The enormous slash surged into the sky.
The violent force spilling from it became a storm that swept outward, as if a wind disaster had torn through the capital.
Then everything settled.
When the people inside the royal capital saw what lay before them, terror froze them in place.
A great cut had split the earth open.
From this moment on, the royal capital was divided in two.
The scar looked like a heavenly abyss, so deep its bottom could not be seen.
"This..."
"What happened?"
The civilians trembled. A fear too strong for words rose from within them, almost scattering their souls.
Then someone looked farther ahead.
"The palace... the palace is gone!"
For a breath, no one made a sound.
Following the line of the slash, they saw that the palace, which should have stood in the center of the royal capital, had vanished without a trace.
It had been crushed completely.
That meant the emperor was very likely buried inside.
The moment that thought appeared, panic swept across every face. People turned and ran.
Before long, civilians were fleeing the royal capital like mad.
"Stop looking. Run!"
"A battle is about to break out here!"
"Did the resistance army attack?"
"Who knows? Just run. If we get caught in a fight with this kind of destructive power, we are dead!"
In an instant, the capital fell into chaos.
At the Army headquarters, Marshal Garran’s face turned dark to the extreme. Veins stood out on his forehead as he gave the order without hesitation.
"Gather every combat force. We have a hard battle ahead."
"Everyone?"
"The Minister’s Purge Unit. The nobles’ Executioner Unit. Every senior officer in the military. The Legion Commanders. The nearest Calamities as well. Bring them all here."
"Yes!"
A suffocating atmosphere spread rapidly through the royal capital.
Garran pinched out his cigar with his fingers. Anger sat in him, but beneath it was helplessness.
"The worst situation still happened..."
Owl.
Amid the fleeing crowd, Caelum walked against the current, steady as a boulder.
Even if someone recognized him, they only glanced back once before hurrying away.
Soon, every street, large and small, emptied.
Then a thunderous crack broke the silence.
A figure tore through the air at a speed close to teleportation.
Javier bent his right arm, twisted his waist in midair, and brought his fist down at Caelum with unimaginable force, like a meteor cutting through the sky.
Caelum drew his blade and blocked the punch in a flash.
Armament Haki wrapped around Cloudrend, stopping Javier’s fist.
At the instant the two collided, thick black and red lightning erupted.
That was the violent phenomenon caused by a clash of Conqueror Haki.
In other words, Javier also possessed Conqueror Haki.
Immense force poured down.
With the two of them at the center, the ground within a radius of a hundred meters shattered completely. The surrounding buildings collapsed into ruins.
No words were needed.
The moment they met, both of them knew the other’s identity.
Their first move was already made with full force, meant to kill.
At the first instant of their clash, Caelum drew back his blade and cut across Javier like a streak of light.
But when the blade touched Javier, it passed straight through him.
Javier seemed no more than a phantom.
No attack could land on him.
In return, he could strike Caelum without restraint.
"Useless!"
Javier laughed wildly.
He unleashed the Six Forms with all his strength. Conqueror Haki wrapped around his fist, black and red lightning surging as he smashed down again.
Ring of Illusion and Reality.
Azure Diamond.
Conqueror Haki.
With these three powers, Javier could indeed be called nearly invincible.
His existence had almost touched the limit of the world of Legend of the Empire.
However, Caelum was an existence beyond the world’s limit.
The weakness of Ring of Illusion and Reality was too obvious.
Caelum saw the flaw at a glance.
Javier became tangible at the instant his attack touched its target.
As long as that instant was seized, he could be killed.
Caelum flashed aside.
Javier’s punch smashed into the ground.
In that moment, terrifying destructive force tore dense spiderweb cracks through the earth. The cracks spread rapidly, shattering half the royal capital in the blink of an eye.
And in that same instant, Caelum stopped.
Then he swung an extremely fast slash.
Cold blade light became a dragon headed strike, and a clear dragon roar exploded beside the ears.
Roar!
Cloudrift Style, Azure Dragon Flash.
In one ten thousandth of a second, Caelum’s slash caught Javier at the moment he became tangible.
Javier paused.
Then his smile widened.
"So what if you can catch my real body? You cannot possibly injure me..."
He did not finish.
The unstoppable slash blasted Javier away.
The incomparably sharp blade broke straight through his body’s defense and cut down.
Blood poured out.
Javier was sent flying hundreds of meters by the dragon headed slash.
When the attack faded, he lay in the ruins, barely alive, his face still filled with disbelief.
"How is this possible... cough!"
Blood kept spilling from his mouth.
The reason he was not dead was clearly not that Caelum had missed.
He could not die yet.
Caelum still had great use for him.
Was the battle over?
No.
It had only begun.
The next moment, vast sheets of invisible slashes swept in from all sides, attacks released by Tempest Kick.
Caelum casually swung his blade and tore apart the curtain of slashes.
The remaining attacks exploded elsewhere, bombing the royal capital that had already become ruins.
Then the Empire’s top combat forces appeared one after another.
Garran walked over with an ugly face.
He tore off his military uniform, revealing a powerful body beneath, and spoke in a low voice.
"Owl, you have gone too far this time."
"So what?"
Caelum glanced around, light and unbothered.
"Do I need your permission for what I do? Sixteen years ago, you should already have known that I never placed the Empire in my eyes."
Garran had nothing more to say.
He growled, "No matter the cost, kill this kid."
This time, the Empire’s losses were impossible to estimate.
Half the royal capital had been shattered, and the emperor’s fate remained unknown. The consequences were beyond imagination.
Garran truly did not want to clash with Caelum.
But this boy had stepped on the Empire’s face.
Whether Garran wanted to fight or not no longer mattered.
He had to give everything.
Otherwise, what dignity would the Empire have left?
With the order given, senior officers surrounded Caelum from every direction.
After them came the Purge Unit called in by the Minister, a swarm of bloodline inheritors rushing forward.
The rebuilt Executioner Unit appeared as well.
There were still fifteen of them, but from the look of it, none possessed strength on Kukured’s level.
Then came the Second Legion Commander and the Norvind Legion Commander.
The other three Legion Commanders happened to be away from the capital.
A lineup like this had never been seen before.
"Numbers are useless."
Caelum’s gaze sharpened.
World shaking Conqueror Haki erupted at full force.