Aldric's smirk deepened, his blood-red eyes gleaming behind the shadows of his helm.
"You are going to die now."
His words weren't spoken with cruelty, nor arrogance—only certainty.
A blur of black wind and killing intent.
Lucavion's pupils constricted—too fast.
The storm surged, a hurricane of force closing in on him from all directions. The weight of Aldric's presence drowned the battlefield, his spear tearing through the air like a bolt of destruction.
Lucavion barely had time to react.
The spear was already there.
Aimed straight for his heart.
It should have been instant.
The edge of the abyss.
Lucavion stood on it.
Teetering between life and death.
And when he was pushed to this limit—
His true talent awakened.
His instincts sharpened beyond thought, his body reacting before his mind could process the danger.
A ripple of pure void expanded from his estoc, devouring the wind mana surrounding Aldric's attack.
Aldric's spear, once a force of absolute destruction—
Lucavion's blade twisted, catching the now weakened spear with effortless grace. The impact, which should have shattered him, was instead redirected.
It was something he had glimpsed before.
The moment he fought the Kraken.
The instant he had grasped 'Void.'
Now, it manifested in full.
「Void Starfall Blade: Astral Consumption」
The void around his estoc expanded, twisting into a spiral of pure, devouring force.
He twirled his blade, the starlight mana flowing like silk, redirecting Aldric's strike with elegant ease.
—Aldric's balance shifted.
For the first time, his footing was compromised.
Lucavion's black eyes gleamed.
His estoc—twisting like a comet, aimed straight for Aldric's chest.
But Aldric wasn't done.
His aura body pulsed, and with a sudden burst of wind, he wrenched his spear back—forcing space itself to pull him away.
Aldric reversed the momentum.
His spear, still spinning from the deflection, twisted in his grip—a masterful recovery.
Their weapons collided.
Lucavion barely had time to adjust—
Aldric had recovered too fast.
The moment his spear clashed with Lucavion's estoc, he unleashed his true power.
A technique wielded only by those who had reached the 6-star realm.
The very sky screamed as Aldric unleashed his full strength.
Wind, compressed to the point of destruction, swallowed the battlefield.
Lucavion barely had time to react.
Aldric's spear blurred—
⚡ 「Stormpiercer: Sky Tyrant's Judgment」 ⚡
But it was unstoppable.
Lucavion's instincts flared—move!
He twisted his body—but not fast enough.
Pain erupted from his side.
The spear tore through his coat, piercing deep into his flesh.
Lucavion's body convulsed from the force, his breath catching in his throat. He felt the full weight of 6-star mana pressing into his bones—an overwhelming, crushing force that burned through his veins like a storm.
He took one step back.
Aldric appeared before him instantly.
His speed was inhuman.
Lucavion's body barely had time to recover, barely had time to breathe—
Before Aldric's spear was already descending.
Lucavion's pupils constricted.
Something ignited in his palm.
Pitch-black fire surged from his fingertips, swallowing the very air around them.
Aldric's crimson eyes widened.
The flames did not burn.
「Flame of Equinox: Wave of Death」
The black fire rushed outward in a violent wave, engulfing Aldric's spear—
And then—it consumed his mana.
Aldric's entire body jerked backward as the flames devoured his storm energy, stripping the wind away from his technique like peeling layers from his own existence.
His instincts screamed—danger.
This shouldn't be a threat.
Lucavion was weaker. His mana wasn't at the level of a 6-star.
A sensation he had not felt in years.
Something beyond logic.
Something primordial.
The flames did not simply oppose him—they erased his presence.
His spear trembled in his grasp. The mana he had infused into it vanished—devoured in an instant.
This didn't make sense.
The first energy, the pitch-black starlight—that was void. He had seen it, fought against it. A rare affinity, but explainable.
These pitch-black flames weren't void. They weren't destruction.
They were something else.
And for the first time in years—Aldric felt the cold grip of uncertainty.
That was the only explanation.
No knight, no warrior, no human could wield two conflicting forces within a single core.
And yet—Lucavion stood before him, bleeding, breathing, alive.
Lucavion coughed blood—then vanished.
Before Aldric could even process it—
—Lucavion was already there.
His estoc lunged forward, sharp and unrelenting, aiming straight for Aldric's exposed ribs.
Aldric barely caught it in time, twisting his spear to intercept. Sparks flared as steel ground against steel.
Aldric's mind recognized it instantly.
Not erratically, not wildly—but calculated.
His footwork was minimal, barely an inch of movement—yet perfect.
Lucavion's estoc twitched, pretending to retreat—
Aldric's instincts told him to step forward—
And that's when he realized.
Lucavion's wrist flicked, his blade whipping back in an unnatural arc, twisting through the narrowest of openings—
Aldric barely managed to reposition, deflecting by the slimmest of margins. But—
—Lucavion was already moving again.
Their fight had become smaller.
No grand explosions. No elemental devastation.
Just pure, raw combat.
And Aldric was losing.
Lucavion's blade danced along his defenses, always just ahead of him, always forcing him to react instead of act.
His smallest mistakes—Lucavion exploited them.
A slight imbalance in his grip? Lucavion struck.
A half-second delay in his step? Lucavion closed the gap.
Aldric could barely regain control.
Lucavion's bladework was unreal—like a duel was the only place he existed.
Aldric gritted his teeth.
Lucavion stepped in again.
Aldric pushed back—his spear twisting, trying to create distance.
He collapsed the space again.
His estoc curved around Aldric's block—
Aldric's eyes widened.
Lucavion's blade scraped along Aldric's gauntlet, nicking flesh.
Not deep. Not lethal.
Aldric's breath was ragged.
In a clash of pure technique—
Lucavion was stronger.
Aldric exhaled, slow and sharp.
His grip tightened around his spear.
That was the only word for it.
This mere child—a boy he had spared all those years ago on the battlefield, a nameless insect he had let crawl away simply for his own amusement—
His spear—the very weapon he had mastered through decades of war—was losing in pure technique.
Aldric's pride seethed.
His crimson eyes darkened.
"You… are getting ahead of yourself."
Wind erupted from Aldric's body, his core surging to its absolute limit.
A violent, whirling tempest engulfed him, his entire form consumed by a storm of razor-sharp gales.
Lucavion's coat whipped violently, his footing shaking under the sheer force of it.
⚡ 「Stormpiercer: Tyrant's Howl」 ⚡
Lucavion's instincts screamed.
He barely raised his estoc before—
Aldric's spear slammed into him, a brutal arc of force.
The impact rattled his bones.