Chapter 362 - The Grandeur Of A King

The moment his heel left the softness of the verdant grass to dash forward, the same came from the floor guardian. 

In that moment, they both vanished from Iris' sight as she concentrated her reinforcement around her senses to be able to keep up—witnessing the two clash steel against steel.

They're so fast…it's taking everything I have just to watch them, Iris thought. 

As their blades clashed, a shock wave that signified their strength swept through the flowery fields with an ear-popping roar. 

Ren held on, pushing back against the large king's legendary blade as his arms trembled in the contest of strength before he was finally pushed back. 

Having his own blade repelled, Ren caught himself, shifting his upper body to evade the swift combo of sword slashes that the king attempted to cut him down with. 

"There!"

Ren called out as his ascended senses brought him to his optimal action; ducking beneath a vertical slash of the giant knight as he shot his palm up against his foe's elbow.

The swift strike compromised the king for a moment as his arm fell limp, giving Ren enough time to create space between them with a jump back as his black cape flowed behind him. 

This power…he's definitely stronger now; is it this place that's causing that? Either way, I've got to be careful, Ren thought. 

"Let's try this one out." 

Ren spoke as he held his hand out towards the approaching king who sprinted towards him with his iridescent blade dragging behind him. 

"Heaven", or rather, the mind, is the principle that allows me to manipulate both my own spectrum of emotions and also whoever else I desire. Let's see: are you an exception to that rule, King Arthur? Ren asked himself. 

"Fear."

--The white-haired young man commanded through a single word as he snapped his fingers. An intangible quake shot through the fresh air of morning dew like a subconscious thunderclap--halting the knight in his tracks as his oozing malice fell to a halt just as well. 

Groaning out through his clenched teeth, the hollow king stumbled about, backing away from the creator of the sudden, inexplicable fear. 

"Iris!"

Ren gave his signal in a shout as the foe was temporarily halted, having been enveloped in absolute, primal fear. 

"Right! Helios: Olympus Arrows!" 

She yelled out her incantation, manifesting and releasing a potent barrage of light arrows from her extended palms towards the fear-stricken king. 

Running alongside these projectiles of mystical light, Ren carried Belus at his side with his golden-eyes set on the floor guardian. 

Piercing through the mystical air of the domain of utopian nature, the radiant arrows shot forward with a speed that left a trail of light in the wind before the first pierced the king's armor, stabbing into his left arm. 

Nice, Iris! Ren thought. 

Though the moment the arrow struck the king, he was freed from his trance of fear, swiftly ducking his tall body beneath the volley of magical arrows as his light, golden locks brushed in the passing wind. 

As if connecting his evasion into his attack with one movement, he drug Excalibur through the patch of flowers to intercept the incoming strike from his white-haired opponent, leaving Ren in another contest of strength with the king. 

Did he break out of it on his own? Or did the pain from the arrow knock him out of it? By the timing, I'd say the latter, Ren thought. 

Being brought to such close proximity to the king, he was on the receiving end of his lifeless, silent gaze devoid of the soul he previously spoke to; finding his position pressed as his boots began to slide against the verdant floor from the pure strength of the king. 

Even despite holding the inferior strength in this clash, Ren found his opportunity as he quickly spun to the side, causing the wordless guardian to momentarily step forward. Using this chance, the snowy-haired young man slammed his palm against the king's decorated breastplate. 

All of the bad karma you've got stored up inside of you...let's see how you handle it being detonated from within! Ren thought. 

"Negative Karma: Extinguish!" 

With this command from the enlightened warrior, a quake reverberated through the tall-standing knight, who was left stunned by the otherworldly power activated against his own spirit. 

The pale complexion of the silent king shifted to a strained red as his dormant veins slithered across his skin, protruding as his sclera shared in a reddened hue. 

Keeping his hand pressed against the cold steel of King Arthur's breastplate, Ren didn't let up--continuing to trigger the negative karma within his foe. 

While Ren managed to bring the rampant guardian back to a halt, Iris knew not to waste the opportunity as she interlocked her fingers, closing her eyes as a warm aura clung to her body. 

"Hear me, great son of the king of divinity, the sapling of that who brings the roars of the heavens down upon his foes, brother of the goddess who basks in the moonlight. Most reasonable of all who inhabit the heavens, he who has gifted us our music and culture, grant me the power to strike down my enemy with your blessings."

Iris' words linked to radiant great magic manifested in the form of an artificial sunshine peering down on the battlefield from above, spawning from a formless cloud of absolute light that lingered in the sky ruled by trees. 

Extending the duration of the extinguish to its maximum, Ren watched as the strained king finally began to move again, slowly raising his gallant, gold-tinged blade to the sky even as his nose poured out with blackened blood. 

It's now or never, Iris…! Ren thought. 

"Apollo: Malicious Benevolence!" 

The yell pouring from Iris' lips invoked the looming radiance, causing its golden light to crash down just before the king swung his blade down--halting him as the light engulfed his entire being in a scorching, divine heat. 

Though the light was seething with malice for the king, it graced Ren's skin like the soft touch of a masseuse, caressing his tired body back into peak condition. 

"Amazing…" 

Ren muttered as he felt the light reinvigorate him, momentarily losing his focus in battle as he watched the divine radiance trickle down like a heavenly snowfall. 

On the other hand, he looked up to see the coating of light berate the king with its malicious heat, causing the king to groan out as he stumbled back, swinging his sword around wildly at the unseen enemy--making Ren fall back as to not be collateral. 

"Excalibur: Expel!" 

--With a stoic voice that rose to a yell, the husk of a king pointed his treasured sword to the heavens as its luminescence overwrote Iris' great magic, expelling it with a thunderclap of brief, but powerful magic. 

"...So you can still talk, huh, zomb-king?"

Ren released a sigh as he witnessed the clash of radiance, keeping his guard up. 

Clearing the seraphic light malicious only to himself, King Arthur returned to his lifeless stance with bubbling, welted skin that was scabbed and peeling, dripping blood from his bursted wounds. 

Perhaps even more unsettling, the sizzling was replaced by a mist that scaled his wounds, closing his blemishes and returning his skin to its previous condition as if reversing time itself. 

"Regeneration? Talk about unfair…"

Ren muttered as he reunited with Iris, keeping himself in a stance that allowed him to guard her in the event of a swift attack. 

"I didn't notice anything like that before we were brought into his tertiary spell...There wasn't any sort of incantation either; it's probably something unique to this place. Do you suppose it has limits?"

"It'd be scary to believe otherwise--"

As Ren spoke, his words trailed off as his eyes caught onto the harrowing scene before him; the king raised his blade with both hands wrapped around its hilt while a viscous wind spiraled around his form. 

Iris recognized it at the same moment--the amount of magical energy gathered entered a stratosphere that sat beyond the norm of magic. Etching its existence into the seemingly boundless, utopian stretch of flowers, the imposing wind curved each blade of grass under its gathering torque. 

"Grandiose Magic"--it was a term Ren only recently learned through studying the grimoire he obtained. It is the pinnacle of magecraft, categorized by its ability to access a boundless form, only limited by the user themselves. 

Such was the case for the storm that gathered around the promised sword, a realization both Ren and Iris came to without speaking a word. 

My ears...it feels like someone is screaming directly into them! Ren thought, I can't use Heaven on him if he can't even hear my snap! This is bad...

Commanded by both the king and his blade, the air howled, increasing in turbulence to such a degree that the two could feel their position on the ground being contested by the wind's abrasive pull.