Chapter 142: Divorce Ring

“Do your best!”

“Fighting!”

“We’ll always be cheering for you!”

Isaac saw off the female mages who brought him towels and drinks in a daze.

After that, he turned around to see the Grandmaster standing with her arms crossed.

“Are you done?”

“…Want some?”

He asked, offering the drink in his hand, in which the Grandmaster shrugged off with a smirk.

“Oh, how could I take those from you? Those lovely maidens gifted you those for your hard work, there’s no way I could just take it~”

“…”

“Alright, enough fooling around. What were you trying to say earlier?”

“Ah, right, you see…”

At that moment, a red-haired girl barged into the arena.

“Isaac! My turn next! C’mon!”

It was Sharen, coming in boldly, carrying her greatsword on her shoulder.

The two’s eyes landed on her and a brief silence enveloped the place.

Noticing their stares, Sharen stared back at them, confused.

“Um… Is this a bad time? Should I come back later…?”

“Yeah, it kinda is a bad time—”

“Nope. Your timing’s perfect, actually.”

Isaac said to Sharen before he turned to face the Grandmaster again.

“It’d be much easier to just show you instead.”

“Uh… Okay?”

After the Grandmaster walked out of the arena, Sharen and Isaac took their positions. Such a sight wasn’t something new at this point as they had done this a few times already.

The runes floating in the air glowed, recording the time.

Now, even if they were to die, their deaths would be reversed.

“Alright! I’m going to win this time!”

Sharen said with a bright face as she boldly raised her greatsword. The sparring between the two of them always ended in the same result—her loss—but it didn’t dim her bright smile even a little bit.

Isaac pulled out both his tachi.

Recently, he had grown more proficient in using regular swordsmanship techniques instead of using just Iai.

“Hiyaaaah!”

Following her battle cry, her fierce Crimson Essence rippled like a wave around her greatsword.

Unlike other Helmont’s, her Crimson Essence possessed a unique quality.

Instead of an oppressive atmosphere, hers exuded a rather soft atmosphere.

In Isaac’s words, it flowed like a calm stream and he had been teaching her how to utilize it accordingly.

As a result, none of her clumsiness remained within her Crimson Essence.

“…Why aren’t you coming?”

With her greatsword up in the air, Sharen asked in confusion.

Usually, Isaac would rush in and knock her down before she could fully manifest her Crimson Essence.

He’d be able to read her sword with ease if they were to engage in close combat.

Hence why he had been trying to neutralize her Crimson Essence, forcing her to do exactly that.

But this time, he just stood there with an indifferent expression.

Seeing this, Sharen pouted. Then, she swung her greatsword towards him.

“Hmph! Whatever—!”

Wooosh!

Her greatsword was swung with a great momentum, along with it, a torrent of Inferno Surge approached him fiercely.

Now.

Isaac had no intention of dodging this.

He didn’t even engulf his sword with his Demonic Energy.

Just trusting his own skills and will.

Indeed. He decided to face the incoming Inferno Surge with his technique alone, but…

Slash!

The incoming Inferno Surge was split in half.

His movements were swift and precise, as if he was cutting through butter.

Except that it wasn’t butter his sword had cut off, but Helmont’s Crimson Essence, the essence of their strength and destructive power.

This was a technique that even Sharen had seen before.

The same technique that the Grandmaster used when she fought Arandel.

Indeed. Isaac had recreated the technique that had cut off Arandel Helmont’s Crimson Essence.

“…”

Seeing her Crimson Essence being cut through, Sharen could only stand there dumbfoundedly.

She had seen Isaac deflecting or countering her Crimson Essence with his Demonic Energy before, but…

This was the first time she had ever seen him cutting her Crimson Essence like this.

“W-What?!”

Flustered by the sudden turn of events, she could only watch as Isaac charged forward, riding on the momentum of the split Crimson Essence.

She regained her composure, gritted her teeth and tried to swing her sword at him, but it was too late.

Whoosh!

His blade stopped at Sharen’s neck. Even though there’d be no problem in cutting her here, he still couldn’t bring himself to do it.

Maybe because in his eyes, she was still pretty much a child.

Normally, Sharen would’ve dropped her greatsword and surrendered at this point, but now…

“…”

She was glaring at him with cheeks puffed up. It seemed that she was upset that he had cut her Crimson Essence.

“Meanie!”

Sharen let go of her greatsword and leaped forward, slamming her head into Isaac’s chest.

“Urk!”

Thud!

Isaac fell to the ground.

The pain he felt made him wonder if his ribs were broken.

But, when he opened his eyes again, he had returned to where he was standing before the spar started and the pain was gone.

“Sharen…!!”

Isaac protested, but Sharen just stuck her tongue out.

At that moment, the Grandmaster came back. She approached him, rubbing his head roughly with a surprised expression.

“What was that?! What kind of enlightenment did you have, you brat?!”

At her praise that didn’t sound like a praise, Isaac just grinned.

‘Aura? When you reach the pinnacle, you don’t need such a thing.’

That was what the Grandmaster once told him.

Of course, he wasn’t saying that he reached her level quite yet.

In any case, the reason why he gained the ability to cut through Aura was surprisingly, due to his repeated spars with the mages.

“After a few days of spars, a thought suddenly came to my mind. The mages’ magic, the knights’ Aura, in the end, they all came from the same source: mana.”

Recently, the mages had started mixing up their tactics; such as creating walls between them or hitting him with longer range spells.

When dealing with the spells they were throwing at him, Isaac realized that there weren’t many differences between magic and Aura.

“So, I worked myself to get a feel of that. The frequent spars with the mages helped a lot.”

“Ha…hahaha! Amazing! Well done! Finding enlightenment from such an odd place—you make your master almost feel embarrassed of herself!”

“Again, again! This time, I’m really gonna win!”

At that moment, Sharen rushed towards him, grumbling.

Unfortunately, they wouldn’t be able to use the training hall anymore for the day.

“I’ve told you earlier, haven’t I? They’re going to cast a spell to find the Mana Core today. We can’t use the arena for a long period of time.”

Unable to find the mana core on their own, the mages decided to use magic to look for it instead.

According to the Tower Master, mana would leave traces and residue.

By tracking that, they should be able to track the Mana Core too.

Of course, they could’ve done this anytime, but they chose not to because they wouldn’t know which part of the continent would the Mana Core be—they needed various preparations before they could do it.

Now that they had done all the preparations, they were confident that they’d be able to get the Mana Core back no matter where it was.

“I see! So if we spar again, I might just kill you by accident!”

“…”

Sharen said that while nodding.

“Let’s just take a look and see. Who knows, it might be an interesting thing to see.”

With that, the three left the training hall.

When they first entered, the sun was still up, but now, darkness had enveloped the sky and the moon was proudly shining above them.

He heard that the spell to find the Mana Core was a large-scale spell and expected some sort of commotion going on, but the whole place was eerily quiet, not even the streetlights were on.

And the lack of the streetlights made navigating the place harder than expected.

At that moment, Damian and Nameless approached them from a distance.

Dressing lightly, with lanterns in their hands, they looked as if they were in some kind of festival.

“Done already?”

“You, where have you gone? Didn’t I tell you to spar with your Junior Brother earlier today?”

“…”

Immediately, the Grandmaster scolded Damian.

He was also her disciple, but he was much more proficient in footwork rather than swordsmanship.

Then again, considering his background as a thief, it was a given that he’d be better in areas other than fighting.

While the Grandmaster was nagging Damian, Nameless approached Isaac.

“They’ve prepared us food back in the accommodation. Also, I heard that the spell would decorate the sky with bright lights and the sight of it would be impressive.”

“Really?”

“Yep, it’s quite a grand spell, apparently. They said that it could find the Mana Core even if it’s on the other side of the continent.”

“Wow, I see.”

Sure enough, the Magic Tower had gone all out in their preparation.

On their way to their accommodation, a blue ball of mana flew up to the night sky.

It looked like a fallen star that had risen back up again. Even Isaac was captivated by it.

“So pretty.”

Sharen, who was standing next to him, was also captivated by it.

“Let’s hurry. They said that it’ll only stay in the sky for 2 or 3 hours before it starts scouring through the continent.”

“Fascinating.”

Nameless, who had grown particularly close with the Tower Master, explained the details to him.

Indeed, such a sight was perfect to accompany a drink and soothe one’s—

“Isaac.”

“Yea?”

But suddenly, Sharen tugged at his shirt, still looking at the sky.

“I think it’s heading this way.”

“…What?”

He couldn’t even imagine it heading his way, so his reaction was a bit late, but the two masters were around.

The Grandmaster quickly grabbed him, while Nameless jumped forward and grabbed Sharen and Damian.

And then…

The blue light that had soared up in the sky came crashing down to where they had been.

Booom!

“Are you sure this is a spell to search for the Mana Core and not for killing the thief?!”

Isaac asked, clearly confused, but Nameless just shook her head, since she also had no idea.

When the dust settled, they could see a large crater formed in the ground. Fortunately, it was in the middle of the road, so no buildings or structures were harmed by this.

Whooosh!

After that, another ball of mana rose to the sky, flying towards them again.

Except that this time, it went straight towards where the Grandmaster and Isaac were.

“Wait, this is…”

At this point, Isaac couldn’t help but notice something. The spell was targeting him.

But, before it could reach him, a searing heat from his chest made him unconsciously take something out—a small ring.

Back during his divorce.

This was a ring that was exchanged during the proceedings.

It was Rianna’s wedding ring, emitting a bright light.