Chapter 517: The Swordswomans Spotlight (Part 3)

Chapter 517: The Swordswoman's Spotlight (Part 3)

Nidala's words struck the audience like a piercing shockwave, ringing in their ears and rattling their minds. Sonya Selby... is also a Sacred Realm sorcerer!

Everyone stood dumbfounded, muttering in disbelief. "Sacred Realm..."

The fierce clash in the arena quickly pulled them back to reality. Watching the Scarlet Swordswoman stand her ground against the prodigy of Truth University, the spectators realized they were not dreaming. The freshman from Sword and Roses University, Sonya Selby, participating in the Meteor Calamity for the first time, was already a Sacred Realm sorcerer!

Unlike Damian, a famed figure with a noble background, Sonya was simply a country girl from a distant rural village. It had not even been a full year since she became a sorcerer, barely half a year, in fact. Logic dictated she should not have condensed her Silver Wing yet. By all rights, this grand stage laden with glory should never have belonged to her.

No one believed she had a chance to defeat Damian. In everyone's eyes, her best possible outcome was forcing Damian to reveal his Sacred Realm before losing in obscurity. If she could achieve at least that much, then no matter how dazzling Damian was, her radiance would still shine.

Everyone waited for the village girl to fail, having already braced themselves for the expected outcome.

The host, Arsen, had stayed up all night polishing his script. He was ready to turn her defeat into a stirring narrative of perseverance, ensuring she would leave bathed in honor.

Adele had already drafted a long post. The moment Sonya lost, she would rally the Claw-Stretching Club to flood the school forums with praise for Sonya's diligence, talent, and defiance. Lines like "she sees four in the morning at Cailleach every single day" stood ready in her drafts. She even planned to compare past iterations of the tournament to prove that Sonya was merely unlucky.

Louisa planned to take Sonya shopping in a couple of days, having long wanted to give the rural girl a proper makeover.

Angelica kept it simple. She had hidden a crate of alcohol in the dorm, waiting to drown their sorrows upon their return.

Everyone else felt much the same. They were all prepared to comfort her, waiting for the inevitable defeat.

And yet, against all odds, the Scarlet Swordswoman shattered their expectations time and again. Here she was, standing toe-to-toe with Damian. She had learned from his combat techniques, exploiting an opening to force him to unleash his Sacred Realm. Now... she had even wounded him!

Under the perplexed gaze of spectators across the entire kingdom, the honors that once belonged solely to Damian were now shared with Sonya. Compared to the battered yet unyielding Scarlet Swordswoman, the duke's son of Vlozrada suddenly seemed dull beside her newfound brilliance. Everyone realized they were witnessing a far more brilliant shooting star streak across the sky.

Beneath that dazzling brilliance, the lethal fangs she had just revealed captured the true attention of the sorcerers.

The Sacred Realm sorcerers in the audience widened their eyes and turned toward Professor Trosan. "Hidden Blade!?"

"Hidden Blade..." Felix repeated, his expression complicated.

"Hidden Blade!" Angelica and the others nearly jumped in excitement, while Adele looked completely lost. "What is Hidden Blade?"

"Hidden Blade, an Upper-Glorious Rainbow Miracle!" Angelica suppressed her excitement and explained simply. "Put simply? It lets you slash through dimensions!"

"I know how spatial slashes work," Adele said. "I saw it in Demonfall Blood. Didarose split space with a single strike, dividing the world in two. It looked amazing!"

Angelica shook her head with a smile. "No. That is just an exaggerated artistic effect for spectacle. At the Sacred Realm level, those large-scale spatial attacks are actually the least efficient and easiest to block. A Sacred Realm intercepts all external attacks, including those. True space magic bypasses space entirely. Have you heard of the Heart-Stealer?"

"Of course. My mom used that ghost story to scare me when I was little, claiming that if I didn't behave, the Heart-Stealer would come take my heart."

"Hidden Blade works on the same principle," Angelica said. "It crosses space and strikes directly at vital points. A Sacred Realm functions like armor covering the body, perfectly intercepting external attacks. Cross-dimensional attacks ignore that barrier entirely, striking the sorcerer directly from the inside!" ℯ

Adele finally caught on. "Doesn't that make the Sacred Realm useless? There's no way to defend against that!"

"Exactly," Angelica nodded heavily. "Professor Trosan earned her title as one of the Ten Sword Saints precisely because of this nearly unbeatable technique."

"Then Sonya is guaranteed to win!" Adele pumped her fist excitedly. "He's just the son of a Starforger Duke. Claw-Stretching Club President, crush him!"

Angelica's smile faded as she shook her head slightly. "It won't be easy for Sonya to win."

"Why? Isn't Hidden Blade incredibly powerful?"

Angelica stared at the clashing blades in the arena. "It is, provided Sonya has truly mastered it. Clearly, she hasn't, or she would have slit Damian's throat just now."

Arsen raised the same question with Adele's exact confusion in mind. "Lady Nidala, since Contestant Selby has used Hidden Blade, doesn't that put Contestant Vlozrada in grave danger?"

"She can use Hidden Blade, but she is far from mastering it," Nidala replied calmly. "The core spirit of Hidden Blade is the Three-Winged Space Class spirit, Unceasing. Trosan likely gave it to her. I do not know how long she has practiced this Miracle, but for now, she cannot unleash its true power. Hidden Blade is recorded in the Starry Miracle Catalog. Miracles and spirits are expensive, yet they remain trivial for Sacred Realm sorcerers. It is a technique anyone can learn. The real question is why Trosan stands alone as the Hidden Blade Sword Saint. Why do other swordsmen fear her blade?"

At this point, the female host beside him blurted out, "Does that include you, Lady Nidala?"

The ill-timed remark caused a brief silence across the arena. Arsen quickly smoothed over the awkward moment. "Why don't other swordsmasters learn Hidden Blade?"

"Because they can't," Nidala answered, acting as if nothing had happened. "To truly master Hidden Blade, a caster needs at least a Sacred Realm level of proficiency in Space Class magic. In other words, they would have to switch their primary specialization entirely."

Her explanation made the difficulty instantly clear. A Two-Winged sorcerer might still study two to three sorcery classes at once, but Sacred Realm sorcerers typically focused on a single discipline.

The reason was simple. Elevating a single sorcery class to the Sacred Realm level often took ten to twenty years. A sorcerer capable of reaching that level of proficiency in a second discipline would still need years of dedicated study, especially for a subject as profound as Space Class magic.

"All Miracles capable of bypassing the Sacred Realm, such as Hidden Blade, Heart-Steal, and Bone-Erosion, require Space Class proficiency at the Sacred Realm level. They are fundamentally Space Class Miracles, merely expressed through other means by the caster.

"This little girl, Sonya... She can barely graze Damian at best. There is no way she can deal any real damage to him."

"Why?" Arsen asked. "She already cut his neck just now. If it went just a little deeper—"

"That 'little bit' is exactly what sets the Hidden Blade Sword Saint far above all other swordsmen," Nidala replied. "Sonya cannot go that little bit deeper because she 'can't see.' As long as she relies on vision to launch spatial attacks, she will never bypass his outer defenses and hit him where it hurts. Damian's Sacred Realm would have blocked her Hidden Blade before it got there."

Arsen said, "Could you explain it in simpler terms? The audience might not follow."

In public, Nidala was remarkably patient. "Ordinary spatial attacks, like void-piercing bullets or space-splitting sword strikes, only make attacks harder to defend against. It is like sharpening a weapon to make it more lethal."

"Miracles like Hidden Blade and Heart-Steal, which bypass space entirely, operate on a higher level altogether. They attack the inside of a sorcerer's body, an area that cannot be defended. Unless the sorcerer specializes in the Brute Body Class, their internal organs remain as fragile as paper.

"However, a major difficulty comes with space-crossing Miracles. Sorcerers cannot easily determine spatial coordinates."

"Spatial coordinates?" Arsen repeated.

"Ordinary spatial attacks rely on physical anchors," Nidala explained. "For a sword, or a bullet strike, space merely extends along a tangible object. Cross-spatial attacks are different. The caster must tear open a spatial channel and deliver the attack directly to the target. If you can pinpoint the spatial coordinates of an enemy's heart, you can shatter it instantly."

"Is it that hard to determine spatial coordinates?" Arsen asked.

"Very hard," Nidala said, pausing. "Since you've never been to the Distant Sky Domain, it's only natural you wouldn't understand."

Arsen murmured, "My apologies for not having visited the Distant Sky Domain."

"Put simply, the space we inhabit constantly changes. The world is always rotating. Even if we sit still, the spatial coordinates of our location one second to the next can differ by hundreds or even thousands of meters."

"The motion of the world serves as the greatest obstacle to cross-spatial attacks. Without sufficient knowledge of spatial laws, a sorcerer simply cannot lock onto coordinates."

Arsen frowned slightly. "But Contestant Selby managed to wound Contestant Vlozrada just now..."

"She is locking on with her eyes," Nidala said, a trace of mockery in her voice. "What she's doing is the equivalent of using a sniper rifle as a club. Because Hidden Blade is only cast along her line of sight, it merely grazes Vosloda's skin before his Sacred Realm neutralizes it.

"She needs to 'see' inside him. Only then can the blade erupt from within and give her a true chance at victory. Otherwise, Hidden Blade remains nothing more than an expensive, ordinary strike."

***

The Scarlet Swordswoman used the collapsing debris to retreat rapidly across the arena floor. Her battle suit hung torn in several places, exposing a body covered in wounds. Cuts marred her smooth face, leaving her battered and streaked with dust.

In contrast, Damian stood immaculate. His attire remained spotless without a single tear, and the wound on his neck had already completely healed under the power of his miraculous recovery.

"You haven't even constructed your own Sacred Realm yet. Did you only ascend to the Distant Sky Domain a few days ago?" Damian paused, shaking his head. "No, I actually felt a trace of superiority just now. That is shameful. Compared to you, I feel like I have wasted all these years."

He offered a soft smile. "You will soon construct your Sacred Realm and catch up to me, but I might not keep up with you afterward. Perhaps tonight is my only chance to defeat you."

Not every Three-Winged sorcerer could construct a Sacred Realm, but no one believed Sonya would fail. Even Nidala spoke of her as a future Sacred Realm sorcerer. Reaching that stage was merely a matter of time for her.

Yet the absence of a Sacred Realm remained the deciding factor tonight.

Severe injuries and blood loss rapidly drained Sonya's stamina, leaving her weaker with every passing moment. Damian attacked without restraint under the protection of his Sacred Realm, forcing her entirely onto the defensive as she retreated step by step without a chance to counter.

The audience fell silent, the initial excitement fading away. Everyone realized her status as a Three-Winged sorcerer could not change the outcome of the fight.

Sonya wiped dust and blood from her eye with her sleeve. She tightened her grip on the wooden sword and took her stance once more, refusing to yield.

Damian suddenly stopped and sheathed his sword. "Let us call it a draw."

"What?"

"A draw," Damian repeated. "This marks the first time in Meteor Calamity history that two Sacred Realm sorcerers have emerged at once. Such a moment is completely unprecedented, and the committee will not mind having two champions this year."

He gestured across the vast arena. "You didn't lose, nor did I win. This stage is big enough for both of us. What do you say?"

His Miracle-amplified voice echoed throughout the venue. Nobody had ever suggested a draw in the finals, yet the proposal made sense to the crowd. Neither fighter needed the Meteor Calamity to prove their glory anymore. Instead, the tournament needed them to elevate its own prestige. However...

"Call it my own bias, but I find you pretty annoying right now," Sonya said softly. "I am at a disadvantage, and everyone expects me to lose. Accepting a draw makes people assume my first place was charity from you. In reality, I would still be second, forever owing you a favor."

Damian shook his head. "No one would dare mock a Sacred Realm sorcerer."

"To my face, sure. Behind my back, they certainly would," Sonya replied. "Besides, I do not need your sympathy. What makes you so sure I will lose? Watch carefully."

Sonya unleashed Blood Moon Shattered Lake. Damian moved to counter, only to sense a sudden spatial distortion right in front of his eyes.

It was Hidden Blade! Bypassing space entirely, the invisible edge shaved past his lashes, a millimeter from blinding him!