When Renzo slugged Aster with his bare fist,
“?!”
both Renzo and Aster were startled.
For different reasons.
'Monstrous strength...!'
Aster’s impression was simple and accurate.
Aster blocked Renzo’s fist with his sword.
But after blocking, he spun once in midair.
It had been his choice to reduce the damage, and even so the force was absurd.
'What is this guy?'
Renzo was surprised as well.
His attack had been strong enough to make Aster rotate once in the air.
Yet Aster landed just like that.
And very cleanly.
'Did he predict how I’d attack and how strong it would be—in that brief instant? Or is it pure reflexes?'
Renzo’s eyes gleamed.
'I need to test him.'
Renzo drew both hands back.
Immediately after—
Ta-dang!
“Hrrmph!”
Aster retreated as he parried a two-hit flurry.
'This man has no intention of using feints at all!'
Renzo’s attacks were honest. If he drew both fists back, then he threw a one-two with both fists. It was the simplest logic.
But the speed was too fast to evade, and the power was strong enough to drive you back even if you blocked.
Even a telegraphed attack worked out in Renzo’s favor.
Aster firmed up his guard again and said,
“As expected, you intend to attack Frondier.”
“No. I intend to kill him.”
After hearing that answer, he couldn’t just let it pass. Aster’s eyes flashed.
“I can’t allow that. Frondier isn’t your plaything.”
“Right, he isn’t.”
“...?”
Tok.
Renzo pressed fist and palm together.
“He’s not someone I’ll kill for fun. There’s a grudge.”
“A grudge?”
“Yeah. He deceived me.”
Renzo’s eyes glinted with killing intent. He really did seem angry at Frondier.
“What did he deceive you about?”
“He said he’d let me go one-on-one with a god! I cooperated with him on that condition!”
“...You mean during the war against Manggot?”
“Yeah!”
Renzo nodded big, as if Aster had nailed it.
“But the place he dropped me into was full of small fry, and both the Zodiacs and Manggot’s Shepherds treated me like dirt! I took it out on all the trash nearby and cleaned them up, and when I thought about it—turns out that was exactly what Frondier wanted!”
...That figured.
Aster had heard the rough outline.
'Frondier said he dropped Renzo in the most dangerous spot.'
If that was true, then even though Renzo had fallen into the most dangerous spot of the war, he still wasn’t satisfied.
In other words, it wasn’t fun.
What a chilling thing to say.
Swallowing the thought, Aster asked,
“Did you want to fight a god?”
“Not particularly.”
“...For some reason our conversation keeps missing the mark.”
Aster was feeling toward Renzo what others often felt toward him.
Of course, Aster himself would never think he was that type.
“Whether I fight a god or not doesn’t matter! What matters is that Frondier deceived me!”
I see.
Whether fighting a god was fun or not, Frondier should have kept his promise. If he had, Renzo might have been satisfied.
Frondier didn’t keep the promise; Renzo was angry.
'...For once, I do kind of resent Frondier.'
While Aster was thinking that, Renzo went on, bristling with killing intent.
“I hate liars who deceive me more than anything. In battle, trickery might pass as strategy and tactics, but anywhere else? Not a chance. I tore to pieces every bastard who dared try to trick me. Frondier’s the same.”
“Calling Frondier a liar—that’s a bit...”
“Oh? Then can you say Frondier is honest?”
“...”
Aster blinked at Renzo’s question, then averted his eyes a touch.
Renzo shouted at that sight,
“See! You think the same way I do!”
“S-Still, that’s no reason to kill him. Frondier is a good man—if you set that aside.”
“Set lies aside and Frondier’s nothing but laziness, deceit, threats, and mockery! How is that a good man! Did every decent person die while I was on the Red Land?”
...What.
Was Renzo always this logical?
There was simply nothing to refute.
“Well, whatever. Whether Frondier’s a good man or not—I don’t sort people like that when I kill them.”
“...!”
Aster’s expression hardened.
A red, heat-haze-like shimmer rose around Renzo.
'Divine power!'
Even as he tensed at the sight, Aster still had a question.
'Ares is definitely one of the Olympians. Yet he isn’t possessing Renzo. Whether it’s won’t or can’t—either way, how does lending power make sense?'
Here Renzo was, using Ares’s divine power as he pleased.
It was as if Ares, without possessing Renzo, was fully supporting him.
What on earth—
Renzo’s fist was in his face.
Ta-ang!
Aster fell back again as he struck the fist aside with his blade.
'Feels like I hit an iron block!'
Aster swung, intending to cut Renzo’s hand. But the sound made him wonder if a human body and a blade had really made contact.
Renzo wasn’t taking any damage from Aster’s attacks at all. Aster had been on the back foot repeatedly for a while now.
Yet Renzo’s face twisted instead.
'It feels exactly the same as before. What is this guy?'
Renzo had just used divine power. His might and speed were on a different level than before.
But the results were almost the same.
He certainly had the advantage. Aster wasn’t transitioning from defense to offense.
It was just... despite Renzo’s increased speed and strength, nothing was changing, and that was bizarre.
“You’re giving me a bad feeling.”
“Glad we agree...!”
“You crazy bastard!”
Bang! BOOM! BOOM!!
Aster’s sword and Renzo’s fists collided. They didn’t sound like that, but that’s how it felt.
Unable to overcome Renzo’s strength, Aster yielded ground. His body reeled, his legs moving in quick, small steps.
Yet Renzo’s finishing blow never landed.
Whether he attacked harder or lighter—
'It’s like he’s matching the exchange.'
Renzo felt as if he were on a stage. As though they had agreed beforehand on how to attack and defend, and were just carrying it out.
Of course they hadn’t made any such agreement. It was simply that Aster’s ideal defense gave him that sensation.
'Against me? Arrogant punk!'
Whish!
Renzo’s fist came in horizontally; Aster lowered his posture and evaded.
Angered by the stalemate, Renzo’s posture grew bigger—and gave Aster an opening to slip through.
'Now!'
Catching the opening, Aster’s blade shot out—
Thunk!
“?!”
Aster abruptly changed his judgment and angled his sword to block a sudden kick from Renzo.
Renzo’s foot was faster than his blade.
Even after showing an opening, he’s still faster than me?
Screeech!
Aster’s foot carved a long mark across the ground.
The expressions on both their faces twisted in nearly the same way.
To Aster, Renzo was—
'He fights on pure physical power alone—no feints, no measuring distance, no counters in mind. He’s not doing it on purpose; this is Renzo’s essence. He’s not interested in any of that from the start.'
With Renzo, every attack was readable. He didn’t even need to read aura or watch muscle movement.
A fighting style that ignored the basics. And he won with it.
On the other hand, what irked Renzo was that Aster had even blocked his kick.
From Renzo’s viewpoint, Aster was—
'Prepared for every attack and every situation. He’s like a walking combat textbook. He’s not the type to feel passion or ecstasy for battle. Probably not even interested in victory.'
Their mouths opened. The expressions—resembling disgust—were startlingly similar.
Their thoughts were nearly the same.
'I don’t like him.'
Shhk!
At last, Renzo drew the spear from his back.
“Is fighting that way fun for you, Aster?”
“...Why do you even seek fun in a fight?”
A Q&A that made their positions unambiguous.
And at the same time, a Q&A that drew a perfect line between them.
“...Your very existence is boring. You think you can face me with that textbook style?”
“Textbooks are humanity’s history. I have no intention of losing to someone who dismisses all of it.”
Renzo drew the spear back.
Watching that, Aster said,
“Oh, and it’s hard to find fun in something fundamental.”
“You’re too slow, idiot!”
Shiiik!
The spear shot at Aster.
Aster turned his head to evade and stepped toward Renzo.
And he saw it—the spear still in Renzo’s hand.
“?!”
Kaaang!
This time he blocked wrong. He knocked it aside with his sword, but his hand and shoulder tingled.
It wasn’t an external wound, ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) but it felt like internal damage.
'The thrown spear was retrieved. Not as if the launched spear moved back, but as if it had never been thrown at all!'
But the spear he’d parried didn’t do that.
Renzo sprinted in, grabbed the spear, and swung it in midair.
“Hup!”
The spear’s arc sliced for Aster’s neck; within that curve Aster evaded with almost only a tilt of his head. From the shoulders down he maintained the perfect balance of a defensive art.
“This guy is seriously insane, huh?”
Renzo reversed the spear half a turn and chopped down from above.
In that moment, Aster leapt farther than he had all fight to open distance from Renzo.
'What the hell is that ability? If I dodge, it returns to his hand; if I block, it doesn’t.'
There was no long time to think.
Shiiik!
KWAAAAANG!!
The spear flew again. This time, when Aster dodged, it struck the ground.
Aster looked at Renzo.
He was still holding the spear.
'Even the one buried in the ground returns.'
Drip.
What’s more, even when he evaded, the aura and wind pressure scored a bloodline across Aster’s face.
There was undeniably damage, but it didn’t count as a direct hit.
“Aster.”
Renzo spoke.
“For someone so boring, you lack courage as well.”
He glared at Aster, as if truly full of displeasure.
“Even after seeing this ability, you choose to widen the distance.”
“...!”
“You’re volunteering to be prey!”
Shiiik!
KWAAAAAAANG!!
As the distance widened, Renzo’s attacks grew even more merciless.
Aster was a pure swordsman. He had no means to attack Renzo at range.
He did have Ilseom, which could close this distance in an instant—but using it against Renzo now was too dangerous.
Ilseom couldn’t be used consecutively. The strain after use was tremendous. If Renzo blocked it, the opening would be fatal.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOOOM!
Retreating, Aster could only focus on evasion.
Each time Renzo threw, the spear flew faster.
'I’ll rip that textbook with my own hands!'
Renzo truly hated swordsmen of Aster’s type. Those trained to perfection in the theories of the textbook. He had always shattered those wretched theories together with their wielders.
'Let’s see how long you can keep blocking!'
Aster kept falling back; Renzo’s spear fired like a missile.
Every time it stuck into the ground, the sound was like a bomb going off.
In truth, it was getting harder and harder for Aster to avoid the spear. It was clearly different from his earlier defense.
Renzo deliberately didn’t start at top speed. He slowly ramped up. He wanted to know when that defense would break—and he wanted to see that face of despair.
And then—
'...Hm?'
After chasing Aster for quite a while—
“What is this place?”
There was a lake.
The closest lake to Aster’s home.
'Did he lure me here?'
But why?
Water was not a swordsman’s friend.
Get wet and the body grows heavy, the grip grows slippery, the target you want to cut slips away.
And if the ground got wet, there would be hollows and slick spots everywhere. Your balance and posture would collapse in the most unexpected places.
'Did he judge he couldn’t beat me, so he increased the variables?'
If so, then Aster had made a very firm mistake.
The more “textbook” a swordsman is, the worse they are with accidents and the unexpected.
'I’ll make you realize how stupid you are to think you handle irregularities better than me—'
Renzo’s thoughts stopped there.
Tat!
“Huh?”
Renzo blinked for a moment.
With the lake at his back, Aster made one more backward leap and hurled himself into the water.
'Does this bastard really have a death wish.'
A warrior who dives in and drenches his own body. He had never seen such a stupid swordsman in his life.
Tong—
But that wasn’t it.
Aster hurled himself into the lake, but his body didn’t get wet.
Aster—
“...This is.”
Renzo’s face hardened.
He knew now, too.
Why Aster had lured him here.
Duuung—
Aster was standing. On the lake.
Both feet poised lightly—and loftily—upon the surface of the water.
“...I see. So that was here!”
Renzo let out a curious voice, halfway between admiration and displeasure.
As if in answer—
“That spear.”
Aster opened his mouth.
“It’s a god’s weapon.”
As he spoke, he stretched out one hand.
'Mm!'
In that instant, every hair on Renzo’s body stood on end.
From the bottom of that lake, something that set off his senses’ alarm—
...Srrrk.
With hardly a sound, it rose into Aster’s outstretched hand.
It was a sword.
A hero’s sword, bearing the lake’s legend.
“Let’s make this a little fairer.”
Aster gripped the sword.
Thoom, and—
With Aster suspended in the air, the lake sank.
