Chapter 197 - 42

The space in the area trembled after Fornius took out a large golden sword. Lightning keeps striking into the ocean without stopping. Fornius didn't stop there, and six golden god rings floated behind his back. It showed how much Divine power he had. The radiance of his power even released the pressure on the living beings around him.

"Hahaha… this time, I will attack you with my full strength. Try not to die too soon." Fornius laughed and suddenly disappeared from everyone's sight. He reappeared right in front of Ziel and slashed his sword at him.

Ziel just stood still and didn't move when he saw the attack. When Fornius' slash hit Ziel, his body suddenly became blurry and disappeared. What Fornius slashed turned out to be an afterimage. After Fornius disappeared, Ziel moved and left his afterimage where he was standing. Ziel appeared next to Fornius and slashed his black sword at Fornius.

Clank!

Fornius quickly parried Ziel's sword. Their attacks didn't stop there. They clashed their swords dozens, even hundreds of times in the blink of an eye. Not long after, they stopped their attacks and took their distance.

"Your sword can even withstand the power of mine? My sword, Goldenia, is one of the strongest god-rank artifacts made of divine lightning condensed for hundreds of years. I didn't think there would be a human weapon that could match it. Where did you get such a weapon from?" Fornius narrowed his eyes at the black sword in Ziel's hand.

Goldenia is the name of the great golden sword held by Fornius. The sword was made of divine golden lightning, condensed over hundreds of years into lightning stone, and finally forged into a sword. The power of that sword could easily resonate with Fornius' divine power.

"I do not know. They appear when I forge an iron." Ziel shrugged his shoulders and seemed to have no intention of answering Fornius's question.

"It's fine if you don't want to answer. I can take it and make it mine after I kill you." Fornius brandished his golden sword. Golden lightning flashed into the ocean shouting at each other. Not long after, the atmosphere in the area suddenly calmed down, and the golden lightning stopped flashing. In that calm atmosphere, Fornius' voice echoed through the sky.

[Thunderroot]

One by one, golden thunderbolts appeared from behind the overcast clouds. The golden lightning did not strike like before. The golden lightning moved slowly like tree roots creeping into the ground and then branching into ten. The ten golden lightning branches became hundreds. Then hundreds branched into thousands and so on. At this moment, the entire sky was covered by the golden divine lightning root. The spreading speed of the golden lightning became faster and faster. The entire tip of the golden lightning root was headed in one direction: Ziel.

The scenery in the sky looks very scary. Everywhere the eye looked, only the golden lightning roots could be seen. Kyouka, Megumi, and Princess Cordelia could only open their mouths wide after seeing Fornius' power. They thought Fornius had brought out the best of his abilities so far, but they didn't think that the power that Fornius had shown earlier was only a small part of his true strength.

"Will Ken be okay?" Clara muttered while looking at Ziel with a worried face. She clenched her tiny fists to calm herself.

"He'll be fine, Clara. You have to believe in Ziel. Hasn't he been able to win against his enemy all this time?" Princess Iris slowly approached Clara. She can't wait until Ziel finishes his fight to help mend her relationship with Clara. So she waited for the right moment to talk to her when Clara's emotions started to subside.

"Ziel? Who's that? What else are you still hiding from me, Princess Iris?" Clara said sarcastically to Princess Iris. She even addressed her using honorifics. It made Princess Iris' face darken.

"Clara, I know that I was wrong. I'll tell you everything. So please forgive me." Princess Iris walked closer and closer until she was finally right beside her.

"You can tell me first. About me forgiving you or not, we'll see later." Clara spoke without looking at Princess Iris. She still refuses to meet her face to face.

"I see, I understand. The story started when he saved me…" Princess Iris explained how she became close to Ziel and knew his real name. Then about the cottage in the middle of the lake where Ziel lives. Princess Iris only tells things that are not important according to her. She didn't mention the relationship between Ziel, Kalya, and Princess Freya. Not to mention Princess Aishia, who is his former employer. Apart from feeling bad for Kalya and the girls if she told Clara about it, she is also bound by a master-servant contract with Ziel. She couldn't talk about it without his approval first.

"Is that all you're hiding from me about Ken?" Clara narrowed her eyes at Princess Iris.

"Of course, that's all I know. If you don't believe me, you can ask Lilith." Princess Iris looked away from Clara for fear that she would be caught if she lied to her. She had to throw the question at Lilith.

"Hmm? What I know is the same as what Iris has said." Lilith replied calmly. She didn't panic when Princess Iris threw the question at her. Ever since the island split apart, she kept quiet and didn't say anything. Her feelings became complicated after seeing the appearance of Fornius. She only thought that people of her race would die one after another if they kept coming and making trouble with Ziel.

"Okay. I believe in you right now. I'll ask Ken about what you've been telling me." Clara's face softened slightly, and she didn't look as angry as before. Princess Iris breathed a sigh of relief and looked back at Ziel.

"As expected of a real divine race. It looks like you already have a way to restore your divine power." Ziel spoke nonchalantly. He even ignored the thousands of lightning roots that were pointing at him.

"Hmm… you seem to know quite a bit about us. It just makes us even more, have to kill you no matter what. You better stop being so calm in front of me because it looks annoying to my eyes!" After Fornius finished his words. The entire lightning root moved simultaneously. The lightning roots moved much faster than the attacks Fornius had used so far.

"Take it if you can." Ziel extended his free left hand to the lightning roots approaching him and pointed his five fingers at the lightning roots. Red lightning gathered at his fingertips and formed a ball of lightning energy.

[Gatling Thunder]

The lightning balls shot out like a bullet but at speed far beyond it. The attack didn't stop there. After Ziel shot the first five lightning balls, less than a second later, Ziel shot another five lightning balls at another divine lightning root and so on. Ziel shoots hundreds of lightning balls per minute towards all the lightning roots that strike him.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Any golden lightning root that came into contact with the red lightning ball would be crushed. Ziel didn't take long to destroy the entire Divine Lightning Root. It took less than five minutes for Ziel to eliminate Fornius' attack. Fornius' face darkened after knowing that his attack did not affect Ziel.

"Amazing! Has Ken always been this great!?" Clara said with sparkling eyes. After seeing the changes that had happened to Ziel, her current level of affection for Ziel had risen to an unimaginable level. She even seemed to worship him like a god.

"Yes. He is always this great or maybe more than we can imagine." Princess Iris subconsciously answered Clara's words. On Princess Iris's face, there was a feeling that couldn't be expressed in words.

"Iris, there is something I want to ask you. I hope you answer it honestly." The expression on Clara's face suddenly became serious.

"Say. I will answer honestly." Princess Iris was slightly tense because the atmosphere around Clara suddenly changed.

"Do you love Ken?" Clara looked Princess Iris in the eyes directly. She wanted to judge whether Princess Iris was telling the truth or lying to her. Princess Iris didn't answer right away. She was silent for a moment and then finally opened her mouth.

"Yes. I love him." Princess answered seriously and firmly.

"You admit it right away?" Clara was surprised that Princess Iris didn't hesitate to answer her question. She thought Princess Iris would lie or at least use a complicated or ambiguous answer.

"Weren't you the one who asked me to answer honestly? Otherwise, you will be angry with me again. You'll find out sooner or later anyway. But, may I ask you something in return?" Princess Iris explained calmly. But suddenly, she was curious about something.

"What do you want to ask?" Clara asked Princess Iris back.

"Why are you suddenly asking that?" Princess Iris wants to know why Clara asks about her feelings for Ziel. She was always careful in her words so that others would not know her feelings for Ziel, but Clara asked that, and it's like she realized Princess Iris' feelings.

"Iris, aren't you aware that the look you give Ken has changed since you came back from the Alba Mountain Range? Before, you looked at him as an acquaintance, but your gaze changed after that. You are like a princess seeing the prince who was destined for her. Your face sometimes even blushes by itself. Even though my thinking ability is a bit slow but I'm not stupid, Iris." Clara smiled wryly at Princess Iris.

"Is that so? At first, I didn't even realize what I was feeling. But as time passed, I finally knew that I loved him. But I still don't dare to admit it. I felt he was too great for me, and I didn't deserve him." Princess Iris's face suddenly became cloudy. She felt sad and lonely in her heart.

"Hmm… I understand how you feel after seeing the current Ken, Iris. But, no matter how his appearance and strength change, Ken is still Ken. He treated me the same from the first time I met him. What I did wasn't give up on my love when I saw him like that, but trying hard so that I deserve to stand beside him." Clara smiled at Princess Iris. Princess Iris opened her eyes wide because Clara's words had opened her narrow mind all this time. Now she realized what she had to do with those feelings.

"Thank you, Clara. I understand what I have to do now. But, are you sure you want to encourage me like that? You love him too, don't you? Am I not your rival? Shouldn't you be happy if I stop chasing him and bury my feelings for him?" Princess Iris is confused by Clara's mindset and feelings.

"Of course, I love him. But, I don't want my best friend to suffer because of her feelings. After seeing the current Ziel, I realized that I couldn't have him all to myself, so I'd be happy to share it with you. Because I'm sure, your feelings are sincere for Ken. Let's fight together to win her heart, Iris!" Clara answered Princess Iris' question firmly. She doesn't even hesitate to share the people she loves for the sake of her best friend. Luckily, they were chatting in whispers, so the girls around them didn't even hear their conversation.

"Clara…" Clara's words touched Princess Iris. Just as she was about to say something, they heard the sound of a massive explosion in the sky.

Booooooooooooooooooommmmmmmmmmmm!

The explosion came from Fonius merging all the divine lightning roots and knitting them together. Fornius used that divine root fusion to attack Ziel.

Ziel lightly slashed his black sword that had been compressed by the red lightning to deal with the attack. Their attacks were equal again. But others who saw it could tell that Ziel had the upper hand in that fight.

"I didn't think you'd be able to face my full strength this long. I seem to have underestimated you, human. But I will end this fight right here." Fornius saw that Ziel hadn't been exhausted from the battle. He felt he would be at a disadvantage if he put up a long-term battle. Because of that, he had to finish off Ziel quickly.

Fornius gathered all the divine lightning in the sky into his golden sword, Goldenia. The golden lightning condensed until it turned into a thick golden light that enveloped Fornius' sword. After that, Fornius swung Goldenia at Ziel.

[Thunder God Slash]

Fornius unleashed a tremendous attack with unimaginable power and speed towards Ziel.. The sky was dazzled by the golden light from his slash and a gigantic golden aura blade cleaved the ocean and sky at once.