When I descended into the heart of Black Blood and saw all those strange things, a scenario like this had already played out in my mind. The scenario where they realized that Franz Martin Inferesse was actually me, Aiden Tenebra, and lured me into a trap.

But I didn’t care much. I didn’t focus on calling everything off and running away. Because… there was no need. Everything was going according to my plan, and their realization of my identity early didn’t change anything.

I quickly raised my sword in an arc. As the dagger in front of my eyes flew backward, I pointed my empty hand forward and unleashed the blue flames.

The massive, empty room suddenly filled with the glow of blue flames; the man’s figure was engulfed by them and disappeared.

The most logical option would have been to step back and create some distance between us after this. My opponent was a dagger user; I needed to use my sword’s extended range to my advantage, but…

I didn’t do that. Instead, I leaped into the flames. I couldn’t see the man, but I didn’t need to.

‘Eleven o’clock, he’s falling back!’

Because I had a living radar.

Durandal’s Aura swiftly wrapped around my sword, making it even sharper than it already was. The wild mana of the Ambiguous Flow blurred the sword’s image, making it stronger and unpredictable. While caora gripped my sword and muscles, granting me extra strength and making my attack even more lethal.

With all of that, I attacked precisely toward the position Sith had indicated.

As I burst through the flames I’d created and suddenly found myself before the man, I saw his eyes widen. It was only a matter of seconds before my blade reached his torso and practically split him in two.

But that didn’t happen.

In that split second, I first saw the man’s image… ripple. Then, an incomprehensible sound, so intense it felt like it would crack my skull, pounded into my ears.

No, it wasn’t an explosion. Nor was it a ringing. It was as if… dozens of different sounds had been compressed together and released all at once.

The man suddenly disappeared after that. And my sword sliced through the spot where he had been just moments before. Though it hadn’t touched the walls, Durandal’s Aura and the force behind it created a deep gash. But I couldn’t care less about the strength of my attack.

As the world began to spin slightly, I noticed an uncomfortable, warm sensation in my ear.

My ear was bleeding.

‘Behind you!’

I clenched my teeth, and then turned around at the same moment the wind currents Sith had created around me to help me swept past.

This man… had some kind of skill or mastery over sound waves. He was more of a problem than I’d thought, because I had nothing to counter a skill related to sound. But, even then… he wasn’t impossible to handle.

I’d just have to use everything at my disposal.

But that was the entire problem.

I couldn’t use everything at my disposal, no matter what. I had to save my resources. It was essential to my plan.

That’s why, when I turned around, I couldn’t react in time to the dagger I saw.

The winds Sith created were speeding up my movements while slowing down the man’s. But despite that… he was fast.

Even though I tried to dodge the attack, I couldn’t avoid taking a cut on my shoulder. And the man, determined not to let go of the advantage he’d gained, lunged at me again.

The moment I saw one of his daggers rippling, I realized he was using that soundwave skill again, but I had nothing to counter it with. Accompanied by the sound echoing as if it would split my skull, I took a cut across my chest that could be called substantial.

If I had activated even one of my ascension skills, it would most likely have been enough for me to win…

But I didn’t.

I wrapped my body in blue flames, then, supported by Sith’s winds, spread them out around me with myself at the center. The man was forced to retreat whether he wanted to or not, but I didn’t stay put; I moved before he had a chance to recover.

First, I used my Mana Barrier. Not on myself, but to wrap around the man like a bubble.

A C grade barrier wouldn’t keep him in place for long… but I didn’t need that anyway. A split-second was enough.

As the man retreated, he slammed his back into the barrier I’d created and was forced to pause involuntarily. I took advantage of that.

First, with Sith’s help, I turned the inside of the Barrier into a vacuum as much as possible. Then I filled it with as much blue flame as I could. After that, I attacked from the ground using Ice Spikes, and on top of that, I swung my sword by combining Durandal’s Aura with the wild mana of Ambiguous Flow once more.

As all this was happening, I deactivated the barrier at the very last moment.

I felt my sword touch something.

~boom!

A faint explosion echoed in my ears, which had lost some of its hearing. Then my sword shattered what I felt, as if crushing it to pieces. It was most likely the man’s dagger.

But instead of stopping, I pressed the sword forward even further.

This time, my sword made contact with something softer. Probably the man’s flesh.

But that sensation didn’t last long. Everything was happening in a matter of seconds, yet it still felt brief—too brief to split the man in two.

When that unpleasant, skull-splitting sound entered my ears again, I clicked my tongue. After dispersing the dust cloud I’d caused as quickly as possible with Sith’s winds, I looked for the man.

I was preparing to counter an attack.

But the moment the dust cloud vanished… all I could do was stand still where I was.

There was about four meters between us. A layer of caora formed a solid-looking barrier around him. His eyes darted between the small wound on his arm and the broken dagger.

“I’ll admit it.”

His voice, which I could barely make out, echoed through the room. After casually flinging his broken dagger aside, he tore his purple-glowing eyes away from the wound on his arm and turned them toward me.

“I underestimated you, Aiden Tenebra.”

As I struggled to steady my heavily labored breathing, I straightened my posture slightly.

“Is that so?”

“When I heard you hadn’t even reached B- grade yet, I didn’t understand why they told me to deal with you. But now I understand better. You… are truly a major threat.”

“You haven’t seen anything yet, but thanks for the compliment.”

After speaking, I glanced briefly around the room.

Apart from the traces of our brief skirmish, the room was still much the same. It was largely empty and silent.

“Aren’t others coming? I’ve been waiting for that door to open so forty or fifty men, armed and ready, can storm in.”

The man shook his head calmly.

“It’s just you and me. We don’t need anyone else. They’d just be a burden—they might even cause you to run away. Isn’t that why you aren’t expecting them to come?”

I furrowed my brows slightly.

“So… you’re enough to handle me, then?”

“Of course I am.”

“…”

Up until now, the things he’d shown had made him seem like, at best, a B+ grade guy.

Is he hiding something?

“Let me introduce myself. I am known as Leon Vincus, the Representative Candidate for the Sin of Pride.”

…

Leon Vincus?

The name didn’t ring a bell at first. But after a moment, I paused slightly.

Ah, right… he’s someone mentioned in the game.

He was a candidate said to have quite high potential, but unfortunately killed by Revon before he could face the player. I think they said he was S+ grade when he died.

Which would happen in just about a year and a half…

I paused once more as I looked at Leon without saying a word, staring blankly at his face.

Oh, wait.

If that’s the case…

“I was holding back quite a bit because I was trying to figure out why Saligia cared so much about you. No offense, but you looked pretty weak, after all.”

This guy… he’s probably S- or S grade right now, isn’t he?

…

“None… taken?”

This…

Well, to be honest, this is a problem…

I don’t know how long Saligia has known I was disguised as Franz, but their response being this fast… It’s a bit ridiculous. Otherwise, they would’ve wiped out the Inferesse Family long ago—cutting off the snake’s head before it grows is always best, after all.

So, that means… this guy’s been here for a while, and am I supposed to just curse my luck?

…

“I won’t hold back anymore. That’s why the outcome of our battle is already a given.”

That was the truth, actually. If this guy was truly S- grade or higher, even using my ascension skills against him wouldn’t have done much good. On top of that, he could use caora on top of his already high general level, so the gap between us was like night and day.

“You don’t need to feel sorry for losing everything here. After all, I was the one standing before you. There was nothing you could do.”

“How much longer are you going to keep monologuing…?”

Leon looked at me without saying a word. Then he tilted his head slightly to the side, his eyes narrowing.

“…”

He didn’t say a word. He didn’t even twitch a muscle.

The very next second, the moment I blinked…

I felt a pain spreading throughout my entire body.

Leon was still standing right where he was, but directly over the previous cut on my chest… there was a new wound that had opened perfectly over the same scar.

But that was only the beginning.

Leon still stood where he was, not moving a muscle.

Barely three seconds later, I felt that same sharp pain in one of my legs. It had been sliced so deeply that, despite Caora’s efforts to hold it together, it felt as though it would simply detach from my body any moment.

‘Aiden, turn around and run. You can’t win against him.’

Sith’s voice echoed in my mind.

‘What are you waiting for, run!’

I swallowed… and turned around without a second thought.

That’s when I noticed another detail I hadn’t seen before.

There were two massive gashes behind me. One was at the same angle as the scar on my chest, and the other was at the same angle as the wound on my leg. They were so massive that… there was a hole right in the middle of that closed door behind me. I could see the hallway through it.

I swallowed hard once more, then leaped through that hole and stepped out into the hallway.

The moment I stepped into the corridor, all the lights went out at once. Everything was plunged into darkness. And then…

~weeeooo! ~weeeooo! ~weeeooo!

Faint red lights began to flicker on and off as the alarm was triggered.

I clenched my teeth and started running to the right, in the opposite direction of where I’d come from.

Just then, protrusions appeared on the smooth walls. And then… a gas began to spread everywhere.

A dry, uncomfortable sensation suddenly appeared in my throat.

“Cough- cough!”

And I couldn’t stop myself from coughing.

It was, obviously, a poisonous gas.

“Are you really running away?”

Leon’s voice echoed, as if it were coming from everywhere. When I looked back, I couldn’t see him, yet it was as if he were right next to my ear.

I didn’t answer his question. In fact, I didn’t even listen to him. I focused entirely on the dark corridors ahead of me.

“How pitiful…”

I just ran without caring about anything else.

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