Tyrant? That must mean Emperor Ilesel, right? Damn, that old bastard really set me up!
Yu Lian ground his teeth, but since he'd accepted the gift, he had to take on the consequences that came with it. That seemed like a pretty fair exchange, too.
The dark red glow was just like blood plasma congealing. By rights, such a gloomy, cold hue should have been oppressive, but when the light refracted ever so slightly, Yu Lian couldn't help frowning as a faint sting pricked his eyes.
Was the atomic lance in this guy's hands real?
The "Count Salvin" opposite him held an atomic lance, standard issue for the Starrealm Knights, but he seemed to have no sense of fair play at all. He must have noticed Yu Lian's gaze waver for an instant, because he immediately took a spirit step and appeared before him in a movement that seemed to shrink the distance between them to nothing.
Dark red light suddenly flared, and in an instant, blood-red radiance filled Yu Lian's entire field of vision.
He frowned slightly, feeling as though he'd seen this scene somewhere before. As he thought it over, he casually drew his own lance and effortlessly intercepted the other man's attack.
The lance blade in "Count Salvin's" hands moved with the agility of a serpent, yet carried the momentum of a thousand armies and the imposing might of a dragon. Even judged by the standards of a knight-errant in the Order, he was well above average.
But Yu Lian had seen even more astonishing knightly techniques. He'd even crossed lances with the invincible Emperor himself... Wait.
Yu Lian realized where he'd seen this before. Back when he'd been on the planet Luna, inside the microcosmic world Count Salvin had left behind, hadn't he encountered this very