Rygar and Galgard were located in the Adventurers' District of Milis, among wide, well‑maintained streets flanked by light‑stone buildings and some wooden ones, but all finely crafted, erected as monuments to the splendor of the sacred city.
It was there that the two champions of this Holy War would collide.
Many of the Milisian people's hopes rested on their champion, the Divine Warrior, Galgard.
Before the arrival of the Beast God, he alone was enough to suppress any General of the Iron Legion.
His name, his crest, his imposing figure… everything about him inspired respect and fear. Entire troops collapsed merely at the news of his approach.
Galgard did not follow the widely disseminated fencing styles such as Sword God Style, Water God Style, or North God Style.
His art of combat was singular, shaped by his own understanding and experiences.
If it were to be classified, it might fit the mold of a North Emperor, given the firmness and aggressiveness of his movements.
His style was the living manifestation of what it meant to be a Templar Knight: overwhelming, heavy, resolute. And, allied with Touki that enhanced his strength and speed to superhuman levels, he became a true powerhouse on the battlefield.
On the other side stood Rygar. The Beast God. The one in whom the Iron Legion placed all their hopes.
As long as he was fighting, they all believed victory was already certain.
He was the culmination of strength. A being who, unwittingly, had become one of the most feared names in the world.
Among the Seven World Powers, the first four were considered dead or missing.
The fifth currently lived in the Dragon King Kingdom, the Death God. But having gone decades without real combat, his strength had diminished, and everyone in the Legion agreed he would not be a match for Rygar.
The sixth had literally been defeated by Rygar with his bare hands.
The Sword God had fallen. The Water God had been vanquished. An immortal Demon King had even named him Hero after being subdued. In light of this history, the Legion drew the obvious conclusion: Rygar was the strongest. Invincible under the skies.
And now, both pressed by their own responsibilities and expectations, they faced each other without fear.
With unimaginable speed, the blades clashed. The Tsukikage, the blue blade that had accompanied the Beast God for many years, crackled with violent lightning as it collided against Galgard's pure white blade.
The streets of Milis, which had stood for centuries, were not prepared to withstand such an impact.
On the first clash, shockwaves exploded outward. The ground cracked like glass, deep fissures opened in its path. The surrounding walls shattered; entire structures collapsed with the roar.
This was not a battle of speed, like in Sword God Style. It was a contest of brute strength.
And Rygar… was stronger.
By some miracle, Galgard's blade was not split in two by the electrifying edge; it probably possessed its own mysterious abilities.
He shoved his sacred blade against Tsukikage, pressing with his monstrous strength. The lightning‑laced edge slipped past Galgard's guard and grazed his golden‑and‑silver armor.
Not a scratch. Rygar smiled.
"Good… I wouldn't like it if it were too easy," he murmured, his eyes gleaming.
In an instant, he activated the Wild Dash. His body exploded with speed. Galgard tried to anticipate the movement, swinging his sword in an arc toward the right flank, where he expected an attack.
And he hit. But even so, Rygar reacted. His Demon Eyes made the fight vividly clear to his gaze, and anticipating the blow, he precisely blocked and redirected the blade with a refined technique of Water God Style.
At the same time, he spun his body.
Galgard was left with his torso exposed.
Rygar took advantage. With his Touki boiling and his Holy Beast Battle Aura roaring around him, he delivered a brutal kick.
The impact was like an explosion. Galgard was hurled like a cannonball. His body tore through one house, then another, then another, as if nothing could stop him.
A trail of destruction followed, dust and debris rose, buildings collapsed in a domino effect. Columns split, roofs flew off, flames began to flare among the rubble.
Rygar crouched, preparing for a leap. The wind blew through his silver hair as he analyzed coldly.
Galgard's armor was truly too resilient. Ornthorn had fought him many times and landed several blows, but even the golden sword of the North Emperor had been unable to pierce the armor.
'But it's not invincible; that last kick didn't break his defense, but I felt the steel bending. I can break it.'
Galgard was definitely skilled, but in terms of pure power, there was still a clear gap between Rygar and the Divine Warrior.
The only reason his opponent survived the first exchange was his armor.
All that exchange happened in less than a second, and his thoughts were many thanks to his Demon Eye. The ideal was to finish the knight before Milis activated any hidden cards.
And then, he exploded into motion again.
The ground split beneath his feet, the air tore around him. A trail of destruction followed, electricity dancing like serpents around him.
From the rubble of a collapsed cathedral, the Silver Knight rose again.
As expected, he was unscathed. He probably had some Healing circles too, although they cost mana to activate.
Galgard leaped, his sky‑blue cloak billowing in the wind like a celestial banner. His blade still gleamed in his hand.
The Beast God and the Divine Warrior. Their clash had only just begun, like a friendly greeting.
And Milishion trembled beneath the steps of these two swordsmen.
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Milis's superiors may have underestimated what a fight with Rygar could cause to their capital.
Especially now, with him fighting without restraint, unleashing his magic without limits.
In the first ten exchanges of blows between Rygar and Galgard, the Adventurers' District was already on the verge of collapse. Entire buildings had been reduced to rubble.
The cracked ground seemed about to give way. The sky, clear and sunny, contrasted with columns of smoke and debris rising in all directions.
Currently, Galgard was running through the winding streets of the city, using everything he had to escape the Dragon's Breath magic cast by Rygar, which had taken the form of an incandescent bolt of pure destruction.
The blast cut through the ground like a beam of infernal energy, burning everything in its path and leaving behind a trail of fiery devastation.
Entire streets were engulfed in flames, and the houses, which once displayed Milis's sacred architecture, now burned like torches about to collapse.
When Galgard finally escaped the direct reach of the magic, he planted his feet on the destroyed ground, regained his posture, and prepared to advance.
But before he could complete the movement, something emerged from the flames like a missile— Rygar, shrouded in smoke and lightning, tore through the air at breakneck speed.
Before he could react, a short black blade sliced the space in front of his body, flying straight toward the visor of the Divine Warrior's golden helmet. It was Nighthunter.
Galgard barely had time to tilt his head to one side when the blade rang violently against his helmet.
The impact was so fierce that his vision blurred for a moment, his body swaying in the air as if the world were spinning around him.
In the next second, a blade wreathed in lightning appeared from his left flank.
Galgard raised his sword just in time to block, and the clash between the two weapons made a dry thunder echo throughout Milis.
Nearby buildings trembled with the shock, pillars crumbled, and a nearby church had its tower split in two.
But the real danger had yet to be revealed. In Rygar's left hand, a small sphere floated. Transparent as air, it seemed made of wind, but with an unstable, rotating core. It was a Vacuum Bullet.
Galgard's instinct screamed in desperation. Before he even understood what was about to happen, he sent his cloak billowing and took flight, soaring in a diagonal line upward and backward.
The sphere fired. A sharp buzz tore through the air as the invisible projectile cut in a straight line. The Vacuum Bullet narrowly missed Galgard's heart, but still pierced his side.
A hole opened in his lung. His armor, which until then had withstood Rygar's attacks, was pierced as if it were paper.
This was the absolute power of the vacuum— a force against which no traditional magical defense could stand. It was volatile to control, but unbelievably lethal.
Rygar watched the scene with sharp eyes. He saw that Galgard had avoided a fatal blow, but he did not pursue him further. Instead, he turned abruptly and fixed his gaze on one of the nearby Magic Towers.
He shot toward the structure in a straight line, gradually enveloping his body in a reinforced Barrier Magic. Galgard realized Rygar's objective too late.
His cloak billowed once more and he darted after his opponent, but Rygar was a blur, too fast to be caught in that instant.
As he ran, Rygar sensed mana signals arising around him. The sky, still clear, was illuminated by three thick beams of lightning that struck him like the wrath of the heavens.
Hidden mages had prepared the spells in advance, using magic circles spread at strategic points.
The bolts hit Rygar brutally, but his invisible Barrier withstood the destructive force; they cracked and shattered, but they had served their purpose.
With an explosive leap, Rygar ascended into the air and flew like a bolt of lightning over the tower. As he approached, a protective Barrier began to form around the structure.
But Rygar was already ready.
His Demon Eyes analyzed the magical structure in real time. With a precise movement, he disrupted the barrier's formation with his Disturb Magic technique.
This was the new technique he had been training to infiltrate Milishion, refined specifically to deal with Barriers, which seemed to be Milis's specialty.
Despite being simple in theory, it required an absurd level of precision, timing, and magical reading. It was like cutting the right wire in a magical bomb in milliseconds, and only Rygar could do it thanks to the power of his Magic Eye.
The barrier failed to form.
And the blow fell.
Tsukikage, charged with Lightning Magic, flowed smoothly as he displayed the Longsword of Light technique. The blade extended in pure energy, penetrating deep into the Centenary Tower.
A high-pitched sound echoed, like a shrill siren. The tower trembled, and for a moment it seemed it would split apart.
But then, a colossal repulsion force erupted from within the structure— another automatic defense of the main Magical Tool.
Rygar was blasted away like a human missile.
In midair, spinning, he regained his balance with wind magic and used gravity to accelerate his controlled descent.
It was at that moment that a pale blade cut through the air toward him. Galgard was attacking, trying to exploit Rygar's disorientation.
Rygar easily dodged with a spin in the air and landed lightly atop the rubble of a fallen house. He smiled, raising both swords— Tsukikage and Watermirror.
"Don't think you can escape me, Galgard! Give me your best!"
Even behind his helmet, Rygar could feel the mounting tension in Galgard's stance. It was as if he finally realized the destructive potential Rygar would have if left to his own devices.
Other warriors, hidden until then, began to move, preparing to intervene. But Rygar did not intend to give them time to organize.
His Battle Aura exploded, Rygar prepared to leap, he was like a silver wolf about to pounce. A roar echoed as he unleashed his large‑scale Howling Magic, encompassing the entire District and beyond.
The space trembled and rippled under the force and power of the Howling Magic.
He advanced again, now with both swords in hand.
The moment he moved, a white‑silver light began to emanate from Watermirror, growing, growing— and then, he slashed; before Rygar could reach Galgard, the condensed energy released itself.
A crescent‑shaped cut, made of pure energy, ripped through the air. It was an energy blade so powerful it seemed to split the world.
The beam headed toward the Divine Warrior, ready to cleave the district in half if he retreated. And Galgard knew it: if he backed down in a fight against Rygar, the damage would be far greater.
With no choice, he gathered everything he had. His sword shone with an ethereal white light, his Battle Aura roared, and he unleashed a powerful war cry.
Then he plunged into the energy blade, swallowed by the silver light in a clash of almost divine forces.
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