that he needed to chant were those impossibly near god-tier spells.

Following Syèl's chants, blood streamed out of his body until it formed a 2-meter dark red sphere above his head. As Syèl's chants grew deeper, that bloody ball began to expand in size. The blood suddenly ignited, turning into a gaint ball of flames, akin to the sun. But the young man was far from done.

Crack! Crack!

The stadium paled as large chunks of earth were ripped apart from the battlefield and began to fly upward to the burning sun. These rocks were accompanied by a fierce gale that blew in from all sections of the stadium, threatening to tear the audience from their seats. Once again, the barriers had to be reinforced to protect the onlookers.

However, at this point, the audience was long past caring about the adverse effects. They could smell the end of the battle between these two legendary creatures. Either of these two could easily start up a guild of their own and rule over a large portion of these lands, yet they were working under the Hopeful Maggots. What kind of guild was this?

Absalon leaked out a resigned smile as he watched the spectacular sight in the skies. "Monsters. These people are absolute monsters." With those words, he rose from his seat and exited the VIP room.

An usher outside the VIP room noticed him and immediately ran over. "Is there anything wrong, Absalon-sama?"

"No, nothing like that," Absalon said with a warm smile. "But I have a feeling my services will be needed soon, so I'm heading down." The usher's brows furrowed in confusion, to which Absalon laughed and patted her shoulder. "You'll understand soon enough."