Chapter 461

When Barfur admitted defeat, Embris’s face lit up.

Her secret art—made by acknowledging herself and accepting herself—had worked, and it had been enough to beat Barfur.

How could she not be happy?

Embris showed her joy with her whole body.

“Yessss, yesss, yesss!”

She hopped up and down, throwing her hands up like she was cheering.

Well, hadn’t she been losing the whole time until now?

It was easy to understand why she was that happy.

And if it was a victory achieved purely with her own strength, all the more so.

Watching Embris celebrate like that, the backup team all smiled warmly as well.

On the other hand, the vassals looked pretty shocked by the fact that she’d lost.

They’d been trying to get a complete victory, five to zero.

For Barfur to lose...

But it didn’t look like they intended to blame Barfur for the loss, because they stayed quiet.

And there were viewers who were cheering like Embris, too.

-Wow lolololololololol

-Embris is cute lololololololol

-She’s seriously so happy lolololol

-I think I’d be happy too lololololol

-The moment she wins and the clones turn back into blood lololololol

-She must’ve been really happy lololol

-Congratulations!!!!!!!!!

-Embris won so well!!!!!!

-Now it’s 1 to 1!!!!!!

Because they’d just been thinking, since Kim Che-geon lost, the vassals would probably win everything.

So Embris’s win was enough to make them cheer that much.

Honestly, everyone was happy.

Around the time everyone was thinking that—

Seong and Helena also played along, watching Embris and the viewers.

They were supposed to be doing commentary, after all.

“She definitely did a good job reflecting on herself and expressing it through blood. That part was impressive.”

“Yeah. Giving it that kind of individuality is good for a secret art. A secret art is you putting yourself into it.”

Helena praised Embris like she’d done well, too.

So everyone could feel just how well Embris had really done this time.

They already knew just by watching, even before Helena said anything.

But it made it feel... more real, you could say?

Anyway, leaving the celebrating Embris behind,

Seong talked about the next match-up.

“Next up, on the backup team, it’s Kyou. And on the vassals’ side...”

Seong paused for a beat, like he was drawing it out, then said,

“It’s Fiora.”

At Seong’s words, Kyou climbed up onto the arena like it was finally time, and Fiora also came up onto the arena, but unlike Kyou, she looked pretty dejected.

Kyou didn’t fall for that.

He’d already lost to that exact kind of act once before.

And he’d also heard she was just timid by nature.

Fiora, now up on the arena, fidgeted and bowed at the waist as she greeted him.

-H-hi. I-I’m F-Fiora.

“...I know. This is our second time fighting.”

-Uh...?

At Kyou’s words, Fiora tilted her head and trembled like she was asking what he meant.

Seems like she didn’t remember.

Kyou ground his teeth, like her reaction irritated him a little.

But he quickly regained his composure.

He’d heard her personality was like that from the start.

He tried to endure it as much as possible.

Then Fiora asked him instead.

-U-uh, u-uh, u-uh... have we met befoooore...?

“...We met once before and fought.”

-S-sorry. I-I don’t remember weak opponents...

It was obviously close to trash talk.

But what was really infuriating was that Fiora had no awareness of it.

Because she genuinely meant it.

So Kyou had no choice but to get even more irritated.

-Eyy lmaooooooooooooooooooo

-What is that taunt lmaooooooooooooooo

-Fiora’s timid but she says everything lmaooooooo

-We fought? You? I don’t bully weak kids ??

-Lmaooooooo

-Fiora is hilarious lmaoooooo

-No but Kyou, was that revenge this whole time lol

-Revenge only you remember lolololol

As the viewers doubled over laughing like that,

Seong also tilted his head like it was the first he’d heard of it.

“Hm. Sounds like Kyou and Fiora have fought before.”

“Huh? Seong, you don’t remember either?”

“I wasn’t the one who fought.”

“Hm, but Seong, don’t you also not remember weak ones?”

“Ah, is that so?”

At Seong and Helena’s back-and-forth, the viewers couldn’t help laughing again.

If anything, Seong’s dry attitude made it funnier.

-Of course vassals take after their master?

-Lmaoooo how are the reactions exactly the same???

-Lmaoooooooo

-This is hilarious lmaoooooooo

-Kyou’s starting to feel kind of pitiful at this point lol

-So THAT’S why Kyou joined the backup team lolololol

Even if the viewers were laughing and Seong didn’t seem to care that much,

Kyou didn’t care anyway.

If it were the old Kyou, he would’ve gotten all irritated and snapped at stuff like this, but—

Kyou had truly changed.

First of all, he knew very well that Seong and Fiora weren’t saying that to mock him.

To those two, from their standpoint, Kyou wasn’t a strong opponent.

Meaning he didn’t even stick in their memory.

So Kyou made a vow.

“This time, I’ll make it so you can remember.”

-I-I’ll try to remember too!

“...Hoo.”

At Fiora’s words, the viewers burst out again.

-Lol if you’re weak, it can’t be helped~

-Lmaooooooo

-But you’re too weak to remember, you know?(somewhat paraphrased)

-Lmaooooooooooooooooooo

-Ah, Fiora is way too charming.

Because Fiora’s words almost sounded like that.

So everyone couldn’t help laughing.

But Kyou and Fiora were serious.

They looked at each other and waited for Seong’s signal.

Seong also seemed to think there was no need to wait any longer, so he raised his hand, and in that moment, both of them got ready.

Both prepared to strike at each other.

And between them, Seong’s hand dropped, and Seong’s voice rang out.

“Start.”

With those words, a massive typhoon swept through.

A typhoon that covered the entire arena.

A storm mixed with rain, snow, and hail swallowed the arena in an instant.

WHOOOOOOO—!!!

A typhoon that would sweep everything away.

But that wasn’t the end.

Even a typhoon alone was a natural disaster that could crush humans like nothing—

But within that typhoon, hailstones crashed into each other and formed enormous plasma, and that plasma turned into lightning and wrapped around the storm.

BZZZZZZZZZZZT————!!!

In the instant it became a lightning typhoon.

In the very center of the typhoon, a blue light bloomed as if it were forming the eye of the storm—

And something burst out.

KRAK———!

Tearing the typhoon apart was none other than Fiora, both hands ? NоvеIight ? (Original source) transformed into blades.

Her timid look from before was nowhere to be seen—clear eyes.

Her hands weren’t even trembling.

Seeing those blade-like hands that tore the typhoon apart without leaving even a trace, Kyou moved his hands quickly, like he’d expected this.

Then the authority of the Storm Lord, who ruled storms, began to manifest.

In the moment the surroundings were instantly covered in storm clouds thanks to the typhoon,

At Kyou’s gesture, a massive bolt of lightning fell.

A demon-slaying lightning strike dropped like it was cleansing the world, and a bolt so huge it could cover the entire arena and more came crashing down toward Fiora.

Even Fiora couldn’t do anything about the speed of the lightning bolt, so she swung her arm at it.

And in that moment, blue energy coiled around her, and countless dragon heads burst out from the tip of Fiora’s blade.

Those dragon heads wrapped in blue energy opened their mouths all at once, and in time with Fiora swinging her blade-like arm, they spewed breath.

A blade of blue breath swallowed the lightning bolt falling from above—

And tore it apart.

KWA—————RUMBLE!

When the lightning bolt and the blade of blue breath collided, it tore the lightning apart, tore the air itself apart, and even the storm clouds that had been painted across the sky by the typhoon were ripped open.

Faced with a battle that looked like it belonged in myth itself, the viewers couldn’t keep laughing like before.

-H-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h?

-What is this??????

-No, Kyou is THIS strong??????

-This is way stronger than earlier??????

-In the first place, the way he’s using his abilities is way smoother than before;;;;

Within the backup team, they’d judged Kyou’s control to be below Luna, Reaper, and Kim Che-geon—

But what they’d just seen was a smooth flow you could compare to them.

But even with Kyou’s massive improvement,

The viewers couldn’t help being stunned when they saw Fiora tear it apart like it was nothing.

-Fiora is actually insane too;;;

-Fiora has to be top-tier among the vassals, obviously;;;

-She’s seriously strong;;;

-H-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h

-That’s a total reversal from her timid look, holy...

-That’s exactly why you fall for that kind of gap, for real????

Because Fiora’s showing was outstanding too.

Unlike earlier, when they’d rooted for Embris over Barfur—

This time it was close to fifty-fifty.

There were people rooting for Kyou getting his revenge.

And there were people rooting for Fiora because they just liked Fiora.

Either way, they all felt the same.

They were really enjoying this match.

While the viewers were cheering for their sides like that.

Fiora, floating up in the sky, suddenly plunged as if dropping straight down and came flying at Kyou—

But Kyou unfolded the typhoon again toward Fiora.

In the moment storm clouds gathered again and the typhoon’s brutal winds began to rage,

Fiora extended her left arm, one of the two arms she’d turned into blades, and quickly changed it into the shape of a massive maw.

And then.