Bloodbound Codex: I Grow Stronger in Secret

”Elemental Cut—Severance of Elements.”

Vesper moved the moment Kael finished speaking, the curved purple blade passing directly through the Monster’s descending fist. However, instead of cutting through flesh, the blade encountered the yellow Lightning surrounding its arm, and the result was completely different from what the Monster expected.

The Lightning itself split apart.

The yellow Element coating the Monster’s arm separated cleanly into two streams as though an invisible boundary had been drawn through it. The two halves of Lightning continued forward for a brief moment before losing their connection to the Monster and dispersing into the surrounding air, leaving its arm completely exposed.

The Monster stared at its own hand in disbelief.

Kael hadn’t simply cut through its Lightning attack.

He had cut the Element itself. What Kael had just done shouldn’t have been possible with the difference in their cultivation and physical strength, yet Vesper had accomplished it without even slowing down.

Kael, however, didn’t stop to admire the result.

His left hand moved at almost the exact same moment as his right, and Noctis swung toward the Monster’s neck from the opposite direction. The Monster was still processing the destruction of its Lightning, and because Kael’s movement had followed immediately after Vesper’s attack, it had almost no time to react.

The purple blade approached its throat.

Then—

CLANG!

Noctis struck something invisible.

The dagger bounced backward with enough force to make Kael’s wrist shift slightly, and almost at the same moment, Vesper stopped moving as well. Kael’s eyes narrowed behind his mask as he immediately understood that something had changed.

He could still see the Monster directly in front of him, yet there was something between them.

It wasn’t a physical barrier. Noctis had not produced the sensation of striking metal, stone, or even a defensive Relic. There was no visible shield, no wall of energy, and no fluctuation of Spirit Energy that Kael could identify. It was as though his attack had simply been denied the right to reach its target.

Kael tightened his grip and pushed Vesper forward again, putting more strength into the blade, but the result remained the same. The dagger stopped several inches away from the Monster’s body despite nothing visible occupying that space.

At the same time, something even stranger happened.

The Lightning that Kael had severed began gathering around the Monster’s arm again.

Kael’s eyes narrowed further as he watched the yellow Element reconstruct itself around the limb. His previous attack had completely separated the Lightning, yet it was returning as though the severance had never happened, ’What the hell?’

This wasn’t the same Monster he had expected to fight.

Kael shifted his attention across its body and finally noticed the faint distortion surrounding it. It was so subtle that he wouldn’t have noticed it during an ordinary battle, but after encountering the invisible resistance from Noctis, the abnormality became much easier to recognize.

Something was interfering with the space between them.

Kael had seen a similar phenomenon before, although he had never personally fought against it.

Before he could investigate further, the System finally responded.

[ Analyzation complete: This Monster also carries Null mixed with Spirit, similar to Azarion. ]

Kael’s expression immediately became serious, ’...Null?’ His gaze shifted toward Vesper before returning to the Monster. The strange resistance, the distortion around its body, and the inability of his attack to reach its target suddenly made sense, ’So that’s why.’

He had expected this battle to demonstrate how powerful his new weapons were against SSS-rank Monsters, but the System’s information had changed his understanding of the entire situation. The Monster standing before him wasn’t simply another SSS-rank creature. It possessed the same abnormal attribute that had appeared around Azarion, meaning its defensive capabilities were fundamentally different from the other Monsters.

Until now, Kael had been treating the battle almost like another opportunity to test his strength, but the appearance of Null had finally given him a reason to take the opponent seriously.

With that the battle was about to take another turn of events.

- - -

Elsewhere, the other rulers were already dealing with the remaining SSS-rank Monsters and the nineteen Human Individuals commanded by Veyron. Despite the presence of Null within their attacks, none of the Monsters had managed to seriously injure any of the powerhouses gathered around the battlefield. The difference in their strength remained too large, and most of the rulers weren’t even fighting seriously because they were more interested in understanding what that substance mixed with the spirit actually was and how it worked than simply destroying them.

Solaris moved between several attacks while observing the Monsters carefully, avoiding their strikes without wasting unnecessary energy. Eliana was doing much the same, watching how their Spirit Energy interacted with Null and comparing their movements with the information she had already gathered from the previous Monster incident.

Thorsin, however, had chosen a completely different method.

The Dwarven King remained in one position while several high-grade Relics floated around him, continuously recording the Monsters’ movements, energy fluctuations, and attacks. He had surrounded himself with multiple defensive Relics of the highest tier, allowing him to focus entirely on collecting information while the Monsters repeatedly attacked the barrier around him.

BOOOOM!

One of the Monsters slammed its fist into the barrier, causing several cracks to spread across its surface, but the cracks immediately began repairing themselves as the Relics restored the damaged structure. Another Monster attacked from the opposite direction, followed by a third, yet Thorsin didn’t even bother looking at them as he continued recording the data.

Solaris glanced toward him while avoiding another attack, and Eliana noticed the same scene a moment later.

The two exchanged a look before Solaris laughed, ”He’s still the same.”

Eliana chuckled as she watched another Monster slam into Thorsin’s barrier, ”He really hasn’t changed at all.” Even with the chaos surrounding them, Thorsin’s priority remained the same as always. If something unknown appeared in front of him, his first instinct wasn’t to destroy it, but to understand it.

The Dragon Emperor wasn’t fighting either.

Zaakrax stood some distance away from the others, his crimson eyes observing the battlefield while the Monsters instinctively avoided him. The moment their gazes met his vertical pupils, their primal instincts warned them that approaching him was equivalent to throwing their lives away, and none of them dared to test that instinct.

Sylvaris was even more difficult.

The Ancient Pope remained within the battlefield, and every ruler could clearly see her standing there, yet none of the Monsters seemed capable of noticing her existence. Their eyes passed over her position repeatedly without reacting to her presence.

Zaakrax noticed this and grinned slightly, ’What a clever method.’

He had the strength to accomplish something similar, but he had never considered manipulating the perception of his opponents in such a precise manner, ’I have the power, yet I didn’t have the knowledge to use it like this. Seems I’m still not the strongest.’

There was no frustration in his thoughts. Instead, the realization only strengthened his desire to understand the level he had recently reached. He had spent his entire life pursuing strength, but he had only stepped onto the level of the Ancients a few days ago. There were obviously countless things he still needed to learn.

His father’s words suddenly returned to his mind, ’Dragons are the strongest of all the races. You must become that peak of the hierarchy, Zaakrax. Your talent is beyond anything ever seen in this world.’ Zaakrax shook his head slightly before turning his attention away from the battlefield.

His gaze shifted toward the distant clash between Velmira and Azarion.

The battle had changed.

Far away from the other rulers, roughly twenty kilometers from their position, Azarion floated in the sky with his transformed appearance. His golden eyes remained fixed on Velmira, whose expression had become considerably colder than before. For the first time since the battle began, Velmira reached toward the sword at her waist.

Her fingers wrapped around the hilt.

Azarion’s expression changed slightly when he saw the movement, because he understood what it meant. Until now, she had been fighting without drawing her weapon, yet she had finally decided that the time had come to use it.

Velmira stared at him for several seconds before speaking, ”Now, let’s see if that substance you’re carrying can survive this one...” She slowly drew Marvilas from its sheath. The thin white blade emerged inch by inch, and the moment it was completely unsheathed, Velmira raised it with both hands until the sword stood vertically above her. Its tip pointed toward the endless sky while the atmosphere around her began to change.

The Spirit Energy surrounding Velmira became denser.

Azarion’s golden eyes narrowed.

Velmira’s grip tightened around Marvilas.

”Soul Eruption—Multi Soul Slash.”