Pride Precedes a Fall (Part 2)

Trapped between an oppressive artillery and a maniacal warrior’s sweeping blows, a demonic wolf moved at extreme speed, avoiding what he could and deflecting the rest through subtle space disruptions.

While the Blood King’s attention remained focused on Kilian, the latter stayed alert to his surroundings and immediately spotted the arrival of several figures. Familiar with most, the wolf flashed an amused grin and deflected another incoming strike.

“Is that supposed to be...Kilian?” Ayden, the crown prince, squinted at the ongoing clash. Equipped with a golden power armor engraved with the von Skolls’ white-sun emblem, Ayden’s abilities could rival a top Archon. But before the ongoing clash, he felt no confidence.

At his right, Hanns, the headmaster, who wore a similar armor, frowned.

“Since he received our ancestor’s Full Bestowment, turning into a daemonic wolf isn’t unreasonable. However, I didn’t expect that his true strength had already reached this altitude. Without the bloodline advantage, even if we combine all our forces, we can’t win head on,” Hanns appraised.

An experienced magus, he could see that although Kilian remained on the defensive, his strength and speed had already surpassed lower-ranked Exarchs. The opponent was even more dreadful, with abilities that’d make some sitting members of the von Skolls’ elder council shiver in fright. Never in his wildest dreams could Hanns expect that the usual excursion to the Sura Plane would turn into such an uncertain battlefield.

In the shadows, Klaus’ Crystal Lords’ eyes moved between Kilian and the Blood King.

“His Grace said that if we see the one with the Junior Duke’s looks embroiled in a deadly clash with the von Skolls’ Kilian, we must transfer every bit of the confrontation back to Kars. Doesn’t this mean that the new Kilian is our dead Junior Duke? In that case, should we intervene?”

One of the Crystal Lords asked the team captain who, for a second, remained silent.

“As usual, we do our job and ask no question. Even if the Junior Duke somehow escaped death and stands before us, without His Grace’s orders, we cannot help him.”

…

“A monarch should always hold a rebellious subject’s execution before the masses, lest they forget the price of challenging his authority. Now that we have a complete audience, your death...is more meaningful.” Though a step shorter than Kilian, the Blood King too felt the gathering. However, in his eyes all were petty peasants brought to bask in his glory and witness the rebel’s sentence.

But as his foe’s ego broke world records, Kilian summoned the nine Philosopher’s Stones he’d robbed from the Blood King, and took control of the atoms surrounding them. Binding and manipulating the atoms’ structure, Kilian condensed 300 crystal shards around the Blood King that once more locked him from all corners.

“You think the same trick can work twice? Presumptuous! Even if I stand motionless, you cannot injure me!” The Blood King sneered, and focused his all on the offensive, letting his Pride deny all of Kilian’s crystal shard strikes.

Eleonora aside, it soon became obvious to all onlookers that even if he could count on tremendous dra, Kilian’s determination shrank with every round. In contrast, the Blood King only grew more aggressive, pushing Kilian back until faced with supreme defense and offense, he had no choice but to escape.

Turning heels, Kilian attempted to rush out of the Blood King’s range. But in that instant, the Gatling guns returned to the Blood King’s shoulder and morphed into long swords. As if all along, he’d been waiting for this opportunity to take Kilian down, the Blood King’s strength and speed exceeded another limit, and he lunged into his most hated foe’s back, stabbing the fehl heart and forcing it out of Kilian’s chest!

Blood gushed from Kilian’s skewered chest. Without his fehl heart, his life-force dwindled at a rapid pace. His appearance reverted to his human shape, and death seemed ready to welcome him.

“Hahahaha!” The Blood King rejoiced. Finally, he’d proved his superiority and replaced the old model. From now on, there would be no Kilian other than him! Next he’d take the Fortress, leave the Sura Plane, crush Klaus, and conquer Arcadia!

The world was his!

But the smile on the dead Kilian’s lips disagreed. Over 1200 arcane circles surrounded the Blood King, and a voice rang in his mind:

“Fourth Circle Spell: Atomic Flare.”

In that instant, a barrage of over 300 fourth circle spells, 300 atomic bombs worth of might, slammed into the Blood King’s unprepared form. His Mark of Pride’s Denial ability kicked in, rejecting the barrage. But as all forces across the universe, the Marks of Sin relied on one thing: dra.

With this one move, the Blood King’s dra shrank to zero. So while he successfully canceled the nuke, the die was cast.

Snap!

Before the Blood King and onlookers’ dumbfounded eyes, the blade piercing Kilian collapsed into metallic debris, and the skewered heart tumbled down.

“Mhm!” As if waking up from a long sleep, Kilian stretched his stiff neck, for a moment ignoring his clone’s stupor. Then with a spin, he turned to face him.

“Confused? It’s fine. This is the moment when the evil mastermind reveals his plan. But in this script you don’t get to reverse the tables.

I admit that you are stronger than me. Knowing that, how could I follow you into a brain-dead muscle fight? Once the bitch activated your goliath mode, I modified the structure of my body, switched my fehl heart to the right and created a fake heart with outwardly similar traits at the left.

I then led you into stabbing the fake heart and shut down my body functions while surrounding you with nanocrystals. No one told you that I can now cast spells through crystals, right? My bad, in another life, maybe I will warn ahead of time. But for now…”

Kilian chortled, and aimed his right hand at the Blood King. Too dazed to move, and without dra to sustain his flight, the Blood King dropped toward the ground.

“What a despicable creature.” The Blood King’s final words before Kilian wrecked his brain, obliterated his consciousness, and sealed him in his coffer of greed.