Chapter 414: Overwhelming Suppression

The high-energy blood within Wang Yu's body detonated in full, unleashing a shockwave of pure energy that swept across the area. The destructive force toppled the entirety of the Nightblades' headquarters, while everything close to his body disintegrated into dust-like fragments.

"Hm. As soon as the alarms were triggered, a spatial spell sealed the entire region, shunting the Nightblades' headquarters into an isolated pocket dimension. That way, no disturbance within will spread, and no external interference will be possible. And, of course, any intruder who dares to enter will be imprisoned here."

Nodding faintly, Wang Yu's gaze lingered on the shimmering boundary revealed once the headquarters had collapsed. After all, he had once risen high enough among the Nightblades to know their inner workings well.

This mechanism had been meant for Charles. Once the lockdown was triggered, he would be trapped with no escape, forced to face two legendary foes in silence, with the outside world none the wiser.

Now, however, the trap had become the perfect stage for Wang Yu to unleash himself freely, unnoticed by the world beyond.

A single modified high-energy Overcharge had been sufficient to scour the battlefield clean, erasing every obstacle that obscured his vision or hindered his movement. From this moment on, the rhythm of battle was entirely within his grasp.

A blazing fireball shot toward him from the distance. The heat it carried had transcended mere flame. It was a compressed crimson orb of energy that blazed with searing light.

The instant it drew near, it burst apart, scattering torrents of scarlet beams that converged upon Wang Yu from every direction.

Wang Yu surged forward, a straight charge toward the fiery core that had launched the attack. Against the rain of treacherous beams that lanced toward him from all sides, Wang Yu moved with blinding speed.

With fist and palm, he clawed and struck at the searing rays, scattering and deflecting the explosions before they could touch him.

This was the hallmark of a legendary knight. At this level, a knight's body distorted the world around it and was strong enough to tear through magic with flesh alone. Though Wang Yu's method differed slightly, the effect was the same: the eternal struggle between knight and magician had flipped on its axis. Here, strength alone reigned.

Fighting spirit surged and gathered upon his fists. With a roar, he manifested a colossal hammer of energy that smashed through the burning rays and crashed into the fiery core. It shattered into fragments. The beams that had lanced toward him from every angle winked out in an instant.

But the danger was not over. The ground split with a thunderous crack, and a massive stone pillar erupted upward, stabbing straight for Wang Yu's chest. Its speed and force eclipsed even most legendary earth magicians' spells.

Planting a foot on thin air, Wang Yu wrenched raw void energy into a solid foothold. He spun aside in a sharp arc, grazing past the deadly spike and catching hold of the stone itself. He was ready to strike back.

The column above him split apart. Alfonso burst forth, dragging a giant sword swathed in layers of jagged rock. His heavy armor was now overlaid with a sheath of dark, unyielding stone, and his form surged with the inexhaustible strength of Earth.

The massive blade came crashing down, merciless as the weight of the world. Alfonso's body was fused with the land itself. The power of the earth flooded into him. Rather than hinder him, his stone armor lent him unnatural speed and strength.

Wang Yu crossed his arms before him and met the blow head-on. The Earthvein Greatsword slammed against his guard with a thunderous roar, shattering the stone pillar beneath him and driving him down to the ground.

Even that brief descent had given Alfonso's strike terrifying speed. Empowered by superhuman strength, Alfonso hammered Wang Yu into the earth, gouging a pit meters deep as the ground convulsed.

Yet Alfonso's face remained grim. He had launched that strike at full power, yet his opponent wasn't even injured. Wang Yu's crossed arms had fended off the blow when even the ground had yielded from the force.

"Damn it... what kind of monster is this, Satori?!" Alfonso snarled.

The grating sound of breaking stone filled the air. Below, Wang Yu shifted his stance, his iron grip pressing against the stone-encased blade. With sheer brute strength, he was tearing apart the hardened rock that reinforced Alfonso's weapon.

Even as Alfonso poured the earth's power into the pit, conjuring pressure and summoning spears of stone to pierce Wang Yu from every angle, Wang Yu withstood it all unscathed. His body's resilience defied reason.

The legendary magician Satori was taking this fight equally seriously. It was clear that their opponent was far stronger than Alfonso. In the realm of legends, the true measure of a knight was the strength of his body and weapon.

Alfonso's weapon was formidable, yes, but its true might required time to awaken. Until then, it was no more than a durable blade well-suited to Alfonso's strengths.

Still, at the very least, their opponent was "only" a legendary knight. Together, a knight and magician could unleash power far beyond either alone.

Or so he thought.

"What?!" Satori's eyes went wide as his body staggered mid-stride, nearly tumbling despite the storm of wind that bore him forward. Long-honed reflexes alone saved him from collapse.

His wind-step spell had collapsed without warning. The mana in his circuits seized as if frozen. His spellwork shorted out.

Even the seventh-tier hybrid spell he had been preparing hovered on the brink of collapse. If he hadn't been a legendary magician, the backlash alone might have taken him down.

"What's happening? The void energy and mana here are now inert, as if they've been frozen under a layer of ice. I can't draw upon any of it!"

He could not comprehend just what had happened. Both the mana and void within the area had been sealed and locked beyond his grasp.

The source lay below. Wang Yu turned his head, gaze piercing through meters of rock to lock upon Satori, who had been approaching from what he thought a safe distance. The Chariot's power pulsed in its most active state.

With the upgrade to the Chariot's power, he had unlocked a new ability: Silent Hall. Wang Yu spread the Chariot's influence wide, seizing the surrounding mana and void energy in an iron grip. None could exert any influence on either without his permission.

This was the power of the Chariot at its peak. Its strength, precision, and scope had all grown beyond measure. Mimicking the Silent Forest curio, Wang Yu had established a domain where magic and void alike were silenced.

Within this domain, all were forced to rely only on their strength as warriors. A magician's greatest advantage, endless versatility, had been severed at its root.

A massive eruption hurled Alfonso's Earthvein Greatsword skyward. Even with the power of the earth magnifying his strength, the legendary knight felt a jolt that nearly wrenched the weapon from his hands.

"Damn it, Satori, what are you doing? I can't hold him down!"

Alfonso cursed. Since stepping into the realm of legend, he had never once been overpowered by brute strength alone—not until now.

His hardened resolve kept panic at bay, but his partner's silence gnawed at him. For a flicker of a moment, he even wondered if this was a royal conspiracy, if Satori was in league with the crown to erase him, a fellow legend, in secret.

"The mana and void energy in the vicinity have been sealed," Satori answered, strained. "Spellcasting is almost impossible. I can activate my legendary magic still, but you need to stall him a little longer. One of us must succeed: either my spell must be completed, or your weapon must be fully charged."

Satori's reply dispelled Alfonso's suspicions, but it also sent a chill down his spine. Techniques that blocked mana or void energy were hardly uncommon, but for such a seal to affect even a legendary magician...

Legendary magicians, with mastery over mana, were like whirlpools that bent the flow of magic around them.

The only things Alfonso had ever seen capable of obstructing a legendary magician's casting were either massive ritual arrays, or the curio known as the Silent Forest. The former was clearly absent, and the latter had long since vanished along with the Selwyn army, crushed beneath a falling star. In theory, divine power might accomplish such a feat, but Alfonso had never witnessed it.

For now, it was impossible to determine what force was at work. Only one choice remained: continue the battle, and wait for the moment to slay this monster.

Alfonso slammed his gauntleted fists into the ground. His hidden reserves surged forth, driving the reinforced earth to lurch forward and close in from all sides, crushing Wang Yu as he clawed his way upward from beneath the soil.

The solid ground groaned like tortured metal. Wang Yu merely spread his arms wide, muscles swelling, fighting spirit blazing. With brute force alone, he tore apart the earth Alfonso had driven to crush him in sheer, raw violence.

From above, Alfonso plummeted like a falling star. The earth itself dragged him down with irresistible force, his heavy armor and tremendous strength lending his descending strike unimaginable power. At the peak of its arc, he leapt and cleaved down toward Wang Yu.

The slash carved a dreadful scar in the ground. Cracks spiderwebbed outward for dozens of meters. Yet at the heart of the impact, only a crater remained. Wang Yu was nowhere in sight.

The sound of rending stone shattered the illusion of victory. Wang Yu clung to Alfonso's towering frame, his fingers gouging deep into the stone armor encasing the knight's chest. With a vicious wrench, he ripped away the rock shell, then drove his fist mercilessly into the exposed target.

The blow left a deep dent in Alfonso's breastplate. Though it did not pierce through, the impact reverberated inward, wracking his body with spasms. Bones cracked, organs tore, and blood welled up internally.

Wang Yu's fists became an unending torrent of strikes that crashed down like thunder. Alfonso's armor splintered, shards flying as he was beaten backward, crushed beneath Wang Yu's weight, and finally buried under a ceaseless barrage of blows.

With a roar, Alfonso burst free of his stone shell. He reversed his grip on his greatsword, left hand clutching the hilt, right fist clenched to meet Wang Yu's relentless assault head-on.

He had realized the truth. Though the stone armor enhanced his strength without hampering his speed or freedom of movement, it also made him a far larger target. This was too much of a liability against Wang Yu.

Pouring every last ounce of will and flesh into his strikes, Alfonso forced his body into overdrive. For a fleeting moment, his speed soared. He managed, barely, to fend off Wang Yu's onslaught.

His legendary weapon held firm, unbending even against Wang Yu's iron fists. His bare knuckles, however, told another story. Each clash caused blood to burst from split skin. Yet his willpower blazed, and he didn't falter.

The two legends clashed in raw violence, the battlefield echoing with their collision. Though Wang Yu held the advantage in every exchange, Alfonso refused to yield, even pinned beneath him.

And with each clash, the rock cladding Alfonso's greatsword cracked further, flaking away to reveal the true blade within.

"Just a little longer," Alfonso muttered inwardly, teeth gritted. "Once Satori casts his legendary spell, or if the Earthvein Greatsword awakens... the tide of the battle will shift."

But Wang Yu's assault was simply too ferocious. Alfonso felt his body straining more and more. Collapse seemed imminent. Still, he endured, wringing every last drop from his strength, repeating his silent pledge to endure.

The flurry of strikes suddenly paused. The next blow did not fall. Instead, Wang Yu drew back, muscles tensing, air hissing as his arm coiled with force. He was charging up for a single, decisive strike, one meant to shatter Alfonso's defenses outright.

Alfonso's eyes widened. He roared, dragging his own right arm back for a desperate counter. He had no choice but to block this punch. Anything else meant death.

Both fists shot forward, colliding in the blink of an eye.

Something was wrong about the resulting sound: it was too heavy, too hollow. There was a thunderous impact, yes, but only the echo of fists shattering the air.

For an instant, Alfonso froze. His strike... had hit nothing.

Not only that, he was no longer pinned. Somehow he was standing upright. What in the...?

His gaze snapped toward Wang Yu. At Wang Yu's feet lay a mangled heap of blood and flesh, unrecognizable, pounded into paste within a crater.

Mere heartbeats ago, while Wang Yu was tied up against Alfonso, Satori had finished charging up his legendary spell.

At that instant, as Wang Yu raised his arm, a rift tore open in the void. Two tarot cards spun forth.

One struck Alfonso, point-blank. The other passed through a minuscule Gate of Phases and toward Satori, who was singularly focused on his spell and unable to dodge the card.

Fist and card fell as one. Light flared.

The spell triggered as space warped. Alfonso and Satori exchanged places.

Alfonso's fist struck empty air, while Wang Yu's fell upon Satori's skull.