The wooden sword in Raiking's hand could no longer endure the force of his growing cultivation.
Instead of breaking, it aged a millennium in mere moments. The wood turned to a lifeless grey, withered, and crumbled into fine dust, slipping through his fingers.
Libinea followed suit. Realizing that weapons were futile against his aura, she discarded her sword as well. It plunged into the ground with a muffled thud.
"Entropy," she remarked, observing the ground beneath his feet.
With each step he took, a circle of grey decay spread, transforming the once-vibrant courtyard into a desolate wasteland. It was inhospitable.
Libinea reacted swiftly, leaping backward as the decay pursued her, consuming the stone floor she had occupied just a fraction of a second earlier.
Recognizing that no safe ground remained, she made a final leap and landed gracefully on the sloped tiled roof of the eastern corridor.
"Is this the fastest I've ever made you progress?" Libinea called down, a triumphant smile gracing her lips as she watched Raiking's aura stabilize at the Medium Divine Stage.
He didn't reply with words.
WHOOSH.
He simply vanished.
There was no sound of movement, only the disturbance of air. He reappeared in mid-air to her left, his leg already sweeping in a high kick aimed at her head.
"You're not exactly playing fair, are you?" Raiking remarked mid-strike.
BAM.
She blocked it with her forearm, the impact sending a shockwave through the roof tiles, reducing them to dust.
"Oh?" Libinea said as she withstood his assault. "Would you blame the wolf for devouring the hen, or the farmer for failing to close the gate?"
Both vanished.
They reappeared instantly on the western rooftop. This time, Libinea took the initiative, driving a straight punch toward his chest. Raiking crossed his arms, absorbing the blow. The tiles beneath him groaned under the pressure.
"So, you're likening your allure to that of a hen?"
Again, they vanished.
They reappeared on the northern roof, then the southern, exchanging blows at supersonic speeds.
Raiking went low, executing a sweeping leg kick intended to unbalance her. Libinea was already airborne, leaping over the sweep.
"Then that makes you the wolf, doesn't it?" she said.
Acknowledging it would reveal his newfound attraction to her, so he chose silence.
She smiled, noticing his hesitation.
They vanished once more.
This time, their reappearance wasn't on a roof. They materialized in the center of the courtyard, directly facing each other, moving forward on a collision course.
Raiking thrust his right palm forward, shrouded in the grey aura of Entropy. Libinea thrust her left palm forward, encased in the azure flame of the Phoenix.
BOOM!
Their palms met.
The collision did more than fracture the ground; it shattered the air pressure in the courtyard. A fierce, spherical gust of wind exploded outward, stripping the cherry blossom tree of its leaves and sending a wave of distorted mana soaring into the night sky.
---
[The Queen's Shrine - Rooftop]
From her serene vantage point on the roof, Ezmelral watched the tug-of-war commence below.
She stood perfectly still, letting her own aura passively deflect the violent shockwaves. In her arms, she cradled Faye, gently rocking the baby while feeding her a bottle of warm celestial milk.
"Mommy and Daddy are fighting," Ezmelral mused, looking down at the wide-eyed infant. "Who do you think will be victorious?"
"Gaga!" Faye babbled happily, her tiny hands reaching toward the pretty flashing lights in the courtyard.
"Of course you'd choose your father," Ezmelral sighed in mock disappointment.
"Gaga!"
Ezmelral chuckled. "You want to stop them?"
"Gaga!"
"Hmm... let's give it some more time."
"Gaga!!" Faye protested, kicking her little legs against the blanket.
"Trust me," Ezmelral said, a wicked, calculating smirk spreading across her lips as she shifted her gaze from the baby back to the elemental clash below. "Judging by their trajectory, I am sure there will be a much more entertaining time to interrupt them."
---
[The Courtyard]
Below them, the pressure spiked.
A sudden burst of colorless mana erupted from Raiking. His cultivation was steadily increasing to match her output, and the once-even stalemate between Azure Fire and Grey Entropy became increasingly difficult for Libinea to maintain.
It wasn't because she lacked raw strength. It was because nothing in creation could indefinitely endure the absolute decay of Entropy. The grey energy was slowly eating away at the kinetic force of her strike.
Realizing she couldn't win a war of attrition against the Void, Libinea shifted her strategy. Her arms ignited, enveloped in a dense, blinding layer of Phoenix Flames. She channeled her True Divinity, concentrating the intense heat of a sun into her palm, preparing to unleash a devastating explosive counter.
She briefly pulled her palm away from his—breaking the lock for a fraction of a millisecond—and instantly thrust it forward again with catastrophic force.
BOOM!
A massive explosion of fire and raw concussive force erupted in the center of the courtyard, immediately followed by a thick, expanding cloud of ash and smoke. Libinea leapt backward from the inferno, landing gracefully a few meters away from the impact point. She lowered her stance, her golden eyes piercing through the haze, searching for the shadow of the wolf.
When Raiking finally stepped out of the mist, he emerged unscathed, but more importantly, his formidable aura had transformed. He had ascended to the Peak of the Divine Stage.
She had expected this outcome the moment she felt the surge in his power. Yet, confronted with the overwhelming density of the entropy that enveloped him, a singular, despairing thought crossed her mind: the ultimate offense and defense.
Despite being a full realm beneath her, his combat prowess now matched that of a Peak True Divinity. In the domain of destructive magic, nothing could rival Entropy.
Not even the sun was immune to the grasp of death.
However, surrender was not in her nature.
Where others might have withdrawn, she stood resolute. Golden flames erupted from her skin, casting the courtyard in a blinding, incandescent glow.
She didn't raise just one hand; she raised both, channeling every ounce of mana from her core, forcing it down her arms and compressing it between her palms.
This would be her final strike. The decisive moment.
"Solar Flare."
She didn't need to summon the sun; in that instant, she became the sun. The surrounding heat surged to catastrophic levels, instantly incinerating the remaining cherry blossoms and melting the stone walls of the courtyard.
BOOM!
Enormous wings of fire burst from her back as a continuous, thunderous beam of pure sunfire shot from her palms, aimed directly at him.
The blast didn't reach Raiking.
It collided with his aura. The Entropy functioned like a black hole, silently absorbing the apocalyptic force of her attack.
He didn't stop advancing.
With each slow, deliberate step, her solar beam disintegrated, the golden fire scattering wildly in all directions as it struggled—and failed—to penetrate his void.
Forced onto the defensive, Libinea retreated step by step until her back met a scorched, crumbling stone pillar.
She had nowhere left to go.
Before she could react, Raiking closed the distance.
He moved with terrifying speed, his hands darting forward to capture both of her wrists.
In one seamless motion, he slammed her arms back against the stone, pinning her to the pillar.
The violent clash of magic ceased instantly, replaced by an oppressive, breathless silence. They were mere inches apart.
"Do you still want me to be the wolf?" he murmured, his voice a deep, gravelly whisper.
Their eyes met, and for a fleeting moment, she gazed into the abyss of his stare before her golden eyes drifted downward, tracing the defined line of his jaw and finally resting on his lips.
She didn't resemble a trapped hen about to fall prey to a wolf; instead, she looked like a hunter who had finally ensnared her quarry. She didn't wait for him to make the first move. She tugged against his hold, lifting her chin and leaning forward to close the last inch between them—
"Ahem."
A very intentional, clearly feigned cough shattered the tension.
Raiking and Libinea stopped in their tracks.
Just a few feet away, completely unfazed by the warm, glowing courtyard, stood Ezmelral. She wore an unabashedly mischievous grin, gently bouncing Faye on her hip.
The baby blinked her big eyes at the two mighty figures pinned against the wall.
"Gaga," Faye cooed happily.