Eclipse condensed Eugene’s mana into an ultra-high density mass, then induced an endless chain of explosions within that mass, just like how his Ring Flame Formula worked. The small sun that was created through this method then had the Empty Sword grafted onto it. As more and more coatings overlapped, the explosions within the center of the sun grew ever more intense.
As the explosive force accumulated, the power bound within this sun-shaped spell increased exponentially. As this happened, sunspots would spread across the surface of the false sun, gradually turning it black. The sun turning completely black was the signal that Eclipse was also complete and ready to fire.
The countless feathers generated by Prominence held several different functions. The most important and central feature was their ability to act as coordinates. These coordinates would only respond to Eugene’s mana.
The Leap that Eugene could activate by using this method was much faster than a Blink. The single wing of Prominence acted as the command tower. The numerous feathers scattered from it responded to Prominence’s every signal. The moment that he wished for it, Eugene was able to move the scattered feathers wherever he liked.
Serving as coordinates was one thing the feathers did, but not the only. They were also acting in place of Eugene’s eyes and other senses to observe a certain zone. Even if an opponent was too fast to follow with two human eyes, dozens or even hundreds of magic eyes were enough to keep up with pretty much anyone. Even if the enemy numbers were overwhelmingly huge, by casting Prominence, Eugene was able to keep an eye on all of them.
The reason why various functions had been added to Prominence was that these wings, feathers, and the spell itself were thoroughly researched and designed in order to support Eugene’s existing combat abilities. On top of that, Eugene’s mana itself possessed a certain quality that made it markedly different from ordinary mana.
This quality was due to the lightning-flames and the spirits of the World Tree that were dissolved into the mana. Thanks to these, Eugene’s mana was like a single giant organism, and due to this property, Eugene’s control and manipulation of his mana was simply outstanding, which made it possible for him to Leap at such high speeds.
The feathers were essentially just Eugene’s mana given form. They were what made the situation in front of Eugene possible.
Looking down at Molon, who had been slammed into the ground, Eugene raised his arms.
Fwooosh!
The feathers that had been scattered by Prominence moved according to Eugene’s will. As the feathers combined with each other, countless stars were created.
No, these weren’t exactly stars, but rather miniature suns. Although there was a large difference in power from Eugene’s directly casting Eclipse, casting Eclipse through Prominence took far less time.
Dozens of sunspots[1] poured down onto Molon. Molon, who had been buried deep into the ground, didn’t even have enough time to pull himself out.
Bangbangbang!
The whole mountain shook, on the verge of collapsing into crumbles.
‘If it could just end with this,’ Eugene thought wistfully.
Eugene’s eyes were peeled wide open as he continued manipulating his mana. Every time that his Prominence wing fluttered, feathers were created and shot out into the air, and these feathers immediately clumped together to form more and more sunspots in a never-ending rain.
But that alone wasn’t enough. Sparks began coalescing between Eugene’s raised hands. Instead of continuing this bombardment of sunspots through Prominence, Eugene was attempting to create a sunspot through his operation of the White Flame Formula.
But before the sun he had created had a chance to turn black, the mana storm set off by the continuous bombardment disappeared as if it had been washed away by a massive wave. This was because Molon, who had fallen even deeper as the mountain around him collapsed, had gotten back up.
“Ahahaha!” Molon’s peals of laughter seemed to rock the world.
Getting goosebumps, Eugene stopped the formation of the Eclipse.
He could no longer afford to delay things this way. If he was even a little bit late, he could get caught by that barbaric idiot.
“Haha, hahaha! Uhahaha!” Molon continued laughing. He was completely unscathed, but because he had been buried so deeply into the ground, he was covered in dirt.
Molon leapt up and swung his fist once more, but unfortunately, he was unable to catch even Eugene’s shadow. It wouldn’t have been strange for anyone in his position to be angry that he hadn’t even managed to brush the hem of Eugene’s clothes after coming this far, but for some reason, Molon was so happy that he couldn’t stop himself from laughing.
“You really are fast, Hamel!” Molon complimented cheerfully.
Bangbang!
A sunspot exploded right in front of Molon’s nose. However, Molon didn’t even turn his head or retreat. Instead, he stretched his head out with his hands spread wide open as if he was trying to headbutt the blast.
“You’re probably not even using Ignition currently. If that’s the case, does that mean you can go even faster than this?” Molon speculated.
Bang, bang, bang!
Explosions erupted one after another.
Molon didn’t stop. The hundreds and thousands of feathers scattered by Prominence served as Eugene’s eyes as he watched Molon’s body. As Molon’s arm muscles swelled and his blood vessels squirmed, Eugene wondered what he was trying to do with this immense strength that threatened to tear his gigantic body apart from the inside out. Eugene checked where Molon’s eyes were looking.
“It’s hard for me to even catch up to you,” Molon readily admitted.
Hard. In other words, not impossible .
Ever since his childhood, Molon had climbed up and down huge mountains like this and run through the snowfields. Even back when his feet were slow, he had still been able to catch beasts and monsters. Molon’s way of hunting was to persistently pursue his prey until he managed to capture it.
This man, who once boasted the title of Chieftain, was the best hunter among the Bayar. No matter how fast his prey’s feet were, Molon would still succeed in taking it down. When he set out on a hunt, he was ruthless and knew no fatigue.
Of course, given the circumstances and the ‘prey,’ it was clearly not the time for that sort of hunt. With that, Molon simply gave up on chasing after Eugene.
“So I’ll catch you without chasing you,” Molon warned.
The smile disappeared from Molon’s face. His wriggling fingers gripped the empty air itself.
This wasn’t some kind of magic. Whether it was three hundred years ago or now, Molon had never learned how to use magic. This wasn’t some kind of special gift that Vermouth had granted him along with this mission, like this whole separate space, either.
This was just…a phenomenon infinitely close to magic that was caused by Molon’s barbaric and absurd strength. Molon’s fingers were actually gripping not the air, but space itself.
Punching a hole into space wasn’t particularly difficult compared to this. If enough force was focused on one point and let loose, it was simple to pierce through space. Yet what Molon was doing now was incomparable to that. Molon’s grip moved the entire spatial axis. With force alone, he held this whole space in the palm of his hand, and he was able to pull it wherever he wanted.
“This is crazy,” Eugene grumbled as an irresistible force wrapped around him.
Unfortunately, he simply couldn’t think of a suitable way to deal with something like this. No matter how fast Eugene flew, jumped, crawled, or otherwise hastened to move, all of his movements were still taking place within this space. It wasn’t just him that was ‘caught,’ either; even the fluttering feathers had all frozen in place.
Then everything was dragged toward Molon. The giant’s strength had become something akin to a law of physics — just like the pull of gravity, he was pulling everything within his grasp toward himself.
At first it was slow, but it slowly grew faster. The pulling force itself didn’t change, but it was so strong that it was impossible to escape from it; naturally, as things approached the source of the force, they only moved faster.
Molon didn’t move from that spot. He continued to pull the whole space toward him, and pointed his fist at Eugene as if he wanted Eugene to clearly see it coming. As for Eugene, he was certain that the fist would fly right at him the moment Molon was certain that he would be unable to avoid it.
“You son of a bitch,” Eugene spat out a curse as he drove his White Flame Formula at full force.
In response to this, Prominence burst out with light.
It was a bit of a pity. This space was on the other side of the Lehainjar. As a result, the mana in the air was scarce, and there were no primal spirits at all. Because of that, he couldn’t draw out the full power of Prominence as he had originally planned.
‘...Well, even if I was fighting under the optimal conditions for me, the odds of me winning would have still been slim,’ Eugene admitted to himself. He thought that it was a shame that some of the paths and methods he could have pursued under normal conditions had been blocked.
With that being the case, he had no choice but to use something different.
Embers and sparks of electricity began to intertwine between Eugene’s fingers.
At first, the center of it all was just a little speck of light. But just like how an ember consumed oxygen and grew in size, just like how different electric currents gathered into one and became a huge lightning bolt, the sun held between Eugene’s palms began to swell. The Eclipse that Eugene slowly fostered this way was simply in a different class when compared to the one that he had used in the Darkroom.
That wasn’t all. The sunspots created from Prominence’s feathers also floated around Eugene.
“Hmm,” Molon hummed in concern.
There was no way that Molon would be able to measure the power being readied. His hair floated into the air and twisted like flames. Strength began to be infused into his tightly clenched fist. It was to the point where the same fist, which Eugene had judged earlier as being unavoidable, felt more like a casual greeting.
The gap between Eugene and Molo continued to draw ever closer. Now, it wouldn’t be strange if Molon’s fist was swung at any moment. The desire to attack first felt like there was a chimney about to erupt within him, but Eugene desperately suppressed that urge.
When the distance between them had narrowed to just the right length….
Molon laughed and swung his fist. A fist that looked big enough to cover the entire world approached Eugene. At the same time, Eugene finished preparing the Eclipse without any errors. The Eclipse thrown forward by Eugene collided with Molon’s fist before the blow could land.
It must have only been a fleeting moment, but to Eugene’s eyes, everything seemed to be going slowly. The enormous power that had been infused into Eclipse was sublimated in an explosion. Molon’s fist was able to engulf the entire explosion, but for a moment, Molon’s fist was pushed back. In that moment, the sunspots that had been floating around as if escorting Eugene were also shot out. Having seized the momentum for the moment, Eugene intended to keep pushing until he finally defeated Molon.
Cracrack.
Eugene heard a sound. The sound was coming from Molon; from the tips of his fingers to his knuckles, then all the way up his arms and to the torso and the rest of his body.
His posture as he was swinging his fist had just shifted slightly.
To a viewer, it was nothing more than that — a minor shift in stance. Molon had just pushed his foot slightly further forward, shifted his weight onto it, and stretched out his muscles. All that he had done was change his posture from a sloppy swing of his fist to a full-fledged punching motion.
Changing one’s posture, however, meant that the weight behind one’s fist would change drastically, and this time was no exception. If Molon had just been swinging his fist forward a moment before, now he had actually taken a proper stance and was throwing a good punch.
Eclipse exploded.
Then, it was wiped away in the blink of an eye.
It was undoubtedly a complex and densely bound mass of mana, but it still couldn’t withstand Molon’s barbaric, limitless power.
Whoooosh!
‘I am going to die.’
Right as Eugene was about to feel once more that sensation he had felt once before, the fist, which seemed like it was guaranteed to blast his body into tiny pieces, stopped right in front of his nose. The enormous strength was gone in an instant, leaving behind only a breeze that sent Eugene’s hair into a flutter.
“Is this enough, Hamel?” Molon said with his fist still outstretched.
“That idiot,” Anise, who was still watching from a distance, cursed as her expression twisted terribly.
Eugene didn’t say anything and just looked between Molon’s fist and Molon’s face, which could be seen past it. Because of the emotional shock, the burst of wind, and other such reasons, Eugene couldn’t even think to close his lips that were parted in a daze.
“You’re strong,” Molon complimented him. “However, I’m stronger. I am even stronger than I was three hundred years ago. So you can’t beat me.”
Eugene was silent.
“Hamel, I’m not completely sure why you wanted to fight with me. Were you angry because I’ve changed? Even in the old days, you were rough, but kind-hearted. Because of that, I think that the reason why you’re doing this is for my sake.”
Eugene remained silent.
“While I was fighting you, I recalled the memories from my past. It allowed me to ruminate on the mission that was given to me. My hundreds of years spent doing this were meaningful. I was able to reunite with you and Anise. That alone would make me—”
“Hey.”
Belatedly, Eugene’s lips fell shut. His hair, which had been blown back by the wind, slowly settled back down. Eugene placed a hand on his restlessly thumping chest. His head was dizzy and his eyes were throbbing.
Still, Eugene forcefully demanded, “Are you crazy?”
Just now, Molon had stopped his fist completely. He hadn’t even hit Eugene. Had he thought that Eugene would die if the hit landed? Although he knew he was supposed to be grateful for the consideration, Eugene’s stomach felt like it was being twisted into knots. Eugene wouldn’t have felt like this if Molon had just reduced the power of the blow to the extent where he wouldn’t die from it.
Indeed…what really, truly made Eugene angry was that Molon had completely withdrawn all the strength from his fist.
Eugene was weaker than Molon. If Molon wanted to verify this, the method wasn’t that difficult. All that Molon needed to do was beat Eugene up until he wasn’t able to fight any longer.
Eugene had thought that, since his opponent was Molon, that was what was going to happen. No matter who the opponent was, Molon would never sympathize with them. Warriors should always be clearly convinced of their victory or defeat. That was what Molon always said about a fight between warriors.
“Were you taking it easy on me?”
If his opponent had been someone else, Eugene wouldn’t have been feeling this intensely agitated. It was because his opponent was Molon that Eugene….
“On me ?” Eugene repeated.
In fact, Eugene wasn’t necessarily enraged because this was Molon. Even if they died once and had been reincarnated, it seemed that someone’s fundamental nature never changed, and Eugene had always truly hated this sort of thing.
Once fists had started flying, even if you couldn’t finish the fight, there should at least be nosebleeds, but to actually stop your fist right in front of your foe—
‘What? You’re asking if this is enough? You’re saying that there’s no need to continue? You say that there’s no way that I can win?’
Molon cautiously addressed him, “Hamel, you seem to have misunderstood something….”
Misunderstanding? There wasn’t anything to misunderstand about it.
Even though he hadn’t intended to go this far, Eugene still clutched at his frantically pounding heart. His heart, which had already been throbbing with displeasure, irritation, and anger, began beating even more violently.
Anise, who was watching this scene from a distance, let out a deep sigh. Molon also reacted by flinching and taking a step back. There was no way that these two people, who had fought together with Hamel three hundred years ago, couldn’t tell what Eugene was doing now.
As his fingers massaged his heart, the spinning Cores began to run wild.
This was Ignition.
However, it was different from before. Even Eugene himself couldn’t begin to guess how much more explosive the Ignition of the Sixth-Star White Flame Formula would be.
Hadn’t things actually worked out for the better? Usually, he wasn’t able to pour out all his strength, but if his opponent was Molon, then Eugene wouldn’t need to worry about killing him. Purple flames began to swirl around Eugene. The single wing of Prominence soared even higher as it grew larger.
Molon didn’t say anything more and just stood there silently. The flames of Eugene’s mana were burning fiercely, but the glow in Eugene’s eyes was even more intense than that.
Molon belatedly lowered his fist, which had still been outstretched in front of him, but he did not unclench his fists. He laughed, seemingly unaware that he was laughing, then raised his clenched fists back up into a fighting stance.
Eugene charged forward, his body so full of strength that it was about to explode.
Now that he thought about it, Eugene had made a mistake from the very beginning. Against an idiot like Molon, why had he fought with a skill-oriented battle-style that made use of Prominence’s Spatial Leap and the sunspot bombardment? Molon wasn’t even skilled at that sort of fight, nor was he foolish enough to have any openings that Eugene could dig into.
Therefore, whether it was three hundred years ago or now, when fighting against Molon, the approach to fighting that he was taking right now was the most suitable.
Prominence’s feathers all burned up at once. Eugene’s body shot forward in a ridiculously fast flash of lightning. Even if it wasn’t as complex as that of Eclipse, layers of sword-force overlaid with the Empty Sword covered Eugene’s fist.
Crackle!
Eugene’s fist landed on Molon’s cheek. The previous attack hadn’t been able to move Molon in the slightest, but with Ignition activated…Molon’s head turned slightly to the side.
“Ptew,” Molon reflexively spat out some blood from a wound inside of his mouth, then froze for a few moments.
How long had it been since he last shed blood? Once he started thinking about this, Molon’s head no longer felt cloudy. In fact, he felt the same way he had three hundred years ago, and his weary eyes lit up with the same light that they had had in his youth.
Grgrgrk!
Molon ground his teeth, which had just tasted blood after so many years, and threw out his fist.
This fist was intended to hit Eugene. It didn’t miss.
Eugene sharpened his concentration to its limit as he prepared to receive Molon’s fist. The force behind it wasn’t something that he could take head-on. Diverting the flow of an attack was something that Eugene had been good at ever since his previous life, but no matter how good he was at deflecting, a force of this level would still leave his bones tingling.
‘However, I can still take this,’ Eugene encouraged himself.
It didn’t go as far as the earlier blow, which had made Eugene feel his impending death. While this blow felt like it would shatter his body if it landed, as long as he didn’t get hit by it directly, Eugene could still endure it.
And thus, the slugfest began.
How long had it been since Molon had last swung his fist so vigorously? He hadn’t had to punch like this in hundreds of years. The Nur was certainly an ominous existence, but it had never been the kind of opponent that required Molon to give it his all. Just a punch or a swing of his ax, that was all that was needed to kill it.
Whenever his lust for battle boiled over, Molon would punch himself in the face. He would scratch the ground and slam his head into it. Yet, all of these measures were futile.
But now?
Molon knew that even now, he still couldn’t put his full power into the fist that he was swinging. No matter how much he wanted to, Molon couldn’t afford to strike his opponent with all his might. No matter how strong Hamel had become after casting Ignition, irreversible consequences would occur if he was forced to face Molon’s full power.
But strangely enough… Molon’s fist felt heavy. Even without pouring all his might into it, his chest didn’t feel like it was being constrained. This was because something other than pure strength was being infused into his fist. Within his fist, there was a variety of complex emotions that even Molon himself couldn’t fully describe.
However, among all these emotions, Molon knew which one was the most important.
It was loneliness.
His hundreds of years of solitude were being packed into his fist and sent flying at an old friend from a time when he hadn’t been so lonely.
Their fists continued to swing at each other. Yet, even with just that, Molon felt a satisfaction within his chest like never before.
“ Pft,” Molon snorted.
As one blow after another landed on his nose, blood began to spurt. Without wiping away his nosebleed, Molon just smiled.
Booom!
Molon heard a panting breath, then Eugene’s fist met with his abdomen at full speed. The only effect was that Molon was a little shaken.
“What’s wrong, Hamel?!” Molon shouted in a voice filled with glee.
Even though Eugene had accurately aimed for the pit of his stomach, Molon’s breathing was fine. However, Eugene’s breathing was a mess. His flames, which had burned so intensely at first, had died down to a point even lower than they were at the start.
“I can still keep fighting!” Eugene stubbornly insisted.
Bam!
Molon swung his palm and slapped Eugene on the shoulder. This time, he was only holding back a bare minimum.
Eugene summoned a flame shield, but it was completely shattered, and his bones also couldn’t escape the fate of being crushed. With this, Eugene’s left arm was no longer usable.
“Look out, Hamel!” Molon warned Eugene with a chuckle as he raised his fist.
Molon’s fist fell toward Eugene’s head. Eugene was still off-balance from his injuries, but he quickly responded to the attack. All of Prominence’s feathers moved to cover the top of his head, and he raised his right arm in preparation to block Molon’s fist.
Craracrack!
The feathers were obliterated and Eugene’s right arm was also broken. The rest of the force from the blow that hadn’t been dispersed hammered down onto Eugene’s body, forcing him to his knees.
“I win!” Molon gloated.
The victory that Molon was currently celebrating was completely different from his previous one. He was laughing sincerely, and he had declared this win with a prideful shout.
Eugene was burning up on the inside. He wanted to say something to refute Molon’s victory, but unlike earlier, he didn’t have any grounds to argue against it. Both of his arms were broken. He had also lost control of his legs. Apart from that, his internal organs were also damaged on top of all his minor fractures. And if that wasn’t enough…Ignition was slowly coming to an end.
This had been a reckless slugfest.
There was no way in hell that Eugene could defeat Molon in one of those. Even in his previous life as Hamel, if he had gotten into a slugfest with Molon, he would have lost every time.
“That’s right, you son of a bitch,” Eugene conceded with a sigh, holding back his anger and the pain coursing through his whole body. “As a three hundred year old, does it feel good to defeat a twenty-one year old?”
“Huh?” Molon grunted.
Eugene repeated himself, but with a curse on top. “I said, does it fucking feel good ?”
“I’m not sure what you mean by that, Hamel. You’re the one who started the fight, no?” Molon logically pointed out.
Eugene just screamed loudly in response, “I asked you if it feels good!!!”
1. The author has started to use ‘sunspots’ to refer to the completely blackened suns of a fully charged Eclipse. ☜