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Whenever Duke Tremblin and Duke Eima’s swords clashed, fragments of aura scattered, sparkling in the empty air.
“Hup!” Tremblin inhaled sharply, held up his saber, and then he darted forward.
However, he looked a lot different than he had before. His top was ragged—it was so torn that it revealed his shoulder. He was drenched like he’d fallen in a lake, for some reason, and…
Tremblin’s eyes widened slightly as he was fiercely swinging his sword. He had been slaying the gigantic ice dragon before him, but when he had cut off about half of the dragon, he wasn’t able to proceed any further—it was as if his sword got stuck in a sturdy wall.
The ice dragon opened its giant mouth as if it had been waiting for that moment and flew toward him with a roar.
Eima smirked. “My ice dragon is quite sturdy.”
However, Tremblin wasn’t disturbed. He stretched out the hand he’d kept behind his back the entire time and used his second saber to cut off the ice dragon’s jaw.
He heard the sound of a clean cut that time. The ice dragon’s jaw dropped to the ground—it wasn’t even able to approach its prey. The “Sword Emperor,” Duke Tremblin, was known as a swordsman that used one saber, but he actually used two sabers at once. The only reason why he hadn’t been using his second saber was that he hadn’t met a worthy opponent.
After achieving his goal, Tremblin disappeared into thin air.
“No…!” Eima flinched and gritted his teeth.
Tremblin reappeared before Eima himself, swinging his two sabers. Silver lines criss-crossed the air in an instant. From left to right—then it was from top to bottom. Sometimes the lines were diagonal. At first glance, the course of Tremblin’s attack was unpredictable, almost as if he was swinging his saber randomly, but once one paid attention to every course of his attack, they would notice something marvelous: Tremblin’s every move directed his two sabers at Eima’s vital points.
“…Urgh!” Eima groaned. He and Tremblins exchanged a continuous barrage of attacks. In the flurry of sparks, Eima was being pushed back.
The old man that Eima faced was too strong. Tremblin wasn’t using an ordinary sword technique—the accurate description would be a “sword dance.” The man had lived for over fifty years, and his sword dance was the essence of every martial art technique that he had learned during his life.
‘A tiger is still a tiger after it loses its fangs, huh…’ Eima gritted his teeth so hard that his gums bled as Tremblin wielded his sabers like an extension of his limbs. Due to the ragged state of Tremblin’s clothes, Eima was able to see the Sword Emperor’s bulging muscles. Who would think of him as a man who was over sixty years old?
There was another person who had been watching the fight between Eima and Tremblin. In a tree not far from the plains near Einburg, Iceline had been watching the battlefield from a kilometer away using Magic Eyes.
Her jaw dropped.
“It really is the Sword Emperor!”
She had volunteered to reconnoiter the area for Joshua because she was sure he was going to do everything on his own once a battle took place and this time she wanted to help Joshua in any way possible.
Iceline was a high-ranking mage whose level exceeded Class 6, but the fight that was taking place on the plain was on a completely different level.
“But Duke Eima is also exceptional,” she couldn’t help but marvel. “The Sword Emperor has been a Star for at least a dozen years before him, yet…”
Knights and wizards had a tendency to ignore each other due to their arrogance. The higher ranked they were, the more arrogant they were. However, anyone would have to admit that the current fight was exceptional.
“Did he do it out of youthful vigor? Duke Eima was clearly at an advantage, so I never expected him to agree to a duel. But…” Iceline muttered to herself, her eyes shining, “...in contrast, this is a golden opportunity for the Avalon Empire. If the Sword Emperor defeats the Ice Emperor, it wouldn’t be outlandish for the force that is going to arrive later to reclaim Einberg…”
“Also a good chance to unite the people of the Empire,” a man’s voice suddenly added.
“Wh-who are you?” Iceline stuttered.
“I agree with you.” The man nodded.
‘Wh-when in the world—!’ Iceline felt her sweat running down her back. The man’s white hand was held against Iceline’s neck, indicating that he was ready to do a knife-hand strike at any moment. It was just a human hand. On top of that, the man’s hand was as white and slender as most women’s, so why was she feeling so threatened?
“Of course, that is not going to happen,” the man said, smacking his lips.
Iceline hurriedly drew up her mana, stimulating the Circle around her heart.
“Psst. If you do anything rash from now on…” The man tightened his grip around Iceline’s throat.
“…Ah!” Iceline gasped for air.
“I’ll snap this fragile neck of yours in half.” The man smiled.
As her neck was in the man’s hands, she had to stop circulating her Circle. Iceline shivered like a rat in front of a snake. She didn’t need to look closer at the man to see if he was bluffing—her instincts were telling her that the man was overwhelmingly strong and that she couldn’t even dare to start a fight with him. Just like the man had said, if she made one wrong move…
‘He’s really going to kill me without hesitation. He’s…’ Iceline couldn’t continue thinking because the man was taking her hood off with his pretty hands.
“…Oh?” The mysterious man quietly exclaimed. “I’m really surprised. I didn’t know there was a beautiful woman like you in Avalon, and on top of that, you’re a mage of at least Class 6…”
Iceline’s lower lip trembled. The man knew her level of skill precisely.
“You’re too good to be called a rat…” the man mumbled.
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“Wh-who are you?” Iceline asked.
“Shh… Didn’t I tell you to be quiet?” the man whispered, tightening his loosened grip on Iceline’s neck.
“Ah…!” Iceline groaned in pain.
“I’ll be asking questions. Having fair skin like yours is one of the standards of beauty in my Swallow Empire,” the man quietly muttered. “Everyone has dark skin since most of the land is plains where the shade of trees barely exists—so skin like yours is a rarity. Maybe that’s why those rich pigs would go nuts to have someone like you.”
The citizens of the Swallow Empire technically had tanned skin, but the man was sexually objectifying her. However, that didn’t matter to him at all.
“But… you’re too good to sell you off. Shall I just destroy the Circle around your heart and make you my toy for the rest of your life?”
Just imagining it was horrible, but the man made such a remark as if it was nothing.
Iceline thought furiously for a moment.
“I’m… a mage of the Magic Tower,” she declared with clenched teeth.
“So?” The man shrugged.
“What do you… mean… ‘so’…?” Iceline asked back in disbelief.
“Do you mean I should let you go because I should fear the Magic Tower? Kekeke,” the man chuckled, making Iceline shut her mouth in surprise.
Judging from his remark, the man was definitely from the Swallow Empire, the strongest country on the continent and with hegemony over the continent, but that wasn’t enough to disregard the Magic Tower like that. Everyone was still in the middle of the war, so nothing good would happen after making tens of thousands of mages an enemy of the empire. In fact, the Swallow Empire should be trying as hard as possible to make the mages of the Magic Tower their allies.
‘In spite of everything, this man is confident, meaning he’s either bluffing or he’s not going to leave any witnesses… The problem is that both scenarios seem highly unlikely…’ Iceline thought.
Then there was only one possible scenario.
‘Even within the Swallow Empire, he must be holding extraordinary power and truly doesn’t fear the Magic Tower.’ Iceline’s eyes widened slightly. ‘Another man on an extraordinary level…!’
“Your head is filled with questions right now, isn’t it? Kekekeke.” The man chuckled ominously, bringing Iceline back to reality. “Don’t worry. You know, I’m the so-called First Celestial, so I won’t really eat you.”
Iceline froze stiff.
“The First Celestial…!”
There was only one man on the continent that was called with such an arrogant title. As a matter of fact, he had been considered at least as skilled as the Dark God of the Avalon Empire, and he was now considered one of the Three Celestials within the famous Nine Stars. He was the closest to achieving the goal of unifying the continent.
“Wa-wait…!” Iceline’s beautiful face slowly crumpled.
If this man was truly Grand Duke Lucifer, the current situation for the Avalon Empire was abysmal even if they were with the Sword Emperor. Although the Sword Emperor and Duke Agnus were considered the two strongest people within the Avalon Empire, the people from other countries thought differently. Among the Nine Stars, the Sword Emperor was considered mediocre, but compared to him, Lucifer had been and was still an apex predator.
“Kekekeke.” Lucifer licked his lips with his scarlet tongue.
Iceline could see dark desires rising within him through his decadent eyes. For his entire life, he had always gotten his hands on anything he wanted because he had the power to do so, and that hadn’t changed.
“Let’s find out why you’re here later.” Lucifer grabbed Iceline’s waist.
“Wh-what are you doing…!” Iceline shouted in shock.
“Isn’t it quite romantic here?” Lucifer smiled, making it quite obvious what he wanted to do.
Iceline bit her lip angrily. It felt like bugs were crawling all over her body.
‘Since things turned out this way…!’ She couldn’t use her magic since the man wouldn’t let her, but that didn’t mean she was out of options. She began to plan.
‘I’ll overload my Circle myself. If I draw my mana to the limit before he can react…’
It was obvious that she wasn’t going to be able to leave this place unscathed. Maybe she was going to die—no, it was very likely that she was going to die—but it was a better option than being violated.
‘I only have one chance, so if I fail…!’ Iceline narrowed her eyes slightly.
“I don’t know what you’re thinking, but the air around us changed. I think I have a rough idea of your plan… Well, I guess I have to destroy your Circle first.” Lucifer shrugged.
‘Ah..!’ Iceline shut her eyes as she felt Lucifer’s icky energy spreading inside her. That was the moment that her last hope was crushed.
‘N-no…!’ Iceline clenched her teeth.
And it was also the moment when her new hope showed up.
“Let go of her.”
A projectile shrieked through the air toward Lucifer. He was unable to disregard the projectile and was forced to deflect it.
It impacted with a violent metallic Clang! Then the long projectile twirled through the air and ended up piercing the top of a nearby tree. It had been thrown with so much force that the projectile was still trembling even after that. It turned out the projectile was…
“…A spear?” Lucifer said, slightly dumbfounded.
Just like he had said, the projectile was one white spear.