Chapter 587: The Shattered Judgement (1)
Blattier gathered his full power, ready for whatever Frey would hurl at him. Thereâs no reason to fear him, he assured himself. Even with his tricks, he canât erase the difference in tiers. The SSS rank isnât something you beat with gimmicks. Frey is no exception.
That was how it should have gone.
In the blink of an eye, Frey vanished and reappeared right in front of himâan untraceable instant teleport, face-to-face. Wreathed in that eerie violet aura, Frey Starlight struck with both blades, unleashing everything his state would allow.
Blattier answered with a lightspeed thrust of his spearâand moments later, the two powers collided, igniting a roar of auras more dreadful than any before. Light wrestled with darkness as they locked into a tug-of-war, each trying to crush the other with raw forceâan exchange whose caliber sat squarely at SSS.
Those long seconds felt like hours. Then everyone on the island heard itâthe savage rip of cutting power.
Slash!!!
Blattier couldnât believe it until Frey slid past him, piercing his guard to appear behind his back. A vast, X-shaped gash opened across Blattierâs chest.
Feeling the blood-wet wound from that last exchange, he realized heâd lost the aura struggle. For the first time since the battle began, darkness had smothered light, and Freyâs blade had reached himâhis first clean hit since Nameless Judgement.
âDid I just lose a straight contest of power?!â
Refusing to accept it, Blattier flared even more aura and whirled on Frey.
âLight Artillery!!â
He fired an overwhelming shell of pure light, a blast meant to swallow Frey and everything around him.
Frey answered instantly, whipping his swords with absolute force.
âTen thousands Steps of Shadow: Black Severer!â
Two ebon arcs carved into the oncoming barrage. Bracing through the deluge, Frey drove forward again, intent on cutting deeper this time.
BOOM!!!
Steel met spear once more, their blows trading at speeds beyond human comprehension. In this new state, Frey blazed like a starâoutshining even Blattierâs lightâyet that very power gnawed at him from within.
Dark Ascension was tearing his body apart; Shadow Adaptation was knitting it back together at the same pace, a civil war inside his flesh that kept him from focusing perfectly on the fight.
âMy body could eject me from this form any minute. I have to end thisânow.â
His thoughts raced as he kept pressing. Flawed and incomplete as it was, the ability had done its job: it let Frey Starlight temporarily stand on equal ground with his foe.
It made him the exceptionâlet him chase a miracleâand break the rule.
Freyâs blade was breaking through to Blattier with every exchange.
Blattier landed blows of his own, but that didnât change the simple fact: the fight had tipped into the unknownâno one could tell who would come out on top now.
âDonât get conceited, Frey Starlight! You are not my equal in any sense!â Blattier roared, shaking the ground with a colossal surge of light.
Frey met the wave head-on, carving through it with his swords.
âTen thousand Steps of Shadow: Black Meteor.â
Shadow aura threaded between the particles of light, and Freyâs blades smashed into the spear again, leaving a deep mark.
He had no luxury to answer Blattierâs taunts; every shred of focus was locked on maintaining his new form for as long as possible.
âDamn it⊠this cursed state is draining nearly all of my concentration just to hold it togetherâI can barely focus on the fightâŠâ
BOOM!
âLike this, I canât fire any Supreme Art. Iâll be forced to rely on the foundational forms of Ten Thousand Steps of ShadowâŠâ
A fresh spike of pain hammered behind his eyes. That was why he hadnât unleashed any grand techniques against Blattier so far.
Dark Ascension let him output, miraculously, something comparable to an SSS combatantâs raw mightâenough to withstand Blattier and even cut him.
But to finish the high priest, Frey needed a single, overwhelming strikeâsomething that would erase Blattier outright. Surface wounds would never be enough.
The ordinary forms of Ten Thousand Steps of Shadow couldnât do that. So Frey pushed himself harder, reaching for something greater.
A single annihilating blow to wipe his enemy from existence.
Strike after strike, he parried everything Blattier hurled at him while gathering power, waiting for the one opening.
The battlefield became an ocean of detonating aura; nothing about the fight was readable anymore.
Blattier slipped into absolute frenzy, the millions of souls inside him howling as he wrenched out every shred of the power gifted to him. He was a natural disaster, flooding the world with light in his bid to kill his foe.
Frey endured the deluge. Dim as he looked beside Blattierâs radiance, he still turned back that aggression with ruthless efficiency.
âWhat are you, Frey Starlight?! Are you telling me you alone can manifest power equal to millions of souls?!â Blattier raged, fraying as Frey survived everything he threw.
Frey Starlightâs gifts had always defied reasonâbut Blattier had never imagined they would let his opponent reach the same plane.
It was nonsense. This was SSS.
Frey didnât stop there. He answered in a voice that cut deeper than Blattierâs.
âEqual? No⊠Iâll surpass it!!â
He chased the moment, hemming Blattier in beneath a torrent of blows that finally tore open the high priestâs guard.
Face-to-face, Frey gambled everything on the next attack.
He knew he couldnât hold this state much longer. He would stake it all on one last strike.
The only technique in my arsenal that can end Blattier outright is Nameless Judgementânothing else. If I unleash it in this state, itâll be far stronger than beforeâŠ
Nameless Judgement under Dark Ascension.
Together, the result wouldnât be hard to imagine: catastrophic power, enough to crush even Blattier.
That was the bet Frey Starlight made.
Iâve already exceeded my limit and used it three times. Under normal circumstances, I canât fire Nameless Judgement again. But like this⊠I feel like I can do anything!
He pressed harder, step by step cutting through the light and erasing the distance.
Blattier tried everything to stop him; Frey bore it all down to the final breath.
âI can do it!â he roared with everything he had, overwhelming his foe. âIâll end thisâhere and now!â
Face-to-face with Blattier, Frey Starlight poured everything into Balerion, the Black Terror, preparing to unleash his strongest strike.
His battle cry split the airâand dread needled the high priestâs heartâas Frey hewed downward in a vertical cut meant to finish it all.
The peak of his power, the pinnacle of his craft ..focused into a single final blow.