Star Strike drew upon the power of the stars to strike the opponent…

while Severance severed everything with pure aura.

They were two different worlds of swordsmanship.

Azel didn't know how the original Sword Saint had developed Severance… it was madness beyond comprehension.

But as his sword connected, the truth struck him harder than the recoil.

The blade didn't go through.

It stopped… right against Elione's skin.

But that was fine.

That was part of the plan.

He used the recoil to push himself backward, flipping mid-air and creating distance.

At the same time, Elione's knife had connected with his side only to bounce off his reinforced bone density with a loud clang.

Azel landed in a crouch while breathing slowly with his blade angled behind him.

Elione hit the dirt a second later, a crater exploding beneath him as dust scattered.

The boy rose and his eyes… had turned red. The skin around them blackened like charred ash.

Azel tilted his head.

"Is that what you have to sacrifice to adapt to everything? You look hideous as fuck, dude. Get some makeup."

"Fuck you…" Elione hissed.

He leaned his head back, and the sound of bones cracking filled the air.

His muscles twisted and his skin stretched as new veins surfaced.

His frame expanded.

The six-pack that had barely shown before now looked sculpted from marble, each breath making them flex visibly.

"Where the hell is this man growing to…?" Azel muttered with an exasperated sigh.

And then the System flickered.

[Fragment of the Sky has been completely analyzed]

"Oh?" Azel blinked. "That sounds nice…"

[Item Name: Fragment of the Sky]

[Grade: SSS]

[Description: A fragment from one of the Children of the Sky that fell into the world of the living during its crossing. Upon contact with a mortal, it unlocks their latent potential to the maximum while giving them a flaw that opposes their morality.

A regular human body cannot contain divine power. The longer the fragment fuses, the stronger the vessel becomes… but the faster it burns out. A vessel cannot be killed until the fragment is extracted.]

pThe Fragment of the Sky is fusing deeper into the vessel]

Azel exhaled sharply.

'Damn… even a minor villain gets an SSS item.'

His gaze returned to Elione, scanning him carefully.

He now had pale skin and the veins on his body were dark… in short except for the head, his body looked as pale as a corpse.

'I'll guess the head houses it.'

He tightened his grip on the sword.

Elione laughed like a madman.

"Azel!" he shouted. "Was that all you had planned? You said I was jealous of you, right? Don't worry, I won't kill your women easily."

He smirked wider, revealing rows of sharp teeth. "I'll make them satisfy me first. One by one. I wonder how Sybil would taste."

Azel's expression didn't move.

Elione waited.

He wanted a reaction… no he needed one… he wanted to see some flash of anger… anything that would make all of this worth it.

But Azel simply breathed out through his nose.

"I guess you've won," Azel said at last, and to Elione's shock, he dropped his sword.

"Hahaha… finally you—"

Elione stopped mid-laugh.

His vision blurred.

His legs trembled and knees nearly buckled as black blood poured from his eyes, ears, and mouth.

"Seems like your human body can't handle the power you're forcing out. How pathetic."

"You bast—"

Azel raised his right hand.

His lips moved softly.

"De… li… ci… o…"

The ground lit up.

Dozens… no, hundreds of runes flared to life around the entire field. The women's coordinated work from yesterday roared awake.

"—d?" Elione's voice broke.

From above, spells rained down.

Ice daggers, holy arrows, flame lances… an entire magical storm descending in a spiral of death.

"What the—"

He tried to leap back, but the ground froze around his feet. Ice crept up his ankles, sealing him in place.

He had adapted to ice yesterday, yes but this had caught him offguard and before he could even try to pull them out…

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The first volley struck.

The air filled with shards of ice and wind as the barrage pummeled him relentlessly.

'My adaptation… it's not working?' Elione thought in panic. 'It's injuring me… but I already adapted to this!'

He felt the difference.

These spells were laced with the same "divine" energy that had shredded him yesterday… even though they didn't wound him the second time, it was like his body hadn't fully absorbed it.

He was invincible… the only problem with his ability was that he only gained partial immunity unless he takes the full brunt of a technique. If someone mixed magic and mana together and he hadn't adapted to the both or had only adapted to one, he would still take damage.

Elione growled as the ice wave finished. "Hah… Is that all you have?!"

He was still smiling when the world turned red.

A sea of fire descended from the sky, swallowing him whole.

WHOOSH!

The explosion sent waves of heat across the field.

The inferno blazed for several seconds, painting everything in orange light.

Within the flames, Elione's silhouette twitched.

"What the hell are you doing?!" he roared.

Azel didn't answer.

He raised his hand again.

"Second layer."

Water surged from below, engulfing the flames and Elione both. The mixture of steam and magic turned the air white.

The water formed a massive sphere… a prison.

Elione thrashed inside it with bubbles rising violently, but he wasn't drowning.

'He's adapted to water,' Azel remembered from yesterday, he was combining several spells into one to increase the effectiveness.

Fine.

Then they'd burn him again.

"Third layer!"

A shadow fell across the bubble as dark fire erupted from the runes, covering the water like ink. The flames sank inward, turning black as they touched the surface.

Elione screamed.

The fire wasn't normal.

He hadn't adapted to it before…

He clawed at his own body as the flames ate through him.

His head cracked and black blood spurted out as the surface of his face began to peel.

Through the spells, Azel caught a black crystal protruding out the side of the young man's head… It was giving off the oily dark mana.

"There you are," Azel muttered. "Caught you."

Elione howled, tearing through the fire with a burst of oily mana. "Fight me!"

The ground split as the flames exploded outward… but he walked through them easily.

Azel sighed.

"…so."

That single word carried the weight of inevitability.

Elione blinked and then his world tilted.

A whoosh cut through the air, fast enough that even the wind lagged behind it.

He never saw anything move… But he felt it.

His head separated from his neck in a clean, precise motion.

For a moment, his body stayed upright then the head hit the ground with a dull thud.

Inside the fallen head, the black crystal glowed and tried to heal the vessel until something invisible pierced into it.

Azel's eyes glowed as he extended his left hand, using a holy arrow to draw the crystal toward himself.

The moment it reached his palm, he used his divine mana to suppress it and palmed it.

"So this was your trump card, huh?" he murmured.

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