(A Few Minutes Prior)

Simon’s expression changed slightly when he saw the barrier surrounding Blackblade’s head.

’A mental defensive artifact? And this- this seems to be a Low Grade Sovereign Artifact with the mental energy of a Greater Demon.’

’What the hell?’

’A Sovereign ranked Sword and a Sovereign mental defensive artifact. They really do not want to make things easy for me?’

Just as Simon had this thought, Blackblade chuckled as the crimson barrier around his head vanished.

"Do you actually think you can defeat me with a bunch of pathetic basic mental techniques?"

He shook his head, then he channeled more of his demonic energy into the sword.

The flames at the tip of the sword condensed the more, and it’s color began to deepen.

"The Mind Path is a worthless and useless path, you’re destined to fail if you tread that path."

Without waiting for Simon to respond, Blackblade finally unleashed the sword skill.

The condensed flame shot to the ceiling of the arena almost like the flames from a spaceship.

It then exploded into smaller fragments, and these smaller fragments turned out to actually be swords made out of flames.

There were dozens of these flaming swords, and Simon’s expression could not help but change.

’That’s dangerous.’

Just as he had this thought, Blackblade spoke.

"You can die for-"

His words were cut off by a black Mind Spear that came flying toward him.

Shatter!

His solar plexus emitted a crimson glow and a crimson barrier appeared around Blackblade’s head, protecting him from the Mind Spear.

Crack

He was about to comment on Simon’s actions, but his expression changed when he heard a soft crack from the necklace around his neck.

’What? It has been damaged?’

Unfortunately for Blackblade, Simon was not going to give him the time to investigate what he just heard.

"Damn it."

He cursed when he saw Simon approaching him at a speed that was not normal for a Fiend.

He swung his sword down, and the dozens of flaming swords flew toward Simon.

Simon’s gaze shot upward, then he sent out another Mind Spear at Blackblade, causing Blackblade’s expression to change.

This time around, he had a bad feeling about the Mind Spear because of the crack he heard from the necklace, so he chose to dodge it.

Simon clicked his tongue when he saw this, and it was now his time to dodge the flaming swords coming at him.

The swords were moving at a fast speed, but he could follow their movement with his gaze and dodge them with his speed, and that was he did.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

The floor of the arena shattered and melted under the power of the skill of the Sovereign ranked sword, and the audience roared with excitement.

As for Simon, he was completely focused on dodging the attacks while trying to close down the distance between him and Blackblade.

None of the flaming swords hit him directly, but the shockwaves and flames of the swords whenever they crashed into the floor were his problem.

His clothes were burnt in numerous places, and some parts of his body also had burns, but his expression was as calm.

As he was running and dodging the flaming swords, he looked at Blackblade who had a very solemn gaze.

Blackblade could not believe what he was seeing, and he was beginning to wonder if Simon was actually a Supreme Archfiend like him and not truly a Fiend.

Although Simon was running around the arena with the flaming swords attacking him from behind, above, and trying to intercept him from the front, not a single flaming sword touched him.

And what shook the heart of Blackblade was that Simon was inching closer and closer to him even though the flaming swords tried to stop him.

’I know that I cannot bring out the full power and I cannot completely control this sword because I’m not a Greater Demon, but he’s a Fiend for fuck’s sake.’

’A Fiend. How the fuck is he not dead?’

Unfortunately for Blackblade, what he did not know is that the movement of the flaming swords were simple and top basic in the eyes of Simon.

There was no complexity to it, no feint, and no sign of the swordsmanship Blackblade was proud of.

To Simon, Blackblade wielding the sword and using it himself posed more of a threat to him than this attack.

Because Blackblade lacked proper control over the Sovereign ranked sword, he could not use its skills properly and this was a disadvantage to him.

But he was too inexperienced and too blind to see it.

However, his master could, and the more he watched this play out, the more he was gripping his triceps with a force that made them turn red.

’Foolish child.’ The master thought with an ugly expression.

A few seconds later, Blackblade had enough.

Simon was getting closer to him and his instincts were constantly warning him.

"ENOUGH!"

He held the hilt of the sword with both arms, then he stabbed it into the ground.

BANG!

The moment he did this, red cracks began to spread from the sword all across the arena, and Simon had to quickly dodge a crack that came his way.

This made him to move into the path of a flaming sword but he quickly punched the flaming sword while coating his arm with a lot of demonic energy.

Clang!

Shatter!

The flaming sword shattered, but cuts appeared on Simon’s hand. However, there were no burns on it due to the Chaos Wraps.

Simon took note of this, but his attention quickly shifted back to Blackblade and what he was doing.

He dodged a flaming sword by tilting his head, then he looked around the arena and he saw that red cracks were everywhere.

He jumped over a red crack, and he saw magma flowing through it.

He frowned when he saw this.

He looked at Blackblade, and the moment he did, Blackblade roared as he poured nearly all his demonic energy into the blade.

"BURN FOR MEEEEEE!!!!!"

The cracks widened, and magma rose to the sky from each crack, filling the arena with liquid fire and earth.

But that was not all, the flaming swords came together and formed a tornado mixing with the rising magma.

The Death Arena... turned to hell.