Fredrinn, clutched the stump of his bleeding shoulder, struggling to stay on his knees.

His eyes were locked on the figure at the center of the golden light that had appeared in the middle of the battlefield, piercing the pitch-black darkness around it.

This child shone with a divine purity, as if he were a Saint.

His presence was an affront to the very nature of the Shadow Realm; an anomaly that rejected and defied its darkness, its despair, and its decay.

However, Fredrinn knew this was not normal. His instincts were screaming.

There were no known Saints in the world right now. Especially not a child capable of using holy mana on such an overwhelming, massive scale... It was impossible.

But what truly sent shivers down Fredrinn's spine was the stark contradiction within this divine tableau.

The child didn't look like a Saint at all.

The demonic, self-assured smile on his face; his inhuman red eyes, like two embers snatched from the deepest pits of hell; and his snow-white hair that contrasted with the golden light...

All of it gave the child an otherworldly, unsettling, and dangerous appearance.

Was this child a savior, or the harbinger of an even greater danger to come?

Fredrinn couldn't decide.

All he knew was that, for the moment, this mysterious being had saved his life.

As if he had read Fredrinn's mind, the child fixed his crimson eyes on him.

His voice, despite his young age, was filled with an ancient wisdom and an overwhelming self-confidence.

He spoke in a mocking tone, and his voice echoed in the dark realm like the decree of a monarch:

"You did a good job, partner. Now sit back and be a good audience."

On the other side, the Black Knight stared at this new threat.

An angry smoke seeped from the cracks in his armor. This was his domain, the embodiment of his will.

No one could enter or leave this realm without his permission.

But what stirred the most hatred within the Black Knight was the mana emanating from the child's presence.

Holy mana...

It flowed over him with its golden hue, mocking his dark essence, defiling his very being.

This was the mana that belonged to the Light Gods who had slaughtered his own gods centuries ago.

This was the power of his kind's greatest enemy.

And now, this hateful power was threatening him in the heart of his own kingdom.

The Black Knight, channeling all his rage and remaining strength into a single roar, charged at the white-haired child.

The child, however, showed not the slightest sign of surprise. A katana materialized in his hand, which he coated with holy mana, and he dashed forward to meet the deadly assault.

The two swords clashed at a point where darkness and light merged. The two forces struggled to suppress one another.

In the first moment, the Black Knight's sheer physical strength prevailed, and the child was thrown back several meters.

But the real battle had begun the instant steel met steel.

The holy mana, seeping from the child's katana like a plague, flowed first to the Black Knight's sword, then to his armor, and from there directly into the dark essence within.

The Black Knight began to be destroyed from the inside, as if molten gold were being poured into his veins.

Without reacting to this internal agony, the Black Knight sent a straight slash coated in his sword aura toward the child.

The child met the attack by instantly forming a crystallized ice shield coated in holy mana in front of him. The shield shattered into a thousand pieces upon impact.

Cassian used this moment as an opportunity and lunged toward the Black Knight again.

Cassian formed a sphere of light from holy mana in his left hand. As he neared the Black Knight, he detonated the sphere.

The Black Knight's vision and joints were once again dulled by the holy mana.

Cassian knew very well how weak the Black Knight had become.

Even playing his ultimate trump card, the Shadow Realm, was the beginning of his decline.

Chaos flames, void decay, holy mana, and all the wounds from his fight with Fredrinn...

The Black Knight was now an accessible opponent for Cassian.

He swiftly swung his katana toward the deep, bleeding void in the Knight's chest.

However, before the child's sword could reach its target, the Black Knight shielded himself with his own sword and simultaneously threw a powerful kick to knock him back.

But Cassian's body twisted with an unbelievable flexibility, like a boneless snake.

He bent around the kick, evading the blow, closed the distance between them completely, and reached out with his bare hand toward the dark void in the Knight's chest.

The moment his shimmering fingers plunged into the living darkness beneath the armor, he unleashed a flood of golden mana directly inside the Black Knight.

The Black Knight trembled violently, as if his very soul were being torn into a thousand pieces.

With a final effort, he swung the pommel of his sword in a blind strike toward the child's back. But the child defended himself with his sword before the blow could land and used the momentum of the strike to leap backward.

He had successfully dealt the damage.

Now, a distance of several meters once again separated them.

The tempo of the battle suddenly changed.

From the child's body, dozens of golden tendrils made of holy mana shot out like the arms of an octopus.

Each one targeted the Black Knight from a different angle.

The Knight, using his sword like a blender, shredded most of the tendrils before they could reach him.

However, the ones that managed to get through were like parasites, sticking to his skin and tearing away another piece of his soul with every second of contact.

To rid himself of these divine pests, the Black Knight explosively released his aura, shattering all the tentacles.

But it was just a distraction.

Just then, the child's silhouette appeared behind the Black Knight.

He plunged his golden-mana-coated sword into the joint behind the Knight's kneecap, where the armor was weaker.

That once-impenetrable, legendary armor was now no different from cutting through warm butter for the child's sword.

The power difference that was once as vast as mountains between them was now almost nonexistent.

As that demonic smile reappeared on the child's face, he ruthlessly twisted the sword inside the armor.

The Black Knight roared in pain and swung his sword wildly behind him.

The child quickly pulled his sword from the knee and defended himself. He met the raw power of the blow, but the price was heavy; his right arm broke at an unnatural angle with an audible crack.

The child leaped backward without making a sound of pain.

Fredrinn had thought the child was injured, but his blood ran cold at the sight before him.

The broken arm, with a nauseating series of snaps and clicks, was repairing itself within seconds. Bones were setting back into place, and flesh was knitting back together.

An unparalleled regeneration ability...

It was no longer clear which one of them was the real monster.

The child stabbed his katana into the ground with his healed arm.

The moment the sword's tip touched the floor, chaos flames began to spread everywhere, tearing through the dark fabric of the Shadow Realm.

The realm, once pitch black, was now brightly illuminated by the purple and black flames of chaos and the golden glow of holy mana.

The battlefield had, in an instant, transformed into the heart of an active volcano.

The Black Knight's very being was weakening with each passing second under the pressure of these two opposing energies.

If this continued, he would soon dissolve into nothingness.

One arm was gone, one leg was now useless, and his mana was on the verge of depletion.

Despite all this, he was facing a supernatural freak who used an anti-mana completely opposite to his own and healed his wounds in seconds.

The Black Knight knew he could not continue this fight any longer.

There was a moment of silence. Finally, as if signaling his surrender, he decided to pour everything he had into a single blow.

From within his armor, pitch-black, tar-like liquids began to flow toward the sword held in his remaining hand.

The sword began to glow with an ominous aura, as if it were absorbing all the darkness and hatred of the entire realm.

This would be his final attack.

On the other hand, the child had also understood the Black Knight's intention.

Cassian's eyes began to glow with gold and darkness.

With the smile never leaving his face, he too prepared for his final move.

He channeled all his holy mana into his katana, making the sword's golden glow as dazzling as a sun.

Simultaneously, a massive, crackling spear of pure lightning formed on his right side.

On his left, another massive, spinning spear made of chaos flames took shape.

He could feel how quickly his mana core was emptying. So much so that even his unparalleled regeneration ability was falling short against this mind-boggling consumption.

But it didn't matter.

This final blow would end everything.

Both warriors were ready to play their final cards.

The Shadow Realm seemed to hold its breath before the clash of these two absolute powers.

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