Nameless King

Crackle. Crackle. Crackle.

Two threads pierced Wain's right shoulder as scarlet blood gushed out in a mighty torrent. Wain's face contorted in pain as he with a furious expression squeezed the threads with his hand, shattering them into small pieces.

'Bastard... Even now he keeps using various tricks to trick me... Damn, what a nasty opponent he is, if I'm distracted for even a moment, I immediately get kicked for it...' Wain internally muttered, staring at Virion with an ice-cold gaze as if trying to pierce him.

'Well, well, I've only attacked twice, but I've already managed to seriously wound you. At this rate, you will soon lose, though you have no other option anyway!" Virion said with a devious grin on his face before stepping forward.

He slowly headed towards Wain, while the tip of his spear left a long streak on the ground behind him as the blue plasma burned stone.

Wain gripped the hilt of his sword with force and released most of the energy he had. Streams of darkness surrounded him like evil spirits as several monsters with eerie wide jaws and massive eyes appeared above him. Wain didn't know exactly what he wanted to create, so it was just energy taking a rather strange form.

"Hah, it actually looks menacing. Honestly, I'm impressed." Virion stopped, took a step back, and swung his spear as if preparing to lunge forward, "I say this sincerely as I didn't expect you to be able to conserve so much energy. It won't help you though, since all that power will only postpone your death for a few seconds!"

Whoooooooooosh.

Virion's eyes sparkled as he turned into a blue flash, heading toward Wain with incredible speed, it seemed he could easily outrun even lightning in a powerful storm.

'Coming!' Wain's eyes went wide as he attacked back.

The monsters hovering above him rushed forward, covering Gladius with a dense shell of darkness that burned intensely like black fire, then Wain stepped forward and there was an energy blast behind him, giving a powerful momentum to him.

They turned into two blasts, blue and black that quickly reached each other. Wain used most of his power on this attack, so he was going to cut Virion with a single swing or at least inflict a serious wound on him.

"It was quick, but not enough." Virion whispered as his eyes looked at Wain, then Virion lunged forward, dashing past Wain's sword with his spear out in front of him.

It was too fast for Wain to see anything, but he suddenly realized that Virion was much quicker than him, so his sword didn't even touch Virion's armor.

Wain and Virion found themselves at different ends of the arena, their clash seemed to have gone to no avail, but Virion's spear was dripping blood that immediately evaporated due to the high temperature of the plasma.

"Agh!!!" Wain cried out as his face contorted in horrible pain. He grabbed his left side which was bleeding in a torrent while the unpleasant smell of charred flesh spread around.

"Perhaps if I didn't have this artifact, I would have been seriously injured in this attack, but now you are one level below me." Virion uttered with a calm look as he stared at Wain.

"Bastard... That hurt like hell..." Wain spit out a clot of blood with a frowned look before turning to Virion, "If you're already stronger than me, then why do you need my strength? What's the point?"

Virion was silent for a while before a slight smile appeared on his face and he said, "Well since you're going to die anyway, I'll answer your question. Unfortunately, I'm still in the Fourth Chronicle, so the recoil from using the Azure Horn would practically kill me, but with your power, I will be fine. By the way, don't try to procrastinate, the side effect won't come until a few hours later, you just won't live that long."

"My power...? You're talking about the power of the Nameless King, right? What's the point? Do you really think jaws or large amounts of energy can save you? From the looks of it, you'll just die." Wain smirked as his hand covered itself in the cold darkness, gradually stopping the bleeding.

"Agh... Don't you know what the power of the Nameless King is? Well, perhaps it makes sense since you still haven't been able to reach its full potential." Virion smirked and stepped forward, emitting a powerful aura that slightly distorted the space around him.

"What... What are you talking about?" Wain's eyes went wide as a shiver ran through his body. He couldn't believe that Virion knew the answer to this question he'd been trying to find out for a long time.

"I may be inaccurate since Nameless King never revealed his secrets to anyone, but I simply drew the obvious conclusion from his incredible accomplishments, the most important of which is that he was the first who reached the Transcendence Stage." Virion's eyes grew deeper as he spoke, "The Nameless King was capable of breaking through any barrier, even one that seemed to be the limit of any living creature. With that kind of power, no recoil from any artifact could seriously harm me! I will simply remove all negative effects!"

'The ability to break any barriers...?' Wain inwardly muttered as a shiver ran through his body. The forms were as surprised as he was, but the strange look of the Abyss Artist showed that their reaction was for a different reason.

"Well, that's enough. More of Nameless King's power, I'll know when I defeat you!" Virion exclaimed before rushing forward with a deadly stare.

Wain quickly came to his senses as he put up a block. Virion appeared almost instantly in front of him,  raining his spear down on Wain with incredible speed.

Tremble. Tremble. Tremble.

From their collision, there was a shockwave as the ground beneath Wain's cracked.

"Too weak!" Virion's eyes lit up in blue flame as well as his spear and his strength increased several times over. He attacked again and this time Wain was unable to block the attack as the spear plunged into his chest, leaving a wide cut on his body.