The sparring arena stretched out for hundreds of meters. Right in the middle of it stood Caissa, completely naked.

Kwon Oh-Jin’s eyes widened. “You said we were sparring!”

Why in the world did she suddenly throw off her perfectly fine dress?

Technically, her dress had melted away like liquid and pooled on the floor. Either way, the result turned out the same. Cassia stood exposed in the middle of the vast arena.

Perhaps she had a shred of modesty left and left faint remnants of her dress around her chest and between her legs, preserving a final scrap of decency. However, that partial cover-up against her delicate frame only increased an unbearable sense of temptation.

“Yes, this is sparring,” Cassia replied.

“What?” Kwon Oh-Jin blinked in confusion.

Cassia only smiled back.

Just then, a chilling noise echoed out.

Ssshh.

From the puddled shadows of the melted dress, thousands of serpents slithered forth.

This is...

Kwon Oh-Jin hadn’t noticed after getting distracted by her sudden nudity. Now, he realized that shadows completely surrounded him.

“Tsk.”

He recalled their fight in the abandoned building. Parts of her dress had melted into the shadows back then as well.

Is her entire dress made of shadows?

Cassia used her dress to warp the environment to her advantage, similar to a Celestial’s Sacred Ground.

Though it’s not actually a Sacred Ground.

A Sacred Ground created something from nothing and reshaped the environment. Cassia had unraveled the shadows condensed within her dress and overlaid them onto the surroundings. The two techniques looked similar, but were fundamentally different.

However, one thing did remain the same.

This whole area has become Cassia’s domain!

Shaaah!

The serpents crawled out from the shadows and bared their sharp fangs as they lunged at Kwon Oh-Jin with terrifying speed.

“Hup!”

His spearhead, blazing with blue lightning, cleaved the charging serpent’s head in two. Arcs of lightning spread out like a fan along the path of his spear and burned the serpents to ashes. As he had confirmed in their previous battle, the shadow serpents were fast but terribly weak.

With the Stigma of Lyra’s power right now...

Kwon Oh-Jin spun the shaft of his spear and drove the tip into the ground.

Crack!

From the embedded spear, streams of blue lightning shot out in waves. That storm caught the shadow serpents and swept them away like ants incinerated by a flamethrower.

Kwon Oh-Jin now possessed overwhelming power. With just a single strike, the maximum barrier protecting the training facility shook as if it would collapse. Even after unleashing an explosion on the level of a tactical weapon, he didn’t pause to catch his breath.

Instead, he charged at Cassia with his spear.

I have to get her before the shadow serpents crawl back out.

Even when she was injured before, she could still summon thousands of serpents. In her current condition, she would surely summon them faster and in greater numbers. Having wiped them all out at once, this was the perfect time to strike.

Fwoosh!

Guided by the Stigma of Pyxis, Kwon Oh-Jin’s spear shot toward Cassia.

It had taken no more than three seconds to sweep away all the serpents and reach her. At such speed, even a high-ranking Awakener would struggle to react, much less grasp the situation.

“Hm.” Cassia’s eyes glimmered with intrigue as she raised her arm.

The shadows around her climbed up her body and condensed into a sword. Her expression remained calm, but her swing came down like thunder.

It was hard to believe that the deafening roar shaking the training facility came from a sword and spear clashing.

Boom!

“Holy...” Kwon Oh-Jin chuckled in awe as the numbing shock traveled down his spear. “You know how to use a sword too?”

“Oh my, just because I look frail doesn’t mean I can’t swing one, you know?”

“No, I mean you didn’t use it last time.”

“Haha. That was because I was injured back then.” With a faint smile, Cassia raised her shadow sword.

I didn’t think she could fight in close combat either.

Kwon Oh-Jin always thought that Cassia only excelled in long-range attacks. With a dumbfounded expression, he raised his spear.

“Well then, let’s see what you’ve got,” he said.

With a hard stomp, he charged straight toward Cassia.

Boom!

Their spear and sword collided again.

Clang! Clink!

Ordinary Awakeners wouldn’t even dare to follow their speed with the naked eye.

She’s stronger than I thought.

He could hardly believe that the power packed into her shadow sword came from such a slender frame.

Swaaash!

Kwon Oh-Jin twisted to dodge her ferocious swing.

Her swordsmanship wasn’t particularly refined compared to the strength and speed behind it.

That doesn’t really matter.

Aside from rare exceptions like Allen and Mizar, it was hard to find Awakeners skilled in pure martial arts. After all, most had lived normal lives until suddenly receiving a Stigma. Most had no reason to master combat skills out of nowhere.

More importantly, martial arts weren’t of much value in fights between Awakeners. Martial arts were created for human combat. Such skills were ill-suited against monsters with physical abilities and strength that far transcended humanity.

What truly mattered in battles between Awakeners was not martial skill, but how well one could link their weapon to their Stigma. In that sense, Cassia’s ability to harmonize her sword with her Stigma was impressive.

Swoosh!

The shadow sword that grazed past suddenly coiled like a snake and changed direction sharply. Kwon Oh-Jin spread out his Sacred Ground to protect himself, but her sword pierced through it with ease and slashed his side.

“Kugh!”

Along with a sharp pain, he felt his mana circuits stiffening and clogging around the wound. The venom spreading through him felt far worse than the poison he had suffered from her shadow serpents before.

“What do you think of my skills now? Not bad, right?” she asked with a smile.

“Yeah.” Kwon Oh-Jin gritted his teeth and swallowed back a groan as he nodded.

Honestly, he hadn’t expected Cassia to be this proficient in close combat.

But...

As he drew out more of his Stigma’s power, lightning incinerated the poison burning through him and erased it without a trace.

She’s not unbeatable.

Cassia was definitely far stronger than when they had fought in the abandoned building, but he had also grown stronger since then.

Lightning flickered wildly.

Crackle! Crackle!

Silver light flowed from Kwon Oh-Jin’s Stigma and slowly eroded the shadows. It didn’t saturate the entire area like Vega’s Sacred Ground, but its reach had grown incomparably greater compared to his first attempt.

From the silver ground, torrents of lightning shot up and engulfed Cassia.

“Urgh!”

Like standing in the middle of a thunderstorm, lightning crashed down from every direction. Scorching wounds from the lightning multiplied across Cassia’s body.

At this rate... she won’t last long.

Since she couldn’t deploy a Sacred Ground, a drawn-out battle was disadvantageous for her.

“Haaa.” Cassia exhaled deeply and drew out even more mana.

Just then, she melted into the shadows and vanished.

“Huh?” Kwon Oh-Jin’s spear, attacking her without pause, slashed through thin air.

Where is she?

He turned his head and scanned the area.

“Over here,” she said from directly behind him.

He hastily swung his spear behind him. Rather, he tried to.

“Kugh!”

Just as he was about to turn and swing, a vision of Cassia flashed in his mind.

—Hehe, fooled you, didn’t I?

She was smiling coldly as she leaped directly in front of him with her sword, ready to strike.

This is...

He had no time to think.

Trusting his instincts, Kwon Oh-Jin swung his spear in front of him instead of behind.

Thwack!

The shaft squarely struck Cassia.

“Kyahhh!” she shrieked as she flew back.

Kwon Oh-Jin seized this perfect chance to charge straight at her as she reeled away.

Cassia threw her arms out desperately and cast a shadow barrier in front of her.

“Ugh!”

Crackle!

Lightning clashed against the black shadow and easily tore through the barrier.

Cassia panted heavily as she stared at the spear pointed at her throat. “Haa, haa... I’ve lost.”

She wove her shadows back into a black dress and slowly rose to her feet.

“I didn’t think I’d actually lose.”

Despite Kwon Oh-Jin reaching eleven stars, she still believed that she would win as long as he didn’t use Open Heaven. However, she had been completely wrong.

“You lost because you were holding back.”

“But you were also holding back. Right, Lord Oh-Jin?”

“Well... yeah.”

After all, it was only a sparring match. No matter how much it resembled real combat, they didn’t attack with the intent to kill. Of course, there would be a difference.

“How did you know I was in front of you at the end?”

“That...”

The image of Cassia smiling as he turned flashed across his mind. He would’ve lost if he had really swung his spear behind him.

“It was probably thanks to Foresight.”

“Foresight, the trait you gained after absorbing Polaris?”

“Yeah, I’m still not sure what triggers it, but it seems to show me a few seconds of the future whenever I’m in danger.

It was an absurd ability considering what a single second meant in battles between superhumans like Kwon Oh-Jin.

It’s a shame I can’t use it freely.

At any rate, he had now confirmed what Foresight could do.

It’s incredible.

The powers he had gained from absorbing Polaris exceeded his expectations by far.

“To actually glimpse the future... What an outrageous ability,” Cassia said in admiration and stepped closer. “Agh.”

She suddenly wavered, perhaps due to the sparring match.

Kwon Oh-Jin quickly caught her. “Are you okay?”

Cassia slipped her arm around his waist and pressed closer with a playful smile. “Oh my, are you worried about me?”

“You did that on purpose, didn’t you?” He chuckled and placed a hand on her shoulder.

A strange sensation prickled down his spine.

Huh? What was that?

Narrowing his eyes, he tightened his grip slightly on her shoulder.

“Cassia, what do you think you’re doing clinging to Mr. Oh-Jin again?!”

“Oh dear, I just got a little dizzy. Lord Oh-Jin was kind enough to hold me up. Why so worked up?”

“Dizzy, my foot. You stumbled on purpose!”

“My, my. Why is it so hard for our dear Bella to trust me?” Cassia laughed brightly as Isabella fumed and stormed over. “Well then, I’ll end the teasing here. Shall I?”

After hugging him for a bit, Cassia was about to step back when Kwon Oh-Jin pulled her back in by the shoulder.

“Wait,” he said.

Cassia blinked at him in confusion. “H-Huh? W-What is it?”

He stared at her intently and carefully placed his hand over the left side of her chest.

Cassia jolted, her face flushing red at his completely unexpected action.

“Kyaaah?! L-Lord Oh-Hin?” She felt so flustered that she even bit her tongue mid-sentence.

“W-What are you doing all of a sudden, Mr. Oh-Jin?! You’re not about to say it’s some kind of treatment using Water Affinity again, are you?!” Isabella shouted.

“H-How shameless of you, my child!” Vega chimed in.

“Hey, what’s there to touch on something that tiny anyway?” Song Ha-Eun added.

The three women all frowned and hurled sharp remarks.

Kwon Oh-Jin’s interjection cut through the air. “I can feel the Heavenly Demon’s energy.”

They instantly fell silent.