The billowing mane of a lion, made of gray flames, incited a ferocious and immense rage within Eugene. Everything, including the words the specter had been spouting, felt like mockery and deceit to Eugene.
Moments before, the specter had been adapting Hamel's techniques in its own way. But after being crushed and defeated, he resorted to using the White Flame Formula?
"What the fuck do you think you are doing—?" Eugene's words, fueled by his rising fury, were cut short.
Before the flames began to flicker, he sensed a change in the specter's demeanor. Naturally, the specter had not resorted to the White Flame Formula out of mockery or deceit. Instead, he had deemed the technique the most effective means of unleashing his full power.
In an instant, ten Stars formed in its chest. Through the opened gates, the dark power of Destruction poured out and was harnessed in the manner of the White Flame Formula. The specter’s flames were ignited furiously.
Eugene was at a loss for words at the sight. It wasn't merely an imitation; the specter had used its dark power like mana to perfectly replicate the White Flame Formula.
"How?" the question slipped from Eugene’s lips involuntarily.
The ten Stars within the specter's chest were palpable even to Eugene. This could represent only one thing.
The specter had reached the Tenth Star in the White flame formula. In the history of the Lionheart clan, no one but Vermouth had reached ten Stars. In the first place, the sheer fact that the specter could even wield the White Flame Formula was incomprehensible.
Using Hamel's techniques? That was expected. If the specter had employed the Red Flame Formula instead, the variant of the White Flame Formula, Eugene could have accepted that as well. It was entirely possible that the specter might have picked it up from Hector Lionheart after he was reborn as a monster.But what the specter wielded was not the Red Flame Formula but the White Flame Formula of the main family. Moreover, it was a version more complete than any practiced by the members of the main family.
"Who was it?" Eugene gritted his teeth as he spoke, "Who taught you that?"
"I don’t know if they taught it to me exactly,” the specter murmured softly.
He raised his demonic sword towards Eugene. There were no more words spoken as the specter had nothing further to say regarding Eugene’s question.
Eugene understood the significance of the specter’s action. They were on a battlefield, where the Hero and the Demon King stood facing each other. Their swords were drawn, pointing at each other. In the distance, far behind them, the Hero's forces clashed against the Demon King's monsters.
There was only one course of action to follow, just as it had been three hundred years ago. It had been the same even in the lost Age of Myth. Eugene had momentarily been distracted by his intense curiosity, but now, he recalled the reality of their current situation.
"Right," he told himself as he calmed down.
The emotion he should be feeling wasn't curiosity. The question of why or how the specter knew the White Flame Formula could wait until right before he killed the creature.
The two flames flickered. One was the blackened flame of what was once the White Flame Formula but was now uniquely Eugene's, and the other was a gray flame forged from the dark power of Destruction. Engulfed in their respective fires, the two figures soared high into the sky while shaking the very space around them.
Eugene made the first move. His dark wings of Prominence left no trace in their wake. The repeated leaps made tracking by sight impossible, and it even fooled the perception of others.
Yet, the specter responded. The Tenth-Star White Flame Formula granted the specter a sense of omnipotence it had never known before. It was as if each lick of flame that wrapped around his form was imbued with its own sentience.
The specter reacted instantly. With a clash, he intercepted the Holy Sword as it aimed for him from an angle. The burst of light at the moment of impact threatened to incinerate both his dark power and the specter's eyes, but the vehemently opposing flames of dark power pushed back even the light of the Holy Sword.
But the Holy Sword wasn't his only threat. The Moonlight Sword was swooping in from the opposite direction, and the specter's flames intensified in response.
Was it forming a sword? No. What emerged from the swelling flames was an alien spell, yet it was also familiar.
‘Vermouth's,' Eugene realized.
The flames moved as if they possessed their own will. They took the form of talons and caught the Moonlight Sword.
A mere mass of dark power or magic wasn’t sufficient to block the Moonlight Sword. But this dark power was formed from the White Flame Formula, and the spell was the alien magic that Vermouth used in the past. It wasn't perfect and couldn’t completely block Eugene’s attack, but it managed to neutralize the strike to a significant degree.
The specter retreated without faltering. Information was permeating his mind, but it didn’t belong to him or Hamel.
There was a door through which dark power flowed to him. Someone beyond that door... was slipping him not only dark power but also information.
‘It's you,’ the specter accused.
Vermouth hadn't killed the specter. While the specter didn’t know Vermouth’s true intent, Vermouth tolerated his existence and even empowered him despite the intense animosity he had towards the specter.
When Vermouth first encountered the specter, he was sitting atop the remnants scarred by the Divine Sword. He had displayed fierce hostility.
But in the end, it turned into sympathy.
‘Is this my choice?’ the specter asked himself.
He had lived for years under the delusion of being Hamel after being born with memories manipulated by Amelia Merwin. He then took shelter in Ravesta and mingled with the dark power of Destruction. It wouldn’t have been strange for him to die, or rather, it was expected for him to die. But he did not die.
Vermouth didn't wish for the specter's death. As a result, the specter became the Incarnation of Destruction.
He had heard the truths known to the Demon King of Incarceration.
"I made the decision,” the specter muttered softly.
He broke free from Amelia Merwin's shackles. He learned he was not Hamel but an imposter. It was Vermouth who helped him shed those shackles and granted him power.
But Vermouth, the tragic hero, didn't force anything on the specter. He didn't answer any of the specter's questions either.
The Demon King of Incarceration was the same. What he wanted was for the specter to make a decision, to take action.
So, even if someone else intended for it to be this way, the specter believed his decision was the right one.
‘ Then, was this decision like one Hamel would make?’
The specter lifted his gaze. After being pushed back a bit, Eugene was charging again. He could see the Holy Sword and the Moonlight Sword crossed in Eugene’s hands.
No longer did the golden eyes show a will to kill. Rather, he was completely focused on victory, which transcended even his will to kill. Eugene’s eyes were devoid of emotion, and it prevented his judgment from being clouded by trivial feelings.
And just as he was like both Hamel and Eugene at the same time….
‘This is who I am,’ the specter thought.
He had no intention of losing. He desperately desired victory.
Just as Eugene had addressed him, the specter sought a victory befitting a Demon King.
As the sword strike loomed, the specter clenched his fist. A spell manifested without any sign. Space inverted and swapped the positions of the specter and Eugene. However, Eugene did not panic when he suddenly found himself standing elsewhere. Instead, he continued to swing his sword. Surging strikes extended towards the specter's position, where space itself then ruptured open. An impossible distance emerged between them, an empty void. Eugene's strikes filled and erased the void, yet they did not reach the specter.
The torn distance between the two vanished as the space merged again. Eugene and the specter came to stand face to face without any acceleration. However, Eugene thrust the Moonlight Sword forward as if he had anticipated the sudden change. The encroaching moonlight caused the specter's flames to undulate.
Layers upon layers were stacked in the space. But before the moonlight could explode, it was sealed off by gray veils. The specter’s sword descended from above it.
Crack!
The Moonlight Sword impaled the ground in vain. The earth meant to be buried alongside it had also vanished, but an immense weight clung to the Moonlight Sword and refused to let go.
‘It’s heavy,’ Eugene thought.
The crushing and layering of space was magic that Eugene recognized.
It belonged to Vermouth Lionheart.
His epithets included God of War and Master-of-All. Not only was he the strongest warrior, but he was also the supreme wizard. Eugene had often teased Sienna whenever the topic of Vermouth’s magic was brought up. She would always retort in fury that their specialties were different.
But even Sienna acknowledged Vermouth's magical prowess. While Sienna mastered what could be called conventional magic, Vermouth specialized in spatial magic.
The Tomb of the Black Lion Castle, the Leyline, the Dark Room of the Lionheart mansion, and even the other side of Lehainjar — all were created by Vermouth's spatial magic.
Crack.
Veins started to bulge in the hand gripping the Moonlight Sword. Despite being crushed by dozens or even hundreds of overlapping spaces, the Moonlight Sword still emitted light. Moonlight and flames intertwined and overlapped to complete the Empty Sword.
The oppressive forces were cleaved in one stroke. The intuition granted by Eugene’s divinity caused him to move. The imperceptible and the unpredictable guided Eugene's movements.
Both the Holy Sword and the Moonlight Sword were enveloped by the Empty Sword. The force concentrated on Eugene’s weapons far exceeded the specter's expectations. The magic the specter used in an attempt to hold Eugene was annihilated before it could even form.
He knew he couldn’t remain in Eugene’s close proximity. He knew he would be consumed by the flames, so the specter vanished without even leaving an afterimage.
But Eugene didn't lose track of him. He followed the specter’s movements without missing a beat.
Gray and black.
Two beams of light streaked across the sky, and the very heavens seemed to shake as if it might collapse. The flight of the two colors lasted only a moment, but for the two in question, it didn't feel brief. Both knew that the slightest delay, miss or a lapse in judgment could lead to their immediate defeat.
The tension and the process were too much for the brain to bear. Eugene could smell blood inside his nose. This was precisely where humans were overwhelmingly disadvantaged against demons.
Humans were burdened with the fragility and fatigue of the body. Of course, the current Eugene was unbelievably robust compared to any other human, but he was largely helpless against the massive mental fatigue that was building up.
Had he been fighting alone, he would have collapsed with the accumulating fatigue and injuries. But that wasn’t the case. The sky was bright and filled with light. The Saints and priests were praying solely for Eugene.
The smell of blood vanished from his nose, and the throbbing pain in his head disappeared. His organs, torn and shredded from the remnants of the shock, healed in an instant.
Both swords were enveloped by the Empty Sword, and he crossed them. It resulted in a collision of two manifestations of the Empty Sword, each with five layers. It was impossible even for Eugene to form any more layers, so instead, he merged the two Empty Swords.
The power was too great for a mere human mind to handle. Akasha started to glow in response to the heavy burden from inside Eugene’s cloak. Mer held the staff tightly, contributing auxiliary computation to Akasha’s power. Even Prominence, acting as Eugene’s pseudo-Core, drew out strength in its frenzy.
Eugene raised the swords above his head, causing Prominence to soar with the swords in tandem. The single wing[1] of black flames became one with the Holy Sword and the Moonlight Sword. Eugene knew he couldn’t contain this power for long. There was no leeway in his control over it. If he was careless, he would instantly be crushed by the enormous power.
The specter twisted its body mid-air while fleeing. He looked down at the royal palace and the now-empty city below. The Liberation Army was advancing from behind Eugene’s back — but did it really matter?
If such immense power were to strike down, it wouldn’t simply obliterate Hauria, but Nahama in its entirety would be wiped off the map.
‘No, that's not it.’ The specter realized his error in judgment.
He was naïve to entertain such a thought. The specter intuitively knew what the sword would cause. Although it took the form of a sword, what Eugene held would not cut but devour everything in its path. If it wasn’t countered and neutralized, it would immediately consume and completely annihilate him.
The power contained in the attack wouldn’t target anything else. Destroy the entirety of Nahama? Such a thing would never happen. Even though Eugene held enough power to obliterate this vast nation, it was concentrated solely on the specter.
It was an absurdly precise attack, or rather, it was already beyond the mortal realm. It felt more like a miracle or a divine act. Was this made possible by the divinity of the God of War, or was it because of the favor of the God of Light?
‘It’s everything,’ the specter realized.
It would have been impossible for Eugene to wield such power without all these reasons. Even Mer and Akasha were exerting their full efforts to allow Eugene to control this power.
Eugene clenched his teeth and brought down the sword.
This was by no means the Divine Sword. Yet, it was imbued with power comparable to one.
The specter immediately flew towards the sword. This sword had reached the realm of miracles.
Miracles were powers beyond rational comprehension. It was different from a manifestation of divine energy. A miracle was the cumulation of human efforts. It was impossible to escape from a miracle that wouldn’t miss its mark. As such, the specter needed to negate the aspect of fatality from the unavoidable miracle.
Ten Stars of the dark-power-driven White Flame Formula started to spin rapidly and poured out dark power. It wasn’t just an infinite amount of dark power, but rather an infinite amount of dark power refined and ignited into flames with precision.
It’s not enough.
The specter had said this to Hamel, to Eugene, and now to himself. This was far from sufficient. If he wanted to become a true challenge to Eugene, he needed to be much stronger. He needed to become an entity that absolutely could not be surpassed.
The star of Destruction shone. At that moment, the specter truly matched his title of the Incarnation of Destruction. Dark power flowed from the ten Stars and formed into a sword. This sword wasn’t formed from the same singular color of ominous gray as before. Instead, it was a blend of all colors. An indescribable mass of color stretched out like a sword.
Eugene recalled the Demon King of Destruction he had seen long ago. It had been an existence that seemed to drive one mad just by looking at it, an existence that seemed to blend every color existing in this world. Hamel had seen it, Agaroth had seen it….
‘This is different,’ Eugene noticed.
He felt the presence of the Demon King of Destruction from the specter. Both Agaroth and Hamel felt fear when they saw the Demon King of Destruction.
He had been filled with the desire to flee. Agaroth didn't run from fear because he had many believers to protect. He had been driven by the intuition that if he fled, the Demon King of Destruction would engulf the entire world.
So, Agaroth didn't flee. Instead, he commanded his divine soldiers to death and led the charge.
Hamel couldn't overcome the fear and the desire to flee. As such, he fled with Vermouth and everyone else.
That had been the right choice. At that moment, no one could stop the Demon King of Destruction, and there had been no need to. But even if he had made the right choice, Hamel had been tormented by a sense of humiliation. Since then, the Demon King of Destruction had become a trauma for Hamel and his companions.
Then what about now? Was he filled with a desire to flee? No.
Such thoughts didn't cross Eugene Lionheart's mind. He wasn’t filled with a sense of duty like Agaroth, nor was he overcome with the fear that Hamel was.
What Eugene Lionheart felt now was rage and the intent to kill.
Eugene's sword clashed with the Sword of Destruction. There was no sound upon the collision. Instead, light flickered dozens of times in the skies above Hauria as if day and night were interchanging in an instant.
Even at that moment, neither Eugene nor the specter stopped moving.
The Holy Sword and the Moonlight Sword lost their light, likely because of expending too much power all at once. Without any hesitation, Eugene tossed the swords back into his cloak. He could see the figure of the specter a short distance away in the sky — or could he even call this place the sky?
He cast aside such trivial concerns.
The Sword of Destruction it had wielded had also vanished in the clash. However, the Destruction it had drawn forth was mixed into the White Flame Formula. The gray flames had now turned into a chaotic blaze of mixed colors.
"You bastard." As always, Eugene let out a curse unbecoming of the Hero. "Come here, you."
Still, contrary to his words, it was Eugene who charged toward the specter first.
1. So, this was a long-awaited question of whether Eugene completed his Signature, as the chapters always mentioned wings of Prominence. This makes it clear that Eugene still has only one wing. ☜