Chương 374: Chapter 364 - A Truth of Power

Leonie inhaled deeply, forcing air into lungs that felt too tight for her own pride. What she was about to do had no place in a casual spar. It was reckless, painful, dangerous… And yet— She could not let things end like this. If she lost, then she would lose with nothing held back. No regrets. No excuses. No "what if I had tried harder?" They were in the waiting rooms. The environment was safe, her regeneration was strong, Lukas was here, and she could heal. So she would use it now.

She lifted her gaze and locked eyes with him. It stung, deep and sharp, realising he hadn't even been trying. His stance, his breathing, the relaxed way he held his swords… He had been treating her like a warm-up. As if she were no more threatening than a breeze. This Alonso… was not the man she had dismissed from propaganda reels. This was something else entirely. This was the real deal. Her lips curved into a slow, determined smile. Alright, then. I accept you as my rival.

The Dark Stars around her flickered in synchrony, as though sensing the storm forming inside her. Their glow sharpened, vibrating in resonance with her waves. So don't you dare disappoint me now, Alonso. She willed the shards apart—splitting each star into its smallest possible micro-components, thousands upon thousands of needle-thin fragments humming with charge. Show me… what you got! And then— All the shards shot into her body. Thousands of metal microshards pierced her flesh at once. Leonie's breath seized.

Fiery pain blossomed through her nerves, ripping a rush of adrenaline through her core. She clenched her jaw so hard her teeth almost cracked, refusing even a sound of pain. Focus. Control. Perfect placement. She reached out with her perception, guiding every sliver of metal into position—embedding them along her muscles, threading them near her tendons, stabilising them against bone, arranging them around each joint in exact geometric symmetry. An internal lattice. A conductor's cage beneath her skin.

A living circuit. Her blood welled, her flesh tore—but her mutation surged. Regeneration accelerated. The wounds sealed, knitting the metal fragments into place as if her body accepted them as its own. She exhaled a shaky breath as the last shard settled. Neurons brushed against metal. Waves flowed into the lattice. Lightning coiled through her veins. A shock hit her—bright, hot, electric—making her vision flash white for half a heartbeat. It hurt. It empowered. It made her faster.

Her reaction time spiked brutally. Muscle fibres twitched with unnatural efficiency. The world slowed around her. She felt like a storm wearing human skin. And through the pain, she grinned. Now, Alonso… Show me the power of the man who slew the seven-tail god. Her boot pressed against the solid white floor— And she vanished. The air imploded where she had been standing, shockwaves rippling out in concentric rings.

Stray arcs of lightning licked the empty space, twitching like serpents searching for a body that had already moved far ahead. For a split-second the room fell silent. Then sound caught up. A thunderous BOOM tore through the chamber as Leonie reappeared in front of him, blade already carving a blistering arc through the air, lightning trailing in a crackling wake behind her like comet-fire. She was fast. Faster than anything she had ever imagined. Faster than any creature she had ever faced.

Fast enough that the Dark Stars inside her pulsed in frantic resonance, trails of gold and silver flickering through her veins like constellations trying to match her impossible velocity. And yet— As her blade descended, she felt it again. That strange pull. That invisible resistance. Space thickening around him, like a subtle current pushing against her momentum. Her sword slowed— Only slightly, less than a heartbeat, less than a twitch— But enough. CLANG! Metal clashed. He had blocked her.

Her eyes widened for a fraction of a heartbeat before narrowing with fierce, electric satisfaction. Because she felt it in the impact. In the way his wrist tightened. In the slight shift of his centre of gravity. In the subtle grounding of his heel against the unbreakable white floor. He had to defend. Truly defend. Not slip aside. Not ghost through her blade path. Not redirect her like she weighed nothing. And that— That meant she had a chance.

Her grin widened, bright and wild, even as pain clawed through every nerve. Lightning churned through her limbs, stuttering across her skin in frantic bursts while the internal lattice of Dark Stars drank in far more current than any body was meant to handle. Bones vibrated. Joints trembled. Muscles twitched as overloaded impulses fired in chaotic waves, each acceleration threatening to tear her apart from the inside. Her breaths came hot, sharp, metallic. She tasted ozone.

She smelled the scorched tang of her own skin. This state was frying her alive, peeling her apart with every step. And still—she pushed harder. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. She blurred again. The air split in jagged lines behind her, lightning trails carving fractured arcs across walls and ceiling, streaks of gold and blue marking her path like an angry constellation twisting through the chamber. She struck Alonso like a living storm.

Her blade fell in a brilliant descending arc—he shifted aside by barely a millimetre, letting the edge kiss empty air as it carved past him. She twisted her torso, a pulse firing through her ribs as she expelled a Dark Star shard from beneath her skin. The metallic sliver shot forward— —but his warped field tugged it off course, sending it skimming past his cheek close enough to disturb a strand of hair. She didn't relent.

She inverted herself in a crack of lightning, boots slamming onto the ceiling as she sprinted upside down in a trail of sparks. Then she dropped from above like a vertical bolt tearing the air apart. Alonso pivoted, crossed his blades—and the shockwave hammered the room, pressure rippling outward in a compressed explosion that boomed against every surface. Leonie hit the wall, rebounded in a blur, ricocheted between corners in a zigzag too fast for the eye to follow.

She sprinted sideways along the wall, twisted midair, and snapped a knee toward his jaw—only for him to lean back at the last moment, slipping out of range as the displaced air whipped his hair backward from the aftershock. Leonie rotated with the momentum, chaining into another strike, then another. Punches, kicks, blade arcs—each one fed by lightning, each one faster than the last as she forced her body through limits it was never meant to cross. Her body screamed in agony.

The Dark Stars embedded inside her trembled from the overload. Every nerve burned. Every joint threatened to tear apart under the strain. And still she kept going. She launched again—and for the first time— Alonso didn't simply avoid her. He had to pivot. He had to brace. He had to take the hit head-on. Steel met steel in a deafening CRRRAAANG that sent a shockwave spiralling across the chamber. The floor vibrated. The walls thrummed like strained metal plates. Sparks rained in glowing showers.

Leonie's smile widened through the pain savaging her nerves. She had done it. She was pushing the legend back. She pressed forward, faster still, her blade carving golden arcs through the air. Hundreds of exchanges erupted in a handful of seconds. Steel crashed. Lightning flared. Air split under the pressure of their movement. Alonso slid back across the room—she erupted forward instantly. He leapt toward the far wall—she materialised beside him, blade slashing a crescent of gold.

He inverted midair—she met him overhead, the two of them spiralling in a vortex of steel and stormlight. Clang after clang. Crack after crack. Lightning detonations mixed with the low, impossible hum of warped space bending around him. They raged across ceiling, walls, and corners, trading blows upside-down, sideways, midair—kicks, elbows, punches, sword arcs, and lightning-charged bursts blending into a single furious storm devouring the room. And in the midst of that chaos she finally found it.

Her speed had surpassed his capacity to react. No matter how good he was, how well he could read… Against absolute speed— All tricks were useless! She grinned, eyes reddened from strain, her heart hammering with raw exhilaration. She felt the toll ripping through her body, every fibre screaming… and yet this was it. This was— Slash What the— She halted mid-step as the sensation hit her. A thin slice traced across her chest. Not deep. Not fatal. And yet— How? When did he strike? Impossible.

She had been tracking him. She had him. She was certain. So how… how did he cut her first? She stared into his eyes. He looked back at her with calm respect, a small nod, even a faint smile meant to reassure—but it only made her stomach twist harder. Even after all that… even with the pain, the boost, the perfect synergy… even at that extreme… she had still lost? She stopped mid-motion. Her breaths came sharp and uneven, her teeth locked tight. She… she hadn't even touched him. Not once. How?

How could someone be this strong? If it had been close—if they had traded hits, if she had drawn even a line of blood, if he had shown a flicker of fatigue—anything. Anything to tell her she was close, that she could reach him, that this was simply another wall she could break through. Instead— Nothing. A gulf. A truth she didn't want to accept. Alonso exhaled and lowered both blades, his tone quiet, steady, almost apologetic.

"That was incredible," he said.

"If it were anyone else… you would have overwhelmed them with that speed." He paused, choosing his next words with care, as if aware of how sharp they might land.

"But my path… counters yours too well. It isn't a fair comparison. You pushed me harder than you think." Leonie's eyes widened. He meant well. She could see that. The sincerity was unmistakable. But had she really? How could he say that with such a calm expression, with such gentleness, after cutting her down so cleanly? Then, unexpectedly, her lips curved. Something inside her loosened. Something opened entirely. A laugh tore out of her. A full, unguarded, breathless laugh. One she hadn't felt in years.

One she didn't even recognise as her own at first. Because— She had lost. Truly lost. For the first time in her life. No near draw. No financial defeat masked as a lesson. No seeded competition where she crushed every expectation. A real loss. A clean, undisputed defeat. Something in her chest—something that had been clenched tight for years—finally released. Her laughter slowly faded into a soft breath, her smile lingering. And in that moment she understood an emotion she had never felt toward anyone. Not fear.

Not rivalry. Not pride. Something deeper. Quieter. Almost reverent. Admiration. Respect. Awe. And buried underneath those—so quiet she almost refused to name it—something warmer. Something she had rarely allowed herself to feel. Something she immediately hid beneath discipline and composure. She swallowed it down. She steadied her breath. She looked at him again, and for once, did not look up or down—just forward, toward someone she aimed to surpass one day, but for now… toward the sky above her.

"Alonso Shemson," she said softly, a trace of that lingering smile still tugging at her lips.

"I accept you. As the world's strongest Climber. As the peak I must overcome."

Huh? Alonso rubbed the back of his head, suddenly unsure what to do with that kind of declaration. This felt… awkward. He could feel Ayu's stare burning into the side of his face like a warning brand, and Lukas looked far too amused for his own good. He exhaled slowly. Leonie was strong. Anyone could see that. But what stood out to him even more was the way she pushed herself. That final technique had been terrifying both in power and in cost.

Even now, knowing those Dark Stars were still inside her, knowing how close she'd come to ripping herself apart, she stood there laughing… steady… smiling. That kind of determination. That hunger. That refusal to back down even after losing so decisively… That was the kind of Climber they needed. And beneath all that, he sensed it. A fierce belief in her own strength. The early stirring of something deeper. The seed of Will. Good. Alonso smiled at her.

"Alright," he said.

"I'll be waiting." He meant it. At least… in part. Surpass him? He grinned inwardly. Not sure about that.

Leonie nodded. This man… was truly something else.

"So this is the strength that defeated the seven-tail Xok'al," she murmured, almost to herself. But as the words left her mouth, something in the air shifted. A mood she could not quite define settled over the room. A familiar pulse brushed her mind." Well… don't feel bad, sis," her brother sent." But Alonso wasn't really… going all-out just now." Leonie went still. Her breath stopped. A second pulse followed." The seven-tail god… was not something just sparks and steel could ever bring down."