Chapter 424 - Test (3)
Until just last year, Adrian had been one of the test subjects of the Bohemirn magic tower.
Worse still, after being forced by Coercion to slay his own master with his own hands at the will of Balrog Bessias, he had spiraled into mental collapse until his entire existence was dominated.
A gaunt body. A dulled blade.
A puppet, carrying out the commands inscribed into the magic circle as if they were his life's purpose, never questioning them for even a moment...
At that time, Adrian was utterly pathetic, weak beyond words.
'But now it's different.'
After recovering from most of his injuries through Bishop Lena's miracle, he restored his emaciated body to normal with proper meals and rest.
That wasn't all.
He sharpened the intent of his sword through the training once taught by his master.
During his clash with Kessilus, one of the executives leading the Glory of the Dead, he single-handedly faced the supreme Undead, the Knight of Apocalypse, and sent it back into the swamp of death.
Against the invasion of Sacrid, even when nearly killed, he managed to cleave the bones of the weakened Bone-Relic Dragon.
And now, he possessed a mental fortitude strong enough to resist the magic of Ignacia.
A perfect condition.
His movements were swifter than before. His swordsmanship, all the more precise.
Above all, he had experienced a world he never knew in his younger years.
Adrian was convinced.
That he was stronger now than even at the height of his prime, when he had stood as one of the Central Continent's Four.
Swaeeaaak───!
A slash flew diagonally, severing trees and grass in its path without resistance.
Light made it swift.
Facing the sword aura drawing ever nearer, Verden stretched out his arm.
At his fingertip, a light of magic power flared like a candle flame. The violet aura clashed against it, only to shatter into thousands of fragments and vanish.
No special technique was involved.
The sheer density of magic power was so overwhelming that the sword strike simply broke apart on contact.
Of course, the sword aura had been but a feint.
In that moment, Adrian accelerated sharply, closing the distance to Verden in an instant.
With killing intent gathered at the tip of his blade──
Linked Light.
The Demonic Sword, Cadence, swept toward that pale white nape.
A dazzling blaze of swordlight blinded his vision.
Yet Verden, without so much as a blink, caught the trajectory of the martial art.
"...!"
Abruptly, Adrian's sword came to a halt.
Though he pressed forward with added strength and weight, it didn't so much as budge.
The spatial field formed by Mado
An intangible wall that absorbed all impact, impervious even to the Demonic Sword's power.
The Mystic Eye flickered.
"Indeed, you're far faster than during the Midros Territory incident... but now I can see it."
Before his transcendence, Verden had only triumphed over Adrian by scorching the surroundings or by predicting with precision.
But as a Mage, he had been lacking when it came to keeping up with Adrian's speed.
Awakening, by its nature, was the enlightenment of one's being.
Because Verden had not relied solely on magic, he achieved a multidimensional transcendence surpassing that of ordinary transcendent Mages.
A sense and insight verging on future foresight—this was one of the dramatic changes he had attained.
Adrian smirked faintly.
"As expected, but I didn't think my martial art would be blocked like this."
"Don't bother pretending to be disappointed. I know you've got plenty hidden."
"..."
"Fight with all you have, Adrian Chambers."
This was an test.
For both of them. Victory and defeat here were meaningless.
"Yes, my lord."
Adrian answered at once, withdrawing his sword.
Then, twisting his waist like a flash of lightning, he struck with weight behind his slash.
Verden lightly flicked his fingers.
Boooom!
The space convulsed as a violent shockwave slammed into Adrian, sweeping across the front.
Amid the forest torn apart, Adrian drove his Demonic Sword into the ground, spreading his qi barrier to barely control his airborne body.
Then, from beneath his feet, an unprecedented, surging force tingled across his nerves.
The earth split into thousands upon thousands of cracks.
The transcendent's will infused into the land, ruled by infinite magic power.
Kugugugugugu!
Eight colossal stone pillars rose, towering higher than skyscrapers.
The pillars began to shift.
Twisting, bending into arcs, yet never breaking their form. As though alive themselves.
With their shadows fell a suffocating pressure.
Adrian, faced with a magical calamity that seemed about to crush him, drew in a deep breath.
'Logically, I should evade...'
But that wasn't the answer.
He had once thought the same, dedicating himself entirely to evasion, only to suffer a helpless defeat at the hands of Balrog Bessias.
'Judge with reason.'
This wasn't a fight to the death, so he would not die here.
Besides, sheer speed would never let him reach even the toes of a transcendent.
He had to choose the strategy opposite to instinct.
Head-on breakthrough.
That was the lesson Adrian had learned from past experience—the best path for him.
And his action was immediate.
Violet aura burrowed sharply into his flesh, rooting itself into his nerves.
Guk-ye.
Of his five senses, touch sharpened with unmatched clarity.
As if supplementing his sight, every surge of magic power and natural 'flow' stirred around him, now perceivable through his skin.
A new technique.
Unlike the Demonic Sword, Cadence, which severed the arrays of magic power, this was a secret means that could directly cut through magic with tangible form.
───Kwaaaaaang!
One of the pillars dropped straight down. The sheer mass shook the ground violently, sinking part of the forest.
Through the dust, Adrian leapt upward, and seven earthen tendrils closed in on him.
Kagagak.
The crushing weight bore down, yet Adrian deflected with his sword, alighting atop a pillar, sliding along, spinning as he unleashed his martial art.
Nanmu, Wild Dance.
The sword aura scattered in all directions, slicing through the strands of magic power into hundreds of pieces.
The dismantling of
Because the heightened senses were still unfamiliar, Adrian failed to deflect some of the impact, yet he cared little for that.
All eight pillars lost balance in an instant, toppling down, while smoothly hewn fragments of stone rained onto the ground.
It was a movement of wonder.
Landing with a roll, Adrian exhaled ragged breaths, the dull pain sharpening his mind.
Verden asked calmly.
"Wasn't that force excessive?"
"On the contrary, it was lacking."
At Adrian's bold reply, Verden nodded, bending his left arm.
With his five fingers half-curled, he surged his magic power at once.
"...!"
A heat manifested through Infinity.
The ground, growing hotter by the moment, flushed red.
Danger spread in waves.
Adrian leapt away immediately, and an intense blaze erupted.
Verden's new unique magic.
Kwaaaaaang! Kwaaaaaang! Kwaaaaaaaang!
Pillars of fire, dozens in number, surged one after another, tearing the area into scorched wasteland.
When Verden clenched his fist, they fused into one, unfolding a crimson world.
Everything burned.
As if the sun itself were setting, the surroundings were drenched in red.
"Khrrgh...!!!"
Even with all his qi gathered into a protective shield, it was impossible to block it fully. The indirect heat alone pierced to his very bones.
Suppressing the pain, Adrian raised his arms, launching a vertical sword strike.
New Moon
A violet crescent moon cleaved through five of the countless strands. For a brief instant, the might of
Using that gap, Adrian broke free from the hellfire, rushing at Verden with smoke rising from his scorched body.
'Faster.'
By shifting his center of gravity wholly to his toes, a sonic boom resounded.
Adrian vanished, kicking off earth and tree, then the ground again, twisting his trajectory violently into erratic paths.
He circled Verden, tracing a broad oval around him.
At each moment, the afterimages he left behind bore the same presence as his true body, forming pseudo-clones.
A martial art meant to disrupt even the perception of a transcendent, if only for a fleeting moment.
Air currents swirled in turbulence.
When Adrian raised his blade, the afterimages mirrored him in unison.
At once, with a cry, a violet sword line cleaved the air.
Vortex Spiral.
Kwaaaaaararararara!
Dozens of sword auras, scattering in irregular refractions, became a storm of blades that swallowed Verden.
Amid thick dust and flying ash, the forest, once lush, was devastated, and the barren ground was etched with countless sword marks.
Thud.
"Huff, huff..."
Adrian dropped to one knee, both hands braced on the ground.
His vision blurred.
From sustaining the technique too long and forcing his body, his breathing faltered.
Sweat poured like rain.
"Well done."
The deep voice pierced his ears.
Lifting his head with effort, he met those familiar, transparent blue eyes.
Though Verden stood unscathed despite his desperate struggle, Adrian felt no disappointment in himself.
On the contrary, exhilaration filled him.
"Still, I reached you."
"Indeed."
Verden brushed dust from his shoulder.
Adrian's strike hadn't pierced the resistance of the jet-black Ainber nor dealt true damage to his body... yet it had forced movement, more than merely touching a transcendent.
Verden's position, three steps away from where he had originally stood, was proof.
"A new technique and martial art, strategies aimed at a transcendent. Far beyond expectation."
"It was only possible because my lord held back."
"I did restrain my power so as not to endanger your life, but even had I not, the result would have been much the same. You would not have died that easily."
Had his life been on the line, Adrian would not have halted, even if mortally wounded, even if his limbs were torn apart.
Verden remembered, even when under Coercion's brainwashing, Adrian had wielded a broken blade clenched between his teeth, the madness of a swordsman who fought on despite exhaustion.
That willpower had been wholly Adrian's own.
"...Perhaps. But the fact remains, I have yet to draw out your true strength, my lord."
Using his Demonic Sword as a staff, Adrian staggered back to his feet.
"The test is not yet over."
"..."
"I wish to face the true power you have attained as a transcendent. I dare to endure it."
Whether it was stubbornness or recklessness, it mattered not.
Adrian wanted not only to witness Verden's might, but to measure his own limits against it.
"If you so desire."
Enveloped in violet radiance, Verden instantly shifted backward.
A 6th-tier spatial magic.
Once, the backlash made it unusable in real battle, but now he wielded it with ease.
"I cannot yet control it perfectly... so be especially cautious."
Verden's heart pulsed unnaturally.
Mado
Blue magic vanished, replaced by dark crimson magic power, activating his entire network of mana circuits.
The mere aftermath summoned silence—not of calm, but as if the world itself screamed in voiceless agony.
Even while restraining his transcendent's might, the air trembled.
Adrian, by reflex, sensed death, yet still he did not retreat.
Intensification.
Adrian dashed straight ahead.
At last, braking with his legs and sword, using inertia itself, he slashed downward with the Demonic Sword.
His final technique.
Following the vertical arc, the clouds in the sky split apart.
In that instant.
Verden extended his right hand forward.
An alien magic, manipulated, controlled, and fused, was condensed at a single point.
His cold gaze flickered.
A new magic method Verden had forged, based on the first Demon King's technique.
The dark crimson beam pierced straight ahead.
A ray of annihilation, that devoured the formless sword aura and could scar even the bones of a dragon, passed by Adrian's side.
────!
Chaotic brilliance.
At the end of its path, a nameless mountain met its ruin.
You can read more chapters in organised way on my website:- https://revengernovel.com