Leonel smiled, his demeanor relaxed. "You seem to be quite confident."
Amery looked into Leonel's eyes, it was hard to tell what he was thinking. He seemed to have the same level of indifference no matter the situation. Back when he was defeated in Leonel's hands, he had the same casual expression. After a brief instant of suppressing his Lineage Factor from activating, he reacted quite normally.
In truth, his reaction was quite muted. It had to be remembered that his goal from the very beginning was the egg. Unlike Leonel, he had every intention of taking on the Shadow Sovereign Lineage for himself. Such a thing would have given him three Lineage Factors, placing him beyond almost anyone who had ever existed. Not only that, but all three of his Lineage Factors would be exceptionally powerful.
But that had been snatched from him. The fact that he had decisively left and managed to rein in his temper, even to the point that he didn't even bother to target Leonel personally after that event although there were definitely opportunities to do so, went a lot toward showing Leonel exactly the kind of person this man was.
However, it was also precisely this sort of attitude that Leonel wanted to knock down a peg. Not targeting him afterward was a sign of clear disregard, he simply hadn't cared enough about Leonel to do so, and even now, he seemed to think that it would be a simple matter to take a step forward.
In Amery's mind, it was only right that Leonel had grown to this point. Leonel had been under a lot of pressure, forced to grow faster otherwise he might very well lose his life. As for him, he had never been under such pressure in his life. Every challenge he had come across, he had always shattered with just a single swing of his sword.
He hadn't faced any sort of adversity, and yet he had grown to this point. The truth was that he very much hoped that Leonel was as powerful as he seemed, maybe in this lifetime, he could finally have a real challenge.
He had had a taste of that during his tribulation. He had come across all sorts of powerful existences that pushed him to his limits and his growth then was far beyond anything he had ever experienced in the Human Domain. However, it had already been a small while since then.
It was about time he had a second.
Leonel didn't seem to expect Amery to respond, nor did he care to listen to his response. Instead, he looked down toward the ring on Amery's finger.
"That ring, I have someone who would be far better suited for it. I'll be taking it off your hands today."
Leonel said these words without the slightest hint of emotion in his tone. His smile had entirely vanished, nothing but the vacant depths of his eyes staring forward as though an endless abyss was hidden within.
He returned Amery the words that he had said all that time ago. That day, he had nearly lost his hand, and if not for Anastasia's awakening, his path of Crafting may have been cut off forever, or at the very least, crippled.
Leonel didn't take very many things seriously, but what he absolutely abhorred was disrespect.
Respect and Persistence. These were the two things that he had built his life upon. And whenever he didn't receive the sort of reciprocation, he believed that he deserved, the only thing he felt was a bubbling up of fury.
His body flashed with a blinding Bronze Aura, his Divine Armor clicking into place. The violent and raging aura of a pillar that seemed to connect the earth below and the skies above manifested, his ten Stars flooding his body with power.
He took a step forward and the air beneath him cracked and shattered. It looked as though space itself was collapsing, a sight that shook those below to their core, especially as the ground immediately beneath his feet rippled, a hole with edges as smooth as a mirror took shape, almost as though someone had stamped a god's pillar down and then quickly removed it.
Amery's fingers trembled and a sword light suddenly appeared before Leonel.
With a slash, Leonel shattered it, his body flickering and vanishing and appearing before Amery in an instant. The wind wrapped around his descending black rod, forming a howling barrier that echoed through the city.
Amery, wrists flexed, his movements smooth and unhurried, but despite his seemingly slow movement, his swords seemed to reach the perfect location at just the right time.
BANG!
Billowing steam-like Forces surged in all directions, a violent black Sword Force from Amery and a radiant violet and blue Spear Force from Leonel. It felt as though the two were dividing the world between the two of them, painting reality in their own colors and leaving an indelible mark behind for the countless generations to follow.
They separated and suddenly rushed forward once more.
Leonel's spear spun and moved in elegant arcs no less beautiful than Amery's swinging swords. It was hard to believe that such a gorgeous sight could come from a spear at all. The Leonel of today and the one Amery had met couldn't even be said to be on the same level. That Leonel only knew how to simplify and use the crudest and most direct actions. This Leonel seemed to see the entire board, carrying both the systematic and rigid rules of the game, while also having the flair of ingenious, brilliant movement that could only come from a deep well of creativity.
Every time they clashed, another large swath of the city collapsed, flattened beneath their might, but neither one of them seemed to be going all out.
Their gazes seemed to clash more than even their weapons. They tracked one another through the air, the sounds and reverberating impacts of their weapons unable to obstruct their meeting eyes in the slightest.
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