Chapter 236: Coincidence

Ishiki looked at the terrible face in front of him, smiling like an insane douchebag. Not that he was not one, Kenji certainly was.

The corner’s of Ishiki’s mouth twitched and he controlled himself from loosing control of his emotions.

“You,” he said.

It was not a greeting, nor a question. The single word was meant for the thing that he had been angry at for three years and he now standing meters away from him with a smile.

Kenji’s straightened. “You look well.”

Ishiki moved without waiting anymore and pushed his legs, cracking the concrete under the pressure. He crossed the whole canal in between them and reached the other side with enough space to spare.

The invisible blade of [Aether Blade] came up in an angle that makes the opponent choose the part they want to receive the wound at.

Kenji’s dark arm came up instinctively, but his eyes widened when he saw that there was no blade, and Ishiki was only clutching at a bladeless handle.

The blade passed through the hard skin of the dark arm and severed the muscles and tendons inside cleanly.

At the same time, Kenji kicked Ishiki into the abdomen, the impact rang through the channel walls and Ishiki went flying back.

But on the other hand… Kenji didn’t even move. He absorbed it the way a wall absorbed it and then pushed back.

Ishiki was sent skidding two meters along the walkway. He caught himself, reset, and looked at the dark arm Kenji had used to try and block his attack.

At first it was limping like a broken arm but soon, Kenji moved it once again and flexed his fingers. “That’s a very troublesome weapon you have there. Lemme guess its at least an epic rank, isn’t it?”

“Aren’t you talking too much bastard.” Ishiki refuted through gritted teeth and attacked again.

This time the exchange was very different, It was faster and both fighters answered the strikes with unhurried competence. Ishiki had long since learned how to make proper use of [Aether Blade] by providing it with enough amount of Synth energy and activate its abilities at the correct time.

Three exchanges. Four. The channel was too narrow for anything but forward and back. But Kenji was utilizing the wall geometries here, he knew it better then Ishiki, after all he had spent his last seven months roaming in these tunnels.

On the fifth exchange Kenji’s response changed. He stopped deflecting and stepped into it.

His right hand — the human one — caught Ishiki’s wrist on the[Aether Blade] arm and the dark arm came across in a controlled strike that hit Ishiki in the side with the force that had considerably more mass behind it than a human arm.

Ishiki hit the wall and the concrete cracked like a glass.

He went down to one knee, [Aether Blade] still in hand and left arm up to brace. His side was hurting very much, as if he had been just hit by a high speed car.

He straightened.

Kenji was standing four meters away again with his arms loose, breathing as though none of this had cost him anything.

“By the way, I completed my second trial,” Kenji said. Not boasting, but just reporting. “about seven months ago.” He looked at his dark arm with the expression of someone reading an instrument they trusted. “The advancement at that stage is significant. For some reason, I am no longer afraid of this, maybe because of all the heinous things I did in that trial. I no longer feel anything Ishiki.”

He started to laugh as he spoke the last line, he laughed so hard that he had tears in his eyes.

Ishiki looked down at him with eyes filled with pity. Kenji was not even fighting against his desires now. That was what his Corruption had done to him.

“Congratulations, I guess.” he said and summoned [Sorrow’s Edge] after dismissing Aether Blade.

He was going to release Kenji from his suffering.

Just then a beam of light illuminated his surroundings, It came from behind and the other side of the channel. Shiro had caught up to them.

It was only then that Ishiki realized a very crucial problem. Shiro didn’t knew who Ishiki was, that name was unknown to him and Kashima Ryou had, for some reason worked up because of that name.

Well, here was another problem of him talking to a demon as well. But that was easy to handle as demon’s were once humans as well. And Kenji was not even a full demon yet.

“I wanted to ask, why are here?” Ishiki asked flatly.

Kenji straightened and looked at him, then shrugged. “That doesn’t concern you… but you meeting me, that was a pure coincidence. I never thought I would run into you. You had disappeared like a ghost.”

He paused and then added. “I have a question for you as well… why were you thinking about Nina right now? Why would she be at school?”

Horror dawned upon Ishiki’s whole being. He had almost forgotten that this bastard can hear thoughts… but he certainly didn’t know that Ishiki had a dragon as his daughter whom he named Nina.

He calmed his brain down to not think anything and moved again before Kenji could speak another thing.

He went low this time, his goal was the base of the dark arm… so that he could will the purple flames to burn that thing to ground.

Kenji shifted his weight and the strike caught his side rather than landing clean, and the purple flames caught the edge of his skin as he moved back two steps sharply.

His hand went to his side and he found a burn mark, Ishiki hadn’t willed the flames to do anything to his skin that’s why he was saved.

Kenji looked at Ishiki with a cold gaze and suddenly pushed his body forward in an unbelievable speed… Ishiki tried to block it with Sorrow’s edge, but the hand changed the trajectory at the last moment and caught him in the center of his chest.

His whole body folded and he was sent flying back into the wall on the other side. Thanks to the [Divine Blood] his ribs hadn’t shattered.

He opened his eyes and found Kenji standing over him.

“You Weakling!”

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