Three weeks ago, when Lumian was at his lowest point because he felt so weak, a master suddenly appeared out of nowhere wanting to teach him.
A week later, that master gave him the Saint Sword as a reward for his rapid training progress.
Then not too long ago, while exploring a Dungeon with his party, he obtained an Artifact bound to another artifact so it could be used as a tracker.
One or two strokes of luck were still normal. But three times in a row? That would be unnatural without divine intervention.
For some reason, he had always been getting lucky lately... It was the exact opposite of his past fate, which was always unlucky. Both of his parents were murdered right before his eyes in a coup when he was five years old, he was exiled to the edges of the empire and had to completely abandon his identity as a prince.
It was as if the story of his life was only just beginning now...
Therefore, while God was giving him a blessing, he wouldn't waste it. He would use it to take back what was rightfully his.
And in front of him right now, a noble pointing a sword at him was definitely one of the hurdles given by God to test whether he was worthy or not.
"I don't know how you found out about the tracker I have. But since you want it, that means you're a threat."
Lumian pointed his sword at the man he heard was named Julian Von D'Arclaine.
***
As his creator, I knew very well that Lumian absolutely hated nobles because they were the ones who caused his parents' deaths. So, that was why he immediately challenged me back just because of my little provocation. He saw me as a symbol of a rotten noble.
Jeez, even though I'm just a god who wants to take his rights back... Well, that's fine then, I didn't want to get things that easily anyway.
Defeating someone protected by plot armor is the first step to conquering this world.
I shrugged arrogantly. "Just hand over the tracker, and you can lea–"
Before I could finish my words, Lumian lunged at me swiftly and swung his sword.
By reflex, I raised my sword–
–Clang!
Our swords clashed, but I was knocked back a few steps. Honestly, I was a bit surprised by his strength.
"Why did your face suddenly turn pale, Mr. Noble?"
He continued his assault by swinging his sword in a rapid flurry–giving me no room to move proactively, so I could only react by parrying or dodging.
At one point when I lost my balance due to a misstep, I saw Lumian's sword glowing. He was gathering mana into his sword to double the damage.
Panicking, in that split second, I overlaid all my elements and mana onto my sword to match the incoming attack.
Our swords collided fiercely, creating a shockwave.
We were both blown back, but I saw him smirk before he was covered in dust, while I almost lost my grip on my sword. Luckily, I pulled the sword back with wind magic.
My hands were trembling and my ears were ringing.
Dust flew around, obscuring my vision.
Before I could even get into a stance, I saw the dust in front of me start to scatter from a movement. It must be Lumian charging.
'No, no, if this keeps up, I'm going to lose…'
Gathering wind magic with as much output as I could muster in that short time, I slammed the ground.
A blast of wind erupted, blowing both of us far away. The distance I created was enough to catch my breath and think.
'In this regard, I have to admit that in terms of swordsmanship, I'm no match for him. I need to keep my distance from him.'
I felt cold sweat drenching my back. Even though he completely dominated in close-quarters combat, I felt he was still holding back because I remembered a moment where he could have decapitated me, but chose not to.
Damn it, so he's looking down on me, huh?
Haha, it wouldn't be very funny if I lost to my own creation, right?
For a split second, I saw Lumian's hand glowing... was he casting a spell?
Just as I got into my stance, an orange circle suddenly appeared beneath my feet. It was a fire magic circle!
Immediately, I leaped away before the magic circle spewed fire into the sky.
Another magic circle appeared the moment I touched the ground. I dodged it again with the help of wind magic, which made my body lighter.
The cycle kept repeating until I got used to it.
When I jumped for the umpteenth time, I shot him with a fireball, hoping it would disrupt his spellcasting.
My guess was right, the raging magic circles had stopped because he was now focused on my counterattack. Of course, since he wasn't a pure Mage, even the slightest disturbance could cause him to fail.
With that, I immediately bombarded him with wind and fire magic from a distance. With the amount of mana I had left right now, I'd make sure he wouldn't get close again!
Lumian looked panicked as he slashed at and dodged my magic.
Haha, how careless! Now it's my turn to dominate. It was his fault, I was sure he only used fire magic to show off that he could dominate in both fields.
He felt he had a higher rank than me, being the son of the Emperor while I was just a low-tier noble.
'Alright, I'll end this fight.'
I created a larger wind arrow, then added fire magic. I compressed all my Mana into this spell. The distortion caused several lightning effects to appear.
Uh, I'm hesitating… he shouldn't die just from this, right?
***
In a panic, Lumian slashed away all the attacks Julian threw at him.
He also realized his mistake of feeling superior as the emperor's son who was supposed to have a higher rank than the noble in front of him.
Julian's magic attacks seemed to be slowing down, this was his chance to regain control with close-quarters combat!
But before he could think any further, he felt an immense pressure coming from Julian's direction.
It gave him goosebumps.
For a split second, he saw flashes of lightning from his opponent.
And then, amidst those small arrows, a lightning arrow shot forward at incredible speed!
Realizing the danger, Lumian condensed all his remaining mana into his Saint Sword.
–Slash!
The collision between his sword and the magic resulted in a massive shockwave that made the surrounding trees sway.
He was blown back and sent tumbling. But rather than caring if he survived the attack, he was more worried about Julian standing in his line of fire. He could have been sliced in half too. That wasn't his intention at all.
So, he quickly got up and his eyes searched for Julian amidst the dust, which now felt strangely thick.
'No, no.'
The slash even left a deep mark on the ground, so it wasn't impossible that Julian got hit too, right?
However, before he could take another step, his feet suddenly felt freezing cold. And now he couldn't step any further.
Glancing down, he saw his legs trapped in ice that was slowly creeping up to his thighs.
"I'm sorry."
The voice came from behind him. Before he could even turn around, he felt a swift, piercing touch on his neck.
His consciousness faded slowly, and then he collapsed.
Before everything went dark, he heard the sound of cracking ice.
Lumian's movements were completely predictable to me. I guess that's because I know his way of thinking so well.
***
When I launched that magic, I already knew he would slash it forcefully to save himself. Because of that, I immediately changed positions while combining wind magic with earth magic to produce dust that scattered everywhere, creating a dramatic effect that would make him worry about my condition.
"And here we are now, I win!"
Wow, I never expected to be able to fight using magic with a strategy like this. Too bad no one was around to see me look this cool.
"Heh, look at that, world. Even the guy protected by your Plot Armor can be defeated by me. What el–Cough! Cough!"
Damn it, I'm coughing because of my own magic. Son of a bitch, that ruined my dialogue moment!
Using wind magic, I cleared all the dust away from my area.
I stared at the unconscious Prince. "Alright Lumian, what do you have?"