Among the continent’s strongest stood Atawolf.
If the Sword Saint had ascended to the ranks of the strongest through his monstrous physique, 8th rank status, and superhuman abilities, then Atawolf was the exact opposite.
He accumulated strength by pushing his traits and skills to the limit.
He thrived by sowing chaos and spreading fear and dread—the more fear he spread, the stronger he became.
Of course, that wasn’t all.
Simply having good skills and traits wasn’t enough to reach the pinnacle.
Some kind of enlightenment was necessary, and Atawolf had achieved it.
· …He truly is a monster.
Furnel’s words echoed—a monstrous aura.
A bitter smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
“…This wasn’t supposed to happen.”
A cold sweat trickled down his back.
The anomaly was felt when the Black Mist clashed with the Azure Flame.
At first glance, it seemed like the Azure Flame was overpowering it, and even Hio thought that was natural… but the reality was slightly different.
Before the Azure Flame could burn, the Black Mist vanished first.
It wasn’t overwhelmed—it retreated on its own.
The moment he realized that, tension rose naturally.
The meaning was painfully clear.
The master of the Black Mist had summoned all of them.
Atawolf had appeared.
He immediately warned those on the ground to flee, but whether it would be effective…
Well, it was hard to say.
「Skill – ‘Shout’ is deactivated.」
「Skill – ‘Illusion – Judge of God’ is deactivated.」
He deactivated his skills and called the Azure Flame to his side.
At the very same moment, darkness—the Black Mist—descended.
A wave of thick darkness rushed in instantly.
The fog was far denser than before.
The moment it dominated the space, the entire area became Atawolf’s domain.
It was in his grasp.
Knowing how dangerous this was, he activated his skill immediately.
「Skill – ‘Thunder Emperor (雷帝)’ is activated.」
The power of lightning surged throughout his body.
At the same time, Atawolf’s grotesque voice echoed.
A metallic sound that any living being would instinctively recoil from.
“Yes. Yes.”
The Black Mist dominated the area completely, and such a voice reverberated through the mist.
Hence, the entire space resonated.
“You are Hio Pavlenko, aren’t you?”
Despite the unsettling voice ringing from all directions, Hio locked his gaze precisely where Atawolf stood.
His blazing white eyes stared down the overwhelming presence.
Beyond the Azure Flame’s fire, within the Black Mist, an overpowering aura was felt.
There stood the Head of Black Fang, Atawolf.
The man who had drenched the continent in blood for his own strength.
The continent’s strongest and worst criminal.
Yet…
Having witnessed his downfall up close, all Hio could think was.
“Pitiful Atawolf.”
A pitiful human being.
Pitiful.
Atawolf began chuckling darkly.
The mist rippled around him, and the space vibrated.
Amusing.
He wasn’t the kind of opponent easily intimidated by bravado.
***
Still, Hio genuinely thought so.
・Yes. Bold to the extreme.
Yet he did not relax his guard.
At any moment, the Black Mist could surge forth again.
“Do you wish to join me, Hio Pavlenko?”
Atawolf’s blazing eyes locked onto his position as his hand fumbled inside his pocket.
The mana stones he grasped… were not many.
“Your sins are too deep to join me, Atawolf.”
“Indeed.”
For a moment, the flow of the mist shifted.
“A shame.”
Puuurrrang~!
The Black Mist that controlled the space clashed with the Azure Flame’s fire.
For the first time, the highest-grade flame, which could incinerate all, was blocked.
Or rather, it might be more accurate to say the Azure Flame was barely holding back the mist.
“An irritating flame.”
Creak.
The Azure Flame slowly retreated, pushed back by the Black Mist advancing from all sides.
It was never meant as a protective flame from the start.
The blue fire was overwhelming and burning, but the Black Mist—controlled directly by Atawolf—was pressing down on the Azure Flame.
The blue flame was gradually pushed back.
The space was shrinking.
A swift decision was made.
「Skill – ‘Summon Phantom Steed’ is deactivated.」
What needed to be done was focusing immense power on a single point.
「Skill – ‘Azure Flame’ is deactivated.」
As the blue flame vanished, he broke through the center of the incoming Black Mist.
Kwaaang-!
He pierced through using the Thunder Emperor’s power.
Simultaneously, dozens, hundreds of bolts of lightning struck where Atawolf stood, but…
Kwaaang-!
They, too, were blocked.
Yes. This time, it was lightning.
Breaking through the concentrated mist didn’t mean he had escaped.
The mist was everywhere; as soon as Atawolf sensed it, it would close in again.
He needed to completely leave the mist’s domain.
So he focused the power of lightning again.
His destination was high in the sky.
Beyond the black veil completely.
The mist clung stubbornly, but its power was not yet enough to stop the Thunder Emperor, who had decided to advance.
Kwaaang-!
Piercing the black veil with dazzling white light, he finally left Atawolf’s domain.
Still, he couldn’t relax.
His situation changed from “death is certain” to “can endure a little longer.”
The Azure Flame couldn’t burn the mist, nor could lightning reach beyond it.
“This is really…”
He pulled out two mana stones and replenished his magic power, only to see them quickly lose light and shatter.
He didn’t have many mana stones left.
He had to conserve magic as much as possible, but was this opponent even someone he could afford to do that against?
“…Dangerous.”
Kwaaang-!
With a thunderclap ripping through the air, he moved away.
Replacing the space he left was Atawolf’s mist.
The Black Mist had already followed close behind, wrapping around him again with overwhelming power.
「Skill – ‘Thunder Emperor (帝)’ is deactivated.」
「Skill – ‘Feather Fall’ is activated.」
Two massive pairs of wings sprouted from his back.
Feather Fall rapidly reduced his falling speed.
“Catch him.”
Atawolf’s order echoed through the dark sky.
Though he had escaped Atawolf’s domain, the Black Mist constantly reconstructed the area and pressed in from all sides.
「Skill – ‘Feather Fall’ is deactivated.」
「Skill – ‘Thunder Emperor’ is activated.」
Kwaaang-!
Dodging that suffocating grasp, he activated:
「Skill – ‘Thunder Emperor’ is deactivated.」
「Skill – ‘Azure Flame’ is activated.」
He shot blue flames through the gaps in the tangled mist.
「Skill – ‘Summon Phantom Steed’ is activated.」
The Phantom Steed caught his falling body and swiftly took him away from the Black Mist.
At the same time, the Azure Flame—fueled entirely by Hio’s will—was not charging headlong into the mist but weaving skillfully, advancing carefully.
That flame, shot out, exploded at the place where Atawolf was expected to be.
Kwaaang-!
The greatest firepower he had unleashed.
Blue flames soaring high into the dark night sky.
「Skill – ‘Azure Flame’ is deactivated.」
But in the place where the Azure Flame vanished…
“Yes. So this is what a true mage’s power looks like.”
The black veil surrounding Atawolf.
An abyssal, pitch-black mist barrier, so solid it did not tremble even a little.
That was the problem.
A defense Atawolf had, impervious to both Thunder Emperor and Azure Flame.
Even hundreds of lightning strikes and the maximally burning Azure Flame could not wound Atawolf’s body at all.
He knew because no penalty message appeared.
…Something was there.
Though Atawolf had accumulated strength through his traits, this was different.
The feeling was different. The power contained within was different.
His own Thunder Emperor and Azure Flame were surely top-tier skills of the highest grade. Yet the power he sensed was beyond that.
It couldn’t simply be graded by rank.
‘This really is different from a game.’
One who has truly awakened their skill.
One who has gained something beyond rank.
He pulled out mana stones and quickly replenished his magic, but even those were running low.
Though he used Thunder Emperor and Azure Flame only when necessary to conserve mana, the consumption was enormous.
What comes next, Hio Pavlenko?
Even so, he had to keep moving.
The moment he was caught by the Black Mist again, it would be over.
With his weak stats and insufficient defense skills, he would die far too easily.
Riding the Phantom Steed, sometimes dodging lightning, sometimes igniting flames, he would continue fighting.
What was needed was one chance.
One sharp opportunity to cut through the impenetrable darkness.
“Those who can move, move quickly!”
***
On the ground, an unexpected evacuation line stretched long.
Under the command of the remaining professors carrying the injured, they sought to escape this battlefield.
“Hurry! We don’t know when the mist will descend again!”
The fortunate thing was that the terrible Black Mist had risen above into the sky.
It loomed large up high, so they tried to get as far away as possible in the gap below it.
The thunder roaring through the sky and the Black Mist wrapping around it brought terrible unease to those below.
They were helpless against a force like a natural disaster.
“Claire…”
At the end of the evacuation line were three girls.
Claire, Ravena, and Roland.
Claire checked for any other survivors and reluctantly turned her steps toward the rear.
Kwaaang-!
The air was torn apart by the noise, and a sudden flash of lightning illuminated the thick mist surrounding the sky for a moment.
No one knew how many times this had happened already.
No one knew how many hours this battle had lasted.
Within the thunder and soaring flames, the huge wings and familiar divine beasts flashed momentarily with every strike.
Who had gained the upper hand? What was the state of things? No one could say.
So Claire forced herself to take a step forward.
There was nothing she could do by staying.
She couldn’t even properly look into that Black Mist.
At the very end of the evacuation line, she reluctantly turned her body away.
And then suddenly, someone appeared beside her.
In a space that had been empty, a sudden presence was felt.
Claire’s head turned.
“…!”
Her eyes widened in shock.
“May I ask something?”
Blond hair reminiscent of a lion’s mane.
Eyes like a beast resembling a lion.
Vitalianus Mahel, the great Sword Saint.
“Yes. Hio Pavlenko.”
Listening to Atawolf’s rumbling voice, Hio searched his pockets.
“You’re exhausted.”
But what he wanted hadn’t come. All his mana stones were gone.
Though he had used Feather Fall, Levitation, Summon Phantom Steed, and others sparingly, the end had come.
Because of the opponent.
The continent’s strongest.
The worst criminal and a truly awakened being at once.
Trying to conserve mana further while fighting such a foe was arrogance and carelessness.
Yes.
Atawolf was perfectly fine. Not a scratch.
Of course, Hio was the same, but compared to his dwindling mana, the Black Mist was still as potent as ever.
“Hio Pavlenko. Choose.”
Only then did Atawolf reveal himself fully in front of Hio.
At first glance, he appeared as an ordinary middle-aged man.
If not for the long sword scar etched on his face, he would look like just any other person.
“Will you die here? Or join me?”
The grating voice made Hio frown.
“I really hate that voice.”
Despite the provocation, Atawolf didn’t even blink.
He simply asked again.
“Will you die?”
The surrounding mist still wrapped tightly around him.
He had yet to break through the black barrier protecting Atawolf at close range.
To break it, he needed power more concentrated than the Thunder Emperor.
Power fundamentally meant to destroy something.
That was why Hio had waited until now.
Pouring every last mana stone and endlessly wandering through the Black Mist to wait.
“To die…”
He had shown his opponent dozens of times over, whenever he sensed a moment of carelessness.
My lightning, my flames, will never reach you.
You will never break through the thick mist beside you.
You are… safe.
Eventually, he had succeeded.
Atawolf trusted the mist surrounding him, called back the surrounding mist, and was walking straight toward Hio.
Hio couldn’t help but curl his lips into a smirk.
“Well… I don’t really know what dying feels like, so maybe I should ask.”
The result of carelessness would be cruel.
“How do you feel about that?”
He asked, gladly, toward his friend.
“Theodore.”
A dark gleam flickered behind Atawolf.