"ENOUGH!" he bellowed, his voice echoing across the arena. The flas around him exploded outward, forcing Lucavion to back away montarily. Joel's aura surged, his greatsword glowing with an intense, fiery light as he poured every ounce of his strength into his next move.
"This ends NOW!" Joel roared, his mana surging as he activated his most powerful technique. The air around him shimred with heat as he combined his fla manipulation with a devastating spell—
Infernal Cataclysm
.
The ground beneath Joel cracked and blackened as the flas coalesced into a massive, swirling inferno around his greatsword. He raised the weapon high above his head, the mana within him surging to its peak as he prepared to unleash the devastating attack.
'Heh….you are finally using that move now.'
Though he heard the na from the novel, seeing it with his own eyes, it looked really cool.
Lucavion watched as the flas swirled around Joel, the sheer magnitude of the
Infernal Cataclysm
taking shape. The arena itself seed to tremble under the pressure of the heat, cracks spreading across the ground, the air shimring with the oppressive energy. Joel stood in the center of it all, his greatsword blazing like a second sun as he poured every ounce of his strength into the attack.
'Heh… so this is the
Infernal Cataclysm
,' Lucavion thought, his smirk deepening. He had read about this mont in the novel—the lone highlight of Joel Rythan's character. It was the only ti Joel's na had any real weight in the story, and seeing it unfold now, Lucavion couldn't help but admire it.
'It looks even cooler in real life,' he mused. The sheer scale of the flas, the intensity of the mana—it was a spectacle, to say the least. Joel's mastery over the technique wasn't perfect, of course. The flas wavered at the edges, the balance of mana slightly uneven, but the sheer power of the move compensated for its flaws.
Lucavion shook his head, his smirk turning into an amused grin. "Finally," he said aloud, his voice calm but carrying across the arena. "Finally, soone who can get serious. I was starting to get bored."
Joel's eyes narrowed, his frustration bubbling over as he gripped his blazing greatsword tighter. "Shut up with the bluff!" he roared, his voice cracking with exertion. "Let's see you laugh when you're ash!"
With that, Joel pushed the flas forward, the
Infernal Cataclysm
erupting in a massive wave of fire and destruction. The flas surged across the battlefield like an unstoppable tide, consuming everything in their path as they barreled toward Lucavion.
But Lucavion remained calm, his body steady as he closed his eyes, the smirk still lingering on his lips. The crowd gasped as the inferno bore down on him, the sheer force of it leaving no doubt in their minds that this was the end.
Joel grinned, victory already blossoming in his chest. "Burn, you arrogant—"
Lucavion shook his head, interrupting Joel's triumph with a quiet, almost playful tone. "Watch."
The flas surged closer, the heat now oppressive, but Lucavion didn't move. Instead, he opened his eyes, their calm, shadowy depths locking onto Joel's fiery gaze.
"You'll never see anything like this again," Lucavion said softly, his voice cutting through the roar of the flas.
And then he whispered, the words carrying an undeniable weight.
「
Annihilation Sword. Null Space.
」
And then…
It happened.
****** Stay connected through m-v l|e'-
The mont the words left his lips, the circle around him flared to life. A shadowy, black-gray hue expanded outward, forming a perfect ring that pulsed with power. The flas, roaring and searing in their destructive force, t the edge of the circle—and then stopped.
For a mont, the flas seed to hesitate, as if an invisible force had stolen their montum. Then ca the sound:
CLANK! CLANK! CLANK!
The fiery mana was sliced apart, disintegrating the instant it crossed into the circle. The inferno that had threatened to consu the arena was reduced to nothingness, its energy utterly obliterated as it entered the
Null Space
.
The crowd gasped, stunned into silence as they watched the impossible unfold. The massive wave of fire, Joel's strongest attack, was being erased before their very eyes.
But Lucavion wasn't motionless. Within the circle, he moved with incredible speed and precision, his estoc a blur as it cut through the flas with surgical accuracy.
To the untrained eye, it looked as though the
Null Space
was absorbing the fire on its own, but those who watched closely could see the faint glimrs of his blade moving, guiding the destruction with every calculated strike.
Joel's confidence faltered as the last of his flas vanished, leaving him standing alone in the aftermath. His greatsword, still glowing faintly, seed to dim in his grip as the weight of his failure sank in.
Lucavion, his blade still surrounded by the dark, shadowy aura of his
Fla of Equinox
, began to move. With a fluid motion, he swept his estoc in a wide circle, the energy surrounding him condensing into a focused ring. The black-gray hue shimred, absorbing the lingering embers and fragnts of Joel's attack as if consuming the flas themselves.
"Impossible…" Joel muttered, his voice barely audible over the murmurs of the crowd. His eyes were wide with disbelief, his body trembling as he tried to comprehend what had just happened.
Lucavion finally lowered his blade, his shadowy aura fading into stillness. He turned his calm, unyielding gaze toward Joel, tilting his head slightly.
"I told you to watch," Lucavion said, his tone laced with both amusent and finality. "You'll never see anything like that again."
The crowd erupted into chaos, so cheering wildly, others too stunned to react. Joel, his greatsword trembling in his hands, took a step back, his confidence shattered. The gap between their skill, their control, and their very presence was now undeniable.
Lucavion sheathed his estoc with deliberate slowness, his movents a silent declaration of victory. Joel could only stare, his flas extinguished, his strongest move reduced to ash and mory.
The fight was over.
Joel's trembling hands tightened around the hilt of his greatsword as he stared at Lucavion, who now stood with an almost casual calmness, his estoc sheathed and his shadowy aura dissipating like a fading storm. The arena buzzed with chaos—cheers, gasps, and murmurs—but Joel could only hear the deafening silence of his own realization.
"I… I yield…" he said finally, his voice heavy with defeat. The words tasted bitter on his tongue, but what else could he do? Against an opponent like this, resistance was futile.
'I was wrong…
' he thought, his mind racing as fragnts of the fight replayed themselves. He had underestimated Lucavion from the start, thinking his victories were nothing more than mind gas and exploiting weaknesses in his opponents' composure. He had believed Lucavion thrived on manipulation alone.
But that assumption had been shattered. Joel now understood that this man wasn't just a strategist, nor was he rely opportunistic. He was sothing far more terrifying.
Joel's breaths ca shallow and uneven as he struggled to process what he had just experienced. Lucavion's movents—the ease with which he evaded every attack, the way he danced along the edge of the blade, taking risks no sane fighter would take—all of it defied reason.
He fought like soone who didn't care about his life at all, soone who thrived on pushing himself to the absolute limit, balancing on a razor's edge with an almost reckless grace.
Joel had never encountered anything like it.
"That's why…" Joel muttered under his breath, his gaze fixed on Lucavion. "That's why they fear you…"
The words spilled from his lips before he could stop them, his voice trembling with a mix of awe and horror. "You're… you're a demon."
Lucavion's calm, piercing eyes flicked toward him, and Joel felt a chill run down his spine. He wasn't sure if Lucavion had heard him, but it didn't matter. He now understood why people were so afraid of this man.
"...A Sword Demon," Joel whispered, the realization settling in like a heavyweight.
It wasn't sothing the audience could grasp, nor was it sothing that could be explained to soone who hadn't faced Lucavion directly.
Only those who stood against him on the battlefield could feel the full extent of his presence—the fearless, unrelenting force that made him seem less like a man and more like a devil wielding a blade.
"Sword Demon…."
And that was the starting point of this nickna.
Joel staggered backward, the weight of his defeat pressing down on him. He had given everything, and still, it hadn't been enough. He had been utterly outclassed by a fighter who played with danger as if it were a ga, who wielded his blade with a precision that bordered on inhuman.
And he understood.
'I can never beco soone like him.'
He didn't have what it took.
The crowd roared, the announcer's voice booming over the noise as Lucavion's victory was declared. But Joel barely heard it. He turned, his steps heavy as he made his way out of the arena, one thought repeating in his mind.
'This man… he's not a phantom. He's a demon in the guise of a swordsman.'
--------------A/N-------------
I have a French exam tomorrow, so the chapters might be late. Wish luck!
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