(Planet Juxta, The Sky Above, Charles's POV)

For twenty grueling minutes, Charles held his ground against a probing Raymond, the Demi-God's every strike carrying both weight and calculation as he tested the depth of Charles's true strength.

*CLANG* *CLANG* *PUSH*

Steel rang and sparks scattered as Charles relied on his Intent Mastery to slip his blade into the exact line of each incoming blow, turning aside strikes that could have cleaved mountains in two into successful blocks.

Yet the longer the duel stretched, the more the toll showed.

Every clash carved a fraction deeper into his flesh, each shock reverberating down to the bone, leaving his arms trembling and his shoulders screaming beneath the crushing pressure of Raymond's wrath.

*Drip*

*Drop*

Blood trailed across his tunic in thick crimson lines, dark against the military cameo fabric, soaking into his palms before dripping down his sword.

His breaths came sharper now, ragged at the edges, each inhale like fire in his lungs.

'Not yet.'

His thoughts whispered in the quiet places of his mind, the same mantra repeated with every heartbeat.

'Not yet… the moment isn't right. If I use it too early, he'll recover. If I use it too late, I'll already be dead.'

He kept reminding himself as Raymond unleashed another chain of attacks, this time landing shallow cuts along his thigh, waist and shoulder.

And a blunt force trauma to his ribs.

*COUGH*

Spinning backwards, Charles coughed blood into the wind, his knees buckling for a moment as his vision swam, yet he forced himself upright.

'Not yet… just a little longer. Let him think I'm finished. Let him believe the end is here.'

He thought, as he saw the confident gleam in Raymond's eyes increase with every exchange.

At the start of this fight, Raymond seemed unsure of his true tier.

However, as the battle progressed, Raymond seemed to become more and more assured that his true tier was indeed only a Monarch, as his attacks grew bolder and bolder.

"You're unusually strong for a Monarch, I'll give you that, but in the end, it seems like that's all you are.

You're a big rat, but you'll never be a tiger."

He insulted, as Charles said nothing in response, his internal thoughts concealed perfectly as he realized that the moment to strike back was fast approaching.

After dominating this fight for so long, Raymond had started to throw caution into the wind, and this was precisely the opening he was waiting for, as the second Raymond stepped in to get close and try to deliver the finishing blow, Charles used the hidden ace.

'Now.'

He thought, as he retrieved the orb from his storage ring and crushed it immediately.

*CRRRRRRRRRRRRRMMMMMMMM*

The unrestrained power of a True God burst forth, and for a moment it seemed like the heavens themselves began to scream, as Soron's strength flooded Juxta's sky with a pressure that dwarfed anything Charles or Raymond had conjured.

*KABOOM*

*KABOOM*

.

.

.

*KABOOM*

Ships from Raymond's fleet that had circled the skies in perfect formations uptil now, suddenly convulsed upon coming in contact with Soron's Aura, their hulls creaking and their inscribed runes flickering dead as if stripped of life itself.

Engines sputtered and failed, frigates swerved into one another, destroyers tilted sideways before plummeting into the clouds below, their ammo holds bursting without trigger, as a chain of explosions could be seen throughout the Juxta sky.

Pilots collapsed at their stations, eyes rolling white, their bodies unable to withstand even a flicker of Soron's intent. Others fell dead before their alarms could even scream, their vessels drifting lifeless through the air.

The crimson dome of Raymond's aura buckled, its edge quivering like fabric caught in a storm, as he froze mid-motion, his body locked beneath a weight that pressed on his chest like a mountain.

His breath came ragged, uneven. His limbs sluggish. His pulse suddenly too loud in his own ears.

While Charles's eyes lit with feral clarity.

'Now…..'

'FUCKING NOW!'

The window was only a heartbeat wide, but for him that heartbeat stretched into eternity.

He drew in breath, the blade in his hand humming with resonance, his aura flaring white-hot as the technique took shape.

[Hyperspeed].

His body fractured into afterimages, silver streaks weaving through the crimson tide.

[Crown Fall].

The sword rose overhead, a ridiculous amount of concentrated mana gathering along its edge, as the weight of finality sharpened it into judgment itself.

Every muscle in his body screamed, every nerve burned, yet his focus was absolute and locked on one target alone: Raymond's neck, which he now saw as a critically weak red spot via his intent mastery.

*SWOOOSH*

The blade descended in silence, invisible to the eye, and even faster than thought, as it split the sky open into white and red.

For a single instant, Charles saw victory.

For a single instant, he saw the Demi-God's head parting from his shoulders, the end of the Eternal Sovereign's line.

But Raymond was no ordinary foe.

He had not spent months now training under Kaelith's tutelage for nothing.

As even paralyzed, even crushed beneath the weight of Soron's aura, his body responded with the reflexes of a man trained to resist gods.

*JERK*

His head snapped back at the last possible fraction of a second.

*SSHHHHHK*

And although Charles's blade still struck, instead of taking his head off cleanly, it only managed to carve a line across his throat, splitting flesh and spraying blood in a violent arc across the sky.

*GHHHHK!*

Raymond staggered, his free hand clamping his neck, while his weapon hand blocked Charles's follow up attack, as despite the heavy injury, he managed to cling on to life.

For a fleeting heartbeat, Charles thought it was enough. For a heartbeat, he believed he had delivered a blow strong enough to kill Raymond.

However, those delusions were stripped away when he saw Raymond's neck writhe and stitch itself back together in real time, the torn throat sealing as though the injury were no more than a scratch.

Raymond's breath rattled, heavy and harsh, but it did not stop. His black eyes widened with fury, yet they did not show the shock of death.

"What a dirty little trick. You unlucky motherfucker…. You almost got me! If I wasn't trained under my father's pressure, I would not have been able to pull back in time, and would have most likely died.

But unfortunately for you, I live—"

Raymond said, as he gave Charles the credit he deserved, but then followed it up with a mockery that implied that although he came close, it was still not enough.

"Ha…. Hahaha—"

Charles chuckled, his disbelief in Raymond's survival genuine, as this was his last and only shot.

His chest heaved with exhaustion, and without any hope towards victory, he now felt the claws of death clamping down on him from all sides, as although he already knew that death was the likely outcome of this battle before it ever began, there was still the small hope that perhaps he could pull off the unlikely upset and somehow survive.

Unfortunately though, that hope was the first thing that died, long before his own demise ever began.

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