Chapter 82: The Sovereign vs. The Aura-Knight

Chapter 82: Chapter 82: The Sovereign vs. The Aura-Knight

"Covenants, without the sword, are but words." — Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan

•••

The vanguard expedition had been betrayed twice.

First, Valerius had sold them to the Eclipse Syndicate.

Then the Syndicate’s greed had led to its own defeat.

And now, both plans had fallen apart.

Joel’s legion controlled the island.

Thalassa’s healing sphere protected the wounded.

And Valerius, the academy’s strongest student, stood alone among the wreckage.

With everything else gone, he had only his own strength left.

The Aura-Knight’s final technique came at a terrible price. It drew power directly from the user’s soul, placing an enormous burden on the body.

But Valerius no longer cared about the consequences.

VMM!

White-gold light erupted beneath his boots.

The energy climbed his legs and spread across his entire body, forming a brilliant suit of armor without a single strap or seam.

His aura grew stronger.

A terrifying pressure swept across the island.

Inside the healing sphere, the students were pushed backward by the force.

Thalassa’s protective barrier bent inward like glass struck by a powerful blow.

But it held.

All thirty-seven students stared in fear and amazement.

Nearby, Proctor Harrison struggled to support himself with one arm.

His wounds were only partially healed, but he was fully conscious.

He watched Valerius unleash everything he had left.

Harrison had personally approved the young man’s appointment as an escort.

Now, he was watching that decision become his greatest mistake.

Then the enormous sword above Valerius finally finished forming.

Thirty feet long.

Made entirely of concentrated energy.

Its blade hummed so loudly that everyone nearby felt their teeth ache.

The intense light cast strange shadows across the island, stretching them in the wrong directions.

The grass around Valerius burned black.

Even the smoke hanging above the wreckage glowed beneath the sword’s light.

"Run," a girl with freshly healed hands whispered toward Joel.

But Joel showed no intention of moving.

The other students remained silent.

One third-year covered his mouth with both hands, too frightened to speak.

The boy holding the halberd no longer seemed like an ordinary student.

And the man standing opposite him barely looked human anymore.

"You took my army," Valerius said.

His voice had lost all its earlier confidence.

"They promised me the Tear’s second market. A second Class Evolution. Power without limits!"

His grip tightened.

"I was supposed to become the Syndicate’s knight!"

Joel looked at him calmly.

"You gambled thirty-seven lives on a theory nobody has even confirmed."

He tilted his head slightly.

"We don’t even know whether the Tear can do what they claimed."

"I was promised power!" Valerius shouted.

Joel tightened his grip on the halberd.

"You were promised a deal. And deals can change."

[Ding!]

[Incoming asset: projected greatsword, kinetic class, city-grade.]

[Reminder: all incoming force is welcomed, filed, and kept. No appointment necessary.]

Valerius raised the giant blade over his head with both hands.

The sky around it went silent, like the world itself was waiting.

Then he swung.

KRAKOOM.

The air split before the blade even landed. The sound came first, and then the huge sword of light crashed down like a final judgment.

"Domain."

WHUMM.

[Ding!]

[Pinnacle authority projected: Domain of the Inertia Sovereign.]

[Radius: 50 meters. All kinetic energy within the sphere is subject to the Sovereign’s ruling.]

[Audience: one [Aura-Knight], thirty-seven survivors, one proctor, one temple.]

The enormous blade struck the edge of Joel’s Domain.

And stopped.

It wasn’t blocked.

It wasn’t pushed back.

It simply froze in midair, barely a hand’s width above the grass.

In a single instant, every bit of momentum behind the attack had disappeared.

The blade continued glowing, but it could no longer move.

Its deep humming filled the air.

Even the surroundings had become strangely still.

A burned leaf hung motionless where the force of the attack should have blown it away.

Smoke stopped curling upward.

The entire island seemed frozen in place.

Valerius stood with his arms locked at the end of his swing, his boots digging into the grass.

He poured more power into the blade, using everything his Aura-Knight ultimate technique could provide.

But nothing happened.

"Move!" he shouted.

The sword remained motionless.

Within Joel’s fifty-meter Domain, nothing could move unless Joel allowed it.

Valerius pulled harder.

He used his arms, his back, his legs, and every bit of strength he had developed through years of sword training.

Still, the blade refused to move.

And every bit of force he applied was turned against him.

Joel’s Domain wasn’t a barrier he could break through with enough strength.

It was absolute control over movement itself.

The students stared in disbelief.

At first, they couldn’t understand what they were seeing.

Then, slowly, the truth became clear.

Joel wasn’t struggling to hold back the sword.

He wasn’t even fighting against it.

He had simply decided that the sword was no longer allowed to move.

And Valerius, the academy’s strongest student, could do nothing but lean against his own weapon and scream in frustration.

[Ding!]

[Charge banked: full. One city-grade strike, accepted in its entirety. The Sovereign thanks the donor.]

[Balance available for withdrawal: one Meteor.]

Valerius tried to cancel his giant sword.

But nothing happened.

The blade of light remained frozen in midair, still glowing brightly.

He tried to release the hilt, but even his hands refused to move.

It was as though his entire body had been trapped at the moment of his attack.

And Joel was the one controlling everything.

Joel calmly approached the frozen sword.

He raised one foot and placed his boot on the flat side of the blade, just above its sharp edge.

Nothing happened.

The sword couldn’t cut him.

After all, cutting required movement.

And inside his Domain, nothing moved without his permission.

TCK!

Joel stepped onto the blade.

Then he began climbing.

TCK! TCK!

One step after another, he walked up the thirty-foot sword as though it were an ordinary staircase.

The students stared in disbelief.

Their academy’s rank-fifty student was casually climbing a weapon taller than the transport’s mast.

Several students gasped, and Thalassa’s healing waters quickly calmed them.

Joel didn’t hurry.

There was no reason to.

The frozen blade cast his shadow ahead of him, making it look as though he were climbing over his own silhouette.

Below him, Valerius could only watch.

His face had gone pale.

"What... what are you?"

His voice trembled with fear.

Joel continued climbing.

"You stabbed a dying man in the chest because someone promised you power."

He glanced at Valerius.

"I’m here to collect on that promise."

He stopped an arm’s length above the flat of the blade, level with Valerius’s eyes.

Then he lifted the halberd from his shoulder.

Its handle warmed in his grip.

Slowly, Joel positioned the weapon’s sharp spike against Valerius’s collar.

He didn’t strike immediately.

Instead, he looked directly into the traitor’s eyes.

"Withdrawal."

At that moment, all the momentum Joel had taken from the enormous sword’s attack was released.

Every bit of force behind the thirty-foot strike was compressed into the narrow edge of a single blade.

The power was packed into one devastating point.

And Joel sent it straight back to its owner.

[Ding!]

[Skill channeled: ’Meteor Piercer’ (Compressed). Full-bank kinetic discharge, contact radius.]

[Source of funds: the donor’s own deposit.]

[Target: the neck.]

SHNK!

The strike was perfectly clean.

Valerius’s head separated from his shoulders while his golden aura was still glowing.

A moment later, the light faded from both his head and body.

The thirty-foot sword vanished.

His glowing armor disappeared, leaving only his lifeless body behind.

Valerius, the academy’s strongest student, dropped to his knees.

Then his body collapsed onto the grass.

Inside the opening in his chest, where the energy had escaped, a mana core remained.

It was still warm and glowing faintly.

Joel hooked it out with the curved blade of his halberd and let it fall onto the grass.

The small golden core rolled a short distance before coming to a stop.

Its light slowly dimmed.

Joel placed his boot on it.

KRUNCH!

The core cracked beneath his foot.

He twisted his boot a quarter turn at a time, crushing it until the remaining light finally disappeared.

Only a small pile of golden powder remained on the grass.

Joel lifted his foot.

Then he turned toward the thirty-seven students watching him.

[Ding!]

[Boss eliminated: Valerius, the Turncoat Aura-Knight. Kill registered: instantaneous.]

[Remnant asset: one mana core, crushed. Resale value: none.]

[Charge banked: 1, carried over. The Meteor has been delivered.]

The survivors stood trembling inside Thalassa’s healing sphere.

A boy began bowing repeatedly, too frightened to stop himself.

"Monster," a girl whispered.

There was no hatred in her voice.

Only fear and disbelief.

Nearby, Proctor Harrison sat where the healing waters had restored his injuries.

He watched the golden powder settle on the grass, thinking about everything he had witnessed.

The expedition had gained someone far more powerful than anyone had expected.

And that same person had saved his life.

Harrison looked toward Joel.

Joel noticed his gaze and gave him a single nod.

For the next hour, nobody dared approach him.

The wounded students stood quietly as Thalassa continued healing them.

The healthy students remained beside them, too frightened to speak.

For the first time since the expedition began, everyone followed orders without complaint.

"The Deep," Thalassa said as she gently lowered the healing sphere, "does not carry screams."

"Account closed," Vulcan reported.

The flames covering his enormous body slowly faded.

From the shadows beneath the bridge, Nyx spoke with a hint of disappointment.

"Six blades would have been slower."

Beyond them, the bridge of light stretched toward the central temple.

The ancient structure stood silently, waiting.

And somewhere within its deepest chamber, the Apex Tear continued glowing with a strange light.

Gideon Vane’s laughter echoed from the distant stone walls.

His mutated voice sounded like several people laughing together.

But there was nobody left on the island willing to answer him.

The Tear’s light stretched across the bridge like a second sunrise.

It was still there.

Still waiting.

And still unclaimed.

Joel rested his halberd on his shoulder and began walking toward the bridge.

His legion followed behind him.

Nobody tried to stop them.

The Eclipse Syndicate’s ambush had failed.

Valerius, the traitor who had sold out the expedition, was dead.

And Joel now controlled the only bridge leading to the Apex Tear.

He had revealed his true strength, defeated the enemy forces, and taken complete control of the battlefield.

One thing had become clear to everyone who survived.

Within the Sovereign’s Domain, nothing moved without Joel’s permission.