The valley was silent beneath a golden twilight.
But it was not calm.
It was the stillness that came before something far worse.
Before Lusian, the ground trembled with every breath of the monster.
Noceron slowly emerged from the forest.
And for a moment, everything around it seemed to grow smaller.
It was gigantic.
A creature made of light, flesh, scales, and energy.
Its wings covered part of the sky. The radiance emanating from them enveloped its body like living armor. Its scales gleamed with an almost blinding intensity, absorbing the energy around it only to release it in pulses of light.
Small discharges of electricity crackled from its black horns.
Its white eyes locked onto Lusian.
It did not seem to be merely looking at him.
It was analyzing him.
A thread of luminous vapor escaped from its jaws.
Noceron's breath was not fire.
It was pure magic.
Getting too close meant exposing oneself to blasts capable of scorching skin, slicing through flesh, or sending a grown man flying.
Its tail slammed into the ground.
BOOM!
The earth split open.
And despite its size, Noceron moved with absurd speed.
A single flap of its wings created waves of light capable of tearing trees apart.
A turn of its body could reduce an entire forest to a pile of broken trunks.
But Lusian was not seeing merely a monster.
Inside him, Erwin remembered.
War in an Arcane World.
He had fought creatures like this hundreds of times.
He knew its patterns.
Its attacks.
Its pauses.
The way it slightly tilted its body before using its tail.
The movement of its wings before releasing an energy wave.
Even the subtle change in its eyes before unleashing its breath.
This was not theory.
It was experience.
Every movement was familiar.
Every attack seemed to follow a script he had already seen too many times.
But there was one difference.
A huge difference.
This time, he was not sitting in front of a screen.
Noceron was standing right in front of him.
Alive.
Breathing.
And terrifying.
Erwin had faced it thousands of times.
But there had always been a screen between them.
If he died, he restarted.
If he made a mistake, he tried again.
Here, he had no such luxury.
Here, there was only one chance.
Lusian clenched his jaw.
"Fine..."
His hand tightened around the hilt.
"Then let's do this."
The Ætherion Sword and Armor were not ordinary artifacts.
Both belonged to the Supreme category.
Weapons that were extremely rare even among nobles and that, by tradition and lineage, could only be wielded by individuals of exceptional status.
The sword could channel dark magic and pierce defenses that would normally stop any conventional weapon.
Noceron's light collided with the Ætherion Armor.
For an instant, the energy seemed to slide across the metallic surface before dispersing in every direction.
Lusian narrowed his eyes.
The impact had barely reached him.
He had managed to evade most of the attack, and yet he still felt a sharp pain travel through his body.
He looked at the armor.
A small portion of the energy had been absorbed.
The rest had struck the metal directly.
A thin mark appeared across its surface.
It absorbed part of the attack...
Lusian gritted his teeth.
And it still took damage.
He had avoided a direct hit.
If he had taken the full impact...
He did not want to imagine it.
The Ætherion Armor was not an absolute defense.
It could reduce the power of a magical attack.
It could deflect it.
But it could not make it disappear.
And if it continued receiving attacks of that magnitude, eventually it would give out.
He had no time to think further.
Noceron was already attacking again.
Lusian blocked the next attack with the Ætherion Sword.
The blade vibrated in his hand.
The darkness surrounding his body flowed into the steel, completely imbuing it. Dainslein absorbed the magic with surprising ease, as though it had been waiting for it.
Lusian felt the sword becoming heavier... and, at the same time, more powerful.
Before him, Noceron's light collided with the dark blade.
And recoiled.
Not much. Barely an instant.
But it was enough for Lusian to notice.
The intensity of the radiance surrounding Noceron diminished slightly wherever Dainslein's darkness came into contact with it. At the same time, the sword seemed to grow stronger. The blackness covering its blade became denser, deeper.
Lusian blinked.
Since when has Dainslein absorbed my magic so easily?
For some reason, an absurd thought crossed his mind.
If Dainslein were a person, it would probably be happy right now.
He could almost imagine the sword looking satisfied.
He frowned.
"What the hell...?"
The sensation disappeared as quickly as it had come.
Lusian shook his head slightly.
It doesn't matter.
He had more important things to worry about.
He took a deep breath.
Mana began circulating through his body.
His Epsilon affinity reduced mana consumption, allowing him to channel darkness with an efficiency that had already become second nature to Lusian.
Then the darkness appeared.
A mantle of shadows spread around his body and began to envelop him.
He did not have to force it.
He did not have to call upon it.
It simply responded.
The shadows slid across his skin as if they knew the path, thickening around his arms and legs.
Lusian felt the spell settle inside his body with familiar ease.
Too familiar.
He frowned slightly.
For an instant, he had the strange sensation that something had responded to his will before he had even finished forming the thought.
But he attributed it to his own affinity.
My magic has always been like this.
He gave it no further thought.
"Physical Enhancement IV."
Mana surged through his muscles.
His body responded immediately.
His strength increased.
So did his speed.
The world seemed to slow down.
The wind.
The dust.
The small fragments of rock floating through the air.
Even the beating of his own heart seemed to take on a different rhythm.
Lusian lowered his center of gravity slightly.
Then he raised his sword.
"Dainslein."
Darkness began to envelop the blade.
At first, it was little more than a faint glow.
Then it became denser.
Deeper.
The sword seemed to drink in the mana Lusian poured into it.
But something strange happened.
The darkness did not merely cover the blade.
It clung to it.
As if it had weight.
As if it were a real substance.
As if night itself had found a way to materialize around the steel.
Lusian's eyes widened slightly.
"..."
The sensation disappeared as quickly as it had come.
The blade returned to normal.
A deep darkness pulsed around it.
Lusian smiled.
"Good."
He did not know why it felt different this time.
He did not know that someone had left something inside him long before he could understand it.
To Lusian, it was only one thing.
His magic.
And that was enough.
Noceron responded.
Its enormous wings rose.
The entire valley lit up.
A halo of light began forming around its body, condensing until it became a radiant shell of armor.
The heat struck Lusian even from that distance.
The ground beneath his feet began to crack.
The air vibrated.
Lusian took a deep breath.
He knew what was coming.
Now.
Noceron spread its wings.
Lusian disappeared.
BOOOOM!
A pillar of light tore through the place where he had been standing.
The ground exploded.
Lusian rolled between the rocks and immediately got back to his feet.
A thin line of blood appeared on his cheek.
He had been too close.
Far too close.
His heart pounded violently against his chest.
Damn it...
He knew that attack.
He knew when it would happen.
He knew where he was supposed to move.
And yet...
it had almost hit him.
Lusian looked up.
Noceron was watching him.
Those white eyes fixed on him once again.
As if the creature had just confirmed something.
Lusian tightened his grip on the sword.
Erwin's memories and his own instincts began to merge.
He had known this battle.
He had studied this enemy.
He had lost against it.
He had tried again.
Over and over.
But no screen could convey what it meant to have that creature standing in front of him.
Noceron's roar shook the valley.
Lusian felt a chill run down his spine.
Fear.
Real fear.
And that sensation reminded him of something he could never forget.
This was not a game.
There was no button to restart.
There was no loading screen.
There was no second chance.
If he fell here...
it was the end.