Lucien looked up at the hovering Light-Demon. "It is time to rest, little brother," Lucien said softly. Lucien bent his knees slightly. He activated the ultimate movement art. Lucien did not jump. He simply vanished from the ground, leaving a tiny cloud of white mist behind him. He bypassed physical space entirely. He moved through the fabric of the universe in a fraction of a millisecond. He appeared instantly in the sky, floating directly above the ten-foot-tall Light-Demon. The creature looked up, its dozens of eyes widening in pure terror. It raised its massive, sharp light-wings to defend itself. Lucien hung in the air above the monster. He raised his black and gold iron sword high above his head with both hands. His dual-colored eyes—one pitch-black, one brilliant gold—burned with absolute, final judgment. "You stole my throne," Lucien declared. His deep, layered voice boomed like thunder across the entire capital city, demanding the attention of every single living soul

Patriarch Valerius of the Saint-Aurelius Clan stood near the broken golden railing. Valerius was Julian’s grandfather. He was the oldest, most experienced leader in the entire Empire. He wore incredibly thick, heavy golden armor covered in ancient, powerful runes. His white beard flowed down his chest. Valerius looked down at the crying Emperor on the floor. A look of pure, absolute disgust crossed the Patriarch’s wrinkled face. "You are pathetic," Patriarch Valerius hissed at the Emperor. "You call yourself a ruler? You cry on the floor while our enemy holds a sword to the neck of our future?"The Emperor just kept sobbing, hiding his face in his hands. Patriarch Valerius turned his back on the crying Emperor. He walked up to the edge of the balcony. He looked down through the remaining pieces of thick, magical glass that protected the Royal Box from the arena. He saw Lucien raising the black sword over Julian’s neck. “If Julian dies today, the bloodline is broken,” the Patri

Lucien’s aura was an impenetrable, perfect balance of light and dark. It swallowed the Patriarch’s pressure effortlessly. "You..." Valerius whispered, his voice shaking slightly. "You resist a Peak Sovereign. How is this possible? You are just a child playing with dark toys!"Lucien took a slow, heavy step forward. His iron boot crushed the stone. "You call them dark toys," Lucien sneered. "But your whole clan is built on lies. You sent my mother into a cage. You banished me into a grave. You let your own Emperor become a crying coward on a balcony. Your clan is a rotting corpse, Valerius. I am just the fire that came to burn it clean."Valerius stared at Lucien’s eyes. The old Patriarch looked at the pitch-black eye, and then he looked at the brilliant golden eye. Suddenly, Valerius realized exactly who he was looking at. The Emperor was not the only one who recognized the face. "You are Lady Aris's boy," Valerius whispered. His golden eyes grew wide with understanding. "You are

Valerius swung his giant battleaxe overhead. A massive, towering wave of solid golden energy erupted from the spinning blades. The wave was fifty feet high. It looked like a falling wall of solid fire. It moved with the speed of a crashing meteor. Lucien did not dodge. He wanted to test the old man’s strength. Lucien crossed his weapons. He placed the black iron sword and the golden Demigod spear in an X-shape in front of his chest. He pushed his Abyssal Chaos magic into his arms to block the attack. The massive golden wave crashed directly into Lucien. The impact was absolutely horrifying. Lucien’s eyes widened behind his helmet. The sheer, raw, accumulated cultivation power of the Patriarch was unbelievable. Valerius was not lying. He had been storing mana inside his body for over two hundred years. It was a bottomless, massive ocean of energy. Lucien was incredibly strong. His physical density was like a dragon's. But he had only been cultivating his dark magic for ten year

Lucien was not trying to cut the old man in half with one big swing. He was fighting a war of a thousand tiny, perfect cuts. He sliced the back of Valerius’s knee, slowing the giant man down. He cut the heavy straps holding the Patriarch’s golden shoulder plates, making the armor hang loosely and awkwardly. He slashed a shallow, bleeding line across Valerius’s cheek, cutting through the old man's white beard. The millions of people in the stadium watched in absolute, mesmerized silence. They had never seen fighting like this. It was not a clash of colorful magic beams. It was a masterclass in raw, physical combat intelligence. The dirty rogue was completely out-muscled, completely out-magicked, and yet, he was entirely controlling the fight. Valerius was bleeding from twenty different small cuts. His breathing was becoming heavy and ragged. He was swinging his giant axe slower and slower. He was wasting massive amounts of mana hitting the empty ground. "Stop moving!" Valerius ro