Chapter 1063: High Standards
The enormous serpent coiled across the sky and moved as if the air itself was solid ground. Bairan glared forward, his eyes burning with disgust and rage. He struggled to maintain a calm facade, but his forced smile looked twisted and horrendous.
The red orbs of the creature blinked and twitched, then suddenly blazed with deadly light.
Six massive streams of crimson beams erupted from the creature’s eyes and rocketed toward the ship. Bairan didn’t flinch. One moment he stood on bow’s egde—the next, he had vanished.
Northern thrust out his hand and cast momentum guard to shield the entire ship. But the beams sliced through his barrier without slowing, shattering it like glass, and hammered the vessel with crushing force.
The beams tore into the ship’s side, ripping apart the right side of the deck, hull, and keel. The entire structure exploded in a shower of concrete and flying debris.
The ship lurched off course, its great speed sending it drifting sideways through the air. It wobbled dangerously, barely maintaining stable flight.
In fact, it seemed to be dropping toward the ground.
Everyone grabbed hold of whatever they could find. Not that they were truly in danger—each of them could handle themselves if the ship went down. Right now, none of them looked worried about their safety.
Northern was furious about his ship, though. He absolutely refused to lose a second airship!
Meanwhile, high above, Bairan was already locked in battle with the Apex Belial.
The sky crackled with thunder. Lightning bolts twisted through the air like living serpents, striking at Bairan as he stood suspended in space. But each bolt was severed before it could reach him.
Bairan held no sword, yet his hand moved as if gripping an invisible blade. The cutting force of this phantom weapon surpassed anything Northern had ever witnessed.
What kind of weapon could slice through lightning itself? Especially when no weapon existed at all—Bairan’s hands were completely empty!
Yet Northern felt certain a weapon was there, something beyond the physical realm.
’...Sword Will?’
Northern wasn’t sure such a thing existed, but it had to. Bairan came from an age before Drifters, when ancient arts ruled society with terrifying power. Humans could train and perfect these arts to reach the peak of their potential.
At least, that’s what little Northern understood. He also suspected these arts were cruder, more primitive versions of modern talents and abilities—a theory born from countless battles alongside Bairan.
Primitive... and most likely raw. What Talent might have been if not somehow weakened by Ul. Though this was an accusation Northern dared not voice aloud.
Bairan wielded his Sword Will with one hand. It seemed to have no limit in length, no ceiling to its sharpness. If any boundary existed, it would be Bairan’s own resolve.
And resolve was something the Sword King possessed in abundance. He might appear the most relaxed among them all, but beneath that calm surface burned the fiercest determination.
Bairan’s resolve was like an obsession—the man simply didn’t know when to quit.
The serpent coiled and shrieked like screaming thunder, then shot forward with blistering speed. Its massive body flew through the air as smoothly as if it were sliding across solid earth.
It weaved in a frantic zigzag pattern and crashed straight into Bairan. That collision was its fatal error.
The only thing preventing Bairan from killing the serpent outright had been the wall of lightning strikes flying between them, shielding the monster from his wrath.
It was pure foolishness for the creature to abandon the one thing keeping it alive.
As they collided, Bairan let one hand fall casually. With lightning speed, a white streak of light carved through the serpent’s entire body, splitting it down the middle from head to tail. The cut ran straight through the heavens and disappeared deep into the storm clouds where the monster’s massive body ended.
Then the body split apart and began tumbling toward the sea, followed by another downpour—this one of rancid purple blood.
All of them were drenched and stained with the monster’s gore.
And just like that, with zero effort and no visible sword, the Sword King had slaughtered an Apex Belial as if it were nothing.
A creature that Paragons couldn’t defeat.
Bairan’s display set a standard so crushing that even imagining reaching it felt like a physical weight. Of course, this didn’t apply to Northern.
But for Thalen, Raven, Eli, Jeci, and Lynus—it was written all over their faces. That bone-deep realization. That shattered resolve.
They looked like climbers staring up at a mountain so tall its peak vanished into the clouds, knowing they were mere ants before it, yet somehow still wanting to scale its heights.
The expressions they wore belonged to hikers who had already given up and decided to turn back home.
Northern, though... was grinning like a maniac.
This was what he’d been chasing. This was his roadmap. The power he sought, and what he absolutely intended to surpass.
His heart hammered so hard it was almost audible. He stared at the Sword King standing calmly in the cold wind as the two halves of the serpent’s body plunged toward the sea.
At that moment, only one thought consumed his mind—one wild, desperate thought.
"Damn, I want to be strong!"
The desire burned so fierce that Northern didn’t even notice the ship dropping closer to the water. They were all about to crash into the sea if he didn’t act fast.
Bairan landed on the falling vessel. His impact was so powerful it rocked the ship back into stable, balanced flight.
In that instant, the ship skimmed across the water’s surface, racing forward and sending massive waves rolling across the entire sea.
Northern tilted his head, startled by what Bairan had just pulled off.
’Did he make himself heavier?’
It sure looked that way. But how?
Northern let out a dry laugh.
’This guy... keeps surprising me.’
Bairan simply dropped to one knee before him.
"I apologize for causing this minor disturbance..."
As the ship steadied and began moving at a calmer pace, the water’s surface rippled ominously. Bairan lifted his head, his expression deadly serious.
Then he bowed again.
"This humble servant shall excuse himself to eliminate these pests that dare block your path, master."
Northern wanted to sigh, but Bairan simply vanished without waiting for an answer.
’This guy... why is he suddenly putting on a show... it feels like... PDA?’