Bzz-
His gaze turned icy in an instant. His easy confidence vanished, and the sword aura around him surged to a new height of lethal intensity.
He had to end this fight as quickly as possible.
Although these past dozen or so years had brought him within reach of the upper tiers of the continent's pyramid, he knew all too well how far he still fell short of the Ability Users who had stood firmly at its summit for over a thousand years. If Jiu appeared now, he would be no match for her, even with that move.
At that moment.
His footsteps vanished like an illusion.
All the sword light disappeared in an instant, leaving only him and the ancient Black Sword in his hand.
Almost in the blink of an eye, he appeared before Lin En. When he thrust his sword, even time seemed to freeze before him. This was the strike he had used to kill Ophiel, a terrifying move that embodied the pinnacle of his Origin Substance, nurtured through more than a decade of grueling training.
In that instant.
Lin En felt how terrifying this strike was. It came straight at him, so slowly that a simple sidestep seemed enough to evade it, yet in his vision, countless figures seemed to surround him from every direction.
It was as though, once he had been locked onto, nowhere he went could let him escape that slowly approaching blade.
As though every movement he made, every attempt to parry, had already been calculated.
Lin En immediately understood.
This was absolutely more than the power his Origin Substance granted him. The strike seemed steeped in his years of arduous training, the culmination of technique honed to its absolute limit.
But...
Lin En said softly:
"Sorry, but I don't feel