Chapter 484: Numeral Of The Sun (I) (2k words)

Ethan flew through the skies at tremendous speed, the force of his movement compressing the air ahead of him into a sharp, arrow-shaped wave that pushed outward as he raced forward.

Ethan glanced back and saw the knight following closely behind, with parts of his body illuminated by flames.

He quickly turned his attention forward again and accelerated further.

The sudden increase in speed sent a powerful sonic boom rushing forward through the air as his body surged ahead.

They both eventually arrived at a distant point within the province, standing about a hundred meters apart.

To put the distance into perspective, they had just crossed roughly 6,000 kilometers from their initial position.

That was farther than the distance between five major cities, but Ethan knew they had needed to put this much distance between themselves and the others.

A battle at their level required considerable space.

The ground around them was still littered with the remains of destroyed high-rise buildings, their shattered windows scattered across the streets.

Aggravain’s right foot pivoted backward as he took a peculiar stance, stretching his sword out at an angle that pointed directly toward Ethan.

Ethan sighed before mentally willing Ragnarok to appear out of his inventory.

A flash of light erupted from his right hand, and the sword appeared in his outstretched arm, whitish miasma glowing around its blade.

Ethan had decided to fight this battle himself rather than relying on his summons; after all, the battle against the dragons might not be one where he could always depend on them.

[Battle Sense Active.]

Ethan’s Eyes of the Sage activated as special runes and markings formed within his eyes; granting him sight of every detail of this battle.

In the next instant, both of them dashed toward each other and their swords collided.

This caused a massive shockwave erupting from the point of impact, and spreading outward across a 500-meter radius, tearing through the surrounding ruins.

A fluid battle of swords quickly ensued between the two.

Ethan immediately applied the Threefold Stance, the sword method Eduardo had taught him. One hand stayed behind his back as he moved fluidly from side to side, using his footwork to control his position while parrying, deflecting, and launching precise thrusting attacks.

But Aggravain was able to deflect every one of them.

Each time Ethan thrust forward, Aggravain’s sword intercepted Ragnarok with precise movements, their blades colliding again and again.

Lightning and flames erupted from every clash, the two opposing forces flashing across the battlefield as they exchanged attacks at incredible speed.

Whenever either of them failed to intercept an attack, they were forced to evade directly, their bodies slipping past blades that came dangerously close.

However, throughout the entire clash, another technique had been quietly taking shape.

Ethan’s latest Saber skill—Trailing Edge.

For nearly five minutes, every sword swing Ethan had made had left behind a delayed copy at a specific point along its trajectory. Each mark was invisible, suspended in space and waiting for his command.

From Aggravain’s perspective, nothing appeared to have changed. He had been focused entirely on Ethan and the relentless exchange of their blades, unaware that the battlefield around them was gradually being filled with the remnants of Ethan’s previous attacks.

Then Ethan suddenly yielded ground, and took a gentle leap backwards

Aggravain instinctively moved to pursue, but Ethan’s expression changed into a grin as he activated the skill’s second stage.

In an instant, the delayed slashes struck.

The invisible sword slashes scattered around the area suddenly reproduced the remaining portions of the sword swings Ethan had performed over the previous five minutes.

Blades of condensed sword force appeared from different positions and angles, each following the exact trajectories Ethan had originally created.

Aggravain found himself caught in the middle of them, their trajectories overlapping across the battlefield.

He desperately moved to evade them, but there were just too many attacks coming from too many angles. Several slashes carved into his body in rapid succession, each impact throwing him violently from one side to another.

He was struck again and again until he finally forced himself backward, launching himself out of the immediate area to escape the storm of delayed attacks.

Ethan watched, still grinning.

Even though he understood exactly how Trailing Edge worked, he had not expected it to be this effective in an actual battle.

Aggravain’s decision to leave that immediately area had been his saving grace.

Because for the past five minutes, Ethan and Aggravain had fought within roughly that same area; therefore every delayed attack Ethan had recorded was tied to a trajectory within that space.

So, by leaving the area where those marks had been created, Aggravain had effectively escaped the range of Ethan’s accumulated attacks.

To understand Trailing Edge more precisely, if Ethan performed a horizontal slash, he could record a delayed copy of that exact sword motion at any point along its trajectory.

The copy would remain suspended at the chosen point, waiting for his command. When activated, it would resume the unfinished portion of the original horizontal slash, following the same trajectory toward its intended target, provided the target was still within its original range.

Aggravain looked down at his bloodied hands and the cuts that made it through his armor’s defense.

Regardless, his expression stayed calm.

Suddenly, flames spread through his body, flowing over each wound and burning the damaged flesh shut.

The injuries sealed rapidly, leaving only the scars behind.

He slowly moved his head from side to side, cracking the bones in his neck as though relieving the tension.

Then he took another stance.

Across from him, Ethan twirled Ragnarok before settling his gaze on the knight.

Aggravain suddenly burst into motion. But this time, the flames erupting from his body as he accelerated left a burning trail behind him; scorching everything along his path.

His speed had increased dramatically, so much that Ethan’s eyes widened as the knight closed the distance.

Rather than attempting to parry the attack directly, Ethan disappeared in a flash of lightning and reappeared some distance away.

Aggravain appeared there almost immediately, with his. sword already raised for a swing-down attack.

The knight’s speed had surpassed the threshold he had been fighting at before. It was as though his speed had nearly doubled.

But Ethan reacted at the last possible moment.

Just as Aggravain’s sword descended from behind him, Ethan turned around and brought Ragnarok upward, catching the blade in a powerful parry.

The collision forced Ethan’s teeth together as he strained against the weight behind the knight’s sword

But the blade itself was not the only problem.

Fighting Aggravain at such close range was becoming increasingly difficult because heat radiated from the knight’s body like an inferno.

Ethan’s upper robe had already been almost completely burned away, the remaining fabric continuing to peel apart under the intense heat.

Reddish burns spread across his face and exposed skin, but thankfully the damage barely had time to develop.

Ethan’s regeneration was at full time work. As his skin burned, vapor rose from the wounds while the damaged tissue rapidly repaired itself.

However, he recognized that he could not continue fighting at this distance, so he abruptly disappeared in another flash of lightning, reappearing farther away.

Aggravain immediately pursued.

But Ethan was already prepared.

He stretched out his right hand toward the knight and suddenly, black chains sprout from the ground and shot upward, wrapping around Aggravain and halting his advance.

An aura glowed around the chains as Agravain’s magic power began siphoning into them.

These were the Dragon-Binding Chains of Sir Yvain, one of the Knights of the Round Table, and a skill Ethan had borrowed from Prince Arthur.

Agravain turned toward the chains and narrowed his eyes in surprise.

It wasn’t the magic power they were siphoning that caught his attention, but rather, he recognized these chains without mistake.

They belonged to one of the knights of the King’s Round Table, and not just any knight.

Sir Yvain was Agravain’s younger brother.

Ethan took a moment to look around himself.

Much of his upper robe had been burned away, while the pants had gained several burnt patches as well.

He then turned his attention back toward the knight and noticed that Agravain was fixated on the chains.

Then Agravain looked toward him and spoke for the first time. "How are you able to use this technique?"

Ethan said nothing in reply, instead he raised the Ragnarök toward him.

Agravain waited, staring at Ethan for another moment. But when it became clear that no answer was coming, the atmosphere around them changed.

A tremendous burst of flames erupted from Agravain.

The heat was so intense that the stones around them began to melt.

Ethan’s eyes widened seeing as heatwave had also affected the Dragon-Binding Chains—chains designed to siphon magic power and even bind dragons—began melting away.

Then Ethan felt lower lip split open.

The air around him was becoming so dry that the moisture on his lips had been stripped away. His regeneration repaired the damage almost as soon as it appeared, but the heatwave still remained a heavy concern.

There was more than two hundred meters between him and Agravain, yet Ethan was still caught within the range of the sudden heat wave.

His flesh began to burn again, while regeneration quickly restored it.

The surrounding area suffered the same effects. Buildings that had been burned long ago suddenly began producing smoke once more as the intense heat reached them.

With every passing second, the temperature around the knight continued to rise.

Ever since Morgana had summoned Agravain, his magic power had been steadily increasing. Now, that growth had surged exponentially, with the flames making the situation even more dangerous.

Ethan stared at Agravain, trying to understand the situation as a whole.

Then, a sudden realization hit his gaze as a brief memory flashed through his mind.

It was from the first time he had summoned King Arthur. Ethan remembered the words the King had spoken during their conversation.

-

"Of all knights of the Round Table, one held the title of the strongest. I admit, this knight was even stronger than I, the King..."

"For as long as the sun ruled the day... no one could match his power."

-

Ethan’s gaze slowly rose toward the sky, to the sight of the ever-bright sun hanging above the battlefield, its light pouring across the world.

He sighed.

"This is going to be a pain in the ass," he whispered.

Then he released Ragnarök. Rather than falling, the sword floated beside him.

Its Sentience had taken over

The pattern within the Eyes of the Sage changed as Ethan’: eyes took on a reddish-amber hue, draconic slits forming within his pupils.

Both his demonic and draconic horns began erupting from his head, while blackish-purple scales slowly spread across his forearms.

His fingers elongated into claws, and his wings extended from behind.

In the span of moments, Ethan had taken on his over-seven-foot-tall Demon Dragon First Phase transformation.

By then, the Dragon-Binding Chains had melted away completely from the knight’s body.