"I already knew that attack wouldn't kill him, but it didn't even land a severe wound!?" I gasped inwardly. How strong is an S-Rank actually?

As he drew his sword further out, the slashes on my body grew sharper and deeper.

"Sorry, Jasmine!" I shouted, throwing her toward the car.

"I told you not to force my hand!" Rudra muttered. "You and your brother are both the same—arrogant beyond bounds. When that bastard arrogantly let me live five years ago, I made the decision to kill him after making him suffer hell on earth."

"Haha! As I said, you are an insecure bastard who can't see anyone getting stronger than—"

In the blink of an eye, his sword's hilt slammed into my guts. My body leapt into the air from the impact, and before gravity could claim me, another strike landed—then another, and another. Each hit increased the distance between me and the ground by several feet.

My internal organs were crushed, and my eyes rolled back.

After ten consecutive strikes, the attacks stopped, and I fell to the ground from over a hundred feet. The bones in my arms and legs instantly cracked upon impact.

"Where did you hide that sword?" Rudra demanded, his blade halfway out of its sheath.

"..."

"Why aren't you replying?"

He grabbed me by the hair and lifted me off the ground until my feet dangled in the air.

"I asked you something, bastard!"

"He… hehe… hehehe! You can never… get your… hands… on that sword…" I murmured, barely conscious.

Several veins bulged on his forehead in fury. With a single motion, he completely unsheathed his sword, releasing all the stored blade-like energy within it directly onto my body.

My shirt was shredded into rags of countless cuts, and not a single part of my upper body remained uninjured.

I slowly raised my right hand, grabbed the wrist pulling my hair, and murmured,

"P-pure…"

"What are you muttering?"

"Pure Yang Orb."

A blazing sphere of Yang energy instantly materialized in my hand and struck his wrist.

His grip loosened, and I fell to the ground with a loud thud.

"Yang Energy -100"

"You are the first person after your brother who made me bleed," Rudra muttered, gazing at his barely burnt wrist. "You should be proud that you actually made me draw my sword at your rank."

He gripped his sword with both hands and raised the blade high.

"Now die gracefully by the hands of the Sword King—"

Just as he was about to bring his sword down, Jasmine shouted from near the car,

"D-don't kill him, Sword King! If anything happens to the Guildmaster's brother, there will be a war between the Black Raven Guild and the Silver Sword Guild!"

Rudra turned toward her and declared with a sharp gaze,

"Your Guildmaster is only at AAA-Rank. If our guilds clash, it will be your Black Raven Guild that gets wiped out."

"Th-that might be true!" Jasmine countered. "But that doesn't mean the Silver Sword Guild won't suffer any casualties."

Rudra's expression calmed slightly, as if convinced by her words.

"Hmm, what you're saying is true. However…"

He suddenly swung his sword down and announced,

"I can just recruit new awakeners!"

From the moment he began unsheathing his sword, my Divine Sense had been continuously warning me about invisible blades slicing my skin.

It wasn't a skill he was using—his very attribute was made for blades. It was as if he could slice through anything and everything simply by swinging his sword, without even making physical contact.

And that was exactly what he did.

As his sword descended, an overwhelming Sword Intent rode along the blade, threatening to cut through everything in its path.

Before that intent could claim me, my survival instincts kicked in.

"Void Step!"

I vanished from the ground and reappeared in front of Jasmine.

"Ja-Jasmine, quickly! Start the car!" I shouted, skidding toward the door.

Strangely, Jasmine didn't move an inch. She stood frozen in terror.

"Hey! What are you—"

She pointed a trembling finger toward where Rudra had stood.

A chill ran down my spine as I saw the aftermath of his single swing.

The ground, the wall behind it, and the trees beyond the open field—everything had been sliced cleanly in two as far as the eye could see. It was as if the earth itself had been split apart.

The destruction was on the same level as when I had used Sword Aura in Forlorn City and accidentally released Lightning Slash.

"That strange teleportation technique again?" Rudra muttered, turning toward us.

"Oy, Jasmine! Pull yourself together!" I shouted, shaking her aggressively.

"M-Mr. Raj, we can't outrun an S-Rank awakener," Jasmine murmured in utter horror. "Th-these people aren't human. Th-they're like gods."

My shoulder was deeply wounded. Both my arms and legs were fractured. I was standing only because the Pain Tolerance skill allowed me to endure it.

"Jasmine! You can't compare a monster to a god!" I snapped. "We need to go—now!"

I dragged her toward the car, but just as I opened the door, an ominous feeling crept up my spine.

I instantly shoved Jasmine aside, and both of us crashed to the ground.

When I looked up, the car had been sliced cleanly in half.

Rudra had swung his sword again, cutting off our retreat.

Jasmine clutched my tattered shirt and cried in a trembling voice,

"Mr. Raj, I already texted the Guildmaster while you were fighting the Sword King near the temple. He'll arrive within twenty minutes. But… can we really survive until then?"

"D-don't worry… we'll definitely survive," I replied, breathing heavily.

If I pull that out of the inventory, I might be able to buy some time, I thought, opening the hand-sized inventory hole before me.

The moment I put my hand inside, a system window popped up in front of my face.

"Warning! The Host's current body does not possess the mythic bloodline. If the Host touches the Heart of the Fallen, this body will be reduced to nothing."

"I can just… make it fall to the ground… by opening the inventory upside down in midair…"

"Warning! The weak atmosphere of this world cannot withstand the Heart of the Fallen! If it is drawn out, the entire world will fall into catastrophe."

"Huff… huff… then why don't you tell me… what I should do… to survive?"

"Don't do anything! Cross-referencing the Host's memory—an ally has been detected in the area."

"An ally? Is it… my brother?" I asked, staring at Rudra, who was now only a dozen feet away, the distance shrinking with each step he took.

"No. According to the Host's memory, the detected ally matches the identity of Shadow Monarch Saya!"

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