Volume 6, Chapter 22 – A Strike From Heaven

Fia spoke slowly but firmly.

“I respect your choice. If the Corona God is blind enough to cross me in the future, I will slaughter him and send him down to accompany you. Furthermore, I will spread the name of Davis Li Mir, telling the world that there once was such a Holy Son who rebelled against the gods.”

Saying this, Fia took out a recording crystal, activated it, and threw it onto the open ground nearby. This would be the proof that Davis had lived.

Davis shuddered violently. In that moment, Fia could feel that if Davis possessed a human body, he would have been so relieved and happy he would open his mouth and roar to the sky.

“Spread my name? That is excellent! Come! Let me witness the power of deicide!”

“As you wish.”

The moment her voice fell, Fia spread her golden wings and charged straight at Davis. She held nothing back in her speed. The explosive shockwave almost blew Nola away. The sound barrier was visible to the naked eye. In less time than it takes to blink, Fia’s sword was already slashing diagonally toward Davis’s shoulder.

However, as a high-ranking undead, Davis could sense the enemy’s movements through the aura of death even without using his eyes. Having already assumed a defensive stance, he raised his round shield immediately, blocking Laevateinn’s downward swing perfectly.

Clang!

A white shockwave generated by the violent compression of air exploded abruptly with the round shield at its center. Fia’s seemingly petite body unleashed terrifying power. Although Davis blocked the blow, his entire body was driven deep into the soil like a nail, with only half his torso barely remaining above ground.

However, this didn’t mean the battle was over. Countless gray venomous snakes emerged from Davis’s shield, wrapping around Laevateinn. With a forceful throwing motion from Davis, Fia’s suspended body was flung away. Then, Davis chanted a magic spell in a low voice that Fia had never heard before. The surface of the ground instantly shattered and collapsed with a boom, as if losing its support. A sinkhole with a diameter of a hundred meters appeared abruptly in the valley.

Then, a powerful suction pulled Fia downward. Although Fia could fly up again by infusing a little magic power, Davis flew down first. She guessed this meant the decisive battle would take place at the bottom of the sinkhole.

Not only was the sinkhole a hundred meters in diameter, but it was also fifty meters deep. The interior was dim, and the sheer rock walls were awe-inspiring.

“Dueling on the ground feels more solid.”

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Ignoring the falling rocks and debris around him, Davis, having landed in the hard sinkhole, shook the hand holding the shield and looked at Fia, who was slowly descending opposite him.

“Fighting here won’t affect your friend. But forgive my bluntness, God-slayer. Although your strength is above mine, I see no technique. You act like a novice who has never learned swordsmanship. Are you going easy on me on purpose?”

“You could tell from just one exchange?”

“Your whole body is full of openings, your movements lack method, leaving too much space for the enemy to attack. This is not the performance of someone proficient in martial arts.”

“Indeed, I don’t know swordsmanship. But speed is the best swordsmanship.”

As long as she could kill the enemy before they reacted, countering moves as they came, she could defeat her opponent even without knowing swordsmanship.

Davis chuckled, his voice full of a warrior’s confidence.

“That is a mistaken idea. You will always meet people with speed comparable to yours. Swordsmanship can take the life of someone much stronger than yourself with the lightest effort. In my homeland, I was known as the Sword King. Let me show you my swordsmanship. I hope you can use it when fighting the Corona God in the future!”

Offense and defense switched. Davis trembled imperceptibly. Then, before Davis’s body in Fia’s vision could dissipate, she caught the sound of a faint wind above her head.

So fast?

Fia subconsciously used [Bee Shield Force Field] to block. Davis’s full-power strike collided with the [Bee Shield Force Field].

“— [Will of the Sword King].”

The cold voice fell, followed by the ornate sword blade flashing with a dangerous red light. With a rip , the [Bee Shield Force Field], which could temporarily block a strike from the elf god, was completely cut open from top to bottom by Davis’s sword like cloth torn by a sharp blade. Fia had to swing Laevateinn upward to catch the strike.

The battle turned into a pure contest of strength.

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Davis pressed down on the blade with both hands, while Fia met the attack with one hand. Although Davis’s speed and magic exceeded Fia’s expectations, his strength was still far inferior to hers. Fia’s gaze crossed the two intersecting longswords, staring at the two red glows symbolizing Davis’s eyes.

“That eerie speed… was that also achieved through swordsmanship?”

“Only by cultivating swordsmanship to the peak can one comprehend such martial arts. I call it [Swallow Strike]. I didn’t expect you to react in the blink of an eye and set up a defensive barrier in a split second. Was that sixth-rank magic? Or seventh-rank? I thought bringing out my life’s masterpiece right at the start might catch you off guard. A god-slayer is indeed a god-slayer. I am increasingly reassured.”

“Thanks for the compliment!”

Pouring strength into her right arm and the [Enchanted Blade], Fia knocked Davis away. Simultaneously, [Telekinesis] transformed into countless arrows shooting toward Davis.

However, even invisible arrows were all intercepted by Davis. Most of the arrows shot at him were blocked by his shield, and the remaining ones that couldn’t be blocked were all split open by his ornate longsword.

Seemingly finding this unsatisfying, Davis hesitated for a moment, threw the shield aside, and then took out a second golden longsword from within his robes.

“This is the second sword gifted to me by my late father. Again!”

If Davis’s attacks before were as silent as a venomous snake, now they were a dizzying storm of attacks.

“How is that possible…”

Nola, peering down from the edge of the sinkhole, couldn’t help but mutter.

With Fia fighting below, she naturally couldn’t run away alone. She had been watching the duel between Fia and Davis intently from the start. The scene she saw astonished her. The skills Davis displayed completely exceeded the level of warriors on the World Tree Continent—this wasn’t to belittle the warriors of the World Tree Continent, but because the two sides followed different schools of thought.

Warriors of the World Tree Continent believed in the supremacy of power, pursuing the combination of multiple magic spells to defeat the enemy. Davis, on the other hand, displayed swordsmanship based primarily on physical skill, supplemented by magic. It was exquisite and graceful; more like a sword dance performance than a battle.

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Nola herself was a warrior, and she had never seen such an elegant way of fighting. Both were skills for killing, but the two were like beastman nobles versus elf nobles. If the tricks she used to fight were called “swordsmanship,” then her swordsmanship was practically that of an uncivilized, blood-drinking primitive.

She widened her eyes, trying her best to memorize Davis’s swordsmanship. The two swords approaching Fia found the blind spots in her defense with pinpoint accuracy every time, forcing Fia to divide her attention to defend. Facing Fia’s attacks, which were too fast for the naked eye to catch, Davis always managed to dodge sideways in a thrilling arc by a hair’s breadth. Even attacks he couldn’t dodge, he could block with his sword, then use the perfect angle to deflect the force, like a bird bathing in the rain without getting wet.

Nola couldn’t help but think that if she were Fia or Davis, she probably wouldn’t last a single round without getting injured.

They are people from a completely different realm.

However, what surprised Nola wasn’t just Davis, but also Fia. Just as Davis saw at a glance that Fia knew nothing about swordsmanship, Nola gradually realized that Fia was just countering moves as they came, attacking whenever she seized an opportunity. She neither deliberately set traps nor used techniques to deflect force. Yet even so, Fia gradually grasped Davis’s attack patterns and then used the same methods to attack back. Both her perfect control of strength and her staggering learning ability terrified Nola.

Even more terrifying was that Fia used only one hand from start to finish. The other hand, which could have cast magic, wasn’t used at all.

In less than a quarter of an hour, the sinkhole, echoing with the endless clanging of metal, finally changed. The sound of weapons clashing gradually weakened. Fia was no longer the one using an airtight defense; the offensive and defensive momentum shifted again. This time, Fia became the attacker.

“HAA!”

Pouring all her strength into the blade, Fia slashed at Davis’s left shoulder. Although Davis raised his sword to block, his magic power had long been mostly consumed by the high-intensity battle. Now, his strength failing him, the raised ornate longsword flew high into the air under Fia’s heavy blow.

The outcome was decided.

Accompanied by the sound of the longsword clattering on the ground, Fia, breathing slightly faster, swung the [Enchanted Blade] forcefully. She looked at Davis with sincere admiration in her eyes.

“Unprecedented swordsmanship. Truly worthy of the name Sword King. But you lost.”

“Your learning ability shames me. You’ve already mastered most of my swordsmanship; I can no longer pose a threat to you. My knowledge was shallow. Even using my full strength, I am far from your match. Even relying only on speed, you could still defeat me.”

Speaking of this, Davis, whose aura was much weaker, held the remaining sword with both hands. He spread his legs slightly and said resolutely.

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“But I haven’t lost yet! I haven’t witnessed the power of deicide yet!”

“The power of deicide, huh…”

Let’s fulfill his wish with the power that will satisfy him the most.

Fia inhaled quietly, then took a half-step back with her right foot. She stared at Davis and said with extreme solemnity.

“This is the final strike.”

As her voice fell, several magic lights lit up on Fia’s body simultaneously. This included [Flowing Wind’s Blessing], triple [Strength Boost], and even [Ready Stance] and [Overload].

Terrifying momentum gathered on Fia, so much so that the clouds in the sky churned and broke apart. All nearby monsters were pressed tightly against the ground by the powerful pressure. Sunlight penetrated the illusion barrier and spilled into the sinkhole. The long-lost warmth caused the red glow in Davis’s eyes to fade rapidly.

Just gathering momentum is enough to change the weather. What kind of power will it have when actually unleashed?

In this moment, he realized this was the power of deicide he had always longed for. Bathed in the sunlight, he recalled the peaceful times he spent with his family when he was a human in the past. Then, he gradually relaxed his grip on the longsword, calmly accepting death.

“…I entrust my hope to you. May glory be with you forever.”

The voice fell, and the terrifying power that had been gathering for a long time finally erupted. No one saw Fia’s strike clearly. In the sinkhole, there was only a flash of white light that seemed to blind the eyes. What followed was a rumbling sound that shook the earth and mountains, and a deep fissure stretching into the unknown distance. Even the clouds in the sky were split in two.

The Holy Son who had fallen to become an undead met the end he longed for.