Kime stood up then. Fighting here would definitely cause a massacre, as normal civilians could die from the residue of the SE left behind by nearly every technique.
That was just how pure and unique the SE of a Legend-ranked being was.
So he'd made precautions.
His hands wove through a precise sequence of hand seals, movements too smooth to be hurried, too deliberate to be casual. A kanji for Protection manifested in the air—vast and luminous—its form resembling the outstretched wing of an angel.
It expanded outward, covering the total expanse of the auditorium.
A dome.
Absolute.
"Where is Carpathia?" Fadex asked, finally pulling his attention fully onto Kime.
"C?" Kime replied lazily. "Why should I tell you? I don't even know who you are."
"I am Fadex BuVūon," he declared. "I was a knight of the Order of Crimson—until Carpathia destroyed my SS. He made me less than human. Robbed me of my power, my title, my life. I swore I would not rest until I made him feel what I felt."
Kime was silent for a moment.
Then he burst out laughing.
"I'm sorry," he said between breaths. "Truly. Laughing during such a generic, third-rate villain backstory is rude, I know. But what were you expecting? That I'd point you toward C's location out of pity?"
Fadex's jaw tightened.
"Just so you know," Kime continued, his tone sharpening, "I am very informed about what happened. You attacked him after being explicitly ordered to stand down."
He took a step forward.
"And you call yourself a knight—when you couldn't follow the most logical instruction imaginable: don't anger the monster in the room."
Kime's eyes were cold now.
"Seeing that you're standing here, I assume you found a way to reconstruct your SS. A smarter man would've walked away. Started a new life. Forgotten Carpathia."
He raised his hand slightly.
"But you stayed. Because of your twisted sense of righteousness."
His voice hardened.
"I have no pity for you. You will lose your life here as a result of that foolishness."
Fadex laughed, SE erupting from him in a blinding surge.
"Is that so? THEN LET'S GOOOOOO!"
The auditorium shook as his power spread across the entire space.
"GENESIS SPEAR!"
A spear of hyper-condensed life energy formed instantly in his grip and hurled forward.
Kime didn't dodge.
The spear struck.
Instead of exploding, it attempted forced regeneration—cycling through moments of injury and non-injury in violent succession.
"Mirror Barrier!"
The space before Kime shimmered—not with force, but with denial.
The attack unraveled.
Behind him, the stone floor burst into grotesque life—twisted crystal-veined growths erupting wildly—proof of an attack that should have landed.
Fadex's eyes widened.
"Tch—!"
"AURORA LANCES!"
Dozens of radiant spears formed above him, tracking Kime's Spiritual Signature from every angle. They fired in curved trajectories, adjusting mid-flight, designed to overwhelm even high-speed opponents.
"So noisy," Kime muttered.
He stepped forward.
"Infinite Interval."
The lances flew.
And flew.
And never arrived.
From the audience's perspective, they hung suspended in the air, vibrating violently before destabilizing and detonating harmlessly.
Screams rang out as residual SE pressure slammed into civilians.
Cracks tore through the auditorium. Walls buckled. The structure began to fail.
"JUDGMENT CASCADE!"
The ceiling fractured as thousands of radiant shards descended.
Kime raised two fingers.
"Temporal Dilution."
The shards slowed—unevenly. Some froze. Others crawled. Enough broke through.
The impact was catastrophic.
The auditorium collapsed.
Seats were torn free. Stone disintegrated. Shockwaves ripped outward—
—but the dome over the observers held firm, glowing as debris smashed uselessly against it.
"All Instructors, take care of the chaos inside the dome. Now!" Sensei Pwain shouted.
Instructors moved instantly.
Meris Veyna of Hero Academy took charge, her voice cutting through panic as she stabilized civilians. Professor Tedorinzu and Professor Fenrir of Four Stars Academy reinforced structures and organized evacuations of the various VIPs in the VIP section.
High above, St. Bzeekl of Ranger Academy observed with hawk-eyed precision.
Sir Renar advanced with shield raised, while Doldan Fyrecrest planted himself like a living fortress, absorbing shockwaves meant to level buildings.
Amid the chaos—
Corinth Ransthrol and Absolam stood unbothered.
"Its about time we left." Corinth said.
"Don't you want to watch everything unfold?"
"Not at this point. Fadex might be strong but he can never actually defeat Kime, who has had centuries to perfect his abilities. He is only there to stall him. In the meantime I have something more important to handle."
"What is that?"
"It seemed a new group have entered the dungeon."
Absolam froze at that.
"How?"
"King Quinnson, is really not someone to overlook. It appears he has sent in his own private group to capture Kutote."
"Then let's go"
Corinth Ransthrol and Absolam moved to escape.
Pwain noticed.
He turned, "Meris, I'm going after them. Take over here!" and ran after them.
Meris Veyna hissed in annoyance, turned to the nearest instructor she could find, which incidentally was Professor Tedorinzu and shouted, "Professor Tedorinzu— I'm following Pwain! Can you handle here?"
Tedorinzu nodded in reply and she went after them.
---
Meanwhile...
At the epicenter, the ground caved in, dropping Kime and Fadex into a shattered crater.
"DAYBREAK OVERDRIVE!"
Gold light erupted from Fadex as his reconstructed SS screamed under the strain. His stats amped by the condensed light energy.
"VITAL SURGE BREAK!"
He closed in, fist driving forward to collapse Kime's SE circulation.
"Causality Barrier."
The punch connected.
And failed.
The shockwave detonated behind Kime instead.
"Retrograde Execution."
Fadex coughed blood before the strike even came.
Then he was hurled backward, carving a trench through the ruins.
He forced himself upright, laughing hoarsely.
"So this," he said, "is the power that stands above judgment."
"No," Kime replied calmly. "This is restraint."
He raised his palm.
The air stilled.
Runes began to form—vast, ancient, absolute. The rune was definitely of the Eleīovēin rank.
Not space.
Not defense.
Time.
The kanji burned into reality:
時
Every instructor felt it.
Every Legend felt it.
The atmosphere plummetted as thee natural order of gases were permanently diffused. The earth below shook in reverence, tectonic plates shifting under the release.
Fadex's SS screamed in warning.
"Up until now," Kime said quietly, "you were fighting me."
The rune locked into place.
"Now," he continued, "you fight the timeline."
And only then did it become clear—
Their real battle had not yet begun.
.
.
.
Spiritual Energy (SE)
Spiritual Sea (SS)
Spiritual Signature (SST)