Chapter 325: Sky Vs Vespera
The clashing armies of the Blessed Land and The Unmovable Wall seemed to unconsciously pull back from this specific stretch of shattered ground with their primal instincts warning them to give the predators room to breathe.
Through the drifting smoke and falling ash, two figures walked slowly and deliberately toward one another.
On the southern side, walking with the terrifying elegance of an apex predator, was Lord Vespera.
Her dark hood completely obscured the upper half of her face, leaving only her glowing luminous purple eyes visible beneath the fabric.
Her single steel longsword hung casually at her side with her silver armor gleaming faintly under the chaotic light of the war zone.
Her empty left sleeve fluttered lightly in the wind, a testament to the heavy battle-scarred persona she projected to the millions watching on the Sovereign Network stream.
On the northern side, approaching with unyielding confidence, was Lord Sky.
The master of The Unmovable Wall was clad in a magnificent advanced suit of deep blue and gold mythril battle armor.
A sleek, high-tech combat helmet completely covered his head, its visor glowing with a sharp blue light.
A long, pristine white cape flowed majestically from his broad shoulders, completely unstained by the surrounding mud and blood.
They did not run as they simply walked, their boots crushing the broken stone beneath their feet with small sounds.
The distance between them closed from fifty yards... To thirty yards... To fifteen yards...
Finally, they both stopped.
The noise of the battlefield seemed to fade entirely into the background, leaving only the sound of the freezing wind whipping between the two Lords.
Sky looked past Vespera’s shoulder, his glowing blue visor scanning the distant catastrophes happening across the basin.
He saw Ignis and Frost falling.
He saw his heavy shield lines completely failing against the terrifying coordinated strikes of Vespera’s Vanguard.
Sky slowly turned his head back, locking his gaze directly onto Vespera’s spatial hood.
"I have fought dozens of Lords across the Known and Unknown Zones," Sky spoke.
His voice was filtered through the mechanical vocal processor of his helmet, giving it a deep sound.
"I have broken siege lines... I have shattered alliances... I have commanded the Unmovable Wall against dungeon breaks that would have wiped towns off the map," Sky continued, his voice laced with genuine respect. "But I have never, in all my years of conquest, seen an army quite like yours, Vespera."
Sky reached up with his right hand with his heavy gold-trimmed gauntlet resting casually on the hilt of his weapon.
"Your Vanguard," Sky praised, nodding slowly. "They do not fight like standard summoned units... They do not fight like mercenaries hired for a paycheck. They fight with a loyalty that borders on fanaticism. Every single one of them is a monstrous anomaly and I can see that you have built a truly terrifying foundation."
Beneath the dark spatial hood, Vespera let out a soft amused hum.
"I appreciate the compliment, Lord Sky," Vespera replied.
Her voice was cool and laced with a feminine elegance that completely belied the violence she was capable of unleashing.
"But you are too modest," Vespera continued smoothly, her glowing purple eyes curving into a smile. "Your Unmovable Wall is exactly as advertised... Your infantry lines possess extreme, unbreakable discipline. Your elemental Wardens pushed my girls to their absolute limits. You did not build this army by accident. You are a classic, high-tier conqueror, Sky. You command respect, and your troops die for you without hesitation."
Vespera slowly raised her right hand.
She gripped the leather-wrapped hilt of her single steel longsword, angling the blade slightly toward the dirt.
"It is a genuine shame that your territory won’t be here forever," Vespera said quietly with wind mana beginning to swirl visibly around the edge of her steel blade. "Under different circumstances, we might have been highly lucrative trading partners."
Sky let out a deep chuckle that vibrated through his vocal processor.
"Perhaps in another life, Vespera," Sky agreed warmly. "But in this realm, there can be only one territory in the sector. Only one of us walks out of this basin with our territory intact."
SHRRRRING!
With a smooth, flawless motion, Sky completely drew his weapon from its scabbard.
It was a magnificent slender rapier forged of pure, translucent blue crystal.
The blade seemed to be made entirely of frozen compressed water, radiating a brilliant, blinding aura of pure white light.
"Let us show the Sovereign Network exactly why we sit upon the thrones of our respective empires," Sky declared, dropping his center of gravity into a flawless dueling stance.
Vespera did not say another word.
She simply smiled.
BOOM.
The bedrock beneath Vespera’s boots violently exploded into fine powder.
She engaged her raw Gold-core physical acceleration, tearing across the fifteen-yard gap in a single heartbeat.
Vespera brought her single steel longsword around in a blindingly fast, horizontal execution arc, aiming directly for the side of Sky’s helmet!
Sky did not flinch as his combat reflexes were elite, honed through years of frontline leadership.
He smoothly brought the crystal rapier up, angling the flat of the blade perfectly to intercept the heavy steel strike.
CLANGGGGGGG!
The collision of steel against magical crystal sent a deafening high-frequency shockwave ripping through the clearing.
A massive ring of displaced air blew the falling ash away from their bodies, exposing the intensity of the clash.
’Hmm...’
Vespera immediately felt the immense power of Sky’s mana core through the crossguard.
He wasn’t just a backline commander who let his Heroes do all the heavy lifting.
He was a genuine brawler.
"A bit too direct, Vespera!" Sky shouted over the ringing steel. "But I don’t mind it!"
Sky instantly channeled his unique dual-elemental magic directly into his rapier.
’Hydro-Luminescence!’
The crystal blade in his hand violently flared with blinding white light.
The light did not just shine... it actively refracted through the hyper-compressed water mana surrounding the blade, acting like a prism that multiplied the intensity a thousand times over.
Vespera’s glowing purple eyes widened slightly behind her hood.
’He’s never used this before... or has he? I’m not a hardcore fan.’
The light was utterly blinding, burning into her eyes like a miniature sun erupting at point-blank range.
It was a flawless combination... using water to bend light directly into the opponent’s line of sight, completely blinding them in the middle of a high-speed sword exchange.
Deprived of her vision temporarily, Vespera immediately relied on her spatial awareness and wind mana.
She rapidly twisted her wrist, disengaging the blade lock, and threw her body entirely backward just as Sky executed a lethal high-speed thrust.
SWISH!
’I have to make this interesting so I won’t solo him yet.’
The glowing crystal rapier missed her throat by a mere fraction of an inch with the heat of the light magic lightly singeing the fabric of her dark coat.
"You cannot fight what you cannot see!" Sky pressed the absolute advantage!
He lunged forward with his footwork becoming elegant and completely fluid.
He didn’t swing his sword like a brute.
He wielded the rapier with the precision of a master surgeon, delivering a terrifying relentless flurry of high-speed thrusts and blindingly fast parries.
CLACK! CLACK! CLANG!
Vespera was forced onto the defensive!
She retreated rapidly across the crushed bedrock with her single arm blurring as she desperately used her steel longsword to deflect the incoming strikes!
Every single time Sky thrust his weapon, the water mana surrounding the blade would suddenly expand, shooting microscopic razor-sharp jets of high-pressure water directly toward Vespera’s joints.
She was fighting a man who commanded the fluidity of the ocean and the blinding speed of pure light.
"You are fast, Sky!" Vespera called out with her voice slightly strained as she parried another heavy thrust that sent bright sparks raining into the mud! "But light only travels in straight lines!"
Vespera planted her boot firmly into the dirt, stopping her retreat.
Instead of backing away, she aggressively stepped directly into his guard.
Vespera surged her Gold-core wind mana directly into her legs, executing a terrifyingly complex series of pivoting footwork that completely broke his line of sight.
She spun to the outside of his right shoulder, moving faster than the human eye could effectively track.
’Tidal-Blade First Style!’ Vespera declared in her thoughts as she swung her longsword upward in a massive crescent arc, condensing atmospheric wind pressure along the cutting edge.
’Severing Horizon.’
A razor-thin blade of water pressure exploded from the tip of her steel sword, tearing through the air directly toward Sky’s exposed ribs.
Vespera was keeping it small since this wasn’t really the time to use the full thing.
Sky’s mechanical visor flashed violently with danger warnings.
"Aegis Ripple!" Sky commanded!
He didn’t try to physically block the wind blade. Instead, he snapped his left fingers together.
A massive swirling wall of pressurized glowing water erupted directly from the dirt beside his boots, forming a dense rotating whirlpool shield exactly between himself and the incoming wind attack.
KRA-THOOOOOM!
The compressed blade slammed into the rotating water shield with catastrophic force.
The water sheared violently through the outer layers of the water, but the rotational power of the whirlpool actively absorbed and dispersed the cutting power.
The attack safely detonated into a massive, harmless shower of pouring rain that washed over both Lord Commanders.
Sky smiled behind his mechanical helmet.
"Your magic is incredibly sharp, Vespera," Sky praised, casually flicking his crystal rapier to the side. "But water is fluid... It has no shape. It has no rigid structure for you to cleanly sever so my defense is absolute."
The pouring rain fell heavily around them, soaking the crushed bedrock and turning the battlefield into a slippery dangerous arena.
Vespera stood perfectly still in the rain with her dark coat completely saturated with water.
Her glowing purple eyes remained entirely fixed on Sky’s confident posture.
Internally, however, a massive grin was stretching across Silas’s hidden face.
’You idiot,’ Silas thought. ’You just handed me the exact environmental condition I desperately needed.’
Silas had been struggling to master the second technique of Morwenna’s incredibly complex swordsmanship.
The Second Style of the Tide-Blade Arts required the user to read the microscopic shifts in ambient atmospheric moisture to predict the opponent’s exact muscle movements, telegraphs, and structural weak points.
During the earlier spar with the demoness Morrighan, Silas had failed to utilize the technique properly because Morrighan’s demonic brimstone heat had constantly warped and evaporated the moisture in the air, ruining his perception.
But Sky didn’t use fire.
Sky used water.
And right now, Sky had just generously saturated the entire thirty-yard radius of their battlefield with a thick layer of pouring rain and lingering mist.
"Heh..."
The environment was perfectly optimized for the Dread Queen’s signature perception technique.
Vespera slowly lowered her steel longsword, angling the tip completely toward the ground.
She relaxed her posture entirely, completely dropping her defensive guard as she closed her glowing purple eyes beneath her spatial hood.
Sky frowned deeply with his mechanical visor zooming in on her bizarre behavior.
"What are you doing?" Sky asked, his voice laced with genuine suspicion. "Are you surrendering the duel? The Sovereign Network is watching, Vespera. Do not give up just because your wind cannot break my water."
Vespera did not answer.
She simply breathed in the cold wet air.
’Tidal-Blade Second Style.’
HUMMMMMMM!
Vespera violently surged her Gold Core, pushing her internal mana circuits to their maximum limit.
She didn’t channel the mana into her blade as she channeled it entirely into her sensory perception.
’Rip-Current Perception.’
Vespera snapped her purple eyes open.
The entire world completely changed.
She no longer saw the mud, the falling ash, or the distant explosions and she no longer saw Sky’s shiny blue armor or his glowing white crystal rapier.
’So is this how Morwenna saw me on that day...? And she said that this was hard?’
Her vision was entirely overwritten by a hyper-detailed three-dimensional geometric map formed exclusively of glowing blue water particles.
Every single drop of rain falling from the sky.
Every single ounce of moisture clinging to Sky’s armor. The microscopic humidity in the air that was currently being displaced by Sky’s breathing and his subtle muscle twitches.
It all instantly locked into focus.
Suddenly, clear, glowing blue lines began to materialize across Sky’s body.
The lines wrapped around his joints, highlighting the exact distribution of his physical weight.
They tracked the flow of mana from his core into his rapier.
And, most importantly, the glowing blue lines converged violently onto three distinct, glaring red spots on his posture.
One on his left ankle, where he favored his weight slightly too heavily.
One on his right wrist, where his grip on the rapier was entirely too rigid for a fluid thrust.
And one perfectly in the center of his chest plate, where his water shield spell left a microscopic delay in mana coverage immediately after casting.
Vespera saw the truth of his defenses.
’I see you,’ Vespera thought coldly.
"If you will not attack," Sky declared, raising his rapier and flooding it with blinding light. "then I will simply end this!"