Suddenly, a stream of flames shot toward the couple at full speed. Reno and Rita saw it coming, looked at each other one last time, and separated to avoid being burned.
Clearly, this was no longer human. This battle made no sense to them.
But they were two—and surely the most terrifying duo the world had ever known. And on that day, fate forced them to show everything they truly had within them.
It was more powerful than the beast of Ouhkor, faster, and undoubtedly smarter than every warrior they had ever faced before. And yet, the duo was, for all intents and purposes… invincible.
The two vanished from the path of the flames, which, the moment they struck the ground, erased everything in its path. Flames burst from the impact point as if overflowing, and the heat melted everything too close to it.
It was terrifying for Reno, but Rita was right. He had to end this quickly so that no one would become the heavy cost.
At least, not his wife.
He gripped Man-Eater in his right hand, then the sword weighing over two hundred kilos sliced dangerously through the air as Reno took his stance. He had to forget this whole tribute story and focus on the fight. As he had always done, he needed to awaken the beast.
And it didn't take long.
He closed his eyes and exhaled slowly, shutting out everything that wasn't battle, forgetting everything unrelated to the Ogre, emptying his confused mind filled with dangerous thoughts…
Then he opened them sharply.
This time, his gaze was focused and ready to fight.
On her side, Rita tried not to think about her potential sacrifice. Facing such an entity already pushed her emotions to the brink. But she too had to focus—and at that, she was better than her husband.
Her gaze changed as well, replacing uncertainty with the dark, murderous stare of the legendary Black Viper.
And spinning her daggers through the air, she too took her stance.
Orubos watched the two of them from high above. His robe danced in the wind while his hair twisted wildly in every direction.
The spectacle pleased him—but seeing those two monstrous auras far less.
Those two humans were peaks. Aces of their generation capable of matching entities like him when they fought together. Monsters comparable to the entities themselves.
But they were also an excellent source of aura...
On solid ground, Reno and Rita stood apart, yet their gazes met for a split second and understood each other instantly.
The attack pattern had already begun.
Rita propelled herself forward without wasting time and immediately sprinted toward Orubos. However, he floated high in the air, so trying to reach him directly was almost pointless.
During her charge, she threw a dagger at the magician with all her strength.
Orubos saw it and almost laughed, because dodging the weapon would be effortless.
But before it could reach him, Reno was suddenly in front of him, Man-Eater gripped in both hands. Even thirty meters in the air, the Ogre of Nozras had no trouble reaching him.
Even Orubos did not want to take that hit.
So suddenly, he vanished from where he stood.
Reno clicked his tongue.
"So teleportation exists too?"
However, he hadn't gone far.
The magician was now directly behind the immense back of the Ogre of Nozras. He dodged the dagger and, at the same time, Reno's monstrous strength and sword, simply letting the ogre fall back toward the ground like worthless trash.
He reappeared a second time slightly higher up, still floating in the air. He was about to cast a spell when, to his surprise, he saw a second dagger flying toward him.
A faint smile on his lips, he exclaimed:
"That girl is insane."
Despite the height, Rita had no trouble aiming at the magician, and her daggers slicing through the air didn't seem slowed in the slightest by gravity or friction.
Orubos stretched out a hand to stop it—
But suddenly, the dagger accelerated midway through its flight.
"What?!"
Rita hadn't thrown one dagger.
She had thrown two.
The second one, perfectly aligned with the trajectory of the first, struck it midair and created an unexpected propulsion effect.
Orubos could no longer dodge.
"Shit."
A nervous smile appeared on his face, but just as the dagger was about to pierce his forehead, something unexpected happened.
The dagger stopped dead right in front of the magician without any braking distance at all. It was as if the weapon had struck an invisible wall without warning.
Orubos exhaled.
"That was close. I may not have all my spells, but at least this one remained."
At that very moment, an immense shadow covered the magician.
"Oh?"
At thirty meters in the air, it should have been impossible. The magician thought he was dreaming, but when he saw Man-Eater descending dangerously toward his face, he snapped out of it and made strange gestures with his hands.
Suddenly, Reno was hurled toward the ground at terrifying speed, as if gravity itself were violently dragging him downward.
Rita also suddenly felt heavier.
"Damn it… again."
Rita could feel it. This wasn't the same as before. Earlier, she had recognized the immense pressure radiating from the presence of something new, extraordinary, perhaps even superior.
But this time, it was simply physical.
She was just… heavier.
And her muscles felt it intensely.
It wasn't hard to understand that this magician was playing with concepts far more dangerous than simple weather or the elements.
Reno, however, landed on his feet. The Ogre didn't seem affected at all by the thirty-meter fall. Instead, he was already staring at the sky where Orubos floated calmly.
Suddenly, a mocking smile appeared on the magician's face.
"Let's see if you two are really human."
Orubos once again made strange gestures with both hands. Crossing and uncrossing them in bizarre positions, twisting them into shapes surely impossible for normal humans.
Every single movement sent chills down Reno's spine. He understood clearly that this wasn't about magic circles—it was some kind of incantation sign language.
Suddenly, when he finished, a black cloud appeared above him, slowly forming from nothing.
The scene was terrifying, but after everything Reno had already witnessed, he wasn't that impressed anymore.
He was focused on what came next.
However, the scene was far more horrifying for the other warriors throughout the capital.
They who only had combat in their blood...
They who knew only the horror of war and battlefields...
They who sought honor through bloody massacres...
They were now witnessing the true nature of power.
For some time now, most battles had stopped. Weapons themselves had lowered, because eyes were no longer fixed on enemies—but on the sky above, where an unimaginable spectacle unfolded.
The heavens unleashed lightning at will.
Rain pierced through buildings.
Rocks formed from nothing and crashed into the earth.
Flames erupted from the hands of a man.
It was incomprehensible.
They didn't know why it was happening, but their hearts felt close to stopping.
And they were certain of one thing: They were completely powerless…
The cloud grew larger and larger above Reno before beginning to form a black vortex. The tip of the vortex descended toward one of Orubos' outstretched arms seeming to absorb the massive cloud.
Then suddenly, once enough water gathered around his arm, lightning appeared.
More and more lightning gathered, until the magician resembled a living lightning rod, absorbing every bolt passing nearby.
Even Rita could no longer move before such a horrifying sight.
Then suddenly, with a loud voice and a wide smile, he declared:
"Areas Orunix."
The dozens of lightning bolts gathered within his left arm began crashing violently onto the ground. Reno saw one strike less than a meter away from him before another hit him directly, his attention momentarily diverted.
Rita had already rushed to shelter beneath a building at full speed, causing the members of her group to wonder why she wasn't worried for Reno and why she wasn't going to help him.
But the reason was simple: it wasn't the first time the Ogre had been struck by lightning.
During one of Reno's many journeys with Rita, he had once bet that he could withstand lightning and had deliberately stood beneath a storm cloud bombarding the land.
As a result, he had been struck by lightning. And to Rita's great surprise, he had barely suffered any damage.
And now, on that day, Reno smiled beneath the lightning raining down on him from Orubos' hand.
Strangely, the lightning had the opposite effect of discouraging him from fighting.
Reno's warrior instinct violently resurfaced. The more lightning struck him, the more he surrendered himself to the madness of battle and his violent impulses.
Soon, a huge grin spread across his face, illuminated by the white lightning crashing against him with overwhelming force.
The Ogre had truly awakened...
Rita took advantage of Orubos' distraction to throw another dagger.
However, the magician saw it this time and caught it midair. But that was exactly what Rita wanted.
A second later, she pulled through the air as though a fishing line connected her to the magician.
And it did.
The dagger had been tied with a wire, and in an instant, Orubos was violently dragged toward the ground.
Before he could release the dagger, Reno had already jumped and brought Man-Eater down in a brutal vertical strike toward the magician.
The strange entity crashed violently into the ground, sending dust soaring several meters into the air.
But Rita had no intention of letting him breathe.
She yanked the wire again, and Orubos was sent flying toward her. The distance between them vanished rapidly.
However, the magician reacted quickly and got rid of the dagger, melting it in his hand.
Rita didn't waste time being shocked and rushed straight toward him.
Seeing the danger approaching, Orubos extended his hand again to prepare a spell—
But Reno descended violently from the sky a second time, this time attempting to crush him with his left hand.
The ground trembled from the impact. The blow was so powerful it instantly created a crater, the earth cracking beneath them.
However, to Reno's surprise, Orubos was not beneath his fist.
Reno slowly stood up, that monstrous smile still stretched across his lips, and raised his head toward where he suddenly sensed danger.
There, floating once again in the sky, countless gigantic shards of ice were hurtling toward him.
But the Ogre did not move.
Rita, on the other hand, still accelerating forward, appeared in front of him.
With insane speed, she sliced through every shard of ice in less than two seconds, the pieces exploding in every direction without a single one touching her husband.
Reno then lifted his sword and took a launching stance.
Rita immediately made a small jump backward and planted her feet onto Man-Eater.
Then Reno violently propelled her.
A shockwave blasted debris away from the surrounding area.
Orubos, who had teleported far away this time, saw Rita shooting toward him like an arrow—and he couldn't dodge.
Rita collided directly with the strange invisible barrier protecting the magician.
Orubos smiled.
"Convenient, isn't it?"