Gavid looked down at his right hand.
He could see Glory. The blade was never supposed to shatter. But now, it lay in pieces, yet the hilt he gripped remained intact. That was all that was left. It could no longer be called a sword, nor could it serve as one.
"Fascinating,” Gavid murmured in a hoarse voice.
He felt his body with his unoccupied hand. His once spotless white shirt was now in tatters. His crisply creased trousers were frayed, and his polished shoes were no better.
He ran a hand through his hair. Even his neatly pomade hair, combed back with care, was a mess. He had never imagined he would show himself to the world in such a disheveled and unseemly state.
Gavid chuckled softly while closing his eyes for a moment. He murmured, "Is that so?"
Gavid Lindman was under a profound misconception. He harbored a fundamental contradiction.
He had wandered the barren wasteland for a year. He had faced countless deaths at the hands of War God Agaroth. Despite using the Demoneye of Divine Glory and wielding Glory, defeat had always been an unalterable outcome.
Was it because the Demoneye of Divine Glory and Glory were weak?
No. They were merely tools that allowed him to borrow the power of Incarceration. No matter how unique or superior the tool, if handled poorly, it could only produce results comparable to the expertise of the handler.He needed to reflect on himself before relying on the tools.
The Demoneye of Divine Glory and Glory were, in the end, the possessions of the Demon King of Incarceration.
He could not surpass the sword of Agaroth with them alone.
He could not win the duel with Eugene Lionheart.
"I should have realized this already,” muttered Gavid.
He had relinquished the title of Grand Duke of Helmuth. He had also abandoned the name “the Blade of Incarceration.” He had desired to let go of things and had thus beseeched the Demon King of Incarceration for a duel with Hamel.
It was a contradiction. The one who actually stood in the arena for today's duel was not Gavid Lindman but the Blade of Incarceration.
Gavid chuckled as he looked at the broken form of Glory, the demonic sword that had accompanied him for so long. For Gavid, it served as proof of his role as the Blade of Incarceration, along with the Demoneye of Divine Glory.
Gavid called out, "Just a moment."
He raised his eyes to look at Eugene, who stood still with a stern expression as he stared back.
"A moment is enough," Gavid continued.
Then, without waiting for a response, Gavid thrust the hilt of Glory into his right eye socket.
Eugene’s cheek twitched at Gavid’s sudden action, and the entire audience gasped in shock. The Black Mist was no different. They couldn't understand why Gavid would perform such an act.
"Ha-ha ha-ha."
Only the Demon King of Incarceration understood the meaning behind Gavid’s action.
"Are you finally letting go?" he said, sounding happy.
Before the duel had started, the Demon King of Incarceration had taken back Glory from Gavid. Then, he had knighted Gavid once more and bestowed Glory upon him again.
Gavid had the choice of whether to accept this bestowal. It had been a test and an opportunity given to Gavid by the Demon King of Incarceration.
However, Gavid did not refuse. Despite having realized long ago, at the outset of the duel, he could not shake off his contradictions. He had cherished the name Blade of Incarceration more than anything. That name had represented him for so long that it was already deeply ingrained in him and bound him like chains.
— I desire victory in this duel.
When the Demon King of Incarceration spoke thus, Gavid accepted the knighting with gratitude.
— This duel is not a defiance against me. It is my wish, my promise. If you are concerned about such things, you need not be.
What had Gavid replied?
— I will deliver victory to you.
This duel was not a rebellion against the Demon King of Incarceration; the Demon King desired victory.
It was wrong.
Gavid realized that the victory in this duel should not be dedicated to the Demon King of Incarceration.
The victory, the defeat, the glory, the death, everything that resulted from the duel belonged to Gavid and Gavid alone. In this duel, the Demon King of Incarceration should not be, and could not be, Gavid's lord. The moment Gavid thought otherwise, the purity of his purpose in this duel would be corrupted.
That was why Gavid pierced the Demoneye of Divine Glory with the hilt of Glory. He didn't just physically break the demoneye; Gavid’s will rejected it. He renounced the gracious powers he had enjoyed as the Blade of Incarceration.
The Demon King of Incarceration accepted Gavid’s refusal with joy. The hilt of Glory that had been thrust into his right eye turned to ash and disappeared. A new eyeball formed in the now empty socket, just as the Demoneye of Divine Glory had vanished. The power that Gavid had wielded for hundreds of years was gone.
Yet Gavid did not feel powerless. Something new filled the void, and he found himself smiling involuntarily at the fullness.
“I’m sorry.”
Just as Eugene had apologized, Gavid did the same. He no longer swayed but stood straight as he stared at Eugene.
“I thought I had realized it, but it seems I couldn't let go after all,” Gavid murmured as he raised his hand.
Whoosh!
The dark power he used wasn’t of the Demon King of Incarceration but of Gavid himself. It transformed into a long sword, and Gavid grabbed the hilt of the newly formed sword.
"Huh." Eugene let out a small sound of exclamation at Gavid’s appearance.
Before him stood a demon, Gavid Lindman, the same demon he had seen three hundred years ago. Yet strangely, Eugene found the current Gavid unfamiliar, as if he was looking at an entirely different being.
"Are you truly a demon?" Eugene asked, mirroring the question Gavid had once posed about him being human. Gavid chuckled briefly and raised the sword before him.
"I'm not sure," Gavid replied in an even tone. He wasn't certain, but he could faintly sense it.
To abandon, to seek, to fill, and to realize — this profound realization was not exclusive to demons. It was an enlightenment reached through an immeasurably long pursuit across the brink of death. Anyone sufficiently dedicated and considered a genius would naturally arrive at this state. If not, the failure to do so in itself would be a horrendous and illogical anomaly.
"Thank you."
Gavid sincerely expressed his gratitude. Without the fear and sense of inferiority he felt towards Hamel, the Gavid of today would not exist. If today's Eugene had not pushed him to this extent, he might never have recognized his contradictions.
Eugene did not respond to the offered gratitude but lifted Levantein instead.
The subdued flame reignited.
Gavid's transformation could well be described as a metamorphosis. The realm he had reached, the heights he had ascended through his trials — Eugene felt pure respect for Gavid. He was indeed a man worthy of reverence.
Yet, what Eugene needed to do today remained unchanged.
Whoosh.
Eugene clenched his left hand over his heart. As Gavid had gone through metamorphosis, so had Eugene in ascending to divinity. He had enough time remaining of Ignition that he didn’t need to worry.
But was that really true?
Could he kill Gavid within the time he had left? When he first used Ignition, he was confident he could. But now, that certainty had faded. It was as if they were starting from the beginning all over again.
'We'll have to see,' thought Eugene.
Eugene moved first, closing the distance in an instant and swinging Levantein. His dash was fast, but the slash of flame was even faster, already reaching Gavid in a moment.
But speed was not Eugene's alone to command. The moment Eugene thought to dash and cut, Gavid had already started moving in response. His right eye no longer housed the Demoneye of Divine Glory, yet Gavid felt a special power within it, as if, as if….
It felt as if he could see the future.
The flames spread in the air. They touched him. Or had they? At the moment of contact, he sidestepped.
With a fluid motion, Gavid perfectly exemplified elasticity. His movements were supple, and Levantein's flame passed over his sword without landing.
Eugene was not perturbed. If he could not overwhelm Gavid with sheer firepower, he would use a mix of different tactics.
Once more, Eugene drew Divine Power from the cosmos within his chest into Levantein. Along with a throbbing resonance, the Empty Sword was complete.
'Seeing the future…. No, that's not it,' Gavid realized.
Gavid stepped back. He wasn’t actually seeing the future. Rather, he was making predictions born of countless experiences, honed to a finer edge.
But that was enough. Gavid felt the immense power imbued in the Empty Sword and accepted that he could not face it head-on.
Then he wouldn’t insist on a frontal assault. Gavid grasped his sword with both hands. The horizontally aligned blade gleamed ominously. A concentrated burst of flame plummeted towards Gavid. The weight and force of the Empty Sword seemed capable of cleaving the world in two.
Gavid could see the path of the sword.
It was a chaotic flow of power, but a road was clearly outlined for him. Gavid didn't contemplate whether he could do it; he simply believed he could.
The demonic sword plunged through the flames, dispersing them like a gust of wind. The Empty Sword was thwarted, and the pristine blade of Levantein was exposed clearly in front of Gavid.
Their blades met.
Neither Gavid nor Eugene pushed to the end. Having anticipated Gavid’s attack just as Gavid had his, Eugene knew precisely where and how to strike in the extremity of combat. To press directly would only result in being cut himself. So, he withdrew, then thrust again. The two blades surged forward. Gavid took another skillful step back, then deflected Eugene’s counterattack.
One must not focus solely on the sword. Gavid noticed that Eugene’s left hand was forming a dark sphere.
Eclipse.
Though Gavid had thwarted it once, it still presented an ominous power, a great enough threat to warrant extreme caution.
‘This is insane,’ Gavid thought.
His movements changed. He leaped back as far as he could to maximize the distance from Eugene. As if he had expected this, Eugene detonated the Eclipse midway.
Boom!
What exploded was not a flame of divine power but ghastly moonlight — the small sphere was not a sun but a moon.
'He regenerated the Moonlight Sword?' Gavid thought, shocked.
Strictly speaking, it wasn’t a sword, but the exploding shards of moonlight were as sharp as hundreds or thousands of blades.
The ideal way to evade the attack would be to distance himself to where the moonlight couldn’t reach, but that was impossible right now. No matter how vast the arena was, it was still like a cage bound by the chains of Incarceration.
'The power he wields is terrifying, yet the attack itself is simplistic...' Gavid inferred.
As if mocking his thoughts, the form of the moonlight changed. The simple frontal assault halted abruptly, and a crimson current started flowing through the gray moonlight.
Fizz!
The moonlight transformed into a truly colossal sword.
It was a sword made solely of moonlight, without a hilt, which Eugene wielded without physically holding it.
Rumblee!
The space around it could not withstand the immense force and warped and shattered.
Eugene created the Empty Sword using purely the Moonlight Sword, whilst using the explosion of Eclipse to maximize its force. The sword was endowed with the miracles of absolutely meeting its target and killing it, just like the Divine Sword.
It was too late to thwart it. It was too large. It was impossible to cut through it all. Thus, Gavid chose to scrape it as much as possible. Among the myriad possibilities that flashed through his mind, Gavid chose the one he felt was definitive. His demonic sword glowed with a dark light.
Crack!
The demonic sword scraped the surface of the Moonlight Sword. That alone caused his arms to shatter and his organs to burst. Yet, to Gavid, pain and death were all too familiar.
He did not even flinch. He simply sliced the surface of the Moonlight Sword as he advanced. The sky split open! But Gavid's body did not. Finally, he reached inside of the Moonlight Sword’s slashing range.
Slash!
The demonic sword cut forward. Blood spurted from the center of Eugene’s chest. Though Gavid aimed to bisect, the slash was shallow. Eugene advanced while ignoring the wound.
Slash!
This time, Levantein cut through Gavid’s body. Eugene, too, was unable to bisect Gavid’s body completely.
Their wounds regenerated in different ways. Levantein reignited its flames, and the demonic sword quietly emitted its dark light.
The two swords engaged in a flurry of blows. Eugene never once blinked while embedding countless slashes in a single swing. It felt as if he was daring Gavid to try and predict his attacks. Gavid’s eyes moved rapidly as they tried to follow the trajectory of Eugene’s sword.
Which was real and which was fake among the oncoming slashes? He wanted to discern them, but the task proved meaningless. Every blade was true. Each slash carried definite lethal intent and power as they bore down on Gavid.
"Aaaah!" Gavid screamed as he swung his demonic sword.
The vast expanse of time he spent in the barren wasteland was encapsulated in his blade, making the demonic sword transcend worldly understanding. In contrast to Eugene's myriad cuts, the demonic sword moved only a few times, but each strike it unleashed was undoubtedly the epitome of what a sword should be. Each attack contained the absolute truth about the sword.
He cut through everything. Startled, Eugene stepped back. The attack surpassed mortal comprehension and left only the truth of being cut. Blood spurted from Eugene's entire body.
“Ahh!”
The scant audience screamed at Eugene’s injury.
Molon did not scream. He clenched his fist while watching the duel from the highest peak of Lehainjar.
Despite bleeding profusely, Eugene did not fall. His expression showed no distress either. It was the face of someone who saw such injuries as being natural.
"Hamel,” Molon spoke up. He couldn’t leave Lehainjar since he did not know when the Nur might appear. Thus, he hadn't sat in the stands, but Molon’s keen eyes could see every detail of the duel from this distance.
"Win."
Molon believed in Eugene's victory. Therefore, he murmured in a steady voice. He wished he could sit in the stands and loudly cheer for Eugene's victory.
Couldn’t he do so from here? The thought crossed Molon’s mind for a moment. He clenched his fist tightly and began to take deep, slow breaths, gathering all his strength to shout for Eugene’s name and victory.
"Don't do it, you idiot," someone said.
If it weren’t for the voice that suddenly called out from behind, Molon would have loudly called out Eugene’s name.
Cough! Cough.
Just as he was about to shout, he was interrupted. Molon gasped in surprise, swallowing the breath he was about to use, which caused him to choke. Each time Molon bent over coughing, the peaks of the mountains trembled.
"If you scream, you'll burst the eardrums of those unprepared," grumbled the voice.
It was close enough to be right next to him, yet Molon hadn’t noticed the presence of the speaker until now. He turned around after the fit of coughing stopped.
"Si... Sienna?"
After being gone for over a year, Sienna and Carmen stood behind Molon.