"Young man, your strength is indeed quite impressive, but within my 'Deprivation Field,' it is impossible for you to survive."
Reida said this calmly while maintaining the same technique without change.
Even she was quite surprised that she still had not been able to kill her opponent despite his resistance, but although there was recognition of Ash's strength in her tone, there was also the certainty of someone who was confident that victory was already in her grasp.
"Indeed, the speed at which you unleash this ultimate technique is practically even faster than the Light Blade, but in terms of power, it is several levels below the Light Blade. Though this should have something to do with your own age, as well as the distance between us, right?"
If Reida were to assume her stance first, even Gal would probably be suppressed to the point where he could not move... Of course, that was assuming Gal would give her the chance to assume her stance.
Yet Ash simply sheathed his sword while speaking, making people wonder if he was preparing to give up resisting. Seeing this, Eris immediately shouted, "Wuu! Wuaaahhhh!"
Mistaking that he really intended to surrender without resistance, the loli shouted and drew her sword, about to charge out, but Ash reached out and pressed down on her sword, stopping her reckless charge. His arm was even directly struck by the sword energy attacking both Eris and himself because of this action, however...
The sword energy, just as it was about to touch Ash's arm in midair, seemed to collide with an invisible barrier and was actually forcibly blocked, producing only a few sparks without causing the slightest damage.
"Don't get so worked up. I already told you to calm down, so why are you always so impulsive?", As he spoke, Ash, who had pressed Eris down, walked step by step toward Reida.
In an instant, this overly large movement stirred up an unprecedented golden tide. That momentum seemed as if it would instantly drown him in this golden sea, but..
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
A series of impacts like thunder echoed through the air, while countless sparks scattered around Ash.
The sword energy frantically slammed into the area around him, yet that seemingly empty space could never break through even by the slightest amount.
As for Ash himself, he seemed to completely disregard these attacks that came down like raindrops. He did not even make any motion to block them, simply allowing those sword energies to crash against the invisible iron wall formed from magic power, before they were all bounced away and dissipated into the air.
"Is this.... Dragon Saint Battle Aura?", Reida's pupils contracted slightly, her face filled with disbelief, while the image of the strongest monster she had ever encountered in her life also surfaced in her mind.
"How could it be? This is merely the release of pure magic power."
"Impossible! How could magic power possibly withstand this kind of attack!", Reida, who had always given off the feeling that she had victory firmly in her grasp throughout this battle, suddenly lost the calm and composed expression on her face. Her voice even unconsciously rose several levels, and the composure she had possessed in the past completely disappeared at this moment.
But that calmness had not disappeared.
It had merely shifted to Ash's face.
With a confident smile, he continued walking toward her at an unhurried pace, saying in a calm tone, "Sorry about that. I don't know what other people's magic power is like, but my magic power can block attacks."
As Ash approached step by step, the countless densely packed sword energies became increasingly frenzied. Their afterimages completely connected into one mass, and from a distance, it looked as though a golden curtain of light stretched across the space between them.
Moreover, as the distance gradually shortened, the power of those sword energies continued to increase. Even the whistling wind as they passed sounded like the roar of the Grim Reaper, making people shudder.
But even so, even after Ash had already arrived in front of Reida, the sword energies that were as dense as raindrops and had greatly increased in power still failed to break through the iron wall constructed from magic power around him. They could only uselessly crash against it, splashing up brilliant yet powerless sparks one after another.
"Your speed is sufficient, but your power is far inferior to Gal's... Even though we both put away our magic power defenses, his sword was almost able to cut off my hand, but you..."
He withdrew the defense around his arm, and his wrist was immediately cut open with a large wound, but the blade had not cut into his bones.
Although blood flowed freely from his wrist, Ash looked somewhat regretful, "Only this much, huh? But... if you were a little younger, perhaps you would be far beyond this level, right?"
"This is the masterpiece I spent my entire life creating. Even if I returned to my youth, what meaning would that have? This is already the peak I can reach."
"Is that so? What a pity... You clearly have such outstanding talent, yet before even reaching a hundred years old, your time is already running out, and you've even aged into this state."
Ash sighed softly, and that trace of regret still remained in his eyes as he quietly looked at the old woman before him, who was still struggling desperately, maintaining her original stance and refusing to give up.
That gaze seemed to have already pierced through time, seeing Reida's once-glorious life that had ultimately been defeated by the passing years.
That gaze was exactly like the Reida from the beginning.
Within the Sword Realm, which could instantly kill the opponent without giving them the slightest chance to breathe or evade, Reida should have been the absolute ruler who controlled all life and death. Any attempt to resist or escape should have been nothing more than futile.
But now... this monster that surpassed all imagination had caused Reida's heart to waver.
"Haah!", She gritted her teeth, changed her stance, and directly poured all her strength into unleashing the Light Blade, slashing toward Ash's throat.
Bang!
A hard sound resembling the clash of metal echoed through the air.
Reida's rapidly flying blade did not touch its target as she had wished. Instead, in midair, Ash calmly reached out one hand and caught it precisely.
No matter how hard Reida tried to pull out her sword, the hilt remained completely motionless, firmly held in Ash's hand. Reida's breathing became somewhat disordered, while sweat uncontrollably ran down from her forehead.
She had experienced countless hardships and dangers throughout her life, and being in a dangerous situation had long since become commonplace for her. But this kind of helplessness, like that of a child, seemed to suddenly return her to her childhood, to the first time she had encountered a monster in the wild and could only watch it from afar. That helplessness and fear in the face of something she could not possibly defeat surged into her heart once again.
"I've seen enough of your ultimate techniques. From here on, I'll personally look through your memories and have a good look at the mastermind behind all this," Ash stared at the old woman whose face had twisted, his eyes calm to the point of being almost cold. As he spoke, he reached his hand into her chest and clenched her violently beating heart.
At the same time, while her spirit had completely wavered and her body had suffered a devastating blow, he completed the invasion of her mind and easily read her memories.
Then, he expressionlessly pulled his hand out and slowly turned around with a composure that made people shudder, no longer sparing even a glance at Reida, who had already suffered a severe injury.
At this moment, everyone present widened their eyes and looked at the scene before them in terror... because they clearly saw that a shocking hole had been opened in Reida's chest, and that hole was completely empty.
The heart that should have been beating violently within her chest, sustaining her life, was now like a lifelike yet eerie toy in Ash's palm, spraying blood while still beating feebly.
The scene was simply far too bloody and terrifying, and everyone who witnessed it was chilled with fear.
"If you could be a little younger, perhaps this confrontation could have been more interesting, time really is cruel."
"You... who... exactly are you!", Reida's voice had already become hoarse and broken.
She stared desperately at the gradually departing figure. Even as her vision gradually became blurred, she still instinctively covered the chest from which blood continued to pour with trembling hands, gritted her teeth, and staggered forward in an attempt to catch up with that figure.
"Come to think of it, you already introduced yourself, and I almost forgot to give the necessary introduction about myself," Ash slowed his steps slightly and turned sideways. Without the slightest unnecessary expression on his face, as if casually throwing away a completely worthless object, he casually tossed the still faintly beating, blood-stained heart to the side and crushed it under one foot while simultaneously beckoning with his hand.
Reida's sword flew into his hand. Only then did he continue walking forward, not even turning his head back, his steady yet indifferent voice slowly spreading through the suffocating air:
"My name is Ash, that's right. But I've also been arbitrarily called the Evil God... Just like you said earlier, sometimes people simply cannot predict or prevent unfortunate encounters, for example, I gained a strange title, while you accidentally lost your heart."
Arbitrarily called the Evil God...
Those words almost instantly shook everyone's hearts, especially the final remark delivered in that calm tone. It was as though everything he had just done was nothing more than completing an insignificant little task for him.
That indifferent attitude was truly impossible not to fear, and it made people even more certain that this name, Evil God, was well deserved.
But Reida seemed to have heard the most absurd yet terrifying news in this world. The expression on her face, which had still been filled with pain and unwillingness, instantly froze, and she stared blankly with her eyes wide open.
But then, her legs could no longer support her. Her swaying body slowly knelt down on the ground, her hands hanging limply at her sides as blood dripped from her fingertips onto the ground, gathering into a small, glaring pool of blood.