After Rod sensed part of his strength being drained away, White Dragon Emperor Vali's assault did not let up in the slightest. His other free arm whipped up, his fist tearing through the air with a shrill whistle as it smashed straight toward Rod's face.
Once he had landed a hit, Vali pressed the advantage.
This time, Rod did not take it head-on. Just before the punch landed, he suddenly exerted force, broke free of Vali's attempt to pin him down, dodged the second heavy punch, and pulled away for the moment.
But when White Dragon Emperor Vali's strike failed, he beat his wings and pursued again, the distance between them rapidly shrinking.
Among the strength Rod had just lost, even his accelerated state had been weakened.
In truth, super acceleration was not invincible. After all, even Kabuto had been countered several times while in Clock Up in the original story.
It was not until much later, when Tendou could transform into Hyper Kabuto, that he stopped taking losses like that.
And one of the powers possessed by White Dragon Emperor's Light Wings was reduction and absorption. Every ten seconds, it could halve the opponent's power once, and the halved power would then be fed back into Vali himself. However, it could only enhance strength, not restore stamina.
The halving just now had not directly reduced Rod's power by half, but it had still taken away roughly a fifth of it.
Even so, that was enough to put Rod at a disadvantage.
In a way, whether it was White Dragon Emperor's halving or Red Dragon Emperor's boosting, both were abilities that were almost bugged.
After all, in the original story, there had never been any clear statement that either halving or boosting had limits. And every time the protagonist went berserk, the boost effect practically stacked without limit, never once seeming to consider the possibility of reaching a cap.
Rod had no intention of testing the limits of White Dragon Emperor's ability.
He swiftly took out a senzu bean from his storage space and popped it into his mouth. The moment he bit down on it, a flavor tinged with freshness and a faint plant-like aroma spread across his tongue.
And in that instant, the strength Rod had lost returned to its peak.
Rod accelerated again and flung White Dragon Emperor far behind him.
Vali, who had been chasing Rod from behind and continuously firing reduction beams from his hand, was left dumbfounded.
How could someone recover after having their power stolen by him?
Something like that had never happened before.
"Vali! Don't freeze up, watch out!"
"What?!"
Rod's sudden recovery to peak condition threw Vali into confusion. After all, this move had always worked without fail for him before.
Rod seized that opening. Stopping dead in midair in a way that defied inertia, he suddenly unleashed the full force of his core, his body twisting violently like a compressed spring, and then lashed out with a ferocious whip kick straight at Vali's face!
White Dragon Emperor Vali instinctively wanted to copy Rod's earlier move and catch the kick in order to use Divide again, but Albion's frantic warnings in his mind made him change tactics and cross both arms in defense instead.
Boom!
In that instant, Vali felt as if he had been struck by a train. A tremendous force hammered into his arms, and even the armor protecting him cracked with fine fractures.
The spectators below saw only a white meteor plummet from the sky and slam into the ground, kicking up billowing dust.
Pain shot through Vali's back, and his brain felt as though it had been stuffed full of suffocating, polluted air. The whole of him was dazed.
Just what had this guy been raised on?
A human, yet his body was stronger than that of a devil like him?!
"Vali, the situation is against us. Regain your footing immediately. We need to leave."
Albion's voice came through, far calmer than Vali's.
Katerea had defected, Creuserey was dead, and as for that group of magicians, without a high-level force leading them, they were nothing but loose sand that would soon be wiped out by Azazel and the others.
Vali and Albion were not here to help the Old Maou faction revolt. They were here only to fight strong opponents.
Now that the situation had turned unfavorable, staying any longer would only increase the chance of being captured.
But Vali paid no heed to Albion's advice.
At that moment, his mind was filled with only one thought, how to defeat Rod, the man standing beside Lavinia.
And more than that...
Vali cast a casual glance aside.
Lavinia, the woman who had haunted his thoughts day and night, was standing all this time at the broken opening in the new school building, watching this battle.
So Vali now had an absolute reason not to lose.
He quickly steadied himself again. Massive particles of light spewed out from the azure wings on his back, allowing him to avoid the descending knee strike Rod hurled at him as he closed in.
"You're still not running?"
Looking at Vali, who had pulled back and was now breathing hard, his chest rising and falling sharply, Rod spoke with visible helplessness.
"I don't have any grudge against you. I don't really want to fight you."
Didn't want to fight.
No quest had refreshed.
Rod was telling the truth.
If there was no quest, he only did things that let him relax.
He was not some battle maniac. He grinded missions for power purely to keep himself safe.
But that statement seemed only to enrage Vali further, because the pressure radiating off him became even more intense than before.
"Don't compare me to yourself! Don't think just because you got the upper hand that you can really defeat me!"
A vicious gleam flashed through Vali's eyes.
Why should a man like this have the right to stand by Lavinia's side?!
At those words, Rod suddenly laughed.
"Look at you, getting cocky?"
"Whatever. Lavinia asked me before, so since you won't listen, I'll just beat you unconscious and drag you over to her."
The moment Lavinia's name was mentioned, Vali's head burned hot. Just as he was about to spit out more harsh words, Albion, who resided within him, suddenly began screaming urgent warnings.
"How is that possible?! This guy actually...!"
"Vali! This guy... there's a Longinus reaction coming from him! Be careful, it's coming!"
Albion's voice was sharper than ever before, and Vali himself could already sense an extremely ominous aura rising from Rod.
That feeling was familiar to him.
A Sacred Gear.
But... judging from Albion's reaction, the Sacred Gear Rod possessed was an even stronger Longinus than White Dragon Emperor's Light Wings!
At that moment, Rod felt something respond within him and summoned Incinerate Anthem.
A deep violet cross emerged from his chest. But instead of turning into a giant flaming titan like its former user Augusta had, it clung against Rod's chest like a pendant, and from the cross as its center, deep violet light spread over his entire body like a tidal wave.
When the light faded, what stood there was a humanoid figure clad in purple armor.
"This is..."
Vali could not help blurting the words out, only to clamp his mouth shut a moment later.
Beneath the moonlight, the armor reflected a faint violet sheen, forming a perfectly human shape. Like Vali's own Balance Breaker, the eyes were separated twin eye-pieces, but theirs were violet, and from the forehead extended a pair of horns that swept outward.
At the center of the humanoid armor's chest was a massive cross-shaped insignia, radiating brilliant golden light.
From either side of its back extended two pairs of golden metallic wings.
A sacred yet mysterious sense of presence came crashing over everyone.
This appearance gave the strange sensation of standing before some transcendent being, and in the end it formed an indescribable aura that influenced everyone who laid eyes upon it.
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