I wasn’t expecting this confrontation to be easy. There was a reason I had initially wanted to co here alone, after all—I knew that revealing my knowledge of Rin would inevitably lead to conflict with her parents. But I had still brought Stella with for two very specific reasons.
First, I could trust Jin and Kali completely to protect her if things went badly. Their loyalty and capability were beyond question, making them the perfect guardians for soone so precious to .
"Daddy?" Stella asked, concern seeping into her voice as she sensed the dangerous tension building around us.
Without hesitation, I reached over and gently touched my fingertips to her forehead, willing her into peaceful sleep with carefully controlled mana. Her small body relaxed imdiately as consciousness faded, her head tilting to rest against my shoulder with the absolute trust that only a child could show.
"Jin, Kali," I said calmly, carefully transferring Stella’s sleeping form to their protective care. "Take care of her."
Both of them nodded with grim understanding, Kali’s arms wrapping around Stella with surprising gentleness while Jin positioned himself to shield them both from whatever was about to unfold. Their combined auras created a defensive barrier that would discourage any stray magical effects from reaching her.
Then I looked back at Valen and calmly stood up, my movents deliberate and unhurried despite the crackling tension that filled the air around us.
I yawned slightly, a gesture of casual dismissal that I knew would infuriate him further, just as his mana rushed toward with killing intent. His grey eyes glinted with the dangerous light of soone who had finally abandoned all restraint.
"Stop wasting ti," I said as I erected a barrier of ambient mana, effortlessly diverting and nullifying his attack before it could reach . "If you want a fight, then a fight is what you’ll have, Valen Ashbluff."
"You have grown arrogant, Arthur Nightingale," Valen snarled as he rose from his chair, mana pressure increasing exponentially as he fell deeper into deviation. The very air around him began to distort under the weight of his barely controlled power.
"Arrogant?" I smirked, eting his furious gaze with calm confidence.
Perhaps it did look like arrogance from his perspective—a twenty-three-year-old who hadn’t even officially reached Radiant-rank challenging soone who had spent two decades mastering that level of power. The current Rank 1 in the world facing down soone who should have been hopelessly outclassed.
However, it wasn’t arrogance at all. It was simple calculation based on capabilities he couldn’t possibly understand.
Instantly, I felt space around him warp as he launched forward with a devastating punch, his enhanced speed creating sonic booms that shattered the remaining dinnerware.
’Seriously, doing this here?’ I thought with mild annoyance as I raised my arm in response.
In that split second, I activated everything.
Soul Resonance flooded my system, granting Mythic Body enhancent and Soul Vision that let perceive the true flow of his attacks. Lucent Harmony synchronized my magical channels for optimal efficiency. Seraphim’s Embrace wrapped in protective energy that made my skin shine with subtle divine radiance.
And then I simply caught his punch.
My fingers closed around his fist with casual ease, stopping what should have been a continent-shaking blow as if he were a child throwing a tantrum. The shock that flashed across Valen’s features was almost worth the entire confrontation.
"I said don’t waste my ti, Valen," I said calmly, using my grip on his fist to pull him toward .
He responded by throwing another punch with his free hand, this one channeling the full power of his Deepdark affinity—shadows and void energy that could tear through conventional defenses like paper. The attack connected solidly with my chest, only to dissipate harmlessly against my Ancient-grade armor and Mythic Body enhancent.
As his montum carried him close enough, my fingers touched his chest with deceptive gentleness.
Fifth Movent of my Grade 5 Close Quarters Combat art: One-Inch Punch.
I closed my fist while pushing forward in a motion that looked almost leisurely, allowing my knuckles to connect with his sternum in a burst of mana imbued with the perfect concept of explosive force delivery. The technique, refined through countless battles against Marquis-level demons, transferred devastating power through the smallest possible movent.
Valen’s feet left the ground as he was launched backward, his body crashing through the manor’s reinforced walls like they were made of paper. But before he could travel far, I warped space by controlling the ambient spatial mana around us, teleporting both of us away from the dining hall to a much more suitable location for this kind of confrontation.
We materialized in the vast training grounds behind the palace—a space specifically designed to contain high-level magical combat, with reinforced barriers and protective enchantnts that could withstand Radiant-rank battles without collateral damage to the surrounding city.
The second reason I had brought Stella beca clear as I surveyed our new battlefield: I genuinely wasn’t sure I could lose to soone like Valen anymore, regardless of his reputation or ranking.
Valen picked himself up from the crater his impact had created, his royal attire torn and bloodied but his eyes burning with even greater fury than before. For a mont, he simply stared at , processing what had just occurred.
"You’re a monster," he said finally, his voice carrying a mixture of awe and horror as the full implications of our exchange beca clear. "You haven’t even reached Radiant-rank officially, and yet..."
"Yet I’m stronger than you," I finished with matter-of-fact certainty that carried no boast or arrogance—simply acknowledgnt of an observable reality.
Valen’s face contorted with rage at having his worst fears confird. Without another word, he raised his hands and began channeling the kind of massive summoning that spoke to decades of necromantic mastery.
The ground beneath his feet cracked and split as dark energy poured forth, multiple forms coalescing simultaneously in a display of power that made the very air tremble with ancient malevolence.
First ca his Bone Dragon—bones erupting from the earth to form the massive skeletal structure of sothing that had once ruled the skies with absolute dominion. The creature materialized at easily two hundred feet long, its hollow eye sockets blazing with unholy fire while wing mbranes of pure shadow stretched between finger-bones that could crush buildings.
But Valen wasn’t finished. A second summoning circle blazed to life, and from it rode forth his Dullahan—a headless horseman mounted on a skeletal warhorse wreathed in spectral flas. The creature’s missing head floated beside it, eyes burning with green fire while it gripped a massive scythe that seed to cut through reality itself with each movent.
A third circle completed the summoning as Valen’s Death Lord erged—a towering figure in ancient plate armor that had been fused with bone and shadow. The creature stood fifteen feet tall, wielding a greatsword that pulsed with necromantic energy, its hollow helm revealing nothing but darkness within.
Three legendary-tier undead summons, each representing years of careful construction and binding rituals that had cost Valen pieces of his own soul to complete. This was the true power of the world’s strongest necromantic ruler, displayed in all its terrifying glory.
"Impressive," I acknowledged genuinely, noting the exquisite craftsmanship that had gone into the creature’s construction. "Though I hope you won’t mind if I match your summoning."
I extended my hand, channeling necromantic energy that had been refined through battles against beings that made Greater Dragons look like hatchlings.
"Erebus," I called, and the Arch Lich materialized beside in a swirl of absolute darkness.
But this wasn’t the Erebus that Valen might have rembered from reports of my earlier capabilities. Years of enhancent and evolution had transford my primary summon into sothing approaching a force of nature. His skeletal form now stood twelve feet tall, wrapped in robes that seed to absorb light itself, while a crown of midnight tal rested upon his skull. Ancient runes covered every visible bone, pulsing with power that spoke to mastery over death itself.
"Valeria," I continued, and my Bone Symbiote flowed from my shadow to take her preferred humanoid form—a graceful figure of articulated bone and shadow that moved with predatory elegance.
"And Luna," I finished, smiling as my contracted Qilin chose to manifest in her favorite appearance: a fourteen-year-old girl with silver hair and eyes that held the wisdom of millennia, her small form radiating power that made the air shimr with rainbow light.
Valen’s expression grew increasingly grim as he processed the implications of what stood before him. Three summons of unmistakably legendary caliber, each radiating power that rivaled his own dragon, controlled with casual ease by soone who shouldn’t have possessed such capabilities.
"Still think this is about arrogance?" I asked conversationally, reaching toward the dinsional storage where my most prized possession waited.
My fingers closed around a hilt that felt like perfectly balanced ice and fire combined, drawing forth the weapon that had beco the symbol of my transformation from promising student to sothing beyond conventional classification.
Nyxthar erged from its sheath like a piece of crystallized night sky, its legendary-grade enchantnts causing reality itself to bend slightly around the blade’s edge. The sword appeared to be carved from darkness given physical form, its surface reflecting no light while sohow remaining perfectly visible.
"Let show you," I said as I settled into a combat stance that had been perfected against opponents who could reshape reality with their will alone, "exactly what I learned during my ti away."
The legendary sword humd with anticipation, its edgeless blade sohow sharper than anything conventional tallurgy could produce, while my assembled summons took their positions around with the perfect coordination that ca from countless battles fought together.
Valen’s Bone Dragon roared its challenge, the sound echoing across the training grounds like thunder from the underworld. But for the first ti since our confrontation began, I saw uncertainty creep into the King’s eyes as he truly understood what he was facing.
This wasn’t going to be the easy victory he had expected.
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