Lucian exhaled slowly and calmly, his breath steady despite the chaos surrounding him. His knees dipped forward as his muscles coiled tightly, power compressing within his frame. Sword Intent coiled alongside it, spiraling violently around his body like a living force waiting to be unleashed. In the very next moment, a sharp crackling sound echoed through the air as Lucian tapped into the lightning element.

Lightning surged instantly through his entire body and blade, racing along his veins and steel alike. His form brightened, glowing faintly as arcs of bolts danced across his skin and katana. But he did not stop there. Alongside lightning, he tapped into the gravity element as well, subtly reducing the gravity around his body. His weight lessened, his movements primed for something far beyond ordinary speed.

The next moment, amid a violent crack of thunder, Lucian vanished from where he stood. In a storm of lightning and distorted space, he appeared directly before Anthony with eclipsing speed. The instant he materialized, he unsheathed his katana in a single fluid motion, the blade hissing sharply as it tore through the air. The strike was clean, precise, and lethal, aimed straight for Anthony's neck without hesitation or mercy.

For a fraction of a moment, Anthony did not react.

It was almost as though Lucian's speed had finally caught up to him.

Then, in the very next instant, Anthony's hand materialized directly in the path of the sword, shattering that assumption entirely. With a deafening boom, blade and flesh collided, and a thunderous storm of steel and fury erupted outward in a concussive burst that rippled through the surrounding space.

Anthony instantly felt gravity press down on him as Lucian acted again without pause. Lucian moved under the assumption that Anthony had been unaffected by the previous attack, and that assumption was correct. Anthony was indeed completely unaffected.

[Sword Technique: Space Type: Spatial Sever]

Lucian surged forward, unleashing a Sword Technique he had used in his early days, one he no longer relied upon often, yet remained deadly nonetheless. His blade flashed, Sword Intent bursting outward in a violent arc as it moved to sever the space connecting Anthony's head and neck. Space itself warped and screamed as the cut took form.

But before the space could even fully sever, Anthony raised a finger. With sickening ease, he slashed his finger casually across space itself, nullifying Lucian's attack entirely. The spatial distortion collapsed instantly, erased as though it had never existed.

The next moment, Anthony's figure flickered.

He appeared above Lucian's body. Lucian's head snapped upward as his senses screamed at him, warning him that Anthony had vanished from his previous position. The instant his gaze lifted, all he saw was a heel tearing down from above with crushing force. His reflexes kicked in immediately as he raised his blade to block.

Foot met blade.

A colossal rupture surged outward with annihilating force. The ceiling beneath them groaned violently before shattering completely, unable to withstand the pressure. From the top of the building, both of them plummeted downward, tearing through floor after floor as concrete walls exploded apart like they were made of nothing more than paper and air.

With a thunderous boom, they crashed into the interior of the building, carving their descent through the structure until they reached one of the mid-level floors. Lucian did not hesitate. The moment Anthony jumped backward to create distance, Lucian swung his katana without delay.

[Sword Art: Erasing Line]

His hand blurred as he unleashed a barrage of storming sword lines formed entirely of condensed Sword Intent. They tore through the air in violent streaks, erasing everything in their path. Anthony did not speak. His hand moved to his katana for the briefest moment, drawing it just slightly before sheathing it again, as though he had changed his mind.

But the instant his katana snapped back into its sheath with a sharp clack, every single one of Lucian's attacks collapsed simultaneously. Another explosion ripped through the building as Sword Intent dispersed violently.

In the next moment, the entire structure gave in.

The building came crashing down, unable to hold itself together any longer. Without delay, both of them leapt outward through shattered glass walls, stepping into open air. As they hung midair, Lucian did not waste a single second. He gestured toward a nearby skyscraper, and with terrifying ease, the massive structure tore itself from the ground. He hurled it toward Anthony as though it were nothing more than a pebble.

Anthony did not speak. His katana flashed once, clean and effortless. In an instant, the skyscraper was reduced to rubble, steel and concrete collapsing into fragments before immediately falling from the sky.

From within the cloud of falling debris, steel, stone, and shattered slabs, Lucian blinked into existence. His katana tore forward toward Anthony's waist in a precise, lethal arc. Yet once again, Anthony had seen the attack coming from miles away. He raised his hand casually and slapped the blade aside with the back of his palm, like a master correcting a student's form.

Lucian moved to follow up with another strike. Then he felt it. A fist collapsed into his stomach like a dying star.

His lungs and internal organs screamed in agony as all the air in his body exploded outward from his mouth. The next moment, his body was sent tearing backward yet again, smashing through tens of buildings before finally crashing into one of them with devastating force.

Anthony vanished from where he stood, reappearing within the same location as Lucian.

They were now inside a massive theater.

The instant Anthony appeared, thousands of seats ripped free from their positions and shot toward him like bullets. His eyes shifted toward them. He blinked once, and they shattered instantly into splinters of wood and twisted metal.

Before Anthony could move again, Lucian acted.

His voice sliced through the chaos.

[Nothingness Katana Technique]

The utterance of the technique's name seemed to drown out reality itself. Black sword lines erupted across Anthony's form, slicing from the crown of his head straight down the length of his body. Another line followed diagonally. Then another. And another. Until billions of invisible black sword lines filled Anthony's entire form. The building they stood in was erased instantly. Kilometers of land vanished from the map in a single, overwhelming attack.

Lucian floated above the destruction he had wrought. Nothingness Katana Technique was the pinnacle of his katana arts, a technique meant to erase anything and everything without exception.

But through the devastation, Anthony stood.

He stood calmly, breathing evenly as though nothing had happened. There was not a single barrier in sight, no defensive construct or technique visible to explain his survival. His posture alone made it clear, he had tanked the attack directly and used no defensive ability of any kind.

Lucian's eyes narrowed as he stared at Anthony, who stood without a single injury, not even a strand of hair out of place. He was half shocked and half calm, shocked because Anthony had emerged completely unscathed, and calm because this was Anthony. He should not have expected anything less.

With a quiet sigh, Lucian came to a conclusion.

He could never best Anthony when it came to the katana. With that realization, he sheathed his blade. His black eyes shifted as his focus changed entirely. It was time to move beyond swordsmanship and into something far more dangerous, their overpowered abilities.

Who possessed the most broken ability?

Only time would tell.

As that thought settled, mana boiled violently into a rampaging torrent. The entire separate plane began to quake and tremble as another form of menace and ruin prepared to unfold.

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.