Chapter 229: Aestrea Against The World (VI)

BOOOOOOOOM—!!!!

The moment the tiny cyan-blue orb made contact with the golden-green beam of Zeva’s final nove…

Space itself shattered…

The ground split like glass under pressure.

The skies above twisted and warped like fabric being torn apart. A howling screech filled the air as time and mana collided in pure chaos.

A pillar of white-blue light exploded into the heavens, swallowing everything in a storm of ice and wind so violent that even the reinforced barrier around the military camp cracked.

Soldiers were flung off their feet just from the pressure wave alone, even the elite squadron stationed near the command tent had to anchor themselves with magic to avoid being swept away.

Trees outside the training field were uprooted. The tents that weren’t shielded by enchantments were vaporized instantly.

And then…

Silence.

A deep, suffocating silence.

The dust settled slowly, so slowly that even the smallest shift of wind felt loud. A dense mist of residual mana hung in the air, glowing faintly with soft blue and green trails.

Where once there was a solid training ground, there now remained only a massive crater, jagged and layered like the scar of some meteor impact.

In the center of that broken battlefield stood two figures…

Zeva was on one knee, one of her twin swords shattered into glimmering fragments beside her, her armor cracked along the chest, and blood dripping from her lip.

She was breathing heavily.

Her body trembled.

But her eyes… her eyes were wide with awe… and a deep desire to mate with Aestrea right in that instant.

“…So that’s your true power,” she muttered, her voice was barely audible. “You’ve been holding back this entire time?”

Aestrea stood calmly just a few steps ahead of her. His coat was fluttering slightly from the icy winds that still lingered, but not a scratch marked his body.

His crimson eyes looked down at her.

“…It was just a flick,” he said flatly.

Zeva knew it was a sixth-grade spell, but a normal person couldn’t make a sixth-level spell so powerful that it surpassed her sword’s final technique move.

“Haahaha…”

Zeva let out a soft, broken laugh, wiping the blood from her mouth.

“…Shit, that was hot.”

Aestrea blinked.

“…What?”

“I mean it,” she said with a grin that looked more like a madwoman who’d just found her next obsession.

“You just froze a third of the camp with a finger, turned my strongest move into sparkles, and you’re still standing like you just got out of bed.”

She stood slowly, staggering slightly as the adrenaline finally wore off.

“That was the single hottest thing I’ve ever seen a man do.”

“…You really… need help.”

“Oh, I do,” she smirked, her expression twisted between exhausted satisfaction and something bordering on lust.

“Mental help. Magical help. Maybe romantic help, if you’re offering~”

Aestrea turned his head away, sighing deeply.

The frost that coated the crater began to dissolve with a wave of his hand, restoring the surrounding air to its natural warmth.

The twin brothers finally came running toward the edge of the battlefield.

“WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?!” James screamed, almost tripping over a tree root on his way down.

“You just dropped a damn ice nuke on the training grounds!”

“Did you two forget this was supposed to be a spar?!” Derek shouted behind him, wide-eyed as he stared at the scorched edge of the crater.

“I barely saw what happened!” James gasped. “It was like whoosh, then crack, then sky go bye-bye! What did she do to deserve that?!”

Zeva raised her hand lazily.

“I asked for it~.”

James pointed at her.

“You definitely need to be imprisoned.”

“You’d have to catch me first, blondie.”

Aestrea had already started walking away, ignoring them.

But even as he walked, he could feel Zeva’s burning gaze on his back. That same crazy womanly fire.

She was exhausted, injured..

But even more obsessed than before.

“I’ll make you use that spell on me again, one day,” she shouted behind him. “And next time…!”

She pointed her remaining sword high.

“I won’t lose.”

Aestrea raised his hand without turning back and gave a lazy wave.

“…We’ll see.”

He walked away from them, but at the same time, he was thinking deeply.

’…Frost Explosion was that strong… huh? So, this is what a five times strengthened peak SS-rank mana is like… huh.’

He clenched his fist slighly.

The power was much more destructive than he had ever thought, and with it, he even beat up an SS-rank aura with at least an SS-rank sword with a sixth-level spell.

And if compared, an SS-rank sword art corresponds to a 9th-level spell, which explains how powerful Aestrea is currently.

“Hah… that was a nice test…” Aestrea stretched his arms above his head, letting out a relieving sigh.

But then…

Tshk.

A faint slicing sound.

So thin, so sharp, so subtle, it almost felt like a breeze.

Aestrea stopped walking as a trickle of red ran down the side of his neck.

His crimson eyes narrowed slightly.

He didn’t even have to turn around, as there was only one single person who used a weapon like this.

“…You again.”

The shadows behind a ruined tree twisted unnaturally… and a figure stepped out with a slow, deliberate flourish.

Kagetaro.

Clad in his usual elegant-yet-mad jester-like attire, slicked-back hair gleaming in the moonlight, and that same damn mask, white porcelain, two narrow slits for eyes, and a sickeningly wide, permanent grin.

But this time… his fingers were dancing in the air.

There were hundreds of strings around Aestrea, almost invisible to the eye; they glittered faintly as they swam through the air, all of them coiling around Aestrea like a spider’s web.

Neck, arms, back, legs… pretty much every part of Aestrea’s body.

Tightly wound around his limbs, too fast to stop, too precise to sense until it was too late.

“…You’re only bleeding, huh…” Kagetaro sang softly, tilting his head.

“These strings were actually designed to slice dragons.”

He took a step forward.

The blades of the string twitched.

More blood ran down Aestrea’s jawline, but he didn’t move; instead, he simply stared at Kagetaro calmly.

Kagetaro gave a light, joyful laugh, spinning on his heel once.

“Still don’t want to join the Dark Order~?”

His voice echoed like a melody through the woods.

“You know, the offer hasn’t changed.”

He extended one hand dramatically.

“You’ll receive a dragon heart upon joining.”

His head tilted, voice dropping just slightly.

“But this time… it’ll be your second one.”

The strings glowed faintly.

“The twin dragon hearts, one Nether, one Ice. Think of it, Aestrea… your body would be unstoppable. Your mana would rise beyond limits. You could destroy kingdoms just by breathing wrong.”

He leaned forward.

“Power. True, absolute power. Enough to protect the things you love.”

Aestrea’s eyes narrowed.

“And kill the ones I don’t?”

Kagetaro laughed loudly at his words, his hands clapping in delight.

“Exactly!” he finally spoke.

And then there was complete silence for a few seconds…

Phew~

A breeze slowly passed between them.

And then, Aestrea finally moved.

“…You talk too much.”

FWSHHH!

In one blur of motion, his body twisted, his aura exploded.

CRACK!!

The strings didn’t snap, no…

Instead, they ripped apart violently in an instant, shredded by a burst of concentrated violet aura that surged from Aestrea’s core like a detonation.

Kagetaro’s mask tilted.

“Oh?”

He leapt backward just in time.

BOOM!

A burst of aura slammed the ground beneath Aestrea’s feet, kicking up dust and frost and debris into the air, creating a thick fog.

But Kagetaro wouldn’t stop there; he instantly started moving his strings, his fingers practically dancing again.

More strings lashed out, wrapping through the mist toward Aestrea’s silhouette.

Only to find… nothing

Kagetaro just blinked for a moment…

And a hand was already on his face.

SMASH—!!

Aestrea flipped Kagetaro through the dust cloud, slamming his masked head straight into the ground, the shockwave creating a crater beneath them.

“C-cough… cough!”

Kagetaro coughed as he bounced off the ground, somersaulting into a graceful recovery.

He landed a few meters away, dust clouding his boots.

He stood again, slowly brushing his fingers through his hair.

“Ohhh~ so mean,” he hummed. “But I’m not mad. No, no, no… I knew you’d say no. Just wanted to feel your hands on me again~”

Aestrea didn’t reply to his words.

He simply stood with one hand glowing faintly from the aura backlash, crimson eyes sharper than ever.

But unfortunately, he couldn’t actually kill Kagetaro.

Because the moment he tried, the bastard would vanish again like last time, hiding in strings and illusions or whatever he used before.

“Still so stubborn…” Kagetaro pouted dramatically beneath his mask.

He tapped his temple.

“Well~ offer still stands. I’ll be watching. Always watching. Like a little string puppet waiting to be pulled.”

And just like that…

Fsshhh—!

His body unraveled into thin black threads, twisting into the wind, disappearing into the night sky like scattered ribbon.

Aestrea stood still for a moment, the blood on his neck slowly froze and flaked off his skin.

“Dark Order…” He muttered thoughtfully.

“It wouldn’t be a bad idea to join… but for now…”

“It’s not necessary.”

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