Subaru finally slowed down. His legs were jelly. His lungs felt like they were being wrung out by God himself. He collapsed against a glowing rock, its blue light barely illuminating the crumbled ruins around him.
"No one's chasing me anymore... right?" he muttered.
For a moment, silence.
Then the air cracked like a whip.
Ding.
A bell rang. Not a normal bell—it echoed with war, with execution. Reality bent around its sound. The sky itself twisted.
And from nothing, he emerged.
A man clad in red-crimson armor, shadow and blood trailing from his cape like a living flame. A blood-forged spear rested on his shoulder. His horns curled like crescent blades. His presence made the stone whimper.
Alen Drakkengard.
Subaru's body acted before his mind did. He ran.
But halfway through his first step, his breath hitched.
His heartbeat slowed. His muscles felt like they were dragging anchors. Energy leaked out of him like sand through his fingers.
"Wh... what the hell..." he gasped.
Alen was casually walking toward him, not even raising his weapon.
He was using bleed pressure like a puppeteer. Complete and utter control.
Subaru dropped to one knee.
Alen raised Red Death, crimson and obsidian gleaming.
"Sorry, little runner. But your bounty sings louder than your legs."
But just as the spear came down—
BOOM.
A bolt of jade and fire struck the earth. The sky shattered into flame. Alen halted, his blade locked inches from Subaru's head.
From the smoke stepped another titan.
A man in jade silk, burning with aura. Eyes like emerald storms. His mere presence scorched the moss beneath his feet.
Huakai the Jade Flame.
"Oh? What are you doing with my prey?" Huakai said, voice calm yet blazing.
Alen's eyes narrowed. "Huakai the Jade Flame. Haven't seen you in years, my guy."
"Last time we met," Huakai said, drawing his flaming saber, "you beat me effortlessly. But I'm level 20 now. I unlocked my Oath. This isn't the same fight."
Alen laughed. A deep, thunderous sound. He planted Red Death into the ground, and darkness crept up his arms.
"Good," he said. "My Contractor's Oath has waited too long."
Then the world exploded.
Huakai surged forward, saber roaring. Fire and jade blasted the ruins into glass. Alen met him with Red Death, and every strike split the air. Trees died from proximity. Stone cracked.
Subaru, half-dead behind a boulder, had never seen anything like it.
Alen twisted, slamming the butt of his spear into Huakai's ribs. Huakai backflipped mid-air, summoned three flaming dragons, and hurled them forward.
Alen didn't flinch. He spun Red Death in a circle and consumed the flames with shadowcast. The darkness morphed into spikes and shot at Huakai.
The cultivator danced through them, deflecting with jade shields, before landing a flaming slash across Alen's chest.
Blood hissed.
"Nice," Alen muttered. Then punched Huakai with a shadow-forged fist that sent him flying into a wall.
Huakai coughed, grinning. "You still hit like a demon."
"You still smell like incense and arrogance."
Then they clashed again. Fire vs. blood. Jade vs. darkness.
Subaru sat back, stunned. "This... this is better than that one cooking show episode..."
He nibbled on a mushroom biscuit he'd been saving.
The battle waged for what felt like an eternity.
Alen dominated with surgical brutality. Every move was calculated death. Huakai, however, had become a storm himself—dodging, weaving, striking with unpredictability and passion.
Even as the terrain warped, as the battlefield shifted into a molten ruin, neither gave ground.
And Subaru? Subaru was just glad they forgot he existed.
Chapter 16.5 - Lord's Slice
The battlefield was scorched. Flaming craters surrounded the two monsters, and ash danced in the suffocating air.
Huakai wiped the blood from his chin. His eyes were glowing now—unstable, but resolute.
"Enough games," he muttered.
The air shimmered.
Then, it exploded.
With a shout that shook the heavens, Huakai summoned his Oath.
"Archwarder Drive: Eternal Flame Protocol."
Mechanical whirs echoed as jade plating formed over his body, merging into intricate mecha armor engraved with ancient runes. Lightning surged through the seams. His sabers now burned with lightning-infused flame.
A burst of power cracked the skies. Subaru dropped flat behind a rock. "NOPE. This is way above my pay grade."
Huakai, now clad in the wrath of a thousand storms, launched forward.
He became a living barrage of elemental fury.
Flame jets, lightning spears, jade-etched slashes.
Alen ducked one, deflected another, but was clearly on the backfoot for the first time. Sparks danced across his armor as he took blow after blow.
Huakai roared. "You wanted a fight, bloodrend dog?! Eat my Protocols!"
He unleashed a twin-mantled spin slash powered by both elements, cracking Alen's guard and sending him skidding back.
But Alen only grinned.
"Finally warmed up."
And then everything stopped.
The shadows around Alen twisted. The spear Red Death lifted itself, pulsing with infernal intent.
"LORD'S SLICE."
It was not a technique. It was judgment.
He vanished, and in the next heartbeat, reappeared behind Huakai, one hand on the ground, the other holding the spear horizontally.
A red slash carved through the entire battlefield.
Huakai's body staggered.
Then blood exploded from every inch of him. Eyes, nose, mouth, pores—he was bleeding out through his very soul.
"Wha... What the hell..."
His armor began to melt. The fire in his eyes dimmed. His legs gave way.
Alen didn't even turn around.
He slid Red Death onto his back.
Sat down cross-legged.
And began to aura farm, silently absorbing the devastation into his own presence.
Huakai was kneeling now, vomiting blood, body twitching.
He didn't understand.
He was stronger. He had leveled. He had an Oath.
But he was still being erased.
In a final act of fury, his eyes locked onto Subaru.
"ALL OF THIS... ALL OF THIS HAPPENED BECAUSE OF YOU, YOU LITTLE BASTARD!!"
He stumbled toward the freshie, fury and fire leaking from every breath.
Subaru gasped. "WHOA WHOA WHOA NOPE—HEY WAIT—!!"
Huakai got two steps away.
Then collapsed.
His body twitched once.
Twice.
And went still.
Red Death had been poisoned. The moment it tore through him, it marked his death—not instantly, but unavoidably.
Alen, without looking, said coldly:
"That poison was from a venomous Lord of the Lower Layer. Killed it myself. Took its heart and fed it to Red Death."
He opened one eye.
Subaru blinked. "...Dude..."
Alen smirked.