Chapter 69

Chapter 69. Shattered

My ominous premonition hadn't missed by a single inch.

Hundreds of eyes locked onto me in unison.

The entire garden waited in silence for my answer.

"Akan, the High-ranking God of Chaotic Snow."

Heimdal whispered low in my ear.

Chaotic Snow.

Snow that scatters in disarray.

"A different breed from the likes of Cryos."

The name alone marked him as Skadi's closest confidant.

And he was a high-ranking god, no less.

The physical prowess he'd accumulated over long ages wouldn't be something to dismiss, even with 99% of his Divine Power blocked.

'What do I do?'

Accept, or tuck tail and retreat right here?

My mind went cold and clear.

One thing was certain: in terms of raw physical stats alone, I was more likely to be outclassed.

That meant I'd have to win on technique.

'......His stance.'

I studied Akan.

The way he walked as he descended from the dais.

His posture, arms hanging at his sides.

No openings.

His center of gravity was low, and his lower body was planted firmly into the earth.

'He's well-versed in martial arts.'

No doubt about it.

He'd trained his combat arts to their absolute limit.

When I thought about it, it was the most natural thing in the world.

These gods had spent centuries, millennia, destroying hundreds and thousands of worlds for their Game.

They'd forged countless Avatars and crossed blades with the mortals of those worlds.

Swords, spears, hand-to-hand.

They'd personally experienced and absorbed every form of martial art and combat technique the universe had to offer.

It would be stranger if mid-tier and high-ranking gods weren't combat specialists.

Grin.

In the distance, the corner of Skadi's mouth curved into an arc.

Certainty of victory flooded her eyes.

A smile as though a bug had stumbled into a spider's web.

"......"

I glanced sideways.

Heimdal's expression was placid.

He watched me with his chin propped.

His eyes conveyed a wordless message.

-You may back down.

He must know.

That no matter how I wielded a Principality's blade, defeating a high-ranking god would be an uphill battle.

If I played brave and ended up sprawled on the Banquet hall floor.

Heimdal's own reputation would be crumpled, to say nothing of the damage to my own Divinity.

Giving up would be the most rational, safest option.

"Apostle God Rag."

Akan called down to me from the dais, his voice dripping with mockery.

"If you're afraid of me, run. Like the terrified little rat you are."

Provocation.

The gods' snickering drifted low across the garden.

I let out a slow breath.

And then.

Hsssh.

I rose from my seat.

Heimdal's eyebrow twitched slightly.

Skadi's sneer deepened.

I looked Akan dead in the eye.

"You've got a long tongue."

Flat, but arrogant.

"Your cheap provocation -- I'll take it."

"......Oh?"

Aigis stroked his chin with interest.

"The bout is set. Both Apostle Gods, please step onto the dais."

I moved.

Lightly gripping Abriel's hilt, I ascended the dais.

Clink.

The silver-armored angels approached.

They clamped hunks of metal around both my wrists and ankles.

'The Divine Power shackles.'

The instant they locked on, the vast Divine Power flowing through me drained away like the tide.

My breath hitched.

No hellfire. No typhoon.

Only the thinnest thread of Divine Power still circled sluggishly inside me.

"Now it's a fair fight."

Akan had his shackles on too.

But his expression was relaxed.

As if those heavy shackles were everyday clothes, he casually rolled his neck and loosened up.

I couldn't help but laugh inwardly.

Fair? Faaaair?

As if.

These weren't shackles that sealed Divine Power completely.

They left roughly 1% intact.

But could my 1% as a lesser god possibly equal his 1% as a high-ranking god?

"Well then."

Akan drew a pair of long, slender twin blades from within his robes.

Transparent and sharp as snowflakes -- the blades gleamed.

"Let us scatter together, shall we?"

BANG!

Aigis struck the dais.

"Begin!"

The instant it started.

FLASH--!

Akan vanished from my sight.

Fast.

His raw physical speed exceeded anything I'd imagined.

'Behind!'

I ducked on reflex.

SLASH--!

The twin blades grazed the crown of my head.

A few strands of hair were sheared away and drifted through the air.

By a hair's breadth.

"Not bad at dodging."

Akan's voice resonated by my ear.

He was already preparing his next attack.

The twin blades crossed, tracing a dizzying pattern like a blizzard.

'The Chaotic Snow style.'

It certainly lived up to its name.

Impossible to predict where the strikes would come from.

Dozens, hundreds of blades seemed to rain down at once.

CLANG--! CRASH--! CLANG--!

I swung Abriel desperately to block.

Sparks flew.

My wrists throbbed and ached.

'Heavy.'

His blades looked thin and light, but the destructive force behind each collision was immense.

A gap in pure muscle power.

"Let's see how long you last."

Akan sneered and pressed harder.

His strikes grew faster.

Not even room to breathe.

'At this rate, I lose.'

If I stayed on the defensive, I'd eventually show an opening and get carved up.

I tried to disrupt his sword paths with the enigmatic arcs of Heavenly Demon Swordsmanship.

But Akan was seasoned.

A high-ranking god who'd honed his martial arts through the destruction of countless worlds.

His swordwork was already a completed form -- approaching an 'absolute domain.'

SLASH--!

"Grk......!"

Akan's left blade grazed my shoulder.

Blood sprayed.

The shackles slowed even the healing of wounds.

I could hear the gods in the garden letting out snide laughter.

Skadi raised her Nectar chalice at her leisure.

The signs of defeat were deepening.

"Is this all you've got?"

Akan swept his twin blades wide, preparing the final blow.

"Heimdal's eye for talent must be scraping the bottom."

I was gasping.

No breath to spare for a retort.

......I had no choice but to admit it.

'I was overconfident.'

A winning streak without a single obstacle since entering the Tower.

My confidence had swelled until it pierced the sky.

But that was a thorough delusion.

'It was arrogance.'

I'd forgotten.

How vast the gulf between a lesser god and those above.

Mid-tier gods. High-ranking gods.

The aeons they'd spent had not been in vain.

No matter how far outside the specifications this body called 'Rag' might be, it only stood out among lesser gods.

In a pure physical fight with 99% of Divine Power locked away.

And yet I was being pushed back this one-sidedly.

'So this is the reserve of a high-ranking god.'

SLASH.

Akan's twin blades grazed my flank once more.

Blood seeped out.

The wounds kept multiplying. My breath climbed to the tip of my chin.

The gods in the garden were already sneering, certain of my defeat.

Skadi sipped her Nectar with elegant poise and sent over a mocking smile.

Akan's blades danced with manic speed.

"I'll finish you."

He unleashed killing intent and crossed his twin blades.

A blind spot I couldn't escape.

But.

"......Heh."

A cold smile spread across my lips.

I laughed despite myself.

Not because I was paralyzed with fear or crushed by despair.

'Thanks to you, I've remembered.'

A fragment of memory, buried in the deepest recess of my soul, that I'd forgotten.

Akan.

The High-ranking God of Chaotic Snow.

I know this bastard's name. I know his filthy twin-blade technique.

'Because I've fought him before.'

At the tail end of my previous life.

During those hellish days when the Final Strike Force and I crawled up the Tower, coughing blood.

We'd met him then.

Of course, I wasn't the one who'd taken his head.

The one who'd slain him was my only friend.

The strongest swordsman of humanity -- Sword Emperor Aritolt.

-Your swordwork is truly crude.

Aritolt had mocked him, drenched in blood.

After a long battle, Aritolt's massive greatsword had shattered Akan's twin blades and cleaved him in two at the waist.

I'd been providing magical support from behind, and I'd etched every moment of that process into my eyes.

'Remember.'

I half-closed my eyes.

I replayed the memory.

I recalled it.

The trajectory of Akan's blades, his habits, the split-second blind spot that opened when his twin swords crossed.

And the swordsmanship of Aritolt -- the man who'd pierced through all of it flawlessly.

'Aritolt.'

He was called the Sword Emperor, but in terms of pure sword technique, he'd already soared far above even high-ranking gods.

The crystallization of pure martial prowess.

I might never reach his heights.

But perhaps I could imitate him.

FLASH.

My eyes snapped open.

CLANG--!

I twisted Abriel and deflected Akan's right blade.

"......?"

Akan's eyes narrowed by a fraction.

He'd sensed it instinctively -- the movements that had barely managed to block moments ago had changed.

The momentum had shifted.

I wasn't running. I wasn't retreating.

Instead, I stepped one pace forward -- straight into the heart of his strikes.

SLASH--!

Akan's left blade drove deep into my shoulder.

Blood sprayed.

Pain pierced my brain.

But I bit my lip and smiled.

'Doesn't matter.'

More wounds won't make me yield.

I won't stop.

Sacrifice flesh to seize bone.

That was Aritolt's way.

CLANG--! CRASH--! KRAANG--!

Abriel and the twin blades collided in a frenzy.

Little by little. Slowly.

I was beginning to catch up to Akan's Sword Path.

"You little--!"

Akan's composure shattered.

Panic bled into his strikes.

The sandbag that had been one-sidedly toyed with moments ago was suddenly reading every attack and clinging on with ferocious counterblows.

'An opening.'

I saw it.

The instant his twin blades crossed to form the blizzard's shape.

The precise moment Aritolt had split his waist in two.

I drew on every ounce of propulsion.

WOOOONG--!

The Holy Sword Abriel erupted with the blinding light of a Principality.

99% of Divine Power was blocked, but the blade's own weighty Caliber remained unchanged.

I twisted the arc and drove into his guard.

Akan panicked and wrenched one twin blade into a desperate block.

But.

CRACK--!

A clean, crisp sound of fracture rang across the dais.

"......Ah."

A dazed gasp escaped Akan's lips.

One of the transparent twin blades in his hand.

CRACKLE--!

A web of cracks, like a spider's silk, raced across its cold edge.

SHATTER--!

......It burst apart like glass shards, scattering into the air.