Ch.887You know I’m fighting while keeping an eye on you, right?

Snowfall Frost Heaven.

From high above, ten thousand icicle spears rained down like a downpour, colliding catastrophically with one hundred and eighty layers of mana barriers.

Is this what it feels like to watch machine gun fire from behind special bulletproof glass?

An endless chain of ear-piercing explosions continued, and the atmosphere vibrated wildly, pounding my entire body like a massage machine.

Blue barriers and translucent ice spears collided and scattered, spraying fragments of light everywhere, while the dispersed cold air coated the barrier with a thin, snow-white layer of frost.

It was a beautiful sight.

– Crack!

Of course, it only looked beautiful on the surface. In reality, the mana barrier itself was freezing and shattering—a true emergency.

“Urgh…! The impact…!”

“Hold on! Pour in all the mana you have!”

…I wonder if they can block it all… Well, they’ll figure it out. If they don’t want to die.

I lowered my gaze and looked back at Persiella.

“Haaah…”

Was she trying to recover from the recoil of unleashing such a powerful technique? The blue-haired Dragonborn exhaled a misty breath as she slowly pulled up the longsword she had thrust into the ground.

Her movements were slow.

Of course they would be.

Even for someone who had reached the limits of power in the current era, it would be impossible to unleash such large-scale area attacks without any strain.

Instinct whispered to me.

That the perfect opportunity I had been waiting for in silence had finally arrived.

I followed that whisper.

Although I hadn’t yet confirmed Bernard Failer’s position, I doubted a better opportunity than this moment would come, even taking that into account.

“Now.”

After whispering to the Dragonborn carrying me on his back and covering me with his wings that there was no longer any need for concealment, I pushed against his shoulders and launched myself forward with the momentum.

– Whoosh!

My armored body cut through the air with a long sound.

I kicked off the ground to gain speed, becoming a human projectile hurtling toward Persiella.

– Crash!

Lightning-fast speed. The concealment magic covering my body shattered completely from the impact.

“What…?!”

Only then did Persiella notice me, hastily turning her head to look in my direction.

Through her plain white mask, I met her wide-open golden eyes.

Ten meters ahead.

The hero’s will, the hero’s karma extends beyond the flesh toward the world.

【 Defying Fate 】

A world without color or sound.

The falling icicle spears froze in midair, and Persiella’s movements as she drew her sword slowed to a snail’s pace.

“———!”

With a roar that made no sound, I lunged forward, thrusting my drawn longsword like a spear toward Persiella’s neck.

A perfect ambush.

I couldn’t add the power of severance because of the risk of cutting down all the allies behind her, but even without it—

“———!”

Persiella roared.

I couldn’t hear the sound, but I knew she had roared.

How did I know?

Because my body, which had been charging toward her, lost its balance and was now being forced backward.

Persiella’s roar.

The tremendous mana contained within it had deflected my sword and thrown my entire body back.

—-

Defying Fate ended as it reached its time limit. Sound and color returned.

“Gah…!”

I let out a groan as I was thrown back like a kicked ball, at a speed matching my full-power charge.

The impact, like being hit by a train, left my entire body slightly numb.

“Urgh…!”

I rotated my body forward to regain my posture, reversed my grip on the longsword, and thrust it into the ground as I landed.

– Screech!

The blade and my heel tore through the earth, leaving a trail dozens of meters long.

“Huff…”

I exhaled softly as I straightened my bent legs and stood up. My dented armor made clanking noises.

[ Failed again? Somehow I expected that. ]

Hersella clicked her tongue and muttered after Defying Fate ended and she assessed the situation. Her tone was full of mockery.

[ Good thing your technique is called ‘Defying Fate’ and not ‘The Sword That Definitely Kills’ as you might have hoped. That would have been truly embarrassing. ]

…True.

I had no rebuttal.

While I could kill ordinary heroes with a single strike, the truly formidable opponents I faced never died so easily.

At this rate, it shouldn’t be called ‘The Sword That Definitely Kills’ but rather ‘The Sword That Only Kills the Weak.’

[ So, what will you do now? ]

‘What else can I do?’

I raised my head and glared at Persiella who had thrown me back.

The silver-scaled Dragonborn watched me with apparent surprise. Perhaps due to her recent roar, cracks had formed across her plain mask.

‘I’ll stick to the original plan.’

Now that my first strike—attempted with hopes of a spectacular success—had been blocked, only one option remained.

I had to follow the initial plan: fight alongside the two hundred and forty Dragonborn and defeat Persiella.

“…What was that just now? Movement that surpasses mine…?”

Persiella muttered questioningly while pointing her longsword at me.

“No, it wasn’t faster speed. It was as if time moved differently, but only for him…”

Had she figured out the principle of Defying Fate after experiencing it just once?

“…I see. So time is a concept that can be twisted through the intervention of power.”

Though she wielded a sword, her understanding was remarkably quick—perhaps because she was fundamentally a mage.

“To think those grass-plucking monks were hiding someone like this… Who are you?”

She still hadn’t realized who I was. Dyeing my hair gold and wearing ordinary medium armor instead of winter plate had paid off.

Though I suspected my identity wouldn’t remain hidden for long.

“No wings. No tail either, it seems. So you’re not one of our kind.”

“……”

I pulled my longsword from the ground, gripped it with both hands, and lowered my stance.

The failure of my initial ambush had made things more troublesome… but what needed to be done remained unchanged.

Quick and decisive.

Before the rogue Dragonborn discovered my identity, I needed to eliminate Persiella as quickly as possible, then find and kill Bernard before leaving the Dragon Kingdom.

That would be enough.

“A fairy guardian? A human hero? Or perhaps you’re a dragon in disguise?”

“What good would knowing do you?”

The ground beneath my feet exploded with a roar as I stepped forward.

Scattering countless rock fragments behind me, I charged toward Persiella like a storm.

“True. How right you are. Your identity—”

Persiella burst into laughter as she spread her wings wide. The mana she emitted turned into extreme cold, dwelling within her blade.

“After I kill you, I’ll just remove your helmet to find out!”

Ice White Blade.

Without shooting ice blades, but keeping them within her sword, Persiella kicked off the ground and charged forward with a flap of her wings.

“Give it your best.”

As the distance of ten meters closed to zero, Persiella and I glared at each other and swung our longswords like lightning.

Two longswords forged from dragon scales.

The freezing mana dwelling within them and a hero’s achievement.

The strongest powers of the current era collided like lightning striking lightning.

—-

“Kyaaah!”

“Haaah!”

I had charged in with momentum, but once engaged, the fight proved more difficult than I’d anticipated.

I was facing an enemy who had reached the limit of Heaven’s Wall, while having to abandon a significant portion of my own power.

My fighting style had become too famous—recognizable at a glance—which made things complicated.

Using the techniques of Murder Karma or flying with the propulsion of Karma Manifestation was impossible, and I couldn’t even draw Durandal because its distinctive blue-silver color would immediately give me away.

Instead, I was wielding a dragon scale longsword borrowed from Little Forest… but ordinary dragon scales couldn’t compare to Durandal as a weapon.

“Impressive. Truly impressive power. I commend you. No one from the Divine Palace—no, from Jin—has ever come close to matching me. Yet you might reach my waist.”

“My waist? Are you asking me to cut it?”

That’s why the battle between Persiella and me was evenly matched… or rather, slightly disadvantageous for me.

Despite having somewhat superior strength, I couldn’t reveal my full power.

“That’s not bad. Can I take your upper body as a souvenir? Your subordinates will need the lower half, I assume.”

“How, how vulgar…! You’re no better than a common thug!”

Persiella shouted with anger as she swung her longsword, firing a series of ice blades.

“Ice White Blade!”

“Why announce your technique name? So pretentious!”

I kicked off the ground to avoid a couple of ice blades, then countered by swinging my sword to release a vacuum slash.

Void Cut

The transparent vacuum blade, which should have been invisible, glowed faintly white as it was covered by the cold air permeating the area and cut through the atmosphere.

– Boom! Boom!

Explosions continued one after another. Persiella’s Ice White Blade and my Void Cut.

Though different in principle, the two slashes produced similar results as they collided and exploded, scattering fragments of power in all directions.

Ah, it’s disgustingly cold.

“Hah!”

As I charged toward Persiella after neutralizing her Ice White Blade, she let out a short battle cry and stomped the ground roughly.

– Crack!

Ice spikes suddenly shot up.

I believe it was called “White Extreme”? A technique that seemed to plagiarize Extreme Shadow by widely deploying stakes of Murder Karma.

But more importantly…

“…You didn’t announce your technique name this time?”

Didn’t you just shout about White Extreme or whatever earlier?

“Don’t tell me you were hurt by my comment about being pretentious?”

“……Shut up!”

Persiella, flaring up in anger, swung her left hand and sent five streams of ice claws flying at me.

It seemed I had hit a nerve.