Chapter 87

Duel

One thing immediately impressed Aiden the moment he stepped into the upper chamber of the Central Spire: something completely unexpected was waiting for him inside.

‘…A rocket?’

Aiden let out a disbelieving laugh as he stared at the massive object occupying the entire center of the Spire. It had the unmistakable shape of a high-yield missile fitted with an advanced propulsion system. Judging by its sheer scale, someone had hollowed out and remodeled the interior of the building specifically to house it.

Preparations on this scale could not have been completed in a matter of days. The Imperial Prince had clearly been planning this for a very long time.

While the prince remained embedded in the shattered wall with dust rolling off his clothes, Aiden stepped closer to examine the payload at the center of the rocket.

Resting inside the warhead was a strange lump that looked like pitch-black, writhing earth. The moment Aiden looked directly at it, a distorted system window glitched into view before his eyes:

[Item Info]

• Fragment of Ą̷̦̘͉̹͓̝́̾͂͂̂͂̅͡͝ø̵̧̡̜̲̗̳̟̀̒̽̊͆̃͒̎̚͟͟ͅ Î̶̻̙͓͓͎̫͛́͌̀̆͊͒͆̚ [???]

• [ ̴̢̥̱̝̘̟͎͊͐͌̿̎̋̕͜͟͝͞Ą̷̦̘͉̹͓̝́̾͂͂̂͂̅͡͝ø̵̧̡̜̲̗̳̟̀̒̽̊͆̃͒̎̚͟͟ͅ Ç̳͈̟̯̻̾̿̔͆̃̋́͌͘̕Ḁ̷͉̞͎̯̥̫̳̻́͆͊̉̀̾͘͞·̴̢̥̱̝̘̟͎͊͐͌̎̋̕͜͟͝͞Î̶̻̙͓͓͎̫͛́͌̀̆͊͒͆̚±̦͖̺̗͎͍̰͊̏͒̉̍̉̚͟͠×̵̢̯̥̟͖̞̔̈́̃̚͘͞·̶̛͈̪͚̹̺͖͉̪̇̎̃̏̃̎̚͡ͅ¡̴̹͉̤̭̥̒̇̎̅͘͝ͅ¹̖̯Ö̵̩̭͇̹̭̤͌͆̔̀̆̚Ą̷̦̘͉̹͓̝́̾͂͂̂͂̅͡͝ø̵̧̡̜̲̗̳̟̀̒̽̊͆̃͒̎̚͟͟ͅ Ç̳͈̟̯̻̾̿̔͆̃̋́͌͘̕Ḁ̷͉̞͎̯̥̫̳̻́͆͊̉̀̾͘͞ ]

“…”

Just staring at the dark artifact made Aiden feel as though his brain were being fried. His optic nerves throbbed with a burning pain, and a nauseating sensation surged through his nervous system, as if someone were pouring cold tar directly into his veins.

As far as Aiden knew, only one kind of object in the world could produce such a vile aura.

“Hey,” Aiden called out softly.

If the Imperial Prince had gone so far as to prepare this, using formal honorifics felt far too generous. Aiden let out a hollow, bitter laugh.

“Isn’t that a fragment of a Demon God?”

“…”

The Imperial Prince coughed violently, dragging himself free from the debris. His silence was all the confirmation Aiden needed.

Aiden ran a hand through his hair in absolute disbelief. It was a fragment of Wornil, the God of Predation who had been sealed away by the Pantheon.

If something like that was attached to a missile warhead, Aiden immediately understood why the Imperial Prince had stopped caring about civilian casualties in the capital.

“If you launch a missile carrying a fragment like that and scatter its dust through the air,” Aiden said, his voice dropping, “the entire capital region will turn into another Void Zone.”

“…”

“It will become a barren wasteland where nothing except demons and demonic beasts can survive. You knew that, didn’t you?”

In other words, the Imperial Prince was not merely staging a coup—he was planning to murder every single human living in the Imperial Capital.

Silence remained his only answer.

The Imperial Prince took a step away from the wall and drew the ornate sword resting at his waist. Aiden gave him a quick, evaluating glance. The man did not seem severely injured.

Given that Aiden had once crushed Lord Damian with a single punch, the fact that the prince had taken a direct hit from him without severe damage proved he was a warrior operating far above Damian’s level.

‘He’s probably weaker than Noel or Katia…’

Even so, he was not an opponent Aiden should have been able to face using ordinary combat skills alone. Under normal circumstances, it would have been a dangerous duel.

Aiden let out a deep sigh and slowly raised both fists.

The Imperial Prince’s expression twisted in visible confusion. “…What are you trying to do?”

He was likely wondering why Aiden had not bothered to draw a weapon. But there was no need for a sword or a gun here. In fact, using a weapon would be a mistake—the fight would end far too quickly.

“You grew up privileged, didn’t you?” Aiden asked smoothly.

Of course he had. He was royal blood, raised in a gilded palace where everyone around him naturally indulged his every whim. Which led to one obvious conclusion.

“That means there was never anyone around to hit you when you did something wrong, right?”

“…”

“You’ve never been beaten until you started apologizing without even meaning it, have you?”

“…”

Aiden immediately drew upon the Aether under his control. The liquid metal moved according to his thoughts, wrapping snugly around his hands and forearms. It hardened into a pair of sleek, pitch-black gauntlets.

Aiden knocked his armored fists together with a heavy metallic clack, staring coldly at the prince.

“Let’s give you that experience today.”

Aiden did not care about political motives right now. Judging by everything this man had done, he simply deserved a thorough, brutal beating.

✦ ✦ ✦

The emotion the Imperial Prince felt whenever he looked at Aiden Kellermain was almost always the same: the man was utterly incomprehensible.

He had felt that way during their very first encounter, and that impression had only deepened over time. The current exchange was a perfect example.

CLANG!

When the Imperial Prince’s sword struck the strange gauntlets, bright sparks exploded into the air, forcing the prince to pull his blade back hastily.

“…”

The famous sword—crafted by one of the continent’s most revered blacksmiths—was rapidly becoming nicked and battered with every strike.

The Imperial Prince was widely recognized as one of the top three weapon masters in the entire Empire when it came to weapon techniques enhanced by supernatural ability. Yet his prized sword was taking severe damage against Aiden’s gauntlets, which had not even been empowered by a supernatural ability yet. The sheer difference in material quality made it feel as though their gear belonged to entirely different worlds.

‘In such a short time…’ the prince thought grimly.

There had been no records indicating Aiden possessed equipment like this during their last encounter. That meant he had somehow acquired and mastered it within a matter of days. Aiden always displayed an absurd talent for finding the absolute shortest, most efficient path to solve any problem before him. He was like the living embodiment of pure efficiency.

‘Even so…!’

There were still walls of raw, natural talent that efficiency alone could never cross.

“Five Forms: Open Gate!” the prince barked.

When it came to shaping supernatural energy into tangible weapons for real combat, the Imperial Prince stood at the absolute peak of the continent. He molded his released qi into five entirely distinct weapons, launching them along five separate trajectories simultaneously.

The technique required him to maintain five completely independent trains of thought at once. Yet, as a once-in-a-generation genius, he executed the absurd skill instantly.

Aiden’s expression tightened as the multi-angled assault rushed toward him. He released the Aether from his fists, expanding it into a wide barrier while infusing both qi and holy power into a radiant defense. The shield barely managed to deflect the five incoming blades.

There was no time to catch his breath.

A relentless chain of follow-up strikes pressed in immediately. It was as if the Imperial Prince had already anticipated Aiden’s defense and prepared three moves ahead.

‘This is ridiculous,’ Aiden thought, frowning as he struggled to block the barrage.

Meyer’s copied skill, Analysis, was correcting his tactical decisions in real time, and his own martial proficiency had improved dramatically over the past few weeks. Even so, the gap in pure combat technique between them remained as vast as heaven and earth.

Aiden held the absolute advantage in supernatural abilities. Aiden also held the advantage in equipment. Yet despite both disadvantages, the Imperial Prince was bridging the gap through raw, innate genius alone. With his extraordinary combat vision, he seized control over every second and every exchange of the battle.

The prince’s pressure remained relentless. Qi shaped into various lethal weapons poured toward Aiden from every angle. Aiden’s defenses were breached again and again under the storm, and fresh wounds quickly accumulated across his body.

It did not take long before Aiden was covered in his own blood.

“…”

Yet the Imperial Prince’s eyes remained dark and intensely cautious, even while maintaining total control of the fight.

‘This man…’

Aiden was a wild card of pure unpredictability. No one could ever guess what card he might pull next. When holding the upper hand against someone like him, the only safe strategy was to press the attack hard enough to end the duel decisively.

‘A guaranteed finish is best.’

Reaching that conclusion, the Imperial Prince tightened his grip on his blade. He would keep inflicting injuries until a fatal opening appeared, then drive home a decisive blow.

“…Hmm.”

At least, that had been the plan.

The moment the Imperial Prince met Aiden’s eyes—a man currently dripping in blood—an icy chill ran down his spine.

“This is a problem,” Aiden muttered quietly.

“Are you planning to surrender, Aiden?” the prince asked, keeping his guard raised.

“No,” Aiden replied, wiping blood from his cheek. “I just think I prepared far too much.”

“…What did you say?”

The Imperial Prince responded in disbelief, but Aiden was completely serious.

He had prepared obsessively for this confrontation. Since no one could predict how badly the original game’s difficulty might warp, Aiden had resolved to bring every single tool at his disposal.

The Imperial Prince’s current combat skill was undeniably impressive. Unfortunately for him, Aiden had prepared something operating on a completely different scale.

[System Message]

• Skill ‘Primordial Power’ activates.

• Skill ‘Beastification’ activates.

• Skill ‘Purifier’ activates.

• Skill ‘Guardian’s Flame’ activates.

• Skill ‘Brilliant Radiance’ activates.

• Supernatural abilities are infused into Equipment ‘Aether.’ Weapon power increases.

• The abilities infused into Equipment ‘Aether’ are amplified by its effect.

• The power of supernatural abilities released through Equipment ‘Aether’ is exponentially amplified…

This was no longer a matter of using a butcher’s knife to slice a apple. Aiden had brought a heavy siege cannon to a fistfight.

✦ ✦ ✦

“Let me ask you one favor,” Aiden said in an even tone, flexing and unclenching his gauntleted fists.

His face tightened slightly, almost as though he himself were unfamiliar with the sheer volume of power surging through his own veins. It looked as if he had never drawn out this much of his full capacity before.

“Don’t die immediately. I still have a lot of questions for you.”

The Imperial Prince realized one thing instinctively the moment he looked at him: the man before him had fundamentally changed.

The crushing pressure radiating from Aiden was so terrifyingly different from moments earlier that it felt as though an entirely different entity had stepped into his skin. It was almost as if he had not been using even half of his true strength until now.

‘That’s impossible…’

It was already absurd that Aiden had fought evenly against him using only that much power. Surely this sudden surge was nothing more than an optical illusion.

“Here I come,” Aiden said softly.

“…!”

Aiden closed the distance in a fraction of a second.

The Imperial Prince’s eyes went wide—he had not even seen the movement happen. Aiden appeared directly in his blind spot and threw a casual, light punch toward his jaw.

Calling it a punch was overly generous; it looked more as if Aiden had lazily rested his armored fist against the prince’s face.

Yet that casual touch was more than enough.

BOOM!

The overlapping supernatural barriers the Imperial Prince had instinctively raised shattered like cheap glass. He did not even have time to register shock before the air was forcibly knocked from his lungs, sending him staggering backward.

The violent concussion rattled his vision, but the next strike arrived immediately—an equally careless kick. Aiden looked as though he were deliberately holding back, trying to kick as gently as possible.

The apparent lack of effort did not matter in the slightest.

“Kuhak!”

A sickening crack echoed through the chamber, far too loud to have come from ordinary physical impact.

The Imperial Prince flew through the air like a cannonball, tumbling disgracefully across the stone floor. A thick trail of blood painted the ground behind him. That simple motion had pulverized every layer of his personal protection, snapping several of his ribs instantly.

One of the broken bones pierced his lung, filling his throat with the metallic taste of blood.

‘What in the world is this…?!’

Even while coughing up dark clots of blood, the Imperial Prince remained a veteran warrior. He immediately circulated his internal energy, forcing the broken bones back into alignment, adjusting his twisted organs, and numbing his pain receptors enough to stand back up.

Restored energy surged back through his veins. Condensing every supernatural ability he possessed into a single form, he unleashed his ultimate counter.

Hundreds of razor-sharp energy vortexes condensed into lethal blades, shooting toward Aiden like a dense storm of arrows. It was an advanced technique designed to penetrate and shred every form of defense.

At least, that was what the prince believed.

Aiden simply walked straight through the storm with his bare body.

With both Beastification and Primordial Power active, his physical specifications rivaled those of a top-tier calamity beast. If Katia’s pure divine energy could strike his body directly and still be repelled, an attack of this level was barely enough to make him itch.

“What in the world are you…?!” the Imperial Prince screamed in utter horror.

He never managed to finish his sentence before the next strike landed.

Another heavy fist caught him squarely on the jaw. All his supernatural defenses shattered once more, plunging his consciousness into darkness.

“Ghk…!”

A rapid flurry of punches battered his airborne body. One terrifying blow slammed directly into his exposed midsection, folding his body like a paper ruler, before Aiden’s knee crashed into his descending face.

As his head snapped backward, a straight right punch followed like a steel sledgehammer driving into a nail.

“Kgh, hhk…!”

All the Imperial Prince could do was absorb the crushing blows and scream in agony. There was no way to defend. He could not even react in time.

He had routed all his internal energy into constantly repairing his body, allowing him to barely survive critical damage. But the rate at which new, catastrophic injuries accumulated was far faster than his ability to heal.

And all of this was happening while Aiden was merely throwing out light, casual strikes. The sheer gap in raw, unadulterated power was simply that absolute.

“I’ll ask you again,” Aiden said smoothly, cracking his neck as he watched the Imperial Prince swaying helplessly on his feet. “Don’t die immediately. I still have a lot to ask you.”

BAM!

Another heavy fist smashed into the Imperial Prince’s jaw, as if intending to split it cleanly in two.