The Game of a Legendary Genius Dark Mage

As the violet lightning and darkness clashed—

They were thinking similarly, despite being so different.

‘That lightning isn’t his inherent ability.’

That was what Seong thought as he watched Arba swing his spear, wreathed in violet lightning, and charge at him.

And Arba—

‘Three? No... four.’

Even just now, he’d seen it: death energy, darkness, and even flame—he was controlling all three simultaneously. Arba couldn’t help but be impressed.

And then, there was the one hidden ability, still unrevealed.

Each and every one of them was outstanding, without a single weakness.

Arba scattered the lightning in all directions to suppress his opponent.

But Seong didn’t even swing his sword—instead, he spread darkness around him and infused violet flames into his blade.

Scorching heat and surging lightning clashed to consume each other. Darkness, too, tried to engulf Arba, but the lightning spread too fast for even the darkness to hold it back.

Not even ten seconds had passed, and already hundreds of exchanges had occurred.

Both sensed how extraordinary the other was and grew deep in thought.

‘What is his inherent ability?’

Unlike Seong, who possessed the powers of multiple lords...

Most people only had two at most.

Even Baron Karlgmir, whom Seong had fought before, had only two: Shock and Condensation.

On the surface, Arba’s inherent ability seemed to be the violet lightning—

But from what Seong had seen, that wasn’t the case.

And Seong wasn’t the only one trying to deduce the other’s inherent ability.

‘...What’s the hidden one?’

Arba understood the three revealed powers.

But the last one eluded him.

Battles between Lords—or those who had stepped into transcendence.

In other words, fights between those at level 300 or higher—these were where inherent abilities truly mattered.

Like Rochein, the current Sword Saint, who wielded swordsmanship imbued with the power of the sun.

Or Hindel’s Galaxy Sword Dance, which used the power of the galaxy as an inherent ability.

Understanding the opponent’s ability made it easier to deal with them.

Yet, neither Seong nor Arba had fully discerned the other’s ability.

Crackle—!!!

Arba spun his spear, wrapped in insidiously flickering violet lightning.

With each rotation, the speed increased. By the time the violet lightning formed what looked like a perfect ring—

Flash!

The violet energy surged, and the spear lunged at Seong.

KRRAAAACKKK!!!

As the ferocious torrent of lightning surged, baring its fangs—

The violet flame burst forth, its heat pushing back all air and matter, and it tore open the gaping jaws of lightning trying to devour it.

FWOOOSH—!!!

As flame and lightning entwined, the violet and purple seemed to blend and shimmer as one color.

Seong launched a strike wrapped in darkness, and Arba retaliated with a spear thrust cloaked in lightning.

When blade met spearhead—

Their forces quivered and transferred to one another. The abyss of the Spiral Slash transferred through the spear and into Arba’s hand, while something akin to violet lightning surged into Seong’s hand via the blade.

In that instant—

Tremble, tremble.

Buzz, buzz.

Both of them felt it. Their hands trembled and buzzed with numbness.

“...?”

“...?”

They glared at each other in confusion, then gripped their weapons again and struck at one another in rapid succession.

One after another.

As sword and spear clashed, sharp energies tore through the air, and violet flame, darkness, and violet lightning spread with searing intensity.

When the waves of violet lightning and darkness surged at each other—

KRAAAASHHH!!!

A massive # Nоvеlight # shockwave burst in midair, hurling both of them backward, like lines being drawn in the sky.

And in that moment, as they reeled from the jolt, glaring at one another—

They both realized it.

Seong, feeling his tingling hand, understood that Arba’s inherent effect was Corrosion. And Arba, seeing his own trembling hand, realized that the last hidden ability Seong possessed was Terror.

Terror and Corrosion.

Two powers, similar at a glance, but fundamentally different.

They locked eyes, and without any signal, both charged at each other.

Seong’s sword, wrapped in terror, scattered deep darkness, seeking to drag the opponent into the abyss. Arba’s spear, imbued with a corrosion that mimicked lightning, pierced toward Seong.

Sword and spear collided without even the smallest error.

Terror devoured corrosion. Corrosion seeped into terror.

And as they cancelled each other out—

Both of them felt it, simultaneously.

‘With pure skill...’

‘...I’ll overwhelm him.’

Their powers weren’t getting through.

Darkness, flame, death energy, terror—

All four working together still couldn’t suppress corrosion.

But corrosion, too, couldn’t stain all four and was trying to destroy them all along with itself.

A winner couldn’t be easily decided in this duel. The tension was like a rope pulled taut to its limit—deadly, and fiercely contested.

Speartips rained down like a torrential downpour from the heavens.

But Seong’s blade danced fluidly, sweeping them all away like a still lake, and returned them like a raging tide.

KRAAAANG—!!!

Shhrk—!!!

BOOM! KRAKAKAKAK!!!

Sharp intent bared its fangs again and again.

All other powers had neutralized one another—only their pure swordsmanship and spear technique remained.

Even then, Seong’s swordsmanship was ever-changing.

Sometimes swift, faster than lightning. Sometimes gentle enough to embrace all. And at other times, it shattered everything with a domineering force.

It was a fusion of all those forms into one flowing art.

Watching him, Arba burst out laughing.

“Ha ha ha ha! You’re insane!”

Had there ever been a battle more intense than this?

Corrosion couldn’t be used anymore.

No—he was using it over and over, but it was useless.

If it didn’t work, it might as well not exist.

So he kept firing his spear like lightning—no, like a divine thunderbolt.

But little by little, he began to get pushed back by Seong’s ever-evolving swordsmanship.

Arba’s spear technique was fast and heavy.

But that was all.

Seong’s swordsmanship held everything.

Truly a mastery of all things.

Defeat crept in.

The rope, pulled taut, now strained toward Arba’s side. It was only a matter of time before it snapped.

Yet Arba’s eyes gleamed.

“You too...”

Seong fired back at Arba’s remark that he was insane.

Even if his swordsmanship was ever-changing—

He couldn’t completely overpower Arba’s fast, heavy spear strikes.

Seong wasn’t faster than Arba. Even when swinging with weight, he was lighter than Arba.

Arba’s spear was both fast and heavy—undeniably domineering. And with each blow blocked or dodged, Seong’s stamina steadily declined.

From the outside, it might’ve looked like Arba was at a disadvantage.

But under the surface, they were nearly equal.

Only Seong knew the truth.

‘He’s fighting like that...’

Arba, too, had a heart. He had staked his life on this.

He was literally throwing his life away for this battle.

Burning his life to go all out.

The corrosion consuming Arba’s life grew even larger, now fully revealing itself.

CRACKLEEEEEEEE!!!

A storm of surging lightning exploded from Arba.

Trying to corrode everything around him.

Seong watched Arba with focused eyes.

Normally, it would be better to concentrate on one power instead of four.

Spreading himself thin only diluted his focus and strength.

But Seong didn’t give up on the four.

It wasn’t mere stubbornness.

It was as if something clicked in his mind.

‘I’m not using them separately.’

An Overlord was a being beyond all lords.

The lord of lords.

The only one who could rule them all.

These thoughts flashed through Seong’s mind—

And then, one of Helena’s sealed insights began to awaken within him.

Having multiple inherent abilities could be a double-edged sword.

Didn’t someone once say, a man who has practiced one kick ten thousand times is more terrifying than one who knows ten thousand kicks?

The same principle applied here.

So should he discard the rest?

No. Absolutely not.

‘The Overlord is...’

A being of greed.

One who must wield everything as their own.

With that realization—

Seong understood.

‘It’s like swordsmanship.’

He had once trained to embed multiple sword techniques into a single strike.

Now, all of it began to melt into him.

A faint light emerged from Seong’s eyes.

Meanwhile, the violet lightning—no, the corrosion that pierced into everything and slowly stained it with himself—merged its tens of thousands of tendrils into one.

It swelled even larger than the first time it swept through Wiron.

With a force that seemed ready to devour the world—

It surged toward Seong.

KRARARARARARA!!!

A beam of corrosion shot out to devour everything.

But the light in Seong’s eyes, now enlightened, turned into the color of a galaxy.

Was he about to perform the Galaxy Sword Dance?

No. It was something else.

Arba didn’t know the Galaxy Sword Dance—

But he realized this moment felt different.

‘The corrosion’s already fired.’

It was a full-power attack.

Even at full strength, Arba himself would struggle to stop it. The most supreme and perfect strike he had.

He was certain Seong couldn’t block it.

But—

As Seong raised his sword, the galaxy within it began to change.

At first, it held a vast galaxy. Now, countless souls of the dead settled within the blade. Those souls became living stars shining inside the galaxy.

As the stars began to breathe within the galaxy—

The light they emitted turned into heat, illuminating the surroundings. Within that life-like flame, darkness slipped through the spaces between stars, trying to consume them.

It was a darkness that even starlight could not escape—a darkness that devoured all.

And in that moment, something massive—controlling the entire galaxy—glanced back.

When their eyes met—

Arba trembled in fear.

‘What... is that?’

It was as if he had accepted something far beyond comprehension.

Madness began to spiral.

He forgot what he had even seen.

No—he had to forget, to survive.

But even if he tried, he couldn’t forget those eyes.

They stayed lodged in his mind, crawling through his brain, sending shivers as a sticky hand seemed to graze his consciousness.

Souled stars, heat emitted by those stars, the darkness hunting that heat, and something overseeing it all.

All appeared at once—

And the galaxy was born.

Then—

Galaxy Sword Dance Secret Technique — 『Galaxy Blade』

The galaxy was swung.

—————!

The corruption that sought to engulf the world was sliced in two by the galaxy—unable to stain anything.

And Arba, who stood behind that corruption—was cleaved in half, his body split along with his heart.