The Mage of Primordial Chaos

Chapter 498: Dance of Sharpened Steel

Glancing at Silver’s held-out hand cautiously, I slowly held out my own.

Then…

… Now!

As our fingertips touched, I suddenly summoned my Chaos katanas and slashed towards him. However, it only hit metal.

He had drawn his sword as well, and had attempted to do the same thing as I did.

“Looks like we had the same idea, huh?” I said with a smirk, but he only gave a snort and backed away a good few meters before pointing his blade at me.

“Hmph. I didn’t expect that to work anyway… I only did that to test you, that’s all. The offer still stands, you know. Join me, and we shall take down the Midnight Syndicate together.”

“Uh… that offer would be more tempting if you didn’t have a sword pointed at me,” I said, sighing and shaking my head. “But alas… I’m not someone who teams up with others easily. Sorry, but… I don’t need you.”

“… Hah. You don’t need me, huh…” Silver gritted his teeth tightly and clenched his fists. “That’s the same thing those damn bastards told me when I returned to the Fortress. But I’ll show them… exiling me was a mistake. Since you don’t want me either… heh. I’ll just have to show you too…!”

With a loud, demonic screech, Silver laughed like a maniac and raised his sword high up into the air, as if calling down power from the heavens. A golden aura surrounded his body as the Empyrean of Earth, Terrarim, answered, and changed his armor’s color from silver to a radiant gold. His sword changed along with it, turning into a glorious saber that looked like a legitimate god’s weapon.

“Now… face the wrath of an Empyrean’s power, mortal!”

As he dashed towards me with his newly charged blade, I gave a sigh and facepalmed.

“You know the type of people I hate in this world?” I asked quietly, closing my eyes. “… The ones who try to play god.”

Suddenly, my red eyes snapped back open, crimson Chaos energy surrounding my body. It was black and red, like dark scarlet blood. My two Chaos katanas formed a cross in front of me, and I met his blow head-on.

CLING!

The sound of metal against metal rang out in the air again as our swords clashed, but strangely, this was different from any other weapon my Chaos katanas have encountered in the past. The devouring effect of Chaos was not working on it.

No… it was more like… the power radiating from this blade was simply too powerful for me to devour it all? Eventually, I would be able to eat it, but… there was simply so much power that the devouring effect of my Chaos blades seemed to not exist at all here.

“Oh-ho… I’ve been curious about these blades since just now, but they really are fine, eh?” Silver said with a grin, pushing harder. “My sword should be able to cut through anything with the divinity bestowed upon it, and yet…”

I suddenly slashed at him with my second katana while keeping my defense up with my first one, causing him to leap back again.

“Isn’t that simply proof it’s not so divine after all?” I taunted, smirking. “For a god, you’re not all that strong, if you can’t even kill a ‘mortal’ like me.”

“Ha! It’s only a matter of time,” Silver replied with a snarl. “I haven’t fully controlled this power yet… there’s some kind of resistance pushing back, interfering with the fusion process… but soon enough, this power will fuse with my mana, and then, I’ll be unstoppable.”

A resistance…? Could it be…

I fell into thought, remembering what that ghost-like girl told me on the way here, but-

“Pay attention, fool!”

“Wha-!” My eyes widened as Silver suddenly charged at me at an insane speed, something I had not been expecting. Just now, he had not been this fast… the bastard had been purposely holding back earlier to catch me with this surprise attack.

“Ngh!” I groaned as a kick from his metal boots landed in my stomach. I had managed to parry his sword strike, but couldn’t defend against the kick in time. Flying backwards, I landed all the way back at the bottom of the tremendously long staircase that led down here, and Silver smirked beneath that knight-like mask of his.

“Master!”

“Xuan Kai!”

Amane and Mei Gui drew their weapons and prepared to fight, but I got up to my feet and put a stop to that.

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “Stand back. I got caught off-guard, that’s all.”

“But… we can take him down easily together…” Amane murmured. Still, I shook my head. If we did that, there was a chance this guy might suicide. I needed him alive, and to make sure that happened, I had to beat him fair and square in a one vs one.

“Alright… you’re getting it now,” I muttered, tightening my grip on my Chaos katanas as I walked closer to Silver.

“Heh… that look in your eyes… that’s the spirit.” Silver chuckled darkly and also began walking towards me.

This time, I was the one to go on the offensive first. Using Space Magic, I erased the distance between him and I, but his reaction speeds were fast enough to block. Unfortunately… I had anticipated that from the very beginning.

“… Heh.”

Blink.

Suddenly, I vanished and reappeared behind him, placing one knife by his neck and the other against his back. Now this, no matter how fast his reactions were, he could not react to in time.

“… So much for a god,” I whispered by his ear. “You lost.”

“Ah… but did I?”

My eyes widened as I felt his muscles tense—he was going for a counterattack. Hurriedly, I slashed his neck and stabbed through his back, but to my complete surprise, he still spun around anyway and cleaved at me with his greatsword. Forced to back up, I dodged away, but was unable to pull my swords out of his body in time.

“Tch…”

“Hmph…” He glanced at my two Chaos katanas lodged into him, then gave a snort and pulled them out as if they were nothing, letting them topple to the floor. His wounds immediately began healing as if they weren’t there at all, and the golden blood dripping out of his body stopped in an instant.

Walking towards me menacingly with sword in hand, he gave a deep laugh.

“For all the talking you’ve done… you’re really not that strong. But then again… you are a mortal, and I am a god. I can’t really blame you for losing, can I?”

Amane and Mei Gui wanted to help, but I had ordered them to stay put. And so, they did, like the obedient girls they were. 

Slowly raising his sword at my neck-level, Silver delivered his final verdict.

“I gave you an offer, but you refused. And mortals who defy gods… have no place in this world.”

Rearing his arm back, he prepared to stab me straight in my heart, but-

“Heh… fool.”

My body suddenly disappeared into the air as if it had been a mere shadow of me this entire time, and from behind Silver, he felt a two hands lift him into the air, choking the living air out of him.

“W-Wha… i-impossible…”

“Impossible? I’ve heard that far too many times to count,” I gave a dark chuckle and continued choking, using all of my vampiric and angelic strength. Perhaps a true god could fight back against this combination of power, further enhanced by Chaos, but this man was nothing more than a failure of one. The power wasn’t even completely his yet, and hence he could not resist my overbearing physical strength.

“U-Ugh… how…” he croaked, pulling at my hands with his arms. He had dropped his sword upon being lifted into the air, and was now completely within my control.

“How?” I smirked. “Let’s just say… when it comes to trickery, I’m far more experienced than you. Remember those swords you threw at the ground? Look again.”

I turned my body around so he could see what had been behind him, and his eyes widened even further.

“Wha… only one… sword…?”

I smirked. “Nice observation skills.”

Indeed, there was only one sword there. Why? Because in the instant I had used Blink to teleport behind him, I had in fact created a shadow of myself, then shapeshifted into a Chaos katana using Shadow Magic while stowing away one of the real ones to make it seem realistic. The reason the girls didn’t help there was also because they saw me do this, hence why they knew it was going to be fine.

Shapeshifting had been one of the powerful Shadow Magic skills I learned from Ling Xin, who taught it to me one day during some free time. It cost quite a bit of mana to use, but that was of little problem to me.

“And now, for the final touch… I need you alive, but… just barely.”

“N-No…! How could I have… ngh… ugh… ah…”

Sealing the deal, I used one of the few Forbidden Spells I could use.

Forbidden Magic — The Thief’s Hand.

My Chaos energy began devouring the power of Terrarim within Silver rapidly, and his consciousness along with it. He had no strength to struggle as the process took place, and after about half a minute, he finally fainted for good, and I dropped him to the floor.

“… Whew,” I let out a deep breath. “And that’s that.”