Chapter 159

“For now, I shall try facing you alone. Please draw your sword.”

In accordance with the words of the ram beastkin male—who had the presence of a seasoned veteran, meaning he was easily over two hundred years old given he was a Steel Body user—I drew Astraphe and observed his energy and posture.

He was a man with a peculiar disposition. One could say he possessed the temperament of a rugged warrior and a refined noble at the same time. To put it in perspective, he felt like a barbarian warrior clad in a tailcoat.

‘As expected of a Master. A high-tier one at that. He seems about half a step above Carmen.’

While I was at it, I also took the measure of the other two disciples: a dwarf male who was short but possessed lines so thick he could never be mistaken for a child, and a female elf wielding a rapier.

‘Are the rest of them Masters too? Well, it makes sense since a Grand Master calls them his disciples….’

First, in the case of the dwarf, he carried a greatsword nearly two meters long—larger than himself—slung horizontally across his lower back.

The visual was incredibly mismatched, but at a glance, his skill was clearly extraordinary, just like the ram beastkin.

‘This one is probably on par with Carmen.’

As for the slender elf with the rapier, who looked like a stereotype straight out of Record of Lodoss War, she felt about half a step below the dwarf. Even so, she would still rank among the upper echelon of Masters.

Noticing that my gaze was directed toward his fellow disciples, the ram beastkin spun his halberd in a smooth arc before bringing it perfectly upright against his chest in a formal military salute.

“I am Ahel Orléans.”

Since his attitude was polite, I had no reason to be prickly. I addressed him with a smooth tone as well.

“I am Go Gildong. A wandering warrior with no allegiance, traveling wherever my feet take me.”

“A wandering warrior… Your humility is excessive. By the way, your pronunciation sounds similar to those from the Eastern Continent. May I address you as Lord Gildong?”

“…You may call me whatever is convenient. More importantly, if you are an Orléans….”

“The Grand Master and Duke is my father. I am his third son.”

“I see. A duke’s son. No wonder your skills are so outstanding.”

“You flatter me. Despite receiving far more instruction than those two simply because I am his son, I am still at this level, so I am merely ashamed. More than that, please speak informally to me. Hearing honorifics from someone in the same realm as my master is immensely burdensome.”

“Hmm… Lord Ahel, you seem to believe that I am a Grand Master?”

“To be honest, a slight doubt did sprout the moment I first saw you. I could not sense a shred of body mana from you, let alone an aura.”

Exactly. That was precisely why that Lucian guy from earlier had underestimated me and charged in.

“However, right before entering the Audience Chamber, Master paused and said this.”

—The one inside is undoubtedly someone who gazes upon the same scenery as I do. Do not behave insolently.

“That was the first time in my entire life I have ever heard Master’s voice sound so thrilled. I was truly astonished. Therefore, we have no choice but to believe it, do we? Master could not possibly be wrong.”

He waved his hands dismissively, adding, “Of course, you are disguising yourself so perfectly as a human that even now I am a bit confused….”

I let out a soft chuckle and shifted my manner of speech as he wished. It would be strange to keep using honorifics when he was practically begging to be spoken down to.

“Who knows, maybe I really am just a human.”

“Haha, what a joke. How could a short-lived species that cannot even survive a hundred years achieve a realm that rivals Master? Do you know that there is currently only a single human Master in the entire Empire?”

“Oh, is that so?”

“Yes. And he is a frail old man who looks like he might drop dead at any moment. For such a race to produce a Grand Master… that is an impossibility. One would have to search through myths to find a human Grand Master.”

“Ah. I see.”

Ah… I roughly understood what kind of guy this ram beastkin was.

Because of his background, etiquette had been thoroughly drilled into him like a refined noble, but at his core, he was a macho man. He respected the strong and looked down on the weak.

His comment dismissing humans just now wasn’t because he was a malicious racist, but simply because the preconception that the human race was weak was firmly embedded in his mind.

Immediately after, as he adjusted his grip on his halberd and took a stance, he asked another question as if something had suddenly crossed his mind.

“Ah, right. May I ask one final thing?”

“Go ahead.”

“What is your true race and age?”

I easily realized what answer he was looking for.

He wanted me to be someone he could ‘bow his head to,’ and at the same time, he wanted me to be someone who wouldn’t be an ‘object of jealousy.’

The perfect archetype for that was a so-called ‘venerable elder’—someone who grew powerful by borrowing the strength of time.

An archetype where he could make excuses like, ‘At that age, it makes sense to be that strong,’ or ‘Once I reach that age, I will also….’

So, partly to keep my identity hidden, I gladly gave him the answer he desired.

“My race is a secret. As for my age… let’s just say I’ve lived far longer than your master.”

Yeah, I’m very old. So don’t feel too bad about your self-esteem when you get wrecked, or when your master gets thrashed, because there’s a good reason for it.

And true to form, his expression brightened slightly at my firm response.

“I see… So that is how it is. Then, this junior dare to request a lesson.”

“Sure. Just don’t be too disappointed by the result. It’s definitely not because you are weak, Lord Ahel.”

“Ha… thank you for the advice. Then, as you said, I will use my full strength from the very beginning without holding back to test the waters.”

As the signs of the battle commencing became clear, the hundreds of gazes that had been watching the psychological warfare between Duke Orléans and the Emperor all turned toward us at once.

Of course, the Grand Master and the Emperor also stopped their conversation and fixed their eyes on this direction.

Bzzzzzzzz…!

Immediately after, a silver aura similar to Duke Orléans’s erupted and surged around Ahel’s body, and then—

Crack!

Suddenly, his physical frame began to expand rapidly.

“Giantization…?”

Crunch! Craaaack!!

I see, so this was his ability as a Master. A Master-class Steel Body user could even perform this kind of trick with their aura.

In truth, the ability to giantize wasn’t incredibly unique.

‘It’s a fairly common ability among monsters and magical beasts, and there are magic spells or priestly miracles that increase a target’s size.’

However, most of those giantizations carried severe penalties. And for good reason.

‘Simply doubling someone’s height requires a whopping eightfold increase in mass.’

Moreover, to move that enlarged body normally, one needed the durability to withstand eight times the mass, along with eight times the muscle strength to move it.

However, since muscle strength is proportional to the cross-sectional area of the muscle, the original muscles could only produce four times the force. Consequently, to become a proper ‘×2’ giant, the quality of the muscles themselves had to be completely upgraded to output twice their original power.

Because of this, most users either became slow, half-baked targets who were merely large, or paid a massive price after the giantization ended.

‘But this is different. There’s no penalty.’

From the looks of it, the guy was going to stop right at twice his original size. If that happened, he would become twice as fast due to his enlarged proportions, and he would be able to unleash attacks that were thirty-two times more powerful based on the increased mass and speed.

‘This is why weight classes are terrifying.’

A Master-class Steel Body user who moves twice as fast and delivers attacks thirty-two times stronger?

Good grief. That’s just a total cheat. A complete cheat.

And moments later, Ahel, who had completed his transformation, looked down from above and spoke in a booming voice roughly two octaves lower than his original.

“Thank you for waiting.”

“Don’t mention it. Leaving someone alone while they transform is a universal rule.”

“A universal rule? I am not entirely sure what that means… but regardless, I shall now show you the finest strike I can deliver. Please, guide and instruct me.”

And as the giant slowly raised his halberd, the weapon—which must have also been an artifact—instantly expanded its size and weight to match the proportions of the giant.

“Here I come, Lord Gildong.”

“Whenever you’re ready.”

When I smiled and gestured with my hand, his eyebrows twitched, as his pride was likely bruised slightly by my casual demeanor after all this, and he funneled massive power into his arms.

His muscles swelled to an absurd degree, and his aura surged violently.

‘I could just dodge it… but that would be a bit tacky.’

I could guarantee that if that strike struck the floor, the Audience Chamber would be completely obliterated in an instant. Perhaps not just the chamber, but a portion of the Imperial Castle might collapse as well.

‘The cleanest way would be to slit his throat before he even swings it… but that would be problematic in its own way. It lacks impact.’

If that was the case, well, there was only one choice.

Catching it head-on.

Of course, although my physical stats had gone up considerably recently, I couldn’t take that blow directly in a clash of pure brute force.

Therefore, I would make something other than myself absorb the impact.

The moment my thoughts finished, the giant’s halberd came crashing down, a silver aura surging wildly around it.

Confronted by that momentum, which looked as if it could cleave the world itself in two, the complexions of the few knights capable of tracking the movement with their eyes turned pale with dread.

And tracking the trajectory of the halberd with my eyes within the sluggishly flowing time, I pushed Astraphe forward, effectively placing it right at the end of his orbit.

Slide.

The tip of Astraphe tore through space and anchored itself into a higher dimension.

Immediately after, his halberd collided with the thrust-out Astraphe, unleashing a terrifying shockwave.

CRAAAAAAAAANG!!!

Dozens of glass windows and chandeliers shattered simultaneously, exploding into shards.

And…

Thud.

His arms and chest muscles completely ruined as if they had exploded, Ahel staggered and collapsed onto the floor.

Whoosh!!

As if completely unable to comprehend what had just happened to him, he desperately looked up at me even while pouring blood like a waterfall.

“Ugh, couggh… T-This… what on earth is this?”

“Ah, it’s called a rainbow reflect.”

For the record, this was the first time I had ever used this in an actual battle. It was a technique I had devised to deal with medium-to-large monsters or magical beasts…

‘I never expected the first target I used it on would be a person.’

Of course, ‘rainbow reflect’ was just something I said for fun… in truth, the actual name was Coordinate Axis Fixed Defense.

It was a technique inspired by how shield knights plant the spikes at the bottom of their shields into the ground to withstand a cavalry charge.

To explain it in a bit more detail…

Basically, as a sword wielded by an angel—a high-dimensional being—Astraphe’s true form exists not in three dimensions, but in a higher dimension (the sword I swing in the 3D world is actually nothing more than a shadow of its true self).

Therefore, to destroy Astraphe, one would have to destroy not only its three-dimensional shadow but also its higher-dimensional true body all at once…

‘And that is practically an impossibility for intelligent beings living in a three-dimensional world.’

Hence, it was indestructible.

And by the exact same principle, if I anchored the tip of Astraphe into a higher dimension like this, the blade remaining in the three-dimensional world would be ‘fixed’ in 3D space while connected to the higher dimension.

Because no matter what a three-dimensional creature did, they could never move the tip of a blade that had entered a higher dimension, which they could not even perceive.

‘In other words, just like driving a shield into the ground, if I drive the sword into the ground known as a higher dimension….’

This sword becomes an invincible shield that can neither be moved nor destroyed.

‘Unless you can intervene in higher dimensions, not even a transcendent being can pierce through it.’

On top of that, there is a physical law in this world known as action-reaction.

Newton’s third law, which states that if you exert a force on an object, that object exerts an equal and opposite force back on you.

‘If you strike a concrete wall with your bare hands, you can’t exactly expect your hands to come out unscathed.’

It would have been better if he had just let go of the halberd, but out of some foolish warrior’s pride, he held onto it until his flesh and bones were practically separated….

“Groan….”

“Ah, whoops.”

I quickly grabbed the guy, who was about to pass out from the intense pain and blood loss, and cast a healing miracle on him. Since it was an intermediate miracle, the bleeding was brought under control in an instant.

However, mistaking my action as an attempt to finish him off, the elf and dwarf Masters cried out in horror and lunged forward.

“You fiend…!”

“Brother!!!”

“Uh, that’s a misunderstanding… Woah, woah, hold on a second…!”

I leaped backward, casting my gaze toward Duke Orléans. Surely a man of his level would realize that I had just tried to heal Ahel.

Yet, far from restraining his disciples, he cackled in sheer amusement and actively egged the two of them on instead.

“Doten! Didi! I shall take care of Ahel, so you two avenge your brother with your own hands!”

“Yes, Master!”

“Understood!!”

No, what the hell? Are you a psycho?