As Olivier stepped onto the ring, the whole of War God’s mountain was deathly silent as they anxiously waited for what would iably be the final fight of today’s challenge – at least between the mortals anyway.

  At the start of the day, everyone would’ve uantly put all their money on Olivier, but now…

  “Who do you think will win this?” A middle-aged man dressed in vish garms and aravagant sat upon his head asked as he tilted his head slightly towards a familiar-looking general who stood like a loyal guard to his right.

  “Holy, I’m not sure, your majesty,” General Fuscor replied. “The strength that boy Ace dispyed before…

  Zaron wasn’t much weaker than me, but he had been able to kill him in only two moves.

  I’ve sparred with Olivier a few times, and even though the differeween us is substantial, Olivier would never be able to defeat me ihan at least five, probably even ten moves.”

  “So you think Olivier doesn’t stand a ce?” Johann O’Brien, the reigning Emperor of the O’Brien Empire, asked with an undisguised frown as he thought about the implications of such a loss – not for Olivier and the devastation it would have on his little brother, but the ive otations it would have on the O’Brien Empire as a whole.

  It was bad enough for the stro warrior of their stro school for warriors losing to the teen, but if Olivier did too, it meant that Gol D. Ace, a young teen, was strohan every single warrior in their empire – an empire which prided themselves on having the stro warriors on the ti.

  “I didn’t mean it like that, your majesty,” General Fuscor shook his head as he looked at Olivier’s back. “I admit that in terms of talent and potential, Ace is without peer, but Olivier is still a genius, the likes of which is only normally seen once every thousand years.

  Ace’s strength has definitely skyrocketed sihe war against the Rohault Empire a year ago, but I very much doubt Olivier’s just sat bad did nothing. Even though I haven’t seen him in a since we returned i, I see from his eyes that Olivier’s not the same warrior he was back then.

  As for if he win this, it all depends oly how much he mao improve!”

  As he said that, bursts of gasps could be heard from the audience as they looked at Olivier’s body.

  Everyone was well aware by now that Olivier had mao cultivate battle-qi of both light and darkness, but what he was doing now was a first. With deft trol, Olivier had somehow mao yer his darkness battle-qi on top of his light one.

  Although they hadn’t fused, they had truly stacked together to give him more power.

  “The day this sword was hao me, and I found out about my family’s demise, I promised myself I wouldn’t use it until I was worthy,” Olivier said as he summoned an enting pale blue long sword that looked like it was fed of pure ice. “And today I io prove my worth to the world whilst I wield my family's heirloom – Icedream,”

  Hearing that, Ace resummoned his own on befently running his fingers up its shaft. He had hought to introduce his on in the past, but today, he would make an exception.

  “This give was fed for me by the greatest fer on the ti, Lauriel Hyde, using materials gathered by the number one genius of yeion and my senior, Wukong,” Ace expined slowly, paying no attention to the slight flicker of emotion on Olivier’s face. “It’s named after the man who inspired me to choose the give – e!”

  As he said that, Ace willed his crimson mageforce to coat his whole body and on as he focused his haki on his on and arms – as he was still only in the fifth rank, he remained uo coat his entire body with it, but for now, it would have to do.

  Then, without another word, both warriors moved in unison as they shot towards each other at breakneck speeds.

  Smiles of relief appeared on the faces of those on the side of the O’Brien Empire – who were able to keep up – as they noticed the differen speed.

  Olivier’s movement teique was ohat Ace had already seen once before. At that time, it was utilised by Blumer, and although impressive, it was nothing in parison to Olivier’s usage. It had little to do with the fact that Olivier was over two full ranks superior to his little brother and everything to do with the fact that, as the creator, his skill with it was leagues above.

  Ace, as fast as he was, had only moved a tenth of the distance before Olivier was already on top of him, his bde gracefully arg through the air, leaving a trail of bd gold in its wake as it sshed towards Ace’s neck.

  ‘I really hate the speedy ones,’ Ace thought to himself as he khey were the types of oppos who gave him the most trouble.

  Still, with the use of [Fht], Ace had long since seen through his oppo’s iion.

  Like before, the butt of his give jetted out fmes that dramatically increased the speed and power of his [Thrust]. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough.

  Whilst Olivier was forced to stop in his tracks, Ace was forced over a dozen heavy steps back before he could finally stabilize himself.

  A wave of cheers erupted from the side of the O’Brien Empire, with the loudest of them being from Blumer, as he watched Ace suffer his first setback – albeit only a minor one.

  Still, the O’Brien Empire his. Over the st two days, they had suffered loss after loss, each more humiliating tha. Without even realising it, they had begun to see Ace as their greatest nemesis.

  Even Fain and Byrius smiled subtly as they saw the results of the opening csh.

  “Looks like your little trick won’t work on me,” Olivier said indifferently as his eyes remairained on his young oppo.

  Others may not have uood what Olivier meant, but Ace sure did. The moment they cshed, Ace had attempted to use [Internal Destru] to try and ignore Olivier’s defence of yered battle-qi and ravage the man’s arm from the inside.

  Unfortunately, the moment he expertly trolled his haki to try and phase through his oppo’s defence, Olivier’s shadowy aura seemed to swallow the vast majority of Ace’s haki, and what was left was barely more than enough to be noticed.

  “It looks like I’m gonna have to go all out after all,” Ace said softly with a hint of admiration as he studied the stag method used by the older of the Akerlund brothers whilst shaking off the numbness of his arm.

  His words sounded arrogant, and many there refused to believe that Ace had still been holding back, but when the saints saw the slight but definitive ge to Ace’s mageforce, there wasn’t a single one of them who could remaied.

  “IMPOSSIBLE!” Byrius excimed, uo believe what he was witnessing.

  “How’s that even possible?!” Fain asked, his shoo less than his junior brothers.

  “His prehension…” Desri muttered. “It’s actually reached that of a deity!”

  Desri may have whispered it, but the weakest warrior in the audience was Wharton, a warrior of the fifth rank. As such, they had all heard his words clear as day.

  Although most of the mortals didn’t uand the true intricacies of such a thing, they were all able to put uand the meaning behind it. It meant that purely in terms of prehension, Ace had reached the same level as their very own spiritual pilr – The War God, O’Brien!

  When Ace was forced to retreat, no one, not even his mother, batted an eyelid. They already khat Ace was still holding back.

  If it ut as a pertage, a prime saint had at most prehended 99% of a profound mystery, whilst deities had prehended 100%. Although the difference was a single pert, the actual differen output was unimaginable.

  As such, Ace’s party weren’t worried about A the slightest.

  “Now,” Ace said with aed grin. “Let’s try this again, shall we?”

  This time, as Ace moved, although he still wasn’t as fast as his oppo, the gap was nowhere near as exaggerated, but even though he was very fast, speed was he attribute Ace prided himself on – that was his power.

  As their ons approached, Ace swiftly and expertly trolled his bzing mageforce turning it into a e shape that began rotating at speed. This was one of the eiques that Ace had e up with – “[Bzing Drill]!”

  Ace’s spinning nce-shaped fiery mageforce tore through the outer yer of Olivier’s darkness battle-qi, but before he could capitalise on it, Olivier showed off the wonder of his self-created [Lightshadow Sword Art].

  Blinding speed was only one aspect of this particur sword art; the other was its ability to evade dete – something that, if not for Ace’s [Observation], would’ve made this fight even more difficult.

  The two exged hundreds of moves per sed, leaving nothing but fshing lights and fireworks as they moved.

  For a while, those watg fot that the pride of their empire hinged oe of this battle. All they could think about was how incredible both warriors were.

  “Both of them have surpassed the strength of General Kaymin,” the burly general Fusched from beside Emperor Johann. “Before he broke through to the saint realm anyway.”

  “This is the true peak of mortal prowess,” One of the enerals stood behind Johann added.

  “Maybe if you don’t include that freak, Aiden Rohault,” Fuscor replied as he remembered the air of invincibility the dark-skinned give-wielding warrior emitted as he defeated Lahe War God’s 22nd disciple – and singlehandedly ehe war. “But it’s true that if either Ace or Olivier’s strength were to take so much as half a step forward, they too would be able to dispy the power of a saint.”

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  Book 10: Part 9 – Druelle’s Furious Return