CH 375

In the hidden place under the Agnus manor, Joshua was facing down his mirror image. Who could have imagined it? Appearance, weapons, strength… Everything was the same. Maybe they were the ones who knew each other the best in the whole wide world.

It was obvious that the doppelganger had tried to kill Joshua—its spear was pointed right at Joshua. One of them was holding an aura spear that emitted white sparks, and a dark-red spear that exuded dreary light was in the hands of the other.

Their footsteps quickened, and their eyes were fixed on each other. Then the two spears finally clashed. The ends of their spears collided precisely in the middle because their speed and strength were exactly the same.

Both of them took one step backward.

“Indeed…” The doppelganger with the Demon Spirit’s soul smiled in satisfaction. “I obtained a new body, but I had no one to test this body with. In that regard, I can say for certain that you’re my best partner, Joshua.”

After the doppelganger—no, Lugia—finished speaking, he swung his spear. “It feels good.”

Joshua silently regarded him.

“…Hehehe. It looks like you have zero intention of talking with me. I never thought you would also obtain Gaia, the primordial stone. You could have died without knowing anything forever… It’s truly disappointing.”

Lugia seemed to be trying to provoke Joshua, but Joshua’s silence was not disturbed.

“As you know, a high-dimensional being has to be killed at least three times to annihilate their soul. For your information, you already died once due to Kaiser ben Britten’s betrayal—”

“You can stop talking,” Joshua interrupted.

“…Huh?”

“I’m going to get all the answers I want after I defeat you.”

“Oh?” Lugia exclaimed mischievously. “That is totally my style.”

Joshua ignored Lugia and lifted his spear horizontally, firing off a raging sharp wind. At the same time, Joshua disappeared as quickly as the wind that he had just fired. He moved secretly and swiftly, hiding behind the wind. His arms never stopped moving, and neither did his legs. Joshua struck Lugia like a storm, giving him no chance to counterattack.

Lugia deflected Joshua’s attacks with ease. When Joshua aimed for Lugia’s neck, he nullified the attack by counterattacking in the same fashion as Joshua’s attack and avoided Joshua’s lightning fast strikes to the top of his head with a slight, casual turn. He also used the momentum to hit the back of Joshua’s head.

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An earsplitting explosion buffeted them, as if someone had used a high-class explosion spell. Lugia’s spear was just three centimeters away from Joshua’s temple, but it was blocked, making the spear shake incessantly.

“You can’t beat me,” Lugia whispered quietly, pressing his spear against Joshua’s vertical one. “This body has your combat skills, and it also has my power. On top of that, a god’s soul is in this body—but that is not all. This spear originally belonged to you, but it has become completely mine.”

Joshua frowned slightly as he felt the pressure on his spear grow.

“The biggest difference that will decide the victor of this fight is… demonic power,” Lugia said.

Joshua’s eyes widened.

Thick demonic power seeped out from the area where their spearheads met each other. It was purer than the demonic power of all the demons Joshua had met until now, yet it was stronger than any power in the world. It was the great Demon Spirit’s demonic power.

To prepare for what he knew was going to happen soon, Joshua tightened the grip on his spear.

It turned out he made the right decision.

A gigantic explosion erupted between Joshua and Lugia. While being thrown back, Joshua fixed his eyes on Lugia. His opponent was definitely not weaker than him. On top of that, Joshua was fighting against someone who knew everything about him, so he shouldn’t be affected by Lugia’s remarks. Aside from Lugia’s movements, Joshua needed to forget about everything, so he quietly calmed his breath. Joshua also released his demonic power; he had no intention of losing.

Lugia’s eyes turned sharp. “Using the same strategy as your enemy… I don’t think it’s a good choice when it comes to fighting me…”

“Aren’t you letting your guard down too much?”

“What?”

“I’m Joshua Sanders.”

Even before he finished saying “Sanders,” Joshua sprang forward.

“Fool…” Lugia smirked.

If Lugia and Joshua fought head-on, then the result was obvious.

As the thunder rumbled, Lugia sprinted forward, his spear covered with a layer of demonic power. Several collisions took place, some violent and some gentle, but no one rose victorious.

“You talk big, but your attacks are too ordinary, even though you already know that you won’t be able to accomplish anything with ordinary methods…”

Joshua held up his spear high and then slammed it at the top of Lugia’s foot.

“Hmph.” Lugia snorted quietly and took half a step backward, but that wasn’t the end of Joshua’s attack.

Lugia blinked. He wasn’t sure what had happened—he’d definitely dodged Joshua’s attack, so what was with this stabbing sound?

It didn’t take long for Lugia to find out where the sound was coming from. When Lugia lowered his head, he saw the ground that he was standing on cracking; instead of withdrawing his spear, Joshua had used it to pierce the ground.

“…Keugh!” Lugia frowned, noticing the pebbles that were flying toward his eyes. Joshua was known as a proud man, so Lugia hadn’t expected him to resort to cheap tricks.

By lightly swinging his spear, Lugia deflected the pebbles, resulting in a staccato rattle of metal against stone.

“You’ve changed, Lucifer!” Lugia shouted. “You were the best battle ghost in both Angel and Demon Realms. Have you given up on all your pride?”

“No, it’s quite the opposite.”

Lugia’s head whipped around. The voice had come from behind him.

Lugia wasn’t able to avoid Joshua’s attack completely. He felt a stinging pain… Something sticky rolled down Lugia’s cheeks, but it was transparent liquid, not dark-red blood. That finally made Lugia’s expression darken.

“How…?” Lugia mumbled in disbelief.

“There is one thing you’re really wrong about.”

“What…?”

“Gods arrogantly believe that they are immune to change, that they will never be surpassed—and they are truly foolish. There is nothing in this world that is everlasting.” Joshua lightly slammed his spear against the ground. “But humans are different.”

“Humans are different…?” Lugia blankly repeated.

“They know where they’re lacking, so they try again and again to improve themselves. Despite the fact that they know they don’t have the talent, they continue to train and don’t stop practicing even if they’re called the best at what they do.”

“I was wondering what nonsense you were saying, but you’re praising humans right now?”

“Well, I can’t help it since all the humans I met until now were like that,” Joshua said.

Several thoughts flashed across Lugia’s mind. His eyes widened. He had a rough idea of what Joshua was saying since he had most of Joshua’s memory.

“In gods’ eyes, humans are just one of their countless creations, but do they know that the existence that has potential as great as—no, greater than gods are the humans?”

After blankly listening to Joshua for a moment, Lugia gritted his teeth. “Are you done with your bullshit?”

He began to swing his spear again and again.

“It’s ridiculous to see how you’ve gotten cocky after one lucky break, Lucifer,” Lugia roared. “Besides, do you really think praising humans is an excuse for your change?”

“That is why I told you.” Joshua grinned. “I’m Joshua Sanders the human, not Lucifer from the Angel and Demon Realms.”

“Ha! I can’t believe it. You’ve really gone mad and given up on your pride as the strongest being in the Angel and Demon Realms. Otherwise, how would you be able to degrade yourself as a human—”

“But that is not the only thing you’re wrong about,” Joshua continued.

Sparks flew up—Joshua’s spear was changing.

“I can never defeat you because that body has my combat ability and also has your power?”

“So?”

“Just because it looks identical, doesn’t mean the contents are the same. Right now, I'm going to surpass my limits,” Joshua declared.

“I won’t listen to you any further.”

“Did you forget that I’ve already done it before?” Joshua asked.

Lugia flinched.

Joshua grabbed his spear. He had lived for such a long time, but he had never done what he was trying to do right now. Even the Demon Spirit wouldn’t be able to imagine what kind of madness Joshua was trying to start.

“Wait, you…?” Lugia muttered in disbelief.

The spear made from demonic power shook—no, the spear was a blue mana spear now.

Demonic and divine powers were the polar opposites of one another, like black and white, but Joshua merged the two. Instead of putting one layer of power over another, Joshua was uniting these powers. Only Joshua, who had the powers of both angel and demon, could do this.

The Magic Spear Arts Level 9: Harmony Spear.

Darkness existed because there was light, and people were able to know that there was goodness in the world due to the presence of evil.

The being that held the two opposite elements inside him picked up a spear and then poured all of his incompatible power into the spear.

“This doesn’t make sense…”

The spear was now tinged with both black and white. Grabbing the spear of good and evil, Joshua moved and slayed his opponent.

Joshua turned into a lightning bolt and struck Lugia, who was still frozen stiff.