Alpha Prime. Living up to its name, this creature was an experimental subject that Cromwell had painstakingly created. It was more than enough to treat the artificial knights he had sent out earlier to block Osian's path as mere 'trifles.'
As could be seen from Cromwell confidently revealing himself in person, the aura emanating from Knight Alpha Prime was intense.
'It truly feels like facing a natural disaster.'
The creature's physique was the same as an ordinary human. But that was only the strength visible to the eye. It was a massive presence condensed into human size. Its density was enough to push against the very principles of the world.
'Was this how people felt when they faced me?'
It was different from the feeling of facing a mirror. It was the same when he first met Lupona. That thing had blatantly copied himself, then added all sorts of improvements to it. And as could be seen from Cromwell's previous troublesome process, the creature had received additional adjustments.
"It's a masterpiece made using your genes."
"Well, I can see just by looking that it's stronger than the other ones. But in the end, isn't it still an artificial being?"
The artificial knights that Cromwell had been proud of had met their fate at Osian's hands. It was the same elsewhere too.
Cromwell forcibly cut off that communication. The reality before his eyes was more important to him now.
"All the previous ones were nothing more than preparation materials made for this one's birth. This Knight Alpha Prime is where all the essence has gone."
The creature in black armor gazed at Osian. Yellow light flickered from inside the helmet. The gaze blatantly staring this way was quite provocative. It seemed as if it was confident it could defeat the original far too easily.
It was an obvious provocation, but it was indeed effective. Osian felt blood rushing quickly through his body. The sight of a fake acting tough against the real thing was nothing short of irritating.
"Right. There's been too much chatter. Since I came this far anyway, there was only one way to check directly."
Osian re-gripped his sword. The creature commonly called Alpha took its stance. The aura emanating from it became even more intense. It was as if it had been suppressing it until then, and now there was even a hallucination of blades being ruthlessly scattered all around.
"Hmm. Even I find this a bit uncomfortable."
Even the shameless Cromwell frowned and stepped back. Despite focusing the pressure on Osian as much as possible, it had affected him who was nearby.
Whoosh.
Pure white flames bloomed at his feet. Starlight climbed up his ankles and instantly swallowed him up to his head. Pure white armor surrounded Osian's body. And with ornate fur epaulettes on his shoulders, a silk-like cloak flowed down beneath them.
Osian emitted starlight from his sword. The strengthened starlight shone like a star that had just fallen from the sky.
Whoosh.
Alpha also drew starlight from its sword. It was output and heat incomparable to the previous artificial knights. There was a reason Cromwell was confident. He had thrown all the materials he had into that creature.
"Let's see if your other performances are outstanding as well."
Osian moved and Alpha did the same. Like looking in a mirror and running, they rushed toward each other simultaneously with not an inch of error.
Slash!
Osian and Alpha's forms crossed each other. It was an unbelievable agility for beings wearing armor. And immediately after, light and aftershock swept out from the collision point of the two knights.
Kwaaaaah!
It was an unbelievable result for a collision between sword and sword. As the shockwave spread, Seren closed her eyes and opened them again. The two knights who had been back to back were once again locked in combat.
'Fast. I can't follow them with my eyes.'
The moment it seemed the two were crossing swords, their forms disappeared and they clashed swords elsewhere. When eyes followed there, they had already vanished and appeared somewhere else.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Invisible shockwaves burst in succession. Light flashed, and now it became impossible to distinguish how the two were crossing swords.
In a situation where a moment's carelessness threatened life, Osian calmly observed Alpha.
"Indeed. You have reason to be confident."
Knight Alpha Prime. As Cromwell had proudly stated, the creature had the qualifications to match. It was incomparably fast and strong compared to the previous artificial knights. Most bothersome of all was...
Swoosh.
When Osian thrust his sword, the creature twisted its shoulder as if it had expected this and deflected the starlight sword. Then it naturally swung its sword upward, aiming for Osian's ankle.
Osian had already withdrawn his thrust sword and naturally parried it like flowing water. But the creature changed its sword path as if it had anticipated the attack would fail, aiming for his neck.
Osian ducked his head to avoid the starlight sword, then rotated while staying low, slashing into Alpha's waist. An attack that could only be defended against by setting the sword vertically. But Alpha instead leaped up from its position to avoid the sword, then strongly pressed down with its starlight sword from midair.
'It's not following the flow I want to lead it into.'
He was deliberately inducing the opponent's movements, but Alpha kept piercing through this side's weak points each time. Osian immediately realized how this was possible.
"You're reading my patterns."
This was exactly why Cromwell had detained Osian's time by sacrificing the artificial knights earlier. He had offered the artificial knights as sacrifices to imprint Osian's fighting methods into the Alpha Prime Knight.
'I'm human after all, so when fighting, my habits come out unconsciously.'
Habits are a kind of embodied pattern. His systematized movements built up through long experience had been analyzed by the opponent in reverse.
'When I fought enemies in the game, I fought while analyzing patterns. But this time it's the opposite. I'm fighting an enemy that analyzes me.'
Moreover, the fact that it was a fake knight made using his own genes made this situation even more difficult.
"Then let's see how well you can do."
Osian's armor changed. Osian's form, now clad in Moon Scar martial attire, melted away and disappeared in midair. Seeing this, Alpha also activated Moon Scar identically. What wrapped around its body instead of black armor was martial attire of an even deeper navy blue than Osian's.
Swoosh.
Alpha also disappeared like a mirage. Soon cold energy violently collided in midair.
The cold energies seemed to try to devour each other, then intertwined, and sometimes avoided each other without engaging. Then, when the two cold energies collided at one point and entered a power struggle, the two knights wielding twin swords finally revealed themselves.
'This creature. It's learned countermeasures for Moon Scar as well.'
And probably the same for Sun Ring as well.
"Don't underestimate data."
Cromwell said with a laugh.
"All data about you is already imprinted in that creature's mind. Where and how you swing your sword, what methods you use to utilize power, how you step when you move."
Whoosh! Osian's body momentarily lost balance. It was because Alpha had suddenly withdrawn its strength. Osian immediately tried to recover his balance, but Alpha didn't miss the gap created in an instant.
Clang!
He deflected the moonlight blade stabbing toward his brow with the moonlight blade in his hand.
"The analysis of you has already been completed through countless trials and errors, experiments, and simulations. Your movements are now in Alpha's palm."
Osian didn't respond to Cromwell. The balance of power had shifted to Alpha. The creature didn't miss the momentum and pressed its attack.
'It gives no opening at all. A perfect attack with no room for error. To think that even I would feel pressed to barely defend.'
Osian parried most of Alpha's eye-dizzying attacks. The creature stimulated this side's perception with some feints, but Osian wasn't fooled.
This was because while it could learn attack patterns, it couldn't perfectly analyze this side's dedicated defense. It had to be so. Osian had never fought with defense alone throughout all his battles.
'When I'm determined to block everything, even I cannot be penetrated. But the fight would flow into a meaningless prolonged battle.'
That was something not only Cromwell but Osian himself didn't want.
Osian's eyes flashed open. Behind his martial attire-clad back, a sun ring rose.
Sun Ring.
The sun ring rotated fiercely. In an instant, the martial attire around his body changed to golden armor. And naturally, Alpha also raised a sun ring behind its back.
Sun Ring and Sun Ring's heat collided.
Hissssss!
The cold frost that had settled around with Moon Scar's power instantly vaporized and became steam. Even that steam couldn't withstand Sun Ring's heat and instantly disappeared.
Within Sun Ring and Sun Ring, the two knights faced each other at a distance where their swung swords would reach.
Osian drew the Sun Ring straight sword from the ring. And instead of firing it, he swung it greatly toward Alpha. Alpha likewise drew a Sun Ring straight sword, then swung it like facing a mirror.
At that moment, Osian's sword path changed. The straight sword seemed to be swinging but suddenly stopped, then was fired.
"......!"
Alpha reacted for the first time. The creature withdrew its sword and hastily defended. It barely blocked it, but the creature's gaze wavered for a moment.
"Surprised, are you? This action wasn't included in the behavioral patterns of me that you analyzed?"
It had to be so. If it had been the usual Osian, he would have swung the sword, but Osian changed his judgment at that moment. Osian stepped forward. The distance between the two knights shortened.
Whirrrrr!
Alpha increased the rotation speed of its ring. It was to push Osian back with hot heat. According to its judgment, Osian should have retreated here.
But Osian instead took another step forward. Going even further, his golden armor disappeared and starlight armor took its place.
Though starlight armor was sturdy, it wasn't enough to withstand Sun Ring's heat raging right in front of him. Nevertheless, Osian swung his starlight sword while taking the heat with his body.
Suppressing embodied habits and replacing that empty space with momentary flashing intuition. Perhaps even intuition might be the result of accumulated actions. But Alpha couldn't react. It was effective.
The descending starlight sword precisely split the chest of Alpha's Sun Ring armor. Though Sun Ring armor was thick and sturdy, it wasn't enough to withstand a condensed starlight sword at close range.
The creature's breastplate split, and a thin line was drawn across its chest.
'But it's shallow. Is this the defensive power of Sun Ring armor after all?'
It was quite a decisive blow, but it only managed to cut muscle. But it was also a sufficient fatal wound.
Sun Ring's heat died down, and Alpha staggered back. The creature touched its chest with its palm. Bright red blood flowed down.
"At least your blood is red like a human's."
At Osian's words, the creature raised its lowered head to stare at Osian.
The wound on its chest that had opened healed in an instant as if time was rewinding.
"Ha. This is maddening. You have this function too?"
It was Cromwell who answered Osian's muttering instead.
"Isn't that natural? If I was only going to use it as a simple human, I wouldn't have put so much effort into it. Super-regeneration ability is naturally a function it possesses."
Cromwell seemed fine amidst the aftermath of that collision, probably wearing defensive artifacts. It was natural that such a scientist wouldn't come out barehanded with nothing.
"And that's not the only thing that went into that child."
No sooner had Cromwell finished speaking than Alpha moved. Red barrier wings spread behind the creature's back. It was an ability Osian remembered seeing.
"That's definitely a mutant's..."
It was the creature that had dealt with barrier energy by materializing it. Now, Alpha was using exactly the same thing.
However, rather than a practical attack, it seemed to be an auxiliary means, as the creature charged forward while gaining acceleration by flapping those wings instead of shooting out the barrier.
Osian raised his starlight sword to block the creature's sword. By now, it was wearing starlight armor facing him like a mirror. It was duller than Osian's, closer to ash-gray than white.
The moment sword met sword the creature's starlight sword was instantly dyed red.
"What else did you mix in?"
Osian frowned at Alpha's suddenly surging power.
Killing Star Sword was the unique characteristic handled by dark knights.
Alpha's body contained not only Osian's genes, but Lupona's genes as well.