Standing face to face, Arthur and Revel didn't break their exchange of glances.
Both ready to explode with violence the moment the signal was given. Deep down, both wanted this moment—Arthur to prove himself, and Revel to confirm his convictions.
She had acted dryly and distantly with Arthur from the start because in one of the many books she had read, there was a similar scene.
The protagonist's sister was seeing a guy, and the protagonist acted that way to scare him and make him feel lesser. Revel had even managed to convince Eunbin to help her.
That day had been one of her best. Obviously, she had to blackmail Bin a little, but eventually, she agreed to the plan.
'I'm a mastermind!'
Bin's job was to act attached to Arthur so he would show his intentions, and Bin was the ideal person for that.
Was it wrong to use her sister's beauty that way? Perhaps, but neither of them was uncomfortable with the thought—mainly because if the plan succeeded, they would prevent Shan from getting hurt, and any discomfort they felt in the moment wouldn't compare to seeing their sister sad.
Still, to Revel's fortune and misfortune, Arthur never fell into the trap at any point.
Fortune because it meant her sister wouldn't end up hurt, and misfortune because she would have taken care of hurting him and driving him away from the clan—and from her sister. But now, the plan had reached its end, and only the sparring remained to decide the outcome of it all.
A smile wanted to find its place on her pale lips, but she suppressed it at the last moment.
'The final act remains, I can't fail now!'
Arthur, unaware of Revel's thoughts, voiced a doubt without breaking eye contact.
"What are the rules?"
He asked because they were in the throne room, and while it was large and sturdy, perhaps a fight of such magnitude could break a thing or two.
Something he noticed right now was that Revel, ever since she entered, had never stood on the sunbeams—as if they hurt her or something, and she had unconsciously avoided them.
'Is that her Flaw?' he asked himself after reaching a quick conclusion.
Revel took her time answering the question, and after a few seconds, she did.
"Simple, the first to yield or bleed loses."
Arthur nodded, and at that moment, the Queen—who was overseeing everything—spoke.
"You can go all out if you wish. Don't worry about the damage."
'This way I can see how strong Little Arthur really is in person,' Ki Song added mentally.
Arthur simply nodded, grasping the hidden meaning.
With the "rules" settled, both prepared for the fight to begin, and the next moment, the Queen dictated the start.
"Begin!" she said, her voice generating an echo as the room gained a degree of darkness. The sunbeams seemed to have difficulty entering through the windows.
The muscles throughout Arthur's body tensed at that moment. Feeling the augmentations coursing through every muscle, fiber, and tendon in his athletic body—yet he didn't use all seven. First, he wanted to test how he did with fewer.
He moved at a speed that wouldn't be possible for a Master, appearing beside Revel in an instant. Yet an instant was a low speed for a Saint.
Revel watched him move toward her with disdain on her face. Her eyes, which resembled pure obsidian, followed Arthur's movement without any difficulty. She wasn't just a Saint—she was one of the strongest Saints of today, perhaps even the strongest.
Still, Arthur's speed surprised her slightly. He was faster than she would have expected from a Master.
Revel, using her speed advantage, saw the move coming before it formed. Using her tachi, she performed a horizontal cut at neck height—an attack she already knew would fail.
In fact, Arthur lowered his center of gravity and, using the edge of Dawn's Ballad, not only dodged the attack but created an opening.
Still, he didn't take it—it was too obvious. The next moment, Revel recovered her momentum and used the pommel of her tachi to strike Arthur's face. The pommel moved at a speed he could barely detect thanks to his reflexes, but even so, it grazed his face.
Without blinking, he stepped to the side, raising Dawn's Ballad again for an attack—but it never completed, as Revel didn't hesitate to move again once her attack grazed him.
Unable to match her speed, he had no choice but to use Godstep.
Feeling the Aetheric Pathways, he abandoned the attack's path, appearing a few meters away with his brows slightly furrowed. But a plan was slowly forming in his brain.
He already knew that using only his augmentations wouldn't be enough to match the fight, and the first exchange confirmed the theory. Revel was much faster than him, and while he had very high reflexes for his rank, a Saint's were superior—or at least Revel's were.
Obviously, he never expected to win based on speed alone.
The moment Arthur appeared in the distance—in the blink of an eye—Revel smiled darkly. 'That ability is similar to mine, but what is it based on to teleport?' Theories began running through her mind.
He didn't stay completely still after using Godstep. He immediately began calling his abilities.
Most wouldn't work against a Saint, and there were some he couldn't use—Destruction and Former King, for example—but that didn't mean some effect wouldn't be provoked.
The first ability to activate was King's Presence… intoxicating the mind of the Song princess, making her bow her head, acknowledge who the King was.
With her being a higher rank, her resistances to such influence were very high. Still, the cost began to build.
Arthur didn't activate another ability at that moment, and using the Aetheric Pathways again, he appeared at Revel's perimeter.
The princess, using her senses, predicted where he would appear and launched an attack again. The effect of King's Presence slightly affecting her decisions but nothing uncomfortable for the moment.
She was letting him guide the fight—she had no intention of overwhelming him with attacks so early. Revel wanted Arthur to use all his cards against her. She really wanted him to go all out, but she couldn't do it from the start—it would go against her objective. So she took a more passive position in the battle, knowing he would notice.
Arthur's golden eyes narrowed slightly upon noticing this posture, and the corner of his lips curved slightly.
He was already somewhat tired of always having to hold back during spars. Only Sylvie could withstand such wear to a certain extent. That was why the possibility of letting himself go completely against a superior rival brought joy to his heart.
The attack he had previously made was easily dodged, and the next one too. The one after that had more chances of landing, having circulated one more augmentation through his body.
Arthur launched attack after attack and moved across the battlefield with great skill. Yet he wasn't going all out. And Revel noticed while fighting the mental battle of bowing her head, which was gradually growing.
The next attack wasn't just dodged by the Song princess—using the pommel of her tachi, she struck Arthur's chest. The force wasn't much, but it still pushed him back a few meters.
One more augmentation began circulating through his body, and now six of them were enhancing his physique. At the same time, the circulation of Aether essence through his muscles increased, making his speed and strength rise to an even higher level.
The gap between speed and strength began to narrow.
At the same time, Revel began to feel the change, and her obsidian eyes focused more and more. The presence of King's Presence in her mind increased at a slow rate without creating fractures, but it was felt more and more.
Arthur continued launching attacks while she dodged them. The attacks began to be faster and carry more force behind them, while the way they were dodged was fairer each time one passed.
Soon, all seven circulations began coursing through Arthur's body, and he felt the true strength of a Titan at that moment. At the same time, his understanding of the Song princess's fighting style became clearer in his mind.
He didn't have the ability to copy it at a glance like Sunny, but that didn't mean he couldn't do it with a little more time.
Although she hadn't been going all out previously, she had still been showing the principles of her fighting style—it was very difficult to hide something like that. So Arthur began to decipher it little by little.
The next attack passed closer than before, and Revel's brows furrowed more. At this point, she was already using essence in her muscles, though not to a great extent.
Besides, she had already been launching attacks in a similar manner for a while—her passive role in the battle no longer existed.
Both launched into a current of attacks and dodges that someone from outside would think they were fighting to truly defeat each other—and that was the case for Arthur.
He really wanted to win.
In the ensuing exchange, reality seemed to lock Revel's forearm in place just as a horizontal slash from Arthur headed that way, striking Revel's dark leather armor and leaving a mark.
Arthur felt the impact reverberate through the hand gripping Dawn's Ballad, and a smile spread across his face as the Princess of Song stepped back, disengaging from the exchange.
It had been the first time in the battle—which had lasted a couple of minutes by now—that Arthur landed a hit.
'It's time...'
Static Void entered the fight!
Between King's Presence affecting the mind and Static Void affecting the body, Revel's speed was reduced to a level that was acceptable for him!
She was still faster and stronger, but the gap between them was no longer as overwhelming as before. And that was with two tricks still up his sleeve to move the fight further in his favor.
Revel was slightly surprised by the landed hit—not by its physical effect, which was null, but by its underlying meaning. At that moment, she decided to change her mindset…
Instantly, she launched herself at Arthur at a speed even higher than previously demonstrated.
The attack landed like a comet impacting the earth. Arthur felt the dry blow at shoulder height and lost his balance for a fraction of a second. Still, that was enough for Revel to land another hit—sending him meters away while he struggled not to fall to the ground…
The next instant, Godstep appeared again, leaving him at the Saint's back. She turned at an extremely high speed, but when her eyes reflected the front, there was no one there.
Arthur had used Godstep again, appearing in her blind spot and landing another attack with the help of King's Presence and Static Void.
Revel felt the blow on her back, sending her a few steps forward, and unconsciously her jaw clenched slightly.
The next thought that developed in Arthur's mind was to dodge as best he could—and he didn't fail to predict the future.
The Song princess appeared behind him without him realizing it!
Feeling the absence of Aether in the environment due to the True Darkness, he tried to dodge the blow, but it was impossible at such speed. So the third trick came into action.
The curved tachi was about to impact Djinn of War at arm height with enough force to end the fight by cutting off his hand.
Yet at the next moment, the sword's edge failed to clash with the armor, and he used that time to recompose himself.
What Arthur did was use the Adaptable trait of the Attribute, commanding it to become as heavy as possible in the impact zone, and also mixing it with Static Void.
He wasn't afraid to use his Aether-related Attributes because, in recent weeks, he hadn't stopped killing creatures without using such Attributes. So at the start of the fight, his Titan core was completely full.
What followed in the throne room was a sharp dance in which any poorly thought-out move would bring defeat to either of them.
The sound of swords clashing echoed off the walls, transmitting violent vibes that would make many Awakened weak in the knees.
Revel moved with a combination of brutality and elegance, making her title as the first princess of the clan to reach the rank of Saint well-deserved.
Arthur, for his part, was suffering while a smile was on his face. He moved with the teachings of a Sacred-rank being ingrained in his bones.
He didn't react—he responded to the battle's changes with naturalness and the experience of hundreds of battles.
Reacting in battle is an automatic, impulsive survival reflex, while responding is a tactical, cold, conscious action.
One has to have supernatural clarity of mind to achieve such a level of concentration, and at this moment, Arthur had it.
Seven circulations ran through his body. King's Presence didn't stop provoking mental intoxication while Static Void physically interrupted his rival. Djinn of War changed weight at his will, making certain movements faster and others more precise.
He was almost at his limit, but even so, there was something he hadn't used throughout the entire battle…
Realmheart activated the next instant… in the blink of an eye, the invisible runes on his arms and those beneath his golden eyes lit up with an intense purple color.
Soon, the entire world of Aether and Mana presented itself before Arthur's eyes, and Aether Manipulation didn't fail to respond immediately.
He had already achieved almost perfect use of the ability without activating the Attribute, but once Realmheart was activated, his manipulation of ambient Aether reached a different level—it became perfect.
Seated on the throne, Ki Song watched the fight with hawk-like eyes, devoting nearly all her attention to the two figures engaged in a dance of violence and high speed.
The moment purple lights appeared beneath Arthur's golden eyes, she narrowed her own, focusing on sensing how reality became malleable in the hands of an Ascended.
Revel saw lights ignite beneath Arthur's eyes, and her first thought was: 'He still has more things to do?!'
He didn't hesitate to manipulate the ambient Aether, but he didn't solidify any sword or weapon… At that moment, reality allowed itself to be modified without the need for Will.
Under Arthur's command, reality was reorganized…
He took a step, but he didn't move through the world—the world moved to give Arthur his step.
The attack caught Revel by surprise, and even with her Saint reflexes, she failed to understand what was happening.
At that moment, she felt lost in the world. It reminded her of her beginnings as an orphan abandoned in the outskirts, trying to understand the events around her but being too inexperienced to do so.
Mentally, a powerful presence was forcing her to bow her head, to accept the person in front of her as her King. Physically, her body was slightly rigid, as if invisible shackles were tying her in place, not allowing her to move if the king did not wish it.
Her knees trembled slightly, and she had never felt this way before an adversary. Still, she was a Saint—and not just any Saint.
She was Lightslayer, the first princess of the Song Clan to transcend, and she wasn't going to be defeated by a Master.
Revel didn't understand what Arthur had done at that moment. She felt as if reality itself were fighting against her instead of a person—but not just anyone survives in today's world.
If reality fought against her, then she would bring darkness upon it.
An enormous current of True Darkness was expelled from her body, completely absorbing her figure, Arthur's, and most of the throne room.
Soon, there was no light in the entire room, and in that True Darkness, there was no one more deadly than Lightslayer.
The cloud of True Darkness disappeared the next second, absorbed again by Revel, and everything returned to normal.
Her armor was in perfect condition. Her curved tachi was firmly gripped in her hand, pointing forward, while her posture was slightly inclined.
Her dark eyes, which resembled pure obsidian, reflected a figure standing in front of her.
The figure was none other than Arthur who had blood dripping out of his lips slowly, wearing his Djinn of War armor over his body—but the armor wasn't complete…
Where there should have been a continuation of purple plates covering his entire torso, there was the edge of a sword piercing his abdomen.
Arthur lost.
'...' Empty thoughts drifting through his mind.
The moment Revel used the curtain of True Darkness, she moved faster than ever before in the battle and pierced his abdomen in less than a fraction of a second.
Being suppressed by the True Darkness, he couldn't do anything to avoid it. He didn't even realize what had happened until he felt the pain of a sword piercing his abdomen and the metallic taste of blood in his mouth.
The Saint dismissed her sword, and the Aether quickly rushed to the wound to heal it. In a matter of a second, he was as good as new, and Djinn of War covered his torso without imperfections.
Arthur, ever since he felt that pain, had remained completely immobile. Only upon feeling the Aether healing his wound did he return to himself.
'…I lost.' The thought reached his head.
While this result was expected, in an unexpected way, it caught him by surprise. He felt his plan could work—but it didn't…
Still, in his confusion, he wasn't disappointed in the slightest.
The conclusion Arthur immediately reached was: 'In any other Saint, it would have worked… in fact, it almost did.'
Exactly—he had the bad luck that Revel was someone who was precisely a counter to him. Using True Darkness, he couldn't do anything.
While he felt he had taken one more step in his control over Aether, he was still a Master while Revel was a Saint. The level of influence they could apply over their different elements was different.
At the end of it all, having forced Revel to do such a thing was a positive sign. 'Though she didn't use her transformation either…' If she had, he would have lost immediately.
Still, a satisfied smile found its place on his face.
"You did well," Revel mentioned, having watched him process the result in silence.
She had already dismissed her armor and was dressed casually in stretched-out sweatpants and a threadbare sweatshirt.
His golden eyes connected with her obsidian ones, and he noticed approval in them.
"Thank you," he thanked her for the compliment. "It was a good fight."
Revel nodded, and at that moment, they both turned to look at the figure on the throne.
Ki Song had watched the entire fight, seated calmly with a smile on her face. She saw everything that happened, and plans began to form in her mind, but she didn't show them in her expression.
Slowly, the Queen began to applaud.
"Excellent fight, both of you." Her voice traveled softly to their ears. "A shame we didn't decide to make it public—the people of Ravenheart would have enjoyed such a spectacle."
Both made a small bow at the compliment.
Then, Ki Song asked Arthur, "Arthur, aren't you interested in becoming a Saint soon?"
'What?'
The question caught him by surprise, almost making him blurt out his first thought. Instead, he stayed silent.
'Of course I'm interested in becoming a Saint—that way there would be fewer people who could be a danger to me or my family.' He began counting the pros and cons in his mind. 'But that would mean I'd have to abandon Antarctica and leave all those people behind…'
'There's also the fact that if I abandon the battlefield, Sylvie, Regis, Seishan and the rest will come with me, and only Jet from the cohort would remain there, and I couldn't do that to her.'
'Though the possibility of being a Saint is very tempting. If as a Master I already have this strength capable of rivaling low-tier Saints, then as a Saint, could I challenge a Supreme?'
'No, it doesn't have to work that way.' He shook his head mentally. 'The difference between a Master and a Saint is inferior to that of a Saint and a Supreme. So even if I transcend, that doesn't mean I could defend myself if I faced a Supreme…'
At that moment, Arthur's brows wanted to furrow.
'Wait, why am I thinking about challenging a Supreme? Don't tell me I'm unconsciously already thinking about accepting to help Nephis…'
With that thought, Arthur mentally cursed.
"The offer is tempting," he began his response. "But I couldn't accept it at the moment. My presence in Antarctica is important right now." Then, he made another small bow to express his sincerity. "I can't accept the offer this time."
Ki Song didn't make any facial movement at his response, as if she already knew what he would say.
"I understand." Then, the throne room doors opened on their own. "With this, we end this session of our deal. You may leave if you wish."
Arthur smiled while nodding and withdrew from the throne room without saying a word.
The sparring just now had made him spend a lot of essence, and he was quite tired, so he headed directly to his room to rest. Luckly he didn't had any injuries during the fight but still, he wanted to take a hot shower to relax his body.
In the throne room, Ki Song and Revel remained watching Arthur's back as he left. Once the doors closed again, they looked at each other.
The first to speak was the Queen.
"What do you think, Rev?"
Revel let out a sigh and responded in a complicated tone.
"He's very strong for a Ascended." She began. "At the start of the fight, it was clear he wasn't going all out, and then he got used to my fighting style as the battle went on." Her shoulders inclined slightly. "At the end, he cought me by sorprise so if I hadn't activated my True Darkness, he would have won."
Ki Song nodded, indicating that she had noticed the same thing.
"Any idea what his Aspect does?"
The princess shook her head.
"Too many things happened during the fight to be sure," she replied calmly, though she was slightly altered. "At times, I felt as if I wanted to bow my head and let myself lose. At others, I felt as if my limbs couldn't move, and at the end, I felt as if I were fighting against reality or something." She ended up shrugging.
"Reality, you say?" the Queen asked, and Revel nodded. "That boy is very interesting. It definitely suits us not to make an enemy of him."
The Saint blinked at her mother's choice of words.
"Enemy?" she asked, slightly confused.
Ki Song simply smiled.
"It's just a saying, Rev. Don't worry." She chuckled. "You didn't tell him whether you approved his test or not, but after his performance, I hope you do the right thing."
Revel, understanding the meaning of the words and realizing that she indeed had forgotten to notify him whether he passed or not, said, "I will, Mother." Then she asked, "Is there anything else you need me for?"
The throne room doors opened on their own again.
"Not for the moment. You may leave, Rev."
She nodded and withdrew to her caves to continue reading.
Meanwhile, the Queen, seated on the throne and wearing a long carmine dress that seemed to be liquid blood, smiled, showing her pearl-white teeth as she analyzed the fight.