Chapter 395: Maria (1)
After the first clash between them,
Daemon Valerion and Maria both stepped back, facing each other again.
They locked eyes, silently gauging each other’s strength.
The explosive power radiating from Daemon was impossible to miss ...
Especially with the Golden Dragon Armor amplifying it several times over.
There was no doubt .. he was one of the strongest elite students.
Maria could see that clearly, especially through the ominous black lightning coursing through him.
She saw it .. But Daemon didn’t.
No matter how hard he focused on the pale-skinned girl before him, Channeling all his senses to assess her strength...
He felt nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
It was as if she were a normal human—
No aura, no pressure, no signs of power.
Yet she had blocked him so easily just moments ago.
Taking a deep breath,
Daemon returned to his stance, eyes narrowing.
"Let’s see what you’ve really got!"
He stomped the ground with force,
Then shot forward in a flash of black lightning.
The distance between them vanished in an instant .. He hurled a punch at her with everything he had.
But just before his fist could connect,
Maria tilted her body at an impossible angle, dodging at the last second.
Daemon didn’t stop.
He unleashed a flurry of punches—so fast that streaks of dark aura trailed behind him like cracks in the air.
Each blow tore the earth apart,
But none of them landed.
Maria weaved between his strikes with flawless agility, Dodging each one by mere hairsbreadths.
"That level of agility... how the hell .."
After slipping past all his attacks,
Maria countered with a razor-fast horizontal slash aimed at Daemon’s right flank.
He blocked it with his armored right hand,
But the impact felt like being hit by a speeding truck.
Even though he endured it, The raw physical force coming from that fragile-looking body made no sense.
Still, Daemon wasn’t one to fall behind.
Clutching her sword with his right hand and locking it in place, He raised his left hand, gathering a monstrous amount of aura ..
Until the snarling head of a dragon formed over his fist.
The furious beast opened its maw toward Maria, ready to devour her with a devastating blast.
But with her blade restrained,
Maria responded with a simple punch from her free hand .. straight toward the dragon’s face.
Unlike Daemon’s flashy, aura-infused technique, Her punch held no aura—just raw, pure strength.
Ordinarily, a bare hand should have been obliterated on contact.
But it wasn’t.
The moment their powers collided,
A massive shockwave exploded across the battlefield.
From afar, Dawn watched in disbelief—
That girl’s punch had stopped Daemon Valerion’s full-force attack.
There they stood—fist against fist—
At the center of a crater of destruction.
Neither could overpower the other.
But Maria moved first ..
Delivering a sudden downward kick aimed at Daemon’s face.
He narrowly avoided it thanks to his lightning-fast reflexes, But in doing so, he released her sword.
In a blink, Maria slashed at him—aiming for his head.
Daemon, undeterred, twisted and countered with a punch, Redirecting the blade so it slammed into the ground beside him instead.
They both leapt back—only to charge in again at full speed, Determined to end this fight.
Maria’s strikes were brutal, But Daemon endured them all .. his black lightning flaring brighter and fiercer with each blow.
"I could do this all day!"
With a thunderous roar, Daemon unleashed even more lightning aura ..
Gaining a slight edge as Maria was finally forced onto the defensive.
Since his defeat in the Victoriad at the hands of Frey Starlight, Daemon had come to a painful realization ...
His biggest weakness was stamina.
He couldn’t maintain black lightning for long, As it rapidly drained his body.
But after that fight, The proud lion of House Valerion trained relentlessly,
Pushing his endurance to insane levels.
With the help of the Golden Dragon Armor,
He was able to absorb aura more efficiently .. And drastically extend the time he could sustain black lightning.
The result?
He had become a much stronger warrior than ever before.
"I don’t know what kind of Monster you and that weird body of yours are—"
He pressed harder,
While Maria focused solely on defense.
"But you’re not winning this!!"
After a barrage of rapid-fire punches ..
For just a moment, Daemon broke through.
A devastating blow smashed into Maria’s abdomen ... And the black lightning detonated inside her body.
She was launched backward, Rolling violently across the ground until she crashed into a wall, reducing it to rubble.
The sheer force behind Daemon’s punch could have torn through steel.
Step by step, Clad in the power of the Golden Dragon, Daemon walked toward her ..
The black lightning crackling louder and fiercer with every second.
He had truly intended to kill her.
Maria, on the other hand, was lying on the ground, her black hat covering her face.
To any onlooker, she would’ve seemed utterly defeated.
Even Daemon himself believed it—his last attack had hit her with full force.
Yet, Maria didn’t show any sign of distress.
She spoke indifferently as she slowly rose to her feet.
"Oh... ’monster’... what a fitting word."
Gripping her slender sword, she stared at Daemon ..
Her crimson eyes growing deeper in color with every passing second.
"Monsters are cruel and savage... and they can be incredibly dangerous. So be careful when you’re dealing with one."
Then—without warning—
And under the watchful gazes of both Daemon and Dawn...
Maria violently drove her blade into the palm of her own right hand.
A thin stream of blood began trickling from the wound, Dripping onto the sword’s edge and spiraling around it in a magical dance.
Daemon immediately shifted into a serious stance.
And how could he not?
For the first time since the battle began, he finally felt her aura.
"I thought she was relying solely on physical strength..."
He realized now that he was mistaken.
The overwhelming surge of aura coming from her made that very clear.
"Appearances can be deceiving... and the truth far more terrifying than you imagine."
With chilling composure, Maria swung her sword, unleashing a massive crimson arc straight at Daemon.
The attack moved so fast that Daemon barely had time to raise his shield.
But the moment it struck, A wave of searing pain tore through him—his golden armor denting and cracking on impact.
One strike.
That was all it took to damage his near-indestructible armor.
Daemon clenched his jaw.
He had clearly underestimated her.
Focusing his aura into the armor, The cracks and dents began to mend ...
A trait of the Golden Dragon Armor, modeled after the Emperor’s own Fume Knight Armor.
It possessed partial regeneration abilities—making it a devastating relic of war.
Reigniting his aura, Daemon launched himself at Maria again.
"I’ll kill you with these hands!!"
His attacks came with explosive force...
But as he charged, Maria countered with another terrifying stab, releasing a blood beam like a bullet straight through the air.
Daemon dodged—barely.
Only to find Maria right in front of him.
"We both want each other dead... so let’s end this quickly."
She spoke with the same cold tone.
Daemon roared in reply ..
"Then come at me!!"
Their speed skyrocketed.
Fists and sword clashed dozens of times in the blink of an eye.
But this time... there was something different.
Maria’s strikes now carried blood-infused aura unlike anything Daemon had seen before.
Her crimson aura intertwined with his black lightning ...
Sometimes even overpowering it.
Daemon gritted his teeth.
’Where the hell was all this blood coming from?’
He pushed himself further, Forcing his body past its limits just to bring down the girl in front of him.
But Maria was unrelenting ..
With a body of steel, movements of silk, and an aura of death.
She was practically untouchable.
Yet none of it mattered to Daemon.
"I’d rather die than lose to a damn demon-worshipping freak!!"
With a furious scream, Dragon heads formed once again over both his fists,
Ready to strike ..
But Maria met him head-on, Her blade now surrounded by even more crimson aura.
For the first time, emotion flickered across her pale face.
"I was born in blood...
Lived in blood...
Killed in blood...
And I continue still."
Slash!!
With a precise strike, Maria carved another deep fissure into Daemon’s armor.
"Just as you were born into the Empire and lived a life of honor .. I was born among the Ultras, and lived my entire life in blood.
What makes you think, even for a moment, that you’re fit to judge me?"
Her sword gleamed blood-red, But was caught mid-swing by Daemon’s darkened fist.
"Spare me the nonsense!"
With explosive force, Daemon’s aura transformed into the massive maw of a lion..
Roaring in Maria’s face.
"You made your choice .. the whole filthy lot of you.
You chose this cursed life, so don’t come crying now, after everything your hands have done!!"
His black lightning flared...
But crimson tendrils of blood wrapped around it, Maria parrying the blast with ease.
"And what ’choice’ are you talking about, exactly?
The one our ancestors made centuries ago?"
BOOM!
Sword and fist collided once more, Shaking the battlefield.
Daemon howled:
"No .. your choice!!
What’s happening now is proof enough!"
Though the betrayal that sparked this war began generations ago, The current Ultras had committed their own horrors ..
The recent abductions... the Witch’s Game... all undeniable.
But for the first time since the battle began,
Maria... laughed.