Lady Rimeta stood atop a ruined building, looking down at Kazuki. Beside her was a man with long gray hair, sharp blades protruding from both of his hands, and another woman with long blue hair. Both of them looked like they were in Kazuki's age group.
Kazuki frowned at their presence and asked,
"My execution? What does that mean?"
Lady Rimeta responded coldly, a taunting smile on her face
"You're a threat to this city. No— to humanity itself. You're young, yet you possess this amount of frightening power. Given that both your father and brother were exceptionally strong, it's only natural that you're the same."
She narrowed her eyes.
"And to make matters worse, you're Diablo's student. He himself was once considered a special threat. So it's only natural that you turned out like this."
Kazuki scoffed.
"So in other words, you're here to kill me. Guess Diablo was right about you people. Kagahara is filled with rotten bastards to the core."
Lady Rimeta gestured to the two beside her.
"These two are top-class soliders and assassins of this city. They trained and worked under me. I sent one of them to kill you a few months ago, but she never returned. I assume you killed her."
Her expression darkened.
"She was my favorite student, you know."
Kazuki tilted his head.
"You mean that fodder girl with the weird sword? She was a bit interesting, but fodder is fodder."
For a moment, silence hung in the air.
Lady Rimeta's voice turned icy.
"For that… you will die."
She raised her hand.
"Magnus. Elisa. Kill him.", she said coldly.
Magnus and Elisa immediately charged toward Kazuki. Magnus swung his blade-like arm with tremendous force, sending Kazuki flying across multiple city blocks and crashing through countless ruined buildings.
As the smoke cleared, Kazuki was revealed standing his ground, using a dagger to block Magnus's strike. He struggled slightly, his arms trembling under the pressure of the sharp blades "Tch! That was strong!".
As he resisted Magnus, Kazuki's mind drifted back three years ago—
Kazuki sat on the training grounds beside Veronica.
"So why did you bring me out here today?" he asked.
"You said today was supposed to be a rest day."
Veronica replied calmly,
"I noticed something about you during your training. Kazuki… you don't understand the dangers of battle."
Kazuki raised an eyebrow.
"What do you mean? Out of all the random things you've said, this one really takes the cake."
Veronica shook her head.
"I'm serious. When you fight, you don't think you'll die. Not because you rely on your skills or power, but because most of the battles you've fought weren't death matches, you think you can just walk find a way an walk out of a battle unscathed. Maybe a few were—but most weren't."
Kazuki sighed, clearly unimpressed.
"Okay? I still don't see the problem. Is it really that important whether it's life or death? I mean the important thing is that you come out alive, right? So what does it matter."
"You're missing the point," Veronica said firmly.
"As a soldier—and an assassin—you must always accept the possibility of death. If you don't, you'll face countless problems. That's why Alex is stronger than you."
Kazuki frowned.
"And why's that?"
"Because Alex unconsciously always keeps the thought of death in the back of his mind," Veronica replied.
"That fear pushes him to strive harder and act more aggressive under pressure. He understands the danger of battle."
Kazuki clicked his tongue.
"That was unnecessary. You didn't need to drag that idiot into this."
Veronica poked him on the forehead.
"Listen, Kazuki. If you don't take your fights seriously… you're going to die."
Kazuki snapped back to reality, his eyes sharp as he struggled against Magnus.
"If I don't take my fights seriously… I'll die, huh?"
A cold look settled in his eyes. With a powerful kick, Kazuki sent Magnus flying across several destroyed buildings, causing them to collapse.
Suddenly, Elisa appeared behind him and unleashed massive ice needles.
Kazuki turned and punched them away effortlessly, purple lightning crackling around his fist. The deflected ice attacks shot off into the distance, destroying even more buildings into rubble.
Elisa stared in shock "Huh? He deflected my attacks that easy?".
Kazuki spoke calmly,
"Since I'm about to be killed, I guess I'll have to do everything in my power to stay alive."
His eyes darkened.
"That means… I'll have to kill you."
Kazuki's Spirit Mark—a diamond shape with four dots—activated. A massive surge of purple lightning and flames erupted from his body. The lightning formed a scarf around his neck, while the purple flames shaped themselves into claws around his hands.
Murderous intent filled his purple eyes.
Lady Rimeta warned,
"Be careful. He's getting serious."
Magnus grinned.
"Understood, ma'am. We'll make sure to kill him."
Magnus's hair turned spiky, sharp as needles, his body transformed into steel. He charged forward at incredible speed and swung his blade.
Kazuki extended a single finger and blocked the strike. The impact shattered the ground beneath them.
"Use everything you've got," Kazuki said coldly.
"You won't land a single hit on me. I doubt I'll even need my force field."
Kazuki and Magnus clashed, racing through the city at terrifying speeds as they exchanged blows and showcased incredible combat skills with their blades. Their attacks and slashes blasting apart everything around them.
Kazuki formed multiple lightning arrows and fired them rapidly. Just their movement alone destroyed buildings as they flew toward Magnus.
Magnus sliced through the arrows effortlessly and countered with massive slashes. Kazuki dodged at high speed, narrowly avoiding the relentless attacks as he ran and dodged at the speed of light. As he did so, he was able to cut through some of the slashes, as well as deflect a few of them with his lightning sword. One deflected slash flew off and obliterated an entire mountain in the distance.
Kazuki's eyes widened slightly.
"Such power… He's definitely B-rank level."
He smirked.
"But nothing I can't handle."
Magnus unleashed giant waves of slashes capable of wiping out the entire city at once. The attacks tore through the ruins with ease.
Kazuki created multiple spiritual shurikens, densely packed with energy, and hurled them forward. The attacks collided, creating violent explosions and winds that ripped the city apart even further.
As the clash continued, Kazuki and Magnus throwing lightning and steel punches at each other as well as blasting slashes of lightning and spikes of steel, Elisa rushed in from behind and unleashed massive slabs of ice that spread throughout the city, causing widespread destruction.
Kazuki noticed these set of attacks and narrowly avoided them with every ounce of skill he had. He muttered
"God… if I need you more than ever, it's now."
He clenched his fists.
"Because these guys aren't planning on fighting fair."
END OF CHAPTER.