The Sun of the South was imprisoned.
— Lukas: What’s wrong? Mad just because you heard the truth? You’re the weakest in the hierarchy and still try to look down on me.
Haha! Hilarious, a failure calling someone else a failure.
Anatoly, veins bulging:
— Damn you… how dare you compare me to you, an insignificant insect?
He closed his hand. The Coronation Sword shone in scarlet within his grip.
— Die, vermin.
Lukas:
— You haven’t changed much, abomination.
You look different, but you’re still the same arrogant bastard as always.
Anatoly:
— What?
Lukas:
— Hey, Caesar.
Caesar:
— Yes, young LEGIONARY! For honor, for the glory of—
Morgana:
— Cut it out, soldier boy. Let’s go, CHOCOLATINHO!
Caesar:
— Ill-mannered witch…
Lukas smiled while raising his shield.
Anatoly:
— Useless failure.
The clash of the Moon Shield and the Coronation Sword was imminent.
CLANG!
Lukas:
— Black Impact.
Doom!
The air was sucked in, compressed… and the impact was returned multiplied by light and darkness.
Anatoly was thrown back.
Shit… why does it hurt so much? What happened? Why is my regeneration canceled?
How can a failure with no defined mana deal real damage to me?!
Lukas:
— It’s not over yet, bastard.
Anatoly looked up while still suspended in the air.
— Shit… I have to defend!
He felt overwhelming danger.
Lukas was above him, both gladii crossed behind his shoulders.
The blades reflected the glow of his eyes: golden and purple-black.
Anatoly, clenching his hands:
— Scarlet Ruby…
Shit, shit, shit… I won’t make it in time!
The gladii descended with surgical precision — heavy and absolute.
Lukas:
— AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!
XXII Surgical Cuts — Sacred of Shadows!
The blood shell covering Anatoly was sliced like butter.
The blades didn’t only cut flesh —
they cut the concept of regeneration
and the barrier of the Blood Ruby.
Caesar (thinking):
“These blades… were not made for humans to wield…”
Morgana:
— If he falls… he’s not coming back.
So scary, my CHOCOLATINHO…
Sarya, from afar:
“Incredible… so he had this level of power?”
“He told me he was weak…
but this thing in front of us is not the boy from the festival.”
“He didn’t show everything back then…
So against ME he wasn’t serious?”
“What is happening? Everyone calls him a failure…
With this level of power?
He looks like someone else.”
Ravia, far away, watching the purple-gold flashes cutting the battlefield:
— Lukas, how did you change this much…?
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
I saw you being bullied by your own brothers, rejected in training,
ignored in banquets, beaten, called weak, a failure, a mistake…
that didn’t deserve the Fernandes surname.
Ravia, blushing:
— But how and when… did you become strong while no one was watching?
Why is my heart like this…?
— I want to see how far you will go, Lukas Fernandes.
The blades ripped the air again.
CLANG — CLANG — CLANG!
The world spun.
Anatoly crashed to the ground like a broken meteor.
The XI mask cracked on the side.
Blood spilled… but didn’t regenerate.
He widened his eyes in pure shock.
— I-Impossible… — he spat crimson. — The concept… of my life… is being erased…
Lukas landed with assassin lightness.
The gladius dripped with the blood of an Original Disaster.
— You call this “life”? — he grinned crookedly.
— What you have… is just arrogance with a heartbeat.
But a corpse doesn’t need a heartbeat, right?
That smile…
It wasn’t human.
It wasn’t heroic.
It was the smile
of someone who already killed this same enemy once before.
Morgana, in ecstasy:
— Yes… YES… this is the chocolatinho I remember.
The beast is awake…
Caesar, tense voice:
— He’s on his limit.
The Seal on his chest is unstable…
He didn’t have this Seal before, witch! Did he?!
Hey, shameless fox!
If he goes beyond this… he could die!
Anatoly, trembling in hatred:
— YOU… SHOULDN’T BE LIKE THIS!!
You were just a useless rat of the South!
You should be crying, running, begging!
Lukas tilted his head:
— I did that too many times.
This time… is your turn.
A golden aura surged upward.
A purple-black aura surged upward.
And then—
THEY FUSED.
The earth cracked in circular patterns around him.
Sarya’s skin shivered.
— …That is…
Divine Power… and Profane Power… together?
Ravia, breath stolen:
— That’s not human…
Anatoly, stumbling back:
— D-Don’t come closer…
HOW is this possible?!
Why?!
Lukas marched.
Each step
was like a drum of a disaster’s funeral.
— You messed with Sorriso.
— You messed with my friends.
— You imprisoned my father.
And you think…
I’d let that pass quietly?
Shadows twisted around his body like serpents.
Light and Darkness bit the ground like lions.
— I came back in time for this only.
To kill you better.
Anatoly tried to cast something—
Too late.
Lukas vanished.
CAESAR:
— ATTACK PATTERN: OBLITERATION!
MORGANA:
— KISS OF NIGHT AND DAWN!
The gladii crossed Anatoly’s chest in an X.
? Fusion Impact — Black Sun ?
A blast consumed the world.
Silence…
Anatoly felt cold.
And burning heat.
The cut burned like virtue.
— Aaaaah! Why does it hurt?!
Impossible… Divine Power? VIRTUE?!
Lukas:
— Bingo.
So it was true…
Your heart isn’t in your chest, CURSED PLAGUE.
Sarya struggled to breathe.
Ravia trembled… smiling unconsciously.
— I want to see how far you go, Lukas… — she whispered.
Lukas pointed the gladius at the horizon.
Anatoly, veins exploding:
— Damn it! I refuse this!
I refuse to lose to a rat!
To a human worm with the blood of that rat Kyros!!
Lukas:
— Hey. You talk too much.
Haven’t noticed yet you’re already dead?
Didn’t feel something missing?
Tick-tock, vermin… time is running out!
Lukas smiled…
Not the smile of a commander.
But the smile of a demon.
Anatoly felt death for the first time.
— H-How is this possible?!
The Northern armies are retreating…
The Empire is pressing forward…
What strategies are those?!
Then he felt it:
Tiger claws
shredding the protective ritual.
— AAAAAAAAAH!!
A roar split reality.
The mana flow was severed.
The Tower Gates were closing.
And with them, the magic feeding the invasion.
Lukas walked forward calmly.
Picked up the shield in front of Sarya.
He smiled —
sweetness and destruction in the same expression.
— Everything will be fine.
Don’t worry.
Sarya heard her own heart pounding:
Dum… Dum…
But her face remained unreadable.
Anatoly, desperate:
— What did you do?! Damn failure!
Lukas hammered the shield into the ground.
The earth rose like waves.
— Divine Turtle Defense!
Shell of the Sacred Turtle of Shadows!
A barrier rose
across the entire Empire.
From the South to the Roraima Mountains, on the border.
High-tier mages supported the foundations.
Lukas connected the whole Empire
into a single ultimate defense.
Caesar, crying with pride:
— BEAUTIFUL!
How wonderful to see such formation
with a strong commander like you, young LEGIONARY!!
Morgana:
— Oh chocolatinho, AMAZING!
That makes me aauuu— I need water!
Caesar:
— Shameless fox!
That’s all you think about!
You ruin the moment!!
Morgana:
— The virgin soldier speaks too much…
You know, soldier boy, I—
LAST CENSOR SEAL ACTIVATED
Caesar:
— Fox without shame!!
Do you think he’s like you?!
My LEGIONARY isn’t your kind!
Morgana:
— We’ll see about that, soldier… we will see…
Anatoly looked at Lukas
and didn’t see a boy.
He saw a predator.
Lukas:
— What did I do?
I leveled the game, CURSED PLAGUE.
Tick-tock… time is passing.
Tick-tock…
Anatoly felt a shiver down his spine.
— How does he KNOW?!
Thunder shook the skies…
Kyros was still trapped.
But at that moment—
the Empire understood:
“Tiger claws were cutting the space between Towers.”
A new monster was fighting for them.
The failure had returned.
And this time…
…to exterminate monsters.
End of Chapter 13