Return of The Martial King

Chapter 234

“Haap!”  

Iniya unleashed a Blade Aura, sending it hurtling toward Philena. Philena quickly cast a magical barrier to block the attack.  

“Embrace Shield!”  

Since she had not yet reached the 8th Circle, the highest level of defensive magic Philena could immediately cast was the 4th Circle Embrace Shield. Normally, a mere 4th Circle defense barrier would have been pierced effortlessly by Iniya's Blade Aura…  

Boom!  

With an explosive roar, the aura and the magical barrier collided and dissipated simultaneously. Iniya clicked her tongue in frustration.  

“Tch, have I gotten so weak that I can’t even break through that…?”  

The issue lay in her severe injuries.  

Ordinarily, Iniya's skills placed her among the top-tier Aura Users. If it came to a direct confrontation, only a select few, such as Kalken, Attila, or Repenhardt from the Duchy of Antares, could rival her. Her mastery of swordsmanship and Aura control had reached a transcendent level.  

However, Iniya couldn’t overcome the limitations of being an elf.  

Among all the races that walked the earth, elves were physically the weakest.  

Even though Iniya possessed a robust physique by elven standards, she was still far behind other Aura Users. At best, her physical strength, stamina, and durability were comparable to an average adult human male or an orc youth. Compared to other races, her physical capabilities were critically lacking.  

Thus, after taking two direct hits from Teslon, Iniya's body was now on the verge of collapse. The only reason she could still move was thanks to her unparalleled Aura control. At that moment, she was compensating for her failing muscles by propelling her body through the sheer power of her Aura.  

Her already battered condition was worsened as most of her remaining Aura was being used to stabilize her disrupted qi flow and keep her body moving. As a result, her strength and agility were reduced to a mere fraction of their usual level—barely one-tenth.  

‘I don’t even have enough Aura left to use the Breath of the North Sea… With that, holding her down would’ve been child’s play… Damn it…’  

Her body refused to listen, making her frustration grow.  

Philena, noticing an opening, launched a counterattack.  

Flames and frost erupted simultaneously, surging toward Iniya. The ground beneath her feet froze, followed by an explosion that sent shards of ice flying in every direction, aiming to tear through her body. While the icy fragments obstructed her vision, a concentrated bolt of magic, an Arcane Bolt, was launched with intense penetrating power, streaking toward her.  

Despite her exhaustion, Iniya immediately shifted into a defensive stance, deflecting and evading every attack with precision.  

Stronger attacks were parried with her sword, while smaller ones were deflected by tilting her Aura Barrier at an angle to let them glance off. If her body had been in peak condition, she wouldn’t have needed an Aura Barrier at all. However, relying entirely on Aura to move her body made it difficult to execute her usual precise swordsmanship.  

Philena bit her lip.  

‘How is she even doing that?’  

From Iniya’s perspective, her defense techniques were pitifully subpar. But to anyone else watching, they were more than extraordinary.  

As they aimed for each other’s throats, the two women continued their life-and-death game of cat and mouse.  

Despite her severe injuries, Iniya remained a top-tier Aura User. And while Philena was still a 7th Circle mage, her combat instincts, honed under the tutelage of the young Repenhardt, rivaled those of a Grand Mage.  

Their respective strengths and circumstances led to an impasse. Each of their fatal strikes narrowly missed the other, creating an unending stalemate.  

Amid their frenzied battle, it happened.  

Boom!  

Suddenly, a golden pillar of light pierced the sky. The sheer magnitude of its brilliance was divine, shaking the earth as if struck by an earthquake. The winds roared through the void left in its wake, unleashing destructive power on an unimaginable scale.  

The blinding light, illuminating the surroundings like midday, made both women turn their heads simultaneously.  

Their eyes widened in shock as they shouted at the same time:  

“Teslon?”  

“Repenhardt-nim?”  

*         *         *

From the center of the sky-piercing pillar of light, a muscular giant of a man raised his right fist high.  

As the pillar of light began to narrow and slowly fade, the golden glow disappeared. The night sky over Zeppelin gave way to the faint blue hue of dawn, painting the heavens in the colors of morning.  

The man who had pierced the heavens, the Fist King Repenhardt, calmly lowered his fist. Silently, he gazed down at his hand.  

With a slightly excited expression, Repenhardt murmured to himself.  

“Fist and Mana Become One… I had theorized the concept, but I never expected it to work this well…”  

It was a realm he had never reached, no matter how much he trained—a fivefold Calamity Horn.  

How many sleepless nights had he spent researching whether he could somehow utilize it, even through unconventional methods?  

By constantly analyzing and experimenting, he developed a hybrid magic ritual that merged Aura and magic. The result was the Hybrid Calamity Horn, a simplified version of the original Calamity Horn.  

The Hybrid Calamity Horn, a technique of the Fist King yet also a ritual of the mage, served as the foundation for the fusion art of Aura and magic, Fist and Mana Become One. Theoretically, utilizing Fist and Mana Become One made it possible to add more layers to the original Calamity Horn.  

However, every attempt until now had ended in failure, with the original Calamity Horn shattering due to some unknown deficiency. Yet, upon achieving the fifth layer, that issue had resolved itself naturally.  

‘Indeed, the balance of Aura’s flow and stability crystallizing into destructive power only begins at the fifth layer. Up to the fourth layer, the foundational Aura ripples lacked positional stability, which is why it never worked before.’  

Repenhardt suddenly looked up at the dawning sky, a wry smile playing on his lips.  

“Even so, this can’t truly be called a proper sixth layer, can it?”  

The brilliant pillar of light had indeed been massive and magnificent, but Repenhardt himself knew it was incomplete.  

From the start, the sheer thickness of the pillar was evidence of its imperfection. If the energy had been properly concentrated, there was no way the pillar would have appeared so enormous.  

‘If it were a true six-layer Calamity Horn, it would have manifested as a thinner, more piercing form.’  

To use an analogy, what Repenhardt had done was like attaching additional iron to an arrowhead to increase its weight when shooting from a bow.  

The added weight would certainly enhance its destructive power. However, executing a true six-layer technique would require not only adding iron but also sharpening it to a perfect point, maximizing its penetrative power and transforming it into a complete arrowhead. Only then could it be considered a flawless six-layer Calamity Horn.  

What Repenhardt had performed, at best, could be called something akin to 5.5 layers.  

“Still, there’s no denying its power is vastly superior to the fifth layer.”  

He turned his gaze.  

About ten meters away, amidst the ruins beneath the castle wall, lay Teslon, collapsed.  

His body was drenched in blood, and streams of crimson flowed from his eyes, nose, and ears, leaving him looking like little more than a corpse. The state of the ancient artifact he had wielded, the Adamandril Suit, was even worse. Its upper body had been utterly destroyed, reduced to dust and scattered to the winds. The lower half was barely holding its shape, teetering on the brink of complete collapse.  

And yet, despite all this, Teslon was still alive.  

“Kh... Krrrk…”  

Groaning in pain, Teslon forced his eyes open. His trembling fingers twitched as he gritted his teeth and spat out words filled with venom.  

“You… damned Demon King…”  

In a dry voice, Teslon shouted,  

“What... what kind of sixfold layering is that? How dare you patch up Gym Unbreakable’s ultimate technique with magic? You bastard, making a cheap knockoff on your own!”  

Repenhardt, staring down at him with indifferent eyes, murmured,  

“So, you were alive, Teslon.”  

Even if it wasn’t a proper sixfold layering, Repenhardt’s Calamity Horn, enhanced through Fist and Mana Become One, had demonstrated overwhelming power. It had effortlessly crushed Teslon’s fivefold Calamity Horn and even pulverized the Adamandril Suit into dust.  

By all logical reasoning, Teslon shouldn’t have survived. He should have been annihilated without even a trace of his body remaining.  

And yet, Teslon was not only alive but also shouting. Repenhardt knew exactly why.  

At the moment when Repenhardt’s attack had struck Teslon, obliterating his fivefold Calamity Horn and unleashing its devastating force upon him, Repenhardt had seen it clearly.  

“Triple Force Shield, Double Arcane Shield, and was it the Prismatic Barrier of Seven Attributes?”  

Just as Repenhardt himself had survived an otherwise fatal attack, Teslon had erected a barrage of magical barriers in that critical instant to defend himself.  

Unlike Repenhardt, however, Teslon hadn’t needed to form seals or incantations to cast high-circle spells. Using his incredible magical computation ability alone, he had instantly deployed all those barriers on the spot!  

This wasn’t because Teslon had maintained composure under pressure, but rather because Repenhardt’s original brain had always been monstrous.  

It was similar to those moments when a tune randomly pops into your head, and you can’t help but hum it. You don’t know why it’s there, and no matter how much it annoys you, it keeps looping in your mind without your control.  

What Teslon had done was something like that. Sensing the imminent threat to his life, a part of his brain had involuntarily and automatically activated the most effective magical barriers. It was beyond his conscious control—pure instinctive response.  

Repenhardt chuckled dryly.  

“My brain really is monstrous…”  

When it was his own, he hadn’t realized it. But now, seeing it from an outsider’s perspective, it was utterly absurd. Those intricate, headache-inducing magical formulas had been as natural to that brain as humming a casual melody.  

“And on top of that, the Prismatic Barrier is 7th Circle, isn’t it? I even managed to break through a 7th Circle spell?”  

Repenhardt muttered incredulously, a mix of astonishment and amusement.  

“As expected of someone who solves everything with their fists—why not stick to punching? Acting like a mage and elevating your mind mid-battle…”  

Repenhardt paused mid-sentence, tilting his head slightly. Somehow, it didn’t feel right coming from him.  

In any case, Teslon’s last desperate feat had saved him from instant death, but it didn’t change the fact that he was dying.  

His limbs were grotesquely twisted, his muscles and bones mangled. Blood continued to pour from all seven apertures of his face, the result of overextending his brain’s computational abilities. Even if Repenhardt didn’t finish him off, Teslon’s body was already halfway submerged in the river of the afterlife.  

Repenhardt clenched his fist and directed it toward Teslon.  

“Teslon…”  

Teslon painfully lifted his head to look at Repenhardt.  

“Ghh… Repenhardt…”  

Resigned to his fate, Teslon murmured bitterly,  

“What a shame… I should’ve at least taken one of your arms with me…”  

The resolve in Repenhardt’s eyes wavered ever so slightly as his clenched fist trembled.  

Initially, he had intended to deliver the final blow, ensuring there would be no future threats. A swift strike to snuff out Teslon’s life once and for all. But…  

“Hmm…”  

Looking at an opponent who bore his own face, he found himself unable to act.  

It wasn’t that he harbored any lingering attachment to his former body.  

Repenhardt had fully adapted to this new form, and he understood how living as the Fist King rather than the Demon King allowed him to better pursue his ideals. There was no reason to return to his old body.  

But still, it was his body. It was his face. Striking it down was not as easy as he had expected.  

And that wasn’t the only reason for his hesitation.  

Even if it wasn’t his body anymore, and even from an outsider’s perspective, Teslon’s talent and intellect were extraordinary.  

To think that such feats were possible with Teslon’s soul inhabiting that body… The brain that housed such unparalleled magical ability—arguably the greatest in human history—was too valuable to destroy.  

‘It feels a bit odd to say this about myself, but still…’  

Even if Repenhardt saw Teslon as nothing more than another person, killing him felt like a waste of brilliance.  

Sensing Repenhardt’s hesitation, Teslon opened his eyes again.  

Frowning deeply, Teslon asked,  

“…What are you up to, Demon King?”  

Repenhardt stiffened, looking down at Teslon in silence.  

After a brief moment of contemplation, Repenhardt spoke softly.  

“Would you consider living, Teslon?”