System vs Rebirth

Tristan was confused by Noel’s smile, even more so after listening to the answer.

“In that case, you only need one thing: Quality. Just cut the enemy down.”

The problem was that they didn’t have the strength to cut the enemy down, so why would he give that answer?

After encountering this situation himself, Tristan could only think of one way to cut the enemy down.

When the mysterious guy was about to crush them, both the guy and Andreas sensed a fluctuation of energy from a distance.

“!!!” The mysterious guy thought that it was the maid trying to launch a sneak attack.

On the other hand, Andreas’ sharp ears could hear the breathing of an old man.

“You think you can launch an ambush on me? That maid won’t be able to do anything.” The guy waved his hand down.

But that was the time their reinforcement drew his blade, creating a massive shock wave.

“Wha—” The mysterious guy widened his eyes as his spiritual energy was being swept away by this shock wave. In addition, he could feel the sharpness within the energy as if he were being sliced by thousands of knives. “What is this?”

He ended up using his spiritual energy to form a barrier, blocking this attack. His own barrier cracked, barely stopping the shock wave.

It was there that he noticed who the reinforcement was. It wasn’t the maid.

“Sword Arbiter…” The guy sucked a cold breath. There were a lot of questions in his mind, but the most important question was why the Duke would go all the way here.

“!!!” It only took him an instant to understand. The maid must be the culprit, but he didn’t know how the maid was able to reach the city. Sandra was clearly weak, and her speed was slower than that of the car. Hence, he thought Sandra was just a distraction.

However, Tristan and Felicia smiled at this time. Felicia gradually got up while recalling what happened a few hours ago.

…

“Although I’m not as smart as the teacher, I’ve remembered one of his tactics. Escaping from that guy is impossible, so we’ll cut him down here.”

“Cut him down? How? We can’t even escape from him, and you want us to kill him?” Felicia argued.

Tristan smiled. “We just have to invite the person who can.”

“Duke Lorelei?!” Felicia widened her eyes in shock.

Tristan turned to Sandra. “I need you to go to the nearest city from here. It should be only fifteen minutes in that direction, if I remember the map correctly. Tell them to send their fastest bird to Duke Lorelei’s main city and request Duke Lorelei’s help.”

Before she left, Tristan handed over the Ardagan family’s insignia as well as his student’s badge. “This should be enough to convince them.”

Sandra nodded. She hurriedly exited the car and went to the city.

Tristan added, “The bird is not faster than that guy, but it’s surely faster than our car. This is a very dangerous role, Felicia.”

“I see. We’re going to be the bait.” Felicia nodded.

“Yes. But not just normal bait. We are also heading toward Duke Lorelei’s city. The closer we are to the city, the better. We probably need to survive for at least two hours. It’s going to be hard, but it might be possible if we coordinate with Andreas.”

“Understood.” Felicia happily agreed with the arrangement. It seemed that there was another reason why Noel took him as his student.

…

When she recalled the plan, Felicia couldn’t help but smile. “We won.”

Duke Lorelei looked at the guy in the air, recognizing him. “Why would you attack my guests, Lean?”

“!!!” The mysterious guy, whose name turned out to be Lean, gritted his teeth. He needed to escape as their plan had failed. He had miscalculated two things. The first one was the rune card and its capability. He never thought that the rune cards were capable of buying more than two hours of time. The second one was the maid.

Before he could escape, Andreas suddenly shouted, “He has lost the blessing of the spirits! His soul is being corrupted by a demon!”

Duke Lorelei and Lean widened their eyes. The Duke raised his head, noticing the surprised expression as if confirming the accusation.

“For the man who is known for its thousands needle technique, do you have anything to say, eh, Silent Arbiter?” The sword arbiter squinted his eyes.

“He is lying. It’s just an empty accusation without any proof. Are you planning to get entangled in this matter, Duke? You should know that it won’t just affect you but also your family.”

“No. I should be the one asking. Is the royal family planning to involve my Lorelei family?” Duke Lorelei’s expression turned dark. “Besides, if you haven’t lost your spirit, the easiest way to prove that he is lying is to show your spirit ability. If it’s proven that he is lying, I will let this matter go.”

Lean was clenching his fists. He had two options. First, he was going to run away, but he had exhausted a lot of his spiritual energy. He doubted that he could be faster than Duke Lorelei in this scenario.

The second option was to deal with the Duke here. He should be able to create a gap with his overwhelming energy and crush the duke with his remaining energy.

When that happened, he could kill all of them here since Tristan’s group could barely protect themselves in that condition.

“In that case, it seems that you can only let me go…” Lean raised his palm as if he were planning to show his spirit ability. But when he opened his palm, tremendous energy flew toward the Duke and Tristan. Even if the Duke could block it, Tristan would definitely die.

“Ha…” Duke Lorelei inhaled some air as his right foot took a step forward. After that, he waved his sword horizontally, releasing his own spiritual energy.

It was supposed to be a clash of two energies, but Duke Lorelei’s energy actually shred Lean’s energy apart as if there was no resistance.

In fact, a few grazes suddenly appeared on Lean’s face and arms as if he had been cut.

“What?” Lean widened his eyes in shock.

“Youngsters these days surely love to take shortcuts. I don’t know how you are able to get all that energy, but in the end, it’s too weak. Even if you are already above spirit grandmasters, you don’t understand a single thing about the transcendent path.”

‘What is this overwhelming power?’ Lean never thought the gap between him and Duke Lorelei didn’t shrink even after fusing with a demon. ‘I need to run.’

Lean turned back and flew at his fastest speed.

However, Duke Lorelei simply sheathed his sword.

Andreas couldn’t help but think that Duke Lorelei was trying to let him go, but he was wrong. Duke Lorelei gathered all his momentum for a single draw.

“!!!” Andreas barely followed the movement of the sword draw.

“Instant Slash.”

“Gaaahhhhh!” Lean’s scream suddenly resounded across the field. Before anyone realized it, there was a wound on Lean’s back, as the blood was spurting like a fountain. With such a big wound, Lean ended up falling from the sky.

Duke Lorelei looked angry. “The reason why people call me invincible among spirit grandmasters is not because I couldn’t reach spirit transcendence. I simply couldn’t find any ancient demons. You are ten years too early to challenge me.”