City of Sin

Book 9, 136

A Fair Fight

Faust quickly reached the depths of the Eternal Battlefield, with all of Richard’s followers starting to release their power along the way. He had no need for them to fight, but they would help the city in suppressing the laws of Arbidis. The Rainbow of the Moons was glowing brightly, each crescent overflowing with boundless might as they transformed the energy from the core into a nullifying field around the city.

By the time one could see the towering mountain range in the distance, even Zealor and Mountainsea had been called upon. The spinning vortex up above was oppressive as ever, but one of the peaks fell as the axe-wielding warrior clad in black walked down while laughing. The entire abyss shuddered to the tune of his booming voice, his small figure casting a shadow large enough to cover all of Faust.

Zealor felt his blood surge, aura erupting as he tried to communicate with Richard for the first time, “Your Majesty, let me fight!”

“No, your job is to suppress the laws here. That’s it,” Richard responded immediately. His voice was calm, but there was no room for questioning.

“I feel like I can beat him!” the elf insisted, still not used to Richard’s finality like the others here were.

“Your job is to suppress the laws here,” Richard reiterated, this time severing their soul connection to make things clear. This meant there was no room for negotiation, and as he flew away Zealor frowned in confusion as to why he couldn’t join this battle even with his strength. Richard himself only had eyes for the vanishing peak in the distance, not even looking at the axe-wielding warrior as he walked towards the throne. To him, nothing else was an obstacle.

The black axe suddenly blocked his path, the warrior roaring thunderously, “Brat, I’m your opponent here!”

Richard finally turned to look at the warrior, but he calmly pushed the axe away, “You don’t qualify. Call the other one out.”

The warrior’s mask spewed out two gusts of white mist in his rage, but before he could react he saw the mist dissipating under Faust’s radiance. Richard simply pushed his axe away and walked towards the distant peak, maintaining the same gait but with each step covering more and more distance until he started crossing a thousand metres in his stride. Faust’s radiance followed wherever he walked, dissipating the aura of the abyss.

The vanishing peak appeared from the void, and the throned man finally opened his eyes. Even with the mask, Richard felt his gaze fall upon him like two bolts of lightning.

“Reckless!” the man sneered, picking up his heavy blade and standing slowly. The two drew to only a hundred metres apart before Richard stopped, and the glows of Faust and Arbidis also found a balance right between them.

The man looked towards the floating city and nodded, “Good idea, but not enough.”

“Why do you have to stop me?” Richard asked calmly.

“Haha, simple! I’m the will of Arbidis; if you want to pass through here, you have to kill me! You managed to run away last time, but what will you do now? Will that snake save you again?”

“I don’t need it,” he answered calmly.

“Just based on that?” the man sneered as he pointed his giant blade towards Faust.

“That’s just to have a fair fight. I won’t take advantage of you, but I don’t want to fight on your home turf either. Let’s have our deathmatch amidst the laws of the world.”

“Only the laws of the world? Interesting, but do you think that’s enough to beat me?”

Richard slowly pulled out Moonlight, throwing his sword case back into the city, “We’ll know once we fight.”

Up in Faust, everyone channeled their strength into the Rainbow of the Moons, expanding the city’s radiance once more until it stretched beyond Richard and enveloped the vanishing peak and the entire mountain range. The aura of the abyss was nullified entirely, leaving only the foundational laws of the world active. From a certain point of view, this was the only way to have a true test of might between two powerhouses; only the one who had a better grasp on existence itself would have an advantage.

“I’ll show you what strength is, kid!” the throned man swung his sword down, the black and red energy around it shooting out across the distance. Richard smiled and lifted Moonlight with a single hand, slicing the energy wave in two.

All of Arbidis shook as tiny cracks appeared in the void beneath Richard’s feet. The Rainbow of the Moons flickered as well, and many of Richard’s legendary followers tasted iron in their throats as their veins bulged. The least harmed of them all was Romney, but that was because he was a new legend and hadn’t been exposed to the damage. The truly powerful ones shivered as they saw the cracks in the void beneath Richard’s feet; knowing just how rigid space was here, they couldn’t fathom just how much power was needed for mere testing blows to tear it apart.

The giant blade pressed down on Moonlight like a mountain, pushing it down bit by bit. Ever since he absorbed the demon archlord’s heart, Richard had only ever been matched in strength by Mountainsea who had fully awakened her Beast God bloodline. This was the first time he was actually on the weaker end.

However, he was already near the pinnacle of speed, strength, and defence. While he had lost in one attribute, he roared and repelled the giant blade before blinking a hundred metres away. Space cracked in his wake as he flashed behind the man like a phantom, Moonlight slashing towards the neck.

“Such a girl!” the armoured man snorted, placing his enormous sword in Moonlight’s path. However, the giant blade was blown away by the thin sword, a good half of the peak underneath exploding as the throne was torn apart. The man himself was flung a thousand metres away, spitting out a mouthful of black blood.

“That’s more like it!” the man stopped his body with difficulty, slowly raising the mask up to his chin and spitting out a few mouthfuls of bloody saliva, “Again!”

Richard appeared from the void, his face a deep red. He clearly wasn’t faring much better than the man; his speed and strength had summoned a strike beyond the plane’s limits, but there was a price to pay for that power. He didn’t even reply to the challenge, simply floating over while Moonlight brightened once more. The blade seemed to disappear in an instant as it slashed out, but the man gripped his sword with both hands and roared with the power of Arbidis. Their contact was silent for a moment, but Richard was quickly flung a kilometre away himself. He left a chain of blood pearls behind as he was sent flying, with the man just snorting at the sight as he breathed out a mist of blood himself.