Chapter 581: Frey Starlight vs Joseph Blattier (2)

Blattier gave him no breath; in a blink he appeared overhead, driving his spear down.

The attack was so vast Frey had to teleport to avoid it. The spear punched into the earth and shook it, carving a crater that plunged hundreds of meters below.

Frey reappeared at mid-range, taking in the devastation wrought by a single strike from Blattier.

This is SSS. This is the level my worst enemies stand at—the level I’ll have to face sooner or later...

"Can I win...against power like this?"

His eyes burned violet behind the slits of the Nameless mask. He readied himself to charge again with everything he had, while Blattier walked toward him with the calm of a king.

"It’s pointless, Frey Starlight. This power is beyond your comprehension—far outside your league.

"This is the power of a ruler—the power of an absolute standing at the summit of the world."

Blattier spread his arms wide, bathing in a deluge of light-aura.

"This is the power that will bend the world to its knees!" he declared.

"You talk too much," Frey snapped back.

In the blink of an eye, his arms knit whole, and he vanished—reappearing directly before Blattier.

"Ten Thousand Steps of Shadow—Supreme Art: Abyssal Wave!"

BOOOOM!

In less than a second, Frey unleashed a catastrophic storm of shadow slashes, a barrage that rattled space itself, targeting every inch of Blattier’s body.

But Blattier simply raised his colossal shield and took the onslaught head-on, letting it devour the impacts.

Frey’s strikes erased everything around Blattier, reducing the world to ruin—yet beneath the bishop’s feet the ground remained intact. That shield had blocked it all.

Peering from behind the shield, Blattier regarded Frey for a heartbeat, then spoke a single word:

"Rebound."

At that command, the shield flared strangely—and a heartbeat later it discharged a violent counterforce, a wave that smashed through Frey and everything behind him.

Frey was hurled away again through wreckage and splinters, only barely arresting his flight by driving both blades into the earth to anchor himself.

When he finally steadied, he was stunned by how far he’d been thrown—and by the swath of devastation wrought by the shield’s rebound alone.

He didn’t hesitate—he launched himself again, reappearing before Blattier at the speed of light.

Both blades hammered the shield, unable to break through, while Blattier thrust with his spear, aiming to crush him in a single blow. Frey twisted away at the last instant, flipping through the air and dropping in behind the bishop.

Riding his blistering speed, Frey’s swords flared with shadow and darkness alike, drawing deeper and deeper on the aura within him.

But even at that speed, Blattier kept pace, answering him cleanly and on time.

They traded blows in a nonstop torrent—Blattier stabbing thousands of times, Frey striking with his blades just as many.

Auras collided. Steel screamed against light.

Little by little, fractures and wounds mounted across Frey Starlight’s body—but he didn’t care. Shadow Adaptation knit him together the moment he broke.

He refused to back down, not for an instant, pouring everything he had into the fight.

"I want to know...how far I can go against power like this."

Against true power—the absolute—how long could Frey Starlight stand?

’This body I forged in blood and fire...this strength I stacked brick by brick after a road of calamities...’

’My power, my skills, my gifts—every piece of me...’

"Everything I’ve built in this dark life ..everything I’ve suffered on this long, brutal road! Tell me, Blattier! Is what I have...enough?!"

BOOOOM!!!

Their chaotic exchange swelled and quickened until, to distant onlookers, it was nothing but a storm of black slashes constantly colliding with volleys of pure white light.

The clash spanned a colossal swath of land, swollen with overwhelming, absolute force.

"Your strength is paltry, Frey Starlight!"

BOOOOM!!!

With Blattier’s roar, light surged, swallowing the darkness again in terrifying waves—but Frey snapped the tide back, unleashing more and more shadow-aura.

"Ten Thousand Steps of Shadow -Supreme art: Eternal Blackout!"

SLAAAASH!!!

With a single abyssal cut, space itself tore before Frey, and from that one stroke bloomed thousands of black arcs—

—a cascade of slashes that matched Blattier’s light on equal footing.

Blattier refused to let him breathe. He punched through the dark torrent, driving his shield, breaking through everything until he was suddenly in Frey’s face.

The instant he closed, Blattier stabbed at light-speed, intent on blowing Frey’s head apart—

—but the strike froze midair, unable to touch him.

-Skill: Screenshot.-

Time locked for one second. In that single second, Frey’s blades deepened to a darker night, his arms moving like ceaseless rocket batteries.

With every fraction of that heartbeat, more and more violet gouges carved across Blattier’s armored frame—

one after another, strike upon strike—until that endless second finally ended.

In less than a second, Frey delivered over ten thousand blows—his current absolute peak.

And yet the overwhelming barrage did nothing more than scratch Blattier’s colossal shield.

Frey had thrown nearly all of the supreme techniques of Ten Thousand Steps of Shadow—the very pinnacle of that domineering style—

and still couldn’t pierce his opponent’s defense.

"These tricks won’t help you anymore," Blattier said, firing a missile of light at him.

Frey crossed his blades in an X to meet it, but the cannonade pulverized him as if a mountain had been dropped on his head.

Every bone in Frey’s body shattered; blood erupted from everywhere.

He clenched his teeth, ignoring the catastrophic damage, letting that violet fire roar through him as it force-healed his flesh—and he dove back in.

"I’ll break that damned shield even if it kills me!"

"Then let me see you try!"

BOOOOM!

They slammed together again, trading blows as they ran and flew across the vast forest.

From afar, the spectators saw nothing but two beams—one of shadow, one of light—twisting and colliding as they streaked through the world.

Shockwaves rolled on and on; the aura they were burning belonged to another realm entirely.

From a distance, Snow Lionheart watched the duel with Uriel Platini lattini lying behind him.

Aegon Valerion stood near Callistis; they too beheld the battle—though they clearly had no intention of staying, with Callistis already preparing to flee.

But Snow’s eyes could see only the fight before him as a bitter truth cut into his pride:

"I can’t get between them."

Even if he tried to help Frey...

he could barely track their movements.

"If I step in now, death is all that’s waiting for me..."

Blattier had become a monster far beyond their grasp—a monster who could kill Snow Lionheart with ease.

That is SSS—a rank you simply cannot oppose unless you wield power of the same order.

Snow didn’t have it.

And neither, yet, did Frey.

Yet even so, he was still standing against Blattier—still holding out.

Snow clenched his fist, teeth grinding—furious at himself, at his own weakness.

The human path... the demonic path...

He’d tried so desperately that he even ate the flesh of his own kind to grow stronger—and it worked.

But that strength looked pitiful beside what raged before his eyes now.

"Just... what the hell do I have to pay to reach power like that?!"

What must he sacrifice? What exactly must he do?

Snow didn’t know. That ignorance—his weakness—hurt him most.

All he could do was watch, helpless, as his friend fought a monster whose might defied human sense.

Frey was alone—and he knew it.

From the beginning, Frey Starlight had relied on no one but himself, and nothing had changed.

He fought every battle with the strength he forged by his own hands—nothing else.

Power he had paid dearly for, suffering even more to claim.

And now he stood against Joseph Blattier, who had sacrificed millions to reach where he stood.

It was a grueling fight. Blow by blow, Frey Starlight was losing ground, damage piling up without end.