Chapter 224: Soul Burn [1]

CLANG—!

Steel met steel.

What should’ve been a simple clash of blades exploded into a shockwave that rattled the entire arena. The ground trembled, and a burst of wind tore through the stands, forcing several students to shield their faces.

This wasn’t an ordinary duel.

Two Sword Masters crossing blades—just witnessing it was a rare privilege. No one spoke. No one even dared to blink. Every pair of eyes in the arena was locked onto the fight.

"Hahaha!"

A carefree laugh echoed across the field.

"Pointing your sword at me—the Emperor’s son?" Leonardo tilted his head slightly, his golden eyes gleaming with amusement. "Are you trying to commit treason?"

"Shut up, Leonardo!"

Signut’s reply came sharp and immediate, his voice strained but defiant.

The contrast between the two couldn’t have been clearer.

Leonardo moved with effortless grace, his sword dancing as if it weighed nothing. Every strike he delivered was clean, precise—and overwhelmingly powerful.

Signut, on the other hand, was struggling just to keep up.

Each time their swords clashed, his arms trembled slightly from the impact. His footing wavered. His breathing grew heavier with every passing second.

CLANG—!

Another collision. Another shockwave.

Signut was forced back several steps, his boots scraping against the ground as he barely managed to hold his stance.

Was the gap between Sword Masters really this vast?

Or...

The power of demons.

That unnatural pressure surrounding him—it wasn’t something a normal human should possess.

"Magnificent!" Leonardo grinned wider, his voice filled with excitement. "The so-called Sword Master of the empire, and this is all you’ve got?"

"Damn it...!"

Signut clicked his tongue, tightening his grip on his sword. He knew it too.

At this rate, he was just barely surviving.

Not fighting—surviving.

Leonardo stepped forward again.

No warning. No pause.

His blade flashed.

Signut reacted instantly, raising his sword to block—

CLANG—!!

The impact sent a violent tremor up his arms.

His knees bent slightly under the force.

Too heavy.

Each strike felt like it carried the weight of a mountain.

Leonardo didn’t let up.

Another swing.

And another.

Relentless.

Each strike came faster than the last.

Steel rang against steel in rapid succession, sparks scattering with every clash as Signut was pushed further back, step by step.

He couldn’t keep up.

Anyone watching could see it—his defense was crumbling. His footing was unsteady, his breathing uneven. One more mistake, and it would all be over.

Signut realized it too.

His teeth sank into his lower lip, hard enough to draw blood.

Then—

Whoosh.

A sudden surge of energy burst from his body.

It wasn’t like before.

This wasn’t just mana. It felt heavier. Denser. Like something deeper—something fundamental—was being dragged to the surface.

The air around him distorted, trembling under the pressure. A pale, almost blinding light began to seep out from his skin, flickering like a flame barely contained.

An awakening.

At least... that’s what it looked like.

But I knew better.

This wasn’t some miraculous power-up.

"...Soul Burn?" I muttered, my eyes narrowing. "Are you trying to kill yourself?"

Signut didn’t even look at me.

"I would gladly sacrifice my soul... if it means stopping Leonardo."

His voice was steady. Too steady.

Soul Burn.

A forbidden technique.

Not something you trained for. Not something you mastered.

It was a last resort—something you used when you had already decided to throw your life away.

By pushing mana beyond its natural limits, it ignites the very essence of one’s soul, converting life itself into raw power.

In exchange... you burn out. Completely.

No recovery. No second chances.

Just ashes.

"No! Lord Signut!"

Anna’s voice rang out, sharp with panic. She took a step forward, her composure cracking for the first time.

"Your Highness," Signut said quietly, finally turning his head just slightly.

There was no hesitation in his eyes. No fear.

Only resolve.

Anna’s hands clenched at her sides. "Stop this! You don’t need to go that far!"

Signut tightened his grip on his sword, the light around him flaring brighter.

"Ordinary power won’t be enough," he said. "You’ve seen it yourself. Nothing we do can stop that monster."

The ground beneath his feet began to crack, unable to withstand the pressure pouring out of him.

"This... is the only way."

"But if you do this, you’ll die!" Anna’s voice trembled now, desperation creeping in.

"I know."

He said it so simply.

So calmly.

"But my foolish mind can’t think of any other solution."

Silence fell for a brief moment, broken only by the low hum of energy building around him.

The light intensified, wrapping around his body like a burning cloak. His hair began to lift slightly, swaying in the invisible current of power.

From a distance, it might’ve looked heroic.

Up close... it was terrifying.

His skin was already beginning to pale. His breathing, though steady, carried a faint rasp—as if his body was struggling to keep up with what he was forcing it to endure.

He was burning himself alive.

And yet—

He didn’t waver.

Leonardo’s power wasn’t something you could face lightly.

To stand against it meant being ready to die.

If Signut fell here—if he lost even for a moment—then that would be the end of it.

Everyone present would die.

Anna... the one he had sworn to protect, would die.

Lisa’s power would be taken, twisted into something far worse.

And eventually, even the Emperor himself wouldn’t escape that fate.

Signut understood all of that.

That was why he had chosen this.

As an Imperial Knight, Soul Burn wasn’t just a technique—it was a final vow. A desperate, irreversible gamble that consumed the user’s very soul in exchange for overwhelming power.

Once used, there was no going back.

It wasn’t meant to win.

It was meant to end things.

"Ha! Burning your soul just to protect something so meaningless..." Leonardo scoffed, tilting his head with a mocking smile. "You really are an idiot."

Signut didn’t flinch.

"Someone like you, blinded by nothing but revenge, wouldn’t understand," he said calmly, his voice steady despite the surging flames of energy gathering around him. "There are things in this world more valuable than life itself."

"...Mere?"

The single word dropped like a stone.

For the first time since the battle began, Leonardo’s expression changed.

The easygoing smile he had worn until now twisted—slowly, unnaturally—into something darker.

His handsome face contorted, veins faintly rising beneath his skin as his eyes sharpened with raw emotion.

Oh.

That hit something deep.

The air itself seemed to tighten, heavy with a suffocating pressure.

Bombing the Imperial Palace.

Massacring countless people.

Carrying a hatred so deep it drove him to destroy everything in his path.

And now—

To have that hatred dismissed as mere vengeance.

Leonardo’s shoulders trembled slightly. Then—

He laughed.

But it wasn’t the same laughter as before.

This one was hollow. Cracked.

"...You really don’t get it, do you?" he said quietly, lowering his head. "You knights... you people who were born with everything... you think you understand the world."

A dark aura began to seep from his body, distorting the air around him.

"You talk about ’values’... about ’protecting others’..."

His voice grew colder with each word.

"But where were those values when everything was taken from me?"

The ground beneath his feet began to crack.

"Where were your knights... your precious Empire... when my world burned?"

Silence fell for a brief moment.

Even Signut said nothing.

Leonardo slowly raised his head, and when their eyes met again—

There was no trace of that earlier playfulness left.

Only rage.

Pure, unfiltered rage.

"Mere vengeance? I wonder if you’d still call it that... if you were in my position."

And hatred...

"When I found out my mother died like a dog... thrown away by the very man I spent my life longing for—" His voice cracked for a brief second before hardening again. "And when I finally learned that the person I admired most... the one I respected above all else... was that same man—"

His lips twisted into a bitter smile.

"Tell me... can you even begin to imagine what that feels like?"

The weight of his words pressed down on everyone present, suffocating and heavy.

It wasn’t just anger he was carrying.

It was betrayal.

The kind that rots a person from the inside out.

His revelation struck like a thunderbolt.

The image of the Emperor—fragile, indecisive, perhaps flawed but ultimately not cruel—began to crumble in an instant.

People had always thought of him as weak.

Never as evil.

But this...

If what Leonardo said was true, then the Emperor wasn’t just incompetent.

He was hiding something far darker beneath that fragile fa?ade.

"...Father...?"

A faint, shaken voice broke through the silence.

I turned my head.

Anna.

Her expression had completely fallen apart.

The composure she always carried—the calm, collected dignity—was gone. In its place was something raw and fragile.

Disbelief.

Her lips trembled slightly, as if she was trying to form words that refused to come out. Her eyes, wide and unfocused, were fixed on Leonardo—but it was clear she wasn’t really seeing him.

She was seeing something else.

Memories.

The father she believed in.

The man she trusted.

And now... that image was cracking.

"No..." she whispered, almost to herself. "That can’t be..."

Her voice was barely audible, fragile enough to shatter at the slightest touch.