Silence fell after Mujun's last sentence was spoken. Leon narrowed his eyes, trying to digest the explanation. Despite his efforts, confusion was still clearly visible, which only made Mujun's smile turn more hollow. He realized then—he truly had no talent for explaining things. Perhaps there were other ways, but this was the best he could do in the heat of a battlefield.
"The first human… who is that? I've never heard of that in the teachings of the human church. Is it a new doctrine?" Leon asked, hesitant.
Mujun froze for a moment. Right. That story never existed in this world.
"Ah—it's just a parable. An analogical story… a sort of example. You get it, right? Hehe…" he muttered, scratching his head awkwardly.
Leon shook his head slowly. "I'm still a bit confused, but I can grasp the gist of it. You're just trying to say: being a king isn't enough, right?"
"…Yes. That's what I meant," Mujun replied, surrendering to the misunderstanding.
He glanced over Leon's shoulder. The battle had broken out in full. Magical explosions, screams, and the flash of weapons mingled together. He could feel auras colliding in the distance—Reina had also been intercepted by the final Demon General. That meant Nestal was already facing the Demon King. Time was running out.
He looked back at Leon. "Are you still going to stand in my way?"
Leon's golden fangs showed as he smirked. "Whatever it is you want to do means nothing if you don't have the strength to make it happen. I don't need long explanations. Fists and blades explain much better."
Mujun took a thin breath. He should have known—arguing with a Demi-human was a futile effort.
He raised his staff; his grimoire hung open in the air before him. The Mana throughout his body rippled, vibrated, and then surged. On the opposite side, Leon had drawn his flaming sword; the heat distorted the air around them. Their gazes met for a split second.
The ground beneath Leon's feet exploded.
In an instant, the massive figure was right in front of Mujun. His sword was raised high, ready to cleave. However, the magical energy from Mujun erupted outward, colliding with the trajectory of the slash.
A massive explosion broke out.
The earth split as if gripped by a giant hand; shards of rock and sand were hurled dozens of meters away. The shockwave swept the surroundings, clearing out the ranks of soldiers who were too close. By the time the dust settled, both had vanished from the point of impact—Mujun had teleported out of the vortex of the blast, and Leon pursued him without pause, his body lunging through the air like a bullet.
In Crocus, mages were divided into two major schools: Battle Mages and Pure Mages.
Battle Mages reinforced their bodies with Mana, blending magic with martial arts. Their attacks were close-range, brutal, and swift. In contrast, Pure Mages exerted pressure from a distance, controlling the terrain and the masses, creating a rain of spells to cut off the enemy's advance before they could get close.
The number of spells in the world was too vast for anyone to master them all; even Tier 10 mages usually truly mastered no more than twenty spells—the rest were merely recognized and studied as needed. Furthermore, Tier 10 spells were notoriously difficult to learn; even Mujun had only mastered a few.
The fight between Mujun and Leon was a clash of two magical philosophies.
Leon, the pinnacle of Battle Mages.
Mujun, the pinnacle of Pure Mages.
Pure magic excelled in destructive power, but close-range duels often favored the Battle Mage. However, the assumption that a Pure Mage always loses is a layman's view—as long as a Pure Mage manages to control the terrain and the rhythm of the fight, a single spell is enough to incapacitate an opponent.
Conversely, if a Battle Mage succeeds in closing the distance before that happens… then the Pure Mage becomes a target for a merciless beating.
In the end, victory falls only to those capable of controlling the tempo of the battle—and those with the sharpest combat intellect.
And now, amidst the air vibrating with magic and steel, the two pinnacles tested each other once more.
Like two magnets with the same poles colliding, the fight between Mujun and Leon spread across the entire battlefield. The Acceleration spell Leon used made him move as fast as light, while Mujun's chantless instant teleportation made the duel incredibly fierce. Various spells and energy waves exploded like natural disasters, altering the geography of the surrounding terrain.
Mujun maintained his distance while launching lethal long-range attacks. His strategy was clear—lock down Leon's movements, then end the fight with one absolute strike. But Leon's body was like a battery of never-ending energy. Layers of defensive magic enveloped him, ensuring not a single attack could graze his skin.
This fight turned into a war of attrition.
A duel between two mages of equal power always takes a long time. Moreover, Leon and Mujun were no ordinary mages—both were veterans rich in combat experience. This world war had long since ground down weak mages into ash, leaving only those who could chant spells as fast as drawing a breath. Usually, a major fight only ends when one of them runs out of Mana.
It was impossible to wait for either of them to make a mistake.
For them, every spell combo, every step, even every change in expression was a reflex that no longer required conscious thought. Their bodies had absorbed too many combat memories. Spells were cast before the mind could even process the thought. As a result, this lightning-fast duel appeared like a rhythmic clash that repeated without pause.
If you advance, I retreat.
If you retreat, I advance.
If you attack, I evade.
If you evade, I set a trap.
It repeated like a word-association game between two players who both held the complete dictionary.
Mujun teleported again as Leon drew near. Before his body could vanish, the heat of Leon's flaming sword was already burning his skin. But before the slash could descend, a shockwave slammed into Leon's body until his bones vibrated. Simultaneously as Mujun shifted, his Mana shield parried the impact of the attack.
Leon accelerated again, darting like lightning to pursue Mujun to a new location already marked by his wild instincts.
The fight seemed boring to anyone watching.
But only the two of them understood how serious and lethal this duel was. Mujun read every one of Leon's movements, memorizing his habits and patterns, analyzing his fighting style, searching for even the smallest opening. Leon did the same.
Though this was not their first duel, thinking the fight would proceed like the ones before would be a fatal mistake. Although the spells and martial arts used were the same, the focus was on how they were utilized.