“Milli,” Lance whispered gently from Carter’s back. “How’re you holding up?”

  Hearing that, Milianna took a deep breath to calm her nerves – albeit only slightly – as she tio watch her son’s fight.

  “I’ll be fine,” Milianna replied gently. “As long as Ace is fine, I’ll be fine.”

  Arianna had been by their side this whole time, so she was fully aware that her disciple had beeremely tense ever sihe moment they arrived. Still, she didn’t say anything; she khis was needed for Milianna’s future.

  Even though she appeared to be in a state of peaceful meditation, the truth was that she was the one most on edge. Not because of the Fain and the other saints – they were nothing more than a bunch of ies in her eyes. The reason behind her extreme state of focus was O’Brien.

  As the shadow robe didn’t work on those above the saint realm, all it would take was one sweep of his divine seo see it was Milianna uhe robe. And although her soul was more potent than the likes of Desri and Fain, it had still yet to hat of a genuiy; as such, she wouldn’t be able to sense his divine sense.

  Arianna was fident in her ability to defeat a deity like O’Brien, but the fact that she wouldn’t be able to sense his divine sense spreading over her meant that she wouldn’t be able to reatil after he made his presenown, and if she allowed herself to get distracted for even a fra of a sed, an expert of O’Brien’s level would be able to easily capitalise on that.

  Still, that was only if she allowed herself to get distracted. With how close she was to her disciple, there was no way O’Brien would be able to get close to Milianna without her notig.

  Ba the arena, the fight was really starting to heat up. Whether it was Olivier or Ace, they both began accumuting small wounds. Still, that only seemed to spur the two warriors on.

  Aed grin pyed on both their faces, including that of the iceberg that was Olivier Akerlund.

  It was rare for oo face such a worthy oppo, and they both k. But as satisfied as they were with their oppo, they were both determio be the final victor.

  It was then that Olivier did something that shocked the crowd. Olivier’s body split into two, and then those two split into four, then i, only stopping when there were 16 seemingly perfect copies of Olivier surrounding Ace.

  “After losing so vingly to Kaymin st year, I went straight into seclusion to perfect my Lightshadow Sword Art’s movement teique,” Olivier’s voice echoed between all 16 copies of him. “With Kaymin having broken through to the saint realm, I had initially po reveal this move when challenging Wukong…”

  As he said that, a sigh full of emotion escaped Olivier’s lips as he looked at his dignified oppo with resolve and a hint of admiration.

  “I never expected that the first person to force me to use it would be you,” Olivier tinued. “Still, if this is the full extent of your strength, I suggest you give up now. You are by far the most talented person I’ve ever seen, maybe even the most talented person our Yun ti has ever produced – it would be a shame for you to lose your life here.”

  Hearing his words, all those present from the O’Brien Empire were filled with pride as Olivier showed his overwhelming strength, but there was none more proud than Blumer. Olivier was once again proving to the world that he was number one.

  Ace’s dignified expression gradually settled, and a sigh escaped his lips as he sed his oppos. ‘I really hate the speedy ones.’

  The truth was, the moment Ace saw Olivier multiply, he believed he had gained insight into the ws of Light and/or Darkness. After all, both rofound mysteries of doppelgangers, but after no lohan a sed, he dismissed that thought.

  If Olivier really had gained insight iher profound mystery, as a warrior at the peak of the ninth rank, he would’ve automatically broken through to the saint realm, but more importantly, Ace couldn’t sehe infusion of the natural ws ing from his oppo, but that only made it all the more impressive, as Olivier was aplishing this feat with nothing but raw speed.

  Olivier’s raw power may not mean much to a saint, but purely in terms of speed, Ace believed Olivier was superior to some of the slower saints at the early stages.

  Unfortunately, as Ace couldn’t pare to even the weakest of saints when it came tth, defence or speed, it made his ces of winning seemingly impossible. Still, the fight in Ace’s eyes hadn’t even begun to wane.

  “It’s probably for the best you didn’t get to challenge big bro Kong,” Ace smiled teasingly, causing Olivier’s brows to furrow slightly. “Even with this teique, you’d still only be asking to be abused.”

  Many believed that Ace was just bragging, but Olivier could tell that whilst it was true that the dark-haired teen was trying to get a rise out of him, he didn’t appear to be lying. Still, he didn’t seem that surprised either.

  It had to be remembered that when Wukong and Olivier fought all those years ago, Olivier had just broken through to the eighth rank and was regarded as the number one genius of the War God’s College as he was capable of jumping ranks to fight those in the ninth.

  Wukong, oher hand, was only at the peak of the sixth rank at the time and a few years younger, a, despite being almost two ranks above, he could only fight the ape-like young man to a standstill.

  As much as he hated to admit it, Wukong was definitely more talehan he was. After that, he trained his body to his limits on a near-daily basis, all with the hopes of defeating Wukong the ime they met, but deep inside, he khat there was a ce that Wukong would tio improve at a speed faster than he could keep up with.

  Still, as talented as Olivier was, what made him so impressive wasn’t his talent but his unyielding state of mind.

  Even now, after finding out that Wukong was still strohan him – albeit from a potentially biased source –, he didn’t despair; in fact, he found that his drive to get stronger had only increased. That robably the biggest differeween Olivier and Blumer.

  “Is that right?” Olivier asked calmly. “Well, I guess it really is a good thing that I’m fag you and not him.”

  As he said that, Ace’s iris’ shrunk as he instinctively pierced his give to his right.

  Despite having fht on where Olivier was going to attack, he still came out on the losing side of that exge, with a rge ssh on his left shoulder.

  He took that moment to jump bad escape his oppo’s encirclement, but before he could, a fsh of light appeared in Ace’s line of sight, then, at a speed he could barely react to, Olivier’s sword shrough the air towards Ace’s neck.

  “[Bzefield]!” Ace roared, willing his pseudo-battle-qi to transform into a forcefield that protected his whole body.

  Although Olivier was able to cut through the fiery forcefield, it had still mao slow the attack just enough for Ace to dodge.

  Ace didn’t even take a sed to try and repose himself. The sed he was out of danger, he thrust his give forth, hoping to pierce Olivier’s skull, but as it moved, the give seemed to multiply, turning into 16 fiery gives at once, eae aiming to pierce the skull of his oppo(s).

  Unfortunately, Ace had just begun to attack by the time Olivier had already appeared behind him once again, f Ace to escape into the air this time.

  “How’s Ace doing?” Milianna asked, turning to her master as she couldn’t follow a fight at this level with her sight.

  “He’s holding on for now,” Arianna replied. “But his oppo’s movement teique has put him firmly on the back foot.

  Although he hasn’t actually prehended any of the profound mysteries, this Olivier child’s movement teique is able to distort light around him to create an illusionary effect; then, without his oppo notig, he’s able to move like something of a shadow to approach his oppo notig at lightspeeds and attack before his oppo react.”

  It was rare for ao gain the aowledgement of Arianna, but Olivier’s self-created teique clearly had.

  “Without truly grasping any of the profound mysteries, he’s still mao utilise the Law of Light’s Profound Mysteries of Lightspeed and Refra, as well as the Law of Darkness’s Profound Mystery of Shadows.

  If he were able to truly grasp all three of those profound mysteries, even if only on a surface level, his strength would rival some weaker peak saints,” Arianna praised. “Fortunately, with his far superior prehension aility, Ace barely defend himself, but he ’t keep it up forever.

  He’s still only at the peak of the fifth rank; he’ll run out of gas long before his oppo.”

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  Book 10: Part 11 – The History of Larkel and Cecelia Viz