The moment the command was given—
The sky itself seemed to collapse.
A blizzard of ice descended.
Countless frozen constructs—spikes, birds, needles, storms—roared downward in a catastrophic convergence, their sheer number blotting out the battlefield. What had begun as a duel had already escalated into something far beyond conventional combat.
Adraleth charged upward regardless.
His warhorse screamed through the air, wreathed in blazing fire, dragging a comet-tail of crimson flame behind it. His halberd burned brighter, the heat intensifying to a suffocating degree as he roared:
"You think quantity alone can overwhelm me?!"
BOOM!!!
He cleaved upward with a single strike!
A pillar of fire erupted from his halberd, colliding head-on with the descending tide of ice. Flame and frost annihilated each other in a violent explosion, shockwaves rippling across the battlefield as steam and shattered elements filled the sky.
For a brief moment—
The two forces seemed evenly matched.
But only for a moment.
Kanzaki Rei's expression remained calm.
Too calm.
"Then let's test that properly."
He raised his hand again.
And in that instant—
The already overwhelming number of ice constructs doubled.
No—
Tripled.
The sky, already filled to the brim, became suffocatingly dense. Every inch of space was now occupied by layered, interlocking magic formations—each one stabilized by the Root Magic: Immutable Eternity.
They did not decay.
They did not dissipate.
They simply… accumulated.
Adraleth's pupils shrank.
"…What?"
Even his flames faltered for a fraction of a second.
That single moment—
Was fatal.
"Fall."
Kanzaki Rei's hand dropped.
BOOOOOOM!!!!!
The entire frozen arsenal descended at once.
It was no longer a clash.
It was a massacre of scale.
The flames were drowned instantly.
No matter how violently Adraleth surged his fire, no matter how fiercely he roared, the sheer volume of ice crushed through his defenses layer by layer.
His halberd shattered through dozens—hundreds—thousands—
But there were always more.
Endless.
Unstoppable.
His warhorse was the first to fall, its body pierced through by countless frozen lances before exploding into fragments of flame.
Then his armor—
Cracked.
Then broke.
Then collapsed entirely.
"IMPOSSIBLE—!"
His roar was swallowed whole.
The final wave struck.
And in an instant—
His entire body was obliterated beneath the avalanche of ice.
Silence.
A suffocating, absolute silence.
Only drifting frost remained in the air.
Kanzaki Rei stood in the sky, unmoving, his gaze indifferent—as though what he had just done was nothing more than a trivial test.
Below—
Nothing remained of Adraleth.
Not even ashes.
A few seconds later, space distorted.
The scattered remnants of his existence began to rewind, reforming piece by piece, just as with the others.
Reconstruction.
Resurrection.
Adraleth's figure reappeared on the battlefield, breathing heavily, his eyes wide with disbelief.
He looked up at Kanzaki Rei.
For the first time—
There was no arrogance left in his gaze.
Only shock.
"…You…"
He couldn't even finish his sentence.
Above, Kanzaki Rei slowly lowered his hand.
"…So that's how it is."
His voice was quiet, almost thoughtful.
"As long as I don't rely on a single attribute, your advantage disappears."
Fire immunity.
Flame absorption.
Counter-burn mechanics.
All meaningless—
The moment he switched systems entirely.
That was the true essence of combat.
Not brute force.
But control.
Control over variables.
Control over outcomes.
Control over the battlefield itself.
From beginning to end—
Kanzaki Rei had never been at a disadvantage.
He had simply been… observing.
Testing.
Confirming.
And now—
The conclusion was clear.
A faint notification flickered before him.
「Challenge Result: Victory」
「Points Transfer Complete」
In an instant—
Adraleth's score was stripped away.
All of it—
Added directly to Kanzaki Rei.
The already absurd number surged even higher.
Yet Kanzaki Rei didn't even glance at it.
His attention remained on his opponent.
"…You're not weak."
He spoke plainly.
"But your system is too linear."
Adraleth clenched his fists.
For a moment, it seemed like he wanted to say something—argue, refute, roar back with defiance.
But in the end—
He said nothing.
Because he understood.
That gap…
Was not something that could be bridged by willpower alone.
High above the battlefield, the other inheritors watched in silence.
No one spoke.
No one moved.
The earlier dominance displayed by Yelia had already been shocking—
But this?
This was something else entirely.
If Yelia's strength was speed beyond comprehension—
Then Kanzaki Rei's power was…
Absolute control.
A different kind of terror.
A different level altogether.
And in that silence—
A single realization spread through every mind present.
The one who held 3.2 billion points…
Was not a target.
He was something far worse.
A existence they should never have provoked.
..
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