Chapter 413: Facing Legends

"If that is the end you foresee, Mr. Ryder, why not accept it here and now? After all, even you never foresaw this moment. From here on, the course of events lies beyond your control."

Blume sat down, calm as still water. His words were coldly logical. Even now, he showed no fear that Charles might lash out in rage and strike him down. Charles' taciturn but heretofore utterly dependable subordinate betrayed not the slightest tremor at the possibility of imminent death.

"..."

Charles said nothing, though his face darkened as he stared at Blume across the room. The alarms blaring throughout the Nightblades headquarters still shrieked incessantly in the background.

"So it's true," Blume continued. "The Ryder family's prophetic gift is not perfect foresight at all, but fragmented glimpses pieced together in a probabilistic manner. In other words, if one buries a single ‘ordinary' matter beneath a flood of weightier events, it might well remain hidden."

Meanwhile, the two figures who had entered Nightblade headquarters at the height of the chaos shed their illusions. Void energy and mana were dispelled to reveal their true forms.

One was unmistakably a warrior, clad head to toe in plate armor, with a strange longsword at his hip.

Though it was shaped like a greatsword, its blade was encased in a mantle of cracked, heavy rock. The jagged rock concealed the weapon's edge and stripped it of sharpness, yet lent it a fearsome weight—the legendary Earthvein Greatsword.

The other wore the long robes of a magician. Mana pulsed evenly through his frame as a haze of void energy shimmered around him. A legendary magician and wizard, he was currently speaking to his companion about their scheme to trap Charles.

The two legends, Alfonso, the Earth Tyrant, and Satori, the Horn of Oblivion, were both sworn to the royal house of Aleisterre.

Their existence, however, was shrouded in secrecy. Official missions were carried out by others while these two moved in the shadows under borrowed names.

Their current mission: to eliminate Charles Ryder, current head of the Nightblades and heir to the Ryder house, without stirring up undue chaos.

All the assassination attempts that had taken place before this point had all failed. With his Chronostasis Hourglass and gift of prophecy, Charles had slipped through the hands of Donatien Charlemagne again and again. But the crown's patience had run dry. These two legends were figures of overwhelming might who could crush every avenue of escape.

𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

"Let's hope he understands the futility of struggle," said Satori in a cool, detached voice. He appeared to be a young man with brown hair, though in truth he was far older than that. "Once I unleash my power, I cannot easily restrain it. The same is true for you. If he does not resist, at least he may die in one piece. If he does... then little of this building will remain."

"Mm."

Alfonso gave a curt reply. The steel-shod boots of his massive frame clanged against the stairs as he began his ascent.

"They're here..."

Charles' tone was heavy. He recognized them—anyone of his station would. Two legends. The royal family thought highly of him indeed. Even with the Hourglass in hand, he doubted he could escape two legends...

"...Enough. Let a true monster deal with monsters such as these."

His expression smoothed, a hint of wry calm seeping into his voice. Under Blume's nonplussed stare, Charles took a single step back.

A rift in the void tore open behind him. From within, a hand shot out, seized him by the arm, and dragged him through.

"Something's wrong. The target has vanished! That was a void rift—impossible! The moment the alarms sounded, the Nightblades' headquarters was reinforced with the strongest reality anchors. A rift should be impossible, unless..." Satori's eyes widened. "A legendary wizard! Alfonso, hurry!"

Alfonso's muscles coiled, then exploded with force. Fighting spirit surged through him in perfect harmony, every motion at the pinnacle of human strength. His boot struck the stairs in an earsplitting crash as he vanished from sight. The detonation shook the air. He was gone even before the stairs crumbled away.

Alfonso smashed bodily into Charles' office through a wall. The walls of the office, reinforced against physical force and magic alike, might as well have been paper against the might of a legendary warrior. A cloud of dust filled the air.

The shattered fragments of the wall scythed through the chamber like blades. Blume had no chance to react. In an instant, his body was carved to pieces, torn into bloody shreds by the storm unleashed in the wake of a single legendary warrior's step.

But Alfonso's gaze lingered on Blume, the sacrificial pawn, for only the merest of moments. His eyes were fixed on the man now standing where Charles had been. A strange void rift snapped shut by his side.

Raising his head, Wang Yu locked gazes with Alfonso through the seams of his helm. At that instant, the battle erupted.

Alfonso had drawn his greatsword as he crashed through the wall. He moved in a blur of afterimages, with speed faster than the eye could track. Then he struck. A brutal diagonal stroke shot toward Wang Yu, a blow so mighty that the rush of displaced air alone shredded everything in its path.

Wang Yu's answer was stark and simple: he stepped forward, raised his fist, and punched at the greatsword. His body moved with seamless fluidity, every joint channeling strength into his clenched hand until, in a sudden burst, it collided with the descending blade.

A deafening shockwave detonated as fist met stone-clad steel. Alfonso's forward momentum halted at once, his legendary sword arrested in mid-swing. The concussive force tore the air outward, blasting the smoke and debris from the office until the room stood hollow and bare.

"What strength!"

Alfonso's heart thumped. He, a legendary knight renowned for brute force, was being flung back by the monstrous power flooding through the Earthvein Greatsword. Who was this mysterious figure whose face was hidden, with nothing visible but a flickering distortion where his features should be?

Wang Yu had stopped Alfonso's strike with one hand, yet his other remained free. Without hesitation, he raised it and drove it down like a thunderbolt. The punch landed faster than Alfonso could dodge, smashing squarely into his armored shoulder with an explosive crack.

The floor could not bear such force. In an instant, it shattered, collapsing beneath them in a storm of rubble. As the two of them plummeted downward, Wang Yu seized Alfonso's wrists in an iron grip, forcing apart the knight's gauntleted hands with impossible strength.

"You! Damn it—"

Alfonso's words were strained and halting. Even as a legend, he could barely resist his opponent's force. The brief stalemate crumbled beneath Wang Yu's strength.

Expressionless, Wang Yu's leg lashed out in a savage kick. The blow struck Alfonso's bared chest with force greater than any arm could muster.

The knight's armor, which had withstood the earlier strike, buckled and collapsed. The impact penetrated steel and struck flesh and bone.

Bones shattered. Blood burst from Alfonso's mouth. His sternum caved in as his ribs splintered, jagged fragments spearing inward to ravage his organs.

The kick hurled him earthward like a meteor. He struck with cataclysmic force, gouging the headquarters' foundation in a detonation of dust and debris. The blast even slew several "Nightblades" operatives who had been caught unaware, torn apart by the shockwave.

Wang Yu descended through the smoke, his fist clenched like a hammer of iron. He plunged it into the ground where Alfonso had fallen, the unimaginable impact causing the earth itself to quake.

The whole underground stronghold seemed to shake. Fractures spiderwebbed unseen through its substructure.

Wang Yu rose from the rubble, the power of the Chariot radiating outward in a rippling tide. Alfonso had vanished from sight after the kick, and Wang Yu was trying to lock onto his position.

Wang Yu now towered utterly over the other legendary knight. In terms of strength, speed, and sheer resilience, Wang Yu easily eclipsed Alfonso.

Much of it was thanks to his unnatural fusion with the Dragon King's body. His blood had mixed with the dragon's flesh, rebuilding him from the inside out. His monstrous regeneration reforged his frame anew, stronger each time.

Through that cycle of ruin and renewal, Wang Yu's body had gleaned a fragment of the Dragon King's power.

It was a sliver of potential at best, perhaps one percent, at most two, of the Dragon King's abilities. Yet even that was enough to elevate his flesh to terrifying heights.

Wang Yu now possessed monstrous strength.

The Chariot's power spread outward for dozens of meters, yet he could sense no trace of his foes. If they had fled beyond its reach, so be it. He would not waste time hunting shadows. Better to clean up here instead.

A sound welled up from within him, indescribable, not born of his lungs or throat but from his blood itself. His veins blazed with energy, glowing through his skin until his whole body shone like a bomb on the brink of detonation.

A heartbeat later, he erupted in a modified high-energy Overcharge. A wave of raw force exploded outward from Wang Yu, shredding everything around him to powder.