Apocalypse Canvas…

How in the fuck was that supposed to be the ability of an A-ranker?

Judging by the expressions on the faces of Clan Leader Gul, Andihar Dayarunar, as well as all of the other high-rankers present, everybody wholeheartedly agreed.

A great majority of the audience consisted of the general public, who had shown up either to support one of the heirs to one of the most powerful families in Gimleh or with the hope that they could finally bear witness to the humiliation of at least one of those reprobate socialites. Their screams of fear and panic as they crowded around the exits underlined just how terrifying this sight was.

This kind of thing wasn't something an A-ranker was capable of. So how, then, was Eik Magnasen pulling it off right now, right in front of everybody's eyes? More than anything, Gilim wished he had the confidence and certainty to proclaim it all some manner of cheap trick. An illusion cast to sow fear. But this…

This was not that. This was too much. This was too great.

Gilim looked down at the spear in his hand, a red glow still emanating from the blade, then back up at the Apocalypse Canvas as it flowed serenely. Was he expected to somehow defend against that? With this?

"Apocalypse Canvas," Eik began, looking up at the glittering sea of liquid death. "As you can see, right now it is simply a blank canvas. But with just a little bit of creativity and willpower, anything is possible," he sung with a pleasant smile. "For example…"

With a nonchalant wave of his hand, the toxic ocean began to ripple madly like a quiet lake suddenly pelted with pebbles. From the center of each ripple, a sharp shard of crystalline toxin emerged, no thicker than a finger bone.

Seemingly more than seventy thousand of them hung freely in the air like a rainstorm frozen in time. The Apocalypse Canvas quickly returned to its previous tranquility, only the occasional disturbance on its inverted surface making it seem like great beasts moiled tirelessly within the blue.

"Eik!" Andihar called loudly from his position next to Gul's chair. "Eik, stop this right now! How can you involve civilians like this?"

"That's right!" Gilim echoed, a sliver of hope jolting through him. "We're inside an S-rank barrier and they are all out there! You will be signing your own execution order the moment you drop those. Within this barrier, I will be the only survivor. How dumb are you?"

Eik's eyes never left Gilim's as he answered, voice amplified with aura. "No civilian lives are in danger, Andihar. That I can promise you. This," he said with a gesture up at the Apocalypse Canvas and the innumerable shards hanging ominously above. "follows only the command of their ruler. And I happen to be king.

Andihar didn't seem satisfied with that claim but didn't step in to stop it directly just yet.

Gilim sneered. "That doesn't change the fact that there is a barrier above us. Those puny little spikes you've prepared up there won't even put a scratch in something of such a high level."

"Hmm," Eik grumbled, rubbing his chin with his fingers as his brows knit together in a frown. "Maybe you're right…"

"Of course, I'm right. I wouldn't have said it if I wasn't r—"

He stopped talking when Eik, once again, pointed into the sky. "Do you think maybe that has a chance then?" he asked.

Feeling a shiver run down his spine, Gilim followed with his eyes for a second time that day. The center of the Apocalypse Canvas had distorted to produce a massive blade of toxin resembling a longsword with no hilt and handle. It was simply one continuous blade.

It was at least three meters across and twenty five meters long, and appeared to weigh hundreds of tons. Like the tens of thousands of tiny shards, it hung still in the air once it had emerged completely from the Apocalypse Canvas, aimed straight at Gilim.

The Ougi heir's lips moved but he couldn't seem to form any coherent words.

"Have you heard of the concept of kinetic orbital bombardment?" Eik asked curiously. "Ever since I heard of it I thought it sounded cool but at the same time terrifying. After all, if we had the capability for something like that, what would it mean for global security?"

Gilim didn't answer, absorbed in the sight of the Apocalypse Canvas returning to relative stillness.

"I mean, realistically, it would be way too expensive to implement for real world military purposes, but you know what I mean. There's nuclear and stuff, after all. Oh, and I'm talking from an old Earth perspective here, of course. Anyway, once I figured out Apocalypse Canvas, it struck me. I can do that cool thing now." He pointed up at the titanic blade again, more eagerly this time, as if that would somehow stir a sense of awe in Gilim that wasn't already there.

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The spear-wielder remained silent.

"As far as I understand it, it essentially involves the release of a rod made of some kind of super-heavy material from planetary orbit with precise coordinates for a precision strike. Now, seeing as my thing up there is not in orbit or anything like that, and will be launched at high speed from the moment it is let go, I guess it's not exactly the same, but it's the closest I can get right now, unfortunately. I'm still working on it."

Finally, Gilim stared at Eik, confused since he had only just managed to comprehend the last few words. Eik stared back.

"I guess I'm talking too much, huh…" he mumbled. "Should I just get on with it then?" Ranged attacks had already begun to be sent toward the colossus blade as well as the Apocalypse Canvas at large by frightened and frantic Awakened, so Eik chopped the air with his hand and the gigantic structure suddenly plunged toward the barrier below.

Half a second later, seventy thousand razor-sharp shards followed in its wake, all converging toward the same point on the ground. Gilim Ougi.

The spectators who had yet to find a way to escape screamed in horror, believing their deaths to be imminent.

Eik caught a glimpse of his friends and family. His father, Ihasu, Olivia, Heath, Michael, and Robert looked concerned but not fearful for their lives. They knew he would never let them be killed. Aohan and some of Heath and Michael's friends appeared significantly less certain of that fact. Mikla and Atla who had also come to watch looked unable to believe their eyes.

Bin was loving it.

"No!" Andihar Dayarunar shouted and appeared directly underneath the descending blade, followed closely by Clan Leader Gul and several other high-rankers. They prepared various abilities to catch, block, and otherwise incapacitate the colossal projectile.

Eik watched Gilim and nobody else. When the man met his gaze he saw the intensity in Eik's eyes and practically felt the moment his pride cracked and crumbled. "I… I sur—" he tried, but despite the dire situation, something in him tried to stop him from uttering the words. Eik's gaze never wavered even as air displaced by the massive object approaching at fatal speed buffeted the arena and the surrounding seats.

"I— I surrender!" Gilim howled. "I admit defeat! I yield! Give up! I surrender, so stop it already!" he cried, humiliation painted across his features.

The tip of the titanic sword was crushed as it broke straight through the energy barrier surrounding the arena, ripples of chromatic force crackling along the surface before it disappeared.

But despite the now direct path to Gilim Ougi, neither the blade nor the seventy thousand shards moved another centimeter, frozen in the air. The mass of shards were now so dense that they nearly obscured the blue light streaming through from above.

"That's all I needed to hear," Eik said, and with a wave of his hand, any trace of the Apocalypse Canvas and its products vaporized and floated away, becoming inert and harmless. "See," he said to Andihar with a grin. "I'm the king."

***

Andihar Dayarunar had seldom been quite this angry.

While he couldn't call the stunt that Eik had pulled incompetence, he could certainly call it reckless. And he had. About three hundred times.

"I just—… I just don't understand how you could think it was a good idea to do something so reckless!" the S-ranker shouted into the air, pacing grooves into his own garden.

Three hundred and one.

"Andihar, I've told you a million times now. Recklessness is risk. There was no risk. I had full control of the entire phenomenon, from beginning to end. There was never even a second where anything was about to go wrong," Eik groaned.

Friends and family were eating a meal at the tables on the terrace outside the Dayarunar estate. Eik would really prefer to join them for a bite to eat soon.

"No risk?" Andihar questioned incredulously, starting the argument over again for the nth time. "How can you possibly claim that that stunt was without risk? If it had impacted the platform, even after losing some force to the barrier, it would have obliterated everything and everyone around. It was the epitome of risk!"

"Yeah, but that's what I'm saying!" Eik shot back wearily. "It was never going to impact anything. It was always going to stop where it stopped, Andihar. Whether Gilim Ougi had surrendered or not, it would have stopped there. If he hadn't surrendered despite it all, I would have dissolved it all and simply beat him to within an inch of his life."

"You caused mass panic throughout Gimleh, Eik! This is serious!"

"I know it's serious, but it serves as an undeniable demonstration of my power. It is both a deterrent and an advertisement of my skill as an alchemist in one fell swoop. And no one got hurt. Not even Gilim Ougi."

"We both know that that wasn't solely due to the Eik's Legendary Mystery Medicine you've taken," Andihar sighed, massaging the bridge of his nose in open frustration.

"True," Eik admitted. Andihar, a genuine and extremely powerful S-ranker, had long since realized that Eik wasn't just a creative alchemist, but an excellent Awakened in his own right, whose talents in combat seemed to surpass just about anyone both in his age range and his power rank peers, as the duel with Gilim Ougi as well as the A-rank Crucible raw damage output test had just proven.

The man didn't know that Eik was a Worldbreaker or even what his real primary ability—Profound Toxin—was called, but he knew that there was something about Eik that separated him from the others at his level.

Whether the S-ranker was suspecting the truth or not, Eik could not say with any certainty. None of them had ever really broached the topic past some offhand remarks here and there. If Andihar turned out to have a good guess about the truth, Eik wouldn't be surprised at least. They had spent a lot of time together these past two years, both in business and in friendship.

"Yes, that's true," he began again. "but they don't know that." He tapped a finger on his own temple.

Andihar sighed again. "Do you know you nearly got arrested back there? I got back here late because I had to keep you out of prison for threatening the safety of Gimleh, buddy. I had to cash in some big favors for that one. And you still have to pay a massive fine for disturbing the peace. You should be thankful that this happened after you put yourself in a position of importance as the creator of your Mystery Medicine!"

"Okay, I am sorry about that. But thank you anyway."

Andihar just grumbled.

"How about we go and eat, huh? We can talk more about it later if you want," Eik suggested. "And maybe talk about what you found in Vendekaabe's room. You did find something, didn't you?"

"Of course I did," Andihar huffed, annoyance fading just a little. "The path he used to get here from the cult capital."

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